,note3 ,images of the original pages are
 available through        ,internet     
,archive4 ,see                          
https3_/_/archive4org_/details_/newspiri
twithnew#jj;elli            ,the ,scott 
,library4    ,,the ,,new ,,spirit4      
,,for ,,full ,,list ,,of ,,the ,,volumes
 ,,in ,,this ,,series1    ,,see         
,,catalogue ,,at ,,end ,,of ,,book4     
,,the ,,new ,,spirit4    by             
,,havelock ,,ellis4    8,en portant     
leur plus haut degr ses sentiments les  
plus intimes1  on devient le chef de    
file d'un grand nombre d'autres hommes4 
,pour  acqurir une valeur typique1 il   
faut tre le plus individuel qu'il est   
possible40    ,third ,edition1 with a   
,new ,preface4              ,london3    
,walter ,scott1 ,ltd41  #bd ,warwick    
,lane1 ,paternoster ,row4               
,,contents4                             
,,page    ,,preface          vii        
,,introduction       #a    ,,diderot    
#cd    ,,heine             #fh          
,,whitman           #hi    ,,ibsen      

#acc    ,,tolstoi          #agd         
,,conclusion       #bbh                 
,,preface ,,to ,,the ,,third ,,edition4 
,no alterations have been made in this  
edition4 ,it is true that three  of the 
figures here studied were living when   
the book was written2  but their genius 
had matured1 their work was for the most
 part done4  ,nothing they could produce
 would seriously modify one's conception
  of them as aboriginal personal forces1
 the outcome of the past1 the           
initiators of the future4 ,apart from   
this1 it seems to me a mistake to       
manipulate or add to one's own completed
 work4 ,if ,i were to re-write  it1 ,i  
should doubtless write it differently2  
the ,conclusion1 for  instance1 which is
 earliest in date1 seems to me now      
rather formal and  metaphysical4 ,but   
for the most part ,i have nothing       
seriously to alter  or to omit4    ,i   
have sometimes been asked why1 in a     
discussion of some of the new           
influences of the past century1 ,i have 

left out representative men who  have   
made so great a stir in the world4      
,goethe1 it may possibly be  true1      
stalks through every page1 but where are
 ,kant1 ,hegel1 ,auguste  ,comte1 ,john 
,stuart ,mill1 ,herbert ,spencer8 ,i    
cannot remember ever  proposing to      
include these names4 ,the reason may be 
clearer if ,i  mention other names ,i   
once wished to include1 although--partly
 doubting  my competence to discuss     
them1 partly fearing that their         
introduction  might seem to interfere   
with the unity of the book--,i          
ultimately  refrained4    ,one was      
,burne ,jones4 ,i shall never forget    
how1 as a youth in the ,public  ,library
 at ,sydney1 ,i turned over the leaves  
of a volume of etchings  and suddenly   
alighted on 8,merlin and ,vivien40      
,something ,i knew of  ,botticelli1     
,lippi and the rest1 and ,i had brooded 
over their antique  mystery and charm2  
but here were all the mystery and the   
charm brought  down among us from the   

world where saints stand stiff and      
aureoled1  and angels walk tip-toe on   
lily cups4 ,the fifteenth century       
artists  of ,flanders and ,venice and   
,florence introduced us into a frankly  
supernatural world1 and they delighted  
like children to scatter rich  fruits on
 the golden floors1 and to stick        
peacocks' feathers into  the bejewelled 
walls4 ,it is a rarer and subtler art to
 suggest that  infinitely remote world  
while accepting the austere conditions  
of  our own earth4 ,the pale ghosts of  
,puvis de ,chavannes' frescoes are  a   
far-off suggestion of this art2 and one 
thinks too of the modern  magician who  
has brought before us the twinkling of  
,salome's feet by  the red blood from   
the ,baptist's head1 curdling amid the  
flowers2 the  rich-robed daughters of   
,apollo among the olives2 the mystic    
elephant  in solemn festival1 gathering 
the lotus with his trunk as his feet    
plash slowly in the clear waters of the 
sacred lake4 ,but the shadowy  art of   

,puvis1 the wayward and limited art of  
,gustave ,moreau1 come  short of the    
consistent and completely realised art  
which has been  attained by the painter 
who stands forth in the eyes of ,europe 
as the  greatest imaginative artist of  
,england4 ,it is a new synthesis of the 
world of nature and the world of dreams4
 ,the three women who dance in  the     
foreground of 8,the ,mill0 tell us of a 
country where human joys and  sorrows1  
hopes and fears1 are set to a different 
measure1 and sung in  unknown keys4 ,a  
strange and troublous art1 it seems     
sometimes1--like  the sinuous melodies  
of ,renan1 which seem to belong to some 
far-haunted  past1 and yet contain the  
intimate secrets of our own hearts1--but
 it  fascinates and holds us as though  
music became visible before our eyes4   
,it opens before us a new and delightful
 pathway into the land of dreams4       
,another was ,auguste ,rodin4 ,to mould 
the human figure has been an  amusement 
for man since ever he carved wood or    

indented clay4 ,it was  left for the    
sculptors of ,egypt and of ,greece and  
of ,italy to form  human figures of     
stone1 not as a mere symbol of the      
reality1 but as  a revelation of their  
own moods and visions of beauty or      
passion2  and since then the amusement  
has fallen back into convention and     
symbol1 although the plastic            
representation of the modern human body1
  etiolated and hidden1 offers fewer    
difficulties than its representation  in
 painting which ,millet and ,degas have 
in varying ways striven to  achieve4    
,now even the great sculptors of old    
only suggest to us beauty  or grace or  
strength that has become conventional2  
they reveal nothing4  ,in this man's    
work the form that is closest to us of  
all forms in the  world1 that we cling  
to from the day of birth1 and that      
remains with  us1 half-seen or divined1 
until the day of death1 has been        
revealed  anew1 just as new aspects of  
light have been revealed by ,claude     

,monet4  ,it is the ancient human       
way-worn and passion-used form1 rendered
 with  pathetic truth1 and yet we feel  
that we have never truly seen the human 
body before4 ,we marvel how expression  
can be carried so far without  passing  
the bounds of nature and simplicity4 ,it
 is far from the method  of             
,michelangelo1 ,rodin's immediate       
predecessor1 with whom it has been  the 
fashion to compare him4 ,michelangelo's 
stupendous fantasy twisted  the human   
body into the strange or lovely shapes  
of his own inverted  dreams4 ,in        
,rodin's work1 it is through a          
relentless love of nature that  we are  
led to a new and intimate vision of the 
body4 ,the quiet artist  in his simple  
work-room has been building up through  
long years his  great ,gate of ,hell2 it
 is the gate of the joy and beauty and  
terror of  life1 expressed otherwise    
than those sober stories of the old     
world so  charmingly told on that gate  
that was thought worthy of ,heaven4 ,but

  through this gate we are led to a new 
insight of that figure in the  world    
which is closest to us and most         
precious1 such an insight1 it may  well 
be1 as ,pheidias and ,donatello brought 
to the men of their time4    ,another   
personality that ,i desired to analyse1 
and perhaps the  greatest1 was ,richard 
,wagner4 ,the ,leipzig youth1 who hated 
the tawdry  tinsel of the theatre1 and  
was so little of a musical prodigy that 
he  could never learn to play the piano1
 impelled by a strange instinct  has yet
 wrought music and the stage to a poetic
 height never before  approached4 ,just 
as our arts rise out of our industries1 
so the  manifold art of ,wagner--woven  
of music and poetry and drama--rises to 
something that is beyond art4 ,wagner   
has made the largest impersonal         
synthesis yet attainable of the personal
 influences that thrill our  lives1 and 
has built it on the broadest            
physiological basis of our  senses1 so  
that faith has here become sight4 ,such 

harmony is what we  are accustomed to   
call ,heaven1 and such art--to the mere 
musician  cacophony and confusion--is   
truly called religion4 ,it will take    
some  time yet before we understand its 
place in life as a new expression of    
the human soul4 ,generations must pass  
before it will be possible for  a       
greater artist1 by a still wider sensory
 appeal1 to lift us to any  higher      
,heaven4    ,it is not the men of one   
idea--important as these are--who most  
truly  represent the spirit of an age4  
,such men most often represent the      
spirit of some earlier generation1 which
 in them has become definitely          
crystallised4 ,it is the men whose ideas
 are still free in pungent1             
penetrating1 often confused solution    
that we may count nearest to the        
natural forces of an age1 and it is     
these that are most interesting  to     
analyse4 ,in such men the feebler       
instincts of their fellows are          
concentrated1 and the flaming energy of 

their spirits attracts few1  repels     
most1 of their fellows4 ,it is1 no      
doubt1 because of this high  degree of  
emotional exaltation that these men     
bring us to religion4  ,it all comes to 
religion4 ,i would point out to those   
who think that  this result needs       
apology1 that such men do not bring     
before us the  pale1 animistic children 
of dreams1 who for so many ages have    
sought  with their shadowy arms to      
beckon men away from the world to a home
  on the other side of the sky1 but the 
robust children of our working  life1   
the offspring of our living energies and
 emotions1 the harmonised  satisfaction 
of all that we have lived1 of all that  
we have felt4    ,so the 8new spirit0   
brings us to one of the most ancient    
modes of  human emotion4 ,i sought to   
emphasise this in my ,introduction as   
well  as in the ,conclusion1 not        
altogether successfully for some of my  
readers1 who have been led to credit me 
with virtues of modernity to  which ,i  

can make no claim4 ,so far from being   
8an apostle of modernity10  the 8new    
spirit0 that ,i am concerned with is but
 a quickening in the  pulse of life such
 as may take place in any age1 though my
 tracings  are only of a recent         
acceleration4 ,the greatest             
manifestation of the  new spirit that ,i
 know of took place long since in the   
zoological  history of the race when the
 immediate ancestor of man began to walk
  on his hind legs1 so developing the   
skilful hands and restless brain  that  
brought sin into the world4 ,that       
strange and perilous method  of         
locomotion--which carried other diseases
 and disabilities in its  train1 more   
concrete than sin--marked a             
revolutionary outburst of new  life     
worth contemplating4 ,yet even among the
 later and minor movements  of life it  
is not the most recent that to me       
personally are the most  attractive4    
,the ,eiffel ,tower does not thrill me  
like the gray towers of  ,chartres2 ,i  

find the streets of ,zaragoza more      
interesting than those of  ,manchester4 
,and1 on the other hand1 there are      
modernities which seem to  me old1 very 
old1 older than life itself4    ,to say 
this is no doubt to confess that the    
personal element has a  large place in  
this study of the 8,new ,spirit40 ,and  
it is true that1  however honest a piece
 of mechanism your sphygmograph may be1 
if it  is alive there is a very         
considerable personal equation which you
  must make up your mind to reckon with4
 ,i believe ,i am not altogether        
incapable of slinging facts at the head 
of the ,british ,goliath 7with  purely  
benevolent intentions71 but on this     
occasion ,i wrote for my own  pleasure3 
let me apologise to ,goliath for any    
annoyance ,i may so have  caused him4 ,i
 wished to speak for once1 so far as    
might be1 in my own  voice1 glad if here
 and there a reader cared to follow my  
impatient  track1 furnishing from the   
stores of his own knowledge and         

intelligence  what was lacking in       
commentaries and pices justificatives4  
,i wished  at the outset to take a      
bird's-eye view of the world as it      
presented  itself to me personally1 only
 indicating by mere hints those parts   
of the field in which ,i was more       
specially concerned4 ,and ,i wished     
also to indicate--perhaps once for      
all--my own faith in those large  facts 
of nature which are unaffected by       
personal equation1 and which  harmonise 
all our petty individual activities4    
,nature is bent on her  own ends1 and   
with infinite ingenuity uses all our    
energies to carry  out her idea of      
increasing and multiplying the countless
 forms of  life4 ,death itself is but an
 accidental after-thought1 a beneficial 
adaptation--as ,weismann would have us  
express it--only affecting the  body1   
that servant of the immortal germ-cells 
which has grown so large  and arrogant  
since the days when we ,metazoa were    
young in the world4  ,that is the one   

master-thought of ,nature1 or--shall we 
say8--her  systematised delusion1 her   
dlire  forme chronique4 ,but the malady1
  if it is one1 is incurable4 ,a friend 
of mine1 under the influence of  nitrous
 oxide1 once found himself face to face 
with the ,almighty4 ,being  a man of    
earnest and philosophic temperament1 he 
took advantage of the  opportunity to   
demand passionately the meaning and aim 
of this tangled  skein of things in     
which we find ourselves3 8,why have ,you
 placed us  here8 ,for what purpose have
 ,you submitted us to all this strife   
and  misery8 ,what is the solution of   
the riddle of life80 ,and then1 uttered 
in a characteristic bass1 came in one   
word the awful reply which my  friend   
will never forget3 8,procreation40 ,i   
fear that that voice is1  or might well 
have been1 divine4    ,and yet why      
should one 8fear08 ,we have our brief   
triumph4 ,seeking out  many curious     
things1 we learn to know and to enjoy   
the earth4 ,nature's  naughty           

children--whether artists or scientists 
or mystics--we may  stand aside1        
contemplate her great object1 and       
impudently elevate our  fingers to our  
nose4 ,it amuses us1 and scarcely hurts 
her4 ,she cannot  refuse us the by-play 
of her own adaptations4 ,for it all     
comes of that  primitive manifestation  
of the new spirit1 the 8,fall10 which   
raised us  on to our hind limbs and     
enabled us to drink of the ,cider of    
,paradise4          ,h4 ,e4      #gth   
,october1 #ahib4          ,,preface4    
,from our earliest days we look out into
 the world with wide-eyed  amazement1   
trying to discover for ourselves what it
 is like4  ,instinctively we must spend 
a great part of our lives in searching  
and probing into the nature and drift of
 the things among which1 by a  volition 
not our own1 we were projected4 ,to-day1
 when we stand1 as it  were1 at the     
beginning of a new era1 and when we have
 been celebrating  the centenary of the 
most significant event in modern        

history1 an  individual who1 for his own
 guidance1 has done his part in this    
searching and probing1 may perhaps be   
allowed to present some of the  results1
 not claiming to be an expert1 not      
desiring to impose on others  any       
private scheme of the universe4 ,the    
pulse of life runs strong and  fast2 ,i 
have tried to bring a sensitive lever to
 that pulse here and  there1 to         
determine and record1 as delicately as  
,i could1 its rhythms3  the papers ,i   
now present might be called a bundle of 
sphygmographic  tracings4    ,a large   
part of one's investigations into the   
spirit of one's time  must be made      
through the medium of literary          
personalities4 ,i have  selected five   
such typical individuals2 it is the     
intimate thought and  secret emotions of
 such men that become the common        
property of after  generations4         
,whenever a great literary personality  
comes before us with these  imperative  
claims1 it is our business to discover  

or divine its  fundamental instincts2 we
 ought to do this with the same         
austerity  and keen-eyed penetration as1
 if we were wise1 we should exercise in 
choosing the comrades of our daily life4
 ,he poses well in public2 he  has said 
those brave words on the platform2 he   
has written those rows  of eloquent     
books--but what 7one asks oneself7 is   
all that to me8 ,i  want to get at the  
motive forces at work in the man2 to    
know what his  intimate companions      
thought of him2 how he acted in the     
affairs of  every day1 and in the great 
crises of his life2 the fashion of his  
face  and form1 the tones of his voice4 
,how he desired to appear is of little  
importance2 ,i can perhaps learn all    
that it imports me to know from a       
single involuntary gesture1 or one      
glance into his eyes4    ,this is the   
attitude in which ,i have recorded1 as  
impersonally as may  be1 these          
impressions of the world of to-day1 as  
revealed in certain  significant        

personalities2 by searching and proving 
all things1 to grip  the earth with     
firmer foothold4      ,h4 ,e4           
,,the ,,new ,,spirit4                   
,,introduction4      ,there is a        
memorable period in the history of      
,europe which we call  the ,renaissance4
 ,we do well to give pre-eminence to    
that large  efflorescence of latent     
life1 but we forget sometimes that there
 have  been many such new expansions of 
the human spirit since that primitive   
outburst of ,christianity which is the  
most interesting of all in modern       
times4 ,the tree of life is always in   
bloom somewhere1 if we only know  where 
to look4 ,what a great forgotten        
renascence that is which in the  middle 
of the twelfth century centres around   
the name of ,abelard6 ,it  was nothing  
less than the new birth of the          
intellect4 ,abelard had  made anew the  
discovery that reason1 too1 is the gift 
of ,god1 and  faith was no longer blind2
 from all ,europe thousands of students 

gathered around the great teacher who   
dwelt in his rough hermitage on  the    
desert plains of ,troyes4 ,it was in the
 strength of that feast  that men wove  
scholastic cobwebs so diligently that   
the human spirit  itself seemed for     
awhile suffocated4 ,it was a great      
renascence of  life1 a hundred years    
later1 in the wonderful thirteenth      
century1  when ,francis of ,assisi      
revealed anew in his own person the     
ideal  charm of ,jesus1 and a group of  
fine spirits1 his fellows1 who bore  the
 ,everlasting ,gospel1--,jean de ,parme1
 ,pierre d',olive1 ,fra ,dolcino  and   
the rest1--sought to rebuild the edifice
 of ,christendom on the  foundation of  
the ,gospels1 only in the end to deluge 
the world with a  plague of grey friars4
 ,and then a great wave1 with ,luther on
 its crest1  swept across ,europe1      
reached at last the coast of ,england1  
and left  on its shores1 as a dreary    
monumental symbol1 ,st4 ,paul's         
,cathedral4  ,there is another great    

vital expansion about the time of the   
,french  ,revolution4 ,since then1 and  
chiefly as a result of that final       
triumph  of the middle-class throughout 
,europe1 of which the ,french           
,revolution  was the decisive seal1 the 
energy of ,europe1 and of ,england      
especially1  has found its main outlets 
in the development of a huge commercial 
structure1 now1 in the opinion of many1 
slowly and fearfully toppling  down4    
,the nineteenth century has seen the    
rise and fall of middle-class           
supremacy4 ,what has been the result of 
it8    ,one naturally turns first to    
literature to see the reflection of the 
life of a period4 ,the man who seems in 
the eyes of all ,englishmen1 so  far as 
one can make out1 to have represented   
during this century the  claims of      
humanity1 of dignity1 of what is called 
the spiritual side  of life1 was        
,carlyle2 and ,carlyle has been likened 
again and again to  the ,joels and      
,jeremiahs of that most material ,hebrew

 race4 ,the whole  of his long day was  
spent in crying out to a faithless and  
perverse  generation4 ,therefore        
,carlyle never attained the serenity and
 hilarity  of those two great spirits1  
,goethe and ,emerson1 between whom he   
stood  midway4 ,nor is it surprising    
that he was often blinded by the smoke  
and heat of a land that had become one  
huge ,black ,country1 and that he       
fought against freedom1 and sometimes   
mistook his friends for enemies4  ,nor  
again is it surprising that of the two  
great poets who occupy the  centre of   
the century1 one found inspiration in   
the blunders of a  ,crimean war and the 
royal representative of respectable     
middle-class  chivalry1 while the other 
gave himself up to marvellous feats of  
psychological gymnastic4 ,matthew       
,arnold1 for his part1 resolved the     
discords of his time in the austere calm
 of ,stoicism2 the calm of souls        
8who weigh      ,life well and find it  
wanting1 nor deplore2      ,but in      

disdainful silence turn away1           
,stand mute1 self-centred1 stern1 and   
dream no more30    practically1 however1
 ,arnold found it necessary neither to  
turn  away nor to be silent4 ,there was 
yet another solution for sensitive      
souls3 to hide the heart in a nest of   
roses away from the world1  just as     
,schopenhauer1 who in ,germany          
represented in more philosophic  vesture
 this same vague unrest1 resolved it by 
the aid of his profound  religious sense
 in refined and sthetic joy4 ,that is   
the solution  sought in what seems to me
 one of the most exquisite and          
significant  books of the century1      
8,marius the ,epicurean40 ,for ,marius1 
life is  made up of a few rare and      
lovely visions4 ,all the rough sorrow   
and  gladness of the world1 its         
,dantesque bitterness or its            
,rabelaisian  joy1 only reaches him     
through a long succession of mirrors1   
and every  strong human impulse as an   
attenuated echo4 ,this serious1 sweet1  

and thoughtful book is the summary of   
the 8sensations and ideas0 of  the      
finest natures of an era2 as in certain 
of the distinguished  opium-eaters of   
the beginning of the century1 ,coleridge
 or ,de ,quincey1  we see a refined     
development of the passive sensory sides
 of the human  organism with            
corresponding atrophy of the motor      
sides4 ,it is clearly  impossible to go 
any farther on that road4    ,there is  
no renascence of the human spirit unless
 some mighty leverage  has been at work 
long previously4 ,such forces work      
underground1 slowly  and coarsely and   
patiently1 during barren periods1 and   
they meet with  much contempt as        
destructive of man's finer and higher   
nature2 but1  in the end1 it is by these
 that the finer and higher is lifted to 
new  levels4 ,no great spiritual        
eruption can take place without the aid 
of  such levers4 ,what forces have been 
at work during the century that is  now 
drawing to a close8 ,three1 ,i think1   

stand clearly forth4    ,at the end of  
the sixteenth century1 it was above all 
the sudden  expansion of the world that 
inspired human effort and aspiration4   
,in  later days science has carried on  
the same movement by revealing world    
within world4 ,a chief element in the   
spirit of the ,french ,revolution  was1 
as ,taine pointed out1 that scientific  
activity which centred  around ,newton4 
,in our own time the impulse has come   
from scientific  discoveries much more  
revolutionary1 far-reaching and relative
 to life1  than any of ,newton's4 ,the  
conception of evolution has penetrated  
every  department of organic science1   
especially where it touches man4 ,darwin
  personally1 to whom belongs the chief 
place of honour in the triumph  of a    
movement which began with ,aristotle1   
has been a transforming  power by virtue
 of his method and spirit1 his immense  
patience1 his  keen observation1 his    
modesty and allegiance to truth2 no one 
has  done so much to make science--that 

is to say1 all inquiry into the         
traceable causes or relations of        
things--so attractive4 ,the great and   
growing sciences of to-day are the      
sciences of man--anthropology1          
sociology1 whatever we like to call     
them1 including also that special  and  
older development1 now become a new     
thing1 though still retaining  its      
antiquated name of ,political ,economy4 
,it is difficult for us to-day  to enter
 into the state of mind of those who    
once termed this the  dismal science2 if
 the question of a man's right to a     
foothold on the  earth is not           
interesting1 what things are            
interesting8 ,our hopes for  the        
evolution of man1 and our most          
indispensable guide1 are bound up  with 
all that we can learn of man's past and 
all that we can measure  of his present4
 ,it was by a significant coincidence   
that that great  modern science which   
has man himself for its subject was     
created by  ,broca1 when he founded the 

,socit d',anthropologie of ,paris in the
  same memorable year of #ahei which    
first saw 8,the ,origin of ,species40   
,man has been brought into a line with  
the rest of life2 a mysterious  chasm   
has been filled up2 a few fruitful hints
 have been received  which help to make 
the development of all life more        
intelligible4 ,this  has1 on the one    
hand1 given a mighty impulse to the     
patient study of  nature and to the     
accumulation of facts now seen to bear  
such infinite  possibilities of farther 
advance2 just as the discovery of       
,america in  the sixteenth century      
produced a like spirit of adventure     
which led  men to all parts of the      
globe4 ,on the other hand1 this devotion
 to  truth1 this instinctive search     
after the causes of things1 has become  
what may be called a new faith4 ,the    
fruits of this scientific spirit  are   
sincerity1 patience1 humility1 the love 
of nature and the love of  man4 8,wisdom
 is to speak truth and consciously to   

act according to  nature40 ,so spake the
 old ,ephesian1 ,heraclitus1 to whom1   
rather than  to ,socrates1 men are now  
beginning to look back as the exponent  
of the  true ,greek spirit2 and so also 
speaks modern science4 ,it is a faith   
that has become a living reality to     
many2 ,clifford1 for instance1 as       
revealed in his 8,lectures and ,essays10
 has long been a brilliant and          
inspiring member1 often called typical1 
of the company of those who are  filled 
with the scientific spirit4 ,huxley1 one
 of the most militant  and indefatigable
 exponents of the scientific spirit     
during the past  half century1 has      
lately set forth its aim1 which has been
 that of  his own life3--8,to promote   
the increase of natural knowledge and to
  forward the application of scientific 
methods of investigation to all  the    
problems of life to the best of my      
ability1 in the conviction1  which has  
grown with my growth and strengthened   
with my strength1 that  there is no     

alleviation for the sufferings of       
mankind except veracity  of thought and 
of action1 and the resolute facing of   
the world as  it is1 when the garment of
 make-believe1 by which pious hands have
  hidden its uglier features1 is        
stripped off40 ,it is important to  note
 that this spirit is becoming widely    
diffused2 it would be easy  to point to 
manifestations in various departments of
 this open-eyed1  sensitive observation1
 not pretending to know prematurely1    
ready to  throw away all prepossessions 
and to follow ,nature whithersoever her 
caprices lead1 without crying 8,out upon
 her60 ,it is impossible to  forecast   
the magnitude of the results that will  
flow from this growing  willingness to  
search out the facts of things1 and to  
found life upon  them1 broadly and      
simply1 rather than to shape it to the  
form of  unreasoned and traditional     
ideals4 ,there was long abroad in the   
world  a curious dread of all attempts  
to face simply and sincerely the facts  

of life4 ,this audacious frankness and  
scarcely less audacious humility        
aroused horror and suspicion2 and those 
who marched at the front heard  with    
considerable pain many members of the   
rear black-guard hurling                
8,materialist60 and other such terms of 
scorn at their backs4 ,the sting  has   
now died out of these terms4 ,we know   
that wherever science goes the          
purifying breath of spring has passed   
and all things are re-created4 ,we      
realize that it is1 above all1 by       
following the light that is shed by  the
 low and neglected things--the          
8survivals0--of the world1 that the     
reasonable path of progress becomes     
clear4 ,we cried for the moon for  so   
many thousand years before we conquered 
the world4 ,we know at last  that it    
must be among our chief ethical rules to
 see that we build the  lofty structure 
of human society on the sure and simple 
foundations of  man's organism4         
,these three great movements are clearly

 allied1 and certainly the  practical   
applications of this scientific spirit1 
of which there  is more to say          
immediately1 will rest very largely in  
the hands of  women4 ,the great wave of 
emancipation which is now sweeping      
across  the civilized world means       
nominally nothing more than that women  
should have the right to education1     
freedom to work1 and political          
enfranchisement--nothing in short but   
the bare ordinary rights of  an adult   
human creature in a civilized democratic
 state4 ,but many  other changes will   
follow in the train of these very simple
 and  matter-of-fact changes1 and it is 
no wonder that many worthy people  look 
with dread upon the slow invasion by    
women of all the concerns of            
life--which are1 after all1 as much     
their own concerns as anyone's--as      
nothing less than a new irruption of    
barbarians4 ,these good people are      
unquestionably right4 ,the development  
of women means a reinvigoration  as     

complete as any brought by barbarians to
 an effete and degenerating             
civilization4 ,when we turn to those    
early societies1 which are as lamps  to 
us in our social progress1 we find that 
the arts of life are in the  possession 
of women4 ,therefore when the torch of  
science is placed  in the hands of women
 we must expect them to use it as a     
guide with  audacious simplicity and    
directness1 because of those instincts  
for  practical life which they have     
inherited4    ,the rise of women--who   
form the majority of the race in most   
civilized  countries--to their fair     
share of power1 is certain4 ,whether one
 looks  at it with hope or with despair 
one has to recognize it4 ,for my own    
part ,i find it an unfailing source of  
hope4 ,one cannot help feeling  that    
along the purely masculine line no      
striking social advance is  likely to be
 made4 ,men are idealists1 in search of 
wealth usually1  sometimes of artistic  
visions2 they have little capacity for  

social  organization4 ,it is sometimes  
said that the fundamental inferiority   
of women is shown by the very few       
surpassing women of genius in the       
world's history4 ,in their anxiety to   
combat this argument women have  even   
enlisted ,semiramis and ,dido into their
 ranks4 ,but it is a fact4  ,for all    
great solitary and artistic             
achievements--the writing of  ,divine   
,comedies1 the painting of              
,transfigurations1 the construction  of 
systems of metaphysic1 the inauguration 
of new religions--men are  without      
rivals2 the more abstract and unsocial  
an art is1 the easier  it is for men to 
attain eminence in it2 in music and in  
the art of  erecting philosophies men   
have had1 least of all1 any occasion to 
fear  the rivalry of women4 ,such things
 are precious1 although it may be  that 
what we call 8genius0 is something      
abnormal and distorted1 like  those     
centres of irritation which result in   
the pearls we likewise  count so        

precious4 ,women are comparatively free 
from 8genius40 ,yet  it might probably  
be maintained that the average level of 
women's  intelligence is fully equal to 
that of men's4 ,compare the men and     
women among settlers in the ,australian 
bush1 or wherever else men and  women   
have been set side by side to construct 
their social life as  best they may1 and
 it will often be to the disadvantage of
 the men4 ,in  practical and social     
life--even perhaps1 though this is yet  
doubtful1  in science--women will have  
nothing to fear4 ,the most important    
mental  sexual difference lies in the   
relative and absolute preponderance in  
women of the lower1 that is1 the more   
important and fundamental nervous       
centres4#a ,what new forms the influence
 of women will give to society  we      
cannot tell4 ,our most strenuous efforts
 will be needed to see to it  that women
 gain the wider experience of life1 the 
larger education in  the full sense of  
the word1 the entire freedom of         

development1 without  which their vast  
power of interference in social         
organization might  have disastrous as  
well as happy results4    #a ,the       
detailed analysis of the elements which 
women1 by the facts of  their           
constitution1 must bring to the         
organization of life1 cannot be  entered
 into in this volume4 ,i hope to deal   
with it in part elsewhere4    ,we most  
of us began in youth with literature2   
the seeds of art and  imagination found 
a kindly soil in childhood and puberty2 
and we spent  our enthusiasm on ,scott  
or ,shelley1 on ,gautier or ,swinburne4 
,as we  grew older we tired of these1   
developing instincts that craved other  
satisfaction1 discovering sometimes even
 that our idols had clay feet4  ,then we
 turned to the things that had seemed to
 us before so dull and  stupid that we  
had scarcely looked at them2 we began to
 be fascinated  by economics and the    
growth of society1 the problem of       
surplus value  turns out to be full of  

attraction1 and the historic development
 of  the relationship between men and   
women as charming as any novel4 ,in  the
 same way the men of #ahei1 who were    
nurtured on 8,the ,origin of  ,species10
 naturally and rightly turned their     
militant energies against  theology and 
fought over the book of ,genesis4       
,to-day1 when social  rather than       
theological questions seem to be the    
legitimate outcome  of the scientific   
spirit1 and when all things connected   
with social  organization have become   
the matters of most vital interest to   
those  who are really alive to the time 
in which they live1 even in youth  such 
questions begin to grow enchanting1 and 
those who are older feel  the same      
fascination2 the man who shared with    
,darwin the honour of  initiating a new 
scientific era becomes a land           
nationaliser1 ,william  ,morris a       
socialist1 and the poet laureate who    
sixty years earlier had  sung fantastic 
poems of a coming ,utopia grasps at     

length the concrete  problems with which
 we have to deal4 ,all this is hopeful1 
for we have  scarcely yet got to the    
bottom of the questions raised by the   
growth of  democracy4    ,the influence 
of science on life is an accomplished   
fact1 and we can  distinctly trace its  
gradual development2 the influence of   
women is on  the eve of attaining its   
outward consummation1 and it is not     
altogether  impossible to forecast some 
of the changes which it will involve4   
,but  the influence of democracy1 more  
talked of than either of the others1  is
 much more vague1 complex1 and          
uncertain4 ,once it was thought that we 
had but to give a vote to every         
adult--outside the asylum and perhaps   
the prison--and democracy would be      
achieved4 ,this crude notion has long   
since become ridiculous4 ,we see now    
that the vote and the ballot-box  do not
 make the voter free from even external 
pressure2 and1 which  is of much more   
consequence1 they do not necessarily    

free him from  his own slavish          
instincts4 ,we see that enfranchisement 
does not mean  freedom1 since the       
enfranchised are capable of running in a
 brainless  and compact mob after any   
man who is clever enough to gain        
despotic  influence over them4 ,this is 
not democracy1 though it is doubtless a 
step towards it4 ,if we test the        
intelligence of the enfranchised by     
examining the persons whom they elect as
 their representatives1 we  soon realize
 the trifling character of the step4    
,even the free and  generously          
democratic colonies of ,australia show  
few brilliant results  by this test4 ,it
 is hard to get rid of the old          
distinction between a  governing class  
and a governed1 and to recognize that   
every man must be  a member of the      
government4    ,if democracy means a    
state in which every man shall be a     
freeman1  neither in economic nor       
intellectual nor moral subjection1 two  
processes at least are needed to render 

democracy possible--on the one  hand a  
large and many-sided education2 on the  
other the reasonable  organization of   
life4    ,the conception of education   
has within recent times undergone a     
curious  development4 ,some of us can   
still remember the time when the word   
8education0 meant as a matter of course 
the rudiments of intellectual  education
 only1 and when such education was      
regarded as a panacea for  many evils2  
this kind of education has1 in          
consequence1 we may take it1  been      
virtually secured to every child in all 
civilized countries4 ,to  this kind of  
education1 however1 it is no longer     
possible to attribute  any satisfying   
sort of virtue4 ,it may produce a very  
inferior  order of clerk2 but           
education--the reasonable development of
 the  individual--it cannot deserve to  
be called2 it merely puts a certain     
rude intellectual instrument into the   
hands of a still thoroughly  uneducated 
person4 ,education1 as we understand it 

now1 must be founded  on the harmonious 
exercise of body1 senses1 and emotions1 
as well  as intellect2 the whole        
environment is the agent of education4  
,that  is why we are now extending the  
meaning of the word indefinitely4       
,fresh air1 good food1 manual training1 
the cultivation of the art  instincts1  
physical exercise and abundant          
recreation1 wholesome home              
relationships--these are a few of the   
things which we now recognize as        
essential parts of the rational         
education of every boy and girl1 and    
which we are seeking to obtain for all4 
,nor is education in this sense         
incompatible with intellectual          
development2 on the contrary1 it is the 
only sound foundation for such          
development4 ,there is here no need for 
fear4 ,we seem1 indeed1 to be rapidly   
approaching a period in which the       
excessive intension of knowledge1 its   
confinement to a few persons1  will give
 way to a marked extension of knowledge4

 ,such a process is in  the lines of our
 democratic advance4 ,it is for the     
advantage of the men  of science who    
have paid for the seclusion of extreme  
specialism by  incapacity to understand 
popular movements and popular needs2 it 
is to  the advantage of all that there  
should be no impassable gulf between    
those who know and those who are        
ignorant4 ,it is well to sacrifice      
much1 if we may thereby help to diffuse 
the best things that are known  and     
thought in the world1 and make the      
scientific attitude1 even more  than    
scientific results1 a common possession4
    ,it is clear that education thus    
understood leads directly to the other  
great factor of democracy4 ,education is
 impossible without social              
organization3 no advanced stage of      
social organization is possible  without
 a complex and diffused education2 they 
lead up to each other  and go hand in   
hand4 ,the average working man1 in      
,england at all events1  is not an      

enthusiast for schemes of technical     
education2 as things  stand1 such       
schemes constitute a method for         
supplying the capitalist  with cheap    
instruments1 and the working man cannot 
be expected to view  with enthusiasm his
 own depreciation in the market4 ,at the
 same time  his lack of education leads 
him to overrate the value of a tawdry   
intellectual equipment1 and he views    
with little anxiety the growth of  a    
race of inferior clerks1 for whom the   
world has few uses4    ,in ,england the 
love of independent individual          
initiative and the  dislike of all      
harmonious social organization is       
certainly stronger  than elsewhere2 it  
is intimately associated with the best  
and worst  qualities of the race1 and it
 has spread over all the countries we   
have overrun4 ,for three hundred years  
this tendency has had a free  field4    
,but during the last fifty years a new  
instinct of social  organization has    
been slowly developing and gaining      

strength4 ,trades  unions have been one 
of the most potent influences in this   
direction4  ,all our factory legislation
 has been a sign of its growth1 and the 
same  movement has given enthusiasm to  
the ,county ,council4 ,there are very   
few things in our daily life which this 
spirit of social organization  is not   
embracing or promising to embrace4 ,the 
old bugbear of 8,state  interference0 7a
 real danger under so many              
circumstances7 vanishes  when a         
community approaches the point at which 
the individual himself  becomes the     
,state4 ,it might be added that under no
 circumstances could  the temper of the 
,english people tolerate any            
considerable amount of  8,state         
interference40 ,the communalization of  
certain social functions                
corresponds--without being an exact     
analogy--to the process by which        
physiological actions become automatic4 
,as it becomes a ,state function        
commerce will cease to absorb the best  

energy and enterprise of the  world1 and
 will become merely mechanical4    ,it  
may not be out of place to point out    
that while this process of              
socialization is rapidly developing1    
individual development so far  from     
stopping1 is progressing no less        
rapidly4 ,it is too often  forgotten    
that the former is but the means to     
secure the latter4 ,while  we are       
socializing all those things of which   
all have equal common  need1 we are more
 and more tending to leave to the       
individual the  control of those things 
which in our complex civilization       
constitute  individuality4 ,we socialize
 what we call our physical life in order
  that we may attain greater freedom for
 what we call our spiritual life4       
,the growth of social organization is   
now beginning to open up  possibilities 
which a few years ago would have seemed 
,utopian4 ,it  cannot remain limited    
within merely national bounds4 ,it is   
concerned  with the things of which all 

have a common need1 and the interests of
  nations are here inextricably         
intertwined4 ,this must sooner or later 
result in the formation of international
 tribunals1 and this again will  have   
decisive results in relation to war--a  
method of dispute rapidly  becoming     
antiquated4 ,twenty-eight millions of   
men1 ready to be put into  the field 7is
 not this a suggestive euphemism87 at a 
moment's notice1  in a corner of the    
world6 ,take a plbiscite of the adult   
population  of ,europe1 of whose        
life-blood these twenty-eight millions  
are1  to-morrow--and what would the     
rgime of militarism be worth8 ,we must  
certainly expect to see the same process
 repeated between nations which  has    
everywhere taken place among            
individuals4 ,when a strong power to    
which appeal can be made is established1
 individuals cease to fight and  become 
litigants2 this was seen in the ,middle 
,ages1 and again1 as ,maine  pointed    
out1 when a strong ,british executive   

was established in ,india4  ,as soon as 
a sufficiently strong tribunal is       
formed1 nations who once  went to war   
must in the same way become litigants4  
,this again will have  its reaction on  
democracy and social life4    ,along    
another line we may observe the         
approaching disappearance of  war4 ,the 
wars of modern times have1 to a large   
extent1 had commercial  causes at their 
roots4 ,the downfall of unrestricted    
competition1  and the organization of   
industrialism1 will remove this cause of
  war4 ,in the profoundly interesting   
movement1 witnessed to-day in the       
direction of trusts and syndicates1 we  
see the natural and inevitable          
transition to a new era4 ,like all      
transitions1 it can only be effected    
with much friction4 ,from one point of  
view it is the last barricade  of       
capitalism2 from a wider stand-point it 
is the forging of a huge  instrument to 
be taken up eventually by a vast        
international community  who will thus  

control the means of providing for      
themselves by methods  of simple and    
uneventful routine4    ,before          
international organization can be       
realized there seems  little doubt that 
a period of protective national         
organization must  intervene4 ,at       
present there is a floating population  
of the weakest  and less capable--unable
 to emigrate to a new country--always   
flowing  from a poorer country into a   
less poor country1 and bearing with them
  the seeds of vagrancy and crime4 ,no  
progress is possible if every  little   
redeemed patch is at once flooded from  
over sea4 ,it must be  remembered also1 
that the dykes necessary to regulate the
 floating  population are required even 
in the interests of the poorer          
countries4  ,we are approaching a time  
when the general spread of information1 
especially by means of newspapers1 will 
render it impossible for any  country to
 tolerate the fact that the general     
level of its people's  existence should 

exceed in wretchedness that of any other
 nation4  ,the evolution of a better    
state can only take place by the        
pressure  resulting from the presence of
 these outcast elements of society4 ,to 
reject them is but to disguise the      
condition of a nation and to imperil    
its destiny4    ,the destiny and fate of
 nations has always fascinated the      
popular  imagination1 and the destinies 
of nations are now shaping themselves   
before our eyes with singular clearness4
 ,within a measurable period  of time   
,france will have become a beautiful    
dream2 all ,frenchmen  will be ,belgians
 or ,italians1 the races which have     
already in large  measure taken         
possession of the country2 it is a      
process which  ,frenchmen themselves    
observe and chronicle with painful      
interest4  ,but ,france has already     
accomplished a great work among the     
nations4  ,of wider significance is the 
development of ,russia4 ,for various    
reasons the position of ,russia is      

peculiar4 ,the youngest of ,european    
nations in civilization1 with a strong  
,asiatic element by position  and race1 
,russia is approaching the task of      
social organization with  a different   
endowment from that possessed by any    
other nation4 ,this  racial endowment1  
while imparting a curious freshness to  
its methods  of dealing with ,european  
problems1 especially fits it for its    
great  mission of dominating ,asia4 ,to 
the ,english it has never been easy  to 
find a modus vivendi with lower races1  
or races which we are  pleased to       
consider lower2 the very qualities which
 give us insular  independence and      
toughness of fibre1 unfit us for the    
other task4 ,but  the ,russian          
temperament1 as is now generally        
recognized1 is peculiarly  adapted for  
mingling harmoniously even with the     
fiercest yellow races  and bringing them
 into relation with the best ,european  
influences2  all those who care for     
humanity view with satisfaction the     

growing  influence of ,russia in the    
,east1 an influence which1 we may       
reasonably  hope1 will overspread the   
continent4 ,a very large field indeed is
  still left for the other great        
expanding race of the world4 ,the       
,english-speaking races have in their   
hands the greater part of ,north        
,america1 and nearly all ,australia1 and
 here their special qualities  find     
ample scope4 ,this division gives no    
ground for quarrel2 the  ,russians have 
never had much capacity for emigration  
in the ,english  sense1 and the ,english
 are beginning to learn by bitter       
experience that  they are not suited for
 the mission of civilizing ,asia2 the   
,spanish  races have1 as a field for    
their renascence1 now so rapidly taking 
place1 nearly the whole of the rich     
continent of ,south ,america2 while     
those slow1 yet tenacious and admirable 
colonists1 the ,germans1 will  be able  
to gain ground in that ,african         
continent to which they are  most       

attracted1 and which was long ago       
claimed by the ,dutch for this  division
 of the ,teutonic race4 ,if we ,english 
are certain to make little  progress    
where1 as in ,asia1 the great task is   
conciliation1 when it is  a question of 
stamping out a lower race--then is our  
time6 ,it has to  be done2 it is quite  
clear that the fragile ,red men of      
,america and the  strange wild ,blacks  
of ,australia must perish at the touch  
of the ,white  man4 ,on the whole we    
stamp them out as mercifully as may be1 
supplying  our victims liberally with   
missionaries and blankets4    ,it is the
 ,english race1 not ,england1 that is   
thus possessing so large  a part of the 
earth4 ,and it is interesting to observe
 that both the  races--almost the latest
 of the great ,european nations to      
emerge from  barbarism--that now promise
 to dominate the world are by           
temperament  disinclined for monarchic  
government4 ,with the ,russians their   
despotic  ,empire has been an exotic    

which they may have worshipped at a     
distance1  but which1 except as a symbol
 of the ideal1 has had little influence 
on their lives4 ,we can only determine  
the institutions that will  develop     
healthfully in a country by a careful   
and patient study of that  nation's     
origin4 ,why is the parliamentary system
 a dubious success in  ,france1 and the 
jury an acknowledged failure in ,italy8 
,one watches  anxiously to see whether  
,russia will find the methods of        
national  progress in the brilliant but 
fatal examples of a foreign ,western    
civilization or in the fundamental      
instincts of its own race4 ,the         
,english have always been impatient of  
kings and governors1 and have  taken    
every opportunity to establish          
republican government4 ,we see this  in 
the ,united ,states4 ,in ,australia the 
race is developing its most  intensely  
democratic instincts1 and the           
,australians will certainly not         
tolerate any attempt to draw them closer

 to any country outside their  own land4
 ,england has1 during the present       
century1 owing to special  conditions1  
occupied a position in the world        
enormously disproportioned  to its size4
 ,these special conditions are now      
rapidly ceasing2 the ,suez  ,canal1     
which has dealt so decisive a blow to   
the commercial greatness  of ,england1  
has made it more difficult than ever for
 us to maintain the  artificial position
 of advantage which we possessed as     
distributors2 so  that ,england1 as a   
distributing power1 is being reduced by 
the failure  of the ,cape route to the  
same condition as ,venice was reduced to
 by its  discovery4 ,nor is it merely as
 a distributing power that ,england is  
losing its position2 it is losing its   
position--relatively1 that is--as  one  
of the great producing powers of the    
world4 ,there will soon be no  reason   
why the coarse products of a great part 
of the earth should be  sent all the way
 to a small northern country to be      

returned in a more  or less ugly and    
adulterate manufactured condition4 ,we  
witness to-day  the wonderful           
development of ,india as a centre of    
production4 ,in the  colonies the       
beginnings are small1 but they are      
rapidly increasing2  in these matters it
 is the first step that costs2 while a  
well-marked  tendency to protection1 not
 likely on the whole to diminish1 tends 
to make both ,america and ,australia    
self-dependent1 and1 in the ,east1      
,japan is becoming a controlling force  
that has to be reckoned with4  ,we are  
still1 indeed1 far from the time when   
the chief industry of  ,england will be 
the ,fremdenindustrie1 but we may       
already trace the  development of       
,england as a museum of antiquities and 
as a ,holy ,land  for the whole         
,english-speaking race4 ,everywhere1 for
 those who have  been born in the       
colonies1 ,england is a remote land of  
glamour and  tradition1 a land of sacred
 associations and strange old-world     

customs1  and the most radical colonist 
is a conservative where the old country 
is concerned4 ,everyone who has lived in
 the colonies has come upon this        
attitude of sentiment1 perhaps with a   
shock of surprise2 nor is it  easy at   
once for a prosaic ,londoner to realize 
the feelings of the man  who arrives for
 the first time in the land of his      
fathers and beholds  ,fenchurch ,street 
and ,cheapside through an atmosphere of 
old romance4  ,yet this emotional       
attitude will develop mightily with the 
development  of ,english-speaking       
nations1 and will but be strengthened by
 the dying  down of ,england's political
 and commercial activity4 ,every country
 must  succumb at last1 but to succumb  
to its own children is a happier fate   
than ever befell any great country of   
old4    ,it has been necessary to take  
this brief survey of the influences     
that are now modifying the face of the  
civilized world1 for it is in  this     
theatre and under these conditions that 

the three great modern  forces that we  
shall meet with throughout this book are
 acting4 ,what  impresses one is the    
vast resonance which now accompanies    
every human  achievement1 because of the
 communalization and extension of the   
methods of intercourse4 ,it has become  
one of the chief tasks of science  to   
attain unity1 unity of standard and     
measure and nomenclature2 this  has been
 the object of numberless conferences4  
,it is to attain this end  that the     
efforts to manufacture a universal      
language have obtained some  support1   
fruitless as they have hitherto been4   
,it was by a wholesome  instinct that   
men formerly clung to ,latin as the     
universal language of  educated         
,christendom2 the humanizing intercourse
 which by means of a  common language   
broke through the barriers of race1     
forms one of the  most charming features
 of the early ,middle ,ages4 ,the       
equally wholesome  instinct of          
individual development has intervened2  

but the other again  becomes dominant1  
and the universal language becomes more 
and more  inevitable every day4 ,around 
it will centre the chief struggle and   
the  chief triumph of the scientific    
spirit4    ,the very splendour and      
inevitable impetus of these modern      
movements is  producing1 here and there 
among us1 a reasonable reaction1 a      
reaction  against the hurry and         
excitement of modern life4 ,and yet1    
perhaps1 less  a reaction than their    
natural outcome and development4    ,it 
is by art and religion that men have    
always sought rest4 ,art is a  world of 
man's own making1 in which he finds     
harmonious development1  a development  
that satisfies because framed to the    
measuring-rod of  his most delicate     
senses4 ,religion is the anodyne        
cup--indeed of our  own blood--at which 
we slake our thirst when our hearts are 
torn by  personal misery1 or weary and  
distracted by life's heat and restless  
hurry4 ,at times1 the great motor       

instincts of our nature1 impelling us   
by a force that we cannot measure or    
control1 cause us to break up our       
dainty house of art1 or to dash down    
bravely the cup of healing4 ,but  we    
shall always return to them again2 they1
 too1 represent an instinct  at the root
 of our being4 ,in the recognition of   
this harmony lies the  secret of wise   
living4    ,religion is hidden by many a
 strange garment1 but its heart is the  
same1 and built firmly into the human   
structure4 ,the old mystic spoke  truly 
when he defined ,god as an unutterable  
sigh4 ,now and again we  must draw a    
deep breath of relief--and that is      
religion4 ,that no  intellectual belief 
or opinion is necessarily bound up with 
religion1  it is nowadays unnecessary to
 show4 ,to how many has                 
,schopenhauer--an  indifferent          
philosopher1 but a great master of the  
secrets of  religion--brought from afar1
 into the light of the modern world1    
the mysteries of the soul that seeks for

 consolation8 ,a weary and  distracted  
creature1 at war even with himself1 he  
was of those for  whom the ,kingdom of  
,heaven is especially made2 he sought   
and found1  and moulded into the sweet  
harmonics of his prose1 the things that 
make for rest and for consolation--and  
who is not sometimes weary and          
distracted1 and in need of rest8 ,we    
,english1 it is true1 are not an        
aboriginally religious people2 we are   
great in practical life1 and  we are    
marvellous poets2 but while we have an  
immense appetite for  imported religion1
 we have never ourselves even produced  
one of those  manuals of piety which1   
since the days of ,lo-tsze1 have become 
the  common possession of the devout    
everywhere4 ,one little ,encheiridion   
alone there is1 so far as ,i know1 in   
which1 during recent years1 an  ,english
 writer has brought echoes of old times1
 of exhilaration or of  peace1 into     
forms which enable the children of      
to-day to be at one  with those of      

