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Leader (1850-1860), 24th January 1852, Edition Town of 2, Page 86, Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      We hoped that the questions of " animalism" in erotic Poetry , and the right of Art to consecrate by its beauty things which are withdrawn from the vulgar , were settled . But the originator of the discussion * W . M ., has again addressed us , and in fairness we are bound to give him this final hearing . " Glasg-ow , January 16 , 1252 . Sir , —In . my unlucky communication of the 20 th ultimo , I indicated the fact of my being aware that there is such a thing as poetic license , although , upon being honoured with , the strictures of the critic

      in the Leader of the 3 rd instant , I must confess I was much , enlightened as to the extent of that privilege . I now perceive that the trifling escapade upon which I had animadverted is , in . fact , no blemish at all , but rather the reverse ; that the poet knew his ground perfectly ; and that he has only to improve upon the hints now thrown out to rise higher still in the estimation of his readers . I had previously no conception that ( 1 ) the furor amoris like all the other inferior passions , is not liable to excess—that poetry and the arts possess the virtue of an alchymy so

      complete and absolute as that ( 2 ) what is in its own nature morally faulty or worthless , ceases to be so when clothed in numbers , or when transferred to the canvas or marble ; or , in fine . that ( 3 ) poets and artists can not only themselves handle pitch without defilement , but can , through their respective mediums , convey the same immunity to their students and votaries . All this was new to me , although , as it appears , not so to others ; and hence the scorn and recrimination with which I am met . I am obliged , however , by your sense of justice , which has shielded

      me from the aspersion ot being actuated by unworthy motives , which it seems have been freely attributed , notwithstanding my original disclaimer of any such as might have been supposed to have a bearing under the circumstances . I was certainly not without a distinct presentiment that I deliberately exposed myself to not a little hostility ; siill , it is a pity that the gentle art of poetry should number so many intemperate and unscrupulous adherents . Let the silence it has been thought fit to impose upon such be to them a lesson to abstain for the future in

      judging of others by what may be passing within their own minds . " To your Newcastle correspondent I am bound to defer , especially as he professes to have submitted tho point in dispute to the test I proposed . Without abating my own opinion—and while I do not bold myself responsible to reconcile the discrepancy—a Scotchman does not like to be outdone in galluntry . J . therefore submit tho following towards

      an explanation . If it be admitted ( but which ,- upon the whole , peoms to be doubtful ) that ( 4 ) the natural passions may bo indulged and expressed licentiously , then the boundary between what is innocent and what is otherwise must be placed somewhere ; while , at the same time , in minds of equal purity , but possessing different degrees of moral intrepidity , what may repel in one caso may bo approached safely and without any recoil in another . The case cited in tho Leader of the Roman princess who sat naked to

      Ganova I do not consider strictly analogous ; still , if it may be used as an illustration of what I have now advanced , it may be remarked that many Roman ladies , her contemporaries , would no doubt have declined such an ordeal ; and which , if no proof of their superior delicacy or purity , would at least prove their superiority in point of moral hardihood . Some minds live and thrive upon excitement and Stimulants , others must be content with more homely fare ; or , as thcold proverb haih it , " one man ' s meat is another man ' s poison . " I think there is nothing of casuistry or hair-splitting in this . n- ' ' ¦ ' ' r i i ' ~~~ rrTI 7 i" ^ m 4 r * if * r&rrr minTrtfmnn » ~ fffi 11 Z £

