There is still another point which remains to be cleared up, my dear
Terentian, and on which I shall not hesitate to add some remarks, to
gratify your inquiring spirit. It relates to a question which was
recently put to me by a certain philosopher. "To me," he said, "in
common, I may say, with many others, it is a matter of wonder that in
the present age, which produces many highly skilled in the arts Of
popular persuasion, many of keen and active powers, many especially rich
in every pleasing gift of language, the growth of highly exalted and
wide-reaching genius has with a few rare exceptions almost entirely
ceased. So universal is the dearth of eloquence which prevails
throughout the world.
2
"Must we really," he asked, "give credit to that oft-repeated assertion
that democracy is the kind nurse of genius, and that high literary
excellence has flourished with her prime and faded with her decay?
Liberty, it is said, is all-powerful to feed the aspirations of high
intellects, to hold out hope, and keep alive the flame of mutual rivalry
and ambitious struggle for the highest place.
3
"Moreover, the prizes which are offered in every free state keep the
spirits of her foremost orators whetted by perpetual exercise;[1] they
are, as it were, ignited by friction, and naturally blaze forth freely
because they are surrounded by freedom. But we of to-day," he continued,
"seem to have learnt in our childhood the lessons of a benignant
despotism, to have been cradled in her habits and customs from the time
when our minds were still tender, and never to have tasted the fairest
and most fruitful fountain of eloquence, I mean liberty. Hence we
develop nothing but a fine genius for flattery.
[Footnote 1: Comp. Pericles in Thuc. ii., +athla gar hois keitai
aretes megista tois de kai andres arista politeuousin+.]
4
"This is the reason why, though all other faculties are consistent with
the servile condition, no slave ever became an orator; because in him
there is a dumb spirit which will not be kept down: his soul is chained:
he is like one who has learnt to be ever expecting a blow. For, as Homer
says--
5
"'The day of slavery
Takes half our manly worth away.'[2]
"As, then (if what I have heard is credible), the cages in which those
pigmies commonly called dwarfs are reared not only stop the growth of
the imprisoned creature, but absolutely make him smaller by compressing
every part of his body, so all despotism, however equitable, may be
defined as a cage of the soul and a general prison."
[Footnote 2: _Od._ xvii. 322.]
6
My answer was as follows: "My dear friend, it is so easy, and so
characteristic of human nature, always to find fault with the
present.[3] Consider, now, whether the corruption of genius is to be
attributed, not to a world-wide peace,[4] but rather to the war within
us which knows no limit, which engages all our desires, yes, and still
further to the bad passions which lay siege to us to-day, and make utter
havoc and spoil of our lives. Are we not enslaved, nay, are not our
careers completely shipwrecked, by love of gain, that fever which rages
unappeased in us all, and love of pleasure?--one the most debasing, the
other the most ignoble of the mind's diseases.
[Footnote 3: Comp. Byron, "The good old times,--all times when old
are good."]
[Footnote 4: A euphemism for "a world-wide tyranny."]
7
"When I consider it I can find no means by which we, who hold in such
high honour, or, to speak more correctly, who idolise boundless riches,
can close the door of our souls against those evil spirits which grow up
with them. For Wealth unmeasured and unbridled is dogged by
Extravagance: she sticks close to him, and treads in his footsteps: and
as soon as he opens the gates of cities or of houses she enters with him
and makes her abode with him. And after a time they build their nests
(to use a wise man's words[5]) in that corner of life, and speedily set
about breeding, and beget Boastfulness, and Vanity, and Wantonness, no
base-born children, but their very own. And if these also, the offspring
of Wealth, be allowed to come to their prime, quickly they engender in
the soul those pitiless tyrants, Violence, and Lawlessness, and
Shamelessness.
[Footnote 5: Plato, _Rep._ ix. 573, E.]
8
"Whenever a man takes to worshipping what is mortal and irrational[6] in
him, and neglects to cherish what is immortal, these are the inevitable
results. He never looks up again; he has lost all care for good report;
by slow degrees the ruin of his life goes on, until it is consummated
all round; all that is great in his soul fades, withers away, and is
despised.
[Footnote 6: Reading +kanoeta+.]
9
"If a judge who passes sentence for a bribe can never more give a free
and sound decision on a point of justice or honour (for to him who takes
a bribe honour and justice must be measured by his own interests), how
can we of to-day expect, when the whole life of each one of us is
controlled by bribery, while we lie in wait for other men's death and
plan how to get a place in their wills, when we buy gain, from whatever
source, each one of us, with our very souls in our slavish greed, how, I
say, can we expect, in the midst of such a moral pestilence, that there
is still left even one liberal and impartial critic, whose verdict will
not be biassed by avarice in judging of those great works which live on
through all time?
10
"Alas! I fear that for such men as we are it is better to serve than to
be free. If our appetites were let loose altogether against our
neighbours, they would be like wild beasts uncaged, and bring a deluge
of calamity on the whole civilised world."
11
I ended by remarking generally that the genius of the present age is
wasted by that indifference which with a few exceptions runs through the
whole of life. If we ever shake off our apathy[7] and apply ourselves to
work, it is always with a view to pleasure or applause, not for that
solid advantage which is worthy to be striven for and held in honour.
[Footnote 7: Comp. Thuc. vi. 26. 2, for this sense of
+analambanein+.]
12
We had better then leave this generation to its fate, and turn to what
follows, which is the subject of the passions, to which we promised
early in this treatise to devote a separate work.[8] They play an
important part in literature generally, and especially in relation to
the Sublime.
[Footnote 8: iii. 5.]