_Sunshine in Thought._ By CHARLES GODFREY LELAND, Author of
"Meister Karl's Sketch-Book," and Translator of "Heine's
Pictures of Travel." New York: Charles T. Evans. 16mo.
We do not exactly know how to characterize this jubilant volume. The
author, not content to denounce generally the poets of sentimentality
and the prophets of despair, has evidently a science of Joy latent in
his mind, of which his rich, discursive, and somewhat rollicking
sentences give but an imperfect exposition. He is in search of an ideal
law of Cheerfulness, which neither history nor literature fully
illustrates, but which he still seeks with an undoubting faith. Every
transient glimpse of his law he eagerly seizes, whether indicated in
events or in persons. And it must be admitted that he is not ignorant
either of the great annalists or the great writers of the world. He
knows Herodotus as well as he knows Hume, Thucydides as intimately as
Gibbon. Xenophon and Plutarch are as familiar to him as Michelet,
Thiers, and Guizot. He has studied Aristænetus and Lucian as closely as
Horace Walpole and Thackeray,--is as ready to quote from Plato as from
Rabelais,--and throws the results of his wide study, with an occasional
riotous disregard of prim literary proprieties, into a fierce defiance
of everything which makes against his favorite theory, that there is
nothing in pure theology, sound ethics, and healthy literature, nothing
in the historic records of human life, which can justify the discontent
of the sentimentalist or the scorn of the misanthrope.
Engaged thus in an almost Quixotic assault on the palpable miseries of
human existence,--miseries which are as much acknowledged by Homer as by
Euripides, by Ariosto as by Dante, by Shakspeare as by Milton, by Goethe
as by Lamartine,--he has a difficult work to perform. Still he does not
bate a jot of heart and hope. He discriminates, with the art of a true
critic, between objective representations of human life and subjective
protests against human limitations, errors, miseries, and sins. As far
as either representation embodies the human principle of Joy,--whether
Greek or Roman, ancient or modern, Christian or Pagan,--he is content
with the evidence. The moment a writer of either school insinuates a
principle or sentiment of Despair, whether he be a dramatist or a
sentimentalist, the author enters his earnest protest. Classical and
Romantic poets, romancers and historians, when they slip into
misery-mongers, are equally the objects of his denunciations. Keats and
Tennyson fare nearly as ill as Byron and Heine. Mr. Leland feels assured
that the human race is entitled to joy, and there is something almost
comical in his passionate assault on the morbid genius of the world. He
seems to say, "Why do you not accept the conditions of happiness? The
conditions are simple, and nothing but your pestilent wilfulness
prevents your compliance with them."
This "pestilent wilfulness" is really the key to the whole position. All
objective as well as subjective writers have been impotent to provide
the way by which the seeker after perfect and permanent content can
attain and embody it. It has been sought through wit, humor, fancy,
imagination, reason; but it has been sought in vain. Our author, who,
after nearly exhausting all the concrete representatives of the
philosophy of Joy, admits that nobody embodies his ideal of happiness,
surrenders his ideal, as far as it has been practically expressed in
life or thought. Rabelais dissatisfies him; Scarron dissatisfies him;
Molière, Swift, Sterne, not to mention others, dissatisfy him. Every
ally he brings forward to sustain his position is reduced by analysis
into a partial enemy of his creed. But while we cannot concur in Mr.
Leland's theory in his exclusive statement of it, and confess to a
strong liking for many writers whom he considers effeminate, we
cordially agree with him in his plea for "Sunshine in Thought," and
sympathize in his vigorous and valorous assault on the morbid elements
of our modern literature. We think that poets should be as cheerful as
possible; whereas some of them seem to think it is their duty to be as
fretful as possible, and to make misery an invariable accompaniment of
genius. The primary object of all good literature is to invigorate and
to cheer, not to weaken and depress; it should communicate mental and
moral life, as well as convey sentiments and ideas,--should brace and
strengthen the mind, as well as fill it; and when it whimpers and wails,
when it teaches despair as philosophy, especially when it uses the
enchantments of imagination to weaken the active powers, its effect is
mischievous. Woe, considered as a luxury, is the most expensive of all
luxuries; and there is danger to the mental and moral health even in the
pensive sadness which, to some readers, sheds such a charm over the
meditations of that kind of genius which is rather thoughtful than full
of thought. For the melodious miseries which mediocrity mimics, for the
wretchedness which some fifth-rate rhymers assume in order to make
themselves interesting, there can, of course, be no toleration. Mr.
Leland pounds them as with the hammer of Thor, and would certainly beat
out their brains, had not Nature fortunately neglected to put such
perilous matter into craniums exposed to such ponderous blows.
Apart from the general theory and purpose of the book, there is a great
deal of talent and learning exhibited in the illustrations of the
subject. The remarks on Aristophanes, Rabelais, Swift, Sterne, and
Heine,--half analysis, half picture,--are very striking; and there are,
throughout the volume, continual flashes of suggestive thought and vivid
portraiture, which both delight and detain the reader. The style is that
of animated conversation,--the conversation of a man whose veins are as
full of blood as his mind is of ideas, who is hilarious from abounding
health, and whose occasional boisterousness of manner proceeds from the
robustness of his make and the cheer of his soul. The whole volume tends
to create in thought that "sunshine" which it so joyously recommends and
celebrates. The reader is warmed by the ardor and earnestness with which
propositions he may distrust are urged upon his attention, and closes
the volume with that feeling of pleased excitement which always comes
from contact with a fresh and original mind.
