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THE
PHILOSOPHY
OF
THE PLAYS OF SHAKSPERE
UNFOLDED.
BY DELIA BACON.
WITH
A PREFACE
BY
NATHANIAL HAWTHORNE
AUTHOR OF 'THE SCARLET LETTER,' ETC
Aphorisms representing A KNOWLEDGE _broken_ do invite men to
inquire further LORD BACON
You find not the apostophes, and so miss the accent.
LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST
Untie the spell.--PROSPERO
LONDON:
GROOMBRIDGE AND SONS
PATERNOSTER ROW.
1857
AMES PRESS
NEW YORK
HARVARD
UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY
DEC 6, 1972
Reprinted from a copy in the collection
of the Harvard College Library
Reprinted from the edition of 1857, London
First AMS EDITION published 1970
Manufactured in the United States of America
International Standard Book Number: 0-404-00443-1
Library of Congress Card Catalog Number: 73-113547
AMS PRESS, INC.
NEW YORK, N.Y. 10003
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
PREFACE
INTRODUCTION.
I. The Proposition
II. The Age of Elizabeth, and the Elizabethan Men of Letters
III. Extracts from the Life of Raleigh.--Raleigh's School
IV. Raleigh's School, continued.--The New Academy
* * * * *
BOOK I
[The HISTORICAL KEY to the ELIZABETHAN ART of TRADITION, which formed
the FIRST BOOK of this Work as it was originally prepared for the
Press, is reserved for separate publication.]
THE ELIZABETHAN ART OF DELIVERY AND TRADITION.
PART I.
MICHAEL DE MONTAIGNE'S 'PRIVATE AND RETIRED ARTS.'
I. Ascent from Particulars to the 'Highest Parts of Sciences,' by the
Enigmatic Method illustrated
II. Further Illustration of 'Particular Methods of
Tradition.'--Embarrassments of Literary Statesmen
III. The Possibility of great anonymous Works,--or Works published
under an _assumed name_,--conveying under rhetorical Disguises the
Principal Sciences,--re-suggested and illustrated
PART II.
THE BACONIAN RHETORIC, OR THE METHOD OF PROGRESSION.
I. THE 'BEGINNERS.'--['Particular Methods of Tradition.'--
The Double Method of 'Illustration' and 'Concealment']
II. INDEX to the 'Illustrated' and 'Concealed Tradition' of
the Principal and Supreme Sciences.--THE SCIENCE OF
POLICY
III. THE SCIENCE OF MORALITY. Section I. The Exemplar of Good
IV. THE SCIENCE OF MORALITY. Section II. The Husbandry thereunto,
or the Cure and Culture of
the Mind.--APPLICATION
V. THE SCIENCE OF MORALITY.--ALTERATION
VI. Method of Convoying the Wisdom of the Moderns
* * * * *
BOOK II.
ELIZABETHAN 'SECRETS OF MORALITY AND POLICY'; OR, THE FABLES OF THE
NEW LEARNING.
INTRODUCTORY.
I. The Design
II. The Missing Books of the Great Instauration or 'Philosophy
itself'
PART I.
LEAR'S PHILOSOPHER;
[OR, THE LAW OF THE 'SPECIAL AND RESPECTIVE DUTIES,' DEFINED AND
'ILLUSTRATED' IN TABLES OF 'PRESENCE' AND 'ABSENCE.']
I. Philosophy in the Palace
II. Unaccommodated Man
III. The King and the Beggar
IV. The Use of Eyes
V. The Statesman's Note-Book--and the Play
PART II.
JULIUS CAESAR AND CORIOLANUS.
THE SCIENTIFIC CURE OF THE COMMON-WEAL;
OR,
'THE COMMON DUTY OF EVERY MAN AS A MAN, OR MEMBER OF A STATE,' DEFINED
AND ILLUSTRATED IN 'NEGATIVE INSTANCES' AND 'INSTANCES OF PRESENCE.'
JULIUS CAESAR;
OR, THE EMPIRICAL TREATMENT IN DISEASES OF THE COMMON-WEAL EXAMINED.
I. The Death of Tyranny; or, the Question of the Prerogative
II. Caesar's Spirit
CORIOLANUS.
THE QUESTION OF THE CONSULSHIP; OR, THE SCIENTIFIC CURE OF THE
COMMON-WEAL PROPOUNDED.
I. The Elizabethan Heroism
II. Criticism of the Martial Government
III. 'Insurrections Arguing'
IV. Political Retrospect
V. The Popular Election
VI. The Scientific Method in Politics
VII. Volumnia and her Boy
VIII. Metaphysical Aid
IX. The Cure.--Plan of Innovation.--New Definitions.
X. The Cure.--Plan of Innovation.--New Constructions.
XI. The Cure.--Plan of Innovation.--'The Initiative'
XII. The Ignorant Election revoked.--A 'Wrestling Instance'.
XIII. Conclusion
PREFACE.
This Volume contains the argument, drawn from the Plays usually
attributed to Shakspere, in support of a theory which the author of it
has demonstrated by historical evidences in another work. Having never
read this historical demonstration (which remains still in manuscript,
with the exception of a preliminary chapter, published long ago in an
American periodical), I deem it necessary to cite the author's own
account of it:--
'The Historical Part of this work (which was originally the principal
part, and designed to furnish the historical key to the great
Elizabethan writings), though now for a long time completed and ready
for the press, and though repeated reference is made to it in this
volume, is, for the most part, omitted here. It contains a true and
before unwritten history, and it will yet, perhaps, be published as it
stands; but the vivid and accumulating historic detail, with which
more recent research tends to enrich the earlier statement, and
disclosures which no invention could anticipate, are waiting now to be
subjoined to it.
'The INTERNAL EVIDENCE of the assumptions made at the outset is that
which is chiefly relied on in the work now first presented on this
subject to the public. The demonstration will be found complete on
that ground; and on that ground alone the author is willing, and
deliberately prefers, for the present, to rest it.
'External evidence, of course, will not be wanting; there will be
enough and to spare, if the demonstration here be correct. But the
author of the discovery was not willing to rob the world of this great
question; but wished rather to share with it the benefit which the
true solution of the Problem offers--the solution prescribed by those
who propounded it to the future. It seemed better to save to the world
the power and beauty of this demonstration, its intellectual stimulus,
its demand on the judgment. It seemed better, that the world should
acquire it also in the form of criticism, instead of being stupified
and overpowered with the mere force of an irresistible, external,
historical proof. Persons incapable of appreciating any other kind of
proof,--those who are capable of nothing that does not 'directly fall
under and strike _the senses_' as Lord Bacon expresses it,--will have
their time also; but it was proposed to present the subject first to
minds of another order.'
In the present volume, accordingly, the author applies herself to the
demonstration and development of a system of philosophy, which has
presented itself to her as underlying the superficial and ostensible
text of Shakspere's plays. Traces of the same philosophy, too, she
conceives herself to have found in the acknowledged works of Lord
Bacon, and in those of other writers contemporary with him. All agree
in one system; all these traces indicate a common understanding and
unity of purpose in men among whom no brotherhood has hitherto been
suspected, except as representatives of a grand and brilliant age,
when the human intellect made a marked step in advance.
The author did not (as her own consciousness assures her) either
construct or originally seek this new philosophy. In many respects, if
I have rightly understood her, it was at variance with her
pre-conceived opinions, whether ethical, religious, or political. She
had been for years a student of Shakspere, looking for nothing in his
plays beyond what the world has agreed to find in them, when she began
to see, under the surface, the gleam of this hidden treasure. It was
carefully hidden, indeed, yet not less carefully indicated, as with a
pointed finger, by such marks and references as could not ultimately
escape the notice of a subsequent age, which should be capable of
profiting by the rich inheritance. So, too, in regard to Lord Bacon.
The author of this volume had not sought to put any but the ordinary
and obvious interpretation upon his works, nor to take any other view
of his character than what accorded with the unanimous judgment upon
it of all the generations since his epoch. But, as she penetrated more
and more deeply into the plays, and became aware of those inner
readings, she found herself compelled to turn back to the 'Advancement
of Learning' for information as to their plan and purport; and Lord
Bacon's Treatise failed not to give her what she sought; thus adding
to the immortal dramas, in her idea, a far higher value than their
warmest admirers had heretofore claimed for them. They filled out the
scientific scheme which Bacon had planned, and which needed only these
profound and vivid illustrations of human life and character to make
it perfect. Finally, the author's researches led her to a point where
she found the plays claimed for Lord Bacon and his associates,--not in
a way that was meant to be intelligible in their own perilous
times,--but in characters that only became legible, and illuminated,
as it were, in the light of a subsequent period.
The reader will soon perceive that the new philosophy, as here
demonstrated, was of a kind that no professor could have ventured
openly to teach in the days of Elizabeth and James. The concluding
chapter of the present work makes a powerful statement of the position
which a man, conscious of great and noble aims, would then have
occupied; and shows, too, how familiar the age was with all methods of
secret communication, and of hiding thought beneath a masque of
conceit or folly. Applicably to this subject, I quote a paragraph from
a manuscript of the author's, not intended for present publication:--
'It was a time when authors, who treated of a scientific politics and
of a scientific ethics internally connected with it, naturally
preferred this more philosophic, symbolic method of indicating their
connection with their writings, which would limit the indication to
those who could pierce within the veil of a philosophic symbolism. It
was the time when the cipher, in which one could write '_omnia per
omnia_,' was in such request, and when 'wheel ciphers' and 'doubles'
were thought not unworthy of philosophic notice. It was a time, too,
when the phonographic art was cultivated, and put to other uses than
at present, and when a '_nom de plume_' was required for other
purposes than to serve as the refuge of an author's modesty, or
vanity, or caprice. It was a time when puns, and charades, and
enigmas, and anagrams, and monograms, and ciphers, and puzzles, were
not good for sport and child's play merely; when they had need to be
close; when they had need to be solvable, at least, only to those who
_should_ solve them. It was a time when all the latent capacities of
the English language were put in requisition, and it was flashing and
crackling, through all its lengths and breadths, with puns and quips,
and conceits, and jokes, and satires, and inlined with philosophic
secrets that opened down "into the bottom of a tomb"--that opened into
the Tower--that opened on the scaffold and the block.'
I quote, likewise, another passage, because I think the reader will
see in it the noble earnestness of the author's character, and may
partly imagine the sacrifices which this research has cost her:--
'The great secret of the Elizabethan age did not lie where any
superficial research could ever have discovered it. It was not left
within the range of any accidental disclosure. It did not lie on the
surface of any Elizabethan document. The most diligent explorers of
these documents, in two centuries and a quarter, had not found it. No
faintest suspicion of it had ever crossed the mind of the most recent,
and clear-sighted, and able investigator of the Baconian remains. It
was buried in the lowest depths of the lowest deeps of the deep
Elizabethan Art; that Art which no plummet, till now, has ever
sounded. It was locked with its utmost reach of traditionary cunning.
It was buried in the inmost recesses of the esoteric Elizabethan
learning. It was tied with a knot that had passed the scrutiny and
baffled the sword of an old, suspicious, dying, military government--a
knot that none could cut--a knot that must be untied.
'The great secret of the Elizabethan Age was inextricably reserved by
the founders of a new learning, the prophetic and more nobly gifted
minds of a new and nobler race of men, for a research that should test
the mind of the discoverer, and frame and subordinate it to that so
sleepless and indomitable purpose of the prophetic aspiration. It was
"the device" by which they undertook to live again in the ages in
which their achievements and triumphs were forecast, and to come forth
and rule again, not in one mind, not in the few, not in the many, but
in all. "For there is no throne like that throne in the thoughts of
men," which the ambition of these men climbed and compassed.
'The principal works of the Elizabethan Philosophy, those in which the
new method of learning was practically applied to the noblest
subjects, were presented to the world in the form of AN ENIGMA. It was
a form well fitted to divert inquiry, and baffle even the research of
the scholar for a time; but one calculated to provoke the philosophic
curiosity, and one which would inevitably command a research that
could end only with the true solution. That solution was reserved for
one who would recognise, at last, in the disguise of the great
impersonal teacher, the disguise of a new learning. It waited for the
reader who would observe, at last, those thick-strewn scientific
clues, those thick-crowding enigmas, those perpetual beckonings from
the "theatre" into the judicial palace of the mind. It was reserved
for the student who would recognise, at last, the mind that was
seeking so perseveringly to whisper its tale of outrage, and "the
secrets it was forbid." It waited for one who would answer, at last,
that philosophic challenge, and say, "Go on, I'll follow thee!" It was
reserved for one who would count years as days, for the love of the
truth it hid; who would never turn back on the long road of
initiation, though all "THE IDOLS" must be left behind in its stages;
who would never stop until it stopped in that new cave of Apollo,
where the handwriting on the wall spells anew the old Delphic motto,
and publishes the word that "_unties_ the spell."
On this object, which she conceives so loftily, the author has
bestowed the solitary and self-sustained toil of many years. The
volume now before the reader, together with the historical
demonstration which it pre-supposes, is the product of a most faithful
and conscientious labour, and a truly heroic devotion of intellect and
heart. No man or woman has ever thought or written more sincerely than
the author of this book. She has given nothing less than her life to
the work. And, as if for the greater trial of her constancy, her
theory was divulged, some time ago, in so partial and unsatisfactory a
manner--with so exceedingly imperfect a statement of its claims--as to
put her at great disadvantage before the world. A single article from
her pen, purporting to be the first of a series, appeared in an
American Magazine; but unexpected obstacles prevented the further
publication in that form, after enough had been done to assail the
prejudices of the public, but far too little to gain its sympathy.
Another evil followed. An English writer (in a 'Letter to the Earl of
Ellesmere,' published within a few months past) has thought it not
inconsistent with the fair-play, on which his country prides itself,
to take to himself this lady's theory, and favour the public with it
as his own original conception, without allusion to the author's prior
claim. In reference to this pamphlet, she generously says:--
'This has not been a selfish enterprise. It is not a personal concern.
It is a discovery which belongs not to an individual, and not to a
people. Its fields are wide enough and rich enough for us all; and he
that has no work, and whoso will, let him come and labour in them. The
field is the world's; and the world's work henceforth is in it. So
that it be known in its real comprehension, in its true relations to
the weal of the world, what matters it? So that the truth, which is
dearer than all the rest--which abides with us when all others leave
us, dearest then--so that the truth, which is neither yours nor mine,
but yours _and_ mine, be known, loved, honoured, emancipated, mitred,
crowned, adored--_who_ loses anything, that does not find it.' 'And
what matters it,' says the philosophic wisdom, speaking in the
abstract, 'what name it is proclaimed in, and what letters of the
alphabet we know it by?--what matter is it, so that they _spell_ the
name that is _good_ for ALL, and _good_ for _each_,'--for that is the
REAL name here?
Speaking on the author's behalf, however, I am not entitled to imitate
her magnanimity; and, therefore, hope that the writer of the pamphlet
will disclaim any purpose of assuming to himself, on the ground of a
slight and superficial performance, the result which she has attained
at the cost of many toils and sacrifices.
And now, at length, after many delays and discouragements, the work
comes forth. It had been the author's original purpose to publish it
in America; for she wished her own country to have the glory of
solving the enigma of those mighty dramas, and thus adding a new and
higher value to the loftiest productions of the English mind. It
seemed to her most fit and desirable, that America--having received so
much from England, and returned so little--should do what remained to
be done towards rendering this great legacy available, as its authors
meant it to be, to all future time. This purpose was frustrated; and
it will be seen in what spirit she acquiesces.
'The author was forced to bring it back, and contribute it to the
literature of the country from which it was derived, and to which it
essentially and inseparably belongs. It was written, every word of it,
on English ground, in the midst of the old familiar scenes and
household names, that even in our nursery songs revive the dear
ancestral memories; those "royal pursuivants" with which our
mother-land still follows and retakes her own. It was written in the
land of our old kings and queens, and in the land of _our own_
PHILOSOPHERS and POETS also. It was written on the spot where the
works it unlocks were written, and in the perpetual presence of the
English mind; the mind that spoke before in the cultured few, and that
speaks to-day in the cultured many. And it is now at last, after so
long a time--after all, as it should be--the English press that prints
it. It is the scientific English press, with those old gags (wherewith
our kings and queens sought to stop it, ere they knew what it was)
champed asunder, ground to powder, and with its last Elizabethan
shackle shaken off, that restores, "in a better hour," the torn and
garbled science committed to it, and gives back "the bread cast on its
sure waters."'
There remains little more for me to say. I am not the editor of this
work; nor can I consider myself fairly entitled to the honor (which,
if I deserved it, I should feel to be a very high as well as a
perilous one) of seeing my name associated with the author's on the
title-page. My object has been merely to speak a few words, which
might, perhaps, serve the purpose of placing my countrywoman upon a
ground of amicable understanding with the public. She has a vast
preliminary difficulty to encounter. The first feeling of every reader
must be one of absolute repugnance towards a person who seeks to tear
out of the Anglo-Saxon heart the name which for ages it has held
dearest, and to substitute another name, or names, to which the
settled belief of the world has long assigned a very different
position. What I claim for this work is, that the ability employed in
its composition has been worthy of its great subject, and well
employed for our intellectual interests, whatever judgment the public
may pass upon the questions discussed. And, after listening to the
author's interpretation of the Plays, and seeing how wide a scope she
assigns to them, how high a purpose, and what richness of inner
meaning, the thoughtful reader will hardly return again--not wholly,
at all events--to the common view of them and of their author. It is
for the public to say whether my countrywoman has proved her theory.
In the worst event, if she has failed, her failure will be more
honorable than most people's triumphs; since it must fling upon the
old tombstone, at Stratford-on-Avon, the noblest tributary wreath that
has ever lain there.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE.
THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE PLAYS OF SHAKSPERE.
* * * * *
INTRODUCTION.
CHAPTER I.
THE PROPOSITION.
'One time will owe another.'--_Coriolanus_.
This work is designed to propose to the consideration, not of the
learned world only, but of all ingenuous and practical minds, a new
development of that system of practical philosophy from which THE
SCIENTIFIC ARTS of the Modern Ages proceed, and which has already
become, just to the extent to which it has been hitherto opened, the
wisdom,--the universally approved, and practically adopted, Wisdom of
the _Moderns_.
It is a development of this philosophy, which was deliberately
postponed by the great Scientific Discoverers and Reformers, in whose
Scientific Discoveries and Reformations our organised advancements in
speculation and practice have their origin;--Reformers, whose
scientific acquaintance with historic laws forbade the idea of any
immediate and sudden cures of the political and social evils which
their science searches to the root, and which it was designed to
eradicate.
The proposition to be demonstrated in the ensuing pages is this: That
the new philosophy which strikes out from the Court--from _the Court_
of that despotism that names and gives form to the Modern
Learning,--which comes to us from the Court of the last of the Tudors
and the first of the Stuarts,--that new philosophy which we have
received, and accepted, and adopted as a practical philosophy, not
merely in that grave department of learning in which it comes to us
professionally _as_ philosophy, but in that not less important
department of learning in which it comes to us in the disguise of
amusement,--in the form of fable and allegory and parable,--the
proposition is, that this Elizabethan philosophy is, in these two
forms of it,--not two philosophies,--not two Elizabethan philosophies,
not two new and wondrous philosophies of nature and practice, not two
new Inductive philosophies, but one,--one and the same: that it is
philosophy in both these forms, with its veil of allegory and parable,
and without it; that it is philosophy applied to much more important
subjects in the disguise of the parable, than it is in the open
statement; that it is philosophy in both these cases, and not
philosophy in one of them, and a brutish, low-lived, illiterate,
unconscious spontaneity in the other.
The proposition is that it proceeds, in both cases, from a reflective
deliberative, eminently deliberative, eminently conscious, _designing_
mind; and that the coincidence which is manifest not in the design
only, and in the structure, but in the detail to the minutest points
of execution, is _not_ accidental.
It is a proposition which is demonstrated in this volume by means of
evidence derived principally from the books of this philosophy--books
in which the safe delivery and tradition of it to the future was
artistically contrived and triumphantly achieved:--the books of a new
'school' in philosophy; books in which the connection with the school
is not always openly asserted; books in which the true names of the
authors are not always found on the title-page;--the books of a
school, too, which was compelled to have recourse to translations in
some cases, for the safe delivery and tradition of its new learning.
The facts which lie on the surface of this question, which are
involved in the bare statement of it, are sufficient of themselves to
justify and command this inquiry.
The fact that these two great branches of the philosophy of
observation and practice, both already _virtually_ recognised as
that,--the one openly, subordinating the physical forces of nature to
the wants of man, changing the face of the earth under our eyes,
leaving behind it, with its new magic, the miracles of Oriental dreams
and fables;--the other, under its veil of wildness and spontaneity,
under its thick-woven veil of mirth and beauty, with its inducted
precepts and dispersed directions, insinuating itself into all our
practice, winding itself into every department of human affairs;
speaking from the legislator's lips, at the bar, from the
pulpit,--putting in its word every where, always at hand, always
sufficient, constituting itself, in virtue of its own irresistible
claims and in the face of what we are told of it, the oracle, the
great practical, mysterious, but universally acknowledged, oracle of
our modern life; the fact that these two great branches of the modern
philosophy make their appearance in history at the same moment, that
they make their appearance in the same company of men--in that same
little courtly company of Elizabethan Wits and Men of Letters that the
revival of the ancient learning brought out here--this is the fact
that strikes the eye at the first glance at this inquiry.
But that this is none other than that same little clique of
disappointed and defeated politicians who undertook to head and
organize a popular opposition against the government, and were
compelled to retreat from that enterprise, the best of of them
effecting their retreat with some difficulty, others failing entirely
to accomplish it, is the next notable fact which the surface of the
inquiry exhibits. That these two so illustrious branches of the modern
learning were produced for the ostensible purpose of illustrating and
adorning the tyrannies which the men, under whose countenance and
protection they are produced, were vainly attempting, or had vainly
attempted to set bounds to or overthrow, is a fact which might seem of
itself to suggest inquiry. When insurrections are suppressed, when
'the monstrous enterprises of rebellious subjects are overthrown, then
FAME, who is _the posthumous sister of the giants_,--the sister of
_defeated_ giants springs up'; so a man who had made some political
experiments himself that were not very successful, tells us.
The fact that the men under whose patronage and in whose service 'Will
the Jester' first showed himself, were men who were secretly
endeavouring to make political capital of that new and immense motive
power, that not yet available, and not very easily organised political
power which was already beginning to move the masses here then, and
already threatening, to the observant eye, with its portentous
movement, the foundations of tyranny, the fact, too, that these men
were understood to have made use of the stage unsuccessfully as a
means of immediate political effect, are facts which lie on the
surface of the history of these works, and unimportant as it may seem
to the superficial enquirer, it will be found to be anything but
irrelevant as this inquiry proceeds. The man who is said to have
contributed a thousand pounds towards the purchase of the theatre and
wardrobe and machinery, in which these philosophical plays were first
exhibited, was obliged to stay away from the first appearance of
Hamlet, in the perfected excellence of the poetic philosophic design,
in consequence of being immured in the Tower at that time for an
attempt to overthrow the government. This was the ostensible patron
and friend of the Poet; the partner of his treason was the ostensible
friend and patron of the Philosopher. So nearly did these philosophic
minds, that were 'not for an age but for all time,' approach each
other in _this_ point. But the _protégé_ and friend and well-nigh
adoring admirer of the _Poet_, was also the _protégé_ and friend and
well-nigh adoring admirer of the Philosopher. The fact that these two
philosophies, in this so close juxta-position, always in contact,
playing always into each other's hands, never once heard of each
other, know nothing of each other, is a fact which would seem at the
first blush to point to the secret of these 'Know-Nothings,' who are
men of science in an age of popular ignorance, and therefore have a
'secret'; who are men of science in an age in which the questions of
science are 'forbidden questions,' and are therefore of necessity
'Know-Nothings.'
As to Ben Jonson, and the evidence of his avowed admiration for the
author of these plays, from the point of view here taken, it is
sufficient to say in passing, that this man, whose natural abilities
sufficed to raise him from a position hardly less mean and obscure
than that of his great rival, was so fortunate as to attract the
attention of some of the most illustrious personages of that time; men
whose observation of natures was quickened by their necessities; men
who were compelled to employ 'living instruments' in the
accomplishment of their designs; who were skilful in detecting the
qualities they had need of, and skilful in adapting means to ends.
This dramatist's connection with the stage of course belongs to this
history. His connection with the author of these Plays, and with the
player himself, are points not to be overlooked. But the literary
history of this age is not yet fully developed. It is enough to say
here, that he chanced to be honored with the patronage of _three_ of
the most illustrious personages of the age in which he lived. He had
_three_ patrons. One was Sir Walter Raleigh, in whose service he was;
one was the Lord Bacon, whose well nigh idolatrous admirer he appears
also to have been; the other was _Shakspere_, to whose favor he
appears to have owed so much. With his passionate admiration of these
last two, stopping only 'this side of idolatry' in his admiration for
them both, and being under such deep personal obligations to them
both, why could he not have mentioned some day to the author of the
Advancement of Learning, the author of Hamlet--Hamlet who also 'lacked
advancement?' What more natural than to suppose that these two
philosophers, these men of a learning so exactly equal, might have
some sympathy with each other, might like to meet each other. Till he
has answered that question, any evidence which he may have to produce
in apparent opposition to the conclusions here stated will not be of
the least value.
These are questions which any one might properly ask, who had only
glanced at the most superficial or easily accessible facts in this
case, and without any evidence from any other source to stimulate the
inquiry. These are facts which lie on the surface of this history,
which obtrude themselves on our notice, and demand inquiry.
That which lies immediately below this surface, accessible to any
research worthy of the name is, that these two so new extraordinary
developments of the modern philosophy which come to us without any
_superficially_ avowed connexion, which come to us as _branches_ of
learning merely, do in fact meet and unite in one stem, 'which has a
quality of entireness and continuance throughout,' even to the most
delicate fibre of them both, even to the 'roots' of their trunk, 'and
the strings of those roots,' which trunk lies below the surface of
that age, buried, carefully buried, for reasons assigned; and that it
is the sap of this concealed trunk, this new trunk of sciences, which
makes both these branches so vigorous, which makes the flowers and the
fruit both so fine, and so unlike anything that we have had from any
other source in the way of literature or art.
The question of the authorship of the great philosophic poems which
are the legacy of the Elizabethan Age to us, is an incidental question
in this inquiry, and is incidentally treated here. The discovery of
the authorship of these works was the necessary incident to that more
thorough inquiry into their nature and design, of which the views
contained in this volume are the result. At a certain stage of this
inquiry,--in the later stages of it,--that discovery became
inevitable. The primary question here is one of universal immediate
practical concern and interest. The solution of this literary problem,
happens to be involved in it. It was the necessary prescribed,
pre-ordered incident of the reproduction and reintegration of the
Inductive Philosophy in its application to its 'principal' and
'noblest subjects,' its 'more chosen subjects.'
The HISTORICAL KEY to the Elizabethan Art of Tradition, which formed
the first book of this work as it was originally prepared for the
press, is not included in the present publication. It was the part of
the work first written, and the results of more recent research
require to be incorporated in it, in order that it should represent
adequately, in that particular aspect of it, the historical discovery
which it is the object of this work to produce. Moreover, the
demonstration which is contained in this volume appeared to constitute
properly a volume of itself.
Those who examine the subject from this ground, will find the external
collateral evidence, the ample historical confirmation which is at
hand, not necessary for the support of the propositions advanced here,
though it will, of course, be inquired for, when once this ground is
made.
The embarrassing circumstances under which this great system of
scientific practice makes its appearance in history, have not yet been
taken into the account in our interpretation of it. We have already
the documents which contain the theory and rule of the modern
civilisation, which is the civilisation of science in our hands. We
have in our hands also, newly lit, newly trimmed, lustrous with the
genius of our own time, that very lamp with which we are instructed to
make this inquiry, that very light which we are told we must bring to
bear upon the obscurities of these documents, that very light in which
we are told, we must unroll them; for they come to us, as the
interpreter takes pains to tell us, with an 'infolded' science in
them. That light of '_times_,' that knowledge of the conditions under
which these works were published, which is essential to the true
interpretation of them, thanks to our contemporary historians, is
already in our hands. What we need now is to explore the secrets of
this philosophy with it,--necessarily secrets at the time it was
issued--what we need now is to open these books of a new learning in
it, and read them by it.
In that part of the work above referred to, from which some extracts
are subjoined for the purpose of introducing intelligibly the
demonstration contained in this volume, it was the position of the
Elizabethan Men of Letters that was exhibited, and the conditions
which prescribed to the founders of a new school in philosophy, which
was none other than the philosophy of practice, the form of their
works and the concealment of their connection with them--conditions
which made the secret of an Association of 'Naturalists' applying
science in that age to the noblest subjects of speculative inquiry,
and to the highest departments of practice, a life and death secret.
The _physical_ impossibility of publishing at that time, anything
openly relating to the questions in which the weal of men is most
concerned, and which are the primary questions of the science of man's
relief, the opposition which stood at that time prepared to crush any
enterprise proposing openly for its end, the common interests of man
as man, is the point which it was the object of that part of the work
to exhibit. It was presented, not in the form of general statement
merely, but in those memorable particulars which the falsified,
suppressed, garbled history of the great founder of this school
betrays to us; not as it is exhibited in contemporary documents
merely, but as it is carefully collected from these, and from the
_traditions_ of 'the next ages.'
That the suppressed Elizabethan Reformers and Innovators were men so
far in advance of their time, that they were compelled to have
recourse to literature for the purpose of instituting a gradual
encroachment on popular opinions, a gradual encroachment on the
prejudices, the ignorance, the stupidity of the oppressed and
suffering masses of the human kind, and for the purpose of making over
the practical development of the higher parts of their science, to
ages in which the advancements they instituted had brought the common
mind within hearing of these higher truths; that these were men whose
aims were so opposed to the power that was still predominant
then,--though the 'wrestling' that would shake that predominance, was
already on foot,--that it became necessary for them to conceal their
lives as well as their works,--to veil the true worth and nobility of
them, to suffer those ends which they sought as means, means which
they subordinated to the noblest uses, to be regarded in their own age
as their _ends_; that they were compelled to play this great game in
secret, in their own time, referring themselves to posthumous effects
for the explanation of their designs; postponing their honour to ages
able to discover their worth; this is the proposition which is derived
here from the works in which the tradition of this learning is
conveyed to us.
But in the part of this work referred to, from which the ensuing
extracts are made, it was the life, and not merely the writings of the
founders of this school which was produced in evidence of this claim.
It was the life in which these disguised ulterior aims show themselves
from the first on the historic surface, in the form of great
contemporaneous events, events which have determined and shaped the
course of the world's history since then; it was the life in which
these intents show themselves too boldly on the surface, in which they
penetrate the artistic disguise, and betray themselves to the
antagonisms which were waiting to crush them; it was the life which
combined these antagonisms for its suppression; it was the life and
death of the projector and founder of the liberties of the New World,
and the obnoxious historian and critic of the tyrannies of the Old, it
was the life and death of Sir Walter Raleigh that was produced as the
Historical Key to the Elizabethan Art of Tradition. It was the Man of
the Globe Theatre, it was the Man in the Tower with his two
Hemispheres, it was the modern 'Hercules and his load too,' that made
in the original design of it, the Frontispiece of this volume.
'But stay I see thee in the hemisphere
Advanced and made a _constellation_ there.
Shine forth, thou Star of Poets, and with _rage
Or influence_, chide or cheer the drooping stage,
Which since thy flight from hence hath mourned like night,
And despairs day, but for thy Volume's light.
['To draw no envy _Shake-spear_ on thy name,
Am I _thus ample_ to thy book and fame.'--BEN JONSON.]
The machinery that was necessarily put in operation for the purpose of
conducting successfully, under those conditions, any honourable or
decent enterprise, presupposes a forethought and skill, a faculty for
dramatic arrangement and successful plotting in historic materials,
happily so remote from anything which the exigencies of our time have
ever suggested to us, that we are not in a position to read at a
glance the history of such an age; the history which lies on the
surface of such an age when such men--men who are men--are at work in
it. These are the _Elizabethan_ men that we have to interpret here,
because, though they rest from their labours, their works do follow
them--the Elizabethan _Men_ of _Letters_; and we must know what that
title means before we can read them or their works, before we can
'_untie_ their _spell_.'
CHAPTER II.
THE AGE OF ELIZABETH, AND THE ELIZABETHAN MEN OF LETTERS.
'The times, in many cases, give great light to _true_
interpretations.'
_Advancement of Learning_.
'On fair ground
I could beat forty of them.'
'I could myself
Take up a brace of the best of them, yea _the two tribunes_.'
'But now 'tis odds beyond arithmetic,
And _manhood_ is called _foolery_ when it stands
Against a falling fabric.'--_Coriolanus_.
The fact that the immemorial liberties of the English PEOPLE, and that
idea of human government and society which they brought with them to
this island, had been a second time violently overborne and suppressed
by a military chieftainship,--one for which the unorganised popular
resistance was no match,--that the English People had been a second
time 'conquered'--for that is the word which the Elizabethan historian
suggests--less than a hundred years before the beginning of the
Elizabethan Age, is a fact in history which the great Elizabethan
philosopher has contrived to send down to us, along with his
philosophical works, as the key to the reading of them. It is a fact
with which we are all now more or less familiar, but it is one which
the Elizabethan Poet and Philosopher became acquainted with under
circumstances calculated to make a much more vivid impression on the
sensibilities than the most accurate and vivacious narratives and
expositions of it which our time can furnish us.
That this second conquest was unspeakably more degrading than the
first had been, inasmuch as it was the conquest of a chartered,
constitutional liberty, recovered and established in acts that had
made the English history, recovered on battle-fields that were fresh,
not in oral tradition only; inasmuch as it was effected in violation
of that which made the name of Englishmen, that which made the
universally recognised principle of the national life; inasmuch, too,
as it was an _undivided_ conquest, the conquest of _the single
will_--the will of the 'one only man'--not unchecked of commons only,
unchecked by barons, unchecked by the church, unchecked by _council_
of any kind, the pure arbitrary absolute will, the pure idiosyncrasy,
the crowned demon of the _lawless_, irrational will, unchained and
armed with the sword of the common might, and clothed with the
divinity of the common right; that _this_ was a conquest unspeakably
more debasing than the conquest 'commonly so called,'--this, which
left no nobility,--which clasped its collar in open day on the
proudest Norman neck, and not on the Saxon only, which left only one
nation of slaves and bondmen--that _this_ was a _subjugation_--that
this was a government which the English nation had not before been
familiar with, the men whose great life-acts were performed under it
did not lack the sensibility and the judgment to perceive.
A more _hopeless_ conquest than the Norman conquest had been, it might
also have seemed, regarded in some of the aspects which it presented
to the eye of the statesman then; for it was in the division of the
former that the element of freedom stole in, it was in the parliaments
of that division that the limitation of the feudal monarchy had begun.
But still more fatal was the aspect of it which its effects on the
national character were continually obtruding then on the observant
eye,--that debasing, deteriorating, demoralising effect which such a
government must needs exert on _such_ a nation, a nation of
Englishmen, a nation with such memories. The Poet who writes under
this government, with an appreciation of the subject quite as lively
as that of any more recent historian, speaks of 'the face of men' as a
'motive'--a _motive_ power, a revolutionary force, which ought to be
sufficient of itself to raise, if need be, an armed opposition to such
a government, and sustain it, too, without the compulsion of an oath
to reinforce it; at least, this is one of the three motives which he
produces in his conspiracy as motives that ought to suffice to supply
the power wanting to effect a change in such a government.
'If not _the face_ of _men_,
The sufferance of our _souls, the time's abuse_,--
_If these be motives weak, break of betimes._'
There is no use in attempting a change where such motives are weak.
'Break off _betimes_,
And every man hence to his idle bed.'
That this political degradation, and its deteriorating and corrupting
influence on the national character, was that which presented itself
to the politician's eye at that time as the most fatal aspect of the
question, or as the thing most to be deprecated in the continuance of
such a state of things, no one who studies carefully the best writings
of that time can doubt.
And it must be confessed, that this is an influence which shows itself
very palpably, not in the degrading hourly detail only of which the
noble mind is, in such circumstances, the suffering witness, and the
secretly protesting suffering participator, but in those large events
which make the historic record. The England of the Plantagenets, that
sturdy England which Henry the Seventh had to conquer, and not its
pertinacious choice of colours only, not its fixed determination to
have the choosing of the colour of its own 'Roses' merely, but its
inveterate idea of the sanctity of '_law_' permeating all the
masses--that was a very different England from the England which Henry
the Seventh willed to his children; it was a very different England,
at least, from the England which Henry the Eighth willed to _his_.
That some sparks of the old fire were not wanting, however,--that the
nation which had kept alive in the common mind through so many
generations, without the aid of books, the memory of that 'ancestor'
that 'made its laws,' was not after all, perhaps, without a
future--began to be evident about the time that the history of 'that
last king of England who was the ancestor' of the English Stuart, was
dedicated by the author of the Novum Organum to the Prince of Wales,
afterwards Charles I., not without a glance at these portents.
Circumstances tending to throw doubt upon the durability of this
institution--circumstances which seemed to portend that this monstrous
innovation was destined on the whole to be a much shorter-lived one
than the usurpation it had displaced--had not been wanting, indeed,
from the first, in spite of those discouraging aspects of the question
which were more immediately urged upon the contemporary observer.
It was in the eleventh century; it was in the middle of the Dark Ages,
that the Norman and his followers effected their successful landing
and lodgement here; it was in the later years of the fifteenth
century,--it was when the bell that tolled through Europe for a
century and a half the closing hour of the Middle Ages, had already
begun its peals, that the Tudor 'came in by battle.'
That magnificent chain of events which begins in the middle of the
fifteenth century to rear the dividing line between the Middle Ages
and the Modern, had been slow in reaching England with its
convulsions: it had originated on the continent. The great work of the
restoration of the learning of antiquity had been accomplished there:
Italy, Germany, and France had taken the lead in it by turns; Spain
had contributed to it. The scientific discoveries which the genius of
Modern Europe had already effected under that stimulus, without
waiting for the New Organum, had all originated on the continent. The
criticism on the institutions which the decaying Roman Empire had
given to its Northern conquerors,--that criticism which necessarily
accompanied the revival of _learning_ began there. Not yet recovered
from the disastrous wars of the fifteenth century, suffering from the
diabolical tyranny that had overtaken her at that fatal crisis,
England could make but a feeble response as yet to these movements.
They had been going on for a century before the influence of them
began to be visible here. But they were at work here, notwithstanding:
they were germinating and taking root here, in that frozen winter of a
nation's discontent; and when they did begin to show themselves on the
historic surface,--here in this ancient soil of freedom,--in this
natural retreat of it, from the extending, absorbing, consolidating
feudal tyrannies,--here in this 'little world by itself'--this nursery
of the genius of the North--with its chief races, with its union of
races, its 'happy breed of men,' as our Poet has it, who notes all
these points, and defines its position, regarding it, not with a
narrow English partiality, but looking at it on his Map of the World,
which he always carries with him,--looking at it from his 'Globe,'
which has the Old World and the New on it, and the Past and the
Future,--'a precious stone set in the silver sea,' he calls it, 'in a
great pool, a _swan's nest_':--when that seed of all ages did at last
show itself above the ground here, here in this nursery of hope for
man, it would be with quite another kind of fruit on its boughs, from
any that the continent had been able to mature from it.
It was in the later years of the sixteenth century, in the latter half
of the reign of Elizabeth, that the Printing press, and the revived
Learning of Antiquity, and the Reformation, and the discovery of
America, the new revival of the genius of the North in art and
literature, and the Scientific Discoveries which accompanied this
movement on the continent, began to combine their effects here; and it
was about that time that the political horizon began to exhibit to the
statesman's eye, those portents which both the poet and the
philosopher of that time, have described with so much iteration and
amplitude. These new social elements did not appear to promise in
their combination here, stability to the institutions which Henry the
Seventh, and Henry the Eighth had established in this island.
The genius of Elizabeth conspired with the anomaly of her position to
make her the steadfast patron and promoter of these movements,--worthy
grand-daughter of Henry the seventh as she was, and opposed on
principle, as she was, to the ultimatum to which they were visibly and
stedfastly tending; but, at the same time, her sagacity and prudence
enabled her to ward off the immediate result. She secured her
throne,--she was able to maintain, in the rocking of those movements,
her own political and spiritual supremacy,--she made gain and capital
for absolutism out of them,--the inevitable reformation she herself
assumed, and set bounds to: whatever new freedom there was, was still
the freedom of her will; she could even secure the throne of her
successor: it was mischief for Charles I. that she was nursing. The
consequence of _all_ this was--_the Age of Elisabeth_.
That was what this Queen meant it should be literally, and that was
what it was apparently. But it so happened, that her will and humours
on some great questions jumped with the time, and her dire necessities
compelled her to lead the nation on its own track; or else it would
have been too late, perhaps, for that exhibition of the monarchical
institution,--that revival of the heroic, and _ante_-heroic ages,
which her reign exhibits, to come off here as it did at that time.
It is this that makes the point in this literary history. This is the
key that unlocks the secret of the Elizabethan Art of Delivery and
Tradition. Without any material resources to sustain it--strong in the
national sentiments,--strong in the moral forces with which the past
controls the present,--strong in that natural abhorrence of change
with which nature protects her larger growths,--that principle which
tyranny can test so long with impunity--which it can test with
impunity, till it forgets that this also has in nature its
limits,--strong in the absence of any combination of opposition, to
the young awakening England of that age, that now hollow image of the
past, that phantom of the military force that had been, which seemed
to be waiting only the first breath of the popular will to dissolve
it, was as yet an armed and terrific reality; its iron was on every
neck, its fetter was on every step, and all the new forces, and
world-grasping aims and aspirations which that age was generating were
held down and cramped, and tortured in its chains, dashing their eagle
wings in vain against its iron limits.
As yet all England cowered and crouched, in blind servility, at the
foot of that terrible, but unrecognised embodiment of its own power,
armed out of its own armoury, with the weapons that were turned
against it. So long as any yet extant national sentiment, or
prejudice, was not yet directly assailed--so long as that arbitrary
power was yet wise, or fortunate enough to withhold the blow which
should make the individual sense of outrage, or the feeling of a class
the common one--so long as those peaceful, social elements, yet waited
the spark that was wanting to unite them--so long 'the laws of
England' might be, indeed, at a Falstaff's or a Nym's or a Bardolph's
'commandment,' for the Poet has but put into 'honest Jack's' mouth, a
boast that worse men than he, made good in his time--so long, the
faith, the lives, the liberties, the dearest earthly hopes, of
England's proudest subjects, her noblest, her bravest, her best, her
most learned, her most accomplished, her most inspired, might be at
the mercy of a woman's caprices, or the sport of a fool's sheer will
and obstinacy, or conditioned on some low-lived 'favorites' whims. _So
long_: And how long was that?--who does not know how long it
was?--that was long enough for the whole Elizabethan Age to happen in.
In the reign of Elizabeth, and in the reign of her successor, and
longer still, that was the condition of it--till its last act was
finished--till its last word was spoken and penned--till its last mute
sign was made--till all its celestial inspiration had returned to the
God who gave it--till all its Promethean clay was cold again.
This was the combination of conditions of which the Elizabethan
Literature was the result. The Elizabethan Men of Letters, the
organisers and chiefs of the modern civilization were the result of
it.
These were men in whom the genius of the North in its happiest union
of developments, under its choicest and most favourable conditions of
culture, in its yet fresh, untamed, unbroken, northern vigour, was at
last subjected to the stimulus and provocation which the ancient
learning brings with it to the northern mind--to the now unimaginable
stimulus which, the revival of the ancient art and learning brought
with it to the mind of Europe in that age,--already secure, in its own
indigenous development, already advancing to its own great maturity
under the scholastic culture--the meagre Scholastic, and the rich
Romantic culture--of the Mediaeval Era. The Elizabethan Men of Letters
are men who found in those new and dazzling stores of art and
literature which the movements of their age brought in all their
freshly restored perfection to them, only the summons to their own
slumbering intellectual activities,--fed with fires that old Eastern
and Southern civilizations never knew, nurtured in the depths of a
nature whose depths the northern antiquity had made; they were men who
found in the learning of the South and the East--in the art and
speculation that had satisfied the classic antiquity--only the
definition of their own nobler want.
The first result of the revival of the ancient learning in this island
was, a report of its 'defects.' The first result of that revival here
was a map--a universal map of the learning and the arts which the
conditions of man's life require--a new map or globe of learning on
which lands and worlds, undreamed of by the ancients, are traced. 'A
map or globe' on which 'the principal and supreme sciences,' the
sciences that are _essential_ to the human kind, are put down among
'the parts that lie fresh and waste, and not converted by the industry
of man.' The first result of the revival of learning here was 'a plot'
for the supply of these deficiencies.
The Elizabethan Men of Letters were men, in whom the revival of 'the
Wisdom of the Ancients,' which in its last results, in its most select
and boasted conservations had combined in vain to save antiquity,
found the genius of a happier race, able to point out at a glance the
defect in it; men who saw with a glance at those old books what was
the matter with them; men prepared already to overlook from the new
height of criticism which this sturdy insular development of the
practical genius of the North created, the remains of that lost
civilization--the splendours rescued from the wreck of empires,--the
wisdom which had failed so fatally in practice that it must needs
cross from a lost world of learning to the barbarian's new one, to
find pupils--that it must needs cross the gulf of a thousand years in
learning--such work had it made of it--ere it could revive,--the
wisdom rescued from the wreck it had piloted to ruin, _not_ to
enslave, and ensnare, and doom new ages, and better races, with its
futilities, but to be hung up with its immortal beacon-light, to shew
the track of a new learning, to shew to the contrivers of the chart of
new ages, the breakers of that old ignorance, that old arrogant wordy
barren speculation. For these men were men who would not fish up the
chart of a drowned world for the purpose of seeing how nearly they
could conduct another under different conditions of time and races to
the same conclusion. And they were men of a different turn of mind
entirely from those who lay themselves out on enterprises having that
tendency. The result of this English survey of learning was the
sanctioned and organised determination of the modern speculation to
those new fields which it has already occupied, and its organised, but
secret determination, to that end of a true learning which the need of
man, in its whole comprehension in _this_ theory of it, constitutes.
But the men with whom this proceeding originates, the Elizabethan Men
of Letters, were, in their own time, 'the Few.' They were the chosen
men, not of an age only, but of a race, 'the noblest that ever lived
in the tide of times;' men enriched with the choicest culture of their
age, when that culture involved not the acquisition of the learning of
the ancients only, but the most intimate acquaintance with all those
recent and contemporaneous developments with which its restoration on
the Continent had been attended. Was it strange that these men should
find themselves without sympathy in an age like that?--an age in which
the masses were still unlettered, callous with wrongs, manacled with
blind traditions, or swaying hither and thither, with the breath of a
common prejudice or passion, or swayed hither and thither by the
changeful humours and passions, or the conflicting dogmas and conceits
of their rulers. That is the reason why the development of that age
comes to us as a _Literature_. That is why it is on the surface of it
_Elizabethan_. That is the reason why the leadership of the modern
ages, when it was already here in the persons of its chief
interpreters and prophets, could get as yet no recognition of its
right to teach and rule--could get as yet nothing but _paper_ to print
itself on, nothing but a _pen_ to hew its way with, nor that, without
death and danger dogging it at the heels, and threatening it, at every
turn, so that it could only wave, in mute gesticulation, its signals
to the future. It had to affect, in that time, bookishness and wiry
scholasticism. It had to put on sedulously the harmless old monkish
gown, or the jester's cap and bells, or any kind of a tatterdemalion
robe that would hide, from head to heel, the waving of its purple.
'_Motley's_ the only wear,' whispers the philosopher, peering through
his privileged garb for a moment. King Charles II. had not more to do
in reserving _himself_ in an evil time, and getting safely over to the
year of his dominion.
Letters were the only ships that could pass those seas. But it makes a
new style in literature, when such men as these, excluded from their
natural sphere of activity, get driven into books, cornered into
paragraphs, and compelled to unpack their hearts in letters. There is
a new tone to the words spoken under such compression. It is a tone
that the school and the cloister never rang with,--it is one that the
fancy dealers in letters are not able to deal in. They are such words
as Caesar speaks, when he puts his legions in battle array,--they are
such words as were heard at Salamis one morning, when the breeze began
to stiffen in the bay; and though they be many, never so many, and
though they be musical, as is Apollo's lute, that Lacedemonian ring is
in each one of them. There is great business to be done in them, and
their haste looks through their eyes. In the sighing of the lover, in
the jest of the fool, in the raving of the madman, and not in
Horatio's philosophy only, you hear it.
The founders of the new science of nature and practice were men
unspeakably too far above and beyond their time, to take its bone and
muscle with them. There was no language in which their doctrines could
have been openly conveyed to an English public at that time without
fatal misconception. The truth, which was to them arrayed with the
force of a universal obligation,--the truth, which was to them
religion, would have been, of course, in an age in which a single,
narrow-minded, prejudiced Englishwoman's opinions were accepted as the
ultimate rule of faith and practice, 'flat atheism.' What was with
them loyalty to the supremacy of reason and conscience, would have
been in their time madness and rebellion, and the majority would have
started at it in amazement; and all men would have joined hands, in
the name of truth and justice, to suppress it. The only thing that
could be done in such circumstances was, to _translate_ their doctrine
into the language of their time. They must take the current terms--the
vague popular terms--as they found them, and restrict and enlarge
them, and inform them with their new meanings, with a hint to 'men of
understanding' as to the sense in which they use them. That is the key
to the language in which their books for the future were written.
But who supposes that these men were so wholly super-human, so devoid
of mortal affections and passions, so made up of 'dry light,' that
they could retreat, with all those regal faculties, from the natural
sphere of _their_ activity to the scholar's cell, to make themselves
over in books to a future in which their mortal natures could have no
share,--a future which could not begin till all the breathers of their
world were dead? Who supposes that the 'staff' of Prospero was the
first choice of these chiefs?--these 'heads of the State,' appointed
of nature to the Cure of the Common-Weal.
The leading minds of that age are not minds which owed their
intellectual superiority to a disproportionate development of certain
intellectual tendencies, or to a dwarfed or inferior endowment of
those natural affections and personal qualifications which tend to
limit men to the sphere of their particular sensuous existence. The
mind of this school is the representative mind, and all men recognise
it as that, because, in its products, that nature which is in all men,
which philosophy had, till then, scorned to recognise, which the
abstractionists had missed in their abstractions,--that nature of
will, and sense, and passion, and inanity, is brought out in its true
historical proportions, not as it exists in books, not as it exists in
speech, but as it exists in the actual human life. It is the mind in
which this historical principle, this motivity which is not reason, is
brought in contact with the opposing and controlling element as it had
not been before. In all its earth-born Titanic strength and fulness,
it _is_ dragged up from its secret lurking-places, and confronted with
its celestial antagonist. In all its self-contradiction and cowering
unreason, it is set face to face with its celestial umpire, and
subjected to her unrelenting criticism. There are depths in this
microcosm which _this_ torch only has entered, silences which this
speaker only has broken, cries which he only knows how to articulate.
'The soundest disclosing and expounding of men is by their _natures_
and _ends_,' so the one who is best qualified to give us information
on this question tells us,--by their natures _and_ ends; 'the weaker
sort by their natures, and the _wisest_ by their ends'; and '_the
distance_' of this wisest sort 'from the _ends_ to which they aspire,'
is that 'from which one may take measure and scale of the rest of
their actions and desires.'
The first end which these Elizabethan Men of Letters grasped at, the
thing which they pursued with all the intensity and concentration of a
master passion, was--_power_, political power. They wanted to rule
their own time, and not the future only. 'You are hurt, because you do
not reign,' is the inuendo which they permit us to apply to them as
the key to their proceedings. 'Such men as this are never at heart's
ease,' Caesar remarks in confidence to a friend, 'whiles they behold a
greater than themselves.' 'Come on my right hand, for this ear is
deaf,' he adds, 'and tell me truly what thou think'st of him.' These
are the kind of men that seek instinctively 'predominance,' not in a
clique or neighbourhood only,--they are not content with a domestic
reflection of their image, they seek to stamp it on the state and on
the world. These Elizabethan Men of Letters were men who sought from
the first, with inveterate determination, to rule their own time, and
they never gave up that point entirely. In one way or another,
directly or indirectly, they were determined to make their influence
felt in that age, in spite of the want of encouragement which the
conditions of that time offered to such an enterprise. But they sought
that end not instinctively only, but with the stedfastness of a
rational, scientifically enlightened purpose. It was an enterprise in
which the intense motivity of that new and so 'conspicuous'
development of the particular and private nature, which lies at the
root of such a genius, was sustained by the determination of that not
less superior development of the nobler nature in man, by the motivity
of the intellect, by the sentiment which waits on _that_, by the
motive of 'the larger whole,' which is, in this science of it, 'the
worthier.'
We do not need to apply the key of times to those indirectly
historical remains in which the real history, the life and soul of a
time, is always best found, and in which the history of such a time,
if written at all, must necessarily be inclosed; we do not need to
unlock these works to perceive the indications of suppressed movements
in that age, in which the most illustrious men of the age were
primarily concerned, the history of which has not yet fully
transpired. We do not need to find the key to the cipher in which the
history of that time is written, to perceive that there was to have
been a change in the government here at one time, very different from
the one which afterwards occurred, if the original plans of these men
had succeeded. It is not the Plays only that are full of that
frustrated enterprise.
These were the kind of men who are not easily baffled. They changed
their tactics, but not their ends; and the enterprises which were
conducted with so much secresy under the surveillance of the Tudor,
began already to crown themselves as certainties, and compare their
'olives of endless age' with the spent tombs of brass' and 'tyrant's
crests,' at that sure prospect which, a change of dynasties at that
moment seemed to open,--at least, to men who were in a position then
to estimate its consequences.
That _this_, at all events, was a state of things that was not going
to endure, became palpable about that time to the philosophic mind.
The transition from the rule of a sovereign who was mistress of 'the
situation,' who understood that it was a popular power which she was
wielding--the transition from the rule of a Queen instructed in the
policy of a tyranny, inducted by nature into its arts, to the policy
of that monarch who had succeeded to her throne, and whose 'CREST'
began to be reared here then in the face of the insulted reviving
English nationality,--this transition appeared upon the whole, upon
calmer reflection, at least to the more patient minds of that age, all
that could reasonably at that time be asked for. No better instrument
for stimulating and strengthening the growing popular sentiment, and
rousing the latent spirit of the nation, could have been desired by
the Elizabethan politicians at that crisis, 'for the great labour was
with the people'--that uninstructed power, which makes the sure basis
of tyrannies--that power which Mark Antony takes with him so
easily--the ignorant, tyrannical, humour-led masses--the masses that
still roar their Elizabethan stupidities from the immortal groups of
Coriolanus and Julius Caesar. We ourselves have not yet overtaken the
chief minds of this age; and the gulf that separated them from those
overpowering numbers in their own time, to whose edicts they were
compelled to pay an external submission, was broad indeed. The
difficulty of establishing an understanding with this power was the
difficulty. They wanted that 'pulpit' from which Brutus and Mark
Antony swayed it by turns so easily--that pulpit from which Mark
Antony showed it Caesar's mantle. They wanted some organ of
communication with these so potent and resistless rulers--some 'chair'
from which they could repeat to them in their own tongue the story of
their lost institutions, and revive in them the memory of '_the kings_
their ancestors'--some school in which they could collect them and
instruct them in the scientific doctrine of the _commons_, the
doctrine of the common-_weal_ and its divine supremacy. They wanted a
school in which they could tell them stories--stories of various
kinds--such stories as they loved best to hear--Midsummer stories, or
Winter's tales, and stories of their own battle-fields--they wanted a
school in which they could teach the common people _History_ (and not
English history only), with illustrations, large as life, and a magic
lantern to aid them,--'visible history.'
But to wait till these slow methods had taken effect, would be,
perhaps, to wait, not merely till their estate in the earth was done,
but till the mischief they wished to avert was accomplished. And thus
it was, that the proposal 'to go the beaten track of getting arms into
their hands under colour of Caesar's designs, and _because the people
understood them not_,' came to be considered. To permit the new
dynasty to come in without making any terms with it, without insisting
upon a definition of that indefinite power which the Tudors had
wielded with impunity, and without challenge, would be to make
needless work for the future, and to ignore criminally the
responsibilities of their own position, so at least some English
statesmen of that time, fatally for their favour with the new monarch,
were known to have thought. 'To proceed by process,' to check by
gradual constitutional measures that overgrown and monstrous power in
the state, was the project which these statesmen had most at heart.
But that was a movement which required a firm and enlightened popular
support. Charters and statutes were dead letters till that could be
had. It was fatal to attempt it till that was secured. Failing in that
popular support, if the statesman who had attempted that movement, if
the illustrious chief, and chief man of his time, who headed it, did
secretly meditate other means for accomplishing the same end--which
was to limit the prerogative--such means as the time offered, and if
the evidence which was wanting on his trial _had been_ produced in
proof of it, who that knows what that crisis was would undertake to
convict him on it now? He was arrested on suspicion. He was a man who
had undertaken to set bounds to the absolute will of the monarch, and
therefore he was a dangerous man. [He (Sir Walter Raleigh), together
with the Lord Chobham, Sir J. Fortescue, and _others_, would have
obliged the king to _articles_ before he was admitted to the throne,
and thought the number of his countrymen should be
limited.--_Osborne's Memorials of King James_.] The charges that were
made against him on that shameless trial were indignantly repelled.
'Do you mix, me up with these spiders?' (alluding, perhaps, more
particularly to the Jesuit associated with him in this charge). 'Do
you think I am a Jack Cade or a Robin Hood?' he said. But though the
evidence on this trial is not only in itself illegal, and by
confession perjured, but the _report_ of it comes to us with a
falsehood on the face of it, and is therefore not to be taken without
criticism; that there was a movement of some kind meditated about that
time, by persons occupying chief places of trust and responsibility in
the nation--a movement not favourable to the continuance of 'the
standing departments' in the precise form in which they then
stood--that the project of an administrative reform had not, at least,
been wholly laid aside--that there was something which did not fully
come out on that trial, any one who looks at this report of it will be
apt to infer.
It was a project which had not yet proceeded to any overt act; there
was no legal evidence of its existence produced on the trial; but
suppose there were here, then, already, men 'who loved the
_fundamental part of state_,' more than in such a crisis 'they
_doubted_ the change of it'--men 'who preferred a noble life before a
long'--men, too, '_who were more discreet_' than they were
'_fearful_,' who thought it good practice to 'jump a body with a
dangerous medicine _that was sure of death_ without it;' suppose there
_was_ a movement of that kind arrested here then, and the evidence of
it were produced, what Englishman, or who that boasts the English
lineage to-day, can have a word to say about it? Who had a better
right than those men themselves, those statesmen, those heroes, who
had waked and watched for their country's weal so long, who had fought
her battles on land and sea, and planned them too, not in the tented
field and on the rocking deck only, but in the more 'deadly breach' of
civil office, whose _scaling_-ladders had entered even the tyrant's
council chamber,--who had a better right than those men themselves to
say whether they would be governed by a government of laws, or by the
will of the most despicable 'one-only-man power,' armed with sword and
lash, that ever a nation of Oriental slaves in their political
imbecility cowered under? Who were better qualified than those men
themselves, instructed in detail in all the peril of that crisis,--men
who had comprehended and weighed with a judgment which has left no
successor to its seat, all the conflicting considerations and claims
which that crisis brought with it,--who better qualified than these to
decide on the measures by which the hideous nuisances of that time
should be abated; by which that axe, that sword, that rack, that
stake, and all those burglar's tools, and highwayman's weapons, should
be taken out of the hands of the mad licentious crew with which an
evil time had armed them against the common-weal--those weapons of
lawless power, which the people had vainly, for want of leaders,
refused before-hand to put into their hands. Who better qualified than
these natural chiefs and elected leaders of the nation, to decide on
the dangerous measures for suppressing the innovation, which the Tudor
and his descendants had accomplished in that ancient sovereignty of
laws, which was the sovereignty of this people, which even the Norman
and the Plantagenet had been taught to acknowledge? Who better
qualified than they to call to an account--'the thief,' the 'cut-purse
of the empire and the rule,' who 'found the precious diadem _on a
shelf_, and stole and put it in his pocket'?
['Shall the blessed _Sun_ of _Heaven_ prove a micher, and _eat
blackberries_'? A question _not_ to be asked! Shall the blessed 'Son
of England' prove a thief, and take purses? A question _to be asked_.
'The _poor_ abuses of the time want _countenance_.'
_Lear_. Take that from me, my friend,
who have the power to _seal the accuser's_ lips.]
Who better qualified could be found to head the dangerous enterprise
for the deliverance of England from that shame, than the chief in whom
her Alfred arose again to break from her neck a baser than the Danish
yoke, to restore her kingdom and found her new empire, to give her
domains, that the sun never sets on,--her Poet, her Philosopher, her
Soldier, her Legislator, the builder of her Empire of the Sea, her
founder of new 'States.'
But then, of course, it is only by the rarest conjunction of
circumstances, that the movements and plans which such a state of
things gives rise to, can get any other than the most opprobrious name
and place in history. Success is their only certificate of legitimacy.
To attempt to overthrow a government still so strongly planted in the
endurance and passivity of the people, might seem, perhaps, to some
minds in these circumstances, a hopeless, and, _therefore_, a criminal
undertaking.
'That _opportunity_ which then they had to take from us, to resume, we
have again,' might well have seemed a sufficient plea, so it could
have been made good. But it is not strange that some few, even then,
should find it difficult to believe that the national ruin was yet so
entire, that the ashes of the ancient nobility and commons of England
were yet so cold, as that a system of despotism like that which was
exercised here then, could be permanently and securely fastened over
them. It is not strange that it should seem to these impossible that
there should not be enough of that old English spirit which, only a
hundred years before, had ranged the people in armed thousands, in
defence of LAW, against absolutism, enough of it, at least, to welcome
and sustain the overthrow of tyranny, when once it should present
itself as a fact accomplished, instead of appealing beforehand to a
courage, which so many instances of vain and disastrous resistance had
at last subdued, and to a spirit which seemed reduced at last, to the
mere quality of the master's will.
That was a narrow dominion apparently to which King James consigned
his great rival in the arts of government, but that rival of his
contrived to rear a 'crest' there which will outlast 'the tyrants,'
and 'look fresh still' when tombs that artists were at work on then
'are spent.' 'And when a soldier was his theme, my name--my _name_
[namme de plume] was nor far off.' King James forgot how many weapons
this man carried. He took one sword from him, he did not know that
that pen, that harmless goose-quill, carried in its sheath another. He
did not know what strategical operations the scholar, who was 'an old
soldier' and a politician also, was capable of conducting under such
conditions. Those were narrow quarters for 'the Shepherd of the
Ocean,' for the hero of the two hemispheres, to occupy so long; but it
proved no bad retreat for the chief of this movement, as he managed
it. It was in that school of Elizabethan statesmanship which had its
centre in the Tower, that many a scholarly English gentleman came
forth prepared to play his part in the political movements that
succeeded. It was out of that school of statesmanship that John
Hampden came, accomplished for his part in them.
The papers that the chief of the Protestant cause prepared in that
literary retreat to which the Monarch had consigned him, by means of
those secret channels of communication among the better minds which he
had established in the reign of Elizabeth, became the secret manual of
the revolutionary chiefs; they made the first blast of the trumpet
that summoned at last the nation to its feet. 'The famous Mr. Hamden'
(says an author, who writes in those 'next ages' in which so many
traditions of this time are still rife) '_a little before_ the civil
wars was at the charge of transcribing three thousand four hundred and
fifty-two sheets of Sir Walter Raleigh's MSS., as the amanuensis
himself _told me_, who had his _close chamber_, his fire and _candle_,
with an _attendant to deliver him the originals_ and _take his copies
as fast as he could write them_.' That of itself is a pretty little
glimpse of the kind of machinery which the Elizabethan literature
required for its 'delivery and tradition' at the time, or near the
times, in which it was produced. That is a view of 'an Interior'
'before the civil wars.' It was John Milton who concluded, on looking
over, a long time afterwards, one of the unpublished papers of this
statesman, that it was his duty to give it to the public. 'Having
had,' he says, 'the MS. of this treatise ["The Cabinet Council"]
written by Sir Walter Raleigh, many years in my hands, and finding it
lately by chance among other books and papers, upon reading thereof, I
thought it _a kind of injury to withhold longer_ the work of so
eminent an author from the public; it being both answerable in style
to other works of his already extant, as far as _the subject_ would
permit, and given me for a true copy by a learned man at his death,
who had collected several such pieces.'
'_A kind of injury_.'--That is the thought which would naturally take
possession of any mind, charged with the responsibility of keeping
back for years this man's writings, especially his choicest
ones--papers that could not be published then on account of the
subject, or that came out with the leaves uncut, labouring with the
restrictions which the press opposed then to the issues of such a
mind.
That great result which the chief minds of the Modern Ages, under the
influence of the new culture, in that secret association of them were
able to achieve, that new and all comprehending science of life and
practice which they made it their business to perfect and transmit,
could not, indeed, as yet be communicated directly to the many. The
scientific doctrines of the new time were necessarily limited in that
age to the few. But another movement corresponding to that,
simultaneous in its origin, related to it in its source, was also in
progress here then, proceeding hand in hand with this, playing its
game for it, opening the way to its future triumph. This was that
movement of the new time,--this was that consequence, not of the
revival of learning only, but of the growth of the northern mind which
touched everywhere and directly the springs of government, and made
'bold power look pale,' for this was the movement in 'the many.'
This was the movement which had already convulsed the continent; this
was the movement of which Raleigh was from the first the soldier; this
was 'the cause' of which he became the chief. It was as a youth of
seventeen, bursting from those old fastnesses of the Middle Ages that
could not hold him any longer, shaking off the films of Aristotle and
his commentators, that he girded on his sword for the great
world-battle that was raging already in Europe then. It was into the
thickest of it, that his first step plunged him. For he was one of
that company of a hundred English gentlemen who were waiting but for
the first word of permission from Elizabeth to go as volunteers to the
aid of the Huguenots. This was the movement which had at last reached
England. And like these other continental events which were so slow in
taking effect in England when it did begin to unfold here at last;
there was a taste of 'the island' in it, in this also.
It was not on the continent only, that Raleigh and other English
statesmen were disposed to sustain this movement. It was not possible
as yet to bring the common mind openly to the heights of those great
doctrines of life and practice which the Wisdom of the Moderns also
embodies, but the new teachers of that age knew how to appreciate, as
the man of science only can fully appreciate, the worth of those
motives that were then beginning to agitate so portentously so large a
portion of the English people. The Elizabethan politicians nourished
and patronised in secret that growing faction. The scientific
politician hailed with secret delight, hailed as the partner of his
own enterprise, that new element of political power which the changing
time began to reveal here then, that power which was already beginning
to unclasp on the necks of the masses, the collar of the absolute
will--that was already proclaiming, in the stifled undertones of 'that
greater part which carries it,' another supremacy. They gave in secret
the right hand of a joyful fellowship to it. At home and abroad the
great soldier and statesman, who was the first founder of the Modern
Science, headed that faction. He fought its battles by land and sea;
he opened the New World to it, and sent it there to work out its
problem.
It was the first stage of an advancement that would not rest till it
found its true consummation. That infinity which was speaking in its
confused tones, as with the voice of many waters, was resolved into
music and triumphal marches in the ear of the Interpreter. It gave
token that the nobler nature had not died out under the rod of
tyranny; it gave token of the earnestness that would not be appeased
until the ends that were declared in it were found.
But at the same time, this was a power which the wise men of that age
were far from being willing to let loose upon society then in that
stage of its development; very far were they from being willing to put
the reins into its hands. To balance the dangers that were threatening
the world at that crisis was always the problem. It was a very narrow
line that the policy which was to save the state had to keep to then.
There were evils on both sides. But to the scientific mind there
appeared to be a choice in them. The measure on one side had been
taken, and it was in all men's hearts, but the abysses on the other no
man had sounded. 'The danger of stirring things,'--the dangers, too,
of that unscanned swiftness that too late _ties leaden pounds to his
heels_ were the dangers that were always threatening the Elizabethan
movement, and defining and curbing it. The wisest men of that time
leaned towards the monarchy, the monarchy that was, rather than the
anarchy that was threatening them. The _will_ of the one rather than
the _wills_ of the many, the head of the one rather than 'the
many-headed.' To effect the change which the time required without
'wrenching all'--without undoing the work of ages--without setting at
large from the restraints of reverence and custom the chained tiger of
an unenlightened popular will, this was the problem. The wisest
statesmen, the most judicious that the world has ever known were here,
with their new science, weighing in exactest scales those issues. We
must not quarrel with their concessions to tyranny on the one hand,
nor with their determination to effect changes on the other, until we
are able to command entirely the position they occupied, and the
opposing dangers they had always to consider. We must not judge them
till they have had their hearing. What freedom and what hope there is
of it upon the earth to-day, is the legacy of their perseverance and
endurance.
They experienced many defeats. The hopes of youth, the hopes of
manhood in turn grew cold. That the 'glorious day' which 'flattered
the mountain tops' of their immortal morning with its sovereign eye
would never shine on them; that their own, with all its unimagined
splendours obscured so long, would go down hid in those same 'base
clouds,' that for them the consummation was to 'peep about to find
themselves dishonourable graves' was the conviction under which their
later tasks were achieved. It did not abate their ardour. They did not
strain one nerve the less for that.
Driven from one field, they showed themselves in another. Driven from
the open field, they fought in secret. 'I will bandy with thee in
faction, I will o'errun thee with policy, I will kill thee a hundred
and fifty ways,' the Jester who brought their challenge said. The
Elizabethan England rejected the Elizabethan Man. She would have none
of his meddling with her affairs. She sent him to the Tower, and to
the block, if ever she caught him meddling with them. She buried him
alive in the heart of his time. She took the seals of office, she took
the sword, from his hands and put a pen in it. She would have of him a
Man of Letters. And a Man of Letters he became. A Man of Runes. He
invented new letters in his need, letters that would go farther than
the sword, that carried more execution in them than the great seal.
Banished from the state in that isle to which he was banished, he
found not the base-born Caliban only, to _instruct_, and train, and
subdue to his ends, but an Ariel, an imprisoned Ariel, waiting to be
released, able to conduct his masques, able to put his girdles round
the earth, and to 'perform and point' to his Tempest.
'Go bring the RABBLE, o'er whom I give thee _power_, here to this
place,' was the New Magician's word.
[Here is another version of it.
'When Sir Nicholas Bacon, the Lord Keeper, lived, every room in
Gorhambury was served with a pipe of water from the pond distant about
a mile off. In the lifetime of Mr. Anthony Bacon the water ceased, and
his lordship coming to the inheritance could not recover the water
without infinite charge. When he was Lord Chancellor, he built Verulam
House _close by the pond yard, for a place of privacy_ when he was
called upon to dispatch any urgent business. And being asked why he
built there, his lordship answered that, seeing _he could not carry
the water to_ his House, he _would carry his House_ to the water.]
This is not the place for the particulars of this history or for the
barest outline of them. They make a volume of themselves. But this
glimpse of the circumstances under which the works were composed which
it is the object of this volume to open, appeared at the last moment
to be required, in the absence of the Historical Key which the proper
development of them makes, to that Art of Delivery and Tradition by
means of which the secrets of the Elizabethan Age have been conveyed
to us.
CHAPTER III.
EXTRACTS FROM THE LIFE OF RALEIGH.--RALEIGH'S SCHOOL
'Our court shall be a little Academe,
Still and contemplative in _living_ Art.'
'What is the _end_ of study? let me know.'
_Love's Labour's Lost_.
But it was not on the New World wholly, that this man of many toils
could afford to lavish the revenues which the Queen's favour brought
him. It was not to that enterprise alone that he was willing to
dedicate the _eclat_ and influence of his rising name. There was work
at home which concerned him more nearly, not less deeply, to which
that new influence was made at once subservient; and in that there
were enemies to be encountered more formidable than the Spaniard on
his own deck, or on his own coast, with all his war-weapons and
defences. It was an enemy which required a strategy more subtle than
any which the exigencies of camp and field had called for.
The fact that this hero throughout all his great public career--so
full of all kinds of excitement and action--enough, one would say, to
absorb the energies of a mind of any ordinary human capacity--that
this soldier whose name had become, on the Spanish coasts, what the
name of '_Coeur de Lion_' was in the Saracen nursery, that this
foreign adventurer who had a fleet of twenty-three ships sailing at
one time on his errands--this legislator, for he sat in Parliament as
representative of his native shire--this magnificent courtier, who had
raised himself, without any vantage-ground at all, from a position
wholly obscure, by his personal achievements and merits, to a place in
the social ranks so exalted; to a place in the state so _near_
that--which was chief and absolute--the fact that this many-sided man
of deeds, was all the time a literary man, not a scholar merely, but
himself an Originator, a Teacher, the Founder of a School--this is the
explanatory point in this history--this is the point in it which
throws light on all the rest of it, and imparts to it its true
dignity.
For he was not a mere blind historical agent, driven by fierce
instincts, intending only their own narrow ends, without any faculty
of comprehensive survey and choice of intentions; impelled by thirst
of adventure, or thirst of power, or thirst of gold, to the execution
of his part in the great human struggle for conservation and
advancement; working like other useful agencies in the Providential
Scheme--like 'the stormy wind fulfilling his pleasure.'
There is, indeed, no lack of the instinctive element in this heroic
'composition;' there is no stronger and more various and complete
development of it. That '_lumen siccum_' which his great contemporary
is so fond of referring to in his philosophy, that _dry light_ which
is so apt, he tells us, in most men's minds, to get 'drenched' a
little sometimes, in 'the humours and affections,' and distorted and
refracted in their mediums, did not always, perhaps, in its practical
determinations, escape from that accident even in the philosopher's
own; but in this stormy, world-hero, there was a latent volcano of
will and passion; there was, in his constitution, 'a complexion' which
might even seem to the bystanders to threaten at times, by its
'o'ergrowth,' the 'very pales and forts of reason'; but the intellect
was, notwithstanding, in its due proportion in him; and it was the
majestic intellect that triumphed in the end. It was the large and
manly comprehension, 'the large discourse looking before and after,'
it was the overseeing and active principle of 'the larger whole,' that
predominated and had the steering of his course. It is the common
human form which shines out in him and makes that manly demonstration,
which commands our common respect, in spite of those particular
defects and o'ergrowths which are apt to mar its outline in the best
historical types and patterns of it, we have been able to get as yet.
It was the intellect, and the sense which belongs to _that_ in its
integrity--it was the truth and the feeling of its obligation, which
was sovereign with him. For this is a man who appears to have been
occupied with the care of the common-weal more than with anything
else; and that, too, under great disadvantages and impediments, and
when there was no honour in caring for it truly, but that kind of
honour which he had so much of; for this was the time precisely which
the poet speaks of in that play in which he tells us that the end of
playing is 'to give to the very age and body of the time _its form and
pressure_.' This was the time when 'virtue of vice _must pardon beg_,
and curb and beck for leave to do it good.' It was the relief of man's
estate, or the Creator's glory, that he busied himself about; that was
the end of his ends; or if not, then was he, indeed, no hero at all.
For it was the doctrine of his own school, and 'the first human
principle' taught in it, that men who act without reference to that
distinctly _human_ aim, without that _manly_ consideration and
_kind_-liness of purpose, can lay no claim either to divine or human
honours; that they are not, in fact, men, but failures; specimens of
an unsuccessful attempt in nature, at an advancement; or, as his great
contemporary states it more clearly, 'only a nobler kind of vermin.'
During all the vicissitudes of his long and eventful public life,
Raleigh was still persistently a scholar. He carried his books--his
'trunk of books' with him in all his adventurous voyages; and they
were his 'companions' in the toil and excitement of his campaigns on
land. He studied them in the ocean-storm; he studied them in his tent,
as Brutus studied in his. He studied them year after year, in the dim
light which pierced the deep embrasure of those walls with which
tyranny had thought to shut in at last his world-grasping energies.
He had had some chance to study 'men and manners' in that strange and
various life of his, and he did not lack the skill to make the most of
it; but he was not content with that narrow, one-sided aspect of life
and human nature, to which his own individual personal experience,
however varied, must necessarily limit him. He would see it under
greater varieties, under all varieties of conditions. He would know
the history of it; he would 'delve it to the root.' He would know how
that particular form of it, which he found on the surface in his time,
had come to be the thing he found it. He would know what it had been
in other times, in the beginning, or in that stage of its development
in which the historic light first finds it. He was a man who wished
even to know what it had been in _the Assyrian_, in _the Phenician_,
in _the Hebrew_, in _the Egyptian_; he would see what it had been in
_the Greek_, and in _the Roman_. He was, indeed, one of that clique of
Elizabethan Naturalists, who thought that there was no more curious
thing in nature; and instead of taking a Jack Cade view of the
subject, and inferring that an adequate knowledge of it comes by
nature, as reading and writing do in that worthy's theory of
education, it was the private opinion of this school, that there was
no department of learning which a scholar could turn his attention to,
that required a more severe and thorough study and experiment, and
none that a man of a truly _scientific_ turn of mind would find better
worth his leisure. And the study of antiquity had not yet come to be
then what it is now; at least, with men of this stamp. Such men did
not study it to discipline their minds, or to get a classic finish to
their style. The books that such a man as this could take the trouble
to carry about with him on such errands as those that he travelled on,
were books that had in them, for the eager eyes that then o'er-ran
them, the world's 'news'--the world's story. They were full of the
fresh living data of his conclusions. They were notes that the master
minds of all the ages had made for him; invaluable aid and sympathy
they had contrived to send to him. The man who had been arrested in
his career, more ignominiously than the magnificent Tully had been in
_his_,--in a career, too, a thousand times more noble,--by a Caesar,
indeed, but _such_ a Caesar;--the man who had sat for years with the
executioner's block in his yard, waiting only for a scratch of the
royal pen, to bring down upon him that same edge which the poor
Cicero, with all his truckling, must feel at last,--such a one would
look over the old philosopher's papers with an apprehension of their
meaning, somewhat more lively than that of the boy who reads them for
a prize, or to get, perhaps, some classic elegancies transfused into
his mind.
During the ten years which intervene between the date of Raleigh's
first departure for the Continent and that of his beginning favour at
home, already he had found means for ekeing out and perfecting that
liberal education which Oxford had only begun for him, so that it was
as a man of rarest literary accomplishments that he made his brilliant
_debût_ at the English Court, where the new Elizabethan Age of Letters
was just then beginning.
He became at once the centre of that little circle of highborn wits
and poets, the elder wits and poets of the Elizabethan age, that were
then in their meridian there. Sir Philip Sidney, Thomas Lord
Buckhurst, Henry Lord Paget, Edward Earl of Oxford, and some others,
are included in the contemporary list of this courtly company, whose
doings are somewhat mysteriously adverted to by a critic, who refers
to the condition of 'the Art of Poesy' at that time. '_The gentleman
who wrote the late Shepherds' Calendar_' was beginning then to attract
considerable attention in this literary aristocracy.
The brave, bold genius of Raleigh flashed new life into that little
nucleus of the Elizabethan development. The new '_Round Table_,' which
that newly-beginning age of chivalry, with its new weapons and
devices, and its new and more heroic adventure had created, was not
yet 'full' till he came in. The Round Table grew rounder with this
knight's presence. Over those dainty stores of the classic ages, over
those quaint memorials of the elder chivalry, that were spread out on
it, over the dead letter of the past, the brave Atlantic breeze came
in, the breath of the great future blew, when the turn came for this
knight's adventure; whether opened in the prose of its statistics, or
set to its native music in the mystic melodies of the bard who was
there to sing it. The Round Table grew spheral, as he sat talking by
it; the Round Table dissolved, as he brought forth his lore, and
unrolled his maps upon it; and instead of it,--with all its fresh yet
living interests, tracked out by land and sea, with the great
battle-ground of the future outlined on it,--revolved the round world.
'_Universality_' was still the motto of these Paladins; but 'THE
GLOBE'--the Globe, with its TWO hemispheres, became henceforth their
device.
The promotion of Raleigh at Court was all that was needed to make him
the centre and organiser of that new intellectual movement which was
then just beginning there. He addressed himself to the task as if he
had been a man of literary tastes and occupations merely, or as if
that particular crisis had been a time of literary leisure with him,
and there were nothing else to be thought of just then. The relation
of those illustrious literary partners of his, whom he found already
in the field when he first came to it, to that grand development of
the English genius in art and philosophy which follows, ought not
indeed to be overlooked or slightly treated in any thorough history of
it. For it has its first beginning here in this brilliant assemblage
of courtiers, and soldiers, and scholars,--this company of Poets, and
Patrons and Encouragers of Art and Learning. Least of all should the
relation which the illustrious founder of this order sustains to the
later development be omitted in any such history,--'the prince and
mirror of all chivalry,' the patron of the young English Muse, whose
untimely fate keeps its date for ever green, and fills the air of this
new 'Helicon' with immortal lamentations. The shining foundations of
that so splendid monument of the later Elizabethan genius, which has
paralyzed and confounded all our criticism, were laid here. The
extraordinary facilities which certain departments of literature
appeared to offer, for evading the restrictions which this new poetic
and philosophic development had to encounter from the first, already
began to attract the attention of men acquainted with the uses to
which it had been put in antiquity, and who knew what gravity of aim,
what height of execution, that then rude and childish English Play had
been made to exhibit under other conditions;--men fresh from the study
of those living and perpetual monuments of learning, which the genius
of antiquity has left in this department. But the first essays of the
new English scholarship in this untried field,--the first attempts at
original composition here, derive, it must be confessed, their chief
interest and value from that memorable association in which we find
them. It was the first essay, which had to be made before those
finished monuments of art, which command our admiration on their own
account wholly, could begin to appear. It was 'the tuning of the
instruments, that those who came afterwards might play the better.' We
see, of course, the stiff, cramped hand of the beginner here, instead
of the grand touch of the master, who never comes till his art has
been prepared to his hands,--till the details of its execution have
been mastered for him by others. In some arts there must be
generations of essays before he can get his tools in a condition for
use. Ages of prophetic genius, generations of artists, who dimly saw
afar off, and struggled after his perfections, must patiently chip and
daub their lives away, before ever the star of his nativity can begin
to shine.
Considering what a barbaric age it was that the English mind was
emerging from then; and the difficulties attending the first attempt
to create in the English literature, anything which should bear any
proportion to those finished models of skill which were then dazzling
the imagination of the English scholar in the unworn gloss of their
fresh revival here, and discouraging, rather than stimulating, the
rude poetic experiment;--considering what weary lengths of essay there
are always to be encountered, where the standard of excellence is so
far beyond the power of execution; we have no occasion to despise the
first bold attempts to overcome these difficulties which the good
taste of this company has preserved to us. They are just such works as
we might expect under those circumstances;--yet full of the pedantries
of the new acquisition, overflowing on the surface with the learning
of the school, sparkling with classic allusions, seizing boldly on the
classic original sometimes, and working their new fancies into it;
but, full already of the riant vigour and originality of the
Elizabethan inspiration; and never servilely copying a foreign
original. The English genius is already triumphant in them. Their very
crudeness is not without its historic charm, when once their true
place in the structure we find them in, is recognised. In the later
works, this crust of scholarship has disappeared, and gone below the
surface. It is all dissolved, and gone into the clear intelligence;--
it has all gone to feed the majestic current of that new, all-subduing,
all-grasping originality. It is in these earlier performances that the
stumbling-blocks of our present criticism are strewn so thickly.
Nobody can write any kind of criticism of the 'Comedy of Errors,'
for instance, without recognizing the Poet's acquaintance with the
classic model, [See a recent criticism in 'The Times.']--without
recognizing the classic treatment. 'Love's Labour's Lost,' 'The
Taming of the Shrew,' the condemned parts of 'Henry the VI.,' and
generally the Poems which are put down in our criticism as doubtful,
or as the earlier Poems, are just those Poems in which the Poet's
studies are so flatly betrayed on the surface. Among these are plays
which were anonymously produced by the company performing at the
Rose Theatre, and other companies which English noblemen found
occasion to employ in their service then. These were not so much as
produced at the theatre which has had the honor of giving its name to
other productions, bound up with them. We shall find nothing to object
to in that somewhat heterogeneous collection of styles, which even a
single Play sometimes exhibits, when once the history of this
phenomenon accompanies it. The Cathedrals that were built, or re-built
throughout, just at the moment in which the Cathedral Architecture had
attained its ultimate perfection, are more beautiful to the eye,
perhaps, than those in which the story of its growth is told from the
rude, massive Anglo-Saxon of the crypt or the chancel, to the last
refinement of the mullion, and groin, and tracery. But the antiquary,
at least, does not regret the preservation. And these crude beginnings
here have only to be put in their place, to command from the critic,
at least, a similar respect. For here, too, the history reports itself
to the eye, and not less palpably.
It may seem surprising, and even incredible, to the modern critic,
that men in this position should find any occasion to conceal their
relation to those quite respectable contributions to the literature of
the time, which they found themselves impelled to make. The fact that
they did so, is one that we must accept, however, on uncontradicted
cotemporary testimony, and account for it as we can. The critic who
published his criticisms when 'the gentleman who wrote the late
Shepherd's Calendar' was just coming into notice, however inferior to
our modern critics in other respects, had certainly a better
opportunity of informing himself on this point, than they can have at
present. 'They have writ excellently well,' _he_ says of this company
of Poets,--this 'courtly company,' as he calls them,--' they have writ
excellently well, _if their doings could be found out and made public
with the rest_.' _Sir Philip Sidney, Raleigh,_ and the gentleman who
wrote the late Shepherd's Calendar, are included in the list of Poets
to whom this remark is applied. It is Raleigh's verse which is
distinguished, however, in this commendation as the most 'lofty,
insolent, and passionate;' a description which applies to the
anonymous poems alluded to, but is not particularly applicable to
those artificial and tame performances which he was willing to
acknowledge. And this so commanding Poet, who was at the same time an
aspiring courtier and meddler in affairs of state, and who chose, for
some mysterious reason or other, to forego the honours which those who
were in the secret of his literary abilities and successes,--the very
best judges of poetry in that time, too, were disposed to accord
him,--and we are not without references to cases in antiquity
corresponding very nearly to this; and which seemed to furnish, at
least, a sufficient precedent for this proceeding;--this so successful
poet, and courtier, and great man of his time, was already in a
position to succeed at once to that chair of literary patronage which
the death of Sir Philip Sidney had left vacant. Instinctively
generous, he was ready to serve the literary friends whom he attracted
to him, not less lavishly than he had served the proud Queen herself,
when he threw his gay cloak in her obstructed path,--at least, he was
not afraid of risking those sudden splendours which her favour was
then showering upon him, by wearying her with petitions on their
behalf. He would have risked his new favour, at least with his
'Cynthia,'--that twin sister of Phoebus Apollo,--to make her the
patron, if not the inspirer of the Elizabethan genius. 'When will you
cease to be a beggar, Raleigh?' she said to him one day, on one of
these not infrequent occasions. 'When your Majesty ceases to be a most
gracious mistress,' was this courtier's reply. It is recorded of her,
that 'she loved to hear his reasons to her demands.'
But though, with all his wit and eloquence, he could not contrive to
make of the grand-daughter of Henry the Seventh, a Pericles, or an
Alexander, or a Ptolemy, or an Augustus, or an encourager of anything
that did not appear to be directly connected with her own particular
ends, he did succeed in making her indirectly a patron of the literary
and scientific development which was then beginning to add to her
reign its new lustre,--which was then suing for leave to lay at her
feet its new crowns and garlands. Indirectly, he did convert her into
a patron,--a second-hand patron of those deeper and more subtle
movements of the new spirit of the time, whose bolder demonstrations
she herself had been forced openly to head. Seated on the throne of
Henry the Seventh, she was already the armed advocate of European
freedom;--Raleigh had contrived to make her the legal sponsor for the
New World's liberties; it only needed that her patronage should be
systematically extended to that new enterprise for the emancipation of
the human life from the bondage of ignorance, from the tyranny of
unlearning,--that enterprise which the gay, insidious Elizabethan
literature was already beginning to flower over and cover with its
devices,--it only needed _that_, to complete the anomaly of her
position. And that through Raleigh's means was accomplished.
He became himself the head of a little _Alexandrian_ establishment.
His house was a home for men of learning. He employed men in literary
and scientific researches on his account, whose business it was to
report to him their results. He had salaried scholars at his table, to
impart to him their acquisitions, Antiquities, History, Poetry,
Chemistry, Mathematics, scientific research of all kinds, came under
his active and persevering patronage. Returning from one of his visits
to Ireland, whither he had gone on this occasion to inspect a
_seignorie_ which his 'sovereign goddess' had then lately conferred
upon him, he makes his re-appearance at court with that so obscure
personage, the poet of the 'Faery Queene,' under his wing;--that same
gentleman, as the court is informed, whose bucolics had already
attracted so much attention in that brilliant circle. By a happy
coincidence, Raleigh, it seems, had discovered this Author in the
obscurity of his clerkship in Ireland, and had determined to make use
of his own influence at court to push his brother poet's fortunes
there; but his efforts to benefit this poor bard _personally_, do not
appear to have been attended at any time with much success. The
mysterious literary partnership between these two, however, which
dates apparently from an earlier period, continues to bring forth
fruit of the most successful kind; and the 'Faery Queene' is not the
only product of it.
All kinds of books began now to be dedicated to this new and so
munificent patron of arts and letters. His biographers collect his
public history, not from political records only, but from the eulogies
of these manifold dedications. _Ladonnier_, the artist, publishes his
Sketches of the New World through his aid. Hooker dedicates his
History of Ireland to him; Hakluyt, his Voyages to Florida. A work 'On
_Friendship_' is dedicated to him; another 'On Music,' in which art he
had found leisure, it seems, to make himself a proficient; and as to
the poetic tributes to him,--some of them at least are familiar to us
already. In that gay court, where Raleigh and his haughty rivals were
then playing their deep games,--where there was no room for Spenser's
muse, and the worth of his 'Old Song' was grudgingly reckoned,--the
'rustling in silks' is long since over, but the courtier's place in
the pageant of the 'Faery Queene' remains, and grows clearer with the
lapse of ages. That time, against which he built so perseveringly, and
fortified himself on so many sides, will not be able to diminish there
'one dowle that's in his plume.' [He was also a patron of Plays and
Players in this stage of his career, and entertained private parties
at his house with very _recherché_ performances of that kind
sometimes.]
In the Lord Timon of the Shakspere piece, which was rewritten from an
_Academic_ original after Raleigh's consignment to the Tower,--in that
fierce satire into which so much Elizabethan bitterness is condensed,
under the difference of the reckless prodigality which is stereotyped
in the fable, we get, in the earlier scenes, some glimpses of this
'Athenian' also, in this stage of his career.
But it was not as a _Patron_ only, or chiefly, that he aided the new
literary development. A scholar, a scholar so earnest, so
indefatigable, it followed of course that he must be, in one form or
another, an Instructor also; for that is still, under all conditions,
the scholar's destiny--it is still, in one form or another, his
business on the earth. But with that temperament which was included
among the particular conditions of his genius, and with those special
and particular endowments of his for another kind of intellectual
mastery, he could not be content with the pen--with the Poet's, or the
Historian's, or the Philosopher's pen--as the instrument of his mental
dictation. A Teacher thus furnished and ordained, seeks, indeed,
naturally and instinctively, a more direct and living and effective
medium of communication with the audience which his time is able to
furnish him, whether 'few' or many, whether 'fit' or unfit, than the
book can give him. He must have another means of 'delivery and
tradition,' when the delivery or tradition is addressed to those whom
he would associate with him in his age, to work with him as one man,
or those to whom he would transmit it in other ages, to carry it on to
its perfection--those to whom he would communicate his own highest
view, those whom he would inform with his patiently-gathered lore,
those whom he would _instruct_ and move with his new inspirations. For
the truth has become a personality with him--it is his nobler self. He
will live on with it. He will live or die with it.
For such a one there is, perhaps, no institution ready in his time to
accept his ministry. No chair at Oxford or Cambridge is waiting for
him. For they are, of course, and must needs be, the strong-holds of
the past--those ancient and venerable seats of learning, 'the
fountains and nurseries of all the humanities,' as a Cambridge
Professor calls them, in a letter addressed to Raleigh. The principle
of these larger wholes is, of course, instinctively conservative.
Their business is to know nothing of the new. The new intellectual
movement must fight its battles through without, and come off
conqueror there, or ever those old Gothic doors will creak on their
reluctant hinges to give it ever so pinched an entrance. When it has
once fought its way, and forced itself within--when it has got at last
some marks of age and custom on its brow--then, indeed, it will stand
as the last outwork of that fortuitous conglomeration, to be defended
in its turn against all comers. Already the revived classics had been
able to push from their chairs, and drive into corners, and shut up
finally and put to silence, the old Aristotelian Doctors--the Seraphic
and Cherubic Doctors of their day--in their own ancient halls. It
would be sometime yet, perhaps, however, before that study of the dead
languages, which was of course one prominent incident of the first
revival of a dead learning, would come to take precisely the same
place in those institutions, with their one instinct of conservation
and 'abhorrence of change,' which the old monastic philosophy had
taken in its day; but that change once accomplished, the old monastic
philosophy itself, religious as it was, was never held more sacred
than this profane innovation would come to be. It would be some time
before those new observations and experiments, which Raleigh and his
school were then beginning to institute, experiments and inquiries
which the universities would have laughed to scorn in their day, would
come to be promoted to the Professor's chair; but when they did, it
would perhaps be difficult to convince a young gentleman liberally
educated, at least, under the wings of one of those 'ancient and
venerable' seats of learning, now gray in Raleigh's youthful
West--ambitious, perhaps, to lead off in this popular innovation,
where Saurians, and Icthyosaurians, and Entomologists, and
Chonchologists are already hustling the poor Greek and Latin Teachers
into corners, and putting them to silence with their growing
terminologies--it would perhaps be difficult to convince one who had
gone through the prescribed course of treatment in one of these
'nurseries of humanity,' that the knowledge of the domestic habits and
social and political organisations of insects and shell-fish, or even
the experiments of the laboratory, though never so useful and proper
in their place, are not, after all, the beginning and end of a human
learning. It was no such place as that that this department of the
science of nature took in the systems or notions of its Elizabethan
Founders. They were 'Naturalists,' indeed; but that did not imply,
with _their_ use of the term, the absence of the natural common human
sense in the selection of the objects of their pursuits. 'It is a part
of science to make _judicious_ inquiries and wishes,' says the speaker
in chief for this new doctrine of nature; speaking of the particular
and special applications of it which he is forbidden to make openly,
but which he instructs, and prepares, and charges his followers to
make for themselves.
One of those innovations, one of those movements in which the new
ground of ages of future culture is first chalked out--a movement
whose end is not yet, whose beginning we have scarce yet seen--was
made in England, not very far from the time in which Sir Walter
Raleigh, began first to convert the eclat of his rising fortunes at
home, and the splendour of his heroic achievements abroad, and all
those new means of influence which his great position gave him, to the
advancement of those deeper, dearer ambitions, which the predominance
of the nobler elements in his constitution made inevitable with him.
Even then he was ready to endanger those golden opinions, waiting to
be worn in their newest gloss, not cast aside so soon, and new-won
rank, and liberty and life itself, for the sake of putting himself
into his true intellectual relations with his time, as a philosopher
and a beginner of a new age in the human advancement. For 'spirits are
not finely touched but to fine issues.'
If there was no Professor's Chair, if there was no Pulpit or Bishop's
Stall waiting for him, and begging his acceptance of its perquisites,
he must needs institute a chair of his own, and pay for leave to
occupy it. If there was no university with its appliances within his
reach, he must make a university of his own. The germ of a new
'universality' would not be wanting in it. His library, or his
drawing-room, or his 'banquet,' will be Oxford enough for him. He will
begin it as the old monks began theirs, with their readings. Where the
teacher is, there must the school be gathered together. And a school
in the end there will be: a school in the end the true teacher will
have, though he begin it, as the barefoot Athenian began his, in the
stall of the artisan, or in the chat of the Gymnasium, amid the
compliments of the morning levee, or in the woodland stroll, or in the
midnight revel of the banquet.
When the hour and the man are indeed met, when the time is ripe, and
one _truly sent_, ordained of that Power which _chooses_, not one
only--what uncloaked atheism is that, to promulgate in an age like
this!--_not_ the Teachers and Rabbis of _one race_ only, but _all the
successful_ agents of human advancement, the initiators of new eras of
man's progress, the inaugurators of new ages of the relief of the
human estate and the Creator's glory--when such an one indeed appears,
there will be no lack of instrumentalities. With some verdant
hill-side, it may be, some blossoming knoll or 'mount' for his
'chair,' with a daisy or a lily in his hand, or in a fisherman's boat,
it may be, pushed a little way from the strand, he will begin new
ages.
The influence of Raleigh upon his time cannot yet be fully estimated;
because, in the first place, it was primarily of that kind which
escapes, from its subtlety, the ordinary historical record; and, in
the second place, it was an influence at the time _necessarily
covert_, studiously disguised. His relation to the new intellectual
development of his age might, perhaps, be characterised as _Socratic_;
though certainly not because he lacked the use, and the most masterly
use, of that same weapon with which his younger contemporary brought
out at last, in the face of his time, the plan of the Great
Instauration. In the heart of the new establishment which the
magnificent courtier, who was a 'Queen's delight,' must now maintain,
there soon came to be a little 'Academe.' The choicest youth of the
time, 'the Spirits of the Morning Sort,' gathered about him. It was
the new philosophic and poetic genius of the age that he attracted to
him; it was on that philosophic and poetic genius that he left his
mark for ever.
