"But society professes to be growing more and more cultured every day,"
observed Alwyn.
"Oh, it PROFESSES! ... yes, that"s just the mischief of it. Its professions are not worth a groat. It PROFESSES to be one thing while anybody with eyes can see that it actually is another! The old style of aristocrat and gentleman is dying out,--the new style is the horsey lord, the betting Duke, the coal-dealing Earl, the stock-broking Viscount! Trade is a very excellent thing,--a very necessary and important thing,--but its influence is distinctly NOT refining. I have the greatest respect for my cheesemonger, for instance (and he has an equal respect for me, since he has found that I know the difference between real b.u.t.ter and b.u.t.terine), but all the same I don"t want to see him in Parliament. I am arrogant enough to believe that I, even I, having studied somewhat, know more about the country"s interest than he does. I view it by the light of ancient and modern historical evidence,--he views it according to the demand it makes on his cheese.
We may both be narrow and limited in judgment,--nevertheless, I think, with all due modesty, that HIS judgment is likely to be more limited than mine. But it"s no good talking about it,--this dear old land is given up to a sort of ignorant democracy, which only needs time to become anarchy, . . and we haven"t got a strong man among us who dares speak out the truth of the inevitable disasters looming above us all.
And society is not only vulgar, but demoralized,--moreover, what is worse is, that, aided by its preachers and teachers, it is sinking into deeper depths of demoralization with every pa.s.sing month and year of time."
Alwyn leaned hack in his chair thoughtfully, a sorrowful expression clouding his face.
"Surely things are not so bad as they seem, Villiers,"--he said gently--"Are you not taking a pessimistic view of affairs?"
"Not at all!" and Villiers, warming with his subject, walked up and down the room excitedly ... "Nor am I judging by the narrow observation of any particular "set" or circle. I look at the expressive visible outcome of the whole,--the plainly manifest signs of the threatening future. Of course there are ever so many good people,--earnest people,--thinking people,--but they are a mere handful compared to the overpowering millions opposed to them, and whose motto is "Evil, be thou my good." Now you, for instance, are full of splendid ideas, and lucid plans of check and reform,--you are seized with a pa.s.sionate desire to do something great for the world, and you are ready to speak the truth fearlessly on all occasions. But just think of the enormous task it would be to stir to even half an inch of aspiring n.o.bleness, the frightful ma.s.s of corruption in London to-day! In all trades and professions it is the same story,--everything is a question of GAIN. To begin with, look at the Church, the "Pillar of the State!" There, all sorts of worthless, incompetent men are hastily thrust into livings by wealthy patrons who care not a jot as to whether they are morally or intellectually fit for their sacred mission,--and a disgraceful universal muddle is the result. From this muddle, which resembles a sort of stagnant pool, emerge the strangest fungus-growths,--clergymen who take to acting a "miracle-play," ostensibly for the purposes of charity, but really to gratify their own tastes and leanings toward the mummer"s art,--all the time utterly regardless of the effect their behavior is likely to have on the minds of the unthinking populace, who are led by the newspapers, and who read therein bantering inquiries as to whether the Church is coquetting with the Stage? whether the two are likely to become one? and whether Religion will in the future occupy no more serious consideration than the Drama? What is one to think, when one sees clerical notabilities seated in the stalls of a theatre complacently looking on at the representation of a "society play"
degrading in plot, repulsive in detail, and in nearly every case having to do with a married woman who indulges in a lover as a matter of course,--a play full of ambiguous side hits and equivocal jests, which, if the men of the Church were staunch to their vocation, they would be the first to condemn. Why, I saw the other day, in a fairly reliable journal, that some of these excellent "divines" were going to start "smoking sermons"--a sort of imitation of smoking concerts, I suppose, which are vile enough, in all conscience,--but to mix up religious matters with the selfish "smoke mania" is viler still. I say that any clergyman who will allow men to smoke in his presence, while he is preaching sacred doctrine, is a coa.r.s.e cad, and ought to be hounded out of the Church!"