former days4 8,quid nobis cum generibus 
et speciebus80  asked the author of the 
8,imitation40 ,hugo de ,st4 ,victor was 
driven to  religion by the barrenness of
 dialectics3 8,truth cannot be          
discovered  by ratiocination10 he said2 
8it is by what he is that man finds     
truth40  ,to-day1 ,edward ,carpenter    
escapes from the burden of science to   
find joy  for awhile in the perennial   
fountain which springs up within1 and   
which  the measuring-rod of science has 
never meted4 8,towards ,democracy0 has a
  quality of its own1 which many have   
tasted with delight1 and which will     
probably give it place with those       
sources of joy known to few1 but well   
loved of those few4    ,for religion is 
a mystery1 into which not all of us are 
initiated4 ,the  road to the ,kingdom of
 ,heaven1 as it was well said of old    
time1 is  narrow1 and blessed are they  
who1 having reached it1 stay but a      
little  while6 ,to drink deep of that   
cup is to have all the motor energies of

  life paralyzed4 ,art remains to give  
us the same joy and refreshment1  in    
more various1 wholesome1 and acceptable 
forms4 ,for art is nothing  less than   
the world as we ourselves make it1 the  
world re-moulded  nearer to the heart's 
desire4 ,in this construction of a world
 around  us1 in harmonious response to  
all our senses1 we have at once a       
healthy  exercise for our motor         
activities1 and the restful satisfaction
 of  our sensory needs4 ,art1 as no mere
 passive hypersthesia to external       
impressions1 or exclusive absorption in 
a single sense1 but as a  many-sided and
 active delight in the wholeness of     
things1 is the great  restorer of health
 and rest to the energies distracted by 
our turbulent  modern movements4 ,thus  
understood1 it has the firmest of       
scientific  foundations2 it is but the  
reasonable satisfaction of the          
instinctive  cravings of the organism1  
cravings that are not the less real for 
being  often unconscious4 ,its          

satisfaction means the presence of joy  
in our  daily life1 and joy is the prime
 tonic of life4 ,it is the gratification
  of the art-instinct that makes the    
wholesome stimulation of labour  joyous2
 it is in the gratification of the      
art-instinct that repose  becomes       
joyous4 ,the fanatical commercialism    
that has filled so much  of our century 
made art impossible--so impossible that 
beyond one  or two voices1 raised to    
hysterical scream1 no one dared to      
protest  against it4 ,the satisfaction  
of the art-instinct is now one of the   
most pressing of social needs4 ,in      
,england1 ,william ,morris probably     
stands first among those who have       
perceived this weighty fact4 ,a man  of 
immense energies and varied activities1 
one of the greatest modern  masters of  
,english speech and poet-craft1 an      
ardent advocate of the  most advanced   
social ideas of his time1 he has slowly 
felt his way to  the realization of the 
truth1 that the secret of good living is

 even  economically involved in the     
communalization of art4 ,our most       
glorious  dreamer1 he has placed this   
conception at the foundation of his     
lovely  and substantial visions4    ,it 
is true1 indeed1 that we have already an
 art in which for the  great mass of    
people to-day our desires and struggles 
and ideals are  faithfully mirrored4    
,the great art of the century has been  
fiction4 ,it  is common1 among some     
writers1 to speak contemptuously of     
novels1 but  the mass of contemporary   
fiction has a value that is little      
realized1  and perhaps is not likely to 
be realized1 for some time to come4     
,there  is a very large and wonderful   
and little-read collection of fiction1  
the 8,acta ,sanctorum10 in which the    
whole life and soul of a remote  period 
are laid bare to us4 ,it is1 like our   
own fiction1 a fiction that  is more    
than half reality1 and it has often     
seemed to me that the  novels of this   
century will in the future be found to  

have precisely  the same value as the   
8,acta ,sanctorum40 ,for the novel is   
contemporary  moral history in a deeper 
sense than the ,de ,goncourts meant4    
,many  novels of to-day will be found to
 express the distinctive features of    
our age as truly as the distinctive     
features of another age1 its whole      
inner and outer life1 are expressed in  
,gothic architecture4    ,william       
,morris looks back wistfully towards the
 popular art of the  ,middle ,ages1 and 
deals out scorn to the novel2 he is     
unjust to our  modern popular art4 ,yet1
 by a wholesome instinct4 ,for fiction  
is1 more  than any other art1 the art of
 a period of repression4 ,the world's   
great ages have never much cared to     
rehearse themselves in the brooding     
solitudes that the story-teller demands4
 ,our faces now are turned in  another  
direction4    ,i have tried to obtain   
and present here a faint tracing of the 
evolution of the modern spirit1 as it   
strikes a contemporary4 ,in the         

subsequent chapters we shall be able to 
trace it yet more distinctly1  at       
different stages1 and in various phases4
 ,diderot1 eclipsed once1 is  seen now1 
as1 in a manifold sense which may be    
claimed for no other  man1 the initiator
 of our own day in all its varied       
manifestations1  and1 above all1 in its 
practical scientific spirit4 ,in ,heine 
we see  the most characteristic1 if not 
the finest1 artist of the second        
quarter of our century1 the melodious   
embodiment of all its discords1  the    
impersonation of a transition which we  
have all passed through1 and  which     
draws us to him with cords of a         
peculiarly personal tenderness4         
,whitman represents1 for the first time 
since ,christianity swept over  the     
world1 the re-integration1 in a sane and
 whole-hearted form1 of  the instincts  
of the entire man1 and therefore he has 
a significance  which we can scarcely   
over-estimate4 ,goethe had done         
something of this  in a more artistic   

and intellectual shape2 it is from no   
lack of love  or reverence for ,goethe  
that ,i have chosen the ,american1 a    
democrat  rather than an aristocrat1 the
 very roughness of whose grasp of life  
serves but to reveal the genuine        
instinct of the modern ,greek4 ,all that
  is finest in aristocracy we see       
revealed in ,ibsen1 a keen and sombre   
figure that reminds one perpetually of  
,dante--the same curt and awful         
contempt for lies and for shams1 the    
same vision of a ,heaven beyond4  ,into 
such ,kingdoms of ,heaven it needs but a
 child to enter1 and when  ,i see this  
man with that little diamond wedge of   
sincerity and the  mighty ,thor's hammer
 of his art1 ,i feel as though no       
mountain of error  could resist the new 
spirit that he represents4 ,in ,tolstoi 
we see the  manifestation of another    
great modern force2 no keenness or      
clearness  here indeed in the           
interpretation of life1 though such a   
marvellous  power of presentation2 yet a

 massive elemental force1 groping slowly
  and incoherently towards the light1 so
 interesting to us because we  seem to  
be conscious of the heart of a whole    
nation1 the great nation  of the future1
 towards which all eyes are turned4     
,certainly old things are passing away2 
not the old ideals only1  but even the  
regret they leave behind is dead1 and we
 are shaping  instinctively our new     
ideals4 ,yet we are at peace with the   
past4 ,the  streams of hot lava flow    
forth and cover the world2 the lava is  
but  the minute fragments of former     
life4 ,we marvel at the prodigality  of 
nature1 but how marvellous1 too1 the    
economy6 ,the old cycles are  for ever  
renewed1 and it is no paradox that he   
who would advance can  never cling too  
close to the past4 ,the thing that has  
been is the  thing that will be again2  
if we realize that1 we may avoid many of
 the  disillusions1 miseries1           
insanities1 that for ever accompany the 
throes  of new birth4 ,set your shoulder

 joyously to the world's wheel3 you may 
spare yourself some unhappiness if1     
beforehand1 you slip the book of        
,ecclesiastes beneath your arm4         
,,diderot4      ,of the three           
intellectual heroes of the ,revolution1 
,diderot exercised  the least apparent  
influence2 he was1 for the most part1   
too far  ahead of his time1 and his     
tremendous energies were frequently     
either  concealed or dissipated along   
innumerable channels4 ,the humane       
,voltaire1 short-sighted1 but so keen   
within his range1 whose sarcasm  was    
always on the side of benevolence2 the  
morbid1 wrong-headed1  suffering        
,rousseau1 who spent his life in        
bringing to birth an  exquisite         
emotional thrill which is now a common  
possession--these  two men stood out in 
the eyes of all1 then and long after1 as
 the  standard-bearers of revolution4   
,on the other hand1 ,diderot's great    
,german contemporary1 ,goethe1 the only 
man with whom he may fairly  be         

compared1 has during most part of this  
century seemed to us the  inaugurator of
 the spiritual activities of the modern 
world4 ,goethe  is still full of        
meaning2 it will be long before we have 
exhausted  8,wilhelm ,meister0 or       
8,faust40 ,perhaps1 now that we are so  
anxious to  reform the world before     
reforming ourselves1 we need more than  
ever  the example of ,goethe's          
self-culture and self-restraint1 of his 
wise  reverence for temperance and      
harmony4 ,but even ,goethe1 with that   
peaceful ,weimar atmosphere about him1  
seems to us a little antique and  remote
 from our modern ways4 ,diderot1 on the 
other hand1 who grew up  and lived among
 the various and turbulent activities of
 the city that  was in his time the     
focus of ,european life1 appears before 
us now as a  spirit of the latter       
nineteenth century1 at one with our     
aspirations  to-day4 ,it was fitting    
that his works should wait until our own
 time  for the most adequate and        

complete publication yet possible1 and  
that  he should now first receive full  
and ungrudging appreciation4#b 8,at  the
 distance of some centuries ,diderot    
will appear prodigious2 men will  look  
from afar at that universal head with   
admiration mingled with  astonishment1  
as we to-day look at the heads of ,plato
 and ,aristotle40  ,so ,rousseau wrote1 
at the end of his life1 of the friend   
whose  unwearying kindness he--almost   
alone among human beings--had at last   
wearied out2 to-day the prophecy seems  
in a fair way of fulfilment4    #b ,the 
handsome edition of ,diderot's 8uvres0  
in some twenty volumes1  edited by      
,asszat and ,tourneux1 contains nearly a
 fourth of previously  unpublished      
material1 much of considerable interest4
 ,the centenaire  edition of his 8uvres 
,choisies10 comprised in one            
moderate-sized  volume1 includes all    
that most people need read of ,diderot's
 works1  and is1 on the whole1 a most   
varied and judicious selection1 made by 

such competent editors as ,letourneau1  
,lefvre1 ,guyot1 ,vron1 c4 ,mr4         
,morley's well-known work on ,diderot   
and the ,encyclopdists has done  more   
than anything else to create an         
intelligent ,english interest in  the   
matter4    ,the whole life of ,diderot1 
all his actions and all his words1      
everything that he wrote1 bears the     
impress of his ever-flaming  enthusiasm4
 ,that 8air vif1 ardent et fou10 which1 
in his own words1  marked him in early  
life1 meets us at every turn4 ,as a boy 
at the  ,jesuit ,college he wished to go
 out into the world4 8,but what do you  
wish to be80 asked over and over again  
that most excellent of fathers1  the    
cutler of ,langres4 ,and the young      
,diderot persisted that he wanted  to be
 nothing3 8mais rien1 mais rien du      
tout40 ,he was not the last  youth who1 
feeling the stirring of a deep instinct1
 would not1 and  could not1 shut himself
 down to one narrow path of life4 ,but  
to the  men of this stamp 8nothing0     

means 8everything40 ,then ten years     
passed1  ten years1 as his daughter     
wrote1 passed 8sometimes in good        
society1  sometimes in indifferent1 not 
to say bad1 society1 given up to work1  
to  pain1 to pleasure1 to weariness1 to 
want1 sometimes intoxicated with        
gaiety1 sometimes drowned in bitter     
reflection40 ,he taught mathematics3  if
 the scholar was apt1 he taught him all 
day2 if he was a fool1 he  left him4    
8,he was paid in books1 in furniture1 in
 linen1 in money1 or  not at all40 ,when
 teaching failed he had to earn money   
how he could--as  by supplying a        
missionary with a stock of sermons4     
,once he had to  starve for a few days4 
,that was not the least instructive     
experience  to the youth1 for he        
resolved that1 whenever he could help   
it1 no  fellow-creature should suffer   
the like4    ,there could have been no  
better education4 ,it was the seed-time 
of all  his energies1 of his encyclopdic
 knowledge1 of his manifold hold on     

life1 of his extraordinary capacity4 ,he
 found time in the midst of it  to fall 
in love with and marry a pious1 honest1 
and affectionate girl  who happened to  
be living in a room near him1 but who   
was so ignorant  that she once scolded  
him for the amount 7very far from       
excessive7 that  he took for his        
writings2 she could not imagine that    
mere writing could  be worth so much4   
,that he was not always faithful to her 
scarcely needs  to be told2 that could1 
perhaps1 have been otherwise at no      
period1  least of all in                
eighteenth-century ,paris4 ,there is a  
deep pathos in  the brief story of her  
long life and her devotion to the       
husband whose  own energies were at the 
service of any human being1 however poor
 or  disreputable1 who cared to climb up
 the stairs to his room4 ,in the  early 
days of poverty she would make little   
sacrifices to procure a  cup of coffee  
or similar trifling luxury for her      
husband2 and during  his last illness1  

though she would have given her life1   
her daughter  wrote1 to make him a      
,christian1 yet realizing how deeply    
rooted his  convictions were1 she       
shielded him from the efforts of the    
orthodox1  and would not leave the      
parish cur alone with him for an        
instant2  at his death1 the daughter    
adds1 she 8regretted the unhappiness he 
had caused her as another would have    
regretted happiness40 ,but we do  not   
regret unhappiness2 it is but another   
way of saying that life  is complex and 
full of mitigation4 ,in tenderness      
,diderot was never  deficient2 he was   
clearly a man of deep family affection2 
he seems  to have inherited this from   
his father2 so judicious a critic as    
,sainte-,beuve remarks that of the whole
 group of philosophes--not  eminent1    
perhaps1 in this respect--,diderot was  
the one who 8most  piously cultivated   
the relations of father1 of son1 of     
brother1 and who  best felt and         
practised family morality10 and we      

constantly come across  traces of this  
8piety40 ,he tells us with great glee   
how1 when he was  once walking through  
his native ,langres1 a townsman came up 
to him and  said1 8,monsieur ,diderot1  
you are a good man1 but1 if you think   
that you  will ever be equal to your    
father1 you are mistaken40 ,his eldest  
sister  seems to have had something of  
his own downrightness and solidity2  he 
loves her1 he says1 not because she is  
his sister1 but because he  8likes      
excellent things40 ,his only brother was
 an ecclesiastic and a  bigot1 but      
,diderot dwells on the inexhaustible    
charity by which this  rather eccentric 
man had impoverished himself4 ,at the   
latter part of  his life ,diderot's     
letters are full of proof of his tender 
love for his  daughter1 of the care and 
thought he devoted to her education1 of 
the  gentleness with which he sought to 
open to her the mysteries of the  world4
    ,at the age of twenty-eight ,diderot
 conceived the plan of that             

8,encyclopdia0 which became the central 
activity of his life4 ,a  few years     
later he published his first work1 a    
free translation of  ,shaftesbury's     
8,essay on ,merit and ,virtue10 which   
indicates well the  philosophical point 
from which he set out4 ,it was followed1
 a year  after1 by the 8,penses         
,philosophiques10 a few brief pages1    
full of  condensed and vigorous satire  
on the theologians and of robust faith  
in man and nature4 ,perhaps the most    
memorable is that in which he  imagines 
that a man1 betrayed by his wife1 his   
children1 his friends1  retired into a  
cavern to meditate some awful revenge   
against the human  race1 a perpetual    
source of dread and misery2 at last the 
misanthrope  rushed out of his cavern   
shouting4 8,god6 ,god60 and his fatal   
desire  was accomplished3 this account  
of the matter at all events indicates   
how little1 even at this early period of
 his life1 ,diderot sympathized  with   
the fashionable ,deism of his day4 ,the 

book was condemned to be  burned by     
command of ,parliament1 but it was      
subsequently reinforced by  still more  
audacious additions4 ,so began          
characteristically1 if with  something  
of the reckless impetuosity of youth1 a 
series of writings1  far too long even  
to name here1 many that were only       
published at his  death1 some that are  
only now being published1 a large number
 that have  probably been lost          
altogether--all marked by the same      
prodigious wealth  and variety and      
eloquence4 ,yet they lie apart from the 
great work of  his life4 ,the           
8,encyclopdia0 occupied thirty years2   
the appearance of  the first volume was 
retarded by ,diderot's imprisonment at  
,vincennes1  and it appeared in #agea2  
the last appeared in #aggb4 ,the        
8,encyclopdia0  was more than an        
encyclopdia2 it was not founded on that 
of ,chambers1  by which it was          
suggested1 nor is it represented by our 
own estimable  8,encyclopdia            

,britannica40 ,it was not a simple      
summary of the knowledge  of the time1  
for the benefit of a community trained  
to appreciate the  value of science4 ,it
 was in the words of the prospectus1 8a 
general  picture of the efforts of the  
human spirit in every field1 in every   
age40 ,it was the frank and audacious   
application to the whole of  knowledge  
of new ideas1 for the first time loudly 
proclaimed to a  society slowly         
crumbling to ruin1 but still by no means
 powerless4 ,it  was an evangelistic    
enterprise among infidels1 with dangers 
on every  side1 and where one holds     
one's life in one's hands4 ,we may still
  appreciate the significance of such a 
struggle4 ,the future in every  age     
belongs to those who can see further    
ahead than their fellows1 and  who fight
 their way towards the vision that they 
see2 but the risks are  equally great   
under any condition of society1 and some
 sort of ,bastille  or ,vincennes is    
always at hand4    ,diderot was         

certainly of all men most fitted to     
organize and uphold  this great work and
 to carry it to triumphal completion4   
,he said once  of himself that he       
belonged to his windy countryside of    
,langres2  8the man of ,langres has a   
head on his shoulders like the          
weathercock  on the top of the church   
spire--it is never fixed at one point40 
,he  was scarcely just to himself2 with 
all his emotional vivacity and  his     
readiness to receive new impressions1   
there was in him also an  infinite      
patience and a tenacity to hold on to   
the end in spite of  all4 ,both his     
versatility and his patience were called
 for here4 ,he  was indefatigable1 for  
ever animating the waverers1 stimulating
 the  slow-paced1 fighting with timid   
publishers1 himself having a hand in    
everything1 ever ready to suggest new   
ideas or to spend months in  studying   
the details of machines or factories1 or
 anything else that  had to be done2    
knowing all the time that at every      

moment he might be  exiled or           
imprisoned4 ,the personal qualities of  
the man1 even more  than his varied     
abilities1 carried him through4 ,someone
 speaks of  8his eyes on fire and the   
prophetic air which seemed always       
announcing  the enthusiasm of actual    
labour20 we hear of his 8loquence       
fougueuse  et entranante20 and1 with    
this1 of his feminine sensibility1 his  
wit  and tact and fertility of resource4
 ,we divine these qualities in his  head
 as it has come down to us1 though his  
characteristics do not  easily lend     
themselves to brush or chisel4 ,he has  
himself some remarks  on this point4 ,in
 his ,salons he comes upon his own      
portrait by ,van  ,loo1 and1 after some 
good-humoured criticism1 he adds3 8,but 
what will  my grandchildren say when    
they come to compare my sad books with  
that smiling1 mincing1 effeminate old   
flirt8 ,my children1 ,i warn you  that  
,i am not like that4 ,i had a hundred   
different faces in one day1  according  

to the thing that affected me4 ,i was   
calm1 sad1 dreaming1  tender1 violent1  
passionate1 enthusiastic1 but ,i was    
never as you see  me there4 ,i had a    
large forehead1 very bright eyes1       
tolerably large  features1 a head quite 
like that of an ancient orator1 a       
bonhomie  which approached stupidity1   
and an old-fashioned rusticity4 ,i wear 
a  mask which deceives the artist1      
whether it is that there are too many   
things mixed together1 or that the      
mental impressions which trace          
themselves on my face succeed one       
another so rapidly that the painter's   
task becomes more difficult than he     
expected4 ,i have never been well  done 
except by a poor devil called ,garand1  
who caught me as it happens  to a fool  
who utters a bon mot40 ,meister1        
,grimm's secretary1 who knew  ,diderot  
well1 says of him3 8,the artist who     
would seek an ideal head for  ,plato or 
,aristotle could hardly meet a modern   
head more worth his study  than         

,diderot's4 ,his large forehead1        
uncovered and slightly rounded1  bore   
the imposing imprint of his large1      
luminous1 and fertile spirit4  ,the     
great physiognomist1 ,lavater1 thought  
he detected there some  traces of       
timidity and lack of enterprise1 and    
this intuition1 founded  only on such   
portraits as he could see1 has always   
seemed to me that  of a keen observer4#c
 ,his nose was of masculine beauty1 the 
contour  of his upper eyelid full of    
delicacy1 the habitual expression of his
  eyes sensitive and gentle2 but when he
 became excited they gleamed  with fire2
 his mouth revealed an interesting      
mixture of refinement1  of grace1 of    
bonhomie2 and1 whatever indifference    
there might be  about his bearing1 there
 was naturally in the carriage of his   
head1  especially when he began to talk1
 much energy and dignity4 ,enthusiasm   
seemed to have become the most natural  
attitude of his voice1 of his  soul1 of 
all his features4 ,when his mental      

attitude was cold and calm1  one might  
find in him constraint1 awkwardness1    
timidity1 even a sort  of affectation2  
he was only truly ,diderot1 he was only 
truly himself1  when his thoughts       
transported him beyond himself40    #c  
8,timid and awkward in his own cause10  
says ,meister elsewhere1 8he  was       
scarcely ever so in that of others40    
,it was the inexhaustible profusion and 
generosity of ,diderot's genius  which  
seems to have impressed men chiefly4 ,a 
small literary man of  the time wrote   
his impression of ,diderot1 as he       
appeared in later  life1 with what is   
probably but a very mild touch of       
good-natured  caricature3--8,some time  
ago ,i had a desire to write a book4 ,i 
sought  solitude in order to meditate4  
,a friend lent me an apartment in a     
charming house amid delightful scenery4 
,hardly had ,i arrived when ,i  learnt  
that ,m4 ,diderot occupied a room in the
 same house4 ,i do not  exaggerate when 
,i say that my heart beat violently2 ,i 

forgot all my  literary projects1 and   
thought only of seeing the great man    
whose  genius ,i so much admired4 ,i    
entered his room with the dawn1 and he  
seemed no more surprised to see me than 
it4 ,he spared me the trouble of        
stammering awkwardly the object of my   
visit4 ,he guessed it apparently  by my 
air of admiration4 ,he spared me        
likewise the long windings of  a        
conversation which must be led to poetry
 and prose4 ,hardly was it  mentioned   
than he rose1 fixed his eyes upon me1   
and1 it was quite  clear1 did not see me
 at all4 ,he began to speak1 at first   
very low and  fast1 so that though ,i   
was quite close to him ,i could scarcely
 hear or  follow him4 ,i saw at once    
that my part in the conversation would  
be  limited to silent admiration1 a part
 which it costs me little to play4      
,gradually his voice rose and became    
distinct and sonorous2 he had been      
almost immovable2 now his gestures      
became frequent and animated4 ,he  had  

never seen me before1 and when we were  
standing he put his arms  round me2 when
 we were seated he struck my thighs as  
though they were  his own4 ,if the rapid
 courses of his talk brought in the word
 #8law1'  he made me a plan of          
legislation2 if the word #8theatre' came
 in1 he  offered me the choice between  
five or six plans of dramas4 ,a propos  
of the relation between the scene and   
the dialogue1 he recalls that  ,tacitus 
is the greatest painter of antiquity1   
and recites or translates  for me the   
,annals or the ,history4 ,but how       
terrible that the barbarians  should    
have buried in the ruins of             
architectural masterpieces so many  of  
,tacitus's chefs-d'uvre6 ,thereupon he  
grows as tender over those  lost        
beauties as though he had known them4   
,but if the excavations at  ,herculaneum
 should reveal fresh ,annals and        
,histories6 ,and this hope  transports  
him with joy4 ,but how often in the     
process of discovery  ignorant hands    

have destroyed the masterpieces         
preserved in tombs6 ,and  here he       
dissertates like an ,italian engineer on
 methods of excavation4  ,then his      
imagination turns to ancient ,italy1 and
 he recalls how the  arts of ,athens had
 softened the terrible virtues of the   
conquerors of  the world4 ,he turns to  
the happy days of ,llius and ,scipio1   
when even  the conquered assisted with  
delight in the triumphs of the          
conquerors4  ,he acts for me an entire  
scene of ,terence2 he almost sings      
several  songs of ,horace4 ,he concludes
 by actually singing a song full of     
grace  and wit1 an impromptu of his own 
at a supper1 and recites for me a very  
agreeable comedy of which1 to save the  
trouble of copying1 he has had  a single
 copy printed4 ,then a number of people 
entered the room4 ,the  noise of chairs 
makes him break off his enthusiastic    
monologue4 ,then he  distinguishes me in
 the midst of the company1 and comes up 
to me as to  a person whom one has      

previously met with pleasure4 ,he       
reminds me that  we have talked about   
many very interesting things--law1      
drama1 history2  he acknowledges that   
there was much to be learnt from my     
conversation1  and makes me promise to  
cultivate an acquaintance the value of  
which  he appreciates4 ,at parting he   
gives me two kisses on the forehead1 and
  snatches his hand from mine with      
genuine sorrow40 ,diderot is recorded   
to have laughed heartily at this sketch 
when he saw it in the 8,mercure0  of    
#aggi3 8,i must be an eccentric sort of 
fellow2 but is it such a great  fault to
 have preserved amid all the friction of
 society some vestiges  of the          
angularity of nature80    ,these        
impressions are confirmed by those of   
the ,empress ,catherine1  whose delicate
 generosity in buying ,diderot's library
 and appointing  him librarian smoothed 
the last years of his life4 ,she wrote  
to  ,mme4 ,geoffrin3 8,your ,diderot is 
an extraordinary man4 ,i emerge from    

interviews with him with thighs bruised 
and quite black4 ,i have been  obliged  
to put a table between us to protect    
myself and my members40 ,he  could not  
understand1 his daughter remarks1 that  
one must not behave  the same way in a  
palace as in a barn4 ,it must be added1 
in justice to  ,diderot1 that ,catherine
 was no lover of ceremony1 as she       
certainly let  ,diderot know4    ,he was
 the same to everybody2 not more ready  
to furnish the ,empress  with the plan  
of a university on the largest scale1   
and in accordance  with the most        
advanced ideas1 than to write laughingly
 ,avis au public  for a new pomade to   
promote the luxuriant growth of the     
hair4 ,he was  equally ready to throw   
out the brilliant suggestions which     
,helvetius  and ,holbach worked into    
their books 8,de l',esprit0 and the     
8,systme  de la ,nature10 and to assist 
some poor devil in tatters who1 once  at
 least1 after he had long fed and       
clothed him1 turned out to be a  police 

spy2 he was none the less bountiful to  
every comer4 ,now we  see him devising  
ingenious ruses to obtain succour for a 
nobleman's  forsaken mistress2 again    
finding a manager for ,voltaire's       
comedy1  the 8,dpositaire10 or revising 
,galiani's 8,dialogues0 on the wheat    
trade4 ,the ,dauphin dies2 a monument   
must be erected to him in ,sens         
,cathedral2 ,diderot is sought out and  
speedily submits five designs4  ,all the
 men of talent and all the people in    
distress found their way  to ,diderot2  
dedicatory epistles for needy musicians1
 plots of comedies  for playwrights     
deficient in invention1 prefaces1       
discourses--no one  went away           
disappointed who climbed up to that     
fourth-floor door in the  corner house  
of the ,rue ,st4 ,benot and the ,rue    
,taranne4    ,some of his benevolent    
schemes were certainly of a rather      
dubious  character2 there seems to      
linger about them a touch of the        
sanctification of means by ends which we

 may1 if we like1 attribute to  his     
,jesuit education4 ,in his comedy1      
8,est-il bon8 ,est-il mchant80--no      
doubt the best of his plays--he has     
satirized himself in the person  of the 
hero1 ,hardouin1 a man who gets into    
terrible scrapes with his  friends from 
the questionable devices by which he    
tries to serve them2  obtaining1 for    
instance1 a pension for a widow lady by 
pretending that  her child is           
illegitimate1 and causing an obdurate   
mother to acquiesce  eagerly in the     
marriage of her daughter by delicately  
suggesting that  she has already been   
seduced4 ,we find ,diderot carrying on  
various  benevolent little intrigues of 
this kind when we read his letters to   
,mlle4 ,voland4    ,these letters to    
,mlle4 ,voland form the most            
characteristic and  intimately personal 
record of himself that ,diderot left4   
,he was forty  years old when the       
correspondence began1 and it lasted for 
more than  twenty years4 ,of ,sophie    

,voland almost nothing is known2 we only
 catch  glimpses of her as a woman of   
wide sympathies and decided             
intelligence1  neither very young nor   
pretty1 and wearing spectacles2 she     
lived with  her family1 who were clearly
 more orthodox and conventional than    
herself1 and must not1 as ,diderot      
frequently hints1 see everything that   
he writes4 ,of the depth and reality of 
his affection for her there  is no      
doubt2 his editors have discussed the   
question as to whether  this affection  
was throughout of the nature of         
friendship only1 or  whether1 according 
to the phrase of ,sainte-,beuve1 an     
hour's passion had  served as the golden
 key to the most precious and intimate  
secrets of  friendship4 ,this may be as 
it will2 ,diderot had found some one in 
whose  presence he could show himself1  
without reserve or precaution1 on every 
side of his manifold nature1 and he was 
always tenderly grateful to the  woman  
who had procured him this sweetest of   

pleasures4 8,my ,sophie is  both man and
 woman10 he wrote to her1 8when she     
pleases20 as such he  always addressed  
her1 pouring out recklessly all that    
happened to be  in his head1 narrating  
the incidents of the day1 telling what  
he was  thinking about or projecting1   
repeating current scandal or sometimes  
not quite decent story1 flashing        
instinctively into wise or witty        
reflection2 always with a swift1 almost 
unconscious pen1 forgetting now  and    
again what he has already said4 ,it is  
only in these letters1 where  he is1 as 
he says1 8rendering an account of all   
the moments of a life  that belongs to  
you10 that we realize the personal      
charm1 the exuberant  strength and at   
the same time the weakness of the man   
who in the midst  of his manifold       
energies bursts out3 8,a delicious      
repose1 a sweet book  to read1 a walk in
 some open and solitary spot1 a         
conversation in which  one discloses all
 one's heart1 a strong emotion that     

brings the tears  to one's eyes and     
makes the heart beat faster1 whether it 
comes of some  tale of generous action  
or of a sentiment of tenderness1 of     
health1  of gaiety1 of liberty1 of      
indolence--there is the true happiness1 
nor  shall ,i ever know any other40     
,the 8,encyclopdia0 seems to us to-day  
but a small portion of the  achievement 
of ,diderot's life1 though it represents
 the part that he  played in relation to
 the science of his time4 ,his place in 
science  has sometimes been wrongly     
stated4 ,it has been said1 for instance1
  that he anticipated ,lamarck and      
,darwin4 ,it is true that he wrote1     
8,the  need produces the organ2 the     
organization determines the function10  
and that this contains the germ of      
,lamarck's doctrine2 and again1  8,the  
world is the abode of the strong10 and  
that this may be said to  be the germ of
 the doctrine of natural selection2 but 
at both points  he was simply putting   
into epigrammatic form the conceptions  

of the  greatest scientific genius of   
his age and country1 ,buffon1 the only  
man of that time who was cast in the    
same massive mould1 and to whom         
,diderot could turn with fraternal      
delight and admiration4 ,it is to       
,buffon also1 and not to ,diderot1 that 
the honour of anticipating  ,lyell      
belongs4 ,it is in his ,baconian        
thoughts on the interpretation  of      
nature1 and again in such a             
comprehensive collection of data as  his
 notes on physiology1 discovered of     
recent years1 that ,diderot's  searching
 and inquisitive scientific spirit      
appears4 ,he frequently  startles us by 
the way in which he vividly realizes and
 follows out to  their legitimate       
conclusions those floating ideas of his 
time which  we are working out to-day4  
,above all1 and from the first1 he      
clearly  grasps the fundamental value of
 the human body and its processes in the
  interpretation of mental phenomena2 in
 one of his comparatively early  works1 

the 8,lettre sur les ,aveugles10 he     
remarks that he has never  doubted that 
8our most purely intellectual ideas are 
closely related  to the conformation of 
our bodies40 8,how difficult it is10 he 
says  elsewhere1 8to be a good          
philosopher and a good moralist without 
being  anatomist1 naturalist1           
physiologist1 and doctor40 ,holding     
firmly by  this clue1 he was constantly 
trying to fathom the mysteries of the   
soul  and to picture the processes of   
life2 it is because he has realized     
that this can only be done fruitfully   
from the physiological side that  the   
8,rve de d',alembert10 his most         
brilliant effort in this direction1  is 
interesting after the lapse of a        
century4    ,he brought the same eager1 
impressionable spirit to his novels and 
stories4 ,it is indeed no great step    
from 8,le ,rve de d',alembert0 to  8,le 
,neveu de ,rameau10 and from that to    
8,la ,religieuse40 ,whatever he         
undertook he carried out with the whole 

energy and enthusiasm of his  nature1   
and while this takes from the artistic  
symmetry of his work1 it  adds to its   
vitality and significance4 ,it is owing 
to this quality that  8,les ,bijoux     
,indiscrets10 a frivolous novel in the  
style of the younger  ,crebillon1       
pointless and indecent1 written1 at the 
age of thirty-five1  mainly to obtain   
money for his mistress1 ,mme4 de        
,puisieux1 contains  passages which have
 been considered among the finest he    
ever wrote1  and by its reflections on  
the reform of the theatre1 its          
criticisms  of manners1 and             
philosophical insight served avowedly as
 the point of  departure for ,lessing's 
famous 8,dramaturgie40 ,it was not until
 he read  ,richardson that ,diderot     
produced any very noteworthy work in    
fiction2  his admiration for the        
,english novelist was extreme1 but      
certainly  not out of proportion to     
,richardson's historic importance4      
,richardson  not only marks the first   

real landmark in the evolution of the   
,english  novel2 he is the point of     
departure of the modern ,french novel1  
and  ,diderot1 more than any one else1  
helped to make his influence felt  in   
,france4 ,very soon after falling under 
the spell of the great  ,english        
story-teller and writing his 8loge de   
,richardson10 ,diderot  produced his    
most famous novel1 8,la ,religieuse40   
,it is clear how much  ,richardson      
influenced this minute study1 in        
autobiographic form1 of  the life and   
sufferings of a young girl forced into a
 convent with  its uncongenial          
atmosphere and petty persecutions4 ,it  
was a distinct  artistic achievement1   
the more remarkable as it was certainly 
intended  as an attack on the small     
vices of a community of women isolated  
from  the world4 ,even those parts of   
this attack which have been considered  
questionable are always in the tone of  
the unsuspecting young girl who  writes 
them1 and only become offensive when a  

modern editor removes  them in order to 
substitute asterisks2 compare these     
passages with the  more ostentatious    
propriety and zeal for virtue of a      
modern ,parisian  in 8,mademoiselle     
,giraud ma ,femme40 ,a year later       
,diderot wrote an  unquestionable       
artistic masterpiece1 only preserved for
 us by a happy  chance1 8,le ,neveu de  
,rameau10 a dialogue of unfailing spirit
 between  himself and a strange social  
parasite whom he is analyzing4 ,some    
years  later he fell under the influence
 of ,sterne2 8,jacques le ,fataliste10  
so attractive to ,goethe and many       
others1 was the result4 ,but he had no  
great affinity for the sinuous humour of
 ,sterne1 and1 while he threw  himself  
into it with his usual energy1 the      
result1 though ,shandean  enough1 is    
less happy than his great ,richardsonian
 effort4 ,yet 8,jacques  le ,fataliste0 
contains the 8,histoire de ,mme4 de la  
,pommeraye10 and  this little histoire1 
when disentangled from the manifold     

episodes  which interrupt the hostess of
 the inn who tells it1 is ,diderot's    
most  perfect and most characteristic   
effort as a story-teller4 ,even in his  
novels it is the directness and the     
veracity of his scientific spirit1      
united to his emotional                 
impressionability1 which gives          
significance to  his work4    ,the same 
features mark his plays1 though here the
 result has ceased to  be pleasing1 and 
we may be permitted to-day not to read  
through the  8,fils ,naturel0 and the   
8,pre de ,famille40 ,yet we must not    
forget that  from them is dated the     
modern drama1 with the notes of         
sincerity and  simple realism1 peculiar 
then to ,diderot1 which nowadays have   
become a  more common possession4       
,diderot's dramas produced a great and  
immediate  effect in ,germany1 on       
,goethe and ,schiller as well as on     
,iffland and  ,kotzebue1 and the 8,pre  
de ,famille0 was translated by ,lessing4
    ,as a critic of the stage ,diderot  

has1 perhaps1 attracted exaggerated     
attention1 though he has not escaped    
misunderstanding1 most people's         
knowledge of his opinions on this head  
beginning and ending with the           
8,paradoxe sur le ,comdien40 ,diderot at
 first attributed1 as from the  nature  
of his temperament he was sure to do1   
the chief part in acting  to emotion and
 sensibility2 in time he outgrew this   
youthful opinion1  and in the           
8,paradoxe0 he emphasized as strongly as
 he could the part  of study and        
reflection in the actor's art1 a part   
which must always  be of the first      
importance1 notwithstanding all the     
tears shed by  charming actresses1 and  
carefully bottled for controversial     
purposes4  ,diderot was far too sane and
 many-sided to see only one aspect of so
  complex an art as the actor's2 it is1 
as he says1 8study1 reflection1         
passion1 sensibility1 the true imitation
 of nature10 which go to make  up good  
acting4 ,an interesting and too brief   

series of letters to ,mlle4  ,jodin is  
well worth reading from this point of   
view4 ,mlle4 ,jodin1 the  daughter of an
 old friend of his1 was a rather wild   
and impetuous young  lady of some talent
 who had suddenly adopted the life of an
 actress4  ,diderot performed many small
 services both for her and her mother1  
and  wrote letters full of wise and1 it 
appears1 much-needed counsel as  to her 
conduct both on and off the stage4      
8,mademoiselle10 he writes1  8there is  
nothing good in this world but that     
which is true2 be true1  then1 on the   
stage1 true off the stage4444 ,an actor 
who has nothing  but sense and judgment 
is cold2 one who has nothing but verve  
and  sensibility is mad4 ,it is a       
certain temperament of mingled good     
sense  and warmth which makes men       
sublime2 on the stage and in the world  
he  who shows more than he feels makes  
us laugh instead of touching us40       
,diderot inaugurated modern art         
criticism by the notices of the         

pictures in the ,salon1 which he wrote  
during many years for 8,grimm's         
,correspondence40 ,one cannot help      
regretting that he was not born among  a
 greater group of artists4 ,chardin we  
still esteem1 and ,greuze is at  the    
height of his popularity1 but it is     
difficult to take more than an          
antiquarian interest in ,boucher1 and   
who cares now for ,loutherbourg  or ,van
 ,loo8 ,even before ,joseph ,vernet1    
whose variety1 freshness1 and  love of  
nature appealed so strongly to ,diderot1
 it sometimes requires  an effort to be 
sympathetic4 ,diderot now and then      
criticizes with  severity--as           
occasionally when he is dealing with    
,boucher--but the tone  of his          
criticism1 as generally happens with    
contemporary criticism1  seems to us    
to-day pitched altogether too high4 ,in 
one respect1 at all  events1 it is      
unlike most old appreciations of now    
neglected pictures2  it is generally    
delightful to read1 perhaps sometimes   

more delightful  than the picture can   
ever have seemed4 ,one suspects that    
,diderot  treated pictures like books2  
,holbach1 having read a book he had     
warmly  recommended1 came to him to say 
that the book contained nothing of      
which he had spoken4 8,well10 replied   
,diderot1 8if it wasn't there it  ought 
to have been there40    ,everything that
 ,diderot touched he vitalized4 ,there  
were few things  that he left untouched4
 ,there were very few roads of modern   
life on  which he was not an            
enthusiastic and often audacious        
pioneer4 ,he  seems to have known       
instinctively the things that we are    
laboriously  learning4 ,so it is with   
politics1 sexual morality1 various      
social and  politico-economical         
questions1 education1 philosophy4 ,he   
touched all  the social questions which 
absorb our attention to-day4 ,he        
approached  the problem of the place of 
the workers in society in the same      
temper  in which we approach it to-day1 

and the practical knowledge of          
industries and industrial life which he 
had obtained in order to write  some of 
his most remarkable articles in the     
8,encyclopdia0 gave him  some right to  
be heard4    ,his views on education1   
chiefly expressed in the 8,plan d'une   
,universit  pour le ,gouvernement de    
,russie10 are on a level with the most  
advanced  views to-day4 ,the education  
he demands is free and compulsory1 and  
he is in favour of giving children free 
meals at school4 ,he censures  classical
 teaching1 advocates professional       
education and instruction  in the       
natural sciences1 8the study of things  
rather than the study  of words40 8,i   
think10 he says1 8that we should give in
 our schools  something of all the      
knowledge necessary to a citizen1 from  
legislation  to the mechanical arts1 and
 in these mechanical arts ,i include the
  occupations of the lowest class of    
citizens4 ,the spectacle of human       
industry is in itself large and         

satisfying1 and it is good to know the  
different ways in which each contributes
 to the advantages of society4  ,this   
kind of knowledge is attractive to      
children1 who are naturally             
inquisitive40 ,certainly1 from more than
 one point of view1 such an  element in 
education would have an important social
 significance4    ,of the functions and 
position of women--in most countries1 he
 remarks1  that of idiot children--he   
speaks often1 shrewdly indeed1 yet with 
peculiar sympathy4 ,the most important  
expression of his opinions  on sexual   
morality is contained in the 8,supplment
 au ,voyage de  ,bougainville40         
,bougainville1 the first ,frenchman to  
sail round the  world1 had visited the  
lovely island of ,tahiti1 and brought   
back a  strange and vivid picture of the
 idyllic innocence and frank license    
that existed there4 ,diderot was aroused
 to set forth his views on  sexual      
questions with that union of fiery      
enthusiasm1 uncompromising              

thoroughness1 and saving grace of       
humorous good sense which always        
characterizes him4 ,he imagines a       
dialogue between the chaplain of        
,bougainville's expedition and ,orou1 a 
,tahitian1 who is anxious to know  why  
the chaplain refuses to conform to the  
customs of the country4  ,the worthy    
chaplain represents the morality of     
civilized ,europe1 and  ,orou1 with a   
few questions concerning this morality1 
easily succeeds  in confounding him and 
in pouring keen ridicule on the         
inconsistencies  of ,european morals4   
,with reference to rules of conduct     
which vary  with the country and the    
time1 ,diderot makes ,orou say1 8,we    
must have  a surer rule1 and what shall 
this rule be8 ,do you know any other    
than  the good of the community and the 
advantage of the individual80 8,you     
were unhappy10 he remarks again to the  
chaplain1 8when ,i presented  to you    
last night my two daughters and my wife2
 you exclaimed1 #8,but  my religion6 my 

office6' ,do you wish to know what in   
every time and  place is good and bad8  
,concern yourself with the nature of    
things and  of actions1 and with your   
relations to your fellows4 ,consider the
  influence of your conduct on yourself 
and on the community4 ,you are  mad if  
you think that there is anything in the 
universe1 above or  below1 which can add
 to or take from the laws of nature40   
,that rule1  he explains1 is the polar  
star on the path of life1 and the       
invention  of crimes1 punishments1 and  
remorse will only obscure it4 8,in      
founding  morality on the relationships 
which must always exist between men1 the
  religious law becomes perhaps         
superfluous2 and the civil law should   
only be the enunciation of the law of   
nature1 which we bear engraved  on our  
hearts1 and which must always be the    
strongest40 ,at the end  ,diderot       
intervenes with a counsel of moderation 
and practical wisdom3  8,what shall we  
do1 then8 ,we will protest against      

foolish laws until  they are reformed3  
meanwhile we will submit4 ,he who by his
 private  authority breaks a bad law1   
authorizes others to break good laws4   
,there  is less inconvenience in being  
mad with the mad than in being wise by  
oneself4 ,let us say to ourselves1 let  
us proclaim incessantly1 that  shame1   
punishment1 and ignominy have been      
attached to actions which  in themselves
 are innocent4 ,but do not let us commit
 them2 for shame1  punishment1 and      
ignominy are themselves the worst of    
evils40    8,every century has its own  
spirit2 that of ours seems to be        
liberty40  ,so in #aggf1 when men were  
beginning to say that it was time to    
burn  philosophers instead of their     
books1 and a boy of eighteen was        
actually  burned1 ,diderot wrote to     
,voltaire1 in the famous letter in which
 he  announced that in spite of all he  
would stay in ,paris1 among the  enemies
 of liberty1 to carry on his own        
mission4 ,timidity in political  matters

 was excusable in ,diderot's day1 and   
existed even among the men  of his own  
set4 ,helvetius1 for instance1 advocated
 the advantages of  paternal government 
and benevolent despotism2 with his usual
 keen and  vigorous good sense1 ,diderot
 shows how unreal these advantages are4 
,when we give a ruler absolute power to 
do good1 we cannot prevent  him assuming
 also an absolute power to do evil4     
,moreover1 as ,diderot  insisted1 it is 
not possible to make people good against
 their wills1  nor is it desirable to   
treat men like sheep4 8,if they say1    
#8,we are well  enough here1' or if1    
even1 they say1 #8,we are not well here1
 but we  will stay1' let us try to      
enlighten them1 to undeceive them1 to   
bring  them to saner views by           
persuasion1 but never by force40 8,the  
arbitrary  government of a just and     
enlightened prince is always bad40 ,he  
insists1  again and again1 that we must 
never let our pretended masters do good 
to us against our wills4 8,whenever you 

see the sovereign authority in  a       
country extending beyond the region of  
police1 you may say that that  country  
is badly governed40 ,diderot1 ,goethe1  
,adam ,smith1 ,beccaria1  ,mill1 to     
mention but a few typical names1 threw  
all the weight of  their influence1     
sometimes with passionate emphasis1 on  
the side  of individuality and freedom1 
and their teaching reached its final    
consecration when ,darwin accepted as   
his central theory the fruitful  idea of
 ,malthus4 ,they felt1 and rightly felt1
 that they were taking  the step that   
was most needed4 ,those who advocated   
solidarity and  social co-operation     
mostly went to the wall4 ,now it is the 
turn of the  social instincts1 and we   
must expect them to work themselves out 
to the  utmost4 ,we have to see to it   
that the truth to which ,diderot and the
  rest fought their way is not meanwhile
 lost4 ,the general will is itself      
to-day in danger of becoming a          
benevolent despotism1 and perhaps the   

time will never arrive when such        
warnings as these will be quite out  of 
date4 ,when it is a question of the     
oppression of our fellows1 we  cannot   
always afford to wait until the offender
 listens to the voice of  persuasion2   
him1 at least1 we must bring within 8the
 region of police30  beyond that lies   
danger4        8,et si j'ai quelque     
volont1      ,c'est que chacun fasse la 
sienne40    ,so ,diderot wrote in some  
impromptu verses at a convivial         
gathering  over which he once presided2 
it was a summary of his views on  many  
matters4 8,i am convinced10 he wrote1   
8that there can be no  true happiness   
for the human race except in a social   
state in  which there is neither king   
nor magistrate1 nor priest nor laws1    
nor meum nor tuum1 nor property in goods
 or land1 nor vices  nor virtues40 ,this
 is the anarchism that stands at the end
 of  all social progress1 but as an     
attainable social state it is  still    
certainly1 as ,diderot adds1 8diablement

 idal40 ,he had no  faith in            
moralization by ,act of ,parliament4    
8,there will then be                    
prostitutes8--,assuredly4--,mistresses8-
-,why not8--,girls seduced8--,i  expect 
there will4--,husbands and wives not    
always faithful8--,i fear  so4 ,but at  
least10 he adds1 8,i shall be spared all
 those vices which  misery1 luxury1 and 
poverty produce4 ,the rest may be as it 
will be40    ,diderot's robust faith in 
nature1 that finest fruit of the        
scientific  spirit1 comes out again and 
again1 here and elsewhere4 8,the        
evil-doer  is one whom we must destroy1 
not punish03 that is the great truth1   
held by a large number of the foremost  
men to-day1 which is not even  yet      
accepted4 8,never to repent and never to
 reproach others3 these  are the first  
steps to wisdom40 ,and1 again3 8,in the 
best and most  happily constituted man  
there remains always much of the animal2
 before  becoming a misanthrope1        
consider whether you have the right40   