He taught them, as the masters taught of old, in dialogues--in words
that could not then be written, in words that needed the master's
modulation to give them their significance. For the new doctrine had
need to be clothed in a language of its own, whose inner meaning only
those who had found their way to its inmost shrine were able to
interpret.
We find some contemporary and traditional references to this school,
which are not without their interest and historical value, as tending
to show the amount of influence which it was supposed to have exerted
on the time, as well as the acknowledged necessity for concealment in
the studies pursued in it. The fact that such an Association
_existed_, that it _began with Raleigh_, that young men of distinction
were attracted to it, and that in such numbers, and under such
conditions, that it came to be considered ultimately as a '_School_,'
of which he was the head-master--the fact that the new experimental
science was supposed to have had its origin in this association,--that
opinions, differing from the received ones, were also secretly
discussed in it,--that _anagrams_ and other devices were made use of
for the purpose of infolding the _esoteric_ doctrines of the school in
popular language, so that it was possible to write in this language
acceptably to the vulgar, and without violating preconceived opinions,
and at the same time instructively to the initiated,--all this
remains, even on the surface of statements already accessible to any
scholar,--all this remains, either in the form of contemporary
documents, or in the recollections of persons who have apparently had
it from the most authentic sources, from persons who profess to know,
and who were at least in a position to know, that such was the
impression at the time.
But when the instinctive dread of innovation was already so keenly on
the alert, when Elizabeth was surrounded with courtiers still in their
first wrath at the promotion of the new 'favourite,' indignant at
finding themselves so suddenly overshadowed with the growing honours
of one who had risen from a rank beneath their own, and eagerly
watching for an occasion against him, it was not likely that such an
affair as this was going to escape notice altogether. And though the
secrecy with which it was conducted, might have sufficed to elude a
scrutiny such as theirs, there was _another_, and more eager and
subtle enemy,--an enemy which the founder of this school had always to
contend with, that had already, day and night, at home and abroad, its
Argus watch upon him. That vast and secret foe, which he had arrayed
against him on foreign battle fields, knew already what kind of
embodiment of power this was that was rising into such sudden favour
here at home, and would have crushed him in the germ--that foe which
would never rest till it had pursued him to the block, which was ready
to join hands with his personal enemies in its machinations, in the
court of Elizabeth, as well as in the court of her successor, that
vast, malignant, indefatigable foe, in which the spirit of the old
ages lurked, was already at his threshold, and penetrating to the most
secret chamber of his councils. It was on the showing of _a Jesuit_
that these friendly gatherings of young men at Raleigh's table came to
be branded as 'a school of Atheism.' And it was through such agencies,
that his enemies at court were able to sow suspicions in Elizabeth's
mind in regard to the entire orthodoxy of his mode of explaining
certain radical points in human belief, and in regard to the absolute
'conformity' of his views on these points with those which she had
herself divinely authorised, suspicions which he himself confesses he
was never afterwards able to eradicate. The matter was represented to
her, we are told, 'as if he had set up for a doctor in the faculty and
invited young gentlemen into his school, where the Bible was jeered
at,' and the use of profane anagrams was inculcated. The fact that he
associated with him in his chemical and mathematical studies, and
entertained in his house, a scholar labouring at that time under the
heavy charge of getting up 'a philosophical theology,' was also made
use of greatly to his discredit.
And from another uncontradicted statement, which dates from a later
period, but which comes to us worded in terms as cautious as if it had
issued directly from the school itself, we obtain another glimpse of
these new social agencies, with which the bold, creative, social
genius that was then seeking to penetrate on all sides the
custom-bound time, would have roused and organised a new social life
in it. It is still the second-hand hearsay testimony which is quoted
here. '_He is said_ to have set up an Office of Address, and it is
_supposed_ that the office _might_ respect a _more liberal
intercourse_--_a nobler mutuality of advertisement_, than would
perhaps admit of _all sorts of persons_.' 'Raleigh set up a kind of
Office of Address,' says another, 'in the capacity of an agency for
all sorts of persons.' John Evelyn, refers also to that long dried
fountain of communication which _Montaigne_ first proposed, Sir Walter
Raleigh put in practice, and Mr. Hartlib endeavoured to renew.
'This is the scheme described by Sir W. Pellis, which is referred
traditionally to Raleigh and Montaigne (see Book I. chap. xxxiv.) An
Office of _Address_ whereby the wants of _all_ may be made known to
ALL (that painful and great instrument of this design), _where men may
know what is already done in the business of learning, what is at
present in doing, and what is intended to be done_, to the end that,
by such a _general communication of design and mutual assistance, the
wits and endeavours of the world_ may no longer be _as so many
scattered coals_, which, for want of _union_, are soon quenched,
whereas being laid together they would have yielded _a comfortable_
light and heat. [This is evidently _traditional_ language] ... such as
advanced rather to the _improvement_ of _men_ themselves than their
means.'--OLDYS.
_This_ then is the association of which Raleigh was the chief; _this_
was the state, within the state which he was founding. ('See the reach
of this man,' says Lord Coke on his Trial.) It is true that the honour
is also ascribed to Montaigne; but we shall find, as we proceed with
this inquiry, that _all_ the works and inventions of this new English
school, of which Raleigh was chief, all its new and vast designs for
man's relief, are also claimed by that same aspiring gentleman, as
they were, too, by another of these Egotists, who came out in his own
name with this identical project.
It was only within the walls of a school that the great principle of
the new philosophy of fact and practice, which had to pretend to be
profoundly absorbed in chemical experiments, or in physical
observations, and inductions of some kind--though not without an
occasional hint of a broader intention,--it was only in _esoteric_
language that the great principles of this philosophy could begin to
be set forth _in their true comprehension_. The very trunk of it, the
primal science itself, must needs be mystified and hidden in a shower
of metaphysical dust, and piled and heaped about with the old dead
branches of scholasticism, lest men should see for themselves _how_
broad and comprehensive _must_ be the ultimate sweep of its
determinations; lest men should see for themselves, how a science
which begins in fact, and returns to it again, which begins in
observation and experiment, and returns in scientific practice, in
scientific arts, in scientific re-formation, might have to do, ere all
was done, with facts not then inviting scientific investigation--with
arts not then inviting scientific reform.
In consequence of a sudden and common advancement of intelligence
among the leading men of that age, which left the standard of
intelligence represented in more than one of its existing
institutions, very considerably in the rear of its advancement, there
followed, as the inevitable result, a tendency to the formation of
some medium of expression,--whether that tendency was artistically
developed or not, in which the new and nobler thoughts of men, in
which their dearest beliefs, could find some vent and limited
interchange and circulation, without startling the _ear_. Eventually
there came to be a number of men in England at this time,--and who
shall say that there were none on the continent of this
school,--occupying prominent positions in the state, heading, it might
be, or ranged in opposite factions at Court, who could speak and write
in such a manner, upon topics of common interest, as to make
themselves entirely intelligible to each other, without exposing
themselves to any of the risks, which confidential communications
under such circumstances involved.
For there existed a certain mode of expression, originating in some of
its more special forms with this particular school, yet not altogether
conventional, which enabled those who made use of it to steer clear of
the Star Chamber and its sister institution; inasmuch as the terms
employed in this mode of communication were not in the more obvious
interpretation of them actionable, and to a vulgar, unlearned, or
stupid conceit, could hardly be made to appear so. There must be a
High Court of Wit, and a Bench of Peers in that estate of the realm,
or ever these treasons could be brought to trial. For it was a mode of
communication which involved in its more obvious construction the
necessary submission to power. It was the instructed ear,--the ear of
a school,--which was required to lend to it its more recondite
meanings;--it was the ear of that new school in philosophy which had
made History the basis of its learning,--which, dealing with
_principles_ instead of _words_, had glanced, not without some nice
observation in passing, at their more '_conspicuous_' historical
'INSTANCES';--it was the ear of a school which had everywhere the
great historical representations and diagrams at its control, and
could substitute, without much hindrance, particulars for generals, or
generals for particulars, as the case might be; it was the ear of a
school intrusted with discretionary power, but trained and practised
in the art of using it.
Originally an art of necessity, with practice, in the skilful hands of
those who employed it, it came at length to have a charm of its own.
In such hands, it became an instrument of literary power, which had
not before been conceived of; a medium too of densest ornament, of
thick crowding conceits, and nestling beauties, which no style before
had ever had depth enough to harbour. It established a new, and more
intimate and living relation between the author and his
reader,--between the speaker and his audience. There was ever the
charm of that secret understanding lending itself to all the effects.
It made the reader, or the hearer, participator in the artist's skill,
and joint proprietor in the result. The author's own glow must be on
his cheek, the author's own flash in his eye, ere that result was
possible. The nice point of the skilful pen, the depth of the lurking
tone was lost, unless an eye as skilful, or an ear as fine, tracked or
waited on it. It gave to the work of the artist, nature's own
style;--it gave to works which had the earnest of life and death in
them the sport of the 'enigma.'
It is not too much to say, that the works of Raleigh and Bacon, and
others whose connection with it is not necessary to specify just here,
are written throughout in the language of this school. 'Our glorious
Willy'--(it is the gentleman who wrote the 'Faery Queene' who claims
him, and his glories, as 'ours'),--'our glorious Willy' was born in
it, and knew no other speech. It was that 'Round Table' at which Sir
Philip Sydney presided then, that his lurking meanings, his
unspeakable audacities first 'set in a roar.' It was there, in the
keen encounters of those flashing 'wit combats,' that the weapons of
great genius grew so fine. It was there, where the young wits and
scholars, fresh from their continental tours, full of the gallant
young England of their day,--the Mercutios, the Benedicts, the Birons,
the Longuevilles, came together fresh from the Court of Navarre, and
smelling of the lore of their foreign 'Academe,' or hot from the
battles of continental freedom,--it was _there_, in those _réunions_,
that our Poet caught those gracious airs of his--those delicate,
thick-flowering refinements--those fine impalpable points of courtly
breeding--those aristocratic notions that haunt him everywhere. It was
there that he picked up his various knowledge of men and manners, his
acquaintance with foreign life, his bits of travelled wit, that flash
through all. It was there that he heard the clash of arms, and the
ocean-storm. And it was there that he learned 'his old ward.' It was
there, in the social collisions of that gay young time, with its bold
over-flowing humours, that would not be shut in, that he first armed
himself with those quips and puns, and lurking conceits, that crowd
his earlier style so thickly,--those double, and triple, and quadruple
meanings, that stud so closely the lines of his dialogue in the plays
which are clearly dated from that era,--the natural artifices of a
time like that, when all those new volumes of utterance which the lips
were ready to issue, were forbidden on pain of death to be 'extended,'
must needs 'be crushed together, infolded within themselves.'
Of course it would be absurd, or it would involve the most profound
ignorance of the history of literature in general, to claim that the
principle of this invention had its origin here. It had already been
in use, in recent and systematic use, in the intercourse of the
scholars of the Middle Ages; and its origin is coeval with the origin
of letters. The free-masonry of learning is old indeed. It runs its
mountain chain of signals through all the ages, and men whom times and
kindreds have separated ascend from their week-day toil, and hold
their Sabbaths and synods on those heights. They whisper, and listen,
and smile, and shake the head at one another; they laugh, and weep,
and complain together; they sing their songs of victory in one key.
That machinery is so fine, that the scholar can catch across the ages,
the smile, or the whisper, which the contemporary tyranny had no
instrument firm enough to suppress, or fine enough to detect.
'But for her father sitting still on hie,
Did warily still watch the way she went,
And eke from far observed with jealous eye,
Which way his course the wanton Bregog bent.
Him to deceive, for all his watchful ward,
The wily lover did devise this slight.
First, into many parts, his stream he shared,
That whilst the one was watch'd, the other might
Pass unespide, to meet her by the way.
And then besides, those little streams, so broken,
He under ground so closely did convey,
That of their passage doth appear no token.'
It was the author of the 'Faery Queene,' indeed, his fine, elaborate,
fertile genius burthened with its rich treasure, and stimulated to new
activity by his poetical alliance with Raleigh, whose splendid
invention first made apparent the latent facilities which certain
departments of popular literature then offered, for a new and hitherto
unparalleled application of this principle. In that prose description
of his great Poem which he addresses to Raleigh, the distinct avowal
of a double intention in it, the distinction between a particular and
general one, the emphasis with which the elements of the ideal name,
are discriminated and blended, furnish to the careful reader already
some superficial hints, as to the capabilities of such a plan to one
at all predisposed to avail himself of them. And, indeed, this Poet's
manifest philosophical and historical tendencies, and his avowed view
of the comprehension of the Poet's business would have seemed
beforehand to require some elbow-room,--some chance for poetic curves
and sweeps,--some space for the line of beauty to take its course in,
which the sharp angularities, the crooked lines, the blunt bringing up
everywhere, of the new philosophic tendency to history would scarcely
admit of. There was no breathing space for him, unless he could
contrive to fix his poetic platform so high, as to be able to override
these restrictions without hindrance.
'For the Poet thrusteth into the midst, even where it most concerneth
him, and then recoursing to the things fore-past, and _divining of
things to come_, he maketh a pleasing _analysis_ of ALL.'
And it so happened that his Prince Arthur had dreamed the poet's
dream, the hero's dream, the philosopher's dream, the dream that was
dreamed of old under the Olive shades, the dream that all our Poets
and inspired anticipators of man's perfection and felicity have always
been dreaming; but this one '_awakening_,' determined that it should
be a dream no longer. It was the hour in which the genius of antiquity
was reviving; it was the hour in which the poetic inspiration of all
the ages was reviving, and _arming_ itself with the knowledge of
'things not dreamt of' by old reformers--that knowledge of nature
which is _power_, which is the true _magic_. For this new Poet had
seen in a vision that same 'excellent beauty' which 'the divine' ones
saw of old, and 'the New Atlantis,' the celestial vision of _her_
kingdom; and being also 'ravished with that excellence, and
_awakening_, he determined to _seek her out_. And so being by _Merlin
armed_, and by _Timon thoroughly instructed_, he went forth to seek
her in _Fairy Land_.' There was a little band of heroes in that age, a
little band of philosophers and poets, secretly bent on that same
adventure, sworn to the service of that same Gloriana, though they
were fain to wear then the scarf and the device of another Queen on
_their_ armour. It is to the prince of this little band--'the prince
and mirror of all chivalry'--that this Poet dedicates his poem. But it
is Raleigh's device which he adopts in the names he uses, and it is
Raleigh who thus shares with Sydney the honour of his dedication.
'In that Faery Queene, I mean,' he says, in his prose description of
the Poem addressed to Raleigh, 'in that Faery Queene, I mean Glory in
my general intention; but, in my particular, I conceive the most
glorious person of our sovereign the Queen, and _her_ kingdom--in
_Fairy Land_.
'And yet, in some places, I do otherwise shadow her. For considering
she beareth _two persons, one_ of a most Royal _Queen_ or _Empress_,
the other of a most VIRTUOUS and BEAUTIFUL lady--the _latter part_ I
do express in BEL-PHEBE, fashioning her name according to your own
_most excellent conceit_ of "_Cynthia_," Phebe and Cynthia being both
names of _Diana_.' And thus he sings his poetic dedication:--
'To thee, that art the Summer's Nightingale,
Thy sovereign goddess's most dear delight,
Why do I send this rustic madrigal,
That may thy tuneful ear unseason quite?
_Thou, only fit this argument to write_,
In whose high thoughts _pleasure hath built her bower_,
And dainty love learn'd sweetly to indite.
My rhymes, I know, unsavoury are and soure
To taste the streams, which _like a golden showre_,
Flow from thy fruitful head of thy love's praise.
Fitter, perhaps, _to thunder martial stowre_,[Footnote]
When thee so list thy _tuneful_ thoughts to raise,
Yet _till that thou thy poem wilt make known_,
Let thy fair Cynthia's praises be thus rudely shown.'
[Footnote:
'Shine forth, thou Star of Poets, and with _rage_
_Or influence chide_, or _cheer_ the drooping stage.'
BEN JONSON.]
'Of me,' says Raleigh, in a response to this obscure partner of his
works and arts,--a response not less mysterious, till we have found
the solution of it, for it is an enigma.
'Of me _no lines_ are loved, _no letters_ are of price,
Of all that speak the English tongue, but those of _thy device_.'
[It was a '_device_' that symbolised _all_. It was a _circle_
containing the alphabet, or the _A B C_, and the esoteric meaning of
it was '_all_ in _each_,' or _all_ in _all_, the new doctrine of the
_unity_ of science (the '_Ideas_' of the New '_Academe_'). That was
the token-name under which a great Book of this Academy was issued.]
It is to Sidney, Raleigh, and the Poet of the 'Faery-Queene,' and the
rest of that courtly company of Poets, that the contemporary author in
the Art of Poetry alludes, with a special commendation of Raleigh's
vein, as the 'most lofty, insolent, and passionate,' when he says,'
they have _writ_ excellently well, if their _doings_ could be found
out and made public with the rest.'
CHAPTER IV.
RALEIGH'S SCHOOL, CONTINUED.--THE NEW ACADEMY.
EXTRACT FROM A LATER CHAPTER OF RALEIGH'S LIFE.
_Oliver_. Where will the old Duke live?
_Charles_. They say _he is already_ in the forest of _Arden_, and a
many merry men with him; and there they live like the old Robin Hood
of England: they say many young gentlemen flock to him every day, and
fleet the time carelessly as they did in the golden world.
As You Like It.
_Stephano_ [sings].
Flout 'em and skout'em; and skout'em and flout 'em,
_Thought_ is free.
_Cal_. That's not the tune.
[Ariel _plays the tune on a tabor and pipe_.]
_Ste_. What is this _same?_
_Trin_. This is the tune of our catch, played by--the picture
of--_Nobody_.
But all was not over with him in the old England yet--the present had
still its chief tasks for him.
The man who had 'achieved' his greatness, the chief who had made his
way through such angry hosts of rivals, and through such formidable
social barriers, from his little seat in the Devonshire corner to a
place in the state, so commanding, that even the jester, who was the
'Mr. Punch' of that day, conceived it to be within the limits of his
prerogative to call attention to it, and that too in 'the presence'
itself [See 'the knave' _commands_ 'the queen.'--_Tarleton_]--a place
of command so acknowledged, that even the poet could call him in the
ear of England 'her _most_ dear delight'--such a one was not going to
give up so easily the game he had been playing here so long. He was
not to be foiled with this great flaw in his fortunes even here; and
though all his work appeared for the time to be undone, and though the
eye that he had fastened on him was 'the eye' that had in it 'twenty
thousand deaths.'
It is this patient piecing and renewing of his broken webs, it is this
second building up of his position rather than the first, that shows
us what he is. One must see what he contrived to make of those
'apartments' in the Tower while he occupied them; what before
unimagined conveniencies, and elegancies, and facilities of
communication, and means of operation, they began to develop under the
searching of his genius: what means of reaching and moving the public
mind; what wires that reached to the most secret councils of state
appeared to be inlaid in those old walls while he was within them;
what springs that commanded even there movements not less striking and
anomalous than those which had arrested the critical and admiring
attention of Tarleton under the Tudor administration,--movements on
that same royal board which Ferdinand and Miranda were seen to be
playing on in Prospero's cell when all was done,--one must see what
this logician, who was the magician also, contrived to make of the
lodging which was at first only 'the cell' of a condemned criminal;
what power there was there to foil his antagonists, and crush them
too,--if nothing but throwing themselves under the wheels of his
advancement would serve their purpose; one must look at all this to
see 'what manner of man' this was, what stuff this genius was made of,
in whose hearts ideas that had been parted from all antiquities were
getting welded here then--welded so firmly that all futurities would
not disjoin them, so firmly that thrones, and dominions, and
principalities, and powers, and the rulers of the darkness of this
world might combine in vain to disjoin them--the ideas whose union was
the new 'birth of time.' It is this life in 'the cell'--this game,
these masques, this tempest, that the magician will command
there--which show us, when all is done, what new stuff of Nature's own
this was, in which the new idea of combining 'the part operative' and
the part speculative of human life--this new thought of making 'the
art and practic part of life _the mistress_ to its theoric' was
understood in this scholar's own time (as we learn from the secret
traditions of the school) to have had its first germination: this idea
which is the idea of the modern learning--the idea of connecting
knowledge generally and in a systematic manner with the human
conduct--knowledge as distinguished from pre-supposition--the idea
which came out afterwards so systematically and comprehensively
developed in the works of his great contemporary and partner in arts
and learning.
We must look at this, as well as at some other demonstrations of which
this time was the witness, to see what new mastership this is that was
coming out here so signally in this age in various forms, and in more
minds than one; what soul of a new era it was that had laughed, even
in the boyhood of its heroes, at old Aristotle on his throne; that had
made its youthful games with dramatic impersonations, and caricatures,
and travesties of that old book-learning; that in the glory of those
youthful spirits--'the spirits of youths, that meant to be of note and
began betimes'--it thought itself already competent to laugh down and
dethrone with its 'jests'; that had laughed all its days in secret;
that had never once lost a chance for a jibe at the philosophy it
found in possession of the philosophic chairs--a philosophy which had
left so many things in heaven and earth uncompassed in its old futile
dreamy abstractions.
Unless philosophy can make a Juliet,
Displant a town, reverse a prince's doom,
Hang up philosophy,
was the word of the poet of this new school in one of his 'lofty and
passionate' moods, at a much earlier stage of this philosophic
development. 'See what learning is!' exclaims the Nurse, speaking at
that same date from the same dictation, for there is a Friar 'abroad'
there already in the action of that play, who is undertaking to bring
his learning to bear upon practice, and opening his cell for
scientific consultation and ghostly advice on the questions of the
play as they happen to arise; and it is his apparent capacity for
smoothing, and reconciling, and versifying, not words only, but facts,
which commands the Nurse's admiration.
This doctrine of a practical learning, this part operative of the new
learning for which the founders of it beg leave to reintegrate the
abused term of Natural Magic, referring to the Persians in particular,
to indicate the extent of the field which their magical operations are
intended ultimately to occupy; this idea, which the master of this
school was illustrating now in the Tower so happily, did not originate
in the Tower, as we shall see.
The first heirs of this new invention, were full of it. The babbling
infancy of this great union of art and learning, whose speech flows in
its later works so clear, babbled of nothing else: its Elizabethan
savageness, with its first taste of learning on its lips, with its new
classic lore yet stumbling in its speech, already, knew nothing else.
The very rudest play in all this collection of the school,--left to
show us the march of that 'time-bettering age,' the play which offends
us most--belongs properly to this collection; contains _this_ secret,
which is the Elizabethan secret, and the secret of that art of
delivery and tradition which this from the first inevitably
created,--yet rude and undeveloped, but _there_.
We need not go so far, however, as that, in this not pleasant
retrospect; for these early plays are not the ones to which the
interpreter of this school would choose to refer the reader, for the
proof of its claims at present;--these which the faults of youth and
the faults of the time conspire to mar: in which the overdoing of the
first attempt to hide under a cover suited to the tastes of the Court,
or to the yet more faulty tastes of the rabble of an Elizabethan
play-house,--the boldest scientific treatment of 'the forbidden
questions,' still leaves so much upon the surface of the play that
repels the ordinary criticism;--these that were first sent out to
bring in the rabble of that age to the scholar's cell, these in which
the new science was first brought in, in its slave's costume, with all
its native glories shorn, and its eyes put out 'to make sport' for the
Tudor--perilous sport!--these first rude essays of a learning not yet
master of its unwonted tools, not yet taught how to wear its fetters
gracefully, and wreathe them over and make immortal glories of
them--still clanking its irons. There is nothing here to detain any
criticism not yet instructed in the secret of this Art Union. But the
faults are faults of execution merely; _the design_ of the Novura
Organum is not more noble, not more clear.
For these works are the works of that same 'school' which the Jesuit
thought so dangerous, and calculated to affect unfavourably the
morality of the English nation--the school which the Jesuit contrived
to bring under suspicion as a school in which doctrines that differed
from opinions received on essential points were secretly
taught,--contriving to infect with his views on that point the lady
who was understood, at that time, to be the only person qualified to
reflect on questions of this nature; the school in which Raleigh was
asserted to be perverting the minds of young men by teaching them the
use of profane anagrams; and it cannot be denied, that anagrams, as
well as other 'devices in letters,' _were_ made use of, in involving
'the bolder meanings' contained in writings issued from this school,
especially when the scorn with which science regarded the things it
found set up for its worship had to be conveyed sometimes in a point
or a word. It is a school, whose language might often seem obnoxious
to the charge of profanity and other charges of that nature to those
who do not understand its aims, to those who do not know that it is
from the first a school of Natural Science, whose chief department was
that history which makes the basis of the '_living_ art,' the art of
_man's_ living, the _essential_ art of it,--a school in which the use
of words was, in fact, more rigorous and scrupulous than it had ever
been in any other, in which the use of words is for the first time
scientific, and yet, in some respects, more bold and free than in
those in which mere words, as words, are supposed to have some
inherent virtue and efficacy, some mystic worth and sanctity in them.
This was the learning in which the art of a new age and race first
spoke, and many an old foolish, childish, borrowed notion went off
like vapour in it at its first word, without any one's ever so much as
stopping to observe it, any one whose place was within. It is the
school of a criticism much more severe than the criticism which calls
its freedom in question. It is a school in which the taking of names
in vain in general is strictly forbidden. That is the first
commandment of it, and it is a commandment with promise.
The man who sits there in the Tower, now, driving that same
'goose-pen' which he speaks of as such a safe instrument for unfolding
practical doctrines, with such patient energy, is not now occupied
with the statistics of Noah's Ark, grave as he looks; though that,
too, is a subject which his nautical experience and the indomitable
bias of his genius as a western man towards calculation in general,
together with his notion that the affairs of the world generally, past
as well as future, belong properly to his _sphere_ as a _man_, will
require him to take up and examine and report upon, before he will
think that his work is done. It is not a chapter in the History of the
World which he is composing at present, though that work is there at
this moment on the table, and forms the ostensible state-prison work
of this convict.
This is the man who made one so long ago in those brilliant 'Round
Table' reunions, in which the idea of converting the new _belles
lettres_ of that new time, to such grave and politic uses was first
suggested; he is the genius of that company, that even in such frolic
mad-cap games as Love's Labour's Lost, and the Taming of the Shrew,
and Midsummer Night's Dream, could contrive to insert, not the broad
farce and burlesque on the old pretentious wordy philosophy and
pompous rhetoric it was meant to dethrone only, and not the most
perilous secret of the new philosophy, only, but the secret of its
organ of delivery and tradition, the secret of its use of letters, the
secret of its '_cipher in letters_,' and not its 'cipher in words'
only, the cipher in which the secret of the authorship of these works
was infolded, and in which it was _found_, but not found in these
earlier plays,--plays in which these so perilous secrets are still
conveyed in so many involutions, in passages so intricate with quips
and puns and worthless trivialities, so uninviting or so marred with
their superficial meanings, that no one would think of looking in them
for anything of any value. For it is always when some necessary, but
not superficial, question of the play is to be considered, that the
Clown and the Fool are most in request, for 'there be of them that
will themselves laugh to set on some _barren spectators_ to laugh
too'; and under cover of that mirth it is, that the grave or witty
undertone reaches the ear of the judicious.
It is in the later and more finished works of this school that the key
to the secret doctrines of it, which it is the object of this work to
furnish, is best found. But the fact, that in the very rudest and most
faulty plays in this collection of plays, which form so important a
department of the works of this school, which make indeed the noblest
tradition, the only adequate tradition, the 'illustrated tradition' of
its noblest doctrine--the fact that in the very earliest germ of this
new union of 'practic and theoric,' of art and learning, from which we
pluck at last Advancements of Learning, and Hamlets, and Lears, and
Tempests, and the Novum Organum, already the perilous secret of this
union is infolded, already the entire organism that these great fruits
and flowers will unfold in such perfection is contained, and clearly
traceable,--this is a fact which appeared to require insertion in this
history, and not, perhaps, without some illustration.
'It is not amiss to observe,' says the Author of the Advancement of
Learning, when at last his great exordium to the science of nature in
man, and the art of culture and cure that is based on that science is
finished--pausing to observe it, pausing ere he will produce his index
to that science, to observe it: 'It is _not_ amiss to observe', he
says--(speaking of the operation of culture in general on young minds,
so forcible, though unseen, as hardly any length of time, or
contention of labour, can countervail it afterwards)--'how small and
mean faculties gotten by education, yet when they fall into _great
men, or great matters_, do work _great and important effects_; whereof
we see a notable example in _Tacitus_, of _two stage-players_,
Percennius and Vibulenus, who, _by their faculty of playing_, put the
_Pannonian_ armies _into an extreme tumult and combustion_; for,
_there arising a mutiny_ among them, upon the death of _Augustus_
Caesar, _Blaesus_ the lieutenant had committed some of the mutineers,
_which were suddenly rescued_; whereupon Vibulenus _got to be heard
speak_ [being a stage-player], which he did _in this manner_.
'"These poor _innocent_ wretches _appointed to cruel death_, you have
restored to behold the light: but who shall restore _my brother_ to
me, or life to my brother, _that was sent hither in message from the
legions of Germany_ to treat of--THE COMMON CAUSE? And he hath
murdered him this last night by _some of his fencers and ruffians,
that he hath about him for his executioners_ upon soldiers. The
mortalest enemies do not deny burial; _when I have performed my last
duties to the corpse with kisses, with tears, command me to be slain
besides him_, so that these, my fellows, _for our good meaning_ and
our _true hearts_ to THE LEGION, _may have leave to bury us_."
'With which speech he put the army into an infinite fury and uproar;
whereas, truth was, he had no brother, neither was there any _such_
matter [in that case], but he played it merely _as if_ he had been
upon the stage.'
This is the philosopher and stage critic who expresses a decided
opinion elsewhere, that 'the play's the thing,' though he finds this
kind of writing, too, useful in its way, and for certain purposes; but
he is the one who, in speaking of the original differences in the
natures and gifts of men, suggests that 'there _are_ a kind of men who
can, as it were, divide themselves;' and he does not hesitate to
propound it as his deliberate opinion, that a man of wit should have
at command a number of styles adapted to different auditors and
exigencies; that is, if he expects to accomplish anything with his
rhetoric. That is what he makes himself responsible for from his
professional chair of learning; but it is the Prince of Denmark, with
his remarkable natural faculty of speaking to the point, who says,
'_Seneca_ can not be _too heavy_, nor _Plautus_ too light,
for--[what?]--the _law of writ_--and--the _liberty_.' '_These_ are the
only _men_,' he adds, referring apparently to that tinselled gauded
group of servants that stand there awaiting his orders.
'My lord--you played once _in the university_, you say,' he observes
afterwards, addressing himself to that so politic statesmen whose
overreaching court plots and performances end for himself so
disastrously. 'That did I, my lord,' replies Polonius, '_and was
accounted a good actor_.' 'And what did you enact?' 'I did enact
_Julius Caesar_. I--was killed i' the Capitol [I]. Brutus killed me.'
'It was a _brute_ part of him [collateral sounds--Elizabethan
phonography] to kill so _capitol a calf_ there.--Be the players
ready?'(?). [That is the question.]
'While watching the progress of the action at Sadlers' Wells,' says
the dramatic critic of the 'Times,' in the criticism of the Comedy of
Errors before referred to, directing attention to the juvenile air of
the piece, to 'the classic severity in the form of the play,' and
'that _baldness_ of treatment which is a peculiarity of antique
comedy'--'while watching the progress of the action at Sadlers' Wells,
_we may almost fancy we are at St. Peter's College_, witnessing the
annual performance of _the Queen's scholars_.' That is not surprising
to one acquainted with the history of these plays, though the
criticism which involves this kind of observation is not exactly the
criticism to which we have been accustomed here. But any one who
wishes to see, as a matter of antiquarian curiosity, or for any other
purpose, how far from being hampered in the first efforts of his
genius with _this_ class of educational associations, that particular
individual would naturally have been, in whose unconscious brains this
department of the modern learning is supposed to have had its
accidental origin,--any one who wishes to see in what direction the
antecedents of a person in that station in life would naturally have
biased, _at that time_, his first literary efforts, if, indeed, he had
ever so far escaped from the control of circumstances as to master the
art of the collocation of letters--any person who has any curiosity
whatever on this point is recommended to read in this connection a
letter from a professional contemporary of this individual--one who
comes to us with unquestionable claims to our respect, inasmuch as he
appears to have had some care for _the future_, and some object in
living beyond that of promoting his own immediate private interests
and sensuous gratification.
It is a letter of Mr. Edward Alleyn (the founder of Dulwich College),
published by the Shakspere Society, to which we are compelled to have
recourse for information on this interesting question; inasmuch as
that distinguished contemporary and professional rival of his referred
to, who occupies at present so large a space in the public eye, as it
is believed for the best of reasons, has failed to leave us any
specimens of his method of reducing his own personal history to
writing, or indeed any demonstration of his appreciation of the art of
chirography, in general. He is a person who appears to have given a
decided preference to the method of oral communication as a means of
effecting his objects. But in reading this truly interesting document
from the pen of an Elizabethan player, who _has_ left us a specimen of
his use of that instrument usually so much in esteem with men of
letters, we must take into account the fact, that _this_ is an
exceptional case of culture. It is the case of a player who aspired to
distinction, and who had raised himself by the force of his genius
above his original social level; it is the case of a player who has
been referred to recently as a proof of the position which it was
possible for 'a stage player' to attain to under those particular
social conditions.
But as this letter is of a specially private and confidential nature,
and as this poor player who _did_ care for the future, and who founded
with his talents, such as they were, a noble charity, instead of
living and dying to himself, is not to blame for his defects of
education,--since his _acts_ command our respect, however faulty his
attempts at literary expression,--this letter will not be produced
here. But whoever has read it, or whoever may chance to read it, in
the course of an antiquarian research, will be apt to infer, that
whatever educational bias the first efforts of genius subjected to
influences of the same kind would naturally betray, the faults charged
upon the Comedy of Errors, the leaning to the classics, the taint of
St. Peter's College, the tone of the Queen's scholars, are hardly the
faults that the instructed critic would look for.
But to ascertain the fact, that the controlling idea of that new
learning which the Man in the Tower is illustrating now in so grand
and mature a manner, not with his pen only, but with his 'living art,'
and with such an entire independence of classic models, is already
organically contained in those earlier works on which the classic
shell is still visible, it is not necessary to go back to the
Westminster play of these new classics, or to the performances of the
Queen's Scholars. Plays having a considerable air of maturity, in
which the internal freedom of judgment and taste is already absolute,
still exhibit on the surface of them this remarkable submission to the
ancient forms which are afterwards rejected on principle, and by a
rule in the new rhetoric--a rule which the author of the Advancement
of Learning is at pains to state very clearly. The _wildness_ of which
we hear so much, works itself out upon the surface, and determines the
form at length, as these players proceed and grow bolder with their
work. A play, second to none in historical interest, invaluable when
regarded simply in its relation to the history of this school, one
which may be considered, in fact, the Introductory Play of the New
School of Learning, is one which exhibits very vividly these striking
characteristics of the earlier period. It is one in which the
vulgarities of the Play-house are still the cloak of the philosophic
subtleties, and incorporated, too, into the philosophic design; and it
is one in which the unity of design, that one design which makes the
works of this school, from first to last, as the work of one man, is
still cramped with those other unities which the doctrines of Dionysus
and the mysteries of Eleusis prescribed of old to _their_
interpreters. 'What is the _end_ of _study_? What is the _end_ of it?'
was the word of the New School of Learning. _That_ was its first
speech. It was a speech produced with dramatic illustrations, for the
purpose of bringing out its significance more fully, for the purpose
of pointing the inquiry unmistakeably to those ends of learning which
the study of the learned then had not yet comprehended. It is a speech
on behalf of a new learning, in which the extant learning is produced
on the stage, in its actual historical relation to those '_ends_'
which the new school conceived to be the true ends of it, which are
brought on to the stage in palpable, visible representation, not in
allegorical forms, but in instances, 'conspicuous instances,' living
specimens, after the manner of this school.
'What is the end of study?' cried the setter forth of this new
doctrine, as long before as when lore and love were debating it
together in that 'little Academe' that was yet, indeed, to be 'the
wonder of the world, still and contemplative in _living_ art.' 'What
is the end of study?' cries already the voice of one pacing under
these new olives. _That_ was the word of the new school; that was the
word of new ages, and these new minds taught of nature--her priests
and prophets knew it then, already, 'Let fame that all hunt after _in
their lives_,' _they_ cry--
_Live_ registered upon our brazen _tombs_,
And then _grace us in the disgrace of death_;
When spite of cormorant devouring time,
The endeavour of _this present breath_ may buy
_That honour_ which shall bate his scythe's keen edge,
And make us HEIRS of _all eternity_--[of ALL].
* * * * *
_Navarre_ shall be the wonder of the world,
Our Court shall be _a little Academe_,
_Still and contemplative in_--LIVING _art_.
This is the Poet of the Woods who is beginning his 'recreations' for
us here--the poet who loves so well to take his court gallants in
their silks and velvets, and perfumes, and fine court ladies with all
their courtly airs and graces, and all the stale conventionalitites
that he is sick of, out from under the low roofs of princes into that
great palace in which the Queen, whose service he is sworn to, keeps
the State. This is the school-master who takes his school all out on
holiday excursions into green fields, and woods, and treats them to
country merry-makings, and not in sport merely. This is the one that
breaks open the cloister, and the close walls that learning had dwelt
in till then, and shuts up the musty books, and bids that old droning
cease. This is the one that stretches the long drawn aisle and lifts
the fretted vault into a grander temple. The Court with all its pomp
and retinue, the school with all its pedantries and brazen ignorance,
'High Art' with its new graces, divinity, Mar-texts and all, must
'come hither, come hither,' and 'under the green-wood tree lie with
me,' the ding-dong of this philosopher's new learning says, calling
his new school together. This is the linguist that will find
'_tongues_ in trees,' and crowd out from the halls of learning the
lore of ancient parchments with their verdant classics, their 'truth
in beauty dyed.' This is the teacher with whose new alphabet you can
find 'sermons in stones, _books_ in the running brooks,' and
good,--good--his '_good_' the good of the New School, that broader
'_good_' in every _thing_. 'The roof of _this_ court is too high to be
_yours_,' says the princess of this out-door scene to the sovereignty
that claimed it then.
This is 'great Nature's' Poet and Interpreter, and he takes us always
into 'the continent of nature'; but man is his chief end, and that
island which his life makes in the universal being is the point to
which that Naturalist brings home all his new collections. This is the
Poet of the Woods, but man,--man at the summit of his arts, in the
perfection of his refinements, is always the creature that he is
'collecting' in them. In his wildest glades, this is still the species
that he is busied with. He has brought him there to experiment on him,
and that we may see the better what he is. He has brought him there to
improve his arts, to reduce his conventional savageness, to re-refine
his coarse refinements, not to make a wild-man of him. This is the
Poet of the Woods; but he is a woodman, he carries an axe on his
shoulder. He will wake a continental forest with it and subdue it, and
fill it with his music.
For this is the Poet who cries 'Westward Ho!' But he has not got into
the woods yet in this play. He is only on the edge of them as yet. It
is under the blue roof of that same dome which is 'too high,' the
princess here says, to belong to the pygmy that this Philosopher likes
so well to bring out and to measure under that canopy--it is 'out of
doors' that this new speech on behalf of a new learning is spoken. But
there is a close rim of conventionalities about us still. It is _a
Park_ that this audacious proposal is uttered in. But nothing can be
more orderly, for it is 'a Park with a Palace in it.' There it is, in
the background. If it were the Attic proscenium itself hollowed into
the south-east corner of the Acropolis, what more could one ask. But
it is the palace of the King of--_Navarre_, who is the prince of good
fellows and the prince of good learning at one and the same time,
which makes, in this case, the novelty. 'A Park with a Palace in it'
makes the first scene. 'Another part of the same' with the pavilion of
a princess and the tents of _her_ Court seen in the distance, makes
the second; and the change from one part of this park to another,
though we get into the heart of it sometimes, is the utmost license
that the rigours of the Greek Drama permit the Poet to think of at
present. This criticism on the old learning, this audacious proposal
for the new, with all the bold dramatic illustration with which it is
enforced, must be managed here under these restrictions. Whatever
'persons' the plot of this drama may require for its evolutions,
whatever witnesses and reporters the trial and conviction of the old
learning, and the definition of the ground of the new, may require,
will have to be induced to cross this park at this particular time,
because the form of the new art is not yet emancipated, and the Muse
of the Inductive Science cannot stir from the spot to search them out.
However, that does not impair the representation as it is managed.
There is a very bold artist here already, with all his deference for
the antique. We shall be sure to have _all_ when he is the plotter.
The action of this drama is not complicated. The persons of it are
few; the characterization is feeble, compared with that of some of the
later plays; but that does not hinder or limit the design, and it is
all the more apparent for this artistic poverty, anatomically clear;
while as yet that perfection of art in which all trace of the
structure came so soon to be lost in the beauty of the illustration,
is yet wanting; while as yet that art which made of its living
instance an intenser life, or which made with its _living_ art a life
more living than life itself, was only germinating.
The illustration here, indeed, approaches the allegorical form, in the
obtrusive, untempered predominance of the qualities represented, so
overdone as to wear the air of a caricature, though the historical
combination is still here. These diagrams are alive evidently; they
are men, and not allegorical spectres, or toys, though they are
'painted in character.'
The entire representation of the extant learning is dramatically
produced on this stage; the germ of the 'new' is here also; and the
unoccupied ground of it is marked out here as, in the Advancement of
Learning, by the criticism on the deficiences of that which has the
field. Here, too, the line of the extant culture,--the narrow indented
boundary of the _culture_ that professed to take all is always
defining the new,--cutting out the wild not yet visited by the art of
man;--only here the criticism is much more lively, because here 'we
come _to particulars_,' a thing which the new philosophy--much insists
on; and though this want in learning, and the wildness it leaves, is
that which makes tragedies in this method of exhibition; it has its
comical aspect also; and this is the laughing and weeping philosopher
in one who manages these representations; and in this case it is the
comical aspect of the subject that is seized on.
Our diagrams are still coarse here, but they have already the good
scientific quality of exhausting the subject. It is the New School
that occupies the centre of the piece. Their quarters are in that
palace, but the _king_ of it is the _Royalty_ (Raleigh) that founded
and endowed this School--that was one of his secret titles,--and under
that name he may sometimes be recognized in descriptions and
dedications that persons who were not in the secret of the School
naturally applied in another quarter, or appropriated to themselves.
'_Rex_ was a surname among the Romans,' says the Interpreter of this
School, in a very explanatory passage, 'as well as _King_ is _with
us_.' It is the New School that is under these boughs here, but hardly
that as yet.
It is rather the representation of the new classical learning,--the
old learning newly revived,--in which the new is germinating. It is
that learning in its _first_ effect on the young, enthusiastic, but
earnest practical English mind. It is that revival of the old
learning, arrested, _daguerréotyped_ at the moment in which the new
begins to stir in it, in minds which are going to be the master-minds
of ages.
'Common sense' is the word here already. 'Common sense' is the word
that this new Academe is convulsed with when the curtain rises. And
though it is laughter that you hear there now, sending its merry
English peals through those musty, antique walls, as the first ray of
that new beam enters them; the muse of the new mysteries has also
another mask, and if you will wait a little, you shall hear that tone
too. Cries that the old mysteries never caught, lamentations for
Adonis not heard before, griefs that Dionysus never knew, shall yet
ring out from those walls.
Under that classic dome which still calls itself Platonic, the
questions and experiments of the new learning are beginning. These
youths are here to represent the new philosophy, which is science, in
the act of taking its first step. The subject is presented here in
large masses. But this central group, at least, is composed of living
men, and not dramatic shadows merely. There are good historical
features peering through those masks a little. These youths are full
of youthful enthusiasm, and aspiring to the ideal heights of learning
in their enthusiasm. But already the practical bias of their genius
betrays itself. They are making a practical experiment with the
classics, and to their surprise do not find them 'good for life.'
Here is the School, then,--with the classics on trial in the persons
of these new school-men. That is the central group. What more do we
want? Here is the new and the old already. But this is the old
_revived_--newly revived;--this is the revival of learning in whose
stimulus the _new_ is beginning. There is something in the field
besides that. There is a 'school-master abroad' yet, that has not been
examined. These young men who have resolved themselves in their secret
sittings into a committee of the whole, are going to have him up. He
will be obliged to come into this park here, and speak his speech in
the ear of that English 'common sense,' which is meddling here, for
the first time, in a comprehensive manner with things in general; he
will have to 'speak out loud and plain,' that these English parents
who are sitting here in the theatre, some of 'the wiser sort' of them,
at least, may get some hint of what it is that this pedagogue is
beating into their children's brains, taking so much of their glorious
youth from them--that priceless wealth of nature which none can
restore to them,--as the purchase. But this is not all. There is a man
who teaches the grown-up children of the parish in which this Park is
situated, who happens to live hard by,--a man who professes the care
and cure of minds. He, too, has had a summons sent him; there will be
no excuse taken; and his examination will proceed at the same time.
These two will come into the Park together; and perhaps we shall not
be able to detect any very marked difference in their modes of
expressing themselves. They are two ordinary, quiet-looking personages
enough. There is nothing remarkable in their appearance; their coming
here is not forced. There are deer in this Park; and 'book-men' as
they are, they have a taste for sport also it seems. Unless you should
get a glimpse of the type,--of the unit in their faces--and that
shadowy train that _the cipher_ points to,--unless you should observe
that their speech is somewhat strongly pronounced for an individual
representation--merely glancing at them in passing--you would not,
perhaps, suspect who they are. And yet the hints are not wanting; they
are very thickly strewn,--the hints which tell you that in these two
men all the extant learning, which is in places of trust and
authority, is represented; all that is not included in that elegant
learning which those students are making sport of in those 'golden
books' of theirs, under the trees here now.
But there is another department of art and literature which is put
down as a department of '_learning_,' and a most grave and momentous
department of it too, in that new scheme of learning which this play
is illustrating,--one which will also have to be impersonated in this
representation,--one which plays a most important part in the history
of this School. It is that which gives it the _power_ it lacks and
wants, and in one way or another will have. It is that which makes _an
arm_ for it, and a _long_ one. It is that which supplies its hidden
_arms_ and _armour_. But neither is this department of learning as it
is extant,--as this School finds it prepared to its hands, going to be
permitted to escape the searching of this comprehensive satire. There
is a 'refined traveller of Spain' haunting the purlieus of this Court,
who is just the bombastic kind of person that is wanted to act this
part. For this impersonation, too, is historical. There are just such
creatures in nature as this. We see them now and then; or, at least,
he is not much overdone,--'this child of Fancy,--Don Armado hight.' It
is the Old Romance, with his ballads and allegories,--with his old
'lies' and his new arts,--that this company are going to use for their
new minstrelsy; but first they will laugh him out of his bombast and
nonsense, and instruct him in the knowledge of 'common things,' and
teach him how to make poetry out of them. They have him here now, to
make sport of him with the rest. It is the fashionable literature,--
the literature that entertains _a court_,--the literature of _a
tyranny_, with his gross servility, with his courtly affectations,
with his arts of amusement, his 'vain delights,' with his euphuisms,
his 'fire-new words,' it is the polite learning, the Elizabethan
_Belles Lettres_, that is brought in here, along with that old
Dryasdust Scholasticism, which the other two represent, to make up
this company. These critics, who turn the laugh upon themselves, who
caricature their own follies for the benefit of learning, who make
themselves and their own failures the centre of the comedy of _Love's_
Labour's Lost, are not going to let this thing escape; with the
heights of its ideal, and the grossness of its real, it is the very
fuel for the mirth that is blazing and crackling here. For these are
the woodmen that are at work here, making sport as they work; hewing
down the old decaying trunks, gathering all the nonsense into heaps,
and burning it up and and clearing the ground for the new.
'What is the end of study,' is the word of this Play. To get the old
books shut, but _not_ till they have been examined, _not_ till all the
good in them has been taken out, not till we have made a _stand_ on
them; to get the old books in their places, under our feet, and
'_then_ to make progression' after we see where we are, is the
proposal here--_here_ also. It is the shutting up of the old books,
and the opening of the new ones, which is the business here. But
_that_--that is not the proposal of an ignorant man (as this Poet
himself takes pains to observe); it is not the proposition of a man
who does not know what there is in books--who does not know but there
is every thing in them that they claim to have in them, every thing
that is good for life, _magic_ and all. An ignorant man is in awe of
books, on account of his ignorance. He thinks there are all sorts of
things in them. He is very diffident when it comes to any question in
regard to them. He tells you that he is not '_high learned_,' and
defers to his betters. Neither is this the proposition of a man who
has read _a little_, who has only a smattering in books, as the Poet
himself observes. It is the proposition of _a scholar_, who has read
them _all_, or had them read for him and examined, who knows what is
in them _all_, and what they are good for, and what they are not good
for. This is the man who laughs at learning, and borrows her own
speech to laugh her down with. _This_, and _not the ignorant man_, it
is who opens at last 'great nature's' gate to us, and tells us to come
out and learn of her, _because_ that which old books did _not_ 'clasp
in,' that which old philosophies have 'not _dreamt_ of,'--the lore of
laws not written yet in books of man's devising, the lore of _that_ of
which man's ordinary life consisteth is _here_, uncollected, waiting
to be spelt out.
_King_. _How well he's read_ to reason _against reading_.
is the inference _here_.
_Dumain_. _Proceeded_ well to _stop_ all good _proceeding._
It is _progress_ that is proposed here also. After the survey of
learning 'has been well taken, _then_ to make _progession_' is the
word. It is not the doctrine of unlearning that is taught here in this
satire. It is a learning that includes all the extant wisdom, and
finds it insufficient. It is one that requires a new and nobler study
for its god-like _ends_. But, at the same time, the hindrances that a
practical learning has to encounter are pointed at from the first. The
fact, that the true ends of learning take us at once into the ground
of the forbidden questions, is as plainly stated in the opening speech
of the New Academy as the nature of the statement will permit. The
fact, that the intellect is trained to _vain delights_ under such
conditions, because there is no earnest legitimate occupation of it
permitted, is a fact that is glanced at here, as it is in other
places, though not in such a manner, of course, as to lead to a
'question' from the government in regard to the meaning of the
passages in which these grievances are referred to. Under these
embarrassments it is, we are given to understand, however, that the
criticism on the old learning and the plot for the new is about to
proceed.
Here it takes the form of comedy and broad farce. There is a touch of
'tart Aristophanes' in the representation here. This is the
introductory performance of the school in which the student hopes for
_high words howsoever low the matter_, emphasizing that hope with an
allusion to the heights of learning, as he finds it, and the highest
word of it, which seems irreverent, until we find from the whole
purport of the play how far _he_ at least is from taking it _in vain_,
whatever implication of that sort his criticism may be intended to
leave on others, who use good words with so much iteration and to so
little purpose. 'That is a _high hope_ for a low having' is the
rejoinder of that associate of his, whose views on this point agree
with his own so entirely. It is the height of the _hope_ and the
lowness of the _having_--it is the height of the _words_ and the
lowness of the _matter_, that makes the incongruity here. That is the
soul of all the mirth that is stirring here. It is the height of '_the
style_' that '_gives us cause to climb in the merriment_' that makes
the subject of this essay. It is literature in general that is laughed
at here, and the branches of it in particular. It is the old books
that are walking about under these trees, with their follies all
ravelled out, making sport for us.
But this is not all. It is the _defect_ in learning which is
represented here--that same 'defect' which a graver work of this
Academy reports, in connection with a proposition for the Advancement
of Learning--for its advancement into the fields not yet taken up, and
which turn out, upon inquiry, to be the fields of human life and
practice;--it is that main defect which is represented here. 'I find a
kind of science of "_words_" but none of "_things_,"' says the
reporter. 'What do you read, my lord?' 'Words, words, words,' echoes
the Prince of Denmark. 'I find in these antique books, in these
Philosophies and Poems, a certain resplendent or lustrous mass of
matter chosen to give glory either to the subtilty of disputations, or
to the eloquence of discourses,' says the other and graver reporter;
'but as to the ordinary and common matter of which life consisteth, I
do _not_ find it erected into an art or science, or reduced to written
inquiry.' 'How _low_ soever the matter, I hope in God for _high
words_,' says a speaker, who comes out of that same palace of learning
on to this stage with the secret badge of the new lore on him, which
is the lore of practice--a speaker not less grave, though he comes in
now in the garb of this pantomime, to make sport for us with his news
of learning. For 'Seneca cannot be too heavy, nor Plautus too light
for the law of writ and the liberty.'
It is the high _words_ and the low _having_ that make the incongruity.
But we cannot see the vanity of those heights of words, till the
lowness of the matter which they profess to abstract has been brought
into contrast with them, till the particulars which they do _not_
grasp, which they can _not_ compel, have been brought into studious
contrast with them. The delicate graces of those flowery summits of
speech which the ideal nature, when it energises in speech, creates,
must overhang in this design the rude actuality which the untrained
nature in man, forgotten of art, is always producing. And it is the
might of nature in this opposition, it is the force of 'matter,' it is
the unconquerable cause contrasted with the vanity of the words that
have not comprehended the _cause_, it is the futility of these heights
of words that are not '_forms_' that do not correspond to things which
must be exhibited here also. It is the force of the _law_ in nature,
that must be brought into opposition here with the height of the
_word_, the _ideal_ word, the _higher_, but not yet scientifically
abstracted word, that seeks in vain because it has no 'grappling-hook'
on the actuality, to bind it. There already are the _heights of
learning_ as it is, as this school finds it, dramatically exhibited on
the one hand; but this, too,--_life_ as it is,--as this school finds
it, man's life as it is, unreduced to order by his philosophy,
unreduced to melody by his verse, must also be dramatically exhibited
on the other hand, must also be impersonated. It is life that we have
here, the 'theoric' on the one side, the 'practic' on the other. The
height of the books on the one side, the lowness, the unvisited,
'unlettered' lowness of the life on the other. That which exhibits the
_defect_ in learning that the new learning is to remedy, the new
uncultured, unbroken ground of science must be exhibited here also.
But _that_ is man's life. That is the world. And what if it be? There
are diagrams in this theatre large enough for that. It is the theatre
of the New Academy which deals also in IDEAS, but prefers the
solidarities. The wardrobe and other properties of this theatre are
specially adapted to exigencies of this kind. The art that put the
extant learning with those few strokes into the grotesque forms you
see there, will not be stopped on this side either, for any law of
writ or want of space and artistic comprehension. This is the learning
that can be bounded in the nut-shell of an aphorism and include all in
its bounds.
There are not many persons here, and they are ordinary looking persons
enough. _But_ if you _lift_ those dominos a little, which that
'refined traveller of Spain' has brought in fashion, you will find
that this rustic garb and these homely country features hide more than
they promised; and the princess, with her train, who is keeping state
in the tents yonder, though there is an historical portrait there too,
is greater than she seems. This Antony _Dull_ is a poor rude fellow;
but he is a great man in this play. This is the play in which one asks
'Which is the princess?' and the answer is, 'The tallest and the
thickest.' Antony is the thickest, he is the acknowledged sovereign
here in this school; for he is of that greater part that carries it,
and though he hath never fed of the dainties bred in a book, these
spectacles which the new 'book men' are getting up here are intended
chiefly for him. And that unlettered small knowing soul 'Me'--'still
_me_'--insignificant as you think him when you see him in the form of
a country swain, is a person of most extensive domains and
occupations, and of the very highest dignity, as this philosophy will
demonstrate in various ways, under various symbols. You will have that
same _me_ in the form of a _Mountain_, before you have read all the
books of this school, and mastered all its '_tokens_' and '_symbols_.'
The dramatic representation here is meagre; but we shall find upon
inquiry it is already the Globe Theatre, with all its new
solidarities, new in philosophy, new in poetry, that the leaves of
this park hide--this park that the doors and windows of the New
Academe open into--these new grounds that it lets out its students to
play and study in, and collect their specimens from--'still and
contemplative in living art.' It was all the world that was going
through that park that day haply, we shall find. It is all the world
that we get in this narrow representation here, as we get it in a more
limited representation still, in another place. 'All the world knows
_me_ in my book and my book in _me_,' cries the Egotist of the
Mountain. It is the first Canto of that great Epic, whose argument
runs through so many books, that is chanted here. It is the war, the
unsuccessful war of lore and nature, whose lost fields have made man's
life, that is getting reviewed at last and reduced to speech and
writing. It is the school itself that makes the centre of the plot in
this case; these gay young philosophers with 'the ribands' yet
floating in their 'cap of youth,' who oppose lore to love, who 'war
against _their own affections_ and THE HUGE ARMY OF THE WORLD'S
DESIRES,' ere they know what they are; who think to conquer nature's
potencies, her universal powers and causes, with wordy ignorance, with
resolutions that ignore them simply, and make a virtue of ignoring
them, these are the chief actors here, who come out of that classic
tiring house where they have been shut up with the ancients so long,
to celebrate on this green plot, which is life, their own defeat, and
propose a better wisdom, the wisdom of the moderns. And Holofernes,
the schoolmaster, who cultivates minds, and Sir Nathaniel, the curate,
who cures them, and Don Armado or Don A_drama_dio, from the flowery
heights of the new Belles Lettres, with the last refinement of
Euphuism on his lips, and Antony Dull, and the country damsel and her
swain, and the princess and her attendants, are all there to eke out
and complete the philosophic design,--to exhibit the extant learning
in its airy flights and gross descents, in its ludicrous attempt to
escape from those particulars or to grapple, without loss of grandeur,
those particulars of which man's life consisteth. It is the vain
pretension and assumption of those faulty wordy abstractions, whose
falseness and failure in practice this school is going to expose
elsewhere; it is the defect of those abstractions and idealisms that
the Novum Organum was invented to remedy, which is exhibited so
grossly and palpably here. It is the height of those great swelling
words of rhetoric and logic, in rude contrast with those actualities
which the history of man is always exhibiting, which the universal
nature in man is always imposing on the learned and unlearned, the
profane and the reverend, the courtier and the clown, the 'king and
the beggar,' the actualities which the natural history of man
continues perseveringly to exhibit, in the face of those logical
abstractions and those ideal schemes of man as he should be, which had
been till this time the fruit of learning;--those actualities, those
particulars, whose lowness the new philosophy would begin with, which
the new philosophy would erect into an art or science.
The foundation of this ascent is natural history. There must be
nothing omitted here, or the stairs would be unsafe. The rule in this
School, as stated by the Interpreter in Chief, is, 'that there be
_nothing in the globe of matter_, which should not be likewise in the
globe of _crystal_ or _form_;' that is, he explains, 'that there
should not be anything in _being_ and _action_, which should not be
_drawn_ and _collected_ into _contemplation_ and _doctrine_.' The
lowness of matter, all the capabilities and actualities of speech and
action, not of the refined only, but of the vulgar and profane, are
included in the science which contemplates an historical result, and
which proposes the _reform_ of these actualities, the cure of these
maladies,--which comprehends man as man in its intention,--which makes
the _Common Weal_ its end.
Science is the word that unlocks the books of this School, its gravest
and its lightest, its books of loquacious prose and stately allegory,
and its Book of Sports and Riddles. Science is the clue that still
threads them, that never breaks, in all their departures from the
decorums of literature, in their lowest descents from the refinements
of society. The vulgarity is not _the_ vulgarity of the vulgar--the
inelegancy is not the spontaneous rudeness of the ill-bred--any more
than its doctrine of nature is the doctrine of the unlearned. The
loftiest refinements of letters, the courtliest breeding, the most
exquisite conventionalities, the most regal dignities of nature, are
always present in _these_ works, to measure these abysses, flowering
to their brink. Man as he is, booked, surveyed,--surveyed from the
continent of nature, put down as he is in her book of kinds, not as he
is from his own interior isolated conceptions only,--the universal
powers and causes as they are developed in him, in his untaught
affections, in his utmost sensuous darkness,--the universal principle
instanced whereit is most buried, the cause in nature found;--man as
he is, in his heights and in his depths, 'from his lowest note to the
top of his key,'--man in his possibilities, in his actualities, in his
thought, in his speech, in his book language, and in his every-day
words, in his loftiest lyric tongue, in his lowest pit of play-house
degradation, searched out, explained, interpreted. That is the key to
the books of this Academe, who carry always on their armour, visible
to those who have learned their secret, but hid under the symbol of
their double worship, the device of the Hunters,--the symbol of the
twin-gods,--the silver bow, or the bow that finds all. 'Seeing that
she beareth two persons ... I do also otherwise _shadow_ her.'
It is man's life, and the culture of it, erected into an art or
science, that these books contain. In the lowness of the lowest, and
in the aspiration of the noblest, the powers whose entire history must
make the basis of a successful morality and policy are found. It is
all abstracted or drawn into contemplation, 'that the precepts of cure
and culture may be more rightly concluded.' 'For that which in
speculative philosophy corresponds to the cause, in practical
philosophy becomes the rule.'
It is not necessary to illustrate this criticism in this case, because
in this case the design looks through the execution everywhere. The
criticism of the Novum Organum, the criticism of the Advancement of
Learning, and the criticism of Raleigh's History of the World, than
which there is none finer, when once you penetrate its crust of
profound erudition, is here on the surface. And the scholasticism is
not more obtrusive here, the learned sock is not more ostentatiously
paraded, than in some critical places in those performances; while the
humour that underlies the erudition issues from a depth of learning
not less profound.
As, for instance, in this burlesque of the descent of _Euphuism_ to
the prosaic detail of the human conditions, not then accommodated with
a style in literature, a defect in learning which this Academy
proposed to remedy. A new department in literature which began with a
series of papers issued from this establishment, has since undertaken
to cover the ground here indicated, the _every-day_ human life, and
reduce it to written inquiry, notwithstanding 'the lowness of the
matter.'
LETTER FROM DON ARMADO TO THE KING.
_King_ [_reads_], 'Great deputy, the welkin's vicegerent, and sole
dominator of Navarre, my soul's earth's god, and body's fostering
patron.... So it is,--besieged with sable-coloured melancholy, I did
commend the black, oppressing humour to the most wholesome physick of
thy health-giving air, and, as I am a gentleman, betook myself to
walk. The time when? About the sixth hour: when beasts most graze,
birds best peck, and men sit down to that nourishment which is called
supper.'
[No one who is much acquainted with the style of the author of this
letter ought to have any difficulty in identifying him here. There was
a method of dramatic composition in use then, and not in _this_
dramatic company only, which produced an amalgamation of styles. 'On a
forgotten matter,' these associated authors themselves, perhaps, could
not always 'make distinction of their hands.' But there are places
where Raleigh's share in this 'cry of players' shows through very
palpably.]
'So much for the time _when_. Now for the ground _which_; which I mean
I walked upon: it is ycleped thy park. Then for the place where; where
I mean I did encounter that obscene and most preposterous event, that
draweth from my snow-white pen the ebon-coloured ink, which here thou
beholdest, surveyest, or seest, etc....
'Thine in all compliments of devoted and heart-burning heat of duty.
'DON ADRIANO DE ARMADO.'
And in another letter from the same source, the dramatic criticism on
that style of literature which it was the intention of this School 'to
reform altogether' is thus continued.
... 'The magnanimous and most illustrate King _Cophetua_, set eye upon
the pernicious and indubitate beggar _Zenelophon_. And it was he that
might rightly say, _Veni, vidi, vici_; which to _anatomise_ in the
vulgar, (_O base and obscure vulgar_!) _Videlicet_, he came, saw, and
overcame... Who came? the king. Why did he come? to see. Why did he
see? to overcome. To whom came he? to the beggar. What saw he? the
beggar. Who overcame he? the beggar. The conclusion is victory. On
whose side? etc.
'Thine in the dearest design of industry.'
[_Dramatic comment_.]
_Boyet. I am much deceived but I remember the style.
_Princess_. Else your memory is bad going o'er it erewhile._
_Jaquenetta_. Good Master Parson, be so good as to read me this
letter--it was sent me from Don _Armatho_: I beseech you to read it.
_Holofernes_. [Speaking here, however, not in character but for 'the
_Academe_.'] _Fauste precor gelida quando pecus omne sub umbra
Ruminat_, and so forth. Ah, good old Mantuan! I may speak of thee as
the traveller doth of Venice
--Vinegia, Vinegia,
Chi non te vede, ei non te pregia.
Old Mantuan! Old Mantuan! Who understandeth thee not, _loves thee
not.--Ut re sol la mi fa.--Under pardon_, Sir, what are THE CONTENTS?
or, rather, as Horace says in his--What, my soul, _verses_?
_Nath_. Ay, Sir, and _very learned_ [one would say so _upon
examination_].
_Hol_. Let me have a _staff_, a stanza, a verse; _Lege Domine_.
_Nath_. [Reads the 'verses.']--'If love make me forsworn,' etc.
_Hol_. You _find not the apostrophe_, and _so--miss_ the
_accent_--[criticising the reading. It is necessary to find the
_apostrophe_ in the verses of this Academy, before you can give the
accent correctly; there are other points which require to be noted
also, in this refined courtier's writings, as this criticism will
inform us]. Let me _supervise_ the canzonet. Here _are only numbers_
ratified, but for the elegancy, facility, and golden cadency of poesy,
_caret_. _Ovidius Naso_ was the man. And _why_, indeed, Naso; but for
_smelling out the odoriferous flowers of fancy_, the _jerks of
invention_. _Imitari_ is nothing; so doth the hound his master, the
ape his keeper, the tired horse his rider. [It was no such reading and
writing as _that_ which this Academy was going to countenance, or
teach.] But, Damosella, was this directed to you?
_Jaq_. Ay, Sir, from one Monsieur Biron, one of the strange queen's
lords.
_Hol_. I will _over-glance_ the _super-script_. 'To the snow white
hand of the most beauteous lady _Rosaline_.' I will look again _on the
intellect_ of the letter for the _nomination_ of the party writing,
_to the person written unto_ (_Rosaline_).--[_Look again_.--That is
the rule for the reading of letters issued from this Academy, whether
they come in Don Armado's name or another's, when the point is _not_
to 'miss the _accent_.'] 'Your ladyship's, in all desired employment,
BIRON.' Sir Nathaniel, this Biron is one of the votaries with the
king, and here he hath framed a _letter_ to a _sequent_ of the
stranger queen's, which, _accidentally or by way of progression_, hath
miscarried. Trip and go, my sweet; deliver this paper into the _royal
hand of the king. It may concern much_. Stay not thy compliment, I
forgive thy duty. _Adieu_.
_Nath_. Sir, you have done this in the fear of God, very religiously;
and as a certain father saith--
_Hol_. Sir, tell me not of _the father_, I do fear colorable colors.
But to return to _the verses_. Did they please you, Sir Nathaniel?
_Nath_. Marvellous well _for the pen_.
_Hol_. I _dine_ to-day at the _father's _of a certain pupil of _mine_,
where, if before repast, it shall please you to gratify the table with
a grace, I will, on my privilege I have with the parent of the
foresaid child, or pupil, undertake your _ben venuto, where I will
prove_ those _verses to be very unlearned_, neither savouring of
poetry, wit, nor invention. I beseech _your society_.
_Nath_. And thank you, too; for _society_ (saith the text) is _the
happiness of_ LIFE.
_Hol_. And, _certes_, the text _most infallibly concludes it_.--Sir,
[to Dull] I do _invite you too_, [to hear the verses ex-criticised]
you _shall not_ say me _nay: pauca verba. Away_; the _gentles are at
their games_, and we will _to our recreation_.
Another part of the _same_. After dinner.
_Re-enter Holofernes, Sir Nathaniel, and Dull_.
_Hol. Satis quod sufficit_.
_Nath_. I praise God for you, Sir: your _reasons_ at dinner have been
_sharp and sententious_; pleasant without scurrility, witty without
affection, audacious without impudency, learned without opinion, and
strange without heresy. I did converse this _quondam_ day with a
companion of the king's, who is intituled, nominated, or called Don
Adriano de Armado.
_Hol_. _Novi hominem tanquam te_. His manner is lofty, his discourse
peremptory, his tongue filed, his eye ambitious, and his general
behaviour, vain, ridiculous and thrasonical. He is too picked, too
spruce, too affected, too odd, and, as it were, too peregrinate, as I
may call it.
_Nath_. A most singular and choice epithet! [Takes out his
table-book.]
_Hol_. _He draweth out the thread of his verbosity_ finer than the
_staple of his argument_, ['More matter with less art,' says the queen
in Hamlet], I abhor such _fantastical phantasms_, such insociable and
_point device_ companions, such rackers of orthography, as to speak
doubt _fine_ when _he should say doubt_, etc. This is abhominable
which he would call abominable; it insinuateth me of insanie; _Ne
intelligis, domine_? to make frantic, lunatic.
_Nath_. _Lans deo bone intelligo_.
_Hol_. _Bone--bone for bene_: _Priscian, a little scratched 'twill
serve_. [This was never meant to be printed of course; all this is
understood to have been prepared only for a performance in 'a booth.']
_Enter_ Armado, etc.
_Nath. Videsne quis venit?_
_Ho. Video et gaudeo._
_Arm._ Chirra!
_Hol. Quare_ Chirra not Sirrah!
But the first appearance of these two _book-men_, as _Dull_ takes
leave them to call them in this scene, is not less to the purpose.
They come in with Antony Dull, who serves as a foil to their learning;
from the moment that they open their lips they speak 'in character,'
and they do not proceed far before they give us some hints of the
author's purpose.
_Nath_. Very _reverent sport_ truly, and done _in the testimony of a
good conscience_.
_Hol_. The deer was, as you know, in _sanguis_, ripe as a pomewater,
who _now hangeth like a jewel in the ear of Coelo_, the sky, the
welkin, the heaven, and _anon falleth like a crab on the face of
terra_--the soil, the land, the earth. [A-side glance at the heights
and depths of the incongruities which are the subject here.]
_Nath_. Truly, Master Holofernes, the epithets are sweetly varied,
like a scholar at the least, but, etc.....
_Hol_. Most _barbarous_ intimation! [referring to Antony Dull, who has
been trying to understand this learned language, and apply it to the
subject of conversation, but who fails in the attempt, very much to
the amusement and self-congratulation of these scholars]. Yet a _kind_
of _insinuation_, as it were, _in via, in way of explication_ [a style
much in use in this school], _facere_, as it were, replication, or
rather _ostentare_, to show, as it were, _his inclination_, after his
undressed, unpolished, uneducated, unpruned, untrained, or rather
unlettered, or ratherest unconfirmed fashion,--to insert again my
_haud credo_ for a deer.... Twice sod simplicity, _bis coctus!_ Oh
_thou monster ignorance_, how deformed dost thou look!
_Nath._ [explaining] Sir, _he hath never fed of the dainties bred in a
book_; he hath not eat paper, as it were; he hath not drunk ink; _his
intellect_ is not replenished; he is only an animal--only sensible in
the duller parts;
And such _barren_ plants are set before us that we thankful should be,
(Which we of taste and feeling are) for those parts that do fructify
in us more than he.
For _as it would ill become me_ to be vain, indiscreet, or a fool, So
were there _a patch set on learning_ to see HIM in a _school_. [That
would be a new 'school,' a new 'learning,' patching the 'defect' (as
it would be called elsewhere) in the old.]
_Dull_. You two are book-men. Can you tell me by your wit, etc.
_Nath_. A rare talent.
_Dull_. If a talent be a claw, look how he claws him with a talent.
_Hol_. This is a gift that I have; simple, simple; a foolish
extravagant spirit, full of forms, figures, shapes, objects, ideas,
apprehensions, motions, revolutions: But the gift is good in those in
whom it is acute, and I am thankful for it.
_Nath_. Sir, I praise the Lord for you, and so may my parishioners;
for their sons are well tutored by you, and their daughters profit
very greatly under you; you are a good member of the COMMON-WEALTH.
He is in earnest of course. Is the Poet so too?
'What is the end of study?'--let me know.
'O they have lived long in the alms-basket of WORDS,' is the criticism
on this learning with which this showman, whoever he may he, explains
his exhibition of it. And surely he must be, indeed, of the school of
Antony Dull, and never fed with the dainties bred in a book, who does
not see what it is that is criticised here;--that it is the learning
of an unlearned time, of a barbarous time, of a vain, frivolous
debased, wretched time, that has been fed long--always from "the
alms-basket of words." And one who is acquainted already with the
style of this school, who knows already its secret signs and stamp,
would not need to be told to look again on the intellect of the letter
for the nomination of the party writing, to the person written to, in
order to see what source this pastime comes from,--what player it is
that is behind the scene here. 'Whoe'er he be, he bears a mounting
mind,' and beginning in the lowness of the actual, and collecting the
principles that are in all actualities, the true forms that are forms
in nature, and not in man's speech only, the new IDEAS of the New
Academy, the ideas that are powers, with these 'simples' that are
causes, he will reconstruct fortuitous conjunctions, he will make his
poems in facts; he will find his Fairy Land in her kingdom whose iron
chain he wears.
'The gentles were at their games,' and the soul of new ages was
beginning its re-creations.
For this is but the beginning of that 'Armada' that this Don
Armado--who fights with sword and pen, in ambush and in the open
field--will sweep his old enemy from the seas with yet.
O like a book of sports thou'lt read me o'er,
But there's more in me than thou'lt understand.
Look how the father's face
Lives in his issue; even so the race
Of Shake-spear's mind and _manners_ brightly _shines_
In his _well turn'd_ and _true filed lines_,
In each of which he seems to _shake_ a _lance_,
As _brandished_ in the eyes of--[what?--]_Ignorance!_
BEN JONSON.
_Ignorance!_--yes, that was the word.
It is the Prince of that little Academe that sits in the Tower here
now. It is in the Tower that that little Academe holds its
'conferences' now. There is a little knot of men of science who
contrive to meet there. The associate of Raleigh's studies, the
partner of his plans and toils for so many years, _Hariot_, too
scientific for his age, is one of these. It is in the Tower that
Raleigh's school is kept now. The English youth, the hope of England,
follow this teacher still. 'Many young gentlemen still resort to him.'
Gilbert Harvey is one of this school. 'None but _my father_ would keep
such a bird in such a cage,' cries _one_ of them--that Prince of Wales
through whom the bloodless revolution was to have been accomplished;
and a Queen seeks his aid and counsel there still.
It is in the Tower now that we must look for the sequel of that
holiday performance of the school. It is the genius that had made its
game of that old _love's_ labour's lost that is at work here still,
still bent on making a lore of life and love, still ready to spend its
rhetoric on things, and composing its metres with them.
Nor shall death brag thou wanderest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to _time_ thou growest.
He is building and manning new ships in his triumphant fleet. But they
are more warlike than they were. The papers that this Academe issues
now have the stamp of the Tower on them. 'The golden shower,' that
'flowed from his fruitful head of his love's praise' flows no more.
Fierce bitter things are flung forth from that retreat of learning,
while the kingly nature has not yet fully mastered its great wrongs.
The 'martial hand' is much used in the compositions of this school
indeed for a long time afterwards.
Fitter perhaps to thunder martial stower
When thee so list thy tuneful thoughts to raise,
said the partner of his verse long before.
With _rage_
Or _influence chide_ or _cheer_ the drooping stage,
says _his_ protegé.
It was while this arrested soldier of the human emancipation sat amid
his books and papers, in old Julius Caesar's Tower, or in the Tower of
that Conqueror, 'commonly so called,' that the 'readers of the wiser
sort' found, 'thrown in at their _study windows_,' writings, _as if_
they came 'from _several citizens_, wherein _Caesar's ambition was
obscurely glanced at_' and thus the whisper of the Roman Brutus
'pieced them out.'
Brutus _thou sleep'st_; awake, and _see thyself_.
Shall _Rome_ [soft--'_thus must I piece it out_.']
Shall _Rome_ stand under _one man's awe_? _What_ Rome?
* * * * *
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves that we are underlings.
* * * * *
Age, _thou_ art shamed.
It was while he sat there, that the audiences of that player who was
bringing forth, on 'the banks of Thames,' such wondrous things out of
his treasury then, first heard the Roman foot upon their stage, and
the long-stifled, and pent-up speech of English freedom, bursting from
the old Roman patriot's lips.
_Cassius_. And let us swear our resolution.
_Brutus_. _No_, not an oath: If not the face of men,
The sufferance of our soul's, the time's abuse,
If these be motives weak, break off betimes,
And every man hence to his idle bed;
_So_ let high-sighted tyranny range on,
Till _each man drop by lottery_.
It was while he sat there, that the player who did not _write_ his
speeches, said--
_Nor stony tower_, nor walls of beaten brass,
Nor airless dungeon, nor strong links of iron,
Can be retentive to the strength of spirit;
If I know this, know _all the world beside_,
That part of tyranny that _I_ do bear,
_I_ can shake off at pleasure.
And why should Caesar be a tyrant then?
_Poor Man_! I know he would not be a wolf,
But that he sees the _Romans_ are but sheep:
_He_ were no lion, were not _Romans_ hinds.
But I, perhaps, speak _this_
Before a willing bondman.
_Hamlet_. My lord,--you played once in the university, you say?
_Polonius_. That did I, my lord; and was accounted a good actor.
_Hamlet_. And what did you enact?
_Polonius_. I did enact _Julius Caesar_. I was killed i'the Capitol;
Brutus killed me.
_Hamlet_. It was a brute part of him to kill so capital a calf
there.--Be the players ready?
Seneca cannot be too heavy, nor Plautus too light. For the law of
writ, and the liberty. _These_ are the only _men_.
_Hamlet_. Why do you go about to recover the wind of me, as if you
would drive me into a toil?
_Guild_. O my lord, if my duty be too bold, my love is too
unmannerly.
_Hamlet_. I do not well understand that. Will you play upon this
pipe?
_Guild_. My lord, I cannot.
_Hamlet_. I pray you.
_Guild_. Believe me, I cannot.
_Hamlet_. I do beseech you.
_Guild_. I know no touch of it, my lord.
_Hamlet_. 'Tis as _easy as lying. Govern_ these ventages with your
fingers and thumb, give it breath with your mouth, _and it will
discourse most eloquent music_. Look you, _these are the stops_.
_Guild_. But _these_ cannot _I_ command to any _utterance of
harmony: I have not the_ SKILL.
_Hamlet. Why, look you now_, how _unworthy a thing_ you make of ME?
You would _play upon_ ME; _you would seem_ to know _my stops_; you
would pluck out the heart of MY MYSTERY; you would sound me from
my lowest note to the top of my key; and there is much _music_,
excellent voice in _this little organ, yet_ cannot you make it
speak. 'Sblood! do you think I AM EASIER TO BE PLAYED ON THAN A
PIPE? Call me what _instrument_ you will, though you can _fret_
me, you cannot PLAY upon me.
_Hamlet_. Why did you laugh when I said, _Man_ delights not me?
_Guild_. To think, my lord, if you delight not in _man_, what
lenten entertainment THE PLAYERS shall receive from you. We
coted them on the way, and thither are they coming to offer
you--SERVICE.
BOOK I.
THE ELIZABETHAN ART OF DELIVERY AND TRADITION.
PART I.
MICHAEL DE MONTAIGNE'S 'PRIVATE AND RETIRED ARTS.'
And thus do we of wisdom and of reach,
With windlaces and with _assays_ of _bias_,
By _indirections_, find _directions out_;
So by my former lecture and advice,
Shall you, my son.--_Hamlet_.
CHAPTER I.
ASCENT FROM PARTICULARS TO THE 'HIGHEST PARTS OF SCIENCES,' BY THE
ENIGMATIC METHOD ILLUSTRATED.
Single, _I'll_ resolve you.--_Tempest_.
Observe his inclination in yourself.--_Hamlet_.
For ciphers, they are commonly in letters, but may be in words.
_Advancement of Learning_.
The fact that a Science of Practice, not limited to Physics and the
Arts based on the knowledge of physical laws, but covering the whole
ground of the human activity, and limited only by the want and faculty
of man, required, in the reigns of Elizabeth and James the First, some
special and profoundly artistic methods of 'delivery and tradition,'
would not appear to need much demonstration to one acquainted with the
peculiar features of that particular crisis in the history of the
English nation.
And certainly any one at all informed in regard to the condition of
the world at the time in which this science,--which is the new
practical science of the modern ages,--makes its first appearance in
history,--any one who knows what kind of a public opinion, what amount
of intelligence in the common mind the very fact of the first
appearance of such a science on the stage of the human affairs
presupposes,--any one who will stop to consider what kind of a public
it was to which such a science had need as yet to address itself, when
that engine for the diffusion of knowledge, which has been battering
the ignorance and stupidity of the masses of men ever since, was as
yet a novel invention, when all the learning of the world was still
the learning of the cell and the cloister, when the practice of the
world was still in all departments, unscientific,--any one at least
who will stop to consider the nature of the 'preconceptions' which a
science that is none other than the universal science of practice,
must needs encounter in its principal and nobler fields, will hardly
need to be told that if produced at all under such conditions, it must
needs be produced covertly. Who does not know, beforehand, that such a
science would have to concede virtually, for a time, the whole ground
of its nobler fields to the preoccupations it found on them, as the
inevitable condition of its entrance upon the stage of the human
affairs in any capacity, as the basis of any toleration of its claim
to dictate to the men of practice in any department of their
proceedings.
That that little 'courtly company' of Elizabethan scholars, in which
this great enterprise for the relief of man's estate was supposed in
their own time to have had its origin, was composed of wits and men of
learning who were known, in their own time, to have concealed their
connection with the works on which their literary fame chiefly
depended--that that 'glorious Willy,' who finds these forbidden fields
of science all open to his pastime, was secretly claimed by this
company--that a style of 'delivery' elaborately enigmatical, borrowed
in part from the invention of the ancients, and the more recent use of
the middle ages, but largely modified and expressly adapted to this
exigency, was employed in the compositions of this school, both in
prose and verse, a style capable of conveying not merely a double, but
a triple significance; a style so capacious in its concealments, so
large in its '_cryptic_,' as to admit without limitation the whole
scope of this argument, and so involved as to conceal in its
involutions, all that was then forbidden to appear,--this has been
proved in that part of the work which contains the historical key to
this delivery.
We have also incontestable historical evidence of the fact, that the
man who was at the head of this new conjunction in speculation and
practice in its more immediate historical developments,--the scholar
who was most openly concerned in his own time in the introduction of
those great changes in the condition of the world, which date their
beginning from this time, was himself primarily concerned in the
invention of this art. That this great political chief, this founder
of new polities and inventor of new social arts, who was at the same
time the founder of a new school in philosophy, was understood in his
own time to have found occasion for the use of such an art, in his
oral as well as in his written communications with his school;--that
he was connected with a scientific association, which was known to
have concealed under the profession of a curious antiquarian research,
an inquiry into the higher parts of sciences which the government of
that time was not disposed to countenance;--that in the opinion of
persons who had the best opportunity of becoming acquainted with the
facts at the time, this inventor of the art was himself beheaded,
chiefly on account of the discovery of his use of it in one of his
gravest literary works;--all this has been produced already, as matter
of historic record merely. All this remains in the form of detailed
contemporary statement, which suffices to convey, if not the fact that
the forbidden parts of sciences were freely handled in the discussions
of this school, and not in their secret oral discussions only, but in
their great published works,--if not that, at least the fact that such
was the impression and belief of persons living at the time, whether
any ground existed for it or not.
But the arts by which these new men of science contrived to evade the
ignorance and the despotic limitations of their time, the inventions
with which they worked to such good purpose upon their own time, in
spite of its restrictions and oppositions, and which enable them to
'outstretch their span,' and prolong and perpetuate their plan for the
advancement of their kind, and compel the future ages to work with
them to the fulfilment of its ends;--the arts by which these great
original naturalists undertook to transfer in all their unimpaired
splendour and worth, the collections they had made in the nobler
fields of their science to the ages that would be able to make use of
them;--these are the arts that we shall have need to master, if we
would unlock the legacy they have left to us.
The proof of the existence of this special art of delivery and
tradition, and the definition of the objects for which it was
employed, has been derived thus far chiefly from sources of evidence
exterior to the works themselves; but the inventors of it and those
who made use of it in their own speech and writings, are undoubtedly
the persons best qualified to give us authentic and lively information
on this subject; and we are now happily in a position to appreciate
the statements which they have been at such pains to leave us, for the
sake of clearing up those parts of their discourse which were
necessarily obscured at the time. Now that we have in our hands that
key of _Times_ which they have recommended to our use, that knowledge
of times which 'gives great light in many cases to true
interpretations,' it is not possible any longer to overlook these
passages, or to mistake their purport.
But before we enter upon the doctrine of Art which was published in
the first great recognized work of this philosophy, it will be
necessary to produce here some extracts from a book which was not
originally published in England, or in the English language, but one
which was brought out here as an exotic, though it is in fact one of
the great original works of this school, and one of its boldest and
most successful issues; a work in which the new grounds of the actual
experience and life of men, are not merely inclosed and propounded for
written inquiry, but openly occupied. This is not the place to explain
this fact, though the continental relations of this school, and other
circumstances already referred to in the life of its founder, will
serve to throw some light upon it; but on account of the bolder
assertions which the particular form of writing and publication
rendered possible in this case, and for the sake also of the more
lively exhibition of the art itself which accompanies and illustrates
these assertions in this instance, it appears on the whole excusable
to commence our study of the special Art for the delivery and
tradition of knowledge in those departments which science was then
forbidden on pain of death to enter, with that exhibition of it which
is contained in this particular work, trusting to the progress of the
extracts themselves to apologize to the intelligent reader for any
thing which may seem to require explanation in this selection.
It is only necessary to premise, that this work is one of the many
works of this school, in which a grave, profoundly scientific design
is concealed under the disguise of a gay, popular, attractive form of
writing, though in this case the audience is from the first to a
certain extent select. It has no platform that takes in--as the plays
do, with their more glaring attractions and their lower and broader
range of inculcation,--the populace. There is no pit in this theatre.
It is throughout a book for men of liberal culture; but it is a book
for the world, and for men of the world, and not for the cloister
merely, and the scholar. But this, too, has its differing grades of
readers, from its outer court of lively pastime and brilliant aimless
chat to that _esoteric_ chamber, where the abstrusest parts of
sciences are waiting for those who will accept the clues, and
patiently ascend to them.
The work is popular in its form, but it is inwoven throughout with a
thread of lurking meanings so near the surface, and at times so boldly
obtruded, that it is difficult to understand how it could ever have
been read at all without occasioning the inquiry which it was intended
to occasion under certain conditions, but which it was necessary for
this society to ward off from their works, except under these
limitations, at the time when they were issued. For these inner
meanings are everywhere pointed and emphasized with the most bold and
vivid illustration, which lies on the surface of the work, in the form
of stories, often without any apparent relevance in that exterior
connection--brought in, as it would seem, in mere caprice or by the
loosest threads of association. They lie, with the 'allegations' which
accompany them, strewn all over the surface of the work, like 'trap'
on 'sand-stone,' telling their story to the scientific eye, and
beckoning the philosophic explorer to that primeval granite of
sciences that their vein will surely lead to. But the careless
observer, bent on recreation, observes only a pleasing feature in the
landscape, one that breaks happily its threatened dulness; the reader,
reading this book as _books_ are wont to be read, finds nothing in
this phenomenon to excite his curiosity. And the author knows him and
his ways so well, that he is able to foresee that result, and is not
afraid to trust to it in the case of those whose scrutiny he is
careful to avoid. For he is one who counts largely on the
carelessness, or the indifference, or the stupidity of those whom he
addresses. There is no end to his confidence in that. He is
perpetually staking his life on it. Neither is he willing to trust to
the clues which these unexplained stories might seem of themselves to
offer to the studious eye, to engage the attention of the reader--the
reader whose attention he is bent on securing. Availing himself of one
of those nooks of discourse, which he is at no loss for the means of
creating when the purpose of his _essaie_ requires it, he beckons the
confidential reader aside, and thus explains his method to him,
outright, in terms which admit of but one construction. 'Neither these
stories,' he says, 'nor my allegations do always serve simply for
example, authority, or ornament; I do not only regard them for the use
I make of them; they carry sometimes, _besides what I apply them to_,
the seeds of a richer and bolder matter, and sometimes, _collaterally,
a more delicate sound_, both to me myself,--who will say no more about
it _in this place_' [we shall hear more of it in another place,
however, and where the delicate collateral sounds will not be
wanting]--'both to me myself, and _to others who happen to be of my
ear_.'
To the reader, who does indeed happen to be of his ear, to one who has
read the 'allegations' and stories that he speaks of, and the whole
work, and the works connected with it, by means of that knowledge of
the inner intention, and of the method to which he alludes, this
passage would of course convey no new intelligence. But will the
reader, to whom the views here presented are yet too new to seem
credible, endeavour to imagine or invent for himself any form of
words, in which the claim already made in regard to the style in which
the great original writers of this age and the founders of the new
science of the human life were compelled to infold their doctrine,
could have been, in the case of this one at least, more distinctly
asserted. Here is proof that one of them, one who counted on an
_audience_ too, did find himself compelled to infold his richer and
bolder meanings in the manner described. All that need be claimed at
present in regard to the authorship of this sentence is, that it is
written by one whose writings, in their higher intention, have ceased
to be understood, for lack of the '_ear_' to which his bolder and
richer meanings are addressed, for lack of the _ear_, to which the
collateral and more delicate sounds which his words sometimes carry
with them are perceptible; and that it is written by a philosopher
whose learning and aims and opinions, down to the slightest points of
detail, are absolutely identical with those of the principal writers
of this school.
But let us look at a few of the stories which he ventures to introduce
so emphatically, selecting only such as can be told in a sentence or
two. Let us take the next one that follows this explanation--the story
in the very next paragraph to it. The question is _apparently_ of
Cicero, of his style, of his vanity, of his supposed care for his
_fame_ in future ages, of his _real disposition and objects_.
'Away with that eloquence that so enchants us with its _harmony_, that
we should more study it than _things_' [what new soul of philosophy is
this, then, already?]--'unless you will affirm that of _Cicero_ to be
of so supreme perfection as to form _a body_ of itself. And of him, I
shall further add one story we read of to this purpose, wherein _his
nature_ will _much more manifestly be laid open to us_' [than in that
seeming care for his fame in future ages, or in that lower object of
style, just dismissed so scornfully].
'He was to make an oration in public, and found himself a little
straitened _in time_, to _fit his words to his mouth as he had a mind
to do_, when _Eros_, one of his slaves, brought him word that the
_audience was deferred_ till the next day, at which he was so ravished
with joy that _he enfranchised him_.'
The word 'time'--here admits of a double rendering whereby the
_author's_ aims are more manifestly laid open; and there is also
another word in this sentence which carries a 'delicate sound' with
it, to those who have met this author in other fields, and who happen
to be of his counsel. But lest the stories of themselves should still
seem flat and pointless, or trivial and insignificant to the
uninstructed ear, it may be necessary to interweave them with some
further 'allegations on this subject,' which the author assumes, or
appears to assume, in his own person.
'I write my book for _few men_, and for _few years_. Had it been
_matter of duration_, I should have put it into a _better language_.
According to the continual variation that ours has been subject to
hitherto [and we know who had a similar view on this point], who can
expect that the present _form of language_ should be in use fifty
years hence. It slips every day through our fingers; and since I was
born, is altered above one half. We say that it is now perfect: _every
age says the same of the language it speaks_. I shall hardly trust to
that so long as it runs away and _changes_ as it does.
''Tis for good and useful writings to nail and rivet it to them, and
its reputation will go _according to the fortune of our state. For
which reason, I am not afraid to insert herein several private
articles, which will spend their use amongst the men now living_, AND
THAT CONCERN THE PARTICULAR KNOWLEDGE OF SOME WHO WILL SEE FURTHER
INTO THEM THAN THE COMMON READER.' But that the inner reading of these
private articles--that reading which lay farther in--to which he
invites the attention of those whom it concerns--was not expected to
spend its use among the men then living, that which follows might seem
to imply. It was that wrapping of them, it was that gross
superscription which 'the fortune of our state was likely to make
obsolete ere long,' this author thought, as we shall see if we look
into his prophecies a little. 'I will not, after all, as I often hear
dead men spoken of, that men should say of _me_: "He _judged_, and
LIVED SO and SO. Could he have spoken when he was dying, he would have
said _so_ or _so_. I knew him better than any."
'So _our_ virtues
Lie in the interpretation of the times,'
'says the unfortunate Tullus Aufidius, in the act of conducting a
Volscian army against the infant Roman state, bemoaning himself upon
the conditions of his historic whereabouts, and beseeching the
sympathy and favourable constructions of posterity--
So our virtues
Lie in the interpretation of the times;
And power unto itself most commendable
Hath not a tomb so evident as a hair
To extol what it hath done.
'The times,' says Lord Bacon, speaking in reference to books
particularly, though _he_ also recommends the same key for the reading
of lives, 'the times in many cases give _great light_ to true
interpretations.'
'Now as much as decency permits,' continues the other, anticipating
_here_ that speech which he might be supposed to have been anxious to
make in defence of his posthumous reputation, could he have spoken
when he was dying, and forestalling that criticism which he
foresaw--that odious criticism of posterity on the discrepancy between
_his life_ and _his judgment_--'Now as much as decency permits, I
_here_ discover my inclinations and affections. _If any observe_, he
will find that _I have either told or designed to tell_ ALL. _What I
cannot express I point out with my finger_.
'There was never greater circumspection and _military prudence_ than
sometimes is seen among US; can it be that men are afraid to lose
themselves by the way, _that they reserve themselves to the end of the
game_?'
'There needs no more but to see a man promoted to dignity, though we
knew him but three days before a man of no mark, yet an image of
grandeur and ability insensibly steals into our opinion, and we
persuade ourselves that growing in reputation and attendants, he is
also increased in merit':--
_Hamlet_. Do the boys carry it away?
_Ros_. Ay, that they do, my lord. Hercules and his load too.
_Hamlet_. It is not very strange; for my uncle is king of Denmark,
and those that would make mouths at him while my father lived, give
twenty, forty, fifty, a hundred ducats a-piece for his picture in
little. 'Sblood, there is something _in this, more_ than
_natural_ [talking of the _super_natural], _if philosophy could
find it out_.
'But,' our prose philosopher, whose mind is running much on the same
subjects, continues 'if it happens so that he [this favourite of
fortune] falls again, and is mixed with the common crowd, every one
inquires with wonder into the _cause_ of his having been hoisted so
high. _Is it he_? say they: did he know no more than this _when he was
in_ PLACE?' ['change _places_ ... robes and furred gowns hide all.']
Do _princes_ satisfy _themselves_ with so little? _Truly we were in
good hands_! That which I myself adore in kings, is [note it] _the
crowd of the adorers_. All reverence and submission is due to them,
_except that of the understanding_; my _reason_ is not to bow and
bend, 'tis my _knees_' 'I will not do't' says another, who is in this
one's counsels,
I will not do't
Lest I surcease to honour mine own truth,
And by my body's action, teach my mind
A most inherent baseness. _Coriolanus_.
'Antisthenes one day entreated _the Athenians to give orders that
their asses might be employed in tilling the ground_,--to which it was
answered, "that _those animals were not destined to such a service_."
"That's all one," replied he; "it only sticks at your command; for the
most ignorant and incapable men you employ _in your commands of war_,
immediately become worthy enough _because_--YOU EMPLOY THEM."'
There mightst thou behold the great image of authority. A dog's obeyed
in office.--Lear.
For thou dost know, oh Damon dear,
This realm dismantled was
Of Jove himself; and now reigns here,
A very--very--_Peacock_.
Horatio. You might have rhymed. Hamlet.
'to which,' continues this political philosopher,--that is, to which
preceding anecdote--containing such unflattering intimations with
regard to the obstinacy of nature, in the limits she has set to the
practical abilities of those _animals_, not enlarging their natural
gifts out of respect to the Athenian selection (an anecdote which
supplies a rhyme to Hamlet's verse, and to many others from the same
source)--'_to which the custom of so many people_, who canonize the
KINGS they have chosen _out of their own body_, and are not content
only to honour, but adore them, _comes very near. Those of Mexico_
[for instance, it would not of course do to take any nearer home],
after the ceremonies of _their_ king's coronation are finished, _dare
no more look him in the face_; but, as if they _deified_ him by his
royalty, _among_ the oaths they make him take to _maintain their
religion and laws_, to be valiant, just and mild; he moreover
swears,--_to make the sun run his course in his wonted light,--to
drain the clouds at a fit season,--to confine rivers within their
channels,--and to cause all things necessary for his people to be
borne by the earth_.' '(They told me I was everything. But when the
rain came to wet me once, when the wind would not peace at my
bidding,' says Lear, 'there I found them, there I smelt them out.)'
This, in connection with the preceding anecdote, to which, in the
opinion of this author, it comes properly so very near, may be classed
of itself among the suggestive stories above referred to; but the
bearing of these quotations upon the particular question of style,
which must determine the selection here, is set forth in that which
follows.
