Fors Clavigera: Letters to the Workmen and Labourers of Great Britain

FORS CLAVIGERA: LETTERS TO THE

WORKMEN AND LABOURERS OF OREAT BRITAIN VOL.

IV.

U-^K

Fors Clavigera LETTERS LXXIII

to

XCVl

By

3

John Ruskin

i^^s

m 16,9. P3.'

London

:

George Allen

^

'ai^

\«;/^(?r, itself; Abbey

I

in

LETTER LXXXI

I 85

I have the Guild's schools to think quite other duties. there are thousands of men in know I of, and while

England able I,

to

conduct our business

when once they

see

it

affairs better

their duty to

do

so, I

than

do not

is another man in England able to organize And our elementary lessons in Natural History and Art. I am therefore wholly occupied in examining the growth of Anagallis tenella, and completing some notes on St.

believe there

and the Dalesmen must George's Chapel at Venice take care of themselves for the present. ;

The following more detailed exposition of my Manchester correspondent's designs for the founding of a museum for working men in that city, should be read with care.

My own

comments,

as

before, are

meant

only to extend, not to invalidate, his proposals. " It

is

many

years since the brightest sunshine in Italy

and Switzerland began to make me see chiefly the gloom since the purest music and foulness of Manchester has been mingled for my ear with notes of the obscene ;

songs which are all the music known to thousands of our workpeople ; since the Tale of Troy and all other tales

have been spoiled

'for our

classes

me by the knowledge that no such tales exist.' Do not

for

working doubt that I know that those words are sorrowful, that I know that while they are true, gladness cannot often

—

be felt except by fools and knaves. We are so much accustomed to allow conditions of life to exist which health impossible, and to build infirmaries and hospitals for a few of the victims of those conditions ;

make

to allow

—

people to be drawn into crime by irresistible we might have removed, and to

temptations, which

provide criminals

chaplains for the most troublesome our beneficent ;— activity is so apt to take the

prison

l86

FORS CLAVIGERA

form of what,

in Mrs. Fry's case, Hood so finely called teaching,' that it is quite useless to urge people of our class to take up the work of making

'nugatory

healthy activity of body

and mind possible

for

the

working classes of our towns, and a Hfe less petty than that which we are now living, possible too for the rich.

They prefer to work in hospitals and prisons, {a) The most hospital-like and therefore inviting name which I can find for the work which I have mentioned a work to which I shall give what is the cure strength I have

—

—

of

Under

drunkenness.'

the

'

'scientific treatment of

'

drunkenness I can find a place for every change that seems to me to be most urgently needed in Manchester

and

manufacturing towns. Pray do not think that would choose a name for the sake of deception. The name I have chosen quite accurately I

am

all

jesting, or that I

describes one aspect of the work to be done. I must an explanation of the work, as I am not rich enough to do more than a small part by myself. write

" There is, I believe, no doubt that in the last seventy or eighty years the higher and middle classes of English people, formerly as remarkable for drunkenness as our

(a)

Most

true.

This morbid satisfaction of consciences by phy-

sicking people on their deathbeds, and preaching to them under the gallows, may be ranked among the most insidious mischiefs of

modern

society.

My

correspondent must pardon

St.

any work which proposes to the most expanded sense, merely curative results. taking

little

interest in

George

itself,

Is

it

for

even in

wholly

impossible for him to substitute, as a scope of energy, for the "cure of drunkenness," the "distribution of food " ? I heard only yesterday of an entirely well-conducted young married woman fainting in the street for hunger. If my correspondent- would address himself to find everybody enough of Meat, he would incidentally, but radically,

Drink.

provide against anybody's having a superabundance of

LETTER LXXXI

I

87

much more tem{b) have become of the change, causes what are the show perate. and how these causes, which do not yet affect the I must tell you very poor, may be made to reach them. and what briefly what we are already doing in Manchester, The work of smoke prevention I shall try to get done. The Noxious Vapours Association goes on very slowly.

workmen now

are,

I try to

have to enforce the law, which, if strictly enforced, But all mill chimneys almost smokeless.

will

would make the

We

'

'

nuisance sub-committees

will

not enforce the law.

as clearly and effectively as possible how I believe that in a year grossly they neglect their duty. or two all that the law can help us to do will be done, shall

and the

show

much

then be

air will

*

-^

purer,

{c)

*

*

*

-K-

"

Music is one of the things most needed. The mood, which I know well, must be very well known the mood in which one does not by workpeople wish to improve one's mind, or to talk, but only to All men must know that temptation is never rest. We have music to protect harder to resist than then. us, which calls up our best thoughts and feeling and The poor have the public-house, where memories. their thoughts and feelings are at the mercy of any one who chooses to talk or sing obscenely and they

—

—

—

;

are ordered

to

order

don't

leave

beer

they ought to do. scores

are

of rich

beer-gardens

are,

(b)

Compare 'The Crown I

irrelevant.

more

—the

fire.

St.

as

if

poor refuge the

landlord

they thinks

In every large English town there people who know what Austrian

— how

omit part of the

that

often

as

(c) it is

even

much of

letter

George

Wild

here

:

better

than

anything

Olive,' §§ 148, 149.

because to

forbids, not the

St.

smoke

George's work only, but

much

1

FORS CLAVIGERA

88

and yet nowhere has one been started. ; trying now to get a few men to join me in opening one. I should prefer to have tea and in

I

England

am

and cocoa instead of beer, as our beer is much more stupefying than that which is drunk in Austria. All that is needed is a large, well-lighted, well-ventilated room (d) where every evening three or four good musicians shall play such music as one hears in Austria, music of course chosen by us, and not, coffee

;

—

as

in music-halls,

is

it

guards,

to

door, tea,

(e)

etc.,

(d)

Alas,

virtually

cover

quite

the

cost

be sold to people

will

by the lowest blackwill be paid at the

penny or twopence

music

of the

who want

kindly friend— do you think there

my

'

'

is

it

;

;

and

but no

no difference

'

room and a garden then ? The Garden is the matter and the Daylight. Not the music, nor the beer,

between a essential

A

'

;

nor even the coffee. will take

up this suliject at length, with Plato's help, in Meantime, may I briefly ask if it would not be possible, instead of keeping merely the bad music out of the hall, to keep the bad men out of it ? Suppose the music, instead of being I

{e)

next Fors.

charged twopence

for,

were given of pure grace

;

— suppose,

for

instance, that rich people, who now endeavour to preserve memory of their respected relations, by shutting the light out of their church windows with the worst glass that ever good sand was

—

would bequeath an annual sum to play a memorial spoiled into tune of a celestial character ? or in any other pious way share some of their own operatic and other musical luxury with the

—

poor

;

or even appoint a Christian lady-visitor,

—

with a voice, to

sing to them, instead of preach ? and then, as aforesaid, instead of permitting seats to be obtained for twopence, make the entry to such entertainments a matter of compliment, sending tickets of

admission, as for Almack's, to persons who, though moneyless,

might yet be perceived to belong to a penurious type of good and so exclude 'blackguards,' whether lowest or highest, society,

—

altogether.

Would

not the selection of the pieces become easier

under such conditions

?

LETTER LXXXI one

I

89

have to order anything for 'the good of the there will be a place where a decent

will

Then

house.'

workman

can

take

or

wife

his

daughter,

without

pay more than he can well afford, and where he will be perfectly sure that they will hear to

having

no foul talk or songs. I don't know of any place of which that can now be said. " Mr. Ward probably told you of my plans for a museum. I shall be very grateful to you if you will tell me whether or not they are good. (/) I want to make I know that while our town art again a teacher. children are allowed to live in filthy houses, to wear filthy

clothes,

filthy

sky,

little

to

play

and love

in

filthy

filthy

them— compared,

in

streets,

parents, at

with what

least,

conditions there would be

other

look up to a

there can be very

— that

under

books, or

art,

But still there is somehave we more than far any right to expect. thing, How very many of these children, when they grow not beat their up, do not become drunkards, do or

after-life

—

can 'educate.'

When

I see how good those already grown as a rule, to each other, how tender kind, up are, to their children, I feel not only shame that we have

wives

!

how

them unhelped so long; but, too, hope, behef, as many people with in our day we can get common kindness and common sense, to work toeffective help. gether, as will enable us to give them left

that

"

After all, town children sometimes see brightness. looking straight To-day the sky was radiantly blue was smoke up, it was hardly possible to see that there :

good

(/) Very

overcome leisure

to

question,

;

—but

the

main

difficulty

which we have

not to form plans for a museum, but to find the muse. correspondent has not yet answered

is,

why

My

we, and they, have

less

than the Greeks had.

to

men my

FORS CLAVIGERA

190 in

the

'

my eyes were full of blacks when watching the clouds drift. " So long as people are helpful to each other and '

though

air,

I left off

tender

them

to their children, is there not something that art can strengthen and ennoble? Can

in

we

not find pictures, old or new, that will bring before in beautiful forms their best feelings and

them

thoughts

in

of pictures with great diffidence.

speak

them

I

for

both

form

at all to

reveals noble

directly

care deeply;

ing

them

I

?

For what

and

human

feel-

eyes and brain are dull colour. I venture to speak of

but

my

you only because

of the possibility of using

them

I

have thought much

means for teaching people who can barely read. Surely pictures must be able to tell tales, (g) even to people whose eyes have been trained in a Manchester back street. The as

plan which I wish to try is, to take, with the help of other men, a warehouse with some well-lighted walls.

On

these I would hang first the tale of the life of by the copies published by the Arundel

Christ, told

they can be

made

to tell it and by copies made Under the whole series the same specially for us. would be told in words, and under each history

Society, as

with

the

far as

gaps,

left

by them,

;

filled

Is my (g) Yes, provided the tales be true, and the art honest. correspondent wholly convinced that the tales he means to tell are true? For if they are not, he will find no good whatever result from an endeavour to amuse the grown-up working men

of England with mediaeval fiction, however elegant. And if they is other business to be done before painting

are true, perhaps there

them. Respecting the real position of the modern English mind with respect to its former religion, I beg my readers' accuratest attention to Mr. Mallock's faultlessly logical article in the Nineteenth " " Is life worth living ? Century for this month,

LETTER LXXXI

191

There are picture there would be a full explanation. hundreds of English people who have never heard this tale ; but it is the tale that is better known than Other

other.

any

tales told

by pictures,

hope, can

I

be found.

"You

speak

hopelessly

of the

chance of finding

painters for the actions of great

EngUshmen, but could and woods ? {h) make other people, and myself, look

you not find painters I

should like to

for English hills

with their brains, eventually even with their hearts, at what they now see only with their eyes. So I would

have drawings made of the prettiest places near Manchester to which people go on hoHdays. They should be so painted that, if rocks are seen, it may be easy

know what kind of of trees. Under

to

kind

should be

sketches

rocks they are if trees, what or near these pictures, there in outline giving the names of ;

—

principal things 'clump of oaks,' 'new red sandstone.' On the opposite wall I would have cases all

of

the

specimens— large-scale drawings of leaves blossom and seeds. For pictures

of trees, of hills

of their

there

should

be

lines

of

hills,

the

such

volume of 'Modern

as

plates, showing the leading Mountain you give in the '

Painters.'

It

'

might help to make

[h) Possibly ; but as things are going we shall soon have our If we cannot people incredulous of the existence of these also.

keep the fields and woods themselves, the paintings of them will be useless. If you can, they are your best museum. It is true

am arranging a museum in Sheffield, but not in the least with any hope of regenerating Sheffield by means of it only that it may be ready for Sheffield, otherwise regenerated, to use. Nor that I

;

should lie

T

more

The

—

trouble myself even so far, but that I know my own gifts way of cataloguing minerals than of managing men.

in the

rest of

my

value and interest.

correspondent's

letter, to its close, is of

extreme

FORS CLAVIGERA

192

us think of the wonderfulness of the earth

— drawings say as

it

now

if

we had

of a valley in the coal measure district and another of what it probably was

is,

If each town the coal plants were still growing. and of a series had such explanatory drawpictures

when

might be copied by chromo- lithography, and

ings, they

exchanged. "

We

would have the photographs which you have

coloured copies of the written about them. have you pictures, chromohave also not we lithographs of good Might what to buy learn we so that might drawings, described in

'

Fors,' or, better,

with

all

that

good for

our houses

"I speak

?

as

I

if

museum

thought that one

could

I speak so bea huge city. do measurable good cause I hope that there are rich people enough, sick

in

at heart of the

misery which they

open other museums, if the or enough such people good

to

now

helplessly watch,

lead

to

to

do

poor

in

were seen

first

the

;

to pay for museums forcing the authorities of the city from the rates. "I would have good music in the museum every it open on Sunday afterI would be music played then too. noons, and me think makes which reason same the for this do How can churches help us much little of 'temples.'

evening, and I would have let fine

now ?

I

have heard tw preacher

or in anger, that

—

it

is

tell

our

the duty of

us,

in calmness

class

—

still

the

and pure air, and ruling class all that light and pure air, and only they, would bring with them. (/) Until preachers have the wisdom to see,

to give the people light

and the courage

are being

stifled,

in

to say, that

if

body and mind, (/)

Italics

mine,

while the people for air

now, and

LETTER LXXXI

193

only may want more water seven years hence, and probably will not want a Gothic town-hall even seventy years hence, we spend half a million pounds sterling on a town-hall, and I don't know how many millions for

—your

we

Thirlmere water,

are

guilty

of grievous

how can the religion of which they are the priests help us ? The poor and the rich are one people. If we can prevent the poor from being brutes, and do not, we are brutes too, though we be rich and educated brutes. Where two sin,

and say

until they see

or three, or two

— together

it

or three

matters

midst of them.

in the

not

this,

hundred such, are gathered what name God is tiof

—

in

Some day

I

hope we

able again to meet in churches and to thank

shall

God

be

—the

for giving them good rulers, and we for giving us the peace which we shall not find until we have taken up our duty of ruling. At present many work-

poor

on Saturday till pubhc-houses bed on Sunday until pubHc-houses open. Then they rise, and begin to drink again. Till churches will help many, I want museums to help a few. Till Sunday be a day which brings to us all a livelier sense that we are bound to God and man with bonds of love and duty, I would have it be at men,

after

close,

lie

drinking

in

day when working men may see that there are some things in the world very good. The first day How can will do as well as the seventh for that. least a

trained as our working classes now are, rest on Sunday? To me it seems that our Sunday rest, which finds us with stores of knowledge and wisdom that we could not have, had not hundreds of people people,

worked

for us,

is

as

much

out of the reach of

workmen

the daintily cooked cold meats which we eat on Sunday when we wish to be very good to our servants."

as

IV.

N

LETTER LXXXII HEAVENLY CHOIRS Brantwood, I

REALLY

its

press,

here

but just as it was going to something sent me by my much-

month

this

da}',

I3^A September, 1877.

thought Fors would have been true to is

;

honoured friend Frederic Gale, (who told the race-horse and kitten,)* which compels stop press to speak of it. in

—

me me

of to

It is the revise of a paper which will be, I believe, Bailfs Magazine by the time this Fors is printed a sketch of English manners and customs in the ;

(whom Mr. Gale and I agree in a be truly moral novelist, and worth any holding of modern ones since Scott's death, be quantity days of Fielding

;

to

they

who

But

—

they may).

friend, though an old Conservative, seems himself doubtful whether things may not have been a little worse managed, in some respects, then, than

my

they are

now

:

and whether some improvements may

—

not really have taken place in the roads, postage, and the like and chiefly his faith in the olden time :

{See Letter 194

LXXIX.]

LETTER LXXXII seems

to

195

have been troubled by some reminiscences

he has gathered of the manner of inflicting capital

punishment in the early Georgian epochs. Which manner, and the views held concerning such punishment, which dictate the manner, are indeed among the surest tests of the nobility or vileness of men :

and my readers, to go with me a little farther back than the days of Fielding, if indeed they would judge of the progress, therefore

I

will

ask

or development, of

my

friend,

human thought on

— and hear what, both

in least

and

in

this question

;

utmost punish-

Rhadamanthine ment, was ordained by literally and remained in force over that noblest nation law,

'

'

who were

the real Institutors of Judgment,* some eight hundred years, from the twelfth to the fourth

century before Christ. I take from Miiller's ii.,

Dorians,' Book III., chap, the following essential passages, (italics always

mine)

:

'

—

'^Property was, according to the Spartan notions, to be looked upon as a matter of indifference ; in the decrees and institutions attributed to Lycurgus, no mention was made of this point, and the ephors were permitted to

judge according to their

own

notions of equity.

ancient legislators had an evident strict

regulations

however the

right

first

on

made

this

subject

;

The

repugnance to any thus Zaleucus

— who

particular enactments concerning

of property

—expressly

interdicted

certificates

of debt *

The Mosaic law never having been observed by

literalness.

the

Jews

in

FORS CLAVIGERA

196 "

The ephors decided

and property, sible

nature

officers,

all

disputes concerning

money

as well as in accusations against respon-

provided they were not of a criminal decided in cases of heiresses and

the kings

;

Public offences, particularly of the kings and adoptions. other authorities^ were decided by an extreme course

The popular assembly had probably no " functions disputes (meaning only elective) concerning the succession to the throne were referred to it only after ineffectual attempts to settle them, and of judicature. "

judicial

it

:

then passed a decree. "

the various punishments which occur, the on property would appear ridiculous in any other state than Sparta, on account of their extreme lowness. Perseus, in his treatise on the Lacedaemonian

Among

fines levied

government, says that the rich

man

'

the judge immediately

to the loss of a dessert (iird'iKXov)

he orders to bring a

condemns ;

the poor

reed, or a rush, or laurel leaves for

a public banquet.' Nicocles the Lacedaemonian says upon the same subject, when the ephor has heard '

all

the witnesses, he

either acquits

the

defendant or

condemns him and the successful plaintiff slightly fines him in a cake, or some laurel leaves,' which were used to ;

give a relish to the cakes. "

Banishment was probably never a regular punish-

ment in Sparta, for the law could hardly compel a person to do that which, if he had done it voluntarily, would have been punished with death. On the other hand, banishment exempted a person from the most severe punishments, and, according to the principles of the so Greeks, preserved him from every persecution ;

even a person who was declared an outlaw by the Amphictyons was thought secure when out of the that

country.

There

is

no instance

in the history of Sparta

LETTER LXXXII

I97

of any individual being banished for political reasons, so long as the ancient constitution continued.

"The laws respecting the penalty of death which prevailed in the Grecian, and especially in the Doric, states, were derived from Delphi. They were entirely founded upon the ancient rite of expiation, by which a limit was

set to the fury of revenge,

first

mode of procedure "The Delphian

in

and a

fixed

such cases was established.

institutions were, however, doubtless connected with those of Crete, where Rhadamanthus was reported by ancient tradition to have first established

and a system of law, (the larger and part of which, in early times, is always the criminal law).* Now as Rhadamanthus is said to courts of justice,

more important

have made exact retaliation the fundamental principle of his code, it cannot be doubted, after what has been said in the second book on the connexion of the worship of Apollo,

and

its

expiatory

rites,

with Crete, that in this

island the harshness of that principle was early softened by religious ceremonies, in which victims and libations

took the place of the punishment which should have on the head of the offender himself

fallen

"The punishment in

strangulation,

a

of death was inflicted either

throwing the criminal into *

I

have enclosed

by by the C3eadas,+ a ceremony

room of the public

this

or

prison,

sentence in brackets, because

it

is

the

from his own general knowledge and it shows how curiously unconscious he had remained of the real meaning of the retaliation of Rhadamanthus, which was of good

German

writer's parenthesis, '

;

'

for good, not of evil for evil.

See

vol.

i.

of this edition, pp. 469,

470.

t I did not know myself what the Cicadas was ; so wrote to my dear old friend, Osborne Gordon, who tells me it was probably a

chasm keep

it

in the limestone rock for

'

Deucalion.'

;

but his letter

is

so interesting that I

FORS CLAVIGERA

198

which was always performed by night. It was also in ancient times the law of Athens that no execution should take place in the daytime.

So

also the Senate

Cume

(whose antiquated institutions have been already mentioned) decided criminal cases during the night, and voted with covered balls, nearly in the of the

^olic

same manner

as the kings of the people of Atlantis, in These must not be considered as

the Critias of Plato.

oligarchical contrivances for the undisturbed execution of severe sentences, but they must be attributed to the

dread of pronouncing and putting into execution the sentence of death, and to an unwillingness to bring the A similar terrors of that penalty before the eye of day.

repugnance is expressed in the practice of Spartan Gerusia, which never passed sentence of death without several days' deliberation, nor ever without the most conclusive testimony."

These being pre-Christian views of the duty and awfulness of capital punishment (v^^e all know the noblest instance of that waiting till the sun

—

was behind eighteenth

the mountains)

—here

century view of

it,

is

as

a

the English

picturesque

and entertaining ceremony. "

As another

instance of the matter-of-course

way of

olden time, an old Wiltshire doing to a brother of mine a place on out shepherd pointed the Downs where a highwayman was hung, on the It was quite a pretty borders of Wilts and Hants. business

in

the

'

sight,' said the old

man

'

;

for the sheriffs

and javelin-men

came a-horseback, and they all stopped at the Everleigh Arms for refreshment, as they had travelled a long Did the man who was going to be hanged have way.' '

LETTER LXXXII anything?'

much

strong

beer as

99 he

and we drank to his health and then they hung " and buried him under the gallows.'

liked he,

'Lord, yes, as

1

;

;

Now may

think the juxtaposition of these passages enough show my readers how vain it is to I

attempt to reason from any single test, however weighty in itself, to general conclusions respecting

—

It would be as absurd to connational progress. from the clude, passages quoted, that the English

people in the days of George the Third were in respects brutalized, and in the Dorians in the days of Rhadamanthus, as

all

all respects inferior to it

is

the modern philanthropist of the Newgatory* school to conclude that we are now entering on the

in

true Millennium, because

we

can't bear the idea of

hanging a rascal for his crimes, though ready to drown any quantity of honest

we are quite men for the

sake of turning a penny on our insurance; and

am

securely informed) from ten to twelve public executions of entirely innocent persons take place in Sheffield, annually, by crushing the

though (as

I

persons condemned under large pieces of sandstone thrown at them by steam-engines in order that the ;

moral improvement of the public may be secured, by furnishing them with carving-knives sixpence a *

As

pun of Hood's, (quoted by and intensely characteristic of the man, deserves the most careful memory, as showing what a noble and instructive lesson even a pun may become, when it is deep in its purpose, and founded on a truth which is perfectly illustrated by

my

a literary study, this exquisite

correspondent in

last

the seeming equivocation.

Fors,)

FORS CLAVIGERA

200

dozen cheaper than, without these executions, would be possible. All evidences of progress or decline have therethen analyzed with fore to be collected in mass, extreme care, then weighed in the balance of the

—

—

Ages, before we can judge of the meaning of any one and I am glad to have been forced by Fors

—

:

to the notice of

my friend's

paper, that

I

may

farther

answer a complaint of my Manchester correspondent, of which I have hitherto taken no notice, that I

Man-

under-estimate the elements of progress in

My answer is, in very few words, that I am quite aware there are many amiable persons in Manchester and much general intelligence. But, taken as a whole, I perceive that Manchester can chester.

—

produce no good

and no good

art,

literature

it

;

is

falhng off even in the quality of its cotton it has reversed, and vilified in loud lies, every essential ;

principle of political

war, predatory

is cowardly in it and as a corporate body, and sell, for a profit,* the

economy

in peace;

plotting at last to steal,

;

waters of Thirlmere and clouds of Helvellyn. *

The

Letter

— though

reader must note

plain, that the

LXX.,

Manchester

I

cannot interrupt the text to excommercial, compare Fors,

—

(or typically

heresy in political economy is twofold, that first, what may specifically be called the Judasian heresy, " This ointthe value of a thing is what it will fetch in the market

—

vol.

iii.,

p. 415,)

—

:

—

ment might have been sold for much, this lake may be sold for much, this England may be sold for much, this Christ may be sold for and, little; but yet, let us have what we can get," etc. tables secondly, what may specifically be called the heresy of the

— —

—

;

'

'

—

i.e.

of the money-changers

— that

money begets money, and

that

LETTER LXXXII

And

201

I have no serious doubt that the verdict * on that society, being disof tinctly retributive, would be, not that -the Lake Thirlraere should be brought to the top of the town

therefore

Rhadamanthine

of Manchester, but that the

town of Manchester, or

at least the Corporation thereof, should be put at the

bottom of the Lake of Thirlmere.

You said

think

I

do you

jest,

Edinburgh, and the city of

My I

friends,

I

am no Roman

as you did

when

New Town

I

of

New York ?

did not jest then, and do not, now. Catholic, yet I would not willingly

—

water out of a

steal holy

no

?

should like to destroy the

I

Roman

I

hills

—

and being and vales of my

font, to sell

hold the

;

Catholic, native land to be true temples of God, and their

exchange is the root of profit. Whereas only labour is the root of tithe to profit, and exchange merely causes loss to the producer by the pedlar.

Whereupon new times, the

I

may

also note, for future comparison of old

and

discovery made by another of my good and muchregarded friends, Mr. Alfred Tylor, who is always helping me, one way or other and while lately examining some documents of the ;

old Guilds, for I forget what purpose of his own, it suddenly flashed out upon him, as a general fact concerning them, that they never

looked for

'

'

profit

— (and,

practically, never got

it,)

—but only cared

work should be good, and only expected surely, day by day, their daily bread. * More properly, in this case, the Minoan verdict. that their

for

it,

and got

Though

I

do

not care for 'discoveries,' and never plume myself on them, but only on clear perception of long-known facts ; yet, as I leave my work behind me, I think it right to note of new things in it what seem to

—

—

me

worthy, and the analysis of the powers of the three Judges, Minos, the Punisher of Evil Rhadamanthus, tlie Rewarder of Good and /Eacus, the Divider of Possession, is, I believe, mine ;

;

exclusively.