,not many  men have had so much reason  
as ,diderot for becoming misanthropic2  
few  men have had in them less of the   
misanthrope4 8,my life is not stolen    
from me10 he writes2 8,i give it4444 ,a 
pleasure which is for myself  alone     
touches me slightly4 ,it is for myself  
and for my friends that ,i  read1 that  
,i reflect1 that ,i write1 that ,i      
meditate1 that ,i hear1 that  ,i        
observe1 that ,i feel4444 ,i have       
consecrated to them the use of all  my  
senses1 and that is perhaps the reason  
why everything is a little  enriched in 
my imagination and conversation2        
sometimes they reproach  me1 ungrateful 
as they are4 ,ungrateful6 would ,i could
 make hundreds  ungrateful every day60  
,he never seems to waver in his faith in
 men1  nor in the determination1 with   
which1 indeed1 that faith must ever be  
bound up1 to look every fact of nature  
squarely in the face4 ,the words  with  
which his letters to ,sophie ,voland    
close seem to be the constant  refrain  

throughout all his work3 8,there is     
nothing good in this world  but that    
which is true40    ,it cannot be said   
that ,diderot performed any one great   
and  paramount achievement4 ,the most   
brilliant of his fragments--the  8,rve  
de d',alembert0 or 8,le ,neveu de       
,rameau0--is but a magnificent          
improvisation4 ,he made no memorable    
contribution to our knowledge of  the   
world4 ,nor was his genius of what may  
be called the wedge-shaped  order--the  
genius of the man who1 with every nerve 
strained to the  solution of one        
mystery1 never rests until the heart of 
it is cloven4  ,his genius was          
essentially fermentative4 ,he knew by a 
native instinct  every promising germ of
 thought1 and he knew how to make it    
fruitful4  ,he was1 as ,voltaire called 
him1 ,pantophile1 the man who loved and 
was  interested in everything4 ,his     
extreme sensitiveness to impressions    
was the source of his strength and of   
his weakness4 ,in his sane1  massive1   

and yet so sensitive temperament1       
aspirations keen and  lyrical as        
,shelley's seem to blend harmoniously   
with laughter broad  and tolerant as    
,rabelais's4 ,the latent elements in him
 of fantastic  extravagance were held in
 check by a bourgeois good sense in     
which  we seem to recognize the shrewd  
old cutler of ,langres4 ,there is a     
profound democratic instinct in him2 his
 never-failing faith in nature  and man 
seems to be a part of this2 it is a     
faith that may possibly be  foolish1 but
 for all those who are born men it is   
the most reasonable  faith1 and it has  
commended itself most to those who have 
been oftenest  disillusioned4    ,there 
can be no doubt that the immediate      
effect of the ,revolution of  #aghi was 
to kill the spirit that ,diderot        
represented--the spirit of  scientific  
advance1 active even to audacity1 and   
allied with a firm  faith in man and in 
social development4 ,the party of       
progress were  not able to recognize    

progress in the form of the ,revolution1
 and the  more obviously dominating     
movement of the century that is now     
closing  has been the                   
,counter-,revolution1 corresponding in  
many respects to  that                  
,counter-,reformation which dominated   
,catholic countries during  the         
seventeenth century4 ,putting aside a   
few stray enthusiasts1  like ,shelley or
 ,owen1 attractive personalities with   
little grasp  of practical life1 the men
 who have directed ,european thought1   
especially in ,england1 have been men   
whose imaginations were profoundly      
impressed1 and their mental equilibrium 
considerably disturbed1 by  that brief  
convulsion of ,france2 and they         
developed a curious timidity  and       
distrust1 visible even when they had the
 courage to adopt a  short-sighted      
optimism4 ,it is very interesting now to
 turn back to the  essay in which       
,carlyle1 perhaps the most brilliant and
 distinguished  representative of the   

,counter-,revolution1 recorded his      
estimate of  ,diderot4 ,how curiously   
old-fashioned seem to us to-day its     
mitigated  admiration1 its vague        
mysticism1 its sneers at ,diderot's     
loquacity1  his generosity1 his         
dyspepsia--sneers that1 in the light of 
,carlyle's  own life1 have aroused      
feelings of pain1 and even indignation1 
among  some who in their youth looked up
 to ,carlyle as to a sort of venerable  
prophet--its absolute failure to        
perceive that here was a man not to be  
stifled by a handful of transcendental  
phraseology4 ,yet this was at the  time 
accepted as an adequate and even        
generous account of the matter4  ,to-day
 we are again in the same position as   
,diderot1 and we are able  to see in him
 the significance1 hidden from ,carlyle1
 of the light of  science fearlessly    
brought to illuminate the whole of life4
    ,when men begin to say that         
everything has been done1 the men come  
who say that there has yet nothing been 

done4 ,we have congratulated  ourselves 
that many sciences of nature and of man 
are in the main  settled1 but we are    
always compelled to begin again1 and on 
a larger  and perhaps simpler scale4 ,in
 many fields of physical and social     
knowledge--from electricity at the one  
end to criminology at the  other--we are
 now laying anew great foundations1 and 
the walls are  being raised so rapidly  
that it is sometimes hard to know where 
we are1  or to realize what is being    
done4 ,when science is thus renewing    
itself1  and men are on every hand      
seeking how1 by means of science1 they  
may  enlarge and ennoble life1 the      
spirit that moved ,diderot is again     
making  itself felt4 ,it is worth while 
to realize his fellowship for a few     
moments1 and to sun ourselves1 if we can
 bear it1 in his inspiring  enthusiasm4 
,,heine4      ,i4    ,heine gathers up  
and focuses for us in one vivid point   
all those  influences of his own time   
which are the forces of to-day4 ,he     

appears  before us1 to put it in his own
 way1 as a youthful and militant ,knight
  of the ,holy ,ghost1 tilting against  
the spectres of the past and  liberating
 the imprisoned energies of the human   
spirit4 ,his interest  from this point  
of view lies1 largely1 apart from his   
interest as a  supreme lyric poet1 the  
brother of ,catullus and ,villon and    
,burns2 we  here approach him on his    
prosaic--his relatively prosaic--side4  
,one hemisphere of ,heine's brain was   
,greek1 the other ,hebrew4 ,he was  born
 when the genius of ,goethe was at its  
height2 his mother had  absorbed the    
frank earthliness1 the sane and massive 
,paganism1 of the  ,roman ,elegies1 and 
,heine's ideals in all things1 whether  
he would or  not1 were always           
,hellenic--using that word in the large 
sense in which  ,heine himself used     
it--even while he was the first in rank 
and the last  in time of the ,romantic  
poets of ,germany4 ,he sought1 even     
consciously1  to mould the modern       

emotional spirit into classic forms4 ,he
 wrought his  art simply and lucidly1   
the aspirations that pervade it are     
everywhere  sensuous1 and yet it recalls
 oftener the turbulent temper of        
,catullus  than any serener ancient     
spirit4    ,for ,heine arose early in   
active rebellion against a merely       
passive  classicism2 in the same way    
that fiercer and more ardent cries1 as  
from the ,east1 pierce through the songs
 of ,catullus4 ,the mischievous  ,hermes
 was irritated by the calm and quiet    
activities of the aged ,zeus  of        
,weimar4 ,and then the earnest ,hebrew  
nature within him1 liberated by         
,hegel's favourite formula of the       
divinity of man1 came into play with    
its large revolutionary thirsts4 ,thus  
it was that he appeared before  the     
world as the most brilliant leader of a 
movement of national or  even world-wide
 emancipation4 ,the greater part of his 
prose works1 from  the youthful         
8,reisebilder0 onwards1 and a           

considerable portion of his  poetic     
work1 record the energy with which he   
played this part4    ,but whether the   
,greek or the ,hebrew element happened  
to be most active  in ,heine1 the ideal 
that he set up for life generally was   
the equal  activity of both sides--in   
other words1 the harmony of flesh and   
spirit4 ,it is this thought which       
dominates 8,the ,history of ,religion   
and ,philosophy in ,germany10 his finest
 achievement in this kind4 ,that  book  
was written at the moment when ,heine   
touched the highest point  of his       
enthusiasm for freedom and his faith in 
the possibility of  human progress4 ,it 
is a sort of programme for the immediate
 future  of the human spirit1 in the    
form of a brief and bold outline of the 
spiritual history of ,germany and       
,germany's great emancipators1 ,luther1 
,lessing1 ,kant1 and the rest4 ,it sets 
forth in a fresh and fascinating  shape 
that ,everlasting ,gospel which1 from   
the time of ,joachim of ,flora          

downwards1 has always gleamed in dreams 
before the minds of men as the          
successor of ,christianity4 ,heine's    
vision of a democracy of cakes and  ale1
 founded on the heights of religious1   
philosophical1 and political  freedom1  
may still spur and thrill us1--even     
now-a-days1 when we have  wearied of    
stately bills of fare for a sulky       
humanity that will not  feed at our     
bidding1 no1 not on cakes and ale4      
,heine is wise enough to  see1 however  
imperfectly1 that it is unreasonable to 
expect the speedy  erection of any ,new 
,jerusalem2 for1 as he expresses it in  
his own way1  the holy vampires of the  
,middle ,ages have sucked away so much  
of our  life-blood that the world has   
become a hospital4 ,a sudden revolution 
of  fever-stricken or hysterical        
invalids can effect little of permanent 
value2 only a long and invigorating     
course of the tonics of life can  make  
free from danger the open-air of nature4
 8,our first duty10 he  asserted in this

 book1 8is to become healthy40    ,heine
 confesses that he too was among the    
sick and decrepit souls4  ,in reality he
 was at no period so full of life and   
health1 so  harmoniously inspired and   
upborne by a great enthusiasm4 ,he      
laughs  a little at ,goethe2 he fails to
 see that the ,phidian ,zeus1 at whose  
confined position he jests1 was the     
greatest liberator of them all2  but for
 the most part his mocking sarcasm is   
here silent4 ,it was not  until ten     
years later1 when the subtle seeds of   
disease had begun to  appear1 and when1 
too1 he had perhaps gained a clearer    
insight into the  possibilities of life1
 that ,heine realized that the practical
 reforming  movements of his time were  
not those for which his early enthusiasm
  had been aroused4 ,with the slow steps
 of that consuming disease1 and  after  
the revolution of #ahdh1 he ceased to   
recognize as of old any  common root for
 his various activities1 or to insist on
 the fundamental  importance of         

religion4 ,everything in the world      
became the sport of his  intelligence4  
,the brain still functioned brilliantly 
in the atrophied  body2 the swift       
lightning-like wit still struck         
unerringly2 it spared  not even himself4
 ,the 8,confessions0 are full of irony1 
covering all  things with laughter that 
is half reverence1 or with reverence    
that  is more than half laughter--and   
woe to the reader who is not at every   
moment alert6 ,in the romantic1         
satirical poem of 8,atta ,troll10       
written  at the commencement of the last
 period1 this1 his final altitude1 is   
most completely revealed4 ,it needs a   
little study to-day1 even for a         
,german1 but it is well worth that      
study4 ,the history of a dancing  bear  
who escapes from servitude1 8,atta      
,troll0 is a protest against  the       
radical party1 with their narrow        
conceptions of progress1 their  tame    
ideal of bourgeois equality1 their      
little watchwords1 their  solemnity1    

their indignation at the human creatures
 who smile 8even  in their enthusiasm40 
,all these serious concerns of the      
tribunes of  the people are bathed in   
soft laughter as we listen to the       
delicious  child-like monotonous melody 
in which the old bear1 surrounded by his
  family1 mumbles or mutters of the     
future4 8,atta ,troll0 is not1 as  many 
have thought1 a sneer at the most sacred
 ideals of men4 ,it is1  rather1 the    
assertion of those ideals against the   
individuals who would  narrow them down 
to their own petty scope4 ,there are    
certain mirrors1  ,heine said1 so       
constructed that they would present even
 ,apollo as a  caricature4 ,but we laugh
 at the caricature1 not at the god4 ,it 
is well  to show1 even at the cost of   
some misunderstanding1 that above and   
beyond the little ideals of our         
immediate political progress1 there is  
built a yet larger ideal city1 of which 
also the human spirit claims            
citizenship4 ,the defence of the        

inalienable rights of the spirit1 ,heine
  declares1 had been the chief business 
of his life4    ,in the history of      
,germany1 it was her two great          
intellectual  liberators1 ,luther and   
,lessing1 to whom ,heine looked up with 
the most  unqualified love and          
reverence4 ,by his later vindication of 
the rights  of the spirit1 not less than
 by his earlier fight for religious and 
political progress1 he may be said to   
have earned for himself a place  below1 
indeed1 but not so very far below1 those
 hearty and sound-cored  iconoclasts4   
,,ii4    ,to reach the root of the man's
 nature we must glance at the chief     
facts  of his life4 ,he was born at     
,dsseldorf1 on the ,rhine1 then occupied
  by the ,french1 probably on the #acth 
of ,december1 #agii4 ,he came1 by  both 
parents1 of that ,jewish race which is1 
as he said once1 the dough  whereof gods
 are kneaded4 ,the family of his mother1
 ,betty van ,geldern1  had come from    
,holland a century earlier2 ,betty      

herself received an  excellent          
education2 she shared the studies of her
 brother1 who  became a physician of    
repute2 she spoke and read ,english and 
,french2  her favourite books were      
,rousseau's 8,emile0 and ,goethe's      
elegies4  ,for novels or poetry         
generally she cared little4 ,she        
preferred logic  to sentiment1 and was  
careful of the precise value of words4  
,some  letters written during her       
twenty-fourth year reveal a frank1      
brave1  and sweet nature2 she was a     
bright1 attractive little person1 and   
had  many wooers4 ,in the summer of     
#agif ,samson ,heine1 bearing a letter  
of  introduction1 entered the house of  
the ,van ,gelderns4 ,he was the son of  
a ,jewish merchant settled in ,hanover1 
and he had just made a campaign  in     
,flanders and ,brabant1 in the capacity 
of commissary with the rank of  officer1
 under ,prince ,ernest of ,cumberland4  
,he was a large and handsome  man1 with 
soft blonde hair and beautiful hands2   

there was something  about him1 said his
 son1 a little characterless1 almost    
feminine2 8he  was a great child40      
,after a brief courtship he married     
,betty1 and  settled at ,dsseldorf as an
 agent for ,english velveteens4 ,harry  
7so he  was named after an ,englishman7 
was the first child4 ,from his rather   
weak and romantic father came whatever  
was loose and unbalanced in  ,heine's   
temperament1 and his ineradicable       
instinct for posing2 it was  his mother1
 with her strong and healthy nature1    
well developed both  intellectually and 
emotionally1 and her great ambitions for
 her son1  who1 as he himself said1     
played the chief part in the history of 
his  evolution4    ,harry was a quick   
child2 his senses were keen1 though he  
was not  physically strong2 he loved    
reading1 and his favourite books were   
8,don  ,quixote0 and 8,gulliver's       
,travels40 ,he used to make rhymes with 
his  only and much-loved sister ,lotte1 
and at the age of ten he wrote a        

ghost-poem which his teachers considered
 a masterpiece4 ,at the ,lyceum  he     
worked well1 at night as well as by day4
 ,only once1 at the public  ceremony at 
the end of a school year1 he came to    
grief2 he was reciting  a poem1 when his
 eyes fell on a beautiful1 fair-haired  
girl in the  audience2 he hesitated1    
stammered1 was silent1 fell down        
fainting4  ,so early he revealed the    
extreme cerebral irritability of a      
nature  absorbed in dreams and taken    
captive by visions4 ,it was not long    
after  this1 at the age of seventeen1   
when his rich uncle at ,hamburg was     
trying in vain to set him forward on a  
commercial career1 that ,heine  met the 
woman who aroused his first and last    
profound passion1 always  unsatisfied   
except in so far as it found exquisite  
embodiment in his  poems4 ,he never     
mentioned her name2 it was not till     
after his death  that the form standing 
behind this ,maria1 ,zuleima1 ,evelina  
of so many  sweet1 strange1 or          

melancholy songs was known to be that of
 his cousin1  ,amalie ,heine4    ,with  
his uncle's help he studied law at      
,bonn1 ,gttingen1 and ,berlin4 ,at      
,berlin he fell under the dominant      
influence of ,hegel1 the vanquisher  of 
the romantic school of which ,schelling 
was the philosophic  representative4    
,heine afterwards referred to this      
period as that in  which he 8herded     
swine with the ,hegelians20 it is       
certain that ,hegel  exerted great and  
permanent influence over him4 ,at       
,berlin1 in #ahba1  appeared his first  
volume of poems1 and then he began to   
take his true  place4    ,at this period
 he is described as a good-natured and  
gentle youth1  but reserved1 not caring 
to show his emotions4 ,he was of middle 
height  and slender1 with rather long   
light brown hair 7in childhood it was   
red1 and he was called 8,rother ,harry07
 framing the pale and beardless  oval   
face1 the bright1 blue1 short-sighted   
eyes1 the ,greek nose1  the high cheek  

bones1 the large mouth1 the full--half  
cynical1 half  sensual--lips4 ,he was   
not a typical ,german2 like ,goethe1 he 
never  smoked2 he disliked beer1 and    
until he went to ,paris he had never    
tasted sauerkraut4    ,for some years he
 continued1 chiefly at ,gttingen1 to    
study law4 ,but  he had no liking and no
 capacity for jurisprudence1 and his    
spasmodic  fits of application at such  
moments as he realized that it was not  
good  for him to depend on the          
generosity of his rich and kind-hearted 
uncle  ,solomon1 failed to carry him    
far4 ,a new idea1 a sunny day1 the      
opening  of some flower-like lied1 a    
pretty girl--and the ,pandects were     
forgotten4    ,shortly after he had at  
last received his doctor's diploma he   
went  through the ceremony of baptism in
 hope of obtaining an appointment  from 
the ,prussian ,government4 ,it was a    
step which he immediately  regretted1   
and which1 far from placing him in a    
better position1  excited the enmity    

both of ,christians and ,jews1 although 
the ,heine  family had no very strong   
views on the matter2 ,heine's mother1   
it should be said1 was a ,deist1 his    
father indifferent1 but the  ,jewish    
rites were strictly kept up4 ,he still  
talked of becoming an  advocate1 until1 
in #ahbf1 the publication of the first  
volume of  the 8,reisebilder0 gave him a
 reputation throughout ,germany by its  
audacity1 its charming and picturesque  
manner1 its peculiarly original         
personality4 ,the second volume1 bolder 
and better than the first1  was received
 with delight very much mixed with      
horror1 and it was  prohibited by       
,austria1 ,prussia1 and many minor      
states4 ,at this period  ,heine visited 
,england2 he was then disgusted with    
,germany and full of  enthusiasm for the
 8land of freedom10 an enthusiasm which 
naturally  met with many rude shocks1   
and from that time dates the bitterness 
with which he usually speaks of         
,england4 ,he found ,london--although1  

owing to a clever abuse of uncle        
,solomon's generosity1 exceedingly  well
 supplied with money--8frightfully damp 
and uncomfortable20 only  the political 
life of ,england attracted him1 and     
there were no bounds  to his admiration 
of ,canning4 ,he then visited ,italy1 to
 spend there  the happiest days of his  
life2 and having at length realized that
  his efforts to obtain any government  
appointment in ,germany would be        
fruitless1 he emigrated to ,paris4      
,there1 save for brief periods1 he      
remained until his death4    ,this entry
 into the city which he had called the  
,new ,jerusalem was an  important epoch 
in ,heine's life4 ,he was thirty-one    
years of age1 still  youthful1 and eager
 to receive new impressions2 he was     
apparently in  robust health1           
notwithstanding constant headaches2     
,gautier describes  him as in appearance
 a sort of ,german ,apollo4 ,he was     
still developing1  as he continued to   
develop1 even up to the end2 the        

ethereal loveliness  of the early poems 
vanished1 it is true1 but only to give  
place to  a closer grasp of reality1 a  
larger laughter1 a keener cry of pain4  
,he was now heartily welcomed by the    
extraordinarily brilliant group  then   
living and working in ,paris1 including 
,victor ,hugo1 ,george ,sand1  ,balzac1 
,michelet1 ,alfred de ,musset1 ,gautier1
 ,chopin1 ,louis ,blanc1  ,dumas1       
,sainte-,beuve1 ,quinet1 ,berlioz1 and  
he entered with eager delight  into     
their manifold activities4 ,for a time  
also he attached himself  rather closely
 to the school of ,saint-,simon1 then   
headed by ,enfantin2  he was especially 
attracted by their religion of humanity1
 which seemed  the realization of his   
own dreams4 ,heine's book on 8,religion 
and  ,philosophy in ,germany0 was       
written at ,enfantin's suggestion1 and  
the  first edition dedicated to him2    
,enfantin's name was1 he said1 a sort   
of ,shibboleth1 indicating the most     
advanced party in the 8liberation  war  

of humanity40 ,in #ahee he withdrew the 
dedication2 it had become  an           
anachronism2 ,enfantin was no longer    
ransacking the world in search  of la   
femme libre2 the martyrs of yesterday no
 longer bore a  cross--unless it were1  
he added characteristically1 the cross  
of the  ,legion of ,honour4    ,a few   
years after his arrival in ,paris ,heine
 entered on a relationship  which       
occupied a large place in his life4     
,mathilde ,mirat1 a lively  grisette of 
sixteen1 was the illegitimate daughter  
of a man of wealth  and position in the 
provinces1 and she had come up from     
,normandy to  serve in her aunt's       
shoe-shop4 ,heine often passed this     
shop1 and an  acquaintance1 at first    
carried on silently through the         
shop-window1  gradually ripened into a  
more intimate relationship4 ,mathilde   
could  neither read nor write2 it was   
decided that she should go to school for
  a time2 after that they established a 
little common household1 one of  those  

mnages parisiens1 recognized as almost  
legitimate1 for which  ,heine had always
 had a warm admiration1 because1 as he  
said1 he meant  by 8marriage0 something 
quite other than the legal coupling     
effected  by parsons and bankers4 ,as in
 the case of ,goethe1 it was not until  
some years later that he went through   
the religious ceremony1 as a            
preliminary to a duel in which he had   
become involved by his remarks on       
,brne's friend1 ,madame ,strauss2 he    
wished to give ,mathilde an assured     
position in case of his death4 ,after   
the ceremony at ,st4 ,sulpice he        
invited to dinner all those of his      
friends who had contracted similar      
relations1 in order that they might be  
influenced by his example4 ,that  they  
were so influenced is not recorded4     
,it is not difficult to understand the  
strong and permanent attraction  that   
drew the poet1 who had so many          
intellectual and aristocratic women     
among his friends1 to this pretty1      

laughter-loving grisette4 ,it lay  in   
her bright and wild humour1 her         
childlike impulsiveness1 not least  in  
her charming ignorance4 ,it was         
delightful to ,heine that ,mathilde  had
 never read a line of his books1 did not
 even know what a poet was1  and loved  
him only for himself4 ,he found in her a
 continual source of  refreshment4      
,he had need of every source of         
refreshment4 ,in the years that         
followed his formal marriage in #ahda1  
the dark shadows1 within and  without1  
began to close round him4 ,although he  
was then producing  his most mature     
work1 chiefly in poetry--8,atta ,troll10
 8,romancero10  8,deutschland0--his     
income from literary sources remained   
small4  ,mathilde was not a good        
housekeeper2 and even with the aid of a 
considerable allowance from his uncle   
,solomon1 ,heine was frequently  in     
pecuniary difficulties1 and was         
consequently induced to accept a  small 
pension from the ,french ,government1   

which has sometimes been a  matter of   
concern to those who care for his fame4 
,as years passed1 the  enmities that he 
suffered from or cherished increased    
rather than  diminished1 and his        
bitterness found expression in his work4
 ,even  ,mathilde was not an unalloyed  
source of joy2 the charming child was   
becoming a middle-aged woman1 and was   
still like a child4 ,she could not      
enter into ,heine's interests2 she      
delighted in theatres and circuses1  to 
which he could not always accompany her3
 and he experienced the  pangs of an    
unreasonable jealousy more keenly than  
he cared to admit4  ,then uncle ,solomon
 died1 and his son refused1 until       
considerable  pressure was brought to   
bear on him1 to continue the allowance  
which  his father had intended ,heine to
 receive4 ,this was a severe blow1 and  
the excitement it produced developed the
 latent seeds of his disease4  ,it came 
on with symptoms of paralysis1 which    
even in a few months gave  him1 he says1

 the appearance of a dying man4 ,during 
the next two years1  although his brain 
remained clear1 the long pathological   
tragedy was  unfolded4    ,he went out  
for the last time in ,may1 #ahdh4 ,half 
blind and half lame1  he slowly made his
 way out of the streets1 filled with the
 noise of  revolution1 into the silent  
,louvre1 to the shrine dedicated to 8the
  goddess of beauty1 our dear lady of   
,milo40 ,there he sat long at her  feet2
 he was bidding farewell to his old     
gods2 he had become reconciled  to the  
religion of sorrow2 tears streamed from 
his eyes1 and she  looked down at him1  
compassionate but helpless3 8,dost thou 
not see1  then1 that ,i have no arms1   
and cannot help thee80    8,on et dit un
 ,apollon germanique0--so ,gautier said 
of the ,heine of  #ahce2 twenty years   
later an ,english visitor wrote of      
him--8,he lay on a  pile of mattresses1 
his body wasted so that it seemed no    
bigger than a  child under the sheet    
which covered him--his eyes closed1 and 

the face  altogether like the most      
painful and wasted #8,ecce ,homo' ever  
painted by  some old ,german painter40  
,his sufferings were only relieved by   
ever larger doses of morphia2  but      
although still more troubles came to    
him1 and the failure of a  bank robbed  
him of his small savings1 his spirit    
remained unconquered4  8,he is a        
wonderful man10 said one of his doctors2
 8he has only two  anxieties--to conceal
 his condition from his mother1 and to  
assure his  wife's future40 ,his        
literary work1 though it decreased in   
amount1 never  declined in power2 only1 
in the words of his friend ,berlioz1 it 
seemed  as though the poet was standing 
at the window of his tomb1 looking      
around on the world in which he had no  
longer a part4    ,he saw a few friends1
 of whom ,ferdinand ,lassalle1 with his 
exuberant  power and enthusiasm1 was the
 most interesting to him1 as the        
representative of a new age and a new   
social faith2 and the most  loved1 that 

girl-friend who sat for hours or days at
 a time by the  8mattress-grave0 in the 
,rue d',amsterdam1 reading to him or    
writing  his letters or correcting      
proofs4 ,to the last the loud1 bright   
voice  of ,mathilde1 when he chanced to 
hear it1 scolding the servants or in    
other active exercise1 often made him   
stop speaking1 while a smile of  delight
 passed over his face4 ,he died on the  
#afth of ,february1 #ahef4 ,he  was     
buried1 silently1 in ,montmartre1       
according to his wish2 for1 as he  said1
 it is quiet there4      ,,iii4         
,throughout and above all1 ,heine was a 
poet4 ,from first to last he was  led by
 three angels who danced for ever in his
 brain1 and guided him1  singly or      
together1 always4 ,they were the same as
 in 8,atta ,troll0 he  saw in the       
moonlight from the casement of ,uraka's 
hut--the ,greek ,diana1  grown wanton1  
but with the noble marble limbs of old2 
,abunde1 the  blonde and gay fairy of   
,france2 ,herodias1 the dark ,jewess1   

like a palm  of the oasis1 with all the 
fragrance of the ,east between her      
breasts3  8,o1 you dead ,jewess1 ,i love
 you most1 more than the ,greek goddess1
 more  than that fairy of the ,north40#d
    #d 8,c'est le ,bible1 plus que tout 
autre livre10 a well-known ,french      
critic wrote1 8qui a faonn le gnie      
potique de ,heine1 en lui  donnant sa   
forme et sa couleur4 ,ses vritables     
matres1 ses vrais  inspirateurs sont les
 glorieux inconnus qui ont crit         
l',ecclesiaste  et les ,proverbes1 le   
,cantique des cantiques1 le livre de    
,job et ce  chef-d'uvre d'ironie discrte
 intitul3 le livre du prophte ,jonas4   
,celui qui s'appelait un rossignol      
,allemand nich dans la perruque de      
,voltaire fut  la fois le moins         
vanglique des hommes et le plus         
vraiment biblique des potes modernes40  
,those genii of three ideal lands danced
 for ever in his brain1 and that  is but
 another way of indicating the          
opposition that lay at the root  of his 

nature4 ,from one point of view1 it may 
well be1 he continued  the work of      
,luther and ,lessing1 though he was less
 great-hearted1 less  sound at core1    
though he had not that element of sane  
,philistinism  which marks the          
,shakespeares and ,goethes of the world4
 ,but he was1 more  than anything else1 
a poet1 an artist1 a dreamer1 a         
perpetual child4  ,the practical        
reformers among whom at one time he     
placed himself1  the men of one idea1   
were naturally irritated and suspicious2
 there  was a flavour of aristocracy in 
such idealism4 ,in the poem called      
8,disputation0 a ,capuchin and a ,rabbi 
argued before the ,king and ,queen  at  
,toledo concerning the respective merits
 of the ,christian and ,jewish          
religions4 ,both spoke at great length  
and with great fervour1 and in  the end 
the ,king appealed to the beautiful     
,queen by his side4 ,she  replied that  
she could not tell which of them was    
right1 but that  she did not like the   

smell of either2 and ,heine was         
generally of  the ,queen's mind4 ,he    
sighed for the restoration of           
,barbarossa1 the  long-delayed ,german  
,empire1 and his latest biographer      
asserts that he  would have greeted the 
discovery of ,barbarossa under the      
disguise of  the ,king of ,prussia1 with
 ,bismarckian insignia of blood and     
iron1 as  the realization of all his    
dreams4 ,it is doubtful1 however1       
whether  the meeting would be very      
cordial on either side4 ,it would       
probably  be the painful duty of the    
,emperor1 as of the ,emperor of the     
vision  in 8,deutschland10 to tell      
,heine1 in very practical language1 that
 he  was wanting in respect1 wanting in 
all sense of etiquette2 and ,heine      
would certainly reply to the ,emperor1  
as under the same circumstances  he     
replied to the visionary ,barbarossa1   
that that gentleman had better  go home 
again1 that during his long absence     
,emperors had become  unnecessary1 and  

that1 after all1 sceptres and crowns    
made admirable  playthings for monkeys4 
8,we are founding a democracy of gods10 
he wrote in #ahcd1 8all equally  holy1  
blessed and glorious4 ,you desire simple
 clothing1 ascetic morals1  and         
unseasoned enjoyments2 we1 on the       
contrary1 desire nectar and  ambrosia1  
purple mantles1 costly perfumes1        
pleasure and splendour1  dances of      
laughing nymphs1 music and plays4--,do  
not be angry1 you  virtuous republicans2
 we answer all your reproaches in the   
words  of one of ,shakespeare's fools3  
#8,dost thou think1 because thou art    
virtuous1 there shall be no more cakes  
and ale8'0 ,what could an austere       
republican1 a ,puritanic ,liberal1 who  
scorned the vision of roses and  myrtles
 and sugar-plums all round1 say to this8
 ,brne answered1 8,i  can be indulgent  
to the games of children1 indulgent to  
the passions  of a youth1 but when on   
the bloody day of battle a boy who is   
chasing  butterflies gets between my    

legs2 when at the day of our greatest   
need1 and we are calling aloud on ,god1 
the young coxcomb beside us in  the     
church sees only the pretty girls1 and  
winks and flirts--then1 in  spite of all
 our philosophy and humanity1 we may    
well grow angry4444  ,heine1 with his   
sybaritic nature1 is so effeminate that 
the fall of a  rose-leaf disturbs his   
sleep2 how1 then1 should he rest        
comfortably  on the knotty bed of       
freedom8 ,where is there any beauty     
without a  fault8 ,where is there any   
good thing without its ridiculous side8 
,nature is seldom a poet and never      
rhymes2 let him whom her rhymeless      
prose cannot please turn to poetry60    
,brne was right2 ,heine was not  the man
 to plan a successful revolution1 or    
defend a barricade1 or  edit a popular  
democratic newspaper1 or represent      
adequately a radical  constituency--all 
this was true4 ,let us be thankful that 
it was true2  ,brnes are ever with us1  
and we are grateful3 there is but one   

,heine4    ,the same complexity of      
nature that made ,heine an artist made  
him a  humorist4 ,but it was a more     
complicated complexity now1 a cosmic    
game  between the real world and the    
ideal world2 he could go no farther4    
,the young ,catullus of #ahbe1 with his 
fiery passions crushed in the           
wine-press of life and yielding such    
divine ambrosia1 soon lost his  faith in
 passion4 ,the militant soldier in the  
liberation-war of  humanity of #ahce    
soon ceased to flourish his sword4 ,it  
was only with  the full development of  
his humour1 when his spinal cord began  
to fail  and he had taken up his        
position as a spectator of life1 that   
,heine  attained the only sort of unity 
possible to him--the unity that comes   
of a recognized and accepted lack of    
unity4 ,in the lambent flames of  this  
unequalled humour--8the smile of        
,mephistopheles passing over  the face  
of ,christ0--he bathed all the things he
 counted dearest2 to  its service he    

brought the secret of his poet's nature1
 the secret  of speaking with a voice   
that every heart leaps up to answer4 ,it
 is  scarcely the humour of             
,aristophanes1 though it is a greater   
force1 even  in moulding our political  
and social ideals1 than ,brne knew2 it  
is  oftener a modern development of the 
humour of the mad king and the fool  in 
8,lear0--that humour which is the last  
concentrated word of the human  organism
 under the lash of ,fate4    ,and if it 
is still asked why ,heine is so modern1 
it can only be said  that these discords
 out of which his humour exhaled are    
those which we  have nearly all of us   
known1 and that he speaks with a voice  
that seems  to arise from the depth of  
our own souls4 ,he represents our period
 of  transition2 he gazed1 from what    
seemed the vulgar ,pisgah of his day1   
behind on an ,eden that was for ever    
closed1 before on a promised land  he   
should never enter4 ,while with clear   
sight he announced things to  come1 the 

music of the past floated up to him2 he 
brooded wistfully  over the vision of   
the old ,olympian gods1 dying1 amid     
faint music of  cymbals and flutes1     
forsaken1 in the medival wilderness2 he 
heard  strange sounds of psaltries and  
harps1 the psalms of ,israel1 the voice 
of ,princess ,sabbath1 across the waters
 of ,babylon4--,in a few years  this    
significance of ,heine will be lost2    
that it is not yet lost the  eagerness  
with which his books are read and       
translated sufficiently  testifies4     
,,whitman4      ,i4    ,if we put aside 
imaginative writers--,hawthorne1 ,poe1  
,bret ,harte1  and ,mark                
,twain--,america has produced three men 
of world-wide  significance4#e ,these   
three belong to the same corner of the  
continent2 they form a culminating      
series1 and at the same time they       
complement each other4 ,it is difficult 
to consider one of them without         
throwing a glance at the others4    #e  
,the significance of ,lowell1 a great   

writer unquestionably1 seems to  be     
chiefly national4    ,emerson comes     
first4 ,in ,emerson1 after two hundred  
years1 ,puritanism  seems1 for the first
 time1 to have found voice4 ,the men of 
,banbury  and ,amsterdam were too much  
distracted by the outer world to succeed
  in finding adequate artistic          
expression for the joys that satisfied  
them and the spirit that so powerfully  
moved them4 ,they have been the  sport  
of their enemies1 and have come down to 
us in literature as a  set of sour      
fanatics4 ,it was not until the seed was
 carried over sea1  to germinate slowly 
and peacefully in ,new ,england1 that at
 length  it broke into flower1 and that 
we know clearly that union of robust    
freedom and mystic exaltation which lies
 at the heart of ,puritanism4 ,in  his  
calm and austere manner--born of the    
blood that had passed through  the veins
 of six generations of ,puritan         
ministers--,emerson overturned  the     
whole of tradition4 8,a world in the    

hand10 he said1 with cheery1  genial    
scepticism1 8is worth two in the bush40 
,with gentle composure1  with serene    
hilarity1 perhaps with an allusion to   
the roses that  8make no mention of     
former roses10 he posited the absolute  
right of  the individual to adjudicate  
in religion1 in marriage1 in the ,state4
  ,even he himself1 while able1 like    
,spinoza and ,goethe1 to live by        
self-regulating laws that are death to  
men of less sanity1 could not  always in
 his peaceful haunts at ,concord        
recognize or allow the fruits  of his   
doctrines4    ,emerson was a man of the 
study2 he seems to have known the world 
as in  a camera obscura spread out      
before him on a table4 ,he never seems  
to come1 or to be capable of coming1    
into direct relations with other  men or
 with ,nature4 ,thoreau1 an original and
 solitary spirit1 born  amid the same   
influences as ,emerson1 but of different
 temperament1  resolved to go out into  
the world1 to absorb ,nature and the    

health of  ,nature3 8,i wished to live  
deliberately1 to front only the         
essential  facts of life1 and see if ,i 
could not learn what it had to teach1   
and not1 when ,i came to die1 discover  
that ,i had not lived4 ,i did not  wish 
to live what was not life1 living is so 
dear2 nor did ,i wish to  practise      
resignation1 unless it was quite        
necessary4 ,i wanted to live  deep and  
suck out all the marrow of life1 to live
 so sturdily and  ,spartan-like as to   
put to rout all that was not life1 to   
cut a broad  swath and shave close1 to  
drive life into a corner and reduce it  
to its  lowest terms40 ,so he went into 
,walden ,woods and built himself a hut1 
and sowed beans1 and grew strangely     
familiar with the lives of plants  and  
trees1 of birds and beasts and fishes1  
and with much else besides4  ,this      
period of self-dependent residence by   
,walden ,pond has usually been  regarded
 as the chief episode in ,thoreau's     
life4 ,doubtless it was1  in the case of

 a man who spent his whole life in a    
small ,new ,england  town1 and made the 
very moderate living that he needed by  
intermittent  work at pencil-making1    
teaching1 land-surveying1               
magazine-writing1  fence-building1 or   
whitewashing4 ,certainly it was this    
experience  which gave form and         
character to the activities of his life1
 and the  book in which he recorded his 
experiences created his fame4 ,but in   
the  experience itself there was nothing
 of heroic achievement4 ,one would      
rather say that in the ,walden episode  
,thoreau has vindicated the place  of   
such an experience in all education4    
,every one1 for some brief  period in   
early life1 should be thrown on his own 
resources in the  solitudes of ,nature1 
to enter into harmonious relations with 
himself1  and to realize the full scope 
of self-reliance4 ,for the man or woman 
to whom this experience has never been  
given1 the world must hold many         
needless mysteries and not a few        

needless miseries4    ,there was in this
 man a curious mingling of wildness and 
austerity1  which ,mr4 ,burroughs1 in   
the most discriminating estimate of him 
yet  made1 traces to his ancestry4 ,on  
the paternal side he was ,french2 his   
privateering grandfather came from      
,jersey3 8that wild revolutionary  cry  
of his1 and that sort of restrained     
ferocity and hirsuteness  are ,french40 
,but on the mother's side he was of     
,scotch and ,new  ,english ,puritan     
stock4 ,in person he was rather         
undersized1 with  8huge ,emersonian     
nose10 and deep-set bluish-grey eyes    
beneath large  overhanging brows2       
prominent pursed-up lips1 a weak        
receding chin1 8a  ruddy weather-beaten 
face1 which reminds one of some shrewd  
and honest  animal's40 ,he was a        
vigorous pedestrian2 he had sloping     
shoulders1 long  arms1 short legs1 large
 hands and feet--the characteristics1   
for the  most part1 of an anthropoid    
ape4 ,his hands were frequently         

clenched1  and there was an air of      
concentrated energy about him2 otherwise
  nothing specially notable1 and he was 
frequently supposed 8a pedlar of  small 
wares40 ,he possessed1 as his friend    
,emerson remarked1 powers  of           
observation which seemed to indicate    
additional senses3 8he saw  as with     
microscope1 heard as with ear-trumpet1  
and his memory was a  photographic      
register of all he saw and heard40      
,it has been claimed for ,thoreau by    
some of his admirers1 never by  himself1
 that he was a man of science1 a        
naturalist4 ,certainly1 in some         
respects1 he had in him the material for
 an almost ideal naturalist4  ,his      
peculiar powers of observation1 and     
habits of noting and recording  natural 
facts1 his patience1 his taste for      
spending his days and nights  in the    
open air1 seem to furnish everything    
that is required4 ,nor would  his morbid
 dislike of dissection have been any    
serious bar1 for the  least worked but  

by no means the least important portion 
of natural  history is the study of     
living forms1 and for this ,thoreau     
seems to  have been peculiarly adapted2 
he had acquired one of the rarest of    
arts1 that of approaching birds1 beasts 
and fishes1 and exciting no  fear4      
,there are all sorts of profoundly      
interesting investigations  which only  
such a man can profitably undertake4    
,but that right question  which is at   
least the half of knowledge was hidden  
from ,thoreau2 he  seems to have been   
absolutely deficient in scientific      
sense4 ,his bare1  impersonal records of
 observations are always dull and       
unprofitable  reading2 occasionally he  
stumbles on a good observation1 but1 not
  realizing its significance1 he never  
verifies it or follows it up4  ,his     
science is that of a fairly intelligent 
schoolboy--a counting of  birds' eggs   
and a running after squirrels4 ,of the  
vital and organic  relationships of     
facts1 or even of the existence of such 

relationships1  he seems to have no     
perception4 ,compare any of his books   
with1 for  instance1 ,belt's            
8,naturalist in ,nicaragua10 or any of  
,wallace's  books3 for the men of       
science1 in their spirit of illuminating
  inquisitiveness1 all facts are        
instructive2 in ,thoreau's hands they   
are  all dead4 ,he was not a naturalist3
 he was an artist and a moralist4    ,he
 was born into an atmosphere of literary
 culture1 and the great  art he         
cultivated was that of framing          
sentences4 ,he desired to make          
sentences which would 8suggest far more 
than they say10 which would  8lie like  
boulders on the page1 up and down or    
across1 not mere  repetition1 but       
creation1 and which a man might sell his
 ground  or cattle to build10 sentences 
8as durable as a ,roman aqueduct40      
,undoubtedly he succeeded2 his sentences
 frequently have all the  massive and   
elemental qualities that he desired4    
,they have more2 if  he knew little of  

the architectonic qualities of style1   
there is a  keen exhilarating breeze    
blowing about these boulders1 and when  
we  look at them they have the grace and
 audacity1 the happy1 natural           
extravagance of fragments of the finest 
,decorated ,gothic on the site  of a    
fourteenth century abbey4 ,he was in    
love with the things that  are wildest  
and most untamable in ,nature1 and of   
these his sentences  often seem to be a 
solid artistic embodiment1 the mountain 
side1 8its  sublime gray mass1 that     
antique1 brownish-gray1 ,ararat colour10
 or the  8ancient1 familiar1 immortal   
cricket sound10 the thrush's song1 his  
ranz des vches1 or the song that of all 
seemed to rejoice him most1  the clear1 
exhilarating1 braggart1 clarion-crow of 
the cock4 ,thoreau's  favourite reading 
was among the ,greeks1 ,pindar1         
,simonides1 the ,greek  ,anthology1     
especially schylus1 and a later ancient1
 ,milton4 ,there  is something of his   
paganism in all this1 his cult of the   

aboriginal  health-bearing forces of    
,nature4 ,his paganism1 however         
unobtrusive1 was  radical and genuine4  
,it was a paganism much earlier than    
,plato1 and  which had never heard of   
,christ4    ,thoreau was of a piece2 he 
was at harmony with himself1 though it  
may be that the elements that went to   
make up the harmony were few4  ,the     
austerity and exhilaration and simple   
paganism of his art were  at one with   
his morality4 ,he was1 at the very core1
 a preacher2 the  morality that he      
preached1 interesting in itself1 is1 for
 us1 the  most significant thing about  
him4 ,thoreau was1 in the noblest sense 
of the word1 a ,cynic4 ,the school of   
,antisthenes is not the least           
interesting of the ,socratic schools1   
and ,thoreau is perhaps the  finest     
flower that that school has ever        
yielded4 ,he may not have been  aware of
 his affinities1 but it will help us if 
we bear them in mind4  ,the charm that  
,diogenes exercised over men seems to   

have consisted  in his peculiarly fresh 
and original intellect1 his extravagant 
independence and self-control1 his      
coarse and effective wit4 ,thoreau  sat 
in his jar at ,walden with the same     
originality1 independence1 and  sublime 
contentment2 but his wisdom was suave   
and his wit was never  coarse--exalted1 
rather1 into a perennial humour1        
flashing now and  then into divine      
epigram4 ,a life in harmony with        
,nature1 the culture  of joyous         
simplicity1 the subordination of science
 to ethics--these  were the principles  
of ,cynicism1 and to these ,thoreau was 
always true4  8,every day is a          
festival10 said ,diogenes1 and          
,metrocles rejoiced that  he was happier
 than the ,persian king4 8,i would      
rather sit on a pumpkin  and have it all
 to myself10 said ,thoreau1 8than be    
crowded on a velvet  cushion40          
8,cultivate poverty like a garden herb1 
like sage4444 ,it is  life near the     
bone1 where it is sweetest4444 ,money is

 not required to  buy one necessary of  
the soul40 ,he had 8travelled much in   
,concord40  8,methinks ,i should be     
content to sit at the back-door in      
,concord under  the poplar tree for     
ever40 ,such utterances as these strewn 
throughout  ,thoreau's pages--and the   
saying in the last days of the dying man
 to  the youth who would talk to him    
about a future world1 8,one world at  a 
time0--are full1 in the uncorrupted     
sense1 of the finest cynicism4          
,diogenes1 seeing a boy drink out of his
 hand1 threw away his cup2  ,thoreau had
 an interesting mineral specimen as a   
parlour ornament1 but  it needed dusting
 every day1 and he threw it away3 it was
 not worth  its keep4 ,the ,cynics seem 
to have been the first among the ,greeks
 to  declare that slavery is opposed to 
nature4 ,thoreau not only carried his   
independence so far as to go to prison  
rather than pay taxes to ,church  or    
,state--8the only government that ,i    
recognize is the power that  establishes

 justice in the land0--but in #ahei1    
when ,john ,brown lay in  prison in     
,virginia1 ,thoreau was the one man in  
,america to recognize the  greatness of 
the occasion and to stand up publicly on
 his side3 8,think  of him6--of his rare
 qualities6--such a man as it takes ages
 to make1  and ages to understand2 no   
mock hero1 nor the representative of any
  party4 ,a man such as the sun may not 
rise upon again in this benighted  land4
 ,to whose making went the costliest    
material1 the finest adamant2  sent to  
be the redeemer of those in captivity2  
and the only use to  which you can put  
him is to hang him at the end of a      
rope60    ,every true ,cynic is1 above  
all1 a moralist and a preacher4 ,thoreau
  could never be anything else2 that    
was1 in the end1 his greatest  weakness4
 ,this unfailing ethereality1 this      
perpetual challenge of  the acridity and
 simplicity of ,nature1 becomes at last 
hypernatural4  ,thoreau breakfasts on   
the dawn3 it is well2 but he dines on   

the rainbow  and sups on the ,aurora    
borealis4 ,of ,nature's treasure more   
than half is  man4 ,thoreau1 with his   
noble ,cynicism1 had1 as he thought1    
driven life  into a corner1 but he had  
to confess that of all phenomena his own
 race  was to him the most mysterious   
and undiscoverable4 ,he writes finely3  
8,the whole duty of man may be expressed
 in one line3 ,make to yourself a       
perfect body20 but this appears to be a 
purely intellectual intuition4  ,he had 
a fine insight into the purity of sex   
and of all natural animal  functions1   
from which we excuse ourselves of       
speaking by falsely saying  they are    
trifles4 8,we are so degraded that we   
cannot speak simply of  the necessary   
functions of human nature20 but he is   
not bold to justify  his insight4 ,he   
welcomed ,walt ,whitman1 at the very    
first1 as the  greatest democrat the    
world had seen1 but he himself remained 
a natural  aristocrat4 8,he was a man   
devoid of compassion10 remarks ,mr4     

,burroughs1  8devoid of sympathy1 devoid
 of generosity1 devoid of patriotism1 as
  those words are generally understood40
 ,he had learnt something of the        
mystery of ,nature1 but the price of his
 knowledge was ignorance of his         
fellows4 ,the chief part of life he left
 untouched4    ,yet all that he had to  
give he gave fully and ungrudgingly2 and
 it was  of the best and rarest4 ,we    
shall not easily exhaust the            
exhilaration  of it4 8,we need the tonic
 of wildness40 ,thoreau has heightened  
for us  the wildness of ,nature1 and his
 work--all written1 as we need not be   
told1 in the open air--is full of this  
tonicity2 it is a sort of moral         
quinine1 and1 like quinine under certain
 circumstances1 it leaves a  sweet taste
 behind4      ,,ii4    ,whitman has     
achieved the rarest of all distinctions3
 he has been placed  while yet alive by 
the side of the world's greatest moral  
teachers1  beside ,jesus and ,socrates--
                  8the latter ,socrates1