It should be stated, however, that in a preceding paragraph, the
author has just very pointedly expressed it as his opinion, that men
who are supposed, by common consent, to be so far above the rest of
mankind in their single virtue and judgment, that they are permitted
to govern them at their discretion, should by no means undertake to
maintain that view, by exhibiting that supposed kingly and divine
faculty in the way of _speech_ or _argument_; thus putting themselves
on a level with their subjects, and by meeting them on their own
ground, with their own weapons, giving occasion for comparisons,
perhaps not altogether favourable to that theory of a superlative and
divine difference which the doctrine of a divine right to rule
naturally presupposes. 'For,' he says, 'neither is it enough for those
_who govern and command us, and have all the world in their hand_, to
have a common understanding, and to be able to do what the rest can'
[their faculty of judgment must match their position, for if it be
only a common one, the difference will make it despised]: 'they are
very much below us, if they be not _infinitely above us_. And,
therefore, _silence_ is to them not only a countenance of respect and
gravity, but very often of good profit and policy too; for, Megabysus
going to see _Apelles_ in his _painting_ room, stood a great while
without speaking a word, and at last began to talk of his paintings,
for which he received this rude reproof. '_Whilst thou wast silent_,
thou seemedst to be something great, by reason of thy chains and pomp;
_but now that we have heard thee speak_, there is not the meanest boy
in my shop that does not despise thee.' But after the author's
subsequent reference to 'those animals' that were to be made competent
by a vote of the Athenian people for the work of their superiors, to
which he adds the custom of people who canonize the kings they have
chosen out of their own body, which comes so near, he goes on
thus:--_I differ from this common fashion_, and am more apt to suspect
capacity when I see it accompanied with grandeur of fortune and
_public applause_. We are to consider of what advantage it is, _to
speak when one pleases, to choose the subject one will speak of_--[an
advantage not common with authors then]--TO INTERRUPT OR CHANGE OTHER
MEN'S ARGUMENTS, WITH A MAGISTERIAL AUTHORITY, to protect oneself from
the opposition of others, by a nod, a smile, or silence, in the
presence of an assembly that trembles with reverence and respect. _A
man of a prodigious fortune_, coming to give his judgment upon some
slight dispute that was foolishly set on foot at his _table_, began in
these words:--'It can only be a liar or a fool that will say otherwise
than so and so.' '_Pursue this philosophical point with a dagger in
your hand_.'
Here is an author who does contrive to pursue his philosophical
points, however, dagger or no dagger, wherever they take him. By
putting himself into the trick of singularity, and affecting to be a
mere compound of eccentricities and oddities, neither knowing nor
caring what it is that he is writing about, and dashing at haphazard
into anything as the fit takes him,--'Let us e'en fly at anything,'
says Hamlet,--by assuming, in short, the disguise of the elder Brutus;
and, on account of a similar necessity, there is no saying what he
cannot be allowed to utter with impunity. Under such a cover it is,
that he inserts the passages already quoted, which have lain to this
hour without attracting the attention of critics, unpractised happily,
and unlearned also, in the subtleties which tyrannies--such
tyrannies--at least generate; and under this cover it is, that he can
venture now on those astounding political disquisitions, which he
connects with the complaint of the restrictions and embarrassments
which the presence of a man of prodigious fortune at the table
occasions, when an argument, trivial or otherwise, happens to be going
on there. Under this cover, he can venture to bring in here, in this
very connection, and to the very table, even of this man of prodigious
fortune, pages of the freest political discussion, containing already
the finest analysis of the existing political 'situation,' so full of
dark and lurid portent, to the eye of the scientific statesman, to
whom, even then, already under the most intolerable restrictions of
despotism, of the two extremes of social evil, that which appeared to
be the most terrible, and the most to be guarded against, in the
inevitable political changes then at hand, was--not the consolidation
but the dissolution of the state.
For already the horizon of that political oversight included, not the
eventualities of the English Revolutions only, but the darker
contingencies of those later political and social convulsions, from
whose soundless whirlpools, men spring with joy to the hardest
sharpest ledge of tyranny; or hail with joy and national thanksgiving
the straw that offers to land them on it. Already the scientific
statesman of the Elizabethan age could say, casting an eye over
Christendom as it stood then, 'That which most threatens us is, not an
_alteration_ in the entire and solid mass, but its _dissipation_ and
_divulsion_.'
It is after pages of the freest philosophical discussion, that he
arrives at this conclusion--discussion, in which the historical
elements and powers are for the first time scientifically recognized
and treated throughout with the hand of the new master. For this is a
philosopher, who is able to receive into his philosophy the fact, that
out of the most depraved and vicious social materials, by the
inevitable operation of the universal natural laws, there will,
perhaps, result a social adhesion and predominance of powers--a social
'whole,' more capable of maintaining itself than any that Plato or
Aristotle, from the heights of their abstractions, could have invented
for them. He ridicules, indeed, those ideal politics of antiquity as
totally unfit for practical realisation, and admits that though the
question as to that which is absolutely the best form of government
might be of some value _in a new world_, the basis of all alterations
in existing governments should be the fact, that we take a world
already formed to certain customs, and do not beget it, as Pyrrha or
Cadmus did theirs, and by what means soever we may have the privilege
to rebuild and reform it anew, we can hardly _writhe it_ from its
wonted bent, but we shall _break all_. For the subtlest principles of
the philosophy of things are introduced into this discussion, and the
boldest applications of the Shakspere muse are repeated in it.
'That is the way to _lay all flat_,' cries the philosophic poet in the
Roman play, opposing on the part of the Conservatist, the violence of
an oppressed people, struggling for new forms of government, and
bringing out fully, along with their claims, the anti-revolutionary
side of the question. 'That which tempts me out on these journeys,'
continues this foreign philosopher, speaking in his usual ambiguous
terms of his rambling excursive habits and eccentricities of
proceedings, glancing also, perhaps, at his outlandish tastes--'that
which tempts me out on these journeys, is _unsuitableness to the
present manners of_ OUR STATE. _I_ could easily console myself with
this corruption in reference to the _public interest_, but not to _my
own: I_ am _in particular_ too much oppressed:--for, _in my
neighbourhood_ we are of late by _the long libertinage of our civil
wars grown old_ in so _riotous a form of state_, that in earnest _'tis
a wonder how it can subsist_. In fine, I see by our example, that the
society of men is maintained and held together _at what price soever;
in what condition soever they are placed they will close and stick
together_ [see the doctrine of things and their original powers in the
"Novum Organum"]--_moving and heaping up themselves, as uneven bodies,
that shuffled together without order, find of themselves means to
unite and settle_. King Philip mustered up a rabble of the most wicked
and incorrigible rascals he could pick out, and put them altogether in
a city which he had built for that purpose, which bore their name; I
believe that they, even from vices, erected a government among them,
and a commodious and just society.'
'Nothing presses so hard upon a state as innovation'; and let the
reader note here, how the principle which has predominated
historically in the English Revolution, the principle which the fine
Frankish, half Gallic genius, with all its fire and artistic faculty,
could not strike instinctively or empirically, in its political
experiments--it is well to note, how this distinctive element of the
_English_ Revolution--that revolution which is still in progress, with
its remedial vitalities--already speaks beforehand, from the lips of
this foreign Elizabethan Revolutionist. 'Nothing presses so hard upon
a state as innovation; change only gives form to injustice and
tyranny. WHEN ANY PIECE IS OUT OF ORDER IT MAY BE PROPPED, one may
prevent and take care that the _decay and corruption_ NATURAL TO ALL
THINGS, do not carry us too far from _our beginnings and principles_;
but to undertake to found so great a mass anew, and to change the
foundations of so vast a building, is for them to do who to _make
clean, efface_, who would reform particular defects by a universal
confusion, and cure diseases by _death_.' Surely, one may read in good
Elizabethan English passages which savor somewhat of this policy. One
would say that the principle was in fact identical, as, for instance,
in this case. 'Sir Francis Bacon (who was always for moderate
counsels), when one was speaking of such a reformation of the Church
of England, as would in effect make it _no church_, said thus to
him:--'Sir, the subject we talk of is the _eye_ of England, and if
there be a speck or two in the eye, we endeavour to take them off; but
he were a strange oculist who would pull out the eye.' [And here is
another writer who seems to be taking, on this point and others, very
much the same view of the constitution and vitality of states, about
these times:--
He's a disease that must be cut away.
Oh, he's a limb that has but a disease;
Mortal to cut it off; to cure it, easy.]
But our Gascon philosopher goes on thus, with his Gascon inspirations:
and these sportive notions, struck off at a heat, these careless
intuitions, these fine new practical axioms of scientific politics,
appear to be every whit as good as if they had been sifted through the
scientific tables of the Novum Organum. They are, in fact, the
identical truth which the last vintage of the Novum Organum yields on
this point. 'The world is unapt for curing itself; _it is so impatient
of any thing that presses it_, that it thinks of nothing but
_disengaging itself_, at what price soever. We see, by a thousand
examples, that it generally cures itself to its cost. The _discharge
of a present evil is no cure, if a general amendment of condition does
not follow_; the surgeon's end is _not only to cut away the dead
flesh_,--that is but the progress of his cure;--he has a care over and
above, _to fill up the wound with better and more natural flesh_, and
_to restore the member to its due state_. Whoever only proposes to
himself to remove that which offends _him_, falls short; _for good_
does not necessarily succeed evil; another evil may succeed, _and a
worse, as it happened in Caesar's killers_, who brought the republic
to _such a pass, that they had reason to repent their meddling with
it_.' 'I fear there will _a worse_ one come in his place,' says a
fellow in Shakespear's crowd, at the first Caesar's funeral; and that
his speech made the moral of the piece, we shall see in the course of
this study.
But though the frantic absolutisms and irregularities of that 'old
riotous form of military government,' which the long civil wars had
generated, seemed of themselves to threaten speedy dissolution, this
old Gascon prophet, with his inexhaustible fund of English shrewdness,
and sound English sense, underlying all his Gasconading, by no means
considers the state as past the statesman's care: 'after all, _we are
not, perhaps, at the last gasp_,' he says. 'The conservation of states
_is a thing that in all likelihood surpasses our understanding_: a
civil government is, as Plato says, "a mighty and powerful thing, and
hard to be dissolved." "States, as great engines, move slowly," says
Lord Bacon; "and are not so soon put out of frame";--that is, so soon
as "the resolution of particular persons," which is his reason for
producing his moral philosophy, or rather his moral _science_, as
_his_ engine for attack upon the state, a science which concerns the
government of every man over himself; "for, as in Egypt, the seven
good years sustained the seven bad; so governments, for a time
well-grounded, do bear out errors following."' But this is the way
that this Gascon philosopher records _his_ conclusions on the same
subject. 'Every thing that totters does not fall. The contexture of so
great a body holds by more nails than one. _It holds even by its
antiquity_, like old buildings from which the foundations are worn
away by time, without rough cast or cement, which yet live or support
themselves by their own weight. Moreover, it is not rightly to go to
work to reconnoitre only the flank and the fosse, to judge of the
security of a place; it must be examined _which way approaches_ can be
made to it, AND IN WHAT CONDITION THE ASSAILANT IS--that is the
question. '_Few vessels sink with their own weight_, and without some
exterior violence. Let us every way cast our eyes. Every thing about
us totters. In all the great states, both of Christendom and
elsewhere, that are known to us, if you will but look, you will there
see evident threats of alteration and ruin. Astrologers need not go to
heaven to foretell, as they do, GREAT REVOLUTIONS' [this is the speech
of the Elizabethan age--'great revolutions'] 'and _imminent
mutations_.' [This is the new kind of learning and prophecy; there was
but one source of it open then, that could yield axioms of this kind;
for this is the kind that Lord Bacon tells us the head-spring of
sciences must be visited for.] 'But _conformity is a quality
antagonist to_ DISSOLUTION. For my part, I despair not, and _fancy I
perceive ways to save us_.'
And _surely_ this is one of the inserted private articles, before
mentioned, which may, or may not be, 'designed to spend their use
among the men now living'; but 'which concern the particular knowledge
of some who will see further into them than the common reader.' If
there had been a 'London Times' going then, and this old outlandish
Gascon Antic had been an English statesman preparing this article as a
leader for it, the question of the Times could hardly have been more
roundly dealt with, or with a clearer northern accent.
But it is high time for him to bethink himself, and 'draw his old
cloak about him'; for, after all, this so just and profound a view of
so grave a subject, proceeds from one who has no aims, no plan, no
learning, no memory;--a vain, fantastic egotist, who writes only
because he will be talking, and talking of himself above all; who is
not ashamed to attribute to himself all sorts of mad inconsistent
humours, and to contradict himself on every page, if thereby he can
only win your eye, or startle your curiosity, and induce you to follow
him. After so long and grave a discussion, suddenly it occurs to him
that it is time for a little miscellaneous confidential chat about
himself, and those certain oddities of his which he does not wish you
to lose sight of altogether; and it is time, too, for another of those
_stories_, which serve to divert the attention when it threatens to
become too fixed, and break up and enliven the dull passages, besides
having that other purpose which he speaks of so frankly. And although
this whole discussion is not without a direct bearing upon that
particular topic, with which it is here connected, inasmuch as the
political situation, which is so clearly exhibited, is precisely that
of the Elizabethan scholar, it is chiefly this little piece of
confidential chat with which it closes, and _its significance in that
connection_, which gives the rest its insertion here.
For suddenly he recollects himself, and stops short to express the
fear that he may have written _something similar to this elsewhere_;
and he gives you to understand--not all at once--but by a series of
strokes, that too bold a repetition _here_, of what he has said
_elsewhere_ might be attended, to him, with serious consequences; and
he begs you to note, as he does in twenty other passages and stories
here and elsewhere, that his _style_ is all hampered with
considerations such as these--that instead of merely thinking of
making a good book, and presenting his subjects in their clearest and
most effective form for the reader;--a thing in itself sufficiently
laborious, as other authors find to their cost, he is all the time
compelled to weigh his words with reference to such points as this. He
must be perpetually on his guard that the identity of that which he
presents here, and that which he presents elsewhere, under other and
very different forms (in much graver forms perhaps, and perhaps in
others not so grave), shall no where become so glaring as to attract
popular attention, while he is willing and anxious to keep that
identity or connection constantly present to the apprehension of the
few, for whom he tells us his book--that is, this book within the
book--is written.
'I fear in these _reveries_ of mine,' he continues, suspending at last
suddenly this bold and continuous application to the immediate
political emergency of those philosophical principles which he has
exhibited in the abstract, in their _common_ and _universal form_,
elsewhere; 'I fear, in these reveries of the _treachery of my memory_,
lest by inadvertence it should make me write the same thing twice. Now
I here set down _nothing new_, these are _common_ thoughts, and
having per-adventure conceived them a hundred times, _I am afraid_ I
_have set them down somewhere else already_. Repetition is everywhere
troublesome, though it were in Homer, _but 'tis ruinous in things that
have only a superficial and transitory_ SHOW. I do not love
inculcation, even in the most profitable things, as in Seneca, and the
practice of his Stoical school displeases me of _repeating upon every
subject and at length_, THE PRINCIPLES and PRESUPPOSITIONS THAT SERVE
IN GENERAL, and _always_ to re-allege anew;' that is, under the
particular divisions of the subject, _common and universal reasons_.
'What I cannot express I point out with my finger,' he tells you
elsewhere, but it is thus that he continues here.
'My memory grows worse and worse every day. I must _fain for the time
to come_ (collateral sounds), for _hitherto, thank God, nothing has
happened much amiss_, to avoid all preparation, for fear of tying
myself to some obligation upon which I must be forced to insist. To
_be tied and bound to a thing_ puts _me_ quite out, and especially
where I have to depend upon so weak an instrument as my memory. I
never could read this story without being offended at it, with as it
were _a personal_ and natural resentment.' The reader will note that
the question here is of _style_, or method, and of this author's style
in particular, and of his special embarrassments.
'Lyncestes _accused of conspiracy against Alexander_, the day that he
was brought out before the army, according to the custom, to be heard
in his defence, had prepared a _studied speech_, of which, _haggling
and stammering_, he pronounced _some words_. As he was becoming more
perplexed and struggling with his memory, and _trying to recollect
himself_, the soldiers that stood _nearest_ killed him with their
spears, looking upon his confusion and silence as a confession of his
guilt: very fine, indeed! The place, the spectators, the expectation,
would astound a man _even though were there no object in his mind but
to speak well_; but WHAT _when 'tis an harangue upon which his life
depends_?' You that happen to be of my ear, it is my style that we are
speaking of, and there is my story.
'_For my part the very being tied to what I am to say, is enough to
loose me from it_'--that is the cause of his wandering--'_The more I
trust to my memory_, the more do I put myself out of my own power, so
_much as to find it in my own countenance_, and have _sometimes been
very much put to it to conceal the slavery wherein I was bound_,
whereas _my design is_ to manifest in speaking a _perfect
nonchalance_, both of face and accent, and _casual and unpremeditated
motions_, as rising from present occasions, _choosing rather to say
nothing to purpose, than to show that_ I came _prepared to speak
well_; a thing especially unbecoming _a man of my profession_. The
preparation begets a great deal more expectation than it will satisfy;
a man very often absurdly strips himself to his doublet to leap no
further _than he would have done in his gown_.' [Perhaps the
reflecting scholar will recollect to have seen an instance of this
magnificent preparation for saying something to the purpose, attended
with similarly lame conclusions; but, if he does not, the story which
follows may tend to refresh his memory on this point.] 'It is recorded
of the orator Curio, that _when he proposed the division of his
oration_ into three or four parts, it often happened either that he
forgot some one, or added one or two more.' A much more illustrious
speaker, who spoke under circumstances not very unlike those in which
the poor conspirator above noted made his haggling and fatal attempts
at oratory, is known to have been guilty of a similar oversight; for,
having invented a plan of universal science, designed for the relief
of the human estate, he forgot the principal application of it. But
this author says, _I_ have always avoided falling into this
inconvenience, having always hated these promises and announcements,
not only out of distrust of my memory, but also because this method
relishes too much of the _artificial_. You will find no scientific
plan _here_ ostentatiously exhibited; you will find such a plan
elsewhere with all the works set down in it, but the works themselves
will be missing; and you will find the works elsewhere, but it will be
under the cover of a superficial and transitory show, where it would
be ruinous to produce the plan, '_I_ have always _avoided_ falling
into this inconvenience. _Simpliciora militares decent_.' But as he
appears, after all, to have had no military weapon with which to
sustain that straight-forwardness of speech which is becoming in a
military power, and no dagger to pursue his points with, some
artifice, though he professes not to like it, may be necessary, and
the rule which he here specifies is, on the whole, perhaps, not
altogether amiss. ''Tis enough that I have promised to myself never to
take upon me to speak in a place where I owe respect; for as to that
sort of speaking where a man _reads_ his speech, besides that it is
very absurd, it is a mighty disadvantage to those who _naturally could
give it a grace by action_, and to rely upon the mercy of the
readiness of my invention, I will much less do it; 'tis heavy and
perplexed, and such as would never furnish me in sudden and important
necessities.'
'Speaking,' he says in another place, 'hurts and discomposes me,--my
_voice_ is loud and high, so that when I have gone to whisper some
great person about an affair of _consequence, they have often had to
moderate my voice. This story deserves a place here_.
'Some one in a certain Greek school was speaking loud as _I do_. The
master of the ceremonies sent to him to speak _lower_. "Tell him then,
he must send me," replied the other, "the tone he would have me speak
in." To which the other replied, "that he should take the tone from
the ear of him to whom he spake." It was well said, if it be
understood. Speak _according to the affair_ you are speaking about to
the auditor,--(speak according to the business you have in hand, to
the purpose you have to accomplish)--for if it mean, it is sufficient
that he _hears_ you, I do not find it reason.' It is a more artistic
use of speech that he is proposing in his new science of it, for as
Lord Bacon has it, who writes as we shall see on this same subject,
'the _proofs_ and _persuasions_ of _rhetoric_ ought to differ
according to the auditors,' and the Arts of Rhetoric have for their
legitimate end, 'not merely PROOF, but _much more_, IMPRESSION.' 'For
many forms are _equal in signification_ which are _differing in
impression_, as the difference is great in the piercing of that which
is _sharp_, and that which is _flat_, though the _strength_ of the
percussion be the same; for instance, there is no man but will be a
little more raised, by hearing it said, "Your enemies will be glad of
this," than by hearing it said only, "This is evil for you."' But it
is thus that our Gascon proceeds, whose comment on his Greek story we
have interrupted. 'There is a voice to _flatter_, there is a voice to
_instruct_, and a voice to _reprehend_. _I_ would not only have my
voice to reach my hearer, but peradventure _that it strike_ and
_pierce_ him. When I rate my footman in a sharp and bitter tone, it
would be very fine for him to say, "Pray master, speak lower, for I
hear you very well." _Speaking_ is _half his that speaks_, and _half
his that hears_; the last ought to prepare himself to receive it,
according to its motion, as with tennis players; he that receives the
ball, shifts, draws back, and prepares himself to receive it,
according as he sees him move, who strikes the stroke, and according
to the stroke itself.' It is not, therefore, because this author has
failed to furnish the rules of interpretation necessary for
penetrating to the ultimate intention of this new kind of speaking, if
all this affectation of simplicity, and all these absurd contradictory
statements of his, have been suffered hitherto to pass unchallenged.
It is the public mind he has to deal with. 'That which he adores in
kings is the _throng_ of _their adorers_.' If he should take the
public at once into his confidence, and tell them beforehand precisely
what his own opinions were of things in general, if he should set
before them in the outset the conclusions to which he proposed to
drive them, he might indeed stand some chance to have his arguments
interrupted, or changed with a magisterial authority; he would indeed
find it necessary to pursue his philosophical points with a dagger in
his hand.
And besides, this dogmatical mode of teaching does not appear to him
to secure the ends of teaching. He wishes to rouse the human mind to
activity, to compel it to think for itself, and put it on the
inevitable road to his conclusions. He wishes the reader to strike out
those conclusions for himself, and fancy himself the discoverer if he
will. So far from being simple and straightforward, his style is in
the profoundest degree artistic, for the soul of all our modern art
inspired it. He thinks it does no good for scholars to call out to the
active world from the platform of their last conclusions. The truths
which men receive from those didactic heights remain foreign to them.
'We want medicines to arouse the sense,' says Lord Bacon, who proposed
exactly the method of teaching which this philosopher had, as it would
seem, already adopted. 'I bring a trumpet to awake his _ear_, to set
his _sense_ on the attentive bent, and _then_ to speak,' says that
poet who best put this art in practice.
But here it is the prose philosopher who would meet this dull, stupid,
custom-bound public on its own ground. He would assume all its
absurdities and contradictions in his own person, and permit men to
despise, and marvel, and laugh at them in him without displeasure. For
whoever will notice carefully, will perceive that the use of the
personal pronoun here, is not the limited one of our ordinary speech.
Such an one will find that this philosophical _I_ is very broad; that
it covers too much to be taken in its literal acceptation. Under this
term, the term by which each man names _himself_, the common term of
the individual humanity, he finds it convenient to say many things.
'They that will fight _custom_ with _grammar_,' he says, 'are fools.
When another tells me, or when I say to myself, _This_ is a word of
Gascon growth; _this_ a dangerous phrase; _this_ is an ignorant
discourse; thou art too full of figures; _this_ is a paradoxical
saying; _this_ is a foolish expression: _thou makest thyself merry
sometimes, and men will think_ thou sayest a thing in good earnest,
which thou only speakest in jest. Yes, say I; but I correct the faults
of _inadvertence, not those of custom_. I have done what I designed,'
he says, in triumph, '_All the world knows_ ME in my book, _and my
book in_ ME.'
And thus, by describing human nature under that term, or by repeating
and stating the common opinions as his own, he is enabled to create an
opposition which could not exist, so long as they remain unconsciously
operative, or infolded in the separate individuality, as a part of its
own particular form.
'My errors are sometimes natural and incorrigible,' he says; 'but the
good which virtuous men do to the public in making themselves
imitated, _I, perhaps, may do in making my manners avoided_. While I
publish and accuse my own imperfections, somebody will learn to be
afraid of them. _The parts that I most esteem in myself_, are more
honoured in decrying than in commending _my own manners_. Pausanias
tells us of an ancient player upon the lyre, who used to make his
scholars go to hear one that lived over against him, and played very
ill, that they might learn to hate his discords and false measures.
_The present time_ is fitting to reform us _backward_, more by
_dissenting_ than _agreeing_; by differing than consenting.' That is
his application of his previous confession. And it is this _present
time_ that he impersonates, holding the mirror up to nature, and
provoking opposition and criticism for that which was before buried in
the unconsciousness of a common absurdity, or a common wrong.
'Profiting little by good examples, I endeavour to render myself as
agreeable as I see others offensive; as constant as I see others
fickle; as good as I see others evil.'
'There is no fancy so frivolous and extravagant that does not seem to
me a suitable product of the human mind. All such whimsies as are in
use amongst us, deserve at least to be hearkened to; for my part, they
only with me import _inanity_, but they import _that_. Moreover,
_vulgar and casual opinions are something more than nothing in
nature_.
'If I converse with a man of mind, and no flincher, who presses hard
upon me, right and left, his imagination raises up mine. The
contradictions of judgments do neither offend nor alter, they only
rouse and exercise me. I could suffer myself to be rudely handled by
my friends. "Thou art a fool; thou knowest not what thou art talking
about." When any one contradicts me, he raises my attention, not my
anger. I advance towards him that contradicts, as to one that
instructs me. _I embrace and caress truth, in what hand soever I find
it, and cheerfully surrender myself, and extend to it my conquered
arms_; and take a pleasure in being reproved, and _accommodate myself
to my accusers_ [aside] (very often more by reason of _civility_ than
amendment); loving to gratify the liberty of admonition, by my
facility of submitting to it, at my own expense. Nevertheless, it is
hard to bring the men of my time to it. They have not the courage _to
correct_, because they have not the courage _to be corrected, and
speak always with dissimulation in the presence of one another_. I
take so great pleasure in being judged and known, that it is almost
indifferent to me in which of THE TWO FORMS I am so. My imagination
does so often contradict and condemn itself, that _it is all one to me
if another do it_. The study of books is a languishing, feeble motion,
that heats not, whereas conversation _teaches_ and _exercises_ at
once.' But what if a book could be constructed on a new principle, so
as to produce the effect of _conference_--of the noblest kind of
conference--so as to rouse the stupid, lethargic mind to a truly
_human_ activity--so as to bring out the common, human form, in all
its latent actuality, from the eccentricities of the individual
varieties? Something of that kind appears to be attempted here.
He cannot too often charge the attentive reader, however, that his
arguments require examination. 'In _conferences_,' he says, 'it is a
rule that every word that _seems_ to be good, is not immediately to be
accepted. One must try it on all points, to see _how it is lodged in
the author_: [perhaps he is not in earnest] _for_ one must not always
_presently yield_ what truth or beauty soever seem to be in the
argument.' A little delay, and opposition, the necessity of hunting,
or fighting, for it, will only make it the more esteemed in the end.
In such a style, 'either the author must stoutly oppose it [that is,
whatsoever beauty or truth is to be the end of the argument in order
to challenge the reader] or draw back, under colour of not
understanding it, [and so piquing the reader into a pursuit of it] or,
sometimes, perhaps, he may aid the point, and carry it _beyond_ its
proper reach [and so forcing the reader to correct him. This whole
work is constructed on this principle]. As when I contend with a
vigorous man, I please myself with anticipating his conclusions; I
ease him of the trouble of explaining himself; I strive to prevent his
imagination, whilst it is yet springing and imperfect; the order and
pertinency of his understanding warns and threatens me afar off. But
as to _these_,--and the sequel explains this relative, for it has no
antecedent in the text--as to these, I deal quite contrary with them.
I _must understand and presuppose nothing but by them_.... Now, if you
come to explain anything to them and confirm them (these readers),
they presently catch at it, and rob you of the advantage of your
interpretation. "It was what I was about to say; it was just _my_
thought, _and if I did not express it so_, it was only for want of
_language_." Very pretty! Malice itself must be employed to correct
this _proud ignorance_--'tis injustice and inhumanity to relieve and
set him right who stands in no need of it, and is the worse for it. _I
love_ to let him step deeper into the mire,'--[luring him on with his
own confessions, and with my assumptions of his case] '_and so deep
that if it be_ possible, they may at least discern their error. FOLLY
AND ABSURDITY ARE NOT TO BE CURED BY BARE ADMONITION. What Cyrus
answered him who importuned him to harangue his army upon the point of
battle, "that men do not become valiant and warlike on a sudden, _by a
fine oration_, no more than a man becomes a good musician by hearing a
fine song," may properly be said of such an admonition as this;' or,
as Lord Bacon has it, 'It were a strange speech, which spoken, or
_spoken oft_, should reclaim a man from a vice to which he is _by
nature_ subject; it is _order, pursuit, sequence_, and _interchange of
application_, which is mighty in nature.' But the other
continues:--'These are apprenticeships that are to be served
beforehand by a long continued education. We owe this care and this
assiduity of correction and instruction to _our own_, [that is the
school,] but to go to preach to the first passer-by, and to lord it
over the ignorance and folly of the first we meet, is a thing that I
abhor. I rarely do it, even in _my own particular conferences_, and
rather surrender my cause, than proceed to these _supercilious_ and
_magisterial_ instructions.' The clue to the reading of his inner
book. This is what Lord Bacon also condemns, as the _magisterial_
method,--'My _humour_ is unfit, either to speak or write for
_beginners_;' he will not shock or bewilder them by forcing on them
prematurely the last conclusions of science; '_but_ as to things that
are said in _common discourse_ or _amongst other things_, I never
oppose them either by word or sign, how false or absurd soever.'
'Let none _even doubt_,' says the author of the Novum Organum, who
thought it wisest to steer clear _even_ of _doubt_ on such a point,
'whether we are anxious to destroy and demolish _the philosophical
arts and sciences which are now in use_. On the contrary, we readily
cherish their practice, cultivation, and honour; for we by no means
interfere to prevent _the prevalent system_ from encouraging
discussion, adorning discourses, or being employed _serviceably_ in
the chair of the Professor, or the practice of common life, and being
taken in short, by general consent, _as current coin_. Nay, we plainly
declare that the system we offer will not be very _suitable_ for such
purposes, not being easily adapted to _vulgar apprehension, except_ by
EFFECTS AND WORKS. To show our _sincerity_ [hear] in professing our
regard and friendly disposition towards _the received sciences_, we
can refer to the evidence of our published writings, _especially_ our
books on--the Advancement--[the _Advancement_] of Learning.' And the
reader who can afford time for 'a second cogitation,' the second
cogitation which a superficial _and_ interior meaning, of course,
requires, with the aid of the key of times, will find much light on
that point, here and there, in the works referred to, and especially
in those parts of them in which the scientific use of popular terms is
treated. 'We will not, therefore,' he continues, 'endeavour to evince
it (our sincerity) any further by _words_, but content ourselves with
steadily, etc., ... professedly premising that no great _progress_ can
be made by the present methods in the _theory_ and contemplation of
science, _and_ that they can _not_ be made to produce _any very
abundant effects_.' This is the proof of his sincerity in professing
his regard and friendly disposition towards them, to be taken in
connection with his works on the Advancement of Learning, and no doubt
it was sincere, and just to that extent to which these statements, and
the practice which was connected with them, would seem to indicate;
but the careful reader will perceive that it was a regard, and
friendliness of disposition, which was naturally qualified by that
doubly significant fact last quoted.
But the question of style is still under discussion here, and no
wonder that with _such_ views of the value of the 'current coin,' and
with a regard and reverence for the received sciences so deeply
qualified; or, as the other has it, with a humour so unfit either to
speak or write for _beginners_, a style which admitted of other
efficacies than bare _proofs_, should appear to be demanded for
popular purposes, or for beginners. And no wonder that with views so
similar on this first and so radical point, these two men should have
hit upon the same method in _Rhetoric_ exactly, though it _was_ then
wholly new. But our Gascon, goes on to describe its freedoms and
novelties, its imitations of the living conference, its new
vitalities.
'May we not,' says the successful experimenter in this very style,
'mix with the subject of conversation and communication, the quick and
sharp repartees which mirth and familiarity introduce amongst friends
pleasantly and _wittingly_ jesting with one another; an exercise for
which my natural gaiety renders me fit enough, if it be not so
extended and serious as _the other I just spoke of_, 'tis no less
smart and ingenious, nor of less utility _as Lycurgus thought_.'
CHAPTER II.
FURTHER ILLUSTRATION OF 'PARTICULAR METHODS OF
TRADITION.'--EMBARRASSMENTS OF LITERARY STATESMEN.
Here's neither bush nor shrub to bear off any weather at all, and
another storm brewing. I hear it sing in the wind. My, best way is to
creep under his gaberdine; there is no other shelter hereabout: Misery
acquaints a man with strange bedfellows. I will here shroud, till the
dregs of the storm be past.--_Tempest_.
Here then, in the passages already quoted, we find the plan and
theory--the premeditated form of a new kind of Socratic performance;
and this whole work, as well as some others composed in this age, make
the realization of it; an invention which proposes to substitute for
the languishing feeble motion which is involved in the study of
_books_--the kind of books which this author found invented when he
came--for the passive, sluggish receptivity of another's thought, the
living glow of pursuit and discovery, the flash of self-conviction.
It is a Socratic dialogue, indeed; but it waits for the reader's eye
to open it; he is himself the principal interlocutor in it; there can
be nothing done till he comes in. Whatsoever beauty or truth maybe in
the argument; whatsoever jokes and repartees; whatsoever infinite
audacities of mirth may be hidden under that grave cover, are not
going to shine out for any lazy book-worm's pleasure. He that will not
work, neither shall he eat of this food. 'Up to the _mountains_,' for
_this is hunter's language_, 'and he that strikes the venison first
shall be lord of this feast.' It is an invention whereby the author
will remedy for himself the complaint, that life is short, and art is
long; whereby he will 'outstretch his span,' and make over, not his
learning only but his _living_ to the future;--it is an
instrumentality by which he will still maintain living relations with
the minds of men, by which he will put himself into the most intimate
relations of sympathy, and confidence, and friendship, with the mind
of the few; by which he will reproduce his purposes and his faculties
in them, and train them to take up in their turn that thread of
knowledges which is to be spun on.
But if this design be buried so deeply, is it not _lost_ then? If all
the absurd and contradictory developments--if all the mad
inconsistencies--all the many-sided contradictory views, which are
possible to human nature on all the questions of human life, which
this single personal pronoun was made to represent, in the profoundly
philosophic design of the author, are still culled out by learned
critics, and made to serve as the material of a grave, though it is
lamented, somewhat egotistical biography, is not all this ingenuity,
which has successfully evaded thus far not the careless reader only,
but the scrutiny of the scholar, and the sharp eye of the reviewer
himself, is it not an ingenuity which serves after all to little
purpose, which indeed defeats its own design? No, by no means. That
disguise which was at first a necessity, has become the instrument of
his power. It is that broad _I_ of his, that _I myself_, with which he
still takes all the world; it is that single, many-sided, vivacious,
historical impersonation, that ideal impersonation of the individual
human nature as it is--not as it should be--with all its 'weaved-up
follies ravelled out,' with all its before unconfessed actualities,
its infinite absurdities and contradictions, so boldly pronounced and
assumed by one laying claim to an historical existence, it is this
historical assumption and pronunciation of all the before unspoken,
unspeakable facts of this unexplored department of natural history, it
is this apparent confession with which this magician entangles his
victims, as he tells us in a passage already quoted, and leads them on
through that objective representation of their follies in which they
may learn to hate them, to that globe mirror--that mirror of the age
which he boasts to have hung up here, when he says, 'I have done what
I designed: all the world knows _me in my book_, and my book in _me_.'
Who shall say that it is yet time to strip him of the disguise which
he wears so effectively? With all his faults, and all his egotisms,
who would not be sorry to see him taken to pieces, after all? And who
shall quite assure us, that it would not still be treachery, even now,
for those who have unwound his clues, and traversed his labyrinths to
the heart of his mystery,--for those who have penetrated to the
chamber of his inner school, to come out and blab a secret with which
he still works so potently; insensibly to those on whom he works,
perhaps, yet so potently? But there is no harm done. It will still
take the right reader to find his way through these new devices in
letters; these new and vivacious proofs of learning; for him, and for
none other, they lurk there still.
To evade political restrictions, and to meet the popular mind on its
own ground, was the double purpose of the disguise; but it is a
disguise which will only detect, and not baffle, the mind that is able
to identify itself with his, and able to grasp his purposes; it is a
disguise which will only detect the mind that knows him, and his
purposes already. The enigmatical form of the inculcation is the
device whereby that mind will be compelled to follow his track, to
think for itself his thoughts again, to possess itself of the inmost
secret of his intention; for it is a school in whose enigmatical
devices the mind of the future was to be caught, in whose subtle
exercises the child of the future was to be trained to an identity
that should restore the master to his work again, and bring forth
anew, in a better hour, his clogged and buried genius.
But, if the fact that a new and more vivid kind of writing, issuing
from the heart of the new philosophy of _things_, designed to work new
and extraordinary effects by means of literary instrumentalities,--
effects hitherto reserved for other modes of impression,--if the
fact, that a new and infinitely artistic mode of writing, burying
the secrets of philosophy in the most careless forms of the vulgar
and popular discourse, did, in this instance at least, exist; if
this be proved, it will suffice for our present purpose. What else
remains to be established concerning points incidentally started
here, will be found more pertinent to another stage of this enquiry.
From beginning to end, the whole work might be quoted, page by page,
in proof of this; but after the passages already produced here, there
would seem to be no necessity for accumulating any further evidence on
this point. A passage or two more, at least, will suffice to put
_that_ beyond question. The extracts which follow, in connection with
those already given, will serve, at least, to remove any rational
doubt on that point, and on some others, too, perhaps.
'But whatever I deliver myself to be, provided it be such as I really
am, I have my end; neither will I make any excuse for committing to
paper such mean and frivolous things as these; the meanness of the
_subject_ compels me to it.'--'_Human reason is a two-edged_ and a
_dangerous sword_. Observe, in the hand of _Socrates_, her most
intimate and familiar friend, _how many points it has. Thus_, I am
good for nothing but to follow, and suffer myself to be easily carried
away with the crowd.'--'I have this opinion of _these political
controversies_: Be on what side you will, you have as fair a game to
play as your adversary, provided you do not proceed so far as to
jostle _principles that are too manifest to be disputed; and yet,
'tis_ my _notion, in public affairs_ [hear], _there is no government_
so ill, _provided it be ancient_, and has been _constant_, that is not
better than change and alteration. Our manners are infinitely
corrupted, and wonderfully incline to grow worse: of our laws and
customs, _there are many that are barbarous and monstrous:
nevertheless_, by reason of the difficulty of reformation, and the
danger of stirring things, _if I could put something under to stay the
wheel_, and keep it where it is, _I would do so with all my heart_. It
is very easy to beget in a people a contempt of its ancient
observances; _never any man undertook, but he succeeded; but to
establish a better regimen in the stead of that a man has overthrown,
many who have attempted this have foundered in the attempt_. I very
little consult _my prudence_ [philosophic 'prudence'] in my conduct. I
am willing to let it be guided by _public rule_.
'In fine, to return to myself, the only things by which _I_ esteem
_myself_ to be something, is _that wherein never any man_ thought
himself to be defective. _My recommendation is vulgar and common_; for
whoever thought _he_ wanted sense. It would be a _proposition that
would imply a contradiction in itself_; [in such subtleties thickly
studding this popular work, the clues which link it with other works
of this kind are found--the clues to a new _practical human
philosophy_.] 'Tis a disease that never is where it is discerned; 'tis
tenacious and strong; _but the first ray of the patient's sight_ does
nevertheless pierce it through and disperse it, as the beams of the
sun do a thick mist: to _accuse one's self_, would be to _excuse one's
self_ in this case; and to _condemn_, to _absolve_. There never was
porter, or silly girl, that did not think they had sense enough for
their need. The reasons that proceed from the natural arguing of
others, we think that if we had turned our thoughts that way, we
should ourselves have found it out as well as they. _Knowledge,
style_, and such parts as we see in other works, we are readily aware
if they excel our own; but for the simple products of the
_understanding_, every one thinks he could have found out the like,
and is hardly sensible of the weight and difficulty, unless--and then
with much ado--in an extreme and incomparable distance; _and whoever
should be able clearly to discern_ the height of another's judgment,
would be also able _to raise his own to the same pitch_; so that this
is a sort of exercise, from which a man is to expect very little
praise, a kind of composition of small repute. _And, besides, for whom
do you write_?'--for he is merely meeting this common sense. His
object is merely to make his reader confess, 'That was just what I was
about to say, it was just my thought; and if I did not express it so,
it was only for want of language;'--'for whom do you write? _The
learned_, to whom the authority appertains of judging books, know no
other value but that of learning, and allow of no other process of wit
but that of erudition and art. If you have mistaken one of the Scipios
for another, what is all the rest you have to say worth? Whoever is
ignorant of Aristotle, according to their rule, is in some sort
ignorant of himself. _Heavy and vulgar souls_ cannot discern the grace
of a high and unfettered style. Now these two sorts of men make the
_world_. The _third sort_, into whose hands you fall, of souls that
are regular, and strong of themselves, is so rare, that it _justly_
has neither _name nor place amongst us_, and it is pretty well time
lost to aspire to it, or to endeavour to please it.' He will not
content himself with pleasing the few. He wishes to _move_ the world,
and its approbation is a secondary question with him.
'He that should record _my_ idle talk, to the prejudice of the most
paltry law, opinion, or custom of his parish, would do himself a great
deal of wrong, and me too; for, in what I say, I warrant no other
certainty, but 'tis what I _had then in my thought, a thought
tumultuous and wavering_. ["I have nothing with this answer, Hamlet,"
says the offended king. "These words are not mine." _Hamlet_: "Nor
mine _now_."] All I say is by way of discourse. _I should not speak so
boldly, if it were my due to be believed, and so I told a great man,
who complained to me of the tartness and contention of my advice_.'
And, indeed, he would not, in this instance, that is very
certain;--for he has been speaking on the subject of RELIGIOUS
TOLERATION, and among other remarks, somewhat too far in advance of
his time, he has let fall, by chance, such passages as these, which,
of course, he stands ready to recall again in case any one is
offended. ('These words are not mine, Hamlet.' 'Nor mine now.') 'To
_kill men_, a clear and shining light is required, and our life is too
real and essential, to warrant these supernatural and fantastic
accidents.' 'After all 'tis setting a _man's conjectures_ at a very
high price to _cause a man to be roasted alive upon them_.' He does
not look up at all, after making this accidental remark; for he is too
much occupied with a very curious story, which happens to come into
his head at that moment, of certain men, who being more profoundly
asleep than _men usually are_, became, according to certain grave
authorities, what in their dreams they fancied they were; and having
mentioned one case sufficiently ludicrous to remove any unpleasant
sensation or inquiry which his preceding allusion might have
occasioned, he resumes, 'If _dreams can sometimes so incorporate
themselves with effects of life_, I cannot believe that therefore our
will should be accountable to justice. _Which I say, as a man_, who am
neither _judge nor privy counsellor_, nor think myself, by many
degrees, worthy so to be, but a _man of the common sort_, born and
vowed to the obedience of the public realm, both in _words_ and
_acts_.
'_Thought_ is free;--_thought_ is free.'
_Ariel_.
'Perceiving _you to be ready and prepared on one part_, I propose to
you on the other, with all the care I can, to _clear_ your judgment,
not to enforce it. Truly, _I_ have not only a great many humours, but
_also a great many opinions_ [which I bring forward here, and assume
as mine] that I would _endeavour_ to make _my son dislike_, if I had
one. The _truest_, are not always the most commodious to man; he is of
too _wild_ a composition. "We speak of all things by precept and
resolution," he continues, returning again to this covert question of
toleration, and Lord Bacon complains also that that is the method in
his meridian. They make me hate things that are _likely_, when they
impose them on me for _infallible_. "Wonder is the foundation of all
philosophy"--(or, as Lord Bacon expresses it, "wonder is the seed of
knowledge")--enquiry the progress--ignorance the end. Ay, but there is
a sort of ignorance, _strong and generous_, that yields nothing _in
honour and courage to knowledge_, a knowledge, which to conceive,
requires _no less knowledge_ than knowledge itself.'
'I saw, in my younger days, a report of a process that Corras, a
counsellor of Thoulouse, put in print.'--[The vain, egotistical,
incoherent, rambling old Frenchman, the old Roman Catholic French
gentleman, who is understood to be the author of this new experiment
in letters, was not far from being a middle-aged man, when the
pamphlet which he here alludes to was first published; but his
chronology, generally, does not bear a very close examination. Some
very extraordinary anachronisms, which the critics are totally at a
loss to account for, have somehow slipped into his story. There _was_
a young philosopher in France in those days, of a most precocious, and
subtle, and inventive genius--of a most singularly artistic genius,
combining speculation and practice, as they had never been combined
before, and already busying himself with all sorts of things, and
among other things, with curious researches in regard to ciphers, and
other questions not less interesting at that time;--there was a youth
in France, whose family name was also English, living there with his
eyes wide open, a youth who had found occasion to _invent_ a cipher of
his own even then, into whose hands that publication might well have
fallen on its first appearance, and one on whose mind it might very
naturally have made the impression here recorded. But let us return to
the story.]--'I saw in my younger days, a report of a process, that
Corras, a counsellor of Thoulouse, put in print, of a strange accident
of _two men, who presented themselves the one for the other_. I
remember, and I hardly remember anything else, that he seemed to have
rendered _the imposture of him whom he judged to be guilty, so
wonderful, and so far exceeding both our knowledge and his who was the
judge, that I thought it a very bold sentence that condemned him to be
hanged_. [That is the point.] _Let us take up_ SOME FORM of ARREST,
that shall say, THE COURT _understands nothing of the matter_, more
freely and ingenuously than the Areopagites did, _who ordered the
parties to appear again in a hundred years_.' We must not forget that
these stories 'are not regarded by the author merely for the use he
makes of them,--that they carry, besides what he applies them to, the
seeds of a richer and bolder matter, and sometimes collaterally a
_more delicate sound_, both to the author himself who declines saying
anything more about it _in that place_, and to others who shall happen
to be of his ear!' One already prepared by previous discovery of the
method of communication here indicated, and by voluminous readings in
it, to understand that appeal, begs leave to direct the attention of
the critical reader to the delicate collateral sounds in the story
last quoted.
It is not irrelevant to notice that this story is introduced to the
attention of the reader, 'who will, perhaps, see farther into it than
others,' in that chapter on toleration in which it is suggested that
considering the fantastic, and unscientific, and unsettled character
of the human beliefs and opinions, and that even 'the Fathers' have
suggested in their speculations on the nature of human life, that what
men believed themselves to be, in their dreams, they really became, it
is after all setting a man's conjectures at a very high price to cause
a man to be roasted alive on them; the chapter in which it is
intimated that considering the natural human liability to error, a
little more room for correction of blunders, a little larger chance of
arriving at the common truth, a little more chance for growth and
advancement in learning, would, perhaps, on the whole, be likely to
conduce to the human welfare, instead of sealing up the human
advancement for ever, with axe and cord and stake and rack, within the
limits of doctrines which may have been, perhaps, the very wisest, the
most learned, of which the world was capable, at the time when their
form was determined. It is the chapter which he calls fancifully, a
chapter 'on _cripples_,' into which this odd story about the two men
who presented themselves, the one for the other, in a manner so
remarkable, is introduced, for _lameness_ is always this author's
grievance, wherever we find him, and he is driven to all sorts of
devices to overcome it; for he is the person who came prepared to
speak well, and who hates that sort of speaking, where a man reads his
speech, because he is one who could naturally give it a grace by
action, or as another has it, he is one who would suit the action to
the word.
But it was not the question of 'hanging' only, or 'roasting alive,'
that authors had to consider with themselves in these times. For those
forms of literary production which an author's literary taste, or his
desire to reach and move and mould the people, might incline him to
select--the most approved forms of popular literature, were in effect
forbidden to men, bent, as these men were, on taking an active part in
the affairs of their time. Any extraordinary reputation for excellence
in these departments, would hardly have tended to promote the
ambitious views of the young aspirant for honors in that school of
statesmanship, in which the 'Fairy Queen' had been scornfully
dismissed, as 'an old song.' Even that disposition to the gravest and
profoundest forms of philosophical speculation, which one foolish
young candidate for advancement was indiscreet enough to exhibit
prematurely there, was made use of so successfully to his
disadvantage, that for years his practical abilities were held in
suspicion on that very account, as he complains. The reputation of a
_Philosopher_ in those days was quite as much as this legal
practitioner was willing to undertake for his part. That of a _Poet_
might have proved still more uncomfortable, and more difficult to
sustain. His claim to a place in the management of affairs would not
have been advanced by it, in the eyes of those old statesmen, whose
favour he had to propitiate. However, he was happily relieved from any
suspicion of that sort. If those paraphrases of the Psalms for which
he chose to make himself responsible,--if those Hebrew melodies of his
did not do the business for him, and clear him effectually of any such
suspicion in the eyes of that generation, it is difficult to say what
would. But whether his devotional feelings were really of a kind to
require any such painful expression as that on their own account, may
reasonably be doubted by any one acquainted at all with his general
habits of thought and sentiment. These lyrics of the philosopher
appear on the whole to prove too much; looked at from a literary point
of view merely, they remind one forcibly of the attempts of Mr.
_Silence_ at a Bacchanalian song. 'I have a reasonable good ear in
music,' says the unfortunate Pyramus, struggling a little with that
cerebral development and uncompromising facial angle which he finds
imposed on him. 'I have a reasonable good ear in music: let us have
the tongs and the bones.'
'A man must frame _some probable cause_, why he should not do his
best, and why he should dissemble his abilities,' says this author,
speaking of _colour_, or the covering of defects; and that the
prejudice just referred to was not peculiar to the English court, the
remarkable piece of dramatic criticism which we are about to produce
from this old Gascon philosopher's pages, may or may not indicate,
according as it is interpreted. It serves as an introduction to the
passage in which the author's double meaning, and the occasionally
double sound of his stories is noted. In the preceding chapter, it
should be remarked, however, the author has been discoursing in high
strains, upon the vanity of popular applause, or of any applause but
that of reason and conscience; sustaining himself with quotations from
the Stoics, whose doctrines on this point he assumes as the precepts
of a true and natural philosophy; and among others the following
passage was quoted:--[Taken from an epistle of Seneca, but including a
quotation from a letter of Epicurus, on the same subject.]--'Remember
him who being asked why he took so much pains in an art that could
come to the knowledge of but few persons, replied, "A few are enough
for me. I have enough with one, I have enough with never a one." He
said true; yourself and a companion _are_ theatre enough to one
another, or _you_ to _yourself_. Let us be to you _the whole people_,
and the whole people to you but _one_. You should do like the beasts
of chase who _efface the track at the entrance into their den_.' But
this author's comprehensive design embraces all the oppositions in
human nature; he thinks it of very little use to preach to men from
the height of these lofty philosophic flights, unless you first dive
down to the platform of their actualities, and by beginning with the
secret of what they are, make sure that you take them with you. So
then the latent human vanity, must needs be confessed, and instead of
taking it all to himself this time, poor Cicero and Pliny are dragged
up, the latter very unjustly, as the commentator complains, to stand
the brunt of this philosophic shooting.
'But this exceeds all meanness of spirit in _persons of such quality
as they were_, to think to derive any glory from babbling and prating,
_even to the making use of their private letters to their friends, and
so withal that_ though some of them _were never sent, the opportunity
being lost_, they nevertheless published them; with this worthy
excuse, that they were unwilling to lose their labour, and have their
lucubrations thrown away.'--Was it not well becoming two consuls of
Rome, _sovereign magistrates of the republic, that_ commanded the
world, to spend their time in patching up elegant missives, in order
to gain the reputation of being well versed _in their own mother
tongue_? What could a pitiful schoolmaster have done worse, who got
his living by it? If the _acts_ of Xenophon and Caesar had not far
transcended their eloquence, I don't believe they would ever have
taken the pains to _write_ them. They made it their business to
recommend not their _saying_, but their _doing_. The companions of
Demosthenes in the embassy to Philip, extolling that prince as
handsome, eloquent, and a stout drinker, Demosthenes said that those
were commendations more proper for a woman, an advocate, or a sponge.
'Tis not _his profession_ to know either how to hunt, or to dance
well.
Orabunt causas alii, coelique meatus
Describent radio, et fulgentia sidera dicent,
Hic regere imperio populos sciat.
Plutarch says, moreover, that to appear so excellent in these less
necessary qualities, is to produce witness against a man's self, that
he has spent his time and study ill, which ought to have been employed
in the acquisition of more necessary and more useful things. Thus
Philip, King of Macedon, having heard _the great Alexander_, his son,
_sing at a feast_ to the _wonder and envy of the best musicians_
there. 'Art thou not ashamed,' he said to him, 'to _sing so well_?'
And to the same Philip, a musician with whom he was disputing about
something concerning his art, said, '_Heaven forbid, sir, that so
great a misfortune should ever befall you as to understand these
things better than I_.' Perhaps this author might have made a similar
reply, had _his_ been subjected to a similar criticism. And Lord Bacon
quotes this story too, as he does many others, which this author has
_first selected_, and for the same purpose; for, not content with
appropriating his philosophy, and pretending to invent his design and
his method, he borrows all his most significant stories from him, and
brings them in to illustrate the same points, and the points are
borrowed also: he makes use, indeed, of his common-place book
throughout in the most shameless and unconscionable manner. 'Rack his
style, Madam, _rack his style_?' he said to Queen Elizabeth, as he
tells us, when she consulted him--he being then of her counsel
learned, in the case of Dr. Hayward, charged with having written 'the
book of the deposing of Richard the Second, and the _coming in_ of
Henry the Fourth,' and sent to the Tower for that offence. The queen
was eager for a different kind of advice. Racking an author's book did
not appear to her coarse sensibilities, perfectly unconscious of the
delicacy of an author's susceptibilities, a process in itself
sufficiently murderous to satisfy her revenge. There must be some
flesh and blood in the business before ever she could understand it.
She wanted to have 'the question' put to that gentleman as to his
meaning in the obscure passages in that work under the most impressive
circumstances; and Mr. Bacon, _himself_ an author, being of her
counsel learned, was requested to make out a case of treason for her;
and wishes from such a source were understood to be commands in those
days. Now it happened that one of the managers and actors at the Globe
Theatre, who was at that time sustaining, as it would seem, the most
extraordinary relations of intimacy and friendship with the friends
and patrons of this same person, then figuring as the queen's adviser,
had recently composed a tragedy on this very subject; though that
gentleman, more cautious than Dr. Hayward, and having, perhaps, some
learned counsel also, had taken the precaution to keep back the scene
of the deposing of royalty during the life-time of this sharp-witted
queen, reserving its publication for the reign of her erudite
successor; and the learned counsel in this case being aware of the
fact, may have felt some sympathy with this misguided author. 'No,
madam,' he replied to her inquiry, thinking to take off her bitterness
with a merry conceit, as he says, 'for treason I can _not_ deliver
opinion that there is any, but very much felony.' The queen
apprehending it gladly, asked, 'How?' and 'wherein?' Mr. Bacon
answered, 'Because he had stolen many of his sentences and conceits
out of Cornelius Tacitus.' It would do one good to see, perhaps, how
many felonious appropriations of sentences, and quotations, and ideas,
the application he recommends would bring to light in this case.
But the instances already quoted are not the only ones which this free
spoken foreign writer, this Elizabethan genius abroad, ventures to
adduce in support of this position of his, that statesmen--men who
aspire to the administration of republics or other forms of
government--if they cannot consent on that account to relinquish
altogether the company of the Muses, must at least so far respect the
prevailing opinion on that point, as to be able to sacrifice to it the
proudest literary honours. Will the reader be pleased to notice, not
merely the extraordinary character of the example in this instance,
but _the grounds_ of the assumption which the critic makes with so
much coolness.
'And could the perfection of eloquence have added any lustre
proportionable to the merit of a great person, certainly Scipio and
Laelius had never resigned the honour of their comedies, with all the
_luxuriancies and delicacies of the Latin tongue_, to an African
slave, for that the work was THEIRS _its beauty and excellency_
SUFFICIENTLY PROVE.' [This is from a book in which the supposed
autograph of Shakspere is found; a work from which he quotes
incessantly, and from which he appears, indeed, to have taken the
whole hint of his learning.] 'Besides Terence himself confesses as
much, and I should take it ill in any one that would _dispossess me_
of that _belief_.' For, as he says in another place, in a certain
deeply disguised dedication which he makes of the work of a friend, a
poet, whose early death he greatly lamented, and whom he is
'determined,' as he says, 'to revive and raise again to life if he
can:' 'As we often judge of the greater by the less, and _as the very
pastimes_ of great men give an honourable idea to the clear-sighted
_of the source_ from which they spring, I hope you will, by this work
of his, rise to the knowledge of himself, and by consequence love and
embrace his memory. In so doing, you will accomplish what he
exceedingly longed for whilst he lived.' But here he continues thus,
'I have, indeed, in my time known some, who, by a knack of writing,
have got both title and fortune, yet disown their apprenticeship,
_purposely corrupt their style,_ and affect ignorance of so vulgar a
quality (which _also our nation observes_, rarely to be seen _in very
learned hands_), carefully seeking a reputation by better qualities.'
I once did hold it, as our statists do, a baseness to write fair:
but now it did me yeoman's service.--_Hamlet_.
And it is in the next paragraph to _this_, that he takes occasion to
mention that his stories and allegations do not always serve simply
for example, authority, or ornament; that they are not limited in
their application to the use he ostensibly makes of them, but that
they carry, for those who are in his secret, other meanings, bolder
and richer meanings, and sometimes collaterally a more delicate sound.
And having interrupted the consideration upon Cicero and Pliny, and
their vanity and pitiful desire for honour in future ages, with this
criticism on the limited sphere of statesmen in general, and the
devices to which _Lælius and Scipio_ were compelled to resort, in
order to get _their_ plays published without diminishing the lustre of
their personal renown, and having stopped to insert that most
extraordinary avowal in regard to his two-fold meanings in his
allegations and stories, he returns to the subject of this
correspondence again, for there is more in this also than meets the
ear; and it is not _Pliny_, and _Cicero_ only, whose supposed vanity,
and regard for posthumous fame, as men of letters, is under
consideration. 'But returning to the _speaking virtue_;' he says, 'I
find _no great choice_ between not knowing to speak _anything but
ill_, and not knowing anything but _speaking well_. The sages tell us,
that as to what concerns _knowledge_ there is nothing but
_philosophy_, and as to what concerns _effects_ nothing but _virtue_,
that is generally proper to all degrees and orders. There is something
like _this in these two other_ philosophers, for _they also promise_
ETERNITY to the letters they write to their friends, but 'tis _after
another manner_, and by accommodating themselves _for a good end_ to
the vanity of _another_; for they write to them that if the concern of
making themselves known to future ages, and the thirst of glory, do
yet _detain_ them in the management of public affairs, and make them
fear the solitude and retirement to which they would persuade them;
let them never trouble themselves more about it, forasmuch as they
shall have credit enough with posterity to assure them that, were
there nothing else but the _letters_ thus writ to them, those letters
will render their names as known and famous as their _own public
actions_ themselves could do. [And that--_that_ is the key to the
correspondence between _two other_ philosophers enigmatically alluded
to here.] And besides this difference,' for it is 'these two other
philosophers,' and not Pliny and Cicero, and not Seneca and Epicurus
alone, that we talk of here, 'and besides _this difference, these_ are
not _idle_ and _empty_ letters, that contain nothing but a fine jingle
of well chosen words, and fine couched phrases; but replete and
_abounding with grave and learned discourses_, by which a man may
render himself--not more eloquent but more _wise_, and that instruct
us not to _speak_ but _to do well_'; for that is the rhetorical theory
that was adopted by the scholars and statesmen then alive, whose
methods of making themselves known to future ages he is indicating,
even in these references to the ancients. '_Away_ with that
_eloquence_ which so enchants us with its _harmony_ that we should
more study it than _things_'; for this is the place where the
quotation with which our investigation of this theory commenced is
inserted in the text, and here it is, in the light of these preceding
collections of hints that he puts in the story first quoted, wherein
he says, the nature of the orator will be much more manifestly laid
open to us, than in that seeming care for his fame, or in that care of
his style, for its own sake. It is the story of Eros, the slave, who
brought the speaker word that the audience was _deferred_, when in
composing a speech that he was to make in public, 'he found himself
straitened in _time_, to fit his words to his mouth as he had a mind
to do.'
CHAPTER III.
THE POSSIBILITY OF GREAT ANONYMOUS WORKS,--OR WORKS PUBLISHED UNDER AN
ASSUMED NAME,--CONVEYING, UNDER RHETORICAL DISGUISES, THE PRINCIPAL
SCIENCES,--RE-SUGGESTED, AND ILLUSTRATED.
_Is the storm overblown? I hid me under the dead moon-calf's gaberdine
for fear of the storm.--Tempest_.
BUT as to this love of glory which the stoics, whom this philosopher
quotes so approvingly, have measured at its true worth; as to this
love of literary fame, this hankering after an earthly immortality,
which he treats so scornfully in the Roman statesman, let us hear him
again in another chapter, and see if we can find any thing whereby
_his_ nature and designs will more manifestly be laid open to us. 'Of
all the foolish dreams in the world,' he says, that which is most
universally received, is the solicitude of reputation and glory, which
we are fond of to that degree as to abandon riches, peace, life, and
health, which are effectual and substantial good, to pursue this vain
phantom. And of all the irrational humours of men, it should seem that
the philosophers themselves have the most ado, and do the least
disengage themselves from this the most restive and obstinate of all
the follies. There is not any one view of which _reason_ does so
clearly accuse the vanity, as that; but it is _so deeply rooted in
us_, that I doubt whether any one ever clearly freed himself from it,
or no. _After you have said all, and believed all_ that has been said
to its prejudice, it creates so intestine an inclination _in
opposition to your best arguments_, that you have little power and
firmness to resist it; _for_ (_as Cicero says_) even those who
controvert it, would yet that _the books they write_ should appear
before the world with _their names in the title page_, and seek to
derive glory from seeming to despise it. All other things are
communicable and fall into commerce; we lend our goods--
[It irks me not that men my garments wear.]
and stake our lives for the necessities and service of our friends;
but to communicate one's honour, _and to robe another with one's own
glory_, is very rarely seen. And yet we have some examples of that
kind. Catulus Luctatius, in the Cymbrian war, having done all that in
him lay to make his flying soldiers face about upon the enemy, _ran
himself at last away with the rest, and counterfeited the coward_, to
the end that his men might rather seem to follow their captain, than
to fly from the enemy; and after several anecdotes full of that inner
significance of which he speaks elsewhere, in which he appears, but
only appears, to lose sight of this question of literary honour, for
they relate to _military_ conflicts, he ventures to approach, somewhat
cautiously and delicately, the latent point of his essay again, by
adducing the example of persons, _not_ connected with the military
profession, who have found themselves called upon in various ways, and
by means of various weapons, to take part in these wars; who have yet,
in consequence of certain '_subtleties of conscience_,' _relinquished_
the _honour_ of their successes; and though there is no instance
adduced of that particular kind of disinterestedness, in which an
author relinquishes to another the honour of his title page, as the
beginning might have led one to anticipate; on the whole, the not
indiligent reader of this author's performances here and elsewhere,
will feel that the subject which is announced as the subject of this
chapter, 'Not to communicate a man's honour or glory,' has been,
considering the circumstance, sufficiently illustrated.
'_As women succeeding to peerages_ had, notwithstanding their sex, the
right to assist and give their votes in the causes that appertain to
the jurisdiction of peers; so the ecclesiastical peers,
_notwithstanding their profession_, were obliged to _assist our kings_
in their wars, not only with their friends and servants, but in their
own persons. And he instances the Bishop of Beauvais, who took a
gallant share in the battle of Bouvines, but did not think it _fit for
him to participate in the fruit and glory of that violent and bloody
trade_. He, with his own hand, reduced several of the enemy that day
to his mercy, whom he delivered to the first gentleman he met, either
to kill or to receive them to quarter, _referring that part to another
hand_. As also did William, Earl of Salisbury, to Messire John de
Neale, with a like subtlety of conscience to the other, he would KILL,
_but_ NOT WOUND _him_, and _for that reason_, fought only with a
_mace_. And a certain person in my time, being reproached by the king
that he had _laid hands_ on a _priest_, stiffly and positively denied
it. The case was, he had cudgelled and kicked him.' And there the
author abruptly, for that time, leaves the matter without any allusion
to the case of still another kind of combatants, who, fighting with
another kind of weapon, might also, from similar subtleties of
conscience, perhaps think fit to devolve on others the glory of their
successes.
But in a chapter on _names_, in which, if he has not told, he has
_designed to tell all_; and what he could not express, he has at least
pointed out with his finger, this subject is more fully developed. In
this chapter, he regrets that such as write _chronicles in Latin_ do
not leave our names as they find them, for in making of _Vaudemont_
VALLE-MONTANUS, and metamorphosing names to dress them out in Greek or
Latin, we know not where we are, and with the _persons_ of _the men,
lose_ the _benefit_ of the _story_: but one who tracks the inner
thread of this apparently miscellaneous collection of items, need be
at no such loss in this case. But at the conclusion of this apparently
very trivial talk about _names_, he resumes his philosophic humour
again, and the subsequent discourse on this subject, recalls once
more, the considerations with which philosophy sets at nought the loss
of fame, and forgets in the warmth that prompts to worthy deeds, the
glory that should follow them.
'But this consideration--that is the consideration "that it is the
custom in _France_, to call every man, even a stranger, by the name of
any _manor_ or _seigneury_, he may chance to come in possession of,
tends to the total confusion of descents, so that _surnames_ are no
security,"--"for," he says, "a younger brother of a good family,
having a _manor_ left him by his father, by the name of which he has
been known and honoured, cannot handsomely leave it; ten years after
his decease, it falls into the hand of a stranger, who does the same."
Do but judge whereabouts we shall be concerning the knowledge of these
men. This consideration leads me therefore into another subject. Let
us look a little more narrowly into, and examine upon what foundation
we erect this glory and reputation, for which the world is turned
topsy-turvy. Wherein do we place this renown, that we hunt after with
such infinite anxiety and trouble. It is in the end PIERRE or WILLIAM
that bears it, takes it into his possession, and whom only it
concerns. Oh what a valiant faculty is HOPE, that in a mortal subject,
and in a moment, makes nothing of usurping infinity, immensity,
eternity, and of supplying her master's indigence, at her pleasure,
with all things that he can imagine or desire. And this Pierre or
William, what is it but a sound, when all is done, ("What's in a
name?") or three or four dashes with a pen?'
And he has already written two paragraphs to show, that the name of
William, at least, is not excepted from the general remarks he is
making here on the vanity of names; while that of Pierre is five times
repeated, apparently with the same general intention, and another
combination of sounds is not wanting which serves with that free
translation the author himself takes pains to suggest and defend, to
complete what was lacking to that combination, in order to give these
remarks their true point and significance, in order to redeem them
from that appearance of flatness which is not a characteristic of this
author's intentions, and in his style merely serves as an intimation
to the reader that there is something worth looking for beneath it.
As to the name of William, and the amount of personal distinction
which that confers upon its owners, he begins by telling us, that the
name of Guienne is said to be derived from the Williams of our ancient
Aquitaine, 'which would seem,' he says, rather far fetched, were there
not as crude derivations in Plato himself, to whom he refers in other
places for similar precedents; and when he wishes to excuse his
enigmatical style--the titles of his chapters for instance. And by way
of emphasizing this particular still further, he mentions, that on the
occasion when Henry, the Duke of Normandy, the son of Henry the
Second, of England, made a feast in France, the concourse of nobility
and gentry was so great, that for _sport's sake_ he divided them into
_troops, according to their names_, and in the _first troop, which
consisted of Williams_, there were found a hundred and ten knights
sitting at the table of that name, without reckoning the simple
gentlemen and servants.
And here he apparently digresses from his subject for the sake of
mentioning the Emperor _Geta_, 'who distributed the several courses of
his meats by the _first letters of the meats_ themselves, where those
that began with _B_ were served up together; _as_ brawn, beef,
beccaficos, and so of the others.' This appears to be a little out of
the way; but it is not impossible that there may be an allusion in it
to the author's own family name of _Eyquem_, though that would be
rather farfetched, as he says; but then there is _Plato_ at hand,
still to keep us in countenance.
But to return to the point of digression. 'And this Pierre, or
William, what is it but a sound when all is done? _Or_ three or four
dashes with a pen, _so easy to be varied_, that I would fain know to
whom is to be attributed the glory of so many victories, to
_Guesquin_, to Glesquin, or to _Gueaguin_. And yet there would be
something more in the case than in Lucian that Sigma should serve Tau
with a process, for "He seeks no mean rewards." _The quere is here in
good earnest. The point is_, which of _these letters_ is to be
rewarded for so many sieges, battles, wounds, imprisonment, and
services done to the crown of France by this famous constable.
_Nicholas Denisot_ never concerned _himself_ further than _the letters
of his name_, of which he has altered the _whole contexture, to build
up by anagram_ the Count d'Alsinois _whom he has endowed with the
glory of his poetry and painting_. [A good precedent--but here is a
better one.] And the historian Suetonius looked only to the _meaning
of his_; and so, cashiering his _fathers surname, Lenis_ left
Tranquillus _successor to the reputation of his writings_. Who would
believe that the Captain Bayard should have no honour but what he
derives from the great deeds of Peter (Pierre) Terrail, [the name of
Bayard--"the meaning"] and that Antonio Escalin should suffer himself,
to his face, to be robbed of the honour of so many navigations, and
commands at sea and land, by Captain Poulin and the Baron de la Garde.
[The name of Poulin was taken from the place where he was born, De la
Garde from a person who took him in his boyhood into his service.] Who
hinders my groom from calling himself Pompey the Great? But, after
all, what virtue, what springs are there that convey to my deceased
groom, or the other Pompey (who had his head cut off in Egypt), this
glorious renown, and these so much honoured flourishes of the pen?'
Instructive suggestions, especially when taken in connection with the
preceding items contained in this chapter, apparently so casually
introduced, yet all with a stedfast bearing on this question of names,
and all pointing by means of a thread of delicate sounds, and not less
delicate suggestions, to another instance, in which the possibility of
circumstances tending to countervail the so natural desire to
appropriate to the name derived from one's ancestors, the lustre of
one's deeds, is clearly demonstrated.
''Tis with good reason that men decry the hypocrisy that is in war;
for what is more easy to an old soldier than to shift in time of
danger, and to counterfeit bravely, when he has no more heart than a
chicken. There are so many ways to avoid hazarding a man's own
person'--'and had we the use of the Platonic ring, which renders those
invisible that wear it, if turned inwards towards the palm of the
hand, it is to be feared that a great many would often hide
themselves, when they _ought to appear_.' 'It seems that to be known,
_is in some sort to a man's life and its duration in another's
keeping_. I for my part, hold that I am wholly in myself, and that
other life of mine which lies in the knowledge of my friends,
considering it nakedly and simply in itself, I know very well that I
am sensible of no fruit or enjoyment of it but by the vanity of a
fantastic opinion; and, when I shall be dead, I shall be much less
sensible of it, and shall withal absolutely lose the use of those real
advantages that sometimes accidentally follow it. [That was Lord
Bacon's view, too, exactly.] I shall have no more handle whereby to
take hold of reputation, or whereby it may take hold of me: for to
expect that my name should receive it, in the first place, I have no
name that is enough my own. Of two that I have, one is common to all
my race, and even to others also: there is one family at Paris, and
another at Montpelier, whose surname is _Montaigne_; another in
Brittany, and Xaintonge called _De la Montaigne_. The transposition of
_one syllable only_ is enough to ravel our affairs, so that I shall
peradventure share in their glory, and they shall partake of my shame;
and, moreover, my ancestors were formerly surnamed _Eyquem_, a name
wherein a _family well known in England_ at this day is concerned. As
to my other name, any one can _take it that will_, and _so_, perhaps,
I may honour _a porter_ in my own stead. And, besides, though I had a
particular distinction myself, what can it distinguish when I _am no
more_. Can it point out and favour inanity?
But will thy manes such a gift bestow
As to make violets from thy ashes grow?
'But of this I have spoken elsewhere.' He has--and to purpose.
But as to the authority for these readings, Lord Bacon himself will
give us that; for this is the style which he discriminates so sharply
as 'the _enigmatical_,' a style which he, too, finds to have been in
use among the ancients, and which he tells us _has some affinity_ with
that new method of making over knowledge from the mind of the teacher
to that of the pupil, which he terms the method of _progression_--
(which is the method of _essaie_)--in opposition to the received
method, the only method he finds in use, which he, too, calls
the _magisterial_. And this method of progression, with which the
enigmatical has some affinity, is to be used, he tells us, in cases
where knowledge is delivered as a thread to be spun on, where science
is to be removed from one mind to another _to grow from the root_, and
not delivered as trees for the use of the carpenter, where _the root_
is of no consequence. In this case, he tells us it is necessary for
the teacher to descend to _the foundations of knowledge and consent_,
and so to transplant it into another as it grew in his own mind,
'whereas as knowledge is now delivered, there is a _kind of contract
of error_ between the deliverer and the receiver, for he that
delivereth knowledge desireth to deliver it in such a form as may
_best be believed_, and not as may best be _examined_: and he that
receiveth knowledge desireth rather _present satisfaction_ than
_expectant inquiry_, and so rather _not to doubt than not to err,
glory_ making the author not to lay open his weakness, and _sloth_
making the disciple _not to know his strength_.' Now, so very grave a
defect as this, in the method of the delivery and tradition of
Learning, would of course be one of the first things that would
require to be remedied in any plan in which '_the Advancement_' of it
was seriously contemplated. And this method of the delivery and
tradition of knowledge which transfers _the root_ with them, that they
may grow in the mind of the learner, is the method which this
philosopher professes to find wanting, and the one which he seems
disposed to invent. He has made a very thorough survey of the stores
of the ancients, and is not unacquainted with the more recent history
of learning; he knows exactly what kinds of methods have been made use
of by the learned in all ages, for the purpose of putting themselves
into some tolerable and possible relations with the physical majority;
he knows what devices they have always been compelled to resort to,
for the purpose of establishing some more or less effective
communication between themselves and that world to which they
instinctively seek to transfer their doctrine. But this method, which
he suggests here as the essential condition of the growth and
advancement of learning, he does _not_ find invented. He refers to a
method which he calls the enigmatical, which has an affinity with it,
'used in some cases by the discretion of the ancients,' but disgraced
since, 'by the impostures of persons, who have made it as a _false
light_ for their counterfeit merchandises.' The purpose of this latter
style is, as he defines it, 'to remove the _secrets_ of knowledge from
the penetration of the more vulgar capacities, and to reserve them to
_selected auditors_, or to wits of such sharpness as can pierce the
veil.' And that is a method, he tells us, which philosophy can by no
means dispense with in his time, and 'whoever would let in new light
upon the human understanding must still have recourse to it.' But the
method of delivery and tradition in those ancient schools, appears to
have been too much of the dictatorial kind to suit this proposer of
advancement; its tendency was to arrest knowledge instead of promoting
its growth. He is not pleased with the ambition of those old masters,
and thinks they aimed too much at a personal impression, and that they
sometimes undertook to impose their own particular and often very
partial grasp of those universal doctrines and principles, which are
and must be true for all men, in too dogmatical and magisterial a
manner, without making sufficient allowance for the growth of the mind
of the world, the difference of races, etc.
But if any doubt in regard to the use of the method described, in the
composition of the work now first produced as AN EXAMPLE of the use of
it, should still remain in any mind; or if this method of unravelling
it should seem too studious, perhaps the author's own word for it in
one more quotation may be thought worth taking.
'_I can give no account of my life by_ MY ACTIONS, fortune has placed
_them_ too low; _I must do it_ BY MY FANCIES. And when shall I have
done representing the continual agitation and change of my thoughts as
they come into my head, seeing that Diomedes filled six thousand books
upon the subject of grammar.' [The commentators undertake to set him
right here, but the philosopher only glances in his intention at the
voluminousness of the science of _words_, in opposition to the science
of _things_, which he came to establish.] 'What must prating
_produce_, since prating itself, and the first beginning to speak,
stuffed the world with such a horrible load of volumes. So many words
about _words_ only. They accused one Galba, of old, of living idly; he
made answer that every one ought to give account of his _actions_, but
_not_ of his _leisure_. He was mistaken, for _justice_--[the civil
authority]--has cognizance and _jurisdiction_ over those that _do
nothing_, or only PLAY _at_ WORKING.... Scribbling appears to be the
sign of a disordered age. Every man applies himself negligently to the
duty of his _vocation_ at such a time and debauches in it.' From that
central wrong of an evil government, an infectious depravity spreads
and corrupts all particulars. Everything turns from its true and
natural course. Thus _scribbling_ is the sign of a disordered age. Men
write in such times instead of acting; and scribble, or seem to
perhaps, instead of writing openly to purpose.
And yet, again, that central, and so divergent, wrong is the result of
each man's particular contribution, as he goes on to assert. 'The
corruption of this age is made up by the particular contributions of
every individual man,'--
He were no lion, were not Romans hinds.--_Cassius_.
'Some contribute _treachery_, others _injustice_, irreligion,
_tyranny_, _avarice_ and _cruelty, according as they have power; the_
WEAKER SORT CONTRIBUTE FOLLY, VANITY, _and_ IDLENESS, and _of these_ I
am one.'
_Caesar_ loves no plays as thou dost, Antony.
Such men are dangerous.
Or, as the same poet expresses it in another Roman play:--
This _double worship_,
Where one part does _disdain with cause, the other
Insult without all reason_; where gentry, title, wisdom
Cannot conclude but by the _yea and no_
Of _general ignorance_,--it must omit
Real necessities--and give way the while
To unstable slightness; purpose _so barred_,
It follows, nothing is done to purpose.
And that is made the plea for an attempt to overthrow the popular
power, and to replace it with a government containing the true head of
the state, its nobility, its learning, its gentleness, its wisdom.
But the essayist continues:--'It seems as if it were the season for
_vain things_ when _the hurtful oppress us_; in a time when doing ill
is common, to do nothing but what _signifies nothing_ is a kind of
commendation. 'Tis _my_ comfort that _I_ shall be one of the last that
shall be called in question,--for it would be against reason _to
punish the less troublesome_ while we are _infested_ with the
_greater_. _As the physician_ said to one who presented him his finger
to dress, and who, as he perceived, had an ulcer _in his lungs_,
"Friend, it is not now time to concern yourself about your finger's
ends." _And yet_ I saw some years ago, _a person, whose name and
memory I have in very great esteem_, in the very height of our great
disorders, when there was _neither law nor justice put in execution,
nor magistrate that performed his office_,--_no more than there is
now_,--publish I know not what _pitiful reformations_ about _clothes,
cookery_ and _law chicanery_. _These are amusements_ wherewith _to
feed a people that are ill used, to show that they are not totally
forgotten. These others_ do the same, who insist upon _stoutly
defending_ the _forms_ of _speaking_, dances and games to a people
totally abandoned to all sorts of execrable vices--it is for the
Spartans only to fall to combing and curling themselves, when they are
just upon the point of running headlong into some extreme danger of
their lives.
'For _my part_, I have _yet a worse_ custom. I scorn to mend myself by
halves. If my _shoe_ go awry, I let my shirt and my cloak do so too:
when I am out of order I feed on mischief. I abandon myself through
despair, and let myself go towards the precipice, and as the saying
is, throw the helve after the hatchet.' We should not need, perhaps,
the aid of the explanations already quoted, to show us that the author
does not confess this custom of his for the sake of commending it to
the sense or judgment of the reader,--who sees it here for the first
time it may be put into words or put on paper, who looks at it here,
perhaps, for the first time objectively, from the critical stand-point
which the review of another's confession creates; and though it may
have been latent in the dim consciousness of his own experience, or
practically developed, finds it now for the first time, collected from
the phenomena of the blind, instinctive, human motivity, and put down
on the page of science, as a principle in nature, in human nature
also.
But this is indeed a Spartan combing and curling, that the author is
falling to, in the introductory flourishes ('diversions' as he calls
them) of this great adventure, that his pen is out for now: he is
indeed upon the point of running headlong into the fiercest
dangers;--it is the state, the wretched, discased, vicious state,
dying apparently, yet full of teeth and mischief, that he is about to
handle in his argument with these fine, lightsome, frolicsome
preparations of his, without any perceptible 'mittens'; it is the
heart of that political evil that his time groans with, and begins to
find insufferable, that he is going to probe to the quick with that so
delicate weapon. It is a tilt against the block and the rack, and all
the instruments of torture, that he is going to manage, as handsomely,
and with as many sacrifices to the graces, as the circumstances will
admit of. But the political situation which he describes so boldly
(and we have already seen what it is) affects us here in its relation
to the question of style only, and as the author himself connects it
with the point of our inquiry.
'A man may regret,' he says, 'the better times, but cannot fly from
the present, we may wish for other magistrates, but we must,
notwithstanding, obey those we have; and, peradventure, it is more
laudable to obey the bad than the good, so long as the image of the
ancient and received laws of this monarchy shall shine in any corner
of the kingdom. If they happen, unfortunately, to thwart and
contradict one another, so as to produce two factions of doubtful
choice,'--
And my soul aches
To know, [says Coriolanus] when two authorities are up,
Neither supreme, how soon confusion
May enter 'twixt the gap of both, and take
The one by the other.
--'in this contingency will willingly choose,' continues the other,
'to withdraw from the tempest, and in the meantime, _nature or the
hazards of war may lend me a helping hand_. Betwixt Cæsar and Pompey,
I should soon and frankly have declared myself, but amongst the three
robbers that came after, a man must needs _have either hid himself_,
or have gone along with the current of the time, _which I think a man
may lawfully do, when reason no longer rules_.' '_Whither_ dost thou
wandering go?'
'This _medley_ is a little from my subject, I go out of my way but
'tis rather _by licence than oversight_. My fancies _follow_ one
another, _but sometimes at a great distance_, and _look towards one
another_, but 'tis with an _oblique glance_. I have read a DIALOGUE of
PLATO of such a _motley and fantastic_ composition. The _beginning was
about love_, and all the rest ABOUT RHETORIC. _They_ stick not (that
is, the ancients) at these variations, and have a marvellous grace in
letting themselves to be carried away at the pleasure of the winds; or
at least to _seem_ as if they were. The titles of my chapters do not
always comprehend the whole matter, they often denote it _by some mark
only_, as those other titles _Andria Eunuchus_, or these, _Sylla,
Cicero, Torquatus_. I love _a poetic march_, by leaps and skips, 'tis
an art, as Plato says, light, nimble; and _a little demoniacal_. There
are places in _Plutarch_ where _he_ forgets his theme, where the
proposition of _his_ argument is only found _incidentally_, and
stuffed throughout with foreign matter. Do but observe his meanders in
the Demon of Socrates. How beautiful are his variations and
digressions; and then _most of all, when they seem to be_ fortuitous,
[hear] and introduced _for want of heed. 'Tis the indiligent reader_
that loses my subject--_not I. There will always be found some words_
or _other in a corner that are to the purpose, though it lie very
close_ [that is the unfailing rule]. I ramble about indiscreetly and
tumultously: my style and my _wit_ wander at the same rate, [he
wanders _wittingly_]. A _little folly_ is _desirable_ in him _that
will not be guilty of stupidity_, say the precepts, and much more the
_examples_ of our masters. A thousand poets flag and languish after a
_prosaic manner_; but the best old prose, and I strew it here up and
down _indifferently_ for verse, shines throughout with the vigor and
boldness of poetry, and represents some air of its fury. Certainly,
prose must _yield_ the pre-eminence in speaking. "The poet," says
Plato, "when set upon the muse's tripod, pours out with fury, whatever
comes into his mouth, like the pipe of a fountain, _without
considering and pausing upon what he says_, and things come from him
of _various colors_, of _contrary substance_, and with an irregular
torrent": he himself (Plato) is all over poetical, and all the old
theology (_as the learned inform us) is poetry_, and the _first
philosophy_, is the origiual language of the gods.
'I would have the matter _distinguish itself_; it sufficiently shows
_where it changes_, where it concludes, _where it begins, and where it
resumes, without interlacing it with words of connection_, introduced
for the relief of _weak or negligent ears_, and without commenting
myself. Who is he that had not rather not be read at all, than after a
drowsy or _cursory_ manner? Seeing I cannot fix the reader's attention
by the _weight_ of what I write, _maneo male_, if I should chance _to
do it by my intricacies_. [Hear]. I mortally hate obscurity and _would
avoid it if I could. In such an employment_, to whom you will not give
an hour you will give nothing; _and you do nothing for him for whom
you only do, whilst you are doing something else_. To which may be
added, that I have, perhaps, some particular obligation to speak only
_by halves_, to speak _confusedly and discordantly_.'
But this is, perhaps, enough to show, in the way of direct assertion,
that we have here, at least, a philosophical work composed in that
style which Lord Bacon calls 'the enigmatical,' in which he tells us
the _secrets_ of knowledge are reserved for _selected auditors_, or
wits of such sharpness as can pierce the veil; a style which he, too,
tells us was sometimes used by the discretion of the ancients, though
he does not specify either Plutarch or Plato; in that place, and one
which he introduces in connection with his new method of progression,
in consequence of its having, as he tells us, _some affinity_ with it,
and that we have here also a specimen of that new method itself, by
means of which knowledge is to be delivered as a thread to be spun on.
But let us leave, for the present, this wondrous Gascon, though it is
not very easy to do so, so long as we have our present subject in
hand,--this philosopher, whose fancies look towards one another at
such long, such very long distances, sometimes, though not always,
with an _oblique_ glance, who dares to depend so much upon the eye of
his reader, and especially upon the reader of that 'far-off' age he
writes to. It would have been indeed irrelevant to introduce the
subject of this foreign work and its style in this connection without
further explanation, but for the identity of political situation
already referred to, and but for those subtle, interior, incessant
connections with the higher writings of the great Elizabethan school,
which form the _main characteristic_ of this production. The fact,
that this work was composed in the country in which the chief
Elizabethan men attained their maturity, that it dates from the time
in which Bacon was completing his education there, that it covers
ostensibly not the period only, but the scenes and events of Raleigh's
six years campaigning there, as well as the fact alluded to by this
author himself, in a passage already quoted,--the fact that there was
a family then in England, _very well known_, who bore the surname of
his ancestors, a family of the name of _Eyquem_, he tells us with
whom, perhaps, he still kept up some secret correspondence and
relations, the fact, too, which he mentions in his chapter on Names,
that a surname in France is very easily acquired, and is not
necessarily derived from one's ancestors,--that same chapter in which
he adduces so many instances of men who, notwithstanding that
inveterate innate love of the honour of one's own proper name, which
is in men of genius still more inveterate,--have for one reason or
another been willing to put upon anagrams, or synonyms, or borrowed
names, all their honours, so that in the end it is William or Pierre
who takes them into his possession, and bears them, or it's the name
of 'an African slave' perhaps, or the name of a 'groom' (promoted, it
may be, to the rank of a jester, or even to that of a player,) that
gets all the glory. All these facts, taken in connection with the
conclusions already established, though insignificant in themselves,
will be found anything but that for the philosophical student who has
leisure to pursue the inquiry.
And though the latent meanings, in which the interior connections and
identities referred to above are found, are not yet critically
recognised, a latent national affinity and liking strong enough to
pierce this thin, artificial, foreign exterior, appears to have been
at work here from the first. For though the seed of the richer and
bolder meanings from which the author anticipated his later harvest,
could not yet be reached, that new form of popular writing, that
effective, and vivacious mode of communication with the popular mind
on topics of common concern and interest, not heretofore recognised as
fit subjects for literature, which this work offered to the world on
its surface, was not long in becoming fruitful. But it was on the
English mind that it began to operate first. It was in England, that
it began so soon to develop the latent efficacies it held in germ, in
the creation of that new and widening department in letters--that so
new, so vast, and living department of them, which it takes today all
our reviews, and magazines, and journals, to cover. And the work
itself has been from the first adopted, and appropriated here, as
heartily as if it had been an indigenous production, some singularly
distinctive product too, of the so deeply characterised English
nationality.
But it is time to leave this wondrous Gascon, this new 'Michael of the
Mount,' this man who is 'consubstantial with his book,'--this 'Man of
the Mountain,' as he figuratively describes it. Let us yield him this
new ascent, this new triumphant peak and pyramid in science, which he
claims to have been the first to master,--the unity of the universal
man,--the historical unity,--the universal human form, collected from
particulars, not contemplatively abstracted,--the inducted Man of the
new philosophy. '_Authors_,' he says, 'have _hitherto_ communicated
themselves to the people by some _particular_ and _foreign_ mark; _I,
the first of any by my universal being_, as _Michael_ de Montaigne, I
propose a life mean and without lustre: all moral philosophy is
applied as well to a private life as to one of the greatest
employment. _Every man_ carries _the entire form of the human
condition_...I, the first of any by my universal being, as
_Michael_,'--see the chapter on names,--'as _Michael_ de Montaigne.'
Let us leave him for the present, or attempt to, for it is not very
easy to do so, so long as we have our present subject in hand.
For, as we all know, it is from this idle, tattling, rambling old
Gascon--it is from this outlandish looker-on of human affairs, that
our Spectators and Ramblers and Idlers and Tattlers, trace their
descent; and the Times, and the Examiners, and the Observers, and the
Spectators, and the Tribunes, and Independents, and all the Monthlies,
and all the Quarterlies, that exercise so large a sway in human
affairs to-day, are only following his lead; and the best of them have
not been able as yet to leave him in the rear. But how it came to
pass, that a man of this particular turn of mind, who belonged to the
old party, and the times that were then passing away, should have felt
himself called upon to make this great signal for the human
advancement, and how it happens that these radical connections with
other works of that time, having the same general intention, are found
in the work itself,--these are points which the future _biographers_
of this old gentleman will perhaps find it for their interest to look
to. And a little of that more studious kind of reading which he
himself so significantly solicited, and in so many passages, will
inevitably tend to the elucidation of them.
PART II.
THE BACONIAN RHETORIC, OR THE METHOD OF PROGRESSION.
'The secrets of nature have not more gift in taciturnity.'
_Troilus and Cressida_.
'I did not think that Mr. Silence had been a man of this mettle.'
_Falstaff_.
CHAPTER I.
THE 'BEGINNERS.'
'PROSPERO.--Go bring THE RABBLE,
O'er whom I give thee power, here, to this place.'
_Tempest_.
But though a foreign philosopher may venture to give us the clue to
it, perhaps, in the first instance, a little more roundly, it is not
necessary that we should go the Mayor of Bordeaux, in order to
ascertain on the highest possible authority, what kind of an art of
communication, what kind of an art of delivery and tradition, men, in
such circumstances, find themselves compelled to invent;--that is, if
they would not be utterly foiled for the want of it, in their noblest
purposes;--we need not go across the channel to find the men
themselves, to whom this art is a necessity,--men so convinced that
they have a mission of instruction to their kind, that they will
permit no temporary disabilities to divert them from their end,--men
who must needs open their school, no matter what oppositions there may
be, to be encountered, no matter what imposing exhibitions of military
weapons may be going on just then, in their vicinity; and though they
should find themselves straitened in time, and not able to fit their
words to their mouths as they have a mind to, though they should be
obliged to accept the hint from the master in the Greek school, and
take their tone _from the ear of those to whom they speak_, though
many speeches which would spend their use among the men then living
would have to be inserted in their most enduring works with a private
hint concerning that necessity, and a private reading of them for
those whom it concerned; though _the audience_ they are prepared to
address _should be deferred_, though the benches of the inner school
should stand empty for ages. We need not go abroad at all to discover
men of this stamp, and their works and pastimes, and their arts of
tradition;--men so filled with that which impels men to speak, that
speak they must, and speak they will, in one form or another, by word
or gesture, by word or deed, though they speak to the void waste,
though they must speak till they reach old ocean in his unsunned
caves, and bring him up with the music of their complainings, though
the marble Themis fling back their last appeal, though they speak to
the tempest in his wrath, to the wind and the rain, and the fire and
the thunder,--men so impregnated with that which makes the human
speech, that speak they will, though they have but a rusty nail,
wherewith to etch their story, on their dungeon wall; though they dig
in the earth and bury their secret, as one buried his of old--that
same secret still; for it is still those EARS--those 'ears' that
'Midas hath' which makes the mystery.
They know that the days are coming when the light will enter their
prison house, and flash in its dimmest recess; when the light they
sought in vain, will be there to search out the secrets they are
forbid. They know that the day is coming, when the disciple himself,
all tutored in the art of their tradition, bringing with him the key
of its delivery, shall be there to unlock those locked-up meanings, to
spell out those anagrams, to read those hieroglyphics, to unwind with
patient loving research to its minutest point, that text, that with
such tools as the most watchful tyranny would give them, they will yet
contrive to leave there. They know that their buried words are seeds,
and though they lie long in the earth, they will yet spring up with
their 'richer and bolder meanings,' and publish on every breeze, their
boldest mystery.
For let not men of narrower natures fancy that such action is not
proper to the larger one, and cannot be historical. For there are
different _kinds_ of men, our _science_ of men tells us, and that is
an unscientific judgment which omits 'the _particular addition_, that
bounteous nature hath closed in each,'--her 'addition to the bill that
writes them all alike.' For there is a kind of men 'whose minds are
proportioned to that which may be dispatched at once, or within a
short return of time, and there is another kind, whose minds are
proportioned to that which begins afar off, and is to be won with
length of pursuit,'--so the Coryphæus of those choir that the latter
kind compose, informs us, 'so that there may be fitly said to be a
_longanimity_, which is commonly also ascribed to God as a
magnanimity.'
And our English philosophers had to light what this one calls a new
'Lamp of Tradition,' before they could make sure of transmitting their
new science, through such mediums as those that their time gave them;
and a very gorgeous many-branched lamp it is, that the great English
philosopher brings out from that 'secret school of living Learning and
living Art' to which he secretly belongs, for the admiration of the
professionally learned of his time, and a very lustrous one too, as it
will yet prove to be, when once it enters the scholar's apprehension
that it was ever meant be lighted, when once the little movement that
turns on the dazzling jet is ordered.
For we have all been so taken up with the Baconian _Logic_ hitherto
and its wonderful effects in the relief of the human estate, that the
Baconian RHETORIC has all this time escaped our notice; and nobody
appears to have suspected that there was anything in _that_ worth
looking at; any more than they suspect that there is anything in some
of those other divisions which the philosopher himself lays so much
stress on his proposal for the Advancement of Learning,--in his
proposal for the advancement of it into _all_ the fields of human
activity. But we read this proposition still, as James the First was
expected to read it, and all these departments which are brought into
that general view in such a dry and formal and studiously scholastic
manner, appear to be put there merely to fill up a space; and because
the general plan of this so erudite performance happened to include
them.
For inasmuch as the real scope and main bearing of this proposition,
though it is in fact _there_, is of course _not_ there, in any such
form as to attract the particular attention of the monarch to whose
eye the work is commended; and inasmuch as the new art of a scientific
Rhetoric is already put to its most masterly use in reserving that
main design, for such as may find themselves able to receive it, of
course, the need of any such invention is not apparent on the surface
of the work, and the real significance of this new doctrine of Art and
its radical relation to the new science, is also reserved for that
class of readers who are able to adopt the rules of interpretation
which the work itself lays down. Because the real applications of the
New Logic could not yet be openly discussed, no one sees as yet, that
there was, and had to be, a Rhetoric to match it.
For this author, who was not any less shrewd than the one whose
methods we have just been observing a little, had also early
discovered in the great personages of his time, a disposition to
moderate his voice whenever he went to speak to them on matters of
importance, in his natural key, for his voice too, was naturally loud,
and high as he gives us to understand, though he '_could_ speak small
like a woman'; he too had learned to take the tone _from the ear of
him to whom he spake_, and he too had learned, that it was not enough
merely to speak so as to make himself heard by those whom he wished to
affect. He also had learned to speak according to the affair he had in
hand, according to the purpose which he wished to accomplish. He also
is of the opinion that different kinds of _audiences_ and different
_times_, require different modes of speech, and though he found it
necessary to compose his works in the style and language of his own
time, he was confident that it was a language which would not remain
in use for many ages; and he has therefore provided himself with
another, more to his mind which he has taken pains to fold carefully
within the other, and one which lie thinks will bear the wear and tear
of those revolutions that he perceives to be imminent.
But in consequence of our persistent oversight of this Art of
Tradition, on which he relies so much, (which is as fine an invention
of his, as any other of his inventions which we find ourselves so much
the better for), that appeal to 'the times that are farther off,' has
not yet taken effect, and the audience for whom he chiefly laboured is
still 'deferred.'
This so noble and benign art which he calls, with his own natural
modesty and simplicity, the Art of _Tradition_, this art which grows
so truly noble and worthy, so distinctively human, in his clear,
scientific treatment of it,--in his scientific clearance of it from
the wildnesses and spontaneities of accident, or the superfluities and
trickery of an art without science,--that stops short of the ultimate,
the human principle,--this so noble art of speech or tradition is,
indeed, an art which this great teacher and leader of men will think
it no scorn to labour: it is one on which, even such a teacher can
find time to stop; it is one which even such a teacher can stop to
build from the foundation upwards, he will not care how splendidly; it
is one on which he will spend without stint, and think it gain to
spend, the wealth of his invention.
But, at the same time, it is with him a _subordinate_ art. It has no
worth or substance in itself; it borrows all its worth from that which
masters and rigorously subdues it to its end. Here, too, we find
ourselves coming down on all its old ceremonial and observance, from
that new height which we found our foreign philosopher in such quiet
possession of,--taking his way at a puff through poor Cicero's
periods,--those periods which the old orator had taken so much pains
with, and laughing at his pains:--but this English philosopher is more
daring still, for it is he who disposes, at a word, without any
comment, just in passing merely,--from his practical stand-point,--of
'the flutes and trumpets of the Greeks,' like the other making nothing
at all in his theory of criticism of _mere_ elegance, though it is the
Gascon, it is true, who undertakes the more lively and extreme
practical demonstrations of this theoretical contempt of it,--setting
it at nought, and flying in the face of it,--writing in as loquacious
and homely a style as he possibly can, just for the purpose for
setting it at nought, though not without giving us a glimpse
occasionally, of a faculty that would enable him to mince the matter
as fine as another if he should see occasion--as, perhaps, he may. For
he talks very emphatically about his _poetry_ here and there, and
seems to intimate that he has a gift that way; and that he has,
moreover, some works of value in that department of letters, which he
is anxious to 'save up' for posterity, if he can. But here, it is the
scholar, and not the loquacious old gentleman at all, who is giving us
in his choicest, selectest, courtliest phrase, in his most stately and
condensed style, _his_ views of this subject; but that which is
noticeable is, that _the art_ in its fresh, new upspringing from the
secret of life and nature, from the soul of _things_, the art and that
which it springs from, is in these two so different forms _identical_.