—

FORS CLAVIGERA

202

waves and baptistery, •uAnd to

clouds

holier

than

and the incense of the Manchester

these

dew

the

of

the

altar.

robbers,

I

would

solemnly speak again the words which Plato wrote for prelude to the laws forbidding crimes against the Gods, though crimes to him inconceivable as " Oh, thou taking place among educated men.

—

wonderful," (meaning wonderful in wretchedness,) " this is no human evil that is neither

upon thee, one sent by the Gods, but a mortal pestilence and * oestrus begotten among men from old and uncleansed iniquities

when such dogmas

wherefore,

:

and desires come into thy

soul, that

thou desirest

to steal sacred things, seek first to the shrines for

and then for the society of good men and hear of them what they say, and with no purification,

;

turning or looking back, of evil

men

:

—and

be lightened, well

if,

in

but

;

out of the fellowship doing this, thy evil should fly

if

not, then holding death

the fairer state for thee, depart thou out of this life."

For indeed f " the such

to

men

there

to

legislator '

no

knows '

profit

quite well that

in the

continuance

and that they would do a double the rest of men, if they would take their

of their lives

good

is

;

*

There is no English word for this Greek one, symbolical of the forms of stinging fury which men must be transformed to beasts, before they can feel. t The closing sentence from this point 1=^ farther on in the book. I

give Jowett's translation, mine.

p.

373.

—The inverted

commas only

are

LETTER LXXXII

203

departure, inasmuch as they would be an example to other men not to offend, and they would relieve the city of bad citizens." I return now to what

I

began a week ago,

thinking then, as I said, to be in the best of time. And truly the lateness of Fors during the last four or five months has not been owing to neglect of it, but to my taking more pains with it, and spending,

am

grieved to say, some ten or twelve days out of month in the writing of it, or finishing sentences, when press correction and all should never take more than a week, else it gets more than its due I

the

share of

my

enough

my

life.

shortening

And

partly in vanity,

partly in duty,

this

has been

not remembering

often-announced purpose to give more classical authors, in statement of

extracts from

necessary truth

;

trust less to myself; therefore of merely using Plato's help, in

and

to-day, instead talking of music,

own words,

I

shall give little

more than

his

only adding such notes as are necessary But what to modern needs.

for their application

he has said

is

so scattered up and

down

the two

great treatises of the Republic and the Laws, and so involved, for the force and basis of it, with

matter of best

I

still

deeper import, that, arrange it how reader must still be somewhat by abruptness of transition from

may, the

embarrassed

fragment to fragment, take out of each what

arrangement

is

present purposes,

more I

and must it

brings.

difficult

have

to

be

And

content

to

indeed this

because,

for

my

begin with what Plato

FORS CLAVIGERA

204

—

for his dialogues are all excavatory work, throwing aside loose earth, and digging to rock foundation but my work is edificatory, and I

concludes

in,

;

So that to-day I must begin with his summary of conclusions in the twelfth book of the Laws,* namely, that have

"

to lay the foundation first.

the Ruler

common

must know the principle of good which

is

to the four cardinal virtues, Prudence, Justice,

and Temperance and which makes each them virtue and he must know, of what is beautiful and good, the principle that makes it beautiful, and makes it good and knowing this, he must be able to set it forth first in words, and follow it out in action. Fortitude, all of

;

and

:

;

Therefore, since of all beautiful things one of the most beautiful is the fact of the existence and power of the

Gods

;

although

it

may be pardoned

to the

common

people of the city that they know these things only by fame, no man may be a governor who has not laboured to acquire every faith concerning the existence of the Gods and there should be no permission to choose, as :

a guardian of the laws, any one who is not a divine man, and one who has wholly gone through the sum of labour in such things," (meaning, having laboured until he has

—

fought his

*

and

My own my own

page and

way

into true faith).

edition of Plato references,

line of this

is

Bekker's, printed by Valpy, 1826 ; the last fifteen years, are all to

made during

octavo edition, and will be given here,

—

after

naming the book of each series thus, in the present case, Laws, XII. 632. 9, meaning the twelfth book of the Laws, 9th line of 632nd page in Bekker's 8th volume but with this reference I will ;

;

also give always, in brackets, that to the chapter in Stephanus, so that the full reference here is,— Laws, XII. 632. 9 (966).

LETTER LXXXII "

And

205

there are two lines of knowledge by which we Gods the first, the right under-

arrive at belief in the

:

standing of the nature of the soul, that it is the oldest and divinest of all the things to which motion, taking to and the itself the power of birth, gives perpetual being ;

perception of order in the movements of matter, in the stars, and in all other things which an For authoritatively ruling mind orders and makes fair. other,

the

of those fectly

nor

who contemplate idiotically,

these things neither imper-

no one of men has been born so

atheist as not to receive the absolutely contrary impresFor to the sion to that which the vulgar suppose.

vulgar it seems that people dealing with astronomy and the other arts that are concerned with necessary law, must become atheists, in seeing that things come of necessity,

and not

of the conception

formed by a

will

But that has been desiring accomplishment of good. " so only when they looked at them (in the imperfect and idiotic way) " thinking that the soul was newer than matter, instead of older than matter,

— thinking

and

after

it,

instead

which, they turned all things upside-down, and themselves also so that they could not see in the heavenly bodies anything but Hfeless of before

it,

:

stones and dirt

;

and

filled

themselves with atheism and

hardness of heart, against which the reproaches 'of the poets were true enough, likening the philosophers to But indeed, as I have said, dogs uttering vain yelpings. the contrary of

all

this is the fact.

For of mortal men

rightly wise and reverent to the Gods, who knows these two things the Priority of the Spirit, and the Masterhood of Mind over the things in Heaven,

he only can be

—

and who knowing these things

first,

adding then to them

those necessary parts of introductory learning of which we have often before spoken, and also those relating to

FORS CLAVIGERA

2o6

the Muse, shall harmonise them all into the system of the practices and laws of states." *

The word *

The Greek

'

'

necessary sentence

is

the

in

above sentence,

so confused, and the real meaning of

it

so entirely dependent on the reader's knowledge of what has long preceded it, that I am obliged slightly to modify and complete it, to

make

Lest the reader should suspect any misrepresentaMr. Jowett's more literal rendering of it, which however, " carelessly omitting one word (dvayKala), and writing acquired it

clear.

tion, here is

in

the previous knowledge," instead of " acquired the previous necessary knowledge," has lost the clue to the bearing of the sentence on

—

former teaching " No man can be a true worshipper of the Gods :

—

know

who

does not

these two principles that the soul is the eldest of all things which are born, and is immortal, and rules over all bodies more;

the mind

now said

several times, he who has not contemplated of nature which is said to exist in the stars, and acquired

over, as I have

the previous knowledge, and seen the connection of them with music, and harmonized them all with laws and institutions, is not able to give a reason for such things as have a reason," Compare " the Wisdom of Solomon, xiii. 1-9 Surely vain are all men by nature, who are ignorant of God, and could not out of the good :

—

neither by considering the things that are seen, know him that is works did they acknowledge the workmaster but deemed either :

;

or wind, or the swift air, or the circle of the stars, or the violent water,, or the lights of heaven, to be the gods which govern the fire,

world. , With whose beauty if they being delighted took them to be for gods, let them know how much better the Lord of them is the first author of beauty hath created them. But if they were astonished at their power and virtue, let them understand by them :

how much

For by the greatness mightier he is that made them. and beauty of the creatures proportionably the maker of them is seen. But yet for this they are the less to be blamed for they peradventure err, seeking God, and desirous to find him. For being conversant in his works they search him diligently, and believe their Howbeit sight ; because the things are beautiful that are seen. neither are they to be pardoned. For if they were able to know so much, that they could aim at the world, how did they not sooner find out the Lord thereof?" :

LETTER LXXXII refers to a

207

most important passage in the seventh I must now state, in

book, to understand which,

summary,

Plato's general plan of education.

founded primarily on the distinction between masters and servants the education of servants It is

;

and artizans being not considered in the Laws, but supposed to be determined by the nature of the work they have to do. The education he describes is only for the persons that

is to

whom we

call

say, landholders, living in

'

'

—

gentlemen idleness on the

(The Greek word for slave and our word slave being merely a modern provincialism contracted from Sclavonian.' See St. Mark's Rest,' Supplement I.) labour of slaves. servant

is

the

same

;

*

'

Our manufacturers, tradesmen, and artizans, would therefore be

out of question, and our domestic

left

servants and agricultural labourers all summed by Plato simply under the word a word slaves * '

'

—

which the equivocation of vulgar historians and theologians always translates exactly as it suits their own views slave,' when they want to deand servant, when they are preciate Greek politics '

:

;

translating the words of Christ or St. Paul, lest either Christ or St. Paul should be recognized as

speaking of the same persons as Plato. Now, therefore, the reader is to observe that the teaching of St. George differs by extension from that of Plato, in so far as the Greek never imagined that the blessings of education *

Laws,

VIL

could

be extended to

303, 17 (806).

FORS CLAVIGERA

2o8

servants as well as to masters

but

:

it

differs

by

absolute contradiction from that of Mr. Wilberforce

and Mrs. Beecher Stowe, in their imagination that there should be no servants and no masters at all. Nor, except in a very modified degree, does even its For extended charity differ from Plato's severity. about education I have said if you collect what

you will find it always spoken of as a means of discrimination between what is worthless hitherto,

and worthy

may be

in

men;

that the rough and worthless

and work the rough and rude

set to the roughest

the finest to the finest;

and

foulest work,

being, you will in time perceive, the best of charities There is probably, to the rough and rude people. for instance, no collier's or pitman's work so rough

—

to it, if you set and kept or dirty, but that his general character and intelligence would in

—

course of time be improved to the utmost point of

which they are capable. A Greek gentleman's education then, which,

some modified degree, St. George proposes universal for Englishmen who really deserve

to

to

in

make have

consisted essentially in perfect discipline in music, but with these, if he poetry, and military exercises it,

;

were

to be a perfect person,

had also

to learn three

*

fit

for public duties, '

necessary

sciences

:

he

those

of number, space, and motion, (arithmetic, geometry, astronomy,) which are called necessary,' not merely '

as being instrumental to complete human usefulness, but also as being knowledges of things existing by

Divine Fate,

which the Gods themselves cannot

LETTER LXXXII which

against " without the

alter,

209

cannot

they

and

contend,

which no

of

one can

knowledge become a God, an angel, or an hero capable

of

* taking true care of men." None of these sciences,

however, were to be

learned either with painful

toil,

to

liable

make men

lose

or to any extent

sight of practical

"

" For," he says, though partly the unwilhngness to learn at all,

I

fear

duty.

indeed

much more do

laying hold of any of these sciences in an evil way. For it is not a terrible thing, I

the

fear

nor by any means the greatest of evils, nor even a great evil at all, to have no experience of any of these things. But to have much experience and

much

with evil leading, is a far greater that." This noble and evermore to be

learning,

loss than

attended sentence

is

(at least in the fulness of

it)

untranslatable but by expansion. I give, therefore, Mr. Jowett's and the French translations, with my

own, to show the various ways in which different readers take it and then I shall be able to explain ;

the

full

bearing of

"For

(i)

extreme an of

all

;

too

it.

entire ignorance evil,

much

and

is

far

is

not so terrible or

from being the greatest

cleverness, and too

accompanied with

ill

bringing

up,

much are

learning, far

more

fatal."

* This most singular sentence, (VII. 818), having reference to the rank in immortality attainable by great human spirits, ("hac arte Pollux et vagus Hercules," etc.,) vfill be much subject of future inquiry.

IV.

See, however, the note farther on.

o

FORS CLAVIGERA

210

The word which does hterally mean to it

'

do with

Plato uses for that, '

*

much

'

experience

and has nothing whatever

ordinary sense but involves the idea of dexterity gained by practice, cleverness

in the

;

which was what Mr. Jowett thought of " bringing up is again too narrow a rendering.

word

translate literally

'

'

"

111

The

*

is technically leading used for a complete scheme of education ; but in this place it means the tendency which is given to the thoughts and aim of the person, whatever the scheme I

of education

through

may

be.

Thus we might put a boy

—

the exercises required in this passage music, arithmetic, geometry, and astro-

all

(through nomy,) and yet throughout give him an evil leading,' making all these studies conducive to the gratification '

Plato of ambition, or the acquirement of wealth. means that we had better leave him in total ignorance

than do

this.

"

L'ignorance absolue n'est pas le plus (French) ni le plus a redouter des une vaste maux, grand 6tendue de connaissances mal digerees est quelque :

chose de bien pire."

The Frenchman

avoids,

you

see, the snare of the *

but yet his phrase,

ill technical meaning ; digested,' gives no idea of Plato's real thought, which goes to the cause of indigestion, and is, that knowledge be-

comes

evil if the

mean

at all that the

*

It is virtually

aim be not virtuous

knowledge

:

the e7id of the word ped-agogue

led children to their school.

nor does he

itself is imperfect

—the person who

LETTER LXXXII

211

ill digested,' but that the most accurate and consummate science, and the most splendid dexterity in art, and experience in politics, are worse evils, and that by far, than total ignorance, if the aim and '

or

tone of the spirit are

"Therefore," — he

false.

now

goes on, returning to his

practical point, which was that no toilsome work should be spent on the sciences, such as to enslave the soul in them, or make them become an end of life

— "Therefore,

children

who

are to be educated

as gentlemen should only learn, of each science, so much as the Egyptian children learn with their

reading and writing, for from their early infancy their masters introduce the practice of arithmetic, giving them fruits and garlands of flowers," (cowslip" to fit balls and daisy-chains), together, fewer or more out of equal numbers ; and little vessels of

and bronze, sometimes to be mingled " with each other, sometimes kept separate (with gold, silver,

;

estimate of relative value

leading to easy shillings,

tion

lead

command

probably in the game, of the notion of pounds,

and pence,) " and so making every opera-

of arithmetic of practical use to them, they into understanding of the numbering

them on

and arranging of camps, and leadings* of regiments, and at last of household economy, making them in all more serviceable and shrewd than others." Such, with geometry and astronomy, (into the detail

*

The same word again

soldiers instead of children.

— the

end of pedagogue, applied

to

212

FORS CLAVIGERA which

of

cannot enter to-day,)

I '

*

necessary

which alone,

tion,

are those above

To

Plato's

being

science, the higher conditions of educain his

mind, deserve the name,

named

as relating to the Muse. which the vital introduction is a passage most

curiously contrary to Longfellow's much-sung line, " Life is Plato declaring out real, life is earnest," of the very deep of his heart, that it is ?^;^real and

—

I cannot give space to translate the of whole the passage, though I shall return for a piece presently but the gist of it is that the Gods

?///earnest.

;

alone are great, and have great things to do; but man is a poor little puppet, made to be their

plaything

;

in the little

the Gods. of

phases

and the virtue of him

is to

play merrily so as to please life, three the contains Analyzed, passage most solemn thought ; the first, an

raree-show of his

amplification of the **What is man that thou art " mindful of him ? the second, of the " He walketh in a vain

shadow, and disquieteth himself

the third, that his real duty

is

in vain

to quiet himself,

" ;

and

measure of know no lambs **The they always, play days. better;" and they ought to know no better, he the practical thinks, if they are truly lambs of God live

in

happy peace and

play, all his

:

outcome of

all

being that religious service

—

is

to

be

that only brightness of entirely with rejoicing, heart can please the Gods ; and that asceticism and self-discipline are to be practised only that

be made capable of such sacred joy. The extreme importance of this teaching

we may is in its

LETTER LXXXII

213

general Greek instinct, that Tragedy,' or song in honour of the Gods, should be sad. An instinct which, in spite of Plato, has to

opposition

the

'

lasted to this day, in the degree in which men disbelieve in the Gods themselves, and in their love.

Accepting cheerfulness, therefore, as the fulfilment of sanctit}^, we shall understand in their order the * and about practical pieces both about music higher education, of which take this

first

(VI. ']66).

* I thought to have collected into this place the passages about the demoralizing effect of sad music, (Verdi's, for instance, the most corrupting type hitherto known,) from the Republic as well as the

Laws

but that must be for next month ; meantime, here is a little about tragedy which nnist be read now, though I'm terribly sorry to give it only in small print. It must not have small print, so I separate it only by a line from the text. :

bit

"

but for the Concerning comedy, then, enough said earnest poets of the world occupied in tragedy, if perchance any of these should come to us, and ask thus ;

:

'

Oh, ye strangers, will you have us to go into your city and your land, or no ? ^ and shall we bring our poetry to you and act it to you, or how is it determined by ^ such things?' What then should you of the doing ^

In sentences like this the familiar euphony of 'no 'for 'not,' and fuller in meaning, as in sound, than the (commonly and in true analysis, the grammar is held) grammatical form better, because briefer, in the familiar form ; it being just as accuis

softer

;

—

rate to complete the sentence ' as by repeating have us after

by understanding 'say' before 'no,' '

'

2

not.'

In every case, throughout this sentence,

(and generally in

good Greek philosophical writing,) the reader must remember that 'drama' being our adopted Greek word for the thing done,' and the poetry our adopted Greek word for thing made,' properly the meaning of the sentence would require us to read maker for poet,' and doer for actor.' translations from

'

'

'

'

'

'

'

'

'

'

^O^S CLAVIGERA

214 "

For every sprout of things born, once started fairly towards the virtue of its nature, fulfils it in prosperous

end

;

this

or gentle,

being true of

all plants,

and of man

and man,

indeed gentle,

;

and of animals wild as

we have

said, is

only he receive right education, together with fortunate nature ; and so becomes the divinest and if

the gentlest of things alive

;

but

he becomes, of

rightly trained,

if

not enough or not

all

things

earth

that

brings forth, the savagest."

The "together passage,

refers

fortunate

w^ith

the

to

men themselves

and

necessity the

limits

nature"

in

of fine

this

race

in

future

; question of education to such, Plato not concerning himself about such as are ill-born. Compare the Vulgate of the birth of Moses, "videns eum elegantem."

The

essential

part

we answer, answering in

my

thoughts

it

is

of the

education

of

these,

For rightly, to the divine men ? fixed that we should answer thus :

'Oh, noblest of strangers,' should we say, 'we ourselves also according to our power are poets of tragedy, the most beautiful that we can and the best. For all our polity is but one great presentment of the best and most beautiful life, which we say to be indeed the best and truest tragedy poets therefore are you, and we also

—

:

alike poets of the same things, antartists, and antagonists to you as our hope is of that most beautiful drama, which

the true law only can play to its end. Do not therefore we at all thus easily shall allow you to pitch and yield to you that your tents in our market-place

think that

;

bringing in your clear-voiced actors, speaking greater things than we, you should speak to our people, to our wives and to our children and to all our multitude, saying,

—

concerning the same things that we speak of, not the same words, but for the most part, contrary words.' "

LETTER LXXXII then,

— that properly belonging

21$ the Muse, —

to

is all

the be given by the time they are sixteen ten years of childhood being exclusively devoted to

;

forming the disposition ; then of grammar, with the collateral to

come

three years sciences, in the

manner above explained, and then

three years of

music bodily exercises being on the whole time to the utmost degree

practice in executive

carried

:

After sixteen, the youth possible at each age. enters into public life, continuing the pursuit of virtue as the object of all, life being not long for

enough

it.

The

three years of literary education, from ten to thirteen, are supposed enough to give a boy of

good talent and disposition all the means of cultiThe term must vating his mind that are needful. the boy has not learned by and write accurately and elegantly,* be troubled with such things more, but

not be exceeded.

If

that time to read

he

not to

is

left illiterate.

Then, literary study is to be foregone even by those who are afterwards ,

for three years :;:

ff!

-t^vi"

.Mr.rJ

...-i

-'

* Every day, I perceive more and more the importance of If the Duke of Argyll, for instance, accurate verbal training. had but had once well taught him at school the relations of the words (see

royal,

lex,

lego,- loi,

'Unto

committed himself history, treatise

to

and loyal Last,'

the false

p.

;

and of

73,)

title

he

of his

rex, rego,

could

rol,

neither

treatise

and have

on natural

'reign of law,' nor to the hollow foundation of his on the tenure of land in the assumption that the long

establishment of a

make

this

human

law. whether

criminal

or

not,

must

See p. 6 of ''A Crack with His divinely indisputable. Grace the Duke of Argyll." Seton and Mackenzie, Edinburgh ; it

Whittaker, London.

FORS CLAVIGERA

2l6 take

they may learn music considered a sedentary study, and superseding grammar, while the athletic exercises always occupy the same time of each day, to

it

completely

—up

that

again,

this

being

and are never remitted. this general scheme, we begin the beginning; and the following passage, 11, 501. I (653), defines for us Plato's thoughts, and

Understanding

at

explains to us his expressions relating to the discipline of childhood. "

mean by education * that first virtue which can be attained by children, when pleasure and liking, Now,

I

and pain and

disliking, are properly implanted in their while yet they cannot understand why; but so that when they get the ix)wer of reasoning, its perfect symphony may assure them that they have been rightly

souls

moralled

symphony

into

of

their

the

existing

complete

morals. soul

is

This properly

perfect called

but the part of its tempering which, with ; respect to pleasure and pain, has been so brought up, from first to last, as to hate what it should hate, and virtue

love what its

it

should love, we shall be right in calling

education.

"Now

these well-nourished habits of being rightly are, for the most part, loosened

pained and pleased

lost by men in the rough course of life and the Gods, pitying the race born to labour, gave them, for reward of their toil and rest from it, the times of

and

;

——

.

i-j

*

^

but the word here in Plato means, properly, the result of education, spoken of as the habit fixed in the child 'good breeding' would be the nearest English, but in-

Jowett thus translates

;

;

volves the idea of race, which

is

not here touched by the Greek.

LETTER LXXXII festival

the Gods.

to

them

to

panions

And their

in

the

21 7

Gods

festivals,

gave, for

the

Muses,

comand

that the Apollo, the leader of Muses, and Dionysus, pure instincts they first had learned might be restored to them while they kept festival with these Gods. " Now, therefore, we must think whether what is

be truly

us

hymned* among

said,

and according

to

nature or not. "

And

that

what

this is

lives

in

alike

is

is

said

not

that every young thing being able to keep quiet, :

—

for must in some way move and utter itself, movement's sake, leaping and skipping, as if dancing and at play for pleasure, and for noise' sake,

but

mere

—

And that, indeed, other uttering every sort of sound. of the laws of order sense have no creatures living and disorder

harmony fellows

;

movements which we call rhythm and us, those Gods whom we named as

in

but to us

with

in

our choirs,! these

are

they

who

gave us the delightful sense of rhythm and harmony and they lead our choirs, binding in which we move us together in songs and dances, naming them choruses ;

from the choral "

joy.

Shall we, then, receive for truth thus

tradition, that the first education

and Apollo? "A". So let

much

of their

must be by the Muses

be accepted. | the uneducated person will be one who has received no «choral discipline ; and the educated, it

"A. Then

*

A hymn

is

properly a song embodying sacred tradition commonly said of the Gods.

;

hence,

familiarly the thing

t

Compare

II.

539. 5 (665).

X Henceforward, I omit what seem to me needless of the mere of the Athenian's expressions of varied assent which break the clauses course of thought.

FORS CLAVIGERA

2l8

one who has been formed

under

to a sufficient degree

the choral laws. "

Also the choir, considered in

of dance and song

wholeness, consists

its

therefore a well-educated person

;

must be one who can sing and dance " K. It would seem so."

And

here, that

or weaken

well.

we may not confuse

ourselves,

ourselves, with any considerations of

the recent disputes whether we have souls or not, it simply understood that Plato always means

— be

by the soul the aggregate of mental powers obtained by scientific culture of the imagination and the passions and by the body the aggregate of material ;

powers obtained by cise and digestion.

scientific It

is

promotion of exer-

possible for the soul to

be strong with a weak body, and the body strong with a weak soul and in this sense only the ;

two are separately considered, but not necessarily, therefore, considered as finally separable.

And

understanding thus much,

understand, whether distinct

assertion

we

that,

clearly

or not, Plato's g3'^mnastic exercise is

receive

as

we can now it

necessary to keep the body healthy, musical exercise

is

necessary to keep the soul healthy

;

and

the proper nourishment of the intellect and passions can no more take place without music, than the proper functions of the stomach and the that

blood without exercise.

We may because

much

be

we

little disposed, at first, to believe this, are unaware, in the first place, how

music, from the nurse's song to the military

LETTER LXXXII band and the

lover's

ballad,

219

does really modify

existing civilized life; and, in the second place, we are not aware how much higher range, if rightly practical, its influence would reach ; of which right

must say, before going on with Plato's that the chief condition is companionship, teaching, practice

I

or choral association, (not so much marked by Plato in words, because he could not conceive of music practised otherwise,) and that for persons incapable of song to be content in amusement by a professional

much a sign of decay in the virtue and use of music, as crowded spectators in the amphitheatre sitting to be amused by gladiators are a

singer, is as

sign of decline in the virtue and use of war. And now, we take the grand statement of the evil

of change in methods of childish play, following on the general discussion of the evil of change :

"

I say, then, that in all cities

we have

all

—

failed to

recognize that the kind of play customary with the children is the principal of the forces that maintain the established laws. For when the kind of play is deter-

mined, and so regulated that the children always play and use their fancies in the same way and with the same playthings, this quietness allows the laws which are established in earnest to remain quiet also but if once the plays are moved and cast in new shapes, ;

introducing other changes, and none of the young people agreeing with each other in their likings, nor as to what is becoming and unbecoming either in the composure of their bodies or in their dress, but praise in a special way any one who brings in a new

always

fashion whether

of composure or colour

— nothing,

if

FORS CLAVIGERA

220 we say

rightly,

disease)

in

youth

is,

can be a greater plague (destructive a city ; for he who changes the habits of indeed, without being noticed, making what is

—

ancient contemptible, and what is new, honourable, and than this, I repeat, whether in the belief of it, or the teaching, there cannot be a greater plague inflicted on a city. " Can we do anything better to prevent this than the Egyptians did ; namely, to consecrate every dance and

every melody, ordering

first

the festivals of the year, to the

and determining what days are to be devoted Gods, and to the children of the Gods, and Angels.*

And

then to determine also what

to the

song

at

*

I cannot but point out with surprise and regret the very mischievous error of Mr. Jowett's translation in this place of the word ' 'heroes.' Had Plato meant heroes, he would have Sal/xoves'

—

word

being the same in English as in Powers which have lower office of ministration to men in this sense the word dsemon was perfectly and constantly understood by the Greeks, and by the Christian Church adopting Greek terms and on the theory that the Pagan religion was entirely false, but that its spiritual powers had real existence, the word dsmon necessarily came among Christians to mean an evil angel, ^just as much an angel as Raphael or Gabriel but of contrary powers. I cannot therefore use the literal word daemon, because it has this wholly false and misleading association said heroes, the

Greek.