      ,greek to the core1 yet ,yankee   
too40    ,and his biographer records    
briefly his conviction that this man was
  8perhaps the most advanced nature the 
world has yet produced40 ,yet the  facts
 of his life are few and simple4 ,he was
 born in ,may1 #ahai1 on the  shores of 
the great south bay of ,long ,island4   
,like ,bret ,harte1 who has  given      
classic expression to the young life of 
,western ,america1 ,whitman  is half    
,dutch1 and this ancestral fact is      
significant4 ,the well-known  portrait  
prefixed to 8,leaves of ,grass0 shows   
him with an expression  like his        
father's2 in later life he bears a      
singular resemblance to  his mother as  
she is represented in ,bucke's book4 ,he
 himself1 we are  told1 makes much of   
the women of his ancestry4 8,i estimate 
three  leading sources and formative    
stamps of my own character10--in his    
own words--8the maternal nativity-stock 
brought hither from far-away            
,netherlands1 for one 7doubtless the    

best72 the subterranean tenacity  and   
central bony structure 7obstinacy1      
wilfulness7 which ,i get from my        
paternal ,english elements1 for another2
 and the ,long ,island birth-spot1      
sea-shores1 childhood's scenes1         
absorptions1 with teeming ,brooklyn and 
,new ,york--with1 ,i suppose1 my        
experiences afterwards in the ,secession
  outbreak--for third40 ,his mother1 he 
wrote1 was to him 8the ideal  woman1    
practical1 spiritual1 of all of earth1  
life1 love1 to me the  best40    ,for   
thirty years the youth set himself to   
learn the nature of the  world4 ,there  
could be no better education2 he has    
described its  elementary stages1 by    
barnyard and roadside1 in 8,there was a 
child went  forth40 ,the same large     
receptiveness still went with him1 as he
 was by  turn teacher1 printer1         
journalist1 government clerk1 and       
always1 and  above all1 loafer4 ,he     
loafed year after year in ,broadway1 on 
,fulton  ,ferry1 on the omnibuses       

talking to the drivers1 in the workshops
  talking to the artisans4 ,his physical
 health was perfect2 he earned  enough  
to live on2 he felt himself the equal of
 highest or lowest2 he  drank of the    
great variegated stream of life before  
him from every  cup4 ,his culture was1  
in its own way1 as large and as sincere 
as  ,goethe's4 ,of books1 indeed1 he    
knew little2 he was equally ignorant  of
 science1 of philosophy1 of the fine    
arts2 he appears to have been           
content--for his own ends wisely        
content--with elemental and mostly      
ancient utterances of the race1 as the  
,bible1 ,homer1 ,shakespeare1 the       
,nibelungenlied4 ,and by-and-by1 in     
#ahee1 when this new personality1 with  
its wide and deep roots1 had become     
organized1 ,walt ,whitman1 at the  age  
of thirty-six1 himself printed and      
published a little book called  8,leaves
 of ,grass40    ,after this there was   
but one fresh formative influence in    
,whitman's  life1 but without it his    

life and his work would both have       
suffered an  immense lack4 ,what had    
chiefly characterized him so far had    
been his  audacious nonchalance1 the    
frank and absolute egotism of a healthy 
,olympian schoolboy4 ,in #ahfj the      
,civil ,war began2 from #ahfb to #ahfe  
,whitman nursed the sick and wounded at 
,washington4 ,during that period  of    
three years 7broken by an attack of     
hospital malaria1 the first  illness of 
his life1 contracted in the discharge of
 these self-imposed  duties7 he visited 
and tended nearly #ajj1jjj men1 and the 
personal  presence of the man1 his      
inexhaustible love and sympathy1 were of
 even  more worth than the manifold     
small but precious services that he was 
enabled to render4 ,he has himself given
 a simple and noble record of  his work 
in the 8,memoranda0 included in         
8,specimen ,days and ,collect10  and in 
8,drum ,taps10 a still more precious and
 intimate record of his  experiences4   
,from this period a deep tenderness1 a  

divine compassion  for all things human1
 is never absent from ,whitman's work2  
it becomes  more predominant than even  
his superb egotism4 ,it is this element 
in  his large emotional nature1 brought 
to full maturity by these war           
experiences1 which so many persons have 
felt thrilling through the  man's whole 
personality1 and which probably explains
 in some measure  the devotion he has   
inspired4 ,whitman went to ,washington  
young1 in  the perfection of virile     
physical energy 78,he is a ,man10 said  
the  shrewd ,lincoln1 to whom ,whitman  
was unknown1 as he chanced to see  him  
through a window once72 he came away old
 and enfeebled1 having  touched the     
height of life1 to walk henceforth a    
downward path4  ,physically impressive1 
however1 at that time and always1 he    
remained4  ,he is described1 after this 
time 7chiefly by ,dr4 ,bucke71 as six   
feet  in height1 weighing nearly two    
hundred pounds2 with eyebrows highly    
arched2 eyes light blue1 rather small1  

dull and heavy 7this point is  of some  
interest1 bearing in mind that with     
exceptional creative  imagination large 
bright eyes are associated72 full-sized 
mouth1 with  full lips2 large handsome  
ears1 and senses exceptionally acute4   
,the  peculiar complexion of his face1  
,bucke described as a bright maroon     
tint2 that of his body 8a delicate but  
well-marked rose colour10  unlike the   
,english or ,teutonic stock2 his gait an
 elephantine roll4  8,no description10  
his ,boswellian biographer1 ,dr4 ,bucke1
 again speaks  7and ,mr4 ,kennedy1 a    
later and equally ,boswellian           
biographer1 supplies  confirmatory      
details71 8can give any idea of the     
extraordinary  physical attractiveness  
of the man10 even upon those who came in
  contact with him for a moment4 ,in    
#ahgc he had a stroke of paralysis      
7left hemiplegia71 and for three years  
there seemed little promise of          
recovery4 ,the return to health was slow
 and incomplete4 ,in those years  he    

spent much time bathing1 or naked in the
 open air--8hanging clothes  on a rail  
near by1 keeping old broad-brim straw on
 head and easy shoes  on feet0--and     
considered that that counted for much in
 his restoration  to health4 8,perhaps10
 he adds1 8he or she to whom the free   
exhilarating  ecstasy of nakedness in   
nature has never been eligible1 has not 
really  known what purity is--nor what  
faith or art or health really is40      
,it is not possible to apprehend this   
man's work unless the man's  personality
 is apprehended4 ,every great book      
contains the precious  life-blood of a  
master-spirit1 and no book throbs with a
 more vivid  personal life than 8,leaves
 of ,grass40 ,it is the whole outcome of
  a whole man1 audacious and            
unrepentant1 who has here set down the  
emotional reverberations of a manifold  
life4 8,for only10 according to  his own
 large saying1        8,for only at     
last1 after many years1 after chastity1 
friendship1          procreation1       

prudence and nakedness1      ,after     
treading ground and breasting river and 
lake1      ,after a loosened throat1    
after absorbing eras1 temperaments1     
races1          after knowledge1        
freedom1 crimes1      ,after complete   
faith1 after clarifyings1 elevations1   
and removing          obstructions1     
,after these and more1 it is just       
possible there comes to a man1          
a woman1 the divine power to speak      
words40      ,,iii4    ,of art1 in the  
conventional sense of the word1 there is
 not much in  ,whitman4 ,if we wish to  
approach him as an artist1 ,j4 ,f4      
,millet probably  helps us to understand
 him1 more than any other artist in     
foreign  fields and lands4 ,millet has a
 deep and close relationship to         
,whitman4  ,at first sight1 their work  
is curiously unlike3 ,whitman1 in a     
great  new country1 delighting in every 
manifestation of joy and youth and      
hope2 ,millet1 the child of an older and
 colder country1 in love with  age and  

suffering and toil4 ,yet in essentials  
it is identical4 ,even  personally1 it  
is said1 ,millet recalled ,whitman4#f   
,judging from the  representations of   
him1 ,millet1 in his prime1 was a       
colossal image of  manly                
beauty--deep-chested1 muscular1 erect1  
the quiet1 penetrating  blue eyes1 the  
delicately expressive eyelids1 the large
 nose and  dilating sensitive nostrils1 
the firm mouth and jaw1 the thick and   
dark brown beard4 ,the consumptive      
artist--a ,keats or a ,thoreau--craves  
for health and loveliness2 he turns     
shuddering from all that is not         
pleasant4 ,it is only these men1 heroic 
incarnations of health1 who are  strong 
enough to look sanely upon age and toil 
and suffering1 and equal  to the        
prodigious expense of spirit of writing 
8,leaves of ,grass0 with a  heart laden 
with memories of ,washington hospitals4 
#f ,see an interesting paper of         
8,recollections of ,j4 ,f4 ,millet0 in  
the 8,century10 ,may1 #ahhi1 to which ,i

 am indebted for several of the         
painter's utterances here quoted4       
,millet and ,whitman have1 each in his  
own domain1 made the most earnest1      
thorough1 and successful attempts of    
modern times to bring the ,greek  spirit
 into art1 the same attempt which ,jan  
,steen1 a great artist whom  we scarcely
 yet rate at his proper value1 made in  
seventeenth century  ,holland4 ,it is   
not by the smooth nudities of a         
,bouguereau or a ,leighton  that we     
reach ,hellenism4 ,the ,greek spirit is 
the simple1 natural1  beautiful         
interpretation of the life of the       
artist's own age and people  under his  
own sky1 as shown especially in the     
human body4 ,it cannot be  the same in  
two ages or in two lands4 ,one little   
incident mentioned  by ,madame ,millet  
to a friend is suggestive1 8of ,millet  
compelling her  to wear the same shirt  
for an uncomfortably long time2 not to  
paint  the dirt1 as his early critics   
would have us believe1 but that the     

rough linen should simplify its folds   
and take the form of the body1  that he 
might give a fresher and stronger accent
 to those qualities he  so loved1 the   
garment becoming1 as it were1 a part of 
the body1 and  expressing1 as he has    
said1 even more than the nude1 the      
larger and  simpler forms of ,nature40  
,there is the genuine ,hellenic spirit1 
working  in a different age and under a 
different sky4 ,millet felt that for him
  it was not true to paint the naked    
body1 and at the same time that  the    
body alone was the supremely interesting
 thing to paint4 ,in the  8,sower0 we   
see this spirit expressed in the highest
 form which ,millet  ever reached--the  
grace of natural beauty and strength1 in
 no remote  discobolus or gladiator1 but
 in the man of his own country and      
clime1  a peasant like himself1 whose   
form he had studied from his own in the 
mirror in his own studio4 ,the coarse   
clothes and rough sabots play  the same 
part in ,millet's work as the bizarre1  

uncouth words and varied  technical     
phraseology in ,whitman's2 one may call 
them accidental1  but they are          
inevitable and necessary accidents4     
8,one must be able10  ,millet said1 8to 
make use of the trivial for the         
expression of the  sublime40 ,they both 
insisted that the artist must deal with 
the average  and typical1 not with the  
exceptional4 ,they both tried to bring  
the  largeness and simplicity of ,nature
 into their work1 and to suggest more   
than they expressed4 ,they both refused 
to believe any part of ,nature  could be
 other than lovely4 8,the man who finds 
any phase or effect in  ,nature not     
beautiful10 said ,millet sternly1 8the  
lack is in his own  heart40    ,it is   
not as an artist that ,whitman is       
chiefly interesting to us4 ,it  is true 
that he has written 8,out of the ,cradle
 endlessly rocking10  8,when ,lilacs    
last in the ,dooryard bloomed10 8,this  
,compost10 and  other fragments from    
which may be gained a simple and pure   

sthetic  joy4 ,frequently1 also1 we come
 across phrases which reveal a keen     
perception of the strangeness and beauty
 of things1 lines that  possess a       
simplicity and grandeur scarcely less   
than ,homeric2 thus1  8the noiseless    
splash of sunrise20 or of the young men 
bathing1 who  8float on their backs1    
their white bellies bulge to the sun40  
,but such  results are accidental1 and  
outside the main purpose4 ,for that very
  reason they have at times something of
 the divine felicity1 unforeseen  and   
incalculable1 of ,nature2 yet always1   
according to a rough but  convenient    
distinction1 it is the poetry of energy 
rather than the  poetry of art4 ,when   
,whitman speaks prose1 the language of  
science1 he  is frequently incoherent1  
emotional1 unbalanced1 with no very just
 and  precise sense of the meaning or   
words or the structure of reasoned      
language4#g ,it is clear that in this   
man the moral in its largest            
sense--that is to say1 the personality  

and its personal relations--is  more    
developed than the scientific2 and that 
on the sthetic side the  artist is      
merged in the mystic1 wrapt in emotional
 contemplation of a  cosmic whole4 ,what
 we see1 therefore1 is a manifold       
personality seeking  expression for     
itself in a peculiarly flexible and     
responsive medium4  ,it is a deep as    
well as a superficial resemblance that  
these chants  bear to the ,scriptures of
 the old ,hebrews--as ,isaiah or the    
,book of  ,job--wherein also the writer 
becomes an artist1 and also absorbs all 
available science1 but where his purpose
 is the personal expression  of a moral 
and religious conception of life and the
 world4 ,whitman  has invented a name   
for the person who occupies this rare   
and1 in the  highest degree1 significant
 position2 he calls him the 8,answerer40
 ,it  is not the function of answerers1 
like that of philosophers1 to arrange   
the order and limits of ideas1 for they 
have to settle what ideas are  or are   

not to exist2 nor is it theirs1 like the
 singers1 to celebrate  the ostensible  
things of the world1 or to seek out     
imaginative forms1  for they are 8not   
followers of beauty1 but the august     
masters of  beauty40 ,the answerer is1  
in short1 the maker of ideals4    #g ,i 
think this defective scientific         
perception is perhaps as  responsible as
 any failure of moral insight for the   
vigorous manner in  which an element of 
8manly love0 flourishes in 8,calamus0   
and elsewhere4  ,whitman is hardy enough
 to assert that he expects it will to a 
large  extent take the place of love    
between the sexes4 8,manly love10 even  
in  its extreme form1 is certainly      
,greek1 as is the degradation of women  
with which it is always correlated2 yet 
the much slighter degradation  of women 
in modern times ,whitman sincerely      
laments4    ,whitman will not minimize  
the importance of the answerer's        
mission4 8,i1  too10 he exclaims1       
8following many and followed by many1   

inaugurate  a religion40 ,if we wish to 
understand ,walt ,whitman1 we must have 
some conception of this religion4 ,we   
shall find that two great and           
contradictory conceptions dominate his  
work2 although in his thoughts1  as in  
his modes of expression1 it is not      
possible to find any strongly  marked   
progression4    ,the 8,song of ,myself0 
is the most complete utterance of       
,whitman's first  great conception of   
life4        8,i have said that the soul
 is not more than the body1      ,and ,i
 have said that the body is not more    
than the soul2      ,and nothing1 not   
,god1 is greater to one than one's self 
is40    ,the absolute unity of matter   
and spirit1 and all which that unity    
involves1 is the dominant conception of 
this first and most  characteristic     
period4 8,if the body were not the      
soul10 he asks1 8what  is the soul80    
,this is ,whitman's naturalism2 it is   
the re-assertion of  the ,greek attitude
 on a new and larger foundation4 8,let  

it stand as an  indubitable truth1 which
 no inquiries can shake1 that the mind  
of man  is so entirely alienated from   
the righteousness of ,god1 that he      
cannot  conceive1 desire1 or design     
anything but what is wicked1 distorted1 
foul1 impure and iniquitous2 that his   
heart is so thoroughly environed  by sin
 that it can breathe out nothing but    
corruption and rottenness40  ,that is   
the fundamental thought of ,christian   
tradition set down in the               
8,institutes10 clearly and logically1 by
 the genius of ,calvin4 ,it is  the     
polar opposite of ,whitman's thought1   
and therefore for ,whitman the  moral   
conception of duty has ceased to exist4 
8,i give nothing as duties1      ,what  
others give as duties ,i give as living 
impulses4      7,shall ,i give the      
heart's action as a duty870    ,morality
 is thus the normal activity of a       
healthy nature1 not the  product either 
of tradition or of rationalism4         
8,whatever tastes sweet to the most     

perfect person1 that is finally         
right0--this1 it has been said1 is the  
maxim on which ,whitman's  morality is  
founded1 and it is the morality of      
,aristotle4 ,but no ,greek  ever        
asserted and illustrated it with such   
emphatic iteration4    ,from the days   
when the ,greek spirit found its last   
embodiment in  the brief songs1 keen or 
sweet1 of the 8,anthology10 the attitude
  which ,whitman represents in the      
8,song of ,myself0 has never lacked     
representatives4 ,throughout the ,middle
 ,ages those strange haunting  echoes to
 the perpetual chant of litany and      
psalm1 the ,latin  student-songs1 float 
across all ,europe with their profane   
and gay  paganism1 their fresh erotic   
grace1 their 8,in taberna quando sumus10
  their 8,ludo cum ,ccilia10 their      
8,gaudeamus igitur40 ,in the sane and   
lofty sensuality of ,boccaccio1 as it   
found expression in the history  of     
,alaciel and many another wonderful     
story1 and in ,gottfried of             

,strasburg's assertion of human pride   
and passion in 8,tristan and  ,isolde10 
the same strain changed to a stronger   
and nobler key4 ,then  came the great   
wave of the ,renaissance through ,italy 
and ,france and  ,england1 filling art  
and philosophy with an exaltation of    
physical  life1 and again later1 in the 
movements that centre around the ,french
  ,revolution1 an exaltation of arrogant
 and independent intellectual  life4    
,but all these manifestations were      
sometimes partial1 sometimes            
extravagant2 they were impulses of the  
natural man surging up in  rebellion    
against the dominant ,christian temper2 
they were1 for the  most part           
consciously1 of the nature of reactions4
 ,we feel that there  is a fatal lack   
about them which ,christianity would    
have filled2 only  in ,goethe is the    
antagonism to some extent reconciled4   
,beneath the  vast growth of            
,christianity1 for ever exalting the    
unseen by the easy  method of pouring   

contempt on the seen1 and still ever    
producing some  strange and exquisite   
flower of ascsis--some ,francis or      
,theresa or  ,fnelon--a slow force was  
working underground4 ,a tendency was    
making  itself felt to find in the      
theoretically despised physical--in     
those  everyday stones which the        
builders of the ,church had             
rejected--the very  foundation of the   
mysteries of life2 if not the basis for 
a new vision  of the unseen1 yet for a  
more assured vision of the seen4    ,no 
one in the last century expressed this  
tendency more impressively  and         
thoroughly1 with a certain insane       
energy1 than ,william ,blake--the  great
 chained spirit whom we see looking out 
between the bars of his  prison-house   
with those wonderful eyes4 ,especially  
in 8,the ,marriage  of ,heaven and      
,hell10 in which he seems to gaze most  
clearly 8through  narrow chinks of his  
cavern10 he has set forth his conviction
 that  8first the notion that man has a 

body distinct from his soul is to  be   
expunged10 and that 8if the doors of    
perception were cleansed1  everything   
would appear to man1 as it is1          
infinite40 ,this most  extraordinary    
book is1 in his own phraseology1 the    
,bible of ,hell4    ,whitman appeared at
 a time when this stream of influence1  
grown mighty1  had boldly emerged4 ,at  
the time that 8,leaves of ,grass0 sought
 the light  ,tourgueneff was embodying  
in the typical figure of ,bassaroff the 
modern  militant spirit of science1     
positive and audacious--a spirit marked 
also1 as ,hinton pointed out1 by a new  
form of asceticism1 which lay  in the   
denial of emotion4 ,whitman1 one of the 
very greatest emotional  forces of      
modern times1 who had grown up apart    
from the rigid and  technical methods of
 science1 face to face with a new world 
and a new  civilization1 which he had   
eagerly absorbed so far as it lay open  
to  him1 had the good inspiration to    
fling himself into the scientific       

current1 and so to justify the demands  
of his emotional nature2 to  represent  
himself as the inhabitant of a vast and 
co-ordinated cosmos1  tenoned and       
mortised in granite3        8,all forces
 have been steadily employed to complete
 and delight me1      ,now on this spot 
,i stand with my robust soul40    ,that 
,whitman possessed no trained scientific
 instinct is unquestionably  true1 but  
it is impossible to estimate his        
significance without  understanding what
 he owes to science4 ,something1 indeed1
 he had gained  from the philosophy of  
,hegel--with its conception of the      
universe  as a single process of        
evolution1 in which vice and disease are
 but  transient perturbations--with     
which he had a second-hand acquaintance1
  that has left distinct1 but not always
 well assimilated marks on his  work2   
but1 above all1 he was indebted to those
 scientific conceptions  which1 like    
,emerson1 he had absorbed or divined4   
,it is these that lie  behind 8,children

 of ,adam40    ,this mood of sane and   
cheerful sensuality1 rejoicing with a   
joy as  massive and calm-eyed as        
,boccaccio's1 a moral-fibred joy that   
,boccaccio  never knew1 in all the      
manifestations of the flesh and blood of
 the  world--saying1 not3 8,let us eat  
and drink1 for to-morrow we die10 but1  
with ,clifford3 8,let us take hands and 
help1 for this day we are alive         
together0--is certainly ,whitman's most 
significant and impressive mood4        
,nothing so much reveals its depth and  
sincerity as his never-changing         
attitude towards death4 ,we know the    
8fearful thing0 that ,claudio1 in       
,shakespeare's play1 knew as death3     
8to die and go we know not where2       
,to lie in cold obstruction and to rot2 
444 to be worse than worst      ,of     
those that lawless and uncertain        
thoughts      ,imagine howling60    ,and
 all the ,elizabethans in that age of   
splendid and daring life--even  ,raleigh
 and ,bacon--felt that same shudder at  

the horror and mystery of  death4       
,always they felt behind them some vast 
medival charnel-house1  gloomy and      
awful1 and the sunniest spirits of the  
,english ,renaissance  quail when they  
think of it4 ,there was in this horror  
something of  the child's vast and      
unreasoned dread of darkness and        
mystery1 and it  scarcely survived the  
scientific and philosophic developments 
of the  seventeenth century4 ,whitman's 
attitude is not the less deep-rooted    
and original4 ,for he is not content to 
argue1 haughtily indifferent1  with     
,epicurus and ,epictetus1 that death can
 be nothing to us1 because  it is no    
evil to lose what we shall never miss4  
,whitman will reveal  the loveliness of 
death4 ,we feel constantly in 8,leaves  
of ,grass0 as  to some extent we feel   
before the 8,love and ,death0 and some  
other  pictures of one of the greatest  
of ,english artists4 8,i will show10 he 
announces1 8that nothing can happen more
 beautiful than death40 ,it must  not be

 forgotten that ,whitman speaks not     
merely from the standpoint  of the most 
intense and vivid delight in the actual 
world1 but that  he possessed a         
practical familiarity with disease and  
death which has  perhaps never before   
fallen to the lot of a great writer4 ,at
 the end of  the 8,song of ,myself0 he  
bequeaths himself to the dust1 to grow  
from the  grass he loves3        8,if   
you want me again1 look for me under    
your boot-soles1      ,you will hardly  
know who ,i am or what ,i mean1         
,but ,i shall be good health to you     
nevertheless1      ,and filter and fibre
 your blood40    ,and to any who find   
that dust but a poor immortality1 he    
would say  with ,schopenhauer1 8,oho6 do
 you know1 then1 what dust is80 ,the    
vast  chemistry of the earth1 the       
sweetness that is rooted in what we call
  corruption1 the life that is but the  
leavings of many deaths1 is nobly       
uttered in 8,this ,compost10 in which he
 reaches beyond the corpse that  is good

 manure to sweet-scented roses1 to the  
polished breasts of  melons2 or again1  
in the noble elegy1 8,pensive on her    
dead gazing10 on  those who died during 
the war4 ,in his most perfectly lyrical 
poem1 8,out  of the ,cradle endlessly   
rocking10 ,whitman has celebrated       
death--8that  strong and delicious      
word0--with strange tenderness2 and     
never has the  loveliness of death been 
sung in a more sane and virile song than
 the  solemn death-carol in 8,when      
,lilacs last in the ,dooryard bloomed03 
8,dark mother1 always gliding near with 
soft feet1      ,have none chanted for  
thee a chant of fullest welcome8        
,then ,i chant it for thee1 ,i glorify  
thee above all1      ,i bring thee a    
song1 that when thou must indeed come1  
come          unfalteringly4            
99       99       99       99       99  
8,over the tree-tops ,i float thee a    
song1      ,over the rising and sinking 
waves1 over the myriad fields and the   
prairies wide1      ,over the           

dense-packed cities all and the teeming 
wharves and ways1      ,i float this    
carol with joy1 with joy to thee1 ,o    
,death40    ,whitman's second great     
thought on life lies in his egoism4 ,his
 intense  sense of individuality was    
marked from the first2 it is            
emphatically  asserted in the 8,song of 
,myself0--        8,and nothing1 not    
,god1 is ,greater to one than one's self
 is0--    where it lies side by side    
with his first great thought4 ,but even 
in  the 8,song of ,myself0 it asserts a 
separate existence3        8,this day   
before dawn ,i ascended a hill and      
looked at the crowded          heaven1  
,and ,i said to my spirit1 ,when we     
become the enfolders of those orbs1     
and the pleasure and knowledge of       
everything in them1 shall we          be
 filled and satisfied then8      ,and my
 spirit said1 ,no1 we but level that    
lift to pass and continue               
beyond40    ,in the end he once1 at     
least1 altogether denies his first      

thought2 he  alludes to that body which 
he had called the equal of the soul1 or 
even  the soul itself1 as excrement3    
8,myself discharging my excrementitious 
body to be burned1 or reduced           
to powder1 or buried1      ,my real body
 doubtless left to me for other         
spheres40    ,the first great utterance 
was naturalistic2 this egoism is        
spiritualistic4 ,it is the sublime      
apotheosis of ,yankee self-reliance4    
8,i only am he who places over you no   
master1 owner1 better1 ,god1  beyond    
what waits intrinsically in yourself40  
,this became the dominant  conception in
 ,whitman's later work1 and fills his   
universe at length4  ,of a ,god1        
although he sometimes uses the word to  
obtain emphasis1 he  at no time had any 
definite idea4 ,nature1 also1 was never 
a living  vascular personality for him2 
when it is not a mere aggregate of      
things1 it is an order1 sometimes a     
moral order4 ,also he wisely refuses    
with unswerving consistency to admit an 

abstract ,humanity2 of 8man0  he has    
nothing to say2 there is nothing        
anywhere in the universe for  him but   
individuals1 undying1 everlastingly     
aggrandizing individuals4  ,this egoism 
is practical1 strenuous1 moral2 it      
cannot be described as  religious4      
,whitman is lacking--and in this respect
 he comes nearer to  ,goethe than to any
 other great modern man--in what may be 
possibly the  disease of 8soul10 the    
disease that was so bitterly bewailed by
 ,heine4  ,whitman was congenitally     
deficient in 8soul20 he is a kind of    
,titanic  ,undine4 8,i never had any    
particular religious experiences10 he   
told  ,bucke1 8never felt the need of   
spiritual regeneration20 and although he
  describes himself as 8pleased with the
 earnest words of the sweating          
,methodist preacher1 impressed seriously
 at the camp-meeting10 we  know what    
weight to give to this utterance when we
 read elsewhere1 of  animals3           
8,they do not sweat and whine about     

their condition1      ,they do not lie  
awake in the dark and weep for their    
sins1      ,they do not make me sick    
discussing their duty to ,god1      ,not
 one is dissatisfied1 not one is        
demented with the mania of owning       
things1      ,not one kneels to another1
 nor to his kind that lived thousands of
          years ago1      ,not one is   
respectable or unhappy over the whole   
earth40    ,we may detect this lack of  
8soul0 in his attitude towards music2   
for1  in its highest development1 music 
is the special exponent of the modern   
soul in its complexity1 its passive     
resignation1 its restless mystical      
ardours4 ,that ,whitman delighted in    
music is clear2 it is equally clear1    
from the testimony of his writings and  
of witnesses1 that the music he         
delighted in was simple and joyous      
melody as in ,rossini's operas2 he      
alludes vaguely to symphonies1 but      
8when it is a grand opera1      ,ah6    
this indeed is music--this suits me40   

,that ,whitman could have truly         
appreciated ,beethoven1 or understood   
,wagner's 8,tannhuser10 is not          
conceivable4    ,with ,whitman's egoism 
is connected his strenuousness4 ,there  
is a  stirring sound of trumpets always 
among these 8,leaves of ,grass40 ,this  
man may have come1 as he tells us1 to   
inaugurate a new religion1 but he  has  
few or no marks upon him of that        
mysticism--that ,eastern spirit of  glad
 renunciation of the self in a larger   
self--which is of the essence  of       
religion4 ,he is at the head of a band  
of sinewy and tan-faced  pioneers1 with 
pistols in their belts and sharp-edged  
axes in their  hands3        8,and he   
going with me leaves peace and routine  
behind him1      ,and stakes his life to
 be lost at any moment40    ,this       
strenuousness finds expression in the   
hurried jolt and bustle of  the lines1  
always alert1 unresting1 ever starting  
afresh4 ,passages of  sweet and peaceful
 flow are hard to find in 8,leaves of   

,grass10 and the  more precious when    
found4 ,whitman hardly succeeds in the  
expression  of joy2 to feel exquisitely 
the pulse of gladness a more passive and
  feminine sensibility is needed1 like  
that we meet with in 8,towards          
,democracy20 we must not come to this   
focus of radiant energy for repose  or  
consolation4    ,this egoism1 this      
strenuousness1 reaches at the end to    
heights of  sublime audacity4 ,when we  
read certain portions of 8,leaves of    
,grass0 we  seem to see a vast phalanx  
of ,great ,companions passing for ever  
along  the cosmic roads1 stalwart       
,pioneers of the ,universe4 ,there are  
superb  young men1 athletic girls1      
splendid and savage old men--for the    
weak  seem to have perished by the      
roadside--and they radiate an infinite  
energy1 an infinite joy4 ,it is truly a 
tremendous diastole of life to  which   
the crude and colossal extravagance of  
this vision bears witness2  we weary    
soon of its strenuous vitality1 and     

crave for the systole of  life1 for     
peace and repose4 ,it is not strange    
that the immense faith of  the prophet  
himself grows hesitant and silent at    
times before 8all the  meanness and     
agony without end10 and doubts that it  
is an illusion and  8that may-be        
identity beyond the grave a beautiful   
fable only40 ,here  and again we meet   
this access of doubt1 and even amid the 
faith of the  8,prayer of ,columbus0    
there is a tremulous1 pathetic note of  
sadness4    ,yet there is one keen sword
 with which ,whitman is always able to  
cut  the knot of this doubt--the sword  
of love4 ,he has but to grasp love  and 
comradeship1 and he grows indifferent to
 the problem of identity  beyond the    
grave4 8,he a-hold of my hand has       
completely satisfied me40  ,he discovers
 at last that love and                  
comradeship--adhesiveness--is1 after    
all1 the main thing1 8base and finale1  
too1 for all metaphysics20  deeper than 
religion1 underneath ,socrates and      

underneath ,christ4 ,with  a sound      
insight he finds the roots of the most  
universal love in the  intimate and     
physical love of comrades and lovers4   
8,i mind how once we lay1 such a        
transparent summer morning1      ,how   
you settled your head athwart my hips   
and gently turned over          upon me1
      ,and parted the shirt from my     
bosom-bone1 and plunged your tongue to  
my bare-stript heart1      ,and reached 
till you felt my beard1 and reached till
 you held my feet4        8,swiftly     
arose and spread around me the peace and
 knowledge that pass          all the   
argument of the earth1      ,and ,i know
 that the hand of ,god is the promise of
 my own1      ,and ,i know that the     
spirit of ,god is the brother of my own1
      ,and that all the men ever born   
are also my brothers1 and the women my  
sisters and lovers1      ,and that a    
kelson of the creation is love40        
,,iv4    ,this 8love0 of ,whitman's is a
 very personal matter2 of an abstract   

,man1 a solidaire ,humanity1 he never   
speaks2 it does not appear ever  to have
 occurred to him that so extraordinary a
 conception can be  formulated2 his     
relations to men generally spring out of
 his relations  to particular men4 ,he  
has touched and embraced his fellows'   
flesh2 he  has felt throughout his being
 the mysterious reverberations of the   
contact3        8,there is something in 
staying close to men and women and      
looking on          them1 and in the    
contact and odour of them1 that pleases 
the soul          well1      ,all things
 please the soul1 but these please the  
soul well40    ,this personal and       
intimate fact is the centre from which  
the whole of  ,whitman's morality       
radiates4 ,of an abstract ,humanity1 it 
is true1 he  has never thought2 he has  
no vision of ,nature as a spiritual     
,presence2  ,god is to him a word only1 
without vitality2 to ,art he is mostly  
indifferent2 yet there remains this     
great moral kernel1 springing from  the 

sexual impulse1 taking practical root in
 a singularly rich and  vivid emotional 
nature1 and bearing within it the       
promise of a city of  lovers and        
friends4    ,this moral element is one  
of the central features in ,whitman's   
attitude  towards sex and the body      
generally4 ,for the lover there is      
nothing  in the loved one's body impure 
or unclean2 a breath of passion has     
passed over it1 and all things are      
sweet4 ,for most of us this influence   
spreads no farther2 for the man of      
strong moral instinct it covers  all    
human things in infinitely widening     
circles2 his heart goes out  to every   
creature that shares the loved one's    
delicious humanity2  henceforth there is
 nothing human that he cannot touch with
 reverence  and love4 8,leaves of       
,grass0 is penetrated by this moral     
element4 ,how  curiously far this       
attitude is from the old ,christian way 
we realize  when we turn to those days  
in which ,christianity was at its       

height1 and  see how ,saint ,bernard    
with his mild and ardent gaze looked out
 into  the world of ,nature and saw men 
as 8stinking spawn1 sacks of dung1 the  
food of worms40    ,but there is another
 element in ,whitman's attitude--the    
artistic4 ,it  shows itself in a twofold
 manner4 ,whitman came of a vigorous    
,dutch  stock2 these ,van ,velsors from 
,holland have fully as large a part in  
him  as anything his ,english ancestry  
gave him1 and his ,dutch race shows     
itself chiefly in his artistic manner4  
,the supreme achievement in art  of the 
,dutch is their seventeenth century     
painting4 ,what marked those  ,dutch    
artists was the ineradicable conviction 
that every action1 social  or           
physiological1 of the average man1      
woman1 child1 around them might  be1    
with love and absolute faithfulness1    
phlegmatically set forth4 ,in  their    
heroic earthliness they could at no     
point be repulsed2 colour  and light may
 aureole their work1 but the most       

commonplace things of  ,nature shall    
have the largest nimbus4 ,that is the   
temper of ,dutch art  throughout2 no    
other art in the world has the same     
characteristics4 ,in  the art of        
,whitman alone do we meet with it again1
 impatient indeed and  broken up into   
fragments1 pierced through with shafts  
of light from  other sources1 but still 
constant and unmistakable4 ,the other   
artistic  element in ,whitman's attitude
 is modern2 it is almost the only       
artistic  element by which1             
unconsciously perhaps1 he allies himself
 to modern  traditions in art instead of
 breaking through them by his own       
volcanic  energy--a curious research for
 sexual imagery in ,nature1 imagery     
often  tinged by bizarre and mystical   
colour4 ,rossetti occasionally uses     
sexual imagery with rare felicity1 as in
 8,nuptial ,sleep03        8,and as the 
last slow sudden drops are shed         
,from sparkling eaves when all the storm
 has fled1      ,so singly flagged the  

pulses of each heart40    ,with still   
greater beauty and audacity ,whitman1 in
 8,i sing the body  electric10          
celebrates the last abandonment of love3
        8,bridegroom night of love      
working surely and softly into the      
prostrate          dawn1                
,undulating into the willing and        
yielding day1      ,lost in the cleave  
of the clasping and sweet-fleshed day40 
,or1 again1 in the marvellously keen    
8,faces0--so realistic and so           
imaginative--when the 8lily's face0     
speaks out her longing to be filled     
with albescent honey4 ,this man has     
certainly felt the truth of that  deep  
saying of ,thoreau's1 that for him to   
whom sex is impure there  are no flowers
 in ,nature4 ,he cannot help speaking of
 man's or woman's  life in terms of     
,nature's life1 of ,nature's life in    
terms of man's2  he mingles them        
together with an admirably balanced     
rhythm1 as in  8,spontaneous ,me40 ,all 
the functions of man's or woman's life  

are sweet  to him because they bear     
about them a savour of the things that  
are  sweet to him anywhere in the world1
        8,of the smell of apples and    
lemons1 of the pairing of birds1        
,of the wet of woods1 of the lapping of 
waves40    ,sometimes when he is on this
 track he seems to lose himself in      
mystic  obscurity2 and the words in     
which he records his impressions are    
mere  patches of morbid colour4         
,there is a third element in ,whitman's 
attitude4 ,it is clear that he  had from
 the outset what may be vaguely called a
 scientific purpose  in that frank grasp
 of the body1 which has a significance  
to be  measured by the fierce opposition
 it aroused1 and by the tenacity  with  
which1 in the latest volume of his old  
age1 8,november ,boughs10  he still     
insists that the principle of those     
lines so gives breath to  the whole     
scheme that the bulk of the pieces might
 as well have been  left unwritten were 
those lines omitted4 ,he has himself    

admirably  set this forth in 8,a        
,memorandum at a ,venture0 in 8,specimen
 ,days and  ,collect40 ,in religion and 
politics we have1 after a great         
struggle1  gained the priceless         
possibility of liberty and sincerity4   
,but the  region of sex is still1 like  
our moral and social life generally1 to 
a large extent unreclaimed2 there still 
exist barbarous traditions  which       
medival ,christianity has helped to     
perpetuate1 so that the  words of ,pliny
 regarding the contaminating touch of a 
woman1 who has  always been regarded as 
in a peculiar manner the symbol of      
sex--8,nihil  facile reperiabatur       
mulierum profluvio magis                
monstrificum0--are not  even yet        
meaningless4 ,why should the sweetening 
breath of science  be guarded from this 
spot8 ,why should not 8freedom and faith
 and  earnestness0 be introduced here8  
,our attitude towards this part of  life
 affects profoundly our attitude towards
 life altogether4 ,to  realize this1    

read ,swift's 8,strephon and ,chloe10   
which enshrines1  vividly and           
unshrinkingly1 in a classic form1 a     
certain emotional way  of approaching   
the body4 ,it narrates the very trivial 
experiences of a  man and woman on their
 bridal night4 ,the incidents are       
nothing2 they  are perfectly innocent2  
the interesting fact about them is the  
general  attitude which they enfold4    
,the unquestioning faith of the man is  
that  in setting down the simple daily  
facts of human life he has drowned  the 
possibilities of love in filth4 ,and    
,swift here represents1 in an           
unflinchingly logical fashion1 the      
opinions1 more or less realized1  more  
or less disguised1 of most people even  
to-day4 ,cannot these facts  of our     
physical nature be otherwise set down8  
,why may we not 8keep  as delicate      
around the bowels as around the head and
 heart80 ,that  is1 in effect1 the      
question which1 in 8,a ,memorandum at a 
,venture10  ,whitman tells us that he   

undertook to answer4 ,this statement of 
it was  probably an afterthought2 else  
he would have carried out his attempt   
more thoroughly and more                
uncompromisingly4    ,for ,i doubt if   
even ,whitman has fully realized the    
beauty and purity of  organic life2 the 
scientific element in him was less      
strong than the  moral1 or even the     
artistic4 ,while his genial poetic      
manner of grasping  things is of prime  
importance1 the new conceptions of      
purity are  founded on a scientific     
basis which must be deeply understood4  
,swift's  morbid and exaggerated        
spiritualism1 a legacy of               
medivalism--and the  ordinary           
8common-sense0 view is but the          
unconscious shadow of medival           
spiritualism--is really founded on      
ignorance1 in other words1 on the       
traditional religious conceptions of an 
antique but still surviving  barbarism4 
,from our modern standpoint of science1 
opening its eyes anew1 the  wonderful   

cycles of normal life are for ever clean
 and pure1 the  loathsomeness1 if indeed
 anywhere1 lies in the conceptions of   
hypertrophied and hypersthetic brains4  
,some who have striven to find  a vital 
natural meaning in the central sacrament
 of ,christianity have  thought that the
 ,last ,supper was an attempt to reveal 
the divine  mystery of food1 to         
consecrate the loveliness of the mere   
daily bread  and wine which becomes the 
life of man4 ,such sacraments of ,nature
  are everywhere subtly woven into the  
texture of men's bodies4 ,all           
loveliness of the body is the outward   
sign of some vital use4    ,doubtless   
these relationships have been sometimes 
perceived and their  meaning realized by
 a sort of mystical intuition1 but it is
 only of  recent years that science has 
furnished them with a rational basis4   
,the  chief and central function of     
life--the omnipresent process of sex1   
ever wonderful1 ever lovely1 as it is   
woven into the whole texture of  our    

man's or woman's body--is the pattern of
 all the process of our  life4 ,at      
whatever point touched1 the             
reverberation1 multiplexly charged  with
 uses1 meanings1 and emotional          
associations of infinite charm1 to  the 
sensitive individual more or less       
conscious1 spreads throughout  the      
entire organism4 ,we can no longer      
intrude our crude distinctions  of high 
and low4 ,we cannot now step in and say 
that this link in the  chain is         
eternally ugly and that is eternally    
beautiful4 ,for irrational  disgust1 the
 varying outcome of individual          
idiosyncrasy1 there is  doubtless still 
room2 it is incalculable1 and cannot be 
reached4 ,but  that rational disgust    
which was once held to be common        
property has  received from science its 
death-blow4 ,in the growth of the sense 
of  purity1 which ,whitman1 not alone1  
has annunciated1 lies one of our  chief 
hopes for morals1 as well as for art4   
,v4    ,behind 8,leaves of ,grass0      

stands the personality of the man ,walt 
,whitman2 that is the charm of the book 
and its power4 ,it is1 in his  own      
words1 the record of a ,person4 ,a man  
has here sought to give a  fresh and    
frank representation of his             
nature--physical1 intellectual1  moral1 
sthetic--as he received it1 and as it   
grew in the great field  of the world4  
,sometimes there is an element in this  
record which1  while perhaps very       
,american1 reminds one of the great     
,frenchman who  shouted so lustily      
through his huge brass trumpet1 seated  
on the  apex of the universe in the     
,avenue d',eylau4 ,the noble lines to   
8,you  felons on trial in ,courts0      
accompany 8,to him that was crucified40 
,such  rhetorical flourishes do not     
impair the value of this revelation4    
,the  self-revelation of a human        
personality is the one supremely        
precious  and enduring thing4 ,all art  
is the search for it4 ,the strongest and
  most successful of religions were     

avowedly founded on personalities1  more
 or less dimly seen4 ,the intimate and  
candid record of personality  alone     
gives quickening energy to books4       
,herein is the might of 8,leaves  of    
,grass40    ,in our overstrained        
civilization the tendency in            
literature--and in  life as it acts on  
literature and is again reacted on by   
it--is1 on  the one hand1 towards an    
artificial mode of presentment1 that is1
 a  divorce between the actual and the  
alleged1 a divorce which1 in the        
language of satire1 is often called     
hypocrisy4 ,on the other hand1  the     
tendency is towards a singleness of aim 
and ideal indeed1 but a  thin1 narrow1  
super-refined ideal1 at the same time   
rather hysterical  and rather prim4 ,in 
youth we cannot see through these       
,tartuffes and  ,prcieuses2 when we     
become grown men and women we feel a    
great  thirst for ,nature1 for reality  
in literature1 and we slake it at such  
fountains as this of 8,leaves of        

,grass40 ,like ,antus of old we bow down
  to touch the earth1 to come in contact
 with the great primal energies  of     
,nature1 and to grow strong4 ,we realize
 that the structure of the  world is    
indeed built most gloriously on the     
immense pillars of ,hunger  and ,love1  
and we will not seek to deny or to      
attenuate its foundations4  ,presenting 
a truth so abstract in fresh and living 
concrete language1  this man1 as an     
,adam in a new ,paradise1 which is the  
very world itself1  walks again upon the
 earth1 sometimes with calm             
complaisance1 sometimes  8deliriating0  
wildly3        8,behold me where ,i     
pass1 hear my voice1 approach1          
,touch me1 touch the palm of your hand  
to my body as ,i pass1      ,be not     
afraid of my body40    ,he has tossed 8a
 new gladness and roughness0 among men  
and women4 ,he  has opened a fresh      
channel of ,nature's force into human   
life--the  largest since ,wordsworth1   
and more fit for human use--8the        

amplitude  of the earth1 and the        
coarseness and sexuality of the earth1  
and the  great charity of the earth1 and
 the equilibrium also40 ,and in his     
vigorous masculine love1 asserting his  
own personality he has asserted  that of
 all--8,by ,god6 ,i will accept nothing 
which all cannot have their  counterpart
 of on the same terms40 ,charging       
himself in every place  with contentment
 and triumph1 he embraces all men1 as   
,st4 ,francis in  his sweet1 humble1    
,christian way also embraced them1 in   
the spirit of  audacity1 and rankness1  
and pride4 ,so that all he has written  
is summed  up in one ejaculation3 8,how 
vast1 how eligible1 how joyful1 how real
 is  a human being1 himself or herself60
          ,,ibsen4      ,the            
,scandinavian peoples hold to-day a     
position not unlike that held  at the   
beginning of the century by ,germany4   
,they speak1 in various  modified forms1
 a language which the rest of the world 
have regarded  as little more than      

barbarous1 and are looked upon generally
 as an  innocent and primitive folk4    
,yet they contain centres of intense    
literary activity2 they have produced   
novels of a peculiarly fresh  and       
penetrating realism2 and they possess1  
moreover1 a stage on which  great       
literary works may be performed1 and the
 burning questions of the  modern world 
be scenically resolved4 ,it is natural  
that ,norway1 with  its historical past 
and literary traditions1 should be the  
chief centre  of this activity1 and that
 a ,norwegian should stand forth to-day 
as the  chief figure of ,european       
significance that has appeared in the   
,teutonic  world of art since ,goethe4  
,to understand ,norwegian art--whether  
in its popular music1 with  its extremes
 of melancholy or hilarity1 or in its   
highly-developed  literature--we must   
understand the peculiar character of the
 land  which has produced this people4  
,it is a land having1 in its most       
characteristic regions1 a year of but   

one day and night--the summer a         
perpetual warm sunlit day filled with   
the aroma of trees and plants1  and the 
rest of the year a night of darkness and
 horror2 a land  which is the extreme   
northern limit of ,european             
civilization1 on the  outskirts of which
 the great primitive gods still dwell2  
and where  elves and fairies and        
mermaids are still regarded1 according  
to the  expression of ,jonas ,lie1 as   
tame domestic animals4 ,such an         
environment  must work mightily on the  
spirit and temper of the race4 ,as one  
of the  persons in ,bjrnson's 8,over    
vne0 observes--8,there is something in  
,nature here which challenges whatever  
is extraordinary in us4 ,nature  herself
 here goes beyond all ordinary measure4 
,we have night nearly all  the winter2  
we have day nearly all the summer1 with 
the sun by day and  by night above the  
horizon4 ,you have seen it at night     
half-veiled by  the mists from the sea2 
it often looks three1 even four1 times  

larger  than usual4 ,and then the play  
of colours on sky1 sea1 and rock1 from  
the most glowing red to the softest and 
most delicate yellow and white6  ,and   
then the colours of the ,northern       
,lights on the winter sky1 with  their  
more suppressed kind of wild pictures1  
yet full of unrest and  forever         
changing6 ,then the other wonders of    
,nature6 ,these millions of  sea-birds1 
and the wandering processions of fish1  
stretching for miles6  ,these           
perpendicular cliffs that rise directly 
out of the sea6 ,they are  not like     
other mountains1 and the ,atlantic roars
 round their feet4 ,and  the ideas of   
the people are correspondingly          
unmeasured4 ,listen to their  legends   
and stories40    ,so striking are the   
contrasts in the ,norwegian character   
that they have  been supposed to be due 
to the mingling of races2 the           
fair-haired1  blue-eyed ,norwegian of   
the old ,sagas1 silent and deep-natured1
 being  modified1 now 7especially in the

 north7 by the darker1 brown-eyed ,lapp1
  with his weakness of character1 vivid 
imagination1 and tendency to  natural   
mysticism1 and1 again 7especially in the
 east71 by the daring1  practical1      
energetic ,finn4    ,however this may   
be1 among the ,norwegian poets and      
novelists various  qualities often meet 
together in striking opposition2 wild   
and  fantastic imagination stands beside
 an exact realism and a loving  grasp of
 nature2 a tendency to mysticism and    
symbol beside a healthy  naturalism4 ,we
 find these characteristics variously   
combined in ,ibsen2  in ,bjrnson1 with  
his virile strength and generous        
emotions1 amid which  a mystic influence
 now and then appears2 in ,jonas ,lie1  
with his subtle  and delicate spirit1 so
 intimately national2 in ,kielland1 a   
realistic  novelist of most dainty and  
delicate art1 beneath which may be heard
  the sombre undertone of his sympathy  
with the weak and the oppressed4  ,of   
these writers1 and others only less     

remarkable1 one alone is at all  well   
known in ,england1 and even he is known 
exclusively by his early  work1         
especially by that most delightful of   
peasant stories1 8,arne40 ,in  ,germany 
the ,scandinavian novelists and         
dramatists have received much           
attention1 and are widely known through 
excellent and easily accessible         
translations4 ,yet our ,english race and
 speech are even more closely  allied to
 the northern2 our land is studded with 
easily recognizable  ,scandinavian      
place-names and ,scandinavian colonies1 
whose dialects  are full of genuine     
,scandinavian words unknown to literary 
,english4  ,it is not likely that this  
indifference to the social1 political1  
and  literary history of our northern   
kinsmen can last much longer4    ,about 
#agbj a ,danish skipper1 one ,peter     
,ibsen1 came over from ,moen#h  to      
,bergen and settled there4 ,he married  
the daughter of a ,german who  had      
likewise emigrated from his own country3

 these were the poet's                  
great-great-grandparents4 ,peter ,ibsen 
had a son1 ,henrik ,petersen ,ibsen1    
who was also a ship's captain4 ,he      
married a lady whose name is given as   
,wenche ,dischington1 the daughter of a 
,scotchman naturalized in ,norway4      
,this ,henrik ,ibsen settled in ,skien1 
and had a son of the same name who      
married a ,german wife4 ,all these      
,ibsens were sailors4 ,henrik ,ibsen's  
son1 ,knud ,ibsen1 the dramatist's      
father1 like his father married a  wife 
of ,german extraction1 ,maria ,cornelia 
,altenburg1 the daughter of a  merchant 
who had begun life as a sailor4    #h   
,this island1 ,i may note in passing1 is
 the home of a black-haired  race1 very 
unlike the typical ,norsemen1 and which 
has been identified  with those 8black  
strangers0 spoken of by the ,irish      
chroniclers who  described the ,viking  
invasions4    ,this ancestry is very    
significant4 ,it will be seen that      
,ibsen is  on both sides predominantly  