Here, too, the point of its criticism and review is the same. 'Away
with that eloquence that so enchants us with _its harmony_ that we
should more study it than _things_'; but here the old Roman masters
the philosopher, for a moment, and he puts in a scholarly parenthesis,
'unless you will affirm that of Cicero to be of so supreme perfection
as to form _a body of itself_.'
But Hamlet, in his discourse with that wise reasoner, and unfortunate
practitioner, who thought that brevity was the soul of wit, and
tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes, puts it more briefly
still.
_Polonius_. What do you read, my lord?
_Hamlet_. Words, words, words!
'More matter, and less art,' another says in that same treatise on art
and speculation. Now inasmuch as this art and science derives all its
distinction and lustre from that new light on the human estate of
which it was to be the vehicle, somebody must find the trick of it, so
as to be able to bring out _that doctrine_ by its help, before we can
be prepared to understand the real worth of this invention. It would
be premature to undertake to set it forth fully, till that is
accomplished. There must be a more elaborate exhibition of that
science, before the art of its transmission can be fully treated; we
cannot estimate it, till we see how it strikes to the root of the new
doctrine, how it begins with its beginning, and reaches to its end: we
cannot estimate it till we see its relation, its essential relation,
to that new doctrine of the human nature, and that new doctrine of
state, which spring from the doctrine of nature in general, which is
_the_ doctrine, which is the beginning and the end of the new science.
We find here on the surface, as we find everywhere in this
comprehensive treatise, much apparent parade of division and
subdivision, and the author appears to lay much stress upon this, and
seems disposed to pride himself upon his dexterity in chopping up the
subject as finely as possible, and keeping the parts quite clear of
one another; and sometimes, in his distributions, putting those points
the farthest apart which are the most nearly related, though not so
far, that they cannot 'look towards each other,' though it may be, as
the other says, '_obliquely_.' He evidently depends very much on his
arrangement, and seems, indeed, to be chiefly concerned about that,
when he comes to the more critical parts of his subject. But it is to
_the continuities_ which underlie these separations, to which he
directs the attention of those to whom he speaks in earnest, and not
in particular cases only. '_Generally_,' he says, '_let this be a
rule_, that all partitions of knowledge be accepted rather for LINES
and VEINS, than for _sections_ and _separations_, and that _the
continuance and entireness of knowledge_ be preserved. For the
_contrary hereof_,' he says, 'is that which has made PARTICULAR
SCIENCES BARREN, SHALLOW, and ERRONEOUS, while they have not been
nourished and maintained from the _common_ fountain.' For this is the
ONE SCIENCE, the deep, the true, the fruitful one, the fruitful
because the ONE.
These lines, then, which he cautions us against regarding as
divisions, which are brought in with such parade of scholasticism,
with such a profound appearance of artifice, will always be found by
those who have leisure to go below the surface, to be but the
indications of those natural articulations and branches into which the
subject divides and breaks itself, and the conducting lines to that
trunk and heart of sciences, that common fountain from which all this
new vitality, this sudden up-springing and new blossoming of learning
proceeds, that fountain in which its flowers, as well as its fruits,
and its thick leaves are nourished.
Here in this Art of Tradition, which comprehends the whole subject of
the human speech from the new ground of the common nature in man--that
_double_ nature which tends to isolation on the one hand, and which
makes him a part and a member of society on the other; we find it
treated, first, as a means by which men come simply to a common
understanding with each other, by which that _common ground_, that
ground of _community_, and _communication_, and _identity_, which a
common _understanding_ in this kind makes, can be best reached; and
next we find it treated as a means by which _more than the
understanding_ shall be reached, by which _the sentiment_, the _common
sentiment_, which also belongs to the larger nature, shall be
strengthened and developed,--by which the counteracting and partial
sentiments shall be put in their place, and the _will_ compelled;
whereby that common human form, which in its perfection is the object
of the human love and reverence shall be scientifically developed; by
which the particular form with its diseases shall be artistically
disciplined and treated. This Art of Tradition concerns, first, the
understanding; and secondly, the affections and the will. As man is
constituted, it is not enough to convince his understanding.
First, then, it is 'the organ' and 'method' of tradition; and next, it
is what he calls the _illustration_ of it. First, the object is, to
bring truth to the understanding in as clear and unobstructed a manner
as the previous condition--as the diseases and pre-occupations of the
mind addressed will admit of, and next to bring all the other helps
and arts by which the sentiments are touched and the will mastered.
First, he will speak true, or as true as they will let him; but it is
not enough to speak true. He must be able to speak sharply too,
perhaps--or humorously, or touchingly, or melodiously, or
overwhelmingly, with words that burn. It is not enough, perhaps, to
reach the ear of his auditor: 'peradventure' he too 'will also pierce
it.' It is not enough to draw diagrams in chalk on a black board in
this kind of mathematics, where the will and the affections are the
pupils, and standing ready to defy axioms, prepared at any moment to
demonstrate practically, that the part is greater than the whole, and
face down the universe with it, 'murdering impossibility to make what
cannot be, slight work.' It is not enough to have a tradition that is
_clear_, or as clear a one as will pass muster with the government and
with the preconceptions of the people themselves. He must have a
pictured one--a pictorial, an illuminated one--a beautiful one,--he
must have what he calls an ILLUSTRATED TRADITION.
'Why not,' he says. He runs his eye over the human instrumentalities,
and this art which we call _art--par excellence_, which he sees
setting up for itself, or ministering to ignorance and error, and
feeding the diseased affections with 'the sweet that is their poison,'
he seizes on at once, in behalf of his science, and declares that it
is her lawful property, 'her slave, born in her house,' and fit for
nothing in the world but to minister to her; and what is more, he
suits the action to the word--he brings the truant home, and reforms
her, and sets her about her proper business. That is what he proposes
to have done in his theory of art, and it is what he tells us he has
done himself; and he has: there is no mistake about it. That is what
he means when he talks about his illustrated tradition of science--his
illustrated tradition of the science of HUMAN NATURE and its
_differences_, _original_ and _acquired_, and the _diseases_ to which
it is liable, and the artificial growths which appertain to it. It is
very curious, that no one has seen this tradition--this illustrated
tradition, or anything else, indeed, that was at all worthy of this
new interpreter of mysteries, who goes about to this day as the
inventor of a method which he was not able himself to put to any
practical use; an inventor who was obliged to leave his machine for
men of a more quick and subtle genius, or to men of a more practical
turn of mind to manage, men who had a closer acquaintance with nature.
That which is first to be noted in looking carefully at this draught
of a new Art of Tradition which the plan of the Advancement of
Learning includes,--that which the careful reader cannot fail to note,
is the fact, that throughout all this most complete and radical
exhibition of the subject (for brief and casual as that exhibition
seems on the surface, the science and art from its root to its
outermost branches, is there)--throughout all this exhibition, under
all the superficial divisions and subdivisions of the subject, it is
still the method of PROGRESSION which is set forth here: under all
these divisions, there is still one point made; it is still the Art of
a Tradition which is designed to reserve the _secrets_ of science, and
the nobler arts of it, for the minds and ages that are able to receive
them. This new art of tradition, with its new organs and methods, and
its living and beautiful illustration, when once we look through the
network of it to the unity within, this new rhetoric of science, is in
fact the instrument which the philosopher would substitute, if he
could, for those more cruel weapons which the men of his time were
ready to take in hand; and it is the instrument with which he would
forestall those yet more fearful political convulsions that already
seemed to his eye to threaten from afar the social structures of
Christendom; it is the beautiful and bloodless instrumentality whereby
the mind of the world is to be wrenched insensibly from its old place
without 'breaking all.'
For neither does this author, any more than that other, who has been
quoted here on this point, think it wise for the philosopher to rush
madly out of his study with his EUREKA, and bawl to the first passer
by in scientific terms the last result of his science, 'lording it
over his ignorance' with what can be to him only a _magisterial_
announcement. For what else but that can it be, for instance, to tell
the poor peasant, on his way to market, with his butter and eggs in
his basket, planting his feet on the firm earth without any qualms or
misgivings, and measuring his day by the sun's great toil and
rejoicing race in heaven, what but this same magisterial teaching is
it, to stop him, and tell him to his bewildered face that the sun
never rises or sets, and that the earth is but a revolving ball?
Instead of giving him a truth you have given him a falsehood. You have
brought him a truth out of a sphere with which he is not conversant,
which he cannot ascend to--whose truths he cannot translate into his
own, without jarring all. Either you have told him what must be to him
a lie, or you have upset all his little world of beliefs with your
magisterial doctrine, and confounded and troubled him to no purpose.
But the Method of Progression, as set forth by Lord Bacon, requires
that the new scientific truth shall be, not nakedly and flatly, but
artistically exhibited; because, as he tells us, 'the great labour is
with the people, and this people who knoweth not the law are cursed.'
He will not have it exhibited in bare propositions, but translated
into the people's dialect. He would not begin if he could--if there
were no political or social restriction to forbid it--by overthrowing
on all points the popular belief, or wherever it differs from the
scientific conclusion. It is a very different kind of philosophy that
proceeds in that manner. This is one which comprehends and respects
all actualities. The popular belief, even to its least absurdity 'is
something more than nothing in nature'; and the popular belief with
all its admixture of error, is better than the half-truths of a
misunderstood, untranslated science; better than these would be in its
place. That truth of nature which it contains for those who are able
to receive it, and live by it, you would destroy for them, if you
should attempt to make them read it _prematurely_, in your language.
Any kind of organism which by means of those adjustments and
compensations, with which nature is always ready to help out anything
really hers,--any organism that is capable of serving as the means of
an historical social continuance, is already some gain on chaos and
social dissolution; and is, perhaps, better than a series of
philosophical experiments. The difficulty is not to overthrow the
popular errors, but to get something better in their place, he tells
us; and that there are men who have succeeded in the first attempt,
and very signally failed in the second. Beautiful and vigorous unions
grew up under the classic mythologies, that dissolved and went down
for ever, in the sunshine of the classic philosophies. For there were
more things in heaven and earth than were included in those last, or
dreamt of in them.
In your expurgation, of the popular errors, you must be sure that the
truth they contain, is in some form as strongly, as _effectively_
composed in your text, or the popular error is truer and better than
the truth with which you would replace it. This is a master who will
have no other kind of teaching in his school. His scholars must go so
far in their learning as to be able to come back to this popular
belief, and account for it and understand it; they must be as wise as
the peasant again, and be able to start with him, from his starting
point, before they can get any diploma in this School of
_Advancement_, or leave to practise in it. But when the old is already
ruinous and decaying, and oppressing and keeping back the new,--when
the vitality is gone out of it, and it has become deadly instead, when
the new is struggling for new forms, the man of science though never
so conservative from inclination and principle, will not be wanting to
himself and to the state in this emergency. He 'loves the _fundamental
part of state_ more' than in _such_ a crisis he will 'doubt the change
of it,' and will not 'fear to jump a body with a dangerous physic,
that's sure of death without it.'
First of all then, the condition of this lamp of tradition, that is to
burn on for ages, is, that it shall be able to adapt itself to the
successive stages of the advancement it lights. It is the inevitable
condition of this school which begins with the present, which begins
with the people, which descends to the lowest stage of the
contemporary popular belief, and takes in the many-headed monster
himself, without any trimming at all, for its audience,--it is the
first condition of such a school, conducted by a man of science, that
it shall have its proper grades of courts and platforms, its selecter
and selectest audiences. There must be landing places in the ascent,
points of rendezvous agreed on, where 'the delicate collateral sounds'
are heard, which only those who ascend can hear. There is no
jar,--there is no forced advancement in this school; there is no
upward step for any, who have not first been taught to see it, who
have not, indeed, already taken it. For it is an artist's school, and
not a pedant's, or a vague speculator's, who knows not how to converge
his speculation, even upon his mode of tradition.
The founders of this school trust much in their general plan of
instruction and relief, to the gradual advancement of a common
intelligence, by means of a scientific, but _concealed_ historical
teaching. They will teach their lower classes, their 'beginners,' as
great nature teaches--insensibly;--as great nature teaches--in the
concrete, 'in easy instances.' For the secret of her method is that
which they have studied; that is the learning which they have
mastered; the spirit of it, which is the poet's gift, the quickest,
subtlest, most searching, most analytic, most synthetic spirit of it,
is that with which great nature has endowed them. They will speak, as
they tell us, as the masters always have spoken from of old to them
who are without; they will 'open their mouths in parables,' they will
'utter their dark sayings on the harp.' They know that men are already
prepared by nature's own instruction, to feel in a fact,--to receive
in historical representations--truths which would startle them in the
abstract, truths which they are not yet prepared to disengage from the
historical combinations in which they receive them; though with every
repetition, and especially with the pointed, selected, prolonged
repetition of the teacher, where the 'ILLUSTRIOUS INSTANCE' is
selected and cleared of its extraneous incident, and made to enter the
mind alone, and pierce it with its principle,--with every such
repetition, the step to that generalization and axiom becomes
insensibly shorter and more easy. They know that men are already wiser
than their teachers, in some--in many things; that they have all of
them a great stock of incommunicative wisdom which all their teachers
have not been able to make them give up, which they never will give
up, till the strong man, who is stronger, enters with his larger
learning out of the same book, with his mightier weapons out of the
same armory, and spoils their goods, or makes them old and worthless,
by the side of the new, resplendent, magic wealth he brings with him.
The new philosophy of nature has truths to teach which nature herself
has already been teaching all men, with more or less effect,
miscellaneously, and at odd hours, ever since they were born; and this
philosopher gives a large place in his history, to that vulgar,
practical human wisdom, which all the books till his time had been of
too high a strain to glance at. But 'art is a second nature, and
imitateth that dextrously and compendiously, which nature performs by
ambages and length of time.' The scientific interpreter of nature will
select, and unite, and teach continuously, and pointedly, in grand,
ideal, representative fact, in 'prerogative instances,' that which
nature has but faintly and unconsciously impressed with her method;
for he has a scientific organum, and what is more,--a great deal more,
a thousand times more,--he has the scientific genius that invented it.
His soul is a Novum Organum--his mind is a table of rejections that
sifts the historic masses, and brings out the instances that are to
his purpose, the bright, bold instances that flame forth the doubtful
truth, that tell their own story and need no interpreter, the high
ideal instances that talk in verse because it is their native tongue
and they can no other. He has found,--or rather nature lent it to him,
the universal historic solvent, and the dull, formless, miscellaneous
facts of the common human experience, spring up in magic orders, in
beautiful, transparent, scientific continuities, as they arrange
themselves by the laws of his thinking.
For the truth is, and it must be said here, and not here only, but
everywhere, wherever there is a chance to say it,--that Novum Organum
was not made to examine the legs of spiders with, or the toes of 'the
grandfather-long-legs,' or any of their kindred; though of course it
is susceptible of such an application, when it falls into the hands of
persons whose genius inclines them in those directions; and it is a
use, that the inventor would not have disdained to put it to himself,
if he had had time, and if his attention had not been so much
distracted by the habits and history of that 'nobler kind of vermin,'
which he found feeding on the human weal in his time, and eating out
the heart of it. This man was not a fool, but a man. He was a
naturalist indeed, of the newest and highest style, but that did not
hinder his being a man at the same time. He and his company were the
first that set the example of going, deliberately, and on principle,
out of the human nature for knowledge; but it was that they might
re-return with better axioms for the culture, and nobility, and sway
of _that form_, which, 'though it be but a part in the continent of
nature,' is as this one openly declares, '_the end_ and _term_ of
NATURAL PHILOSOPHY, _in the intention_ of MAN.' His science included
the humblest and least agreeable of nature's performances; his Novum
Organum was able to take up the smallest conceivable atom of
existence, whether animate or not, and make a study of it. He has no
disrespect for caterpillars or any kind of worm or insect; but he is
not a caterpillar himself, or an insect of any kind, or a Saurian, or
an Icthyosaurian, but a man; and it was for the sake of building up
from a new basis a practical doctrine of human life, that he invented
that instrument, and put so much fine work upon it.
With his 'PREROGATIVE INSTANCES,' he will build height after height,
the solid, but imperceptible stair-way to his summit of knowledges, so
that men shall tread its utmost floors without knowing what heights
they are--even as they tread great nature's own solidities, without
inquiring her secret.
The shrewd unlearned man of practice shall take that great book of
nature, that illustrated digest of it, on his knees, to while away his
idle hours with, in rich pastime, and smile to see there, all written
out, that which he faintly knew, and never knew that he knew before;
he will find there in sharp points, in accumulations, and percussions,
that which his own experience has at length wearily, dimly, worked and
worn into him. It is his own experience, exalted indeed, and
glorified, but it is that which beckons him on to that which is yet
beyond it; he shall read on, and smile, and laugh, and weep, and
wonder at the power; but never dream that it is science, the new
science--the science of nature--the product of the new organum of it
applied to _human_ nature, and _human_ life. The abstract statement of
that which the concrete exhibition veils, is indeed always there,
though it lie never so close, in never so snug a corner; but it is
there so artistically environed, that the reader who is not ready for
it, who has not learned to disengage the principle from the instance,
who has had no hint of an _illustrated tradition_ in it, will never
see it; or if he sees it, he will think it is there by accident, or
inspiration, and pass on.
Here, in this open treatise upon the art of delivering and teaching of
knowledge, the author lays down, in the most impressive terms, the
necessity of a style which shall serve as a _veil_ of tradition,
imperceptible or impenetrable to the uninitiated, and admitting 'only
such as have by the help of a master, attained to the interpretation
of dark sayings, or are able by their own genius to enter within the
veil'; and after having distributed under many heads, the secret of
this method of scientific communication, he asserts distinctly that
there is no other mode of dealing with the popular belief and
preconception, but the one just described--that same method which the
teachers of the people have always instinctively adopted, whenever
that which was new and contrary to the received doctrines, was to be
communicated. 'For a man of judgment,' he says, 'must, of course,
perceive, that there should be a difference in the teaching and
delivery of knowledge, according to the _presuppositions, which he
finds infused and impressed upon the mind of the learner_. For _that
which is new and foreign from opinions received_, is to be delivered
in ANOTHER FORM, from that which is _agreeable and familiar_. And,
therefore, Aristotle, when he says to Democritus, "if we shall indeed
_dispute_ and _not_ follow after _similitudes_," as if he would tax
Democritus with being too full of _comparisons_, where he thought to
reprove, really commended him.' There is no use in disputing in such a
case, he thinks. 'For those whose doctrines are already _seated_ in
popular opinion, have only to dispute or prove; but those whose
doctrines are beyond the popular opinions, have a _double labour_; the
one to make themselves conceived, and the other to prove and
demonstrate; so that it is of _necessity with them to have recourse to
similitudes_ AND TRANSLATIONS _to express themselves_. And, therefore,
in the _infancy of learning_, and in rude times, when those
conceptions which are now trivial, were then new, _the world was full
of parables and similitudes_, for else would men either have passed
over _without mark, or else_ REJECTED FOR PARADOXES, that which was
offered _before they had understood or judged_. So in divine learning,
we see how frequent parables and tropes are, for it _is a rule in the
doctrine of delivery, that every science_ which is _not consonant with
presuppositions and prejudices_, must pray in aid of _similes_ and
_allusions_.'
The true master of the art of teaching will vary his method too, he
tells us according to the _subject_ which he handles,--and the reader
should note particularly the illustration of this position, the
instance of this general necessity, which the author selects for the
sake of pointing his meaning here, for it is here--precisely
here--that we begin to touch the heart of that new method which the
new science itself prescribed,--'the true teacher will vary his method
according to the subject which he handles,' for there is a great
difference in the delivery of _mathematics_, which are the most
abstracted of sciences, and POLICY, which is the _most immersed_, and
the opinion that 'uniformity of method, in multiformity of matter, is
necessary,' has proved very hurtful to learning, for it tends to
reduce learning to certain _empty_ and _barren_--note it,--_barren_--
'generalities;'--(so important is the method as _that_; that it makes
the difference between the fruitful and the barren, between the old
and the new) 'being but the very _husks_ and _shells_ of sciences,
all the _kernel_ being forced out and expressed with the torture and
press of the method; and, _therefore_, as I did allow well of
_particular topics_ for invention'--_therefore_--his science requires
him to go into particulars, and as the necessary consequence of that,
it requires freedom--_'therefore'_--as I did allow well of particular
_topics of invention, 'so_ do I allow likewise of _particular methods
of tradition_.' Elsewhere,--in his Novum Organum--he quotes the
scientific outlines and divisions of this very book, he quotes the
very draught and outline of the new human science, which is the
principal thing in it, and tells us plainly that he is perfectly aware
that those new divisions, those essential differences, those true and
radical forms in nature, which he has introduced here, in his doctrine
of _human_ nature, will have no practical effect at all, as they are
exhibited _here_; because they _are_ exhibited in this method which he
is here criticising, that is, in empty and barren abstractions,--
because it was impossible for him to produce here anything but the
_husks_ and _shells_ of that principal science, all the kernel being
forced out and expulsed with the torture and press of the method.
But, at the same time, he gives us to understand, that these same
shells and husks may be found in another place, with the kernels and
_nuts_ in them, and that he has not taken so much pains to let us see
in so many places, what new forms of delivery the new philosophy will
require, merely for the sake of letting us see, at the same time, that
when it came to _practice_, he himself stood by the old ones, and
contented himself with barren abstractions, and generalities, the
husks and shells of sciences, instead of aiming at particulars, and
availing himself of these '_particular methods of tradition_.'
He takes also this occasion to recommend a method which was found
extremely serviceable at that time; namely, the method of teaching by
aphorism, 'without any _show_ of an art or method; not merely because
it tries the author, since aphorisms being made out of the _pith_ and
_heart_ of sciences, _no man can write them who is not sound and
grounded_,' who has not a system with its trunk and root, though he
makes no show of it, but buries it and shows you here and there the
points on the surface that are apt to look as if they had some
underlying connection--not only because it tries the author, _but
because they point to action_; for particulars being dispersed, do
best agree with dispersed directions; and, moreover, aphorisms
representing a BROKEN KNOWLEDGE, invite men _to inquire farther_,
whereas methods, _carrying the show of a total_, do secure men as _if
they were at farthest_, and it is the _advancement_ of learning that
he is proposing.
He suggests again, distinctly here, the rule he so often claims he has
himself put in practice, elsewhere, that the use of CONFUTATION in the
delivery of science, ought to be very sparing; and to serve to remove
strong _preoccupations_ and _prejudgments_, and not to minister and
excite disputations and doubts. For he says in another place, 'As
Alexander Borgia was wont to say of the expedition of the French for
Naples, that they came with _chalk_ in their hands, _to mark up their
lodgings_, and not with _weapons to fight_, so _I_ like better that
entry of truth which cometh peaceably, with chalk to mark up those
minds, which are capable to lodge and harbour it, than that which
cometh with pugnacity and contention.'
He alludes here too, in passing, to some other distinctions of method,
which are already received, that of ANALYSIS and _synthesis_, or
CONSTITUTION, that of _concealment_, or CRYPTIC, which he says 'he
allows well of, though he has himself stood upon those which are least
handled and observed.' He brings out his doctrine of the necessity of
a method which shall include _particulars_ for _practical_ purposes
also, under another head: here it is the limit of _rules_,--the
propositions or precepts of _arts_ that he speaks of, and the _degree_
of particularity which these precepts ought to descend to. 'For every
knowledge,' he says, 'may be fitly said to have a latitude and
longitude, accounting the latitude towards _other sciences_' (for
there are rules and propositions of such latitude as to include all
arts, all sciences)--'and the longitude towards action, that is, from
the greatest generality, to the most particular precept: and as to the
degree of particularity to which a knowledge should descend,' though
something must, of course, be left in all departments to the
discretion of the practitioner, he thinks it is a question which will
bear looking into in a general way; and that it might be possible to
have rules in all departments, which would limit very much the
necessity of individual experiment, and not leave us so much at the
mercy of individual discretion in the most serious matters.
Philosophy, as he finds it, does not appear to be very helpful to
practice, on account of its keeping to those general propositions, so
much, as well as on some other accounts, and has fallen into bad
repute, it seems, among men who find it necessary to make, without
science, as they best can, rules of some sort;--rules that are capable
of dealing with that quality in particulars which is apt to be called
_obstinacy_ in this aspect of it. 'For we see remote and superficial
generalities do but offer knowledge to scorn of practical men, and are
no more aiding to practice, than an Ortelius's _universal map_ is to
direct the way between London and York.' And what is this itself but a
universal map, this map of the advancement of learning?
All this doctrine of the tradition of sciences, he produces under the
head of the _method_ of their tradition, but in speaking of the
_organ_ of it, he treats it _exclusively_ as the medium of tradition
for _those sciences which require_ CONCEALMENT, or admit only of a
suggestive exhibition. And as he makes, too, the claim that he has
himself given practical proof, in passing, of his proficiency in this
art, and appeals to the skilful for the truth of this statement, the
passage, at least, in which this assertion is made, will be likely to
repay the inquiry which it invites.
He begins by drawing our attention to the fact, that words are not the
only representatives of things, and he says 'this is not an
inconsiderable thing, _for while we are treating of the coin of
intellectual_ matters, _it is_ pertinent to observe, that as money may
be made of other materials besides gold and silver, so other marks of
things may be invented besides words and letters.' And by way of
illustrating the advantages of such a means of tradition, under
certain disadvantages of position, he adduces as much in point, the
case of Periander, who being consulted how to preserve a tyranny
_newly usurped_, bid the messenger _attend_ and _report what he saw
him do_, and went into his garden and _topped all the highest
flowers_; signifying that it consisted in the cutting off and keeping
low of the nobility and grandees. And thus other apparently trivial,
purely purposeless and sportive actions, might have a traditionary
character of no small consequence, if the messenger were only given to
understand beforehand, that the acts thus performed were axiomatical,
pointing to rules of practice, that the forms were representative
forms, whose '_real_' exhibition of the particular natures in
question, was much more vivid and effective, much more memorable as
well as _safe_, than any abstract statement of that philosophic truth,
which is the truth of direction, could be.
As to the '_accidents_ of words, which are measure, sound, and
elevation of accent, and the sweetness and harshness of them,' even
here the new science suggests a new rule, which is not without a
remarkable relation to _that 'particular method of tradition_,' which
the author tells us in another place, some parts of his new science
required. 'This subject,' he says, 'involves some curious observations
in rhetoric, but chiefly POESY, as we consider it in respect of the
verse, and _not of the argument_; wherein, though men in learned
tongues do tie themselves to _the ancient measures_, yet in modern
languages it seemeth to me as free to make _new measures of verses as
of dances_.' The spirit of the new philosophy had a chance to speak
out there for once, without intending, of course, to transcend that
particular limit just laid down, namely, the measure of _verses_, and
with that literal limitation, to the form of the verse, the remark is
sufficiently suggestive; for he brings out from it at the next step,
in the way of formula, the new principle, the new Shaksperian
principle of rhetoric: _In these things_ the sense is better judge
than the art. And of the servile expressing antiquity in an unlike and
an unfit subject, it is well said:--'_Quod tempore antiquum videtur,
id incongruitate est maxime novum_.''
But when he comes to speak specifically of _writing_ as a means of
tradition, he confines his remarks to that particular kind of writing,
which is agreed on betwixt particular persons, and called by the name
of _cipher_, giving excellent reasons for this proceeding, impertinent
as it may seem, to those who think that his only object is to make out
a list and 'muster-roll of the arts and sciences';--stopping to tell
us plainly that he knows what he is about, and that he has not brought
in '_these private and retired arts_,' with so much stress, and under
so many heads, in connection with 'the principal and supreme
sciences,' and _the mode of their tradition_, without having some
occasion for it.
'Ciphers are commonly in letters, or alphabets, but _may be_ in
words,' he says, proceeding to enumerate the different kinds, and
furnishing on the spot, some pretty specimens of what may be done in
the way of that kind which he calls 'doubles,' a kind which he is
particularly fond of; one hears again the echo of those delicate,
collateral sounds, which our friend, over the mountains, warned us of,
declining to say any more about them in that place. In the later
edition, he takes occasion to say, in this connection, 'that as
writing in the received manner no way obstructs the _manner of
pronunciation_, but leaves that _free_, an innovation in it is of no
purpose.' And if a cipher be the proper name for a private method of
writing, agreed on betwixt particular persons, it is certainly the
name for the method which he proposes to adopt in _his_ tradition of
the principal sciences; as he takes occasion to inform those whom it
may concern, in an early portion of the work, and when he is occupied
in the critical task of putting down some of the primary terms. 'I
doubt not,' he says, by way of explanation, 'but it will easily appear
to men of judgment, that in _this_ and _other particulars_,
wheresoever _my conception and notion may differ from the ancient, I
am studious to keep the ancient terms_.' Surely there is no want of
frankness here, so far as the men of judgment are concerned at least.
And after condemning those innovators who have taken a different
course, he says again, 'But to me on the other side that do desire as
much as lieth in _my pen_, to ground a sociable intercourse between
antiquity and _proficience_, it seemeth best to keep way with
antiquity _usque ad aras_; and therefore to _retain the ancient_
TERMS, though I sometimes alter the _uses and definitions_, according
to the moderate proceeding in civil government, where, although there
be some alteration, yet that holdeth which Tacitus _wisely_ noteth
'eadem magistratuum vocabula.' Surely that is plain enough, especially
if one has time to take into account the force and historic reach of
that last illustration, 'eadem magistratuum vocabula.'
In the later and enlarged edition of his work, he lays much stress
upon the point that the cipher 'should be free from suspicion,' for he
says, 'if a letter should come into the hands of such as have a power
over the writer or receiver, though the cipher itself be trusty and
impossible to decipher, it is still subject to _examination_ and
_question_, and (as he says himself), 'to _avoid all suspicion_,' he
introduces there a cipher in _letters_, which he invented in his youth
in Paris, 'having the highest perfection of a cipher, that of
signifying _omnia per omnia_;' and for the same reason perhaps, that
of 'avoiding all suspicion,' he quite omits there that very remarkable
passage in the earlier work, in which he treats it as a medium of
_tradition_, and takes pains to intimate his reasons for producing it
in that connection, _with the principal and supreme sciences_. If it
was, indeed, any object with him to avoid suspicion, and recent
disclosures had then, perhaps, tended to sharpen somewhat the
contemporary criticism; he _did well_, unquestionably, to omit that
passage. But at the time when _that_ was written, he appears to be
chiefly inclined to notice the remarkable facilities, which this style
offers to an inventive genius. For he says, 'in regard of the rawness
and unskilfulness of _the hands through which they pass_, the greatest
matters, are sometimes carried in the _weakest ciphers_.' And that
there may be no difficulty or mistake as to the reading of that
passage, he immediately adds, 'In the enumeration of these private and
retired arts, it may be thought I _seek to make a great muster-roll of
sciences_, naming them for _show_ and _ostentation_, and _to little
other purpose_. But'--note it--'But, let those which are _skilful in
them judge, whether I bring them in only for appearance_, or whether,
in that which I speak of them, though in few words, there be not _some
seed of proficience_. And this must be remembered, that as there be
many of great account in their countries and provinces, which, when
they come up to the _seat of the estate_, are but of mean rank, and
scarcely regarded; so these arts, ("these private and retired arts,")
being here placed _with the principal and supreme sciences, seem_
petty things, YET TO SUCH AS HAVE CHOSEN THEM TO SPEND THEIR LABOURS
AND STUDIES IN THEM, THEY SEEM GREAT MATTERS. ("Let those which are
skilful in them, judge (after that) whether I bring them in only for
appearance" or to _little_ other purpose).'
That apology would seem sufficient, but we must know what these
labours and studies are, before we can perceive the _depth_ of it. And
if we have the patience to follow him but a step or two further, we
shall find ourselves in the way of some very direct and accurate
information, as to that. For we are coming now, in the order of the
work we quote from, to that very part, which contains the point of all
these labours and studies, the _end_ of them,--that part to which the
science of nature in general, and the secret of this art of tradition,
was a necessary _introduction_. [For this Art of Tradition makes the
link between the new Logic and the application of it to _Human_ Nature
and Human Life.]
Thus far, this art has been treated as a means of simply
_transferring_ knowledge, in such forms as the conditions of the
Advancement of Learning prescribe,--forms adapted to the different
stages of mental advancement, commencing with the lowest range of the
common opinion in his time,--starting with the contemporary opinions
of the majority, and reserving 'the secrets of knowledge,' for such as
are able to receive them. Thus far, it is the Method, and the Organ of
the tradition of which he has spoken. But it is when he comes to speak
of what he calls the _Illustration_ of it, that the convergency of his
design begins to be laid open to us, for this work is not what it may
seem on the surface, as he takes pains to intimate to us--a 'mere
muster-roll of sciences.'
It is when he comes to tell us that he will have his 'truth in beauty
dyed,' that he does not propose to have the new learning left in the
form of argument and logic, or in the form of bare scientific fact,
that he does not mean to appeal with it to the _reason_ only; that he
will have it in a form in which it will be able to attract and allure
men, and make them in love with it, a form in which it will be able to
force its way into the will and the affections, and make a lodgement
in the hearts of men, long ere it is able to reach the judgment;--it
is not till he begins to bring out here, his new doctrine of the true
end of rhetoric, and the use to which it ought to be put in
subordination to science, that we begin to perceive the significance
of the arrangement which brings this theory of an Illustrated Art of
Tradition into immediate connection with the new science of human
nature and human life which the Author is about to constitute,--so as
to serve as an introduction to it--the arrangement which interposes
this art of Tradition, between the New Logic and its application to
Human Nature and Human Life--to POLICY and MORALITY.
He will not consent to have this so _powerful_ engine of popular
influence, which the æsthetic art seems, to his eye, to offer, left
out, in his scheme of scientific instrumentalities: he will not pass
it by scornfully, as some other philosophers have done, treating it
merely as a voluptuary art. He will have of it, something which shall
differ, not in degree only, but in kind, from the art of the
confectioner.
He begins by stating frankly his reasons for making so much of it in
this grave treatise, which is what it professes to be, a treatise on
Learning and its Advancement. 'For although,' he says, 'in true value,
it is inferior to _wisdom_, as it is said by God to Moses, when he
disabled himself for want of this faculty, "Aaron shall be thy
_speaker_, and thou shalt be to him as God;" _yet with people_ it is
the more _mighty_, and it is just that which is mighty with the
people--which he tells us in another place--is wanting. "For this
people who knoweth not _the law_ are cursed."' But here he continues,
'for so Solomon saith, "Sapiens corde appellabitur prudens, sed dulcis
eloquio majora reperiet;" signifying that profoundness of wisdom will
help a man to a name or admiration,'--(it is something more than that
which he is proposing as _his_ end)--'but that it is eloquence--which
prevails in _active life_;' so that the very movement which brought
philosophy down to earth, and put her upon reforming the practical
life of men, was the movement which led her to assume, not
instinctively, only, but by theory, and on principle, this new and
beautiful apparel, this deep disguise of pleasure. She comes into the
court with her case, and claims that this Art, which has been treated
hitherto as if it had some independent rights and laws of its own, is
properly a subordinate of hers; a chattel gone astray, and setting up
for itself as an art voluptuary.
Works on rhetorics are not wanting, the author reports. Antiquity has
laboured much in this field. Notwithstanding, he says, there is
something to be done here too, and the Elizabethan æsthetics must be
begun also in the _prima philosophia_. 'Notwithstanding,' he
continues, 'to stir the earth a little about the _roots_ of this
science, as we have done of the rest; the duty and office of Rhetoric
is to apply _reason to imagination for the better moving of_ THE WILL;
for we see reason is disturbed in the administration of the will by
three means; by sophism, which pertains to logic; by imagination or
impression, which pertains to rhetoric; and by passion or affection,
which pertains to morality.' So in this negotiation within ourselves,
men are _undermined_ by inconsequences, _solicited and importuned_ by
impressions and observations, and _transported_ by _passions_. Neither
is the nature of man so unfortunately built, as that these _powers and
arts_ should have force to _disturb_ reason and not to _establish_ and
_advance_ it. For the end of logic is to teach a form of logic to
secure reason, not to entrap it. The end of morality is to procure the
affections to obey reason, and not to invade it. The _end_ of rhetoric
is to _fill the imagination_ to second reason, and not to _oppress_
it. For these abuses of arts come in but _ex obliquo_ for caution.
That is the real original English doctrine of Art:--that is the
doctrine of the age of Elizabeth, at least, as it stands in that
queen's English, and though it may be very far from being orthodox at
present, it is the doctrine which must determine the rule of any
successful interpretation of works of art composed on that theory.
'And, therefore,' he proceeds to say, 'it was great injustice in
Plato, though springing out of a just hatred of the rhetoricians of
his time, to esteem of rhetoric but as a voluptuary art, resembling it
to cookery that did mar wholesome meats, and help unwholesome, by
variety of sauces _to the pleasure of the taste_.' 'And therefore, as
Plato said eloquently, "That virtue, if she could be seen, would move
great love and affection, so, seeing that she cannot be showed to the
sense by corporal shape, the next degree is to show her to the
imagination _in lively representation_": _for_ to show her to _reason
only_, in _subtilty of argument_ was a thing ever derided
in--_Chrysippus and many of the Stoics--who thought to thrust virtue
upon men_ by _sharp disputations and conclusions, which have no
sympathy with the will of man_.'
'Again, if the affections in themselves were pliant and obedient to
reason, it were true there should be no great use of persuasions and
injunctions to the will, more than of _naked propositions and proofs;_
but in regard of the continual mutinies and seditions of the
affections,
Video meliora proboque
Deteriora sequor;
'Reason would become captive and servile, if eloquence of persuasions
did not practise and win the imagination from the affections part, and
contract a confederacy between the reason and the imagination, against
the affections; for _the affections themselves_ carry ever an appetite
to _good_, as reason doth. _The difference is_'--mark it--'the
difference is, that the affection beholdeth merely _the present;
reason_ beholdeth the future and _sum_ of time. And therefore the
present _filling the imagination most_, reason is commonly vanquished;
but after that force of eloquence and persuasion hath made things
future and remote, _appear as present_, then, _upon the revolt of the
imagination reason prevaileth_.' Not less important than that is this
art in his scheme of learning. No wonder that the department of
learning which he refers to the imagination should take that prime
place in his grand division of it, and be preferred deliberately and
on principle to the two others.
'Logic differeth from Rhetoric chiefly in this, that logic handleth
reason exact and in truth, and rhetoric handleth it as it is planted
in popular opinions and manners. And therefore _Aristotle_ doth
_wisely_ place rhetoric as between logic on the one side, and moral or
civil knowledge on the other, (and when we come to put together the
works of this author, we shall find that _that_ and none other is the
place it takes in _his_ system, that that is just the bridge it makes
in his plan of operations.)' The proofs and demonstrations of logic
_are towards all men indifferent and the same_: but the proofs and
persuasions of rhetoric _ought to differ according to the auditors_.
Orpheus in sylvis inter delphinas Arion.
Which application, in perfection of idea, ought to extend so far, that
if a man should speak of _the same thing to several persons_, he
should speak to them _all respectively, and several ways_; and there
was a great folio written on this plan which came out in those days
dedicated 'to the Great Variety of Readers. From the most able to him
that can but spell'; (this is just the doctrine, too, which the
Continental philosopher sets forth we see);--though this '_politic_
part of eloquence in private speech,' he goes on to say here, 'it is
easy for the greatest orators _to want; whilst by observing their well
graced forms of speech, they lose the volubility_ of APPLICATION; and
_therefore_ it shall not be _amiss_ to recommend this _to better
inquiry_, not being curious whether we place it here, or in that part
which concerneth _policy._'
Certainly one would not be apt to infer from that decided preference
which the author himself manifests here for those stately and
well-graced forms of speech, judging _merely_ from the style of this
performance at least, one would not be inclined to suspect that he
himself had ever been concerned in any literary enterprises, or was
like to be, in which that _volubility_ of application which he appears
to think desirable, was successfully put in practice. But we must
remember, that he was just the man who was capable of conceiving of a
_variety_ of _styles adapted to different exigencies_, if we would
have the key to this style in particular.
But we must look a little at these labours and studies themselves,
which required such elaborate and splendid arts of delivery, if we
would fully satisfy ourselves, as to whether this author really had
any purpose after all in bringing them in here beyond that of mere
ostentation, and for the sake of completing his muster-roll of the
sciences. Above, we see an intimation, that the divisions of the
subject are, after all, not so 'curious' but that the inquiry might
possibly be resumed again in other connections, and in the particular
connection specified, namely, in that part which concerneth _Policy_.
In that which follows, the new science of human nature and human
life--which is the end and term of this treatise, we are told--is
brought out under the two heads of Morality and Policy; and it is
necessary to look into _both_ these departments in order to find what
application he was proposing to make of this art and science of
Tradition and Delivery, and in order to see what place--what vital
place it occupied in his system.
CHAPTER II.
THE SCIENCE OF POLICY.
'Policy is the most immersed.'--_Advancement of Learning_.
Reversing the philosophic order, we glance first into that new
department of science which the author is here boldly undertaking to
constitute under the above name, because in this his own practical
designs, and rules of proceeding, are more clearly laid open, and the
place which is assigned in his system to that radical science, for
which these arts of Delivery and Tradition are chiefly wanting, is
distinctly pointed out.
And, moreover, in this department of Policy itself, in marking out one
of the grand divisions of it, we find him particularly noticing, and
openly insisting on, the form of delivery and inculcation which the
new science must take here, that is, if it is going to be at all
available as a science of practice.
In this so-called plan for the advancement of learning, the author
proceeds, as we all know, by noticing _the deficiencies_ in human
learning as he finds it; and everywhere it is that radical deficiency,
which leaves human life and human conduct in the dark, while the
philosophers are busied with their controversies and wordy
speculations. And in that part of his inventory where he puts down as
wanting a science of practice in those every-day affairs and
incidents, in which the life of man is most conversant, embodying
axioms of practice that shall save men the wretched mistakes and
blunders of which the individual life is so largely made up; blunders
which are inevitable, so long as men are left here, to natural human
ignorance, to uncollected individual experience, or to the shrewdest
empiricism;--in this so original and interesting part of the work, he
takes pains to tell us at length, that that which he has before put
down under the head of '_delivery_' as a point of form and method,
becomes here essential as a point of substance also. It is not merely
that he will have his axioms and precepts of direction digested from
the facts, instead of being made out of the teacher's own brains, but
he will have THE FACTS themselves, in all their stubbornness and
opposition to the teacher's preconceptions, for the body of the
discourse, and the precepts accommodated thereto, instead of having
the precepts for the body of the discourse, and the facts brought in
to wait upon them. That is the form of the practical doctrine.
He regrets that this part of a true learning has not been collected
hitherto into writing, to the great derogation of learning, and the
professors of learning; for from this proceeds the popular opinion
which has passed into an adage, that there is no great concurrence
between wisdom and learning. The deficiency here is well nigh total he
says: 'but for the wisdom of business, wherein man's life is most
conversant, there be no books of it, except some few scattered
advertisements, that have no proportion to the _magnitude of the
subject_. For if books were written of this, as of the other, I doubt
not but _learned men_ with _mean experience_ would far excel men of
_long experience without learning_, and _outshoot them with their own
bow_. Neither need it be thought that this knowledge is too variable
to fall under precept,' he says; and he mentions the fact, that in old
Rome, so renowned for practical ability, in its wisest and saddest
times, there were professors of this learning, that were known for
GENERAL WISE MEN, who used to walk at certain hours in the place, and
give _advice_ to private citizens, who came to consult with them of
the _marriage_ of _a daughter_, for instance, or the _employing_ of _a
son_, or of _an accusation_, or of a _purchase or bargain_, and _every
other occasion incident to man's life_. There is a pretty scheme laid
out truly. Have _we_ any general wise man, or ghost of one, who walks
up and down at certain hours and gives advice on such topics? However
that may be, this philosopher does not despair of such a science.
'So,' he says, commenting on that Roman custom, 'there is a wisdom of
council and advice, even in private cases, arising out of a universal
_insight into the affairs_ of _the world_, which is _used_ indeed upon
_particular cases propounded_, but is gathered by general
_observation_ of _cases_ of _like nature_.' And fortifying himself
with the example of Solomon, after collecting a string of texts from
the Sacred Proverbs, he adds, 'though they are capable, of course, of
a more divine interpretation, taking them as instructions for life,
they might have received large discourse, if he would have _broken
them_ and _illustrated them_, by deducements and examples. Nor was
this in use with the Hebrews only, but it is generally to be found in
the wisdom of the more ancient times, that as men found out any
observation that they thought was _good for life_, they would gather
it, and express it in _parable_, or _aphorism_, or _fable_.'
But for _fables_, they were vicegerents and supplies, _where examples
failed_. Now that the times abound with history, THE AIM IS BETTER
WHEN THE MARK IS ALIVE. And, therefore, he recommends as the form of
writing, 'which is of all others fittest for this variable argument,
discourses upon histories and examples: for knowledge drawn freshly,
_and in our view_, out of particulars, _knoweth the way best to
particulars again_; and it hath much greater life _for practice_, when
_the discourse attendeth upon the example_, than when the example
attendeth upon the discourse. For this is no point of order as it
seemeth at first' (indeed it is not, it is a point as substantial as
the difference between the old learning of the world and the
new)--'this is no point of order, but of substance. For when the
example is the _ground_ being set down in a history at large, it is
set down with all circumstances, which may _sometimes control_ the
discourse thereupon made, and sometimes supply it as _a very pattern
for action_; whereas the examples which are alleged _for the
discourse's sake_, are cited succinctly and without _particularity_,
and carry a _servile aspect_ towards the discourse which they are
brought in to make good.'
The question of method is here, as we see, incidentally introduced;
but it is to be noted, and it makes one of the rules for the
interpretation of that particular kind of style which is under
consideration, that in this casual and secondary introduction of a
subject, we often get shrewder hints of the author's real intention
than we do in those parts of the work where it is openly and
distinctly treated; at least, these scattered and apparently
accidental hints,--these dispersed directions, often contain the key
for the 'second' reading, which he openly bespeaks for the more open
and elaborate discussion.
And thus we are able to collect, from every part of this proposal for
a practical and progressive human learning, based on the defects of
the unpractical and stationary learning which the world has hitherto
been contented with, the author's opinion as to the form of delivery
and inculcation best adapted to effect the proposed object under the
given conditions. This question of form runs naturally through the
whole work, and comes out in specifications of a very particular and
significant kind under some of its divisions, as we shall see. But
everywhere we find the point insisted on, which we have just seen so
clearly brought out, in the department which was to contain the axioms
of success in private life. Whatever the particular form may be,
everywhere we come upon this general rule. Whatever the particular
form may be, everywhere it is to be one in which the facts shall have
the precedence, and the conclusions shall follow; and not one in which
the conclusions stand first, and the facts are brought in to make them
good. And this very circumstance is enough of itself to show that the
form of this new doctrine will be thus far new, as new as the doctrine
itself; that the new learning will be found in some form very
different, at least, from that which the philosophers and professed
teachers were then making use of in their didactic discourses, in some
form so much more lively than that, and so much less oracular, that it
would, perhaps, appear at first, to those accustomed only to the
other, not to be any kind of learning at all, but something very
different from that.
But this is not the only point in the general doctrine of delivery
which we find produced again in its specific applications. Through all
the divisions of this discourse on Learning, and not in that part of
it only in which the Art of its Tradition is openly treated, we find
that the prescribed form of it is one which will adapt it to the
popular preconceptions; and that it must be a form which will make it
not only universally acceptable, but universally attractive; that it
is not only a form which will throw open the gates of the new school
to all comers, but one that will bring in mankind to its benches. Not
under the head of Method only, or under the head of Delivery and
Tradition, but in those parts of the work in which the substance of
the new learning is treated, we find dispersed intimations and
positive assertions, that the form of it is, at the same time, popular
and enigmatical,--not openly philosophical, and not 'magisterial,'--
but insensibly didactic; and that it is, in its principal and
higher departments--in those departments on which this plan for
the human relief concentrates its forces--essentially POETICAL. That
is what we find in the body of the work; and the author repeats
in detail what he has before made a point of telling us, in general,
under this head of Delivery and Tradition of knowledge, that he
sees no reason why that same instrument, which is so powerful for
delusion and error, should not be restored to its true uses as an
instrument of the human advancement, and a vehicle, though a veiled
_one_--a beautiful and universally-welcome vehicle--for bringing in on
this Globe Theatre the knowledges that men are most in need of.
The doctrine which is to be conveyed in this so subtle and artistic
manner is none other than the Doctrine of Human Nature and Human Life,
or, as this author describes it here, the Scientific Doctrine of
MORALITY and POLICY. It is that new doctrine of human nature and human
life which the science of nature in general creates. It is the light
which universal science, collected from the continent of nature, gives
to that insular portion of it 'which is the end and term of natural
philosophy in the intention of man.' Under these heads of _Morality_
and _Policy_, the whole subject is treated here. But to return to the
latter.
The question of Civil Government is, in the light of this science, a
very difficult one; and this philosopher, like the one we have already
quoted on this subject, is disposed to look with much suspicion on
propositions for violent and sudden renovations in the state, and
immediate abolitions and cures of social evil. He too takes a
naturalist's estimate of those larger wholes, and their virtues, and
faculties of resistance.
'Civil knowledge is conversant about a subject,' he says, 'which is,
of all others, _most immersed in matter_, and hardliest reduced to
axiom. _Nevertheless_, as Cato, the censor, said, "that the Romans
were like sheep, for that a man might better drive a flock of them
than one of them, for, in a flock, if you could get SOME FEW to go
right, the rest would follow;" _so_ in that respect, MORAL PHILOSOPHY
_is more difficult than policy_. Again, moral philosophy propoundeth
to itself the framing of _internal_ goodness, but civil knowledge
requireth only an _external_ goodness, for that, as to society,
sufficeth. Again, States, as great engines, move slowly, _and are not
so soon put out of frame_;' (that is what our foreign statist thought
also) 'for, as in Egypt the seven good years sustained the seven bad,
so governments for a time, well grounded, do bear out errors
following. But _the resolution of particular persons_ is _more
suddenly subverted. These respects do somewhat qualify the extreme
difficulty of civil knowledge_.'
This is the point of attack, then,--this is the point of scientific
attack,--the resolution of particular persons. He has showed us where
the extreme difficulty of this subject appears to lie in his mind, and
he has quietly pointed, at the same time, to that place of resistance
in the structure of the state, which is the key to the whole position.
He has marked the spot exactly where he intends to commence his
political operations. For he has discovered a point there, which
admits of being operated on, by such engines as a feeble man like him,
or a few such together, perhaps, may command. It is the new science
that they are going to converge on that point precisely, namely the
resolution of particular persons. It is the _novum organum_ that this
one is bringing up, in all its finish, for the assault of that
particular quarter. Hard as that old wall is, great as the faculty of
conservation is in these old structures that hold by time, there is
one element running all through it, these chemists find, which _is_
within their power, namely, the resolution of particular persons. It
is the science of the conformation of the parts, it is the
constitutional structure of the human nature, which, in its scientific
development, makes men, naturally, members of communities, beautiful
and felicitous parts of states,--it is that which the man of science
will _begin_ with. If you will let him have that part of the field to
work in undisturbed, he will agree not to meddle with the state. And
beside those general reasons, already quoted, which tend to prevent
him from urging the immediate application of his science to this
'larger whole,' for its wholesale relief and cure, he ventures upon
some specifications and particulars, when he comes to treat distinctly
of government itself, and assign to it its place in his new science of
affairs. If one were to judge by the space he has openly given it on
his paper in this plan for the human advancement and relief, one would
infer that it must be a very small matter in his estimate of agencies;
but looking a little more closely, we find that it is not that at all
in his esteem, that it is anything but a matter of little consequence.
It was enough for him, at such a time, to be allowed to put down the
fact that the art of it was properly scientific, and included in his
plan, and to indicate the kind of science that is wanting to it; for
the rest, he gives us to understand that he has himself fallen on such
felicitous times, and finds that affair in the hands of a person so
extremely learned in it, that there is really nothing to be said. And
being thrown into this state of speechless reverence and admiration,
he considers that the most meritorious thing he can do, is to pass to
the other parts of his discourse with as little delay as possible.
It is a very short paragraph indeed for so long a subject; but, short
as it is, it is not less pithy, and it contains reasons why it should
not be longer, and why that new torch of science which he is bringing
in upon the human affairs generally, cannot be permitted to enter that
department of them in his time. 'The first is, that it is a part of
knowledge secret and retired in _both_ those respects in which things
are deemed secret; for some things are secret because they are hard to
know, and _some_ because they are not fit to utter. Again, the wisdom
of _antiquity_, the _shadows whereof are in the Poets_, in the
description of torments and pains, _next unto the crime of rebellion_,
which was the _giants_ offence, doth detest _the crime of futility_,
as in Sisyphus and Tantalus. But this was meant of _particulars_.
Nevertheless, _even unto the general rules and discourses_ of policy
and government, [it extends; for even here] there is due a _reverent_
handling.' And after having briefly indicated the comprehension 'of
this science,' and shown that it is the thing he is treating under
other heads, he concludes, 'but considering that _I write to a king_
who is a _master_ of it, and is _so well assisted_, I think it decent
to pass over _this part_ in silence, as willing to obtain the
certificate which one of the ancient philosophers aspired unto; who
being silent when others contended to make demonstration of their
abilities by speech, desired it might be certified for _his part_ that
there was one that knew how to hold his peace.'
And having thus distinctly cleared himself of any suspicion of a
disposition to introduce scientific inquiry and innovation into
departments not then open to a procedure of that sort, his proposal
for an advancement of learning in other quarters was, of course, less
liable to criticism. But even that part of the subject to which he
limits himself involves, as we shall see, an incidental reference to
this, from which he here so modestly retires, and affords no
inconsiderable scope for that genius which was by nature so
irresistibly impelled, in one way or another, to the criticism and
reformation of the larger wholes. He retires from the open assault,
but it is only to go deeper into his subject. He is constituting the
science of that from which the state proceeds. He is analyzing the
state, and searching out in the integral parts of it, that which makes
true _states_ impossible. He has found the revolutionary forces in
their simple forms, and is content to treat them in these. He is
bestowing all his pains upon an art that will develop--on scientific
principles, by simply attending to the natural laws, as they obtain in
the human kind, royalties, and nobilities, and liege-men of all
degrees--an art that will make all kinds of pieces that the structure
of the state requires.
CHAPTER III.
THE SCIENCE OF MORALITY.
Section I.--THE EXEMPLAR OF GOOD.
'Nature craves
All dues to be rendered to their owners.'
But this great innovator is busying himself here with drawing up a
report of THE DEFICIENCIES IN LEARNING; and though he is the first to
propose a plan and method by which men shall build up, systematically
and scientifically, a knowledge of _Nature in general_, instead of
throwing themselves altogether upon their own preconceptions and
abstract controversial theories, after all, the principal deficiency
which he has to mark--that to which, even in this dry report, he finds
himself constrained to affix some notes of admiration--this principal
deficiency is THE SCIENCE OF MAN--THE SCIENCE of _human nature_
itself. And the reason of this deficiency is, that very deficiency
before named; it is that very act of shutting himself up to his own
theories which leaves the thinker without a _science_ of himself. 'For
it is the greatest proof of want of skill, to investigate _the nature_
of any object in itself alone; and, in general, those very things
which are considered as secret, are manifested and common in other
objects, but will never be clearly seen if the contemplations and
experiments of men be directed _to themselves alone_.' It is this
science of NATURE IN GENERAL which makes the SCIENCE of _Human Nature_
for the first time possible; and that is the end and term of the new
philosophy,--so the inventor of it tells us. And the moment that he
comes in with that new torch, which he has been out into 'the
continent of nature' to light,--the moment that he comes back with it,
into this old debateable ground of the schools, and begins to apply it
to that element in the human life in which the scientific innovation
appears to be chiefly demanded, 'most of the controversies,' as he
tells us very simply--'most of the controversies, wherein moral
philosophy is conversant, are judged and determined by it.'
But here is the bold and startling criticism with which he commences
his approach to this subject; here is the ground which he makes at the
first step; this is the ground of his scientific innovation; not less
important than this, is the field which he finds unoccupied. In the
handling of this science he says, (the science of 'the Appetite and
Will of Man'), 'those which have written seem to me to have done as if
a man that _professed to teach to write_ did only exhibit _fair
copies_ of alphabets _and_ letters joined, without giving any precepts
or directions for the carriage of the hand, or the framing of the
letters; so have they made good and fair _exemplars_ and _copies_,
carrying the _draughts_ and _portraitures_ of _good, virtue, duty,
felicity_; propounding them, well described, as the true _objects_ and
_scopes_ of man's will and designs; _but how to attain these excellent
marks_, and _how_ to _frame_ and _subdue_ the _will_ of _man_ to
become _true_ and _conformable_ to _these pursuits_, they _pass it
over altogether_, or slightly and _unprofitably_; for it is not,' he
says, 'certain scattered glances and touches that can excuse the
_absence_ of this _part_ of--SCIENCE.
'The reason of this omission,' he supposes, 'to be that hidden rock,
whereupon both this and many other barks of knowledge have been cast
away, which is, that men have despised to be conversant in _ordinary
and common matters_, the _judicious direction whereof, nevertheless_,
is the wisest doctrine; for life consisteth not in novelties nor
_subtleties_, but, _contrariwise_, they have compounded sciences
_chiefly_ of _a certain_ resplendent or lustrous mass of matter,
_chosen to give glory_ either to the _subtlety_ of _disputations_, or
to the _eloquence_ of _discourses_.' But his theory of teaching is,
that 'Doctrine should be such as should make men in love with the
_lesson_, and not with the teacher; being directed to the auditor's
benefit, and not to the author's commendation.' _Neither_ needed men
of so excellent parts to have despaired of a fortune which the poet
Virgil promised himself, and, indeed, obtained, who got as much glory
of eloquence, wit, and learning, in the expressing of the observations
of husbandry _as of the heroical acts of Æneas_.
'Nec sum animi dubius, verbis ea vincere magnum
Quam sit, et angustis hunc addere rebus honorum.'
_Georg_. iii. 289.
So, then, there is room for a new Virgil, but his theme is
_here_;--one who need not despair, if he be able to bring to his
subject those excellent parts this author speaks of, of getting as
much glory of eloquence, wit, and learning, in the expressing of the
_observations of this husbandry_, as those have had who have sketched
the ideal forms of the human life, the dream of what should be. The
copies and exemplars of good,--that vision of heaven,--that idea of
felicity, and beauty, and goodness that the human soul brings with it,
like a memory,--those celestial shapes that the thought and heart of
man, by a law in nature, project,--that garden of delights that all
men remember, and yearn for, and aspire to, and will have, in one form
or another, in delicate air patterns, or gross deceiving images,--that
large, intense, ideal good which men desire--that perfection and
felicity, so far above the rude mocking realities which experience
brings them,--that, _that_ has had its poets. No lack of these
exemplars the historian finds, when he comes to make out his report of
the condition of his kind--where he comes to bring in his inventory of
the human estate: when so much is wanting, that good he reports '_not_
deficient.' Edens in plenty,--gods, and demi-gods, and heroes, _not_
wanting; the purest abstract notions of virtue and felicity, the most
poetic embodiments of them, are put down among the goods which the
human estate, as it is, comprehends. This part of the subject appears,
to the critical reviewer, to have been exhausted by the poets and
artists that mankind has always employed to supply its wants in this
field. No room for a poet here! The draught of the ideal Eden is
finished;--the divine exemplar is finished; that which is wanting
is,--_the husbandry thereunto_.
Till now, the philosophers and poetic teachers had always taken their
stand at once, on the topmost peak of Olympus, pouring down volleys of
scorn, and amazement, and reprehension, upon the vulgar nature they
saw beneath, made out of the dust of the ground, and qualified with
the essential attributes of that material,--kindled, indeed, with a
breath of heaven, but made out of clay,--different kinds of
clay,--with more or less of the Promethean spark in it; but always
clay, of one kind or another, and always compelled to listen to the
laws that are common to the kinds of that substance. And it was to
this creature, thus bound by nature, thus _doubly_ bound,--'crawling
between earth and heaven,' as the poet has it,--that these winged
philosophers on the ideal cliffs, thought it enough to issue their
mandates, commanding it to renounce its conditions, to ignore its
laws, and come up thither at a word,--at a leap,--making no ado about
it.
'I can call spirits from the vasty deep.'
'And so can I, and so can any man;'
Says the new philosopher--
'But will they _come?_
_Will they come_--when you do call for them?'
It was simply a command, that this dirty earth should convert itself
straight into Elysian lilies, and bloom out, at a word, with roses of
Paradise. Excellent patterns, celestial exemplars, of the things
required were held up to it; and endless declamation and argument why
it should be that, and not the other, were not wanting:--but as to any
scientific inquiry into the nature of the thing on which this form was
to be superinduced, as to any _scientific_ exhibition of the form
itself which was to be superinduced, these so essential conditions of
the proposed result, were in this case alike wanting. The position
which these reformers occupy, is one so high, that the question of
different kinds of soils, and chemical analyses and experiments, would
not come within their range at all; and 'the resplendent or lustrous
mass of matter,' of which their sciences are compounded, chosen to
give glory either to the subtilty of disputations or to the eloquence
of discourses, would not bear any such vulgar admixture. It would make
a terrible jar in the rhythm, which those large generalizations
naturally flow in, to undertake to introduce into them any such points
of detail.
And the new teacher will have a mountain too; but it will be one that
'overlooks the vale,' and he will have a rock-cut-stair to its utmost
summit. He is one who will undertake this despised unlustrous matter
of which our ordinary human life consists, and make a science of it,
building up its generalizations from its particulars, and observing
the actual reality,--the thing as it is, freshly, for that purpose;
and not omitting any detail,--the poorest. The poets who had
undertaken this theme before had been so absorbed with the idea of
what man should be, that they could only glance at him as he is: the
idea of a science of him, was not of course, to be thought of. There
was but one name for the creature, indeed, in their vocabulary and
doctrine, and that was one which simply seized and embodied the
general fact, the unquestionable historic fact, that he has not been
able hitherto to attain to his ideal type in nature, or indeed to make
any satisfactory approximation to it.
But when the Committee of Inquiry sits at last, and the business
begins to assume a systematic form, even the science of that ideal
good, that exemplar and pattern of good, which men have been busy on
so long,--the _science_ of it,--is put down as 'wanting,' and the
_science_ of the _husbandry thereunto_, '_wholly deficient_.'
And the report is, that this new argument, notwithstanding its
every-day theme, is one that admits of being sung also; and that the
Virgil who is able to compose 'these Georgies of the Mind,' may
promise himself fame, though his end is one that will enable him to
forego it. Let us see if we can find any further track of him and his
great argument, whether in prose or verse;--this poet who cares not
whether he has his 'singing robes' about him or not, so he can express
and put upon record his new 'observations of this husbandry.'
THE EXEMPLAR OF GOOD.--'And surely,' he continues, 'if the purpose be
in good earnest, _not to write at leisure that which men may read at
leisure_'--note it--that which men may read at leisure--'but really to
_instruct_ and _suborn action and active life_, these GEORGICS of the
MIND, concerning the husbandry and tillage thereof, are no less worthy
than _the heroical descriptions of virtue, duty_, and _felicity_;
therefore the _main and primitive division_ of MORAL KNOWLEDGE,
seemeth to be into the EXEMPLAR or PLATFORM of GOOD, and THE REGIMEN
or CULTURE OF THE MIND, the one describing the NATURE of GOOD, the
other prescribing RULES _how_ to SUBDUE, APPLY, and ACCOMMODATE THE
WILL OF MAN THEREUNTO.'
As to '_the nature of good_, positive or simple,' the writers on this
subject have, he says, 'set it down excellently, in describing the
forms of virtue and duty, with their situations, and postures, in
distributing them into their kinds, parts, provinces, actions, and
administrations, and the like: nay, farther, they have commended them
to man's nature and spirit, with great quickness of argument, and
beauty of persuasions; yea, and fortified and entrenched them, _as
much as discourse can do_, against corrupt and popular opinions. And
for the degrees and comparative nature of good, they have excellently
handled it also.'--That part deserveth to be reported for 'excellently
laboured.'
What is it that is wanting then? What radical, fatal defect is it that
he finds even in the doctrine of the NATURE OF GOOD? What is the
difficulty with this platform and exemplar of good as he finds it,
notwithstanding the praise he has bestowed on it? The difficulty is,
that it is not scientific. It is not broad enough. It is _special_, it
is limited to the species, but it is not properly, it is not
effectively, specific, because it is not connected with the doctrine
of nature in general. It does not strike to those universal original
principles, those simple powers which determine the actual historic
laws and make the nature of things itself. This is the criticism,
therefore, with which this critic of the learning of the world as he
finds it, is constrained to qualify that commendation.
_Notwithstanding_, if before they had come to _the popular and
received notions of 'vice'_ and _'virtue,' 'pleasure'_ and _'pain,'_
and the rest, they had stayed a little longer upon the inquiry
concerning THE ROOTS of GOOD and EVIL, and the strings to those roots,
they had given, in my opinion, _a great light to that which followed_,
and especially _if they had consulted with nature_, they had made
their doctrines less prolix and more profound, which being by them in
part omitted, and in part handled with much confusion, we will
endeavour to resume and open in a more clear manner. Here then, is the
preparation of the Platform or Exemplar of Good, the scientific
platform of virtue and felicity; going behind the popular notion of
vice and virtue, pain and pleasure, and the like, he strikes at once
to the nature of good, as it is 'formed in everything,' for the
foundation of this specific science. He lays the beams of it, in the
axioms and definitions of his '_prima philosophia_' 'which do not fall
within the compass of the special parts of science, but are more
common and of a higher stage, for the distributions and partitions of
knowledge are _not_ like several lines that meet in one angle, and so
touch but in a point, but are like _branches of a tree that meet in a
stem_ which hath a dimension and quantity of entireness and
continuance before it comes to discontinue and break itself into arms
and boughs,' and it is not the narrow and specific observation on
which the popular notions are framed, but the scientific, which is
needed for the New Ethics,--the new knowledge, which here too, is
POWER. He must detect and recognise here also, he must track even into
the nature of man, those universal 'footsteps' which are but 'the same
footsteps of nature treading or printing in different substances.'
'There is formed in _everything_ a double nature of good, the one as
everything is a total or substantive in itself, and the other, as it
is a part or member of a greater body whereof the latter is in
_degree_ the greater and the worthier, because it tendeth to the
conservation of a more general form.... This double nature of good,
and the comparison thereof, is much more engraven upon MAN, _if he
degenerate not_, unto whom the conservation of duty to the public
ought _to be much more precious_ than the conservation of _life and
being_;' and, by way of illustration, he mentions first the case of
Pompey the Great, 'who being in commission of purveyance for a famine
at Rome, and being dissuaded with great vehemency by his friends, that
he should not hazard himself to sea in an extremity of weather, he
said only to them, "_Necesse est ut eam, non ut vivam_."' But, he
adds, 'it may be _truly_ affirmed, that there was never any
philosophy, religion, or other discipline, which did so plainly and
highly _exalt_ the good which is _communicative_, and _depress_ the
good which is private and particular, as the _holy faith_, well
declaring that it was the _same God_ that gave the _Christian law to
men_, who gave those laws of nature to inanimate creatures that we
spake of before; for we read that the elected saints of God have
wished themselves anathematised, and razed out of the book of life, in
an ecstasy of charity, and infinite feeling of communion.'
And having first made good his assertion, that this being set down,
and _strongly planted_, determines most of the _controversies_ wherein
moral philosophy is conversant, he proceeds to develop still further
these scientific notions of good and evil, which he has gone below the
popular notions and into the nature of things to find, these
scientific notions, which, because they are scientific, he has still
to go out of the specific nature to define; and when he comes to nail
down his scientific platform of the _human_ good with them, when he
comes to strike their clear and simple lines, deep as the universal
constitution of things, through the popular terms, and clear up the
old confused theories with them, we find that what he said of them
beforehand was true; they do indeed throw great light upon that which
follows.
To that exclusive, incommunicative good which inheres in the private
and particular nature,--and he does not call it any hard names at all
from his scientific platform; indeed in the vocabulary of the
Naturalist we are told, that these names are omitted, 'for we call a
nettle but a nettle, and the faults of fools their folly,'--that
exclusive good he finds both passive and active, and this also is one
of those primary distinctions which 'is formed in all things,' and so
too is the _subdivision_ of passive good which follows. 'For there is
impressed upon _all things_ a triple desire, or appetite, proceeding
from _love to themselves_; one, of preserving and continuing their
form; another, of _advancing_ and perfecting their form; and a third,
of multiplying and extending their form upon other things; whereof the
multiplying or signature of it upon other things, is that which we
handled by the name of active good.' But passive good includes both
conservation and perfection, or _advancement_, which latter is the
highest degree of passive good. For to preserve in state is the less;
to preserve with advancement is the greater. As to _man_, his approach
or assumption to DIVINE or ANGELICAL NATURE is the perfection of _his_
form, the error or false imitation of which good is that which is the
tempest of human life. So we have heard before; but in the doctrine
which we had before, it was the dogma,--the dogma whose inspiration
and divinity each soul recognized; to whose utterance each soul
responded, as deep calleth unto deep,--it was the Law, the Divine Law,
and not the _science of it_, that was given.
And having deduced 'that good of man which is private and particular,
as far as seemeth fit,' he returns 'to that good of man which respects
and beholds society,' which he terms DUTY, because the term of duty is
more proper to a mind well framed and disposed towards others, as the
term of VIRTUE is applied to a mind well formed and composed in
itself; though neither can a man understand _virtue, without some
relation to society_, nor _duty, without an inward disposition_.
But he wishes us to understand and remember, now that he comes out of
the particular nature, and begins to look towards society with this
term of Duty, that he is still dealing with 'the will of particular
persons,' that it is still the science of _morals_, and not
_politics_, that he is meddling with. 'This part may seem at first,'
he says, 'to pertain to science civil and politic, but not if it be
well observed; for it concerneth the regiment and _government of every
man over himself_, and not over others.' And this is the plan which he
has marked out in his doctrine of government as the most hopeful point
in which to _commence_ political reformations; and one cannot but
observe, that if this art and science should be successfully
cultivated, the one which he dismisses so briefly would be cleared at
once of some of those difficulties, which rendered any more direct
treatment of it at that time unadvisable. This part of learning
concerneth then 'the regiment and government of every man over
himself, and not over others.' '_As_ in architecture _the direction_
of _the framing_ the _posts, beams_, and _other parts_ of _building_,
is not the same with the manner of joining them and erecting the
building; and in mechanicals, the direction _how_ to _frame_ AN
INSTRUMENT OR ENGINE is not the same with the manner of _setting it on
work_, and employing it; _and yet, nevertheless_, in expressing of the
one, you _incidentally_ express the _aptness_ towards the other [hear]
_so_ the doctrine of the conjugation of men in society differeth from
_that_ of _their conformity thereunto_.' The received doctrine of that
conjugation certainly appeared to; and the more this scientific
doctrine of the parts, and the conformity thereunto, is incidentally
expressed,--the more the scientific direction _how to frame_ the
instrument or engine, is opened, the more this difference becomes
apparent.
But even in limiting himself to the individual human nature as it is
developed in particular persons, regarding society only as it is
incidental to that, even in putting down his new scientific platform
of the good that the appetite and will of man naturally seeks, and in
marking out scientifically its _degrees_ and _kinds_, he gives us an
opportunity to perceive in passing, that he is not altogether without
occasion for the use of that particular art, with its peculiar
'organs' and 'methods' and 'illustration,' which he recommends under
so many heads in his treatise on that subject, for the delivery or
tradition of knowledges, which tend to _innovation_ and
_advancement_--knowledge which is 'progressive' and 'foreign from
opinions received.'
This doctrine of _duty_ is sub-divided into two parts; the _common_
duty of every man as a MAN, or A MEMBER of A STATE, which is that part
of the platform and exemplar of good, he has before reported as
'extant, and well laboured.' The other is the _respective_ or
_special_ duty of every man in his PROFESSION, VOCATION and PLACE; and
it is under this head of the _special_ and _respective_ duties of
places, vocations and professions, where the subject begins to grow
narrow and pointed, where it assumes immediately, the most critical
aspects,--it is here that his new arts of delivery and tradition come
in to such good purpose, and stand him instead of other weapons. For
this is one of those cases precisely, which the philosopher on the
Mountain alluded to, where an argument is set on foot at the table of
a man of prodigious fortune, when the man himself is present. Nowhere,
perhaps,--in his freest forms of writing, does he give a better
reason, for that so deliberate and settled determination, which he so
openly declares, and everywhere so stedfastly manifests, not to put
himself in an antagonistic attitude towards opinions, and vocations,
and professions, as they stood authorized in his time. Nowhere does he
venture on a more striking comparison or simile, for the purpose of
setting forth that point vividly, and impressing it on the imagination
of the reader.
'The first of these [sub-divisions of duty] is extant, and well
laboured, as hath been said. The second, likewise, I may report rather
dispersed than deficient; which _manner of dispersed argument I
acknowledge to be best_; [it is one he is much given to;] for who can
take upon him to write of the proper duty, virtue, _challenge_ and
_right_ of EVERY several vocation, profession and place? [--truly?--]
For although sometimes a looker on, may see more than a gamester, and
there be a proverb more arrogant than sound, 'that the _vale_ best
discovereth _the hill_,' yet there is small doubt, that men can write
best, and most really and materially of their own professions,' and it
is to be wished, he says, 'as that which would make learning, indeed,
solid and fruitful, that active men would, or could, become writers.'
And he proceeds to mention opportunely in that connection, a case very
much in point, as far as he is concerned, but not on the face of it,
so immediately to the purpose, as that which follows. It will,
however, perhaps, repay that very careful reading of it, which will be
necessary, in order to bring out its pertinence in this connection.
And we shall, perhaps, not lose time ourselves, by taking, as we pass,
the glimpse which this author sees fit to give us, of the facilities
and encouragements which existed then, for the scientific treatment of
this so important question of the duties and vices of vocations and
professions.
'In which I _cannot but_ mention, _honoris causa, your majesty's_
excellent book, touching the _duty_ of A KING' [and he goes on to give
a description which applies, without much 'forcing,' to the work of
another king, which he takes occasion to introduce, with a direct
commendation, a few pages further on]--'a work richly compounded of
divinity, morality, and policy, with great _aspersion_ of all other
arts; and being, in mine opinion, one of the most sound and healthful
writings that I have read. Not sick of business, as those are who lose
themselves in their order, nor of convulsions, as those which cramp in
matters impertinent; not savoring of perfumes and paintings as those
do, who seek to please the reader more than nature beareth, and
chiefly _well disposed_ in the _spirits_ thereof, being _agreeable to
truth_, and _apt for action_;'--[this passage contains some hints as
to this author's notion of what a book should be, in form, as well as
substance, and, therefore, it would not be strange, if it should apply
to some other books, as well]--'and far removed from _that natural
infirmity_, whereunto _I noted those that write in their own
professions_, to be _subject_, which is that they _exalt it above
measure_; for your majesty hath truly described, _not_ a king of
Assyria or Persia, in their _external_ glory, [and not that kind of
king, or kingly author is he talking of] but a _Moses_, or a _David,
pastors of their people_.
'Neither can I _ever lose out of my remembrance_, what I heard your
majesty, in the same sacred spirit of government, deliver in a great
cause of judicature, which was, that kings ruled by _their laws_, as
God did by the laws of nature, and ought rarely to put in use their
supreme prerogative, as God doth his power of working miracles. _And
yet, notwithstanding_, in your book of _a free monarchy_, you do well
give men to understand, that you know the plenitude of the _power_ and
_right_ of a king, as well as _the circle of his office and duty. Thus
have I presumed to _allege_ this excellent writing of your majesty,
_as a prime_ or _eminent example_ of Tractates, concerning _special_
and _respective_ duties.' [It is, indeed, an _exemplar_ that he talks
of here.] 'Wherein _I should have said as much, if it had been written
a thousand years since_: neither am I moved with certain courtly
decencies, which I esteem it flattery to praise in presence; no, it is
flattery to _praise in absence: that is_, when _either_ the virtue is
absent, _or--the occasion_ is absent, and so the praise is _not
natural_, but _forced_, either in truth, _or--in time_. But let Cicero
be read in his oration _pro Marcello_, which is nothing but an
excellent TABLE of _Caesar's_ VIRTUE, and _made to his face_; besides
the _example_ of many other excellent persons, _wiser a great deal
than such observers_, and we will never doubt upon a _full occasion_,
to give _just_ praises to _present_ or _absent_.'
The reader who does not think that is, on the whole, a successful
paragraph, considering the general slipperiness of the subject, and
the state of the ice in those parts of it, in particular where the
movements appear to be the most free and graceful; such a one has,
probably, failed in applying to it, that key of 'times,' which a _full
occasion_ is expected to produce for this kind of delivery. But if any
doubt exists in any mind, in regard to this author's opinion of the
rights of his own profession and vocation, and _the circle_ of _its_
office and duties,--if any one really doubts what only allegiance this
author professionally acknowledges, and what kingship it is to which
this great argument is internally dedicated, it may be well to recall
the statement on that subject, which he has taken occasion to insert
in another part of the work, so that that point, at least, may be
satisfactorily determined.
He is speaking of 'certain base conditions and courses,' in his
criticism on the manners of learned men, which he says 'he has no
purpose to give allowance to, wherein divers professors of learning
have wronged themselves and gone too far,'--glancing in particular at
the trencher philosophers of the later age of the Roman state, 'who
were little better than parasites in the houses of the great. But
above all the rest,' he continues, 'the _gross_ and _palpable
flattery_, whereunto, many, not unlearned, have abased and abused
their wits and pens, turning, as Du Bartas saith, Hecuba into Helena,
and Faustina into Lucretia, hath most diminished the price and
estimation of learning. Neither is the _modern dedication_, of books
and writings _as to patrons_, to be commended: for that books--such as
are _worthy the name of books_, ought to have _no patrons,
but_--(hear) but--Truth and Reason. And the ancient custom was to
dedicate them only to _private and equal friends_, or to _entitle_ the
books with their names, or if to _kings_ and _great persons_, it was
_some such_ as the argument of the book was fit and proper for: but
these and the like courses may deserve rather _reprehension_ than
defence.
'Not that I can tax,' he continues, however, 'or condemn the
application of learned men to men in fortune.' And he proceeds to
quote here, approvingly, a series of speeches on this very point,
which appear to be full of pertinence; the first of the philosopher
who, when he was asked in mockery, 'How it came to pass that
philosophers were followers of rich men, and not rich men of
philosophers,' answered soberly, and yet sharply, 'Because the one
sort knew what they had need of, and the other did not'. And then the
speech of Aristippus, who, when some one, tender on behalf of
philosophy, reproved him that he would offer the profession of
philosophy such an indignity, as for a private suit to fall at a
tyrant's feet, replied, 'It was not his fault, but it was the fault of
Dionysius, that he had his ears in his feet'; and, lastly, the reply
of another, who, yielding his point in disputing with Caesar, claimed,
'That it was reason to yield to him who commanded thirty legions,' and
'these,' he says, 'these, and _the like_ applications, and stooping to
points of necessity and convenience, cannot be disallowed; for, though
they may have _some outward baseness_, yet, in a _judgment truly
made_, they are to be accounted submissions _to the occasion_, and
_not to the person_.'
And that is just _Volumnia's_ view of the subject, as will be seen in
another place.
Now, this no more dishonors you at all,
Than to take in a town with gentle words,
Which else would put you to your fortune, and
The hazard of much blood.--
And you will rather show our general louts
How you can frown, than spend a _fawn_ upon them,
For the inheritance of their loves, and _safeguard_
Of _what that want might ruin_.
But then, in the dramatic exhibition, the other side comes in too:--
I will not do't;
Lest I surcease to honor mine own truth,
And by my body's action, teach my mind
_A most inherent baseness._
It is the same poet who says in another place:--
Almost my nature is subdued to that it works in.
'But to return,' as our author himself says, after his complimentary
notice of the king's book, accompanied with that emphatic promise to
give an account of himself upon a full occasion, and we have here,
apparently, a longer digression to apologize for, and return from;
but, in the book we are considering, it is, in fact, rather apparent
than real, as are most of the author's digressions, and casual
introductions of impertinent matter; for, in fact, the exterior order
of the discourse is often a submission to the _occasion_, and is not
so essential as the author's apparent concern about it would lead us
to infer; indeed he has left dispersed directions to have this
treatise broken up, and recomposed in a more lively manner, upon a
full occasion, and when time shall serve; for, at present, this too is
chiefly well disposed in the spirits thereof.
And in marking out the grounds in human life, then lying waste, or
covered with superstitious and empirical arts and inventions, in
merely showing the fields into which the inventor of this new
instrument of observation and inference by rule, was then proposing to
introduce it, and in presenting this new report, and this so startling
proposition, in those differing aspects and shifting lights, and under
those various divisions which the art of delivery and tradition under
such circumstances appeared to prescribe; having come, in the order of
his report, to that main ground of the good which the will and
appetite of man aspires to, and the direction thereto,--this so
labored ground of philosophy,--when it was found that the new
scientific platform of good, included--not the exclusive good of the
individual form only, but that of those 'larger wholes,' of which men
are _constitutionally_ parts and members, and the special DUTY,--for
that is the specific name of this principle of integrity in the
_human_ kind, that is the name of that larger law, that spiritual
principle, which informs and claims the parts, and conserves the
larger form which is the worthier,--when it was found that this part
included the particular duty of every man in his _place, vocation_,
and _profession_, as well as the common duty of men as men, surely it
was natural enough to glance here, at that _particular profession and
vocation_ of authorship, and the claims of the respective _places_ of
_king_ and _subject_ in that regard, as well as at the _duty_ of the
_king_, and the superior advantages of a government of laws in
general, as being more in accordance with the order of nature, than
that other mode of government referred to. It was natural enough,
since this subject lies always in abeyance, and is essentially
involved in the work throughout, that it should be touched here, in
its proper place, though never so casually, with a glance at those
nice questions of conflicting claims, which are more fully debated
elsewhere, distinguishing that which is forced in _time_, from that
which is forced in _truth_, and the absence of the person, from the
absence of the occasion.
But the approval of that man of prodigious fortune, to whom this work
is openly dedicated, is always, with this author, who understands his
ground here so well, that he hardly ever fails to indulge himself in
passing, with a good humoured, side-long, glance at 'the situation,'
this approval is the least part of the achievement. That which he,
too, adores in kings, is 'the throng of their adorers'. It is the
sovereignty which makes kings, and puts them in its liveries, that he
bends to; it is that that he reserves his art for. And this proposal
to run the track of the science of nature through this new field of
human nature and its higher and highest aims, and into the very field
of _every man's_ special place, and vocation, and profession, could
not well be made without a glance at those difficulties, which the
clashing claims of authorship, and _other professions_, would in this
case create; without a glance at the imperious necessities which
threaten the life of the new science, which here also imperiously
prescribe the form of its TRADITION; he could not go by this place,
without putting into the reader's hands, with one bold stroke, the key
of its DELIVERY.
For it is in the paragraph which follows the compliment to the king in
his character as an author, in pursuing still further this subject of
vocations and professions, that we find in the form of '_fable_' and
'_allusion_,'--that form which the author himself lays down in his Art
of Tradition, as _the_ form of inculcation for new truth,--the precise
position, which is the key to this whole method of new sciences, which
makes the method and the interpretation, the vital points, in the
writing and the reading of them.
'But, to return, there belongeth farther to the handling of this part,
touching the _Duties_ of Professions and Vocations, a relative, or
_opposite_, touching the _frauds, impostures and vices of every
profession_, which hath been likewise handled. But how? Rather in _a
satire_ and _cynically_, than _seriously_ and _wisely_; for men have
rather sought by _wit_ to deride and traduce _much of that which is
good in_ PROFESSIONS, than _with judgment to discover and sever that
which is corrupt_. For, as Solomon saith, he that cometh to seek after
knowledge with a mind to scorn and censure, shall be sure to find
matter for his humour, but no matter for his instruction. But _the
managing of this argument_ with _integrity_ and _truth_, _which I note
as deficient_, seemeth to me to be _one of the best fortifications for
honesty and virtue that can be planted_. _For_, as the fable goeth of
the _basilisk_, that if _he see you first_, you die for it, but if YOU
SEE HIM FIRST--HE DIETH; _so_ it is with deceits and _evil arts_,
which if they be first ESPIED _lose their life_, but if they
_prevent_, endanger.' [If they see you first, you die for it; and not
you only, but your science.
Yet were there but this single plot to lose,
This _mould_ of Marcius, they to dust should grind it,
And throw it against the wind.]
'So that we are much beholden' he continues, 'to Machiavel _and
others_ that write _what men do_, and not what they ought to do,
[perhaps he refers here to that writer before quoted, who writes,
"others _form_ men,--_I_ report him"]; for it is not possible,'
continues the proposer of the science of special duties of _place_,
and _vocation_, and _profession_, 'the _critic_ of this department,
too,--it is not possible to join the serpentine wisdom with the
columbine innocency, except men know exactly all the conditions of the
serpent,--that is, _all forms_ and _natures of evil_, for without
this, _virtue_ lieth open and un-fenced. Nay, an honest man can do no
good upon those that are wicked, to reclaim them, without the help of
the knowledge of evil: for men of corrupted minds pre-suppose that
honesty groweth out of simplicity of manners, and believing of
preachers, schoolmasters, and _men's exterior language_; so as, except
you can make them perceive that you know the utmost reaches of their
own corrupt opinions, they despise all morality.' A book composed for
the express purpose of meeting the difficulty here alluded to, has
been already noticed in the preceding pages, on account of its being
one of the most striking samples of that peculiar style of
_tradition_, which the advancement of Learning prescribes, and here is
another, in which the same invention and discovery appears to be
indicated:--'Why I can teach you'--says a somewhat doubtful claimant
to supernatural gifts:
'Why, I can teach you, cousin, to command
The devil.'
'And I can teach _thee_, coz, to shame the devil;
By telling truth;
If thou hast power to raise him, bring him hither,
And I'll be sworn I have power to shame him hence:
Oh, while you live, TELL TRUTH.'
But _this_ is the style, in which the one before referred to, falls in
with the humour of this Advancer of Learning. 'As to the rest, I have
enjoined _myself_ to dare to _say_, all that I dare _to do_, and even
_thoughts_ that are not to be published, displease me. The worst of my
actions and qualities do not appear to me so foul, as I find it foul
and base not to dare to own them. Every one is wary and discreet in
_confession_, but men ought to be so in _action_. I wish that this
excessive license of mine, may draw men to freedom _above these
timorous and mincing pretended virtues, sprung from our
imperfections_, and that at the expense of my immoderation, I may
reduce them to reason. A man must see and study his vice to correct
it, they who conceal it from others, commonly conceal it from
themselves and do not think it covered enough, if they themselves see
it.... the diseases of the soul, the greater they are, keep themselves
the more obscure; the most sick are the least sensible of them: for
these reasons they must often be dragged into light, by an unrelenting
and pitiless hand; they must be opened and torn from the caverns and
secret recesses of the heart.' 'To meet the Huguenots, who condemn our
auricular and private confession, I confess myself in public,
religiously and purely,--others have published the errors of their
_opinions_, I of my _manners_. I am greedy of making myself known, and
I care not to how many, provided it be truly; or rather, I hunger for
nothing, but I mortally hate to be _mistaken_ by those who happen to
come across _my name_. _He that does_ all things for honor and glory
[as some great men in that time were supposed to], what can he think
to gain by showing himself to the world _in a mask, and by concealing
his true being from the people_? Commend a hunchback for his fine
shape, he has a right to take it for an affront: if you are a coward,
and men commend you for your valor, is it of _you_ that they speak?
They take you for another. Archelaus, king of Macedon, walking along
the street, somebody threw water on his head; which they who were with
him said he ought to punish, "Ay, but," said the other, "he did not
throw the water upon _me_, but upon _him_ whom he took me to be."
Socrates being told that people spoke ill of him, "Not at all," said
he, "there is nothing in me of what they say!" _I am content to be
less commended provided I am better known_. I may be reputed a wise
man, in such a sort of wisdom as I take to be folly.' Truly the
Advancement of Learning would seem to be not all in the hands of one
person in this time. It appears, indeed, to have been in the hands of
some persons who were not content with simply propounding it, and
noting deficiencies, but who busied themselves with actively carrying
out, the precise plan propounded. Here is one who does not content
himself with merely criticising '_professions_ and _vocations_' and
suggesting improvements, but one who appears to have an inward call
himself to the cure of diseases. Whoever he may be, and since he seems
to care so very little for his name himself, and looks at it from such
a philosophical point of view, we ought not, perhaps, to be too
particular about it; whoever he may be, he is unquestionably a Doctor
of the New School, the scientific school, and will be able to produce
his diploma when properly challenged; whoever he may be, he belongs to
'the Globe' for the manager of that theatre is incessantly quoting
him, and dramatizing his philosophy, and he says himself, 'I look on
all men as my compatriots, and prefer the _universal and common tie to
the national_.'
But in marking out and indicating the plan and method of the new
operation, which has for its end to substitute a scientific, in the
place of an empirical procedure, in the main pursuits of human life,
the philosopher does not limit himself in this survey of the special
social duties to the special duties of professions and vocations.
'Unto this part,' he says, 'touching _respective_ duty, doth also
appertain the duties between husband and wife, parent and child,
master and servant: so likewise the laws of _friendship_ and
_gratitude_, the civil bond of _companies, colleges_, and _politic
bodies_, of _neighbourhood_, and all other proportionate duties; _not_
as they are parts of a government and society, _but as to the framing
of the mind of particular persons_.'
The reader will observe, that that portion of moral philosophy which
is here indicated, contains, according to this index, some extremely
important points, points which require learned treatment; and in our
further pursuit of this inquiry, we shall find, that the new light
which the science of nature in general throws upon the doctrine of the
special duties and upon these points here emphasized, has been most
ably and elaborately exhibited by a contemporary of this philosopher,
and in the form which he has so specially recommended,--with all that
rhetorical power which he conceives to be the natural and fitting
accompaniment of this part of learning. And the same is true also
throughout of that which follows.
'The knowledge concerning good respecting society, doth handle it also
not simply alone, but _comparatively_, whereunto belongeth the
weighing of duties _between person and person, case and case,
particular and public_: as we see in the proceeding of Lucius Brutus
against his own sons, which was so much extolled, yet what was said?
Infelix utcunque ferent ea fata minores.
'So the case was doubtful, and had opinion on both sides. [So the
philosopher on the mountain tells us, too, for his common-place book
and this author's happen to be the same.] Again we see when M. Brutus
and Cassius _invited to a supper_ certain _whose opinions they meant
to feel_, whether they were fit to be made their associates, and cast
forth the question touching the killing of a tyrant,--being an
usurper,--_they were divided in opinion_;' [this of itself is a very
good specimen of the style in which points are sometimes introduced
casually in passing, and by way of illustration merely] some holding
that _servitude_ was the _extreme_ of evils, and _others_ that tyranny
was _better than a civil war_; and this question also our philosopher
of the mountain has considered very carefully from his retreat,
weighing all the _pros_ and _cons_ of it. And it is a question which
was treated also, as we all happen to know, in that other form of
writing for which this author expresses so decided a preference, in
which the art of the poet is brought in to enforce and impress the
conclusion of the philosopher. Indeed, as we proceed further with the
plan of this so radical part of the subject, we shall find, that the
ground indicated has everywhere been taken up on the spot by somebody,
and to purpose.
CHAPTER IV.
THE SCIENCE OF MORALITY.
Section II.--THE HUSBANDRY THEREUNTO; OR, THE CURE AND CULTURE OF THE
MIND.
'Tis an unweeded garden
That grows to seed--'
Hamlet.
But we have finished now with what he has to say here of the EXEMPLAR
or science of GOOD, and its _kinds_, and _degrees_, and the comparison
of them, the good that is proper to the individual, and the good that
includes society. He has found much fine work on that platform of
virtue, and felicity,--excellent exemplars, the purest doctrine, the
loftiest virtue, tried by the scientific standard. And though he has
gone behind those popular names of vice and virtue, pain and pleasure,
and the like, in which these doctrines _begin_, to the more simple and
original forms, which the doctrine of nature in general and its laws
supplies, for a platform of moral science, his doctrine is large
enough to include all these works, in all their excellence, and give
them their true place. A reviewer so discriminating, then, so far from
that disposition to scorn and censure, which he reprehends, so careful
to conserve that which is good in his scientific constructions and
reformations, so pure in judgment in discovering and severing that
which is corrupt, a reporter so clearly scientific, who is able to
maintain through all this astounding report of the deficiences in
human learning, a tone so quiet, so undemonstrative, such a one
deserves the more attention when he comes now to 'the art and practic
part' of this great science, to which all other sciences are
subordinate, and declares to us that he finds it, as a part of
science, 'WANTING!' not defective, but _wanting_.
'Now, therefore, that we have spoken of this FRUIT of LIFE, it
remaineth to speak of the HUSBANDRY that belongeth thereunto, without
which part the former seemeth to be no better than a fair image or
statue, which is beautiful to contemplate, but is without life and
motion.'
But as this author is very far, as he confesses, from wishing to
clothe himself with the honors of an Innovator,--such honors as
awaited the Innovator in that time,--but prefers always to sustain
himself with authority from the past, though at the expense of that
lustre of novelty and originality, which goes far, as he acknowledges,
in establishing new opinions,--adopting in this precisely the
practices, and, generally, to save trouble, the quotations of that
other philosopher, so largely quoted here, who frankly gives his
reasons for _his_ procedure, confessing that he pinches his authors a
little, now and then, to make them speak to the purpose; and that he
reads them with his pencil in his hand, for the sake of being able to
produce respectable authority, grown gray in trust, with the moss of
centuries on it, for the views which he has to set forth; culling bits
as he wants them, and putting them together in his mosaics as he finds
occasion; so now, when we come to this so important part of the
subject, where the want is so clearly reported--where the scientific
innovation is so unmistakeably propounded--we find ourselves suddenly
involved in a storm of Latin quotations, all tending to prove that the
thing was perfectly understood among the ancients, and that it is as
much as a man's scholarship is worth to call it in question. The
author marches up to the point under cover of a perfect cannonade of
classics, no less than five of the most imposing of the Greek and
Latin authors being brought out, for the benefit of the stunned and
bewildered reader, in the course of one brief paragraph, the whole
concluding with a reference to the Psalms, which nobody, of course,
will undertake to call in question; whereas, in cases of ordinary
difficulty, a proverb or two from Solomon is thought sufficient.
For this last writer, with his practical inspiration--with his
aphorisms, or 'dispersed directions,' which the author prefers to a
methodical discourse, as they best point to action--with his perpetual
application of divinity to matters of common life, and to the special
and respective duties, this, of all the sacred writers, is the one
which he has most frequent occasion to refer to; and when, in his
chapter on Policy, he brings out openly his proposal to invade the
every-day practical life of men, in its apparently most unaxiomatical
department, with his scientific rule of procedure--a proposal which he
might not have been 'so prosperously delivered of,' if it had been
made in any less considerate manner--he stops to produce whole pages
of solid text from this so unquestionably conservative authority, by
way of clearing himself from any suspicion of innovation.
First, then, in setting forth this so novel opinion of his, that the
doctrine of the FRUIT of LIFE should include not the scientific
platform of good, and its degrees and kinds only,--not the doctrine of
the ideal excellence and felicity only, but the doctrine--the
scientific doctrine--the scientific art of the Husbandry
thereunto;--in setting forth the opinion, that that first _part_ of
moral science is _but a part of it_, and that as human nature is
constituted, it is not enough to have a doctrine of good in its
perfection, and the divinest exemplars of it; first of all he produces
the subscription of no less a person than Aristotle, whose
conservative faculties had proved so effectual in the dark ages, that
the opinion of Solomon himself could hardly have been considered more
to the purpose. 'In such full words,' he says; and seeing that the
advancement of Learning has already taken us on to a place where the
opinions of Aristotle, at least, are not so binding, we need not
trouble ourselves with that long quotation now--'in such full _words_,
and with such _iteration_, doth he inculcate this part, so saith
_Cicero_ in great commendation of _Cato_ the second, that he had
applied himself to philosophy--"_Non ita disputandi causa, sed ita
vivendi_." And although the neglect of our times, wherein few men do
hold any consultations touching _the reformation of their_ LIFE, as
_Seneca_ excellently saith, "De partibus vitae, quisque deliberat, de
summa nemo," may make this part seem superfluous, yet I must conclude
with that aphorism of _Hippocrates_, "Qui gravi morbo correpti dolores
non sentiunt, iis mens aegrotat"; they need medicines not only to
assuage the disease, but _to awake the sense_.
'And if it be said _that the cure of men's minds belongeth to sacred
divinity_, it is most true; but _yet_ Moral Philosophy'--that is, in
_his_ meaning of the term, Moral _Science_, the new science of
nature--'may be _preferred unto her, as a wise servant_ and humble
handmaid. For, as _the Psalm saith_, that "the eye of the handmaid
looketh perpetually towards the mistress," and yet, _no doubt, many
things are left to the discretion of the handmaid_, to discern of the
_mistress's will_; so ought moral philosophy to give _a constant
attention to the doctrines of divinity_, and yet so as it may yield of
herself, within due limits, many sound and profitable directions.'