He means

in this case

the Spiritual ;

;

—

—

infixed in it; but in translating

reader

its full

power and meaning

'angel,' I give to the English in the Greek mind ; being exactly

it

what the term dyyeXos, or messenger, was adopted by the Christians to signify, of their own ^ood spirits. There are then, the readei must observe generally, four orders of higher spiritual powers, honoured by the Greeks The Gods, of various ranks, from the highest Twelve to the I. minor elemental powers, such as Tritons, or Harpies. n. The Sons of the Gods, children of the Gods by mortal mothers, as Heracles, or Castor. Rightly sometimes called Demi-

—

:

—

Gods.

221

LETTER LXXXII

each offering is to be sung ; and with what dances each and whatever rites and times sacrifice to be sanctified ;

common, sacrificing to all the Gods, shall consecrate with

are thus ordained, all the citizens in

and

to the Fates libation.

" I be three choirs to fill, as say, then, there should with enchantment of singing, the souls of children while they are tender, teaching them many other things, of

which we have told and

shall

and sum of

the head

for

tell,

all,

but

that

this chiefly

and

the hfe which

is

deemed by the Gods the happiest. Saying this to them, we shall at once say the truest of things, and that of which we shall most easily persuade those whom we ought to persuade." With which " That we may at once read also this, II. 540. 2 (665) noblest

is

also

—

:

every grown-up person and every child, slave and male and female, and, in a word, the entire

—

—

free,

city

singing to itself should never pause in repeating such good lessons as we have explained ; yet somehow changing, and so inlaying and varying them, that the

may

always be longing to sing, and delighting

Angels, IV. Heroes,

— constant attendance on man. powers — men of consummate virtue, to whose souls religious

singers in it."

III.

rites

spiritual

in

are performed in thankfulness by the people

whom

they saved

and whose immortal power remains for their protection. have often elsewhere spoken of the beautiful custom of the

or exalted, I

Locrians always to leave a vacant place in their charging ranks

Ajax Oileus. Of these four orders, however, the two naturally blend, because the sons of the Gods became Gods after death. Hence the real orders of spiritual powers above humanity, are three— Gods, Angels, Heroes, (as we shall find presently, in the passage concerning prayer and praise,) associated with the spirits on the ordinary level of humanity, of Home, and of

for the spirit of first

Ancestors. p.

419.

Compare

Fors, Letter

LXX.,

vol.

iii.

of this edition,

FORS CLAVIGERA

222

And

this is to be

ordered according to the ages

of the people and the ranks of the deities. For the choir of the Muses, is to be of children, up to the age of sixteen ; after that, the choir of Apollo, formed

who have

of those

—

learned perfectly the mastery of

the lyre, from sixteen to thirty ; and then the choir of Dionysus, of the older men, from thirty to sixty ;

and

after sixt}^, being no longer able to sing, they should become mythologists, relating in divine tradition the moral truths they formerly had sung. II.

528. 12 (664).

At

if not long before, I imagine my stopping hopelessly, feeling the supreme uselessness of such a conception as this, in modern

this point,

reader

times,

and

its

utter contrariness to everything taught

* as practical among us. Belief in Gods belief in Old men, as a class, divine tradition of Myths !

!

to

become mythologists, instead of misers

music,

throughout

morality

!

—What

life,

be

to

futility is

it

the

safeguard of such things

Yes, to a certain extent this impression

scheme was impossible even in as Bacon's New Atlantis in his day

reform in his day

Out of

—as

Goethe's

was

and

to talk of

Plato's

—

!

his

is

true.

own

—as

Academe

day, Calvin's in

his.

men, the world gathered what it could find of evil, made its useless Platonism out of Plato, its graceless Calvinism out of Calvin, determined Bacon to be the meanest the good there

in all these

of mankind, and of Goethe gathered only a luscious story of seduction, and daintily singable devilry.

LETTER LXXXII in the dealings of

Nothing

so wonderful to

me

as the

223

Heaven with Earth

way

which the

in

is

evil

angels are allowed to spot, pervert, and bring to nothing, or to worse, the powers of the greatest

men

:

so that Greece must be ruined, for all that Geneva for all that Calvin can say,

Plato can say,

—

— England for can say

;

outcome

all

that Sir

Thomas More and Bacon

—and only Gounod's Faust

to be the visible

Europe of the school of Weimar, What, underneath all that visible ruin, these men have done in ministry to the continuous soul of to

this race,

wheat

may

yet be

known

in the

day when the But I I had a

be gathered into the garner. can't go on with my work now; besides, visit yesterday from the friend who wrote shall

me

that

about speaking more gently of things and people, and he brought me a sermon of the Bishop letter

—

of Manchester's to read, which begins with the sweetly mild and prudent statement that St. Paul, while " wading in the perilous depths " of anticipations of immortality, and satisfied that there would

be a victory over the grave, and that mortality would be swallowed up of life, wisely brought his reader's thoughts back from dreamland to reality, by bidding them simply be steadfast, unmovable

always abounding in the work of the

Lord, —

—

foras-

much

as they knew that their labour would not be in vain in the Lord ; and in which, farther on, the

Bishop, feeling the knowledge in modern times not quite so positive on that subject, supports his own delicately suggested opinions

by quoting Mr. John

^^^^ CLAVIGERA

224 Stuart Mill,

who

" in his

posthumous essays admits

that though the doctrine of the immortality of the soul is probably an illusion, it is morally so valu-

—

had better be retained," a sentence, by the way, which I recommend to the study of those friends of mine who were so angry with me for taxing Mr, John Stuart Mill with dishonesty, on the

able that

it

('Time and

subject of rent.

Tide,'

postscript to

Letter XXIII.) all

Well, it,

this,

the sermon, and the quotations in

and the course of thought they have

led

me

into,

are entirely paralysing to me in the horrible sense they give me of loathsome fallacy and fatuity per-

vading every syllable of our modern words, and every moment of our modern life and of the use;

lessness of asking such people to read any Plato, or Bacon, or Sir Thomas More, or to do anything

work of the Lord, forasmuch as they don't know, and seem to have no capacity for learnBut I vain. ing, that such labour shall not be in

of the true

venture once more to warn the Bishop against " " perilous depths of anticiwading, himself, in the pations of immortality, until he has answered my will

simple question to him, whether he considers usury a work of the Lord ?

cannot go on with my work, therefore, in this is temper, and indeed perhaps this much of Plato I

enough what it If

you

for

one

letter;

—but

I

must

say, at least,

is all

you will

coming to. back find the work will look

to § 6i of I

am now

'Time and

Tide,'

upon, completely

LETTER LXXXII sketched

out in

225

saying finally that "the action of

it,

the devilish or deceiving person is in nothing shown quite so distinctly among us at this day, not even in

our commercial dishonesties, or social cruelties, as in its having been able to take away music as an instrument of education altogether, and to enlist

it

almost wholly in the service of superstition on the one hand, and of sensuality on the other." And then follows the promise that, after explaining, as far as I know it, the significance of the parable of the Prodigal Son, (done in 'Time and Tide,' §§ 175" take the three means of human joy 178,) I should therein stated, fine dress, rich food, and music, and show you how these are meant all alike to be sources

of

life

how

and means of

they have

means of

am

meal

discipline, to all

three been

made by

men, and

the devil the

and death." fulfilled, and after seven

guilt, dissoluteness,

This promise years

all

I

have never

only just coming to the point of

Which

it.

is, good food, beautiful dress, and the practical habit of delicate art, is the proper work of the fathers and mothers of every

in

few words, that to distribute

who have been lost in guilt and that only by direct doing of these

people for help of those

and misery

:

three things can they now act beneficently or helpTherefore, fully to any soul capable of reformation.

you who are eating luxurious dinners, call in the tramp from the highway and share them with him, so gradually you will understand how your brother

—

came

to be a

dinners plain IV.

tramp till

;

and practically make your own

the poor man's dinner

is rich,

P

— or

FORS CLAVIGERA

226

and you who are dressing in fine dress, put on blouses and aprons, till you have got your poor dressed with grace and decency, or you are no Christians and you who can sing

you are no Christians

;

—

;

and play on instruments, hang your harps on the pollards above the rivers you have poisoned, or else go down among the mad and vile and deaf things whom you have made, and put melody into the souls of them, else you are no Christians. No Christians, you no, nor have you even the making of a Christian in you. Alms and prayers,

—

;

indeed, alone, won't

make

one, but they have the

bones and substance of one

—poor

modern Judasian

in the

— have

womb

lost

;

and you

not only the

will to give, or to pray, but the

very understanding " and mean. Give, and it shall gift prayer be given to you," not by God, forsooth, you think, in glorious answer of gift, but only by the Jew money-monger in twenty per cent., and let no of

what

—

" benevolence be done that will not pay. Knock, and it shall be opened to you," nay, never by God,

—

perchance you may be allowed to amuse yourself, with the street boys, in or perchance you rat-tat-tatting on the knocker if be taken for a you elegantly ring gentleman, may in miraculous answer, but

;

the visitors' bell

—

till

the policeman

Death -comes

down

the street, and stops the noise of you. Wretch that you are, if indeed, calling yourself a

any dim fear of God, or any in the dregs of you, love of mixed Christ, languid then, for God's sake, learn at least what prayer

Christian,

you can

find

—

|

] I

LETTER LXXXII

227

means, from Hezekiah and Isaiah, and not from the

cockney curly-tailed puppy who yaps and snaps Nineteenth Century* and for Christ's sake,

last

—

in the

what alms mean, from the Lord who gave His Life, and not from the lady patronesses you learn

of the last charity ball. Learn what these mean, Judasian Dives, ^while Lazarus yet lies among the be,

if it

—

may

dogs,

—

no gulf fixed between you and

while yet there is while yet the stars in their courses the heavens, do not forbid yoM to think their Guide is mindful of

—

you. told

—

For truly the day is coming of which Isaiah The sinners in Zion are afraid fearfulness

"

;

Who

among us who devouring among us " And the shall dwell with everlasting burnings ? the when he told is coming, also, day of which hath

surprised

the

hypocrites.

shall dwell with the

fire ?

granaries of the plains of heaven, and the meres of its

everlasting

hills,

forth for its children

be opened, and poured and the bread shall be given, be sure, for him " that walketh shall

;

and the water shall righteously, and speaketh uprightly

—

— that

despiseth

that shaketh his hands the gain of oppressions from holding of bribes that stoppeth his ears from

—

hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing He shall dwell on high his place of defence evil.

—

shall be the munitions of rocks." J .

i

:

J

Yea, blessing,

,

*

Nevertheless, I perceive at last a change coming over the spirit of our practical literature, and commend all the recent papers by

Lord Blackford, Mr. Oxenham, Mr. Mallock, and Mr. very earnestly to my own reader's attention.

Hewlett,

FORS CLAVIGERA

228

all blessing in the love of mortal friend, or "Thine eyes shall see the the light of native land, King in His beauty ; they shall behold the Land

beyond

that

I

my

is

—

far

away."

give a general answer to the following

letter,

correspondent's pardon for anything which

asking

may seem

There severe, or inapplicable, in his own special case. are also, I fear, one or two words misprinted or misplaced

—but

in the letter

I

have carelessly

lost the

MS., and

cannot correct. "

Dear

Sir,

that concerns

my

—

I

me

venture to address you upon a matter very much viz., the leisure time of

—

Nine hours of each day are taken up

existence.

employer (sedentary business)

;

as

three hours of which, hour and a half, each,

One perhaps, working myself devoted to the study of music and drawing or painting. Five hours yet remaining walking to or from business,

—

this last of the usual gymnastic meals, physical exercise, useless pattern. " I cannot but think that there must be many others

—

situated perhaps compelled to plunge with the stream of the questionable morality of modern commerce, or in other various ways making it utterly impossible,

like

during that portion of the day, to follow out the life you teach us to live, yet who feel and desire that that

—

portion of day they can really call their own, should be spent in a true rounded manly development, and as far as may be in harmony with that which is eternally right.

do not know of any prescribed detail you have made with special reference to this compromised class, and this is the only excuse I can offer for writing to you I

—

you

that are the

source of all that I feel deepest in

LETTER LXXXII

229

fathom it I cannot, yet feel and morality and each deeper stronger succeeding year, all that I love in nature and art I owe to you ; and this debt of gratitude has made me bold to try and make it greater. religion

:

"

If

we know

there

is

Ever gratefully yours."

and mean

a God,

to please

Him,

even (which is the utmost we can generally say, for the best of our faith), if we think there is so much hope, or

if

or danger of there being a

God

make

as to

it

prudent

in

us to try to discover whether there be or not, in the only way He has allowed us to ascertain the fact, namely,

doing as we have heard that He has bidden us, we may be sure He can never be pleased by the form of com-

promise with circumstances, that all the business of our day shall be wrong, on the principle of sacrificial atonement, that the play of it shall be right ; or perhaps not even that quite right, but in my correspondent's cautious

—

"

phrase, only is

as far as

may

be, in

harmony with what

right."

Now

the business

'

'

of the present day are the precise form of idolatry which is, at the present day, crucially forbidden by Christ ; precisely as falling down necessities

to worship graven images, or eating

was

meat offered to

And

crucially forbidden in earlier times.

enduring the persecution, or death, which '

it

idols, is

by

may be implied

'

abandoning business necessities that the Faith of the Believer, whether in the God of the Jew or Christian, must be now tried and proved. But in order to make such endurance possible, of in

course our side must be openly taken, and our companions in the cause known this being also needful, ;

that our act

or as

we

may have the

idly translate

it,

essential virtue of

Martyr-dom.

Witness-dom,

FORS CLAVIGERA

230 This

the practical reason for joining a guild, and Creed of St. George, which is so

is

signing at least the

worded

as to be acceptable by

all

who

are resolved to

serve God, and withdraw from idolatry.* But for the immediate question in my correspondent's

case

—

Keep a working man's home and return in

First.

always walk

dress at the office, and it so as to be able to ;

Instead of put your hand to anything that is useful. the fashionable vanities of competitive gymnastics, learn

— then,

common if

you

forge work, and to plane and saw well ; find in the city you live in, that everything

human hands and arms

are

able,

which and human mind

willing, to do, of pulling, pushing, carrying, making, or cleaning (see in last Fors the vulgar schoolmistress's notion of the civilization implied in a mechanical broom)

—

—

—

is done by machinery, you will come clearly to understand, what I have never been able yet to beat, with any quantity of verbal hammering, into my readers'

—

long as living breath-engines, and their souls and muscles, stand idle in the streets, to glorious of to out drive dead steam-engines, is an abcoal pits dig heads,

that, as

—

and wickedness, for which and politely finish terms of contempt,

surdity, waste, in

— " My brethren, Secondly.

Of

—

I

am bankrupt

my

paragraph

these things ought not so to be." simple exercises, learn to walk and run

utmost speed consistent with health do always going at the quickest pace you can in the at the

* sect,

:

this

by

streets,

The magnificent cheat which the Devil played on the Protestant from Knox downwards, in making them imagine that Papists

were disbelieving idolaters, and thus entirely effacing all spiritual meaning from the word 'idolatry,' was the consummation of his great victory over the Christian Church, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

LETTER LXXXII and by

steadily,

over a

trial

231

though minutely, increasing your pace Learn also piece of ground, every day. dancing, with extreme precision ; and wrestling, if you

have any

likely strength ; in summer, also rowing in seaor barge-work, on calm water ; and, in winter, (with skating of course,) quarterstaff and sword-exercise.

boats

;

A letter of deep import from my old friend and It correspondent in 'Time and Tide,' Mr. Dixon. shall be commented on at length in next Fors mean:

commend

with sternest ratification, to all my time, readers, Mr. George Mitchell's letter in the Builder for August 25 th of this year. I

" 15,

Sunderland Street, Sunderland,

"

the

Dear

Sir,

—

omitted in ray

I

new Labour League

last to

of America

is

1877.

i^^th Sept.,

inform you that a revival of the

old ideas that were promulgated by the Anabaptists in the time of Luther, in Germany, in the Peasants' War,

and then again by the French Revolutionists, 1789. The leader Schwab is one of the leaders of the Inter'

who

Commune days. of their ideas and plans was given in a series of articles in Fraser's Magazine a few years I possess several of their programmes, though of ago. I enclose a cutting late I have heard very little of them. nationalists

'

figured in the Paris

A^ery good summary

respecting their Congress this year on the Continent. " I will try to procure something of more detail, for I

am

very deeply interested in this organization, though all the principles they advocate.

do not agree with

a great principle for the

see in

it

classes

if it

I I

good of the working

was rightly and justly conducted.

It

aims to

unite the working classes of every country in one bond of universal brotherhood. It is opposed to war, strikes, and

FORS CLAVIGERA

232 such

all

combinations having force as the principal

like

means of attaining the ameUoration of the

evils they suffer a were of ideas from. The original simple, gradual, proin the fierce rabid actions gressive character, but ultimated

Commune

in Paris, the result of being led In a novel entitled 'The Universalist,' is a very good account of their aims, only it is coloured with a novelist's romantic way of depicting such matters.

that stained the

men.

fierce wild

by

"

If you care for more respecting them, I can, I think, I enclose you Bright's send you some particulars. speech at Manchester, which seems not so jubilant his as he used to be of the progress of our people allusion to Venice seemed akin to some thoughts of :

also his allusion yours, so thought would interest you ; to the Indian Famine, and our neglect of our duty to

these people. " Was the leisure of the Greeks not due to the hard slaves they had ? Is our leisure, or rather the leisure of our rich people, not due to the work done by our workpeople? Just think of the leisure of

work of the helots and

—

think of the idle lives of the daughters of our people, our tradespeople it seems to me there is more leisure enjoyed now by our people than ever was enjoyed by :

any people

"When feel

—

the rich and trading classes. the houses of our trading classes, I to see the gradual change in their circum-

I

I

mean

visit

amazed

—

the style of hfe they stances within these few years, almost idle lives of the the servants live, they keep, their sons

we

live,

fathers

!

and daughters.

Then

see the

way

in

which

different to the simple style of our foreIf our lives were simpler, if we all had to

how

labour somewhat like our old people, then hov/ different Yours respectfully, it would be !

"Thomas Dixon."

LETTER LXXXII Well

my

said,

old friend

233

but you must not confuse

:

fevered idleness with leisure. All questions raised by my correspondents respecting our want or possession of leisure, are answered by the following short extract from Plato :

"

Do we

The Athenian.

then

all

—

recognize the reason

why, in our cities, such noble choirs and exercise have all but passed away or shall we only say that it is because of the ignorance of the people, and their ;

—

legislators ?

"

The Cretan. Perhaps so. A. Ah no, you too simple Cleinias there are two other causes and causes enough they are, too. ^'^

!

;

"

Which mean you ? The first, the love of riches, leaving no moment " of leisure (making all Time leisureless) "to care about anything but one's own possessions, upon which the soul C.

"yl.

of every citizen being suspended, cannot contain any other thought but of his daily gain. And whatever or skill conduce to such that, he knowledge may gain,

—

most ready

and practise ; but mocks at every other. Here then is one of the causes we look for, that no one cares any more to be earnest in any good is

in private to learn

or honourable thing

and

for gold

trick it

if

holy,

silver,

;

but every man, in insatiable thirst submit himself to any art or

will

only he can grow rich by

be

it

profane, or be

only he eat and drink his nothing,

if

uttermost

may fill

all his lusts."

it

it,

— be —reluctant

and do any deed,

utterly vile,

at

get the power, like a beast, to of every kind, and fulfil to the

— Laws,

VIII. 351. 20 (831).

LETTER LXXXIII HESIOD'S MEASURE

"Was

the leisure of the Greeks not

owing

to the "

hard work of the helots and slaves they had ? asked my old friend, Thomas Dixon, in his letter given last month.

Yes, truly, good labourer nor the Greeks' leisure that of if we are to call it leisure only, but also the rich

began.

—

;

—

and powerful of this world, since this world And more and more I perceive, as my old

the deeper secrets of human life, that the true story and strength of that world are

age opens to

me

the story and strength of these helots and slaves ; and only its fiction and feebleness in the idleness

of those

who

feed

on them

:

—which

fiction

and

feebleness, with all their cruelty and sensuality, the kings of the filling the cup of the fornication of in no must the earth now to long time now, be, lip,

poured out upon the earth; and the cause of the poor judged by the King who shall reign in righteousFor all these petty struggles of the past, ness. of which you write to me, are but the scudding clouds and first wailing winds, of the storm which must be as the sheet lightning from one part of

—

£34

LETTER LXXXIII heaven the

to the other,

Son of Man the

Only

— " So

235

coming of

also shall the

be."

first

I

scudding clouds,

say,

—these

hitherto seditions for, as yet, they have only been of the ambitious, or the ignorant ; and only against tyrannous men so that they ended, if successful, ;

:

mere ruinous license

in

trampled

out

in

blood

and

;

:

but

if

they

now,

failed,

were

ranks are

the

gathering, on the one side, of men rightly informed, and meaning to seek redress by lawful and honour-

able means only and, on the other, of men capable of compassion, and open to reason, but with personal interests at stake so vast, and with all the ;

gear and mechanism of their acts so involved in the

web

helpless,

No

of past iniquity, that the best of and the wisest blind.

debate, on

them are

such terms, and on such scale, nor can any wisdom

has yet divided the nations

;

foresee the sorrow, or the glory, of its decision. One thing only we know, that in this contest, assuredly, the victory cannot be by violence ; that

every conquest under the Prince of War retards the standards of the Prince of Peace; and that every good servant must abide his Master's coming in the patience, not the refusal, of his daily labour. Patiently, and humbly, I resume my own, not knowing whether shall prosper either this or that ; caring only that, in so far as it reaches and remains, it may be faithful and true.

—

Following the best order interrupted by

the Bishop's

I

can in

sermon

my

notes,

—

in last letter,—

FORS CLAVIGERA

236 I

the duties of the take, next, Plato's description of the ages of between men that of namely

third choir,

and sixty; VII. 316,

thirty "

We

9.

(812).

said, then, that the sixty-years-old singers

Dionysus should be, beyond other men, gifted with fine sense of rhythm, and of the able meetings together of harmonies so that being and is well to choose, out of imitative melody, what well ill represented of the soul in its passion, and the picture of the evil spirit from the in the service of

;

discerning that which picture of the good, they may cast away has in it the likeness of evil, and bring forward into the midst that which has the likeness of

good

;

and

hymn and sing that into the souls of the young, of virtue, calling them forth to pursue the possession reason this for And by means of such likenesses. the sounds of the lyre ought to be used for the sake * the master and pupil of clearness in the chords ;

with keeping both their voices in one note together but the changes of the voice and variety the chord of the lyre, the chords giving one tune, and the poet :

another melody, and the oppositions of many notes to few, and of slow to swift, sometimes in symphony,

sometimes

in antiphony, the

rhythm of the song also

every sort of complication inlaying itself among with all this, the pupils who the sounds of the lyre,

in

—

have

to learn

years,

what

is

useful of music in only three

must have nothing

to

do

:

for things

opposed,

* Chord,' in the Greek use, means only one of the strings of the The lyre is used instead of the instrument, not a concord of notes. to the words. flute, that the music may be subordinate always '

LETTER LXXXIII confusing each other, are

237

difficult

to

learn

:

and

youth, as far as possible, should be set at ease in * learning." I think this passage alone may show the reader that the

Greeks knew more of music than modern For the essential work of

orchestral fiddlers fancy.

Stradiuarius, in substituting the violin for the lyre

and harp, was twofold. Thenceforward, (a) instrumental music became the captain instead of the servant of the voice and (b) skill of instrumental music, as so developed, became impossible in the ;

So that, since ordinary education of a gentleman. his time, old King Cole has called for his fiddlers and Squire Western sent Sophia to the harpwhen he was drunk but of souls won by Orpheus, or cities built by Amphion, we hear no

three,

sichord

:

more.

Now of the

the reader

must

carefully learn the

—no fewer than seven —

used by Plato in the passages just given. I have translated changes of the voice *

—

'

meanings terms

distinct musical

'

The word '

is,

in the

and we have be-

Greek

technical,

sides,

rhythm, harmony, tune, melody, symphony,

and antiphony. Of these terms

heterophony

;

rhythm means essentially the time and metre; 'harmony' the fixed relation of tune the air any high note to any low one t '

'

'

'

;

*

Not by having smooth

or level roads

made

for

it,

but by being

the rough and steep. plainly shown, and steadily cheered in, + The vague use of the vi'ord 'harmony'

Greeks

is

apparently founded on their perception that there

is

by the

just as fixed a

FORS CLAVIGERA

238

'

'

given by the instrument ; melody the air given by the voice ; symphony the concord of the voice '

'

with

the instrument, or with companion voices diaphony their discord antiphony their opposition and heterophony their change. And it will do more for us than merely fasten the sense of the terms, if we now re-read in last Fors ;

'

'

'

'

;

*

'

;

the passage (page 216) respecting the

symphony

of

acquired reason with rightly compelled affection and then those following pieces respecting their ;

diaphony, from an earlier parts of the Laws, III. 39, 8. {6S8), where the concordant verdict of

thought and heart virtue of the

is

first

spoken of as the ruling

four cardinal

namely,

;

"

Prudence,

and true opinion, and the loves and desires that follow on these. For indeed, the Word * returns to the same point, and what I said before, (if you will have it so, half in play,) with

true

now

I

conception

say again in true earnest, that prayer

itself

on each other between high and low notes following in a well-composed melody as when they are sounded That is to say, the notes in their together in a single chord. assigned sequence relatively increase the pleasure with which each relation of influence

heard, and in that manner act 'harmoniously,' though not heard at the same instant. But the definition of the mingled chord is perfect is

in II. 539, 3. (665). "And to the order" (time) "of motion the name rhythm is given, and to the mingling of high and low in sound, the name of harmony,' and the unison of both these we call '

'

'

'

choreia.'