,german1 and that in his ,german and    
,danish blood there is an interesting   
,scotch strain4 ,the tendency  to       
philosophic abstraction and the         
strenuous earnestness1 mingling  with   
the more characteristically northern    
imaginative influences1  are explained  
by this ,german and ,scotch ancestry2 it
 explains also  the peculiarly isolated 
and yet cosmopolitan attitude which     
marks  ,ibsen--why it is that his works 
have been so enthusiastically received  
and so easily naturalized in ,germany1  
and why1 now that they are  beginning to
 be known1 they promise to make so deep 
an impression in  our own land4         
,ibsen's mother possessed a shy1 silent1
 and solitary nature1 which she         
imparted to her son4 ,one of her        
daughters thus describes her3 8,she  was
 a quiet1 lovable woman1 the soul of the
 house1 devoted to her  husband and     
children4 ,she was always sacrificing   
herself4 ,there was no  bitterness or   
reproach in her40 ,the father was of    

cheerful disposition1  a man of sociable
 tastes1 popular in his circle1 but also
 feared1 for  he had a keen wit1 and1   
like his son1 he could use it           
unmercifully4    ,knud ,ibsen's eldest  
son1 ,henrik1#i was born at ,skien1 a   
busy little  town of some #c1jjj        
inhabitants occupied in the timber      
trade1 on  the #bjth ,march1 #ahbh4 8,i 
was born10 the dramatist writes in some 
reminiscences published by ,mr4 ,jaeger 
for the first time1 8in a house  in the 
market-place1 ,stockmann's house it was 
then called4 ,the house  lay right      
opposite the church with its high steps 
and large tower4  ,to the right1 in     
front of the church1 stood the town     
pillory1 and to  the left the town-hall1
 the lock-up1 and the #8madhouse4' ,the 
fourth  side of the market-place was    
occupied by the ,latin school and the   
town  school4 ,the church lay free in   
the middle4 ,this prospect was the first
  view of the earth that presented      
itself to my eyes4 ,all buildings2  no  

green1 no rural open landscape40 ,it was
 in the church tower that  the baby     
,henrik received his first conscious and
 deep impression4 ,the  nursemaid took  
him up and held him out 7to the horror  
of his mother  below71 and he never     
forgot that new and strange vision of   
the world  from above4 ,ibsen goes on to
 describe the attractions which were    
held  for him in the gloomy town-hall   
and the pillory1 unused for many years1 
a red-brown post of about a man's       
height1 with a great round knob which   
had originally been painted black1 but  
which then looked like a human  face4   
,in front of the post hung an iron      
chain1 and in that an iron  ring which  
seemed like two small arms ready to     
clasp the child's neck  on the least    
provocation4 ,and then there was the    
town-hall4 ,that1 too1  had high steps  
like the church1 and underneath it was  
the gaol with its  barred windows3      
8inside the bars ,i have seen many pale 
and dark faces40  ,and then there was   

the 8madhouse10 which in its time had   
really been  used to confine lunatics4  
,that also was barred1 but inside the   
bars the  little window was filled by a 
massive iron plate with small round     
holes  like a sieve4 ,this place was    
said to have been the abode of a famous 
criminal who had been branded4    #i    
,many books and pamphlets dealing with  
his life and works have  appeared in    
,denmark1 ,sweden and ,germany4 ,the    
chief of these are  ,vasenius's 8,henrik
 ,ibsen1 ett ,skaldeportrtt10           
,stockholm1 #ahhb2  ,passarge's 8,henrik
 ,ibsen3 ,ein ,beitrag zur neusten      
,geschichte der  norwegischen           
,nationalliteratur10 ,leipsic1 #ahhc2   
and ,h4 ,jaeger's 8,henrik  ,ibsen1     
#ahbh-ahhh10 ,copenhagen4 ,the          
last-named1 now translated1 is by  far  
the best4    ,these early impressions of
 the dramatist--the church tower1 the   
pillory1 the barred windows1 the pale   
criminals--are of no little  interest4  
,they help to explain for us the sombre 

and tragic cast1  purely human and      
reflective1 of ,ibsen's character4 ,they
 explain1 too1  the absence in his work 
of the sea and the forest1 of those     
things  which give such a sweet1 wild   
aroma1 now and again1 to the work of    
,bjrnson and ,lie4 ,the little town1    
with its active commercial life and  its
 equally active religious life--for     
,skien was a centre of pietistic        
influence--was such a place as is       
brought before us in 8,de ,unges        
,forbund0 and in 8,samfundets ,sttter10 
and it was a fit birthplace for  the    
author of 8,brand40    ,knud ,ibsen     
belonged to the aristocracy of ,skien1  
and his house was a  centre of its      
social life4 ,when ,henrik was eight    
years old there was an  end of this1 for
 his father became a bankrupt4 ,after   
the catastrophe  the family retired to a
 small and humble home outside ,skien1  
where they  lived with a frugality which
 was in marked contrast with their      
former  life4 ,there can be no doubt    

that this sudden change of              
circumstances1  and the insight which it
 brought into the social cleavage of a  
provincial town1 counted for much in    
,ibsen's development4 ,it is certain    
that at this period his marked          
individuality began to be perceived4    
,he did not play like the other         
children2 while they romped in the      
yard1 he retired into a little inclosure
 in an alley that led to the  kitchen1  
and barricaded himself against the      
heedless incursions of the  younger     
members of the family4 ,here he kept    
guard1 not only in summer1  but in the  
depth of winter4 ,it is clear that even 
at this early age  ,ibsen had reached   
the point of proud isolation and        
defiance of his  fellow-citizens which  
,stockmann ultimately attained4 ,one of 
his sisters  describes how they used to 
throw stones and snowballs at his       
retreat  to make him come out to join   
their play1 but when he could no longer 
withstand the attack and yielded to the 

assailants1 he could display no  skill  
in any kind of sport1 and soon retired  
again to his den4 ,reading  appears to  
have been one of his chief occupations  
there1 and ,jaeger  assures us that the 
words which many years afterwards ,ibsen
 put into  the mouth of the little girl 
,hedwig1 who is so pathetic and tender a
  figure in one of his latest dramas1   
8,vildanden10 contain a reminiscence  of
 childhood4 8,and do you read the       
books80 asked ,gregers4 8,oh1 yes1  when
 ,i can4 ,but most of them are ,english1
 and ,i can't read those4 ,but  then ,i 
can look at the pictures4 ,there is one 
big black book1 called  ,harryson's     
#8,history of ,london2' it must be a    
hundred years old1 and  that has such a 
number of pictures in it4 ,first there  
is a picture of  ,death with an         
hourglass and a girl4 ,i think that is  
hideous4 ,but then  there are all sorts 
of other pictures1 with churches and    
castles and  streets and great ships    
that sail on the sea40 ,he also amused  

himself  with pencil and colour-box4    
,meanwhile he went to school1 going     
through  the usual course and learning a
 little ,latin2 he appears to have taken
  a special interest in the ,biblical   
instruction4 ,at fourteen he was        
confirmed1 and the time came for him to 
make his way in the world4    ,at this  
period he wished to become a painter2 he
 devoted himself with  zeal to drawing1 
and an interest in painting has remained
 with him1 the  formation of an         
excellent little collection of          
,renaissance pictures  becoming in later
 life one of his chief hobbies4 ,in the 
existing state  of the family means1    
this career was out of the question1 and
 he was  sent to an apothecary at       
,grimstad1 a little town containing at  
that  time not more than #hjj           
inhabitants4 ,the apothecary's shop1    
,jaeger  remarks1 is the place where all
 the loungers meet in the evening to    
discuss the events of the day1 and      
doubtless the apothecary's shop was  an 

element in the education of the future  
dramatist4 ,in his interesting  preface 
to the second edition of 8,catilina0 he 
has himself described  the five years of
 development that he went through in    
this little town4  ,he did not wish to  
become a chemist2 he would become a     
student and  study medicine4 ,at the    
same time his poetical activity and the 
eventful  year of #ahdh came to arouse  
in the silent1 solitary boy a healthy   
interest in the outside world4    ,it   
was while reading ,sallust and ,cicero  
for his matriculation  examination that 
he conceived1 and wrote at midnight1 his
 first  play1 8,catilina40 ,with the    
help of two enthusiastic young friends  
the  tragedy was published and some     
thirty copies sold--a result which  did 
not permit of the proposed tour in the  
,east on which the three  friends had   
decided to expend the profits of the    
sale4 ,ibsen was now  in his            
twenty-second year1 and he came up to   
,christiania to carry  on his studies at

 the school of ,heltberg1 who seems to  
have had a  singularly stimulating      
influence on young men1 and at the      
university4  ,here ,ibsen was the       
comrade of ,bjrnson1 ,jonas ,lie1 and   
others who have  since become famous4   
,at a later date ,bjrnson condensed his 
youthful  impression of his friend in   
two vigorous lines3        8,tense and  
lean1 the colour of gypsum1      ,behind
 a vast coal-black beard1 ,henrik       
,ibsen40    ,the period now arrived at  
which ,ibsen's career was definitely    
settled4 ,he had been making several    
unsuccessful literary attempts at       
,christiania1 having finally abandoned  
the intention to study medicine1  when1 
in #ahea1 the famous violinist1 ,ole    
,bull1 who has done so much  to give    
artistic shape and energy to the modern 
,norwegian spirit1  gave him an         
appointment at the ,national ,theatre   
which he had recently  established at   
,bergen4 ,ibsen's prentice hand was now 
trained by the  writing of several      

dramas not included among his published 
works2  and1 like ,shakespeare and      
,molire in somewhat similar             
circumstances1  he here acquired his    
mastery of the technical demands of     
dramatic  form4 ,in #ahee his           
apprenticeship may be said to have      
ended1 and he  produced 8,fru ,inger til
 straat0 7,dame ,inger of straat71 an   
historical  prose drama of great energy 
and concentration4 ,in #aheh he married 
,susanna ,thoresen1 the daughter of a   
,bergen clergyman1 whose second  wife1  
,magdalene ,thoresen1 is a well-known   
authoress4 ,at the same  period he was  
appointed artistic director of the      
,norwegian theatre  at ,christiania1 a  
post previously occupied by ,bjrnson1   
who had  just inaugurated the ,norwegian
 peasant novel by the publication of    
8,synnve ,solbakken40 ,in #ahfd1 having 
acquired the means1 ,ibsen found it     
desirable to quit the somewhat          
provincial and uncongenial atmosphere of
  his native country1 and has since     

lived in ,rome1 in ,ischia1 in ,dresden1
  and at other places1 but mainly at    
,munich1 producing on an average a      
drama every two years4 ,in #ahhe he     
revisited ,norway4 ,time had brought    
its revenges1 and he was                
enthusiastically received everywhere4   
,at  ,drontheim he made a remarkable    
speech to a club of working-men4 8,mere 
democracy10 he said1 8cannot solve the  
social question4 ,an element of         
aristocracy must be introduced into our 
life4 ,of course ,i do not mean  the    
aristocracy of birth or of the purse1 or
 even the aristocracy of  intellect4 ,i 
mean the aristocracy of character1 of   
will1 of mind4  ,that only can free us4 
,from two groups will this aristocracy  
,i hope  for come to our people--from   
our women and our workmen4 ,the         
revolution  in the social condition1 now
 preparing in ,europe1 is chiefly       
concerned  with the future of the       
workers and the women4 ,in this ,i place
 all my  hopes and expectations2 for    

this ,i will work all my life and with  
all  my strength40 ,in private          
conversation1 it is said1 ,ibsen        
describes  himself as a ,socialist1     
although he has not identified himself  
with any  definite school of ,socialism4
    ,in personal appearance he is rather
 short1 but impressive and very         
vigorous4 ,he has a peculiarly broad and
 high forehead1 with small1  keen1      
blue-grey eyes 8which seem to penetrate 
to the heart of things40  ,his firm and 
compressed mouth is characteristic of   
8the man of the iron  will10 as he has  
been called by a fellow-countryman4     
,altogether it  is a remarkable and     
significant face1 clear-seeing and      
alert1 with a  decisive energy of will  
about it that none can fail to          
recognize4 ,it is  far indeed from the  
typical 8pure1 extravagant1 yearning1   
questioning  artist's face40 ,in middle 
age it recalled1 rather1 the faces of   
some of  our most distinguished         
surgeons2 as is perhaps meet in the case

 of a  writer who has used so skilful   
and daring a scalpel to cut to the core 
of social diseases4 ,in society1        
although he likes talking to the common 
people1 ,ibsen is usually reserved and  
silent2 or his conversation  deals with 
the most ordinary topics2 8he talks like
 a wholesale  tradesman10 it has been   
said4    ,ibsen's dramas 7excluding two 
or three which have not been published7 
may be conveniently divided into three  
groups1 but the division is a  rough    
one1 for the groups merge one into      
another2 ,ibsen's artistic  development 
has been gradual and continuous4--#a4   
,historical and  ,legendary ,dramas1    
chiefly in ,prose3 ,the youthful        
8,catilina0 7written  in #ahej1 but     
revised at a later period71 which stands
 by itself1 and  contains the germ of   
much of his later work2 8,fru ,inger til
 straat0  7,dame ,inger of straat71     
#ahee1 an effective melodramatic play of
  great technical skill2 8,gildet paa   
,solhaug0 7,the ,feast at ,solhaug71  an

 historical play of the fourteenth      
century1 written in #ahee1 and          
reprinted in #ahhc1 with a preface      
explaining its genesis2 8,hrmndene  paa 
,helgeland0 7,the ,warriors at          
,helgeland71 #aheh1 a noble version of  
the ,volsunga-,saga1 here brought down  
to more historical times1 so as to      
present a vivid and human picture of the
 ,viking period2 8,kongs-emnerne0  7,the
 ,pretenders71 #ahfd1 dealing with      
,norwegian history in the twelfth       
century2 8,keiser og ,galiler0 7,emperor
 and ,galilean71 finished in  #ahgc1 but
 begun many years earlier4 #b4 ,dramatic
 ,poems3 8,kjrlighedens  ,komedie0      
7,love's ,comedy71 #ahfb2 8,brand10     
#ahff2 8,peer ,gynt10 #ahfg4 #c4        
,social ,dramas3 8,de ,unges ,forbund0  
7,the ,young ,men's ,league71 #ahfi2    
8,samfundets ,sttter0 7,the ,pillars of 
,society71 #ahgg2 8,et ,dukkehjem0  7,a 
,doll's ,house71 #ahgi2 8,gengangere0   
7,ghosts71 #ahha2 8,en ,folkefiende0    
7,an ,enemy of ,society71 #ahhb2        

8,vildanden0 7,the ,wild ,duck71 #ahhd2 
8,rosmersholm10 #ahhf2 8,fruen fra      
,havet0 7,the ,lady from the ,sea71     
#ahhh4    8,hrmndene paa ,helgeland0 is 
,ibsen's first great drama2 it has1     
indeed1 been called the most perfect of 
his plays4 ,the antique form  and       
substance which he imposed upon himself 
compelled him to a severe               
self-restraint2 the style also of the   
drama1 which is in prose1 is  austerely 
simple and strong4 ,yet there is at the 
same time a curious  and undisguised    
modern note about this work1 and we feel
 throughout the  presence of that spirit
 which gives life to ,ibsen's plays of  
to-day4  ,the strong1 passionate figure 
of ,hjrdis fills most of the field1     
however finely the lesser figures are   
moulded4 ,she is the ,brunhild of  the  
ancient story1 yet she is the same woman
 who is the heroine and  the hero of all
 ,ibsen's social dramas2 a strong and   
passionate woman1  instinct with        
suppressed energy to which the natural  

outlets have been  closed1 and which is 
transformed into volcanic outbreaks of  
disaster4  8,a woman1 a woman10 she says
 to ,dagny1 who is shocked at a remark  
about  using the armour and weapons of a
 man1 and mixing among men1 8there  is  
no one who knows what a woman can do40  
,her father having been  slain1 she is  
brought as a young girl into the        
conqueror's household4  ,she finds a    
temporary satisfaction in the exercise  
of her physical  strength4 ,when the    
mild and honourable warrior ,sigurd     
comes with his  feeble friend ,gunnar1  
both fall in love with her1 and she1    
without  speaking it1 returns ,sigurd's 
love4 ,she promises to give herself to  
him who can perform the greatest feat of
 strength1 and ,sigurd1 by a  ruse1 wins
 her for his friend ,gunnar1 himself    
taking to wife the gentle  ,dagny4      
,henceforth there is something strange  
and incalculable in all  the deeds of   
,hjrdis1 and a concentrated bitterness  
in her words4 ,when  afterwards she     

learns that ,sigurd had once loved her1 
the proud and  reserved woman offers in 
vain to put on helmet and breastplate   
and to  follow him through the earth4   
8,i have been homeless in the world from
  the day that you took another to wife4
 ,ill was that deed of yours4 ,all  good
 gifts may a man give to his trothful   
friend1--all1 but not the  woman he     
holds dear4 ,when he does that deed1 he 
breaks the thread that  the ,norns have 
spun1 and wastes two lives40 ,hjrdis is 
the woman of the  social dramas1 but it 
has not yet occurred to her that she has
 a life  of her own4    8,emperor and   
,galilean10#aj although historical and  
written in prose1  is very unlike       
8,hrmndene paa ,helgeland02 it belongs1 
indeed1 in date  as well as in          
character1 almost as much to the second 
group4 ,it is  made up of two five-act  
dramas1 presenting a series of brilliant
 and  powerful scenes in the life of the
 ,emperor ,julian1 lacking1 however1    
dramatic unity and culminating interest4

 ,it is probable that the  disconnected 
character of the work1 and its undue    
length1 is owing to  the long period    
which intervened between its            
commencement in ,norway and  its        
completion at ,rome4 ,it is1 in its     
parts1 undoubtedly a fascinating  work2 
we trace ,julian's life from his youth  
as a student of philosophy  to his death
 as ,emperor conquered by the ,galilean4
 ,the interest of  his life lies in his 
various relations to the growing        
,christianity  and decaying ,paganism by
 which he is surrounded4 ,julian        
realizes the  possibility of a third    
religion--8the reconciliation between   
nature  and spirit1 the return to nature
 through spirit3 that is the task for   
humanity40 ,but he imagines that he is  
himself the divine representative  of   
this new religion4 ,his friend ,maximus 
prophesies at the end 8,the  third      
kingdom shall come6 ,the spirit of man  
shall take its inheritance  once more40 
,julian failed because he was weak and  

vain1 and because  the age was against  
him2 he dies with the cry on his lips1  
8,thou hast  conquered1 ,o ,galilean60  
#aj ,it may be noted that this was the  
first of ,ibsen's dramas to be          
translated into ,english1 by ,miss      
,catherine ,ray1 in #ahgf4 ,to ,mr4     
,gosse  belongs the honour of having    
first introduced ,ibsen to ,english     
readers1  in an article in the          
8,fortnightly10 in #ahgd4 ,the first of 
his social  dramas to be translated into
 ,english was 8,the ,doll's ,house0     
7under the  title of 8,nora071 by ,miss 
,frances ,lord in #ahhb4    8,love's    
,comedy10 the earliest of the poems of  
the second group1 is the  first work in 
which ,ibsen's characteristic modern    
tone appears1 not  again to vanish4 ,it 
is a satire on the various conventional 
phases  of love1 exquisite in form but  
comparatively slight in texture4 ,in    
8,brand0 ,ibsen produced a poem which   
for imagination and sombre energy       
stands alone4 ,it is perhaps the most   

widely known of all his works2 in       
,germany it has already found four      
translators1 and there is reason to     
hope that before long a translation will
 appear in ,england4 8,brand0 is  the   
tragedy of will and self-sacrifice in   
the service of the ideal--a  narrow     
ideal1 but less narrow1 ,ibsen seems    
sometimes to hint1 than the  ideals of  
most of us4 ,the motto on which ,brand  
acts in all the crises  of his life is1 
8,all or nothing20 and with him it means
 in every case  the crushing of some    
human emotion or relationship for the   
fulfilment  of a religious duty4 ,soon  
after the commencement of the poem      
,brand  became the pastor of a gloomy   
little northern valley1 between         
mountains  and glaciers1 into which the 
sun seldom penetrates4 ,he is           
accompanied  by his wife ,agnes1 a      
pathetic image of love and devotion4 ,a 
child is  born to them1 but soon dies in
 this sun-forsaken valley4 ,there are   
few  passages in literature of more     

penetrating pathos than the scene in the
  fourth act in which1 one ,christmas   
eve1 the first anniversary of the       
child's death1 ,brand persuades ,agnes  
to give her ,alf's clothes--the  last   
loved relics--to a beggar-woman who     
comes to the door with her  child during
 a snowstorm4 ,soon ,agnes also dies4   
,in the end1 stoned  by his flock1      
,brand makes his way1 bleeding1 up into 
the mountains4  ,here1 amid the wild    
rocks and his own hallucinations1 he is 
met by a  mad girl who mistakes him for 
the thorn-crowned ,christ4 ,this scene1 
in  which1 overwhelmed at last by an    
avalanche1 ,brand dies amid his broken  
ideals1 attains an imaginative height   
not elsewhere reached in modern         
literature1 and for the like of which we
 have to look back to the great  scene  
on the heath in 8,lear40 ,here and      
elsewhere1 however1 ,ibsen brings  in   
supernatural voices1 which scarcely     
heighten the natural grandeur  of the   
scene1 and which seem out of place      

altogether in a poem so  entirely       
modern4 8,brand0 brings before us a     
wealth of figures and of  discussions1  
carried on in brief1 clear1 musical1    
though irregular1  metrical form1 and it
 would be impossible to analyze so      
complex a work  within moderate compass4
    8,peer ,gynt10 is regarded in his   
own country as ,ibsen's most important  
achievement1 for it is a great modern   
national epic1 the ,scandinavian        
8,faust40 ,a successful attempt has even
 been made to represent it on the       
stage1 the incidental music being       
composed by ,grieg4 ,the name of its    
hero and many incidents in his career   
have their home in old ,norwegian       
folk-lore1 and ,ibsen has himself       
declared that ,peer ,gynt is intended   
as the representative of the ,norwegian 
people4 ,peer is the child of           
imagination who lives in a world in     
which fantasy and reality can  scarcely 
be distinguished4 ,he is an egoist with 
colossal ambitions2  at the same time he

 is by no means wanting in worldly      
wisdom2 he goes  to ,america1 and makes 
a large fortune 7later on suddenly lost7
 by the  importation of slaves and the  
exportation of idols to ,china1 a trade 
which he reconciles to his conscience by
 opening up another branch of  business 
for supplying missionaries 7at a        
considerable profit7 with  ,bibles and  
rum4 ,the whole is a series of scenes   
and adventures1 often  fantastic or     
symbolic in character1 always touched by
 that profound  irony which is ,ibsen's 
most marked feature4 ,one scene is so   
original  and penetrative that it stands
 alone in literature4 ,it is that scene 
of  peculiarly ,norwegian essence in    
which ,peer ,gynt enters the hut in     
which  his mother lies dying1 with the  
fire on the hearth and the old tom-cat  
on a stool at the bottom of the bed4 ,he
 talks to her in the tone of the  days  
of childhood1 reminding her how they    
used to play at driving to  the         
fairy-tale castle of ,soria ,moria4 ,he 

sits at the foot of the bed1  throws a  
string round the stool on which the cat 
lies1 takes a stick in  his hand1       
imagines a journey to ,heaven--the      
altercation with ,st4 ,peter  at the    
gate1 the deep bass voice of ,god       
declaring that ,mother ,aase  shall     
enter free--and lulls her to death with 
the stories with which  she had once    
lulled him to sleep4 ,at a much later   
date in his career  ,peer finds himself 
in a madhouse at ,cairo1 where he is    
assured that  his own guiding principle 
of the self-sufficiency of the          
individual1  without regard for the     
actions or opinions of others1 is       
carried out to  its extreme limits4 ,he 
is here acclaimed as emperor and crowned
 with a  garland of straw4 ,thus are his
 dreams of power fulfilled4 ,in the end 
he  returns1 a white-haired old man1 to 
be eagerly welcomed by the faithful     
,solveig1 whom1 as a girl1 he had       
forsaken1 and who is now an old woman1  
still waiting for him with the kingdom  

of love that he had missed4  ,the poem  
ends with the picture of ,solveig       
singing over her lover a  cradle-song of
 death4 ,the failure of an              
over-mastering imagination and  weak    
will to attain the love that alone      
satisfies1 that is the last  lesson of  
this marvellous work1 so full of        
manifold meaning4    ,it is certainly by
 the third and latest group--the ,social
 ,dramas--that  ,ibsen has attracted    
most attention both in his own country  
and abroad4  ,they are all written in   
mature life1 and he has here devoted his
 early  acquired mastery of the         
technical requirements of the drama1 as 
well  as the later acquired experiences 
of men1 to a keen criticism of the      
social life of to-day4 ,he himself1 it  
is said1 regards these plays  as his    
chief title to remembrance4 ,it is      
scarcely possible to say so  much as    
this when we think of 8,hrmndene paa    
,helgeland10 of 8,brand10  and of 8,peer
 ,gynt40 ,but it certainly does not     

befit us of to-day to  complain that    
,ibsen has devoted his most mature art  
to work which has  a significance which 
to-day at all events cannot be          
over-estimated4  ,that significance may 
be very easily set forth2 the spirit    
that works  through ,ibsen's latest     
dramas is the same that may be detected 
in  his earliest1 8,catilina20 it is an 
eager insistance that the social        
environment shall not cramp the         
reasonable freedom of the individual1   
together with a passionately intense    
hatred of all those conventional  lies  
which are commonly regarded as 8the     
pillars of society40 ,but this  impulse 
that underlies nearly all ,ibsen's      
dramas of the last group is  always     
under the control of a great dramatic   
artist4 ,the dialogue is  brief and     
incisive2 every word tells1 and none is 
superfluous2 there  is no brilliant play
 of dialogue for its own sake4 8,the    
illusion ,i  wish to produce10 he has   
himself said1 8is that of truth itself1 

,i want to produce upon the reader the  
impression that what he is  reading is  
actually taking place before him40 ,in  
the hands of a meaner  artist such an   
attempt would be fatal2 to ,ibsen it has
 brought greater  strength4 ,if there is
 fault to find in the construction of   
,ibsen's  prose dramas1 it lies in their
 richness of material2 the subsidiary   
episodes are frequently dramas in       
themselves1 although duly subordinate   
to the main purpose of the play4 ,the   
care lavished on the development  and   
episodes of these dramas is equalled by 
the reality and variety  of the persons 
presented4 ,these are never mere        
embodied 8humours0 or  sarcastic        
caricatures2 the terrible keenness of   
,ibsen's irony comes of  the simple     
truth and moderation with which he      
describes these social  humbugs who are 
yet so eminently reasonable and like    
ourselves4 ,every  figure brought before
 us1 even the most insignificant1 is an 
organic  and complex personality1 to be 

recognized without trick or catchword4  
8,the ,young ,men's ,league10 the       
earliest of the series1 deals with the  
rise and progress of one ,stensgaard4   
,he is a man whose character is         
essentially vulgar and commonplace1 but 
who is undoubtedly clever1 and  whose   
ambition it is to gain political        
success4 ,at the same time he  is       
short-sighted1 conceited1 absolutely    
wanting in tact4 ,he is even  unstable1 
save in the great central aim of his    
life1 which he seeks  to bring about by 
the formation of a compact majority of  
voters1 of  which the nucleus is the    
,young ,men's ,league4 ,stensgaard is   
always  at his best as an orator2 he is 
a ,numa ,roumestan1 genial1 almost      
childishly open-hearted1 with a flow of 
facile emotion and a great  mastery of  
phrases4 ,we leave him under a cloud of 
contempt but nowise  defeated2 and we   
are given to understand that he is on   
his way to  the highest offices of      
state4 ,in this vivid and skilful       

portrait of  the representative leader  
of semi-democratized societies1 ,ibsen  
has  given his chief utterance on       
current political methods4 ,it is       
scarcely  favourable4 ,he realizes that 
government by party mobs1 each headed by
  a ,stensgaard--a phase in the progress
 towards complete democratization       
illustrated in ,england to-day--is by no
 means altogether satisfactory4  8,a    
party10 remarks ,dr4 ,stockmann1 in 8,an
 ,enemy of ,society10 8is like  a       
sausage-machine3 it grinds all the heads
 together in one mash40  ,something more
 fundamental even than party government 
is needed1 and  in some words written in
 #ahgj ,ibsen has briefly expressed what
 he  conceives to be the pith of the    
matter3--    8,the coming time--how all 
our notions will fall into the dust     
then6  ,and truly it is high time4 ,all 
that we have lived on up till now has   
been the remnants of the revolutionary  
dishes of the last century1 and  we have
 been long enough chewing these over and

 over again4 ,our ideas  demand a new   
substance and a new interpretation4     
,liberty1 equality1 and  fraternity are 
no longer the same things that they were
 in the days of  the blessed guillotine2
 but it is just this that the           
politicians will  not understand1 and   
that is why ,i hate them4 ,these people 
only desire  partial revolutions1       
revolutions in externals1 in politics4  
,but these  are mere trifles4 ,there is 
only one thing that avails--to          
revolutionize  people's minds40    ,he  
is not an aristocrat of the school of   
,carlyle1 eager to put  everything      
beneath the foot of a ,cromwell or a    
,bismarck4 ,the great  task for         
democracy is1 as ,rosmer says in        
8,rosmersholm10 8to make every  man in  
the land a nobleman40 8,the ,state must 
go60 ,ibsen wrote to ,g4  ,brandes in   
#ahgj4 8,that will be a revolution which
 will find me on its  side4 ,undermine  
the idea of the ,state1 set up in its   
place spontaneous  action1 and the idea 

that spiritual relationship is the only 
thing that  makes for unity1 and you    
will start the elements of a liberty    
which  will be something worth          
possessing40 ,it is only by the creation
 of  great men and women1 by the        
enlargement to the utmost of the        
reasonable  freedom of the individual1  
that the realization of ,democracy is   
possible4 ,and herein1 as in other      
fundamental matters1 ,ibsen is at one   
with the ,american1 with whom he would  
appear at first sight to have  little in
 common4 8,where the men and women think
 lightly of the laws2  444 where the    
populace rise at once against the       
never-ending audacity  of elected       
persons2 444 where outside authority    
enters always after  the precedence of  
inside authority2 where the citizen is  
always the  head and ideal2 where       
children are taught to be laws to       
themselves2 444  there the great city   
stands60 exclaims ,walt ,whitman4    ,in
 8,the ,pillars of ,society0--which was 

separated from 8,the ,young ,men's      
,league0 by the appearance of 8,emperor 
and ,galilean0--,ibsen pours  delicious 
irony on those conventional lies which  
are regarded as the  foundations of     
social and domestic life4 ,here also he 
presents us with  one of the most       
eminent of the group of 8governors1     
teachers1 spiritual  pastors and        
masters0 that throughout these plays    
strive to act as the  pillars of the    
social system4 ,straamand in 8,love's   
,comedy10 ,manders  in 8,ghosts10 the   
schoolmaster1 ,rrlund1 here1 with many  
minor figures  scattered through other  
plays1 notwithstanding slight           
differences1 are  closely allied4 ,the  
clergyman is for ,ibsen the supreme     
representative  and exponent of         
conventional morality4 ,yet the         
dramatist never falls  into the mistake 
of some of his ,scandinavian            
contemporaries who make  their clerical 
figures mere caricatures4 ,here1 as     
always1 it is  because it is so         

reasonable and truthful that ,ibsen's   
irony is so  keen4 ,rrlund is honest and
 conscientious1 but the thinnest veils  
of  propriety are impenetrable to him2  
he can see nothing but the obvious  and 
external aspects of morality2 he is     
incapable of grasping a new  idea1 or of
 sympathizing with any natural instinct 
or generous emotion2  it is his part to 
give utterance1 impressive with the     
sanction of  religion1 to the           
traditional maxims of the society he    
morally supports4  ,pastor ,manders1 in 
8,ghosts10 is less fluent than ,rrlund1 
and of  stronger character4 ,his        
training and experience have fitted him 
to deal  in all dignity with the        
proprieties and conventions of social   
morality2  but when he is in the        
presence of the realities of life1 or   
when a  generous human thought or       
emotion flashes out before him1 he      
shrinks  back1 shocked and cowed4 ,he is
 then1 as ,mrs4 ,alving says1 nothing   
but  a great child4 ,that ,ibsen is1 in 

his clerical personages1 as some have   
said1 covertly attacking ,protestantism1
 it is not necessary to assert4  ,it is 
the traditional morality1 of which the  
priesthood everywhere  are the chief and
 authorized exponents1 with which he is 
chiefly  concerned4 ,his attitude       
towards ,christianity generally we may  
perhaps  gather from the intensity of   
feeling with which ,julian1 in 8,emperor
 and  ,galilean10 expresses his         
passionate repugnance to its doctrine of
 the  evil of human nature and its      
policy of suppression4 8,you can never  
understand it1 you10 he continues1 8who 
have never been in the power of  this   
,god-,man4 ,it is more than a doctrine  
which he has spread over the  world2 it 
is a charm which has fettered the       
senses4 ,whoever falls once  into his   
hands--,i think he never becomes free   
again4 ,we are like vines  planted in a 
foreign soil2 plant us back again and we
 should perish2  yet we languish in this
 new earth40    8,a ,doll's ,house0     

contains ,ibsen's most elaborate        
portrait of a woman1  and it is his     
chief contribution to the elucidation of
 the questions  relating to the social  
functions and position of women in the  
modern  world4 ,it is the tragedy of    
marriage1 and on this ground it has     
excited  much discussion1 and is perhaps
 the most widely known of ,ibsen's      
social  dramas4 ,as a work of art it is 
probably the most perfect of them4 ,he  
has here thrown off the last fragments  
of that conventionality in  treatment   
which frequently mars the two previous  
plays1 and has reached  the full        
development of his own style4 ,the play 
is an organic whole1  all its parts are 
intimately bound together1 and every    
step in the  development is vital and   
inevitable4 ,nora herself1 the occupant 
of the  doll's house1 is a being whose  
adult instincts have been temporarily   
arrested by the influences which have   
made her an overgrown child4  ,she is   
the daughter of a frivolous official of 

doubtful honesty2  she has been fed on  
those maxims of conventional morality of
 which  ,rrlund is so able an exponent2 
and her chief recreation has been in    
the servants' room4 ,she is now a       
mother1 and the wife of a man who       
shields her carefully from all contact  
with the world4 ,he refrains  from      
sharing with her his work or his        
troubles2 he fosters all her  childish  
instincts2 she is a source of enjoyment 
to him1 a precious  toy4 ,he is a man of
 sthetic tastes1 and his love for her   
has something  of the delight that one  
takes in a work of art4 ,nora's conduct 
is the  natural outcome of her training 
and experience4 ,she tells lies with    
facility2 she flirts almost recklessly  
to attain her own ends2 when  money is  
concerned her conceptions of right are  
so elementary that she  forges her      
father's name4 ,but she acts from the   
impulses of a loving  heart2 her motives
 are always good2 she is not conscious  
of guilt4 ,her  education in life has   

not led her beyond the stage of the     
affectionate  child with no sense of    
responsibility4 ,but the higher         
instincts are  latent within her2 and   
they awake when the light of day at     
length  penetrates her doll's house1 and
 she learns the judgment of the world1  
of which her husband now stands forth as
 the stern interpreter4 ,in the  clash  
and shock of that moment she realizes   
that her marriage has been  no marriage1
 that she has been living all these     
years with a 8strange  man10 and that   
she is no fit mother for her children4  
,she leaves her  home1 not to return    
until1 as she says1 to live with her    
husband will  be a real marriage4 ,will 
she ever return8--,the ,norwegian poets1
 it has  been said1 like to end their   
dramas1 as such end in life1 with a note
  of interrogation4    ,nora is one of a
 group of women1 more or less highly    
developed1  who are distributed         
throughout ,ibsen's later plays4 ,they  
stand1 in  their stagnant conventional  

environment1 as1 either instinctively or
  intelligently1 actually or            
potentially1 the representatives of     
freedom  and truth2 they contain the    
promise of a new social order4 ,the men 
in these plays1 who are able to estimate
 their social surroundings  at a just   
value1 have mostly been wounded or      
paralyzed in the battle  of life2 they  
stand by1 half-cynical1 and are content 
to be merely  spectators4 ,but the      
women--,selma1 ,lona1 ,nora1 ,mrs4      
,alving1 ,rebecca--are  full of         
unconquerable energy4 ,there is a new   
life in their breasts that  surges1     
often tumultuously1 into very practical 
expression4    ,as 8,the ,doll's ,house0
 is the tragedy of marriage1 so         
8,ghosts0 is the  tragedy of heredity4  
,this wonderful play is the logical     
outcome and  continuation of 8,the      
,doll's ,house40 ,mrs4 ,alving is a     
,nora who had  resolved to cling to her 
husband in spite of all1 and here is the
  result4 ,she is a woman of energy and 

intellect1 who has managed the  estate1 
and devoted herself successfully to the 
task of creating an  artificial odour of
 sanctity around the memory of her late 
husband4  ,at the same time she has been
 gradually throwing aside the precepts  
of the morality in which she has been   
educated1 and has learned to  think for 
herself4 ,when her son ,oswald returns  
home1 in reality dying  of disease that 
has been latent from his birth1 he seems
 to her the  ghost of his father4 ,his  
own life has been free from excess1 but 
he  now drinks too much2 and he begins  
to make love to the girl who is  really 
his half-sister1 exactly as his father  
had done to her mother  in the same     
place4 ,the scene finally closes over   
the first clear signs  of his madness4  
,the irony of the play is chiefly       
brought about by  the involuntary agency
 of ,pastor ,manders1 the consummate    
flower of  conventional morality1 and in
 the few hours which the action covers  
the tragedy of heredity is slowly and   

relentlessly unfolded1 with the  vanity 
of all efforts to conceal or suppress   
the great natural forces  of life4      
,in 8,ghosts10 it seems to me1 ,ibsen   
reached the highest point of his  art4  
,he deals here with commonplace         
characters and everyday scenes2  most of
 the action is conveyed in mere         
drawing-room dialogue2 but  we feel how 
the clearness and completeness of this  
play1 its tragic  intensity1 its immense
 concentration1 have at the back the    
whole of  ,ibsen's various achievement4 
,when we reach the end we experience    
that prolonged shudder of horror1 in    
which1 as ,aristotle said1 the          
purification of tragedy lies1 and we    
involuntarily recall whatever is  most  
awful in literature1 the 8,oresteia0 of 
schylus1 ,shakespeare's  8,macbeth10    
,shelley's 8,cenci40 ,it is only on more
 intimate acquaintance  that we are able
 to look beyond the horror of it1 and   
that we realize  here1 better than      
elsewhere1 how ,ibsen has absorbed the  

scientific  influences of his time1 the 
attitude of unlimited simplicity and    
trust  in the face of reality4 8,i      
almost think10 ,mrs4 ,alving says1 8that
 we  are all of us ghosts1 ,pastor      
,manders4 ,it is not only what we have  
inherited from our father and mother    
that #8walks' in us1--it is all  sorts  
of dead ideas and lifeless old beliefs  
and so forth4 ,they have  no vitality1  
but they cling to us all the same1 and  
we can't get rid  of them4 ,whenever ,i 
take up a newspaper ,i seem to see      
ghosts gliding  between the lines4      
,there must be ghosts all the country   
over1 as thick  as the sand of the sea40
 ,there is the absolute acceptance of   
facts1  however disagreeable4 ,but1     
beside it1 is the hope that lies in the 
skilful probing of the wound that the   
ignorant have foolishly smothered  up2  
the hope also that lies in a glad trust 
of nature and of natural  instincts4    
,nowhere else in ,ibsen's work can we   
feel so strong and  invigorating a      

breath of new life4    8,an ,enemy of   
,society0 is closely connected in its   
origin with  8,ghosts40 ,when 8,ghosts0 
was published it aroused fierce         
antagonism4  ,such a subject was not    
suited1 it was said1 to artistic        
treatment4  ,the discussion was foolish 
enough2 the wise saying of ,goethe still
  remains true1 that 8no real           
circumstance is unpoetic so long as the 
poet knows how to use it40 ,all the     
worthy people1 however1 in whose  name  
,pastor ,manders is entitled to speak1  
declared1 further1 that the  play was   
immoral--as it certainly is from their  
point of view--and  it was some time    
before its first representation on the  
stage1 with  the distinguished northern 
actor1 ,lindberg1 in the part of        
,oswald4  ,ibsen had expected a storm1  
but the storm was even greater than he  
had anticipated2 and in the history of  
,dr4 ,stockmann he has given an         
artistic version of his own experiences 
at this time4 ,it is pleasant  that the 

only figure in these plays that we can  
intimately associate  with ,ibsen       
himself is that of the manly and genial 
,stockmann4 ,when  he discovers that the
 water at the ,baths1 of which he is the
 medical  director1 and which are the   
chief cause of the town's prosperity1   
are  infected and producing disastrous  
results to the invalids1 he resolves    
that the matter shall at once be made   
known and remedied4 ,it is in the  shock
 of the universal disapprobation that   
this resolution arouses that  our genial
 and homely doctor is lifted into       
heroism1 and becomes the  mouthpiece of 
truths with far-reaching significance4  
,the great scene  in the fourth act1 in 
which he calls a public meeting as the  
only  remaining way to make his         
discovery public1 and1 amid general     
clamour1  sets forth his opinions1 is   
one of the most powerful and genuinely  
dramatic that ,ibsen has ever written4  
8,the ,wild ,duck0 is1 as a drama1 the  
least remarkable of ,ibsen's plays  of  

this group4 ,there is no central        
personage who absorbs our attention1    
and no great situation4 ,for the first  
time also we detect a certain  tendency 
to mannerism1 and the dramatist's love  
of symbolism1 here  centred in the wild 
duck1 becomes obtrusive and disturbing4 
,yet this  play has a distinct and      
peculiar interest for the student of    
,ibsen's  works4 ,the satirist who has  
so keenly pursued others has never      
spared  himself2 in the lines that he   
has set at the end of the charming      
little  volume in which he has collected
 his poems1 he declares that1 8to write 
poetry is to hold a doomsday over       
oneself40 ,or1 as he has elsewhere      
expressed it3 8,all that ,i have written
 corresponds to something that  ,i have 
lived through1 if not actually          
experienced4 ,every new poem has  served
 as a spiritual process of emancipation 
and purification40 ,in  both 8,brand0   
and 8,peer ,gynt0 we may detect this    
process4 ,in 8,the ,wild  ,duck0 ,ibsen 

has set himself on the side of his      
enemies1 and written1  as a kind of     
anti-mask to 8,the ,doll's ,house0 and  
8,the ,pillars of  ,society10 a play in 
which1 from the standpoint to which the 
dramatist  has accustomed us1 everything
 is topsy-turvy4 ,gregers ,werle is a   
young man1 possessing something of the  
reckless will-power of ,brand1  who is  
devoted to the claims of the ideal1 and 
who is doubtless an  enthusiastic       
student of ,ibsen's social dramas4 ,on  
returning home after  a long absence he 
learns that his father has provided for 
a cast-off  mistress by marrying her to 
an unsuspecting man who is an old friend
  of ,gregers'4 ,he resolves at once    
that it is his duty at all costs to     
destroy the element of falsehood in this
 household1 and to lay the  foundations 
of a true marriage4 ,his interference   
ends in disaster2  the weak average     
human being fails to respond properly to
 8the claims  of the ideal20 while      
,werle's father1 the chief pillar of    

conventional  society in the play1      
spontaneously forms a true marriage1    
founded on  mutual confessions and      
mutual trust4 ,if the play may be       
regarded1 not  quite unfairly1 as a     
burlesque of possible deductions from   
the earlier  plays1 it witnesses also1  
like 8,ghosts10 to ,ibsen's profound    
conviction  that all vital development  
must be spontaneous and from within1    
conditioned by the nature of the        
individual4    ,in 8,the ,wild ,duck0   
,ibsen approaches in his own manner1    
without1  however1 much insistence1 the 
mural aspects of the equality of  the   
sexes4 ,is a woman1 who has had no      
relationships with a man  before        
marriage1 entitled to expect the same in
 her husband8 ,is a  man1 who has had   
relationships with other women before   
marriage1  entitled to complain if his  
wife has also had such relationships8   
,these are the sort of questions which  
the ,scandinavian and ,danish           
dramatists--,bjrnson1 ,eduard ,brandes1 

,charlotte ,edgren1 ,benzon--seem  never
 tired of discussing4 ,eduard ,brandes  
makes his admirable little  drama 8,et  
,besg10 published about the same time as
 8,vildanden10 hang  on this problem1   
and although he brings no new idea into 
the play1 he  settles the question in   
the same spirit as his great            
fellow-dramatist4  8,en ,hanske10 also  
published about the same time1 gives us 
,bjrnson's  contribution to the         
question4 ,in this play a young woman is
 in love  with a young man who1 as she  
learns accidentally at the moment of    
formally engaging herself to him1 has   
had previous relationships with  other  
women4 ,at the same time she discovers  
that her own father1 an  amiable old    
lgant1 has been frequently unfaithful to
 his wife1  and that her mother still   
carries about a suppressed bitterness4  
,the  girl realizes that life is not    
like what she has been brought up to    
believe2 she rejects her lover1 and     
after some unexpected and quite         

unnecessary brutalities from him1 flings
 her glove in his face4 ,all  ,bjrnson's
 genial vivacity and emotional          
expansiveness come out in  the earlier  
scenes of this play1 and there is some  
pleasant comedy1  especially when the   
easy-going father tries to lecture his  
daughter1  to the accompaniment of her  
acute comments and the wife's sarcastic 
exclamations1 on a wife's privileges4   
8,here10 he says1 8is woman's  noblest  
calling40 8,as what80 asks the daughter4
 8,as what8--,have you  not listened8   
,as--as the ennobling influence in      
marriage1 as that  which makes man      
purer1 as1 as----0 8,soap80 8,soap8 what
 on earth makes  you think of soap80    
8,you make out that marriage is a great 
laundry  for men4 ,we girls are to stand
 ready1 each at her wash-tub1 with her  
piece of soap4 ,is that how you mean    
it80 ,on this ground1 however1 it  is   
difficult to avoid comparisons with     
,ibsen1 and we miss here both  the      
artistic and moral grip of the greater  

dramatist4 ,ibsen's solution  of the    
matter in 8,the ,wild ,duck0 seems to be
 that there can be no true  marriage    
without mutual knowledge and mutual     
confession4    ,in 8,rosmersholm10      
social questions have passed into the   
background3  they are present1 indeed1  
throughout2 and to some extent they     
cause  the tragedy of the drama1 as the 
numberless threads that bind a man to   
his past1 and that cut and oppress him  
when he strives to take a step  forward4
 ,but on this grey background the       
passionate figure of ,rebecca  ,west    
forms a vivid and highly-wrought        
portrait4 ,ibsen has rarely shown  such 
intimate interest in the development of 
passion4 ,the whole life  and soul of   
this ardent1 silent woman1 whom we see  
in the first scene  quietly working at  
her crochet1 while the housekeeper      
prepares the  supper1 are gradually     
revealed to us in brief flashes of light
 between  the subsidiary episodes1 until
 at last she ascends and disappears down

  the inevitable path to the mill       
stream4 ,the touches which complete this
  picture are too many and too subtle to
 allow of analysis2 in the last  scene  
,ibsen's concentrated prose reaches as  
high a pitch of emotional  intensity as 
he has ever cared to attain4    8,the   
,lady from the ,sea0 seems to carry us  
into an atmosphere rather  different    
from that of the early social dramas4   
,an element of melodrama  mingles here  
with the social interest1 and makes this
 play one of  the least characteristic1 
but certainly one of the most           
dramatically  effective of the group4   
,ellida1 a morbid1 romantic young woman1
 whose  mother died insane1 has met     
before her marriage the second mate of  
an  ,american ship1 a 8stranger20 he    
attracts her with all the charm of  the 
wild life of the sea and the fascination
 of the unknown4 ,having  perpetrated a 
more or less justifiable homicide1 the  
second mate is  compelled to flee1 not  
before he has gone through a form of    

betrothal  with ,ellida4 ,subsequently  
she marries a well-meaning1 commonplace 
widower1 but she wanders helplessly and 
uselessly through life1 like  a mermaid 
among the children of men1 still held1  
in spite of herself1  by the old        
fascination of the sea4 ,at length the  
mysterious 8stranger0  turns up again1  
resolved1 if she wishes1 to carry her   
off in spite of  everything4 ,she feels 
that she must be free--free to go or    
free to  stay4 ,the husband1 naturally1 
refuses to hear of this1 proposes to    
send the man about his business4 ,at    
length he consents to allow her  to     
choose as she will4 ,then at once she   
feels able to decide against  the       
8stranger10 who leaps over the wall and 
disappears4 ,the charm is  broken for   
ever1 and she has the chance to make    
something of her life4  ,the moral is   
evident3 without freedom of choice there
 can be no real  emancipation or        
development4    ,the men of our own     
great dramatic period wrote plays which 

are the  expression of mere gladness of 
heart and childlike pleasure in the     
splendid and various spectacle of the   
world4 ,hamlet and ,falstaff1 the       
tragic ,de ,flores and the comic ,simon 
,eyre1 they are all merely parts of  the
 play4 ,it is all play4 ,the breath of  
,ariosto's long song of delight  and    
,boccaccio's virile joy in life was     
still on these men1 and for  the        
organization of society1 or even for the
 development and fate of  the individual
 save as a spectacle1 they took little  
thought4 ,in the  modern world this is  
no longer possible2 rather1 it is only  
possible  for an occasional individual  
who is compelled to turn his back on the
  world4 ,ibsen1 like ,aristophanes1    
like ,molire1 and like ,dumas to-day1   
has given all his mature art and his    
knowledge of life and men to the        
service of ideas4 8,overthrowing society
 means an inverted pyramid  getting     
straight0--one of the audacious sayings 
of ,james ,hinton--might  be placed as a

 motto on the title-page of all ,ibsen's
 later plays4 ,his  work throughout is  
the expression of a great soul crushed  
by the weight  of an antagonistic social
 environment into utterance that has    
caused  him to be regarded as the most  
revolutionary of modern writers4    ,an 
artist and thinker1 whose gigantic      
strength has been nourished  chiefly in 
solitude1 whose works have been1 as he  
himself says in  one of his poems1      
8deeds of night10 written from afar1 can
 never be  genuinely popular4           
,everything that he writes is received  
in his own  country with attention and  
controversy2 but he is mistaken for a   
cynic  and pessimist2 he is not loved in
 ,norway as ,bjrnson is loved1 although 
,bjrnson1 in the fruitful dramatic      
activity of his second period1  has but 
followed in ,ibsen's steps2--just as    
,goethe was never so well  understood   
and appreciated as ,schiller4 ,bjrnson1 
with his genial  exuberance1 his popular
 sympathies and hopes1 never too far in 

advance  of his fellows1 invigorates and
 refreshes like one of the forces of    
nature4 ,he represents the summer side  
of his country1 in its bright  warmth   
and fragrance4 ,ibsen1 standing alone in
 the darkness in front1  absorbed in the
 problems of human life1 indifferent to 
the aspects of  external nature1 has    
closer affinities to the stern          
winter-night of  ,norway4 ,but there is 
a mighty energy in this man's work4 ,the
 ideas and  instincts1 developed in     
silence1 which inspire his art1 are of  
the kind  that penetrate men's minds    
slowly4 ,yet they penetrate surely1 and 
are  proclaimed at length in the        
market-place4          ,,tolstoi4       
,i4    ,russia is the natural mediator  
between ,europe and ,asia4 ,it happens  
with the regularity of an ethnic law    
that every race partakes of the         
characteristics of neighbouring races4  
,the extinct ,tasmanian1 by his  curious
 aberrations from the ,australian type  
and approximation to that  of           