      " But if it be true , as asserted by the critic , that ( 5 ) poetry and art consecrate anything and everything to which they choose to give expression and embodiment—and , stripped of technical Verbiage , this I think is the sum of what he has enunciated- ^ then , we may cease to wonder that those ^ who subscribe to such a doctrine should not be very Squeamish as to what is set before them , or at the occasional aberrations of unfledged authorship . Upon the same principle ( 6 ) your Newcastle correspondent might introduce the poet , and invite him to recite his amours in his family circle ; I do not see any

      difference . Then , the poet emboldened by critical sanction , might try how far the principle would stretch ; only let him avoid being dull , prosaic , or ambiguous—the more intense and unspoken the better . Moreover ( 7 ) , if the furor amoris may be sublimised by being taken out of the hands of the vulgar , why might not the artist evolve his conceptions in giving permanence even to the most tumultuous ebullitions of appetite ? The whole might be tested as to its applicability to the literature andart of this country , according to many examples , ancient and modern . O ur neighbours across the channel , to

      compensate perhaps for their wantrof political Jreedum and stability , are accustomed to a good deal of license in many other matters . But then , and probably as a necessary consequence , the melancholy fact is , that * French society is corrupt , it is rotten to the core ; this is the cry of the Government organs , and it is perfectly true /* Is it desirable that it should be so here ? W . M . "

      We will endeavour to dispose of this question once for all . The capital distinction between W . M . and ourselves is , that he regards Passion as an " animalism " to he repressed , or at any rate to be indulged in sorrow and shame , -as something pleasant but degrading ; whereas we look on it as one of the great energetic instincts given us by God , and sacred in all healthy minds ; we say with

      the old dramatist : — ¦ «• The motions which it feels Are fury , rapture , ecstacy , and such As thrust it out , full of instinct and deity , To meet what it desires . " For the sake of brevity we have numbered the positions in W . M . ' s le tter . If you will refer to 2 ,

      3 , and 4 , you will observe that he argues upon the . implied assumption that the furor amoris is in itself morally faulty , licentious , and defiling . Between persons who so radically disagree there can be no final agreement ; but we will reply to W . M ' s . letter nevertheless .

      No . 1 . Furor amoris is , of course , liable to excess , and its excess is " animalism" in the degrading sense of the word ; but we cannot for a moment admit that Mr . Smith ' s so nnet deserved such an epithet . Nos . 2 , 3 , 5 , * J . Th « position ' maintained by us is , not that Art can consecrate anything and everything , but that everything it chooses to express i £ may lawfully express . The reserve implied in choice relates to the very nature of Art as Art . It could

      not choose " animalism , " or it would cease to be Art . And for this reason : There are many things perfectly natural , yet interdicted from the domain of Art , simply because they are in themselves incapable of exciting the emotions from which Art springs . Art does not appeal to Sensations , but to the Emotions through Sensations ; any object that excites the Sensation without bringing a

      subsequent activity of tho Emotions is , from its very nature , excluded from Art ( except as an accessory ) . This is tlie reason why the poet may not express the most " tumultuous ebullitions of appetite ( 7 )/' and why he may express tho most tumultuous ebullitions of passion . With the latter are associated the emotions of tenderness , of reverence , of clinging devotion , of divine rapture ; and it is these

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      * Vide the Leader ' s " Own Correspondent , " in a tycent number . '

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      We might write an essay , on Persecution apropos of three topics which this week furnishes . The first is the expulsion of the Westminster Review ^ fromaScotch Institution , on the charge of" heresy . " This is an amusing illustration . When the Review was in other hands , its " heresies ' were avowed without scruple j yet the Institution quietly gav « them shelter , because its members had a laudable desire to see the Review . " No sooner does Mr . John Chapman take the Review into his hands than the nasum theologicum ( quicker at detecting stinks than perfumes ) at once scents out "heresy ;" although , in point of fact , the reproach which we " heretics " all bring against the Review is , that it

      is too orthodox ! The second illustration we should draw from the Rambler , the January pumber of which opens with a bold and able article on Galileo and his Condemnation . This is taking the bull by the horns . The case of Galileo is one of the stones perpetually flung at the head of Catholicism ; and in truth it is an ugly affair , for not only does it show the Mother x > i ^ 11 Truth to be absurdly in error , but

      because the error is now confessed , it suggests uneasy suspicions of " infallibility . " If the Church could be wrong on the question of the earth's rotation , she could he wrong on other questions . But the Church is infallible , and can't be wrong . The writer of the paper in question gets out of this dilemma through an issue which may prove 1 dangerous avenue of attack . ~ He says : ¦»— " The Church has never claimed the gift of infallibility for her decisions about all matters ' of fact . ' - Her infallible authority is limited to the sphere of revealed doctrine , and facts therewith connected . " Ah I if the Church really thus limited her claims !