*

"

I write,

'Word' (Logos) with

in the original for the this

'

the capital initial when it stands entire course of reasoning,' since to substitute weaken the sentences fatally. But no mystic

long phrase would is attached to the term

or divine sense

'

'

Logos

in these places.

LETTER LXXXIII deadly on the

is

239

unless he would pray him the contrary of his desires. give you will discern, if you follow out the lips of a fool,

God would

that

And truly Word in its

fulness, that

the ruin of the Doric

never came on them because of cowardice, nor because their kings knew not how to make

cities

but because they knew not nobler human things, and were indeed ignorant with the greatest and fatallest of ignorances. And the greatest of

war;

ignorances, if you will have me tell it you, is this a man, judging truly of what is honourable and good, yet loves it not, but hates it, and loves :

when

and caresses with his soul what he perceives to be base and unjust, this diaphony of his pain and

—

pleasure with the rational verdict of his intellect, I call the last of ignorances and the greatest, because " it is in the multitude of the soul's thoughts.* ;

—

Presently afterwards though I do not, because of the introduction of other subjects in the sentence, go on translating this same ignorance is called the

—

'

Greek

in

'

there being scarcely a word social philosophy which has not reference

out-of-tune-est

of

all

;

musical law ; and scarcely a word in Greek musical science which has not understood reference to

to social law.

"

—

—

So that in final definition II. 562, 17. (673) The whole Choreia is whole child-education for

us, *

consisting,

as

we have

seen, in the

—

rhythms

Note David, of the contrary state the multUude of my thoughts within me, Thy comforts

"In

delight

my

soul."

FORS CLAVIGERA

240

and harmonies which belong

to sound, (for as there

is a rhythm in the movement of the body, so there is a rh3^thm in the movement of sound, and the movement of sound we call tune). And the movement of sotmdy so as to reach the soul for the education of it in virtue^ (we know not how,) we call

Music."

You

see from this most important passage that Music the kind of sound

the Greeks only called

'

'

which induced right moral feehng, ("they knew not how^^ but they knew it did)^ and any other kind of sound than that, however beautiful to the ear or scientific in composition, they did not call 'Music' (exercise under the Muses), but 'Amusia,'

— the

denial, or desolation for want, of the

Word now become

Muses.

modern society

of wide use in

;

most accurately, as the Fates have ordained, yet by an equivocation in language for the old French verb muser,' to think in a dreamy manner,' came ;

'

'

'

'

from the Latin musso,' to speak and not from the Greek word once '

muse.'

But

it

of

the

meditation, meaning became a verb very of generations of men whom any manner

having '

a-muser,'

dear to

taken

low,' or whisper, '

to dispel musing,'

—

such their way thoughtfulness tormented ; and, of life could not but torment whence the modern

—

:

'amusement' has practically established equivalent to the Greek amusia.'

itself

as

'

The Greek

himself,

however, did not express

his idea fully in language, but only in

'amusia' does not

mean properly

myth.

the

His

opposing

LETTER LXXXIIl

24I

delightfulness, but only the interruption, and violaThe proper word for the tion, of musical art. '

opposed delightful art would have been sirenic but he was content in the visionary symbol, and '

;

did not need the

word, for the disciples of 4he Sirens of course asserted their songs to be Music

much

as

as

therefore,

the

take

Muses.

of the

disciples

First,

this

following passage respecting the violation of music, and then we will go on to

consider

its

opposition.

III. 47, 10. (690).

" For now, indeed,

we have

traced such a fountain of seditions as well needs

healing; and first consider, in this matter, how, and against what, the kings of Argos and Messene sinned, when they destroyed at once themselves and the power of the Greeks, marvellous great as it

was

refused

Hesiod

in their time. to

Was

in his

not their sin that the}' utter rightness of

the

acknowledge saying that

'

the half

is

often

more

For, when to take the whole is mischievous, but the half, a measured and moderated good, then the measured good is more than

than the whole

'

?

the unmeasured, as better is more than worse. " The Cretan. It is a most right and wise saying. ^^The AtJienian. Whether, then, are we to think, of the kings, that it was this error in their hearts that in each several case destroyed them, or that the

mischief entered "

first into

The Cretan. In

the disease

was

all

the heart of the people ?

likelihood, for the

in the kings, living

most

of luxury. IV.

part,

proudly because

Q

FORS CLAVIGERA

242

" The Athenian. Is that

likely,

the kings

it

not

first

as

well

as

this

guilt

of

evident,

fell

into

laws gave grasping at more than the estabhshed them and with what by speech and oath they had :

approved, they kept no

symphony

in act

;

and

their

said, being indeed the uttermost ignorance, yet seeming wisdom, through breaking of tune and sharp amusia, destroyed all those noble

diaphony, as

things

?

Now

we

"

to applying this great sentence of Plato's the parallel time in England, when her kings "kept no symphony in act with what by word and oath at once themthey had approved," and so destroyed selves and the English power, "marvellous great the 'sharp amusia' of as it was in their time" in

—

and his Cavaliers was indeed in grasping Charles but at more than the established laws gave them I.

—

;

an entirely contrary or, one might technically call met it on the other side, and 'flat amusia' it, Of which ruined Cromwell and his Roundheads. flat or dead amusia Plato had seen no instance, and

—

could not imagine it; and for the laying bare its truest philosopher of our root, we must seek to the I have too days, from whose good company Scott. Walter the reader, long kept When he was sitting to Northcote, (who told the

own

—

nor twice, but I story to my father, not once think it is in Hazlitt's conversations of Northcote the old speaking with a painter's also,)

painter, intricate

design of the Waverley of his delight Novels, said that one chief source

wonder of the

LETTER LXXXIII them was

in

**

that

he

never

243

knew what was

coming." "

Nor

Now

I

neither/'

answered Sir Walter.

though of course partly playful, and made for the sake of its momentary point, was deeply true, in a sense which Sir Walter himself

was

this reply,

not conscious

—

He was

of.

conscious of

it

only

as a weakness, not as a strength. His beautiful confession of it as a weakness is here in my book-

case behind me, written in his

own hand, in the Fortunes of Nigel.' I take it reverently down, and copy it from the dear old

introduction to the

'

manuscript, written the letters

all

as

it

at

is

temperate speed,

perfectly formed, but with

of time in dotting

no loss

writing mute e s in past participles, or in punctuation ; the current dash and full period alone being used. I copy with i s,

crossing

t s,

scrupulous care, adding no stop where stop is not. " " Captain (Clutterbuck) Respect for yourself then ought to teach caution

—

Author.

caution could augment my Aye to success But to confess to you the truth

—

if

title

the

books and passages in which I have succeeded have uniformly been written with the greatest rapidity and when I have seen some of these placed in opposition

with

others and

commended

as

more

highly finished I could appeal to pen and standish that those in which I have come feebly off were

by much the more labourd. I have not been fool enough to neglect ordinary precautions. I have laid down my work to scale divided it into volumes

CLAVIGERA

I'^ORS

244

and chapters and endeavourd to construct a story which should evolve itself gradually and strikingly maintain

and

suspense

stimulate

and

curiosity

—

But I finally terminate in a striking catastrophe think there is a daemon which seats himself upon pen when I begin to write and astray from the purpose Characters expand under my hand incidents are multiplied the story lingers while the materials increase my the feather of es * leads

my

guid

it

—

regular mansion turns out a Gothic anomaly and the work is done long before I have attained the

end

I

proposed Captam. Resolution and determined forbearance might remedy that evil. Author. Alas my dear Sir you do not know the

—

fever of paternal affection When I light on such a character as Baillie Jarvie or Dalgety my imagination brightens at

and

my

every step which

I

conception becomes clearer

make

in

his

company

al-

me many

a weary mile away from though the regular road and forces me to leap hedge and ditch to get back into the route again -fIf I resist the temptation as you advise me it

leads

—

thoughts become prosy

flat and dull I write and under a consciousness of flagging which makes me flag the sunshine with which fancy had invested the incidents departs

my

painfully to myself

*

The only word

—

altered in the whole passage,

and

that

on the

down

to 'be-

instant.

t

The

witchd,'

closing passage of the author's paragraph, an addition on the lateral leaf.

is

LETTER LXXXIII

245

from them and leaves everything flat and gloomy I am no more the same author than the dog in a wheel condemnd to go round and round for hours

— is

same dog merrily chasing

like the

and short

in

gamboHng I

am bewitchd Nay Sir if you

think

Captain.

no more

the

all

to

I

be said

frolic

—

his

own

of freedom

tail

— In

plead sorcery there

is

"

know how

truly he had the witchcraft, yet right to plead sorcery, feeling not believing in it, nor knowing that it was indeed

Alas, he did but half

an angel that guided, not a dsemon, (I am forced for once to use with him the Greek word in its Presbyterian sense) that misled, his hand, as it For wrote in gladness the fast-coming fancies. truly

in

that

involuntary

vision

was

the

true

'design,' and Scott's work differs from all other modern fiction by its exquisiteness of art, precisely because he did not know what was coming.' For, '

—

have a thousand times before asserted though no great composition was hitherto always in vain, as

I

—

by composing, nor by arranging chapters and dividing volumes ; but only with the same heavenly involuntariness in which a bird builds ever produced

her nest.

And among

the other virtues of the great enchanted Design is of all

classic masters, this of

the least visible to the present apothecary for

when

although, inventive power in able to illustrate

its

I '

first

Modern

mind

:

gave analysis of the Painters,' I was best

combining method by showing

FORS CLAVIGERA

246 **

was somethmg hke it in chemistry/' it precisely what is like it in chemistry, that the

that is

there

chemist of to-day denies.

But one farther in

this

great,

and greatest, sign of the

enchanted work of

the classic Divinity masters, I did not then assert, for, indeed, I had not then myself discerned it, namely, that this power of noble composition is never given but with

— —

instinct of moral

accompanying

law

;

and that so and ideal

severe, that the apparently too complete justice

the

which

name

of

'

proclaims has received universally the justice conceived poetical justice it

'

men

—

consummate imaginative power. only by So that to say of any man that he has power of design, is at once to say of him that he is using it on God's side for it can only have been taught him by that Master, and cannot be taught by the use of it against Him. And therefore every great composithe

of

;

tion in the world, every great piece of painting or literature

Man

— without any exception, from the hour — an assertion of moral

to this

is

strict, when we examine it, Divina Commedia while

birth of

law, as as the Eumenides or the

the total collapse of all of artistic in power design Italy at this day has been signalized and sealed by the production of an epic ;

poem in praise of the Devil, and God is a malignant Larya.' *

in declaration that

'

And * will

this so-called poetical justice, asserted

by the

A

highly laudatory review of this work, in two successive parts, be found in the columns of the Venetian journal // Tempo, in

the winter of 1876-77.

J

LETTER LXXXIII

247

great designers, consists not only in the gracing of virtue with her own proper rewards of mental peace

and

spiritual victory

of worldly

manifestation,

Father in to

;

to

therefore,

this world,

So

come.

but in the proportioning also

prosperity

if

that,

no

visible

of less

the

virtue; and

the

presence of

the

than in that which

the life-work of

is

any man of

unquestioned genius does not assert this visible and gentle justice, but, on the contrary, exhibits good persons

in

unredeemed

distress or

destruction,

—

that work will invariably be found to show no power of design but to be merely the consecutive collection of interesting circumstances well described, as ;

continually the best work of Balzac, George Sand, and other good novelists of the second order. In

some separate pieces, the great masters will indeed exhibit the darkest mystery of human fate, but never without showing, even then, that the catastrophe is owing in the root of it to the violation ^^She hath deceived herfat/ier, of some moral law :

—and may

The

root of the entire tragedy is marked by the mighty master in that one line the double sin, namely, of daughter and father of the thee."

—

;

too lawlessly forgetting her own people, and her father's house ; and of the second, in allowing his first in

pride and selfishness to conquer his paternal love, and harden him, not only in abandonment of his

paternal duty, but in calumnious insult to his child. Nor, even thus, is Shakespeare content without

marking, in the name of the victim of Evil Fortune, his purpose in the tragedy, of showing that there is

FORS CLAVIGERA

248 such

a

thing

as

Destiny, permitted

to

veil

the

otherwise clear Providence, and to leave it only to be found by noble Will, and proved by noble Faith.

Although always, story one has last

in

reading Scott, one thinks the can be

finished, the best, there

of prequestion that the one which has right ' devoted of Heart is the eminence Midlothian,' being

little

to the portraiture of the purest

and most

life,

vital

religion, of his native country. It is also the most distinct in its assertion of the

moral law; the assignment of earthly reward and in this story, as accurately proof virtue and vice as the the to degrees portioned a of shades and photograph to the force of the lights truth and faith of Jeanie make absolute The rays. which she has to pass the the

punishment being,

suffering through ultimate cause of an entirely prosperous and peaceful life for herself, her father, and her lover: the

falsehood and vanity of Effie prepare for her a life of falsehood and vanity the pride of David Deans :

is

made

the chief instrument of his humiliation

;

and

the self-confidence which separated him from true the fellowship with his brother-Christians, becomes cause of his eternal separation from his child. is no other analysis of the good and of the evil pure Protestant faith which can be for a moment compared to that in the Heart of Mid-

Also, there

'

showing that in an entirely simple, strong, and modest soul, it brings forth fruit of all good works and kindly thoughts but that, when it meets

lothian,'

;

LETTER LXXXIII

249

with innate pride, and the unconquerable selfishness which comes from want of sympathy, it leads into ludicrous and

self-worship, mercilessness to thought or conduct, of others ;

fatal

the errors, whether and blindness to the teaching of God Himself, where it is contrary to the devotee's own habits of thought. in

There which

no other form of the Christian religion

is

so

insolently ignores all Scripture that or gathers with so passionate it,

makes against and for

irrational

And '

embrace

all

Scripture

that

makes

it.

the entire course of the tragic story in the comes of the Museless

Heart of Midlothian

'

'

'

hardness of nature, brought upon David Deans by the persecution in his early life, which changed

—

healthy and innocent passion into religious pride, " I bless God, (with that singular worthy, Peter the packman at Bristo port,) that ordered Walker,

dancing days, so that fear of my head of bloody rope and swift bullet, dread throat, cauld and hunger, wetness and weariness, stopped

my

lot in

my

and

the lightness of feet.

my

And now,

head, and the wantonness of

if

I

hear ye, quean

lassies,

my sae

muckle as name dancing, or think there's such a thing in the world as flinging to fiddlers' sounds and pipers' springs, as sure as

the just, ye shall be no cern of mine."

father's spirit is with

my

more

either charge or con-

Over the bronze sculpture of Scott ("

instantly

Gang

casts,

in

the

this insolent pride,

following

in then, hinnies," etc.) the

sentence,

redeeming glow

FORS CLAVIGERA

250

of paternal love ; but he makes it, nevertheless, the cause of all the misery that follows, to the end of the old man's life :

—

**The objurgation of David Deans, however well meant, was unhappily timed.

It

created a division

of feeUng in Effie's bosom, and deterred her from She wad her intended confidence in her sister. '

baud me nae better than the dirt below her feet,' said Efhe to herself, were I to confess that I hae danced wi' him four times on the green down by, " and ance at Maggie Macqueen's.' Such, and no more than such, the little sin that *

day concealed fate of

her

life

—

sin only in concealment.

And

the

turns on the Fear and the Silence of

a moment.

But for the effective and final cause of it, on that Deadly Muselessness of the Cameronian leaders, who indeed would read of the daughter of Herodias dancing before Herod, but never of the son of Jesse dancing before the Lord and banished sackbut and ;

psaltery,

for signals

in

the service of

nezzar, forgetting that the last

Nebuchad-

law of Moses and

prayer of David were written in song. And this gloomy forgetfulness, or worse, presumptuous defiance, of the laws of the nature given

last

by

—

his

Maker to man, left, since the Reformation, means of early education chiefly in the

the best

hands of the adversary of souls

;

and thus

defiled

the sanctuary of joy in the human heart, and left it desolate for the satyrs to dance there, and the wild beasts of the islands to cry.

LETTER LXXXIII

25 1

Which

satyric dance and sirenic song, accomwith all the finish of science, and used both, pHshed, in mimicry of every noble emotion towards God and

—

man, become the uttermost, and worst because the most traitorous of blasphemies against the Master who gave us motion and voice submissive to other laws than of the elements and would have made

—

—nay, how much ;

us

'

as

wave

'

happy

that dances in

glorious

on the sea

praise

!

— than

the

and how much more

than the forests, though they

and the

clap their hands,

;

happier

hills,

that rejoice together

before the Lord.

And this cry of the wild beasts of the islands, or sirenic blasphemy, has in modern days become twofold consisting first in the mimicry of devotion ;

the oratorio, withering the

for pleasure, in

life

religion into dead bones on the siren-sands

;

of

and

secondly, the mimicry of compassion^ for pleasure, in the opera, wasting the pity and love which

should overflow in active life, on the ghastliest visions of fictitious grief and horriblest decoration But these two blasphemies of simulated death.

had become one, Plato's time. this

"

in the

Greek

religious service of

— VII. 289, For, indeed,

has come to pass

in

all

—

20. (800) cities, that

our

nearly public sacrifice is made to the Gods, not one chorus only, but many choruses, and standing, not reverently far from the altars, but beside them," " pour (yes, in the very cathedrals themselves,) forth blasphemies of sacred things," (not mockeries,

when any

observe, but songs precisely corresponding to our

FORS CLAVIGERA

252 oratorios

—

that

is

to say, turning dramatic prayer

solemn sensual pleasure,) " both with word rhythm, and the most wailing harmonies,

into a

and

and whosoever racking the souls of the hearers can make the sacrificing people weep the most, to him is the victory. Such lamentations, if indeed ;

the citizens have need to hear, let instead of festal days, and from as at funerals.

be on accursed

it

hired

But that we may get

mourners

rid at

once

of the need of speaking of such things, shall we not accept, for the mould and seal of all song, Euphemy, the speaking the good of all things, and "

not Blasphemy, the speaking their sorrow ? Which first law of noble song is taught us by the myth that Euphemy was the Nurse of the Muses

—(her

statue

was

— together time)

master of true

still

with dirge

on Parnassus that

music,

used

Pausanias'

in

who

of Linus,

in

is

the

permitted

lamentation.

And

here, in

good time, comes to

me

a note from

kindest and best teachers, in old time, in the Greek Vase room of the British Museum,* which

one of

my

points out one fact respecting the physical origin of the music-myths, wholly new to me " On reading your last Fors I was reminded of :

—

what used to seem to me an inconsistency of the Greeks in assigning so much of a harmonizing *

S. Murray, the first, I believe, of our Greek antiquaries distinguished, in the British Museum, the vases executed in iniitalion of archaic forms by late Roman artists, from real Athenian

Mr. A.

who

archaic pottery.

1

LETTER LXXXIII influence

253

music for the practical purposes of

to

education,

while

associated

it

in their myths they regularly with competition, and cruel punishThe Muses competed with ment of the loser.

Sirens

the

— won,

make crowns

Apollo competed with

of.

—won, and had

and plucked their feathers

to

IV[ars3'as

Apollo and Pan flayed alive. a dispute about the merits of their favourite

had

him

instruments; and Midas, because he decided for Pan, had his ears lengthened at the command of

The Muses competed with the daughters Apollo. It looks of Pieros, who failed, and lost their life. had been a Greek Eisteddfod

as if there

But, is not easy to be confident about an seriously, As explanation of this mythical feature of Music. !

it

regards Apollo and Marsyas,

Marsyas was a

that flute

it

is

to be

who made own river, and

river god,

from the reeds of his

observed the

first

thus he

would represent the music of flowing water, and of wind in the reeds. Apollo was the god of the music of animate nature the time of his supremacy was summer. The time when Marsyas had it all ;

his

own way was

was dried

up,

winter.

and,

as

In

the

summer

myth

his stream

says,

he was

The

competition was, then, in the first place, between the music of summer and the music of winter ; and, in the second place, between flayed

alive.

the music of animate nature and that of water and

This explanation would also apply to the competition of the Muses and Sirens, since the

wind.

latter

represented the music of the seashore, while

FORS CLAVIGERA

254 the

Muses were

associated with Apollo, and would

The represent whatever principle he represented. mj^th of the daughters of Pieros is probably only a variant of that of the Sirens. As regards the rivalry of Apollo

explanation

factory slight,

and Pan, of

do not see any

I

it.

was comparatively

to

Midas were not so

and the consequences

dreadful after

satis-

It

all."

The interpretation here of the punishment of Marsyas as the drying up of the river, whose so often, in Greece stony channel in the sun and Italy, mocks us with memory of sweet waters '

'

in the to

drought of summer, is, as me, and, I doubt not, true.

I

wholly

said,

And

the

new

meaning

of the other myths will surely be open enough to the reader who has followed Plato thus far but :

one more must be added

to

complete the cycle of

— the contest of Dionysus with the Tyrrhenian — and then we have the three orders of pirates the Deities of music throughout the ages of Man, — the Muses, Apollo, and Dion3fsus, — each with their them

;

definite adversaries.

The Muses, whose

office is the

teaching of sacred pleasures to childhood, have for adversaries the Sirens, who teach sinful pleasure; Apollo, who teaches intellectual, or historic, there-

men of middle age, has for adversary Marsyas, who teaches the wordless music of the reeds and rivers and, finally, Dionysus, who fore worded, music, to

;

teaches the cheerful music which

is

to

be the wine

of old age, has for adversary the commercial pirate, who would sell the god for gain, and drink no wine

LETTER LXXXIII

And

but gold.

they do

in

pantomimic,

255

of these three contests, bearing as issue on all things festive and reserve discussion for my seventh

their I

year's Christmas

Fors

;

such

discussion

being,

I

hope, likely to prove serviceable to many of my honest friends, vi'ho are losing their strength in

men to drink, when they should be helping them to eat ; and cannot for the life of them understand what, long since pointed out to forbidding

them, they will find irrefragably true, that "the holiness of the parsonage and parson at one end of the village, can only be established in the holiness of the tavern and tapster at the other."

LETTER LXXXIV THE LAST irORDS OF THE VIRGIN "They have no wine." "Whatsoever He saith unto you, do Brantwood,

These, Christ,

it."

zgt/i Oct. 1877.

the last recorded words of the Mother of and the only ones recorded during the period

" of His ministry, (the " desiring to see thee being told him by a stranger's lips,) I will take, with due

pardon asked of

faithful

Protestant readers, for the all that I have

motto, since they are the sum, of

been permitted seven years.

The

to speak, in

God's name,

now

these

sentence of these two, contains the appeal of the workman's wife, to her son, for the help of first

the poor of

all

the earth.

second, the command of the Lord's mother, to the people of all the earth, that they should serve the Lord.

The

This day last year, I was walking with a dear in friend, and resting long, laid on the dry leaves, the sunset, under the vineyard-trellises of the httle range of hills which, five miles west of Verona, look down on the Lago di Garda at about the distance 256

LETTER LXXXIV from

—

257

shore that Cana is from the Lake of Gahlee Madonna had walked to the bridal some four and a half). It was a Sunday evening, golden

its

;

(the

miles

and calm

all the vine leaves quiet ; and the soft ; clouds held at pause in the west, round the mountains that Virgil knew so well, blue above the level reeds

of Mincio. the

hill,

and

But we had to get under the crest of lie down under cover, as if avoiding an

fire, to

enemy's

get out of hearing of the discordant

practice, in fanfaronade, of the military recruits of

—

the village, modern Italy, under the teaching of the IV.arsyas of Mincio, dehghting herself on the Lord's

day

in that, doubtless,

much

civilized,

but far from

triumphing that her monasteries

mellifluous, manner; were now for the most part turned into barracks, and her chapels into stables. We, for our own no wise exultant nor exhilarated, but part, in

shrinking

down under

shadows of went down.

We sent

its

fruitful

and as the sun

the shelter of the roofs,

talked,

hill,

talked of the aspect of the village which its active life, marching to these

out

melodies

;

had

new

and whose declining life we had seen as An old, it, half an hour before.

we drove through

far-straggling village, its main street following the brow of the hill, with gardens at the backs of the houses, looking towards the sacred mountains and

the uncounted towers of purple Verona. If ever peace, and joy, and sweet life on earth

might be possible for men, it is so here, and in such few, on the wide earth, but many in the places,

—

IV.

R

FORS CLAVIGERA

258

bosom of Its

infinitely blessed, infinitely desolate

were

people the

working

—

sitting

women

A

behind them.

at

at least,

their

doors,

—the

old

worthy and gentle race

men ;

Italy,

quietly at rest

but utterly

poor, utterly untaught the things that in this world

make for their by the

steel

lesson,

by the

of Solferino, ruin of both.

peace.

Taught

of Ezzelin

;

anciently, other things,

anew

taught

the

same

and the vanquished and the supreme evil risen on the

victor of Areola,

—

—

There they sate the true race of Northern Italy, mere prey for the vulture, patient, silent, hopeless, infinitude of accustomed and bewildered careless

—

:

sorrow written in every line of their faces, unnerving every motion of their hands, slackening the spring And their blood has been poured in all their limbs. out like water, age after age, and risen round the And of the wine-press, even to the horse-bridles.

peace on

earth,

and the goodwill

He who

towards

men,

trod the wine-press alone, and of the was none with Him died to bring there people heard have by the hearing of the ear, them, they

which

—

—

their eyes have not seen. "They have no wine." But He Himself has been always with them, though they saw Him not, and they have had the

"Blessed are they that deepest of His blessings. have not seen, and yet have believed." And in the faith of these,

and such as

these,

—

in the voiceless re-

ligion and uncomplaining duty of the peasant races, throughout Europe, is now that Church on earth,

—

LETTER LXXXIV

259

against which the gates of Hell shall not prevail. the part taken in ministry to them, or in oppressing them, depends now the judgment be-

And on

tween the righteous and the wicked servant, which

who has so long delayed "His coming, will assuredly now, at no far-off time, require. " But and if that servant shall say in his heart, the Lord,

'

My

Lord delay eth His coming

Shall

go on writing

I

?

