[Speech of William B. Gladstone at the annual banquet of the Royal
Academy, May 5, 1877. Sir Francis Grant, the President of the Academy,
being indisposed, Sir Gilbert Scott, the eminent architect, took the
chair at the special request of the President. In introducing Mr.
Gladstone, he said: "The next toast is, 'The Interests of Literature.'
I have been somewhat perplexed myself to think why the custom of the
Academy places Science before Literature. I see, however, that it is
quite right, for Literature is a member of our own family--our sister.
[Cheers.] I am old enough to recollect that when Sir Morton Archer
Shee, who united Art with Poetry, was elected President of the
Academy, this epigram appeared in the 'Times':
"'So Painting crowns her sister Poesie,
The world is all astonished, so is She (e).'
Many present will remember in more recent times how Charles Dickens,
when returning thanks for this toast, expressed the same sentiment of
relationship by altering some words of Rob Roy's and saying that when
at our Academy he felt so much at home, as to be inclined to exclaim:
'My foot is on my native heath, although my name is not Macgregor.'
Next to religion, literature in very many of its phases supplies the
noblest subjects for Art. History, Biography, and works of fiction all
contribute their share; while poetry enjoys the cumulative privilege
of uniting in itself the incentives to Art which are commanded by all
other branches of Literature as well as the ennobling sentiments
inspired by religion, patriotism and other affections of the human
heart. An elevating mission, indeed, be it only directed in a worthy
course. Frivolity and license are alike the bane of literature and
art. Earnestness of purpose and severity of moral tone are the stamina
of both. Shorn of these, both alike find their strength is gone from
them. It is consoling to reflect that notwithstanding the laborious
turmoil of politics we have had three, and I think successive, Prime
Ministers who have made Literature the solace of their scanty leisure
and delighted the world by their writings on subjects extraneous to
State politics. I give you the 'Interests of Literature,' and I have
the honor to connect the toast with the name of one of that
distinguished trio, the Right Honorable William Ewart Gladstone."]
MR. CHAIRMAN, YOUR ROYAL HIGHNESS, MY LORDS AND GENTLEMEN:--I
think no question can be raised as to the just claims of literature to
stand upon the list of toasts at the Royal Academy, and the sentiment is
one to which, upon any one of the numerous occasions of my attendance at
your hospitable board, I have always listened with the greatest
satisfaction until the present day arrived, when I am bound to say that
that satisfaction is extremely qualified by the arrangement less
felicitous, I think, than any which preceded it that refers to me the
duty of returning thanks for Literature. [Cheers and laughter.] However,
obedience is the principle upon which we must proceed, and I have at
least the qualification for discharging the duty you have been pleased
to place in my hands--that no one has a deeper or more profound sense of
the vital importance of the active and constant cultivation of letters
as an essential condition of real progress and of the happiness of
mankind [cheers], and here every one at once perceives that that
sisterhood of which the poet spoke, whom you have quoted, is a real
sisterhood, for literature and art are alike the votaries of beauty. Of
these votaries I may thankfully say that as regards art I trace around
me no signs of decay, and none in that estimation in which the Academy
is held, unless to be sure, in the circumstance of your poverty of
choice of one to reply to this toast. [Cheers.]
During the present century the artists of this country have gallantly
and nobly endeavored to maintain and to elevate their standard [cheers],
and have not perhaps in that great task always received that assistance
which could be desired from the public taste which prevails around them.
But no one can examine even superficially the works which adorn these
walls without perceiving that British art retains all its fertility of
invention [cheers], and this year as much as in any year that I can
remember, exhibits in the department of landscape, that fundamental
condition of all excellence, intimate and profound sympathy with nature.
[Cheers.]
As regards literature one who is now beginning at any rate to descend
the hill of life naturally looks backwards as well as forwards, and we
must be becoming conscious that the early part of this century has
witnessed in this and other countries what will be remembered in future
times as a splendid literary age. [Cheers.] The elder among us have
lived in the lifetime of many great men who have passed to their
rest--the younger have heard them familiarly spoken of and still have
their works in their hands as I trust they will continue to be in the
hands of all generations. [Cheers.] I am afraid we cannot hope for
literature--it would be contrary to all the experience of former times
were we to hope that it should be equally sustained at that
extraordinarily high level which belongs, speaking roughly, to the first
fifty years after the peace of 1815. That was a great period--a great
period in England, a great period in Germany, a great period in France,
and a great period, too, in Italy. [Cheers.]
As I have said, I think we can hardly hope that it should continue on a
perfect level at so high an elevation. Undoubtedly the cultivation of
literature will ever be dear to the people of this country; but we must
remember what is literature, and what is not. In the first place, we
should be all agreed that bookmaking is not literature. ["Hear!"] The
business of bookmaking I have no doubt may thrive and will be continued
upon a constantly extending scale from year to year. But that we may put
aside. For my own part if I am to look a little forward, what I
anticipate for the remainder of the century is an age not so much of
literature proper--not so much of great, permanent and splendid
additions to those works in which beauty is embodied as an essential
condition of production, but I rather look forward to an age of
research. [Cheers.] This is an age of great research--of great research
in science, great research in history--an age of research in all the
branches of inquiry that throw light upon the former condition whether
of our race, or of the world which it inhabits [cheers]; and it may be
hoped that, even if the remaining years of the century be not so
brilliant as some of its former periods, in the production of works
great in themselves, and immortal,--still they may add largely to the
knowledge of mankind; and if they make such additions to the knowledge
of mankind, they will be preparing the materials of a new tone and of
new splendors in the realm of literature. There is a sunrise and sunset.
There is a transition from the light of the sun to the gentler light of
the moon. There is a rest in nature which seems necessary in all her
great operations. And so with all the great operations of the human
mind. But do not let us despond if we seem to see a diminished efficacy
in the production of what is essentially and immortally great. Our sun
if hidden is hidden only for a moment. He is like the day star of
Milton:--
"Which anon repairs his drooping head
And tricks his beams, and with new spangled ore,
Flames in the forehead of the morning sky."
[Cheers.]
I rejoice in an occasion like this which draws the attention of the
world to topics which illustrate the union of art with literature and of
literature with science, because you have a hard race to run, you have a
severe competition against the attraction of external pursuits, whether
those pursuits take the form of business or pleasure. It is given to you
to teach lessons of the utmost importance to mankind, in maintaining the
principle that no progress can be real which is not equable, which is
not proportionate, which does not develop all the faculties belonging to
our nature. [Cheers.] If a great increase of wealth in a country takes
place, and with that increase of wealth a powerful stimulus to the
invention of mere luxury, that, if it stands alone, is not, never can
be, progress. It is only that one-sided development which is but one
side of deformity. I hope we shall have no one-sided development. One
mode of avoiding it is to teach the doctrine of that sisterhood you have
asserted to-day, and confident I am that the good wishes you have
expressed on behalf of literature will be re-echoed in behalf of art
wherever men of letters are found. [Loud cheers.]