_That_ is the doctrine. _That_ is the position of the New Science in
relation to divinity, as defined by the one who was best qualified to
place it--that is the mission of the New Science, as announced by the
new Interpreter of Nature,--the priest of her ignored and violated
laws,--on whose work the seal of that testimony which he challenged to
it has already been set--on whose work it has already been written, in
the large handwriting of that Providence Divine, whose benediction he
invoked, 'accepted'--accepted in the councils from which the effects
of life proceed.
'This part, therefore,' having thus defined his position, he
continues, 'because of the _excellency thereof_, I cannot but find it
EXCEEDING STRANGE that it is not reduced _to written inquiry_; the
rather because it consisteth of much matter, wherein _both speech and
action is often conversant_, and such wherein the common talk of men,
_which is rare_, but yet cometh sometimes to pass, is _wiser than
their books_. It is reasonable, therefore, that we propound it with
the more particularity, both for the worthiness, and _because we may
acquit ourselves for reporting it deficient_' [with such 'iteration
and fulness,' with all his _discrimination_, does he contrive to make
_this_ point]; 'which seemeth _almost incredible_, and is otherwise
conceived--[note it]--and is otherwise conceived and _presupposed_ by
those themselves that have written.' [They do not see that they have
missed it.] 'We will, therefore, enumerate some HEADS or POINTS
_thereof, that it may appear the better what it is_, and __whether it
be extant_.'
A momentous question, truly, for the human race. That was a point,
indeed, for this reporter to dare to make, and insist on and
demonstrate. Doctrines of THE FRUIT of LIFE--doctrines of its
perfection, exemplars of it; but no science--no science of the Culture
or the Husbandry thereunto--though it is otherwise conceived and
presupposed by those who have written! Yes, that is the position; and
not taken in the general only, for he will proceed to propound it with
more particularity--he will give us the HEADS of it--he will proceed
to the articulation of that which is wanting--he will put down, before
our eyes, the points and outlines of the new human science, the
science of the husbandry thereto, both for the worthiness thereof, and
that it may appear the better WHAT IT IS, and whether--WHETHER IT BE
EXTANT. For who knows but it may be? Who knows, after all, but the
points and outlines here, may prove but the track of that argument
which the new Georgics will be able to hide in the play of their
illustration, as Periander hid his? Who knows but the Naturalist in
this field was then already on the ground, making his collections? Who
knows but this new Virgil, who thought little of that resplendent and
lustrous mass of matter, that old poets had taken for their glory, who
seized the common life of men, and not the ideal life only, for his
theme--who made the relief of the human estate, and not glory, his
end, but knew that he might promise himself a fame which would make
the old heroic poets' crowns grow dim,--who knows but that _he_--he
himself--is extant, contemplating his theme, and composing its
Index--claiming as yet its INDEX only? Truly, if the propounder of
this argument can in any measure supply the _defects_ which he
outlines, and opens here,--if he can point out to us any new and
worthy collections in that science for which he claims to break the
ground--if he can, in any measure, constitute it, he will deserve that
name which he aspired to, and for which he was willing to renounce his
own, 'Benefactor of men,' and not of an age or nation.
But let us see where this new science, and scientific art of human
culture begins,--this science and art which is to differ from those
which have preceded it, as the other Baconian arts and sciences which
began in the new doctrine of nature, differed from those which
preceded them.
'FIRST, therefore, in this, _as in all things which are practical_, we
ought to cast up our account, WHAT is IN OUR POWER, AND WHAT NOT? FOR
the one may be dealt with by way of ALTERATION, but the other by way
of APPLICATION _only_. The husbandman cannot command either the
_nature of the earth or the seasons_ of the weather, no more can the
physician _the constitution of the patient_, and the _variety of
accidents._ So in the CULTURE and CURE of THE MIND of MAN _two things_
are without our command, POINTS OF NATURE, and POINTS of FORTUNE: for
to the basis of the one, and the conditions of the other, our work is
limited and tied.' That is the first step: that is where the NEW
begins. There is no science or art till that step is taken.
'_In these things_, therefore, it is left unto us to proceed by
APPLICATION. Vincenda est omnis fortuna ferendo: and so
likewise--Vincenda est omnis natura ferendo. But when we speak of
suffering, we do not speak of a _dull neglected suffering_, but of _a
wise and industrious suffering_, which draweth and contriveth _use and
advantage out of that which seemeth adverse and contrary_, which is
that properly which we call _accommodating_ or _applying_. ["Sweet are
the uses of it," and "blest" indeed are they who can translate the
_stubbornness_ of fortune into so quiet and so sweet a style.]
'Now the wisdom of APPLICATION resteth _principally_ in the _exact and
distinct knowledge of the precedent state or disposition, unto which
we do apply_.'--[This is the process which the Novum Organum sets
forth with so much care], 'for we cannot fit a garment, except we
first take the measure of the body.'
So then THE FIRST ARTICLE OF THIS KNOWLEDGE is--what?--'to set down
_sound_ and _true distributions_ and _descriptions_ of THE SEVERAL
CHARACTERS AND TEMPERS of MEN'S NATURES and DISPOSITIONS, specially
having regard to _those differences_ which are most _radical_, in
being the fountains and causes of the rest, _or_ most frequent in
_concurrence_ or commixture (not _simple_ differences merely, but the
most frequent conjunctions), wherein it is not the handling of a few
of them, in passage, the better to describe the _mediocrities_ of
_virtues_, that can satisfy this intention'; and he proceeds to
introduce a few points, casually, as it were, and by way of
illustration, but the rule of interpretation for this digest of
learning, in this press of method is, that such points are _never_
casual, and usually of primal, and not secondary import; 'for if it
deserve to be considered that there _are_ minds which are proportioned
to great matters, and _others_ to small, which Aristotle handleth, or
ought to have handled, by the name of _magnanimity_, doth it not
deserve as well to be considered, that there are minds proportioned to
intend many matters, and _others to few_?' So that some can _divide
themselves_, others can perchance do exactly well, but it must be in
few things at once; and so there cometh to be a narrowness of mind,
_as well as a_ PUSILLANIMITY. And again, 'that some minds are
proportioned to that which may be despatched at once, or within a
_short return of time_; others to that _which begins afar off_, and is
to be won with length of pursuit.
Jam tum tenditque fovetque.
'So that there may be fitly said to be a _longanimity_, which is
commonly also ascribed to God as a _magnanimity_.' Undoubtedly, he
considers this one of those differences in the natures and
dispositions of men, that it is most important to note, otherwise it
would not be inserted here. 'So farther deserved it to be considered
by Aristotle that there is a disposition in conversation, supposing it
in things which do in no sort touch or concern a man's self, _to
soothe and please_; and a disposition contrary to contradict and
cross; and deserveth it not much better to be considered that there is
a disposition, not in conversation, or talk, but _in matter of more
serious nature_, and supposing it still in things _merely
indifferent_, to take pleasure in the good of another, and a
disposition contrariwise to take distaste at the good of another,
which is that _properly_ which we call _good-nature_, or _ill-nature_,
benignity or malignity.' Is not this a field for science, then, with
such differences as these lying on the surface of it,--does not it
begin to open up with a somewhat inviting aspect? This so remarkable
product of nature, with such extraordinary 'differences' in him as
these, is he the only thing that is to go without a scientific
history, all wild and unbooked, while our philosophers are weeping
because 'there are no more worlds to conquer,' because every stone and
shell and flower and bird and insect and animal has been dragged into
the day and had its portrait taken, and all its history to its
secretest points scientifically detected?
'And therefore,' says this organizer of the science of nature, who
keeps an eye on practice, in _his_ speculations, and recommends to his
followers to observe his lead in that respect, at least, until the
affairs of the world get a little straighter than they were in his
time, and there is leisure for _mere_ speculation,--'And, therefore,'
he resumes, having noted these remarkable differences in the natural
and original dispositions of men,--and certainly there is no more
curious thing in science than the points noted, though the careful
reader will observe that they are not curious merely, but that they
slant in one direction very much, and towards a certain kind of
practice. 'And, therefore,' he resumes, noticing that fact, 'I _cannot
sufficiently marvel_, that this part of knowledge, touching the
_several characters_ of _natures_ and _dispositions_ should be omitted
_both_ in MORALITY and POLICY, considering that it is of _so great_
ministry and suppeditation to them BOTH.' ['The _several characters_.'
The range of difference is limited. They are comprehensible within a
science, as the differences in other species are. No wonder, then,
'that he cannot sufficiently marvel that this part of knowledge should
be omitted.'] But in neither of these two departments, which he here
marks out, as the ultimate field of the naturalist, and his arts, in
neither of them unfortunately, lies the practice of mankind, as yet so
wholly recovered from that 'lameness,' which this critical observer
remarked in it in his own time, that these observations have ceased to
have a practical interest.
And having thus ventured to express his surprise at this deficiency,
he proceeds to note what only indications he observes of any work at
all in this field, and the very quarters he goes to for these little
accidental hints and beginnings of such a science, show how utterly it
was wanting in those grandiloquent schools of philosophic theory, and
those magisterial chairs of direction, which the author found in
possession of this department in his time.
'A man shall find in the traditions of ASTROLOGY, some pretty and apt
_divisions of men's natures_,'--so in the discussions which occur on
this same point in Lear, where this part of philosophy comes under a
more particular consideration, and the great ministry which it would
yield to morality and policy is suggested in a different form, this
same reference to the astrological observations repeatedly occurs. The
Poet, indeed, discards the astrological _theory _of these natural
differences in the dispositions of men, but is evidently in favour of
an observation, and inquiry of some sort, into the second causes of
these 'sequent effects,' and an anatomy of the living subject is in
one case suggested, by a person who is suffering much from the
deficiencies of science in this field, as a means of throwing light on
it. 'Then let Regan be anatomised.' For in the _Play_,--in the poetic
impersonation, which has a scientific purpose for its object, the
historical extremes of these natural differences are touched, and
brought into the most vivid dramatic oppositions; so as to force from
the lips of the by-standers the very inquiries and suggestions which
are put down here; so as to wring from the broken hearts of
men--tortured and broken on the wheel, which 'blind men' call
fortune,--tortured and broken on the rack of an unlearned and barbaric
human society,--or, from hearts that do not break with anything that
such a world can do, the imperious direction of the new science.
'Then let Regan be anatomised, and _see_ what it is that breeds about
her heart.' He has asked already, 'What is the cause of thunder?' But
'_his_ philosopher' must not stop there. 'Is there any _cause_--is
there any cause _in nature_ that makes these hard hearts?'--
It is _the stars_!
The stars above us govern our conditions,
Else one self mate and mate could not beget
Such different issues.
'A man shall find in the traditions of astrology some pretty and apt
_divisions of men's natures_,' ('let them be _anatomised_,' he, too,
says,) 'according to the _predominance_ of the _planets_;' (this is
the '_spherical predominance_,' which _Edmund_ does not believe
in)--'_lovers_ of quiet, _lovers_ of action, _lovers_ of victory,
_lovers_ of honour, _lovers_ of pleasure, _lovers_ of arts, _lovers_
of _change_, and so forth.' And here, also, is another very singular
quarter to go to for a science which is so radical in morality; here
is a place, where men have empirically hit upon the fact that it has
some relation to policy. 'A man shall find in the wisest sorts of
these relations which the _Italians_ make touching conclaves, the
natures of the several _Cardinals_, handsomely and livelily painted
forth';--and what he has already said in the general, of this
department, he repeats here under this division of it, that the
conversation of men in respect to it, is in advance of their
books;--'a man shall meet with, in every day's conference, the
denominations of sensitive, dry, formal, real, humorous, "huomo di
prima impressione, huomo di ultima impressione, and the like": but
this is no substitute for science in a matter so radical,'--'and yet,
nevertheless, _this observation, wandereth in words_, but is not
_fixed in inquiry_. For the _distinctions_ are found, many of them,
but we conclude _no precepts_ upon them'; it is induction then that we
want here, after all--_here_ also--here as elsewhere: 'the
distinctions are found, many of them, but we _conclude no precepts_
upon them: wherein our fault is the greater, because both HISTORY,
POESY, and DAILY EXPERIENCE, _are as goodly fields where these
observations grow_; whereof we make a few poesies to hold in our
hands, but no man bringeth them to the confectionery that _receipts_
might be made of them for the use of life.'
How could he say _that_, when there was a man then alive, who was
doing in all respects, the very thing which he puts down here, as the
thing which is to be done, the thing which is of such radical
consequence, which is the beginning of the new philosophy, which is
the beginning of the new _reformation_; who is making this very point
in that science to which the others are subordinate?--how could he say
it, when there was a man then alive, who was ransacking the daily
lives of men, and putting all history and poesy under contribution for
these very observations, one, too, who was concluding precepts upon
them, bringing them to the confectionery, and composing receipts of
them for the use of life; a scholar who did not content himself with
merely _reporting_ a deficiency so radical as this, in the human life;
a man who did not think, apparently, that he had fulfilled _his_ duty
to his kind, by composing a paragraph on this subject.
And how comes it--how comes it that he who is the first to discover
this so fatal and radical defect in the human science, has himself
failed to put upon record any of these so vital observations? How
comes it that the one who is at last able to put his finger on the
spot where the mischief, where all the boundless mischief, is at work
here,--where the cure must begin, should content himself with
observations and collections in physical history _only_? How comes it
that the man who finds that all the old philosophy has failed to
become operative for the lack of this historical basis, who finds it
so '_exceeding strange_, so _incredible_,' who 'cannot sufficiently
marvel,' that these observations should have been omitted in this
science, heretofore,--the man who is so sharp upon Aristotle and
others, on account of this incomprehensible oversight in their
ethics,--_is himself guilty of this very thing_? And how will this
defect in _his_ work, compare with that same defect which he is at so
much pains to note and describe in the works of others--others who did
not know the value of this history? And how can he answer it to his
kind, that with the views he has dared to put on record here, of the
relation, the _essential_ relation, of this knowledge to human
advancement and relief, _he himself has done nothing at all to
constitute it, except to write this paragraph_.
And yet, by his own showing, the discoverer of this field was himself
the man to make collections in it; for he tells us that accidental
observations are not the kind that are wanted here, and that the truth
of direction must precede the severity of observation. Is this so?
Whose note book is it then, that has come into our hands, with the
rules and plummet of the new science running through it, where all the
observation takes, spontaneously, the direction of this new doctrine
of nature, and brings home all its collections, in all the lustre of
their originality, in all their multiplicity, and variety, and
comprehension, in all the novelty and scientific rigour of their
exactness, into the channels of these _defects_ of learning? And who
was he, who thought there were more things in heaven and earth, than
were dreamt of in old philosophies, who kept his tables always by him
for open questions? and whose tablets--whose many-leaved tablets, are
they then, that are tumbled out upon us here, glowing with 'all saws,
all forms, all pressures past, that youth and observation copied
there.' And if aphorisms are made out of the pith and heart of
sciences, if 'no man can write good aphorisms who is not sound and
grounded,' what Wittenberg, what University was he bred in?
Till now there has been no man to claim this new and magnificent
collection in natural science: it is a legacy that came to us without
a donor;--this new and vast collection in natural history, which is
put down here, all along, as _that which is wanting_--as that which is
wanting to the science of man, to the science of his advancement to
his place in nature, and to the perfection of his form,--as that which
is wanting to the science of the larger wholes, and the art of their
conservation. There was no _man_ to claim it, for the _boast_, the
very boast made on behalf of the thing for whom it was claimed--was--
he _did not know it was worth preserving_!--he _did not know_ that
this mass of new and profoundly scientific observation--this so new
and subtle observation, so artistically digested, with all the
precepts concluded on it, strewn, crowded everywhere with those
aphorisms, those axioms of practice, that are made out of the pith and
heart of sciences--he did not know it was of any value! That is his
history. That is the sum of it, and surely it is enough. Who, that is
himself at all above the condition of an oyster, will undertake to
say, deliberately and upon reflection, that it is not? So long as we
have that one fact in our possession, it is absurd, it is simply
disgraceful, to complain of any deficiency in this person's biography.
There is enough of it and to spare. With that fact in our possession,
we ought to have been able to dispense long ago with some, at least,
of those details that we have of it. The only fault to be found with
the biography of this individual as it stands at present is, that
there is too much of it, and the public mind is labouring under a
plethora of information.
If that fact be not enough, it is our own fault and not the author's.
He was perfectly willing to lie by, till it was. He would not take the
trouble to come out for a time that had not studied his philosophy
enough to find it, and to put the books of it together.
Many years afterwards, the author of this work on the Advancement of
Learning, saw occasion to recast it, and put it in another language.
But though he has had so long a time to think about it, and though he
does not appear to have taken a single step in the interval, towards
the supplying of this radical deficiency in human science; we do not
find that his views of its importance are at all altered. It is still
the first point with him in the scientific culture of human
nature,--the first point in that Art of Human Life, which is the end
and term of _Natural Philosophy_, as _he_ understands the limits of
it. We still find the first Article of the Culture of the Mind put
down, 'THE DIFFERENT NATURES OR DISPOSITIONS OF MEN,' _not the vulgar
propensities_ to VIRTUES and VICES--note it--'or perturbations and
passions, but of such as are _more internal and radical_, which are
generally neglected.' 'This is a study,' he says, which 'might afford
GREAT LIGHT TO THE SCIENCES.' And again he refers us to the existing
supply, such as it is, and repeats with some amplification, his
previous suggestions. 'In astrological traditions, the natures and
dispositions of men, are tolerably _distinguished_ according to the
influence of the planets, where _some_ are said to be by nature formed
for _contemplation, others_ for _war_, others for _politics_.'
Apparently it _would_ be 'great ministry to policy,' if one could get
the occult sources of such differences as these, so as to be able to
command them at all, in the culture of men, _or_ in the fitting of men
to their places. 'But' he proceeds, 'so likewise among the _poets_ of
all kinds, we _everywhere find_ characters of nature, though
_commonly_ drawn with excess and _exceeding the limits of nature_.'
Here, too, the philosopher refers us again to the common discourse of
men, as containing wiser observations on this subject, than their
books. 'But much the best matter of all,' he says, 'for such a
treatise, may be _derived from_ the more _prudent_ historians, and not
so well from eulogies or panegyrics, which are usually written soon
after the death of _an illustrious person_, but much rather from a
whole body of history, as often as such a person appears, for such an
_inwoven_ account gives a better description than _panegyrics_.... But
we do not mean that such characters should be received in ethics, as
perfect civil images.' They are to be subjected to an artistic
process, which will bring out the radical principles in the
dispositions and tempers of men in general, as the material of
inexhaustible varieties of combination. He will have these historic
portraits merely 'for outlines and first draughts of the images
themselves, which, being variously compounded and mixed, afford all
kinds of portraits, so that an _artificial and accurate dissection_
may be made of MEN'S MINDS AND NATURES, and the _secret disposition of
each particular man laid open_, that from the knowledge of the
_whole_, the PRECEPTS _concerning the_ ERRORS of THE MIND may be MORE
RIGHTLY FORMED.' Who did that very thing? Who was it that stood on the
spot and put that design into execution?
But this is not all; this is only the beginning of the observation and
study of _differences_. For he would have also included in it, 'those
impressions of nature which are otherwise _imposed_ upon by the mind,
by the SEX, AGE, COUNTRY, STATE OF HEALTH, MAKE OF BODY, as of beauty
and deformity, and THE LIKE, which are inherent and not external:' and
more, he will have included in it--in these _practical Ethics_ he will
have included--'POINTS OF FORTUNE,' and the differences that they
make; he will have _all the differences_ that this creature exhibits,
under any conditions, put down; he will have his whole nature, so far
as his history is able to show it, on his table; and not as it is
exhibited accidentally, or spontaneously merely, but under the test of
a studious inquiry, and essay; he will apply to it the trials and
vexations of Art, and wring out its last confession. This is the
practical doctrine of this species; this is what the author we have
here in hand, calls the _science_ of it, or the beginning of its
science. This is one of the _parts of science_ which he says is
wanting. Let us follow his running glimpse of the points here, then,
and see whether it is extant here, too, and whether there is anything
to justify all this preparation in bringing it in, and all this
exceeding marvelling at the want of it.
'And again _those differences_ which proceed from FORTUNE, as
SOVEREIGNTY, NOBILITY, OBSCURE BIRTH, RICHES, WANT, MAGISTRACY,
PRIVATENESS, PROSPERITY, ADVERSITY, constant fortune, variable
fortune, rising _per saltum, per gradus_, and the like.' These are
articles that he puts down for points in his _table of natural
history_, points for the collection of instances; this is the tabular
preparation for induction here; for he does not conclude his precepts
on the popular, miscellaneous, accidental history. That will do well
enough for books. It won't do to get out axioms of practice from such
loose material. They have to ring with the proof of another kind of
condensation. All _his_ history is artificial, prepared history more
_select_ and _subtle_ and _fit_ than the other kind, he
says,--prepared on purpose; perhaps we shall come across his tables,
some day, with these very points on them, filled in with the
observations of one, so qualified by the truth of direction to make
them 'severe'. It would not be strange, for he gives us to understand
that he is not altogether idle in this part of his Instauration, and
that he does not think it enough to lay out work for others, without
giving an occasional specimen of his own, of the thing which he notes
as deficient, and proposes to have done, so that there may be no
mistake about it as to what it really is; for he appears to think
there is some danger of that. Even here, he produces a few
illustrations of his meaning, that it may appear the better what is,
and whether it be extant.
'And therefore we see, that _Plautus_ maketh it a wonder to see an OLD
man beneficent. _St. Paul_ concludeth that severity of _discipline_
was to be used to the _Cretans_, ("increpa eos dure"), upon _the
disposition_ of THEIR COUNTRY. "Cretenses semper mendaces, malæ
bestize, ventres pigri." _Sallust_ noteth that it is usual with KINGS
to desire _contradictories_; "Sed plerumque, regiæ voluntates, ut
vehementes sunt sic mobiles saepeque ipsæ sibi adversæ." _Tacitus_
observeth how rarely THE RAISING OF THE FORTUNE mendeth the
disposition. "Solus Vespasianus mutatus in melius." _Pindar_ maketh an
observation that great and sudden fortune for the most part defeateth
men. So _the Psalm_ showeth it more easy to keep a measure in the
enjoying of fortune, than in the increase of fortune; "Divitiæ si
affluant nolite cor apponere."' '_These observations, and the
like_,'--what book is it that has so many of '_the like_'?--'I deny
not but are touched a little by Aristotle _as in passage_ in his
_Rhetorics_, and are handled in some scattered discourses.' One would
think it was another philosopher, with pretensions not at all
inferior, but professedly very much, and altogether superior to those
of Aristotle, whose short-comings were under criticism here; 'but they
(_these observations_) were never INCORPORATED _into moral
philosophy_, to which they do ESSENTIALLY appertain, as THE KNOWLEDGE
of THE DIVERSITY of GROUND and MOULDS doth to _agriculture_, and the
knowledge of the DIVERSITY of COMPLEXIONS and CONSTITUTIONS doth to
the _physician_; except'--note it--'except we mean to follow the
indiscretion of empirics, which minister _the same medicines to all
patients_.'
Truly this does appear to give us some vistas of a _science_, and a
'pretty one,' for these particulars and illustrations are here, that
we may see the better what it is, and whether it be extant. That is
the question. And it happens singularly enough, to be a question just
as pertinent now, as it was when the philosopher put it on his paper,
two hundred and fifty years ago.
_There_ is the first point, then, in the table of this scientific
history, with its subdivisions and articulations; and here is the
second, not less essential. 'Another article of this knowledge is the
inquiry touching THE AFFECTIONS; for, as in medicining the body,'--and
it is a practical science we are on here; it is the cure of the mind,
and not a word for show,--'as in medicining the body, it is in order,
_first_, to know the divers complexions and constitutions; secondly,
the _diseases_; and, lastly, the _cures_; so in medicining of the
mind,--after knowledge of the _divers characters_ of _men's natures_,
it followeth, in order, to know the diseases and infirmities of the
mind, which are no other than the perturbations and distempers of the
affections.' And we shall find, under the head of the medicining of
the body, some things on the subject of medicine in general, which
could be better said _there_ than _here_, because the wrath of
professional dignitaries,--the eye of the 'basilisk,' was not perhaps
quite so terrible in that quarter then, as it was in some others. For
though 'the Doctors' in that department, did manage, in the dark ages,
to possess themselves of certain weapons of their own, which are said
to have proved, on the whole, sufficiently formidable, they were not,
as it happened, armed by the State as the others then were; and it was
usually discretionary with the patient to avail himself, or not, of
their drugs, and receipts, and surgeries; whereas, in the diseased and
suffering soul, no such discretion was tolerated. The drugs were
indeed compounded by the State in person, and the executive stood by,
axe in hand, to see that they were taken, accompanying them with such
other remedies as the case might seem to require; the most serious
operations being constantly performed without ever taking 'the sense'
of the patient.
So we must not be surprised to find that this author who writes under
such liabilities ventures to bring out the pith of his trunk of
sciences,--that which sciences have in common,--the doctrine of the
nature of things,--what he calls '_prima philosophia_,' when his
learned sock is on--a little more strongly and fully in that branch of
it, with a glance this way, with a distinct intimation that it is
common to the two, and applies here as well. There, too, he complains
of the ignorance of anatomy, which is just the complaint he has been
making here, and that, for want of it, 'they quarrel many times with
the humours which are not in fault, the fault being in the very frame
and mechanic of the part, which cannot be removed by medicine
_alterative_, but must be _accommodated_ and palliated by diet and
medicines _familiar_.' There, too, he reports the lack of medicinal
history, and gives directions for supplying it, just such directions
as he gives here, but that which makes the astounding difference in
the reading of these reports to-day, is, that the one has been
accepted, and the other has not; nay, that the one has been _read_,
and the other has not: for how else can we account for the fact, that
men of learning, in our time, come out and tell us deliberately, not
merely that this man's place in history, is the place of one who
devoted his genius to the promotion of the personal convenience and
bodily welfare of men, but, that it is the place of one who gave up
the nobler nature, deliberately, on principle, and after examination
and reflection, as a thing past help from science, as a thing lying
out of the range of philosophy? How else comes it, that the critic
to-day tells us, dares to tell us, that this leader's word to the new
ages of advancement is, that there is no scientific advancement to be
looked for _here_?--how else could he tell us, with such vivid detail
of illustration, that this innovator and proposer of advancement,
never intended his Novum Organum to be applied to the _cure_ of the
moral diseases, to the subduing of the WILL and the AFFECTIONS,--but
thought, because the old philosophy had failed, there was no use in
trying the new;--because the philosophy of words, and preconceptions,
had failed, the philosophy of observation and application, the
philosophy of ideas as they are in nature, and not as they are in the
mind of man merely, the philosophy of _laws_, must fail also;--because
ARGUMENT had failed, ART was hopeless;--because syllogisms, based on
popular, unscientific notions were of no effect, _practical axioms_
based on the scientific knowledge of natural causes, and on their
specific developments, were going to be of none effect also? If the
passages which are now under consideration, had been so much as
_read_, how could a learned man, in our time, tell us that the author
of the 'Advancement of Learning' had come with any such despairful
word as that to us,--to tell us that the new science he was
introducing upon this Globe theatre, the science of _laws_ in nature,
offered to _Divinity_ and Morality no aid,--no ministry, no service in
the _cure of the mind_? And the reason why they have not been read,
the reason why this part of the 'Advancement of Learning,' which is
the principal part of it in the intention of its author, _has_ been
overlooked hitherto is, that the Art of Tradition, which is described,
here--the art of the Tradition, and delivery of knowledges which are
foreign from opinions received, was in the hand of its inventor, and
able to fulfil his pleasure.
After the knowledge of the divers characters of men's natures then,
the next article of this inquiry is the DISEASES and INFIRMITIES of
the MIND, which are no other than the perturbations and distempers of
THE AFFECTIONS. For as the ancient politicians in popular estates were
wont to compare the people to the sea, and the _orators_ to the winds,
because the sea would of itself be calm and quiet, if the winds did
not move and trouble it; _so_ the _people would be peaceable_ and
_tractable_, if the _seditious orators did not set them in working and
agitation_; so it may be fitly said, that the mind, in the nature
thereof, would be _temperate_ and _stayed_, if _the affections_, as
winds, did not put it into tumult and perturbation. And _here, again_,
I find, _strange as before_, that _Aristotle_ should have written
divers volumes of _Ethics_, and never handled THE AFFECTIONS, which is
the _principal subject thereof_; and yet, in his _Rhetorics_, where
they are considered but _collaterally_, and in a second degree, as
they may be moved by speech, he findeth place for them, and handleth
them well _for the quantity_, but where their _true place_ is, he
_permitteth_ them. (Very much the method of procedure adopted by the
philosopher who composes that criticism; who also finds a place for
the affections in passing, where they are considered collaterally, and
in a second degree, and for the quantity, he handleth them well, and
who knows how to bring his Rhetorics to bear on them, as well as the
politicians in popular estates did of old, though for a different end;
but where their true place is, he, too, _permitteth_ them; and, in his
Novum Organum, he keeps so clear of them, and _permits_ them so fully,
that the critics tell us he never meant it should touch them.) 'For it
is not his disputations about pleasure and pain that can satisfy this
inquiry, no more than he that should _generally_ handle the nature of
light can be said to handle the nature of _colours_; for pleasure and
pain are to the particular affections as light is to the particular
colours.' Is not this a man for particulars, then? And when he comes
to the practical doctrine,--to _the art_--to the knowledge, which is
_power_,--will he not have particulars here, as well as in those other
arts which are based on them? Will he not have particulars here, as
well as in chemistry and natural philosophy, and botany and
mineralogy; or, when it comes to practice here, will he be content,
after all, with the old line of argument, and elegant disquisition,
with the old generalities and subtleties of definition, which required
no collection of particulars, which were independent of observation,
or for which the popular accidental observation sufficed? 'Better
travels, I suppose, had the Stoics taken in this argument, as far as I
can gather by that which we have at secondhand. _But yet_ it is like
it was after their manner, rather in subtlety of definitions, which,
in a subject of this nature, are _but curiosities_, than _in_ ACTIVE
_and_ AMPLE DESCRIPTIONS AND OBSERVATIONS. So, likewise, I find some
particular writings of _an elegant nature_, touching some of the
affections; as of anger, of comfort upon adverse accidents, of
tenderness of countenance, and others.' And such writings were not
confined to the ancients. Some of us have seen elegant writings of
this nature, published under the name of the philosopher who composes
this criticism, and suggests the possibility of essays of a more
lively and _experimental_ kind, and who seems to think that the
treatment should be _ample_, as well as _active_.
'_But_ the POETS and WRITERS of HISTORY are the best _Doctors_ of
_this knowledge_, where we may find, painted forth with great _life_,
_how affections are kindled and incited_, and _how pacified_ and
_refrained_;'--certainly, that is the kind of learning we want
here:--'and how, again, contained from _act_ and _further
degree_'--very useful knowledge, one would say, and it is a pity it
should not be 'diffused,' but it is not every poet who can be said to
have it;--'_how_ they disclose themselves--_how_ they work--how they
vary;'--this is the science of them clearly, _whoever_ has it;--'how
they gather and fortify--how they are _enwrapped one within
another_;'--yes, there is one Poet, one Doctor of this science, in
whom we can find _that_ also;--'and how they do fight and encounter
one with another, and other like _particularities_.' We all know what
Poet it is, to whose lively and ample descriptions of the affections
and passions--to whose _particularities_--that description best
applies, and in what age of the world he lived; but no one, who has
not first studied them as scientific exhibitions, can begin to
perceive the force--the exclusive force--of the reference. 'Amongst
the which, this last is of special _use_ in MORAL and CIVIL matters:
_how_, I say, to _set affection against affection_, and to master one
by another, even as we used to hunt beast with beast, and fly bird
with bird, which otherwise, percase, we could not so easily recover.'
The Poet has not only exhibited this with very voluminous and lively
details, but he, too, has concluded his precept;--
'One fire burns out another's burning'--
'One desperate grief cures with another's languish'--
'Take thou some new infection to thine eye,
And the rank poison of the old will die.'
_Romeo and Juliet_.
'As fire drives out fire, so pity, pity;
And pity to the _general wrong of Rome_
Hath, done this deed _on Cæsar.'
_Julius Cæsar_.
for it is the _larger_ form, which is the worthier, in that new
department of mixed mathematics which this philosopher was
cultivating.
'One fire drives out one fire, one nail one nail:
Rights by rights fouler, strength by strengths do fail.'
_Coriolanus_.
And for history of _cases_, see the same author in Hamlet and other
plays. [This philosopher's prose not unfrequently contains the key of
the poetic paraphrase; and the true reading of the line, which has
occasioned so much perplexity to the critics, may, perhaps, be
suggested by this connection--'to set affection against affection, and
to master one by another, even as we hunt beast with beast, and fly
bird with bird.']
CHAPTER V.
THE SCIENCE OF MORALITY.--ALTERATION.
Hast thou not learn'd me how
To make perfumes? distil? preserve? yea, so,
That our great king himself doth woo me oft
For my confections? Having thus far proceeded,
(Unless thou think'st me devilish,) is't not meet
That I did amplify my judgment in
Other conclusions? _Cymbeline_.
Thus far, it is the science of Man, _as he is_, that is propounded. It
is a scientific history of the Mind and its diseases, built up from
particulars, as other scientific histories are; and having disposed,
in this general manner, of that which must be dealt with by way of
_application_, those points of nature and fortune, which he puts down
as the basis and conditions to _which all our_ WORK _is limited and
tied_, we come now to that which IS within our power--to those points
which we can deal with by way of ALTERATION, and not of _application_
merely; and yet points which are operating perpetually on the human
character, changing the will and appetite, and altering the conduct,
by laws not less sure than those which operate in the occult processes
of nature, and determine differences behind the scene, or out of the
range of our volition.
And if after having duly weighed the hints we have already received of
the importance of the subject, we do not any longer suffer ourselves
to be put off the track, or bewildered by the first rhetorical effect
of the sentence in which these agencies are introduced to our
attention,--if we look at that rapid series of words, as something
else than the points of a period, if we stop long enough to recover
from the confusion which a mere string of names, a catalogue or table
of contents, crowded into single sentence, will, of necessity,
create,--if we stop long enough to see that each one of these words is
a point in the table of a new science, we shall perceive at once, that
after having made all this large allowance, this _new_ allowance for
that which is _without_ our power, there is still a very, very large
margin of operation, and discovery, and experiment left; that there is
still a large scope of _alteration_ left--alteration in man as he is.
For we shall find that these forces which _are_ within our power, are
the very ones which are making, and always have been making, man what
he is. Running our eye along this table of forces and supplies, with
that understanding of its uses, we shall perceive at once, that we
have the most ample material here, if it were but scientifically
handled; untried, inexhaustible means and appliances for raising man
to the height of his pattern and original, to the stature of a perfect
man.
It is not the material of this regimen of growth and advancement, it
is not the Materia Medica that is wanting,--it is the science of it.
It is the natural history of these forces, with the precepts
scientifically concluded on them, that is wanting. The appliances are
here; the scientific application of them remains to be made, and until
these have been tried, it is too early to pronounce on the case; until
these have been tried, just as other precepts of the new science have
been, it is too soon to say that that science of nature,--that
knowledge of laws--that foreknowledge of effects, which operates so
remedially in all other departments of the human life, is without
application, is of no efficiency here; until these have been tried it
is too soon to say that the science of nature is _not_ what the man
who brought it in on this Globe theatre _declared it_ to _be_, the
handmaid of Divinity, the intelligent handmaid and minister of
religion, to whose discretion in the economy of Providence, much, much
has evidently been left.
And it was no assumption in this man to claim, as he did claim, a
divine and providential authority for this procedure. And those who
intelligently fulfil their parts in this great enterprise for man's
relief, and the Creator's glory, have just as clear a right to say, as
those of old who fulfilled with such means and lights, and
inspirations as their time gave them, their part in the plan of the
human advancement, 'it is God who worketh in us.'
'Now come we to those points which _are_ within our command, and have
_force_ and _operation_ upon the mind, to _affect the will and
appetite_, and to alter manners: wherein they ought to have handled
CUSTOM, EXERCISE, HABIT, EDUCATION, EXAMPLE, IMITATION, EMULATION,
COMPANY, FRIENDS, PRAISE, REPROOF, EXHORTATION, FAME, LAWS, BOOKS,
STUDIES: these, as they have determinate use in moralities, from these
_the mind_ SUFFERETH; and of these are such receipts and regiments
compounded and described, as may serve to recover or preserve the
health and good estate of the mind, as far as pertaineth to human
medicine; of which number we will insist upon some one or two, _as an
example of the rest_, because it _were too long_ to prosecute _all_.'
But the careful reader perceives in that which follows, that the
treatment of this so vital subject, though all that the author has to
say upon it _here_, is condensed into these brief paragraphs, is not
by any means so miscellaneous, as this introduction and 'the _first_
cogitation' on it, might, perhaps, have prepared him to find it.
To be permitted to handle these forces openly, in the form of literary
report, and recommendation, would, no doubt, have seemed to this
inventor of sciences, in his day no small privilege. But there was
another kind of experiment in them which he aspired to. He wished to
take these forces in hand more directly, and compound recipes, with
them, and other 'regiments' and cures. For by nature and carefullest
study he was a Doctor in this degree and kind--and a man thus fitted,
inevitably seeks his sphere. Very unlearned in this science of human
nature which he has left us,--much wanting in analysis must he be, who
can find in the persistent determination of such a man to possess
himself of places of trust and authority, only the vulgar desire for
courtly distinction, and eagerness for the paraphernalia of office.
This man was not wanting in any of the common natural sentiments; the
private and particular nature was large in him, and that good to which
he gives the preference in his comparison of those exclusive aims and
enjoyments, is 'the good which is _active_, and not that which is
_passive_'; both as it tends to secure that individual perpetuity
which is the especial craving of men thus specially endowed, and on
account of 'that affection for variety and _proceeding_' which is also
common to men, and specially developed in such men,--an affection
which the goods of the passive nature are not able to satisfy. 'But in
_enterprises_, pursuits and purposes of life, there is much variety
whereof men are sensible with pleasure in their inceptions,
progressions, recoils, re-integration, approaches and attainings to
their ends.' And he gives us a long insight into his own particular
nature and history in that sentence. He is careful to distinguish this
kind of good from the good of society, 'though in some cases it hath
an incident to it. For that gigantine state of mind which possesseth
the _troublers_ of the world, such as was Lucius Sylla, and _infinite
other in smaller model_, who would have all men happy or unhappy, as
they were their friends or enemies, _and would give form to the world
according to their own humours_, which is the true _theomachy_,
pretendeth and aspireth to _active good_ though it _recedeth farthest_
from that _good of society_, which we have determined to be _the
greater_.'
In no troubler or benefactor of the world, on the largest scale, in no
theomachist of any age, whether intelligent and benevolent, or
demoniacal and evil, had this nature which he here defines so clearly,
ever been more largely incorporated, or more effectively armed. But in
him this tendency to personal aggrandisement was overlooked, and
subordinated by the larger nature,--by the intelligence which includes
the whole, and is able to weigh the part with it, and by the
sentiments which enforce or anticipate intelligent decision.
Both these facts must be taken into the account, if we would read his
history fairly. For he composed for himself a plan of living, in which
this naturally intense desire for an individual perpetuity and renown,
and this love of action and enterprise for its own sake, was sternly
subordinated to the noblest ends of living, to the largest good of his
kind, to the divine and eternal law of duty, to the relief of man's
estate and the Creator's glory. And without making any claim on his
behalf, which it would be unworthy to make for one to whom the truth
was dearer than the opinions of men; it may be asserted, that whatever
errors of judgment or passion, we may find, or think we find in him,
these ends were with him predominant, and shaped his course.
He was not naturally a man of _letters_, but a man of action,
intensely impelled to action, and it was because he was forbidden to
fulfil his enterprise in person, because he had to write letters of
direction to those to whom he was compelled to entrust it, because he
had to write letters to the future, and leave himself and his will in
letters, that letters became, in his hands, _practical_. He, too, knew
what it was to be compelled 'to unpack his heart in words' when deeds
should have expressed it.
But even words are forbidden him here. After all the pains he has
taken to show us what the deficiency is which he is reporting here,
and what the art and science which he is proposing, he can only put
down a few paragraphs on the subject, casually, as it were, in
passing. Of all these forces which have operation on the mind, and
with which scientific appliances for the human mind should be
compounded, he can only 'insist upon some one or two as an example of
the rest.'
That was all that a writer, who was at the same time a public man,
could venture on,--a writer who had once been under violent political
suspicion, and was still eagerly watched, and especially by one class
of public functionaries, who seemed to feel, that with all his
deference to their claims, there was something there not quite
friendly to them, this was all that he could undertake to insist upon
'in that place.' But a writer who had the advantage of being already
defunct--a writer whose estate on the earth was then already done, and
who was in no kind of danger of losing either his head or his place,
could of course manage this part of the subject differently. _He_
would not find it too long to prosecute all, perhaps. And if he had at
the same time the advantage of a foreign name and seignorie, he could
come out in England at this very crisis with the freest exhibitions of
the points which are _here_ only _indicated_. He could even put them
down openly in his table of contents, every one of them, and make them
the titles of his chapters.
There was a work published in England, in that age, in which these
forces, of which only the _catalogue_ is inserted here, these forces
which _are_ in our power, which we _can_ alter, forces from which the
mind _suffereth_, which have operation upon the mind to affect the
will and appetite, are directly dealt with in the most subtle and
artistic manner, in the form of literary _essay_; and in the bolder
chapters, the author's observations and criticisms are clearly put
down; his scientific suggestions of alterations and new compounds, his
scientific doctrine of _careful alterations_, his scientific doctrine
of surgery, and adaptation of regimen, and cure to different ages, and
differing social conditions, are all promiscuously filed in, and the
English public swallows it without any difficulty at all, and
perceives nothing disagreeable or dangerous in it.
_This_ work contains, also, some of those other parts of the new
science which have just been reported as wanting, parts which are said
by the inventor of this science, to have a great ministry to policy,
as well as morality, and the natural history of the creature, which it
is here proposed to reform, is brought out without any regard whatever
to considerations which would inevitably affect a moralist, looking at
the subject from any less earnest and practical--from any less
_elevated_ point of view.
Of course, it was perfectly competent for a Gascon whose gasconading
was understood to be without any motive beyond that of vanity and
egotism, and without any incidence to effects, to say, in the way of
mere foolery, many things which an English statesman could not then so
well endorse. And in case his personality were called in question,
there was the mountain to retreat to, and the saint of the mount, in
whose behalf the goose is annually sacrificed by the English people,
the saint under whose shield and name the great English philosopher
sleeps. In fact, this personage is not so limited in his quarters as
the proper name might seem to imply. One does not have to go to the
south of France to find him. But it is certainly remarkable, that a
work in Natural History, composed by the inventors of the science of
observation, and the first in the field, containing their observations
in that part of the field too, in which the deficiency appeared to
them most important, should have been able to pass so long under so
thin a disguise, under this merest gauze of _egotism_, unchallenged.
These _essaies_, however, have not been without result. They have been
operating incessantly, ever since, directly upon the leading minds,
and indirectly upon the minds of men in general, (for many who had
never read the book, have all their lives felt its influence), and
tending gradually to the clearing up of the human intelligence in 'the
practice part of life' in general, and to the development of a common
sense on the topics here handled, much more creditable to the species
than anything that the author could find stirring in his age. When the
works which the propounders of the Great Instauration took pains to
get composed by way of filling up their plan of it, a little, corn to
be collected and bound, this one will have to find its place among
them.
But here, at home, in his own historical name and figure, in his own
person, instead of conducting his magnificent scientific experiments
on that scale which the genius of his activity, and the largeness of
his good will, would have prescribed to him, instead of founding his
House of Solomon as he would have founded it, (as that proximity to
the throne, when it was the throne of an absolute monarch might have
enabled him to found it, if the monarch he found there had been,
indeed, what he claimed to be, a lover of learning), instead of such
large help and countenance as that of the king, to whom this great
proposition was addressed, the philosopher of that time could not even
venture on a literary essay in this field under that protection; it
was as much as he could do, it was as much as his favor with the king
was worth, to slip in here, in this conspicuous place, where it would
be sure to be found, sooner or later, the index of his _essaies_.
'It would be too _long_,' he says, 'to inquire here into the operation
of all these social forces that are making men, that are doing more to
make them what they are, than nature herself is doing,' for, 'know
thou,' the Poet of this Philosophy says, 'know thou MEN ARE as the
TIME IS.' He has included here, in these points which he would have
scientifically handled, that which makes _times_, that which _can be
altered_, that which Advancements of Learning, however, set on foot at
first, are sure in the end to _alter_. 'We will insist upon some one
or two as an example of the rest.' And we find that the points he
resumes to speak of here, are, indeed, points of primary consequence;
social forces that do indeed need a scientific control, effects
reported, and precepts concluded. Custom and Habit, Books and Studies,
and then a kind of culture, which he says, 'seemeth to be more
accurate and elaborate than the rest,' which we find, upon
examination, to be a strictly religious culture, and lastly the method
to which he gives the preference, as the most compendious and summary
in its formative or reforming influence, 'the _electing_ and
propounding unto a man's self _good and virtuous ends of his life_,
such as may be in a _reasonable sort within his compass to attain_.'
He says enough under these heads to show the difficulty of writing on
a subject where the science has been reported wanting, while the 'Art
and Practice' is prescribed.
He lays much stress on CUSTOM and HABIT, and gives some few precepts
for its management, 'made out of the pith and heart of sciences,' but
he speaks briefly, and chiefly for the purpose of indicating the value
he attaches to this point, for he concludes his precepts and
observations on it, thus: 'Many other axioms there are, touching the
managing of exercise and custom, which being _so conducted_,--
scientifically conducted--do prove, _indeed_ ANOTHER NATURE' ['almost,
can _change_ the stamp of nature,'--is Hamlet's word on _this_
point]; 'but being governed by _chance_, doth commonly prove but AN
APE of nature, and bringeth forth that which is _lame and
counterfeit_.' For not less than that is the difference between the
scientific administration of these things, from which the mind
_suffereth_, and the blind, hap-hazard one.
But in proceeding to the next point on which he ventures to offer some
suggestions, that of BOOKS and STUDIES, we shall do well to take with
us that general doctrine of _cure_, founded upon the nature of things,
which he produces under the head of the cure of the body, with a
distinct allusion to its proper application here. And it is well to
observe how exactly the tone of the criticism in _this department_,
chimes in with that of the criticism already reported here. 'In the
consideration of the _cures of diseases_, I find a deficiency in the
receipts of _propriety_ respecting the _particular_ cures of diseases;
for the physicians _have frustrated the fruit of tradition, and
experience_, by their _magistralities_ in _adding and taking out_, and
changing _quid pro quo_ in their receipts _at their pleasure_,
COMMANDING SO OVER THE MEDICINE, as the medicine _cannot command over
the disease_:' that is a piece of criticism which appears to belong to
the general subject of cure; and here is one which he himself stops to
apply to a different branch of it.
'But, lest I grow more particular than _is agreeable_, either to my
intention or _proportion_, I will conclude this part with the note of
one deficiency more, which seemeth to me of GREATEST consequence,
which is, that the _prescripts_ in use are too COMPENDIOUS TO ATTAIN
THEIR END; for, to my understanding, it is a vain and flattering
opinion to think any _medicine_ can be so sovereign, or so happy, as
that the receipt or use of it can work any great effect upon the body
of man: it were a strange _speech_, which spoken, or spoken oft,
should reclaim a man from a vice to which he were _by nature subject_;
it is _order, pursuit, sequence, and interchange of application_ WHICH
IS MIGHTY IN NATURE,' (and it is _power_ we are inquiring for here)
'which, although it requires more exact _knowledge_ in prescribing,
and more precise _obedience_ in observing, yet it is recompensed with
the magnitude of effects.'
Possessed now of his general theory of cure, we shall better
understand his particular suggestions in regard to these medicines and
alteratives of the mind and manners, which are here under
consideration.
'So if we should handle BOOKS and STUDIES,' he continues, having
handled custom and habit a little and their powers, in that profoundly
suggestive manner, 'so if we should handle books and studies, and what
influence and operation _they_ have upon manners, are there not divers
precepts of _great caution_ and _direction_?' A question to be asked.
And he goes on to make some further enquiries and suggestions which
have considerably more in them than meets the ear. They appear to
involve the intimation that many of our books on moral philosophy,
come to us from the youthful and poetic ages of the world, ages in
which sentiment and spontaneous conviction supplied the place of
learning; for the accumulations of ages of experiment and conclusion,
tend to maturity and sobriety of judgment in the race, as do the
corresponding accumulations in the individual experience and memory.
'And the reason why books' (which are adapted to the popular belief in
these early and unlearned ages) 'are of so little effect towards
_honesty of life_, is that they are not read and
_revolved_--revolved--as they should be, by _men in mature years_.'
But unlearned people are always beginners. And it is dangerous to put
them upon the task, or to leave them to the task of remodelling their
beliefs and adapting them to the advancing stages of human
development. He, too, thinks it is easier to overthrow the old
opinions, than it is to discriminate that which is to be conserved in
them. The hints here are of the most profoundly cautious kind--as they
have need to be--but they point to the danger which attends the
advancement of learning when rashly and unwisely conducted, and the
danger of introducing opinions which are in advance of the popular
culture; dangers of which the history of former times furnished
eminent examples and warnings then; warnings which have since been
repeated in modern instances. He proposes that books shall be tried by
their effects on manners. If they fail to produce HONESTY OF LIFE, and
if certain particular forms of truth which were once effective to that
end, in the course of a popular advancement, or change of any kind,
have lost that virtue, let them be examined; let the translation of
them be scientifically accomplished, so that the main truth be not
lost in the process, so that men be not compelled by fearful
experience to retrace their steps in search of it, even, perhaps, to
the resuming of the old, dead form again, with all its cumbrous
inefficacies; for the lack of a leadership which should have been able
to discriminate for them, and forestall this empirical procedure.
Speaking of books of Moral science in general, and their adaptation to
different ages, he says--'Did not one of the _fathers_, in great
indignation, call POESY "_vinum demonum_," because it increaseth
_temptations_, _perturbations_, and _vain opinions_? Is not the
opinion of Aristotle worthy to be regarded, wherein he saith, "That
_young men_ are no fit _auditors_ of moral philosophy," because they
are not settled from the boiling heat of their _affections_, nor
attempered with _time_ and _experience_?' [And our Poet, we may remark
in passing, seems to have been struck with that same observation; for
by a happy coincidence, he appears to have it in his commonplace book
too, and he has not only made a note of it, as this one has, but has
taken the trouble to translate it into verse. He does, indeed, go a
little out of his way _in time_, to introduce it; but he is a poet who
is fond of an anachronism, when it happens to serve his purpose--
'Paris and Troilus, you have both said well;
And on the cause and question now in hand
Have _glozed_; but, superficially, not much
Unlike _young men_ whom _Aristotle_ thought
Unfit to hear _moral philosophy_.']
The question is, then, as to the adaptations of forms, of moral
instruction to different _ages_ of the human development. For when a
decided want of 'honesty of life' shows itself, in any very general
manner, under the fullest operation of _any_ given doctrine which is
the received one, it is time for men of learning to begin to look
about them a little; and it is a time when directions so cautious as
these should not by any means be despised by those on whom the
responsibility of direction, here, is in any way devolved.
'And doth it not hereof come, that those excellent books and
discourses of the ancient writers, _whereby_ they have _persuaded unto
virtue most effectually_, by representing her in _state_ and
_majesty_, and popular opinions against virtue in their _parasites'
coats_, fit to be scorned and derided, are of so little effect towards
honesty of life--
[_Polonius.--Honest_, my lord?
_Hamlet_.--Ay, honest.]
'--because they are not read and _revolved_ by men, in their mature
and settled years, but confined almost _to boys and beginners_? But is
it not true, also, that _much less_ young men are fit auditors of
_matters of policy_ till they have been _thoroughly seasoned_ in
_religion and morality_, lest their judgments be corrupted, and made
apt to think that there are no true differences of things, but
according to utility and fortune.'
By putting in here two or three of those 'elegant sentences' which the
author has taken out from their connections in his discourses, and
strung together, by way of making more perceptible points and stronger
impressions with them, according to that theory of his in regard to
aphorisms already quoted, we shall better understand this passage, for
the connection in which it is introduced here tends somewhat to
involve and obscure the meaning. 'In removing superstitions,' he tells
us, then, in this so pointed manner, 'care should be had _the good_ be
not taken away with the bad, which commonly is done _when the people
is the physician_.' '_Things will have_ their _first_ or _second_
agitation.' [Prima Philosophia--pith and heart of sciences: the author
of this aphorism is sound and grounded.] 'If they be not tossed on the
waves of _counsel_, they will be _tossed on the waves of fortune_.'
That last 'tossing' requires a second cogitation. There might have
been a more direct way of expressing it; but this author prefers
similes in such cases, he tells us. But here is more on the same
subject. 'It were good that men in their RENOVATIONS follow the
example of time itself, which, indeed, innovateth greatly, but
quietly, and by degrees scarce to be perceived;' and 'Discretion in
speech is more than eloquence.' These are the sentiments and opinions
of that man of science, whose works we are now opening, not caring
under what particular name or form we may find them. One or two of
these observations do not sound at all like prescience _now_; but at
the time when they were given out as precepts of direction, it
required that acquaintance with the nature of things in general which
is derived from a large and studious observation of particulars, to
put them into a form so oracular.
But this general suggestion with regard to our books of moral
philosophy, and their adaptation to the largest effect on the will and
appetite under the given conditions of time--conditions which involve
the instruction of masses of men, in whom _affection_ predominates--
men in whom judgment is not yet matured--men not attempered with the
time and experience of ages, by means of those preservations of it
which the traditions of learning make; beside this general suggestion
in regard to these so potent instrumentalities in manners, he has
another to make, one in which this general proposition to substitute
learning for preconception in _practical matters_,--at least, as far
as may be, comes out again in the form of criticism, and of a most
specially significant kind. It is a point which he touches lightly
here; but one which he touches again and again in other parts of
this work, and one which he resumes at large in his practical ethics.
'Again, is there not a caution likewise to be given of the doctrines
of moralities themselves, some kinds of them, lest they make men too
_precise, arrogant, incompatible_, as Cicero saith of Cato, in _Marco
Catone_: "Haec bona quae videmus divina et egregia ipsius scitote esse
propria: quae nonnunquam requirimus, ea sunt omnia non a natura, sed a
magistro?"'
And after glancing at the specific subject of remedial agencies which
_are_ within the scope of our revision and renovation, under some
other heads, concluding with that which is of all others the most
compendious and summary, and again the most noble and effectual to the
reducing of the mind unto virtue and good estate, he concludes this
whole part, this part in which the points and outlines of the new
science--that radical human science which he has dared to report
deficient, come out with such masterly grasp and precision,--he
concludes this _whole part_ in the words which follow,--words which it
will take the author's own doctrine of interpretation to open. For
this is one of those passages which he commends to the second
cogitation of the reader, and he knew if 'the times that were nearer'
were not able to read it, 'the times that were farther off' would find
it clear enough.
'Therefore I do conclude this part of Moral _Knowledge_ concerning the
culture and regiment of the Mind; wherein if any man, _considering the
facts thereof which I have enumerated_, do judge that _my labour is_
to COLLECT INTO AN ART OR SCIENCE, that which hath been _pretermitted
by others_, as matters of common sense and experience, he judgeth
well.' The practised eye will detect on the surface here, some marks
of that style which this author recommends in such cases: especially
where such strong pre-occupations exist; already we perceive that this
is one of those sentences which is addressed to the skill of the
interpreter; in which, by means of a careful selection and collocation
of words, two or more meanings are conveyed under one form of
expression. And it may not be amiss to remember here, that this is a
style, according to the author's own description of it elsewhere, in
which the more involved and enigmatical passages sometimes admit of
_several_ readings, each having its own pertinence and value,
according to the mental condition of the reader; and that it is a
style in which even the _delicate, collateral sounds_, that are
distinctly included in this art of tradition, must come in sometimes
in the more critical places, in aid of the interpretation. 'But what
if it be an harangue whereon his life depends?'
l.--If any man considering the parts thereof, which I have enumerated,
do judge that MY LABOUR IS to _collect into an_ ART or SCIENCE that
which hath been PRETER-MITTED by others, _he_ judgeth well.
2.--If any man do judge that my labour is to collect into an ART or
SCIENCE that which hath been pretermitted by others AS MATTERS OF
COMMON SENSE and EXPERIENCE, _he_ judgeth well.
3.--If any man _considering_ the PARTS THEREOF WHICH I HAVE
ENUMERATED, do judge that my labor is to collect into an ART or
SCIENCE, that which hath been pretermitted _by_ OTHERS, as matters of
common sense and experience, _he_ judgeth well.
But if there be any doubt, about the more critical of these meanings,
let us read on, and we shall find the criticism of this great and
greatest proposition, the proposition to substitute learning for
preconception, in the main department of human practice, brought out
with all the emphasis and significance which becomes the close of so
great a period in sciences, and not without a little flowering of that
rhetoric, in which beauty is the incident, and discretion is more than
eloquence.
'But as Philocrates sported with Demosthenes you may not marvel,
Athenians, that _Demosthenes_ and I do differ, for _he_ drinketh
water, and _I_ drink wine. And like as we read of an ancient parable
of the two gates of sleep--
Sunt geminae somni portae, quarum altera fertur
Cornea, qua veris facilis datur exitus umbris:
Altera candenti perfecta nitens elephanto,
Sed falsa ad coelum mittunt insomnia manes.
'So if we put on _sobriety and attention_ we shall find it a sure
maxim in knowledge, _that the more pleasant liquor of wine is the more
vaporous_, and the braver gate of ivory sendeth forth the falser
dreams.'
CHAPTER VI.
METHOD OF CONVEYING THE WISDOM OF THE MODERNS
It is a basilisk unto mine eyes,--
_Kills me to look_ on't,
This fierce abridgment
Hath to it circumstantial branches, which
Distinction should be rich in.
_Cymbeline_.
This whole subject is introduced here in its natural and inevitable
connection with that special form of Delivery and Tradition which it
required. For we find that connection indicated here, where the matter
of the tradition, and that part of it which specially requires this
form is treated, and we find the form itself specified here
incidentally, but not less unmistakeably, that it is in that part of
the work where the Art of Tradition is the primary subject. In
bestowing on 'the parts' of this science, which the propounder of it
is here enumerating--that consideration which the concluding paragraph
invites to them, we find, not only the fields clearly marked out, in
which he is labouring to collect into an art and science, that which
has hitherto been conducted without art or science, and left to common
sense and experience, the fields in which these goodly observations
grow, of which men have hitherto been content to gather a poesy to
carry in their hands,--(observations which he will bring home to his
confectionery, in such new and amazing prodigality and selection), but
we find also _the very form_ which these new collections, with the new
precepts concluded on them, would naturally take, and that it is one
in which these new parts of the new science and its art, which he is
labouring to constitute, might very well come out, at such a time,
without being recognised as philosophy at all,--might even be brought
out by _other_ men without science, as matters of common sense and
experience; though the world would have to concede, and the longer the
study went on, the more it would be inclined to concede, that the
common sense and experience was upon the whole somewhat uncommon, and
some who perceived its reaches, without finding that it was _art or
science_, would even be inclined to call it preternatural.
And when he tells us, that the first step in the New Science is _the
dissection_ of _character_, and the production and exhibition of
certain scientifically constructed portraits, by means of which this
may be effected, portraits which shall represent in their type-form by
means of 'illustrious instances,' the several characters and tempers
of men's _natures_ and _dispositions_ 'that the _secret disposition of
each particular man_ may be laid open, and from a knowledge of the
whole, the precepts concerning the cures of the mind may be more
rightly concluded,'--surely _here_, to a man of learning, _the
form_,--the form in which these artistically composed diagrams will be
found, is not doubtfully indicated.
And when, at the next step, we come to the history of 'the
affections,' and are told distinctly that _here_ philosophy, the
philosophy of practice, must needs descend from the abstraction, and
generalities of the ancient morality, for those observations and
experiments which it is the legitimate business of the poet to
conduct, though the poet, in conducting these observations and
experiments, has hitherto been wanting in the rigor which science
requires, when we are told that philosophy must _inevitably_ enter
here, that department of learning, of which the true poet is 'the
doctor,'--surely here at least, we know where we are. Certainly it is
not the fault of the author of the Great Instauration if we do _not_
know what department of learning the collections of the new learning
which he claims to have made will be found in--if found at all, _must_
be found in. It is not his fault if we do not know in what department
to look for the applications of the Novum Organum to those 'noblest
subjects' on which he preferred to try its powers, he tells us. Here
at least--the Index to these missing books--is clear enough.
But in his treatment of Poetry, as one of the three grand departments
of Human Learning, for not less noble than that is the place he openly
assigns to it, though that open and primary treatment of it, is
superficially brief, he contrives to insert in it, his deliberate,
scientific preference of it, as a means of effective scientific
exhibition, to either of the two graver parts, which he has associated
with it--to history on the one hand, as corresponding to the faculty
of memory, and to philosophy or mere abstract statement on the other,
as corresponding to the faculty of Reason; for it is that great
radical department of learning, which is referred to the Imagination,
that constitutes in this distribution of learning the third grand
division of it. He shows us here, in a few words, under different
points and heads, what masterly facilities, what indispensable,
incomparable powers it has for that purpose. There is a form of it,
'which is as A VISIBLE HISTORY, and is an image of actions as if _they
were present_, as history is, of actions that _are past_.' There is a
form of it which is applied only to express some _special purpose_ or
_conceit_, which was used of old by _philosophers_ to express any
point of _reason_ more sharp and subtle than the vulgar, and,
nevertheless, _now and at all times_ these _allusive parabolical_
poems do retain much life and vigour because--note it,--note that
because,--that _two-fold because_, because REASON CANNOT be so
SENSIBLE, nor EXAMPLES SO FIT. And he adds, also, 'there remains
another use of this poesy, opposite to the one just mentioned, for
that use tendeth to _demonstrate_ and _illustrate_ that which is
taught or delivered; and this other to _retire_ and _obscure_ it: that
is, when the secrets and mysteries of _religion, policy or philosophy_
are involved in fables and parables.'
But under the cover of introducing the 'Wisdom of the Ancients,' and
the form in which that was conveyed, he explains more at large the
conditions which this kind of exhibition best meets; he claims it as a
proper form of _learning_, and tells us outright, that the New Science
_must be_ conveyed in it. He has left us here, all prepared to our
hands, precisely the argument which the subject now under
consideration requires.
'Upon deliberate consideration, my judgment is, that a _concealed
instruction_ and _allegory_, was originally intended in many of the
ancient fables; observing that some fables discover a great and
evident similitude, relation, and connection with the things they
signify, as well in the _structure of the fable_, as in the _propriety
of the names_ whereby _the persons or actors are characterised_,
insomuch that no one could positively deny a sense and meaning to be
from the first intended and purposely shadowed out in them'; and he
mentions some instances of this kind; and the first is a very
explanatory one, tending to throw light upon the proceedings of men
whose rebellions, so far as political action is concerned, have been
successfully repressed. And he takes occasion to introduce this
particular fable repeatedly in similar connections. 'For who can hear
that _Fame_, after the giants were destroyed, sprung up as their
_posthumous sister_, and not apply it to the clamour of _parties_, and
the seditious rumours which commonly fly about upon the _quelling of
insurrections_. _Or_ who, upon hearing that memorable expedition of
the gods against the giants, when the braying of _Silenus' ass_
greatly contributed in putting the giants to flight, does not clearly
conceive that this directly _points_ to the _monstrous_ enterprises of
_rebellious subjects_, which are frequently disappointed and
frustrated by _vain fears and empty rumours_. Nor is it wonder if
sometimes a _piece of history_ or other things are introduced by way
of ornament, or if _the times_ of the action are confounded,' [the
very likeliest thing in the world to happen; things are often 'forced
in _time_' as he has given us to understand in complimenting a king's
book where the person was absent but not the occasion], 'or if part of
one fable be tacked to another, for all this must necessarily happen,
as the fables were the invention of men who lived in _different ages_,
and had _different views_, some of them being _ancient_, others more
_modern_, some having an eye to _natural philosophy_, _others_ to
_morality_ and _civil policy_.'
This appears to be just the kind of criticism we happen to be in need
of in conducting our present inquiry, and the passage which follows is
not less to the purpose.
For, having given some other reasons for this opinion he has expressed
in regard to the concealed doctrine of the ancients, he concludes in
this manner: 'But if any one shall, notwithstanding this, contend that
allegories are always adventitious, and no way native or _genuinely_
contained in them, we _might here leave him undisturbed in the gravity
of that judgment_, though we cannot but think it somewhat dull and
phlegmatic, and, _if it were worth the trouble_, proceed to another
_kind_ of argument.' And, apparently, the argument he proceeds to, is
worth some trouble, since he takes pains to bring it out so
cautiously, under so many different heads, with such iteration and
fulness, taking care to insert it so many times in his work on the
Advancement of Learning, and here producing it again in his
Introduction to the Wisdom of the Ancients, accompanied with a
distinct assurance that it is _not_ the wisdom of the _ancients_ he is
concerning himself about, and _their_ necessities and helps and
instruments; though if any one persists in thinking that it _is_, he
is not disposed to disturb him in the gravity of that judgment. He
honestly thinks that they had indeed such intentions as those that he
describes; but that is a question for the curious, and he has other
work on hand; he happens to be one, whose views of learning and its
uses, do not keep him long on questions of mere curiosity. It is with
the Moderns, and not with the Ancients that he has to deal; it is the
present and the future, and not the past that he 'breaks his sleeps'
for. Whether the Ancients used those fables for purposes of
innovation, and gradual encroachment on error or not, here is a
Modern, he tells us, who for one, cannot dispense with them in _his_
teaching.
For having disposed of his _graver_ readers--those of the dull and
phlegmatic kind--in the preceding paragraph, and not thinking it worth
exactly that kind of trouble it would have cost then to make himself
more explicit for the sake of reaching _their_ apprehension, he
proceeds to the following argument, which is not wanting in clearness
for 'those who happen to be of his ear.'
'Men have proposed to answer two different and contrary ends by the
use of Parables, for parables serve as well to instruct and
illustrate, as to wrap up and envelope:' [and what is more, they serve
at once that double purpose] 'so that for _the present we drop the
concealed use_, and suppose the _ancient fables_ to be vague
undeterminate things _formed for amusement, still the other use must
remain_, and can never be given up. And every man of any learning must
readily allow that THIS METHOD of INSTRUCTION is grave, sober,
exceedingly useful, and _sometimes necessary in the sciences_, as it
opens an easy and familiar passage to the human understanding, IN ALL
NEW DISCOVERIES that are abstruse and _out of the road of vulgar
opinion_. Hence, in the first ages, when such inventions and
conclusions of the human reason as are _now_ trite and common, were
rare and little known, all things abounded with fables, parables,
similes, comparisons, allusions, which were not intended to _conceal_,
but to _inform and teach_, whilst the minds of men continued rude and
unpractised in matters of subtlety and speculation, and even
impatient, and in a manner _incapable of receiving such things as did
not directly fall under and strike the senses_.' [And those ages were
not gone by, it seems, for these are the very men of whom Hamlet
speaks, 'who for the most part are capable of nothing but
_inexplicable dumb-shows_ and _noise_.'] 'For as hieroglyphics were in
use before writings, so were parables in use _before argument_. _And
even to this day_, if any man would let NEW LIGHT IN upon the human
understanding, [who was it that proposed to do that?] and _conquer
prejudices without raising animosities_, OPPOSITION, or
DISTURBANCE--[who was it that proposed to do that precisely]--he _must
still_--[note it]--he _must still go in the same path_, and have
recourse _to the like method_.' Where are they then? Search and see.
Where are they?--The lost Fables of the New Philosophy? 'To conclude,
the knowledge of the earlier ages was either great or happy; _great_,
if _by design_ they made use of tropes and figures; happy, if whilst
_they had other views_ they afforded _matter_ and _occasion_ to such
_noble contemplations_. Let either be the case, _our_ pains perhaps
will not be misemployed, _whether we illustrate_ ANTIQUITY _or_ [hear]
THINGS THEMSELVES.
But he complains of those who have attempted such interpretations
hitherto, that 'being _unskilled in nature_, and _their learning_ no
more than that of common-place, they have applied the sense of the
parables to certain _general_ and _vulgar_ matters, without reaching
to their real purport, genuine interpretation and full depth;'
certainly it would not be _that kind_ of criticism, then, which would
be able to bring out _the_ subtleties of the _new learning_ from those
popular embodiments, which he tells us it will have to take, in order
to make some impression, at least, on the common understanding.
'Settle that question, then, in regard to the old Fables as you will,
_our_ pains will not perhaps be misemployed, whether we illustrate
antiquity or things themselves,' and to that he adds, 'for _myself,
therefore, I expect to appear_ NEW in THESE COMMON THINGS, because,
leaving untouched such as are sufficiently plain and open, I _shall
drive only those_ that are either deep or rich.' 'For myself?'--I?--'I
expect to appear new in these common things.' But elsewhere, where he
lays out the argument of them, by the side of that 'resplendent and
lustrous mass of matter,' those _heroical_ descriptions of virtue,
duty, and felicity, that _others_ have got glory from, it is some
_Poet_ we are given to understand that is going to be found _new_ in
them. _There_, the argument is all--_all_--_poetic_, and it is a theme
for one who, if he know how to handle it, need not be afraid to put in
his modest claim, with those who sung of old, the wrath of heroes, and
their arms.
Any one who does not perceive that the passages here quoted were
designed to introduce more than 'the wisdom of the ancients', the
reader who is disposed to conclude after a careful perusal of these
reiterated statements, in regard to the form in which doctrines
differing from received opinions must be delivered, taken in
connexion, too, with that draught of the new science of the _human
culture_ and its parts and points, which has just been produced
here,--the reader who concludes that _this_ is, after all, a science
that _was_ able to dispense with this method of appeal to the senses
and the imagination; that it was _not_ obliged to have recourse to
that path;--that the NEW LEARNING, 'the NEW DISCOVERY,' had here no
fables, no particular topics, and methods of tradition; that it
contented itself with abstractions and generalities, with 'the husks
and shells of sciences,'--such an one ought, undoubtedly, to be left
undisturbed in that opinion. He belongs precisely to that class of
persons which this author himself deliberately proposed to leave to
such conclusions. He is one whom this philosopher himself would not
take any trouble at all to enlighten on such points. The other
reading, with all its _gravity_, was designed for him. The time for
such an one to adopt the reading here produced, will be, when 'those
who are incapable of receiving such things as do not directly fall
under and strike the senses,' have, at last, got hold of it; when 'the
groundlings, who, for the most part are capable of nothing but dumb
show and noise,' have had their ears split with it, it will be time
enough for him.
This Wisdom of the Moderns, then, to resume with those to whom the
appeal is made, this new learning which the Wise Man and Innovator of
the Modern Ages tells us must be clothed in fable, and adorned with
verse, this learning that must be made to fall under and strike the
senses; this dumb show of science, that is but show to him who cannot
yet take the player's own version of what it means; this illustrated
tradition, this beautiful tradition of the New Science of Human
Nature,--where is it? This historical collection, this gallery that
was to contain scientific draughts and portraitures of the human
character, that should exhaust its varieties,--where is it? These new
Georgics of the mind whose _argument is here_,--where are they? This
new Virgil who might promise himself such glory,--such new glory in
the singing of them,--where is he? Did he make so deep a summer in his
verse, that the track of the precept was lost in it? Were the flowers,
and the fruit, so thick, there; was the reed so sweet that the
argument of that great husbandry could no point,--could leave no
furrow in it?
'Where souls do couch, on flowers, we'll hand in hand,
And with our sprightly port make the ghosts gaze:
Dido and her Aeneas shall want troops,
And all the haunt be ours.'
'The neglect of our times,' says this author, in proposing this great
argument, this new argument, of the application of SCIENCE to the
Culture and Cure of the Mind, 'the neglect of _our times_, wherein
_few men do hold any consultations_ touching the _reformation of their
lives, may_ make _this part_ seem superfluous. As Seneca excellently
saith, "De partibus vitae quisquae deliberat, de summa nemo."' And is
that, after all,--is that the trouble still? Is it, that that
characteristic of Elizabeth's time--that same thing which Seneca
complained of in Nero's,--is it that _that_ is not yet obsolete? Is
that the reason, this so magnificent part, this radical part of the
new discovery of the Modern Ages, is still held 'superfluous?' 'De
partibus vitae quisquae deliberat, de summa nemo.' 'Now that we have
spoken, and spoken for so many ages, of this fruit of life, it
remaineth to speak of the husbandry thereunto.' That is the scientific
proposition which has waited now two hundred and fifty years, for a
scientific audience. The health of the soul, the scientific promotion
of it, the FRUIT OF LIFE, and the observations of its husbandry. 'And
if it be said,' he continues, anticipating the first inconsiderate
objection, 'if it be said that the cure of mens' minds belongeth to
sacred divinity, it is most true; but yet, moral philosophy may be
preferred unto her, as a wise servant and humble handmaid. For as the
Psalm saith, that the eyes of the handmaid look perpetually towards
the _mistress_, and yet, no doubt, many things are left to the
_discretion_ of the handmaid, to _discern of the mistress' will_; so
ought moral philosophy to give a constant attention to the doctrines
of divinity, and yet so as it may yield of herself, within due limits,
many sound and profitable directions.'
For the times that were 'far off' when that proposition was made, it
is brought out anew and reopened. Oh, people of the ages of arts and
sciences that are called by this man's name, shall we have the fruits
of his new doctrine of KNOWLEDGE, brought to our relief in all other
fields, and reject it in this, which he himself laid out, and claimed
as its only worthy field? Instructed now in the validity of its
claims, by its 'magnitude of effects' in every department of the human
practice to which it has yet been applied, shall we permit the
department of it, on which _his_ labour was expended, to escape that
application? Shall we suffer that wild barbaric tract of the human
life which the will and affections of man create,--that tract which he
seized,--which it was his labour to collect into an art or science, to
lie unreclaimed still?
Oh, Man of the new ages of science, will you have the new
fore-knowledge, the magical command of effects, which the scientific
inquiry into causes as they are actual in nature, puts into our hands,
in every other practice, in every other culture and cure,--will you
have the rule of this knowledge imposed upon your fields, and
orchards, and gardens, to assist weak nature in her 'conservations'
and 'advancements' in these,--to teach her to bring forth here the
latent ideals, towards which she struggles and vainly yearns, and can
only point to, and wait for, till science accepts her hints;--will you
have the Georgics of this new Virgil to load your table with its magic
clusters;--will you take the Novum Organum to pile your plate with its
ideal advancements on spontaneous nature and her perfections;--will
you have the rule of that Organum applied in its exactest rigors, to
all the physical oppositions of your life, to minister to your
physical safety, and comfort, and luxury, and never relax your
exactions from it, till the last conceivable degree of these has been
secured; and in this department of art and science,--this, in which
the sum of our good and evil is contained,--in a mere oversight of it,
in a disgraceful indifference and carelessness about it, be content to
accept, without criticism, the machinery of the
past--instrumentalities that the unlearned ages of the world have left
to us,--arts whose precepts were concluded ages ere we knew that
_knowledge_ is power.
Shall we be content to accept as a science any longer, a science that
leaves human life and its actualities and particulars, unsearched,
uncollected, unreduced to scientific nomenclature and axiom? Shall we
be content any longer with a knowledge that is _power_,--shall we
boast ourselves any longer of a scientific _art_ that leaves _human_
nature,--that makes over human nature to the tampering of an
unwatched, unchecked empiricism, that leaves our own souls it may be,
and the souls in which ours are garnered up, all wild and hidden, and
gnarled within with nature's crudities and spontaneities, or choked
and bitter with artificial, but unscientific, unartistic repression?
Will you have of that divinely appointed and beautiful 'handmaid,'
that was brought in on to this Globe Theatre, with that upward
look,--with eyes turned to that celestial sovereignty for her
direction, with the sum of good in her intention, with the universal
doctrine of practice in her programme, with the relief 'of man's
estate and the Creator's glory' put down in her role,--with her _new
song_--with her song of man's nature and life _as it is,_ on her
lips--will you have of her, only the minister to your physical
luxuries and baser wants? Be it so: but in the name of that truth
which is able to survive ages of misunderstanding and detraction, in
the name of that honor which is armed with arts of self-delivery and
tradition, that will enable it to live again, 'though all the earth
o'erwhelm it to men's eyes,' while this Book of the Advancemement of
Learning stands, do not charge on this man henceforth, that election.
The times of that ignorance in which it could be thus accredited, are
past; for the leader of this Advancement is already unfolding his
tradition, and opening his books; and he bids us debase his name no
longer, into a name for these sordid fatuities. The Leader of ages
that are yet to be,--ages whose nobler advancements, whose rational
and scientific advancements to the dignity and perfection of the human
form, it was given to him and to his company to plan and initiate,--he
declines to be held any longer responsible for the blind, demoniacal,
irrational spirit, that would seize on his great instrument of
science, and wrest it from its nobler object and intent, and debase it
into the _mere_ tool of the senses; the tool of a materialism more
base and sordid than any that the world has ever known; more sordid, a
thousand-fold, than the materialism of ages, when there was yet a god
in the wood and the stone, when there was yet a god in the brick and
the mortar. This '_broken science_' that has no end of ends, this
godless science, this railway learning that travels with restless,
ever quickening speed, no whither,--these dead, rattling 'branches'
and slivers of arts and sciences, these _modern_ arts and sciences,
hacked and cut away from that tree of sciences, from which they
sprang, whereon they grew, are _his_ no longer. He declines to be held
any longer responsible for a materialism that shelters itself under
the name of philosophy, and identifies his own name with it. Call it
science, if you will, though science be the name for unity and
comprehension, and the spirit of life, the spirit of the largest
whole; call it philosophy if you will, if you think philosophy is
capable of being severed from that common trunk, in which this
philosopher found its pith and heart,--call it science,--call it
philosophy,--but call it not, he says,--call it not henceforth
'_Baconian_.'
For _his_ labor is to collect into an art or science the doctrine of
_human_ life. He, too, has propounded that problem,--he has translated
into the modern speech, that problem, which the inspired Leader of
men, of old propounded. 'What is a man profited if he should gain the
whole world and lose his own soul; or what can a man give in exchange
for his soul?' He, too, has recognized that ideal type of human
excellence, which the Great Teacher of old revealed and exemplified;
he has found scientifically,--he has found in the universal law,--that
divine dogma, which was taught of old by One who spake as having
authority--One who also had looked on nature with a loving and
observant eye, and found in its source, the Inspirer of his doctrine.
In his study of that old book of divinity which he calls the book of
God's Power this Modern Innovator has found the scientific version of
that inspired command 'Be ye therefore perfect.' This new science of
morality, which is '_moral knowledge_,' is able to recognise the
inspiration and divinity of that received platform and exemplar of
good, and pours in on it the light of a universal illustration. And in
his new scientific policy, in his scientific doctrine of success, in
his doctrine of the particular and private good, when he brings out at
last the rule which shall secure it from all the blows of fortune,
what is it but that same old '_Primum quærite_' which he
produces,--clothing it with the authority and severe exaction of a
scientific rule in art,--that same '_Primum quærite_' which was
published of old as a doctrine of faith only. 'But let men rather
build,' he says, 'upon that foundation, which is as a corner-stone of
divinity and _philosophy, wherein they join close; namely_, that _same
'Primum quærite_.' For divinity saith, 'Seek first the kingdom of God,
and all other things shall be added to you'; and philosophy saith,
'Primum quærite bona animi cætera aut aderunt, aut non oberunt.'
And who will now undertake to say that it is, indeed, written in the
Book of God,--in the Book of the Providential Design, and Creative
Law, or that it is written in the Revelation of a divine good will to
men; that those who cultivate and cure the soul--who have a divine
appointment to the office of its cure--shall thereby be qualified to
ignore its actual laws, or that they shall find in the scientific
investigation of its actual history, or in this new--so new, this so
wondrous and beautiful science, which is here laid out in all its
parts and points on the basis of a universal science of practice,--no
'ministry' to their end? Who shall say that the Regimen of the mind,
that its Education and healthful culture, as well as its cure, shall
be able to accept of no instrumentalities from the _advancement_ of
learning? Who shall say that this department of the human life--_this_
alone, is going to be held back to the past, with bonds and cramps of
iron, while all else is advancing; that this is going to be held
forever as a place where the old Aristotelian logic, which we have
driven out of every other field, can keep its hold unchallenged
still,--as a place for the metaphysics of the school-men, the empty
conceits, the old exploded inanities of the Dark Ages, to breed and
nestle in undisturbed?
Who shall claim that this department is the only one, which that gift,
that is the last gift of Creation and Providence to man is forbidden
to enter?
Surely it is the authorised doctrine of a supernatural aid, that it is
never brought in to sanction indolence and the neglect of means and
instruments already in our power; and in that book of these new ages
in which the doctrine of a successful human practice was promulgated,
is it not written that in no department of the human want, 'can those
noble effects, which God hath set forth to be bought as the price of
labour, be obtained as the price of a few easy and slothful
observances?'
And who that looks on the world as it is at this hour, with all our
boasted aids and instrumentalities,--who that hears that cry of sorrow
which goes up from it day and night,--who that looks at these masses
of men as they are,--who that dares to look at all this vice and
ignorance and suffering which no instrumentality, mighty to relieve,
has yet reached, shall think to put back,--as if we had no need of
it,--this great gift of light and healing,--this gift of _power_,
which the scientific ages are bringing in; this gift which the ages of
'anticipation,' the ages of inspiration and spontaneous affirmation,
could only divinely--diviningly--foresee and promise;--this gift which
the knowledge of the creative laws, the historic laws, the laws of
kind, as they are actual in the human nature and the human life, puts
into our hands? Who shall think himself competent to oppose this
benefaction? Alas for such an one! let us take up a lamentation for
him. He has stayed too long. The constitution of things, the universal
laws of being, and the Providence of this world are against him. The
track of the advancing ages goes over him. He is at variance with that
which was and shall be. The world's wheel goes over him. And whosoever
falls on that stone shall be broken, but on whomsoever it falls it
shall grind him to powder.
It is by means of the scientific Art of Delivery and Tradition, that
this doctrine of the scientific Culture and Cure of the Mind, which is
the doctrine of the scientific ages, has been made over to us in the
abstract; and it is by means of the rule of interpretation, which this
Art of Delivery prescribes, it is by means of the secret of an
Illustrated Tradition, or Poetic Tradition of this science, that we
are now enabled to unlock at last those magnificent collections in
it--those inexhaustible treasures and mines of it--which the
Discoverer, in spite of the time, has contrived to leave us, in that
form of Fable and Parable in which the advancing truth has always been
left,--in that form of Poesy in which the highest truth has, from of
old, been uttered. For over all this ground lay extended, then, in
watchful strength all safe and unespied, the basilisk of whom the
Fable goes, if he sees you first, you die for it,--_but_ if YOU SEE
HIM FIRST, HE DIES. And this is the Bishop who fought with a _mace_,
because he would _kill_ his enemy and not _wound_ him.
BOOK II.
ELIZABETHAN 'SECRETS OF MORALITY AND POLICY';
OR,
THE FABLES OF THE NEW LEARNING.
Reason cannot be so sensible, nor examples so fit.
_Advancement of Learning._
INTRODUCTORY.
CHAPTER I.
THE DESIGN.
The object of this Volume is merely to open _as a study_, and a study
of primary consequence, those great Works of the Modern Learning which
have passed among us hitherto, for lack of the historical and
scientific key to them, as Works of Amusement, merely.
But even in that superficial acquaintance which we have had with them
in that relation, they have, all the time, been subtly operating upon
the minds in contact with them, and perpetually fulfilling the first
intention of their Inventor.
'For,' says the great Innovator of the Modern Ages,--the author of the
_Novum_ Organum, and of the _Advancement_ of Learning,--in claiming
this department of Letters as the necessary and proper instrumentality
of a new science,--of a science at least, 'foreign to opinions
received,'--as he claims elsewhere that it is, under all conditions,
the inevitable essential form of this science in particular. 'Men have
proposed to answer two different and contrary ends by the use of
parables, for they serve as well to _instruct_ and _illustrate_ as to
_wrap up and envelope_, so that, though for the present, we drop the
concealed use, and suppose them to be _vague undeterminate things_,
formed for AMUSEMENT merely, still the other _use_ remains. 'And every
man of _any_ learning must readily concede,' he says, 'the value of
that use of them as a method of popular instruction, grave, sober,
exceedingly useful, and sometimes necessary in the _sciences_, as it
opens an easy and _familiar_ passage to the human understandings in
_all new_ discoveries, that are abstruse and out of the road of vulgar
opinion. They were used of old by _philosophers_ to express any point
of reason more sharp and subtle than the vulgar, and nevertheless
_now_, and _at all times_, these allusive parabolical forms retain
much life and vigor, because _reason_ cannot be _so sensible_ nor
_examples so fit_.' That philosophic use of them was to inform and
teach, whilst the minds of men continued rude and unpractised in
matters of subtilty and speculation, and even impatient and in a
manner incapable of receiving anything that did not directly fall
under and strike the senses. 'And, even to this day, if any man would
let new light in upon the human understanding, and conquer prejudices
without raising animosities, opposition, or _disturbance_, he must
still go in _the same path_ and have recourse to the like method.'
That is the use which the History and Fables of the New Philosophy
have already _had_ with us. We have been feeding without knowing it,
on the 'principal and supreme sciences'--the 'Prima Philosophia' and
its noblest branches. We have been taking the application of the
Inductive Philosophy to the principal concerns of our human life, and
to the phenomena of of the human nature itself, as mere sport and
pastime; though the precepts concluded, the practical axioms inclosed
with it have already forced their way into our learning, for all our
learning is, even now, inlaid and glittering with those 'dispersed
directions.'
We have profited by this use of them. It has not been pastime merely
with us. We have not spent our time in vain on this first stage of an
Advancing Learning, a learning that will not cease to advance until it
has invaded all our empiricisms, and conquered all our practice; a
learning that will recompence the diligence, the exactitude, the
severity of observance which it will require here also (when it comes
to put in its claim here, as Learning and not Amusement merely), with
that same magnitude of effects that, in other departments, has already
justified the name which its Inventor gave it--a Learning which will
give us here, also, in return for the severity of observance it will
require, what no ceremonial, however exacting can give us, that
control of effects, with which, even in its humblest departments, it
has already fulfilled, in the eyes of all the world, the prophecy
which its Inventors uttered when they called it the NEW MAGIC.
That first use of the Histories and Fables of the Modern Learning, we
have had already; and it is not yet exhausted. But in that rapid
development of a common intelligence, to which the new science of
practice has itself so largely contributed, even in its lower and
limited developments, we come now to that other and so important use
of these Fables, which the philosophic Innovator proposed to drop for
the time, in his argument--that use of them, in which they serve 'to
wrap up and conceal' for the time, or to limit to the few, who are
able to receive them, those new discoveries which are as yet too far
in advance of the common beliefs and opinions of men, and too far
above the mental habits and capacities of the masses of men, to be
safely or profitably communicated to the many in the abstract.
But in order to arrive at this second and nobler use of them, it will
be necessary to bestow on them a very different kind of study from any
that we have naturally thought it worth while to spend on them, so
long as we regarded them as works of pastime merely; and especially
while that insuperable obstacle to any adequate examination of them,
which the received history of the works themselves created, was still
operating on the criticism. The truths which these Parabolic and
Allusive Poems wrap up and conceal, have been safely concealed
hitherto, because they are not those common-place truths which we
usually look for as the point and moral of a tale which is supposed to
have a moral or politic intention,--truths which we are understood to
be in possession of beforehand, while the parable or instance is only
designed to impress the sensibility with them anew, and to reach the
will that would not take them from the reason, by means of the senses
or the imagination. It is not that spontaneous, intuitive knowledge,
or those conventional opinions, those unanalysed popular beliefs,
which we usually expect to find without any trouble at all, on the
very surface of any work that has morality for its object, it is not
any such coarse, lazy performance as that, that we need trouble
ourselves to look for here. This higher intention in these works
'their real import, genuine interpretation, and full depth,' has not
yet been found, _because_ the science which is wrapped in them, though
it is the principal science in the plan of the Advancement of
Learning, has hitherto escaped our notice, and _because_ of the
exceeding subtlety of it,--because the truths thus conveyed or
concealed are new, and recondite, and out of the way of any casual
observation,--because in this scientific collection of the phenomena
of the human life, designed to serve as the basis of new social arts
and rules of practice, the author has had occasion to go behind the
vague, popular, unscientific terms which serve well enough for
purposes of discourse, and mere oratory, to those principles which are
actual and historical, those simple radical forms and differences on
which the doctrine of power and practice must be based.
It is pastime no longer. It is a study, the most patient, the most
profoundly earnest to which these works now invite us. Let those who
will, stay in the playground still, and make such sport and pastime of
it there, as they may; and let those who feel the need of inductive
rules here also,--here on the ground which this pastime covers--let
those who perceive that we have as yet, set our feet only on the
threshold of the Great Instauration, find here with diligent research,
the ascent to the axioms of practice,--that ascent which the author of
the science of practice in general, made it _his labour_ to hew out
_here_, for _he_ undertook 'to collect here into an art or science,
that which had been pretermitted by others as matters of common sense
and experience.'
It does not consist with the design of the present work to track that
draught of a new science of morality and policy, that 'table' of an
inductive science of human nature, and human life, which the plan of
the Advancement of Learning contains, with all the lettering of its
compartments put down, into these systematic scientific collections,
which the Fables of the Modern Learning,--which these magnificent
Parabolical Poems have been able hitherto to wrap up and conceal.
This work is merely introductory, and the design of it is to remove
that primary obstacle to the diligent study of these works, which the
present theory of them contains; since that concealment of their true
intention and history, which was inevitable at the time, no longer
serves the author's purpose, and now that the times are ripe for the
learning which they contain, only serves indeed to hinder it. And the
illustrations which are here produced, are produced with reference to
that object, and are limited strictly to the unfolding of those
'_secrets of policy_,' which are the necessary introduction to that
which follows.
CHAPTER II.
THE MISSING BOOKS OF THE GREAT INSTAURATION;
OR, PHILOSOPHY ITSELF.
Did it never occur to the student of the _Novum Organum_ that the
constant application of that '_New Machine_' by the inventor of it
himself, to one particular class of subjects, so constant as to
produce on the mind of the careless reader the common impression, that
it was intended to be applied to that class only, and that the relief
of the human estate, in that one department of the human want,
constituted its whole design: did it never occur to the curious
inquirer, or to the active experimenter in this new rule of learning,
that this apparently so rigorous limitation of its applications in the
hands of its author is--under all the circumstances--a thing worthy of
being inquired into? Considering who the author of it is, and that it
is on the face of it, a new method of dealing with facts in general, a
new method of obtaining axioms of practice from history in general,
and not a specific method of obtaining them from that particular
department of history from which his instances are taken; and,
considering, too, that the author was himself aware of the whole sweep
of its applications, and that he has taken pains to include in his
description of its powers, the assertion,--the distinct, deliberate
assertion--that it is capable of being applied as _efficiently_, to
those nobler departments of the human need, which are marked out for
it in the Great Instauration--those very departments in which he was
known himself to be so deeply interested, and in which he had been all
his life such a diligent explorer and experimenter. Did it never occur
to the scholar, to inquire why he did not apply it, then, himself to
those very subjects, instead of keeping so stedfastly to the physical
forces in his illustration of its powers? And has any one ever read
the plan of this man's works? Has any one seen the scheme of that
great enterprise, for which he was the responsible person in his own
time--that scheme which he wrote out, and put in among these published
acknowledged works of his, which he dared to produce in his own name,
to show what parts of his '_labor_,'--what part of chief consequence
was _not_ thus produced? Has any one seen that plan of a new system of
Universal Science, which was published in the reign of James the
First, under the patronage of that monarch? And if it has been seen,
what is the reason there has been no enquiry made for those works, in
which the author openly proposes to apply his new organum in person to
these very subjects; and that, too, when he takes pains to tell us, in
reference to that undertaking, that he is _not_ a vain promiser.
There is a pretence of supplying that new kind of history, which the
new method of discovery and invention requires as the first step
towards its conclusions, which is put down as the THIRD PART of the
Instauration, though the natural history which is produced for that
purpose is very far from fulfilling the description and promise of
that division. But where is the FOURTH part of the Great Instauration?
Has anybody seen the FOURTH part? Where is that so important part for
which all that precedes it is a preparation, or to which it is
subsidiary? Where is that part which consists of EXAMPLES, that are
nothing but a _particular_ application of the SECOND; that is, the
Novum Organum,--'and to _subjects of the noblest kind_?' Where is
'that part of our work which enters upon PHILOSOPHY ITSELF,' instead
of dealing any longer, or professing to deal, with THE METHOD merely
of finding that which man's relief requires, or instead of exhibiting
that method any longer _in the abstract_? Where are the works in which
he undertakes to show it in operation, with its new 'grappling hooks'
on the matter of the human life--applied by the inventor himself to
'the noblest subjects?' Surely that would be a sight to see. What is
the reason that our editors do not produce these so important works in
their editions? What is the reason that our critics do not include
them in their criticism? What is the reason that our scholars do not
quote them? Instead of stopping with that mere report of the condition
of learning and its deficiences, and that outline of what is to be
done, which makes the FIRST PART or Introduction to this work; or
stopping with the description of the new method, or the Novum Organum,
which makes the SECOND; why don't they go on to the 'new philosophy
itself,' and show us that as well,--the very object of all this
preparation? When he describes in the SECOND part his _method_ of
finding true terms, or rather the method of his school, when he
describes this new method of finding '_ideas_,' ideas as they are in
nature, powers, causes, the elements of history, or _forms_, as he
more commonly calls them, when he describes this new method of
deducing axioms, axioms that are ready for practice, he does, indeed,
give us _instances_; but it so happens, that the instances are all of
_one kind_ there. They are the physical powers that supply his
examples in that part.
In describing this method merely, he produces what he calls his Tables
of Invention, or Tables of REVIEW OF INSTANCES; but where is that part
in which he tells us we shall find these same tables again, with 'the
nobler subjects' on them? He produces them for careful scrutiny in his
second part; and he makes no small parade in bringing them in. He
shews them up very industriously, and is very particular to direct the
admiring attention of the reader to their adaptation as means to an
end. But certainly there is nothing in that specimen of what can be
done with them which he contents himself with there, that would lead
any one to infer that the power of this invention, which is the
novelty of it, was going to be a dangerous thing to society, or,
indeed, that they were not the most harmless things in the world. It
is the true cause of HEAT, and the infallible means of producing that
under the greatest variety of conditions, which he appears to be
trying to arrive at there. But what harm can there be in that, or in
any other discovery of that kind. And there is no real impression made
on any one's mind by that book, that there is any other kind of
invention or discovery intended in the practical applications of this
method? The very free, but of course not pedantic, use of the new
terminology of a new school in philosophy, in which this author
indulges--a terminology of a somewhat figurative and poetic kind, one
cannot but observe, for a philosopher of so strictly a logical turn of
mind, one whose thoughts were running on abstractions so entirely, to
construct; his continued preference for these new scholastic terms,
and his inflexible adherence to a most profoundly erudite mode of
expression whenever he approaches 'the part operative' of his work, is
indeed calculated to awe and keep at a distance minds not yet prepared
to grapple formally with those 'nobler subjects' to which allusion is
made in another place. King James was a man of some erudition himself;
but he declared frankly that for his part he could not understand this
book; and it was not strange that he could not, for the author did not
intend that he should. The philosopher drops a hint in passing,
however, that all which is essential in this method, might perhaps be
retained without quite so much formality and fuss in the use of it,
and that the proposed result might be arrived at by means of these
same tables, without any use of technical language at all, under other
circumstances.
The results which have since been obtained by the use of this method
in that department of philosophy to which it is specially applied in
the Novum Organum, give to the inquirer into the causes of the
physical phenomena now, some advantages which no invention could
supply them. That was what the founders of this philosophy expected
and predicted. They left this department to their school. The author
of the Novum Organum orders and initiates this inquiry; but the basis
of the induction in this department is as yet wanting; and the
collections and experiments here require combinations of skill and
labour which they cannot at once command. They will do what they can
here too, in their small way, just to make a beginning; but they do
not lay much stress upon any thing they can accomplish with the use of
their own method in this field. It serves, however, a very convenient
purpose with them; neither do they at all underrate its intrinsic
importance.
But the man who has studiously created for himself a social position
which enables him to assume openly, and even ostentatiously, the
position of an innovator--an innovator _in the world of letters_, an
advancer of--_learning_--is compelled to introduce his innovation with
the complaint that he finds the mind of the world so stupified, so
bewildered with evil, and so under the influence of dogmas, that the
first thing to be done is to get so much as a thought admitted of the
possibility of a better state of things. 'The present system of
philosophy,' he says, 'cherishes in its bosom certain positions or
dogmas which it will be found, are calculated to produce a full
conviction that no difficult, commanding, and powerful operation on
nature _ought_ to be anticipated, through the means of art.' And,
therefore, after criticising the theory and practice of the world as
he finds it, reporting as well as he can,--though he can find no
words, he says, in which to do justice to his feeling in regard to
it--_the deficiencies_ in its learning, he devotes a considerable
portion of the description of his new method to the grounds of 'hope'
which he derives from this philosophic survey, and that that hope is
not a hope of a better state of things in respect to the physical
wants of man merely, that it is not a hope of a renovation in the arts
which minister to those wants exclusively, any very careful reader of
the first book of the Novum Organum will be apt on the whole to infer.