'

We

—

have

read the

all

passage so often that it falls on our thoughts unfelt, as if its words were dead leaves. will write and

We

read

it

more slowly to-day

—so please you.

"

Who then is a faithful and wise servant whom Lord hath made ruler over His household, to " give them their meat in due season ? Over His household, He probably having His his

—

But eyes upon it, then, whether you have or not. He has made you ruler over it, that you may give it

meat, in due season.

Meat

—

literally, first

of

all.

And

that seasonably, according to laws of duty, and not of chance. You are not to leave such giving

to chance,

still

less to take

advantage of chance, and

when meat is cheap, buy in due season sell it when meat the meat

*

don't see that in the parable ? it.

that

'

'Tis not in the bond.

else is not in the

But

bond

—when

it

is

you may

dear.

You

No, you cannot find

You

will find

something

too, presently.

at least this is plain

give meat

is

due.

enough, that you are to **

Yes, spiritual meat

—

FORS CLAVIGERA

26o but not mutton

meat it

"

?

Well, then

Whatever

yourself.

— dine

is

first

on spiritual table, be

on your own

you are to distribute you may distribute, and

spiritual or fleshly, of that

and are made a ruler that

;

You say I don't speak not live only to 'consume. plain English, and you don't understand what I what

— but

if

Christ

hasn't put that plain enough for go learn to read. " Blessed is that servant whom his Lord,

when

mean.

He

It

doesn't matter

I

mean,

— you you had better

cometh, shall find so doing.

you, that

He

shall

make Him

Verily

I

ruler over

say unto all

His

goods."

A

vague hope, you think, to act upon ? Well, if you only act on such hope, you will never either know, or get, what it means. No one but Christ can tell what all His goods are; and you have no for it is not the getting of business to mind, yet the His but work, that you must care these, doing ;

for yet awhile.

Nevertheless, at spare times,

it

is

no harm that you wonder a little where He has gone and He has given you at to, and what He is doing ;

least

some

hint of that, in another place.

" Let your loins be girded about,

and your

lights

burning, and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord, when He shall return from the

wedding." Nor a hmt of it merely, but you may even hear, at quiet times, some murmur and sylla" The Spirit, and bling of its music in the distance

—

the Bride, say, Come." " But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart,

LETTER LXXXIV

26 r

'

My Lord delayeth His coming/ and shall begin to smite his fellow-servants, and to eat and drink with " the drunken To

'

—too — that same

smite

to 'strike'

'

fine a

word

:

it

is,

quite simpl}',

verb which every Eton boy

used to have, (and mercifully) smitten into him.

—You

smite nobody

now

— boy

or

man

—

for their

But you good, and spare the rod of correction. smite unto death vnth. a will. What is the ram of an ironclad for "

To

?

— the

drunk himself he

Not

and drink with the drunken."

eat

too well bred, upper servant but countenancing the drink that does not over-

;

come him,

;

—

a goodly public tapster ; charging also the poor twenty-two shillings for half a crown's worth of the drink he draws for them ; boasting also

of the prosperity of the house under his management. So many bottles, at least, his chief butler-

—

hood can show emptied out of his Lord's cellar, and shall be exalted to honour, and for ever give Not lascithe cup into Pharaoh's hand,' he thinks. '

vious, he, but frank in fellowship with

ness

— a goodly speaker

and cautious not Thirlmere

to

lascivious-

all

Manchester Banquet,* add, personally, drunkenness to after

thirst.

"The Lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for Him, and in an hour that he is not aware of. And shall cut him asunder. *

Compare

description in

'

Fors,' vol.

i.

p.

197, of the

Clerkly or Learned Company,' and the passage in veris' there referred to (§ 159).

'

'

Entire

Munera

Pul-

FORS CLAVIGERA

262

and

him

shall appoint

crites

there

;

his portion with the

hypobe weeping and gnashing of

shall

teeth."

" Ciit

him asunder." Read now this mighty among

—

words of Law.

Human

the foundational

Law, showing forth the Divine

"Tum Tullus, Meti Suffeti, inquit, si ipse discere posses fidem ac foedera servare, vivo tibi ea disciplina a me adhibita esset ; nunc, quoniam .

.

.

tuum

insanabile ingenium est, tu tuo supplicio doce humanum genus ea sancta credere quae a te violata

Ut

sunt.

igitur pauIo ante,

Romanamque rem

animum

inter

ancipitem gessisti,

ita

Fidenatem

jam corpus

* passim distrahendum dabis."

And "

after, this

But there brake

:

off

;

for

one had caught mine eye,

Fix'd to a cross with three stakes on the ground

He, when

:

He saw

me, writhed Himself throughout Distorted, ruffling with deep sighs His beard. And Catalano, who thereof was 'ware. Thus spake That pierced spirit, whom intent '

:

Thou

view's!,

was He who gave the Pharisees

Counsel, that it were fitting for one man He doth lie suffer for the people.

To *

["'Then said Tullus (Hostilius, King of Rome, to the Alban Metius Suffetius, if thou thyself couldst learn to keep faith and covenants, that teaching I should have given thee, and thou dictator)

—

Now, since thy heart is incurably evil, do thou by thy punishment teach the world to hold sacred that which thou hast dishonoured. Whereas therefore, a while since, thy mind was shouldst live.

divided betwixt Fidena and

and drawn asunder."

— Livy,

Rome, I.

23.]

so

now shall

thy body be divided

LETTER LXXXIV

263

nor any passes, but Him first Behoves make feeling trial how each weighs.

Transverse

;

In straits like this along the foss are placed father of His consort, and the rest

The

*

Partakers in that counsel, seed of ill And sorrow to the Jews.' I noted, then. How Virgil gazed with wonder upon Him,

Thus

abjectly extended

on the cross

In banishment eternal."

And

after, this " Who, e'en in words unfetter'd, might at Tell of the wounds and blood that now :

Though he repeated

oft the tale

full I

saw,

No

tongue So vast a theme could equal, speech and thought Both impotent alike. If, in one band Collected, stood the people all, whoe'er Pour'd on Apulia's fateful soil their blood, Slain

by the Trojans

;

and

?

in that

long war

of the rings the measured booty made pile so high, as Rome's historian writes with the multitude, that felt errs not

When

A Who

;

girding force of Guiscard's Norman steel, And those, the rest, whose bones are gathered yet At Ceperano, there where treachery Branded th' Apulian name, or where beyond

The

Thy walls, O Tagliacozzo, without arms and his limbs The old Alardo conquer'd One were to show transpierced, another his :

Clean lopt away,

—

— a spectacle like this

Were but a thing of nought, Of the ninth chasm. *

*

*

to the hideous sight

*

*

Without doubt, saw, and yet it seems to pass before me, A headless trunk, that even as the rest Of the sad flock paced onward. By the hair I

It

bore the sever'd member, lantern-wise

FORS CLAVIGERA

264

Pendent in hand, which look'd at us, and said, The spirit hghted thus himself Woe's me And two there were in one, and one in two How that may be, he knows who ordereth so." '

'

!

;

:

have no time

I

to translate

"him who

nor to comment on the Dante,

him understand,

— only

this

— whoso

much,

errs not/'*

readeth,

let

that the h^^pocrisy

of the priest who counselled that the King of the Jews should die for the people, and the division of

who

raised up son against of father in the earthly kingship England,-)- are for ever types of the hypocrisy of the Pharisee and

heart in the evil statesman

Scribe, nation,

— penetrating,

through the Church of the and the Scripture or Press of it, into the

whole body politic of it cutting it verily in sunder, as a house divided against itself; and appointing for where there is weepit, with its rulers, its portion of and teeth. ing gnashing Now, therefore, if there be any God, and if there ;

—

be any virtue, and this day, rulers of

hypocrisy not but

if

there be any truth, choose ye

whom you

men,

will serve.

Your

not in pretending to be what you are in being in the uttermost nature of you is

— Nothing— but ;

dead bodies in coffins suspended between Heaven and Earth, God and Mammon. but if Baal, If the Lord be God, follow Him ;

You would

then follow him. * "

Che non

erra."

I

never

till

fain be respectful to

now, in reading

this

passage for

my present purpose, noticed these wonderful words of Dante's, spoken of Livy.

True, in the grandest sense.

t Read the story of Henry

II. in

'

Fors,' vol.

i.,

pp. 48, 49.

LETTER LXXXIV

265

smooth with Belial, dine with Moloch, with golden spoon of sufficient length, with sup, Baal, keep

Beelzebub

;

— and

kiss the

Master to bid

Him

good-

Nay, even my kind and honest friends mal^, I have bought of them, answer to my message

night.

*

all

:

me

first to

have not Behold,

So

I I

—

must go and see it. Suffer I have married a wife bury my father. to keep her and my children first of all ? and

a piece of ground,

I

—

—

cannot come.'

seventh year, I the highways and hedges but after this

:

am going out now no more

into

with

have wearied myself in the fire enough; and now, under the wild roses and traveller's expostulation.

I

joy of the lane hedges, will take what rest

my

in

I

fore

be,

thought to have finished my blameful work benow, I now, but Fors would not have it so ;

am

well convinced she will let

ful

way towards I

me

—

follow the peace-

the

pleasant hills. Henceforth, will be constructive only ; shall allow in the text of it no syllable of com-

the main

and

may

pilgrimage.

work of Fors '

plaint or scorn.

'

When notable public abuses or my knowledge, I will bear wit-

sins are brought to

ness against them simply, laying the evidence of them open in my Correspondence, but sifted before printed following up myself, the while, in plain or directions, happy studies, St. George's separate

it is

;

work, and lessoning. Separate, I say once more, it must be not become work at all until it is so.

work

of a world-wide monastery

;

;

and canis

the

protesting,

by

It

266

FORS CLAVIGERA

patient, not violent, deed,

and

I

fearless, yet hence-

forward unpassionate, word, against the evil of our da}^, till in its heart and force it be ended. p. Of which evil I here resume made in Fors,' up to this time, '

this

the entire assertion in

few words.

All social evils and religious errors arise out of the pillage of the labourer by the idler the idler :

leaving him only enough to hve on (and even that miserably,*) and taking all the rest of the produce

work

of his

to

in his

spend

own

luxury, or in the

toys with which he beguiles his idleness. And this is done, and has from time immemorial

been done,

in all so-called civilized, but in reality

—

by the landlords then,; by the three chief so-called gentlemanly professions,' of soldier, lawyer, and priest and, lastly, by the merchant and usurer. corrupted, countries,

under

first

;

their direction, *

;

The

landlord pillages by direct force, seizing the land, and saying to the labourer. You shall not live on this earth, but shall here die, unless you

give

me

living

:

all

the fruit of your labour but your bare soldier pillages by persuading the

— the

peasantry to for

skill

pillages

in

and then getting himself paid the lawyer leading them to death fight,

:

by prolonging

marketable

ingenuity

;

—

their personal quarrels with

and the

priest

by

selling

the Gospel, and getting paid for theatrical displays of it.-f- All this has to cease, inevitably and totally :

*

" Maintain him

—yes — but how?"—question asked of me by a

working girl, long ago. + Compare 'Unto this

Last,' p. 31.

The

three professions said

LETTER LXXXIV

267

Peace, Justice, and the Word of God must be given And these can only be the people, not sold. given by a true Hierarchy and Royalty, beginning to

the throne of God, and descending, by sacre^ down from heaven, to bless and keep all

at

stair let

the to

Holy creatures of God, man and beast, and condemn and destroy the unholy. And in this

Hierarchy and Royalty all the servants of God have part, being made priests and kings to Him, that they may feed His people with food of angels and food of men teaching the word of God with ;

power, and breaking and pouring the Sacrament of Bread and Wine from house to house, in rememin gladness and singleness the priest's function at the altar and in the tabernacle, at one end of the village, being only

brance of Christ, and of heart

;

holy in the fulfilment of the deacon's function at the table and in the taberna, at the other.

And

so,

out of the true earthly kingdom, in ful-

ness of time, shall come the heavenly kingdom, when the tabernacle of God shall be with men no ;

needed more for ministry, because all the earth will be Temple nor bread nor wine needed priest

;

more

for

water of

mortal food, or fading memory, but the life

given to him that

is

athirst,

and the

fruits of the trees of healing.

Into which

read

now

its

'

that

we may

'

enter, let us

King when

He

necessary are the pastor's, physician's, and merchant's. pastor' is the Giver of Meat, whose office I now explain in

there to be

The

kingdom

the last words of the

fulness.

'

FORS CLAVIGERA

268

US for His Bridal, in which

left

practical

which

of

warning

the direct and

is

the

of the

parable

Servant was the shadow. given, as you know, to Seven Churches, no more, they having refused the word of His lips, and been consumed by the sword of His lips. Yet to all men the command remains He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit / It

was

—

that live

—

saith unto the Churches.

They

lie

along the

and across the

hills,

plain,

of Lydia, sweeping in one wide curve Hke a flight them by of birds or a swirl of cloud (if you draw

—

themselves on the either in

nature,

Lydia

Lydian

itself,

all

—

—

will see)

map you

all

in

richest

them

of

or on the frontier of

it

:

gold, delicatest

in in

music, tenderest in art, of the luxury, softest then world. They unite the capacities and feliin

of the Asiatic and the

cities

Greek

message of Christ been given in Greece, it would have been perfect age; if to the Churches in

imperfect age

to the world,

and

:

—written

to

to

:

had the last the Churches

Europe

in

in Syria, to

to Lydia,

it

is

im-

Asia

written

for ever.

Angels of the Seven Churches.' what I have told you angels meant to the Heathen. What do you, a Christian, mean by them ? What is meant by them here ? Commonly, the word is interpreted of the Bishops of these Churches; and since, in every living Church, its Bishop, if it have any, must speak with the spirit It is

written

*

to the

'

and

'

in the authority of its angel, there is indeed a

LETTER LXXXIV lower and

literal

sense

269

which the interpreta-

in

have called the Archbishop

tion is true; (thus I of Canterbury an angel in Fors/ vol. iii. p. 420 ;) but, in the higher and absolutely true sense, each several charge is here given to the Guardian Spirit '

of each several Church, the one appointed of Heaven to guide it. Compare Bibliotheca Pastorum,' vol. i., *

Preface, pp. xii to xv, closing with the " For such Plato which I repeat here :

words of cities

no angel, but only a mortal, governs, there possible avoidance of evil and pain."

Modern their

is

as

no

Christians, in the beautiful simplicity of selfishness, think every mother of them

—

—

it is quite natural and baby should have an angel

that

likely

that

own

their

to take care of

it,

all

but they cannot fancy such a thing as that an angel should take the liberty of interfering

to

itself:

—

how much with the actions of a grown-up person, one should meddle or make with a society

less that

grown-up persons, or be present, and make any But the tacit suggestions, in a parliamentary debate. of

address here to the angel of the capital city, Sardis, " These things saith He marks the sense clearly :

which hath the Seven Stars in His right hand, and" (that is to say) "the Seven Spirits of God."

And

from the Spirit of God angels, reigning over and

the charge

of these seven

is

to each in

the

hearts of the whole body of the behevers in every Church ; followed always by the dateless adjuration, "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches."

FORS CLAVIGERA

270

The address to each First. The assertion

consists of four parts

of

some

:

—

special attribute of

the Lord of the Churches, in virtue of which, and respect to which, He specially addresses that particular body of believers. as

Second. The laying bare of the Church's heart, known to its Lord.

Third. The judgment on that state of the heart, and promise or threat of a future reward or punish-

ment, assigned accordingly, in virtue of the Lord's special attribute, before alleged. Fourth. The promise, also in

special attribute, to

Christians

all

virtue

of

such

who overcome,

as

Lord overcame, in the temptation with which the Church under judgment is contending. That we may better understand this scheme, and

their

its

sequence,

charge to the

let

us take

Churches

first

the four divisions of

in succession,

and then read

the charges in their detail.

I.

Ephesus. The

Attribute.

—That

and walketh

in

holdeth the seven stars, the midst of the seven

golden candlesticks.

— Thou hast thy — move thy candlestick out of except thou him overThe Promise. — (Always,

The Declaration. The Judgment.

left

I

his place,

repent.

'

cometh.') life.

I

first love.

will

to

that

will give to eat of the tree of

LETTER LXXXIV

27 1

SxMYRNA.

11.

—

The Attribute. The First and the Last, which was dead, and is ahve. The Declaration. I know thy sorrow, and

—

—

thy patience.

The Judgment. I

— Be thou

will give thee

The Promise.

— He

faithful to death,

a crown of shall

and

life.

not be hurt of the

second death.

III.

PERGAMOS.

— — hold the doctrine of Balaam. The Judgment. — against thee with mouth. the sword of my eat of the The Promise. — give him

The Attribute. He which hath the sharp sword with two edges. The Declaration. Thou hast there them that will fight

I

to

will

I

hidden manna.

IV.

Thyatira.

The Attribute.— T\\2X hath His eyes flame of

fire.

The Declaration. Jezebel.

The Judgme7it. death.

The Promise. star.

—Thou

—

—

I

I

sufferest that

will kill

will

like

a

woman

her children with

give him

the morning

FORS CLAVIGERA

272 V. Sardis.

—That hath the seven of God. The Declaration. — Thou hast a few names, even Sardis. The Judgment. —They walk with me are white, they worthy. confess The Promise. — name before The Attribute.

Spirits

in

shall

in

for

I

my VI.

his

will

Father and His angels.

Philadelphia.

The Attribute. Tlie

— He —

Declaration.

open door.

The Judgment.

—

I

that hath the I

have

will

key of David. an

set before thee

keep thee from the hour

of temptation.

The Promise.

— He

shall

go out of

my

temple

no more.

VII.

LAODICEA.

—

The Attribute. The Beginning of the Creation of God. The Declaration. Thou art poor and miser-

— The Judgment. — Behold, able.

I

stand at the door

and knock. Tlie Promise. in

My

—

I

will grant

throne.

him

to sit with

Me

LETTER LXXXIV

273

us now read the charges in we may understand them as they

Let that

their

detail,

are given to

ourselves.

Observe,

first,

they

all

begin with the same words,

know thy works T

'*

I

Not even the maddest and blindest of Antinomian teachers could have eluded the weight of this fact, but that, in the following address to each Church, its

work

'

'

is

spoken of as the state of

heart.

its

nevertheless quite Of which the interpretation simple namely, that the thing looked at by God without first, in every Christian man, is his work " Cut that, there is no more talk or thought of him. is

;

;

—

—

"

him down why cumbereth he the ground ? But, In the work being shown, has next to be tested. what spirit was this done, in faith and charity, or " You have fed the poor ? in disobedient pride ? do but did it to get a commission on the you yes

—

;

dishes, or because

you loved the poor

to the poor,

it

Me, or

—was

in true faith that

money out of my poor by usury in Me ? You thought it a good work did then —

you ? Had you never heard work of God, that ye believe on Him '

"

—

'

This

is

the

whom He hath

?

And now we

take the separate charges, one by

one, in their fulness I.

you

lent

lent to

to get

defiance of

sent

You

?

Ephesus.

:

—

— The

attribute

is

essentially

—

'

the '

the lamp spiritual power of Christ, in His people, of the virgins, the light of the world of the Sermon *

'

on the Mount. IV.

S

FORS CLAVIGERA

274

The

Declaration praises the intensity of this in which is the notablest thing for

the Church, and

—

us in the whole series of the charges

—

it

asserts the

burning of the Spirit of Christ in the Church to be *'

cannot bear them especially shown because it which are evil." This fierceness against sin, which

we

are so proud of being well quit of, is the very the toleration of sin is the dying ;

—

of a Church

life

of

its

men,

So

How

lamp. if it

mixed

indeed should

it

shine before

the soot and fog of sin ?

itself in

again, although the Spirit is beginning to burn

dim, and thou hast

'

thy first love, yet, this thou that thou deeds of the Nicolaitanes.' hatest the hast, note on below (See Pergamos.)

The promise

is

left

of fullest

life in

the midst of the

Paradise and garden of God. Compare all the prophetic descriptions of living persons, or states, as the trees in the garden of God and the blessing of ;

the

first

Psalm.

—

II. Smyrna. The attribute is that of Christ's endurance of death. The declaration, that the faithful

is now dying, with Him, the noble death of the righteous, and shall live for evermore. The that over those so endure the slow who promise,

Church

pain of death in grief, for Christ's sake, the second death hath no power. III.

Pergamos.

—The

attribute is of Christ the

Judge, visiting for sin the declaration, that the Church has in it the sin of the Nicolaitanes, or of ;

Balaam, its

—using

worldly

its

interest,

grace and inspiration to forward and grieved at heart because it

LETTER LXXXIV has the Holy Ghost

275

— the

darkest of blasphemies. I come Behold, Against quickly, and will fight of thee the sword with my mouth.' against The promise, that he who has kept his lips from ;

'

this,

blasphemy

shall eat of the

hidden manna "

not the sword, of the lips of Christ. is

Thy word

:

the word,

How

sweet

unto

The metaphor

my Hps." of the stone, and the

new name,

I

do not yet securely understand.

—

The attribute " That hath his Thyatira. eyes like a flame of fire," (searching the heart,) "his feet like fine brass," (treading the earthy yet in IV.

:

purity, the type of all Christian practical soiled,

whatever

it

you should think

treads on)

;

any wise opposed to the Ephesus, that you may tread

the labour

for charity

is

praise

more than the

The woman phetess,

is,

un-

this in

sense of the charge to on foulness, yet remain undefiled in it and remain so.

The

life,

but remember, lest

Jezebel,

lie

down

and active labour,

— and

;

but not

charity.

who

calls

herself a pro-

believe, the teacher of labour for lasci-

I

vious purpose, beginning by the adornment of sacred things, not verily for the honour of God, but for our

own

more or less in all modern Ritualmanner of sins the most difficult and detect the absolute root or secret

delight, (as It is

of

ism). to search out,

all

'

'

—

the most depth of Satan secret of his temptations, and the punishment of it,

danger

of.

It

is

death in torture. poisoned, what

is

the

For there

if

our charity and labour are to save us ?

more

FORS CLAVIGERA

276

The reward

of resistance

with a rod of iron clay)

and

;

—

will give

I

(true

is,

to rule tiie nations

work,

against

him the morning

painted

star, (light

of heaven, and morning-time for labour). V. Sardis. The attribute " That hath the seven

—

:

Spirits of God, and the seven stars." Again, the Lord of Life itself the Giver of the

—

Holy Ghost.

(Having said

thus,

He

breathed on

He questions, not of the poison or misuse them.) of life, but of its existence. Strengthen the things that are ready to die. The white that are left

—

the transfiguration of the earthly frame " so as no the inner life, even to the robe of it,

raiment

by

fuller ;

is

on earth can white them."

The judgment thy

(in

I

:

to

darkness,

come unto thee

will

take

away even

as a thief,

thou

that

hast).

The promise Book of

VL

:

Life.

I

will not blot his

name

—The —

:

Philadelphia.

attribute

He

out of the

that

is

holy

He that is true (separate from (separate from sin) that hath the key of David, (of the city falsehood)

—

of David v/hich

is

Zion, renewed and pure conf. and no man shutteth (by ;

verse 12); that openeth, me if any man enter in)

and shutteth, and no man ^(for without, are fornicators, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie).

openeth, —

The

;

praise, for faithfulness with a little strength,

as of a soldier holding a little fortress in the midst Therefore the blessing, after of assaulting armies. that captivity of the strait siege

— the

lifting

up of

LETTER LXXXIV

277

and setting wide of the ever-

the heads of the gates,

lasting doors by the Lord, mighty in

The promise

:

Him

battle.

that overcometh will

I

make,

not merely safe within my fortress temple, but a built on its rock, and bearing its vaults pillar of it

—

for ever.

VII. Laodicea.

The

attribute

:

the Faithful wit-

— the Word — the Beginning of Creation. — useless disorder of chaos of The Darkness on the face of the deep, and shaped — as these days of ours darkness, — dross gold Chaos the uttermost. things — slime mortar— nakedness glory — pathless — and the proud blind guides. morass path and purge the the The command, — order given as raiment, and anoint the eyes, the the almost helpless — as men waked ness

half-

heart,

sin,

life.

to

in

rejoicing in

for

in all

for

for

for

for

to

gold,

try

this

in

to

night,

not girding their loins for journey, but in vague wonder at uncertain noise, who may turn again to their slumber, or, in wistful listening, hear the voice

—

'

Behold, I stand at the door It is the last of the temptations, bringing back and the victory over it the throne of Annihilation

calling

*

!

;

the final victory, giving rule, with the Son of God, over the recreate and never to be dissolved

is

order of the perfect earth. In which there shall be no more death, neither " for the former things are sorrow, nor crying,

passed away." "

Now, unto Him

that

is

able to keep

you from

FORS CLAVIGERA

278

and to present 3^ou, faultless, before the Presence of His glory with exceeding joy "To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and

falling,

;

ever.

Amen."

The first seven years' Letters of Fors Clavigera were ended in Corpus Christi Nov.,

12,77.

College, Oxford, 21st

FORS CLAVIGERA SECOND SERIES 'yea,

the work of our hands, establish thou

it."

LETTER LXXXV UNIQUE DOGMATISM January, 1878.

which year were always written, as from the first they were intended to be, on any matter which chanced to interest me, and in any humour which chance threw me into. By the adoption of the title Fors,' I meant (among other meanings) to indicate this desultory and

The

closed last

series of letters

'

accidental besides,

character of the

my

work

feeling, that, since

I

;

and

to

imply,

wrote wholly in the

might justifiably be hoped that thus submitted myself would the chance to which direct me better than any choice or method of my interests of others,

it

I

own.

