THE SATANIC POWER IS MAINLY TWOFOLD: THE POWER OF CAUSING FALSEHOOD
AND THE POWER OF CAUSING PAIN. THE RESISTANCE IS BY LAW OF HONOR AND
LAW OF DELIGHT.
_March 19, 1857._
59. You may perhaps have thought my last three or four letters mere
rhapsodies. They are nothing of the kind; they are accurate accounts
of literal facts, which we have to deal with daily. This thing, or
power, opposed to God's power, and specifically called "Mammon" in the
Sermon on the Mount, is, in deed and in truth, a continually present
and active enemy, properly called "_Arch_-enemy," that is to say,
"Beginning and Prince of Enemies," and daily we have to record our
vote for, or against him. Of the manner of which record we were next
to consider.
60. This enemy is always recognizable, briefly in two functions. He is
pre-eminently the Lord of _Lies_ and the Lord of _Pain_. Wherever Lies
are, he is; wherever Pain is, he has been--so that of the Spirit of
Wisdom (who is called God's Helper, as Satan His Adversary) it is
written, not only that by her Kings reign, and Princes decree justice,
but also that her ways are ways of Pleasantness, and all her paths
Peace.
Therefore, you will succeed, you working men, in recording your votes
against this arch-enemy, precisely in the degree in which you can do
away with falsehood and pain in your work and lives; and bring truth
into the one, and pleasure into the other; all education being
directed to make yourselves and your children _capable of Honesty_ and
_capable of Delight_; and to rescue yourselves from iniquity and
agony. And this is what I meant by saying in the preface to 'Unto this
Last' that the central requirement of education consisted in giving
habits of gentleness and justice; "gentleness" (as I will show you
presently) being the best single word I could have used to express the
capacity for giving and receiving true pleasure; and "justice" being
similarly the most comprehensive word for all kind of honest dealing.
61. Now, I began these letters with the purpose of explaining the
nature of the requirements of justice first, and then those of
gentleness, but I allowed myself to be led into that talk about the
theaters, not only because the thoughts could be more easily written
as they came, but also because I was able thus to illustrate for you
more directly the nature of the enemy we have to deal with. You do not
perhaps know, though I say this diffidently (for I often find working
men know many things which one would have thought were out of their
way), that music was, among the Greeks, quite the first means of
education; and that it was so connected with their system of ethics
and of intellectual training, that the God of Music is with them also
the God of Righteousness;--the God who purges and avenges iniquity,
and contends with their Satan as represented under the form of Python,
"the corrupter." And the Greeks were incontrovertibly right in this.
Music is the nearest at hand, the most orderly, the most delicate, and
the most perfect, of all bodily pleasures; it is also the only one
which is equally helpful to all the ages of man,--helpful from the
nurse's song to her infant, to the music, unheard of others, which so
often haunts the deathbed of pure and innocent spirits. And the action
of the deceiving or devilish power is in _nothing_ shown quite so
distinctly among us at this day,--not even in our commercial
dishonesties, nor in our social cruelties,--as in its having been able
to take away music, as an instrument of education, altogether; and to
enlist it almost wholly in the service of superstition on the one
hand, and of sensuality on the other.
62. This power of the Muses, then, and its proper influence over you
workmen, I shall eventually have much to insist upon with you; and in
doing so I shall take that beautiful parable of the Prodigal Son
(which I have already referred to), and explain, as far as I know, the
significance of it, and then I will take the three means of festivity,
or wholesome human joy, therein stated,--fine dress, rich food, and
music;--("bring forth the fairest robe for him,"--"bring forth the
fatted calf, and kill it;" "as he drew nigh, he heard music and
dancing"); and I will show you how all these three things, fine dress,
rich food, and music (including ultimately all the other arts) are
meant to be sources of life, and means of moral discipline, to all
men; and how they have all three been made, by the Devil, the means of
guilt, dissoluteness, and death.[A] But first I must return to my
original plan of these letters, and endeavor to set down for you some
of the laws which, in a true Working Men's Parliament, must be
ordained in defense of Honesty.
[A] See 'Fors Clavigera,' Letter XXIV.
Of which laws (preliminary to all others, and necessary above all
others), having now somewhat got my raveled threads together again,
I will begin talk in my next letter.