_The Gentleman._ By GEORGE H. CALVERT. Boston: Ticknor &
Fields.
Paradoxical as it may appear, we believe there never was a time when the
true and pure standard of gentlemanhood could be more impressively
raised and upheld in this republic than now. The vast and keen civil
conflict which so deeply agitates our political life has laid bare the
groundwork and brought to the surface the latent elements of our social
life, so that a new, an obvious, and a searching test is instinctively
applied to character; as in all times of profound moral excitement,
_shams_ grow fantastic and contemptible, and _principles_ of action and
being rise to superlative worth. The question, What constitutes the
Gentleman? suggested at first by the preposterous and exclusive claims
thereto arrogantly put forth by a little community, in justification of
profane and destructive violence to a nation's welfare, has come to be
regarded as embracing all the obligations, responsibilities, and
humanities that make up and certify Christian manhood and genuine
patriotism; the wide and deep significance of a word too often
confounded with mere manners is thus practically found to indicate the
most vital elements of personal worth and social well-being.
Accordingly, a comprehensive, philosophical definition and illustration
of the Gentleman, in the ideal grace and greatness and in the real
authority and use of that so much misunderstood and seldom achieved
character, is doubly welcome at this hour, the strife and discussion
whereof bring out in such strong relief the true _animus_ and equipment
of statesmen, soldiers, citizens, men and women, and force us to realize
the poverty of soul, the inherent baseness, or the magnanimity and
rectitude of our fellow-creatures, with a vividness never before
experienced. How indispensable to the welfare of the State is a society
based on higher motives than those of material ambition, and how
impossible is the existence of such a society, except through individual
probity and disinterestedness, is a lesson written in blood and tears
before our eyes to-day; and thrice welcome, we repeat, is the clear and
emphatic exposition of the Gentleman, as an incarnation of the justice,
love, and honor, whereon, in the last analysis, rest the hopes and
welfare of the nation. No ethical or æsthetical treatise could be more
seasonable than this of Mr. Calvert's. We regard it as the best
lay-sermon thus far evoked by the moral exigencies of the hour; however
appropriate it may also be and is to any and all times and readers of
taste and thought, a superficial, merely dilettante essay on such a
subject and at such a time would repel instead of alluring.
The charming little volume before us, while made genially attractive by
occasional playfulness and anecdote, is yet pervaded by an earnestness
born of strong conviction and deep sympathies. It analyzes the springs
of character, traces conduct to its elemental source, and follows it to
its ultimate influence. To a concise style it unites an expansive
spirit; with a tone of rich and high culture it blends the vivacity and
grace of the most genial colloquy. From the etymology of the word to the
humanity of the character, a full, forcible, frank, and fervent
discussion of the Gentleman is given, as he figures in history, in
society, in domestic life, and in literature,--and as he lives, a grand
and gracious ideal, in the consciousness of the author. Beginning with
the meaning, origin, and use of the word Gentleman, Mr. Calvert gives a
critical analysis of its historical personation. As a chevalier type, in
such men as Sidney and Bayard. Its ethical and æsthetical meaning is
finely exemplified in the contrast between Charles Lamb and George IV.,
Leicester and Hampden, Washington and Napoleon. The Gentleman in St.
Paul is well illustrated. The relation of this character to antiquity is
defined with a scholar's zest: whatever of its force and flavor is
discernible in Socrates and Brutus is gracefully indicated; the
deficiency of Homer's heroes, excepting Hector, therein, is ably
demonstrated. These and like illustrations of so prolific a theme
inevitably suggest episodes of argument, incidental, yet essential to
the main question; and the just and benign remarks on the Duel, the
Position of Women in Ancient and Modern Society, and the Influence of
Christianity upon Manners, are striking in their scope and style, and
breathe the lofty and tender spirit of that Faith which inculcates
_disinterestedness_ as the latent and lasting inspiration of the
Gentleman. Perhaps the most delectable illustrations, which give both
form and beauty to this essay, are those drawn from modern literature:
they are choice specimens of criticism, and full of subtile
discrimination in tracing the relation of literature to life. We would
instance especially the chapters on Shakspeare's Gentleman; the
recognition of the Gentleman in Sir Roger de Coverley, Uncle Toby, and
Don Quixote; and the admirable distinction pointed out between the
characters of Scott, Byron, Shelley, and Keats. There is no part of the
volume more worthy attention than the remarks of a "high-bred tone in
writing." The hollowness of Chesterfield's code is keenly exposed; Honor
and Vulgarity are freshly and ably defined; Fashion, Pride, and Vanity,
the conventional elements of the Gentleman, are treated with
philosophical justice; the favorite characters of fiction, and the most
renowned poets and heroes, beaux and braves, pass before us, and are
subjected to the test of that Christian ideal of the Gentleman so
clearly defined and firmly applied by the intrepid author; and many a
disguised coxcomb is stripped of his borrowed plumes, imperial
_parvenus_ exposed as charlatans in manners as well as morals, and
heroic, but modest souls, of whom the world's court-calendar gives no
hint, stand forth exemplars of the highest, because the most soulful
breeding.