So

far as regards the subjects of this

of letters,

I

shall retain

my 279

second series

unfettered method, in

FORS CLAVIGERA

28o

on the direction of better wisdom than But in my former letters, I also allowed myself to write on each subject, whatever came into reliance

mine.

my

mind, wishing the reader, exactly what my mind was.

like a friend, to

know

But as no candour will explain this to persons who have no feelings in common with me, and as I think, by this time, enough has been shown to serve all purposes of

—

such frankness, to those

who can

receive

it,

— hence-

forward, I shall endeavour to write, so far as I can judge, what may be serviceable to the reader, or acceptable by him ; and only in some occasional

and minor way, what may explain, or indulge,

own

my

feelings.

Such change in my method of address is farther rendered necessary, because I perceive the address must be made to a wider circle of readers. This book was begun in the limited a

effort

to

society together for the cultivation of a society having this ground in a particular way

gather

;

special

business,

work of the world. a call to

all

whom

—

and no concern with the other But the book has now become it

can reach, to choose between

and if they choose to being honest or dishonest be honest, also to join together in a brotherhood ;

separated, visibly and distinctly, from cheats and And as I felt more and more led into this

liars.

wider appeal,

it

has also been shown to

me

that, in

country of England, it must be made under obedience to the Angel of England the Spirit v/hich taught our fathers their Faith, and which is

this

;

—

LETTER LXXXV

28 I

Still

Striving with us in our Atheism.

this

was shown

to

me,

understand of the Book

I

have taken

And

since that

all

I

which our fathers believed

to be divine, not, as in former times, only to enforce, on those who still believed it, obedience to its

orders; but indeed for help and guidance to the whole body of our society.

The exposition of this broader law mingling more and more frequently in my past letters with that of the narrow action of St. George's Guild for the present help of our British peasantry, has much obscured the simplicity of that present aim, and up crowds of collateral questions, in debate of which the reader becomes doubtful of the rightness of even what might otherwise have been while, to retard his willingly approved by him raised

:

am

compelled, by the accidents of the time, to allege certain principles of work which only my own long study of the results of

consent yet farther,

the Art of

I

Man upon

his

mind enable me

to

know

for surety; and these are peculiarly offensive in an epoch which has long made not only all its Arts mercenary, but even those mercenary forms of

—

them subordinate to yet more servile occupations. For example I might perhaps, with some success, have urged the purchase and cultivation of waste land, and the orderly and kindly distribution of the food produced upon it, had not this advice been ;

coupled with the discussion of the nature of Rent, and the assertion of the God-forbidden guilt of that

Usury, of which Rent

is

the fatallest form.

FORS CLAVIGERA

282

And even

if,

in

subtlety,

had withheld, or

I

dis-

guised, these deeper underlying laws, I should still have alienated the greater number of my possible

adherents by the refusal to employ steam machinery,

which may well bear, educated

in

the

to

minds of persons such mechanism, the

the

midst "of

aspect of an artist's idle and unrealizable prejudice. And this all the more, because the greater number

of business-men, finding that their own opinions have been adopted without reflection, yet being perfectly

content with

the

naturally

suppose that

mine

fidently collected least pains

:

—with

opinions

have

so

acquired,

been as con-

where they could be found with the farther equally rational con-

clusion, that the opinions they have thus accidentally picked up themselves are more valuable and better

selected than the by

no means obviously preferable

faggot of mine.

And, indeed, the thoughts of a man who from his youth up, and during a life persistently literary, has never written a word either for money or for vanity,

nor even in the careless incontinence of

the instinct for self-expression, but resolutely spoken

only to teach or to praise others, must necessarily be incomprehensible in an age when Christian

preaching itself has become merely a polite and when the most noble and convenient profession, living literary faculties, like those of Scott and

—

Dickens, are perverted by the will of the multitude, and perish in the struggle for its gold and when ;

the

conceit

even of the gravest

men

of science

LETTER LXXXV them

provokes

to

the

283

competitive

exhibition

of

their conjectural ingenuity, in fields where argument is impossible, and respecting matters on which even certainty would be profitless.

believe, therefore, that

I

will

it

be satisfactory to

my readers, and generally serviceable, reproduce, and reply to, a portion of a not un-

not a few of if I

friendly critique which, appearing in the Spectator for

22nd September, 1877,

sufficiently

expressed this

general notion of my work, necessarily held by men who are themselves writing and talking merely for profit

or amusement, and to

pains

slightest

have never taken the

ascertain

whether

any single

nor are under any concern to know whether, after it has been sold in the permanent form of print, it will do harm or good to the thing they say

buyer of

is

true

:

it.

"

Mr. Ruskin's unique dogmatism.

"As we have

had occasion, what we have For a very curious study. often

remark, yet to imply, in

Ruskin is and candour,

ness,

if

not exactly to

said of him, Mr. simplicity, quaint-

his confidences to 'the

labourers of Great Britain

'

in

'

workmen and

Fors Clavigera

'

are quite

For delicate irony of style, when he without example. that he fully understands, and intends a subject gets

what is much worse, the which is not knowledge, of But then as curious as equal.

to expose the ignorance,

affectation others,

no man

anything delicate

or,

of knowledge is

his

strange medley of sparkling jewels, spider-webs, and tangles of exquisite fronds else, in that

which makes

"

(the

writer

should be on

his

guard

FORS CLAVIGERA

284

against the letter s in future passages of this descriptive character) "up Mr. Ruskin's mind, is the high-handed

arrogance which

so strangely blended with his imperious that, too, often when it is most grotesque.

modesty, and

is

It is not, indeed, his arrogance, but his modest selfknowledge which speaks, when he says in this new number of the Fors that though there are thousands of men in England able to conduct the business affairs of his Society better than he can, I do not believe '

'

'

there

is

man

another

in

England able

to organize

elementary lessons in Natural History and Art. I

am

our

And

therefore wholly occupied in examining the growth

and completing some notes on St. And no doubt he is quite George's Chapel no one could watch the growth of right. Probably Anagallis tenella to equal purpose, and no one else could complete his notes on St. George's Chapel withof Anagallis tenella,

at Venice.'

We

out spoiling them.

are equally sure that he

is

wise,

when he tells his readers that he must entirely decline any manner of political action which might hinder him But what does from drawing leaves and flowers.' '

astonish us

is

the supreme confidence,

— or

say, rather,

hurricane of dictatorial passion,—though we do not use the word passion in the sense of anger or irritation, '

'

but in the higher sense of mental white-heat, which has no vexation in it, (a) with which this humble student

—

of leaves and flowers, of the Anagallis tenella and the beauties of St. George's Chapel at Venice, passes judgment on the whole structure of human society,

from

its

judgment,

knows (a)

I

and not only judgment of one who laws of structure and all its misshapen

earliest to its latest convolutions,

all

but its

the

don't understand.

vexed person as

I at

sweeping

Probably there

is

not another so

present extant of his grave.

much

LETTER LXXXV growths

285 which Mr. Ruskin

with a sort of assurance

would

certainly never feel in relation to the true form, or the distortions of the true form, of the most minute

one of his favourite leaves or flowers. Curiously enough, the humble learner of Nature speaking through plants and trees, is the most absolute scorner of Nature fibre of

through the organization of great societies

speaking

and centuries of social experience, {b) We know well what Mr. Ruskin would say, that the difference is great between the growth that is without moral freedom and the growth which has been for century after

—

century distorted by the reckless abuse of moral freeAnd we quite admit the radical difference. dom.

But what

strikes us as so

— how

strange

much

is

that this central

due to the and of a quite ingreat society, growth which abuse of might be any voluntary dependent amended by voluntary effort, and how much is due of

difficulty

all,-

is

really

structural

to the false direction of individual wills, never strikes

Mr. Ruskin

as a difficulty at

all.

(c)

On

the contrary,

he generalizes in his sweeping way, on social tendencies which appear to be (d) far more deeply ingrained in the very structure of human life than the veins of a in the structure of a plant, with a confidence

leaf

moment dream of and normal growth of Thus he tells us in the last num-

with which he would never for a as

generalizing a favourite plant. ber of Fors that ((5) {c-

When

result,

true

Fors Clavigera

is

not in any

way

much more, if it only wei-e so. On what grounds did the writer suppose mine.) Dr. Christison analyzes a poison, and simply states

is

be concluded he was struck by no

to

it

in arriving at

it,

embarrassments {d)

'

the

wo7ild be curious, and

— Italics

this? his

It

to

?

What does

difficulties

because he does not advise the public of his it

matter what they appear to be

?

286

FORS CLAVIGERA

intended as counsel adapted to the present state of the public mind, but it is the assertor of the code of

which the public mind must eventually or die and I have really no more

eternal

laws

submit

itself to,

;

do with the manners, customs, feelings, or modified conditions of piety in the modern England, which I have to warn of the accelerated approach either of to

Revolution or Destruction, than poor Jonah had with qualifying amiabilities which might have been found in the Nineveh whose overthrow he was ordered the

to foretell in forty days.' But the curious part of the matter is that Mr. Ruskin, far from keeping to simple

moral laws, denounces in the most vehement manner arrangements which seem to most men {e) as little connected with them as they would have seemed

social

to

'

poor Jonah.'

We

are not aware, for instance, that

Jonah denounced the use of machinery in Nineveh. Indeed, he seems to have availed himself of a ship, which is a great complication of machines, and to have from Joppa to Tyre, without paid his fare *

'

supposing himself to have been accessory to anything so doing. We are not aware, too, that Jonah held it to be wrong, as Mr. Ruskin holds it to be evil in

wrong, to charge for the use of a thing when you do not want to part with it altogether. These are

which are so essentially interwoven alike most fundamental as also with the most superficial principles of social growth, that any one who assumes that they are rooted in moral evil is bound to be very careful to discriminate where the evil begins, and show that it can be avoided, just as a naturalist who should reproach the trees on a practices with the

—

(e)

What

does

it

matter what they

'

seem

to

most men

'

?

LETTER LXXXV hill-side for sloping

away from the

meet, should certainly are to avoid the blast, it,

they are

all

of the

or how,

to

nature he

human nature human naturalist. to

they have to the trees

how

they cannot avoid

if

help so altering themselves to it.

in relation

in relation

blast

ask himself

to

accommodate though

first

287

their

But a

is

growth as to Mr. Ruskin, true

naturalist,

has in him nothing at It never occurs to him

apparently that here, too, are innumerable principles of growth which are quite independent of the will of man, and that it becomes the highest moralist to study

humbly where and where

it

human will begins of rashly and sweepingly

the influence of the ends,

instead

condemning, as due to a perverted morality, what is innumerable cases a mere inevitable result of social

in

structure. (/)

"Consider only how curiously different in spirit is the humility with which the great student of the laws of beauty watches the growth of the Anagallis tenella, and which he watches the growth of the formation A correspondent had objected to opinion. him that he speaks so contemptuously of some of the

that with

of

human

most trusted leaders of English workmen, of Goldwin Smith, for instance, and of John Stuart Mill. Disciples of such leaders, the writer had said, are hurt and made '

[f) To this somewhat lengthily metaphorical paragraph, the To every needful answer may be brief, and without metaphor. 'social structure' which has rendered either wide national crime or '

'

wide national folly inevitable is all I have necessarily to say

—

—ruin ;

is

also

'

inevitable.'

Which

and which has been by me, now, Nevertheless, somewhat more

very sorrowfully, enough said. observed of England at this time, namely, that she has no ' social structure whatsoever ; but is a mere heap of agonizing human maggots, scrambling and sprawling over each other for any manner of rotten eatable thing they can get a bite of.

—

may be

'

288 angry,

when names which they do not Uke

their leaders.'

way

CLAVIGERA

P^ORS

:

—

Mr, Ruskin's reply

is

are used of

quite a study in

its

down

to

'

Well, my dear 'ditches for ever.'

I

—See solemnly Fors, September, sir,

declare,' etc.,

1877 (Letter

LXXXI.).

Now

observe that here Mr. Ruskin,

who would

follow

the lines of a gossamer-thread sparkling in the morning dew with reverent wonder and conscientious accuracy, arraigns, first, the tendency of man to express immature and tentative views of passing events, (g) as if that were

wholly due, not to a law of human nature, (/i) but to those voluntary abuses of human freedom which might !

!

as effectually be arrested as murder or theft could be arrested by moral effort ; next arraigns, if not the dis-

covery of the printing-press (of which any one would suppose that he entertained a stern disapprobation), at least the inevitable (/) results of that discovery, precisely

(£) I have never recognized any such tendency in persons modeWhat is their education for if it cannot rately well educated. prevent their expressing immature views about a/ij/ihing?

—

{h) I

nature

'

insert shall

two notes of admiration.

we hear

of next

?

If

—

it

What

'

cannot keep

law of human its

thoughts in

mind, till they are digested, I suppose we shall next hear it cannot keep its dinner in its stomach. universal (i) There is nothing whatever of inevitable in the gabble of fools,' which is the lamentable fact I have alleged of the present times, whether they gabble with or without the help of its

'

The power of saying a very foolish thing to a very of people at once, is of course a greater temptation to a foolish person than he was formerly liable to ; but when the printing-press.

large

number

national mind, such as it is, becomes once aware of the mischief of all this, it is evitable enough else there were an end to popular

—

intelligence in the world.

LETTER LXXXV

289

would arraign a general prevalence of positive vice

as he

;

he actually claims the power, as an old litterateur, to discern at sight what is eternally good and vital, and to strike away from it pitilessly what is On the first two heads, as it worthless and venomous.'

and

last of all, that

'

seems to

us,

Mr. Ruskin arraigns laws of nature as

which the sap rises practically unchangeable as any by On in the tree and the blossom forms upon the flower. the last head, he assumes a tremendous power in relation to subjects very far removed from these which he has

made 1

his

"

own,

have

as well,

it

lost the

seems

to

next leaf of the

me, close

my

article,

and may

extract here, for

I

do not know what subject the writer conceives me to have made my own, if not the quality of literaIf I am ever allowed, by pubHc know anything whatever, it is how to

ture

!

—

estimate, to write.

My

knowledge of painting is entirely denied by ninetynine out of a hundred painters of the day ; but the literary men are great hypocrites if they don't really think me, as they profess to do, fairly up to

work

my

And what would an old litterateur if he did not know good writing from

in that line.

be good

for,

bad, and that without tasting more than a half page. And for the moral tendency of books no such prac-

—

The sagacity is needed to determine that. of a to being strengthened or sense, healthy mind, enervated by reading, is just as definite and unmistised

takeable as the sense, to a healthy body, of being in fresh or foul air and no more arrogance is :

involved in perceiving the stench, and forbidding IV.

T

FORS CLAVIGERA

290

unwholesome book, than in a windows to be opened in a There is no question whatever concern-

the reading of an

physician's ordering the sick room.

ing these matters, with any person who honestly the real arrodesires to be informed about them ;

—

only expressing judgments, either of gance books or anything else, respecting which we have Here is m}^ friend taken no trouble to be informed. in

is

Spectator, for instance, commenting complacently on the vulgar gossip about my opinions of machinery, without even taking the trouble to look

of the

at

what

I

said, else

he would have found

that, in-

stead of condemning machinery, there is the widest and most daring plan in Fors for the adaptation of tide-mills to the British coasts that has yet been

dreamt of

in

condemning

engineering;

British youth in

that,

so far from

is

proposed by Fors

to be

conducted

them.

What it

and

ships, half the physical education of

is little

the contents of Fors really are, however, wonder that even my most studious friends

do not at present know, broken up as these materials have been into a mere moraine of separate and seemingly jointless stones, out of which I must now build such Cyclopean wall as I shall have time and strength for. Therefore, during some time of this second series main business the at least,

be only the arrangement for use, and clearer illustration, of the scattered contents

of letters will

of the

And

first. I

cannot begin with a more important subject.

LETTER LXXXV

29 I

or one of closer immediate interest, the collection of rain, and

On my

this subject,

friend Mr.

verified data

:

I

than that of

management of streams.

expect a series of papers from

Henry in the

Willett, containing absolutely I beg the reader to

meantime

give his closest attention

to

the admirable state-

ments by M. VioUet-le-Duc, on the results of human

management of streams and water-courses, Chapter XII. of his book on Mont interference with Nature's

I have before Blanc, translated by Mr. Bucknall. had occasion to speak with extreme sorrow of the

errors in the theoretical parts of this practical intelligence is admirable.

Just in time,

I

get

work

"

The

but

its

His be given without some

Mr. Willett's

first sheet.

preface is too valuable to farther comment, but this following bit

us for this month

:

may

serve

:

increased frequency in

modern days

of upland

floods appears to be due mainly to the increased want Now it is true of all of the retention of the rainfall.

man has complete power over them where they are widely disseminated, only when by the uniting ramifications over

drainage matters that at the beginning,

and

it

is

that man large areas a great accumulation is produced, becomes powerless to deal satisfactorily with it. Nothing

ever

is

more

senseless than the direct contravention of

Nature's laws by the

modern system

of gathering together

one huge polluted stream the sewage of large towns. The waste and expense incurred, first in collecting, and then in attempting to separate and to apply to the

into

FORS CLAVIGERA

292

land the drainage of large towns, seems a standing instance of the folly and perversity of human arrangements, and

//

which attaches

ca7i

only be accounted for by the interest

to the

spending of large sums of f?ioney"

(Italics mine.)

" It

may be

desirable at

to this part of the subject,

simple, "

To

some future time to revert and to suggest the natural,

and inexpensive

alternative plan. return to the question of floods caused by rain-

The first and completely remunerating exonly. penditure should be for providing tanks of filtered water fall

human

for

drinking, etc.,

and

and and moor-

reservoirs for cattle

purposes, in the

manufacturing upland valleys land glens which form the great collecting grounds of all the water which is now wastefuUy permitted to flow

underground crevices and natural reservoirs, again at an enormous waste of time, labour, and money, or neglectfully permitted to deluge the habitations of which the improper erection on sites liable to flooding has been allowed. either into

that

it

"To

may be pumped up

turn for a

moment

to the distress

and incurred

expense in summer from want of the very same water which has been wasted in winter, I will give three or four instances which have

come under my own know-

In the summer of 1876 I was put on shore from a yacht a few miles west of Swanage Bay, in

ledge.

Dorsetshire,

wanted

and then, walking

to hire a pony-chaise

to the nearest village, I

from the landlady of the

only inn, but she was obliged absolutely to refuse me because the pony was already overworked by having to drag water for the cows a perpendicular distance of

from two hundred to three hundred

feet

from the valley

beneath.

Hardly a rain-shoot, and no reservoir, could

be seen.

A

highly

intelligent

gentleman

in

Sussex,

LETTER LXXXV

293

'

the year before, remarked, I should not rain coming and spoiling the remainder of as I

it

am

the

regret

my

harvest,

would thereby put an end to the great expense at in drawing water from the river for my flock

of sheep.' In the village of Farnborough, Kent, there are two wells: one at the Hall, 160 feet deep, and a In summer public one at the north-west of the village. a

man

gets a

good

by carting the water

living

for the

poor people, charging id. for six gallons, and earning from 2s. 6d. to 35". a day. One agricultural labourer He pays 5^. a week for his family supply in summer. could catch more off his own cottage, but the spouts '

are out of order, and the landlord won't put I

know

lease of

them

right.'

a farmer in Sussex who, having a seven-years'

some downland, at his own expense built a him £t,o. He told me at the end

small tank which cost

of his lease the farm would be worth jQ2)° per annum The Earl of Chichester, more, because of the tank.

who has most

and successfully grappled with the ;^ioo per annum is not an unfrequent

wisely

subject, says that

expenditure by individual water in summer-time. "

In

my

next

I

will

farmers

give,

by

for

his

the carting

lordship's

of

kind

permission, a detailed account and plan of his admirable method of water supply, superseding wells and

pumping."

LETTER LXXXVI LET US

{ALL)

EAT AND DRINK February, 1878.

In assuming that the English Bible may yet be made the rule of faith and conduct to the English people

;

its first

in placing in the Sheffield Library, for volume, a MS. of that Bible in its perfect form,

and

much more

is

of course accepted as the basis of our

future education than the reader will find taken for

the ground either of argument or appeal, in any of my writings on political economy previous to the It may partly account for the want of year 1875. success of those writings, that they pleaded for

honesty without praise, and for charity without reward; that they entirely rejected, as any motive of moral action, the fear of future judgment; and

—

— — Paul word, irony taking — " Let us to-morrow we and drink, they resolution just worldly merely expanded — and drink —what us terms Yes, St.

at his bitterest

in his

for

eat

die,"

into its

that

"

:

but

let

let

"

eat

else ?

us all eat and drink, and not a few only,

enjoining fast to the rest. Nor do I, in the least 294

item,

now

retract

the

LETTER LXXXVI

former works,* that in- f:^J, probity and virtue are indeed entirely

assertion, so often

human

made

295

dependent of any hope

in

my

in futurity

and that

;

is

it

of all, and precisely in accepting death as the end in laying down, on that sorrowful condition, his life

and

for his friends, that the hero

patriot of all time

has become the glory and safety of his country.

The

highest ideals of

manhood given

for types of

'

and the assertions labourer must be common and that the merchant conduct in

*

Unto

this

Last

;

rather ready, in the discharge of their duty, to die

than

fail,

assume nothing more than

the proper laws of

human

society

this

may

;

and

all

be perfectly

developed and obeyed, and must be so wherever such society is constituted with prudence, though none of them be sanctioned by any other Divinity than

that of our

own

souls,

nor their violation

punished by any other penalty than perfect death._j'' There is no reason that we should drink foul water in

London, because we never hope

to drink of the

we should stream of the City of God spend most of our income in making machines for the slaughter of innocent nations, because we never ;

nor that

expect to gather the leaves of the tree for their healing.

Without, therefore, ceasing to press the works of prudence even on Infidelity, and expect deeds and thoughts of honour even from MortaHty, I yet take henceforward happier, if not nobler, ground of * Most carefully wrought out Wild Olive.'

in the preface to the

'Crown

of

-

FORS CLAVIGERA

296 appeal, ^'"

and write as a "Christian

is to say,

to

persons

who

rejoice in the

"^ fi j^

v'"*'

personal, perpetual

literal,

to Christians; that

life,

with a

literal,

per-

and eternal God.

sonal,

To all readers holding such faith, I urging them to confess Christ before they will

them

hope of a

find,

now appeal, men which ;

on self-examination, they are most of

afraid to do.

For going

to church is only a compliance with the fashion of the day; not in the least a confession of Christ, but only the expression of a desire to be

thought as respectable as other people. to sacrament is usually not much more it

may become

superstitious,

Staying

though and a mere service ;

done

to obtain dispensation from other services. Violent combativeness for particular sects, as Evangelical,

Church

Roman

— or

the

Catholic, like,

is

High Church, Broad merely a form of party

egotism, and a defiance of Christ, not confession of Him. fi_

But

to confess Christ

is,

first,

to

behave right-

and then, to eously, truthfullj'', and continently are manifestly separate ourselves from those who or by profession rogues, liars, and fornicators. Which it is terribly difficult to do and which the ;

;

Christian church has at present entirely ceased to

attempt doing.

And, accordingly, beside me, as (shortest

honestest

day,

1877,) journal of

lies

the

I

write, to-day,

the

whole)

(on London, —Pimc/i, — with

moral piece of Christian art occupying two of

a its

LETTER LXXXVI

297

human form, as a pages, representing the Turk in a surrounded by victim wounded and all but dying

—

the Christian nations, under the forms of bear and vultures.

"This witness

true" as against themselves,

is

that hitherto the action of the Christian

namely,

^

nation to the infidel has always been one of rapine, the

in

The Turk

broad sense.

—have

is

what he

is

been only Christians in name. And another witness is true, which is a very curious one; never, so far as I know, yet received from because

we

past history.

Wherever the Christian church,

or any section of

has indeed resolved to live a Christian Hfe, and ? keep God's laws in God's name, there, instantly,

—

it,

manifest approval of Heaven of worldly prosperity

given by accession This witness has victory.

and

is

only been unheard, because every sect of Christians refuses to believe that the religion of any other sect while the can be sincere, or accepted of Heaven :

truth is that

from the

it

does not matter a burnt stick's end

altar, in

Heaven's

sight,

whether you are

Catholic or Protestant, Eastern, Western, Byzantine, So that or Norman, but only whether you are true. the

moment Venice

flies

over

Florence flies

over

is

true to St.

all

the Eastern islands

is

true to the

all

Switzerland

is

the

Mark, her flag and the moment

of Lilies, her flag Apennines; and the moment

Lady

Dame

des Neiges, her and the lances the Austrian ;

true to Notre

down moment England is true pine-club beats

;

to

her Protestant virtue,

all

FORS CLAVIGERA

298

the sea-winds ally themselves with her against the

Armada follow

and though after-shame and

:

upon

every nation,

infidel failure

yet the glory of their

great religious day remains unsullied, and in that,

they

live for ever.

This

is

Temporal lesson of

the

jjjit

ff"'^

all

history,

—

and

another Spiritual lesson, namely, that in the ages of faith, conditions of prophecy with that there

is

and seer-ship exist, among the faithful nations, in painting and scripture, which are also immortal and divine of which it has been my own special mission to speak for the most part of my life but only of late I have understood completely the in bemeaning of what had been taught me, I must of which to learn somewhat more, ginning ;

—

:

—

not speak to-day ; Fors appointing that I should rather say final word respecting our present state of spiritual fellowship, exemplified in the strikes of

our

them,

workmen, the misery that accompanies and the articles of our current literature

thereupon.

The said current literature, on this subject, being almost entirely under the command of the Masters, has consisted chiefly in lectures on the guilt and of strikes, without in any wise addressing itself to point out to the men any other way of

folly

settling

the

question.

shillings a day in such you two and sixpence and, both on religious How make no fuss. :

"You

can't

times

but

;

have

we

will

three give

—

you had better take it and commercial grounds, much better is two and

LETTER LXXXVI sixpence than nothing

—think—where

and

we be

shall

" but answer,

!