He paused, his face flushing with vigorous, righteous wrath. Alwyn"s eyes grew dark with an infinite pain. His thoughts always fled back to his Dream of Al-Kyris, with a tendency to draw comparisons between the Past and the Present. The religion of that long-buried city had been mere mummery and splendid outward show,--what was the religion of London? He moved restlessly.
"How all the warnings of history repeat themselves!" he said suddenly..
"An age of mockery, sham sentiment, and irreverence has always preceded a downfall,--can it be possible that we are already receiving hints of the downfall of England?"
"Aye, not only of England, but of a good many other nations besides,"
said Villiers--"or if not actual downfall, change and terrific upheaval. France and England particularly are the prey of the Demon of Realism,--and all the writers who SHOULD use their pens to inspire and elevate the people, a.s.sist in degrading them. When their books are not obscene, they are blasphemous. Russia, too, joins in the cry of Realism!--Realism! ... Let us have the filth of the gutters, the scourgings of dustholes, the corruption of graves, the odors of malaria, the howlings of drunkards, the revellings of sensualists, . .
the worst side of the world in its vilest aspect, which is the only REAL aspect of those who are voluntarily vile! Let us see to what a reeking depth of unutterable shameless brutality man can fall if he chooses--not as formerly, when it was shown to what glorious heights of n.o.ble supremacy he could rise! For in this age, the heights are called "transcendental folly"--and the reeking depths are called Realism!"
"And yet what IS Realism really?" queried Alwyn.--"Does anybody know?
... It is supposed to be the actuality of everyday existence, without any touch of romance or pathos to soften its frequently hideous Commonplace; but the fact is, the Commonplace is not the Real. The highest flights of imagination in the human being fail to grasp the Reality of the splendors everywhere surrounding him,--and, viewed rightly, Realism would become Romance and Romance Realism. We see a ragged woman in the streets picking up sc.r.a.ps for her daily food, . .
that is what we may call realistic,--but we are not looking at the ACTUAL woman, after all! We cannot see her Inner Self, or form any certain comprehension of the possible romance or tragedy which that Inner Self HAS experienced, or IS experiencing. We see the outer Appearance of the woman, but what of that? ... The REALISM of the suffering creature"s hidden history lies beyond us,--so far beyond us that it is called ROMANCE, because it seems so impossible to fathom or understand."
"True, most absolutely true!" said Villiers emphatically--"But it is a truth you will get very few to admit! ... Everything to-day is in a state of substantiality and sham;--we have even sham Realism, as well as sham sentiment, sham religion, sham art, sham morality. We have a Parliament that sits and jabbers lengthy plat.i.tudes that lead to nothing, while Army and Navy are slowly slipping into a state of helpless desuetude, and the mutterings of discontented millions are almost unregarded; the spectre of Revolution, a.s.suming somewhat of the shape in which it appalled the French in 1789, is dimly approaching in the distance, . . even our London County Council hears the far-off, faint shadow of a very prosaic resemblance to the National a.s.sembly of that era, . . and our weak efforts to cure cureless grievances, and to deafen our ears to crying evils, are very similar to the clumsy attempts made by Louis XVI. and his partisans to botch up a terribly bad business. Oh, the people, the people! ... They are unquestionably the flesh, blood, bone, and sinew of the country,--and the English people, say what sneerers will to the contrary, are a GOOD people,--patient, plodding, forbearing, strong, and, on the whole, most equable-tempered,--but their teachers teach them wrongly, and confuse their brains instead of clearing them, and throw a weight of Compulsory Education at their heads, without caring how they may use it, or how such a blow from the clenched fist of Knowledge may stupefy and bewilder them, . . and the consequence is that now, were a strong man to arise, with a lucid brain, an eloquent power of expressing truth, a great sympathy with his kind, and an immense indifference to his own fate in the contest, he could lead this vast, waiting, wandering, growling, hydra-headed London wheresoever he would!"
"What an orator you are, Villiers!".. said Alwyn, with a half-smile. "I never heard you come out so strongly before!"
"My dear fellow," replied Villiers, in a calmer tone--"it"s enough to make any man with warm blood in his veins FEEL! Everywhere signs of weakness, cowardice, compromise, hesitation, vacillation, incompetency, and everywhere, in thoughtful minds, the keen sense of a Fate advancing like the giant in the seven-leagued boots, at huge strides every day.