But the statements here are very general, and he refers us to another
place _for particulars_.
'Let us then speak of _hope_' he says, '_especially_ as we are not
vain promisers, nor are willing to enforce or ensnare men's judgments;
but would rather lead them _willingly_ forward. And although we shall
employ the most cogent means of _enforcing hope when we bring them_ TO
PARTICULARS, and _especially_ those which are digested and arranged in
our Tables of Invention, the subject partly of the SECOND,
but--_principally_--mark it, _principally_ of the FOURTH part of the
Instauration, which are, indeed, rather the very objects of our hopes
than hope itself.' Does he dare to tell us, in this very connection,
that he is _not_ a vain promiser, when no such PART as that to which
he refers us here is to be found anywhere among his writings--when
this _principal_ part of his promise remains unfulfilled. 'The FOURTH
part of the Instauration,' he says again in his formal description of
it, 'enters upon philosophy itself, furnishing _examples of inquiry
and investigation_, according to our own method, _in certain subjects
of the noblest kind_, but greatly differing from each other, that a
specimen may be had of _every sort_. By these examples, we mean _not
illustrations of rules and precepts_,' [He will show the facts in such
order, in such scientific, select, methodical arrangements, that rules
and precepts will be forced from them; for he will show them, on the
tables of invention, and rules and precepts are the vintage that flows
from the illustrious instances--the prerogative instances--the ripe,
large, cleared, selected clusters of facts, the subtle prepared
history which the tables of invention collect. The definition of the
simple original elements of history, the pure definition is the first
vintage from these; but 'that which in speculative philosophy
corresponds to the cause, in practical philosophy becomes the rule'
and _the axiom of practice_, ready for use, is the final result.] 'but
perfect models, which will exemplify the SECOND PART of this work, and
represent, as it were, to _the eye_ the whole progress of the mind,
and _the continued structure and order of invention_ in THE MORE
CHOSEN SUBJECTS'--note it, in the _more_ chosen subjects; but this is
not at all--'_after the same manner as globes and machines facilitate
the more abstruse and subtle demonstrations in mathematics_.' But in
another place he tells us, that the poetic form of demonstration is
the form to which it is necessary to have recourse on these subjects,
_especially_ when we come to these more abstruse and subtle
demonstrations, as it opens an easy and familiar passage to the human
understanding in all new discoveries, that are abstruse and out of the
road of vulgar opinion; and that at the time he was writing out this
plan of his works, any one, who would let in new light on the human
understanding, and conquer prejudices, without raising animosity,
opposition, or disturbance, had no choice--_must go in that same
path_, or none. Where are those diagrams? And what does he mean, when
he tells us in this connection that he is not a vain promiser? Where
are those particular cases, in which this method of investigation is
applied to the noblest subjects? Where are the diagrams, in which the
order of the investigation is represented, as it were, to the eye,
which serve the same purpose, 'that globes and machines serve in the
more abstruse and subtle demonstrations in mathematics?' We are all
acquainted with one poem, at least, published about that time, in
which some very abstruse and subtle investigations appear to be in
progress, _not_ without the use of diagrams, and very lively ones too;
but one in which the intention of the poet appears to be to the last
degree 'enigmatical,' inasmuch as it has engaged the attention of the
most philosophical minds ever since, and inasmuch as the most able
critics have never been able to comprehend that intention fully in
their criticism. And it is bound up with many others, in which the
subjects are not less carefully chosen, and in which the method of
inquiry is the same; in which that same method that is exhibited in
the 'Novum Organum' in the abstract, or in its application to the
investigation of the physical phenomena, is everywhere illustrated in
the most chosen subjects--in subjects of the noblest kind. This
volume, and another which has been mentioned here, contain the THIRD
and FOURTH PARTS of the Great Instauration, whether this man who
describes them here, and who forgot, it would seem, to fulfil his
promise in reference to them, be aware of it or not.
That is the part of the Great Instauration that we want now, and we
are fairly entitled to it, because these are not 'the next ages,' or
'the times which were nearer,' and which this author seldom speaks of
without betraying his clear foresight of the political and social
convulsions that were then at hand. These are the times, which were
farther off, to which he appeals from those nearer ages, and to which
he expressly dedicates the opening of his designs.
Now, what is it that we have to find? What is it that is missing out
of this philosophy? Nothing less than the 'principal' part of it. All
that is good for anything in it, according to the author's own
estimate. The rest serves merely 'to pass the time,' or it is good as
it serves to prepare the way for this. What is it that we have to look
for? The 'Novum Organum,' that severe, rigorous method of scientific
inquiry, applied to _the more chosen subjects_ in the reigns of Queen
Elizabeth and James I. Tables of Review of Instances, and all that
Logic which is brought out in the doctrine of the PREROGATIVE
INSTANCES, whereby the mind of man is prepared for its encounter with
fact in general, brought down to particulars, and applied to the
noblest subjects, and to every sort of subject which the philosophic
mind of that age _chose_ to apply it to. That is what we want to find.
'The prerogative instances' in 'the _more_ chosen subjects.' The whole
field which that philosophy chose for its field, and called the
noblest, the principal, the chosen, the more chosen one. Every part of
it reduced to scientific inquiry, put under the rule of the 'Novum
Organum'; that is what we want to find. We know that no such thing
could possibly be found in the acknowledged writings of this author.
Nothing answering to that description, composed by a statesman and a
philosopher, with an avowed intention in his writing--an intention to
effect changes, too, in the actual condition of men, and 'to suborn
practice and actual life,' no such work by such an author could by any
means have been got through the press then. No one who studies the
subject will think of looking for that FOURTH PART of the Instauration
among the author's acknowledged writings. Does he give us any hint as
to where we are to look for it? Is there any intimation as to the
particular form of writing in which we are to find it? for find it we
must and shall, because he is _not_ a vain promiser. The _subject_
itself determines the form, he says; and the fact that the whole
ground of the discovery is ground already necessarily comprehended in
the preconceptions of the many--that it is ground covered all over
with the traditions and rude theories of unlearned ages, this fact,
also, imperiously determines the method of the inculcation. Who that
knows what the so-called Baconian method of learning really is, will
need to be told that the principal books of it will be--books of
INSTANCES and PARTICULARS, SPECIMENS--living ones, and that these will
occupy the prominent place in the book; and that the conclusions and
precepts will come in as abstractions from these, drawn freshly and on
the spot from particulars, and, therefore, ready for use, 'knowing the
way to particulars again?' Who would ever expect to find the principal
books of this learning--the books in which it enters upon philosophy
itself, and undertakes to leave a specimen of its own method in the
noblest subjects in its own chosen field--who would ever expect to
find these books, books of abstractions, books of precepts, with
instances or examples brought in, to illustrate or make them good? For
this is not a point of method merely, but a point of substance, as he
takes pains to tell us. And who that has ever once read his own
account of the method in which he proposes to _win_ the human mind
from its preconceptions, instead of undertaking to overcome it with
Logic and sharp disputations,--who that knows what place he gives to
Rhetoric, what place he gives to the Imagination in his scheme of
innovation, will expect to find these books, books of a dry didactic
learning? Does the student know how many times, in how many forms,
under how many different heads, he perseveringly inserts the bold
assurance, that the form of poesy and enigmatic allusive writing is
the _only_ form in which the higher applications of his discovery can
be made to any purpose in that age? Who would expect to find this part
in any professedly scientific work, when he tells us expressly,
'Reason cannot be so sensible, nor examples so fit,' as the examples
which his scientific terminology includes in the department of
_Poesy?_
All the old historical wisdom was in that form, he says; all the first
philosophy was poetical; all the old divinity came in history and
parable; and even to this day, he who would let in new light upon the
human understanding, without raising opposition or disturbance, must
still go in the same path, and have recourse to the like method.
He was an innovator; he was _not_ an agitator. And he claims that mark
of a divine presence in his work, that its benefactions come, without
noise or perturbation, _in aura leni_. Of innovations, there has been
none in history like that which he propounded, but neither would he
strive nor cry. There was no voice in the streets, there was no red
ensign lifted, there was no clarion-swell, or roll of the conqueror's
drum to signal to the world that entrance. He, too, claims a divine
authority for his innovation, and he declares it to be of God. It is
the providential order of the world's history which is revealed in it;
it is the fulfilment of ancient prophecy which this new chief, laden
with new gifts for men, openly announces.
'Let us begin from God,' he says, when he begins to open his ground of
_hope_, after he has exposed the wretched condition of men as he finds
them, without any scientific knowledge of the laws and institutes of
the universe they inhabit, engaged in a perpetual and mad collision
with them; 'Let us begin from God, and show that our pursuit, from its
exceeding goodness, _clearly_ proceeds from Him, the Author of GOOD
and Father of LIGHT. Now, _in all divine works_, the smallest
beginnings lead assuredly to some results; and the rule in spiritual
matters, that the Kingdom of God cometh without observation, is also
found to be true _in every great work of_ PROVIDENCE, so that
everything glides in quietly, without confusion or noise; and the
matter is achieved before men even think of perceiving that it is
commenced.' 'Men,' he tells us, 'men should imitate Nature, who
innovateth _greatly_ but _quietly_, and by degrees scarce to be
perceived,' who will not dispense with the old form till the new one
is finished and in its place.
What is that we want to find? We want to find the new method of
scientific inquiry applied to the questions in which men are most
deeply interested--questions which were then imperiously and instantly
urged on the thoughtful mind. We want to see it applied to POLITICS in
the reign of James the First. We want to see it applied to the open
questions of another department of inquiry,--certainly not any less
important,--in that reign, and in the reign which preceded it. We want
to see the facts sifted through those scientific tables of review,
from which the true form of SOVEREIGNTY, the _legitimate_ sovereignty,
is to be inducted, and the scientific axioms of government with it. We
want to see the science of observation and experiment, the science of
nature in general, applied to the cure of the common-weal in the reign
of James the First, and to that particular crisis in its disease, in
which it appeared to the observers to be at its last gasp; and that,
too, by the principal doctors in that profession,--men of the very
largest experience in it, who felt obliged to pursue their work
conscientiously, whether the patient _objected_ or not. But are there
any such books as these? Certainly. You have the author's own word for
it. 'Some may raise this question,' he says, 'this _question_ rather
than _objection_'--[it is better that it should come in the form of a
_question_, than in the form of _an objection_, as it would have come,
if there had been no room to '_raise the question_']--'_whether we
talk_ of perfecting _natural philosophy_' [using the term here in its
usual limited sense], 'whether we talk of perfecting natural
philosophy _alone_, according to our method, or, _the other_
sciences--_such as_, ETHICS, LOGIC, POLITICS.' _That_ is the question
'raised.' 'We certainly intend to comprehend them ALL.' _That_ is _the
author's_ answer to it. 'And as _common logic_ which _regulates
matters by syllogism_, is applied, not only to natural, but to every
other science, _so_ our inductive method _likewise_ comprehends them
ALL.' With such iteration will he think fit to give us this point. It
is put in here for those 'who raise the question'--the question
'rather than objection.' The other sort are taken care of in other
places. '_For_,' he continues, 'we form a history and tables of
invention, for _anger, fear, shame,_ and _the like_; and _also for
examples in civil life_' [that was to be the principal part of the
science when he laid out the plan of it in the advancement of
learning] 'and the _mental_ operations of _memory, composition,
division, judgment_, and the rest; _as well_ as for _heat_ and _cold,
light_ and _vegetation_, and _the like_.' That is the plan of the new
science, as the author sketches it for the benefit of those who raise
questions rather than objections. That is its comprehension precisely,
whenever he undertakes to mark out its limits for the satisfaction of
this class of readers. But this is that same FOURTH PART to which he
refers us in the other places for the application of his method to
those nobler subjects, those more chosen subjects; and that is just
the part of his science which appears to be wanting. How happens it?
Did he get so occupied with the question of _heat_ and _cold_, _light_
and vegetation, and _the like_, that after all he forgot this part
with its nobler applications? How could that be, when he tells us
expressly, that they are the more chosen subjects of his inquiry. This
part which he speaks of here, is the missing part of his philosophy,
unquestionably. These are the books of it which have been missing
hitherto; but in that Providential order of events to which he refers
himself, the time has come for them to be inquired for; and this
inquiry is itself a part of that movement, in which the smallest
beginnings lead assuredly to some result. For, 'let us begin from
God,' he says, 'and show that our pursuit, from its exceeding
goodness, clearly proceeds from Him, the Author of GOOD, and not of
misery; the Father of LIGHT, and not of darkness.'
Of course, it was impossible to get out any scientific doctrine of the
human society, without coming at once in collision with that doctrine
of the divinity of arbitrary power which the monarchs of England were
then openly sustaining. Who needs to be told, that he who would handle
that argument scientifically, then, without military weapons, as this
inquirer _would_, must indeed 'pray in aid of _similes_.' And yet a
very searching and critical inquiry into the claims of that
institution, which the new philosophy found in possession of the human
welfare, and asserting a divine right to it as a thing of private
property and legitimate family inheritance,--such a criticism was, in
fact, inevitably involved in that inquiry into the principles of a
_human_ subjection which appeared to this philosopher to belong
properly to the more chosen subjects of a scientific investigation.
And notwithstanding the delicacy of the subjects, and the extremely
critical nature of the investigation, when it came to touch those
particulars, with which the personal observations and experiments of
the founders of this new school in philosophy had tended to enrich
their collections in this department,--'and the aim is better,' says
the principal spokesman of this school, who quietly proposes to
introduce this method into _politics_, 'the aim is better _when the
mark is alive_;' notwithstanding the difficulties which appeared to
lie then in the way of such an investigation, the means of conducting
it to the entire satisfaction, and, indeed, to the large entertainment
of the persons chiefly concerned, were not wanting. For this was one
of those 'secrets of policy,' which have always required the aid of
fable, and the idea of _dramatising_ the fable for the sake of
reaching in some sort those who are incapable of receiving any thing
'which does not directly fall under, and strike the senses,' as the
philosopher has it; those who are capable of nothing but 'dumb shows
and noise,' as Hamlet has it; this idea, though certainly a very
happy, was not with these men an original one. Men, whose relations to
the state were not so different as the difference in the forms of
government would perhaps lead us to suppose,--men of the gravest
learning and enriched with the choicest accomplishments of their time,
had adopted that same method of influencing public opinion, some two
thousand years earlier, and even as long before as that, there were
'secrets of morality and policy,' to which this form of writing
appeared to offer the most fitting veil.
Whether 'the new' philosopher,--whether 'the new magician' of this
time, was, in fact, in possession of any art which enabled him to
handle without diffidence or scruple the great political question
which was then already the question of the time; whether 'THE
CROWN'--that double crown of military conquest and priestly
usurpation, which was the one estate of the realm at that crisis in
English history, did, among other things in some way, come under the
edges of that new analysis which was severing _all_ here then, and get
divided clearly with 'the mind, that divine fire,'--whether any such
thing as that occurred here then, the reader of the following pages
will be able to judge. The careful reader of the extracts they
contain, taken from a work of practical philosophy which made its
appearance about those days, will certainly have no difficulty at all
in deciding that question. For, first of all, it is necessary to find
that political key to the Elizabethan art of delivery, which unlocks
the great works of the Elizabethan philosophy, and that is the
necessity which determines the selection of the Plays that are
produced in this volume. They are brought in to illustrate the fact
already stated, and already demonstrated, the fact which is the
subject of this volume, the fact that the new practical philosophy of
the modern ages, which has its beginning here, was not limited, in the
plan of its founders, to 'natural philosophy' and 'the part operative'
of that,--the fact that it comprehended, as its principal department,
the department in which its 'noblest subjects' lay, and in which its
most vital innovations were included, a field of enquiry which could
not then be entered without the aid of fable and parable, and one
which required not then only, 'but now, and at all times,' the aid of
a vivid poetic illustration; they are brought in to illustrate the
fact already demonstrated from other sources, the fact that the new
philosophy was the work of men able to fulfil their work under such
conditions, able to work, if not for the times that were nearer, for
the times that were further off; men who thought it little so they
could fulfil and perfect their work and make their account of it to
the Work-master, to robe another with their glory; men who could
relinquish the noblest works of the human genius, that they might save
them from the mortal stabs of an age of darkness, that they might make
them over unharmed in their boundless freedom, in their unstained
perfection, to the farthest ages of the advancement of learning,--that
they might 'teach them how to live and look fresh' still,
'When tyrants' crests, and tombs of brass are spent.'
That is the one fact, the indestructible fact, which this book is to
demonstrate.
PART I.
LEAR'S PHILOSOPHER
'Thou'dst shun a bear;
But if thy way lay towards the raging sea,
Thou'dst meet the bear i' the mouth.'
CHAPTER I.
PHILOSOPHY IN THE PALACE.
'I think the king is but a man, as I am.'--_King Henry_.
'They told me I was everything.'--_Lear_.
OF course, it was not possible that the prerogative should be openly
dealt with at such a time, questioned, discussed, scientifically
examined, in the very presence of royalty itself, except by persons
endowed with extraordinary privileges and immunities, persons, indeed,
of quite irresponsible authority, whose right to do and say what they
pleased, Elizabeth herself, though they should enter upon a critical
analysis of the divine rights of kings to her face, and deliberately
lay bare the defects in that title which she was then attempting to
maintain, must needs notwithstanding, concede and respect.
And such persons, as it happened, were not wanting in the retinue of
that sovereignty which was working in disguise here then, and laying
the foundations of that throne in the thoughts of men, which would
replace old principalities and powers, and not political dominions
merely. To the creative genius which waited on the philosophic mind of
that age, making up in the splendour of its gifts for the poverty of
its exterior conditions, such persons,--persons of any amount or
variety of capacity which the necessary question of its play might
require, were not wanting:--'came with a thought.'
Of course, poor Bolingbroke, fevered with the weight of his ill-got
crown, and passing a sleepless night in spite of its supposed
exemptions, unable to command on his state-bed, with all his royal
means and appliances, the luxury that the wet sea boy in the storm
enjoys,--and the poet appears, to have had some experience of this
mortal ill, which inclines him to put it down among those which ought
to be excluded from a state of supreme earthly felicity,--the poor
guilty disgusted usurper, discovering that this so blessed 'invention'
was not included in the prerogative he had seized, under the
exasperation of the circumstances, might surely be allowed to mutter
to himself, in the solitude of his own bed-chamber, a few general
reflections on the subject, and, indeed, disable his own position to
any extent, without expecting to be called to an account for it, by
any future son or daughter of his usurping lineage. That
extraordinary, but when one came to look at it, quite incontestable
fact, that nature in her sovereignty, imperial still, refused to
recognize this artificial difference in men, but still went on her way
in all things, as if 'the golden standard' were not there, classing
the monarch with his 'poorest subject;'--the fact that this charmed
'round of sovereignty,' did not after all secure the least exemption
from the common _individual_ human frailty, and helplessness,--this
would, of course, strike the usurper who had purchased the crown at
such an expense, as a fact in natural history worth communicating, if
it were only for the benefit of future princes, who might be disposed
to embark in a similar undertaking. Here, of course, the moral was
proper, and obvious enough; or close at hand, and ready to be
produced, in case any serious inquiry should be made for it; though
the poet might seem, perhaps, to a severely critical mind, disposed to
pursue his philosophical inquiry a little too curiously into the awful
secrets of majesty, retired within itself, and pondering its own
position;--openly searching what Lord Bacon reverently tells us, the
Scriptures pronounce to be inscrutable, namely, _the hearts_ of
_kings_, and audaciously laying bare those private passages, those
confessions, and misgivings, and frailties, for which policy and
reverence prescribe concealment, and which are supposed in the play,
indeed, to be shrouded from the profane and vulgar eye, a circumstance
which, of course, was expected to modify the impression.
So, too, that profoundly philosophical suspicion, that a rose, or a
violet, did actually smell, to a person occupying this sublime
position, very much as it did to another; a suspicion which, in the
mouth of a common man, would have been literally sufficient to 'make a
star-chamber matter of'; and all that thorough-going analysis of the
trick and pageant of majesty which follows it, would, of course, come
only as a graceful concession, from the mouth of that genuine piece of
royalty, who contrives to hide so much of the poet's own 'sovereignty
of nature,' under the mantle of his free and princely humours, the
brave and gentle hero of Agincourt.
'Though _I_ speak it to you,' he says, talking in the disguise of a
'private,' '_I think the King is but a man as I am_, the violet smells
to him as it doth to me; all his senses, _have but human conditions_.
His ceremonies laid by, in his nakedness, he appears but a man; and
though his affections are higher mounted than ours, yet, when they
stoop, they stoop with the like wing. When he sees reason of fears, as
we do, his fears, out of doubt, be of the same relish as ours are';
and in the same scene, thus the royal philosopher versifies, and
soliloquises on the same delicate question.
'And what have _kings_ that "_privates_" have not, too, save
ceremony,--save general ceremony? And what art thou, thou _idol
ceremony?_--_What is_ thy _soul_ of _adoration_?'
A grave question, for a man of an inquiring habit of mind, in those
times: let us see how a Poet can answer it.
'Art thou aught else but _place, degree_ and _form_,
Creating awe and fear in _other men?_
Wherein, thou _art less happy, being feared_,
_Than they in fearing_?
[Again and again this man has told us, and on his oath, that he
cherished no evil intentions, no thought of harm to the king; and
those who know what criticisms on the state, as it was then, he had
authorised, and what changes in it he was certainly meditating and
preparing the way for, have charged him with falsehood and perjury on
that account; but this is what he means. He thinks that wretched
victim of that most irrational and monstrous state of things, on whose
head the crown of an arbitrary rule is placed, with all its
responsibilities, in his infinite unfitness for them, is, in fact, the
one whose case most of all requires relief. He is the one, in this
theory, who suffers from this unnatural state of things, not less, but
more, than his meanest subject. 'Thou art less happy being feared,
than they in fearing.']
What drink'st thou oft _instead of homage sweet_
But _poison'd flattery_? O! be sick, great greatness,
And bid thy _ceremony_ give thee _cure_.
Thinkest thou the _fiery fever will go out_
With _titles blown from adulation_?
Will it give place to flexure and low bending?
Interesting physiological questions! And though the author, for
reasons of his own, has seen fit to put them in blank verse here, it
is not because he does not understand, as we shall see elsewhere, that
they are questions of a truly scientific character, which require to
be put in prose in his time--questions of vital consequence to all
men. The effect of 'poisoned flattery,' and 'titles blown from
adulation' on the minds, of those to whose single will and caprice the
whole welfare of the state, and all the gravest questions for this
life and the next, were then entrusted, naturally appeared to the
philosophical mind, perseveringly addicted to inquiries, in which the
practical interests of men were involved, a question of gravest
moment.
But here it is the physical difference which accompanies this so
immense human distinction, which he appears to be in quest of; it is
the control over nature with which these '_farcical titles_' invest
their possessor, that he appears to be now pertinaciously bent upon
ascertaining. For we shall find, as we pursue the subject, that this
is not an accidental point here, a casual incident of the character,
or of the plot, a thing which belongs to the play, and not to the
author; but that this is a poet who is somehow perpetually haunted
with the impression that those who assume a divine right to control,
and dispose of their fellow-men, ought to exhibit some sign of their
authority; some superior abilities; some magical control; some light
and power that other men have not. How he came by any such notions,
the critic of his works is, of course, not bound to show; but that
which meets him at the first reading is the fact, the incontestable
fact, that the Poet of Shakspere's stage, be he who he may, is a poet
whose mind is in some way deeply occupied with this question; that it
is a poet who is infected, and, indeed, perfectly possessed, with the
idea, that the true human leadership ought to consist in the ability
to extend the empire of man over nature,--in the ability to unite and
control men, and lead them in battalions against those common evils
which infest the human conditions,--not fevers only but 'worser'
evils, and harder to be cured, and to the conquest of those supernal
blessings which the human race have always been vainly crying for. 'I
am a king that find thee,' he says.
And having this inveterate notion of a true human regality to begin
with, he is naturally the more curious and prying in regard to the
claims of the one which he finds in possession; and when by the
mystery of his profession and art, he contrives to get the cloak of
that factitious royalty about him, he asks questions under its cover
which another man would not think of putting.
'Canst thou,' he continues, walking up and down the stage in King
Hal's mantle, inquiring narrowly into its virtues and taking advantage
of that occasion to ascertain the limits of the prerogative--that very
dubious question then,--
'Canst thou when thou command'st the beggar's knee,
_Command the health_ of it?'--
_No_? what mockery of power is it then? But, this in connection with
the preceding inquiry in regard to the effect of titles on the
progress of a fever, or the amenability of its paroxysm, to flexure
and low bending, might have seemed perhaps in the mouth of a subject
to savour somewhat of irony; it might have sounded too much like a
taunt upon the royal helplessness under cover of a serious
philosophical inquiry, or it might have betrayed in such an one a
disposition to pursue scientific inquiries farther than was perhaps
expedient. But thus it is, that THE KING can dare to pursue the
subject, answering his own questions.
'No, thou proud dream
That _playst so subtly with a king's repose_;
_I_ am a king _that find thee_; and I know
'Tis not the THE BALM, THE SCEPTRE, and THE BALL,
THE SWORD, THE MACE, THE CROWN IMPERIAL,
_The inter-tissued_ ROBE of _gold and pearl_,
The FARCED TITLE--
What is that?--Mark it:--the _farced_ TITLE!--A bold word, one would
say, even with _a king_ to authorise it.
'The farced TITLE running 'fore the king,
THE THRONE he sits on, nor _the tide_ of POMP
That beats upon the high shore of this world,
No, not all these, thrice gorgeous CEREMONY,
Not all these laid in BED MAJESTICAL,
Can _sleep so soundly_ as the wretched slave
Who, with a body filled, and vacant mind,
Gets him to rest crammed with distressful bread,
Never sees horrid night, the child of hell,
But like a lackey from the rise to set
Sweats in the eye of Phoebus; and all night
Sleeps in Elysium.
Yes, there we have him, at last. There he is exactly. That is the
scientific picture of him, 'poor man,' as this poet calls him
elsewhere. What malice could a philosophic poet bear him? That is the
monarchy that men were 'sanctifying themselves with,' and 'turning up
the white of the eye to,' then. That is the figure that it makes when
it comes to be laid in its state-bed, upon the scientific table of
review, not in the formal manner of 'the second part' of this
philosophy, but in that other manner which the author of the _Novum
Organum_, speaks of so frequently, as the one to be used in applying
it to subjects of this nature. That is the anatomy of him, which
'_our_ method of inquiry and investigation,' brings out without much
trouble 'when we come to particulars.' 'Truly we were in good hands,'
as the other one says, who finds it more convenient, for his part, to
discourse on these points, from a distance.
That is the figure the usurping monarch's pretensions make at the
first blush, in the collections from which '_the vintage_' of the true
sovereignty, and the scientific principles of governments are to be
expressed, when the true _monarchy_, the legitimate, 'one only man
power,' is the thing inquired for. This one goes to 'the negative'
side apparently. A wretched fellow that cannot so much as 'sleep o'
nights,' that lies there on the stage in the play of Henry the Fourth,
in the sight of all the people, with THE CROWN on his very pillow, by
way 'facilitating the demonstration,' pining for the 'Elysium' at his
meanest subject,--that the poor slave, 'crammed with distressful
bread,' commands; crying for the luxury that the wet seaboy, on his
high and giddy couch enjoys;--and from whose note-book came that
image, dashed with the ocean spray,--who saw that seaboy sleeping in
_that_ storm?
But, as for this KING, it is the king which the scientific history
brings out; whereas, in the other sort of history that was in use
then, lie is hardly distinguishable at all from those Mexican kings
who undertook to keep the heavenly bodies in their places, and, at the
same time, to cause all things to be borne by the earth which were
requisite for the comfort and convenience of man; a peculiarity of
those sovereigns, of which the Man on the Mountains, whose study is so
well situated for observations of that sort, makes such a pleasant
note.
But whatever other view we may take of it, this, it must be conceded,
is a tolerably comprehensive exhibition, in the general, of the mere
pageant of royalty, and a pretty free mode of handling it; but it is
at the same time a privileged and entirely safe one. For the liberty
of this great Prince to repeat to himself, in the course of a solitary
stroll through his own camp at midnight, when nobody is supposed to be
within hearing, certain philosophical conclusions which he was
understood to have arrived at in the course of his own regal
experience, could hardly be called in question. And as to that most
extraordinary conversation in which, by means of his disguise on this
occasion, he becomes a participator, if the Prince himself were too
generous to avail himself of it to the harm of the speakers, it would
ill become any one else to take exceptions at it.
And yet it is a conversation in which a party of common soldiers are
permitted to 'speak their minds freely' for once, though 'the blank
verse has to halt for it,' on questions which would be considered at
present questions of 'gravity.' It is a dialogue in which these men
are allowed to discuss one of the most important institutions of their
time from an ethical point of view, in a tone as free as the president
of a Peace Society could use to-day in discussing the same topic,
intermingling their remarks with criticisms on the government, and
personal allusions to the king himself, which would seem to be more in
accordance with the manners of the nineteenth century, than with those
of the Poet's time.
But then these wicked and treasonous grumblings being fortunately
encountered on the spot, and corrected by the king himself in his own
august person, would only serve for edification in the end; if,
indeed, that appeal to the national pride which would conclude the
matter, and the glory of that great day which was even then breaking
in the East, should leave room for any reflections upon it. For it was
none other than the field of _Agincourt_ that was subjected to this
philosophic inquiry. It was the lustre of that immortal victory which
was to England then, what Waterloo and the victories of Nelson are
now, that was thus chemically treated beforehand. Under the cover of
that renowned triumph, it was, that these soldiers could venture to
search so deeply the question of war in general; it was in the person
of its imperial hero, that the statesman could venture to touch so
boldly, an institution which gave to one man, by his own confession no
better or wiser than his neighbours, the power to involve nations in
such horrors.
But let us join the king in his stroll, and hear for ourselves, what
it is that these soldiers are discussing, by the camp-fires of
_Agincourt_;--what it is that this first voice from the ranks has to
say for itself. The king has just encountered by the way a poetical
sentinel, who, not satisfied with the watchword--'_a friend_,'--
requests the disguised prince 'to discuss to him, and answer, whether
he is an _officer_, or _base, common_, and _popular_,' when the king
lights on this little group, and the discussion which Pistol had
solicited, apparently on his own behalf, actually takes place, for
the benefit of the Poet's audience, and the answer to these inquiries
comes out in due order.
_Court_. Brother John Bates, is not that the morning which breaks
yonder?
_Bates_. I think it be, _but we have no great cause to desire the
approach of day_.
_Will_. We see yonder the beginning of the day, but I think we shall
never see the end of it. Who goes there?
_King Henry_. A friend.
_Will_. Under what captain serve you?
_King_. Under Sir Thomas Erpingham.
_Will_. A good old commander, and a most kind gentleman: I pray
you, what thinks he of our estate?
_King._ Even as men wrecked upon a sand, that look to be washed
off the next tide.
_Bates_. _He hath not told his thought to the king_?
_King_. No; nor it is not meet that he should; for though _I speak
it to you_, I think the king is but a man as I am.
And it is here that he proceeds to make that important disclosure
above quoted, that all his senses have but human conditions, and that
all his _affections_, though _higher mounted, stoop with the like
wing_; and therefore no man should in reason possess him with any
appearance of fear, lest he, by showing it, 'should dishearten his
army.'
_Bates_. He may show what outward courage he will; but, _I_ believe,
as cold a night as 'tis, he could wish himself in the
Thames, up to the neck; and so I would he were, and I by
him, at all adventures, so we were quit here.
_King_. By my troth, I will speak my conscience of the king. I
think he would not wish himself anywhere but where he is.
_Bates_. Then would he were here alone; so should he be
sure to be ransomed, and a many poor men's lives saved.
_King_. I dare say you love him not so ill as to wish him here
alone; _howsoever you speak this to feel other men's minds_;
Methinks I could not die anywhere so contented as in the king's
company; _his cause being just, and his quarrel honorable_.
_Will. That's more than we know._
_Bates_. Ay, or more than we should seek after; for we know enough,
if we know we are the king's subjects; if his cause be wrong, our
obedience to the _king_ wipes the crime of it out of us.
_Will_. But _if the cause be not good_, the _king himself hath a
heavy reckoning to make_; when all those legs and arms and heads
chopped off in a battle shall join together at the latter day, and
cry all--We died at such a place; some swearing, some crying for a
surgeon, some upon their wives left poor behind them; some upon
the debts they owe; some upon their children rawly left. I am
afeared that few die well, that die in battle; for how can they
_charitably_ dispose of anything _when blood is their argument_?
Now if these men do not die well, it will be a black matter for
the king that led them to it; whom to disobey were _against all
proportion of subjection_.
_King_. So, if a son that is by his father sent about merchandise,
do sinfully miscarry upon the sea, the imputation of his wickedness,
by your rule, should be imposed upon his father that sent him: or
if a servant, under his master's command, transporting a sum of
money, be assailed by robbers, and die in many irreconciled
iniquities, you may call the business of the master the author of
the servant's damnation.--But this is not so.... There is no king,
be his cause never so spotless, if it come to the arbitrament of
swords, can try it out with all unspotted soldiers.
But the king pursues this question of the royal responsibility until
he arrives at the conclusion that _every subject's_ DUTY is THE
KING'S, BUT EVERY SUBJECT'S SOUL IS HIS OWN, until he shows, indeed,
that there is but one ultimate sovereignty; one to which the king and
his subjects are alike amenable, which pursues them everywhere, with
its demands and reckonings,--from whose violated laws there is no
escape.
_Will_. 'Tis certain, every man that dies ill, the ill is upon his
own head--[no unimportant point in the theology or ethics of that
time]--THE KING is not to answer for it.
_Bates_. I do not desire the king should answer for me, and yet I
determine to fight lustily for him.
_King_. I, myself, heard the king say, he would not be ransomed.
_Will_. Ay, he said so, to make us fight cheerfully; but when our
throats are cut, he may be ransomed and we ne'er the wiser.
_King_. If I live to see it, I will never trust his word after.
_Will_. _Mass, you'll pay him then!_ That's a perilous shot out of
an _elder gun_, that a poor and _private_ displeasure can do against
a monarch. _You may as well go about to turn the sun to ice_, with
fanning in his face with a peacock's feather.
And, indeed, thus and not any less absurd and monstrous, appeared the
idea of subjecting the king to any effect from the subject's
displeasure, or the idea of calling him to account--this one,
helpless, frail, private man, as he has just been conceded by the king
himself to be, for any amount of fraud or dishonesty to the nation,
for any breach of trust or honour. For his relation to the _mass_ and
the source of this fearful irresponsible power was not understood
then. The soldier states it well. One might, indeed, as well go about
to turn the sun to ice, _with fanning in his face_ with a peacock's
feather.
'You'll never trust his word after,' the soldier continues.
'Come, 'tis a foolish saying.'
'Your reproof is something _too round_,' is the king's reply. It is
indeed round. It is one of those round replies that this poet is so
fond of, and the king himself becomes 'the private' of it, when once
the centre of this play is found, and the sweep of its circumference
is taken. For the sovereignty of law, the kingship of the universal
law _in whomsoever it speaks_, awful with God's power, armed with
_his_ pains and penalties is the scientific sovereignty; and in the
scientific diagrams the passions, 'the poor and private passions,' and
the arbitrary will, in whomsoever they speak, no matter what symbols
of sovereignty they have contrived to usurp, make no better figure in
their struggles with that law, than that same which the poet's vivid
imagination and intense perception of incompatibilities, has seized on
here. The king struggles vainly against the might of the universal
nature. It is but the shot out of an '_elder gun_;' he might as well
'go about to _turn the sun to ice_ with fanning in his face with a
_peacock's_ feather.' 'I should be angry with you,' continues the
king, after noticing the roundness of that reply, 'I should be angry
with you, if _the time_ were convenient.'
But as to the poet who composes these dialogues, of course he does not
know whether the time is convenient or not;--he has never reflected
upon any of those grave questions which are here so seriously
discussed. They are not questions in which he can be supposed to have
taken any interest. Of course he does not know or care what it is that
these men are talking about. It is only for the sake of an artistic
effect, to pass away the night, and to deepen for his hero the gloom
which was to serve as the foil and sullen ground of his great victory,
that his interlocutors are permitted to go on in this manner.
It is easy to see, however, what extraordinary capabilities this
particular form of writing offered to one who _had_ any purpose, or to
an author, who wished on any account, to '_infold_' somewhat his
meaning;--that was the term used then in reference to this style of
writing. For certainly, many things dangerous in themselves could be
shuffled in under cover of an artistic effect, which would not strike
at the time, amid the agitations, and the skilful checks, and
counteractions, of the scene, even the quick ear of despotism itself.
And thus King Lear--that impersonation of absolutism--the very
embodiment of pure will and tyranny in their most frantic form, taken
out all at once from that hot bath of flatteries to which he had been
so long accustomed, that his whole self-consciousness had become
saturated, tinctured in the grain with them, and he believed himself
to be, within and without, indestructibly, essentially,--'ay, every
inch A KING;' with speeches on his supremacy copied, well nigh
verbatim, from those which Elizabeth's courtiers habitually addressed
to her, still ringing in his ears, hurled out into a single-handed
contest with the elements, stripped of all his 'social and artificial
lendings,' the poor, bare, unaccommodated, individual man, this living
subject of the poet's artistic treatment,--this 'ruined Majesty'
anatomized alive, taken to pieces literally before our eyes, pursued,
hunted down scientifically, and robbed in detail of all 'the additions
of a king'--must, of course, be expected to evince in some way his
sense of it; 'for soul and body,' this poet tells us, 'rive not more
in parting than greatness going off.'
Once conceive the possibility of presenting the action, the dumb show,
of this piece upon the stage at that time, (there have been times
since when it could not be done), and the dialogue, with its
illimitable freedoms, follows without any difficulty. For the surprise
of the monarch at the discoveries which this new state of things
forces upon him,--the speeches he makes, with all the levelling of
their philosophy, with all the unsurpassable boldness of their
political criticism, are too natural and proper to the circumstances,
to excite any surprise or question.
Indeed, a king, who, nurtured in the flatteries of the palace, was
unlearned enough in the nature of things, to suppose that _the name_
of a king was anything but a shadow when _the power_ which had
sustained its prerogative was withdrawn,--a king who thought that he
could still be a king, and maintain 'his state' and 'his hundred
knights,' and their prerogatives, and all his old arbitrary, despotic
humours, with their inevitable encroachment on the will and humours,
and on the welfare of others, merely on grounds of respect and
affection, or on grounds of duty, when not merely the care of 'the
state,' but the revenues and power of it had been devolved on
others--such a one appeared, indeed, to the poet, to be engaging in an
experiment very similar to the one which he found in progress in his
time, in that old, decayed, riotous form of military government, which
had chosen the moment of its utter dependence on the popular will and
respect, as the fitting one for its final suppression of the national
liberties. It was an experiment which was, of course, modified in the
play by some diverting and strongly pronounced differences, or it
would not have been possible to produce it then; but it was still the
experiment of _the unarmed prerogative_, that the old popular tale of
the ancient king of Britain offered to the poet's hands, and that was
an experiment which he was willing to see traced to its natural
conclusion on paper at least; while in the subsequent development of
the plot, the presence of an insulted trampled outcast majesty on the
stage, furnishes a cover of which the poet is continually availing
himself, for putting the case of that other outraged sovereignty,
whose cause under one form or another, under all disguises, he is
always pleading. And in the poet's hands, the debased and outcast
king, becomes the impersonation of a debased and violated state, that
had given all to its daughters,--the victim of a tyranny not less
absolute, the victim, too, of a blindness and fatuity on its own part,
not less monstrous, but not, not--_that_ is the poet's word--_not_ yet
irretrievable.
'Thou shalt find
I will resume that shape, which thou dost think
I have cast off for ever; thou shalt, I warrant thee.'
'Do you mark that, my lord?'
But the question of that prerogative, which has consumed, in the
poet's time, all the faculties of government constitutes only a
subordinate part of the action of that great play, into which it is
here incorporated; a play which comprehends in its new philosophical
reaches, in its new and before-unimagined subtilties of analysis, the
most radical questions of a practical human science; questions which
the practical reason of these modern ages at the moment of its
awakening, found itself already compelled to grapple with, and master.
CHAPTER II.
UNACCOMMODATED MAN.
'Consider him well.--Three of us are sophisticated.'
For this is the grand SOCIAL tragedy. It is the tragedy of an
unlearned human society; it is the tragedy of a civilization in which
grammar, and the relations of sounds and abstract notions to each
other have sufficed to absorb the attention of the learned,--a
civilization in which the parts of speech, and their relations, have
been deeply considered, but one in which the social elements, the
parts of life, and their unions, and their prosody, have been left to
spontaneity, and empiricism, and all kinds of rude, arbitrary,
idiomatical conjunctions, and fortuitous rules; a civilization in
which the learning of 'WORDS' is put down by the reporter--invented--
and the learning of 'THINGS'--omitted.
And in a movement which was designed to bring the human reason to bear
scientifically and artistically upon those questions in which the
deepest human interests are involved, the wrong and misery of that
social state to which the New Machine, with its new combination of
sense and reason, must be applied, had to be fully and elaborately
brought out and exhibited. And there was but one language in which the
impersonated human misery and wrong,--the speaker for countless
hearts, tortured and broken on the rude machinery of unlearned social
customs, and lawless social forces, could speak; there was but one
tongue in which it could tell its story. For this is the place where
science becomes inevitably poetical. That same science which fills our
cabinets and herbariums, and chambers of natural history, with mute
stones and shells and plants and dead birds and insects--that same
science that fills our scientific volumes with coloured pictures true
as life itself, and letter-press of prose description--that same
science that anatomises the physical frame with microscopic
nicety,--in the hand of its master, found in the soul, that which had
most need of science; and his 'illustrated book' of it, the book of
his experiments in it, comes to us filled with his yet living, 'ever
living' _subjects_, and resounding with the tragedy of their
complainings.
It requires but a little reading of that book to find, that the author
of it is a philosopher who is strongly disposed to ascertain the
limits of that thing in nature, which men call fortune,--that is, in
their week-day speech,--they have another name for it 'o' Sundays.' He
is greatly of the opinion, that the combined and legitimate use of
those faculties with which man is beneficently 'armed against diseases
of the world,' would tend very much to limit those fortuities and
accidents, those wild blows,--those vicissitudes, that men, in their
ignorance and indolent despair, charge on Fate or ascribe to
Providence, while at the same time it would furnish the art of
_accommodating_ the human mind to that which is inevitable. It is not
fortune who is blind, but man, he says,--a creature endowed of nature
for his place in nature, endowed of God with a godlike faculty,
looking before and after--a creature who has eyes, eyes adapted to his
special necessities, but one that will not use them.
Acquaintance with law, as it is actual in nature, and inventions of
arts based on that acquaintance, appear to him to open a large field
of relief to the human estate, a large field of encroachment on that
human misery, which men have blindly and stupidly acquiesced in
hitherto, as necessity. For this is the philosopher who borrows, on
another page, an ancient fable to teach us that that is not the kind
of submission which is pleasing to God--that that is not the kind of
'suffering' that will ever secure his favour. He, for one, is going to
search this social misery to the root, with that same light which the
ancient wise man tells us, 'is as the lamp of God, wherewith He
searcheth the inwardness of all secrets.'
The weakness and ignorance and misery of the _natural_ man,--the
misery too of the _artificial man_ as he is,--the misery of man in
society, when that society is cemented with arbitrary customs, and
unscientific social arts, and when the instinctive spontaneous
demoniacal forces of nature, are at large in it; the dependence of the
social Monad, the constitutional specific _human_ dependence, on the
specific _human_ law,--the exquisite human liability to injury and
wrong, which are but the natural indications of those higher arts and
excellencies, those unborn pre-destined human arts and excellencies,
which man must struggle through his misery to reach;--that is the
scientific notion which lies at the bottom of this grand ideal
representation. It is, in a word, the human social NEED, in all its
circumference, clearly sketched, laid out, scientifically, as the
basis of the human social ART. It is the negation of that which man's
conditions, which the _human_ conditions require;--it is the
collection on the Table of Exclusion and Rejection, which must precede
the _practical_ affirmation.
_King_. Have you heard the argument? Is there no offence in it?
_Hamlet_. None in the world. It's the image of a murder done in
Vienna.
In the poetic representation of that state of things which was to be
redressed, the central social figure must, of course, have its place.
For it is the Poet, the Experimental Poet, unseen indeed, deep buried
in his fable, his new movements all hidden under its old garb, and
deeper hidden still, in the new splendours he puts on it--it is the
Poet--invisible but not the less truly, he,--it is the Scientific
Poet, who comes upon the monarch in his palace at noonday, and says,
'My business is with thee, O king.' It is he who comes upon the
selfish arrogant old despot, drunk with Elizabethan flatteries,
stuffed with '_titles blown_ from adulation,' unmindful of the true
ends of government, reckless of the duties which that regal assumption
of the common weal brings with it--it is the Poet who comes upon this
Doctor of Laws in the palace and prescribes to him a course of
treatment which the royal patient himself, when once it has taken
effect, is ready to issure from the hovel's mouth, in the form of a
general prescription and state ordinance.
'Take physic, POMP;
Expose thyself to _feel_ what wretches _feel_,
That thou may'st shake the superflux to them,
And show the heavens more just.
Oh, I have taken _too little care_ of This!'
It is that same Poet who has already told us, confidentially, under
cover of King Hal's mantle, that 'the king himself is but a man' and
that 'all his senses have but human conditions and that his
affections, too, though higher mounted when they stoop, stoop with the
like wing; that his ceremonies laid by, in his nakedness he appears
but a man';--it is that same Poet, and, in carrying out the purpose of
this play, it has come in his way now to make good that statement. For
it was necessary to his purpose here, to show that the State is
composed throughout, down to its most loathsome unimaginable depths of
neglect and misery, of individual men, social units, clothed of nature
with the same faculties and essential human dignities and
susceptibilities to good and evil, and crowned of nature with the
common sovereignty of reason,--down-trodden, perhaps, and wrung and
trampled out of them, but elected of nature to that dignity; it was
necessary to show this, in order that the wisdom of the State which
sacrifices to the senses of _one_ individual man, and the judgment
that is narrowed by the one man's senses, the weal of the whole,--in
order that the wisdom of the State, which puts at the mercy of the
arbitrary will and passions of _the one_, the weal of _the many_,
might be mathematically exhibited,--might be set down in figures and
diagrams. For this is that Poet who represents this method of inquiry
and investigation, as it were, to _the eye_. This is that same Poet,
too, who surprises elsewhere _a queen_ in her swooning passion of
grief, and bids her murmur to us her recovering confession.
'No more, but e'en a woman; and _commanded_
By such poor passion, as the maid that milks,
And does the meanest chares.'
So busy is he, indeed, in laying by this king's 'ceremonies' for him,
beginning with the first doubtful perception of a most faint
neglect,--a falling off in the ceremonious affection due to majesty
'as well in the general dependents as in the duke himself and his
daughter,'--so faint that the king dismisses it from his thought, and
charges it on his own jealousy till he is reminded of it by
another,--beginning with that faint beginning, and continuing the
process not less delicately, through all its swift dramatic
gradations,--the direct abatement of the regal dignities,--the
knightly train diminishing,--nay, 'fifty of his followers at a clap'
torn from him, his messenger put in the stocks,--and '_it is worse
than murder_,' the poor king cries in the anguish of his slaughtered
dignity and affection, 'to do upon _respect_ such violent
outrage,'--so bent is the Poet upon this analytic process; so
determined that this shaking out of a '_preconception_,' shall be for
once a thorough one, so absorbed with the dignity of the scientific
experiment, that he seems bent at one moment on giving a literal
finish to this process; but the fool's scruples interfere with the
philosophical humour of the king, and the presence of Mad Tom in his
blanket, with the king's exposition, suffices to complete the
demonstration. For not less lively than this, is the preaching and
illustration, from that new rostrum which this 'Doctor' has contrived
to make himself master of. 'His ceremonies laid by, in his nakedness
he appears but a man,' says King Hal. 'Couldst thou save nothing?'
says King Lear to the Bedlamite. 'Why thou wert better in thy grave
than to answer with thy uncovered body this extremity of the skies.'
'_Is man_,'--it is _the king_ who generalises, it is the king who
introduces this levelling suggestion here in the _abstract_, while the
Poet is content with the responsibility of the concrete
exhibition--'_Is man no wore than this_? Consider him well. Thou owest
the worm no silk, the beast no hide, the cat no perfume:--Ha! here's
three of us are _sophisticated. Thou art the thing itself_.
UNACCOMMODATED MAN is no more but such a poor, bare, forked animal, as
thou art. Off, off, you lendings.' But 'the fool' is of the opinion
that this scientific process of unwrapping the artificial majesty,
this philosophical undressing, has already gone far enough.
'Pry'thee, Nuncle, be contented,' he says, 'it is a naughty night to
swim in.'
For it is the great heath wrapped in one of those storms of wind and
rain and thunder and lightning, which this wizard only of all the
children of men knows how to raise, that he chooses for his
physiological exhibition of majesty, when the palace-door has been
shut upon it, and the last 'additions of a king' have been subtracted.
It is a night--
'Wherein the cub-drawn bear would couch,
The lion, and the belly-pinched wolf
Keep their fur dry'--
into which he turns his royal patient '_unbonneted_.'
For the tyranny of wild nature in her elemental uproar must be added
to the tyranny of the human wildness, the cruelty of the elements must
conspire, like pernicious ministers, with the cruelty of arbitrary
HUMAN will and passions, the irrational, INHUMAN social forces must be
joined by those other forces that make war upon us, before the real
purpose of this exhibition and the full depth and scientific
comprehension of it can begin to appear. It is in the tempest that
Lear finds occasion to give out the Poet's text. Is _man_ no more than
this? Consider him well. Unaccommodated man in his struggle with
nature. Man without social combinations, man without arts to aid him
in his battle with the elements, or _with_ arts that fence in his
body, and robe it, it may be, in delicate and gorgeous apparelling,
arts that roof his head with a princely dome it may be, and add to his
native dignity and forces, the means and appliances of a material
civilization, but leave his nobler nature with its more living
susceptibility to injury, unsheathed, at the mercy of the brute forces
that unscientific civilizations, with their coarse laws, with their
cobwebs of WORDY learning, with their science of abstractions,
unmatched with the subtilty of THINGS, are compelled to leave at
large, uncaught, unentangled.
Yes, it is man in his relation to nature, man in his dependence on
artificial aid, man in his two-fold dependence on art, that this
tempest, this double tempest wakes and brings out, for us to
'consider,'--to 'consider well';--'the naked creature,' that were
better in his grave than to answer with his uncovered body that
extremity of the skies, and by his side, with his soul uncovered to a
fiercer blast, his royal brother with 'the tempest in his mind, that
doth from his senses take all feeling else, save what beats there.'
It is the _personal_ weakness, the moral and intellectual as well as
the bodily frailty and limitation of faculty, and liability to
suffering and outrage, the liability to wrong from treachery, as well
as violence, which are 'the common' specific _human_ conditions,
common to the King in his palace, and Tom o'Bedlam in his hovel; it is
this exquisite human frailty and susceptibility, still unprovided for,
that fills the play throughout, and stands forth in these two,
impersonated; it is that which fills all the play with the outcry of
its anguish.
And thus it is, that this poor king must needs be brought out into
this wild uproar of nature, and stripped of his last adventitious aid,
reduced to the authority and forces that nature gave him, invaded to
the skin, and ready in his frenzy to second the poet's intent, by
yielding up the last thread of his adventitious and artistic defences.
All his artificial, social personality already dissolved, or yet in
the agony of its dissolution, all his natural social ties torn and
bleeding within him, there is yet another kind of trial for him, as
the elected and royal representative of the human conditions. For the
perpetual, the universal interest of this experiment arises from the
fact, that it is not as _the king_ merely, dissolving like 'a mockery
king of snow' that this illustrious form stands here, to undergo this
fierce analysis, but as the representative, 'the conspicuous
instance,' of that social name and figure, which all men carry about
with them, and take to be a part of themselves, that outward life, in
which men go beyond themselves, by means of their affections, and
extend their identity, incorporating into their very personality, that
floating, contingent material which the wills and humours and
opinions, the prejudices and passions of others, and the variable tide
of this world's fortunes make--that social Name and Figure in which
men may die many times, ere the physical life is required of them, in
which all men must needs live if they will live in it at all, at the
mercy of these uncontrolled social eventualities.
The tragedy is complicated, but it is only that same complication
which the tragedy it stands for, is always exhibiting. The fact that
this blow to his state is dealt to him by those to whom nature herself
had so dearly and tenderly bound him, nay, with whom she had so
hopelessly identified him, is that which overwhelms the sufferer. It
is that which he seeks to understand in vain. He wishes to reason upon
it, but his mind cannot master it; under that it is that his brain
gives way,--the first mental confusion begins there. The blow to his
state is a subordinate thing with him. It only serves to measure the
wrong that deals it. The poet takes pains to clear this complication
in the experiment. It is the wound in the affections which untunes the
jarring senses of 'this _child-changed father_.' It is that which
invades his identity.
'Are you _our_ daughter? Does anyone here know me?' That is the word
with which he breaks the silence of that dumb amazement, that
paralysis of frozen wonder which Goneril's first rude assault brings
on him. 'Why, _this is not Lear_; Ha! sure it is not so. Does any one
here know me? Who is it that can tell me _who I am_?'
But with all her cruelty, he cannot shake her off. He curses her; but
his curses do not sever the tie.
'But yet _thou art_ my flesh, my blood, _my daughter_.
Or rather, a disease that's in my flesh
Which I must needs call _mine_.
Filial ingratitude!
Is _it not as this mouth should tear this hand
For lifting food to it_?'
For that is the poet's conception of the extent of this social life
and outgoing--that is the _interior_ of that social whole, in which
the dissolution he represents here is proceeding,--and that is the
kind of new phenomenon which the science of man, when it takes him as
he is, not the abstract man of the schools, not the logical man that
the Realists and the Nominalists went to blows for, but 'the thing
itself,' exhibits. As to that other '_man_,'--the man of the old
philosophy,--he was not 'worth the whistle,' this one thinks. 'His
bones were marrowless, his blood was cold, he had no speculation in
those eyes that he did glare with.' The New Philosopher will have no
such skeletons in his system. He is getting his _general_ man out of
particular cases, building him up solid, from a basis of natural
history, and, as far as he goes, there will be no question, no two
words about it, as to whether he _is_ or _is not_. 'For I do take,'
says the Advancer of Learning, 'the _consideration_ in general, and at
large, of _Human Nature_, to be fit to be emancipated and made a
knowledge by itself.' No wonder if some new aspects of these ordinary
phenomena, these 'common things,' as he calls them, should come out,
when they too come to be subjected to a scientific inquiry, and when
the Poet of this Advancement, this so subtle Poet of it, begins to
explore them.
And as to this particular point which he puts down with so much care,
this point which poor Lear is illustrating here, viz. 'that our
affections carry themselves beyond us,' as the sage of the 'Mountain'
expresses it, this is the view the same Poet gives of it, in
accounting for Ophelia's madness.
'Nature is fine in love; and where 'tis fine,
It sends some precious instance of itself,
After the thing it loves.'
'Your old kind father,' continues Lear, searching to the quick the
secrets of this 'broken-heartedness,' as people are content to call
it, this ill to which the human species is notoriously liable, though
philosophy had not thought it worth while before 'to find it out;'
'Your old kind father, whose frank heart gave all,--
O _that way_ madness lies; let me shun _that_,
No more of _that_.'
And it is while he is still undergoing the last extreme of the
suffering which the human wrong is capable of inflicting on the
affections, that he comes in the Poet's hands to exhibit also the
unexplored depth of that wrong,--that monstrous, inhuman social error,
that perpetual outrage on nature in her _human_ law, which leaves the
helpless human outcast to the rough discipline of nature, which casts
him out from the family of man, from its common love and shelter, and
leaves him in his vices, and helplessness, and ignorance, to contend
alone with great nature and her unrelenting consequences.
'To wilful men
The injuries that they themselves procure,
Must be their school-masters,'--
is the point which the philosophic Regan makes, as she bids them shut
the door in her father's face; but it is the common human relationship
that the Poet is intent on clearing, while he notes the special
relationship also; he does not limit his humanities to the ties of
blood, or household sympathies, or social gradations.
But Regan's views on this point are seconded and sustained, and there
seems to be but one opinion on the subject among those who happen to
have that castle in possession; at least the timid owner of it does
not feel himself in a position to make any forcible resistance to the
orders which his illustrious guests, who have 'taken from him the use
of his own house,' have seen fit to issue in it. 'Shut up your doors,
(says Cornwall),
'Shut up your doors, my lord: 'tis a wild night.
_My_ REGAN COUNSELS _well_; COME OUT O' THE STORM.'
And it is because this representation is artistic and dramatic, and
not simply historical, and the Poet must seek to condense, and sum and
exhibit in dramatic appreciable figures, the unreckonable, undefinable
historical suffering of years, aad lifetimes of this vain human
struggle,--because, too, the wildest threats which nature in her
terrors makes to man, had to be incorporated in this great philosophic
piece; and because, lastly, the Poet would have the madness of the
human will and passion, presented in its true scientific relations,
that this storm collects into itself such ideal sublimities, and
borrows from the human passion so many images of cruelty.
In all the mad anguish of that ruined greatness, and wronged natural
affection, the Poet, relentless as fortune herself in her sternest
moods, intent on his experiment only, will bring out his great victim,
and consign him to the wind and the rain, and the lightning, and the
thunder, and bid his _senses_ undergo _their_ 'horrible pleasure.'
For the senses, scorned as they had been in philosophy hitherto, the
senses in this philosophy, have _their_ report also,--their full,
honest report, to make to us. And the design of this piece, as already
stated in the general, required in its execution, not only that these
two kinds of suffering, these two grand departments of human need,
should be included and distinguished in it, but that they should be
brought together in this one man's experience, so that a deliberate
comparison can be instituted between them; and the Poet will bid the
philosophic king, the living 'subject' himself, report the experiment,
and tell us plainly, once for all, whether the science of the physical
Arts only, is the science which is wanting to man; or whether
arts--scientific arts--that take hold of the moral nature, also, and
deal with that not less effectively, can be dispensed with; whether,
indeed, man is in any condition to dispense with _the_ Science and
_the_ Art which puts him into intelligent and harmonious relations
with nature in general.
It was necessary to the purpose of the play to exhibit man's
dependence on art, by means of his senses _and_ his sensibilities, and
his intellectual conditions, and all his frailties and liabilities,--
his dependence on art, based on the knowledge of natural laws,
universal laws,--constitutions, which _include_ the human. It was
necessary to exhibit the whole misery, the last extreme of that
social evil, to which a creature so naturally frail and ignorant is
liable, under those coarse, fortuitous, inartistic, unscientific
social conglomerations, which ignorant and barbarous ages build, and
under the tyranny of those wild, barbaric social evils, which our fine
social institutions, notwithstanding the universality of their terms,
and the transcendant nature of the forces which they are understood to
have at their disposal, for some fatal reason or other, do not yet
succeed in reducing.
It is, indeed, the whole ground of the Scientific Human Art, which is
revealed here by the light of this great passion, and that, in this
Poet's opinion, is none other than the ground of the human want, and
is as large and various as that. And the careful reader of this
play,--the patient searcher of its subtle lore,--the diligent
collector of its thick-crowding philosophic points and flashing
condensations of discovery, will find that the _need of arts_, is that
which is set forth in it, with all the power of its magnificent poetic
embodiment, and in the abstract as well,--the need of arts infinitely
more noble and effective, more nearly matched with the subtlety of
nature, and better able to entangle and subdue its oppositions, than
any of which mankind have yet been able to possess themselves, or ever
the true intention of nature in the human form can be realized, or
anything like a truly Human Constitution, or Common-Weal, is possible.
But let us return to the comparison, and collect the results of this
experiment.--For a time, indeed, raised by that storm of grief and
indignation into a companionship with the wind and the rain, and the
lightning, and the thunder, the king 'strives in his little world of
man,'--for that is the phrasing of the poetic report, to _out-scorn_
these elements. Nay, we ourselves hear, as the curtain rises on that
ideal representative form of human suffering, the wild intonation of
that human defiance--mounting and singing above the thunder, and
drowning all the elemental crash with its articulation; for this is an
experiment which the philosopher will try in the presence of his
audience, and not report it merely. With that anguish in his heart,
the crushed majesty, the stricken old man, the child-wounded father,
laughs at the pains of _the senses_; the physical distress is welcome
to him, he is glad of it. He does not care for anything that the
_unconscious_, soulless elements can do to him, he calls to them from
their heights, and bids them do their worst. Or it is only as they
conspire with that _wilful human_ wrong, and serve to bring home to
him anew the depth of it, by these tangible, sensuous effects,--it is
only by that means that they are able to wound him.
'Nor rain, wind, thunder, fire, are my daughters,'
_that_ is the argument.
'I tax you _not_, you elements, with _unkindness_.'
Surely that is logical; that is a distinction not without a
difference, and appreciable to the human mind, as it is
constituted,--surely that is a point worth putting in the arts and
sciences.
'I never gave you kingdoms, called you _children_;
You _owe_ me no subscription; why, _then_, let fall
Your horrible pleasure? Here I stand _your_ slave,
A poor, infirm, weak, and despised old man;
But _yet_, I call you _servile ministers_,
That have with two pernicious daughters _joined_
Your high, engendered battles 'gainst a head
_So old and white_ as this. O, O, '_tis foul_.'
And in his calmer mood, when the storm has done its work upon him, and
all the strength of his great passion is exhausted,--when his bodily
powers are fast sinking under it, and like the subtle Hamlet's 'potent
poison,' it begins at last to 'o'er-crow his spirit'--when he is faint
with struggling with its fury, wet to the skin with it, and
comfortless and shivering, he still maintains through his chattering
teeth the argument; he will still defend his first position--
'Thou thinkst 'tis much that this _contentious_ storm
Invades _us_ to the skin; so 'tis to thee,
But where the greater _malady_ is fixed,
The _lesser_ is scarce felt.'
'The tempest in my mind
Doth from my senses take all feeling else,
Save what beats there.'
'In _such_ a night
_To shut me out! Pour on_, I will endure.
_In such a night as this_.'
And when the shelter he is at last forced to seek is found, at the
door his courage fails him; and he shrinks back into the storm again,
because 'it will not give him leave to think on that _which hurts him
more_.'
So nicely does the Poet balance these ills, and report the swaying
movement. But it is a poet who does not take common-place opinions on
this, or on any other such subject. He is one whose poetic work does
not consist in illustrating these received opinions, or in finding
some novel and fine expression for them. He is observing nature, and
undertaking to report it, as it is, not as it should be according to
these preconceptions, or according to the established poetic notions
of the heroic requisitions.
But there is no stage that can exhibit his experiment here in its real
significance, excepting that one which he himself builds for us; for
it is the vast lonely heath, and the _Man_, the pigmy man, on it--and
the KING, the pigmy king, on it;--it is all the wild roar of elemental
nature, and the tempest in that '_little world_ of man,' that have to
measure their forces, that have to be brought into continuous and
persevering contest. It is not Gloster only, who sees in that storm
what 'makes him think that _a man_ is but _a worm_.'
Doubtless, it would have been more in accordance with the old poetic
notions, if this poor king had maintained his ground without any
misgiving at all; but it is a poet of a new order, and not the old
heroic one, who has the conducting of this experiment; and though his
verse is not without certain sublimities of its own, they have to
consist with the report of the fact as it is, to its most honest and
unpoetic, unheroic detail.
And notwithstanding all the poetry of that passionate defiance, it is
the physical storm that triumphs in the end. The contest between that
little world of man and the great outdoor world of nature was too
unequal. Compelled at last to succumb, yielding to 'the tyranny of the
open night, that is _too rough_ for _nature to endure_--the night that
frightens the very wanderers of the dark, and makes _them_ keep their
caves, while it reaches, with its poetic combination of horrors, that
border line of the human conception which great Nature's pencil, in
this Poet's hand, is always reaching and completing,--
'_Man's_ nature cannot carry
The affliction nor _the fear_.'
--Unable to contend any longer with 'the _fretful_ element'--unable to
'_outscorn_' any longer 'the to and fro conflicting wind and
rain'--weary of struggling with 'the _impetuous_ blasts,' that in
their 'eyeless _rage_' and '_fury_' care no more for age and reverence
than his _daughters_ do--that seize his white hairs, and make nothing
of them--'exposed to _feel_ what _wretches_ feel'--he finds at last,
with surprise, that art--the wretch's art--that can make vile things
_precious_. No longer clamoring for 'the additions of a king,' but
thankful for the basest means of shelter from the elements, glad to
avail himself of the rudest structure with which art '_accommodates_'
man to nature, (for that is the word of this philosophy, where it is
first proposed)--glad to divide with his meanest subject that shelter
which the outcast seeks on such a night--ready to creep with him,
under it, side by side--'fain to hovel with _swine_ and rogues
forlorn, in short and musty straw'--surely we have reached a point at
last where the _action_ of the piece itself--the mere 'dumb show' of
it--becomes luminous, and hardly needs the player's eloquence to tell
us what it means.
Surely this is a little like 'the language' of _Periander's_ message,
when he bid the messenger observe and _report what he saw him do_. It
is very important to note that ideas may be conveyed in this way as
well as by words, the author of the Advancement of Learning remarks,
in speaking of the tradition of the principal and supreme sciences. He
takes pains to notice, also, that a representation, by means of these
'transient hieroglyphics,' is much more moving to the sensibilities,
and leaves a more vivid and durable impression on the memory, than the
most eloquent statement in mere words. 'What is _sensible_ always
strikes the memory more strongly, and sooner impresses itself, than
what is _intellectual_. Thus the memory of _brutes_ is excited by
sensible, but not by intellectual things;' and thus, also, he proposes
to impress that _class_ which Coriolanus speaks of, 'whose eyes are
more learned than their ears,' to whom 'action is eloquence.' Here we
have the advantage of the combination, for there is no part of the
dumb show, but has its word of scientific comment and interpretation.
'Art cold [to the Fool]?
I am cold myself. _Where is this_ STRAW, _my fellow_?
The art of our necessities is strange,
That can make vile things _precious_. Come, _your hovel_.
Come, bring us to this _hovel_.'
For this is what that wild tragic poetic resistance and defiance comes
to--this is what the 'unaccommodated man' comes to, though it is the
highest person in the state, stripped of his ceremonies and artificial
appliances, on whom the experiment is tried.
'Where is this straw, my fellow? Art _cold_? I am cold _myself_.
Come, your hovel. Come, bring us to this _hovel_.'
When that royal edict is obeyed,--when the wonders of the magician's
art are put in requisition to fulfil it,--when the road from the
palace to the hovel is laid open,--when the hovel, where Tom o' Bedlam
is nestling in the straw, is produced on the stage, and THE KING--THE
KING--stoops, before all men's eyes, to creep into its mouth,--surely
we do not need 'a _chorus_ to interpret for us'--we do not need to
wait for the Poet's own deferred exposition to seize the more obvious
meanings. Surely, one catches enough in passing, in the dialogues and
tableaux here, to perceive that there is something going on in this
play which is not all play,--something that will be earnest, perhaps,
ere all is done,--something which 'the groundlings' were not expected
to get, perhaps, in 'their sixe-penn'orth' of it at the first
performance,--something which that witty and splendid company, who
made up the Christmas party at Whitehall, on the occasion of its first
exhibition there, who sat there 'rustling in silk,' breathing
perfumes, glittering in wealth that the alchemy of the storm had not
tried, were not, perhaps, all informed of; though there might have
been one among them, 'a gentleman of blood and breeding,' who could
have told them what it meant.
'We construct,' says the person who describes this method of
philosophic instruction, speaking of the subtle prepared history which
forces the inductions--'we construct tables and combinations of
instances, upon such a plan, and in such order, that the understanding
may be enabled to act upon them.'
'They told me I was everything.'
_They told me I was everything_,' says the poor king himself, long
afterwards, when the storm has had its ultimate effect upon him.
'To say ay and no to everything that I said!--[To say] ay and no _too_
WAS NO GOOD DIVINITY. They told me, I had _white_ hairs in my beard,
ere the _black_ ones were there. When the rain came to wet me once,
and the wind to make me chatter; when the thunder would not peace at
_my bidding_; there I found them, _there_ I smelt them out. Go to,
they are not men of their words: they told me I was everything; _'tis
a lie; I am not ague-proof_.'
'_I_ think the king is but a man, as I am' [says King Hal], 'All his
_senses_ have the like conditions; and his _affections_, though higher
mounted, when they stoop, stoop with _the like wing_.'
But at the door of that rude hut the ruined majesty pauses. In vain
his loving attendants, whom, for love's sake, this Poet will still
have with him, entreat him to enter. Storm-battered, and wet, and
shivering as he is, he shrinks back from the shelter he has bid them
bring him to. He will not '_in_.' Why? Is it because 'the tempest will
not give him leave to ponder on things would hurt him more.' That is
his excuse at first; but another blast strikes him, and he yields to
'the to and fro conflicting wind and rain,' and says--
'_But_ I'll go in.'
Yet still he pauses. Why? Because he has not told us why he is
there;--because he is in the hands of the Poet of the Human Kind, the
poet of 'those common things that our ordinary life consisteth of,'
who will have of them an argument that shall shame that 'resplendent
and lustrous mass of matter' that old philosophers and poets have
chosen for theirs;--because the rare accident--the wild, poetic,
unheard-of accident--which has brought a man, old in luxuries, clothed
in soft raiment, nurtured in king's houses, into this rude, unaided
collision with nature;--the poetic impossibility, which has brought
the one man from the apex of the social structure down this giddy
depth, to this lowest social level;--the accident which has given the
'one man,' who has the divine disposal of the common weal, this little
casual experimental taste of the weal which his wisdom has been able
to provide for the many--of the weal which a government so divinely
ordered, from its pinnacle of _personal_ ease and luxury, thinks
sufficient and divine enough for _the many_,--this accident--this
grand poetic accident--with all its exquisite poetic effects, is, in
this poet's hands, the means, not the end. This poor king's great
tragedy, the loss of his social position, his broken-heartedness, his
outcast suffering, with all the aggravations of this poetic descent,
and the force of its vivid contrasts--with all the luxurious
impressions on the sensibilities which the ideal wonders of the rude
old fable yield so easily in this Poet's hands,--this rare accident,
and moving marvel of poetic calamity,--this 'one man's' tragedy is not
the tragedy that this Poet's soul is big with. It is the tragedy of
the Many, and not the One,--it is the tragedy that is the rule, and
not the exception,--it is the tragedy that is common, and not that
which is singular, whose argument this Poet has undertaken to manage.
'Come, bring us to your hovel.'
The royal command is obeyed; and the house of that estate, which has
no need to borrow its title of plurality to establish the grandeur of
its claim, springs up at the New Magician's word, and stands before us
on the scientific stage in its colossal, portentous, scientific
grandeur; and the king--the king--is at the door of it: the _Monarch_
is at the door of the _Many_. For the scientific Poet has had his eye
on that structure, and he will make of it a thing of wonder, that
shall rival old poets' fancy pieces, and drive our entomologists and
conchologists to despair, and drive them off the stage with their
curiosities and marvels. There is no need of a Poet's going to the
supernatural for 'machinery,' this Poet thinks, while there's such
machinery as this ready to his hands unemployed. 'There's something in
this more than natural, if philosophy could find it out.' There's no
need of going to the antique for his models; for he is inventing the
arts that will make of this an _antiquity_.
The Monarch has found his meanest subject's shelter, but at the door
of it he is arrested--nailed with a nail fastened by the Master of
Assemblies. He has come down from that dizzy height, on the Poet's
errand. He is there to speak the Poet's word,--to illustrate that
grave abstract learning which the Poet has put on another page, with a
note that, as it stands there, notwithstanding the learned airs it
has, it is _not_ learning, but 'the husk and shell' of it. For this is
the philosopher who puts it down as a primary Article of Science, that
governments should be based on a scientific acquaintance with 'the
_natures, dispositions, necessities_ and _discontents_ of _the
people_'; and though in his book of the Advancement of Learning, he
suggests that these points '_ought to be_,' considering the means of
ascertaining them at the disposal of the government, 'considering the
variety of its intelligences, the wisdom of its observations, and the
height of the station where it keeps sentinel, _transparent as
crystal,'--here_ he puts the case of a government that had not availed
itself of those extraordinary means of ascertaining the truth at a
distance, and was therefore in the way of discovering much that was
new, in the course of an accidental personal descent into the lower
and more inaccessible regions of the _Common_ Weal it had ordered.
This is the _crystal_ which proves after all the most transparent for
him. This is the help for weak eyes which becomes necessary sometimes,
in the absence of the scientific crystal, which is its equivalent.
The Monarch is at the hovel's door, but he cannot enter. Why? Because
he is in that school into which his own wise REGAN, that '_counsels_'
so 'well'--that _Regan_ who sat at his own council-table so long, has
turned him; and it is a school in which the lessons must be learned
'_by heart_,' and there is no shelter for him from its pitiless
beating in this Poet's economy, till that lesson he was sent there to
learn has been learned; and it was a Monarch's lesson, and at the
Hovel's door he must recite it. He _will_ not enter. Why? Because the
great lesson of state has entered his soul: with the sharpness of its
illustration it has _pierced_ him: his spirit is dilated, and moved
and kindling with its grandeur: he is thinking of 'the Many,' he has
forgotten 'the One,'--the many, all whose senses have like conditions,
whose affections stoop with the like wing. He will not enter, because
he thinks it unregal, inhuman, mean, selfish to engross the luxury of
the hovel's shelter, and the warmth of the 'precious' straw, while he
knows that he has subjects still abroad with senses like his own,
capable of the like misery, still exposed to its merciless cruelties.
It was the tenant of the castle, it was the man in the house who said,
'Come, let's be snug and cheery here. _Shut up the door_. Let's have a
fire, and a feast, and a song,--or a psalm, or a prayer, as the case
may be; only let it be _within_--no matter which it is':
'Shut up your doors, my lord; 'tis a wild night,--
_My Regan counsels_ well; come out o' the storm.'
But here it is the houseless man, who is thinking of his kindred,--his
royal family, for whom God has made him responsible, out in this same
storm unbonneted; and in the tenderness of that sympathy, in the
searching delicacy of that feeling with which he scrutinizes now their
case, they seem to him less able than himself to resist its elemental
'_tyranny_.' For in that ideal revolution--in that exact turn of the
wheel of fortune--in that experimental 'change of places,' which the
Poet recommends to those who occupy the upper ones in, the social
structure, as a means of a more particular and practical acquaintance
with the conditions of those for whom they legislate, new views of the
common natural human relations; new views of the ends of social
combinations are perpetually flashing on him; for it is the fallen
monarch himself, the late owner and disposer of the Common Weal, it is
this strangely _philosophic_, mysteriously philosophic,
king--philosophic as that Alfred who was going to succeed him--it is
the king who is chosen by the Poet as the chief commentator and
expounder of that new political and social doctrine which the action
of this play is itself suggesting.
In that school of the tempest; in that one night's personal experience
of the misery that underlies the pompous social structure, with all
its stately splendours and divine pretensions; in that New School of
the Experimental Science, the king has been taking lessons in the art
of majesty. The alchemy of it has robbed him of the external adjuncts
and 'additions of a king,' but the sovereignty of MERCY, the divine
right of PITY, the majesty of the HUMAN KINDNESS, the grandeur of the
COMMON WEAL, 'breathes through his lips' from the Poet's heart 'like
man new made.'
_Kent_. Good, my lord, enter here.
_Lear_. Prythee, go in thyself. _Seek thine own ease_.
. . . . But, I'll go in.
In, boy,--_go first--[To the Fool.]_
You, _houseless_ poverty'--
He knows the meaning of that phrase now.
'Nay get thee in. I'll PRAY, and then I'll sleep.'
[_Fool goes in_.]
'Poor, naked wretches, wheresoe'er you are
That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm,'--
There are no empty phrases in this prayer, the critic of it may
perceive: it is a learned prayer; the petitioner knows the meaning of
each word in it: the tempest is the book in which he studied it.
'How shall your _houseless heads_ and _unfed sides_,
Your _looped_ and _windowed raggedness_ defend you
From _seasons such as these_? O, I have taken
_Too little care of_ THIS. [Hear, hear]. Take physic, POMP; [Hear.]
Expose thyself to _feel_ what wretches _feel_,
_That thou mayest shake the superflux to them_,
_And show the_ HEAVENS _more just_.'
That is his _prayer_. To minds accustomed to the ceremonial a
religious worship, 'with court holy water in a dry house' only, or to
those who have never undertaken to compose a prayer for the king and
all the royal family at the hovel's mouth, and in such immediate
proximity to animals of a different species, it will not perhaps seem
a very pious one. But considering that it was understood to have been
composed during the heathen ages of this realm, and before
Christianity had got itself so comfortably established as a principle
of government and social regulations, perhaps it was as good a prayer
for a penitent king to go to sleep on, as could well be invented.
Certainly the spirit of Christianity, as it appeared in the life of
its Founder, at least, seems to be, by a poetic anachronism
incorporated in it.
But it is never the custom of this author to leave the diligent
student of his performances in any doubt whatever as to his meaning.
It is a rule, that everything in the play shall speak and reverberate
his purpose. He prolongs and repeats his burthens, till the whole
action echoes with them, till 'the groves, the fountains, every region
near, seem all one mutual cry.' He has indeed the Teacher's trick of
repetition, but then he is 'so rare a wondered teacher,' so rich in
magical resources, that he does not often find it necessary to weary
_the sense_ with sameness. He is prodigal in variety. It is a Proteus
repetition. But his charge to his Ariel in getting up his Masques,
always is,--
'Bring a corollary,
Rather than want a spirit.'
Nay, it would be dangerous, not wearisome merely, to make the text of
this living commentary continuous, or to bring too near together
'those short and pithy sentences' wherein the action unwinds and
fashions into its immortal groups. And the curtain must fall and rise
again, ere the outcast duke,--his eyes gouged out by tyranny, turned
forth to smell his way to Dover,--can dare to echo, word by word, the
thoughts of the outcast king.
Led by one whose qualification for leadership is, that he is 'Madman
and Beggar, too,'--for as Gloster explains it to us, explaining also
at the same time much else that the scenic language of the play, the
dumb show, the transitory hieroglyphic of it presents, and _all_ the
criticism of it,
''T IS THE TIME'S PLAGUE WHEN MADMEN LEAD THE BLIND'--
groping with such leadership his way to Dover--'smelling it out'--thus
it is that his secret understanding with the king, in that mad and
wondrous philosophical humour of his, betrays itself.
_Gloster_. Here, take this purse [to Tom o'Bedlam], _thou whom the
heaven's plagues
Have humbled to all strokes_: that I am wretched
Makes thee the happier:--_Heavens, deal so still_!
Let the _superfluous_ and lust-dieted man
That _slaves_ your ordinance, that will not SEE
_Because_ he doth not FEEL, feel your power quickly;
_So distribution should undo excess,
And each man have enough_.
_Lear_. O I have taken
_Too little care of this._ Take physic, Pomp;
Expose thyself to FEEL what wretches FEEL,
_That_ thou may'st shake the _superflux to them,
And show the Heavens more just_.
Truly, these men would seem to have been taking lessons in the same
school. But it is very seldom that two men in real life, of equal
learning on any topic, coincide so exactly in their trains of thought,
and in the niceties of their expression in discussing it. The emphasis
is deep, indeed, when _this_ author graves his meaning with _such_ a
repetition. But Regan's stern school-master is abroad in this play,
enforcing the philosophic subtleties, bringing home to the _senses_
the neglected lessons of nature; full of errands to '_wilful men_,'
charged with coarse lessons to those who will learn through the senses
only great Nature's lore--that '_slave_ Heaven's ordinance--that will
not SEE, because they do not FEEL.'
CHAPTER III.
THE KING AND THE BEGGAR.
_Armado_. Is there not a ballad, boy, of the King and the Beggar?
_Moth_. The world was very guilty of such a ballad some three ages
since: but, I think, now 'tis not to be found; or, if it were, it
would neither serve for the writing, _nor for the tune_.
_Armado_. I will have the subject newly writ over, _that I
may example my digression
by some mighty precedent_.
_Love's Labour's Lost._
But the king's philosophical studies are not yet completed; for he is
in the hands of one who does not rely on general statements for his
effects; one who is pertinaciously bent on exploring those
subterranean social depths, that the king's prayer has just glanced
at--who is determined to lay bare to the utmost, to carry the torch of
his new science into the lowest recess of that wild, nameless mass of
human neglect and misery, which the regal sympathy has embraced for
him in the general; though not, indeed, without some niceties of
detail, which shew that the eye of a true human pity has collected the
terms in which he expresses it.
That vast, immeasurable mass of social misery, which has no learned
speech, no tragic dialect--no, or 'it would bear such an emphasis,'
that 'its phrase of sorrow might conjure the wandering stars, and bid
them stand like wonder-wounded hearers'--that misery which must get a
king's robe about it, ere, in the Poet's time, it could have an
audience, must needs be produced here, ere all this play was played,
in its own native and proper shape and costume, daring as the attempt
might seem.
The author is not satisfied with the picturesque details of that
misery which he has already given us, with its 'looped and windowed
raggedness,' its 'houseless head,' its 'unfed sides'; it must be yet
more palpably presented. It must be embodied and dramatically
developed; it must be exhibited with its proper moral and intellectual
accompaniments, too, before the philosophic requisitions of this
design can be fulfilled.
To the lowest deeps of the lowest depths of the unfathomed social
misery of that time, the new philosopher, the Poet of the Advancement
of Learning, will himself descend; and drag up to the eye of
day,--undeterred by any scruple of poetic sensibility,--in his own
unborrowed habiliments, with all the badges of _his_ position in the
state upon him, the creature he has selected as one of the
representatives of the social state as he finds it;--the creature he
has selected as the representative of those loathsome, unpenetrated
masses of _human_ life, which the unscientific social state must needs
generate.
For the design of this play, in its exhibition of the true human need,
in its new and large exhibition of the ground which the Arts of a true
and rational human civilization must cover, could not but include the
_defects_ of that, which passed for civilization then. It involved
necessarily, indeed, the most searching and relentless criticisms of
the existing institutions of that time. That cry of social misery
which pervades it, in which the natural, and social, and artificial
evils are still discriminated through all the most tragic bursts of
passion--in which the true social need, in all its comprehension, is
uttered--that wild cry of human anguish, prolonged, and repeated, and
reverberated as it is--is all one outcry upon the social wisdom of the
Poet's time. It constitutes one continuous dramatic expression and
embodiment of that so deeply-rooted opinion which the New Philosopher
is known to have entertained, in regard to the practical knowledge of
mankind as he found it; his opinion of the real advances towards the
true human ends which had been made in his time; an opinion which he
has, indeed, taken occasion to express elsewhere with some
distinctness, considering the conditions which hampered the expression
of his philosophical conclusions; but it is one which could hardly
have been produced from the philosophic chair in his time, or from the
bench, or at the council-table, in such terms as we find him launching
out into here, without any fear or scruple.
For those who persuade themselves that it was any part of this
player's intention to bring out, for the amusement of his audiences,
an historical exhibition of the Life and Times of that ancient Celtic
king of Britain, whose legendary name and chronicle he has
appropriated so effectively, will be prevented by that view of the
subject from ever attaining the least inkling of the matter here. For
this Magician has quite other work in hand. He does not put his
girdles round the earth, and enforce and harass with toil his delicate
spirits,--he does not get out his book and staff, and put on his
Enchanter's robe, for any such kind of effect as that. For this is not
any antiquary at all, but the true Prospero; and when a little more
light has been brought into his cell, his garments will be found to
be, like the disguised Edgar's--'_Persian_.'
It is not enough, then, in the wild revolutionary sweep of this play,
to bring out the monarch from his palace, and set him down at the
hovel's door. It is not enough to open it, and shew us, by the light
of Cordelia's pity--that sunshine and rain at once--the '_swine_' in
that human dwelling, and 'the short and musty-straw' there. For the
poet himself will enter it, and drag out its living human tenant into
the day of his immortal verse. He will set him up for all ages, on his
great stage, side by side with his great brother. He will put the feet
of these two men on one platform, and measure their stature--for all
their senses have the like conditions, as we have heard already; and
he will make the king himself own the KINDRED, and interpret for him.
For this group must needs be completed _'to the eye_'; these two
extremes in the social scale must meet and literally embrace each
other, before this Teacher's doctrine of 'MAN'--'man as distinguished
from other species'--can be artistically exhibited. For it is this
picture of the unaccommodated man--'unaccommodated' still, with all
his empiric arts, with all his wordy philosophy--it is this picture of
man '_as he is_,' in the misery of his IGNORANCE, in his blind
struggle with his law of KIND, which is his law of 'BEING,'--
unreconciled to his place in the universal order, where he must
live or have no life--for the beast, obedient to his law, rejects
from his kinds the _degenerate_ man--it is this vivid, condensed,
scientific exhibition, this scientific collection of the fact of man
as he is, in his empiric struggle with the law which universal nature
enforces, and will enforce on him with all her pains and penalties
till he learns it--it is this '_negation_' which brings out the true
doctrine of man and human society in this method of inquiry. For the
scientific method begins with negations and exclusions, and concludes
only after every species of rejection; the other, the common method,
which begins with 'AFFIRMATION,' is the one that has failed in
practice, the one which has brought about just this state of things
which science is undertaking to reform.
But this _levelling_, which the man of the new science, with his new
apparatus, with his 'globe and his machines,' contrives to exhibit
here with so much '_facility_,' is a scientific one, designed to
answer a scientific purpose merely. The experimenter, in this case, is
one who looks with scientific forebodings, and not with hope only, on
those storms of violent political revolution that were hanging then on
the world's horizon, and threatening to repeat this process,
threatening to overwhelm in their wild crash, all the ancient social
structures--threatening 'to lay all flat'! That is not the kind of
change he meditates. His is the subtle, all-penetrating Radicalism of
the New Science, which imitates the noiseless processes of Nature in
its change and _Re-formation_.
There is a wild gibberish heard in the straw. The fool shrieks,
'Nuncle, come not in here,' and out rushes 'Tom o Bedlam'--the naked
creature, as Gloster calls him--with his 'elf locks,' his 'blanketed
loins,' his 'begrimed face,' with his shattered wits, his madness,
real or assumed--there he stands.
We know, indeed, in this instance, that there is gentle, nay, noble
blood, there, under that horrid guise. It is the heir of a dukedom, we
are told, but an out-cast one, who has found himself compelled, for
the sake of prolonging life, to assume that shape, as other wretches
were in the Poet's time for that same purpose,--men who had lost
_their_ dukedoms, too, as it would seem, such as they were, in some
way, and their human relationships, too. But notwithstanding this
alleviating circumstance which enables the audience to endure the
exhibition in this instance, it serves not the less effectually in the
Poet's hand, as 'THE CONSPICUOUS INSTANCE' of that lowest human
condition which this grand Social Tragedy must needs include in its
delineations.
Here are some of the prose English descriptions of this creature,
which we find already included in the commentaries on this tragedy;
and which shew that the Poet has not exaggerated his portrait, and
that it is not by way of celebrating any Anglo-Saxon or Norman triumph
over the barbarisms of the _joint_ reigns of REGAN _and_ GONERIL, that
he is produced here.
'I remember, before the civil wars, Tom o' Bedlams went about
begging,' Aubrey says. Randle Holme, in his 'Academy of Arms and
Blazon,' includes them in his descriptions, as a class of vagabonds
'feigning themselves mad.' 'The Bedlam is in the same garb, with a
long staff,' etc., 'but his cloathing is more fantastic and
ridiculous; for being a madman, he is madly decked and dressed all
over with _rubans, feathers, cuttings_ of _cloth,_ and what not, to
make him _seem_ a madman, when he is no other than a _dissembling
knave_.'
In the Bellman of London, 1640, there is another description of
him--'He sweares he hath been in Bedlam, and will talk frantickely _of
purpose; you see pinnes_ stuck in sundry places of his _naked flesh_,
especially in his armes, _which paine he gladly puts himselfe to_;
calls himself by the name of _Poore Tom_; and coming near anybody,
cries out, '_Poor Tom's a cold_.' Of these Abraham men, _some be
exceeding merry_, and doe nothing but sing songs, fashioned out of
their own braines; some will dance; others will doe nothing but either
laugh or weepe; _others are dogged_, and so _sullen_, both in looke
and speech, that spying but a small company in a house, they bluntly
and boldly enter, compelling the servants, through fear, to them what
they demand.'
This seems very wicked, very depraved, on the part of these persons,
especially the sticking of pins in their bare arms; but even our young
dukeling Edgar says--
'While I may scape,
I _will preserve myself_: and am bethought
To take _the basest_ and _most poorest shape_,
That ever _penury_, in _contempt_ of MAN,
_Brought near to beast_: my face I'll grime with filth;
Blanket my loins; elf all my hair in knots;
And with presented nakedness outface
The winds, and _persecutions of the sky_.
The _country gives_ me PROOF and PRECEDENT
Of Bedlam beggars, who, with roaring voices,
_Strike_ in _their numb'd and mortified bare arms,
Pins, wooden pricks, nails, sprigs of rosemary_;
And with this horrible object, from low farms,
Poor pelting villages, sheep-cotes and mills,
_Sometime with lunatic bans_, sometime with prayers,
Enforce their charity.--'Poor Turlygood!' 'poor Tom!'
_Thats something yet, Edgar I nothing am_.
But the poet is not contented with the minuteness of this description.
This character appears to have taken his eye as completely as it takes
King Lear's, the moment that _he_ gets a glimpse of him; and the poet
betrays throughout that same philosophical interest in the study,
which the monarch expresses so boldly; for beside the dramatic
exhibition, and the philosophical review of him, which King Lear
institutes, here is an autographical sketch of him, and of his mode of
living--
'_What_ are you there? Your _names_?'
cries Gloster, when he comes to the heath, with his torch, to seek out
the king and his party; whereupon Tom, thinking that an occasion has
now arrived for defining his social outline, takes it upon him to
answer, for his part--
'Poor Tom; that eats the swimming frog, the toad, the tadpole, the
wall-newt, and the water-[newt]; that in the fury of his heart, when
the _foul fiend rages_, swallows the old rat, and the ditch-dog;
drinks the green mantle of the standing pool; _who is whipped_ from
_tything_ to _tything_' [this is an Anglo-Saxon institution one sees];
'and stocked, punished, and imprisoned; who _hath had_ three suits to
his back' [fallen fortunes here, too] 'six shirts to his body, horse
to ride, and weapon to wear.'
The Jesuits had been, then, recently and notoriously at work in
England, endeavouring professedly to cast out '_the fiend_' from many
possessed persons; and it appeared, to this great practical
philosopher, that this creature he has fetched up here from the
subterranean social abysses of his time, presented a very fitting
subject for the operations of practitioners professing any miraculous
or superior influence over the demons that infest human nature, or
those that have power over human fortunes. He has brought him out here
thus distinctly, for the purpose of inquiring whether there is any
exorcism which can meet his case, or that of the great human
multitude, that no man can number, of whose penury and vice he stands
here as the elected, pre-eminent, royal representative. In that survey
and report of human affairs, which this author felt himself called
upon to make, the case of this poor creature had attracted his
attention, and appeared to him to require looking to; and,
accordingly, he has made a note of it.
He is admirably seconded in his views on this subject, by the king
himself, who, in that fine philosophic humour which his madness and
his misery have served to develop in him, stands ready to lend himself
to the boldest and most delicate philosophical inquiries. For the
point to be noted here,--and it is one of no ordinary importance,--is,
that this mad humour for philosophical investigation, which has seized
so strangely the royal mind, does not appear to be at all in the vein
of that old-fashioned philosophy, which had been rattling its
abstractions in the face of the collective human misery for so many
ages. For the helplessness of the human creature in his struggle with
the elements, and those conditions of his nature which put him so
hopelessly at the mercy of his own kind and kindred, seem to suggest
to the royal sufferer, who has the advantage of a fresh experience to
stimulate his apprehension, that there ought to be some relief for the
human condition from _this source_, that is, from PHILOSOPHY; and his
inquiries and discoveries are all stamped with the unmistakeable
impress of that fire new philosophy, which was not yet out of the mint
elsewhere--which was yet undergoing the formative process in the mind
of its great inventor;--that philosophy, which we are told elsewhere
'has for its principal object, to make _nature subservient to the
wants and state of Man_';--and which concerns itself for that purpose
with ideas as they exist in nature, as _causes_, and not as they exist
in the mind of man as _words_ merely.
If there had been, indeed, any intention of paying a marked compliment
to the philosophy which still held all the mind of the world in its
grasp, at that great moment in history, in which Tom o' Bedlam makes
his first appearance on any stage, it is not likely that _that_ sage
would have been just the person appointed to hold the office of
Philosopher in Chief, and Councillor extraordinary to his Majesty.
The selection is indeed made on the part of the king, in perfect good
faith, whatever the Poet's intent may be; for from the moment that
this creature makes his appearance, he has no eyes or ears for
anything else. And he will not be parted from him. For this startling
juxtaposition was not intended by the Poet to fulfil its effect as a
mere passing _tableau vivant_. The relation must be dramatically
developed; that astounding juxtaposition must be prolonged, in spite
of the horror of the spectators, and the disgust and rude displeasure
of the king's attendants. They seek in vain to _part_ these two men.
The king refuses to stir without him. 'He will _still keep with his
philosopher_.' He has a vague idea that his regal administration
stands in need of some assistance, and that philosophy ought to be
able to give it, and that the Bedlamite is in some way connected with
the subject, but confused as the association is, it is a pertinacious
one; and, in spite of their disgust the king's friends are obliged to
take this wretch with them. For Gloster does not know, after all, it
is 'his own flesh and blood' he sees there. He cannot even recognize
the common kindred in that guise, as the king does, when he
philosophises on his condition. And the rough aristocratic contempt
and indifference which is manifested by the king's party, as a matter
of course, for this poor human victim of wrong and misfortune, is made
to contrast with their boundless sympathy and tenderness for the
_king_, while the poet aiming at broader relationships, finds the
mantle of _his_ humanity wide enough for them, _both_.
As for the king,--startled in the midst of those new views of human
wretchedness which his own sufferings have occasioned, and while those
desires to _remedy it_, with which his penitence is accompanied, are
still on his lip, by this wild apparition and embodiment of his
thought, in that new accession of his mental disorder, which the
presence of this object seems to occasion, that confounding of
proximate conceptions, which leads him to regard this man as a source
of new light on human affairs, is one of those exquisite physiological
exhibitions of which only this scientific artist is capable.
And, in fact, it must be confessed, that this 'learned Theban'
himself, notwithstanding the unexpected dignity of his promotion, does
not appear to be altogether wanting in a taste, at least, for that new
kind of philosophical investigation, which seems to be looked for at
his hands. The king's inquiries appear to fall in remarkably with the
previous train of his pursuits. In the course of his experiments, he
seems himself to have struck upon that new philosophic proceeding,
which has been called 'putting philosophy upon the right road again.'
Only the philosophic domain which that new road in philosophy leads
to, appears to be very considerably broader, as 'Tom' takes it, than
that very vivid, but narrow limitation of its fields, which Mr.
Macaulay has set down in our time, would make it. Indeed, this
'philosopher,' that _Lear_ so much inclines to, appears to have
included in his investigations the two _extremes_ of the new science
of practice. He has sounded it apparently 'from its lowest note to the
top of its key.'
'What is your study?' says the king to him, eyeing him curiously, and
apparently struck with the practical result--anxious to have a word
with him in private, but obliged to conduct the examination on the
stage.
'How to prevent THE FIEND,' is Tom's reply. 'How to prevent the fiend
_and_ to kill vermin.'
This is the Poet who says elsewhere, 'that without _good_ nature,
_men_ are themselves but a nobler kind of vermin.'
One cannot but observe, however, that Poor Tom's researches in this
quite new field of a practical philosophy, do not appear to have been
followed up since his time with any very marked success. _One_ of
these departments of 'his _study_' has indeed been seized, and is now
occupied by whole troops of modern philosophers; but their inquiries,
though very interesting and doubtlessly useful, do not appear to
exhibit that direct and palpable bearing on practice, to which Tom's
programme so severely inclines. For he is one who would make 'the art
and practic part of life, the mistress to his theoric.' And as to that
other mysterious object of his inquiries, Mr. Macaulay is not the only
person who appears to think, that that does not come within the range
of anything human. Many of our scholars are still of the opinion that,
'court holy water' is the best application in the world for _him_; and
the fact that he does not appear to get '_prevented_' with it; it is a
fact which of course has nothing to do with the logical result. For
our philosophers are still determined to reason it 'thus and thus,'
without taking into account the circumstance, that 'the sequent
effect' with which 'nature finds itself scourged,' is not touched by
their _reasons_.
King Lear's own inquiries seem also to include with great
distinctness, the two great branches of the new philosophical inquiry.
His mind is indeed very eagerly bent on the pursuit of _causes_. And
though in the paroxysms of his mental disorder, he is apt to confound
them occasionally, this very confusion, as it is managed, only serves
to develop the breadth of the philosophic conception beneath it.
'He hath no daughters, Sir.' '_Death, traitor_! Nothing could have
subdued nature to such a lowness, but--his UNKIND _daughters_.' It is,
of course, his own new and terrible experience which points the
inquiry, and though the physical causes are not omitted in it, it is
not strange that the moral should predominate, and that his mind
should seem to be very curiously occupied in tracking the _ethical_
phenomena to their sources '_in nature_.'