299

once the mill stop

if

then

all

?

"

"

Yes," the

to-day we take two and sixfrom pence, what is to hinder you, to-morrow, observing to us that two shillings are better than nothing, and we had better take t/iat sum on

men

religious

And

if

and commercial

principles, without fuss ?

may

not the same pious and

the day after,

moral instructors recommend to us the contented acceptance of eighteenpence be made somewhere, and here,

?

A

stand must clearly

we choose

make

to

it

and now."

The masters again have reason to rejoin " True, but if we give you three shilHngs to-day, how are we to know you will not stand for three and six:

pence to-morrow, and for four shilHngs next week ? stand must be made somewhere, and we choose

A

to

make

What

it

here,

and now."

solution

is

there, then ?

and of what use

to man or any quantity that show them master, on their manner of debate, no possible solution in another way ? As things

of

are

homilies

either

are at present, the quarrel can only be practically closed by imminence of starvation on one side, or

of bankruptcy on the other: even so, closed only never ended, burning presently for a moment, forth again, to sinl?* silent only in death ; while,

—

—

year after year, the agonies of conflict of exhaustion labour, and fiat

the

minimum

and truces

produce, for reward of the total of the total council of the people,

of gain for the

maximum

of misery.

FORS CLAVIGERA

300

Scattered up and down, through every page I have written on political economy for the last twenty years, the reader will find unfailing reference to a principle of solution in such dispute, which is rarely so much as named by other arbitrators ; or if

—

named, never believed in

:

yet, this being indeed the

only principle of decision, the conscience of it, however repressed, stealthily modifies every arbitrative

word.

The men for

must

are rebuked, in the magistral homilies,

Then there ingratitude in striking be a law of Grace, which at least the masters

their

recognize.

!

The men

are

mocked

in

homilies for their folly in striking. must be a law of Wisdom^ which

the magistral Then there at

least

the

masters recognize.

Appeal

to these, then, for their entire verdict,

most

These virtuous masters, all-gracious and all-wise. reprobate ones, graceless and senseless, cannot find their way for themselves you must guide them. That much I told you, years and years ago. You will have to do it, in spite of all your libertymongers. Masters, in fact, you must be not in name. and drivers not leaders of But, as yet blind the blind, you must pull the beams out of your own eyes, now; and that bravely. "Preach your homily to yourselves first. Let me hear once more how "Oh foolish and ungrateful it runs, to the men. ;

;

;

—

—

" you say, did we not once on a time give you high wages even so high that you contentedly

ones,"

—

LETTER LXXXVI drank yourselves to death

;

and now, oh

forgetful ones, that the time has

you low wages,

will

:

foolish

and

for us to give

also starve

"

Alas, wolf-shepherds

you

come

you not contentedly

yourselves to death ? to

30I

—

—

this is St. George's

word

" In your prosperity you gave these men high in any kindness to them, but in contennot wages, tion for business

men

among

yourselves.

You

allowed

spend wage drunkenness, and of boasted that drunkenness you by the mouth of your Chancellor of the Exchequer, and in the columns of your leading journal, as a principal sign the

their

to

in

You have declared country's prosperity. again and again, by vociferation of all your orators, that you have wealth so overflowing that you do not

of the

know what

These men who dug the starving at the mouths of the hell-pits you made them dig yea, their bones lie scattered at the grave's mouth, like as when one cutteth and cleaveth wood upon the earth. Your boasted wealth where is it ? Is the war between these and you, because you now mercilessly refuse them food, or because all your boasts of wealth were lies, and you have none to give ? "Your boasts of wealth were lies. You were working from hand "to mouth in your best times now your work is stopped, and you have nothing in to

do with

wealth for you,

now

it.

lie

;

—

;

the country to pay for food with ; still less any store of food laid by. And how much distress and wrath will have to bear before you learn the lesson of you

FORS CLAVIGERA

302 justice,

have

God only knows.

But

this is the lesson

you

to learn."

Every workman

*

must pass his exanot mination, (crucial, competitive,) when he comes of age, and be then registered as capable of his profession

;

those

in

craft

any

who cannot

pass in the higher crafts

being remitted to the lower, until they find their Then every registered workman must be

level.

—

work is needed (You interrupt me to say that his work is needed nowhere ? Then, what do you want with machinery, if already you have more hands than enough, to do everything employed where

his

—

done ?) by direction of the guild and to, paid by that guild his appointed and unalterable by any chance or wages, constant phenomenon whatsoever. His wages must be given that needs to be

he belongs

him day by day, from the hour of his entering the to the hour of his death, never raised, nor lowered, nor interrupted admitting, therefore, no no wringing of anxiety, covetousness, temptation by no doubt or fear of the future. That is the literal fulfilment of what we are to

guild,

;

—

— —

" Give us each day our daily bread^^ pray for observe not our daily money. For, that wages *

Ultimately, as often before stated, every male child horn in

England must learn some manner earn his bread. shall sing, or

him

make

work by which he may he

speeches to them instead, and that they will give

his turnip a day, or

at their pleasure

of sk^Jed

If afterwards his fellow-workers choose that

somewhat more,

for Parliamentary advice, heard on the 7th of January this year that in Wales were reduced to that literal nourishment.

be

many of the men Compare Fors, vol.

it.

i.

I

p. 212.

LETTER LXXXVI

303

may be constant they must be in kind, not in money. So much bread, so much woollen cloth, or so much or, in heu of these, fuel, as the workman chooses ;

if he choose, the order for such quantity at the government stores ; order to be engraved, as he

but the chooses, on gold, or silver, or paper " " and to be a everywhere always day penny convertible, on the instant, into its known measure :

of bread, cloth, or eternal

therefore,

and

be the standard, invariable, of all value of

fuel,

and

to

and wealth of men. That is the lesson you have to learn from St. George's lips, inevitably,

things,

against any quantity of shriek, whine, or sneer, from the swindler, the adulterator, and the fool.

Whether I die, is

St.

George

shall die, these

me

will let

his business, not

words of

mine

teach ;

it

you before

but as surely as /

his shall not.

"

"

to-day (which is my own shield motto) I send to a London goldsmith, whose address was written for me (so Fors appointed it) by the Prince

And

—

own hand, the weight of pure mean to be our golden standard,

Leopold, with his gold

which

(defined

I

by Fors, as

I

will explain in

another place,)

be beaten to the diameter of our old English "Angel," and to bear the image and superscriptions

to

above

told,

(Fors, vol.

And now,

in

iii.

p.

due nelation

182). to this

we

purpose of fixing

continue our inquiry into in not only the second part of the Deacon's service from house also but pouring wine, breaking bread, the standard of bread,

to

house

;

that so

making

—

all

food one sacrament,

all

FORS CLAVIGERA

304

men may

eat their meat with gladness and of heart, praising God, and having favour singleness with all the people, their Lord adding to their

Christian

assembly daily such as

Read

first this

shall be saved.

piece of a friend's recent letter

:

—

—

" My dear Mr. Ruskin, In reading over again the December Fors,' I have been struck with your question quoted, They have no wine ? and the command is '

'

'

water.' I am greatly averse called improving, spiritualizing i.e., applying the sacred text in a manner other than the simple and 'Fill the water-pots with

to

what

literal

—

is

one

;

but Christ's words had doubtless in them

germ of thoughtful wisdom applicable to other aims and ends besides the original circumstances ; and it is a singular coincidence that Fors should have induced a

you to close your last year with your quotation from the Cana miracle, and that the next number should propose to deal with 'filling the water-pots {cisterna) with water.' One thing is certain, viz., that in many parts of the

world,

and even

obedience to the

in

England

in

summer, the human

command

precedent to the miracle Did you ever read Kingsley's

would be impossible. Sermon on Cana ? If you think it well to give a few of the extracts of him 'who being dead yet speaketh,' I shall be delighted to make them, and send them * they are different from what one hears in ordinary churches, and are vital for St. George." ;

"

y,

,

.'*'L-iXoK(xi[x

eparewT^,

elpipnj -^aLpovcra, fSiov ^yiXovcra iSefSatov. alel to ttAcov o^Tvysei^, LcroTr^n 8e ^aipei?.

yap

ev crot

yap

dpeT?]? TeAos ecr^Aov iKavet.

(ro(f>trj

kAi^^i, ^ed, KaKirjv dvqrtjjv Opavovcra SiKaico?,

ws dv

del

IcroppoTTirjcriv

ptos ecrpAos oSevot

OvrjTwv dvOpcoTTWv, ot apovpriyxox\.,

to

name among

FORS CLAVIGERA

400 that

the casual observations which have

Fors

come

to

my ears, appeared, absurdity and impossibility of such devotion, only since

last

as

to

the

further prove to me what I have long since perceived, that very few young people, brought up

on modern principles, have ever felt love, or even know what it means, except under the conditions

which it is also possible to the lower animals. could easily prove this, if it were apposite to my immediate purpose, and if the subject were not too in I

by the evidence given me in a single evening, I watched the enthusiastic which during acceptance an by English audience of Salvini's frightful, and painful,

radically false, interpretation of Othello.

Were

to yield, as I

I

was wont

in the first series

without scruple, to the eddies of thought which turned the main stream of my discourse into apparently irrelevant, and certainly unof these letters,

inlets, I

progressive

show how

true-love

should in this place proceed to is inconsistent with railways,

with joint-stock banks, with the landed interest, with parHamentary interest, with grouse shooting, with lawn tennis, with monthly magazines, spring fashions,

now

and Christmas cards.

But

I

am

resolute

one place before becoming enigmatic in another, and keep to my one point until I have more or less collected what has been to explain

said about to

it

in

myself

former

insist at present

womanhood

itself,

creatures in the

in

letters.

And

thus continuing

only on the worth or price of and of the value of feminine

economy of a

state, I

must ask the

LETTER XCI reader to look back to Vol.

where

I

I.

4OI (Letter IV,, p. 67), in not being able

my own poverty

lament

buy a white girl of (in jeweller's language) good and facetting as in another place I in like manner bewail the present order of society in that I cannot make a raid on my neighbour's house, and carry off three graceful captives at a time and in one of the quite most important pieces of all the

to

lustre

;

;

book, or of any of

books, the essential nature of by that of the

my

real property in general is illustrated

two primary articles of a man's wealth. Wife, and Home and the meaning of the word mine," said •'*

;

to

be only

its depth by any man with And here, for further, and in hope it may be received as a final,

known

reference to the

in

first.

its sufficiency I

read the last lines (for I suppose the terminal lines can only be received as epilogue) of the play by which, in all the compass of literature, illustration,

the beauty of pure youth has been chiefly honoured ; there are points in it deserving notice besides the

one needful Prince.

"

my

to

Where be

purpose

:

—

these enemies

?

See what a scourge

is

That Heaven

means

love

And

finds

laid

Capulet Montague upon your hate, !

to kill

your joys with

!

for

I,

Have

winking at your discords too, a brace of kinsmen

lost

:

—

are

all

punish'd.

Cap.

O

me thy hand daughter's jointure, for no more

brother Montague, give

This

is

Can

I

my

IV.

I

:

demand.

Mont.

For

!

will raise

But I can give thee more her statue in pure gold 2 C ;

:

FORS CLAVIGERA

402

That while Verona by that name is known, There shall no figure at such rate be set. As that of true and faithful Juliet.

As

Cap.

rich shall

Poor I

Romeo by

his lady

lie

;

sacrifices of our enmity."

do not know

if in

the tumultuous renderings and

reckless abridgements of this play on the modern stage, the audience at any theatre is ever led to

think of the meaning of the Prince's saying,

Heaven Yet

finds

in that

one

means

to

line is the

kill

your joys with

"That love."

key of Christian theology

and of wise natural philosophy the knowledge of the law that binds the yoke of inauspicious stars, and ordains the slumber of world-wearied flesh. ;

Look back

Friar Laurence's

to

parent's grief at Juliet's "

Had and you

— death,

rebuke of the

Heaven and yourself maid now Heaven hath

part in this fair

will find, in the

;

concluding

lines,

all"

;

not only

the interpretation

of the Prince's meaning, but a clear light thrown on a question lately, in some one of our critical magazines, more pertinently asked than intelHgently answered " Shakespeare " wrote tragedies ? One of my chief reasons for from the later edition of " Sesame and

—

Why

withdrawing Lilies Life,"

"

the

was

" closing lecture, on the Mystery of the feeling that I had not with enough

care examined the spirit of faith in God, and hope

though unexpressed, were meant by the master of tragedy to be felt by the spectator,

in Futurity, which,

LETTER XCI

403

to himself, the solution and consolaa faith the wonderfulness of sorrow ;

what they were tion

of

all

most

for the

but here

part, as I

summed

instinctive

have just

said,

unexpressed;

which explains the on the great poetic of the heart fastening

stories of grief, "

—

in a single line,

—

For Nature's

tears are Reason's merriment."

to the terminal passage of the play, ask the reader to meditate on the alchemy

Returning

may I now of

fate,

which changes the youth and

girl into

two

golden statues ? Admit the gain in its completeness ; suppose that the gold had indeed been given

down, like Danae's from heaven, in exchange for them imagine, if you will, the perfectest art-skill ;

of Bezaleel or Aholiab lavished on the imperishable Verona is richer, is she, by so much treasures.

Old Montague bullion ? Italy, by so much art ? " and Capulet have their boy's and girl's " worth And though for every boy in gold, have they ? and girl whom now you exile from the gold of English harvest and the ruby of Scottish heath, to you, O there return loving friends, their corpses' weight, and more, in Californian sand, is

your bargain your mind ? or if

with

God's

bounty

so, think you that

it

—

wholly to is

to His,

also ?

Yet by

I

exile,

here into any debate of loss and national ostracism of our strongest. I

will not enter

keep to the estimate only of our loss by helpless, reckless,

needless death, the enduring torture at the bolted

FORS CLAVIGERA

404

theatre door of the world, and on the staircase

it

has

smoothed to Avernus. Loss of life By the ship overwhelmed in the by the mine's blast, the river, shattered on the sea '

*

!

;

—

earthquake's burial you mourn for the multitude slain. You cheer the life boat's crew you hear, with of still breathing one the rescue and of joy, praise :

body more

at the pit's

mouth

:

— and

the while,

all

saved from the momentary passing away (according to your creed, to be with its for

one soul that

is

God), the lost souls, yet locked in their polluted flesh, haunt, with worse than ghosts, the shadows of your churches, and the corners of your streets and your weary children watch, with no memory of Jerusalem, and no hope of return from //z^zr captivity, the welter;

ing to the sea of your

Waters of Babylon.

LETTER

XCII

ASHESTIEL Abbotsford, September

26th, 1883.

I CAN never hear the whispering and sighing of the Tweed among his pebbles, but it brings back

me

to

the song of

my

nurse, as

by Coldstream Bridge, from the

we used

to cross

south, in our

happy

days. "

For Scotland,

my

darling, lies

With her barefooted

lassies,

full in

my

view,

and mountains so

blue."

perceive, my poor be the chief wealth of Scotland, and meant the epithet barefooted to be one of

Those two possessions, you Euryclea

felt

to

'

'

praise.

In the two days that have passed since

I

this time

crossed the Border, I have seen but one barefooted but many highlassie, and she not willingly so, who willingly, if they might, would heeled ones :

—

—

have been heeled yet higher. And perhaps few, even of better minded Scots maidens, remember, with any due admiration, that the greater part of Jeanie Deans' walk to London was done barefoot, the days of such pilgrimage being now, in the hope of Scotland, for ever past and she, by help of the ;

405

FORS CLAVIGERA

406

high chimneys built beside Holyrood and Melrose, henceforward obtain the beatitude of Antichrist,

will

—Blessed be ye Rich. it

Nevertheless, village

where

is

worthy of note heart

Bruce's

is

that

buried,

in I

the

could

no better map of Scotland than no clear sign, to for a penny,

yesterday find

—

was purchaseable

my mind, either of the country's vaster wealth, or more refined education. Still less that the spot of earth under which the king's heart lies should be indicated to the curious observer by a small

white

ticket,

pegged into the grass

;

which might

seem meant to mark the price of that and indeed, if one meditates a little of goods

at first sight

piece on the matter, verily does so ;

;

this piece of paste-

board being nothing less than King Robert Bruce's

monument and

epitaph and the devotional offering of Scotland in the nineteenth century, at his shrine. Economical, even in pasteboard, as compared with ;

the lavish expenditure of that material by which Scots wha hae,' etc., receive on all their the '

paths of pilgrimage the recommendation of Colman's mustard.

So much, looking out on

the hillside which Scott

pride, and the garden he enclosed

planted in his

in the joy of his heart,

I

perceive to be the present

Two small outcome of his work in literature. other for the for the one white tickets Bruce,

—

Michael Scott: manifold acreage of yellow tickets Thus may we measure for Colman's mustard.

—

the

thirst

for

knowledge

excited

by

modern

LETTER

XCII

407

by modern Scottish

Scottish religion, and satisfied

education.

Whithorn,

October

yd,

1883.

at Melrose, so

sum of Sir Walter's work sum of St. Ninian's at Candida Casa, may I notice be set down in few and sorrowful words. that the children of the race who now for fifteen

As

the

here the

in this place the of Christ, are divided broadly into two classes

hundred years have been taught

Word

:

one, very bright and trim, strongly and sensibly shod and dressed, satchel on shoulder, and going to or from school by railroad walking away, after at the small stations, in a brisk and ;

being deposited independent manner.

between

broad way

which form the main

But up and down the earthy desolate-looking houses

the

street of

Whithorn, as also

in

the space of open ground which borders the great weir and rapid of the Nith at Dumfries, I saw wist-

groups of altogether neglected children, barefoot enough, tattered in frock, begrimed in face, their pretty long hair wildly tangled or ruggedly of them matted, and the total bodies and spirits

fully errant

—

like its thistles, springing there by the wayside with such care as Heaven gives to the herbs of the and Heaven's Adversary to the seed on the field,

—

Rock.

They

are

many

of them Irish, the Pastor of

me, — the

Whit-

keep a for sometimes from over one Wigton coming priest, the This be what ministration may imperative. dark ending of St. Ninian's prayer and fast in his horn

tells

parents too poor

to

FORS CLAVIGERA

4o8 sandstone Sol way,

with

filled

cave,

— now that

the

times have come and gone. This the end but of what

is

:

ginning these

?

of what

children

the

Christ are these to diction,

unforbidden

hollow roar

it

new Kingdom

be the be-

of

?

entries are all

I

October \Oth, 1883.

could get written

and seen during ten days in Scott's St. Ninian's somewhat more I must down before the impression fades. Not irrele-

of things

felt

country, and set

to

Heaven are nascent citizens ? To what be allowed to come for bene-

Brantwoop,

The above two

of

hundred years of Gospel

fifteen

;

resumed what I have said hitherto on early education and while, of all countries, Scotland is that which presents the main

my

vantly, for

it

letters

index

to

is

instant object in these

and enforce ;

questions

relating

to

it

in

the clearest form,

my

personal knowledge and feelings enable me to arrange aught I have yet to say more easily with reference to the Scottish character than any other. Its analysis will enable me also to point out some

and which English readers cannot usually disthemselves. I went into the Border country,

specialties in the genius of Sir Walter, Burns,

Carlyle,

cern for

now, chiefly to see the house of Ashestiel and morning have re-read, with better insight, the chapter of Lockhart's life which gives account of the

just

:

this

sheriff's settlement there is

incidental notice of

;

in

Mungo

which chapter there Park's last days in

LETTER Scotland, to which

I

first

XCII

pray

409

my

readers' close

attention.

Mungo had been born

in a cottage at Fowlsheils

He

on the Yarrow, nearly opposite Newark Castle.

African journey to his native Scott visits where him, and finds him on the cottage, banks of Yarrow, which in that place passes over returns after his

first

ledges of rock, forming deep pools between them. Mungo is casting stone after stone into the pools, measuring their depths by the time the bubbles take

and thinking (as he presently tells Scott) of the way he used to sound the turbid African rivers. Meditating, his friend afterwards perceives, on further to rise,

travel in the distant land.

With what motive, it is important for us to know. As a discoverer as a missionary or to escape from

—

ennui

He

?

among not be

could

his ;

own

— by

people.

A

more sacred

calling can-

missionary service more good among fair Scotch laddies in a

faithful

be done

day, than

—

that time practising as a physician

is at

among

black Hamites in a lifetime

;

—of

discovery, precious to all humanity, more might be made among the woods and rocks of Ettrick than in

the thousand leagues of desert between Atlas and red Edom. will he again leave his native stream ?

Why

mere baseness of petty vanity that There is no boastfulness in the man. " On one " the traveller comoccasion," says Scott, municated to him some very remarkable adventures which had befallen him in Africa, but which he had not It is

clearly not

moves him.

recorded in his book,"

On

Scott's asking the cause

FORS CLAVIGERA

4IO of this silence,

Mungo answered

that

" in

cases

all

communicate, which he thought of importance to the public, he had stated the facts boldly, leaving it to his readers to give such

where he had information

to

credit to his statements as they to deserve

might appear justly

but that he would not shock their

;

faith,

or render his travels more marvellous, by introducing circumstances which, however true, were of little

or no moment, as they related solely to his sonal adventures and escapes."

own

per-

Clearly it is not vanity, of Alpine-club kind, that But the Old Serpent is tempting this man with. " His continued had ?

what then to be

thoughts haunted with Africa."

whenever he awoke suddenly

always

He

Scott that

told

in the night,

he fancied

a prisoner in the tent of Ali ; but when Scott expressed surprise that he should intend again

himself

still

to revisit those scenes,

he answered that he would

rather brave Africa and

out his

life in

long

and

all

its

horrors, than

"

wear

toilsome rides over the hills

of Scotland^ for ivhich the remuneration was hardly enough to keep soul and body together^^ I have itaUcized the whole sentence, for it is a terrific

one.

It signifies, if

you look

into

it,

almost total

—

absence of the instinct of personal duty, total absence of belief in the God who chose for him his cot-

—

tage birthplace, and set him his life-task beside it ; absolute want of interest in his profession, of sense for natural beauty, and of compassion for the noblest

And, with these absences, the clear presence of the fatallest of the

poor of his native land. there

is

LETTER vices, Avarice,

—

in

XCII

4II

the exact form in which

the ruin of Scott himself, the love of

money

it

was

for the

sake of worldly position. I have purposely placed the instinct for natural beauty, and compassion for the poor, in the same their relation, as I hope breath of the sentence And the total want hereafter to show, is constant. ;

—

its primary root of sympathy, is naked fearsomeness in the next sen-

of compassion, in

shown

in its

tence of the

tale.

"Towards

end of the autumn. Park paid Next visit, and slept at Ashestiel.

the

Scott a farewell

accompanied him homewards over the wild chain of hills between the Tweed and the

morning Yarrow.

his host

Park talked much of his new scheme,

and mentioned his determination to tell his family that he had some business for a day or tivo in Edinburgh, and send them his blessing from thence He had married without returning to take leave.'' and not long before a pretty and amiable woman ;

when they reached

the Williamhope

Ridge,

"the

autumnal mist floating heavily and slowly down " the valley of the Yarrow presented to Scott's " a striking emblem of the troubled and imagination uncertain prospect which his undertaking afforded."

He remained however unshaken, and at length they reached the spot where they had agreed to separate. A small ditch divided the moor from the road, and in

going over

it.

Park's horse stumbled and nearly

fell.

"

I

am

afraid,

Mungo,"

said the sheriff,

" that is a

FORS CLAVIGERA

412

To which he answered, smiling, " Freits (omens) follow those who look to them," With this expression Mungo struck the spurs into his horse, bad omen."

and Scott never saw him again. "Freits follow those

who

look to them."

Words

absolutely true, (with their converse, that they cease to follow those who do not look to them of which :)

truth

I

will

ask the consenting reader to consider a

while.

little

He may

perhaps think Mungo utters it in all wisdom, as already passing from the darkness and captivity of superstition into the marvellous light of

secure Science and liberty of Thought. A wiser are we to then ? hold than man, Walter, Mungo,

—

—

and wiser how much more, than his forefathers ? I do not know on what authority Lockhart inter"

prets

as only

'

In the meaning omen.' means 'aid,' or protection'; it

freit,"

'

Douglas glossary it is the word used by Jove, declaring that he will not give freit from heaven either to Trojan or Rutulian; and I believe it always to have the sense of service'

'

—

protective, if watched and obeyed. not here concerned with the question how far such guidance has been, or is still, given to those

able I

warning

am

who

look for

it

;

but

I

wish the reader

to note that

the form of Celtic intellect which rejected the ancient faith was certainly not a higher one than that which it. And this I shall best show by taking the wider ground of enquiry, how far Scott's own intellect was capable of such belief, and whether in its strength or weakness.

received

—

LETTER

XCII

413

In the analysis of his work, given in the Nineteoith Century in Fiction, Fair and Foul,' I have accepted twelve novels as characteristic and essentially good, '

—naming

them in the order of their production. These twelve were all written in twelve years, before he had been attacked by any illness and of ;

these, the first five exhibit the natural progress of

his life,

judgment and faith, in the prime years of his between the ages of forty-three and forty-

eight.

In the

element

'

of them, Waverley,' the supernatural admitted with absolute frankness and

first is

of Colonel Gardiner being time well attested, faculty of and both the captivity and death of

death

simplicity,

the

foretold

the, at that

second

by

sight,

—

Fergus Mclvor by the personal phantom, and fatal to his house.

hostile

In the second, 'Guy Mannering,' the supernatural is not allowed to reach the point of actual

warning vision.