      On the question of Persecution as a thing lawful , nay righteous , hear how boldly this writer announces his belief : — " We have no intention of entering now upon the general question of religious persecutions ; but this we will say , that those who believe the Old Testament to be " the word of God cannot deny that He has sanctioned the crushing of falsehood by material m'eans . To make a great outcry about a

      Christian having put into practice the same principles which were enjoined by God as rules of action upon Moses , Josue , and Samuel , which were applauded in David , and which S . Peter was inspired to put into practice , may be good policy in one who wishes simply to protest against Rome , caring little what becomes of Christianity , but is suicidal in the Protestant who wishes at the same time to uphold the whole Bible ' as the pure and exclusive revelation of God . "

      Perfectly true—and useful to keep alive in the memories of men , that the true spirit of the Bible be fairly appreciated 1 Louis Napoleon must be a man after God ' s own heart , according to the Bible theory ; and , indeed , we see that the Holy Cotholio Church blesses his deeds , and glories in his righteous triumph ! O Holy , Holy Church O noble exemplar of man ' s highest aspirations !

      Youble 8 S the Tree of Liberty in 1848 ; in 1852 you bless the ruffian debauchee ; in 1853 , if the Goddess of Reason be triumphant , and hold out hopes of sharing with you " the loaves and fishes , " you will bless her ; nay , you will sing Te Deum to the Devil himself if ever his dusky majesty should get the upper hand I for is not " order" the one desired thing— " our being ' s end and aim i "

      Our third illustration might be taken from the able article on Descartes , in the Edinburgh Review—essentially an article about his " Life and Genius , " - not a philosophic exposition of the Cartesian philosophy . In it , after commenting upon the want of courage Descartes showe d in his unnecessary servility to the Church , the essayist flings what may be called almost a sarcasm at Philosophy , because it has not inspired men with the same enthusiasm which Religion inspired into its Martyrs . We answer % h ^ % thjis is not true

      noble enthusiasm , hut that its convictions are not of the same awful responsibility . The religious martyr dies for his salvation ; the truth or error of his creed is not only of infinite moment to him , but of infinite moment to mankind . The philosopher knows that his creed is , after all , only an explanation of the great mystery such as suffices to him—an explanation possibly erroneous , for absolute certainty no man can boast of—and knowing this , he does not feel called upon to die for it . He thinks with Pope : —•

      as a matter of fact , and not fair as a comparison . Philosophy without its Martyrs ? ¦ ¦ What , then , was Anaxagoras—what was Socrates—what was Vanini— whatjsvas Giordano Bruno—what was Servetus , the pantheist ? What were the countless victims to that slow torture of private persecution which , like a bloodhound * hunts down the daring innovators in science ? If the martyrs have not been so numerous as religious martyrs , the reason is not that Philosophy inspires man with no

      " 'Tis with men ' s judgments as their watches ; none Goes always right , yet each believes his own !" Some set their watches by the cathedral clock , others by the modest country church ; this man will only follow Greenwich time , that only the Horseguards ; one trusts in the clock on 'Change , another sets his by one in a gin palace—meanwhilerthe" ^ p 1 rBforologBnDf ^ fmTe ~ strikeB"Tts"hours through the Universe with unalterable regularity and we are left to the confusion of our watches , squabbling about the right when all are wrong !

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      rviHeaare not the legislators , but the -judges and police Skte ^ e T&Vdolot ma ^ elaw ^ Wmterpretana try to enforce them . — Edinburgh Review .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 24, 1852, page 86, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1919/page/18/