The ponderous Law and the solid Police hem us in on each side, as though the nation were a helpless infant, toddling between two portly nurses,--we dare not denounce a scoundrel and liar, but must needs put up with him, lest we should be involved in an action for libel; and we dare not knock down a vulgar bully, lest we should be given in charge for a.s.sault. Hence, liars, and scoundrels, and vulgar bullies abound, and men skulk and grin, and play the double-face, till they lose all manfulness. Society sits smirking foolishly on the top of a smouldering volcano,--and the chief Symbols of greatness among us, Religion, Poesy, Art, are burning as feebly as tapers in the catacombs, . . the Church resembles a drudge, who, tired of routine, is gradually sinking into laziness and inertia, . . and the Press! ... ye G.o.ds! ... the Press!"
Here speech seemed to fail him,--he threw himself into a chair, and, to relieve his mind, kicked away the advertis.e.m.e.nt sheet of the morning"s newspaper with so much angry vehemence that Alwyn laughed outright.
"What ails you now, Villiers?" he demanded mirthfully.. "You are a regular fire-eater--a would-be Crusader against a modern Saracen host!
Why are you choked with such seemingly unutterable wrath! ... what of the Press? ... it is at any rate free."
"Free!" cried Villiers, sitting bolt upright and shooting out the word like a bullet from a gun,--"Free? ... the Press? It is the veriest bound slave that was ever hampered by the chains of party prejudice,--and the only attempt at freedom it ever makes in its lower grades is an occasional outbreak into scurrility! And yet think what a majestic power for good the true, REAL Liberty of the Press might wield over the destinies of nations! Broadly viewed, the Press should be the strong, practical, helping right hand of civilization, dealing out equal justice, equal sympathy, equal instruction,--it should be the fosterer of the arts and sciences,--the everyday guide of the morals and culture of the people,--it should not specially advocate any cause save Honor,--it should be as far as possible the unanimous voice of the Nation. It SHOULD be,--but what IS it? Look round and judge for yourself. Every daily paper panders more or less to the lowest tastes of the mob,--while if the higher sentiments of man are not actually sneered at, they are made a subject for feeble surprise, or vapid "gush." An act of heroic unselfishness meets with such a cackling chorus of amazed, half-bantering approval from the leading-article writers, that one is forced to accept the suggestion implied,--namely that to BE heroic or unselfish is evidently an outbreak of n.o.ble instinct that is entirely unexpected and remarkable,--nay, even eccentric and inexplicable! The spirit of mockery pervades everything,--and while the story of a murder is allowed to occupy three and four columns of print, the account of some great scientific discovery, or the report of some famous literary or artistic achievement is squeezed into a few lukewarm and unsatisfactory lines. I have seen a female paragraphist"s idiotic description of an actress"s gown allowed to take more s.p.a.ce in a journal than the review of a first-cla.s.s book! Moreover, if an honest man, desirous of giving vent to an honest opinion on some crying abuse of the day, were to set forth that opinion in letter form and try to get it published in a leading and important newspaper, the chances are ten to one that it would never he inserted, unless he happened to know the editor, or one of the staff, and perhaps not even then, because, mark you! his opinion MUST be in accordance with the literary editor"s opinion, or it will be considered of no value to the world! Consider THAT gigantic absurdity!