In the midst of the uproar of the Tempest, he does indeed begin with
the physical investigation. He puts to his 'learned Theban' the
question, which no learned Theban had then ever suspected of lying
within the range of the scholar's investigations--that question which
has been put to some purpose since--'What is the cause of _thunder_?'
But his philosophic inquiry does not stop there,--where all the new
philosophy has stopped ever since, and where some of our scholars
declare it was meant to stop, notwithstanding the plainest
declarations of its inventor to the contrary--with the investigation
of physical causes.
For, after all, it is 'the tempest in his _mind_' that most concerns
him. _His_ philosopher, his _practical_ philosopher, must be able to
explore the conditions of that, and find the conductors for its
lightnings. 'For where the greater malady is fixed, the lesser is
scarce felt.' 'Nor rain, wind, thunder, fire, are his daughters.'
After all, it is _Regan's_ heart that appears to him to be the
trouble--it is that which must first be laid on the table; and as soon
as he decides to have a philosopher among 'his hundred,' he gives
orders to that effect.
'Then let them anatomise Regan; see what breeds about her heart: Is
there any CAUSE IN NATURE that makes _these hard hearts_?'
A very fair subject for philosophical inquiry, one would say; and, on
the whole, as profitable and interesting a one, perhaps, as some of
those that engage the attention of our men of learning so profoundly
at present. In these days of enlightened scientific procedure, one
would hardly undertake the smallest practical affair with the aid of
any such vague general notions or traditional accounts of the
properties to be dealt with, as those which our learned Thebans appear
to find all-sufficient for their practices, in that particular
department which Lear seems inclined to open here as a field for
scientific exploration.
And it is perfectly clear that the author, whoever he may be, is very
much of Lear's mind on this point, for he does not depend upon Lear
alone to suggest his views upon it. There is never a person of this
drama that does not do it.
CHAPTER IV.
THE USE OF EYES.
'All that follow their noses are led by their eyes, but--_blind men_.'
The Play is all strewn throughout, and tinctured in the grain, with
the finest natural philosophy, of that new and very subtle and
peculiar kind, which belongs to the earlier stages of the physical
inquiry, and while it was still in the hands of its original
inventors. Even in physics, there are views here which have not been
developed any further since this author's time. It is not merely in
the direct discourse on questions of physical science, as in the
physician's report of the resources of his art, or in Cordelia's
invocation to 'all the _blessed secrets_--the _unpublished_ virtues of
the earth,' that the track of the new physiological science, which
this work embodies, may be seen. It runs through it all; it betrays
itself at every turn. But the subtle and occult relations of the moral
and physical are noted here, as we do not find them noted elsewhere,
in less practical theories of nature.
That there is something in the design of this play which requires an
elaborate and systematic exhibition of the '_special_' human
relationships, natural and artificial, political, social, and
domestic, almost any reading of it would show. And that this design
involves, also, a systematic exhibition of the social _consequences_
arising from the violation of the natural laws or duties of these
relationships, and that this violation is everywhere systematically
aggravated,--carried to its last conceivable extreme, so that all the
play is filled with the uproar of one continued outrage on _humanity_;
this is not less evident for the Poet is not content with the material
which his chronicle offered him, already invented to his hands for
this purpose, but he has deliberately tacked to it, and intricately
connected with it throughout, another plot, bearing on the surface of
it, and in the most prominent statements, the author's intention in
this respect; which tends not only in the most unequivocal manner to
repeat and corroborate the impressions which the story of Lear
produces, but to widen the dramatic exhibition, so as to make it
capable of conveying the whole breadth of the philosophic conception.
For it is the scientific doctrine of MAN that is taught here; and that
is, that man must be _human_ in _all_ his relations, or '_cease to
be_.' It is the violation of the ESSENTIAL humanity. It is a
DEGENERACY which is exhibited here, and the 'SEQUENT EFFECTS' which
belong naturally to the violation of a law that has the force of the
universe to sustain it. And it is not by accident that the story of
the illegitimate Edmund begins the piece; it is not for nothing that
we are compelled to stop to hear that, before even Lear and his
daughters can make their entrance. The whole story of the _base_ and
base-born one, who makes what he calls _nature_--the rude, brutal,
spontaneous nature--his goddess and his law, and ignores the human
distinction; this part was needed in order to supply the deficiences
in the social diagrams which the original plot presented; and, indeed,
the whole story of the Duke of Gloster, which is from first to last a
clear Elizabethan invention, and of which this of Edmund is but a
part, was not less essential for the same purpose.
Neither does one need to go very far beneath the surface, to perceive
a new and extraordinary treatment of the ethical principle in this
play throughout; one which the new, artistic, practical 'stand-point'
here taken naturally suggested, but one which could have proceeded
only from the inmost heart of the new philosophy. It is just the kind
of treatment which the proposal to introduce the Inductive method of
inquiry into this department of the human practice inevitably
involved. A disposition to go behind the ethical phenomena, to pursue
the investigation to its scientific conclusion, a refusal to accept
the facts which, to the unscientific observation, appear to be the
ultimate ones--a refusal to accept the coarse, vague, spontaneous
notions of the dark ages, as the solution of these so essential
phenomena, is everywhere betraying and declaring itself. Cordelia's
agonised invocation and summons to the unpublished forces of nature,
to be aidant and remediate to the good man's distress, is continually
echoed by the poet, but with a broader application. It is not the
bodily malady and infirmity only--it is not that kind of madness, only
with which the poor king is afflicted in the later stages of the play,
which appears to him to need scientific treatment--it is not for the
cure of these alone that he would open his Prospero book, 'nature's
infinite book of secresy,' as he calls it in Mark Antony--'the true
magic,' as he calls it _elsewhere_--the book of the unpublished
laws--the scientific book of 'KINDS'--the book of 'the historic
laws'--'the book of God's power.'
All the _interior_ phenomena which attend the violation of duty are
strictly omitted here. That psychological exhibition of it belongs to
other plays; and the Poet has left us, as we all know, no room to
suspect the tenderness of his moral sensibility, or the depth of his
acquaintance with these subjective phenomena. The _social_
consequences of the violation of duty in all the human relationships,
the consequence to _others_, and the _social reaction_, limits the
exhibition here. The object on which our sympathies are chiefly
concentrated is, as he himself is made to inform us--
'One more sinned _against_, than sinning.'
'Oh, these eclipses do portend these divisions,'
says the base-born Edmund, sneeringly. '_Fa sol la mi_,' he continues,
producing that particular conjunction of sounds which was forbidden by
the ancient musicians, on account of its unnatural discord. The
monkish writers on music call it diabolical. It is at the conclusion
of a very long and elaborate discussion on this question, that he
treats us to this prohibited piece of harmony; and a discussion in
which Gloster refers to the influence of the _planets_, this
_unnaturalness_ in all the human relations--this universal
jangle--'this ruinous disorder, that hunts men disquietly to their
graves.' But the 'base' Edmund is disposed to acquit the celestial
influences of the evil charged on them. He does not believe in men
being--
'Fools, by heavenly compulsion; knaves and thieves, by spherical
predominance; drunkards, liars, and adulterers, by an enforced
obedience of planetary influence; and all that they are evil in,
by a divine thrusting on.'
He has another method of accounting for what _he_ himself is. He does
not think it necessary to go quite so far, to find the origin of his
own base, lawless, _inhuman, unconscionable_ dispositions. But the
inquiries, which are handled so boldly in the soliloquies of Edmund,
are started again and again elsewhere; and the recurrence is too
emphatic, to leave any room to doubt that the author's intention in
the play is concerned in it; and that this question of 'the several
dispositions and characters of men,' and the inquiry as to whether
there be '_any causes in_ nature' of these _degenerate_ tendencies,
which he is at such pains to exhibit, is, for some reason or other, a
very important point with him. That which in _contemplative
philosophy_ corresponds to the _cause_, in _practical philosophy_
becomes the _rule_, the _founder_ of it tells us. But the play cannot
be studied effectually without taking into account the fact, that the
author avails himself of the date of his chronicle to represent that
stage of human development in which the mysterious forces of nature
were still blindly deified; and, therefore, the religious invocations
with which the play abounds, are _not_, in the modern sense of the
term, _prayers_, but only vague, poetic appeals to the unknown,
unexplored powers in nature, which we call _second causes_. And when,
as yet, there was no room for science in the narrow premature theories
which men found imposed on them--when the new movement of human
thought was still hampered by the narrowness of 'preconceived
opinions,' the poet was glad to take shelter under the date of his
legend now and then, here, as in Macbeth and other poems, for the sake
of a little more freedom in this respect. He is very far from
condemning '_presuppositions_' and '_anticipations_' but only wishes
them kept in their proper places, because to bring them into the
region of fact and induction, and so to falsify the actual condition
of things--to undertake to face down the powers of nature with them,
is a merely mistaken mode of proceeding; because these powers are
powers which do not yield to the human beliefs, and the _practical_
doctrine must have respect to them. The great battle of that age--the
battle of the second causes, which the new philosophers were compelled
to fight in behalf of humanity at the peril of their lives--the battle
which they fought in the open field with Aristotle and Plato--fills
all this magnificent poetry with its reverberations.
It must be confessed, that those terrible appeals to the heavens, into
which King Lear launches out in his anguish now and then, are anything
but pious; but the boldness which shocks our modern sensibilities
becomes less offensive, if we take into account the fact that they are
not made to the object of our present religious worship, but are mere
vague appeals, and questioning addresses to the unknown, unexplored
causes in nature--the powers which lie behind the historical
phenomena.
For that divine Ideal of Human Nature to which 'our large temples,
crowded with the shows of peace,' are built now, had not yet appeared
at the date of this history, in that form in which we now worship it,
with its triumphant assurance that it came forth from the heart of
God, and declared Him. Paul had not yet preached his sermon at Athens,
in the age of this supposed King of Britain; and though the author was
indeed painting his own age, and not that, it so happened that there
was such a heathenish and inhuman, and, as he intimates, indeed, quite
'_fiendish_' and diabolical state of things to represent here then,
that this discrepancy was not so shocking as it might have been if he
had found a divine religion in full operation here.
'If it be you,' says Lear, falling back upon the theory, which Edmund
has already discarded, of a divine thrusting on--
'If it be _you_ that _stir these daughters' hearts_
Against their father, fool _me_ not so much
To bear it tamely; _touch me_ with noble anger.'
And here is an echo of the 'spherical predominance' which Gloster goes
into so elaborately in the outset, confessing, much to the amusement
of his graceless offspring, that he is disposed to think, after all,
there may be something in it. 'For,' he says, 'though the _wisdom_ of
_nature_ [the spontaneous wisdom] can REASON IT _thus and thus, yet_
nature _finds itself scourged_ by THE SEQUENT EFFECT;' and he is
talking under the dictation of a philosopher who, though he ridicules
the pretensions of astrology in the next breath, lays it down as a
principle in the scientific Art, as a chief point in the science of
Practice and Relief, that the _sequent effects_, with which nature
finds itself scourged, are a better guide to the _causes_ which the
_practical_ remedy must comprehend, than anything which the wisdom of
nature can undertake to reason out _beforehand_, without any respect
to the sequent effect--'_thus_, and--_thus_.' But here is the
confirmation of Gloster's view of the subject, which the sound-minded
Kent, who is not at all metaphysical, finds himself provoked to utter;
and though this is in the Fourth Act, and Gloster's opinions are
advanced in the First, the passages do, notwithstanding, 'look towards
each other.'
'It is _the stars_.
The stars above us govern our conditions,
Else one self mate and mate could not beget
Such different issues.'
Of course, it is not the astrological theory of the constitutional
original differences in the human dispositions which the honest Kent
is made to advocate here, literally and in earnest. It is rather the
absence of any known cause, and the necessity of supposing one in a
case where this difference is so obtrusive and violent, which he
expresses; the stars being the natural resort of men in such
circumstances, and when other solutions fail; though Poor Tom appears
to be in possession of a much more orthodox theory for the peculiar
disorders in _his_ moral constitution: but, at the same time, it must
be conceded that it is one which does not appear to have led, in his
case, to any such felicitous practical results as the supposed origin
of it might have seemed to promise.
For, indeed, this point of natural differences in the human
dispositions, though, of course, quite overlooked in the moral regimen
which is based on _a priori_ knowledge, and is able to dispense with
science, and ride over the actual laws; this point of _difference_--
not in the dispositions of individuals only, but the differences
which manifest themselves under the varying conditions of age and
bodily health, of climate, or other physical differences in the same
individual, as well as under the varying moral conditions of
differing social and political positions and relations; this so
essential point, overlooked as it is in the ordinary practice, has
seized the clear eye of this great scientific practitioner, this
Master of Arts, and he is making a radical point of it in his new
speculation; he is making collections on it, and he will make a main
point of it in 'the part operative' of his New Science, when he comes
to make out the outline of it elsewhere, referring us distinctly to
this place for his collections in it, for his collections on this
point, as well as on others not less radical.
Lear himself, in his madness, appears, as we have seen already, much
disposed to speculate upon this same particular question, which
Gloster and Edmund and Kent have already indicated as 'a necessary
question of the play'; namely, the question as to '_the causes in
nature_' of the phenomena which the social condition of man exhibits;
that is, the causes of that degeneracy, that violation of the
essential human law to which all the evil is tracked here; and it is
the scientific doctrine, that the _nature_ of a thing cannot be
successfully studied in itself alone. It is not in water or in air
only, or in any other single substance, that we find the nature of
_oxygen_, or _hydrogen_, or any other of those principles in nature,
which the application of this method to another department evolves
from things which present themselves to the unscientific experience as
most dissimilar. 'It is the greatest proof of want of skill to
investigate _the nature_ of any object in itself alone; for _the same
nature_ which seems concealed and hidden in some instances, is
manifest and almost palpable in others; and, in general, those very
things which are considered as secret, are manifest and common in
other objects, but will never be clearly seen if the experiments and
conclusions of men be directed to themselves alone': for it is a part
of this doctrine, that man is not omitted in the order of nature--that
the term HUMAN NATURE is _not_ a misnomer. The doctrine of this Play
is, that those same powers which are at work in man's life, are at
work without it also; that they are powers which belong, in their
highest form, to the nature of things in general; and that man
himself, with all his special distinctions, is under the law of that
universal constitution. The scientific remedy for the state of things
which this play exhibits is the knowledge of 'causes in nature,' which
must be found here, as in the other case, by scientific
investigation--the spontaneous method leading to no better result here
than in the other case. Under cover of the excitements of this play,
this inquiry is boldly opened, and the track of the new science is
clearly marked in it.
Poor Lear is, indeed, compelled to leave the practical improvement of
_his_ hints for another; and when it comes to the open question of the
remedy for this state of things, which is the term of the inquiry,
when he undertakes to put his absolute power in motion for the avowed
purpose of effecting an improvement here, he appears indeed disposed
to treat the subject in the most savage and despairing manner--that
is, on his own account; but the vein of the scientific inquiry still
runs unbroken through all this burst of passion. For in his scorn for
that failure in human nature and human life of which society, as he
finds it, stands convicted--that failure to establish the distinctive
law of the human kind--that failure from which he is suffering so
deeply--and in his struggle to express that disgust, he proposes, as
an improvement on the state of things he finds, a law which shall
obliterate that human distinction; though certainly _that_ is anything
but the Poet's remedy; and the poor king himself does not appear to be
in earnest, for the moral disgust in which the distinctive sentiment
of the nobler nature, and the knowledge of _human_ good and evil
betrays itself, breaks forth in floods of passion that overflow all
the bounds of articulation before he can make an end of it.
But the radical nature of this question of _natural causes_, which the
practical theory of the social arts must comprehend, is already
indicated in this play, in the very beginning of the action.
This author is everywhere bent on graving the scientific distinction
between those instinctive affections in which men degenerate, and tend
to the rank of lower natures, and the noble natural, distinctively
human affections; and when, in the first scene, the king betrays the
selfishness of that fond preference for his younger daughter,--tender,
and paternal, and deep as it was,--and the depth of those hopes he was
resting on her kind care and nursery, by the very height of that
frenzied paroxysm of rage and disappointment, which her unflattering
and, as it seems to him, her unloving reply, creates;--when that
'small fault, which showed,' he tells us, 'so ugly' in _her_ whom 'he
loved _most_'--which turned, in a moment, all the sweetness of his
love for her '_to gall_, and like an engine, wrenched his _nature from
its firm place_';--these are the terms in which he undertakes to annul
the natural tie, and _disown_ her--
_Lear_. So young, and so untender?
_Cordelia_. So young, my lord, and true.
_Lear_. Let it be so.--Thy truth then be thy dower:
For, by the _sacred radiance of the sun_;
_The mysteries_ of _Hecate_, and _the night_;
_By all the operations_ of _the orbs,
From whom we do exist, and cease to be,
Here I disclaim all my paternal care_,
Propinquity and property of blood,
And as a stranger to my heart and me
Hold thee, from this, for ever. The barbarous Scythian,
Or he that makes his generation messes
To gorge his appetite, shall to my bosom
Be _as well neighboured, pitied, and relieved_,
As thou, _my sometime daughter_.
And when
'This even-handed justice
Commends the ingredients of his poisoned chalice
To his own lips'--
when his 'dog-hearted daughters' have returned to his own bosom the
cruel edge of that _unnatural_ wrong which he has impiously dared to
summon nature herself--violated nature--to witness, this is the
greeting which the _unnatural_ Goneril receives, on her return to her
husband, when she complains to him of her welcome--
_Goneril_. I have been worth the whistle.
_Albany_. O Goneril!
You are not worth _the dust which the rude wind
Blows in your face_.--I fear your _disposition:
That nature, which contemns_ ITS ORIGIN,
CANNOT BE BORDERED CERTAIN IN ITSELF;
She that herself will _sliver and disbranch_
From her MATERIAL SAP, PERFORCE MUST WITHER,
_And come to deadly use_.
[_Prima Philosophia_. Axioms which are not limited to the particular
parts of sciences, but 'such as are more common, and of a higher
stage.']
_Goneril_. No more; _the text_ is foolish.
_Albany_. Tigers, not daughters,--
[You have practised on yourself--you have destroyed in yourself the
nobler, fairer nature which the law of _human_ kind--the law of human
duty and affection--would have given you. Not DAUGHTERS,--_Tigers_.]
'A _father, and a gracious aged man_,
Whose reverence the head-lugged bear would lick,
Most barbarous, most DEGENERATE!'--
[_degenerate_--that is the point--most degenerate]--
'have you _madded_.
If that the _heavens_ do not _their_ visible spirits
Send quickly down, to _tame these vile offences_
'Twill come,
HUMANITY _must perforce prey on itself_,
Like monsters of the deep.'
[the land refuses a parallel.]
And it is the scientific distinction between man and the brute
creation--it is the law of nature in the human kind, which the Poet is
getting out scientifically here, in the face of that terrific failure
and degeneration in the kind--which he paints so vividly, for the
purpose of inquiring whether there is not, perhaps, after all, some
more potent provisioning and arming of man for his place in nature,
than this state of things would lead one to suppose--whether there are
not, perhaps, some more efficacious 'humanities' than those mild ones
which appear to operate so lamely on this barbaric, _degenerate_
thing. 'Milk-liver'd man!' replies Goneril, speaking not on her own
behalf only, for the words have a double significance; and the Poet
glances through them at that sufferance with which the state of things
he has just noted was endured--
'_Milk-livered man_,
That bear'st a _cheek for blows_, a HEAD _for_ WRONGS;
Who hast not _in thy brows an eye_ discerning
Thine honour from thy sufferance; that not know'st,
FOOLS do those villains pity, _who are punished
Before they have done their mischief_. Where's thy _drum_?
France spreads his banners in _our noiseless land;
With plumed helm_ thy _slayer_ begins threats;
_Whilst thou_, a _Moral Fool_, sit'st still, and _cry'st,
Alack_! why does he so?'
This is found to be an appeal of the Poet's own when all is done, and
one that goes far into the necessary questions of the play.
But Albany, in his rejoinder, returns to the idea of the lost,
_degenerate_, dissolute _Humanity_ again. He has talked of tigers, and
_head-lugged_ bears (and it was necessary to combine the proverbial
sensitiveness of that animal to that particular mode of treatment,
with the natural amiability of his disposition in general, in order to
do justice to the Poet's conception here);--he has called upon 'the
monsters of the deep,' and quoted the laws of their societies, in
illustration of the state of things to which the unscientific human
combination appears to him to be visibly tending. But this human
_degeneracy_ and deformity, which the action of the play exhibits in
diagrams--the _descent_ to the _lower_ nature from the higher; the
_voluntary_ descent; the voluntary blindness and narrowness; the
rejection of the distinctive human law--of VIRTUE and DUTY, as reason
and conscience interpret it--appears to the scientific mind to require
yet _other_ terms and comparisons. These conceits and comparisons,
drawn from the habits of innocent, though not to man agreeable,
animals, who have no law but blind instinct, do not suffice to convey
the Poet's idea of this human failing; and, accordingly, he instructs
this gentle and noble man, whom this criticism best becomes, to
complete this view of the subject, in his attempt to express the
disgust with which this _inhuman_, this _more_ than brutal conduct, in
his high-born, and gorgeously-robed, and delicately-featured spouse,
inspires him--
'See thyself, devil!'--
nay, he corrects himself--
_Proper deformity_ [DE-FORMITY] seems _not_ in the _fiend_
_So_ horrid, as in woman.
_Goneril_. O vain fool!
_Albany_. Thou _changed_ and _self-covered thing_. For shame,
Be-monster not thy _feature_. Were it my FITNESS'--
for here it is the _human_, and not the instinctive element--not '_the
blood_' element that rules--
'Were it my FITNESS
To _let_ these hands _obey_ my blood,
_They_ are _apt_ enough to _dislocate_ and _tear_
Thy _flesh_ and _bones_,'
Rather tiger-like impulses for so mild a gentleman to own to; but the
process which he confesses his hands are already inclined to
undertake, is not half so cruel as the one which this woman has
practised on herself while she was meditating only wrong to another,
and pursuing her 'horrible pleasure' at the expense of madness and
death to another; not half so cruel and injurious, for in that act she
has trampled down, and torn, and dislocated, she has slaughtered in
cold blood, the divine, angelic form of womanhood--that form of worth
and celestial aspiration which great nature stamped upon her, and gave
to her for her law in nature, her type, her essence, her ORIGINAL. She
has desecrated, not that common form of humanity only which the common
human sentiment of reason, which the human sentiment of duty is
everywhere struggling to fulfil, but that lovelier soul of
humanity--that softer, subtler, more gracious, more celestial, more
commanding spirit of it, which the form of womanhood in its integrity
must carry with it--which the form of womanhood will carry with it, if
it be not counterfeit or degenerate, gone down into a lower range,
'be-monstered'--'a changed and _self-covered_ thing.' That is the
Poet's reading.
'Howe'er,' the Duke of Albany concludes, after that struggle with his
hands he speaks of--chivalrously refusing to let them obey that
impulse of 'blood,' as a gentleman in such circumstances, under any
amount of provocation, should--true to himself, true to his manliness
and to his gentle breeding, though his wife is false to hers, and
'false to her nature'--
'Howe'er thou _art_ a, _fiend,
A woman's shape doth shield thee.
Goneril_. Marry! YOUR MANHOOD NOW.'
This is indeed a discourse in which the reader must have '_the text_,'
or ever he can begin to catch the meaning of those philosophic points
with which this orator, who _talks_ so 'pressly,' studs his lines.
For the passage which Goneril dismisses with such scorn is indeed the
text, or it will be, when the word which her commentary on it contains
has been added to it: for it is '_the foolishness_' of struggling with
great Nature, and her LAW of KINDS--it is the folly of ignorance, the
stupidity of living without respect to nature and its sequent effects,
as well as its preformed decree--
(_'Perforce must_ wither,
And come to deadly use'--)
which this discourse is intended to illustrate. And one who has once
tracked the dramatic development of this text, through all this moving
exhibition of human society, and its violated rule in nature, will be
at no loss to conjecture out of what 'New' book it comes, if indeed
that book has ever been opened to him.
The whole subject is treated here scientifically--that is, from
without. The generalizations of the higher stages of philosophy--the
axioms of a universal philosophy--with all the force of their
universality, must be brought to bear upon it, through all its
developments. The universal historical laws, in that modification of
them which the speciality of the human kind creates, must be
impartially set forth here. The law of DUTY, as the NATURAL LAW of
human society; the law of humanity, as the law, nay, THE FORM, of the
HUMAN kind, stamped on it with the Creator's stamp, that _order_ from
the universal law of kinds that gives to all life its SPECIAL bounds,
its '_border_ in _itself_'--that form so _essential_, that there is no
_humanity_ or _kind-ness_ where that is not--that law which we hear so
much of, in its narrower aspects, under various names, in all men's
speech, is produced here, in its broader relations, as the necessary
basis of a scientific social art. And it is this author's deliberate
opinion as a Naturalist, it is the opinion of this School in Natural
Science, from which this work proceeds, that those who undertake to
compose human societies, large or small, whether in families, or
states, or empires, without recognising this principle--those who
undertake to compose UNIONS, human unions and societies, on any other
principle--will have a diabolical jangle of it when all is done. For
this law of _unity_, which is written on the soul of man, this law of
CONSCIENCE _within, is written without also_; and to erase it _within_
is to get the lesson from _without_ in that universal and downright
speech and language which the axioms of nature are taught in--it is to
get it in that fearful school in which nature _repeats_ the doctrine
of her violated law, for those who are not able to solve and
comprehend the science of it as it is _written_--written
beforehand--in the natural law and constitutions of the human soul.
'That nature which, contemns its ORIGIN
Cannot be _bordered_ certain _in itself_.'
[These are the mysteries of day and night, that Lear, in his
ignorance, vainly invokes, the operations of the orbs from _whom we do
exist and cease to be_.]
'She that herself will _sliver_ and _disbranch_
From her _material_ sap, _perforce must_ wither,
And come to _deadly_ use.'
'The text is--FOOLISH.'
The teacher who takes it upon himself to get out this text from the
text-book of Universal Laws, for the purpose of conducting it to its
practical application in human affairs, for the purpose of suggesting
the true remedy for those great human wants which he exhibits here, is
_not_ one of those 'Milk-livered men,' those _Moral Fools_, that
_Goneril_ delicately alludes to, who bear a cheek for blows, a _head_
for wrongs; who have not in their brows an _eye_ discerning their
_honour_ from their sufferance; who think it enough to sit still under
the murderous blows of what they call misfortune, fate, _Providence_,
when it is their own im-_providence_; who think it is enough to sit
still, and cry, _Alack_! without inquiring what it is that makes that
_lack_; without ever putting the question in earnest, '_Why does he
so_?' His Play is all full of the _practical application_ of the text,
the application of it which Gloster sums up in a word--
''T is the Time's plague when MADMEN _lead_ THE BLIND.'
'I will preach to thee. Mark me: [says Lear]
When we are born, we cry that we are come
To this great stage of FOOLS. [Mark me!']
The whole Play is one magnificent intimation, on the part of the Poet,
that eyes are made to see with; and that there is no so natural and
legitimate use of them as that which human affairs were crying for,
through all their lengths and breadths, in his time. It is that _eye_
which is one of the distinctive features of the human kind; that eye
which looks before and after, which extends human vision so far beyond
individual sensuous experience, which is able to converge the light of
universal truth upon particular experience, which is able to bring the
infallible guidance of universal axioms into all the particulars of
human conduct--that is the eye which he finds wanting in human
affairs. The play is pointing everywhere with the Poet's scorn of
'_Blind Men_,' 'who will not see because they do not feel,'--who wait
for the blows of 'fortune,' to teach them the lesson of Nature's
laws--who wait to be scourged, or dashed to pieces with 'the sequent
effect,' instead of making use of their faculty of reason to ascend to
causes, and _so_ 'to trammel up the consequence.'
It is that same combination of human faculties, that same combination
of sense and reason, which the Novum Organum provides for; it is that
same scorn of abstract wordy speculation, on the one hand, and blind
experimental groping, on the other, that is everywhere _suggested_
here. But with the aid of the persons of the Drama, and their
suggestions, the new philosophy is carried into departments which it
would have cost the Author of the Novum Organum and the Advancement of
Learning his head to look into. He might as well have proposed to
impeach the Government in Parliament outright, as to offer to advance
his Novum Organum into these fields; fields which it enters safely
enough under the cover of a spontaneous, inspired, dramatic
philosophy, though it is a philosophy which overflows continually with
those practical axioms, those aphorisms, which the Author of the
Advancement of Learning assures us 'are made of the pith and heart of
sciences'; and that 'no man can write who is not sound and grounded.'
But then, if they are only written in 'with a goose-pen,' they pass
well enough for unconscious, unmeaning, spontaneous felicities.
'Canst thou tell why one's nose stands in the middle of his face?'
says the Fool, in the First Act, by way of entertaining his master,
when the poor king's want of foresight and 'prudence' begins to tell
on his affairs a little. 'Canst thou tell why one's nose stands in the
middle of his face?' 'No.' 'Why, to keep his eyes on either side of
it, that what a man _cannot smell out_ he may _spy into_.'
_Fool_. Canst tell how _an oyster_ makes _his_ shell?'
_Lear_. No.
_Fool_. Nor I neither; but I can tell why a snail has a house.
_Lear_. Why?
_Fool_. Why, to put his head in; not to give it away to his
daughters, and leave his horns without a case.
_Lear_. ... Be my horses ready?
_Fool_. Thy asses are gone about 'em. The reason why the seven stars
are no more than seven, is a pretty reason.
_Lear_. Because they are not eight?
_Fool_. Yes, indeed: Thou wouldest make a good--fool.
He cannot tell how an _oyster_ makes his shell, but the nose has not
stood in the middle of _his_ face for nothing. There has been some
prying on either side of it, apparently; and he has pried to such good
purpose, that some of the prime secrets of the new philosophy appear
to have turned up in his researches. 'To take it again _perforce_,'
mutters the king. 'If thou wert my fool, Nuncle, I'd have thee beaten
_for being_ OLD _before thy time_.' [This is a wit 'of the self-same
colour' with that one who discovered that the times from which the
world's practical wisdom was inherited, were the times when the world
was young. 'They told me I had white hairs in my beard ere the black
ones were there!'] 'I'd have thee beaten for being old before thy
time.'--'_How's_ that?'--'Thou shouldst _not_ have been OLD _before
thou hadst been_ WISE.'
And it is in the Second Act that poor Kent, in his misfortunes,
furnishes occasion for another avowal on the part of this same learned
critic, of a preference for a practical philosophy, though borrowed
from the lower species. He comes upon the object of his criticism as
he sits in the stocks, because he could not adopt the style of his
time with sufficient earnestness, though he does make an attempt 'to
go out of his dialect,' but was not more happy in it than some other
men of his politics were, in the Poet's time.
'Sir, in good sooth, in sincere verity,
_Under the allowance of your grand aspect,
Whose influence, like the wreath of radiant fire
On flickering Phebus' front--_
_Cornwall_. 'What mean'st by this?'
_Kent_. 'To go out of my dialect, _which you discommend so much_.
[Halting in his blank verse for the explanation]:--It is from that
seat, to which the plainness of this man, with the official dignities
of his time, has conducted him, that he puts the inquiry to that keen
observer, whose observations in natural history have just been
quoted,--
_Kent_. How chances that the _king comes with so small a train_?
_Fool_. An thou had'st been set in the stocks for that question,
_thou, had'st well deserved it_.
_Kent_. Why, fool?
_Fool_. We'll set thee _to school to an ant_, to teach thee there
is no labouring in the winter. All that follow their noses are _led
by their eyes_, but--BLIND MEN.
_Kent_. Where learned'st thou _that_, fool?
_Fool_. Not in the stocks, _fool_.
[Not from being punished with the sequent effect; not in consequence
of an improvidence, that an _ant_ might have taught me to avoid.]
'I have no _way_, and _therefore_ want no eyes,' says another duke,
who is also the victim of that '_absolute_' authority which is abroad
in this play. 'I stumbled when I _saw_,' and this is _his prayer_.
Let the superfluous and lust-dieted man
That slaves your ordinance; that will not SEE
Because he doth not FEEL, _feel_ your power quickly.
'Thou seest how this world goes,' says the outcast king, meeting this
poor outcast duke, just after his eyes had been taken out of his head,
by the persons then occupying the chief offices in the state. 'Thou
seest how this world goes.' 'I SEE it FEELINGLY,' is the duke's reply.
_Lear_. What! art _mad_? A man may _see_ how this world goes with
_no_ eyes. Look with thine _ears_.
And his account of how it goes is--as we shall see--one that requires
to be looked at with _ears_, for it contains, what one calls elsewhere
in this play,--_ear-kissing_ arguments.--'Get thee _glass_ eyes,' he
says, in conclusion, 'and like a scurvy _politician_ pretend to SEE,
the things thou dost not.' And that was not the kind of politician,
and that was not the kind of political eye-sight, to which this
statesman, and seer, proposed to leave the times, that his legacy
should fall on, whatever he might be compelled to tolerate in his own.
'Upon _the crown_ o' the cliff. What _thing_ was that
Which parted from you?'
'_A poor unfortunate beggar_.' [Softly.]
'_As I stood here_ BELOW, methought his eyes
Were two full moons; he had a thousand noses.
Horns welked and waved, like the enridged _sea_.'
'Now, Sir, what are you?' says the poor outcast duke to his true son,
when in disguise he offers to attend him. 'A most poor man,' is the
reply, 'made _lame_ by fortune's blows; who, by the ART of KNOWN AND
FEELING SORROWS, am _pregnant_ to _good_ PITY. Give me your hand,
_I'll_ lead you to some BIDING. Bear _free_ and _patient thoughts_,'
is his whisper to him.
Surely this is a poet that has got an inkling, in some way, of the new
idea of an _experimental philosophy_,--of a combination of the human
faculties of sense and reason in some organum; one, too, whose eye
passes lightly over the architectonic gifts of _univalves_ and
_bivalves_, and _entomological_ developments of skill and forethought,
intent on that great chrysalis, which has never been able to publish
yet its Creator's glory. Here is a naturalist who would not think it
enough to combine reason with experiment, in wind, and rain, and fire,
and thunder, who would not think it enough to bring all the
unpublished virtues of the earth, to the relief of the bodily human
maladies. It is the Poet, who says elsewhere, 'Can'st thou not
minister to a _mind_ diseased? No? Throw physic to the dogs, I'll none
of it.' It is the poet who says, 'Nor wind, rain, fire, thunder, are
my daughters.' '_Nothing_ could have brought him to such a lowness in
nature, but his un-_kind_ daughters.' It is the naturalist who says,
'Then let Regan's heart be anatomized, and see what _it_ is that
breeds about it. Is there any cause in NATURE that makes these hard
hearts?'
In short, this play is from the hand of one who thinks that the human
affairs are of a kind to require scientific investigation, scientific
foresight and conduct. He is much of Lear's opinion on many points,
and evidently judges that there would be no harm in getting a
philosopher enrolled among the king's hundred. Not a logician, not a
metaphysician, according to the common acceptance of these terms; not
merely a natural philosopher, in the low and limited sense of that
term, in which we use it; but a man of science--one who is able, by
some method or other, to ascend to the actual principles of things,
and so to base his remedies for the social evils, on the forms which
are _forms_, which have efficacy in nature as _such_, instead of
basing them on certain chimeras, or so-called logical conclusions of
the human mind--conclusions which the logic of nature contradicts--
conclusions to which the universal consent of _things_ is wanting.
_Nature_, in the sense in which _Edmund_ uses that term, is _not_ this
poet's _goddess_, or his LAW; though he regards 'the plague of CUSTOM'
and 'the curiosity of nations,' and all their fantastic and arbitrary
sway in human affairs, with an eye quite as critical--though he looks
at 'that old Antic, the law,' as he expresses it elsewhere, with an
eye quite as severe, on the world's behalf, as that which Edmund turns
on it, on his own; he is very far from contending for the freedom of
that savage, selfish, unreclaimed, spontaneous nature,--that lawless
nature, to which the natural son of Gloster claims 'his services are
due.' The poet teaches that the true and successful Social Art is, and
must be scientific. That it must be based on the science of nature in
general, and on the science of human nature in particular, on a
science that recognizes the double _nature_ in man, that takes in, its
heights as well as its depths, and its depths as well as its heights,
that sounds it 'from its lowest note to the top of its key;' but it is
one thing to quarrel with the unscientific, _imperfect_ social arts,
and it is another to prefer nature in man _without_ arts. The picture
of 'the Unaccommodated Man,' which forms so prominent a part of the
representation here,--'the _thing itself_,' stripped of its social
lendings, or setting at nought the social restraints, is not by any
means an attractive one, as this philosopher does it for us. The
scientific artist is no better pleased, than the king is with this
kind of '_nature_.' It is the imperfection of the civilization which
still generates, or leaves unchecked these savage evils, that he
exposes.
But it is impossible, that the true social arts should be smelt out,
or stumbled on, by accident, or arrived at by any kind of empirical
groping; just as impossible as it is, on the other hand, that 'the
wisdom of nature,' by throwing itself on its own internal resources,
and reasoning it '_thus and thus_,' without taking into account the
actual forces, should be able to invent them. Those forces which enter
into all the plot of our human life, unworthy of philosophic note as
they had seemed hitherto, those terrific, unmeasured strengths,
against which the human kind are continually dashing themselves in
their blind experiments,--those engines on which the human heart is
racked, 'and stretched out so long,'--those rocky structures on which
its choicest treasures are so wildly wrecked, these natural
forces,--no matter what artificial combinations of them may have been
accomplished,--'the causes _in nature_,' of the phenomena of human
life, appeared to this philosopher a very fitting subject for
philosophy, and one quite too important in its relation to human
well-being and the Arts that promote it, to be left to mere blundering
experiment; quite too subtle to be reached by any kind of empirical
groping, quite too subtle to be entangled with the conclusions of the
_philosophy_ which he found in vogue in his time, whose social
efficacies and gifts in exorcisms, he has taken leave to connect in
some way, with the appearance of Tom o' Bedlam in his history; a
philosophy which had built up its system in defiant scorn of the
nature of things; as if 'by reasoning it _thus_ and _thus_,' without
any respect to the actual conditions, it could undertake to bridle the
might of nature, and put a hook in the nose of her oppositions.
It did not seem to this philosopher well, that men who have eyes--eyes
that are great nature's gift to them,--her gift to them in
chief,--eyes that were meant to see with, should go on in this
groping, star-gazing, fatally-stumbling fashion any longer.
_Lear_. [To the Bedlamite.] I do not like the fashion of your
garments. _You will say that they are--Persian:--but_ let them be
ALTERED.
CHAPTER V.
THE STATESMAN'S NOTE-BOOK--AND THE PLAY.
_Brutus._ How I have thought of this, and of _these times_,
I shall recount _hereafter_.
_Hamlet_. The Play's the thing.
_Brutus_. Tell us the manner of it, gentle Casca.
_Casca_. I can as well _be hanged_ as tell _the manner_
of it.
_Posthumus_. 'Shall's have _a Play of this_.--
The fact that the design of this play, whatever it may be, is one deep
enough to go down to that place in the social system which Tom o'
Bedlam was then peacefully occupying,--thinking of anything else in
the world but a social revolution on his behalf--to bring him up for
observation; and that it is high enough to go up to that apex of the
social structure on which the crown was then fastened, to fetch down
the impersonated state itself, for an examination not less curious and
critical; the fact, too, that it was subtle enough to penetrate the
retirement of the domestic life, and bring out its innermost passages
for scientific criticism;--the fact that the relation of the Parent to
the Child, and that of the Child to the Parent, the relation of
Husband and Wife, and Sister and Brother, and Master and Servant, of
Peasant and Lord, nay, the transient relation of Guest and Host, have
each their place and part here, and the question of their duty marked
not less clearly, than that prominent relation of the King and his
Subjects;--the fact that these relations come in from the first, along
with the political, and demand a hearing, and divide throughout the
stage with them; the fact of the mere range of this social criticism,
as it appears on the surface of the play, in these so prominent
points,--is enough to show already, that it is a _Radical_ of no
ordinary kind, who is at work behind this drop-scene.
It was evident, at a glance, that this so extensive bill of grievances
was not one which any immediate or violent political revolution, or
any social reformation which was then in contemplation, would be able
to meet; and that very circumstance gave to the whole essay its
profoundly quiet, conservative air. It passed only for one of those
common outcries on the ills of human life, which men in general are
expected, or permitted to make, according to their several abilities;
one of those 'Alacks!'--'why does he so'? which, by relieving the mind
of the complainant, tend to keep things quiet on the whole. This Poet,
whoever he was, was making rather more ado about it than usual,
apparently: but Poets are useful for that very purpose; they express
other men's emotions for them, in a higher key than they could manage
it themselves.
It was the breadth then,--the philosophic comprehension of this great
philosophic design, which made it possible for the Poet to introduce
into it, and exhibit in it, so glaringly, those evils of his time that
were crying out to Heaven then, for redress, and could not wait for
philosophic revolutions and reformations.
Tom o' Bedlam, strictly speaking, does appear, indeed, to have been
one of those Elizabethan institutions which were modified or annulled,
in the course of the political changes that so soon followed this
exhibition of his case. 'Tom' himself, in his own proper person,
appears to have been left--by accident or otherwise--on the other side
of the Revolutionary gulf. 'I remember,' says Aubrey, '_before the
civil wars_, Tom o' Bedlams went about begging,' etc.--but one cannot
help remarking that a very numerous family connection of the
collateral branches of his house--bearing, on the whole, a
sufficiently striking family resemblance to this illustrious subject
of the Poet's pencil,--appear to have got safely over all the
political and social gulfs that intervene between our time and that.
And, as to some of those other social evils which are exhibited here
in their ideal proportions, they are not, perhaps, so entirely among
the former things which have passed away with our reformations, that
we should have to go to Aubrey's note book to find out what the Poet
means. As to some of these, at least, it will not be necessary to hunt
up an antiquary, who can remember whether any such thing ever was
really in existence here, '_before the civil wars_.' And,
notwithstanding all our advancements in Natural Science, and in the
Arts which attend these advancements; notwithstanding the strong
recommendations of the inventors of this Science,--Regan's heart, and
that which breeds about it, appear, by a singular oversight, to have
escaped, hitherto, any truly scientific inquiry; and the arts for
improving it do not appear, after all, to have been very materially
advanced since the time when this order was issued.
But notwithstanding that the subject of this piece appears to be so
general,--notwithstanding the fact, that the social evils which are
here represented include, apparently, the universal human conditions,
and include evils which are still understood to be inherent in the
nature of man, and, irreclaimable, or not, at least a subject for
Art,--and notwithstanding the fact that this exhibition professes to
borrow all its local hues and exaggerations from the barbaric times of
the Ancient Britons--it is not very difficult to perceive that it
does, in fact, involve a local exhibition of a different kind; and
that, under the cover of that great revolution in the human estate,
which the philosophic mind was then meditating,--_so broad_, that none
could perceive its _project_,--another revolution,--that revolution
which was then so near at hand, was clearly outlined; and that this
revolution, too, is, after all, one towards which this Poet appears to
'_incline_,' in a manner which would not have seemed, perhaps,
altogether consistent with his position and assumptions elsewhere, if
these could have been produced here against him; and in a manner,
perhaps, somewhat more decided than the general philosophic tone, and
the spirit of those large and peaceful designs to which he was chiefly
devoted, might have led us to anticipate. This Play was evidently
written at a time when the conviction that the state of things which
it represents could not endure much longer, had taken deep hold of the
Poet's mind; at a time when those evils had attained a height so
unendurable--when that evil which lay at the heart of the commonweal,
poisoning all the social relations with its infection, had grown so
fearful, that it might well seem, even to the scientific mind, to
require the fierce '_drug_' of the political revolution,--so fearful
as to make, even to such a mind, the rude surgery of the civil wars at
last welcome.
For, indeed, it cannot be denied that the state of things which this
Play represents, is that with which the author's own experience was
conversant; and that all the terrible tragic satire of it, points--not
to that age in the history of Britain in which the Druids were still
responsible for the national culture,--not to that time when the
Celtic Triads, clothed with the sanctities of an unknown past, still
made the standard works and authorities in learning, beyond which
there was no going,--not to the time when the national morality was
still mystically produced at Stonehenge, in those national colleges,
from whose mysterious rites the awful sanctities of the oak and the
mistletoe drove back in confusion the sacrilegious inquirer,--not to
that time, but to the _Elizabethan_.
That instinctive groping and stumbling in all human affairs, that
pursuit of human ends without any science of the natures to be
superinduced, and without any science of the natures that were to be
subjected,--those eyes of moonshine speculation, those glass eyes with
which the scurvy politician affects to see the things he does
not--those thousand noses that serve for eyes, and horns welked and
waved like the enridged sea, and all the wild misery of that unlearned
fortuitous human living, that waits to be scourged with the sequent
effect, and knows not how to ascend to the cause--colossally
exaggerated as it seems here--heightened everywhere, as if the Poet
had put forth his whole power, and strained his imagination, and
availed himself of his utmost poetic license, to give it, through all
its details, its last conceivable hue of violence, its pure ideal
shape, is, after all, but a copy an historical sketch. The ignorance,
the stupidity, 'the _blindness_,' that this author paints, was his own
'Time's plague'; 'the madness' that 'led it,' was the madness of which
he was himself a mute and manacled spectator.
By some singular oversight or caprice of tyranny, or on account of
some fastidious scruple of the imagination perhaps, it does _not_
appear, indeed, to have been the fashion, either in the reigns of the
Tudors or the Stuarts, to pluck out the living human eye as Gloster's
eyes were plucked out; and that of itself would have furnished a
reason why this poor duke should have been compelled to submit to that
particular operation, instead of presenting himself to have his ears
cut off in a sober, decent, civilized, Christian manner; or to have
them grubbed out, if it happened that the operation had been once
performed already; or to have his hand cut off, or his head, with his
eyes in it; or to be roasted alive some noon-day in the public square,
eyes and all, as many an honest gentleman was expected to present
himself in those times, without making any particular demur or fuss
about it. _These_ were operations that Englishmen of every rank and
profession, soldiers, scholars, poets, philosophers, lawyers,
physicians, and grave and reverend divines, were called on to undergo
in those times, and for that identical offence of which the Duke of
Gloster stood convicted, opposition to the will of a lawless usurping
tyranny,--to its merest caprice of vanity or humour, perhaps,--or on
grounds slighter still, on bare suspicion of a disposition to oppose
it.
But then that, of course, was a thing of _custom_; so much so, that
the victims themselves often took it in good part, and submitted to it
as a divine institution, part of a sacred legacy, handed down to them,
as it was understood, from their more enlightened ancestors.
Now, if the Poet, in pursuance of his more general philosophic
intention, which involved a moving representation of the helplessness
of the Social Monad--that bodily as well as moral susceptibility and
fragility, which leaves him open to all kinds of personal injury, not
from the elements and from animals of other species merely or chiefly,
but chiefly from his own kind,--if the Poet, in the course of this
exhibition, had caused poor Gloster to be held down in his chair on
the stage, for the purpose of having his _ears_ pared off, what kind
of sensation could he hope to produce with that on the sensibility of
an audience, who might have understood without a commentator an
allusion to 'the tribulation of Tower Hill'--spectators accustomed to
witness performances so much more thrilling, and on a stage where the
Play was in earnest. And as to that second operation before referred
to, which might have answered the poetic purpose, perhaps; who knows
whether that may not have been a refinement in civilization peculiar
to the reign of that amiable and handsome Christian Prince, who was
still a minor when this Play was first brought out at Whitehall? for
it was in _his_ reign that that memorable instance of it occurred,
which the subsequent events connected with it chanced to make so
notorious. It was a learned and very conscientious lawyer, in the
reign of Charles the First, whose criticism upon some of the
fashionable amusements of the day, which certain members of the royal
family were known to be fond of, occasioned the suggestion of this
mode of satisfying the outraged Majesty of the State, when the prying
eye of Government discovered, or thought it did, remains enough of
those previously-condemned appendages on this author's person, to
furnish material for a second operation. 'Methinks Mr. Prynne _hath_
ears!' does not, after all, sound so very different from--'going to
pluck out Gloster's _other_ eye,' as that the governments under which
these two speeches are reported, need to be distinguished, on that
account only, by any such essential difference as that which is
supposed to exist between the human and _divine_. Both these
operations appear, indeed to the unprejudiced human mind, to savour
somewhat of the diabolical--or of the Dark Ages, rather, and of the
Prince of Darkness. And, indeed, that '_fiend_' which haunts the
Play--which the monster, with his moonshine eyes, appeared to have a
vague idea of--seems to have been as busy here, in this department, as
he was in bringing about poor Tom's distresses.
But in that steady persevering exhibition of the liabilities of
individual human nature, the COMMON liabilities which throw it upon
the COMMON, the distinctive law of humanity for its WEAL--in that
continuous picture of the suffering and ignominy, and mutilation to
which it is liable, moral and intellectual, as well as physical, where
that law of humanity is not yet scientifically developed and
scientifically sustained--the Poet does not always go quite so far to
find his details. It is not from the Celtic Regan's time that he
brings out those ancient implements of state authority into which the
feet of the poor Duke of Kent, travelling on the king's errands, are
ignominiously thrust; while the Poet, under cover of the Fool's jests,
shows prettily their relation to the human dignity.
But then it is a Duke on whom this indignity is practised; for it is
to be remarked, in passing, that though this Poet is evidently bent on
making his exhibition a thorough one, though he is determined not to
leave out anything of importance in his diagrams, he does not appear
inclined to soil his fingers by meddling with the lower orders, or to
countenance any innovation in his art in that respect. Whenever he has
occasion to introduce persons of this class into his pieces, they come
in and go out, and perform their part in his scene, very much as they
do elsewhere in his time. Even when his Players come in, they do not
speak many words on their own behalf. They stand civilly, and answer
questions, and take their orders, and fulfil them. That is all that is
looked for at their hands. For this is not a Poet who has ever given
any one occasion in his own time, to distinguish him as the Poet of
the People. It is always from the highest social point of observation
that he takes those views of the lower ranks, which he has occasion to
introduce into his Plays, from the mobs of 'greasy citizens' to the
details of the sheep-shearing feast; and even in Eastcheap he keeps it
still.
There never was a more aristocratic poet apparently, and though the
very basest form of outcast misery 'that ever penury in contempt of
man brought near to beast,' though the basest and most ignoble and
pitiful human liabilities, are every where included in his plan; he
will have nothing but the rich blood of dukes and kings to take him
through with it--he will have nothing lower and less illustrious than
these to play his parts for him.
It is a king to whom 'the _Farm House_,' where _both_ fire and food
are waiting, becomes a royal luxury on his return from the _Hovel's_
door, brought in chattering out of the tempest, in that pitiful stage
of human want, which had made him ready to share with Tom o' Bedlam,
nay, with the _swine_, their rude comforts. 'Art cold? I am cold
myself. Where is this straw, my fellow. Your _hovel_:--come bring us
to your _hovel_.'
It is a king who gets an ague in the storm, who finds the tyranny of
the night too rough for nature to endure; it is a king on whose
desolate outcast head, destitution and social wrongs accumulate their
results, till his wits begin to turn, till his mind is shattered, and
he comes on to the stage at last, a poor bedlamite.
Nay, 'Tom' himself, is a duke's son, we are told; though that
circumstance does not hinder him from giving, with much frankness and
scientific accuracy, the particulars of those personal pursuits, and
tastes, and habits, incidental to that particular station in life to
which it has pleased Providence to call _him_.
And so by means of that poetic order, which is the Providence of this
piece, and that design which 'tunes the harmony of it,' it is a duke
on whom that low correction, 'such as basest and most contemned
wretches are punished with,' is exhibited, in spite of his indignant
protest.
_Kent_. Call not your stocks for me. _I_ serve the king,
On _whose employment_ I was sent to you.
You shall do small _respect_, show too bold malice
Against the _grace_ and _person_ of my master,
Stocking his messenger.
_Cornwall_. Fetch forth the stocks.
As I have life and honour, there shall he sit till noon.'
_Regan_. Till noon,--till night my lord, and all night too.
[In vain the prudent and loyal Gloster remonstrates]
--The king must take it ill
That _he_, so slightly valued in his messenger,
Should have him thus restrained.
_Cornwall_. I'll answer that.
_Regan_. Put in his legs.
But then it must be confessed that the poet was not without some kind
of precedent for this bold dramatic proceeding. He had, indeed, by
means of the culture and diligent use of that gift of forethought,
with which nature had so largely endowed him, been enabled thus far to
keep his own person free from any such tangible encumbrance, though
the '_lameness_' with which fortune had afflicted him personally, is
always his personal grievance; but he had seen in his own time,
ancient men and reverend,--men who claimed to be the ministers of
heaven, and travelling on its errands, arrested, and subjected to this
ludicrous indignity: he had seen this open stop, this palpable,
corporeal, unfigurative arrest put upon the activity of scholars and
thinkers in his time, conscientious men, between whose master and the
state, there was a growing quarrel then, a quarrel that these
proceedings were not likely to pacify. From noon till night, they,
too, had sat thus, and all night too, they had endured that shameful
lodging.
'When a man is _over_ lusty at legs,' says the Fool, who arrives in
time to put in an observation or two on this topic, and who seems
disposed to look at it from a critical point of view, concluding with
the practical improvement of the subject, already quoted--'When a man
is over lusty at legs'--(when his will, or his higher intelligence,
perhaps, is allowed to govern them too freely,) 'he wears wooden
nether stocks,' or 'cruel garters,' as he calls them again, by way of
bestowing on this institution of his ancestors as much variety of
poetic imagery as the subject will admit of. '_Horses_ are tied by the
head, _dogs_ and _bears_ by the neck, _monkeys_ by the loins, and
_men_ by the legs'; and having ransacked his memory to such good
purpose, and produced such a pile of learned precedents, he appears
disposed to rest the case with these; for it is a part of the play to
get man into his place in the scale of nature, and to draw the line
between him and the brutes, if there be any such thing possible; and
the Fool seems to be particularly inclined to assist the author in
this process, though when we last heard of him he was, indeed,
proposing to send the principal man of his time 'to school to an ant,'
to improve his sagacity; intimating, also, that another department of
natural science, even conchology itself, might furnish him with some
rather more prudent and fortunate suggestions than those which his own
brain had appeared to generate; and it is to be remarked, that in his
views on this point, as on some others of importance, he has the
happiness to agree remarkably with that illustrious yoke-fellow of his
in philosophy, who was just then turning his attention to the 'practic
part of life' and _its_ 'theoric,' and who indulges himself in some
satires on this point not any less severe, though his pleasantries are
somewhat more covert. But the philosopher on this occasion, having
produced such a variety of precedents from natural history, appears to
be satisfied with the propriety and justice of the proceeding,
inasmuch as beasts and men seem to be treated with impartial
consideration in it; and though a certain distinction of form appears
to obtain according to the species, the main fact is throughout
identical.
'Then comes the time,' he says, in winding up that knotted skein of
prophecy, which he leaves for Merlin to disentangle, for 'he lives
before his time,' as he takes that opportunity to tell us--
'Then comes the time, who lives to see't,
That _going shall be used with feet_.'
Yes, it is a duke who is put in the stocks; it is a duke's son plays
the bedlamite; it is a king who finds the hovel's shelter 'precious';
and it is a queen--it is a king's wife, and a daughter of kings--who
is hanged; nay more, it is Cordelia--it is Cordelia, and none other,
whom this inexorable Poet, primed with mischief, bent on outrage,
determined to turn out the heart of his time, and show, in the
selectest form, the inmost lining of its lurking humanities--it is
Cordelia whom he will hang--And we forgive him still, and bear with
him in all these assaults on our taste--in all these thick-coming
blows on our outraged sensibilities; we forgive him when at last the
poetic design flashes on us,--when we come to understand the
providence of this piece, at least,--when we come to see at last that
there is a meaning in it _all_, a meaning deep to justify even this
procedure.
'We are not the _first_ who, with _the best_ meaning, have _incurred
the worst_,' says the captive queen herself; nor was she the last of
that good company, as the Poet himself might have testified;--
Upon such sacrifices the gods themselves _throw incense_.
We forgive the Poet here, as we forgive him in all these other pitiful
and revolting exhibitions, because we know that he who would undertake
the time's cure--he who would undertake the relief of the human estate
in any age, must probe its evil--must reach, no matter what it costs,
its deadliest _hollow_.
And in that age, there was no voice which could afford to lack 'the
courtier's glib and oily art.' 'Hanging was the word' then, for the
qualities of which this princess was the impersonation, or almost the
impersonation, so predominant were they in her poetic constitution.
There was no voice, gentle and low enough, to speak outright such
truth as hers; and 'banishment' and 'the stocks' would have been only
too mild a remedy for 'the plainness' to which Kent declares, even to
the teeth of majesty, 'honour's bound, when majesty stoops to folly.'
The kind, considerate Gloster, with all his loyalty to the powers
which are able to show the divine right of possession, and with all
his disposition to conform to the times, is greatly distressed and
perplexed with the outrages which are perpetrated, as it were, under
his own immediate sanction and authority. He has a hard struggle to
reconcile his duty as the subject of a state which he is not prepared
to overthrow, with his humane impulses and designs. He goes pattering
about for a time, remonstrating, and apologizing, and trying 'to
smooth down,' and 'hush up,' and mollify, and keep peace between the
offending parties. He stands between the blunt, straightforward
manliness of the honest Kent on the one hand, and the sycophantic
servility and self-abnegation, which knows no will but the master's,
as represented by the Steward, on the other.
'I am sorry for thee,' he says to Kent, after having sought in vain to
prevent this outrage from being perpetrated in his own court--
'I am sorry for thee, friend: _tis the duke's pleasure,
Whose disposition all the world well knows,
Will not be rubbed or stopped_'--
as he found to his cost, poor man, when he came to have his own eyes
gouged out by it. He 'saw it _feelingly_' then, as he remarked
himself.
'I'll entreat for thee,' he continues, in his conversation with the
disguised duke in the stocks. 'The duke's to blame in this. '_Twill be
ill taken_.'
And when the king, on his arrival, kept waiting in the court, in his
agony of indignation and grief, is told that Regan and Cornwall are
'sick,' 'they are weary,' 'they have travelled hard to-night,'
denounces these subterfuges, and bids Gloster fetch him a better
answer, this is the worthy man's reply to him--
'My dear lord,
You know the fiery quality of the duke,
How unremovable and fixed he is
In his own course.'
But Lear, who has never had any but a subjective acquaintance hitherto
with reasons of that kind, does not appear able to understand them
from this point of view--
_Lear_. Vengeance! plague! death! confusion!
_Fiery_?--what _quality_? Why Gloster, Gloster,
I'd speak with the Duke of Cornwall and his wife.
_Gloster_. Well, my good lord, I have informed them so.
_Lear_. Informed them? Dost thou understand me?
_Gloster_. Ay, my good lord.
But though Gloster is not yet ready to break with tyranny, it is not
difficult to see which way he secretly inclines; and though he still
manages his impulses cautiously, and contrives to succour the
oppressed king by stealth, his courage rises with the emergency, and
grows bold with provocation. For he is himself one of the finer and
finest proofs of the times which the Poet represents; one, however,
which he keeps back a little, for the study of those who look at his
work most carefully. This man stands here in the general, indeed, as
the representative of a class of men who do not belong exclusively to
this particular time--men who do not stand ready, as Kent and his
class do, to fly in the face of tyranny at the first provocation; they
are not the kind of men who 'make mouths,' as Hamlet says, 'at the
invisible event;'--they are the kind who know beforehand that to break
with the powers that are, single-handed, is to sit on the stage and
have your eyes gouged out, or to undergo some process of mutilation
and disfigurement, not the less painful and oppressive, by this Poet's
own showing, because it does not happen, perhaps, to be a physical
one, and not the less calculated, on that account, to impair one's
usefulness to one's species, it may be.
But besides that more general bearing of the representation, the part
and disposition of Gloster afford us from time to time, glimpses of
persons and things which connect the representation more directly with
the particular point here noted. Men who found themselves compelled to
occupy a not less equivocal _position_ in the state, look through it a
little now and then; and here, as in other parts of the play, it only
wants the right key to bring out suppressed historical passages, and a
finer history generally, than the chronicles of the times were able to
take up.
'Alack, alack, Edmund,' says Gloster to his natural son, making _him_
the confidant of his nobler nature, putting what was then the perilous
secret of his humanity, into the dangerous keeping of the base-born
one--for this is the Poet's own interpretation of his plot; though
Lear is allowed to intimate on his behalf, that the loves and
relations which are recognised and good in courts of justice, are not
always secured by that sanction from similar misfortune; that they are
not secured by that from those penalties which great Nature herself
awards in those courts in which her institutes are vindicated.
'Alack, alack, Edmund, I like not THIS UNNATURAL DEALING! When I
desired _their leave that I might pity him_, they took from me _the
use of mine own house_, and charged me on pain of their perpetual
displeasure, _neither to speak_ of him, _entreat for him, nor in any
way to sustain him_.'
_Edmund_. Most _savage and unnatural_.
_Gloster_. Go to, say you nothing.
[And say you nothing, my contemporary reader, if you perceive that
this is one of those passages I have spoken of elsewhere, which
carries with it another application besides that which I put it to].
'There is division between the dukes--and a worse matter than that: I
have received a letter this night,--'tis dangerous to be spoken;--I
have _locked_ the letter in my _closet: these injuries the king now
bears_, will be revenged _at home_' [softly--say you nothing].
'_There_ is _part of a power already footed_: we _must incline to the
king. I_ will seek him and _privily relieve him_. _Go you and maintain
talk with the duke_, that my charity be not of him perceived. If he
ask for me, I am ill, and gone to bed. If I die for it,--_as no less
is threatened me_,--_the king, my old master_--MUST BE RELIEVED. There
is some strange thing toward, Edmund. Pray you be careful.'
Even Edmund himself professes to be not altogether without some
experience of the perplexity which the claims of apparently clashing
duties, and relations in such a time creates, though he seems to have
found an easy method of disposing of these questions. _Nature_ is his
goddess and his law (that is, as _he_ uses the term, the baser nature,
the degenerate, which is not nature for man, which is _unnatural_ for
the human kind), and in his own 'rat'-like fashion, 'he bites the holy
cords atwain.'
'How, my lord,' he says, in the act of betraying his father's secret
to the Duke of Cornwall, in the hope of 'drawing to himself what his
father loses'--'how I may be censured that NATURE, thus gives way to
LOYALTY, _something fears me to think of_.' And again, 'I will
persevere in my course of _loyalty_, though the conflict be sore
between that and my _blood_.'
'_Know thou this_,' he says afterwards, to the officer whom he employs
to hang Cordelia, 'THAT MEN ARE AS THE TIME IS. Thy great employment
will not bear question. About it, I say, instantly, and carry it so as
I have set it down.' 'I cannot _draw a cart_, nor _eat dried oats_,'
is the officer's reply, who appears to be also in the poet's secret,
and ready to aid his intention of carrying out the distinction between
the human kind and the brute, 'I cannot draw a cart, nor eat dried
oats;--if it be MAN'S WORK I will do it.'
But it is the steward's part, as deliberately explained by Kent
himself, which furnishes in detail the ideal antagonism of that which
Kent sustains in the piece; for beside those active demonstrations of
his disgust, which the poetic order tolerates in him, though some of
the powers within appear to take such violent offence at it, besides
these tangible demonstrations, and that elaborate criticism, which the
poet puts into his mouth, in which the steward is openly treated as
the representative of a class, who seem to the poet apparently, to
require some treatment in his time, Kent himself is made to notice
distinctly this literally striking opposition.
'No _contraries_ hold more _antipathy_ than I, and such a knave,' he
says to Cornwall, by way of explaining his apparently gratuitous
attack upon the steward.
No one, indeed, who reads the play with any care, can doubt the poet's
intention to incorporate into it, for some reason or other, and to
bring out by the strongest conceivable contrasts, his study of loyalty
and service, and especially of regal counsel, and his criticism of it,
as it stood in his time in its most approved patterns. 'Such smiling
rouges as these' ('that _bite_ the _holy cords atwain_').
'Smooth every _passion_
That in the _nature of their lord rebels_;
Bring oil to fire, snow _to their_ colder moods;
Revenge, affirm, and turn their halcyon beaks
With every _gale_ and _vary_ of their masters,
As _knowing nought_ like _dogs_ but--_following_.'
Such ruses as this would not, of course, be wanting in such a _time_
as that in which this piece was planned, if Edmund's word was, indeed,
the true one. 'Know thou this, _men_ are as the time is.'
And even amidst the excitement and rough outrage of that scene--in
which Gloster's trial is so summarily conducted, even in that so rude
scene--the relation between the _guest_ and his _host_, and the
relation of the _slave_ to his _owner_, is delicately and studiously
touched, and the human claim in both is boldly advanced, in the face
of an absolute authority, and _age_ and _personal dignity_ put in
their claims also, and demand, even at such a moment, their full
rights of reverence.
[_Re-enter servants with_ GLOSTER.]
_Regan_. Ingrateful fox! 'tis he.
_Cornwall_. Bind fast his _corky_ arms.
_Gloster_. What mean your graces?--Good my friends, _consider_.
_You are my guests_: do me no foul play, _friends_.
_Cornwall_. Bind him, I say.
_Regan_. Hard, hard:--O filthy traitor!
_Gloster_. Unmerciful lady as you are, I am none.
_Cornwall_. To this chair bind him:--Villain, thou shalt
find--[REGAN _plucks his beard_].
_Gloster_. By the KIND gods [_for these are the gods, whose
'Commission' is sitting here_]'tis most _ignobly_ done,
To pluck me by the beard.
_Regan_. So white, and such a traitor!
_Gloster_. Naughty lady,
_These hairs_, which thou dost ravish from my chin,
Will quicken and accuse thee.
_I am your host_:
With _robber hands_, my hospitable favours
You should not _ruffle_ thus.
Tied to the stake, questioned and cross-questioned, and insulted,
finally, beyond even his faculty of endurance, he breaks forth, at
last, in strains of indignation that overleap all arbitrary and
conventional bounds, that are only the more terrible for having been
so long suppressed. Kent himself, when he 'came between the dragon and
his wrath,' was not so fierce.
_Cornwall_. Where hast thou sent the king?
_Gloster_. _To Dover_.
_Regan_. Wherefore
To Dover, was't thou not charged at peril?--
_Cornwall. Wherefore to Dover?_ Let him first answer that.
_Regan_. Wherefore _to Dover?_
_Gloster_. Because I would not see thy cruel nails
Pluck out his poor old eyes, _nor thy fierce sister_
In his anointed flesh stick boarish fangs.
...
_Regan_. One side will mock another; the other too.
_Cornwall_. If you 'see vengeance.'
_Servant_. Hold your hand, my lord:
_I have served you ever since I was a child_;
But _better service_ have I never done you,
Than now _to bid you hold_.
_Regan_. How now, you _dog_?
_Servant_. If you did wear a beard upon your chin,
I'd shake it on this quarrel: _What do you mean_?
[_Arbitrary power called to an account, requested to explain
itself_.]
_Cornwall. My_ villain!
_Regan_. A PEASANT _stand up thus_?
Thus too, indeed, in that rude scene above referred to, in which the
king finds his messenger in the stocks, and Regan's door, too, shut
against him, the same ground of criticism had already been revealed,
the same delicacy and rigour in the exactions had already betrayed the
depth of the poetic design, and the real comprehension of that _law_,
whose violations are depicted here, the scientific law, the scientific
sovereignty, the law of universal nature; commanding, in the human,
that specific human excellence, for the _degenerate_ movement is in
violation of nature, that is not _nature_ but her profanation and
undoing.
This is one of those passages, however, which admit, as the modern
reader will more easily observe than the contemporary of the Poet was
likely to of a second reading.
_Goneril_. Why might not you, my lord, receive attendance
From those that she calls servants, or from mine?
* * * * *
What need you five-and-twenty, ten, or five,
To _follow_ in a _house_, where twice so many
_Have a command to tend you_?
_Regan_. What need one?
_Lear_. O reason not the _need_: our basest beggars
Are in the poorest things superfluous.
[_Poor Tom must have his 'rubans_.']
Allow not NATURE more than NATURE needs,
MAN'S LIFE were cheap as BEASTS [_and that's not nature_]
Thou art _a lady_;
If only to go warm were _gorgeous_,
Why, _nature_ needs not what _thou gorgeous_ wear'st,
Which scarcely keeps thee warm.--But, for TRUE NEED,
You heavens, give me THAT patience.--_Patience I need_.
It is, indeed, the doctrine of the 'true need' that is lurking here,
and all that puts man into his true place and relations in the
creative order, whether of submission or control is included in it. It
is the doctrine of the natural human need, and the natural ground and
limits of the arts, for which nature has endowed man beforehand, with
a faculty and a sentiment corresponding in grandeur to his
need,--large as he is little, noble as he is mean, powerful as he is
helpless, felicitous as he is wretched; the faculty and the sentiment
whereby the _want_ of man becomes the measure of his wealth and
grandeur,--whereby his conscious _lowness_ becomes the means of his
ascent to his ideal type in nature, and to the scientific perfection
of his form.
And this whole social picture,--rude, savage as it is,--savage as it
shews when its sharp outline falls on that fair ideal ground of
criticism which the doctrine of a scientific civilization creates,--is
but the Poet's report of the progress of human development as it stood
in his time, and of the gain that it had made on savage instinct then.
It is his report of the social institutions of his time, as he found
them on his map of human advancement. It is his report of the wild
social misery that was crying underneath them, with its burthen of new
advancements. It is the Poet's Apology for his new doctrine of human
living, which he is going to publish, and leave on the earth, for 'the
times that are far off.' It is the negative, which is the first step
towards that affirmation, which he is going to establish on the earth
for ever, or so long as the species, whose law he has found, endures
on it. Down to its most revolting, most atrocious detail, it is still
the Elizabethan civility that is painted here. Even Goneril's
unscrupulous mode of disposing of her rival sister, though _that_ was
the kind of murder which was then regarded with the profoundest
disgust and horror--(the queen in Cymbeline expresses that vivid
sentiment, when she says: 'If Pisanio have given his mistress that
confection which I gave him for a cordial, she is served as I would
serve a rat')--even as to that we all know what a king's favourite
felt himself competent to undertake then; and, if the clearest
intimations of such men as Bacon, and Coke, and Raleigh, on such a
question, are of any worth, the household of James the First was not
without a parallel even for that performance, if not when this play
was written, when it was published.
It is all one picture of social ignorance, and misery, and _frantic_
misrule. It is a faithful exhibition of the degree of personal
security which a man of honourable sentiments, and humane and noble
intentions, could promise himself in such a time. It shows what chance
there was of any man being permitted to sustain an honourable and
intelligent part in the world, in an age in which all the radical
social arts were yet wanting, in which the rude institutions of an
ignorant past spontaneously built up, without any science of the
natural laws, were vainly seeking to curb and quench the Incarnate
soul of new ages,--the spirit of a scientific human advancement; and,
when all the common welfare was still openly intrusted to the
unchecked caprice and passion of one selfish, pitiful, narrow,
low-minded man.
To appreciate fully the incidental and immediate political application
of the piece, however, it is necessary to observe that notwithstanding
that studious exhibition of lawless and outrageous power, which it
involves, it is, after all, we are given to understand, by a quiet
intimation here and there, _a limited monarchy_ which is put upon the
stage here. It is a constitutional government, very much in the
Elizabethan stage of development, as it would seem, which these
arbitrary rulers affect to be administering. It is a government which
professes to be one of law, under which the atrocities of this piece
are sheltered.
And one may even note, in passing, that that high Judicial Court, in
which poor Lear undertakes to get his cause tried, appears to have,
somehow, an extremely modern air, considering what age of the British
history it was, in which it was supposed to be constituted, and
considering that one of the wigs appointed to that Bench had to leave
his speech behind him for Merlin to make, in consequence of living
before his time: at all events it is already tinctured with some of
the more notorious Elizabethan vices--vices which our Poet, not
content with this exposition, contrived to get exposed in another
manner, and to some purpose, ere all was done.
_Lear_. It shall be done, I will arraign them straight!
Come, sit thou here, _most learned Justice_.
[_To the_ BEDLAMITE_.]
Thou, _sapient_ Sir, sit here. [_To the_ FOOL.]
And again,--
I'll see _their trial_ first. _Bring in the evidence_.
Thou _robed_ MAN of JUSTICE take _thy_ place.
[_To_ TOM O'BEDLAM.]
And _thou_, his _yoke fellow_ of EQUITY _bench by his side_.
[_To the_ FOOL.]
You are of '_the Commission_'--sit _you too_.
[_To_ KENT.]
Truly it was a bold wit that could undertake to constitute that bench
on the stage, and fill it with those speaking forms,--speaking to the
eye the unmistakeable significance, for these judges, two of them,
happened to be on the spot in full costume,--and as to the third, he
was of '_the commission_.' 'Sit you, too.' Truly it was a bold
instructor that could undertake 'to facilitate' the demonstration of
'the more chosen subjects,' with the aid of diagrams of this kind.
Arms! Arms! Sword, fire! CORRUPTION IN THE PLACE! _False justicer, why
hast thou let her scape_?
The tongues of these ancient sovereigns of Britain, 'tang' throughout
with Elizabethan 'arguments of state,' and even Goneril, in her
somewhat severe proceedings against her _father_, justifies her course
in a very grave and excellent speech, enriched with the choicest
phrases of that particular order of state eloquence, in which majesty
stoops graciously to a recognition of the subject nation;--a speech
from which we gather that the '_tender of a wholesome weal_' is, on
the whole, the thing which she has at heart most deeply, and though
the proceeding in question is a painful one to her feelings, a state
necessity appears to prescribe it, or at least, render it
'_discreet_.'
Even in Gloster's case, though the process to which he is subjected,
is, confessedly, an extemporaneous one, it appears from the Duke of
Cornwall's statement, that it was only the _form_ which was wanting to
make it legal. Thus he apologizes for it.--
Though well we may not pass upon his life
Without the form of justice, yet our _power_
Shall do a _courtesy_ to _our wrath_, which men
May blame, _but not control_.
Goneril, however, grows bolder at the last, and says outright, 'Say if
I do, the _laws_ are _mine_ NOT THINE.' But it is the law which is
_thine_ and _mine_, it is the law which is for Tom o' Bedlam and for
thee, that great nature speaking at last through her interpreter, and
explaining all this wild scene, will have vindicated.
_Most_ MONSTROUS, exclaims her illustrious consort; but at the close
of the play, where so much of the meaning sometimes comes out in a
word, he himself concedes that the government which has just devolved
upon him is an _absolute_ monarchy.
'For us,' he says, 'WE WILL RESIGN, during the life of this old
Majesty, OUR ABSOLUTE POWER.'
So that there seems to have been, in fact,--in the minds, too, of
persons who ought, one would say, to have been best informed on this
subject,--just that vague, uncertain, contradictory view of this
important question, which appears to have obtained in the English
state, during the period in which the material of this poetic
criticism was getting slowly accumulated. But of course this play, so
full of the consequences of arbitrary power, so full of Elizabethan
politics, with its 'ear-kissing arguments,' could not well end, till
that word, too, had been spoken outright; and, in the Duke of Albany's
resignation, it slips in at last so quietly, so properly, that no one
perceives that it is not there by accident.
This, then, is what the play contains; but those that follow the
_story_ and the superficial plot only, must, of course, lose track of
the interior identities. It does not occur to these that the Poet is
occupied with principles, and that the change of _persons_ does not,
in the least, confound his pursuit of them.
The fact that tyranny is in one act, or in one scene, represented by
Lear, and in the next by his daughters;--the fact that the king and
the father is in one act the tyrant, and in another, the victim of
tyranny, is quite enough to confound the criticism to which a work of
mere amusement is subjected; for it serves to disguise the philosophic
purport, by dividing it on the surface: and the dangerous passages are
all opposed and neutralised, for those who look at it only as a piece
of dramatized, poetic history.
For this is a philosopher who prefers to handle his principles in
their natural, historical combinations, in those modified unions of
opposites, those complex wholes, which nature so stedfastly inclines
to, instead of exhibiting them scientifically bottled up and labelled,
in a state of fierce chemical abstraction.
His characters are not like the characters in the old 'Moralities,'
which he found on the stage when he first began to turn his attention
to it, mere impersonations of certain vague, loose, popular notions.
Those sickly, meagre forms would not answer his purpose. It was
necessary that the actors in the New Moralities he was getting up so
quietly, should have some speculation in their eyes, some blood in
their veins, a kind of blood that had never got manufactured in the
Poet's laboratory till then. His characters, no matter how strong the
predominating trait, though '_the conspicuous instance_' of it be
selected, have all the rich quality, the tempered and subtle power of
nature's own compositions. The expectation, the interest, the surprise
of life and history, waits, with its charm on all their speech and
doing.
The whole play tells, indeed, its own story, and scarcely needs
interpreting, when once the spectator has gained the true dramatic
stand-point; when once he understands that there is a teacher here,--a
new one,--one who will not undertake to work with the
instrumentalities that his time offered to him, who begins by
rejecting the abstractions which lie at the foundation of all the
learning of his time, which are not scientific, but vague, loose,
popular notions, that have been collected without art, or scientific
rule of rejection, and are, therefore, inefficacious in nature, and
unavailable for 'the art and practic part of life;' a teacher who will
build up his philosophy anew, from the beginning, a teacher who will
begin with history and particulars, who will abstract his definitions
from nature, and have _powers_ of them, and not _words_ only, and make
_them_ the basis of his science and the material and instrument of his
reform. 'I will teach you _differences_,' says Kent to the steward,
alluding on the part of his author, for he does not profess to be
metaphysical himself to another kind of distinction, than that which
obtained in the schools; and accompanying the remark, on his own part,
with some practical demonstrations, which did not appear to be taken
in good part at all by the person he was at such pains to instruct in
his doctrine of distinctions.
The reader who has once gained this clue, the clue which the question
of design and authorship involves, will find this play, as he will
find, indeed, all this author's plays, overflowing every where with
the scientific statement,--the finest abstract statement of that which
the action, with its moving, storming, laughing, weeping, praying
diagrams, sets forth in the concrete.
But he who has not yet gained this point,--the critic who looks at it
from the point of observation which the traditionary theory of its
origin and intent creates, is not in a position to notice the
philosophic expositions of its purport, with which the action is all
inwoven. No,--though the whole structure of the piece should
manifestly hang on them, though the whole flow of the dialogue should
make one tissue of them, though every interstice of the play should be
filled with them, though the fool's jest, and the Bedlamite's
gibberish, should point and flash with them at every turn;--though the
wildest incoherence of madness, real or assumed, to its most dubious
hummings,--its snatches of old ballads, and inarticulate mockings of
the blast, should be strung and woven with them; though the storm
itself, with its wild accompaniment, and demoniacal frenzies, should
articulate its response to them;--keeping open tune without, to that
human uproar; and howling symphonies, to the unconquered demoniacal
forces of human life,--for it is the Poet who writes in 'the storm
continues,'--'the storm continues,'--'the storm continues;'--though
even Edmund's diabolical '_fa, sol, lah, mi_,' should dissolve into
harmony with them, while Tom's five fiends echo it from afar, and 'mop
and mow' their responses, down to the one that '_since possesses
chambermaids_;' nobody that takes the play theory, and makes a matter
of faith of it merely; nobody that is willing to shut his eyes and
open his mouth, and swallow the whole upon trust, as a miracle simply,
is going to see anything in all this, or take any exceptions at it.
Certainly, at the time when it was written, it was not the kind of
learning and the kind of philosophy that the world was used to. Nobody
had ever heard of such a thing. The memory of man could not go far
enough to produce any parallel to it in letters. It was manifest that
this was _nature_, the living nature, the thing itself. None could
perceive the tint of the school on its robust creations; no eye could
detect in its sturdy compositions the stuff that books were made of;
and it required no effort of faith, therefore, to believe that it was
not that. It was easy enough to believe, and men were glad, on the
whole, to believe that it was not that--that it was not learning or
philosophy--but something just as far from that, as completely its
opposite, as could well be conceived of.
How could men suspect, as yet, that this was the new scholasticism,
the New Philosophy? Was it strange that they should mistake it for
rude nature herself, in her unschooled, spontaneous strength, when it
had not yet publicly transpired that something had come at last upon
the stage of human development, which was stooping to nature and
learning of her, and stealing her secret, and unwinding the clue to
the heart of her mystery? How could men know that this was the
subtlest philosophy, the ripest scholasticism, the last proof of all
human learning, when it was still a secret that the school of nature
and her laws, that the school of natural history and natural
philosophy, too, through all its lengths and breadths and depths, was
open; and that '_the schools_'--the schools of old chimeras and
notions--the schools where the jangle of the monkish abstractions and
the 'fifes and the trumpets of the Greeks' were sounding--were going
to get shut up with it.
How should they know that the teacher of the New Philosophy was Poet
also--must be, by that same anointing, a singer, mighty as the sons of
song who brought their harmonies of old into the savage earth--a
singer able to sing down antiquities with his new gift, able to sing
in new eras?
But these have no clue as yet to track him with: they cannot collect
or thread his thick-showered meanings. He does not care through how
many mouths he draws the lines of his philosophic purpose. He does not
care from what long distances his meanings look towards each other.
But these interpreters are not aware of that. They have not been
informed of that particular. On the contrary, they have been put
wholly off their guard. Their heads have been turned, deliberately, in
just the opposite direction. They have no faintest hint beforehand of
the depths in which the philosophic unities of the piece are hidden:
it is not strange, therefore, that these unities should escape their
notice, and that they should take it for granted that there are none
in it. It is not the mere play-reader who is ever going to see them.
It will take the philosophic student, with all his clues, to master
them. It will take the student of the New School and the New Ages,
with the torch of Natural Science in his hand, to track them to their
centre.
Here, too, as elsewhere, it is the king himself on whom the bolder
political expositions are thrust. But it is not his royalty only that
has need to be put in requisition here, to bring out successfully all
that was working then in this Poet's mind and heart, and which had to
come out in some way. It was something more than royalty that was
required to protect this philosopher in those astounding freedoms of
speech in which he indulges himself here, without any apparent scruple
or misgiving. The combination of distresses, indeed, which the old
ballad accumulates on the poor king's head, offers from the first a
large poetic license, of which the man of art--or '_prudence_,' as he
calls it--avails himself somewhat liberally.
With those _daughters_ in the foreground always, and the parental
grief so wild and loud--with that deeper, deadlier, infinitely more
cruel _private_ social wrong interwoven with all the political
representation, and overpowering it everywhere, as if that inner
social evil were, after all, foremost in the Poet's thought--as if
that were the thing which seemed crying to him for redress more than
all the rest--if, indeed, any thought of 'giving losses their
remedies' could cross a Player's dream, when, in the way of his
profession, 'the _enormous state_' came in to fill his scene, and open
its subterranean depths, and let out its secrets, and drown the stage
with its elemental horror;--with his daughters in the foreground, and
all that magnificent accompaniment of the elemental war without--with
all nature in that terrific uproar, and the Fool and the Madman to
create a diversion, and his friends all about him to hush up and make
the best of everything--with that great storm of pathos that the
Magician is bringing down for him--with the stage all in tears, by
their own confession, and the audience sobbing their responses--what
the poor king might say between his chattering teeth was not going to
be very critically treated; and the Poet knew it. It was the king, in
such circumstances, who could undertake the philosophical expositions
of the action; and in his wildest bursts of grief he has to manage
them, in his wildest bursts of grief he has to keep to them.
But it is not until long afterwards, when the storm, and all the
misery of that night, has had its ultimate effect--its chronic
effect--upon him, that the Poet ventures to produce, under cover of
the sensation which the presence of a mad king on the stage creates,
precisely that exposition of the scene which has been, here, insisted
on.
'They flattered me like a dog; they told me I had _white_ hairs in my
beard, ere the _black_ ones were there. To say _Ay_ and _No_ to
everything _I_ said!--Ay and No too was no good DIVINITY. _When the
rain came to wet me once_, and _the wind made me chatter; when the
thunder would not peace at my bidding,--there_ I found them, _there I
smelt them out_. Go to, they are not men of their words. _They told me
I was everything: 'tis a lie. I am not ague-proof_.'
_Gloster_. The trick of that voice I do well remember:
Is't not THE KING?
_Lear_. _Ay_, every inch _a King_:
When _I_ do stare, _see, how the subject quakes_.
But it is a subject he has conjured up from his brain that is quaking
under his regal stare. And it is the impersonation of God's authority,
it is the divine right to rule men at its pleasure, _with or without
laws, as it sees fit_, that stands there, tricked out like Tom
o'Bedlam, with A CROWN of noisome _weeds_ on its head, arguing the
question of the day, taking up for the divine right, defining its own
position:--
_Is't not the king_?
Ay every inch a king:
_When I do stare, see how the subject quakes_.
_See_; yes, _see_. For that is what he stands there for, or that you
may see _what it is_ at whose stare _the subject_ quakes. He is there
to 'represent to the eye,' because impressions on the senses are more
effective than abstract statements, the divine right and sovereignty,
the majesty of the COMMON-weal, the rule that protects each helpless
individual member of it with the strength of all, the rule awful with
great nature's sanction, enforced with her dire pains and penalties.
He is there that you may see whether _that_ is it, or not; that one
poor wretch, that thing of pity, which has no power to protect itself,
in whom _the law_ itself, the sovereignty of reason, is dethroned.
That was, what all men thought it was, when this play was written; for
the madness of arbitrary power, the impersonated will and passion, was
the _state_ then. That is the spontaneous affirmation of rude ages, on
this noblest subject,--this chosen subject of the new
philosophy,--which stands there now to facilitate the demonstration,
'as globes and machines do the more subtle demonstrations in
mathematics.' It is the 'affirmation' which the Poet finds
pre-occupying this question; but this is the table of _review_ that he
stands on, and this 'Instance' has been subjected to the philosophical
tests, and that is the reason that all those dazzling externals of
majesty, which make that 'IDOL CEREMONY' are wanting here; that is the
reason that his crown has turned to weeds. This is the popular
affirmative the Poet is dealing with; but it stands on the scientific
'Table of _Review_,' and the result of this inquiry is, that it goes
to 'the table of NEGATIONS.' And the negative table of science in
these questions is Tragedy, the World's Tragedy. 'Is't not the king?'
'Ay, every inch--_a King_. When I do stare, see how the subject
quakes.' But the voice within overpowers him, and the axioms that are
the vintage of science, the inductions which are the result of that
experiment, are forced from his lips. 'To say ay and no to everything
that _I_--that _I_--said! To say _ay_ and _no_ too, was no GOOD
DIVINITY. They told me that I was everything. 'T IS A LIE. I am not
_ague proof_.' 'T is A LIE'--that is, what is called in other places a
'_negative_.'
In this systematic exposure of 'the particular and private nature' in
the human kind, and those SPECIAL susceptibilities and liabilities
which qualify its relationships; in this scientific exhibition of its
_special_ liability to suffering from the violation of the higher law
of those relationships--its _special_ liability to injury, moral,
mental, and physical--a liability from which the very one who usurps
the place of that law has himself no exemption in this exhibition,--
which requires that the king himself should represent that liability
in chief--it was not to be expected that this particular ill, this
ill in which the human wrong in its extreme capes is so wont to
exhibit its consummations, should be omitted. In this exhibition,
which was designed to be scientifically inclusive, it would have
been a fault to omit it. But that the Poet should have dared to
think of exhibiting it dramatically in this instance, and that,
too, in its most hopeless form--that he should have dared to think
of exhibiting the personality which was then 'the state' to the
eye of 'the subject' labouring under that personal disability, in the
very act, too, of boasting of its kingly terrors--this only goes to
show what large prerogatives, what boundless freedoms and immunities,
the resources of this particular department of art could be made to
yield, when it fell into the hands of the new Masters of Arts, when it
came to be selected by the Art-king himself as his instrument.
But we are prepared for this spectacle, and with the Poet's wonted
skill; for it is _Cordelia_, her heart bursting with its stormy
passion of filial love and grief, that, REBEL-LIKE, seeks to be QUEEN
o'er her, though she queens it still, and 'the smiles on her ripe lips
seem not to know what tears are in her eyes,' for she has had her hour
with her subject grief, and 'dealt with it alone,'--it is this child
of truth and duty, this true Queen, this impersonated sovereignty,
whom her Poet crowns with his choicest graces, on whom he devolves the
task of prefacing this so critical, and, one might think, perhaps,
perilous exhibition. But her description does not disguise the matter,
or palliate its extremity.
'Why, he was met even now,
Mad as the _vexed sea_, singing aloud;'
_Crowned_--.
'Crowned with _rank fumiter_, and _furrow weeds_,
With hardocks, _hemlock_, _nettles_, cuckow flowers,
_Darnel, and all the idle weeds that grow
In our sustaining corn_.'
That is the crown; and a very extraordinary symbol of sovereignty it
is, one cannot help thinking, for the divine right to get on its head
by any accident just then. Surely that symbol of power is getting
somewhat rudely handled here, in the course of the movements which the
'necessary questions of this Play' involve, as the critical mind might
begin to think. In the botanical analysis of that then so dazzling,
and potent, and compelling instrument in human affairs, a very careful
observer might perhaps take notice that the decidedly hurtful and
noxious influences in nature appear to have a prominent place; and,
for the rest, that the qualities of _wildness_ and idleness, and
encroaching good-for-nothingness, appear to be the common and
predominating elements. It is when the Tragedy reaches its height that
this _crown_ comes out.
A hundred men are sent out to pursue this majesty; not now to wait on
him in idle ceremony, and to give him the 'addition of a king';
but--to catch him--to search every acre in the high-grown field, and
bring him in. He has evaded his pursuers: he comes on to the stage
full of self-congratulation and royal glee, chuckling over his
_prerogative_:--
'No; they cannot touch _me_ for COINING. _I am the king himself_.'
'O thou side-piercing sight!' [Collateral meaning.]
'_Nature's above Art_ in that respect.' ['So _o'er_ that art which you
say adds to nature, is an art that Nature makes.'] 'There's your press
money. That fellow handles his bow like a crow-keeper: draw me a
clothier's yard.--Look, look, a mouse! _Peace, peace_; this piece of
toasted cheese will do't.--There's my gauntlet; I'll prove it on a
giant_.'
But the messengers, who were sent out for him, are on his track.
_Enter a Gentleman, with Attendants_.
_Gent_. O here he is, lay hand upon him. Sir,
Your most dear daughter--
_Lear_. No rescue? What, a _prisoner_? I am even
_The natural fool of fortune_! Use me well;
You shall have ransom. Let me have a surgeon,
I am cut to the brains.
_Gent_. You shall have anything.
_Lear_. No seconds? All myself?
_Gent_. Good Sir,--
_Lear_. I will die bravely, like a bridegroom: What?
I will be _jovial_. Come, come; _I am a king,
My masters_; know you _that_?
_Gent_. _You are_, a royal one, _and we obey you_.
_Lear_. Then _there's life in it_. Nay, an you get it, you shall
get it by running. Sa, sa, sa, sa. [_Exit, running; Attendants_
FOLLOW.] ['Transient hieroglyphic.']
_Gent_. A sight most pitiful in the meanest wretch;
_Past speaking of, in_ A KING!
[not past exhibiting, it seems, however.]
But, of course, there was nothing that a king, whose mind was in such
a state, could not be permitted to say with impunity; and it is in
this very scene that the Poet puts into his mouth the boldest of those
philosophical suggestions which the first attempt to find a theory for
the art and practical part of life, gave birth to: he skilfully
reserves for this scene some of the most startling of those social
criticisms which the action this play is everywhere throwing out.
For it is in this scene, that the outcast king encounters the victim
of tyranny, whose eyes have been plucked out, and who has been turned
out to beggary, as the penalty of having come athwart that disposition
in 'the duke,' that 'all the world well knows will not be rubbed or
stopped';--it is in this scene that Lear finds him smelling his way to
_Dover_, for that is the name in the play--the play name--for the
place towards which men's hopes appear to be turning; and that
conversation as to how the world goes, to which allusion has been
already made, comes off, without appearing to suggest to any mind,
that it is other than accidental on the part of the Poet, or that the
action of the play might possibly be connected with it! For
notwithstanding this great stress, which he lays everywhere on
_forethought_ and a deliberative _rational_ intelligent procedure, as
_the distinctive human mark_,--the characteristic feature of _a
man_,--the poor poet himself, does not appear to have gained much
credit hitherto for the possession of this human quality.--
_Lear_. Thou seest how this world goes?
_Gloster_. I see it feelingly.
_Lear_. What, art mad?--
[have you not the use of your reason, then? Can you not _see_ with
that? _That_ is the kind of sight we talk of here. It's the want of
that which makes these falls. We have eyes with which to foresee
effects,--eyes which outgo all the senses with their range of
observation, with their range of certainty and foresight.]
'What, art mad? A man may see how this world goes with no eyes. Look
with thine--_ears: see_ how yon justice rails upon yon _simple thief_.
Hark, in thine ear: Change _places_, and, handy-dandy, _which is the
justice, and which is_ THE THIEF?' [Searching social questions, as
before. 'Thou robed man of _justice_ (to the Bedlamite), take thy
place; and thou, his yoke-fellow of _equity_ (to the Fool), _bench by
his side_. Thou, _sapient_ sir, sit here.']
So that it would seem, perhaps, as if wisdom, as well as honesty,
might be wanting there--the searching subtle wisdom, that is matched
in subtlety, with nature's forces, that sees true differences, and
effects true reformations. '_Change places. Hark, in thine ear_.'
Truly this is a player who knows how to suit the word to the action,
and the action to the word; for there has been a revolution going on
in this play which has made as complete a social overturning--which
has shaken kings, and dukes, and lordlings out of their 'places,' as
completely as some later revolutions have done. 'Change places!' With
one duke in the stocks, and another wandering blind in the
streets--with a dukeling, in the form of mad Tom, to lead him, with a
king in a hovel, calling for the straw, and a queen hung by the neck
till she is dead--with mad Tom on the bench, and the Fool, with his
cap and bells, at his side--with Tom at the council-table, and
occupying the position of chief favourite and adviser to the king, and
a distinct proposal now that the thief and the justice shall change
places on the spot--with the inquiry as to which is _the justice_, and
which is the _thief_, openly started--one would almost fancy that the
subject had been exhausted here, or would be, if these indications
should be followed up. What is it in the way of social alterations
which the player's imagination could conceive of, which his scruples
have prevented him from suggesting here?
But the mad king goes on with those new and unheard-of political and
social suggestions, which his madness appears to have had the effect
of inspiring in him--
_Lear_. Thou hast seen a farmer's _dog_ bark at a _beggar_?
_Gloster_. Ay, sir.
_Lear_. And the _creature_ run from the _cur? There_ might'st thou
behold _the great image of_ AUTHORITY: _a dog's obeyed in office_.
Through tattered robes _small vices_ do appear;
_Robes_, and _furred gowns, hide all_.
[_Robes,--robes_, and _furred gowns_!]
Plate sin with gold,
And the strong lance of justice hurtless breaks;
Arm it with rags, a pigmy's straw doth pierce it.
But that was before Tom got his seat on the bench--that was before Tom
got his place at the council-table.
'None does offend,--_none_--'
[unless you will begin your reform at the beginning, and hunt down the
great rogues as well as the little ones; or, rather, unless you will
go to the source of the evil, and take away the evils, of which these
crimes, that you are awarding penalties to, are the result, let it all
alone, I say. Let's have no more legislation, and no more of _this_
JUSTICE, _this_ EQUITY, that takes the vices which come through the
tattered robes, and leaves the great _thief_ in his purple untouched.
Let us have no more of this mockery. Let us be impartial in our
justice, at least.] 'None does offend. _I say none. I'll_ able 'em.'
[I'll show you the way. Soft. _Hark, in thine ear_.] 'Take that of
_me_, my friend, _who have the power_ TO SEAL THE ACCUSER'S LIPS.'
[Soft, _in thine ear_.]--
'Get thee _glass_ eyes,
And like a scurvy _politician_, seem
To see the things thou dost not.--_Now, now, now_, NOW.
* * * * *
I know thee well enough. Thy name is--Gloster.
_Thou must be patient_; we came crying hither.
Thou know'st the first time that we smell the air
We wawl and cry. I will _preach_ to thee; _mark me_.
_Gloster. Alack, alack, the day!_
_Lear_. When we are born, we cry that we are come
To this great stage of--_Fools_.
[Mark me, for I _preach_ to thee--of _Fools_.
I am even the _natural fool of fortune_.]
--'O matter and impertinency, mixed
Reason in madness.'--
--is the Poet's concluding comment on this regal boldness, a safe and
saving explanation; 'for to define true madness,' as Polonius says,
'what is it but to _be_ nothing else but mad.' If the 'all licensed
fool,' as Goneril peevishly calls him, under cover of his assumed
imbecility, could carry his traditional privilege to such dangerous
extremes, and carp and philosophize, and fling his bitter jests about
at his pleasure, surely downright madness might claim to be invested
with a privilege as large. But madness, when conjoined with royalty,
makes a _double_ privilege, one which this Poet finds, however, at
times, none too large for his purposes.
Thus, Hamlet, when his mind is once in a questionable state, can be
permitted to make, with impunity, profane suggestions as to certain
possible royal progresses, and the changes to which the dust of a
Cæsar might be liable, without being reminded out of the play, that to
follow out these suggestions 'would be' indeed, 'to consider too
curiously,' and that most extraordinary humour of his enables him also
to relieve his mind of many other suggestions, 'which reason and
sanity,' in his time, could not have been 'so prosperously delivered
of.'