,polynesia1 furnished an unexpected     
anthropological problem that is  still  
unsolved4 ,everywhere the same          
mysterious blending or transition  may  
be witnessed4 ,apart from complexion1 it
 has been said1 many a  ,russian peasant
 might pass in ,lahore or ,benares as a 
native of the  ,ganges valley4 ,whatever
 the ethnologist may say1 one way or    
another1  as to the racial elements of  
the country1 anyone who approaches the  
study of ,russian men and ,russian      
things perpetually meets with traits    
that are not familiar to him as         
,european1 but which he may have already
  learnt to know as ,asiatic4 ,nor is it
 only in the little traits of  character
 and daily life that these ,eastern     
influences appear2 the  language itself 
has close ,oriental affinities1 and the 
old ,sclavonic  is nearly related to    
,sanscrit4 ,in trying to make ,russia   
plain to  ourselves1 it is constantly   
necessary to sound this keynote4    ,a  
nation's instincts are revealed in its  

art4 ,the complex history  of the origin
 and development of ,russian art is full
 of interest4  8,russia10 as ,viollet le
 ,duc wrote in his charming book1       
8,l',art russe10  8has been a laboratory
 in which the arts coming from all parts
 of  ,asia have united to assume an     
intermediate form between the eastern   
and western worlds40 ,the art of ,russia
 has three great sources1 the           
,scythian1 the ,byzantine1 and the      
,mongolian1 but when these are analyzed 
it is found that each of them consists  
largely1 when not entirely1  of         
,oriental elements4 ,not less than      
nine-tenths of these component          
elements1 ,persian1 ,greek1 ,hindu1     
,finnic1 and other1 may1 in ,viollet  le
 ,duc's opinion1 be set down as         
,eastern4 ,sometimes the art of ,russia 
seems to have been almost effaced by    
,byzantine or ,hindu influences1  yet it
 ultimately assimilated all these       
,eastern influences until it  reached   
its highest point of development at the 

end of the sixteenth  century4 ,in the  
gilded bulbous domes we see ,hindu      
influence4 ,persian  influence was      
peculiarly strong2 the beautiful ,holy  
,gate of the ,church  of ,st4 ,john at  
,rostoff1 the work of sixteenth century 
,russian artists1  is of thoroughly     
,persian character4 ,all that ,russia   
took from ,central  ,asia and ,persia   
strengthened her art1 though it retained
 its own  characteristics1 shown partly 
by the love of splendour peculiar to  a 
youthful and semi-barbaric race1 as in  
the fantastic magnificence  of that     
8gigantic madrepore10 the ,church of    
,vassili ,blagennoi in the  ,kremlin at 
,moscow2 partly by a freedom of         
conception and variety of  execution in 
which the native spirit found           
expression4 ,gothic art1  with its whole
 gamut of notes1 from divine aspiration 
to grotesque  humour1 remained          
absolutely alien4 ,when ,peter the      
,great introduced  ,latin and ,teutonic 
influences1 and ,german1 ,italian1      

,english1 above  all1 ,french elements  
poured into the country1 an 8official   
,russia0  grew up1 speaking a foreign   
language and having no contact with the 
nation4 ,russia remained the same1 but  
the dissolution of ,russian art  was    
ensured4    ,the genuine ,russian spirit
 seems not to have emerged distinctively
 into  the region of great art until it 
was brought into the peculiarly modern  
and western shape of the novel by       
,gogol1 the ,ukranian ,cossack4 8,dead  
,souls0 is the first great ,russian     
example of the modern story-teller's    
art1 and still the most popular4        
,oriental influences have ceased2 in    
,gogol we find western1 especially      
,english1 influences1 but1 unlike the   
literary tendencies of the last century1
 they are duly subordinated  to elements
 that are essentially ,russian4 ,the    
direct simplicity of  the ,russian1 his 
love of minute realistic detail1 which  
seems to be  expressed even in the      
ancient form of the ,russian cross1 his 

quietism1  his profound human sympathy1 
have all found adequate voice in the    
modern ,russian novel4 ,the ,russian    
painters of to-day1 and the artists  in 
bronze1 with their simple realism and   
constant research for the  expression of
 life in action1 have but followed in   
the steps of the  ,russian novel1 which 
has1 as its supreme representatives1    
,tourgueneff1  ,dostoieffski1 and       
,tolstoi4 ,tourgueneff1 so delicate and 
sensitive in  his realism1 with its     
atmosphere of ineffable melancholy1 a   
,corot  among novelists1 as ,de ,vog    
calls him1 is great not only by the     
breadth and insight of his art1 but by  
the unique position he holds  in the    
development of ,russian literature4 ,the
 8,stories by a ,hunter10  published a  
few years before the emancipation of the
 serfs1 to which  they are supposed to  
have contributed1 turned the ,russian   
novel in the  direction of peasant life4
 ,the study of the peasant which        
occupies  so much attention in ,russia  

to-day is much more than a mere fashion1
  for the peasant in ,russia represents 
by far the chief element in  the        
population2 certainly the interest in   
him has already left an  ineffaceable   
mark on those great ,russian novelists  
whose influence is  world-wide4         
,tolstoi1 ,gregorovitch1 ,tchedrine1 and
 others1 have drawn  the moojik with the
 breadth and faithfulness of ,millet1 in
 every  attitude of godlike strength1 of
 pathetic resignation1 of abject vice4  
,in ,dostoieffski1 as in the poet       
,nekrassoff1 this democratic element is 
more fundamental than in either         
,tourgueneff or ,tolstoi4               
,dostoieffski's  profound science of the
 human heart could never get near enough
 to its  primitive and instinctive      
elements4 ,there are two or three scenes
 in  8,recollections of the ,dead       
,house10 of ,dantesque awfulness1 which 
seem  to bring nearer to us than        
anything else the very flesh and spirit 
of  humanity4 ,such is that scene of the

 convicts in the bath-room1 close  and  
crowded1 until1 on the reddened backs1  
beneath the stress of the  heat and the 
steam1 stand out clearly the old scars  
of whips and rods4  ,in all             
,dostoieffski's books we are constantly 
irritated and fascinated  by this same  
strange penetrating odour of humanity4  
,russian art has always been very       
closely allied with religion1 and  the  
,russian is very religious4 ,ever since1
 a thousand years ago1  the ,muscovites 
swam by thousands into their rivers1    
headed by the  chiefs1 to receive       
,christian baptism1 they seem to have   
taken great  interest in religion4 ,but 
their religion has a distinctive        
character4  ,it has no clear demarcation
 from ordinary life1 a characteristic   
that is reflected in the similarity of  
religious and secular art in  ,russia4  
,more than this1 unlike both the        
favourite religions of the  ,indian and 
of the ,teutonic races1 it is not       
largely mystical2 it is  simply a       

mystical communism4 ,sympathy and the   
need of comradeship1  which seem to be  
deeply rooted in the national character1
 are the  characteristics of ,russian   
religion4 8,pity for a fallen creature  
is  a very national trait10 wrote       
,gogol1 and among the great ,russian    
novelists1 ,dostoieffski1 who is the    
most intensely ,russian1 is  throughout 
penetrated by the passion of pity4 ,this
 spirit shows itself  in the remarkable 
sympathy with which1 in ,russian popular
 stories1 the  devil is treated4 8,he is
 represented10 ,stepniak remarks1 8as   
the enemy  of man1 doing his best to    
drag him down into hell4 ,but as this is
 his  trade he cannot help it1 and the  
people bear him no malice4 ,he is a     
good devil after all40 ,of the three    
persons of the ,christian ,trinity1  the
 second1 most associated with images of 
love1 appeals most to the  ,russian     
popular imagination4 ,god the ,father1  
as an austere personage1  lacking in    
sympathy1 is1 on the other hand1        

regarded with indifferent1  not to say  
hostile1 feelings4 ,this was well       
exemplified by the innocent  remark of a
 venerable moojik in a remote part of   
the country3 8,what6  ,is the old fellow
 alive still80    ,the ,russian has yet 
changed but little4 ,the ,scythians1 as 
we see them  in the realistic repouss   
work of the ,nikopol vase of            
twenty-three  centuries ago1 are the    
,russian moojiks of to-day2 the features
 and  the dress have scarcely changed4  
,they are1 as ,herodotus described them1
  a race very tenacious of their        
customs4 ,the sorcerer still holds his  
own among them1 while the orthodox pope1
 it is well known1 is regarded  with no 
reverence1 but rather as a tradesman4   
,propitiatory sacrifices1  it is said1  
are still paid by fishermen to the      
river-gods1 and families  in the same   
way try to keep on good terms with the  
household deities4  ,the ancient        
communistic land customs still flourish1
 together with the  ineradicable belief 

that the land must be the property of   
everyone4 ,in  some parts of the country
 it is not uncommon for a poor man to   
help  himself to the corn of a rich man1
 the loan being repaid with interest  in
 subsequent years4 ,the deeply-rooted   
indifference of the people to  external 
laws appears in the difficulty with     
which they have been  induced to accept 
an officially recognized marriage       
ceremony1 and in  the indulgence which  
is still felt towards liberty1 which is 
not always  licence1 in such matters4   
,in some parts of ,russia1 even to-day1 
it is  said1 a kind of ,pervigilium     
,veneris is held periodically2 the young
  people ascend a mountain to sing and  
to dance1 after which it is de  rigueur 
to separate and to spend the night in   
couples4 ,the primitive  matter-of-fact 
simplicity of the people1 as well as    
their indifference  to law and          
authority1 is shown in an incident that 
is said to have  occurred only a few    
years ago4 ,the peasants in a certain   

village  decided that it was not        
desirable for their widowed pope to live
  alone1 but the priest of the ,greek   
,church is not allowed to re-marry2     
therefore the peasants1 having obtained 
the consent of a soldier's  widow to be 
the pope's mistress1 insisted on        
introducing her into his  house4#aa     
,such incidents often took place in the 
western ,europe of  five centuries ago4 
#aa ,i take this1 and much of what      
follows1 from ,n4 ,tsakni's  interesting
 book1 8,la ,russie ,sectaire40 ,it is  
scarcely necessary to  refer the        
,english reader to the valuable series  
of works in which  ,stepniak has set    
forth the condition of modern ,russia4  
,we have to bear in mind these          
characteristics when we try to          
understand  the great religious         
movements that are going on in ,russia4 
,in all these  sects we see the tenacity
 with which the ,russian people have    
clung to  their inborn practical        
instincts of communism1 fraternity1 and 

sexual  freedom4 ,this religious        
movement is but another aspect of the   
spirit  that shows itself in ,nihilism1 
and it is a wider1 deeper1 and more     
interesting aspect4 ,both represent a   
profound antagonism to the ,state  and  
to the official western methods of      
social organization promulgated  by the 
,state4 ,religious nonconformity dates  
far back into the ,middle  ,ages1 but to
 ,peter the ,great is owing the first   
great development of  ,russian sects4   
,that ,tzar1 with his hatred of all     
things ,russian1 was  naturally regarded
 by pious and patriotic ,russians as    
,antichrist1 and  they perished1 in     
thousands at a time1 by their own hands1
 rather than  submit to the western     
notions which1 knout in hand1 he tried  
to force  upon them4 ,on the soil of    
poverty1 wretchedness and disease1 which
  distinguishes ,russia to-day from the 
rest of ,europe1 these religious  sects 
have everywhere sprung up and           
flourished2 some of an ascetic  type1   

with ,asiatic tendencies1 belonging more
 especially to the north  of ,russia1   
such as those frantic devotees1 the     
,skoptsy1 who mutilate  themselves after
 the manner of the ,phrygian worshippers
 of ,cybele2 or  of those sects1        
belonging more to the south1 and rapidly
 gaining ground  over the others1 who   
desire to lead a life of reason and     
love1 such as  the ,doukhobory1 who     
recognize no more divinity in ,jesus    
than resides in  all men1 deny all      
dogmas1 ceremonies1 authority1 give     
equal rights to  every man and woman1   
treat children with the same respect as 
the aged1  practise free marriages1 and 
are in their daily lives both more moral
  and more prosperous than their        
neighbours4 ,one of the most recent of  
these sects is the ,soutaiefftsky1 that 
first became generally known  about     
#ahhj4 ,basil ,soutaieff1 an uneducated 
mason1 belonging to the  centre of      
,russia1 from his early years pondered  
and dreamed over the  misery of the     

world4 ,to obtain light he visited the  
priests1 and one  referred him to the   
,gospels4 ,his zeal induced him to learn
 to read1 and  he studied the ,new      
,testament eagerly4 ,one day he carried 
to the church  the body of a young son  
for burial4 ,the pope asked fifty       
kopecks for  the ceremony2 ,soutaieff   
had only thirty1 and the pope began to  
bargain  with him over the corpse4      
,soutaieff indignantly took up the body 
and  buried it in his own garden4 ,from 
that time dated his criticism of  the   
,church1 and side by side grew up also a
 criticism of the world4  ,he observed  
in his own trade the tricks of commerce 
and the perpetual  effort to amass money
 and to deceive the worker4 ,he         
abandoned his work  as a mason and      
returned from ,st4 ,petersburg to the   
country to cultivate  the earth1        
distributing to the poor the money he   
had previously earned4  ,but in the     
country he found1 from pope to peasant1 
the same vices as in  the town1 and with

 no wish to found a new sect1 he became1
 by example  as well as by precept1 the 
teacher of a religion of universal love 
and  pity4    ,soutaieff rejects all    
ceremonies1 including baptism and       
marriage 7for  which he substitutes a   
simple blessing and exhortation to a    
just  life71 and all those external     
manifestations of religion which render 
men hypocritical4 ,at the same time he  
rejects all faith in angels or  devils1 
or in the supernatural generally1 and is
 absolutely indifferent  to the question
 of a future life4 ,we have to occupy   
ourselves with the  establishment of    
happiness and justice on this earth2    
what happens  above1 he says1 ,i cannot 
tell1 never having been there2 perhaps  
there  is nothing but eternal darkness4 
,he recognizes that the moral           
regeneration of men is closely connected
  with social and economic questions4   
,private property is the source of  the 
hatreds1 jealousies1 and miseries of    
men4 ,the proprietors must  give up the 

land of which they have arbitrarily     
gained possession1 and  work for their  
living4 ,but this end is to be gained1  
not by violence1  but by persuasion2 men
 will recognize the hypocrisy and       
injustice of  their lives1 and those who
 persist in evil will be shut out from  
the  fraternal community4 ,soutaieff    
refused1 at one period at all events1   
to pay taxes4 ,once he went to ,st4     
,petersburg to explain the state of     
things to the ,emperor2 great was his   
indignation when not only was  an       
interview refused1 but he was summarily 
expelled from the city4  ,soutaieff and 
his disciples refuse military service1  
for the men of all  nations and         
religions are brothers3 why should they 
quarrel8    ,this is the substance of   
,soutaieff's teaching4 ,large numbers of
 persons  come to hear him1 sometimes   
out of curiosity1 more often as         
disciples4  ,he leads the life of a     
simple peasant4 ,one evening1 it is     
said1 on  going to his barn1 he found   

several men carrying away sacks of      
flour4  ,without saying a word1 he      
entered the barn and found a sack that  
the  robbers had not yet carried off4   
,he pursued them1 and on catching up    
with them1 he said3 8,my brothers1 you  
must be in need of bread2 take  the sack
 that you have forgotten40 ,the         
following day the robbers  brought back 
the flour1 and asked ,soutaieff's       
forgiveness4    ,he has himself summed  
up his teaching4 8,what is truth80 a    
hearer once  asked him4 8,truth10       
answered ,soutaieff with conviction1    
8truth is love1  in a common life40     
,,ii4    ,every artist writes his own   
autobiography4 ,even ,shakespeare's     
works  contain a life of himself for    
those who know how to read it4 ,there is
  little difficulty in reading          
,tolstoi's2 moreover1 it is very        
copious1  and possesses the additional  
advantage of being written from at      
least two distinct points of view4 ,it  
is seldom necessary to consult  any     

other authority for the essential facts 
of his life and growth4  8,childhood1   
,boyhood1 and ,youth10 the earliest of  
his large books1 and  one of the most   
attractive1 tells us all that we need to
 know of his  early life4 ,an ,english  
critic has remarked that1 if ,tolstoi   
has here  described his boyhood1 he must
 have been a very commonplace child4    
,the  early life of men of genius is    
rarely a record of precocities4 ,the    
boy here described so minutely1 with his
 abnormal sensitiveness1 his  shy       
awkwardness and profound admiration of  
the comme il faut1 his  perpetual       
self-analysis1 his brooding dreams1 his 
amusing self-conceit1  bears in him the 
germs of a great artist much more       
certainly than  any small monster of    
perfection4 ,it is scarcely necessary to
 say that  the autobiography here is not
 one of incident1 as some persons have  
foolishly supposed2 it is neither       
complete nor historically accurate4     
,tolstoi uses his material as an artist1

 but the material is himself4  ,the     
artist craves to express the inward     
experiences of his past life1  of which 
he can scarcely speak4 ,he invents      
certain imaginary events1 or  rearranges
 actual events as a frame into which he 
fits his own inward  experiences4       
,whatever is most poignant and vivid in 
the novelist's art  is so produced2 and 
you say to him1 8,this is so real2 you  
are narrating  your own history40 ,he   
will be able to reply laughingly1 8,oh1 
no6 my  life is not at all like that40  
,imagination is a poor substitute for   
experience4 ,there is sufficient        
external evidence extant1 even if it    
were possible to doubt the internal1    
that ,tolstoi is here throughout        
drawing on his own youthful experiences4
 ,like ,irteneff1 young ,tolstoi        
followed ,franklin's injunctions as to  
the use of 8,rules of ,life20 his       
favourite books are the same2 like him1 
also1 he early developed a  love of     
metaphysics1 owing to which1 young      

,irteneff says1 8,i lost one  after the 
other the convictions which1 for the    
happiness of my own  life1 ,i never     
should have dared to touch40 ,all the   
slight indications  in the              
8,confessions0 of young ,tolstoi's      
spiritual experiences agree  with young 
,irteneff's4 ,even the plain face1      
8exactly like that of a  common         
peasant10 the small grey eyes and thick 
lips and wide nose1 that  caused the boy
 of the story to look at himself in the 
glass with such  sorrow and aversion1 to
 pray so fervently to ,god to be made   
handsome1  correspond exactly to those  
of the real hero4 ,no sign of the boy's 
early development is left untouched4 ,we
 feel that this book1 in which  the     
artist is first fully revealed1 was the 
outcome of an overmastering  impulse to 
give expression to the accumulated      
experiences of an intense  and sensitive
 childhood1 now receding for ever into  
the past4    ,descended from a          
well-known minister and friend of ,peter

 the ,great1  and belonging to a family 
that has been eminent for two hundred   
years  in war1 diplomacy1 literature1   
and art1 ,lyof ,tolstoi was born in     
#ahbh1  the youngest of four sons2 his  
mother1 the ,princess ,marie ,volkonsky1
  was the daughter of a general in      
,catherine's time1 and1 according to    
friends of the novelist's family1 she   
resembled the ,marie ,bolkonsky of      
8,war and ,peace40 ,both parents were1  
he says1 in the general esteem1  8good1 
cultivated1 gentle1 and devout40 ,he was
 early left an orphan1  his mother dying
 when he was not yet two years of age1  
his father when  he was nine4 ,at the   
age of fifteen he went to the           
,university of ,kazan2  he left it      
suddenly to settle on the estate at     
,yasnaya ,polyana which  had fallen to  
him4 ,in #ahea1 at the age of           
twenty-three1 he became  a yunker 7the  
usual position of a nobleman entering   
the army1 doing  the work of a common   
soldier and associating with the        

officers7 in  the artillery at the      
,caucasus2 he was stationed on the      
,terek4 ,this  expedition to the        
,caucasus was a memorable event in young
 ,tolstoi's  life4 ,it determined       
finally his artistic vocation4 ,a centre
 of military  activity on the most      
interesting frontier of the empire1 it  
is a land  of wonderful scenery and     
strange primitive customs1 hallowed with
  association with ,poushkin and ,gogol4
 ,tolstoi's elder and most loved        
brother ,nikolai had just come home on  
leave from the ,caucasus2 it was        
natural that young ,lyof1 who had never 
yet left the neighbourhood of  ,moscow1 
should be attracted to a land which held
 for him a fascination  so manifold4    
,under the influence of this strange and
 new environment he  became1 almost at  
once1 a great artist1 and 8,childhood1  
,boyhood1 and  ,youth0 was written in   
#aheb4    ,tolstoi's critics have       
sometimes regretted that he never       
continued  this story4 ,the only        

possible continuation of 8,childhood1   
,boyhood1  and ,youth0 is 8,the         
,cossacks40 ,the young ,irteneff of the 
end of the  former book corresponds as  
closely as possible with the ,olyenin   
who  is analyzed at the beginning of the
 latter4 ,a few years only have         
intervened4 ,these years he long after  
summed up briefly and too sternly  in   
the 8,confessions03 8,i cannot think of 
those years without horror1  disgust1   
and pain of heart4 ,there was no vice or
 crime that in those  days ,i would not 
have committed4 ,lying1 theft1 pleasure 
of all sorts1  intemperance1 violence1  
murder--,i have committed all4 ,i lived 
on my  estate1 ,i consumed in drink or  
at cards what the labour of the peasants
  had produced4 ,i punished them1 and   
sold them1 and deceived them2 and  for  
all that ,i was praised40 ,tolstoi      
condemns himself without mercy1  as     
,bunyan condemned himself in his 8,grace
 ,abounding20 even in the               
8,confessions0 he admits that at this   

time his aspirations after good  were   
the central element in his nature1 and  
it was out of desire to  benefit his    
peasants that he left the university    
prematurely to settle  on his estate4   
,tolstoi's spiritual autobiography is   
carried on as accurately as  anyone need
 desire in 8,the ,cossacks40 ,it was in 
the ,caucasus that he  first powerfully 
realized what nature is1 and natural    
life2 he was1  for the first time1      
forced to consider his own relation to  
such life4  ,lukashka1 the healthy1     
coarse young ,cossack soldier1 ,maryana1
 the  beautiful robust ,cossack girl1   
and the delightful figure of ,uncle     
,jeroshka1 the old hunter1 display their
 vivid and active life before  ,olyenin1
 the child of civilization4 ,he lives   
constantly in the presence  of the      
8eternal and inaccessible mountain snows
 and a majestic woman  endowed with the 
primitive beauty of the first woman20 he
 feels the  contrast between this and   
the life of cities3 8happiness is to be 

with  ,nature1 to see her1 to hold      
converse with her20 and he longs to     
mingle  himself with the life of        
,maryana4 ,in vain4 8,now if ,i could   
only become  a ,cossack like ,lukashka1 
steal horses1 get tipsy on red wine1    
shout  ribald songs1 shoot men down1 and
 then while drunk creep in through  the 
window where she was1 without a thought 
of what ,i was doing or why  ,i did it1 
that would be another thing1 then we    
should understand one  another1 then ,i 
might be happy4444 ,she fails to        
understand me1 not  because she is      
beneath me1 not at all2 it would be out 
of the nature  of things for her to     
understand me4 ,she is light-hearted2   
she is like  ,nature1 calm1 tranquil1   
sufficient to herself4 ,but ,i1 an      
incomplete  feeble creature1 wish her to
 understand my ugliness and my anguish40
  ,the book is full of strongly-drawn   
pictures of the beauty of natural       
strength and health2 sometimes recalling
 ,whitman at his best4 ,they are        

strange1 these resemblances between     
three great typical artists of  to-day1 
so far apart1 so little known to each   
other1 ,millet1 ,whitman1  and ,tolstoi4
 ,in 8,the ,cossacks0 ,tolstoi gives his
 first statement of  that problem of    
man's natural function in life which he 
has been  seeking to solve ever since4  
,here he has no sort of solution to     
offer2  8some voice seemed to bid him   
wait1 not decide hastily40    ,in #ahed 
,tolstoi was transferred at his own     
request to the ,crimea1  to obtain      
command of a mountain battery1 doing    
good service at the  battle of the      
,tchernaya4 ,at this period also he     
wrote his 8,sketches of  ,sebastopol40  
,by this time he had attracted          
considerable attention as a  writer1 and
 by command of the ,emperor1 who said   
that 8the life of that  young man must  
be looked after10 he was1 much to his   
own annoyance1  removed to a place of   
comparative safety4    ,when peace was  
made1 ,tolstoi1 then twenty-six years of

 age1 left the  army and settled in ,st4
 ,petersburg1 where he was warmly       
received by  the chief literary circle  
of the capital1 then including          
,tourgueneff1  ,gregorovitch1 and       
,ostroffsky2 the first1 who was a       
comparatively  near neighbour at        
,yasnaya ,polyana1 becoming one of his  
most intimate  friends4 ,during the     
following ten years he wrote little1 but
 travelled  in ,germany1 ,france1 and   
,italy1 and devoted himself to the      
education  of the serfs on his estate1  
marrying in #ahfb the young and         
beautiful  daughter of a ,german        
military doctor at ,tula4 ,although he  
wrote little1  he was enlarging his     
conception of art and studying          
literature4 ,he  admired ,english       
novels1 both for their art and          
naturalism1 and among  ,french novelists
 he preferred ,dumas and ,paul de ,kock1
 whom he called  the ,french ,dickens4  
,schopenhauer was a favourite writer at 
this  period4 ,he found his chief       

recreations in that love of sport in all
  its forms which has left such vivid   
and delightful traces throughout  his   
work4 ,in his portraits he appears with 
a shaggy bearded face1  with large      
prominent irregular features1 and rather
 a stern fixed and  reserved expression2
 the deep eyes are watchful yet         
sympathetic1 and  at the same time      
melancholy1 and the thick lips are      
sensitive4 ,his  acquaintances described
 him as not easy to approach1 very shy  
and  rather wild 7trs-farouche et       
trs-sauvage71 but those who approached  
him found him 8extremely amiable40 ,in  
his later 8,confessions0 he thus        
summarizes his view of things1 and that 
of the group to which he  belonged1     
during this literary period of his life1
 more especially with  reference to the 
earlier part of it4 8,the view of life  
of my literary  comrades lay in the     
opinion that in general life developed  
itself2 that  in this development we1   
the men of intellect1 took the chief    

part1  and among the men of intellect   
we1 artists and poets1 stood first4     
,our vocation was to instruct people4   
,the very natural question1 #8,what  do 
,i know and what can ,i teach1' was     
unnecessary1 for1 according to  the     
theory1 one needed to know nothing4 ,the
 artist1 the poet1 taught               
unconsciously4 ,i held myself for a     
wonderful artist and poet1 and very     
naturally appropriated this theory4 ,i  
was paid for it1 ,i had excellent  food1
 a good habitation1 women1 society2 ,i  
was famous4444 ,when ,i look  back to   
that time1 to my state of mind then1 and
 to that of the people  ,i lived with   
7there are thousands of them1 even now71
 it seems to me  melancholy1 horrible1  
ludicrous2 ,i feel as one feels in a    
lunatic  asylum4 ,we were all then      
convinced that we must talk1 talk1 write
 and  print as quickly as possible and  
as much as possible2 because it was     
necessary for the good of humanity40    
,this is by no means a satisfactory  or 

final account of the matter4    8,war   
and ,peace10 ,tolstoi's longest and most
 ambitious work1 which began  to appear 
in #ahfe1 is from the present point of  
view of comparatively  slight interest4 
,his art had now become more complex1   
and this was a  serious attempt to give 
life to various aspects of a great      
historical  period4 ,much of himself1   
certainly1 we find scattered through the
  work1 especially in ,pierre           
,besoukhoff1 though it is unnecessary to
 say  that a very large part of         
,pierre's experiences had no counterpart
 in  ,tolstoi's2 the not very life-like 
or interesting ,masonic episode1 for    
instance1 has clearly been read up4     
,pierre1 however1 appears before us1    
from first to last1 as ,tolstoi appears 
before us1 a seeker4    8,anna          
,karenina0 is full of biographic        
material of intense interest4 ,in       
,vronsky1 doubtless much of his earlier 
experience1 and in ,levine1 his  own    
inner history at that time1 are written 

clearly enough4 ,from this  standpoint  
the book has the vivid interest of a    
tragedy2 we see the man  whose efforts  
to solve the mystery of life we can     
trace through all  that he ever wrote1  
still groping1 but now more restlessly  
and eagerly1  with growing desperation4 
,the nets are drawn tight around him1   
and when  we close the book we see      
clearly the inevitable fate of which he 
is  still unconscious4    ,i once lived 
on the road to the cemetery of a large  
northern town4 ,all  day long1 it seemed
 to me1 the hearses were trundling along
 their dead  to the grave1 or gallopping
 gaily back4 ,when ,i walked out ,i met 
men  carrying coffins1 and if ,i glanced
 at them1 perhaps ,i caught the name  of
 the child ,i saw two days ago in his   
mother's lap2 or ,i was greeted  by the 
burly widower of yesterday1 pipe in     
mouth1 sauntering along  to arrange the 
burial of the wife who lay1 ,i knew1    
upstairs at home1  thin and haggard and 
dead4 ,the road became fantastic and    

horrible at  last2 even such a straight 
road to the cemetery1 it seemed1 was the
  whole of life1 a road full of the     
noise of the preparation of death4  ,how
 daintily soever we danced along1 each  
person1 laughing so merrily  or in such 
downright earnest1 was merely a corpse1 
screwed down in  an invisible coffin1   
trundled along as rapidly as might be to
 the  grave-edge4--,it was at such a    
point of view that ,tolstoi arrived in  
his fiftieth year4    8,when ,i had     
ended my book #8,anna ,karenina1'0 he   
wrote in his  8,confessions10 8my       
despair reached such a height that ,i   
could do  nothing but think1 think1 of  
the horrible condition in which ,i      
found myself4444 ,questions never ceased
 multiplying and pressing  for answers1 
and like lines converging all to one    
point1 so these  unanswerable questions 
pressed to one black spot4 ,and with    
horror and  a consciousness of my       
weakness1 ,i remained standing before   
this spot4  ,i was nearly fifty years   

old when these unanswerable questions   
brought  me into this terrible and quite
 unexpected position4 ,i had come to    
this1 that ,i--a healthy and happy      
man--felt that ,i could no longer       
live4444 ,bodily1 ,i was able to work at
 mowing hay as well as a peasant4       
,mentally1 ,i could work for eighteen   
hours at a time without feeling any  ill
 consequence4 ,and yet ,i had come to   
this1 that ,i could no longer  live4444 
,i only saw one thing--,death4          
,everything else was a lie40    ,the    
greater part of the 8,confessions0 is   
occupied with the analysis of  this     
mental condition1 and with the earlier  
stages of his deliverance1  for when he 
wrote the book he was scarcely yet quite
 free4 ,the  direction in which light   
was to break in upon him is very clear  
even  to the reader of 8,anna           
,karenina40 ,it seemed to him at length 
that  the awful questions which had     
oppressed him so long had been solved   
for thousands of years by millions upon 

millions of persons who had  never      
reasoned about them at all4 8,from the  
time when men first began  to live      
anywhere10 he says in the               
8,confessions10 8they already knew  the 
meaning of life1 and they carried on    
this life so that it reached  me4       
,everything in me and around me1        
corporeal and incorporeal1 is the  fruit
 of their experiences of life2 even the 
means by which ,i judge  and condemn    
life1 all this is not mine1 but brought 
forth by them4 ,i  myself have been     
born1 bred1 grown up1 thanks to them4   
,they have dug  out the iron1 have tamed
 cattle and horses1 have taught how to  
till the  ground1 and how to live       
together and to order life2 they have   
taught me  to think and to reason4 ,and 
,i1 their production1 receiving my meat 
and  drink from them1 instructed by     
their thoughts and words1 have proved   
to them they are an absurdity6444 ,it is
 clear that ,i have only called  absurd 
what ,i do not understand40    ,when he 

had made this great discovery the rest  
followed1 slowly1 but  simply and       
naturally4 ,first1 he understood the    
meaning of ,god4 ,he had  all his life  
been seeking ,god4 ,now1 one day in     
early spring1 he was in  the wood1      
trying to catch among the tones of the  
forest the cry of the  snipe1 listening 
and waiting1 and thinking of the things 
he had been  thinking of for the last   
three years1 especially of this question
 of  ,god4 ,there was no ,god--that he  
knew was an intellectual truth4 ,but is 
the knowledge of ,god an intellectual   
matter8 ,and it seemed to him that  he  
realized that ,god is life1 and that to 
live is to know ,god4 8,and  from that  
moment the consciousness of ,god1 as    
known by living1 has  remained with me40
    ,following up this clue1 he         
proceeded to attend church regularly1   
and to fulfil all the orthodox          
ceremonies4 ,this1 however1 was a       
failure4 ,he could not get rid of the   
consciousness that these things         

were--8bosh40 ,he turned from the church
 to the ,gospels4 ,at this point  the   
8,confessions0 end4 ,in the year #ahgi1 
in which he wrote that book1  he heard  
of1 and met1 ,soutaieff4    ,one evening
 a beggar woman had knocked at          
,soutaieff's door1 asking  shelter for  
the night4 ,she was given food and a    
place of rest4 ,next  morning all the   
family went to work in the field4 ,the  
woman took the  opportunity of          
collecting all the valuables she could  
lay her hands  on1 and fled4 ,some      
peasants at work saw her1 stopped her1  
examined  her bundle1 and having bound  
her hands1 led her before the local     
authorities4 ,soutaieff heard of this1  
and soon arrived4 8,why have you        
arrested her80 he asked4 8,she is a     
thief2 she must be punished10 they      
cried4 8,judge not1 and you will not be 
judged10 he said solemnly2 8we  are all 
guilty at some point4 ,what is the good 
of condemning her8  ,she will be put in 
prison1 and what advantage will that be8

 ,it would  be much better to give her  
something to eat1 and to let her go in  
the grace of ,god40 ,such curiously     
,christ-like stories as this of the     
peasant-teacher reached ,tolstoi1 and   
made a deep impression on him4  ,they   
were in the line of his mental          
development1 and threw light on his  own
 experiences4 ,the influence of         
,soutaieff appears in 8,what then must  
we do80--a further chapter in the       
history of ,tolstoi's development1 and  
perhaps the most memorable of his       
attempts at the solution of social      
questions4    ,what then must we do8 ,it
 was the question the people asked of   
,john  the ,baptist1 and we know his    
brief and practical answer4 ,it was the 
question that pressed itself for        
solution on ,tolstoi when he began to   
investigate the misery of ,moscow1 and  
to start philanthropic plans for  its   
amelioration4 ,he tells us in this      
narrative1 which has a dramatic         
vividness of its own that will not bear 

abbreviation1 how he was  gradually     
forced1 by his own well-meaning attempts
 and mistakes1 to  abandon his          
philanthropic projects1 and to realize  
that he himself and  all other          
respectable and well-to-do people were  
the direct causes of  the misery of     
poverty4    ,he investigated the worst  
parts of the city1 finding more comfort 
and  happiness amidst rags than he had  
expected1 and only discovering one      
hopelessly useless class--the class of  
those who had seen better days1  who had
 been brought up in the notions that he 
himself had been brought  up in as to   
the relative position of those who are  
workers and those  who are not workers4 
,he met with a prostitute who stayed at 
home nursing the child of a  dying      
woman4 ,he asked her if she would not   
like to change her life--to  become1 he 
suggested at random1 a cook4 ,she       
laughed3 8,a cook8 ,i cannot  even bake 
bread20 but he detected in her face an  
expression of contempt  for the         

occupation of a cook4 8,this woman1 who1
 like the widow of the  ,gospel1 had in 
the simplest way sacrificed all that she
 possessed for  a dying person1 thought1
 like her companions1 that work was low 
and  contemptible4 ,therein was her     
misfortune4 ,but who of us1 man or      
woman1  can save her from this false    
view of life8 ,where among us are the   
people who are convinced that a life of 
labour is more honourable than  one of  
idleness1 who live according to such a  
conviction1 and value and  respect men  
accordingly80 ,he came across another   
prostitute who had  brought up her      
daughter of thirteen to the same trade4 
,he determined to  save the child1 to   
put her in the hands of some            
compassionate ladies1  but it was       
impossible to persuade the woman that   
she had not done the  best for the      
daughter whom she had cared for all her 
life and brought  up to the same        
occupation as herself2 and he realized  
that it was the  mother herself who had 

to be saved from a false view of life1  
according  to which it was right to live
 without bearing children and without   
working1 in the service of sensuality4  
8,when ,i had considered this1  ,i      
understood that the majority of ladies  
whom ,i would have called on  to save   
this girl1 not only themselves live     
without bearing children  and without   
working1 but also bring up their        
daughters to live such  a life2 the one 
mother sends her daughter to the        
public-house1 the  other to the ball4   
,but both mothers possess the same view 
of life1  namely1 that a woman must be  
fed1 clothed1 and taken care of1 to     
satisfy the wantonness of a man4 ,how1  
then1 could our ladies improve  this    
woman and her daughter80 ,he was anxious
 to befriend a bright boy  of twelve1   
and took him into his own house among   
the servants1 pending  some better      
arrangement to give him work4 ,at the   
end of a week this  ungrateful little   
boy ran away1 and was subsequently found

 at the  circus1 acting as conductor to 
an elephant1 for thirty kopecks a day4  
8,to make him happy and to improve him  
,i had taken him into my house1  where  
he saw--what8 ,my children--older1      
younger1 and the same age as            
himself--who not only did not work for  
themselves1 but in every way  gave work 
to others3 they spoiled everything they 
came in contact with1  over-ate         
themselves with sweets and delicacies1  
broke crockery1 and  threw to the dogs  
what to this boy would seem dainties4444
 ,i ought to  have understood how       
foolish it was on my part--,i who       
brought up my  children in luxury to do 
nothing--to try to improve other people 
and  their children1 who lived in what  
,i called #8dens1' but three-fourths  of
 whom worked for themselves and for     
others40 ,his experience was the  same  
throughout1 and he brings his usual keen
 insight to the analysis  of his mental 
attitude when he gave money in charity1 
and to the mental  attitude of the      

recipients of his charity4 ,he found    
also that1 even if  his charity were to 
rival that of the poor1 he would have to
 give #c1jjj  roubles to make a gift    
proportioned to the three kopecks       
bestowed by a  peasant1 or to sacrifice 
his whole living for days at a time1    
like the  prostitute who nursed the     
dying woman's child4    ,it seemed to   
him that he was like a man trying to    
draw another man out  of a swamp1 while 
he himself was standing on the same     
shifting and  treacherous ground2 every 
effort only served to show the character
 of  the ground that he stood upon      
himself4 ,when he was at the ,night     
,shelter  at ,moscow1 and looked at the 
wretched crowd who sought admission1 he 
recalled his impression when he had seen
 a man guillotined at ,paris  thirty    
years previously1 and with his whole    
being had understood  that murder would 
always be murder1 and that he had his   
share in  the guilt4 8,so1 at the sight 
of the hunger1 cold1 and degradation of 

thousands of men1 ,i understood1 not    
with my reason1 but with my heart  and  
my whole being1 that the existence of   
ten thousand such men in  ,moscow1 while
 ,i and other thousands eat daintily1   
clothe our horses  and cover our        
floors--let the learned say as much as  
they will that  it is inevitable--is a  
crime1 committed not once but           
constantly1 and  that ,i with my luxury 
do not merely permit the crime1 but take
 a direct  part in it4 ,the difference  
in the two impressions consisted only in
  this--that before the guillotine all  
,i could have done would have been  to  
cry out to the murderers that they were 
doing evil1 and to try to  prevent them4
 ,even then ,i should have known        
beforehand that the deed  would not have
 been prevented4 ,but here ,i could have
 given1 not merely  a warm drink or the 
little money that ,i had about me1 but  
,i could have  given the coat from my   
body1 and all that ,i had in my house4  
,i did not  do so1 and therefore ,i     

felt1 and still feel1 and shall never   
cease to  feel1 that ,i am a partaker in
 that never-ceasing crime1 so long as ,i
  have superfluous food and another has 
none1 so long as ,i have two coats  and 
another has none40    8,my ,religion10  
the best known of ,tolstoi's social     
works1 contains--not1  indeed1 the      
latest or the final statement1 for      
,tolstoi is not a man  to stand         
still--the clearest1 most vigorous and  
complete statement of  his beliefs4 ,he 
here frankly admits that he has arrived 
by the road  of his own experience at   
convictions similar to those of ,jesus  
as  expressed in the ,sermon on the     
,mount4 ,that he has nothing to say in  
favour of the ,christianity of to-day1  
which approves of society as it  now is1
 with its prison cells1 its factories1  
its houses of infamy1 its  parliaments1 
one need scarcely point out4 ,he has    
nothing but contempt  for 8faith0 which 
he regards as merely a kind of lunacy4  
8,but reason1  which illuminates our    

life and impels us to modify our        
actions1 is not  an illusion1 and its   
authority can never be denied4444 ,jesus
 taught  men to do nothing contrary to  
reason4 ,it is unreasonable to go out to
  kill ,turks or ,germans2 it is        
unreasonable to make use of the labours 
of  others that you and yours may be    
clothed in the height of fashion and    
maintain that source of ennui1 a        
drawing-room2 it is unreasonable to     
take people1 already corrupted by       
idleness and depravity1 and devote  them
 to further idleness and depravity      
within prison walls3 all this  is       
unreasonable--and yet it is the life of 
the ,european world40 ,the  doctrine of 
,jesus is hard1 men say4 ,but how much  
harder1 exclaims  ,tolstoi1 is the      
doctrine of the world6 8,in my own      
life10 he says1 87an  exceptionally     
happy one1 from a worldly point of      
view71 ,i can reckon  up as much        
suffering caused by following the       
doctrine of the world  as many a martyr 

has endured for the doctrine of ,jesus4 
,all the most  painful moments of my    
life--the orgies and duels in which ,i  
took part  as a student1 the wars in    
which ,i have participated1 the diseases
 that  ,i have endured1 and the abnormal
 and unsupportable conditions under     
which ,i now live--all these are only so
 much martyrdom exacted by  fidelity to 
the doctrine of the world40 ,and what of
 those less happily  situated8 8,thirty 
millions of men have perished in wars1  
fought in  behalf of the doctrine of the
 world2 thousands of millions of beings 
have perished1 crushed by a social      
system organized on the principle of    
the doctrine of the world4444 ,you will 
find1 perhaps to your surprise1  that   
nine-tenths of all human suffering      
endured by men is useless1 and  ought   
not to exist--that1 in fact1 the        
majority of men are martyrs to  the     
doctrine of the world40    ,tolstoi sums
 up his own doctrine under a very few   
heads3--,resist not  evil--,judge       

not--,be not angry--,love one woman4    
,his creed is entirely  covered by these
 four points4 8,my ,religion0 is chiefly
 occupied by the  exposition of what    
they mean1 and in his hands they mean   
much4 ,they  mean nothing less than the 
abolition of the ,state and the country4
  ,he is as uncompromising as ,ibsen in 
dealing with the ,state4 8,it is  a     
humbug1 this ,state10 he remarked to    
,mr4 ,stead4 8,what you call  a         
,government is mere phantasmagoria4     
,what is a ,state8 ,men ,i know2        
peasants and villages1 these ,i see2 but
 governments1 nations1 states1  what are
 these but fine names invented to       
conceal the plundering  of honest men by
 dishonest officials80 ,law1 tribunals1 
prisons1  become impossible with the    
disappearance of the ,state2 and with   
the  disappearance of the country1 and  
of 8that gross imposture called         
patriotism10 there can be no more war4  
,in place of these great and venerable  
pillars of civilization1  what8 ,the    

first condition of happiness1 he tells  
us1 is that the  link between man and   
nature shall not be broken1 that he may 
enjoy  the sky above him1 and the pure  
air and the life of the fields4  ,this  
involves the nationalization of the     
land1 or rather1 to avoid  centralizing 
tendencies1 its communalization4 8,i    
quite agree with  ,george10 he remarked1
 8that the landlords may be fairly      
expropriated  without compensation1 as a
 matter of principle4 ,but as a question
 of  expediency1 ,i think compensation  
might facilitate the necessary change4  
,it will come1 ,i suppose1 as the       
emancipation of slaves came4 ,the idea  
will spread4 ,a sense of the            
shamefulness of private ownership will  
grow4 ,someone will write an #8,uncle   
,tom's ,cabin' about it2 there will  be 
agitation1 and then it will come1 and   
many who own land will do  as did those 
who owned serfs1 voluntarily give it to 
their tenants4  ,but for the rest1 a    
loan might be arranged1 so as to prevent

 the work  being stopped by the cry of  
confiscation4 ,of course ,i do not hold 
with  ,george about the taxation of the 
land4 ,if you could get angels from     
,heaven to administer the taxes from the
 land1 you might do justice and  prevent
 mischief4 ,i am against all taxation40 
,the second condition of  happiness is  
labour1 the intellectual labour that one
 loves because one  has chosen it       
freely1 and the physical labour that is 
sweet because  it produces the muscular 
joy of work1 a good appetite1 and       
tranquil  sleep4 ,the third condition of
 happiness is love4 ,every healthy man  
and woman should have sexual            
relationships2 and ,tolstoi makes no    
distinction between those that are      
called by the name of marriage and      
those that are not so called2 in either 
case1 however1 he would demand  that    
they shall be permanent4 ,the fourth    
condition is unrestrained  fellowship   
with men and women generally1 without   
distinction of class4  ,the fifth is    

health1 though this seems largely the   
result of obedience  to the others4     
,these are the five points of ,tolstoi's
 charter4 ,they  seem simple enough1 but
 he is careful to point out that most of
 them  are closed to the rich4 ,the rich
 man is hedged in by conventions1  and  
cannot live a simple and natural life4  
,a peasant can associate  on equal terms
 with millions of his fellows2 the      
circle of equal  association becomes    
narrower and narrower the higher the    
social rank1  until we come to kings and
 emperors1 who have scarcely one person 
with  whom they may live on equal terms4
 8,is not the whole system like a  great
 prison1 where each inmate is restricted
 to association with a  few             
fellow-convicts80 ,the rich may1 indeed1
 work1 but even then their  work usually
 consists in official and administrative
 duties1 or the  observance of arduous  
social conventions which are odious to  
them3 8,i  say odious1 for ,i never yet 
met with a person of this class who was 

contented with his work1 or took as much
 satisfaction in it as the man  who     
shovels the snow from his doorstep40    
,from this standpoint ,tolstoi  has     
never since greatly varied4    ,such as 
he is now he is known throughout the    
civilized world4 ,he lives  at his old  
home at ,yasnaya ,polyana1 surrounded by
 less luxury than  may be found in many 
a ,siberian cottage1 writing or         
shoemaking or  ploughing1 or kneading   
clay in a tub to build incombustible    
cottages1  or spending the day in       
spreading manure over the land of some  
poor  widow4 ,such we see him in his    
portraits1 in the coarse blouse and  the
 leather belt that he has always worn1  
with the massive1 earnest1  suffering1  
baffled face1 as of a blind but         
unconquered ,samson4      ,,iii4        
,with ,tolstoi the artist we have here  
little concern4 ,yet from the  first he 
has been an artist1 and in spite of     
himself he is an artist  to the last4   
,we cannot pass by his art4 ,one        

realizes this curiously in  reading     
8,what then must we do80 ,a profoundly  
sincere record without  doubt of        
deeply-felt experiences and of a mental 
revolution1 it is  yet the work of an   
artist1 a tragedy broadly and solemnly  
unfolding  the misery of the world1 the 
impotence of every scheme or impulse of 
charity1 the light that comes only from 
freedom and self-development4  ,let us  
read1 again1 that little popular        
tract--8,does a man need much           
land80--brimming over with meaning1     
about the man who gained permission  to 
possess as much land as he could walk   
round from sunrise to sunset4  ,can he  
get so much into the circuit1 not       
omitting this fine stretch of  land1 and
 this other8 ,his constantly growing    
desires1 his efforts1 are  told in      
brief1 stern phrase1 his feverish and   
failing strain to reach  the goal1 that 
at sunset is reached1 and the man drops 
down dead4 ,then  the curt and          
unaccentuated conclusion3 8,pakhom's man

 took the hoe1 dug  a grave for him1    
made it just long enough from head and  
foot--three  arshins--and buried him40  
,all the tragedy of the nineteenth      
century is  pressed together into those 
half-dozen pages by the strong1         
relentless  hand of the great artist who
 deigns to point no moral4 ,from the    
early  and delicious sketch of the frail
 musician1 ,albert1 down to the sombre  
and awful 8,death of ,ivan ,ilyitch10   
,tolstoi has produced an immense  body  
of work that must be considered1 above  
all1 as art4 ,one reads  this body of   
work with ever-growing delight and      
satisfaction4 ,gogol  was a finer artist
 than ,dickens1 but there are too many  
suggestions  about him of ,dickens and  
the ,english novelists4 ,tourgueneff1 a 
very  great artist--how great1 those    
little prose-poems1 8,senilia10 would   
alone suffice to show--an artist who    
thrilled to every touch1 suffered  from 
the excess of his sensitiveness1 and    
perhaps also from an undue  absorption  

in the western world4 ,in ,dostoieffski 
there is nothing of  the west2 he is    
intimately and intensely personal1 with 
an even morbid  research of all the     
fibres of organic misery in human       
nature4 ,in all  his work we seem to    
hear the groans of the prison-house1 the
 house of  the dead in ,siberia4 ,when  
we have read the wonderful book in which
 he  has recorded the life of his years 
there1 we know the source of all his    
inspiration4 ,reading all these authors1
 we are constantly aware of the         
neurotic element in ,russian life and   
,russian character1 the restless1       
diseased element that is revealed to us 
in cold scientific analysis  by         
,tarnowsky and ,s4 ,p4 ,kowalevski and  
,dmitri ,drill4 ,it is not so when  we  
turn to ,tolstoi4 ,in him we find not   
merely the insight and the  realistic   
observation1 but a breadth and sanity   
and wholeness that the  others mostly   
fail to give us4 ,his art is so full and
 broad and true  that he seems able to  