... consider, that when we read our newspapers we are not learning the views of Europe on a certain point,--we are absorbing the ideas of the EDITOR, to whom everything must be submitted before insertion in the oracular columns we pin our faith on! Thus it is that criticism,--literary criticism, at any rate,--is a lost art,--YOU know that. A man must either be dead (or considered dead) or in a "clique"
to receive any open encouragement at all from the so-called "crack"
critics. And the cliquey men are generally such stupendous bigots for their own particular and restricted form of "style." Anything new they hate,--anything daring they treat with ridicule. Some of them have no hesitation in saying they prefer Matthew Arnold (remember he"s dead!) to Tennyson and Swinburne (as yet living).. while, as a fact, if we are to go by the high standards of poetical art left us by Shakespeare, Keats, Sh.e.l.ley, and Byron, Matthew Arnold is about the very tamest, most unimaginative, bald bard that ever kindled a lucifer match of verse and fancied it the fire of Apollo! It"s utterly impossible to get either a just or broad view of literature out of cliques,--and the Press, like many of our other "magnificent" inst.i.tutions, is working entirely on a wrong system. But who is going to be wise, or strong, or diplomatic enough to reform it? ... No one, at present,--and we shall jog along, and read up the details of vice in our dailies and weeklies, till we almost lose the savor of virtue, and till the last degraded end comes of it all, and blatant young America thrones herself on the sh.o.r.es of Britain and sends her eagle screech of conquest echoing over Old World and New."
"Don"t think it, Villiers!" exclaimed Alwyn impetuously.. "There is a mettle in the English that will never be conquered!"
Villiers shrugged his shoulders. "We will hope so, my dear boy!" he said resignedly. "But the "mettle" under bad government, with bad weapons, and more or less untried ships, can scarcely be blamed if it should not be able to resist a tremendous force majeure. Besides, all the Parliaments in the world cannot upset the laws of the universe. If things are false and corrupt, they MUST be swept away,--Nature will not have them,--she will trans.m.u.te and transform them somehow, no matter at what cost. It is the cry of the old Prophets over again,--"Because ye have not obeyed G.o.d"s Law, therefore shall ye meet with destruction."
Egoism is certainly NOT G.o.d"s Law, and we shall have to return on our imagined progressive steps, and be beaten with rods of affliction, till we understand what His Law IS. It is, for one thing, the wheel that keeps this Universe going--OUR laws are no use whatever in the management of His sublime cosmos! Nations, like individuals, are punished for their own wilful misdeeds--the punishment may be tardy, but sure as death it comes. And I fancy America will be our "scourge in the Lord"s hand"--as the Bible hath it. That pretty, dollar-crusted young Republican wants an aristocracy, . . she will engraft it on the old roots here,--in fact, she has already begun to engraft it. It is even on the cards that she may need a Monarchy--if she does, she will plant it.. HERE! Then it will be time for Englishmen to adopt another country, and forget, if they can, their own disgraced nationality. And yet, if, as Shakespeare says, England were to herself but true,--if she had great statesmen as of yore,--intellectual, earnest, self-abnegating, fearless, unhesitating workers, who would devote themselves heart and soul to her welfare, she might gather, not only her Colonies, but America also, to her knee, as a mother gathers children, and the most magnificent Christian Empire the world has ever seen might rise up, a supreme marvel of civilization and union that would make all other nations wonder and revere. But the selfishness of the day, and the ruling pa.s.sion of gain, are the fatal obstructions in the path of such a desirable millennium."
He ended abruptly--he had unburdened his mind to one who he knew understood him and sympathized with him, and he turned to the perusal of some letters just received.
The two friends were sitting that morning in the breakfast-room,--a charming little octagonal apartment, looking out on a small, very small garden, which, despite the London atmosphere, looked just now very bright with tastefully arranged parterres of white and yellow crocuses, mingled with the soft blue of the dainty hepatica,--that frank-faced little blossom which seems to express such an honest confidence in the goodness of G.o.d"s sky. A few sparrows of dissipated appearance were bathing their sooty plumes in a pool of equally sooty water left in the garden as a token of last night"s rain, and they splashed and twittered and debated and fussed with each other concerning their ablutions, with almost as much importance as could have been displayed by the effeminate Romans of the Augustan era when disporting themselves in their sumptuous Thermae. Alwyn"s eyes rested on them unseeingly,--his thoughts were very far away from all his surroundings. Before his imagination rose a Gehenna-like picture of the world in which he had to live,--the world of fashion and form and usage,--the world he was to try and rouse to a sense of better things. A Promethean task indeed! to fill human life with new symbols of hope,--to set up a white standard of faith amid the swift rushing on and reckless tramping down of desperate battle,--to pour out on all, rich or poor, worthy or unworthy, the divine-born balm of Sympathy, which, when given freely and sincerely from man to man, serves often as a check to vice--a silent, yet all eloquent, rebuke to crime,--and can more easily instill into refractory intelligences things of G.o.d and desires for good, than any preacher"s argument, no matter how finely worded. To touch the big, wayward, BETTER heart of Humanity! ... could he in very truth do it?