For what is it that men can set up as a test of _sanity_ in any age,
but their own common beliefs and sentiments. And what surer proof of
the king's madness,--what more pathetic indication of its midsummer
height could be given, than those startling propositions which the
poet here puts into his mouth, so opposed to the opinions and
sentiments, not of kings only, but of the world at large; what madder
thing could a poet think of than those political axioms which he
introduces under cover of these suggestions,--which would lay the axe
at the root of the common beliefs and sentiments on which the social
structure then rested. How could he better show that this poor king's
wits had, indeed, 'turned;' how could he better prove that he was,
indeed, past praying for, than by putting into his mouth those bitter
satires on the state, those satires on the 'one only man' power
itself,--those wild revolutionary proposals, 'hark! in thine
ear,--_change places_. Softly, in thine ear,-- _which is the_ JUSTICE,
and which is THE THIEF?' 'Take that of _me_ who have the power to
_seal the accuser's lips_. None does offend. I say none. I'll able
'em. Look when I stare, see how the subject quakes.' These laws have
failed, you see. They shelter the most frightful depths of wrong. That
Bench has failed, you see; and that Chair, with all its adjunct
divinity. Come here and look down with me from this pinnacle, into
these abysses. Look at that wretch there, in the form of man. Fetch
him up in his blanket, and set him at the Council Table with his elf
locks and begrimed visage and inhuman gibberish. Perhaps, he will be
able to make some suggestion there; and those five fiends that are
talking in him at once, would like, perhaps, to have a hearing there.
Make him 'one of your hundred.' You are of '_the commission_,' let him
bench with _you_. Nay, change places, let him try your cause, and tell
us which is the justice, which is _the thief_, which is the sapient
Sir, and which is the Bedlamite. Surely, the man who authorizes these
suggestions must be, indeed, 'far gone,' whether he be 'a king or a
yeoman.' And mad indeed he is. Writhing under the insufficiency and
incompetency of these pretentious, but, in fact, ignorant and usurping
institutions, his heart of hearts racked and crushed with their
failure, the victim of this social empiricism, cries out in his
anguish, under that safe disguise of the Robes that hide all: 'Take
these away at least,--that will be something gained. Let us have no
more of this mockery. None does offend--none--I say _none_.' Let us go
back to the innocent instinctive brutish state, and have done with
this vain disastrous struggle of nature after the human form, and
_its_ dignity, and perfection. Let us talk no more of law and justice
and humanity and DIVINITY forsooth, _divinity_ and the celestial
graces, that divinity which is the end and perfection of the _human_
form.--Is not womanhood itself, and the Angel of it
_fallen_--degenerate?--That is the humour of it.--That is the meaning
of the savage edicts, in which this _human_ victim of the _inhuman_
state, the subject of a social state which has failed in some way of
the human end, undertakes to utter through the king's lips, his sense
of the failure. For the Poet at whose command he speaks, is the true
scientific historian of nature and art, and the rude and struggling
advances of the _human_ nature towards its ideal type, though they
fall never so short, are none of them omitted in his note-book. He
knows better than any other, what gain the imperfect civilization he
searches and satirizes and lays bare here, _has made_, with all its
imperfections, on the spontaneities and aids of the individual,
unaccommodated man: he knows all the value of the accumulations of
ages; he is the very philosopher who has put forth all his wisdom to
guard the state from the shock of those convulsions, that to his
prescient eye, were threatening then to lay all flat.
'O let him _pass_!' is the Poet's word, when the loving friends seek
to detain a little longer, the soul on whom this cruel time has done
its work,--its elected sufferer.
'O let him pass! _he hates him_
That would upon the rack of this tough world,
Stretch him out longer.'
[Tired with all these, he cries in his own behalf.]
'Tired with all these, for _restful death_ I cry.
Thou seest how this world goes. I see it _feelingly_.'
_Albany_. The weight of this sad time _we must obey_,
_Speak_ WHAT WE FEEL, _not what we ought to say_,
The oldest hath borne most: we that are young
Shall never see so much, nor live so long.
It needs but a point, a point which the Poet could not well put
in,--one of those points which he speaks of elsewhere so
significantly, to make the unmeaning line with which this great social
Tragedy concludes, a sufficiently fitting conclusion to it;
considering, at least, the pressure under which it was written; and
the author has himself called our attention to that, as we see, even
in this little jingle of rhymes, put in apparently, only for
professional purposes, and merely to get the curtain down decently. It
is a point, which it takes the key of the play--Lord Bacon's key, of
'Times,' to put in. It wants but a comma, but then it must be a comma
in the right place, to make English of it. Plain English, unvarnished
English, but poetic in its fact, as any prophecy that Merlin was to
make.
'The oldest hath borne most, we that are _young_
Shall never see so much, nor live so long.'
There were boys 'in England then a-bed;' nay, some of them might have
been present that day, for aught we know, on which one of the Managers
of the Surrey Theatre, the owner of the wardrobe and stage-properties,
and himself an actor, brought out with appropriate decorations and
dresses, for the benefit of his audience on the Bankside, this little
ebullition of his genius;--there were boys present then, perhaps,
whose names would become immortal with the fulfilment of that
prophecy;--there was one at Whitehall, when it was brought out there,
whose name would be for ever linked with it. 'We that are young,--the
oldest hath _borne_ most. We that are young shall never _see_ so much'
[I _see_ it feelingly],
'Shall never _see_ so much, nor live so _long_.'
So.
But there were evils included in that tragic picture, which those who
were young then, would _not_ outlive; evils which the times that were
near with their coarse, fierce remedies, would not heal; evils which
the Seer and Leader of the Times that were far off, would himself make
over to _their_ cure;--evils in whose cure the Discoverer of the
science of Nature, and the inventor of the New Magic which is the part
operative of it, expected to be called upon for an opinion, when the
time for that extension of his science, 'crushed together and infolded
within itself in these books of Nature's learning,' should fully come.
Nothing almost sees MIRACLES _but_ MISERY, says poor Kent, in the
stocks, waiting for the 'beacon' of the morning, by whose
_comfortable_ beams, he might peruse his letter. 'I know,' he says,
''Tis from Cordelia,
Who hath most fortunately been informed
Of my obscured course, and shall find _time
From this enormous state_--seeking--TO GIVE
LOSSES THEIR REMEDIES.'
There is no attempt to demonstrate that the work here proposed as a
study, worthy the attention of the philosophical student, is not,
notwithstanding a Poem, and a Poet's gift, not to his contemporaries
only, but to his kind. What is claimed is, indeed, that it is a Poem
which, with all its overpowering theatrical effects, does, in fact,
reserve its true poetic wealth, for those who will find the springs of
its inmost philosophic purport. There is no attempt to show that this
play belongs to the category of scientific works, according to our
present limitation of the term, or that there could be found any niche
for it, on those lower platforms and compartments of the new science
of nature, which our modern works of natural science occupy.
It was inevitably a Poem. There was the essence of all Tragedy in the
purely scientific exhibition, which the purpose of it required. The
intention of the Poet to exhibit the radical idea of his plot
impressively, so as to reach the popular mind through its appeal to
the sensibilities, involved, of course, the finest series of
conjunctions of artistic effects, the most exquisite characterization,
the boldest grouping, the most startling and determined contrasts,
which the whole range of his art could furnish.
But that which is only the incident of a genuine poetic inspiration,
the effect upon the senses, which its higher appeals are sure to
involve, becomes with those delighting in, and capable of
appreciating, that sensuous effect merely, its sufficient and only
end, and even a doctrine of criticism based on this inversion will not
be wanting. But the difficulty of unlocking the great Elizabethan
poems with any such theory of Art, arises from the fact that it is not
the theory of Art, which the great Elizabethan Poets adopted, and
whether we approve of theirs or not, we must take it, such as it was,
for our torch in this exploration. As to that spontaneity, that
seizure, that Platonic divination, that poetic 'fury,' which our prose
philosopher scans in so many places so curiously, which he defines so
carefully and strictly, so broadly too, as the _poetic_ condition that
thing which he appears to admire so much, as having something a little
demoniacal in it withal, that same 'fine' thing which the Poet himself
speaks of by a term not any less questionable,--as to this poetic
inspiration, it is not necessary to claim that it is a thing with
which this Poet, the Poet of a new era, the Poet, the deliverer of an
Inductive Learning, has had himself, personally, no acquaintance. He
knows what it is. But it is a Poet who is, first of all, a man, and he
takes his humanity with him into all things. The essential human
principle is that which he takes to be the law and limit of the human
constitution. He is perfectly satisfied with 'the measure of a man,'
and he gives the preference deliberately, and on principle to the
sober and rational state in the human mind. All the elements which
enter into the human composition, all the states, normal or otherwise,
to which it is liable, have passed under his review, and this is his
conclusion; and none born of woman, ever had a better chance to look
at them, for all is alike heightened in him,--heightened to the ideal
boundary of nature, in the human form; but that which seems to be
heightened, most of all, that in which he stands preeminent and
singular in the natural history of man, would seem to be the
proportion of this heightening. It is what we have all recognized it
to be, Nature's largest, most prodigal demonstration of her capacities
in the human form, but it is, at the same time, her most excellent and
exquisite balance of composition--her most subdued and tempered work.
And the reason is, that he is not a particular and private man, and
the deficiencies and personalities of those from whom he is
abstracted, are studiously, and by method, kept out of him. For this
is the 'Will' not of one man only; it is the scientific abstract of a
philosophic union. It is a will that has a rule in art as well as
nature.
Certainly he is the very coolest Poet; and the fullest of this common
earth and its affairs, of any sage that has ever showed his head upon
it, in prose or metre. The sturdiness with which he makes good his
position, as an inhabitant, for the time being, of this terrestrial
ball, and, by the ordinance of God, subject to its laws, and liable to
its pains and penalties, is a thing which appears, to the careful
reviewer of it, on the whole, the most novel and striking feature of
this demonstration. He objects, on principle, to seizures and
possessions of all kinds. He refuses to be taken off his feet by any
kind of solicitation. He is a man who is never ashamed to have a
reason,--one that he can produce, and make intelligible to common
people, for his most exquisite proceedings; that is, if he chooses:
but, 'if reasons were plentiful as blackberries,' he is not the man to
give them on 'compulsion.' His ideas of the common mind, his notion of
the common human intelligence, or capacity for intelligence, appears
to be somewhat different from that of the other philosophers. The
common sense--the common form--is that which he is always seeking and
_identifying_ under all the differences. It is _that_ which he is
bringing out and clothing with the 'inter-tissued robe' and all the
glories which he has stripped from the extant majesty. 'Robes and
furred gowns hide all' no longer.
He is not a bard who is careful at all about keeping his singing robes
about him. He can doff them and work like a 'navvy' when he sees
reason. He is very fond of coming out with good, sober, solid prose,
in the heart of his poetry. He can rave upon occasion as well as
another. Spontaneities of all kinds have scope and verge enough in his
plot; but he always keeps an eye out, and they speak no more than is
set down for them. His Pythoness foams at the mouth too, sometimes,
and appears to have it all her own way, perhaps; but he knows what she
is about, and there is never a word in the oracle that has not
undergone his revision. He knows that Plato tells us 'it is in vain
for a sober man to knock at the floor of the Muses'; but he is one who
has discovered, scientifically, the human law; and he is ready to make
it good, on all sides, against all comers. And, though the Muses
knocked at his door, as they never had at any other, they could never
carry him away with them. They found, for once, a sober man within,
one who is not afraid to tell them, to their teeth, 'Judgment holds in
me, always, a magisterial seat;'--and, with all their celestial graces
and pretensions, he fetters them, and drags them up to that tribunal.
He superintends all his inspirations.
There never was a Poet in whom the poetic spontaneities were so
absolutely under control and mastery; and there never was one in whose
nature all the spontaneous force and faculty of genius showed itself
in such tumultuous fulness, ready to issue, at a word, in such
inexhaustible varieties of creative energy.
Of all the spirits that tend on mortal thoughts there is none to match
this so delicate and gorgeous Ariel of his,--this creature that he
keeps to put his girdles round the earth for him, that comes at a
thought, and brings in such dainty banquets, such brave pageants in
the earth or in the air; there is none other that knows so well the
spells 'to make this place Paradise.' But, for all that, he is the
merest tool,--the veriest drudge and slave. The magician's collar is
always on his neck; in his airiest sweeps he takes his chain with him.
Caliban himself is not more sternly watched and tutored; and all the
gorgeous masque has its predetermined order, its severe economy of
grace; through all the slightest minutiæ of its detail, runs the
inflexible purpose, the rational _human_ purpose, the common human
sense, the common human aim.
Yes, it is a Play; but it is the play of a mind sobered with all human
learning. Yes, it is spontaneous; but it is the spontaneity of a heart
laden with human sorrow, oppressed with the burthen of the common
weal. Yes, indeed, it is a Poet's work; but it is the work of one who
consciously and deliberately recognizes, in all the variety of his
gifts, in all his natural and acquired power, under all the
disabilities of his position, the one, paramount, human law, and
essential obligation. Of 'Art,' as anything whatever, but an
instrumentality, thoroughly subdued, and subordinated to _that_ end,
of Art as anything in itself, with an independent tribunal, and law
with an ethic and ritual of its own, this inventor of the one Art,
that has for its end the relief of the human estate and the Creator's
glory, knows nothing. Of any such idolatry and magnifying of the
creature, of any such worship of the gold of the temple to the
desecration of that which sanctifieth the gold, this Art-King in all
his purple, this priest and High Pontiff of its inner mysteries
knows--will know--nothing.
Yes, it is play; but it is not child's play, nor an _idiot's_ play,
nor the play of a 'jigging' Bacchanal, who comes out on this grave,
human scene, to insult our sober, human sense, with his mad humour,
making a Belshazzar's feast or an Antonian revel of it; a creature who
shows himself to our common human sense without _any_ human aim or
purpose, ransacking all the life of man, exploring all worlds,
pursuing the human thought to its last verge, and questioning, as with
the cry of all the race, the infinities beyond, diving to the lowest
depths of human life and human nature, and bringing up and publishing,
the before unspoken depths of human wrong and sorrow, wringing from
the hearts of those that died and made no sign, their death-buried
secrets, articulating everywhere that which before had no word--and
all for an artistic effect, for an hour's entertainment, for the
luxury of a harmonized impression, or for the mere ostentation of his
frolic, to feed his gamesome humour, to make us stare at his
unconsciousness, to show what gems he can crush in his idle cup for a
draught of pleasure, or in pure caprice and wantonness, confounding
all our notions of sense, and manliness, and human duty and respect,
with the boundless wealth and waste of his gigantic fooleries.
It is play, but let us thank God it is no such play as that; let our
common human nature rejoice that it has not been thus outraged in its
chief and chosen one, that it has not been thus disgraced with the
boundless human worthlessness of the creature on whom its choicest
gifts were lavished. It is play, indeed; but it is no such Monster,
with his idiotic stare of unconsciousness, that the opening of it will
reveal to us. Let us all thank God, and take heart again, and try to
revive those notions of human dignity and common human sense which
this story sets at nought, and see if we cannot heal that great jar in
our abused natures which this chimera of the nineteenth century makes
in it--this night-mare of modern criticism which lies with its dead
weight on all our higher art and learning--this creature that came in
on us unawares, when the interpretation of the Plays had outgrown the
Play-tradition, when '_the Play_' had outgrown '_the Player_.'
It is a play in which the manliest of human voices is heard sounding
throughout the order of it; it is a play stuffed to its fool's gibe,
with the soberest, deepest, maturest human sense; and 'the tears of
it,' as we who have tested it know, 'the tears of it are wet.' It is a
play where the choicest seats, the seats in which those who see it
_all_ must sit, are 'reserved;' and there is a price to be paid for
these: 'children and fools' will continue to have theirs for nothing.
For after so many generations of players had come and gone, there had
come at last on this human stage--on 'this great stage of fools,' as
the Poet calls it--this stage filled with 'the natural fools of
fortune,' having eyes, but seeing not--there had come to it at last a
MAN, one who was--take him _for all in all_--that; one who thought
it--for a man, enough to be truly that--one who thought he was
fulfilling his part in the universal order, in _seeking to be_
modestly and truly that; one, too, who thought it was time that the
_human_ part on the stage of this Globe Theatre should begin to be
reverently studied by man himself, and scientifically and religiously
ordered and determined through all its detail.
For it is the movement of the new time that makes this Play, and all
these Plays: it is the spirit of the newly-beginning ages of human
advancement which makes the inspiration of them; the beginning ages of
a rational, instructed--and not blind, or instinctive, or
demoniacal--human conduct.
It is such play and pastime as the prophetic spirit and leadership of
those new ages could find time and heart to make and leave to them, on
that height of vision which it was given to it to occupy. For an age
in human advancement was at last reached, on whose utmost summits men
could begin to perceive that tradition, and eyes of moonshine
speculation, and a thousand noses, and horns welked and waved like the
enridged sea, when they came to be jumbled together in one 'monster,'
did not appear to answer the purpose of human combination, or the
purpose of human life on earth; appeared, indeed to be still far, 'far
wide' of the end which human society is everywhere blindly pushing and
groping for, _en masse_.
There was a point of observation from which this fortuitous social
conjunction did not appear to the critical eye or ear to be making
just that kind of play and music which human nature--singularly
enough, considering what kind of conditions it lights on--is
constitutionally inclined to expect and demand; not that, or indeed
any perceptible approximation to a paradisaical state of things. There
_was_, indeed, a point of view--one which commanded not the political
mysteries of the time only, but the household secrets of it, and the
deeper secrets of the solitary heart of man, one which commanded alike
the palace and the hovel, to their blackest recesses--there was a
point of view from which these social agencies appeared to be making
then, in fact, whether one looked with eyes or ears, a mere diabolical
jangle, and '_fa, sol, la, mi_', of it, a demoniacal storm music; and
from that height of observation all ruinous disorders could be seen
coming out, and driving men to vice and despair, urging them to
self-destruction even, and hunting them disquietly to their graves.
'Nothing almost sees miracles but misery;' and this was the Age in
which the New Magic was invented.
It was the age in which that grand discovery was made, which the Fool
undertakes to palm off here as the fruit of his own single invention;
and, indeed, it was found that the application of it to certain
departments of human affairs was more successfully managed by this
gentleman in his motley, than by some of his brother philosophers who
attempted it. It was the age in which the questions which are inserted
here so safely in the Fool's catechism, began to be started secretly
in the philosophic chamber. It was the age in which the identical
answers which the cap and bells are made responsible for here, were
written down, but with other applications, in graver authorities. It
is the philosophical discovery of the time, which the Fool is
undertaking to translate into the vernacular, when he puts the
question, 'Canst thou tell why one's nose stands in the middle of his
face?' And we have all the Novum Organum in what he calls, in another
place, 'the boorish,' when he answers it; and all the choicest gems of
'the part operative' of the new learning have been rattling from his
rattle in everybody's path, ever since he published his digests of
that doctrine: 'Canst thou tell why one's nose stands in the middle of
his face?' 'No.' 'Why, to keep his eyes on either side of it, that
what he cannot _smell out_ he may _spy into_.' And 'all that follow
their noses are led by their eyes, but--_blind men_.' And 'the reason
why the seven stars are seven, is because they are not eight;' and the
king who makes that answer 'would have made a good--_fool_,' for it's
'a very pretty reason.' And neither times nor men should be 'old
before their time'; neither times nor men should be revered, or
clothed with authority or command in human affairs, 'till they are
_wise_.' ['Thou _sapient_ sir, sit _here_.'] And it is a mistake for a
leader of men to think that he 'has _white_ hairs in his beard, before
the _black_ ones are there.' And 'ants,' and 'snails,' and 'oysters,'
are wiser than men in their arts, and practices, and pursuits of ends.
It was the age in which it was perceived that 'to say ay and no to
everything' that a madman says, 'is _no good divinity_,' and that it
is 'the time's plague when Madmen lead the Blind;' and that, instead
of good men sitting still, like 'moral fools,' and crying out on wrong
and mischief, 'Alack, why does it so?' it would be wiser, and more
pious, too, to make use of the faculty of learning, with which the
Creator has armed Man, 'against diseases of the world,' to ascend to
the cause, and _punish_ that--punish _that_, 'ere it has done its
mischief.' It was the age in which it was discovered that 'the sequent
effect, with which nature finds itself scourged,' is not in the least
touched by any kind of reasoning 'thus and thus,' except that kind
which proceeds first by negatives, that kind which proceeds by a
method so severe that it contrives to _exclude_ everything but the
'the _cause in nature_' from its affirmation, which 'in practical
philosophy becomes _the rule_'--that is, the critical method,--which
is for men, as distinguished from the spontaneous affirmation, which
is for gods.
It is the beginning of these yet beginning Modern Ages, the ages of a
practical learning, and scientific relief to the human estate, which
this Pastime marks with its blazoned, illuminated initial. It is the
opening of the era in which a common human sense is developed, and
directed to the common-weal, which this Pastime celebrates; the
opening of the ages in which, ere all is done, the politicians who
expect mankind to entrust to them their destinies, will have to find
something better than 'glass eyes' to guide them with; in which it
will be no longer competent for those to whom mankind entrusts its
dearest interests to go on in their old stupid, conceited, heady
courses, their old, blind, ignorant courses,--stumbling, and
staggering, and groping about, and smelling their way with their own
narrow and selfish instincts, when it is the common-weal they have
taken on their shoulders;--running foul of the nature of
things--quarrelling with eternal necessities, and crying out, when the
wreck is made, 'Alack! why does it so?'
This Play, and all these plays, were meant to be pastime for ages in
which state reasons must needs be something else than 'the pleasure'
of certain individuals, 'whose disposition, all the world well knows,
will not be rubbed or stopped;' or 'the quality,' 'fiery' or
otherwise, of this or that person, no matter 'how unremoveable and
fixed' he may be 'in his own course.'
It was to the 'far off times;' and not to the 'near,' it was to the
advanced ages of the Advancement of Learning, that this Play was
dedicated by its Author. For it was the spirit of the modern ages that
inspired it. It was the new Prometheus who planned it; the more
aspiring Titan, who would bring down in his New Organum a new and more
radiant gift; it was the Benefactor and Foreseer, who would advance
the rude kind to new and more enviable approximations to the celestial
summits. He knew there would come a time, in the inevitable
advancements of that new era of scientific 'prudence' and forethought
which it was given to him to initiate, when all this sober historic
exhibition, with its fearful historic earnest, would read, indeed,
like some old fable of the rude barbaric past--some Player's play,
bent on a feast of horrors--some Poet's impossibility. And _that_--was
the Play,--that was the Plot. He knew that there would come a time
when all this tragic mirth--sporting with the edged tools of
tyranny--playing around the edge of the great axe itself--would be
indeed safe play; when his Fool could open his budget, and unroll his
bitter jests--crushed together and infolded within themselves so
long--and have a world to smile with him, and not the few who could
unfold them only. And that--that was 'the humour of it.'
Yes, with all their philosophy, these plays are Plays and Poems still.
There's no spoiling the 'tragical mirth' in them. But we are told, on
the most excellent contemporaneous authority--on the authority of one
who was in the inmost heart of all this Poet's secrets--that 'as we
often judge of the greater by the less, so the very pastimes of great
men give an honourable idea to the clear-sighted of THE SOURCE FROM
WHICH THEY SPRING.'
PART II.
JULIUS CAESAR;
OR,
THE EMPIRICAL TREATMENT IN DISEASES OF THE COMMON-WEAL EXPLAINED.
Good does not necessarily succeed evil; another evil may succeed, and
a worse, as it happened with Caesar's killers, who brought the
republic to such a pass that they had reason to repent their meddling
with it.... It must be examined in what condition THE ASSAILANT
is.--_Michael de Montaigne_.
_Citizen_. I fear there will a worse one come in his place.
_Cassius_. He were no lion, were not Romans hinds.
CHAPTER I.
THE DEATH OF TYRANNY; OR, THE QUESTION OF THE PREROGATIVE.
_Casca_. 'Tis Caesar that you mean: Is it _not_, Cassius?
_Cassius_. Let it be WHO IT is, for Romans _now_
Have thewes and limbs like to _their_ ancestors.
We all stand up against the _spirit_ of Caesar.
_Julius Caesar_.
Yes, when that Royal Injunction, which rested alike upon the
Play-house, the Press, the Pulpit, and _Parliament_ itself, was still
throttling everywhere the free voice of the nation--when a single
individual could still assume to himself, or to herself, the exclusive
privilege of deliberating on all those questions which men are most
concerned in--questions which involve all their welfare, for this life
and the life to come, certainly '_the Play, the Play was the thing_.'
It was a vehicle of expression which offered incalculable facilities
for evading these restrictions. It was the only one then invented
which offered then any facilities whatever for the discussion of that
question in particular--which was already for that age the question.
And to the genius of that age, with its new _historical,
experimental_, practical, determination--with its transcendant poetic
power, nothing could be easier than to get possession of this
instrument, and to exhaust its capabilities.
For instance, if a Roman Play were to be brought out at all,--and with
that mania for classical subjects which then prevailed, what could be
more natural?--how could one object to that which, by the supposition,
was involved in it? And what but the most boundless freedoms and
audacities, on this very question, could one look for here? What, by
the supposition, could it be but one mine of poetic treason? If Brutus
and Cassius were to be allowed to come upon the stage, and discuss
their views of government, deliberately and confidentially, in the
presence of an English audience, certainly no one could ask to hear
from their lips the political doctrine then predominant in England. It
would have been a flat anachronism, to request them to keep an eye
upon the Tower in their remarks, inasmuch as all the world knew that
the corner-stone of that ancient and venerable institution had only
then just been laid by the same distinguished individual whom these
patriots were about to call to an account for his military usurpation
of a constitutional government at home.
And yet, one less versed than the author in the mystery of theatrical
effects, and their combinations--one who did not know fully what kind
of criticism a mere _Play_, composed by a professional play-wright, in
the way of his profession, for the entertainment of the spectators,
and for the sake of the pecuniary result, was likely to meet with;--or
one who did not know what kind of criticism a work, addressed so
strongly to the imagination and the feelings in any form, is likely to
meet with, might have fancied beforehand that the author was venturing
upon a somewhat delicate experiment, in producing a play like this
upon the English stage at such a crisis. One would have said
beforehand, that 'there were things in this comedy of Julius Caesar
that would never please.' It is difficult, indeed, to understand how
such a Play as this could ever have been produced in the presence of
either of those two monarchs who occupied the English throne at that
crisis in its history, already secretly conscious that its foundations
were moving, and ferociously on guard over their prerogative.
And, indeed, unless a little of that same sagacity, which was employed
so successfully in reducing the play of Pyramus and Thisbe to the
tragical capacities of Duke Theseus' court, had been put in
requisition here, instead of that dead historical silence, which the
world complains of so much, we might have been treated to some very
lively historical details in this case, corresponding to other details
which the literary history of the time exhibits, in the case of
authors who came out in an evil hour in their own names, with
precisely the same doctrines, which are taught here word for word,
with impunity; and the question as to whether this Literary Shadow,
this Name, this Veiled Prophet in the World of Letters, ever had any
flesh and blood belonging to him anywhere, (and from the tenor of his
works, one might almost fancy sometimes that that might have been the
case), this question would have come down to us experimentally and
historically settled. For most unmistakeably, the claws of the young
British lion are here, under these old Roman togas; and it became the
'masters' to consider with themselves, for there is, indeed, 'no more
fearful wild fowl living' than your lion in such circumstances; and if
he should happen to forget his part in any case, and 'roar too loud,'
it would to a dead certainty 'hang them all.'
But it was only the faint-hearted tailor who proposed to 'leave out
the killing part.' Pyramus sets aside this cowardly proposition. He
has named the obstacles to be encountered only for the sake of
magnifying the fertility of his invention in overcoming them. He has a
device to make all even. 'Write me a prologue,' he says, 'and let the
prologue seem to say, we will do no harm with our _swords_; and for
the more assurance, tell them that _I, Pyramus, am not_ Pyramus, but
_Bottom, the Weaver; that will put them out of fear_.' And as to the
lion, there must not only be 'another prologue, to tell that he is not
a lion,' but 'you must name his name, and half his face must be seen
through the lion's neck, and he himself must speak through, saying
thus, or to the same _defect_, Ladies, or fair ladies, my life for
yours. If you think I come hither as a lion, it were pity of my life.'
To such devices, in good earnest, were those compelled to resort who
ventured upon the ticklish experiment of presenting heroic
entertainments for king's palaces, where 'hanging was the word' in
case of a fright; but, with a genius like this behind the scenes, so
fertile in invention, so various in gifts, who could aggravate his
voice so effectually, giving you one moment the pitch of 'the sucking
dove,' or 'roaring you like any nightingale,' and the next, 'the
Hercle's vein,'--with a genius who knew how to play, not 'the tyrant's
part only,' but 'the lover's, which is more condoling,' and whose
suggestion that the audience should look to their eyes in that case,
was by no means a superfluous one; with a genius who had all passions
at his command, who could drown, at his pleasure, the sharp critic's
eye, or blind it with showers of pity, or 'make it water with the
merriest tears, that the passion of loud laughter ever shed,' with
such resources, prince's edicts could be laughed to scorn. It was vain
to forbid such an one, to meddle with anything that was, or had been,
or could be.
But does any one say--'To what purpose,' if the end were concealed so
effectually? And does any one suppose, because no faintest suspicion
of the true purpose of this play, and of all these plays, has from
that hour to this, apparently ever crossed the English mind, at home
or abroad, though no suspicion of the existence of any purpose in them
beyond that of putting the author in easy circumstances, appears as
yet to have occurred to any one,--does any one suppose that this play,
and all these plays, have on that account, failed of their purpose;
and that they have not been all this time, steadily accomplishing it?
Who will undertake to estimate, for instance, the philosophical,
educational influence of this single Play, on every boy who has
spouted extracts from it, from the author's time to ours, from the
palaces of England, to the log school-house in the back-woods of
America?
But suppose now, instead of being the aimless, spontaneous, miraculous
product of a stupid, 'rude mechanical' bent on producing something
which should please the eye, and flatter the prejudices of royalty,
and perfectly ignorant of the nature of that which he had
produced;--suppose that instead of appearing as the work of
Starveling, and Snout, and Nick Bottom, the Weaver, or any person of
that grade and calibre, that this play had appeared at the time, as
the work of an English scholar, as most assuredly it was, profoundly
versed in the history of states in general, as well as in the history
of the English state in particular, profoundly versed in the history
of nature in general, as well as in the history of human nature in
particular. Suppose, for instance, it had appeared as the work of an
English statesman, already suspected of liberal opinions, but
stedfastly bent for some reason or other, on advancement at court,
with his eye still intently fixed, however secretly, on those
insidious changes that were then in progress in the state, who knew
perfectly well what crisis that ship of state was steering for;
_query_, whether some of the passages here quoted would have tended to
that 'advancement' he '_lacked_.' Suppose that instead of Julius
Caesar, 'looking through the lion's neck,' and gracefully rejecting
the offered prostrations, it had been the English courtier, condemned
to these degrading personal submissions, who 'roared you out,' on his
own account, after this fashion. Imagine a good sturdy English
audience returning the sentiment, thundering their applause at this
and other passages here quoted, in the presence of a Tudor or a
Stuart.
One might safely conclude, even if the date had not been otherwise
settled, that anything so offensive as this never was produced in the
presence of Queen Elizabeth. King James might be flattered into
swallowing even such treasonable stuff as this; but in her time, the
poor lion was compelled to aggravate his voice after another fashion.
Nothing much above the sucking-dove pitch, could be ventured on when
her quick ears were present. He 'roared you' indeed, all through her
part of the Elizabethan time; but it was like any nightingale. The
clash and clang of these Roman Plays were for the less sensitive and
more learned Stuart.
_Metellus Cimber_. Most high, most mighty,
And most puissant Caesar;
Metellus Cimber throws before thy seat
An humble heart:--[_Kneeling_.]
_Caesar_. I must prevent thee, Cimber.
_These couchings and these lowly courtesies:
Might_ fire the blood of ordinary men;
AND TURN PRE-ORDINANCE, and FIRST DECREE,
INTO THE LAW OF CHILDREN.
Be not fond
To think that CAESAR bears _such_ REBEL _blood_,
That will be thawed from the _true quality_,
With that which melteth FOOLS. (?) I mean, _sweet words,
Low, crooked curtsies_, and _base spaniel fawning.
Thy brother_ by _decree_ is banished;
If thou dost bend, and pray, and fawn for _him,
I spurn thee like a cur_, out of my way.
Know CAESAR DOTH NOT WRONG.
To appreciate this, one must recall not merely the humiliating
personal prostrations which the ceremonial of the English Court
required then, but that base prostration of truth and duty and honour,
under the feet of vanity and will and passion, which they symbolized.
Thus far _Caesar_, but the subject's views on this point, as here set
forth, are scarcely less explicit, but then it is a _Roman_ subject
who speaks, and the Roman costume and features, look savingly through
the lion's neck.
One of the radical technicalities of that new philosophy of the human
nature which permeates all this historical exhibition, comes in here,
however; and it is one which must be mastered before any of these
plays can be really read. The radical point in the new philosophy, as
it applies to the human nature in particular, is the pivot on which
all turns here,--here as elsewhere in the writings of this
school,--the distinction of 'the double self,' the distinction between
the particular and private nature, with its unenlightened instincts of
passion, humour, will, caprice,--that self which is changeful, at war
with itself, self-inconsistent, and, therefore, truly, no SELF,--since
the true self is the principle of identity and immutability,--the
distinction between that 'private' _nature_ when it is developed
instinctively as 'selfishness,' and that rational immutable self which
is constitutionally present though latent, in all men, and one in them
all; that noble _special_ human form which embraces and reconciles in
its intention, the private good with the good of that worthier whole
whereof we are individually parts and members; 'this is the
distinction on which all turns here.' For this philosophy refuses, on
philosophical grounds, to accept this low, instinctive private nature,
in any dressing up of accidental power as the god of its idolatry, in
place of that 'divine or angelical nature, which is the perfection of
the human form,' and the true sovereignty. Obedience to that
nature,--'the approach to, or assumption of,' that makes, in this
philosophy, the end of the human endeavour, 'and the error and false
imitation of that good, is that which is the tempest of the human
life.'
But let us hear the passionate Cassius, who is full of individualities
himself, and ready to tyrannize with them, but somehow, as it would
seem, not fond of submitting to the 'single self' in others.
'Well, honour _is_ the subject of my story.--
I can not tell what you, and other men,
Think of this life; but for my _single self_,
I had as lief not BE, as live to be
In awe of such a thing _as I myself_.
I was _born_ free as Caesar; so were you.
We both have fed as well: and we can both
Endure the winter's cold as well as he.'--
And the proof of this personal equality is then given; and it is
precisely the one which Lear produces, 'When the wind made me chatter,
there I found them,--there I smelt them out.'--
'For once upon a raw and gusty day,
The troubled Tiber chafing with her shores, etc.
* * * * *
--Caesar cried, Help me, Cassius, or I sink.
--And this man
Is now become a god, and Cassius is
A wretched creature, and _must bend his body_,
If Caesar carelessly but nod on him.
He had a fever when he was in Spain,
And when the fit was on him--_I did mark
How he did shake_: 'tis true, this god did shake.'
[This was a pretty fellow to have about a king's privacy taking notes
of this sort on his tablets. Among 'those saw and forms and pressures
past, which youth and observatior copied there,' all that part
reserved for _Caesar_ and his history, appears to have escaped the
sponge in some way.
'They told me I was every thing, 'tis a lie! I am not _ague_
proof.'--_Lear_.
His coward lips did from their colour fly.
'And that same _eye whose bend doth awe the world,
Did lose his lustre!--Julius Caesar_.
'--When I do stare see how _the subject_ quakes.--'_Lear_.]
I did hear him groan:
Aye, and that tongue of his _that bade the Romans
Mark him, and write his speeches in their books_.
Alas! it cried, '_Give me some drink_, Titinius,'
As a sick girl. Ye gods, it doth amaze me,
A man of _such a feeble temper should
So get the start of the majestic world_,
And bear the palm alone.
_Brutus_. Another _general shout_!
I do believe that these applauses are
For some new honours that are heap'd on Caesar.
_Cassius_. Why man, he doth bestride the narrow world,
Like a Colossus: and we petty men
Walk under his huge legs; and peep about
To find ourselves DISHONOURABLE GRAVES.
Men, at _some time_, are _masters of their fates,
The fault, dear Brutus_, IS NOT _in our_ STARS,
But in ourselves that we are underlings.
_Brutus_ and _Caesar_: What should be in that _Caesar_?
* * * * *
Now in the names of all the gods at once,
_Upon what meat doth this our Caesar feed
That he is grown so great_? AGE, thou art shamed:
_Rome, thou_ hast lost the breed of noble bloods!
When went there by an age, since the great flood,
But it was famed with more than with _One man_?
When could they say, till now, that talked of Rome,
That her wide walls encompass'd but _One man_?
Now is it Home indeed, and room enough,
When there is in it but one only man.
[When there is in it (truly) but _One only_,--MAN].
O! you and I have heard our fathers say,
There _was a Brutus once_, that would have brook'd
The eternal devil to keep his state in Rome,
As easily as _a king_.
_Brutus_. What you have said,
I will consider;--what you have to say
I will with patience hear: and _find a time_
Both _meet to hear, and answer such high things_.
Till then, my noble friend, CHEW UPON THIS;--
Brutus had rather be a _villager_,
Than to _repute_ himself a SON of ROME.
Under these hard conditions, as _this_ time
Is like to lay upon us. [Chew upon this].
_Cassius_. I am glad that my weak words
Have struck but thus much show of fire from Brutus.
[Re-enter Caesar and his train.]
_Brutus_. The games are done, and Caesar is returning.
_Cassius_. As they pass by, pluck Casca by the sleeve;
And he will, after his sour fashion, tell you
What hath proceeded worthy note to-day.
_Brutus_. I will do so:--But look you, Cassius,
_The angry spot doth glow on Caesar's brow.
And all the rest look like a chidden train_:
Calphurnia's cheek is pale; and _Cicero_
Looks with such ferret and such fiery eyes,
As we have seen him in the Capitol,
Being crossed in conference by some senators.
_Cassius_. Casca will tell us what the matter is.
_Caesar_. Antonius.
_Antony_. Caesar.
_Caesar_. Let me have men about me that are fat;
Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep o' nights:
Yond' Cassius has a lean and hungry look.
_He thinks too much: such men are dangerous_.
_Antony_. Fear him not, Caesar; he's not dangerous:
He is a noble Roman, and well given.
_Caesar_. Would he were fatter:--But I fear him not;
Yet if my name were liable to fear,
I do not know the man I should avoid
So soon as that spare Cassius. _He reads much:
He is a great observer, and he looks
Quite through the deeds of men: he loves no plays,
As thou dost Antony_; he hears no music:
Seldom he smiles; and smiles _in such a sort,
As if he mocked himself, and scorned his spirit
That could be moved to smile at any thing_.
Such men as he are never at heart's ease,
Whiles they behold a _greater than themselves_;
And therefore are they very dangerous,
I rather tell thee _what is to be feared_,
Than what _I_ fear, FOR ALWAYS I AM CAESAR.
_Come on my right hand, for this ear is deaf_,
And tell me _truly_ what thou think'st of him.
[_Exeunt Caesar and his train. Casca stays behind_.]
_Casca_. You pulled me by the _cloak_: would you speak with me?
_Brutus_. Ay, Casca, tell us what hath chanced to-day,
That Caesar looks so sad.
_Casca_. Why you were with him. Were you not?
_Brutus_. I should not then ask Casca what hath chanced.
_Casca_. Why there was a crown offered him: and, being offered, he
put it by with the back of his hand, thus; and then the people fell
a shouting.
_Brutus_. What was the second noise for?
_Casca_. Why for that too.
_Brutus_. They shouted thrice. What was the last cry for?
_Casca_. Why for that too.
_Brutus_. Was the crown offered him thrice?
_Casca_. Ay marry was't. And he put it by thrice, every time gentler
than the other; and at every putting by, mine honest neighbours
shouted.
_Cassius_. _Who offered him the crown_?
_Casca_. Why, Antony.
_Brutus_. Tell us the manner of it, gentle Casca.
_Casca_. I can as well be _hanged_ as tell the manner of it. It was
mere foolery. I did not mark it. I saw _Mark Antony_ offer him a
crown; yet 't was not a crown;--neither 't was one of these
coronets;--and, as I told you, he put it by once; but, for all
that, to my thinking, he would fain have had it. Then he offered it
to him again; then he put it by again: but, to my thinking, he was
very both to lay his fingers off it. And then he offered it the
third time; he put it the third time by; and still, as he refused
it, the rabblement hooted, and clapped their chapped hands, and
threw up their sweaty night caps, and uttered such a deal of
stinking breath, because Caesar refused the crown, that it had
almost choked Caesar; for he swooned and fell down at it: and, for
mine own part, I durst not laugh, for fear of opening my lips and
receiving the bad air.
_Cassius_. But soft, I pray you: WHAT? DID CAESAR SWOON?
_Casca_. _He fell down in the market-place, and foamed at mouth,
and was speechless_.
_Brutus_. 'Tis very like; he hath the falling sickness.
_Cassius_. No, Caesar hath it not; but you, and I,
And honest Casca, _we have the falling sickness_.
_Casca_. _I know not what you mean by that_: but I am sure, Caesar
fell down. If the _tag-rag people_ did not clap him and hiss him,
_according as he pleased and displeased them_, as they use to do
the Players in the theatre, I am no true man.
_Brutus_. What said he, when he came unto himself.
_Casca_. Marry, before he fell down, when he perceived the _common
herd_ was glad when he refused the crown, he plucked me ope his
doublet, and offered them his throat to cut.--An I had been a man
of any occupation, if I would not have taken him at a word; I would
I might go to hell among the rogues: and so he fell. When he came
to himself again, he said, if he had done or said anything amiss,
he desired their worships to think it was _his infirmity_. Three or
four wenches, where I stood, cried, 'Alas, good soul!'--and forgave
him with all their hearts: But there's no heed to be taken of
them; _if Caesar had stabbed their mothers, they would have done no
less_.
_Brutus_. And after that, he came thus sad away?
_Casca_. Ay.
_Cassius_. Did _Cicero say anything_?
_Casca_. Ay, _he spoke Greek_.
_Cassius_. To what effect?
_Casca_. _Nay, an I tell you that, I'll ne'er look you i' the face
again. But those that understood him, smiled at one another, and
shook their heads_: but for mine own part, it was _Greek to me_. I
could tell you more news, too: Marullus and Flavius, for _pulling
scarfs off Caesar's images, are put to silence_. Fare you well.
There was more foolery yet, if I could remember it.
Brutus says of Casca, when he is gone, 'He was quick mettle _when he
went to school_'; and Cassius replies, '_So he is now_--however he
puts on this _tardy form_. This rudeness is a sauce to his good wit,
which gives men stomach _to digest_ his words with better appetite.'
'_And so it_ is,' Brutus returns;--and so it is, indeed, as any one
may perceive, who will take the pains to bestow upon these passages
the attention which the author's own criticism bespeaks for them.
To the ear of such an one, the roar of the blank verse of Cassius is
still here, subdued, indeed, but continued, through all the humour of
this comic prose.
But it is Brutus who must lend to the Poet the sanction of his name
and popularity, when he would strike home at last to the heart of his
subject. Brutus, however, is not yet fully won: and, in order to
secure him, Cassius will this night throw in at his window, '_in
several hands--as if they came from several citizens_--writings, in
which, OBSCURELY, CAESAR'S AMBITION SHALL BE GLANCED AT.' And, 'After
this,' he says,--
'Let Caesar seat him sure,
For we will shake him, or worse days endure.'
But in the interval, that night of wild tragic splendour must come,
with its thunder-bolts and showers of fire, and unnatural horror. For
these elements have a true part to perform here, as in Lear and other
plays; they come in, not merely as subsidiary to the 'artistic
effect'--not merely because their wild Titanic play forms an imposing
harmonious accompaniment to the play of the human passions and their
'wildness'--but as a grand scientific exhibition of the element which
the Poet is pursuing under all its Protean forms--as a most palpable
and effective exhibition to the sense of that identical thing against
which he has raised his eternal standard of revolt, refusing to own,
under any name, its mastery.
But one can hear, in that wild lurid night, in the streets of Rome,
amid the cross blue lightnings, what could not have been whispered in
the streets of England then, or spoken in the ear in closets.
_Cicero_. [Encountering Casca in the street, with his sword drawn.]
Good-even, Casca; brought you Caesar home?
Why are you breathless? and why stare you so?
_Casca_. Are _you_ not moved, _when all the sway of earth
Shakes like a thing unfirm_? O Cicero,
I have seen tempests, when the _scolding winds_
Have rived the _knotty oaks_; and I have seen
The _ambitious ocean swell, and rage and foam_,
To be exalted with the threatening clouds;
But never till to-night, never till now,
Did I go through a tempest dropping fire.
Either there is a _civil strife in heaven_;
Or else the world, too saucy with the gods,
Incenses them to send destruction.
But the night has had other spectacles, it seems, which, to his eye,
appeared to have some relation to the coming struggle; in answer to
Cicero's '_Why_, saw you anything more wonderful?' Thus he describes
them.
'_A common slave,--you know him, well by sight_,
Held up his _left hand_, which did flame and burn
_Like twenty torches join'd.
Against the Capitol_ I met a lion,
Who glared upon me, and went _surly by_.'
[And he had seen, 'drawn on a head,']
'A hundred ghastly _women,
Transformed with their fears_; who swore they saw
Men, all in fire, walk up and down the streets.
And, yesterday, the _bird_ of _night_ did sit,
Even _at noon-day, upon the market-place_,
Hooting, and shrieking.'
An ominous circumstance,--that last. A portent sure as fate. When such
things begin to appear, 'men need not go to heaven to predict imminent
changes.'
Cicero concedes that 'it is indeed a strange disposed time?' and
inserts the statement that 'men may construe things after _their_
fashion, clean from the purpose of the things themselves.' But this is
too disturbed a sky for _him_ to walk in, so exit Cicero, and enter
one of another kind of mettle, who thinks 'the night a very pleasant
one to honest men;' who boasts that he has been walking about the
streets 'unbraced, baring his bosom to the thunder stone,' and playing
with 'the cross blue lightning;' and when Casca reproves him for this
temerity, he replies,
'You are dull, Casca, and those _sparks of life_
That should be in a Roman, you do want,
Or else you use not.'
For as to these extraordinary phenomena in nature, he says, 'If you
would consider the true cause
Why all these things change, from their _ordinance_,
Their _natures_ and _fore-formed faculties_,
To _monstrous_ quality; why, you shall find,
That heaven hath _infused_ them with these spirits,
To make them instruments of fear, and warning,
Unto _some_ MONSTROUS STATE.
Now could _I_, Casca,
Name to _thee_ a man _most like this dreadful night_;
That thunders, lightens, opens graves, and roars
As doth the lion in the Capitol:
_A man no mightier than thyself_, or _me_,
_In personal action_; yet _prodigious grown_,
And _fearful_, as these _strange eruptions are_.
_Casca_. 'Tis _Caesar_ that you mean: Is it not, Cassius?
_Cassius_. LET IT BE WHO IT is: for Romans _now_
Have _thewes_ and _limbs_ like to their ancestors;
But, woe the while! our fathers' _minds_ are dead,
And we are govern'd with our mothers' spirits;
Our yoke and sufferance shows us womanish.
_Casca_. Indeed, they say, the senators to-morrow
Mean to establish Caesar as a king.
And he shall wear his crown by sea, and land,
In every place, save here in Italy.
_Cassius_. I know where I will wear this dagger then;
Cassius from bondage will deliver Cassius:
Therein, ye gods, you make the weak most strong;
Therein, ye gods, you tyrants do defeat:
Nor STONY TOWER, nor walls of beaten brass,
Nor airless dungeon, nor strong links of iron,
Can be _retentive to the strength of spirit_.
If I know this, know all the world besides,
That part of tyranny, that _I_ do bear,
_I_ can shake off at pleasure.
_Casca_. So can _I_;
So every bondman _in his own hand bears_
The power to cancel his captivity.
_Cassius_. _And_ why _should Caesar be a tyrant_ then?
Poor man! I know, _he would not be a wolf,
But that he sees the Romans are but sheep
He were no lion, were not Romans hinds_.
Those that with haste will make a mighty fire,
Begin it with weak straws: _What trash is Rome,
What rubbish, and what offal, when it serves
for the base matter to illuminate
So vile a thing as Caesar_? But, O grief!
_Where_ hast thou led me? _I_ perhaps, _speak this_
BEFORE A WILLING BONDMAN: But I am arm'd
And dangers are to me indifferent.
_Casca_. You speak to Casca; and to such a man,
That is no fleering tell-tale. Hold my hand:
_Be factious for redress of all these griefs_:
And _I will set this foot of mine as far,
As who goes farthest_.
_Cassius_. There's a bargain made.
This is sufficiently explicit, an unprejudiced listener would be
inclined to say--indeed, it is difficult to conceive how any more
positively instructive exhibition of the subject, could well have been
made. Certainly no one can deny that this fact of the personal
helplessness, the physical weakness of those in whom this arbitrary
power over the liberties and lives of others is vested, seems for some
reason or other to have taken strong possession of the Poet's
imagination. For how else, otherwise should he reproduce it so often,
so elaborately under such a variety of forms?--with such a
stedfastness and pertinacity of purpose?
The fact that the power which makes these personalities so
'prodigious,' so 'monstrous,' overshadowing the world, '_shaming the
Age_' with their 'colossal' individualities, no matter what new light,
what new gifts of healing for its ills, that age has been endowed
with, levelling all to their will, contracting all to the limit of
their stinted nature, making of all its glories but 'rubbish, offal to
illuminate their vileness,'--the fact that the power which enables
creatures like these, to convulse nations with their whims, and deluge
them with blood, at their pleasure,--which puts the lives and
liberties of the noblest, always most obnoxious to them, under their
heel--the fact that this power resides after all, _not in these
persons themselves_,--that they are utterly helpless, pitiful,
contemptible, in themselves; but that it exists in the 'thewes and
limbs' of those who are content to be absorbed in their personality,
who are content to make muscles for them, in those who are content to
he mere machines for the 'only one man's' will and passion to operate
with,--the fact that this so fearful power lies all in the consent of
those who suffer from it, is the fact which this Poet wishes to be
permitted to communicate, and which he will communicate in one form or
another, to those whom it concerns to know it.
It is a fact, which he is not content merely to state, however, in so
many words, and so have done with it. He will impress it on the
imagination with all kinds of vivid representation. He will exhaust
the splendours of his Art in uttering it. He will leave a statement on
this subject, profoundly philosophical, but one that all the world
will be able to comprehend eventually, one that the world will never
be able to unlearn.
The single individual helplessness of the man whom the multitude, in
this case, were ready to arm with unlimited power over their own
welfare--that physical weakness, already so strenuously insisted on by
Cassius, at last attains its climax in the representation, when, in
the midst of his haughtiest display of will and personal authority,
stricken by the hands of the men he scorned, by the hand of one 'he
had just spurned like a cur out of his path,' he falls at the foot of
Pompey's statue--or, rather, 'when at the base of Pompey's statue he
lies along'--amid all the noise, and tumult, and rushing action of the
scene that follows--through all its protracted arrangements, its
speeches, and ceremonials--not unmarked, indeed,--the centre of all
eyes,--but, mute, motionless, a thing of pity, 'A PIECE OF BLEEDING
EARTH.'
That helpless cry in the Tiber, 'Save me, Cassius, or I sink!'--that
feeble cry from the sick man's bed in Spain, 'Give me some drink,
Titinius!'--and all that pitiful display of weakness, moral and
physical, at the would-be coronation, which Casca's report conveys so
unsparingly--the falling down in the street speechless, which Cassius
emphasises with his scornful '_What? did_ CAESAR SWOON?'--all this
makes but a part of the exhibition, which the lamentations of Mark
Antony complete:--
'O mighty Caesar, dost thou lie so low?
Are all thy conquests, glories, triumphs, spoils,
Shrunk to _this little measure_?'
_This_? and 'the eye' of the spectator, more learned than 'his ear,'
follows the speaker's eye, and measures it.
'_Fare thee well_.
But yesterday the word of Caesar might
Have stood against the world: now lies he _there_.
And _none so poor, to do him reverence_.'
The Poet's tone breaks through Mark Antony's; the Poet's finger
points, '_now lies he there'--there_!
That form which 'lies there,' with its mute eloquence speaking this
Poet's word, is what he calls 'a Transient Hieroglyphic,' which makes,
he says, 'a deeper impression on minds of a certain order, than the
language of arbitrary signs;' and his 'delivery' on the most important
questions will be found, upon examination, to derive its principal
emphasis from a running text in this hand. '_For_, in such business,'
he says, '_action_ is eloquence, and the eyes of the ignorant more
_learned_ than the ears.'
Or, as he puts it in another place: 'What is sensible always strikes
the memory more strongly, and sooner _impresses_ itself, than what is
intellectual. Thus the memory of _brutes_ is excited by sensible, but
not by intellectual things. And therefore it is easier to retain the
image of a _sportsman hunting_, than of the corresponding notion of
_invention_--of an apothecary ranging his boxes, than of the
corresponding notion of _disposition_--of an orator making a speech,
than of the term Eloquence--or _a boy repeating verses_, than the term
_Memory_--_or_ of A PLAYER acting his part, than the corresponding
notion of--ACTION.'
So, also, '_Tom o' Bedlam_' was a better word for 'houseless misery,'
than all the king's prayer, good as it was, about 'houseless heads,
and unfed sides,' in general, and 'looped, and windowed raggedness.'
'We construct,' says this author, in another place--rejecting the
ordinary history as not suitable for scientific purposes, because it
is 'varied, and diffusive, and confounds and disturbs the
understanding, unless it be fixed and exhibited in due order'--we
construct 'tables and _combinations_ of _instances_, upon such a plan
and in such order, that the understanding be enabled to act upon
them.'
CHAPTER II.
CAESAR'S SPIRIT.
_I'll_ meet thee at Phillippi.
In Julius Caesar, the most splendid and magnanimous representative of
arbitrary power is selected--'the foremost man of all the
world,'--even by the concession of those who condemn him to death; so
that here it is the mere abstract question as to the expediency and
propriety of permitting _any one man_ to impose his individual will on
the nation. Whatever personalities are involved in the question
_here_--with Brutus, at least--tend to bias the decision in his
favour. For so he tells us, as with agitated step he walks his orchard
on that wild night which succeeds his conference with Cassius,
revolving his part, and reading, by the light of the exhalations
whizzing in the air, the papers that have been found thrown in at his
study window.
'It must be by his death: and, _for my part_,
I know _no personal cause_ to spurn at him,
BUT FOR THE GENERAL. He would be crown'd:--
How _that might change his nature, there's the question.
It is the bright day that brings forth the adder_;
And that _craves wary walking_. Crown him? That;--
And then, _I grant_, we put a sting in him,
That _at his will_ he may do danger with.
The abuse of greatness is, when it disjoins
_Remorse from power_: And, to speak truth of _Caesar_,
I have not known when _his affections_ sway'd
More than his _reason_. But 't is a common proof,
That lowliness is young ambition's ladder,
Whereto the climber upward turns his face:
But when he once attains _the utmost round_,
He then unto the ladder turns his back,
Looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees
By which he did ascend: So Caesar may;
Then, lest he may, PREVENT. And, since the quarrel,
Will bear no colour for the thing he is,
Fashion it thus; that _what he is, augmented_,
Would run to _these, and these extremities_:
And _therefore_ think him as a serpent's egg,
Which, _hatch'd_, would, AS HIS KIND, grow mischievous;
AND KILL HIM IN THE SHELL.'
Pretty sentiments these, to set before a king already engaged in so
critical a contest with his subjects; pleasant entertainment, one
would say, for the representative of a monarchy that had contrived to
wake the sleeping Brutus in its dominions,--that was preparing, even
then, for its own death-struggle on this very question, which _this_
Brutus searches to its core so untenderly.
'Have you heard the argument?' says the 'bloat king' in Hamlet. 'Is
there no offence in it?'
Now, let the reader suppose, for one instant, that this work had been
produced from the outset openly, for what any reader of common sense
will perceive it to be, with all its fire, an elaborate, scholarly
composition, the product of the profoundest philosophic invention, the
fruit of the ripest scholarship of the age;--let him suppose, for
argument's sake, that it had been produced for what it is, the work of
a scholar, and a statesman, and a courtier,--a statesman already
jealously watched, or already, perhaps, in deadly collision with this
very power he is defining here so largely, and tracking to its
ultimate scientific comprehensions;--and then let the reader imagine,
if he can, Elizabeth or James, but especially Elizabeth, listening
entranced to such passages as the one last quoted, with an audience
disposed to make points of some of the 'choice Italian' lines in it.
Does not all the world know that scholars, men of reverence, men of
world-wide renown, men of every accomplishment, were tortured, and
mutilated, and hung, and beheaded, in both these two reigns, for
writings wherein Caesar's ambition was infinitely more obscurely
hinted at--writings unspeakably less offensive to majesty than this?
But, then, a Play was a Play, and old Romans would be Romans; there
was, notoriously, no royal way of managing them; and if kings would
have tragical mirth out of them, they must take their treason in good
part, and make themselves as merry with it as they could. The poor
Poet was, of course, no more responsible for these men than Chaucer
was for his pilgrims. He but reported them.
And besides, in that broad, many-sided view of the subject which the
author's evolution of it from the root involves,--in that pursuit of
tyranny in essence through all its disguises,--other exhibitions of it
were involved, which might seem, to the careless eye, purposely
designed to counteract the effect of the views above quoted.
The fact that mere arbitrary will, that the individual humour and
bias, is incapable of furnishing a _rule_ of _action_ anywhere,--the
fact that mere will, or blind passion, whether in the _One_, or the
_Few_, or the _Many_, should have no part, above all, in the business
of the STATE,--should lend no colour or bias to its
administration,--the fact that 'the general good,' 'the common weal,'
which is justice, and reason, and humanity,--the 'ONE ONLY
MAN,'--should, in some way, under some form or other, get to the head
of that and _rule_, this is all which the Poet will contend for.
But, alas, HOW? The unspeakable difficulties in the way of the
solution of this problem,--the difficulties which the radical bias in
the individual human nature, even under its noblest forms,
creates,--the difficulties which the ignorance, and stupidity, and
passion of the multitude created then, and still create, appear here
without _any mitigation_. They are studiously brought out in their
boldest colours. There's no attempt to shade them down. They make,
indeed, the TRAGEDY.
And it is this general impartial treatment of his subjects which makes
this author's writings, with all their boldness, generally, so safe;
for it seems to leave him without any bias for any person or any
party--without any _opinion_ on any topic; for his truth embraces and
resolves all partial views, and is as broad as nature's own.
And how could he better neutralise the effect of these patriotic
speeches, and prove his loyalty in the face of them, than to show as
he does, most vigorously and effectively, that these patriots
themselves, so rebellious to tyranny, so opposed to the one-man power
in others, so determined to die, rather than submit to the imposition
of the humours of any man, instead of law and justice,--were
themselves but men, and were as full of will and humours, and as ready
to tyrannise with them, too, upon occasion, as Caesar himself; and
were no more fit to be trusted with absolute power than he was, nor,
in fact, half so fit.
Caesar does, indeed, send word to the senate--'_The cause is in_ MY
WILL, _I will not come_; (_That_ is enough,' he says, '_to satisfy the
senate_.') And while the conspirators are exchanging glances, and the
daggers are stealing from their sheaths, he offers the strength of his
decree, the immutability 'of his absolute shall,' to the suppliant for
his brother's pardon.
But then Portia gives us to understand, that she, too, has her private
troubles;--that even that excellent man, Brutus, is not without his
moods in his domestic administrations,--for on one occasion, when he
treats her to 'ungentle looks,' and 'stamps his foot,' and angrily
gesticulates her out of his presence, she makes good her retreat,
thinking 'it was but the effect of humour, which,' she says, 'sometime
hath his hour with every man'; and, good and patriotic as Brutus truly
is, Cassius perceives, upon experiment, that after all _he_ too is but
a man, and, with a particular and private nature, as well as a larger
one 'which is the worthier,' and not unassailable through that 'single
I myself': he, too, may be 'thawed from the true quality with that
which melteth fools,'--with words that flatter 'his particular.' In
his conference with him, Cassius addresses himself skilfully to this
weakness;--he poises the name of Caesar with that of Brutus, and, at
the last, he clinches his patriotic appeal, with an appeal to his
personal sentiment, of baffled, mortified emulation; for those
writings, thrown in at his window, purporting to come from several
citizens, 'all tended to the great opinion that Rome held of _his_
name;' and, alas! the Poet will not tell us that this did not
unconsciously wake, in that pure mind, the feather's-weight that was
perhaps needed to turn the scale.
And the very children know, by heart, what a time there was between
these two men afterwards, these men that had 'struck the foremost man
of all the world,' and had congratulated themselves that it was not
murder, and that they were not villains, because it was for justice.
Precious disclosures we have in this scene. It is this very Cassius,
this patriot, who had as lief _not_ BE as submit to injustice; who
brings his avaricious humour, 'his itching palm,' into the state, and
'sells and marts his offices for gold, to undeservers.' Brutus does
indeed come down upon him with a most unlimited burst of patriotic
indignation, which looks, at first, like a mere frenzy of honest
disgust at wrong in the abstract, in spite of the partiality of
friendship; but, when Cassius charges him, afterwards, with
exaggerating his friend's infirmities, he says, frankly, 'I did not,
_till you practised them on_ ME.' And we find, as the dialogue
proceeds, that it is indeed a personal matter with him: Cassius has
refused him gold to pay his legions with.
And see, now, what kind of taunt it is, that Brutus throws in this
same patriot's face after it had been proclaimed, by his order,
through the streets of Rome, that Tyranny 'is dead': after Cassius had
shouted through his own lungs.
'Some to the common pulpits, and cry out LIBERTY, FREEDOM,
ENFRANCHISEMENT.' (_Enfranchisement_?)
It would have been strange, indeed, if in so general and philosophical
a view of the question, that sacred, domestic institution, which,
through all this sublime frenzy for equal rights, maintained itself so
peacefully under the patriot's roof, had escaped without a touch.
Brutus says:--
'Hear me, for I will speak.
Must I give way and room to your rash choler?
Shall I be frighted _when a madman stares_?'
'Look when I stare, see how the subject quakes.'
This sounds, already, as if Tyranny were not quite dead.
'_Cassius_. O ye gods, ye gods, must I endure all this!
_Brutus_. All this? ay more: Fret till your proud heart break;
_Go, show_ YOUR SLAVES _how choleric you are_,
And bid YOUR BONDMEN tremble. Must _I_ budge?
Must _I_ observe _you_? Must _I stand_ and _crouch
Under your testy humour_? By the gods,
You shall digest the venom of your spleen
Though it do split you.'
So it was a mistake, then, it seems; and, notwithstanding that shout
of triumph, and that bloody flourishing of knives, Tyranny _was not_
dead.
But one cannot help thinking that that shout must have sounded rather
strangely in an English theatre just then, and that it was a somewhat
delicate experiment to give Brutus his pulpit on the stage, to
harangue the people from. But the author knew what he was doing. That
cold, stilted harangue, that logical chopping on the side of freedom,
was not going to set fire to any one's blood; and was not there Mark
Antony that plain, blunt man, coming directly after Brutus,--'with his
eyes as red as fire with weeping,' with 'the mantle,' of the military
hero, the popular favourite, _in his hand_, with his glowing oratory,
with his sweet words, and his skilful appeal to the passions of the
people, under his plain, blunt professions,--to wipe out every trace
of Brutus's _reasons_, and lead them whither he would; and would not
the moral of it all be, that with such A PEOPLE,--with such a power as
that, behind the state, there was no use in killing Caesars--that
Tyranny could not die.
'I fear there will a worse one come in his place.'
But this is Rome in her decline, that the artist touches here so
boldly. But what now, if old Rome herself,--plebeian Rome, in the
deadliest onset of her struggle against tyranny, Rome lashed into fury
and conscious strength, rising from under the hard heel of her
oppressors; what if Rome, in the act of creating her Tribunes; or, if
Rome, with her Tribunes at her head, wresting from her oppressors a
constitutional establishment of popular rights,--what if this could be
exhibited, by permission; what bounds as to the freedom of the
discussion would it be possible to establish afterwards? There had
been no National Latin Tragedy, Frederic Schlegel suggests,--because
no Latin Dramatist could venture to do this very thing; but of course
Caesar or Coriolanus on the Tiber was one thing, and Caesar or
Coriolanus on the Thames was another; and an English author might be
allowed, then, to say of the one, with impunity, what it would
certainly have cost him his good right hand, or his ears, or his head,
to say of the other,--what it did cost the Founder of this school in
philosophy his head, to be suspected of saying of the other.
Nevertheless, the great question between an arbitrary and a
constitutional government, the principle of a government which vests
the whole power of the state in the uncontrolled will of a single
individual member of it; the whole history and philosophy of a
military government, from its origin in the heroic ages,--from the
crowning of the military hero on the battle field in the moment of
victory, to the final consummation of its conquest of the liberty of
the subject, could be as clearly set forth under the one form as the
other; not without some startling specialities in the filling up, too,
with a tone in the details now and then, to say the least, not
exclusively antique, for this was a mode of treating classical
subjects in that age, too common to attract attention.
And thus, whole plays could be written out and out, on this very
subject. Take, for instance, but these two, Coriolanus and Julius
Caesar,--plays in which, by a skilful distribution of the argument and
the action, with a skilful interchange of parts now and then,--the
boldest passages being put alternately into the mouths of the Tribunes
and Patricians,--that great question, which was so soon to become the
outspoken question of the nation and the age, could already be
discussed in all its vexed and complicated relations, in all its
aspects and bearings, as deliberately as it could be to-day; exactly
as it was, in fact, discussed not long afterwards in swarms of English
pamphlets, in harangues from English pulpits, in English parliaments
and on English battle-fields,--exactly as it was discussed when that
'lofty Roman scene' came 'to be acted over' here, with the
cold-blooded prosaic formalities of an English judicature.
CORIOLANUS
THE QUESTION OF THE CONSULSHIP;
OR,
THE SCIENTIFIC CURE OF THE COMMON-WEAL PROPOUNDED.
'Well, march we on
To give obedience where 'tis truly owed:
Meet we the medicine of the sickly weal,
And _with him_, pour we in our country's purge
_Each drop of us_.
Or so much as it needs
To dew the sovereign Flower, _and drown the weeds_'--_Macbeth_.
'Have you heard the argument?'
CHAPTER I.
THE ELIZABETHAN HEROISM.
'Mildly is the word.'
'In a better hour,
Let what _is meet_ be said it must be _meet_,
And throw their power in the dust.'
It is the Military Chieftain of ancient Rome who pronounces here the
words in which the argument of the Elizabethan revolutionist is so
tersely comprehended.
It is the representative of an heroic aristocracy, not one of ancient
privilege merely, not one armed with parchments only, claiming descent
from heroes; but the yet living leaders of the rabble people to
military conquest, and the only leaders who are understood to be able
to marshal from their ranks an effective force for military defence.
But this is not all. The scope of the poetic design requires here,
under the sheath which this dramatic exhibition of an ancient
aristocracy offers it, the impersonation of another and more sovereign
difference in men; and this poet has ends to serve, to which a mere
historical accuracy in the reproduction of this ancient struggle of
state-factions, in an extinct European common-wealth, is of little
consequence; though he is not wanting in that either, or indifferent
to it, when occasion serves.
From the _speeches_ inserted here and there, we find that this is at
the same time an aristocracy of learning which is put upon the stage
here, that it is an aristocracy of statesmanship and civil ability,
that it is composed of the select men of the state, and not its elect
only; that it is the true and natural head of the healthful body
politic, and not 'the horn of the monster' only. This is the
aristocracy which appears to be in session in the background of this
piece at least, and we are not without some occasional glimpses of
their proceedings, and this is the element of the poetic combination
which comes out in the _dialogue_, whenever the necessary question of
the play requires it.
For it is the collision between the civil interests and the interests
which the unlearned heroic ages enthrone, that is coming off here. It
is the collision between the government which uneducated masses of men
create and confirm, and recreate in any age, and the government which
the enlightened man 'in a better hour' demands, which the common sense
and sentiment of man, as distinguished from the brute, demands,
whether in the one, or the few, or the many.--This is the struggle
which is getting into form and order here,--here _first_. These are
the parties to it, and in the reign of the last of the Tudors and the
first of the Stuarts, they must be content to fight it out on any
stage which their time can afford to lease to them for that
performance, without being over scrupulous as to the names of the
actors, or the historical correctness of the costumes, and other
particulars; not minding a little shuffling in the parts, now and
then, if it suits their poet's convenience, who has no conscience at
all on such points, and who is of the opinion that this is the very
stage which an action of such gravity ought to be exhibited on, in the
first place; and that a very careful and critical rehearsal of it
here, ought to precede the performance elsewhere; though a contrary
opinion was not then without its advocates.
It is as the mouth-piece of this intellectual faction in the state,
while it is as yet an _aristocracy_, contending with the physical
force of it, struggling for the mastery of it with its numerical
majority; it is the Man in the state, the new MAN struggling with the
chief which a popular ignorance has endowed with dominion over him; it
is the HERO who contends for the majesty of reason and the kingdom of
the mind, it is the new speaker, the new, and now at last, commanding
speaker for that law, which was old when this myth was named, which
was not of yesterday when Antigone quoted it, who speaks now from this
Roman's lips, these words of doom,--the reflection on the 'times
deceased,' the prophecy of 'things not yet come to life,' the word of
new ages.
'In A REBELLION,
When what's not MEET, but what must be, was law,
THEN WERE THEY CHOSEN: in a better hour
Let what _is meet_ be said it must be _meet_,
And throw their power in the dust.'
_Not_ in the old, sombre, Etruscan streets of ancient Rome, _not_
where the _Roman_ market-place, joined the Capitoline hill and began
to ascend it, crossed the road from Palatinus thither, and began to
obstruct it, not in the courts and colonnades of the primeval hill of
palaces, were the terms of this proposal found. And not from the old
logician's chair, was the sweep of their comprehension made; not in
any ancient school of rhetoric or logic were they cast and locked in
that conjunction. It was another kind of weapon that the old _Roman_
Jove had to take in hand, when amid the din of the Roman forum, _he_
awoke at last from his bronze and marble, to his empirical struggle,
his unlearned, experimental struggle with the wolf and her nursling,
with his own baptized, red-robed, usurping Mars. It was not with any
such subtlety as this, that the struggle of state forces which, under
one name or another, sooner or later, in the European states is sure
to come, had hitherto been conducted.
And not from the lips of the haughty patrician chief, rising from the
dust of ages at the spell of genius, to encounter his old plebeian
vanquishers, and fight his long-lost battles o'er again, at a
showman's bidding, for a showman's greed--to be stung anew into
patrician scorn--to repeat those rattling volleys of the old martial
Latin wrath, 'in states unborn' and 'accents then unknown,' for an
hour's idle entertainment, for 'a six-pen'orth or shilling's worth' of
gaping amusement to a playhouse throng, not--NOT from any such source
came that utterance.
It came from the council-table of a sovereignty that was plotting here
in secret then the empire that the sun shall not set on; whose
beginning only, we have seen. It came from the secret chamber of a new
union and society of men,--a union based on a new and, for the first
time, scientific acquaintance with the nature that is in men, with the
sovereignty that is in all men. It was the Poet of this society who
put those words together--the Poet who has heard all its _pros_ and
_cons_, who reports them all, and gives to them all their exact weight
in the new balance of his decisions.
Among other things, it was understood in this association, that the
power, which was at that time supreme in England, was in fact, though
not in name, a _popular_ power,--a power, at least, sustained only by
the popular will, though men had not, indeed, as yet, begun to
perceive that momentous circumstance,--a power which, being 'but the
horn and noise o' the monster,' was able to oppose its '_absolute
shall_' to the embodied wisdom of the state,--not to its ancient
immemorial government only, but to 'its _chartered_ liberties in the
body of the weal,' and 'to a graver bench than ever frowned in
Greece'; and the Poet has put on his record of debates on those
'questions of gravity,' that were agitating then this secret Chamber
of Peers, a distinct demand on the part of this ancient
leadership,--the leadership of 'the honoured number,' the honourable
and right honourable few, that this mass of ignorance, and stupidity,
and blind custom, and incapacity for rule,--this combination of mere
instinctive force, which the physical majority in unlearned times
constitutes, which supplies, in its want, and ignorance, and
passivity, and in its passionate admiration of heroism and love of
leadership, the ready material of tyranny, shall be annihilated, and
cease to have any leadership or voice in the state; and this demand is
put by the Poet into the mouth of one who cannot see from his point of
observation--with his ineffable contempt for the people--what the Poet
sees from his, that the demand, as he puts it, is simply 'the
impossible.' For this is a question in the mixed mathematics, and 'the
_greater part_ carries it.'
That instinctive, unintelligent force in the state--that blind
volcanic force--which foolish states dare to keep pent up within them,
is that which the philosopher's eye is intent on also; he, too, has
marked this as the primary source of mischief,--he, too, is at war
with it,--he, too, would annihilate it; but he has his own mode of
warfare for it; he thinks it must be done with Apollo's own darts, if
it be done when 'tis done, and not with the military chieftain's
weapon.
This work is one in which the question of heroism and nobility is
scientifically treated, and in the most rigid manner, 'by line and
level,' and through that representative form in which the historical
pretence of it is tried,--through that scientific negation, with its
merely instinctive, vulgar, unlearned ambition--with its monstrous
'outstretching' on the one hand, and its dwarfish limitations on the
other,--through all that finely drawn, historic picture of that which
claims the human subjection, the clear scientific lines of the true
ideal type are visible,--the outline of the true nobility and
government is visible,--towering above that detected insufficiency,
into the perfection of the _human_ form,--into the heaven of the true
divineness,--into the chair of the perpetual dictatorship,--into the
consulship whose year revolves not, whose year is _the state_.
Neither is this true affirmation here in the form of a scientific
abstraction merely. It is not here in the general merely. 'The
Instance,' the particular impersonation of nobility and heroism, which
this play exhibits, is, indeed, the false heroism and nobility. It is
the hitherto uncriticised, and, therefore, uncorrected, popular
affirmation on this subject which is embodied here, and this turns out
to be, as usual, the clearest scientific negative that could be
invented. But in the design, and in all the labour of this piece,--in
the steadfast purpose that is always working out that definition, with
its so exquisite, but thankless, unowned, unrecognised toil, graving
it and pointing it with its pen of diamond in the rock for ever,
approving itself 'to the Workmaster' only,--in this incessant
design,--in this veiled, mysterious authorship,--an historical
approximation to the true type of magnanimity and heroism is always
present. But there is more in it than this.
It is the old popular notion of heroism which fills the foreground;
but the Elizabethan heroism is always lurking behind it, watching its
moment, ready to seize it; and under that cover, it contrives to
advance and pronounce many words, which, in its own name and form, it
could not then have been so prosperously delivered of. Under the
disguise of that historical impersonation--under the mask of that old
Roman hero, other, quite other, heroic forms--historic forms--not
_less_ illustrious, not less memorable, from time to time steal in;
and ere we know it, the suppressed Elizabethan men are on the stage,
and the Theatre is, indeed, the Globe; and it is shaking and flashing
with the iron heel and the thunder of their leadership; and the
thrones of oppression are downfalling; and the ages that seemed 'far
off,' the ages that were nigh, are there--are there as they are
_here_.
The historical position of the men who could entertain the views which
this Play embodies, in the age in which it was written--the whole
position of the men in whom this idea of nobility and government was
already struggling to become historical--flashes out from that obscure
back-ground into the most vivid historical representation, when once
the light--'the great light' which 'the times give to _true_
interpretations'--has been brought to bear upon it. And it does so
happen, that _that_ is the light which we are particularly directed to
hold up to this particular play, and, what is more, to this particular
point in it. 'So _our_ virtues,' says the old Volscian captain, Tullus
Aufidius, lamenting the limitations of his historical position, and
apologizing for the figure he makes in history--
'So _our virtues_
Lie in the interpretation of THE TIMES.'
['THE TIMES, in many cases, give great light to true
_interpretations_,' says the other, speaking of books, and the method
of reading them; but this one applies that suggestion particularly to
_lives_.]
'And power, unto itself most commendable,
Hath not a tomb so evident as a hair
To extol what it hath done.'
The spirit of the Elizabethan heroism is indeed here, and under the
cover of this old Roman story; and under cover of those so marked
differences in the positions which suffice to detain the unstudious
eye, through the medium of that which is common under those
differences, the history of the Elizabethan heroism is here also. The
spirit of it is here, not in that subtler nature only--that yet,
perhaps, subtler, calmer, stronger nature, in which 'blood and
judgment were so well co-mingled'--so well, in such new degree and
proportion, that their balance made a new force, a new generative
force, in history--not in that one only, the one in whom this new
historic form is visible and palpable already, but in the haughtier
and more unbending historic _attitude_, at least, of his great
'co-mate and brother in exile.' It is here in the form of the great
military chieftain of that new heroic line, who found himself, with
all his strategy, involved in a single-handed contest with the state
and its whole physical strength, in his contest with that personal
power in whose single arm, in whose miserable finger-joints, the state
and all its force then lay. Under that old, threadbare, martial
cloak,--under the safe disguise of martial tyranny in 'the
few,'--whenever the business of the play requires it, whenever 'his
cue comes,' _he_ is there. Under that old, rusty Roman helmet, his
smothered speech, his 'speech of fire,' his passionate speech, 'forbid
so long,' drops thick and fast, drops unquenched at last, and glows
for ever. It is the headless Banquo--'the blood-boltered Banquo'--that
stalks through that shadowy background all unharmed; _his Fleance_
lives, and in him 'Nature's copy _is_ eterne.'
His house of kings, with gold-bound brows, and sceptres in their
hands, with _two-fold_ balls and sceptres in their hands--are here
filling the stage, and claiming it to the crack of doom; and now he
'smiles,' he _smiles_ upon his baffled foe, 'and points at them for
HIS.'
The whole difficulty of this great Elizabethan position, and the moral
of it, is most carefully and elaborately exhibited here. No plea at
the bar was ever more finely and eloquently laboured. It was for the
bar of 'foreign nations and future ages' that this defence was
prepared: the speaker who speaks so 'pressly,' is the lawyer; and
there is nothing left unsaid at last. But it is not exhibited in words
merely. It is acted. It is brought out dramatically. It is presented
to the eye as well as to the ear. The impossibility of any other mode
of proceeding under those conditions is not demonstrated in this
instance by a diagram, drawn on a piece of paper, and handed about
among the jury; it is not an exact drawing of the street, and the
house, and the corner where the difficulty occurred, with the number
of yards and feet put down in ink or pencil marks; it is something
much more lively and tangible than that which we have here, under
pardon of this old Roman myth.
For the story, as to this element of it, is indeed not new. The story
of the struggle of the few with the many, of the one with the many, of
the one with 'the many-headed,' is indeed an old one. Back into the
days of demi-gods and gods it takes us. It is the story of the
celestial Titan, with his benefactions for men, and force and
strength, with art to aid them--reluctant art--compelled to serve
their ends, enringing his limbs, and driving hard the stakes. Here,
indeed, in the Fable, in the proper hero of it, it is the struggle of
the 'partliness' of pride and selfish ambition, lifting itself up in
the place of God, and arraying itself against the common-_weal_, as
well as the common-will; but the physical relation of the one to the
many, the position of the individual who differs from his time on
radical questions, the relative strength of the parties to this war,
and the weapons and the mode of warfare inevitably prescribed to the
minority under such conditions--all this is carefully brought out from
the speciality of this instance, and presented in its most general
form; and the application of the result to the position of the man who
contends _for_ the common-weal, against the selfish will, and passion,
and narrowness, and short-sightedness of the multitude, is distinctly
made.
Yes, the Elizabethan part is here; that all-unappreciated and odious
part, which the great men of the Elizabethan time found forced upon
them; that most odious part of all, which, the greatest of his time
found forced upon _him_ as the condition of his greatness. It is here
already, negatively defined, in this passionate defiance, which rings
out at last in the Roman street, when the hero's pride bursts through
his resolve, when he breaks down at last in his studied part, and all
considerations of policy, all regard to that which was dearer to him
than 'his _single mould_,' is given to the winds in the tempest of his
wrath, and he stands at bay, and confronts _alone_ 'the beast with
many heads.'
It is thus that he measures the man he contends with, the antagonist
who is but 'the horn and noise of the monster':--
'Thou injurious TRIBUNE!
Within thine eyes sat _twenty thousand_ deaths,
In thy hands clenched _as many millions_, in
Thy lying tongue _both numbers_, I would say,
Thou liest, unto thee, with voice as free
As I do pray the gods.'
But there was a heroism of a finer strain than that at work in England
then, imitating the graces of the gods to better purpose; a heroism
which must fight a harder field than that, which must fight its own
great battles through alone, without acclamations, without spectators;
which must come off victorious, and never count its 'cicatrices,' or
claim 'the war's garland.'
If we would know the secret of those struggles, those hard conflicts
that were going on here then, in whose results all the future ages of
mankind were concerned, we must penetrate with this Poet the secret of
the Roman patrician's house; we must listen, through that thin poetic
barrier, to the great chief himself, the chief of the unborn age of a
new civilization--the leader, and hero, and conqueror of the ages of
Peace--as he enters and paces his own hall, with the angry fire in his
eyes, and utters there the words for which there is no utterance
without--as he listens there anew to the argument of that for which he
lives, and seeks to reconcile himself anew to that baseness which his
time demands of him.
We must seek, here, not the part of him only who endured long and
much, but was, at last, provoked into a premature boldness, and
involved in a fatal collision with the state, but that of him who
endured to the end, who played his life-long part without
self-betrayal. We must seek, here, not the part of the great martial
chieftain only, but the part of that heroic chief and leader of men
and ages, who discovered, in the sixteenth century, when the chivalry
of the sword was still exalting its standard of honour as supreme,
when the law of the sword was still the world's law, that brute
instinct was not the true valour, that there was a better part of it
than instinct, though he knows and confesses,--though he is the first
to discover, that instinct is a great matter. We must seek, here, _the
words_, the very words of that part which we shall find _acted_
elsewhere,--the part of the chief who was determined, for his part,
'to live and fight another day,' who was not willing to spend
_him_self in such conflicts as those in which he saw his most
illustrious contemporaries perish at his side, on his right hand and
on his left, in the reign of the Tudor, and in the reign of the
Stuart. And he has not been at all sparing of his hints on this
subject over his own name, for those who have leisure to take them.
'The moral of this fable is,' he says, commenting in a certain place,
on the wisdom of _the Ancients_, 'that men should not be confident of
themselves, and imagine that a discovery of their excellences will
always render them acceptable. _For this can only succeed_ according
to _the nature_ and _manners_ of the person they _court or_ solicit,
who, if he be a man not of the same gifts and endowments, but
altogether of a haughty and insolent behaviour--(_here_ represented by
_the person of Juno_)--_they must entirely drop the character_ that
carries the least show of worth or gracefulness; if they proceed upon
_any other_ footing it is _downright folly. Nor_ is it sufficient to
_act_ the deformity of _obsequiousness_, unless they _really change
themselves_, and _become_ abject and contemptible _in their persons_.'
This was a time when abject and contemptible _persons_ could do what
others could not do. Large enterprises, new developments of art and
science, the most radical social innovations, were undertaken and
managed, and very successfully, too, in that age, by persons of that
description, though not without frequent glances on their part, at
that little, apparently somewhat contradictory circumstance, in their
history.
But the fables in which the wisdom of the Moderns, and the secrets of
_their_ sages are lodged, are the fables we are unlocking here. Let us
listen to these 'secrets of policy' for ourselves, and not take them
on trust any longer.
_A room in Coriolanus's house_.
[_Enter Coriolanus and Patricians_.]
_Cor_. Let them _pull all about mine ears_, present me
_Death on the wheel_, or at wild horses' heels,
Or pile ten hills on the Tarpeian rock
That the precipitation might down stretch
Below the beam of sight, yet will I still
_Be thus to them_.
[Under certain conditions that is heroism, no doubt.]
_First Patrician. You do the nobler_.
[For the question is of NOBILITY.]
_Cor_. I muse my mother
Does not approve me further.
I talk of _you_. [_To Volumnia_.]
Why did you wish me milder? Would you have me
_False to my nature_? Rather say _I play
The man I am_.
_Vol_. O sir, sir, sir,
I _would have had you put your power well on
Before you had worn it out_.
Lesser had been
The thwarting of your dispositions, if
You had _not show'd them how you were disposed,
Ere they lacked power to cross you_.
* * * * *
[_Enter Menenius and Senators_.]
_Men_. Come, come, you have been too rough
Something too rough;
You must return, and mend it.
_1 Sen_. _There's no remedy,
Unless_, by _not_ so doing, _our good city
Cleave in the midst and perish_.
_Vol_. Pray be counselled:
_I_ have a _heart_ as little apt as yours
But yet _a brain_ [hear] that leads my use of anger
To better _vantage_.
_Men_. Well said, _noble_ woman;
_Before he should thus stoop to the_ herd, but that
The VIOLENT PIT O' THE TIME, _craves it as_ PHYSIC
For the WHOLE STATE, _I_ would put _mine_ armour on,
Which I can scarcely bear.
[It is the diseased common-weal whose case this Doctor
is undertaking. _That_ is our subject.]
_Cor_. What must I do?
_Men_. Return to the Tribunes.
_Cor_. Well,
What then? what then?
_Men_. Repent what you have spoke.
_Cor_. For them? I _can not do it to the gods_:
Must I then do't to _them_?
_Vol_. You are too _absolute_;
_Though_ therein you can never be _too noble
But when extremities speak_. I have heard you say,
HONOR _and_ POLICY [hear] like unsevered friends
_I' the war_ do grow together: _Grant that_, and tell me.
In peace, what _each_ of them by the other loses
That they combine not there?
_Cor_. Tush; tush!
_Men_. _A good demand_.
_Vol_. If _it be honor_, in your wars, to seem
The same you are not, (which FOR YOUR BEST ENDS
_You adopt your policy_), how is it _less_, or _worse_
That it shall hold companionship in peace
With honor, as in war; _since that to both
It stands in like request_?
_Cor_. Why _force you this_? [Truly.]
_Vol_. _Because_ that _now_, IT LIES ON YOU to speak
_To the people, not_ by _your own instruction_,
Nor by the _matter which your heart prompts you_ to,
But with such words that are but rated _in_
_Your tongue_ though but bastards and syllables
_Of no_ allowance, to _your bosom's truth_.
Now this no more dishonors you at all,
Than to take in _a town_ with _gentle words_,
Which else would put you to your fortune, and
THE HAZARD of MUCH BLOOD.--[Hear.]
I would dissemble _with my nature_, where
_My fortune and my friends at stake_ required
_I should do so in honor_. _I am_ in this;
Your wife, your son, these senators, the nobles,
And you will rather show our _general lowts_
How you can frown, than spend a _fawn_ upon them.
For the _inheritance_ of their loves, and _safe-guard_
Of _what that want might ruin_ [hear]
NOBLE lady!
_Come go with us_. Speak fair: you may salve so,
[It is the diseased common-weal we talk of still.]
You may salve so,
Not what is dangerous present, _but_ the _loss_
Of what is past.
[That was this Doctor's method, who was a Doctor of Laws
as well as Medicine, and very skilful in medicines 'palliative'
as well as 'alterative.']
_Vol_. I pry'thee now, my son,
Go to them with this bonnet in thy hand,
And thus far having stretched it (_here_ be with them),
Thy _knee bussing the stones_, for in such business
_Action_ is eloquence, and the _eyes_ of _the ignorant_
More _learned_ than the _ears_--waving thy head,
Which often thus, correcting thy stout heart,
Now humble as the ripest mulberry
That will not hold the handling: or say to them:
Thou art _their_ soldier, and _being bred in broils_,
Hast not the soft way, which thou dost confess
_Were fit for thee to use_, as _they to claim_,
In asking _their good_ loves; but thou wilt frame
Thyself _forsooth hereafter theirs_, so far
As thou hast power and person.
Pry'thee now
_Go and be ruled: although I know_ thou hadst rather
Follow thine enemy in a fiery gulf
Than flatter him in a bower. Here is Cominius.
[_Enter Cominius_.]
_Com. I have been i' the market-place_, and, sir, _'tis fit_
You make STRONG PARTY, _or_ defend yourself
By CALMNESS, or by ABSENCE. ALL's in anger.
_Men. Only fair speech.
I think 'twill serve, if he
Can thereto frame his spirit_.
_Vol_. He must, and will.
Pry'thee now _say_ you will _and go about it_.
_Cor_. Must I go show them my unbarbed sconce? _Must I_
With _my base tongue, give to my noble heart
A lie that it must bear? Well, I will do't:
Yet were there but this single plot to lose,
This mould of Marcius_, they, to dust should grind it,
And throw it against the wind;--to the market-place;
You have put me now to such a part, which never
_I_ shall discharge _to the life_.
_Com_. Come, come, we'll prompt you.
_Vol_. I pry'thee now, sweet son, as thou hast said,
_My_ praises made thee first a soldier [--_Volumnia_--], so
To have my praise for this, _perform a part
Than hast not done before_.
_Cor_. Well, I must do't.
_Away my disposition_, and possess me
Some harlot's spirit! _My throat_ of _war_ be turned,
Which quired with my _drum_ into a pipe!
Small as an eunuch's or the virgin voice
That babies lulls asleep! The smiles of _knaves_
Tent in my cheeks; and school-boy's tears take up
The glasses of my sight! A beggar's tongue
Make _motion through my lips_; and my _arm'd knees
Who bowed but in my stirrup, bend like his_
That _hath received an alms_. I will not do't,
Lest I _surcease_ to _honor mine own truth_,
And _by my body's action teach my mind_
A most _inherent baseness_.
_Vol_. At thy choice, then;
To beg of thee, it is my more dishonor
Than thou of them. Come _all to ruin_; let
_Thy mother_ rather _feel thy pride_, than fear
Thy dangerous stoutness, for _I_ mock at death
With as big a heart as thou. Do as thou list.
Thy _valiantness was mine_, thou suck'dst it from me,
But _owe thy pride thyself_.
_Cor_. Pray be content.
_Mother_ I _am going to the market place_,
Chide me no more. I'll _mountebank their loves_,
Cog their hearts from them, _and come back beloved_
_Of all the trades in Rome_.--[That he will--] Look I am going.
Commend me to my wife. I'll return Consul [--That he will--]
Or never trust to what my tongue can do,
_I' the way of flattery further_.
_Vol. Do your will. [Exit_.]
_Com_. Away, the tribunes do attend you: _arm yourself_
To answer _mildly_; for they are prepared
With accusations as I hear more strong
Than are upon you yet.
_Cor_. _The word is mildly_: Pray you let us go,
Let them accuse me by _invention_, I
Will answer in mine honor.
_Men_. _Ay, but mildly_.
_Cor_. Well, mildly be it then, mildly.
[_The Forum. Enter Coriolanus and his party_.]
_Tribune_. Well, here he comes.
_Men_. _Calmly_, I do beseech you.
_Cor. Ay, as an ostler, that for the poorest piece
Will bear the knave by the volume_.
The honoured gods
Keep Rome in safety, and the CHAIRS of _justice_
Supplied with WORTHY MEN; _plant_ LOVE among us.
_Throng_ OUR LARGE TEMPLES _with the shows_ of PEACE,
_And_ NOT _our_ STREETS _with_ WAR.
_Sen_. AMEN! AMEN!
_Men_. A NOBLE wish.
Thus far the Poet: but the mask through which he speaks is wanted for
other purposes, for these occasional auto-biographical glimpses are
but the side play of the great historical exhibition which is in
progress here, and are introduced in entire subordination to its
requisitions.
It is, indeed, an old story into which all this Elizabethan history is
crowded. That mimic scene in which the great historic instances in the
science of human nature and human life were brought out with such
scientific accuracy, and with such matchless artistic power and
splendour, was, in fact, what the Poet himself, who ought to know,
tells us it is; with so much emphasis,--not merely the mirror of
nature in general, but the daguerreotype of the then yet living age,
the plate which was able to give to the very _body_ of it, its _form
and pressure_. That is what it was. And what is more, it was the only
Mirror, the only Spectator, the only Times, in which the times could
get reflected and deliberated on then, with any degree of freedom and
vivacity. And yet there were minds here in England then, as acute, as
reflective, as able to lead the popular mind as those that compose our
leaders and reviews today. There was a mind here then, reflecting not
'ages past' only, but one that had taken its knowledge of the past
from the present, that found 'in all men's lives,' a history figuring
the nature of the times deceased; prophetic also: and this was the
mind of the one who writes 'spirits are not finely touched but to fine
issues.'
They had to take old stories,--these sly, ambitious aspirants to
power, who were not disposed to give up their natural right to
dictate, for the lack of an organ, or because they found the proper
insignia of their office usurped: it was necessary that they should
take old stories, or invent new ones, 'to make those slights upon the
banks of Thames, that so did take' not 'Eliza and our James' only, but
that people of whom 'Eliza and our James' were only 'the outstretched
shadows,' 'the monster,' of whose 'noise' these sovereigns, as the
author of this play took it, were 'but the horn.'
They had to take old stories of one kind and another, as they happened
to find them, and vamp them up to suit their purposes; stories, old or
new, they did not much care which.
Old and memorable ones, so memorable that the world herself with her
great faculty of oblivion, could not forget them, but carried them in
her mind from age to age,--stories so memorable that all men knew them
by heart,--so the author could find one to his purpose,--were best for
some things,--for many things; but for others new ones must be
invented; and certainly there would be no difficulty as to that, for
lack of gifts at least, in the mind whence these old ones were coming
out so freshly, in the gloss of their new-coined immortality.
It is, indeed, an old story that we have here, a story of that ancient
Rome, whose 'just, free and flourishing state,' the author of this new
science of policy confesses himself,--under his _universal_ name,--so
childishly enamoured of, that he interests himself in it to a degree
of passion, though he 'neither loves it in its _birth_ or its
_decline_,'--[under its kings or its emperors.]--It is a story of
_Republican_ Rome, and the difference, the radical difference, between
the civil magistracy which represented the Roman people, and that
unconstitutional popular power which the popular tyranny creates, is
by no means omitted in the exposition. That difference, indeed, is
that which makes the representation possible; it is brought out and
insisted on, '_they_ choose their officers;' it is a difference which
is made much of, for it contains one of the radical points in the
poetic intention.
But without going into the argument, the large and comprehensive
argument, of this most rich and grave and splendid composition,
crowded from the first line of it to the last, with the results of a
political learning which has no match in letters, which had none then,
which has none now; no, or the world would be in another case than it
is, for it is a political learning which has its roots in the new
philosophy, it is grounded in the philosophy of the nature of things,
it is radical as the _Prima Philosophia_,--without attempting to
exhaust the meaning of a work embodying through all its unsurpassed
vigor and vivacity of poetic representation, the new philosophic
statesman's ripest lore, the patient fruits of 'observation
strange,'--without going into his argument of the whole, the reader
who merely wishes to see for himself, at a glance, in a word, as a
matter of curiosity merely; whether the view here given of the
political sagacity and prescience of the Elizabethan Man of Letters,
is in the least chargeable with exaggeration, has only to look at the
context of that revolutionary speech and proposal, that revolutionary
burst of eloquence which has been here claimed as a proper historical
issue of the age of Elizabeth. He will not have to read very far to
satisfy himself as to that. It will be necessary, indeed, for that
purpose, that he should have eyes in his head, eyes not purely
idiotic, but with the ordinary amount of human speculation in them,
and, moreover, it will be necessary that he should use them,--as eyes
are ordinarily used in such cases,--nothing more. But unfortunately
this is just the kind of scrutiny which nobody has been able to bestow
on this work hitherto, on account of those historical obstructions
with which, at the time it was written, it was found necessary to
guard such discussions, discussions running into such delicate
questions in a manner so essentially incomparably free.
For, in fact, there is no plainer piece of English extant, when one
comes to look at it. All that has been claimed in the Historical part
of this work, [not published in this volume] may be found here without
any research, on the mere surface of the dialogue. Looking at it never
so obliquely, with never so small a fraction of an eye, one cannot
help seeing it.
The reader who would possess himself of the utmost meaning of these
passages, one who would comprehend their farthest reaches, must indeed
be content to wait until he can carry with him into all the parts that
knowledge of the authors general intention in this work, which only a
most thorough and careful study of it will yield.
It is, indeed, a work in which the whole question of government is
seized at its source--one in which the whole difficulty of it is
grappled with unflinching courage and veracity. It is a work in which
that question of classes in the state, which lies on the surface of
it, is treated in a general, and not exclusive manner; or, where the
treatment is narrowed and pointed, as it is throughout in the running
commentary, it is narrowed and pointed to the question of the then yet
living age, and to those momentous developments of it which, 'in their
weak beginnings,' the philosophic eye had detected, and not to a state
of things which had to cease before the first Punic war could be
begun.
The question of _classes_, and their respective claims in governments,
is indeed incidentally treated here, but in this author's own
distinctive manner, which is one that is sure to take out,
always--even in his lightest, most sportive handling--the heart of his
subject, so as to leave little else but gleanings to the author who
follows in that track hereafter.
For this is one of those unsurpassably daring productions of the
Elizabethan Muse, which, after long experiment, encouraged by that
protracted immunity from suspicion, and stimulated by the hurrying on
of the great crisis, it threw out at last in the face and eyes of
tyranny, Things which are but intimated in the earlier plays--
political allusions, which are brought out there amid crackling
volleys of conceits, under cover of a battery of quips and jests--
political doctrines, which lie there wrapped in thickest involutions
of philosophic subtleties, are all unlocked and open here on the
surface: he that runs may take them if he will.