do for his own time and country what    
,shakespeare  with excess of poetic     
affluence did for his time1 and ,balzac 
for  his4 ,he is equal to every effort1 
he omits nothing that imports1 he       
describes everything with the same calm 
ease and simplicity4 ,it makes  no      
difference whether1 within the limits of
 a slight sketch1 he is  tracing        
delicately the life of the drunken      
artist1 ,albert1 or producing  the      
largest literary canvas of modern times1
 8,war and ,peace40 ,in  8,family       
,happiness0 he analyzes passion1        
marriage1 parenthood1 the cycle  of     
life1 in a simple narration1 a few      
chapters1 yet nothing is omitted1  and  
one shudders at the awful ease with     
which to this man these things  seem to 
yield their secret4 ,in 8,ivan ,ilyitch0
 he analyzes death and the  house of    
death1 quietly1 completely1 with a hand 
that never falters4  ,he writes as a man
 who has touched life at many points1   
and tasted  most that it has to offer1  

its joys and its sorrows1 but he gazes  
upon  it1 even from the first1 with the 
luminous and passionless calm of old    
age4 ,his art is less perfect than      
,flaubert's1 but ,flaubert's intense    
personal note1 the ferocious nihilism of
 the ,norman1 is absent4 ,he  holds life
 up to the light1 simply1 and says3     
8,this is what it is60    ,for one who  
cannot read ,tolstoi in the original1   
and who misses the  style so much       
praised by those who are more           
privileged1 ,tolstoi seems  an          
uncompromising realist4 ,he has         
therefore often been compared with      
,zola1 the prodigious representative and
 champion of ,latin realism4 ,in  vain  
,zola himself disclaims this position2  
it is he more than any other  who has   
influenced the novel1 especially in the 
,latin countries1 in the  direction1 if 
not of realism1 at all events in that of
 anti-idealism2  not ,balzac or         
,stendhal1 who have reached sure summits
 of fame1 but  have ceased to be living 

influences2 not the ,de ,goncourts1     
whose style  cannot be imitated2 least  
of all ,flaubert1 an idealist of        
idealists1  whose profound art and      
marmoreal style are of the sort that it 
takes generations even to understand4   
,it is interesting1 doubtless1  to put  
,tolstoi beside ,zola1 but the          
resemblance is not deep4 ,zola  is the  
avowed prophet of a formula4 ,he has    
read and pondered the  8,introduction   
l'tude de la ,mdicine ,exprimentale10 in
 which the  great physiologist1 ,claude 
,bernard1 expounded the principles of   
the  experimental method as applied to  
the sciences of physical life4 ,he has  
asked himself3 8,can we not apply this  
same method to the psychological  life8 
,can we not have an experimental novel80
 8,we seek the causes of  social evil10 
he declares in 8,le ,roman              
,experimental10 a collection of  essays 
not less instructive than his novels1   
and more interesting2 8we  present the  
anatomy of classes and of individuals1  

in order to explain  the aberrations    
which are produced in society and in    
man4 ,this obliges  us often to work on 
bad subjects1 and to descend into the   
midst of  human miseries and follies4   
,but we bring the documents necessary to
 be  known by those who would dominate  
good and evil4 ,here is what we have    
seen1 observed1 explained in all        
sincerity4 ,now it is the turn of the   
legislators60 ,to bring the scientific  
spirit of the age into the novel3  it   
was a brilliant idea1 and ,zola         
forthwith set to work1 with his  immense
 energy and unshakeable resolution1 to  
draw up a procs-verbal  of human        
life--for this is the most that the     
8experimental method0  comes to in the  
novel--which has not ceased to this day4
    ,but1 one asks oneself1 what is     
reality8 ,zola has frankly explained    
how a novel ought to be written2 how one
 must get one's human  documents1 study 
them thoroughly1 accumulate notes1      
systematically  frequent the society of 

the people one is studying1 watch them1 
listen  to them1 minutely observe and   
record all their surroundings4 ,but have
  we got reality then8 ,does the        
novelist ,i casually meet1 and who has  
opportunities to take notes of my       
conversation and appearance1 to  examine
 the furniture of my house and to       
collect gossip about me1  know anything 
whatever of the romance or tragedy which
 to me is the  reality of my life1 these
 other things being but shreds or       
tatters  of life8 ,or if my romance or  
tragedy has got into a law-court or a   
police-court1 is he really much nearer  
then8 ,the unrevealable motives1  the   
charm1 the mystery1 were not deposed to 
by the policeman who was  immediately   
summoned1 nor by the servant-girl who   
looked through the  key-hole4 ,certain  
disagreeable details3 do they make up   
reality8 ,to  select the most beautiful 
and charming woman one knows1 and to set
 a  detective artist on her track1 to   
follow her about everywhere1 to keep  an

 opera-glass fixed upon her1 to catch   
fragments of her conversation1  to enter
 her house1 her bedroom1 to examine her 
dirty linen1--would  ,helen of ,troy    
emerge beautiful from this procs-verbal8
 ,and on which  side would be most      
reality8 ,nature seems to resent this   
austere method  of approaching her1 and 
when we have closed our hands the       
reality has  slipped through our        
fingers4 ,a great artist1 a ,shakespeare
 or a ,goethe1  is not afraid of any    
fact1 however repulsive it may seem1 so 
long as  it is significant4 ,but it must
 be significant4 ,without sympathy and  
a severe criticism of details1 the truly
 illuminating facts will be  missed or  
lost in the heap4 ,it is interesting to 
note that ,zola himself  recognizes     
this1 and admits that he has been       
carried away by his  delight and        
enthusiasm in attempting to vindicate   
for ,art the whole of  ,nature4         
,whatever is really fine in ,zola's     
work--8,la ,faute de l',abb  ,mouret10  

or the last chapters of 8,nana0--is fine
 because the man of a  formula is for   
awhile subordinated to the artist4      
,zola may work as hard as he will in the
 cause of the formula2 he  remains1     
above all1 a man of massive temperament 
and peculiarly strong  individuality4   
,that is the real secret of his         
influence4 ,a youth1  developed in the  
poverty and hunger of a garret on the   
outskirts of  ,paris1 who was fascinated
 by the great city he has lovingly      
painted1  as it was there spread out    
before him1 in 8,une ,page d',amour10   
and  condemned to see it only from the  
outside1--here was material for that    
irony1 unending and absolutely pitiless1
 that runs through the whole of  the    
vast ,rougon-,macquart drama of the     
world4 ,he is an austere moralist1  with
 no tenderness for human weakness1 8un  
tragique qui se fche10  as he calls     
himself1 a ,republican in spirit long   
before the ,republic  was proclaimed1 a 
hater of all hypocrisies and empty      

prettinesses and  fine phrases and      
elegant circumlocutions1 a fighting man 
ready to  fight to the last1 with rude  
weapons but in fair combat4 ,he         
represents  the revolt against the      
,french romantic movement--8une meute de
  rhtoriciens10 he calls it--which found
 its supreme incarnation in  ,victor    
,hugo4 ,the ,forty ,immortals may have  
laughed serenely1 but when  ,zola       
declared that he was carrying on the    
classic tradition he was not  altogether
 wrong4 ,the classic tradition of       
,france is marked by a very  vivid sense
 of life2 it has a close grip of the    
practical and material  side of things1 
a wholesome contempt for all pretence1  
and sometimes  a certain rather rank    
savour of audacity4 ,zola will scarcely 
stand  beside ,rabelais and ,montaigne  
and ,molire2 the artist in him is too   
much crushed by ideas1 and he has       
altogether run too much to seed2 but  he
 is fighting on the same side1 and he   
has been proved to possess one  quality 

which leaves little more to be said1    
effectiveness4 ,whatever  the value of  
his work1 he has turned the tide of     
novel literature1  wherever his         
influence has spread1 from frivolous    
inanities to the  painstaking study of  
the facts of human life4 ,whatever we   
may think for  the moment1 that is a    
very wholesome and altogether moral     
revolution4    ,as for great art1 that  
is neither here nor there4 ,shakespeare1
 ,goethe1  ,flaubert1--for such men the 
extremes of poetry and of realism are   
equally welcome4 ,tolstoi1 it is clear1 
is more of a realist than a  poet1 but  
his realism is of the kind that grows   
naturally out of the  experiences of a  
man who has lived a peculiarly full and 
varied life4  ,it is life sur le vif1   
not studied from a garret window4       
,nothing  is omitted1 nothing is        
superfluous2 the narrative seems to lead
  the narrator rather than the narrator 
it1 and through all we catch            
perpetually what seems an almost        

accidental fragrance of poetry4 ,see    
the account of the storm in the         
8,childhood1 ,boyhood1 and ,youth10 or  
of  the child in the raspberry bush1 or 
of the mowing1 or the horse-race1  in   
8,anna ,karenina10 with their peculiar1 
intangible yet vivid reality4  ,but     
these things1 it may be said1 are       
poetry1 the effluence of some  divine   
moment of life1 the record of some      
unforgettable thrill of  blood and      
brain4 ,compare1 then1 the account of a 
childbirth in 8,anna  ,karenina0 7there 
is an earlier and less successful       
attempt in 8,war and  ,peace07 with a   
similar scene which is the central      
episode in ,zola's  8,la ,joie de       
,vivre40 ,the latter1 doubtless1 is     
instructive from its  fidelity2 every   
petty detail is coldly and minutely set 
forth4 ,its  artistic value is difficult
 to estimate2 it can scarcely be large4 
,zola  presents the subject from the    
point of view of a disinterested and    
impossible spectator2 in ,tolstoi's     

scene we have frankly the husband's     
point of view4 ,there is no room here   
for instructive demonstration of  the   
mechanism of birth1 of all its physical 
details and miseries4 ,it is  real life1
 but at such a moment real life is      
excitement1 emotion1 and  the result is 
art4 ,what1 again1 can be more          
unpromising than a novel  about a remote
 historical war8 ,but read 8,war and    
,peace0 to see how  lifelike1 how vivid 
and fascinating1 the narrative becomes  
in the hands  of a man who has known the
 life of a soldier and all the chances  
of war4    ,tolstoi is not alone among  
,russian novelists in the character of  
his  realism4 ,gogol's 8,dead ,souls0   
has something of the wholesome          
naturalism  as well as of the broad art 
and the good-natured satire of          
,fielding4  ,he is perpetually insisting
 on the importance to the artist of     
those  8little things which only seem   
little when narrated in a book1 but     
which one finds very important in actual

 life40 ,in his letters on 8,dead       
,souls0 ,gogol wrote3 8,those who have  
dissected my literary faculties  have   
not discovered the essential feature of 
my nature4 ,poushkin alone  perceived   
it4 ,he always said that no author has  
been gifted like me to  bring into      
relief the triviality of life1 to       
describe all the platitude  of a        
commonplace man1 to make perceptible to 
all eyes the infinitely  little things  
which escape our vision4 ,that is my    
dominating faculty40  ,tourgueneff      
declared that the novel must cast aside 
all hypocrisy1  sentimentality1 and     
rhetoric for the simple yet nobler aim  
of becoming  the history of life4       
,dostoieffski1 that tender-hearted      
student of the  perversities of the     
human heart1 so faithful in his studies 
that he  sometimes seems to forget how  
great an artist he is1 justifies himself
  thus3 8,what is the good of           
prescribing to art the roads that it    
must  follow8 ,to do so is to doubt art1

 which develops normally1 according  to 
the laws of nature1 and must be         
exclusively occupied in responding  to  
human needs4 ,art has always shown      
itself faithful to nature1 and  has     
marched with social progress4 ,the ideal
 of beauty cannot perish in  a healthy  
society2 we must then give liberty to   
art1 and leave her to  herself4 ,have   
confidence in her2 she will reach her   
end1 and if she  strays from the way she
 will soon reach it again2 society      
itself will  be the guide4 ,no single   
artist1 not ,shakespeare himself1 can   
prescribe  to art her roads and aims40  
,tolstoi but followed in the same path  
when1  in one of the earliest of his    
books1 the 8,sebastopol ,sketches10 he  
wrote3 8,the hero of my tale1 whom ,i   
love with all the strength of my  soul1 
whom ,i have tried to set forth in all  
his beauty1 and who has  always been1   
is1 and always will be1 most beautiful1 
is--,truth40    ,it is1 after all1      
impossible to disentangle ,tolstoi's art

 from the  man himself and the ideas and
 aspirations that have stirred him4     
,when  we consider his history and      
development we are sometimes reminded of
  our own ,william ,morris4 ,they are   
both men of massive and sanguine        
temperament1 of restless energy1 groping
 their way through life with a  vague   
sense of dissatisfaction2 both pure     
artists through the greater  part of    
their career1 and both artists still1   
when late in life1 and  under the       
influence of rather sectarian ideas1    
they think that they  have at length    
grasped the pillars of the heathen      
temple of society in  which they have so
 long been groping1 and are ready to    
wreak on it the  pent-up unrest of their
 lives4 ,but they go to work in not     
quite the  same way4 ,both1 it is true1 
having apparently passed through a very 
slight religious phase in early life1   
have had this experience in later  life1
 and in both it has taken on a social   
character2 both1 also1 have  sought     

their inspiration1 not so much in a     
possible future deduced from  the       
present1 as in the past experiences of  
the race4 ,tolstoi with his             
semi-oriental quietism has returned to  
the rationalistic aspects of  the social
 teaching of ,jesus4 ,morris1 who       
regards ,iceland rather than  ,juda as  
the ,holy ,land of the race1 looks to   
,scandinavian antiquity  for light on   
the problems of to-day4 ,it is on the   
robust ,scandinavian  spirit of         
independence and comfortable well-to-do 
intolerance of all  oppression and      
domination that ,morris relies for the  
redemption of  his own time and people4 
,so far from identifying art1 as        
,tolstoi is  inclined to do1 with the   
evil and luxury of the world1 ,morris   
finds in  art a chief hope for the      
world4 ,it is not1 therefore1 surprising
 that  his art has suffered little from 
the fervour of his convictions1 while   
his varied artistic activities have     
given him a wholesome grip on life4     

,his new beliefs1 on the other hand1    
have given new meaning to his art4  ,his
 mastery of prose has only been acquired
 under the stress of his  convictions4  
,it is prose of massive simplicity1 a   
morning freshness1  unconscious and     
effortless4 ,there is about it something
 of the peculiar  charm of the finest   
,norman architecture4 ,the 8,dream of   
,john ,ball10  a strong unpretentious   
piece of work1 penetrated at every point
 by  profound social convictions1 yet   
with the artist's touch throughout1  may
 be read with a delight which the       
complex and artificial prose we  are    
accustomed to cannot give4 ,england1 it 
is said1 is predominantly a             
,scandinavian country2 ,morris is       
significant because he gives expression 
in an extreme form to the racial        
instincts of his own people1 just as    
,tolstoi expresses in equally extreme   
form the deepest instincts of his       
,sclavonic race4    ,against the 8,dream
 of ,john ,ball10 we may place the work 

produced at  the same time by the       
,russian's keener and more searching    
hand1 8,the  ,dominion of ,darkness40   
,this sombre and awful tragedy is a     
terribly  real and merciless picture of 
the worst elements in peasant life1 a   
picture of avarice and lust and murder4 
,only one pious1 stuttering1  incoherent
 moojik1 whose employment is to clean   
out closets1 appears  as the            
representative of mercy and justice4 ,so
 thick is the gloom  that it seems the  
artistic effect would have been         
heightened if the  concluding           
introduction of the officers of an      
external and official  justice had been 
omitted1 and the curtain had fallen on  
the tragic  merriment of the wedding    
feast4 ,the same intense earnestness    
taking1  almost unconsciously1 an       
artistic shape1 reveals itself in the   
little  stories of which in recent years
 ,tolstoi has produced so many1 some    
indeed comparatively ineffective1 but   
others that are a fascinating           

combination of simplicity1 realism1     
imaginative insight1 brought to the     
service of social ideas4 ,such is 8,what
 men live by10 the story of the  angel  
who disobeyed ,god1 and was sent to     
earth to learn that it is only  in      
appearance that men are kept alive      
through care for themselves1 but  that  
in reality they are kept alive through  
love4    ,tolstoi's voice is heard      
throughout the vast extent of ,russia1  
not by  the rich only1 but by the       
peasant4 ,that is why his significance  
is so  great4 ,sometimes the religious  
censure prohibits his books2 sometimes  
it allows them2 in either case they are 
circulated4 ,published at a few         
halfpence1 these little books are within
 the reach of the poorest1  and ,tolstoi
 gives free permission to anyone to     
reproduce or translate  any of his      
books4 ,his drama1 8,the ,dominion of   
,darkness1 or when a  bird lets himself 
be caught by one foot he is lost10 was  
intended for  the public who frequent   

the open-air theatres of fairs1 and     
eighty  thousand copies were sold during
 the first week1 although certainly  not
 altogether among the audience he would 
have preferred4 ,the stories  for       
children are circulated in scores of    
editions of twenty thousand  copies     
each4 ,tolstoi has nothing to teach that
 he has not learnt from  peasants1 and  
which thousands of peasants might not   
have taught him4  ,he has used his      
character and genius as a sounding-board
 to enable  his voice to reach millions 
of persons1 many of whom1 even the most 
intelligent1 are not aware that he is   
but repeating the lessons he has  learnt
 from unlettered moojiks4    ,now his   
voice has reached the countries of the  
,west1 and it sounds here  far more     
unfamiliar than in a land so stirred by 
popular religious  movements as ,russia4
 8,my ,religion10 that powerful argument
 ad hominem  to the ,christian from one 
who accepts both the letter and the     
spirit of  ,jesus's simplest and least  

questionable teaching1 has had an       
especially  large circulation in the    
,west4 ,such a challenge has never      
before been  scattered broadcast among  
the nations4 ,what1 one wonders1 will be
 the  outcome8    ,to most people the   
simplicity of the challenger is a cause 
of  astonishment4 ,after the            
assassination of ,alexander ,,ii4 and   
the sentence  on the assassins1 ,tolstoi
 wrote to the present ,tzar imploring   
him  not to begin his reign with        
judicial murder1 and he was deeply and  
genuinely disappointed at the inevitable
 reception of his appeal4  ,count       
,tolstoi1 the author of 8,war and       
,peace0 and 8,anna ,karenina10 made  the
 same mistake as the simple peasant     
,soutaieff4 ,that little incident       
throws much light on his mental         
constitution4 ,it is the attitude of  a 
child1 absorbed wholly in one thing at a
 time1 unable to calculate  the nature  
and the strength of opposing forces4 ,it
 is the same fact of  mental structure  

which leads the world-renowned novelist 
to delight  to learn from children1 to  
be mortified when they do not like his  
stories1 and to experience one of the   
greatest excitements of life when  he   
thinks he detects the dawn of genius in 
a child of ten4 ,the same               
characteristic appears in his treatment 
of science4 ,he had heard1 he  told ,mr4
 ,kennan1 that a ,russian scientist had 
completely demolished the  ,darwinian   
theory4 ,in 8,life10 one of his latest  
books1 this tendency has  carried him   
far away into a sterile and hopeless    
region of mystical  phraseology4 ,he    
dismisses scientific men briefly as the 
,scribes4 ,it  has not occurred to him  
apparently that this book1 8,life10 is a
 book  of science4 ,and1 certainly1 if  
science could produce nothing better    
than 8,life10 the language that ,tolstoi
 uses regarding it were not one  whit   
too strong4 ,this childlike simplicity  
is not peculiar to ,tolstoi2  it is more
 or less the attitude of every true     

,russian1 of the peasant  who sets up   
the kingdom of ,heaven1 as of the       
,nihilist who thinks he  can emancipate 
his country by destroying a few ,tzars4 
,it is a weakness  that must often mean 
failure because it cannot estimate the  
strength  of difficulties4 ,at the same 
time it is a power4 ,it is by this      
intense  concentration on one desired   
object1 this heroic inability to see    
opposition1 that the highest achievement
 becomes possible4    ,whatever         
,tolstoi's limitations and failures of  
perception1 those things  which he      
believes he has seen he grasps with     
inexorable tenacity4  ,the violence and 
misery of the world--that is a reality2 
a reality1  he feels1 which must be     
fought at all costs4 ,mr4 ,kennan tells 
how he  pressed home on ,tolstoi the    
cases of extreme brutality and          
oppression  that he had known practised 
on political prisoners in ,siberia1 and 
how1  though ,tolstoi's eyes filled with
 tears as he imagined the horrors       

described1 he still pointed out in      
detail how1 by opposing violence  to    
violence in the cases cited1 the misery 
of the world would be  increased3 8,at  
the time when you interposed there was  
only one centre  of evil and suffering4 
,by your violent interference you have  
created  half-a-dozen such centres4 ,it 
does not seem to me1 ,mr4 ,kennan1 that 
that is the way to bring about the reign
 of peace and good-will on  earth40#ab  
#ab ,see the interesting paper1 8,a     
,visit to ,count ,tolstoi10 in          
8,century10 ,june1 #ahhg4    ,tolstoi   
possesses that social imagination which1
 though growing among  us1 is still so  
rare4 ,if at the dinner where cheerful  
guests prolong  their enjoyment1 there  
were placed behind each chair a starved1
 ragged  figure1 with haggard and       
haunting face--would not the meal be    
broken up  as speedily as if every guest
 had found the sword of ,dionysius      
hanging  by a thread above his head8    
,yet it is only a lack of imagination   

which  prevents us from seeing through  
the few layers of bricks that screen us 
off from these realities4 ,for him who  
has seen it there is little rest1  8so  
long as ,i have superfluous food and    
another has none1 so long as ,i  have   
two coats and another has none40        
,with tears in his voice1 and in words  
whose intense reality pierces  through  
the translation1 though this1 we are    
told1 cannot reproduce the  graphic     
vividness of the original1 ,tolstoi     
speaks to us through his  life and his  
work as he once spoke to the interviewer
 who came to him3    8,people say to me1
 #8,well1 ,lef ,nikolaivitch1 as far as 
preaching goes1  you preach2 but how    
about your practice8' ,the question is a
 perfectly  natural one2 it is always   
put to me1 and it always shuts my mouth4
 #8,you  preach1' it is said1 #8but how 
do you live8' ,i can only reply that ,i 
do  not preach--passionately as ,i      
desire to do so4 ,i might preach through
  my actions1 but my actions are bad4   

,that which ,i say is not preaching2  it
 is only my attempt to find out the     
meaning and the significance of  life4  
,people often say to me1 #8,if you think
 that there is no reasonable  life      
outside the teachings of ,christ1 and if
 you love a reasonable  life1 why do you
 not fulfil the ,christian precepts8' ,i
 am guilty and  blameworthy and         
contemptible because ,i do not fulfil   
them2 but at the  same time ,i say1--not
 in justification1 but in explanation1  
of my  inconsistency1--,compare my      
previous life with the life ,i am now   
living1  and you will see that ,i am    
trying to fulfil4 ,i have not1 it is    
true1  fulfilled one eighty-thousandth  
part1 and ,i am to blame for it2 but it 
is not because ,i do not wish to fulfil 
all1 but because ,i am unable4  ,teach  
me how to extricate myself from the     
meshes of temptation in which  ,i am    
entangled1--help me1--and ,i will fulfil
 all4 ,i wish and hope to do  it even   
without help4 ,condemn me if you        

choose1--,i do that myself1--but        
condemn me1 and not the path which ,i am
 following1 and which ,i point  out to  
those who ask me where1 in my opinion1  
the path is4 ,if ,i know  the road home1
 and if ,i go along it drunk1 and       
staggering from side  to side1 does that
 prove that the road is not the right   
one8 ,if it is  not the right one1 show 
me another4 ,if ,i stagger and wander1  
come to  my help1 and support and guide 
me in the right path4 ,do not yourselves
  confuse and mislead me and then       
rejoice over it and cry1 #8,look at him6
  ,he says he is going home1 and he is  
floundering into the swamp6' ,you  are  
not evil spirits from the swamp2 you are
 also human beings1 and  you also are   
going home4 ,you know that ,i am        
alone1--you know that ,i  cannot wish or
 intend to go into the swamp1--then help
 me6 ,my heart is  breaking with despair
 because we have all lost the road2 and 
while ,i  struggle with all my strength 
to find it and keep in it1 you1 instead 

of pitying me when ,i go astray1 cry    
triumphantly1 #8,see6 ,he is in the     
swamp with us6'0          ,,conclusion4 
,tolstoi brings us face to face with    
religion4 ,if we think of it1 every     
personality we have considered has      
brought us subtly in contact with  that 
ineluctable shape4 ,it is strange3 men  
seek to be1 or to seem1  atheists1      
agnostics1 cynics1 pessimists2 at the   
core of all these  things lurks         
religion4 ,we may find it in ,diderot's 
mighty enthusiasm1  in ,heine's         
passionate cries1 in ,ibsen's gigantic  
faith in the future1  in ,whitman's not 
less gigantic faith in the present4 ,we 
see the same  in the music-dramas of    
,wagner1 in ,zola's pathetic belief in a
 formula1  in ,morris's worship of an   
ideal past1 in the aspirations of every 
,socialist who looks for the return of  
those barbarous times in which  all men 
equally were fed and clothed and housed4
 ,the men who have most  finely felt the
 pulse of the world1 and have1 in their 

turn1 most  effectively stirred its     
pulse1 are religious men4    ,one is    
forced to ask oneself at last3 ,how can 
,i make clear to myself  this vast and  
many-shaped religious element of life8  
,it will not  let me pass it by4 ,can   
,i--without any attempt to theorize or  
to  explain--reduce it to some common   
denominator1 so that ,i may at  least   
gain the satisfaction that comes of the 
clear and harmonious  presentation of a 
complex fact8 ,when we have settled the 
question  of the evolution of religion1 
another more fundamental question may   
still be asked3 ,what is the nature of  
the impulse that underlies1 and         
manifests itself in1 that sun-worship1  
nature-worship1 fetich-worship1         
ghost-worship1 to which1 with occasional
 appeal to the vast reservoir  of sexual
 and filial love1 we may succeed in     
reducing religious  phenomena8 ,on the  
one hand1 this impulse must begin to    
develop at  least as early as the       
earliest appearance of worship2 on the  

other  hand1 we cannot ascertain its    
distinctive characters unless we also   
examine and compare its more specialized
 forms4 ,what is there in common        
between the religious attitude of the   
child of to-day1 enfranchized  from     
creeds1 and that of1 let us say1        
,lo-tsze1 the child of a day  that is   
twenty-five centuries old2 or between   
these and the far more  primitive       
adoration of the ,dravidian for his     
cattle8 ,if the vague  term 8religion10 
which1 as commonly used1 contains at    
least three  elements--moral1           
scientific1 emotional--covers any       
distinct and  persistent human impulse1 
what is the nature and scope of that    
impulse8  ,i wish to represent to       
myself1 as precisely and as broadly as  
may be1  man's religious relation4      
,when we look out into the universe we  
see a vast medium1 the world1  gradually
 merging itself indistinctly in a       
practical infinite1 and  in the centre a
 certain limited number of souls1 souls 

like the  theoretical atoms of the      
physicist1 never under any circumstances
  touching4 ,let two souls approach ever
 so nearly1 there is yet a subtle       
chasm1 through which        8,the       
unplumbed1 salt1 estranging sea0        
still flows4 ,these souls are made up   
essentially of mind and body4  ,there   
can be no change of consciousness       
without a corresponding change  in the  
vascular circulation4 ,there can be no  
thrill of body in a soul  without a     
correlated thrill of mind4 ,matter and  
mind in the soul are  co-extensive4     
,when we speak of the 8spirit0 as ruling
 the body1 or as  yielding to it1 we    
are1 it must be remembered1 using a     
traditional  method of speech which had 
its origin in a more primitive theory1  
just  as we still speak of sun-rise4 ,in
 the soul the spiritual can no more  be 
subordinated to the material1 strictly  
speaking1 than in water the  oxygen be  
subordinated to the hydrogen4 ,the old  
dispute for supremacy  between mind and 

matter no longer has any significance4  
,both matter and  mind are in the end   
equally unknown3 exeunt in mysterium4   
,the soul is born and then dies4 ,what  
do we mean by birth and death8          
,according to the old ,hebrew conception
 a spirit was created out of  nothing   
and put into a mould of matter1 and then
 at death again passed  back into       
nothing4 ,but to-day this conception is 
impossible4 ,ex  nihilo nihil fit4 ,it  
is clear that both the elements that    
make up  the soul must be1 under some   
form1 equally eternal4 ,by a marvellous 
cosmic incident1 our little planet has  
broken forth into a strange and         
beautiful efflorescence4 ,we rise from  
the world1 whom we are1 on this         
variegated jet of organic life1 to fall 
back again to our true life1 by         
whatever unknown ways and under whatever
 change of form1 conscious1 it  may be1 
but1 as before birth1 no longer with any
 self to be conscious  of1 no longer    
organic4    ,now souls1 although they   

always remain isolated1 are acted upon  
by  the world and by other souls1 and   
when so acted upon they yield an        
emotional response4 ,and for the present
 purpose these actions may  be divided  
into two classes1 corresponding to the  
two classes of  sympathetic nerve       
fibres--vaso-constrictor and            
vaso-dilator--which  control the        
vascular system1 the rougher daily      
contacts of life1 which  contract though
 they strengthen the soul with their    
legacy of strong  desires and griefs1   
and the incomparably rarer contacts at  
which the  soul for a while and in      
varying degrees expands with a glad     
sense of  freedom4 ,as every bodily     
change in the compacted soul is         
correlated  with a mental change1 these 
responses may be spoken of indifferently
  in mental or material terms4 ,we know 
that they are on the bodily side        
vaso-motorial2 that a thrill of joy is  
accompanied by a change in  arterial    
tension1 and we can therefore use this  

expression of the part  as the symbol of
 the whole4 ,it is this enlarged        
diastole of the soul  that we call      
religion4    8,the whole theory of the  
universe is directed unerringly to one  
single  individual1--namely1 to ,you40  
,from the religious standpoint this is  
essentially true4 ,the soul is situated 
at the centre of the world1  exposed to 
a practically infinite number of        
appeals1 to which it is  capable of     
yielding a practically infinite number  
of responses or  initiations4 ,every    
moment a stream of influences is        
striking against  the soul and producing
 a multitudinous stream of responses1   
new stops  growing1 as it were1 beneath 
the player's touch4 ,we know that for   
the  most part the harsh and jarring    
discords predominate1 that a soul  that 
answers to the world's touch with a     
music that is ever large and            
harmonious1 is so rare that we call it  
by some divine ideal word4 ,yet  the    
field of the soul's liberation is a     

large one1 whether we look  at it on the
 physical or on the mental side4 ,the   
simplest functions  of physiological    
life may be its ministers4 ,everyone who
 is at all  acquainted with the ,persian
 mystics1 knows how wine may be regarded
  as an instrument of religion4 ,indeed1
 in all countries and in all  ages1 some
 form of physical enlargement--singing1 
dancing1 drinking1  sexual              
excitement--has been intimately         
associated with worship4 ,even  the     
momentary expansion of the soul in      
laughter is1 to however slight  an      
extent1 a religious exercise4 ,i do not 
fear to make this assertion2  the       
expansions of the soul differ           
indefinitely in volume and quality4  ,if
 this is but a low rung of the ladder   
along which pass the angels of  our     
gladness1 at the other end is that      
vision of divine self-sacrifice1  so    
marked in the more highly developed     
religions1 which has sustained  through 
sorrow and defeat some of the world's   

loftiest spirits4 ,they  differ1 as much
 as we will1 in degree1 but between them
 what hint  by which to draw a line8    
,whenever an impulse from the world     
strikes  against the organism1 and the  
resultant is not discomfort or pain1    
not even the muscular contraction of    
strenuous manhood1 but a joyous         
expansion or aspiration of the whole    
soul--there is religion4 ,it is the     
infinite for which we hunger1 and we    
ride gladly on every little wave  that  
promises to bear us towards it4#ac      
#ac ,it may be said that religion1 as   
even the etymology of the word          
witnesses1 has been a force on the side 
of repression4 ,that also is  true2 it  
cannot indeed be too strongly           
emphasized4 ,only in the strength  of   
that joyous expansion could men have    
acted and suffered such  intolerable    
torture in the service of religion4 7,it
 must be remembered1  however1 that in  
certain stages of civilization religion 
is largely  identified with morality74  

,it is necessary to generalize from the 
most  various and highly specialized    
cases in order to arrive at a reasonable
  definition4    ,when we try to        
classify the chief of these affections  
of the soul  according to the impulses  
that arouse them1 we find that they may 
be  conveniently divided into four      
classes3--7#a47 ,those caused by the    
liberation of impulses stored up in the 
soul4 7#b47 ,those caused by  impulses  
from other souls4 7#c47 ,those caused by
 impulses from the  world1 as distinct  
from souls4 7#d47 ,those caused by an   
intuition of  union with the world4     
7#a47 ,here we are1 above all1 concerned
 with art4 ,it is not necessary  here to
 distinguish between the emotion of the 
artist and that of him  who merely      
follows the artist1 passing his hand as 
it were over the  other's work1 and     
receiving1 in a less degree it may be1  
the same  emotion4 ,we are all artists  
potentially4 ,the secret of the charm of
  art is that it presents to us an      

external world which is manifestly of   
like nature with the soul4 8,non merita 
nome di ,creatore10 according  to       
,tasso's saying1 8se non ,iddio ed il   
,poeta40 ,the work of art--poem1        
statue1 music--succeeds in being what   
every philosophy attempts to  be4       
,neither change nor death can touch it2 
also it is immeasurable2  we feel that  
we are in the presence of the infinite4 
,no art has ever  succeeded in embodying
 those visions of the infinite which are
 commonly  regarded as specifically     
religious--so that even to-day we       
respond  with a thrill of dilatation--as
 the old fragmentary art of ,egypt in   
the ruined temples of the ,thebaid4     
,greek art1 also1 is a manifestation  of
 the infinite2 we may lose ourselves    
among those subtle curves of  man's or  
woman's body4 ,a ,gothic cathedral of   
the thirteenth century  is an embodiment
 of the infinite world itself4 ,the soul
 responds  expansively to all these     
things4 ,when that response is wanting1 

and the  art therefore1 however         
interesting1 is not religious--as in the
 art of  ,pompeii and the ,italian      
post-,raphaelite art--it will generally 
be found  technically inferior4 ,the    
subject1 one may note1 has little or    
nothing  to do with the matter4 ,a      
representation of ,god the ,father      
rarely  evokes any religious response4  
,de ,hooge1 by means of mere sunlight   
and  the rubbish of a back-yard1 awakes 
in us an enlarging thrill of joy4  ,in  
music the most indefinite and profound  
mysteries of the soul are  revealed and 
placed outside us as a gracious and     
marvellous orb2 the  very secret of the 
soul is brought forth and set in the    
audible world4  ,that is why no other   
art smites us with so powerfully        
religious an  appeal as music2 no other 
art tells us such old forgotten secrets 
about  ourselves4        8,o6 what is   
this that knows the road ,i came80      
,it is in the mightiest of all          
instincts1 the primitive sexual         

traditions of the races before man was1 
that music is rooted4    ,there are     
perhaps two instincts1 a motor and a    
sensory1 lying at the  bottom of art and
 the delight in art4 ,all the           
constructive instincts  of living       
things1 from bees and ants and worms and
 birds upwards1 have  gone to mould our 
delight in the fashioning of a whole1   
and in the  contemplation of its        
fashion4 ,the same process was carried  
on into  human life4 ,the primitive     
potter who took clay and wrought with   
her  hands1 and dinted with her nails1  
the cup or pot or jar1 wrought it       
through long ages ever more lovely and  
perfect1 embodying therein all  that she
 knew of the earth's uses and saw of its
 beauty1 and by a true  instinct she    
called her work a living creature4 ,the 
baskets that early  men wove1 and the   
weapons that they carved for themselves1
 and their  rhythmical cries in         
war-dance or worship1 are part of a     
chain that  presents itself again in    

,gothic cathedrals or ,greek and        
,elizabethan  dramas4    ,even stronger 
than this motor instinct of art is the  
sensory delight  in beauty which has its
 root in the attraction of sex4 ,not    
indeed the  only root2 all the things in
 the world that give light and heat and 
food and shelter and help gather around 
themselves some garment of  loveliness1 
and so become the stuff of art2 the sun 
and the reindeer  are among the very    
first things to which men tried to give 
artistic  expression4 ,but the sexual   
instinct is more poignant and           
overmastering1  more ancient than any as
 a source of beauty4 ,colour and song   
and  strength and skill--such are the   
impressions that male and female  have  
graved on each other's hearts in their  
moments of most intense  emotional      
exaltation4 ,their reflections have been
 thrown on the whole  world4 ,when the  
youth awakes to find a woman is         
beautiful1 he finds1 to  his amazement1 
that the world also is beautiful4 ,who  

can say in what  lowly organism was     
stored the first of those impressions of
 beauty1 the  reflections of sexual     
emotion1 to which all creators of       
beauty--whether  in the form of the     
,venus of ,milo1 the ,madonna di ,san   
,sisto1 ,chopin's  music1 ,shelley's    
lyrics--can always appeal1 certain of   
response8 ,one  might name finally as   
the highest1 most complex summit of art 
reached  in our own time--a summit on   
which art is revealed in its supreme    
religious form--,wagner's 8,parsifal40  
,these things sprang from love1 as      
surely as the world would have been     
wellnigh barren of beauty had the       
sexual method of reproduction never     
replaced all others4 ,beauty is the     
child of love2 the world1 at least all  
in it worth living for1 was the         
creation of love4    ,yet another art1  
more subtle and complex1 has played a   
large part  in the history of           
religion--the art of metaphysic4 ,the   
savage finds  religious gratification in

 the exercise of his coarser senses1  in
 singing or dancing or drinking2 the man
 of large and refined  intellectual     
development1 a ,plato1 a ,spinoza1 a    
,kant1 finds it in  philosophy4 ,such   
men1 indeed1 are few1 but by force of   
intelligence  they have been enabled to 
thrust their pictures of the world on   
inferior minds2 their arts have become  
articles4 ,but every man who has        
reached the stage of development in     
which he can truly experience the  joy  
of the philosophic emotion will         
construct his own philosophy4 ,a        
philosophy is the house of the mind1 and
 no two philosophies can be  alike      
because no two minds are alike4 ,but the
 emotion is the same1 the  emotion of   
expansive joy in a house not built with 
hands1 in which the  soul has made for  
herself a large and harmonious dwelling4
    7#b47 ,it is true that souls remain 
for ever apart4 ,the lover seeks to be  
absorbed altogether in the heaven of the
 loved personality1 but in the  end the 

heaven remains unsealed4     8,adfigunt 
avide corpus junguntque salivas oris et 
inspirant   pressantes dentibus ora1    
nequiquam40    ,and yet a large or      
lovely personality is not the less an   
outlook  towards the infinite4 ,we      
cannot think of certain men of immense  
range  or power or sweetness--,st4      
,francis1 ,leonardo1 ,napoleon1         
,darwin--without  experiencing a        
movement of liberation4 ,to pronounce   
the names of such  men is of the nature 
of an act of worship4 ,i cannot for a   
moment  think of ,shakespeare without a 
thrill of exultation at such gracious   
plenitude of power4 ,no person1         
probably1 ever made so ardent a personal
  appeal to men as ,jesus4 ,he          
discovered a whole new world of         
emotional  life1 a new expansion of joy1
 a kingdom in which slave and harlot    
took  precedence of priest and king4 ,to
 the men for whom that new emotional    
world was fresh and living1 torture and 
shame and death counted as  nothing     

beside so large a possession of inward  
gladness4 ,the weakest  and lowest      
became heroes and saints in the effort  
to guard a pearl of  so great price4    
,there are few more inspiring figures in
 the history  of man than the white body
 of the slave-girl ,blandina1 that hung 
from  the stake day after day with the  
beasts in the amphitheatre at ,lyons1   
torn and bleeding1 yet1 instar generosi 
cujusdam athlet1 with the  undying cry  
on her lips1 ,christiana sum6 ,it is    
open to everyone to  give liberating    
impulses to his fellows4 ,it is the     
distinction of ,jesus  that he has1 for 
us1 permanently expanded the bounds of  
individuality4  ,we all breathe deeper  
and freer because of that semi-ideal    
carpenter's  son4 8,fiat experimentum in
 corpore vili10 said the physician in   
the old story1 by the bedside of a      
wretched patient4 8,non est corpus  tam 
vile pro quo mortuus est ,christus10    
unexpectedly returned the  dying man4   
,the charm of ,jesus can never pass away

 when it is rightly  apprehended4       
,but it is not alone the large mystery  
of exceptional personalities  which     
calls out this response4 ,to certain    
finely-tempered spirits no  human thing 
is too mean to fail in making this      
emotional appeal4 ,the  chief religious 
significance of ,walt ,whitman lies in  
his revelation  of the emotional value  
of the entire common human personality  
and  all that belongs to it4 ,the later 
,athenians 7as also ,goethe7 placed     
above all things the harmonious         
development of the individual in its    
higher forms4 ,it still remained to show
 the loveliness of the complete         
ordinary personality4 ,whitman's 8,song 
of ,myself0 cannot in this respect  be  
over-estimated4#ad    #ad ,the late     
,william ,cyples1 in his charming and   
neglected magnum  opus1 8,the ,process  
of ,human ,experience0 7p4 #dfb71       
rightly traces this  form of religion to
 the feeling generated between lovers1  
friends1  parent and children4 8,a few  

have at intervals walked in the world10 
he  adds1 8who have1 each in his own    
original way1 found out this marvel  444
 it has proved sufficient for them even 
to wish enough to help their  race2     
instantly these secret delights have    
risen in their hearts4  ,straightway man
 in general has become to them so sweet 
a thing that the  infatuation has seemed
 to the rest of their fellows to be a   
celestial  madness4 ,beggars' rags to   
their unhesitating lips grew fit for    
kissing1  because humanity had touched  
the garb2 there were no longer any      
menial  acts1 but only welcome services4
 ,it was the humblest1 the easiest1 the 
readiest of duties to lay down life for 
the ignorant1 the ill-behaved1  the     
unkind1--for any and all who did but    
wear the familiar human shape4  ,that   
this ecstasy of humanity should rise so 
much higher than any other  is according
 to the plain working of the law of     
accumulation of finer  consciousness by 
complexity in the occasioning activity4 

,remember by  how much man is the       
subtlest circumstance in the world2 at  
how many  points he can attach          
relationships2 how manifold and         
perennial he is in  his results4 ,all   
other things are dull1 meagre1 tame     
beside him4 ,if the  most part of us are
 only as dross to one another1 in place 
of being of  this priceless value1 it   
can only be from the lack of mutual     
services  among us4 ,without these how  
can we but want sufficient adaptiveness 
of mood1--how can we help groaning under
 the weight of instincts half  organized
 or wholly unfulfilled80    7#c47 ,there
 is a religion of science4 ,it is rarer 
than has sometimes  been supposed1 and  
among men of science1 probably1 it is   
seldom  found4 ,strauss's 8,old ,faith  
and ,new0 is one of the chief attempts  
by a man of science to present the      
scientific attitude as food for  the    
religious consciousness4 ,the result is 
dreary in the extreme1  in the end      
almost ludicrous4 ,herbert ,spencer's   

attitude towards the  ,unknowable is a  
distinct though faint approximation to  
the religious  relationship4            
,positivism1 with its quasi-scientific  
notions1 was  founded on a curiously    
narrow conception of the nature of      
religion1  and its religious sterility  
is probably inevitable4 ,the man of     
science  has little to do with          
magnificent generalizations2 he is      
concerned  chiefly with the patient     
investigation of details2 it is but     
rarely  that he feels called upon1 like 
,kepler or ,newton1 for any emotional   
response to the grandeur and uniformity 
of law4 ,yet to many this vision  of    
universal law has come as a light moving
 over chaos1 a glad new  discovery of   
the vastness and yet the homeliness of  
the world4    ,an sthetic emotion is not
 necessarily religious1 even within the 
field  of inanimate nature4 ,so also the
 elusive tints1 the subtle perfumes  of 
things1 so far from liberating the soul1
 may excite a tormenting  desire to     

grasp and appropriate what is so lovely 
and so intangible4  ,still1 there is a  
distinct class of emotions aroused by   
nature which  is of the religious order4
 ,a large expanse of air or sea or      
undulating  land1 or the placid infinity
 of the star-lit sky1 seems necessary to
  impart that enlarging and pacifying   
sense of nature alike to poets  and     
peasants4 ,some sight or sound of       
nature1 either habitually1 or  under    
some special conditions in the          
percipient1 may strike upon the  soul   
and liberate it at once from the bonds  
of commonplace actuality4  ,perhaps no  
modern man has better expressed the     
religious aspects of  nature than       
,thoreau4 ,of the ,american wood-thrush 
,thoreau can rarely  speak without using
 the language of religion4 8,all that   
was ripest and  fairest in the          
wilderness and the wild man is preserved
 and transmitted  to us in the strain of
 the wood-thrush4444 ,whenever a man    
hears it1  he is young1 and ,nature is  

in her spring4 ,wherever he hears it1   
there  is a new world and a free        
country1 and the gates of heaven are not
  shut against him4 ,most other birds   
sing1 from the level of my ordinary     
cheerful hours1 a carol1 but this bird  
never fails to speak to me out  of an   
ether purer than that ,i breathe1 of    
immortal vigour and beauty40            
,generally1 however1 this emotion       
appears to be associated1 not so much   
with isolated beautiful objects1 as with
 great vistas in which beauty  may      
scarcely inhere--                       
8all waste      ,and solitary places2   
where we taste      ,the pleasure of    
believing what we see      ,is          
boundless1 as we wish our souls to be40 
,it is indeed myself that ,i            
unconsciously project into the large and
  silent world around me2 the           
exhilaration ,i feel is a glad sense of 
the  vast new bounds of my nature4 ,that
 is why1 at the appearance of another   
human being1 ,i sink back immediately   

into the limits of my own normal        
individuality4 ,i am no longer          
conterminous with the world around me2  
,i  cannot absorb or control another    
individuality like my own4 ,i become a  
self-conscious human being in the       
presence of another self-conscious      
human being4    7#d47 ,the supreme      
expression of the religious             
consciousness lies always  in an        
intuition of union with the world1 under
 whatever abstract or  concrete names   
the infinite not-self may be hidden4    
,the perpetual  annunciation of this    
union has ever been the chief gladness  
of life4  ,it comes in the guise of a   
of egoism1 a complete renunciation  of  
the limits of individuality--of all the 
desires and aims that seem  to converge 
in the single personality--and a joyous 
acceptance of what  has generally seemed
 an immense external ,will1 now first   
dimly or  clearly realized4 ,in every   
age this intuition has found            
voice--voice  that has often grown wild 

and incoherent with the torrent of      
expansive  emotion that impelled it4 ,it
 is this intuition which is the         
8emptiness0  of ,lo-tsze1 the freedom   
from all aims that centre in self3 8,it 
is  only by doing nothing that the      
kingdom can be made one's own40 ,this   
is the great good news of the           
,upanishads3 the tman1 the soul1 may    
attain to a state of yoga1 of union1    
with the supreme tman2 free1            
henceforth1 from doubts and desires     
which pass over it as water passes  over
 the leaf of the lotus without wetting  
it2 acting1 henceforth1 only  as acts   
the potter's wheel when the potter has  
ceased to turn it3 8,if  ,i know that my
 own body is not mine1 and yet that the 
whole earth is  mine1 and again that it 
is both mine and thine--no harm can     
happen  then40 ,the ,buddhist's         
,nirvana1 whether interpreted as a state
 to be  attained before or after death1 
has the same charm2 it opens up the     
kingdom of the ,universe to man2 it     

offers to the finite a home in the      
infinite4 ,this is the great assertion  
of ,christ1 8,i and my ,father are      
one20 and whenever ,christianity has    
reached its highest expression1  from   
,paul's day to our own1 it has but sung 
over again the old refrain  of joy at   
the 8new birth0 into eternal life--the  
union1 as it is  said1 of the soul      
through ,christ with ,god--a tender     
,father1 a great  sustaining ,power on  
which the soul may rest and be at peace3
        8,e la sua volontade  nostra    
pace40    ,and that again is but in     
another form the ,sufiism of            
,jelal-ed-din--the  mystic union of the 
human bridegroom with the ,divine       
,bride4 ,even the  austere ,imperial    
,stoic becomes lyrical as this intuition
 comes to  him3 8,everything is         
harmonious with me which is harmonious  
to thee1  ,o ,universe60 ,as far back as
 we can trace1 the men of all races1    
each  in his own way and with his own   
symbols1 have raised this shout of      

exultation4 ,there is no larger freedom 
for man4           99       99       99 
99       99    ,it seemed well to name  
at least the chief implications         
contained in  a broadly generalized     
statement of man's religious relation to
 the  universe4 ,it is important to     
remember that they are but an individual
  mode of representation4 ,i can only   
say that ,i am conscious of myself  in  
varying attitudes or relations4 ,the    
terms of those relationships1  stated   
with however much probability1 will ever
 remain matter for  dispute4 ,moreover1 
various attitudes reveal various        
metaphysical  implications4    ,the     
scientific attitude1 for example1 has a 
series of implications of  its own4 ,in 
its solvents all things are analyzed and
 atomized2 the  8soul0 of our religious 
world--the vast pulsating centre1 at the
 bottom  of which1 according to the     
profound saying of the old mystic1 lies 
that unutterable sigh which we call     
,god--is resolved into a momentary      

focus of ever-shifting rays of force2 it
 is but an incident in a huge  evolution
 of shifting forces which we may1 if we 
like1 personify as  ,nature1 but which1 
none the less1 we cannot conceive as a  
whole4 ,the  scientific attitude has its
 own implications1 and their            
far-reaching  significance1 their       
immense value for the individual and for
 the race1  can scarcely be overrated4  
,again1 the moral attitude is equally   
distinct4 ,the criminal after a         
successful piece of villainy may feel a 
thrill of ecstasy4 ,it is indeed  well  
known that criminals in every country   
are the children of 7more  or less      
superstitious7 religion4 ,we may regard 
morality as grounded  in the sense of   
personality1 gradually extending by     
imagination and  sympathy to every      
individual4 ,or we may regard it as     
springing1 in a  sense of adhesiveness1 
from the family and resulting           
relationships1  and thence growing into 
a consciousness of the oneness of all   

human  interests1 the individuals       
finding themselves to be1 according to  
that ,stoic conception which has moulded
 ,european laws and is still a          
leavening influence in ,european ethics1
 members one with another in  the same  
natural body of humanity4 ,in any case1 
as a moral being the  individual finds  
himself dependent on other individuals1 
and with  a duty1 therefore1 laid upon  
him to live harmoniously with those     
individuals2 there being no response    
forthcoming to the demands of his  own  
nature unless he also responds to the   
demands of other natures4  ,religion1   
however1 knows nothing of the scientific
 8nature0 or of the  ethical 8man20 its 
impulse is from within and of free      
grace4    ,at the dawn of civilization1 
it is true1 religion and morals are     
inextricably mingled2 they only become  
disentangled by a gradual  evolution4   
,the ,toda who regards as sacred an     
ancient cattle-bell is  obeying an      
impulse of adoration whose foundation   

is1 probably1 largely  ethical1 for the 
bull is intimately connected with the   
beginnings of  civilization4 ,a         
religious impulse will sometimes have an
 ethical  element2 morals will sometimes
 find an ally in religion4 ,but religion
  with its internal criterion and morals
 with its more external criterion       
remain essentially distinct1 sometimes  
antagonistic3 8to reject  religion10    
,thoreau said1 8is the first step       
towards moral excellence40  ,that is but
 a puny religion that is based on       
morals2 on the other hand1  the morals  
that rests on religion will sooner or   
later collapse with it  in a common     
ruin4 ,that has been too often seen4    
,religions change3 every  man is free to
 have his own1 or to have none4 ,no man1
 scarcely even a  ,crusoe1 is free to   
have no morals1 and the ideal morality  
cannot widely  vary for any two         
societies4    ,yet religion cannot live 
nobly without science or without morals4
 ,it is  only by a strenuous devotion to

 science1 by a perpetual reference to   
the moral structure of life1 that       
religion--so made conscious of its      
nature and its limits--can be rendered  
healthful4        8,none can usurp this 
height4444      ,but those to whom the  
miseries of the world      ,are misery1 
and will not let them rest20    so spake
 ,moneta to ,keats1 among all ,english  
poets the purest artist4    ,a man takes
 sides with religion1 or with science1  
or with  morals2 oftener he spends the  
brief moments of his existence in       
self-preservation1 fighting now on one  
side1 now on the other4 ,but  for a     
little while we are allowed to enter the
 house of life and to  gather around its
 fire4 ,why pull each other's hair and  
pinch each  other's arms like naughty   
children8 ,well would it be to warm     
ourselves  at the fire together1 to     
clasp hands1 to gain all the joy that   
comes of  comradeship1 before we are    
called out1 each of us1 into the dark1  
alone4    ,the other elements fall away 

from religion1 leaving the emotional1   
deeper and more fundamental than either 
of the others2 just as the  brain itself
 is controlled by the sympathetic system
 which outlives it  and holds in its    
hands the centres of life4 ,that element
 underlay the  crude imaginings of the  
primitive man who first created a       
spiritual  world out of the stuff of his
 dreams and his primitive delight in the
  most marvellous object he saw1 the    
sun1 that as he truly divined is the    
source not only of light but of life2   
just as it underlies also our  more     
complex imaginings to-day4 ,in religion1
 we are appealing not to  any narrow or 
superficial element of the man1 but to  
something which is  more primitive than 
the intellectual efflorescence of the   
brain1 the  central fire of life itself4
    ,our supreme business in life--not  
as we made it1 but as it was made  for  
us when the world began--is to carry and
 to pass on as we received  it1 or      
better1 the sacred lamp of organic being

 that we bear within  us4 ,science and  
morals are subservient to the           
reproductive activity2  that is why they
 are so imperative4 ,the rest is what we
 will1 play1  art1 consolation--in one  
word1 religion4 ,if religion is not     
science  or morals1 it is the sum of the
 unfettered expansive impulses of our   
being4 ,life has been defined as1 even  
physically and chemically1 a  tension4  
,all our lives long we are struggling   
against that tension1 but  we can truly 
escape from it only by escaping from    
life itself4 ,religion  is the          
stretching forth of our hands toward the
 illimitable4 ,it is an  intuition of   
the final deliverance1 a half-way house 
on the road to  that ,city which we name
 mysteriously ,death4      ,,the        
,,walter ,,scott ,,press1               
,,newcastle-,,on-,,tyne4                
,,press ,,opinions ,,on 8,,the ,,new    
,,spirit40      8,it is easy to dislike 
his book1 it is possible to dislike it  
furiously2 but the book is so honest1 so

 earnest1 so stimulating in its         
tolerant but convinced                  
unconventionality1 that it claims for   
itself a  like sincerity and seriousness
 in the reader4444 ,mr4 ,ellis has      
produced  a book which will be hotly    
discussed1 no doubt1 for it is nothing  
if  not initiative1 we might almost say 
revolutionary2 but it is not a book  to 
be disregarded4444 ,it has sincerity and
 it has power2 and sincerity  and power 
compel at least attention40--,speaker4  
8,mr4 ,havelock ,ellis has discovered a 
#8,new ,spirit4' ,we have read him  with
 care and patience1 and we should be    
sorry to describe it2 we only  know that
 it is not intoxicating40--,scots       
,observer4    8,welcome is warmly due to
 this fresh1 buoyant1 and sincere volume
 of  essays by ,mr4 ,havelock ,ellis4444
 ,there are parts of the study of ,heine
  which are not unworthy to be named--it
 is high praise--with ,matthew          
,arnold's inimitable paper upon that    
writer1 a paper almost as classic  as   