... Or was the work too vast for his ability? Tormented by various cross-currents of feeling, he gave vent to a troubled sigh and looked dubiously at his friend.
"In such a state of things as you describe, Villiers," he aid, "what a useless unit _I_ am! A Poet!--who wants me in this age of Sale and Barter? ... Is not a producer of poems always considered more or less of a fool nowadays, no matter how much his works may be in fashion for the moment? I am sure, in spite of the success of "Nourhalma," that the era of poetry has pa.s.sed; and, moreover, it certainly seems to have given place to the very baldest and most unbeauteous forms of prose!
As, for instance, if a book is written which contains what is called "poetic prose" the critics are all ready to denounce it as "turgid,"
"overladen," "strained for effect," and "hysterical sublime." Heine"s Reisebilder, which is one of the most exquisite poems in prose ever given to the world, is nearly incomprehensible to the majority of English minds; so much so, indeed, that the English translators in their rendering of it have not only lost the delicate glamour of its fairy-like fancifulness, but have also blunted all the fine points of its dazzling sarcasm and wealth of imagery. It is evident enough that the larger ma.s.s of people prefer mediocrity to high excellence, else such a number of merely mediocre works of art would not, and could not, be tolerated. And as long as mediocrity is permitted to hold ground, it is almost an impossibility to do much toward raising the standard of literature. The few who love the best authors are as a mere drop in the ocean of those who not only choose the worst, but who also fail to see any difference between good and bad."
"True enough!" a.s.sented Villiers,--"Still the "few" you speak of are worth all the rest. For the "few" Homer wrote,--Plato, Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus,--and the "few" are capable of teaching the majority, if they will only set about it rightly. But at present they are setting about it wrongly. All children are taught to read, but no child is guided in WHAT to read. This is like giving a loaded gun to a boy and saying, "Shoot away! ... No matter in which direction you point your aim, . .
shoot yourself if you like, and others too,--anyhow, you"ve GOT the gun!" Of course there are a few fellows who have occasionally drawn up a list of books as suitable for everybody"s perusal,--but then these lists cannot be taken as true criterions, as they all differ from one another as much as church sects. One would-be instructor in the art of reading says we ought all to study "Tom Jones"--now I don"t see the necessity of THAT! And, oddly enough, these lists scarcely ever include the name of a poet,--which is the absurdest mistake ever made. A liberal education in the highest works of poesy is absolutely necessary to the thinking abilities of man. But, Alwyn, YOU need not trouble yourself about what is good for the million and what isn"t, . .
whatever you write is sure to be read NOW--you"ve got the ear of the public,--the "fair, large ear" of the a.s.s"s head which disguises Bottom the Weaver, who frankly says of himself, "I am such a tender a.s.s, if my hair do but tickle me, I must scratch!""
Alwyn smiled. He was thinking of what his Shadow-Self had said on this very subject--"A book or poem, to be great, and keep its greatness hereafter, must be judged by the natural instinct of PEOPLES. This world-wide decision has never yet been, and never will be, hastened by any amount of written criticism,--it is the responsive beat of the enormous Pulse of Life that thrills through all mankind, high and low, gentle and simple,--its great throbs are slow and solemnly measured, yet if once it answers to a Poet"s touch, that Poet"s name is made glorious forever!" He.. in the character of Sah-luma.. had seemed to utter these sentiments many ages ago,--and now the words repeated themselves in his thoughts with a new and deep intensity of meaning.
"Of course," added Villiers suddenly--"you must expect plenty of adverse criticism now, as it is known beyond all doubt that you are alive and able to read what is written concerning you,--but if you once pay attention to critics, you may as well put aside pen altogether, as it is the business of these worthies never to be entirely satisfied with anything. Even Sh.e.l.ley and Byron, in the critical capacity, abused Keats, till the poor, suffering youth, who promised to be greater then either of them, died of a broken heart as much as disease. This sort of injustice will go on to the end of time, or till men become more Christianized than Paul"s version of Christianity has ever yet made them."
Here a knock at the door interrupted the conversation. The servant entered, bringing a note gorgeously crested and coroneted in gold.
Villiers, to whom it was addressed, opened and read it.
"What shall we do about this?" he asked, when his man had retired. "It is an invitation from the d.u.c.h.ess de la Santoisie. She asks us to go and dine with her next week,--a party of twenty--reception afterward. I think we"d better accept,--what do you say?"
Alwyn roused himself from his reverie. "Anything to please you, my dear boy!" he answered cheerfully--"But I haven"t the faintest idea who the d.u.c.h.ess de la Santoisie is!"
"No? ... Well, she"s an Englishwoman who has married a French Duke. He is a delightful old fellow, the pink of courtesy, and the model of perfect egotism. A true Parisian, and of course an atheist,--a very polished atheist, too, with a most charming reliance on his own infallibility. His wife writes novels which have a SLIGHT leaning toward Zolaism,--she is an extremely witty woman sarcastic, and cold-blooded enough to be a female Robespierre, yet, on the whole, amusing as a study of what curious nondescript forms the feminine nature can adopt unto itself, if it chooses. She has an immense respect for GENIUS,--mind, I say genius advisedly, because she really is one of those rare few who cannot endure mediocrity. Everything at her house is the best of its kind, and the people she entertains are the best of theirs. Her welcome of you will be at any rate a sincerely admiring one,--and as I think, in spite of your desire for quiet, you will have to show yourself somewhere, it may as well be there."
Alwyn looked dubious, and not at all resigned to the prospect of "showing himself."
"Your description of her does not strike me as particularly attractive,"--he said--"I cannot endure that nineteenth-century hermaphroditic production, a mannish woman."
"Oh but she isn"t altogether mannish,"--declared Villiers, . .
"Besides, I mustn"t forget to add, that she is extremely beautiful."
Alwyn shrugged his shoulders indifferently. His friend noticed the gesture and laughed.
"Still impervious to beauty, old boy?"--he said gayly--"You always were, I remember!"
Alwyn flushed a little, and rose from his chair.
"Not always,"--he answered steadily,--"There have been times in my life when the beauty of women,--mere physical beauty--has exercised great influence over me. But I have lately learned how a fair face may sometimes mask a foul mind,--and unless I can see the SUBSTANCE of Soul looking through the SEMBLANCE of Body, then I know that the beauty I SEEM to behold is mere Appearance, and not Reality. Hence, unless your beautiful d.u.c.h.ess be like the "King"s daughter" of David"s psalm, "all glorious WITHIN"--her APPARENT loveliness will have no charm for me!--Now"--and he smiled, and spoke in a less serious tone.. "if you have no objection, I am off to my room to scribble for an hour or so.
Come for me if you want me--you know I don"t in the least mind being disturbed."
But Villiers detained him a moment, and looked inquisitively at him full in the eyes.
"You"ve got some singular new attraction about you, Alwyn,"--he said, with a strange sense of keen inward excitement as he met his friend"s calm yet flashing glance,--"Something mysterious, . . something that COMPELS! What is it? ... I believe that visit of yours to the Ruins of Babylon had a more important motive than you will admit, . . moreover..
I believe you are in love!"
"IN love!"--Alwyn laughed a little as he repeated the words.. "What a foolish term that is when you come to think of it! For to be IN love suggests the possibility of getting OUT again,--which, if love be true, can never happen. Say that I LOVE!--and you will be nearer the mark!
Now don"t look so mystified, and don"t ask me any more questions just now--to-night, when we are sitting together in the library, I"ll tell you the whole story of my Babylonian adventure!"
And with a light parting wave of the hand he left the room, and Villiers heard him humming a tune softly to himself as he ascended the stairs to his own apartments, where, ever since he arrived, he had made it his custom to do two or three hours" steady writing every morning.