,heine himself4444 ,the last word upon  
so suggestive and finished a  piece of  
work ought to be one of ungrudging      
praise40--,academy4    8,mr4 ,carlyle   
described1 it seems to us1 ,mr4         
,havelock ,ellis himself with  great    
exactness in the person of a certain    
biographer of ,voltaire1 #8an           
inquiring1 honest-hearted character1    
many of whose statements must have      
begun to astonish even himself4' ,mr4   
,ellis must be very #8inquiring1'  for  
we have seldom met with one who knows so
 many things that other  people do not  
know40--,athenum4    8,each of these    
essays is a thorough and well-considered
 piece of  work1 admirable in           
information1 firm in grasp1 stimulating 
in style1  appreciative in matter1 and  
the survey afforded is broad4444 ,it  is
 an altogether unusual work1 both for   
its ambition and for its  matter2 it    
brings the reader near to some of the   
marked ideas of the  time40--,nation4   
8,the points of the ,new ,spirit are its

 passion for getting things  right in   
the matter of property and in the matter
 of true human  worth40--,daily ,news4  
8,the only coherent constituent of the  
,new ,spirit which this book  professes 
to set forth1 is a vehement hatred1     
amounting to a passion1  against        
conventional unveracities1 and a        
determination that they should  be swept
 away4444 ,we cannot imagine anything of
 which it could be more  necessary for  
human nature1 so taught by our ,lord1 to
 purge itself1  than the ,new ,spirit of
 ,havelock ,ellis40--,spectator4        
8,mr4 ,havelock ,ellis has written an   
interesting and significant book1  which
 it is quite easy to ridicule1 but which
 certainly deserves a fair  hearing4444 
,apparently these writers are chosen    
because they all agree  in a hatred of  
shams1 in looking facts in the face1 and
 in demanding  provision for the healthy
 satisfaction of animal wants4444 ,mr4  
,ellis  writes with force and insight2  
but1 whether from brevity or want of    

caution1 he leaves with regard to these 
subjects an impression which he  would  
probably not himself desire to          
produce40--,murray's ,magazine4    8,the
 concluding chapter1 wherein ,mr4 ,ellis
 expresses his own #8intimate  thought  
and secret emotion1' is one of the best 
utterances of the ,new  ,spirit which we
 have ever read40--,echo4    8,un volume
 de haute critique littraire qui        
rappelle le style fort et  la mthode    
stricte de ,hennequin40--,mercure de    
,france4    8,a more foolish1           
unwholesome1 perverted piece of         
sentimental cant we  have never wasted  
our time over40--,world4    8,excellent 
examples of appreciative criticism of an
 exceedingly  interesting series of     
authors1 of whom every one ought to know
  at least as much as ,mr4 ,ellis here  
tells us so freshly and                 
vivaciously40--,scottish ,leader4       
8,we only refer to this unpleasant      
compilation of cool impudence and       
effrontery to warn our readers against  

it40--,dundee ,advertiser4              
8,beautiful both in thought and         
expression4 ,but ,mr4 ,ellis seems to   
have  laid aside altogether the wise    
restraint which characterises his volume
  on #8,the ,criminal4'444 ,the         
scientific spirit1 of which at other    
times he  has shown himself a           
distinguished exponent1 should have     
prevented him  from such                
error40--,arbroath ,herald4    8,ardent1
 enthusiastic1 and eloquent40--,boston  
,literary ,world4    8,it is not often  
that the weary and heart-sore reviewer1 
struggling to  keep abreast of the      
,protean outpourings of the press1 falls
 in with  anything so well informed1 so 
rich in thought and suggestion as ,the  
,new ,spirit40--,wit and ,wisdom4       
,,authorised ,,version4    ,crown #hvo1 
,cloth1 ,price #fs4    ,,peer ,,gynt3 ,a
 ,dramatic ,poem4    ,,by ,,henrik      
,,ibsen4    ,,translated ,,by           
,,william ,,and ,,charles ,,archer4     
,this ,translation1 though unrhymed1    

preserves throughout the various        
rhythms of the original4      8,in      
,brand the hero is an embodied protest  
against the poverty  of spirit and      
half-heartedness that ,ibsen rebelled   
against in his  countrymen4 ,in ,peer   
,gynt the hero is himself the embodiment
 of that  spirit4 ,in ,brand the        
fundamental antithesis1 upon which1 as  
its  central theme1 the drama is        
constructed1 is the contrast between the
  spirit of compromise on the one hand1 
and the motto #8everything or  nothing' 
on the other4 ,and ,peer ,gynt is the   
very incarnation of a  compromising     
dread of decisive committal to any one  
course4 ,in ,brand  the problem of      
self-realisation and the relation of the
 individual  to his surroundings is     
obscurely struggling for recognition1   
and in  ,peer ,gynt it becomes the      
formal theme upon which all the         
fantastic  variations of the drama are  
built up4 ,in both plays alike the      
problems  of heredity and the influence 

of early surroundings are more than     
touched upon2 and both alike culminate  
in the doctrine that the only  redeeming
 power on earth or in heaven is the     
power of love40--,mr4 ,p4 ,h4           
,,wicksteed4          ,foolscap #hvo1   
,cloth1 ,price #cs4 #f;d4    ,,the      
,,inspector-,,general    7,or           
8,,reviz,r407    ,a ,,russian ,,comedy4 
,,by ,,nikolai ,,vasiliyevich ,,gogol4  
,translated from the original ,russian1 
with ,introduction and ,notes1 by  ,a4  
,a4 ,,sykes1 ,b4,a41 ,trinity ,college1 
,cambridge4      ,though one of the most
 brilliant and characteristic of        
,gogol's works1  and well-known on the  
,continent1 the present is the first    
translation  of his ,revizr1 or         
,inspector-,general1 which has appeared 
in ,english4  ,a satire on ,russian     
administrative functionaries1 the       
,revizr is a  comedy marked by          
continuous gaiety and invention1 full of
 8situation10  each development of the  
story accentuating the satire and       

emphasising  the characterisation1 the  
whole play being instinct with life and 
interest4 ,every here and there occurs  
the note of caprice1 of  navet1 of      
unexpected fancy1 characteristically    
,russian4 ,the present  translation will
 be found to be admirably fluent1       
idiomatic1 and  effective4          ,new
 ,illustrated ,edition4    ,,in ,,one   
,,volume4    ,,price #cs4 #f;d4         
,,count ,,tolsto',s    ,,masterpiece1   
,,anna ,,kar,,nina4    ,,with ,,ten     
,,illustrations    ,,by ,,paul          
,,frenz,,ny4      8,as you read on you  
say1 not1 #8,this is like life1' but1   
#8,this is  life4' ,it has not only the 
complexion1 the very line1 of life1 but 
its  movement1 its advances1 its strange
 pauses1 its seeming reversions to      
former conditions1 and its perpetual    
change1 its apparent isolations1  its   
essential solidarity4 ,it is a world1   
and you live in it while you  read1 and 
long afterward40--,w4 ,d4 ,howells4     
,,compact ,,and ,,practical4    ,in     

,limp ,cloth2 for the ,pocket4 ,price   
,one ,shilling4    ,,the ,,european     
,,conversation ,,books4      ,,french4  
,,italian4    ,,spanish4    ,,german4   
,,norwegian4      ,,contents4    ,hints 
to ,travellers--,everyday               
,expressions--,arriving at and ,leaving 
a ,railway ,station--,custom ,house     
,enquiries--,in a ,train--,at a ,buffet 
and ,restaurant--,at an ,hotel--,paying 
an ,hotel ,bill--,enquiries in  a       
,town--,on ,board ,ship--,embarking and 
,disembarking--,excursion  by           
,carriage--,enquiries as to             
,diligences--,enquiries as to           
,boats--,engaging ,apartments--,washing 
,list and ,days of ,week--,restaurant   
,vocabulary--,telegrams and ,letters1   
etc41 etc4     ,the contents of these   
little handbooks are so arranged as to  
permit   direct and immediate reference4
 ,all dialogues or enquiries not        
considered absolutely essential have    
been purposely excluded1 nothing   being
 introduced which might confuse the     

traveller rather than assist   him4 ,a  
few hints are given in the introduction 
which will be found   valuable to those 
unaccustomed to foreign travel4         
,,the ,,scott ,,library4    ,cloth1     
,uncut ,edges1 ,gilt ,top4 ,price #as4  
#f;d4 per ,volume4      ,,volumes       
,,already ,,issued--     #a ,malory's   
,romance of ,king ,arthur and the ,quest
 of the ,holy ,grail4   ,edited by      
,ernest ,rhys4     #b ,thoreau's        
,walden4 ,with ,introductory ,note by   
,will ,h4 ,dircks4     #c ,thoreau's    
8,week40 ,with ,prefatory ,note by ,will
 ,h4 ,dircks4     #d ,thoreau's ,essays4
 ,edited1 with an ,introduction1 by     
,will ,h4 ,dircks4     #e ,confessions  
of an ,english ,opium-eater1 ,etc4 ,by  
,thomas ,de ,quincey4   ,with           
,introductory ,note by ,william ,sharp4 
#f ,landor's ,imaginary ,conversations4 
,selected1 with ,introduction1 by       
,havelock ,ellis4     #g ,plutarch's    
,lives 7,langhorne74 ,with ,introductory
 ,note by ,b4 ,j4 ,snell1   ,m4,a4      

#h ,browne's ,religio ,medici1 ,etc4    
,with ,introduction by ,j4 ,addington   
,symonds4     #i ,shelley's ,essays and 
,letters4 ,edited1 with ,introductory   
,note1 by   ,ernest ,rhys4     #aj      
,swift's ,prose ,writings4 ,chosen and  
,arranged1 with ,introduction1 by       
,walter ,lewin4     #aa ,my ,study      
,windows4 ,by ,james ,russell ,lowell4  
,with ,introduction by ,r4   ,garnett4  
,,ll4 ,d4     #ab ,lowell's ,essays on  
the ,english ,poets4 ,with a new        
,introduction by   ,mr4 ,lowell4     #ac
 ,the ,biglow ,papers4 ,by ,james       
,russell ,lowell4 ,with a ,prefatory    
,note   by ,ernest ,rhys4     #ad ,great
 ,english ,painters4 ,selected from     
,cunningham's ,lives4 ,edited   by      
,william ,sharp4     #ae ,byron's       
,letters and ,journals4 ,selected1 with 
,introduction1 by   ,mathilde ,blind4   
#af ,leigh ,hunt's ,essays4 ,with       
,introduction and ,notes by ,arthur     
,symons4     #ag ,longfellow's          
8,hyperion10 8,kavanah10 and 8,the      

,trouveres40 ,with   ,introduction by   
,w4 ,tirebuck4     #ah ,great ,musical  
,composers4 ,by ,g4 ,f4 ,ferris4        
,edited1 with   ,introduction1 by ,mrs4 
,william ,sharp4     #ai ,the           
,meditations of ,marcus ,aurelius4      
,edited by ,alice ,zimmern4     #bj ,the
 ,teaching of ,epictetus4 ,translated   
from the ,greek1 with   ,introduction   
and ,notes1 by ,t4 ,w4 ,rolleston4      
#ba ,selections from ,seneca4 ,with     
,introduction by ,walter ,clode4     #bb
 ,specimen ,days in ,america4 ,by ,walt 
,whitman4 ,revised by the ,author1      
with fresh ,preface4     #bc ,democratic
 ,vistas1 and ,other ,papers4 ,by ,walt 
,whitman4 7,published by   arrangement  
with the ,author47     #bd ,white's     
,natural ,history of ,selborne4 ,with a 
,preface by ,richard   ,jefferies4      
#be ,defoe's ,captain ,singleton4       
,edited1 with ,introduction1 by ,h4     
,halliday ,sparling4     #bf ,mazzini's 
,essays3 ,literary1 ,political1 and     
,religious4 ,with   ,introduction by    

,william ,clarke4     #bg ,prose        
,writings of ,heine4 ,with ,introduction
 by ,havelock ,ellis4     #bh           
,reynolds's ,discourses4 ,with          
,introduction by ,helen ,zimmern4       
#bi ,papers of ,steele and ,addison4    
,edited by ,walter ,lewin4     #cj      
,burns's ,letters4 ,selected and        
,arranged1 with ,introduction1 by ,j4   
,logie ,robertson1 ,m4,a4     #ca       
,volsunga ,saga4 ,,william ,,morris4    
,with ,introduction by ,h4 ,h4          
,sparling4     #cb ,sartor ,resartus4   
,by ,thomas ,carlyle4 ,with             
,introduction by ,ernest   ,rhys4       
#cc ,select ,writings of ,emerson4 ,with
 ,introduction by ,percival ,chubb4     
#cd ,autobiography of ,lord ,herbert4   
,edited1 with an ,introduction1 by      
,will ,h4 ,dircks4     #ce ,english     
,prose1 from ,maundeville to ,thackeray4
 ,chosen and ,edited by   ,arthur       
,galton4     #cf ,the ,pillars of       
,society1 and ,other ,plays4 ,by ,henrik
 ,ibsen4 ,edited1   with an             

,introduction1 by ,havelock ,ellis4     
#cg ,irish ,fairy and ,folk ,tales4     
,edited and ,selected by ,w4 ,b4 ,yeats4
     #ch ,essays of ,dr4 ,johnson1 with 
,biographical ,introduction and ,notes  
by   ,stuart ,j4 ,reid4     #ci ,essays 
of ,william ,hazlitt4 ,selected and     
,edited1 with ,introduction   and       
,notes1 by ,frank ,carr4     #dj        
,landor's ,pentameron1 and ,other       
,imaginary ,conversations4 ,edited1     
with a ,preface1 by ,h4 ,ellis4     #da 
,poe's ,tales and ,essays4 ,edited1 with
 ,introduction by ,ernest ,rhys4     #db
 ,vicar of ,wakefield4 ,by ,oliver      
,goldsmith4 ,edited1 with ,preface1 by  
,ernest ,rhys4     #dc ,political       
,orations1 from ,wentworth to ,macaulay4
 ,edited1 with   ,introduction1 by      
,william ,clarke4     #dd ,the ,autocrat
 of the ,breakfast-table4 ,by ,oliver   
,wendell ,holmes4     #de ,the ,poet at 
the ,breakfast-table4 ,by ,oliver       
,wendell ,holmes4     #df ,the          
,professor at the ,breakfast-table4 ,by 

,oliver ,wendell ,holmes4     #dg ,lord 
,chesterfield's ,letters to his ,son4   
,selected1 with   ,introduction1 by     
,charles ,sayle4     #dh ,stories from  
,carleton4 ,selected1 with              
,introduction1 by ,w4 ,yeats4     #di   
,jane ,eyre4 ,by ,charlotte ,bront4     
,edited by ,clement ,k4 ,shorter4       
#ej ,elizabethan ,england4 ,edited by   
,lothrop ,withington1 with a ,preface   
by ,dr4 ,furnivall4     #ea ,the ,prose 
,writings of ,thomas ,davis4 ,edited by 
,t4 ,w4 ,rolleston4     #eb ,spence's   
,anecdotes4 ,a ,selection4 ,edited with 
an ,introduction and   ,notes1 by ,john 
,underhill4     #ec ,more's ,utopia1 and
 ,life of ,edward ,v4 ,edited1 with an  
,introduction1   by ,maurice ,adams4    
#ed ,sadi's ,gulistan1 or ,flower       
,garden4 ,translated1 with an ,essay1 by
   ,james ,ross4     #ee ,english ,fairy
 and ,folk ,tales4 ,edited by ,e4       
,sidney ,hartland4     #ef ,northern    
,studies4 ,by ,edmund ,gosse4 ,with a   
,note by ,ernest ,rhys4     #eg ,early  

,reviews of ,great ,writers4 ,edited by 
,e4 ,stevenson4     #eh ,aristotle's    
,ethics4 ,with ,george ,henry ,lewes's  
,essay on ,aristotle   prefixed4     #ei
 ,landor's ,pericles and ,aspasia4      
,edited1 with an ,introduction1 by      
,havelock ,ellis4     #fj ,annals of    
,tacitus4 ,thomas ,gordon's             
,translation4 ,edited1 with an          
,introduction1 by ,arthur ,galton4      
#fa ,essays of ,elia4 ,by ,charles      
,lamb4 ,edited1 with an ,introduction1  
by   ,ernest ,rhys4     #fb ,balzac's   
,shorter ,stories4 ,translated by       
,william ,wilson and the   ,count       
,stenbock4     #fc ,comedies of ,de     
,musset4 ,edited1 with an ,introductory 
,note1 by ,s4 ,l4   ,gwynn4     #fd     
,coral ,reefs4 ,by ,charles ,darwin4    
,edited1 with an ,introduction1 by      
,dr4 ,j4 ,w4 ,williams4     #fe         
,sheridan's ,plays4 ,edited1 with an    
,introduction1 by ,rudolf ,dircks4      
#ff ,our ,village4 ,by ,miss ,mitford4  
,edited1 with an ,introduction1 by      

,ernest ,rhys4     #fg ,master          
,humphrey's ,clock1 and ,other ,stories4
 ,by ,charles ,dickens4   ,with         
,introduction by ,frank ,t4 ,marzials4  
#fh ,tales from ,wonderland4 ,by        
,rudolph ,baumbach4 ,translated by      
,helen ,b4   ,dole4     #fi ,essays and 
,papers by ,douglas ,jerrold4 ,edited by
 ,walter ,jerrold4     #gj ,vindication 
of the ,rights of ,woman4 ,by ,mary     
,wollstonecraft4   ,introduction by ,mrs
 ,e4 ,robins ,pennell4     #ga 8,the    
,athenian ,oracle40 ,a ,selection4      
,edited by ,john ,underhill1 with       
,prefatory ,note by ,walter ,besant4    
#gb ,essays of ,sainte-,beuve4          
,translated and ,edited1 with an        
,introduction1 by ,elizabeth ,lee4      
#gc ,selections from ,plato4 ,from the  
,translation of ,sydenham and ,taylor4  
,edited by ,t4 ,w4 ,rolleston4     #gd  
,heine's ,italian ,travel ,sketches1    
,etc4 ,translated by ,elizabeth ,a4     
,sharp4 ,with an ,introduction from the 
,french of ,theophile ,gautier4     #ge 

,schiller's ,maid of ,orleans4          
,translated1 with an ,introduction1 by  
,major-,general ,patrick ,maxwell4      
#gf ,selections from ,sydney ,smith4    
,edited1 with an ,introduction1 by      
,ernest ,rhys4     #gg ,the ,new        
,spirit4 ,by ,havelock ,ellis4    ,,the 
,,scott ,,library may be had in the     
following ,bindings3--,cloth1 uncut     
edges1 gilt top1 #as4 #f;d42            
,half-,morocco1 gilt top1 antique2 ,red 
,roan1  gilt edges1 etc4                
,,great ,,writers4    ,a ,,new ,,series 
,,of ,,critical ,,biographies4          
,edited by ,prof4 ,e4 ,s4 ,,robertson   
and ,,frank ,t4 ,,marzials4    ,a       
,complete ,bibliography to each ,volume1
 by ,j4 ,p4 ,,anderson1 ,british        
,museum1 ,london4    ,cloth1 ,uncut     
,edges1 ,gilt ,top4 ,price #a_/f4       
,,volumes ,,already ,,issued--          
,,life ,,of ,,longfellow4 ,by ,,prof4   
,,eric ,s4 ,,robertson4     8,a most    
readable little work40--,liverpool      
,mercury4    ,,life ,,of ,,coleridge4   

,by ,,hall ,,caine4     8,brief and     
vigorous1 written throughout with spirit
 and great literary                     
skill40--,scotsman4    ,,life ,,of      
,,dickens4 ,by ,,frank ,t4 ,,marzials4  
8,notwithstanding the mass of matter    
that has been printed relating   to     
,dickens and his works 444 we should1   
until we came across this   volume1 have
 been at a loss to recommend any popular
 life of ,england's   most popular      
novelist as being really satisfactory4  
,the difficulty is   removed by ,mr4    
,marzials's little book40--,athenum4    
,,life ,,of ,,dante ,,gabriel           
,,rossetti4 ,by ,j4 ,,knight4     8,mr4 
,knight's picture of the great poet and 
painter is the fullest and   best yet   
presented to the public40--,the         
,graphic4    ,,life ,,of ,,samuel       
,,johnson4 ,by ,,colonel ,f4 ,,grant4   
8,colonel ,grant has performed his task 
with diligence1 sound judgment1   good  
taste1 and accuracy40--,illustrated     
,london ,news4    ,,life ,,of ,,darwin4 

,by ,g4 ,t4 ,,bettany4     8,mr4 ,g4 ,t4
 ,bettany's ,life of ,darwin is a sound 
and conscientious   work40--,saturday   
,review4    ,,life ,,of ,,charlotte     
,,bront4 ,by ,a4 ,,birrell4     8,those 
who know much of ,charlotte ,bront will 
learn more1 and those   who know nothing
 about her will find all that is best   
worth learning   in ,mr4 ,birrell's     
pleasant book40--,st4 ,james' ,gazette4 
,,life ,,of ,,thomas ,,carlyle4 ,by ,r4 
,,garnett1 ,,ll4 ,d4     8,this is an   
admirable book4 ,nothing could be more  
felicitous and   fairer than the way in 
which he takes us through ,carlyle's    
life and   works40--,pall ,mall         
,gazette4    ,,life ,,of ,,adam ,,smith4
 ,by ,r4 ,b4 ,,haldane1 ,m4,p4          
8,written with a perspicuity seldom     
exemplified when dealing with   economic
 science40--,scotsman4    ,,life ,,of   
,,keats4 ,by ,w4 ,m4 ,,rossetti4        
8,valuable for the ample information    
which it contains40--,cambridge         
,independent4    ,,life ,,of ,,shelley4 

,by ,,william ,,sharp4     8,the        
criticisms 444 entitle this capital     
monograph to be ranked with   the best  
biographies of ,shelley40--,westminster 
,review4    ,,life ,,of ,,smollett4 ,by 
,,david ,,hannay4     8,a capable record
 of a writer who still remains one of   
the great   masters of the ,english     
novel40--,saturday ,review4    ,,life   
,,of ,,goldsmith4 ,by ,,austin ,,dobson4
     8,the story of his literary and    
social life in ,london1 with all its    
humorous and pathetic vicissitudes1 is  
here retold1 as none could tell   it    
better40--,daily ,news4    ,,life ,,of  
,,scott4 ,by ,,professor ,,yonge4       
8,this is a most enjoyable              
book40--,aberdeen ,free ,press4         
,,life ,,of ,,burns4 ,by ,,professor    
,,blackie4     8,the editor certainly   
made a hit when he persuaded ,blackie to
 write   about ,burns40--,pall ,mall    
,gazette4    ,,life ,,of ,,victor       
,,hugo4 ,by ,,frank ,t4 ,,marzials4     
8,mr4 ,marzials's volume presents to us1

 in a more handy form than any          
,english or even ,french handbook gives1
 the summary of what is known   about   
the life of the great poet40--,saturday 
,review4    ,,life ,,of ,,emerson4 ,by  
,,richard ,,garnett1 ,,ll4,d4     8,no  
record of ,emerson's life could be more 
desirable40--,saturday   ,review4       
,,life ,,of ,,goethe4 ,by ,,james       
,,sime4     8,mr4 ,james ,sime's        
competence as a biographer of ,goethe is
 beyond   question40--,manchester       
,guardian4    ,,life ,,of ,,congreve4   
,by ,,edmund ,,gosse4     8,mr4 ,gosse  
has written an admirable                
biography40--,academy4    ,,life ,,of   
,,bunyan4 ,by ,,canon ,,venables4       
8,a most intelligent1 appreciative1 and 
valuable memoir40--,scotsman4    ,,life 
,,of ,,crabbe4 ,by ,t4 ,e4 ,,kebbel4    
8,no ,english poet since ,shakespeare   
has observed certain aspects of   nature
 and of human life more                 
closely40--,athenum4    ,,life ,,of     
,,heine4 ,by ,,william ,,sharp4     8,an

 admirable monograph 444 more fully     
written up to the level   of recent     
knowledge and criticism than any other  
,english   work40--,scotsman4    ,,life 
,,of ,,mill4 ,by ,w4 ,l4 ,,courtney4    
8,a most sympathetic and discriminating 
memoir40--,glasgow ,herald4    ,,life   
,,of ,,schiller4 ,by ,,henry ,w4        
,,nevinson4     8,presents the poet's   
life in a neatly rounded                
picture40--,scotsman4    ,,life ,,of    
,,captain ,,marryat4 ,by ,,david        
,,hannay4     8,we have nothing but     
praise for the manner in which ,mr4     
,hannay has   done justice to           
him40--,saturday ,review4    ,,life ,,of
 ,,lessing4 ,by ,t4 ,w4 ,,rolleston4    
8,one of the best books of the          
series40--,manchester ,guardian4        
,,life ,,of ,,milton4 ,by ,,richard     
,,garnett ,,ll4,d4     8,has never been 
more charmingly or adequately           
told40--,scottish   ,leader4    ,,life  
,,of ,,balzac4 ,by ,,frederick          
,,wedmore4     8,mr4 ,wedmore's         

monograph on the greatest of ,french    
writers of fiction1   whose greatness is
 to be measured by comparison with his  
successors1   is a piece of careful and 
critical composition1 neat and nice in  
style40--,daily ,news4    ,,life ,,of   
,,george ,,eliot4 ,by ,,oscar           
,,browning4     8,a book of the         
character of ,mr4 ,browning's1 to stand 
midway between   the bulky work of ,mr4 
,cross and the very slight sketch of    
,miss ,blind1   was much to be desired1 
and ,mr4 ,browning has done his work    
with   vivacity1 and not without        
skill40--,manchester ,guardian4         
,,life ,,of ,,jane ,,austen4 ,by        
,,goldwin ,,smith4     8,mr4 ,goldwin   
,smith has added another to the not     
inconsiderable roll   of eminent men who
 have found their delight in ,miss      
,austen4444 ,his   little book upon her1
 just published by ,walter ,scott1 is   
certainly a   fascinating book to those 
who already know her and love her well2 
and   we have little doubt that it will 

prove also a fascinating book to   those
 who have still to make her             
acquaintance40--,spectator4    ,,life   
,,of ,,browning4 ,by ,,william ,,sharp4 
8,this little volume is a model of      
excellent ,english1 and in every        
respect it seems to us what a biography 
should be40--,public ,opinion4    ,,life
 ,,of ,,byron4 ,by ,,hon4 ,,roden       
,,noel4     8,the ,hon4 ,roden ,noel's  
volume on ,byron is decidedly one of the
 most   readable in the excellent       
#8,great ,writers' series40--,scottish  
,leader4    ,,life ,,of ,,hawthorne4 ,by
 ,,moncure ,,conway4     8,it is a      
delightful causerie--pleasant1 genial   
talk about a most   interesting man4    
,easy and conversational as the tone is 
throughout1 no   important fact is      
omitted1 no valueless fact is recalled2 
and it is   entirely exempt from        
platitude and conventionality40--,the   
,speaker4    ,,life ,,of ,,schopenhauer4
 ,by ,,professor ,,wallace4     8,we can
 speak very highly of this little book  

of ,mr4 ,wallace's4 ,it   is1 perhaps1  
excessively lenient in dealing with the 
man1 and it   cannot be said to be at   
all ferociously critical in dealing with
 the   philosophy40--,saturday ,review4 
,,life ,,of ,,sheridan4 ,by ,,lloyd     
,,sanders4     8,to say that ,mr4 ,lloyd
 ,sanders1 in this little volume1 has   
produced   the best existing memoir of  
,sheridan1 is really to award much      
fainter   praise than the work          
deserves40--,manchester ,examiner4      
,,life ,,of ,,thackeray4 ,by ,,herman   
,,merivale and ,f4 ,t4 ,,marzials4      
8,the monograph just published is well  
worth reading1 444 and the book1   with 
its excellent bibliography1 is one which
 neither the student nor   the general  
reader can well afford to miss40--,pall 
,mall ,gazette4    ,,life ,,of          
,,cervantes4 ,by ,w4 ,e4 ,,watts4       
8,we can commend this book as a worthy  
addition to the useful series to   which
 it belongs40--,london ,daily           
,chronicle4    ,,life ,,of ,,voltaire4  

,by ,,francis ,,espinasse4           99 
99       99       99       99           
,,library ,,edition ,,of 8,,great       
,,writers10 ,demy #hvo1 #bs4 #f;d4      
,,the ,,novelty ,,of ,,the ,,season4    
,,selected ,,three-,,vol4 ,,sets    ,,in
 ,,new ,,brocade ,,binding4 #fs4 per    
,set1 in ,shell ,case to match4    ,,the
 ,,following ,,sets ,,can ,,be          
,,obtained--    ,,poems ,,of            
,,wordsworth4    ,,keats4    ,,shelley4 
,,longfellow4    ,,whittier4            
,,emerson4      ,,hogg4    ,,allan      
,,ramsay4    ,,scottish ,,minor ,,poets4
      ,,shakespeare4    ,,ben ,,jonson4 
,,marlowe4      ,,sonnets ,,of ,,this   
,,century4    ,,sonnets ,,of ,,europe4  
,,american ,,sonnets4      ,,heine4     
,,goethe4    ,,hugo4      ,,coleridge4  
,,southey4    ,,cowper4      ,,border   
,,ballads4    ,,jacobite ,,songs4       
,,ossian4      ,,cavalier ,,poets4      
,,love ,,lyrics4    ,,herrick4          
,,christian ,,year4    ,,imitation ,,of 
,,christ4    ,,herbert4      ,,american 

,,humorous ,,verse4    ,,english        
,,humorous ,,verse4    ,,ballades ,,and 
,,rondeaus4      ,,early ,,english      
,,poetry4    ,,chaucer4    ,,spenser4   
,,horace4    ,,greek ,,anthology4       
,,landor4      ,,goldsmith4    ,,moore4 
,,irish ,,minstrelsy4      ,,women      
,,poets4    ,,children ,,of ,,poets4    
,,sea ,,music4      ,,praed4    ,,hunt  
,,and ,,hood4    ,,dobell4              
,,meredith4    ,,marston4    ,,love     
,,letters4    ,,selected ,,two-,,volume 
,,sets    ,,in ,,new ,,brocade          
,,binding4    #ds4 per ,set1 in ,shell  
,case to match4      ,,scott 7,lady of  
the ,lake1 etc474    ,,scott 7,marmion1 
etc474      ,,burns 7,songs74    ,,burns
 7,poems74      ,,byron 7,don ,juan1    
etc474    ,,byron 7,miscellaneous74     
,,milton 7,paradise ,lost74    ,,milton 
7,paradise ,regained1 etc474            
,,selected ,,three-,,vol4 ,,sets    ,,in
 ,,new ,,brocade ,,binding4    #fs4 per 
,set1 in ,shell ,case to match4    ,d4  
,w4 ,,holmes ,,series--      ,autocrat  

of the ,breakfast-,table4    ,the       
,professor at the ,breakfast-,table4    
,the ,poet at the ,breakfast-,table4    
,,landor ,,series--      ,landor's      
,imaginary ,conversations4              
,pentameron4    ,pericles and ,aspasia4 
,,three ,,english ,,essayists--         
,essays of ,elia4    ,essays of ,leigh  
,hunt4    ,essays of ,william ,hazlitt4 
,,three ,,classical ,,moralists--       
,meditations of ,marcus ,aurelius4      
,teaching of ,epictetus4    ,morals of  
,seneca4    ,,walden ,,series--         
,thoreau's ,walden4    ,thoreau's ,week4
    ,thoreau's ,essays4    ,,famous     
,,letters--      ,letters of ,burns4    
,letters of ,byron4    ,letters of      
,shelley4    ,,lowell ,,series--        
,my ,study ,windows4    ,the ,english   
,poets4    ,the ,biglow ,papers4        
,crown #hvo1 about #cej pp4 each1 ,cloth
 ,cover1 #bs4 #f;d4 per vol4            
,half-polished ,morocco1 gilt top1 #es4 
,,count ,,tolsto',s ,,works4    ,the    
following ,volumes are already issued-- 

,a ,,russian ,,proprietor4    ,,the     
,,cossacks4    ,,ivan ,,ilyitch1 ,,and  
,,other ,,stories4    ,,my ,,religion4  
,,life4    ,,my ,,confession4           
,,childhood1 ,,boyhood1 ,,youth4        
,,the ,,physiology ,,of ,,war4    ,,anna
 ,,karenina #cs4 #f;d4    ,,what ,,to   
,,do8    ,,war ,,and ,,peace4 7#d       
,,vols47    ,,the ,,long ,,exile1 ,,and 
,,other ,,stories ,,for ,,children4     
,,sevastopol4    ,,the ,,kreutzer       
,,sonata1 ,,and ,,family ,,happiness4   
,uniform with the above4                
,,impressions ,,of ,,russia4    ,,by    
,,dr4 ,,georg ,,brandes4                
,,ibsen',s ,,famous ,,prose ,,dramas4   
,,edited ,,by ,,william ,,archer4       
,complete in ,five ,vols4 ,crown #hvo1  
,cloth1 ,price #c_/f each4 ,set of ,five
  ,vols41 in ,case1 #ag_/f2 in ,half    
,morocco1 in ,case1 #cb_/f4    8,we seem
 at last to be shown men and women as   
they are2 and at first  it is more than 
we can endure4444 ,all ,ibsen's         
characters speak and act  as if they    

were hypnotised1 and under their        
creator's imperious demand  to reveal   
themselves4 ,there never was such a     
mirror held up to nature  before3 it is 
too terrible4444 ,yet we must return to 
,ibsen1 with his  remorseless surgery1  
his remorseless electric-light1 until   
we1 too1  have grown strong and learned 
to face the naked--if necessary1 the    
flayed and                              
bleeding--reality40--,,speaker          
7,london74    ,vol4 ,i4 8,a ,,doll',s   
,,house10 8,,the ,,league ,,of ,,youth10
 and 8,,the ,,pillars ,,of  ,,society40 
,with ,portrait of the ,author1 and     
,biographical ,introduction by          
,,william ,,archer4    ,vol4 ,,ii4      
8,,ghosts10 8,,an ,,enemy ,,of ,,the    
,,people10 and 8,,the ,,wild ,,duck40   
,with  an ,introductory ,note4    ,vol4 
,,iii4 8,,lady ,,inger ,,of ,,str,t10   
8,,the ,,vikings ,,at ,,helgeland10     
8,,the  ,,pretenders40 ,with an         
,introductory ,note and ,portrait of    
,ibsen4    ,vol4 ,,iv4 8,,emperor ,,and 

,,galilean40 ,with an ,introductory     
,note by ,,william  ,,archer4    ,vol4  
,v4 8,,rosmersholm10 8,,the ,,lady      
,,from ,,the ,,sea10 8,,hedda ,,gabler40
  ,translated by ,,william ,,archer4    
,with an ,introductory ,note4    ,the   
sequence of the plays in each volume is 
chronological2 the  complete set of     
volumes comprising the dramas thus      
presents them in  chronological order4  
8,the art of prose translation does not 
perhaps enjoy a very high  literary     
status in ,england1 but we have no      
hesitation in numbering  the present    
version of ,ibsen1 so far as it has gone
 7,vols4 ,i4  and ,,ii471 among the very
 best achievements1 in that kind1 of our
  generation40--,academy4    8,we have  
seldom1 if ever1 met with a translation 
so absolutely  idiomatic40--,glasgow    
,herald4          ,,the ,,canterbury    
,,poets4    ,,edited ,,by ,,william     
,,sharp4 ,,in #a_/- ,,monthly ,,volumes4
      ,cloth1 ,red ,edges          #as4 
,cloth1 ,uncut ,edges        #as4       

,red ,roan1 ,gilt ,edges1 #bs4 #f;d4    
,pad4 ,morocco1 ,gilt ,edges1 #es4      
,,the ,,christian ,,year             ,by
 the ,rev4 ,john ,keble4    ,,coleridge 
,edited by ,joseph ,skipsey4            
,,longfellow                     ,edited
 by ,eva ,hope4    ,,campbell           
,edited by ,john ,hogben4    ,,shelley  
,edited by ,joseph ,skipsey4            
,,wordsworth                     ,edited
 by ,a4 ,j4 ,symington4    ,,blake      
,edited by ,joseph ,skipsey4            
,,whittier                       ,edited
 by ,eva ,hope4    ,,poe                
,edited by ,joseph ,skipsey4            
,,chatterton                     ,edited
 by ,john ,richmond4    ,,burns4 ,poems 
,edited by ,joseph ,skipsey4    ,,burns4
 ,songs                   ,edited by    
,joseph ,skipsey4    ,,marlowe          
,edited by ,percy ,e4 ,pinkerton4       
,,keats                          ,edited
 by ,john ,hogben4    ,,herbert         
,edited by ,ernest ,rhys4    ,,hugo     
,translated by ,dean ,carrington4       

,,cowper                         ,edited
 by ,eva ,hope4    ,,shakespeare',s     
,,poems1 ,etc4      ,edited by ,william 
,sharp4    ,,emerson                    
,edited by ,walter ,lewin4    ,,sonnets 
,,of ,,this ,,century        ,edited by 
,william ,sharp4    ,,whitman           
,edited by ,ernest ,rhys4    ,,scott4   
,marmion1 etc4           ,edited by     
,william ,sharp4    ,,scott4 ,lady of   
the ,lake1 etc4  ,edited by ,william    
,sharp4    ,,praed                      
,edited by ,frederick ,cooper4    ,,hogg
                           ,edited by   
his ,daughter1 ,mrs4 ,garden4           
,,goldsmith                      ,edited
 by ,william ,tirebuck4    ,,love       
,,letters1 ,etc4             ,by ,eric  
,mackay4    ,,spenser                   
,edited by ,hon4 ,roden ,noel4          
,,children ,,of ,,the ,,poets           
,edited by ,eric ,s4 ,robertson4        
,,jonson                         ,edited
 by ,j4 ,addington ,symonds4    ,,byron 
7#b ,vols47                ,edited by   

,mathilde ,blind4    ,,the ,,sonnets    
,,of ,,europe          ,edited by ,s4   
,waddington4    ,,ramsay                
,edited by ,j4 ,logie ,robertson4       
,,dobell                         ,edited
 by ,mrs4 ,dobell4    ,,days ,,of ,,the 
,,year               ,with ,introduction
 by ,william ,sharp4    ,,pope          
,edited by ,john ,hogben4    ,,heine    
,edited by ,mrs4 ,kroeker4    ,,beaumont
 ,,and ,,fletcher          ,edited by   
,john ,s4 ,fletcher4    ,,bowles1       
,,lamb4 c4              ,edited by      
,william ,tirebuck4    ,,early ,,english
 ,,poetry           ,edited by ,h4      
,macaulay ,fitzgibbon4    ,,sea ,,music 
,edited by ,mrs4 ,sharp4    ,,herrick   
,edited by ,ernest ,rhys4    ,,ballads  
,,and ,,rondeaus           ,edited by   
,j4 ,gleeson ,white4    ,,irish         
,,minstrelsy               ,edited by   
,h4 ,halliday ,sparling4    ,,milton',s 
,,paradise ,,lost         ,edited by ,j4
 ,bradshaw1 ,m4,a41 ,,ll4,d4            
,,jacobite ,,ballads                    

,edited by ,g4 ,s4 ,macquoid4           
,,australian ,,ballads                  
,edited by ,d4 ,b4 ,w4 ,sladen1 ,b4,a4  
,,moore                          ,edited
 by ,john ,dorrian4    ,,border         
,,ballads                 ,edited by    
,graham ,r4 ,tomson4    ,,song-,,tide   
,by ,philip ,bourke ,marston4    ,,odes 
,,of ,,horace                           
,translations by ,sir ,stephen de ,vere1
 ,bt4    ,,ossian                       
,edited by ,george ,eyre-,todd4         
,,elfin ,,music                         
,edited by ,arthur ,edward ,waite4      
,,southey                        ,edited
 by ,sidney ,r4 ,thompson4    ,,chaucer 
,edited by ,frederick ,nol ,paton4      
,,poems ,,of ,,wild ,,life              
,edited by ,charles ,g4 ,d4 ,roberts1   
,m4,a4    ,,paradise ,,regained         
,edited by ,j4 ,bradshaw1 ,m4,a41       
,,ll4,d4    ,,crabbe                    
,edited by ,e4 ,lamplough4    ,,dora    
,,greenwell                 ,edited by  
,william ,dorling4    ,,faust           

,edited by ,elizabeth ,craigmyle4       
,,american ,,sonnets                    
,edited by ,william ,sharp4             
,,landor',s ,,poems                     
,edited by ,ernest ,radford4    ,,greek 
,,anthology                ,edited by   
,graham ,r4 ,tomson4    ,,hunt ,,and    
,,hood                  ,edited by ,j4  
,harwood ,panting4    ,,humorous ,,poems
                 ,edited by ,ralph ,h4  
,caine4    ,,lytton',s ,,plays          
,edited by ,r4 ,farquharson ,sharp4     
,,great ,,odes                          
,edited by ,william ,sharp4             
,,meredith',s ,,poems                   
,edited by ,m4 ,betham-,edwards4        
,,painter-,,poets                       
,edited by ,kineton ,parkes4    ,,women 
,,poets                    ,edited by   
,mrs4 ,sharp4    ,,love ,,lyrics        
,edited by ,percy ,hulburd4             
,,american ,,humorous ,,verse           
,edited by ,james ,barr4    ,,minor     
,,scotch ,,lyrics            ,edited by 
,sir ,george ,douglas4    ,,cavalier    

,,lyrists               ,edited by ,will
 ,h4 ,dircks4    ,,german ,,ballads     
,edited by ,elizabeth ,craigmyle4       
,,songs ,,of ,,beranger                 
,translated by ,william ,toynbee4       
,,poems ,,of ,,the ,,hon4 ,,roden       
,,noel4  ,with an ,introduction by      
,robert ,buchanan4          ,quarto1    
cloth elegant1 gilt edges1 emblematic   
design on cover1 #fs4 ,may  also be had 
in a variety of ,fancy ,bindings4       
,,the    ,music of the ,poets3    ,a    
,,musicians' ,,birthday ,,book4         
,,edited ,,by ,,eleonore ,d',,esterre   
,,keeling4    ,this is a unique         
,birthday ,book4 ,against each date are 
given the names  of musicians whose     
birthday it is1 together with a         
verse-quotation  appropriate to the     
character of their different            
compositions  or performances4 ,a       
special feature of the book consists in 
the  reproduction in fac-simile of      
autographs1 and autographic music1 of   
living composers4 ,three sonnets by ,mr4

 ,theodore ,watts1 on the 8,fausts0  of 
,berlioz1 ,schumann1 and ,gounod1 have  
been written specially for this  volume4
 ,it is illustrated with designs of     
various musical instruments1  etc42     
autographs of ,rubenstein1 ,dvork1      
,grieg1 ,mackenzie1 ,villiers           
,stanford1 etc41 etc4    8,to musical   
amateurs this will certainly prove the  
most attractive  birthday book ever     
published40--,manchester ,guardian4     
8,one of those happy ideas that seems to
 have been yearning for  fulfilment4444 
,the book ought to have a place on every
 music  stand40--,scottish ,leader4     
,london3 ,,walter ,,scott1 #bd ,warwick 
,lane1 ,paternoster ,row4               
99      99      99      99      99      
99          ,transcriber's ,note        
,duplicate headings have been removed4  
,the following apparent errors have been
 corrected3    p4 #ai intervene1 changed
 to intervene4    p4 #db fouguese       
changed to fougueuse    p4 #abb         
brothers4 and changed to brothers1 and  

p4 #aij songs shoot changed to songs1   
shoot    p4 #aia ,sebastopool changed to
 ,sebastopol    p4 #baf unforgetable    
changed to unforgettable                
7advertisement7 #g ,prose ,writings of  
,heine changed to #bg ,prose  ,writings 
of ,heine    7advertisement7 work4      
changed to work40    7advertisement7    
contains4 changed to contains40         
7advertisement7 ,,children ,,of ,,poets 
changed to ,,children ,,of ,,poets4     
7advertisement7 ,breakfast ,table       
changed to ,breakfast-,table            
7advertisement7 ,,williamarcher changed 
to ,,william ,,archer      ,the         
following are used inconsistently in the
 text3    after-thought and afterthought
    child-like and childlike            
life-like and lifelike    now-a-days and
 nowadays    over-mastering and         
overmastering    stand-point and        
standpoint    sun-rise and sunrise