It is

in the thread

given by the stars, and by the strains

spun

at the child's birth

by

his gipsy

guardian. In the third, 'The Antiquary,' the supernatural influence reduces itself merely to a feverish dream,

and

words of Elspeth of the " I'm Craigburnfoot coming, my leddy the staircase is as mirk as a Yule midnight." to the terror of the last

—

:

'

In the fourth, Old Mortality,' while Scott's utmost force is given to exhibit the self-deception of re-

hgious pride, imagining

of heaven, admitted as a vague

itself inspired

the idea of prophetic warning

is

FORS CLAVIGERA

414 with

possibilit}^,

the

exalt

more of purpose than Claverhouse and in

little

of

fortitude

;

to

the

two last stories of his great time, Rob Roy,' The of and Heart Midlothian,' all suggestion whatever of the interference of any lower power '

'

than that of the Deit}^ in the order of this world has been refused, and the circumstances of the tales are confined within the limits of absolute

known I

and

truth.

am

The Heart

'

in the habit of placing

of Mid-

'

highest of all his works, because in this element of intellectual truth, it is the strictest

lothian

and it

— because, being the most exalted character; — and

richest

also

is

human

thus rigid in truth,

;

in

its

in

clearest

of

acknowledgment

of

conception

because

lastly,

is

it

the

the

overruling

God, even to the uttermost, visiting the sin of the fathers upon the children, and purifying

justice of

the

forgiven

without the

spirit

remission of

punishment. In the recognition of these sacred laws of stands alone

among

consequence sign

of

sense Scott 'Lay.'

faculty,

is

gether,

of is

the

increased

of

range

of

:

it

discipline

mental

the

supernatural

all himself only

of

age

in

and

— not

The

faculty.

imaginative

unquestionably the

life it

and

may justly yet the stern advance in indicates is the natural

Scott's works,

be called the greatest moral purpose which

its

'

to-

analytic

highest is

the

entire

most

when

distinct, '

Waverley

the

—

and the

LETTER

No

XCII

415

modern poetry has been oftener quoted with thoughtless acceptance than Wordsworth's line of

"

Heaven

lies

about us

in

our infancy."

if life It is wholly untrue in the implied hmitation be led under heaven's law, the sense of heaven's ;

nearness only deepens with advancing years, and But the saying is indeed true is assured in death.

dawn

of virtuous Hfe every enthusiasm and every perception may be trusted as of divine appointment ; and the maxima reverentia

thus

is

that in the

far,

due not only

to the

innocence of children, but to

their inspiration.

And of

it

mortal

follows that through the ordinary course failure and misfortune, in the career

of nations no less than of men, the error of their intellect, and the hardening of their hearts, may

be accurately measured by their denial of spiritual power. In

the

life

of

Scott,

beyond

comparison

greatest intellectual force manifested in

the

Europe since

Shakespeare, the lesson is given us with a clearness as sharp as the incision on a Greek vase. The very first mental effort for which he obtained praise

was the passionate '

Eneid,' in

Eneas.

the deadliest sign of his own approachin the form of incredulity which dictated

And

ing death to his

recitation of the passage in the

which the ghost of Hector appears to

is

weary hand the

*

Letters on

Demonology and

Witchcraft.'

Here, for the present,

I

must leave the subject

FORS CLAVIGERA

4l6 to

your own thought,— only desiring you

to notice,

for general guidance, the gradations of impression on the feelings of men of strong and well-rounded intellect, I.

The

by which fancy lowest stage

is

rises

towards

faith.

that of wilfully grotesque

recognized as false, yet dwelt upon finished with accuracy, as the and delight what is true. of or parable symbol of the Shakespeare's Puck, and the Dwarf Goblin are precisely alike in this first level of the ima-

fancy,

which

is

with

*

Lay,'

Shakespeare does not believe in Bottom's neither does Scott that, when the boy translation

gination.

;

Buccleugh passes the drawbridge with the dwarf, the sentinel only saw a terrier and lurcher passing Yet both of them permit the fallacy, because out. to make they acknowledge the Elfin power in nature, for sometimes for sometimes harm, good, things, not. Nearly all the grotesque the of great ages, beginning with the Greek sculpture nascent form of Faith for its this has Chimaera,

seem what they are

impulse.

ghosts and witches of Shakespeare, and the Bodach Glas and White Lady of Scott, are exII.

The

and pressions of real belief, more or less hesitating Scott's worldHness too early makes him obscure. his convictions, and in the end effaces them.

deny But Shakespeare remains sincerely honest assertion of the

in

his

uncomprehended spiritual presence subtle expression of his knowledge further this with

;

of mankind, that he never permits a spirit to show itself but to men of the highest intellectual power.

LETTER

XCII

417

To Hamlet,

to Brutus, to Macbeth, to Richard III.; but the royal Dane does not haunt his own murderer, neither does Arthur, King John neither Norfolk,

—

;

King Richard

The

III.

tain of

II.

nor Tybalt, Romeo.

;

Horace

faith of

in the spirit of the foun-

Faun of

in the

Brundusium,

his hillside,

in the help of the greater gods, is constant,

and

practical

;

yet in

some degree

still

tractable

his imagination, as also that of the great poets

painters of Christian times. is

bility

own

singular;

and

vital,

by and

In Milton, the tracta-

he hews his gods out to his

and then believes in them but in Giotto and Dante the art is always subjected to the true fancy,

;

vision.

The

IV. into

faith of the saints

serenity

Redeemer dinary

of

knowledge,

and prophets, rising "

I

know

that

my

mind of which orbut which in the prac-

liveth," is a state of

men cannot

reason

;

has always governed the world, power No dynamite will ever be and must for ever. of

tical

it,

invented that can rule

Only the

destroy.

man can

;

—

Word

it

can but dissolve and

of

God and

the heart of

govern.

have been led

but to the saving of future time, by the examination of the difference in believing power between the mind of Scott and his unhappy I

far,

now take up my immediate subject of the effect upon Scott's own mind of the enquiry, natural scenery of the native land he loved so dearly. friend.

I

life, let me first point out to you, was, in all the joyful strength of it, spent in the valley of the

His

IV.

2

D

FORS CLAVIGERA

41 8

Edinburgh was his school, and

Tweed. but his

home was always by Tweedside

his office :

;

and more

perfectly so, because in three several places during the three clauses of life. You must remember also

cottage at Lasswade for the first years of marriage, and Sandy Knowe for his childhood but, allowing to Smailholm Tower and Roslin Glen what-

the

;

ever collateral influence they may rightly claim over the babe and the bridegroom, the constant influ-

ences of

home remain

divided strictly into the three Rosebank, Ashestiel, and Abbotsford. Rosebank, on the lower Tweed, gave him his close

seras at

knowledge of the store

district of

of foot-traveller's

Ettrick,

Flodden Field

interest

in

:

and his

every glen of

Yarrow, and Liddel-water.

The vast tract of country to which owe their power is composed of a

these streams finely-grained

dark and hard sandstone, whose steep beds are uniformly and simultaneously raised into masses of upland, which nowhere present any rugged or broken masses of crag, like those of our Cumberland mountains,

and are rarely steep enough anywhere

break the grass by weathering; a moderate shaly or,

rather, gritty

— slope

to

—

of two or three hundred

feet opposite Ashestiel itself,

among

the rounded

being noticeable enough, monotony of general form, to

" the Toreceive the separate name of Slidders." wards the bottom of a dingle, here and there, a few feet of broken bank may show what the hills con-

but the great waves of them rise against the horizon without a single peak, crest, or cleft sist of;

LETTER to

XCII

distinguish one from another,

419 in

though

their

true scale of mountain strength heaved into heights

of 1,500 or 2,000 feet; and covering areas of three or four square leagues for each of the surges. The dark rock weathers easily into surface soil,

which forms

for the greater part good pasture, with interspersed patches of heath or peat, and, Liddes-

daleway, rushy and sedgy moorland, good for man or beast.

little

to

Much

rain falls over the

whole

district

;

but, for

a great part of its falling time, in the softly-diffused form of Scotch mist, absorbed invisibly by the grass soil; while even the heavier rain, having to deal

with broad surfaces of serenely set rock, and finding no ravines in which it can concentrate force, nor any loose lighter soil to undermine, threads its way down to the greater glens in gradual and deliberate

confluence, nobody can well see how; there are no Lodores nor Bruar waters, still less Staubbachs or

unnoticed, by million upon million of feebly glistening streamlets, or stealthy and obscure springs, the cloudy dew descends towards the river,

Giesbachs

;

and the mysterious strength of its stately water rises or declines indeed, as the storm impends or passes

away yet flows for ever with a serenity of power unknown to the shores of all other mountain lands. ;

And

the

more wonderful, because the uniformity

of the hill-substance renders the slope of the river as In all other mountain channels steady as its supply.

known

me, the course of the current is here open, and there narrow sometimes pausing in extents of to

—

FORS CLAVIGERA

420

marsh cord

lake,

sometimes furious

in rapids, pre-

cipitate in cataracts, or lost in subterranean caves.

But the

classic Scottish streams

laid for

them, ages and ages ago, in vast accumula-

have had

their

beds

tions of rolled shingle, which, occupying the floor of the valleys from side to side in apparent level, yet sub-

due themselves with a steady fall towards the sea. As I drove from Abbotsford to Ashestiel, Tweed

and Ettrick were both

in flood

;

not dun nor wrath-

ful, but in the clear fulness of their perfect strength and from the bridge of Ettrick I saw the two streams ;

and the Tweed

join,

for miles

down

the vale, and

—

the Ettrick for miles up among his hills, each of them, in the multitude of their windless waves, a march of infinite Hght, dazzHng, interminable,

—

—

intervaled indeed with eddies of shadow, but, for the most part, gliding paths of sunshine, far-swept

beside

the

blessing

of

glow of their level inches, the the stately them, and the guard

green

:

—

moving of the many waters, more peaceful than their calm, only mighty, their rippled spaces fixed

orient clouds, their pools of pausing current binding the silver edges with a gloom of amber and like

and all along their shore, beyond the sward, and the murmurous shingle, processions of dark forest, in strange majesty of sweet order, and un-

gold

;

wounded grace of glorious age. The house of Ashestiel itself miles above this junction of *

I

owe

to the courtesy of Dr.

quiet sight both of the house

and

is

only three or four

Tweed and

Matthews Duncan the its

surroundings.

Ettrick.* privilege of

LETTER

XCII

42 1

has been sorrowfully changed since Sir Walter's death, but the essential make and set of the former There is more excuse building can still be traced. It

for Scott's flitting to

Abbotsford than

I

had guessed,

house stands, conscious of the river rather than commanding it, on a brow of meadowy bank, that nothing can be falling so steeply to the water

for this

seen of it from the windows. Beyond, the pastureland rises steep three or four hundred feet against the northern sky, while behind the house, south and east, the moorlands lift themselves in gradual disgreater height, so that virtually neither sunrise nor sunset can be seen from the deep-nested

tance to

still

dwelling.

down

to

A it

tricklet of

stream wavers to and fro

from the moor, through

entirely natural wood,

— oak,

and

birch,

grove of

a

ash, fantastic

and bewildering, but nowhere gloomy or decayed, and carpeted with anemone. Between this wild avenue and the house, the old garden remains as it used to be, large, gracious, and tranquil its high ;

walls swept round

it

in a

curving line like a war

the fruit-trees, following the ground trained a century since, now with grey trunks a foot wide, flattened to the wall like sheets of crag

rampart,

;

;

the strong bars of their living trellis charged, when I saw them, with clusters of green-gage, soft

and blue and of orange-pink and crowds of ponderous pear, magnum bonum, Some as leaves. countless open space of grass and for modern needs, must all redesigned path, now

bloomed

into gold

;

always have divided the garden

from what was

FORS CLAVIGERA

422

properly the front of the house, where the main entrance is now, between advanced wings, of which

only the westward one is of Sir Walter's time its ground floor being the drawing-room, with his own bedroom of equal size above, cheerful and luminous :

both, side

enfilading the house front

windows, which

Tweed down

with their large the sweep of

commanded

the valley, and

some high masses of

Ettrick Forest beyond, this view being shut off by the opposite wing, added for

now mostly symmetry

!

But Sir Walter saw it fair through the morning clouds when he rose, holding himself, nevertheless, At altogether regardless of it, when once at work. Ashestiel and Abbotsford alike, his work-room is strictly a writing-office, what windows they have

being designed to admit the needful light, with an extremely narrow vista of the external world. Abbotsford, and bank of young wood nothing at Ashestiel but the green turf of

Courtyard

beyond

:

at

the opposite fells with the sun on it, if sun there were, and silvery specks of passing sheep.

The room

itself,

Scott's true

'

memorial

'

if

the

Scotch people had heart enough to know him, or is a small parlour on the ground-floor of the north side of the house, some twelve feet deep by eleven wide ; the single window little more than

remember,

four feet square, or rather four feet cube, above the desk, which is set in the recess of the mossy wall,

the light thus entering in front of the writer, and This window is reflected a little from each side. set to the left in the

end

wall, leaving a breadth of

LETTER

XCII

423

some five feet or a little more on the fireplace side, where now, brought here from Abbotsford, stands the garden chair of the last days.*

Contentedly,

and

such space

in

splendour of

domicile, the three great poems were written, Waverley begun and all the make and tenure of his mind confirmed, as it was to remain, or revive, through after time of vanity, trouble, and decay. '

*

;

—

A

small chamber, with a fair world outside: such are the conditions, as far as I know or can

work. At gather, of all greatest and best mental cell the sometimes, always, changed monastery heart, for special need, into the prison cell. tate

more and more

make

to the

faithful

read,

I

now

But, as

closely what reply

I

I

may

medisafely

eagerly pressed questioning of

what books

scholars,

I

find the first broadly-swept definition

— Books

my

would have them

may

None worth country. safe to are that few and time quite on, spending in towns. been written have touch, be

written in

the

narrowing definition would be, have good music in them, that are a definition which includes the rightly-rhythmic and delicacy of perfect prose, such as Scott's

And my

Books

next

—

that

:

;

which ^;i:cludes at once a great deal of modern poetry, in which a dislocated and convulsed versification has been imposed on the ear in the attempt to express uneven temper, and unprincipled feeling. [*

It

was

stated

shortly afterwards

in the

Scotsman that Sir

Walter's study had been turned into a passage in the recent im-

provements.]

FORS CLAVIGERA

424

unprincipled feeling, I mean whatever part of passion the writer does not clearly discern for right or wrong, and concerning which he betrays the

By

reader's

moral judgment into

No

compassion.

false

sympathy or

really great writer ever does so

:

neither Scott, Burns, nor Byron ever waver for an instant, any more than Shakespeare himself, in their estimate of what is fit and honest, or harmful

and base. Scott always punishes even error, how much more fault, to the uttermost nor does Byron, in his most defiant and mocking moods, ever utter a syllable that defames virtue, or disguises sin. ;

In looking back to my former statement in the volume of Modern Painters,' of the influence '

third

of natural scenery on these three men, I was unjust both to it and to them, in my fear of speaking too favourably of passions with which I had m3fself so strong personal sympathy.

Recent Vandalism has

taught me, too cruelly, and too late, the moral value of such scenes as those in which I was brought up

;

and given it me, for my duty to the future, to teach the Love of the fair Universe around us, as the beginning of Piety, and the end of Learning.

The

reader

may be

interested in comparing with the fragmentary stanzas

description in the text, Scott's first relating to the sources of the

Tweed.

Lockhart, vol.

P- 314'

Go sit old Cheviot's crest below, And pensive mark the Ungering snow In

all

his scaurs abide,

i.,

LETTER

XCII

425

And slow dissolving from the hill In many a sightless soundless rill, Feed sparkling Bowmont's "

tide.

Fair shines the stream by bank and to the eastern sea

lea,

As wimpling

She seeks Till's sullen bed, Indenting deep the fatal plain. Where Scotland's noblest, brave in vain,

Around "

their

And westward Even

monarch hills

on

bled.

hills

you

see,

as old Ocean's mightiest sea

Heaves high her waves of foam, Dark and snow-ridged from Cutsfcld's wold

To

the proud foot of Cheviot roll'd. Earth's mountain billows come."

LETTER

XCIII

INVOCATION Christmas, 1883.

My

Christmas

letter,

which

I

have extreme

satis-

faction in trusting this Kttle lady to present to you,

George's Company, and honest men, as merry a Christmas as they can

comes all

first to

wish the

St.

minds to (though, under present the merriment, it seems to me, should circumstances, be temperate, and the feasting moderate,) and in

make up

their

;

—

the

second

Company

place,

both

of

assure

to

own

its

the

St.

existence,

George's

and

its

of Master's, which, without any extreme refinement well begin metaphysics, the said Company might to have some doubt of seeing that there has been

—

no report made of

its

business, nor record of 426

its

LETTER additional

XCIII

427

members, nor catalogue of

—

properties, given since the of I don't know what year.

I

don't

— I

am

its

additional

know what day

going to ask pardon any more for

not

these administrative defects, or mysterious silences, because, so far as they are results of my own carelessness or procrastination, they are unpardonable ; and so far as they might deserve indulgence explained, it could only be justified by the details, otherwise useless, of difficulty or disappointment in which more than one of our members have had their

if

—

and of which their explanations might someSeveral times take a different shape from mine. have left us, whose secession grieved me ; one or share

two, with

my

full

consent.

Others, on the contrary, their whole hearts and

have been working with minds, while the Master was too their labour

unpraised

ill

to take

note of

and, owing, I believe, chiefly to that but in a measure also to the wider

:

zeal,

reading and better understanding of

'

Fors

'

itself,

new members all

are rapidly joining us, and, I think, are at present animated with better and more

definite

hope than heretofore.

The accounts

of the

Company,

—which, instead of

encumbering Fors,' as they used to do, it seems to me now well to print in a separate form, to be pre'

sented to the Companions v/ith the recommendation not to read it, but to be freely purchaseable by the public who may be curious in literature of that kind,

—do

not,

in

their

present aspect, furnish a wide I have just stated to be

basis for the confidence

FORS CLAVIGERA

428 increasing.

we

But, in these days, that

are entirely

and cannot be otherwise, since it is our principal law of business never to buy anything till we have got the money to pay for it, that whatever we have bought, we keep, and don't try to make a bad bargain good by swindling anybody else,

solvent,

—

—

that, at all events, a certain quantity of the things

purchased on such terms are found to be extremely useful and agreeable possessions by a daily increasing number of students, readers, and spectators, at

—

and elsewhere, and that we have at this Christmas-time of 1883 i^4,ooo and some odd hundreds of stock, with, besides the lands and Sheffield

tenements specified in my promise of a new and better

Museum

at

and of

Sheffield,

building thereof, siderations do,

Companions of

last

— these I

think,

St.

George

report, conditional

site for the St.

George's

5,000 to begin the various facts and con;^

justify

sufficiently in sitting

down

the

peaceful-

minded, so far as regards their business matters, to and perhaps also the Master their Christmas cheer ;

in calling with confidence

on

all

whom

kind souls

words may reach, to augment the hitherto narrow fellowship. Of whose nature, I must try to sum in this Fors what I have had often to repeat in private letters. his

'

'

George's Guild sentimental association of persons First, that the St.

of

not a merely

who want sym-

It the general endeavour to do good. that a body constituted for a special purpose

pathy is

is

in

:

buying

land, holding

it

inviolably,

cultivating

LETTER properly, and bringing people as it will feed.

XCIII

up on

it

It

429 it

as

many honest

means, therefore, the

continual, however slow, accumulation of landed property, and the authoritative management of the same; and every new member joining it shares all rights in that property, and has a vote for the re-election or deposition

would be entirely unjust

of

Master, Now, it Members who have

its

to the

contributed to the purchase of our lands, or of such funds and objects of value as we require for the support and education of the persons living on

them,

if

the Master allowed the entrance of

who would have

equal property, without contributing to I sometimes receive Companions

qualities I like,

though they

us with money,

Members

control over the Society's

(otherwise

it.

may be it

Nevertheless,

whose temper and unable to help

might be thought

people had to pay for entrance,) but I can't see why there should not be plenty of people in England both able and willing to help us

solemnly

call

upon

to

do

;

whom

I

once more very

so, as thereby exercising

the quite healthiest and straightforwardest power of Charity. They can't make the London or Paris

landlords emancipate their poor, (even

if

it

were

according to sound law to make such an endeavour). But they can perfectly well become landlords themselves,

And of

my

and emancipate their own. I beg the readers alike, and the despisers former pleadings in this matter, to observe

the recent agitation of the public mind, concerning the dwellings of the poor, is merely that

all

CLAVIGERA

P^ORS

430

the sudden and febrile, (Heaven be thanked, though, such fever !) recognition of the things which I have been these twenty years trying to get recogfor

and

nized,

description and lamentation

—even to reiterating the actual

of

red

—

to try if

printing of my pages bloodcould catch the eye at least, when

I

I

could not the ear or the heart.

I

know

In these letters not yet what accumulation of witness may be gathered, but let the reader think, now, only

—

what the single sentence meant which I quoted from the Evening news in the last Fors I wrote before '

'

great illness (March, 1878, Letter LXXXVII. " The mother got impatient, thrust the child p. 320), into the snow, and hurried on not looking back."

my

—

There

a

is

EngHsh friends

Christmas

'nativity' for

And

!

—O

take

again,

with

card,

you

a

picture

of

suddenly awakened

this

picture

of what

Mr. Tenniel calls John Bull guarding his Pudding, authentic from the iron-works of Tredegar, nth " For several 334 of this volume) months the average earnings have been six shillings a week, and out of that they have to pay for coal, and house rent and other expenses, (the rent-

February, 1878

collector

are

never

for food

little

a

day, and to cover

for

or

:

out

and

nothing

very

of

his

or clothing.

hundred

they have

sold

(p.

little

them on

pawned

thirty

work), In

my

leaving

very

district

there

families

in

distress;

them by rags beside that wearing apparel

but

their

their

to

beds

cover

at night,

furniture,

and

—they

have

everything

which they could obtain the smallest sum of

LETTER

XCIII

43 1

them are some days every week and with nothing but without anything to eat, " and that poisoned, probably. water to drink Was not this, the last message I was able to

money

;

many

of

—

—

bring to John Bull concerning his Pudding, enough to make him think how he might guard it better ?

But on first recovery of my power of speech, was not the news I brought of the state of La Belle France worth her taking to thought also ? " In a room two yards and a half broad by

—

four wife,

yards and three-quarters long, a husband, and four children, of whom two were dead

—

two months afterwards, of those left, the eldest daughter had still the strength to smile.' Hunger had reduced this child, who would have been '

beautiful, nearly to the state of a skeleton."

('

Fors,'

LXXXVIII.

p. 351, and see the sequel.) And the double and treble horror of all

Letter

this,

only the tennis-playing and railroad-flying public trip round the outskirts bhnd and of it, and whirl over the roofs of it, note you well,

is

that, not

—

maindeaf; but that the persons interested in the tenance of it have now a whole embodied Devil's militia of base litterateurs in their bound service

—the

;

worst form of serfs that ever

—

human

souls

partly conscious of their lying, partly, own of daily repetition, believing in their by dint in every journal and babble, and totally occupied the world, in declaring penny magazine all over

sank into

poor to be glorious and enviable, as compared with the poor that have been. this present state of the

FORS CLAVIGERA

432

In which continual pother of parroquet He, and desperately feigned defence of all things damnable, this nineteenth century stutters and shrieks alone

Whatever men did the story of mankind. before now, of fearful or fatal, they did openly. Attila does not say his horse-hoof is of velvet. in

Ezzelin deigns no disguise of his Paduan massacre. Prince Karl of Austria fires his red-hot balls in " at stroke of the top of daylight, noon, on the shingle roofs of the weavers of Zittau in dry July, ten thousand innocent souls shrieking in vain to Heaven and Earth, and before sunset Zittau is

—

ashes and red-hot walls, not Zittau, but a cinder* but Prince Karl never says it was the heap,"

—

best

been done for the

have

could

that

thing

—

weavers of Zittau, and that hereafter are to do the like

charitable

all

for

all

men

weavers,

if

But your nineteenth century prince of shams and shambles, sells for his own behoof

feasible.

the blood and

ashes,

preaches,

true

and only Divine, and

the

air

with

his

fills

darkness,

cruelty, the waters with of men with his lies.

with

his

steam-

from ruin, as the only

throat, the gospel of gain

his

at the

the filth,

same

earth

instant

with

his

and the hearts

Of which

the primary and all-pestilentialest is the one formalized now into wide European faith

by by

political

frantic

economists,

clergymen *

!

and that

Fried rich,

v.

bruited

about,

you are not 124.

to

too,

give

LETTER

XCIII

433

alms, (any more than you are to fast, or pray), that you are to benefit the poor entirely by your own eating and drinking, and that it is their

—

glory and eternal praise to

stomach,

— and

themselves

your pockets and and be thankful.

fill

die,

Concerning which falsehood, observe, whether you Christian or not, this unquestionable mark it infinite horror, that the persons who utter

be

has of

—

cannot it have themselves lost their joy in giving conceive that strange form of practical human felicity it is more blessed (not benedictum, but beatuni) and that the entire practo give than to receive

—

'

'

—

'

'

and delight of a

'

loaflady is to be a It is a giver,^ as of a lord to be a land-giver. for your neighbour's child degradation forsooth tical life

—

—

and you are pained

to receive a loaf,

one

your

;

own

children

are

not

in giving

receiving their breakfast, are they ? have some satisfaction of a charitable nature

seeing them eat

it

degraded in and you still in

a degradation bedridden pauper to get a blanket from the Queen how, then, shall the next bedded bride of May Fair ?

it

a

is

It

to

!

boast of the carcanet from her

— that myand — understand

Now, Guild, to

are,

be,

this,

you come forward this

human world

Companions of the Companions all, that are now and -evermore, that

good

therefore,

all

?

to be Givers, not Receivers, in

that

you are

to give your time, and the reward of your your thoughts, your labour, so far as can labour, you spare it, for the help of the poor and the needy, (they are not the same IV.

;

2

E

FORS CLAVIGERA

434

mind

personages,

:

the

'

'

are

poor

healthy, and accepted relations

in

to 3'ou,

constant,

— the

needy, and observe, in conditions requiring change) the second place, that you are to work, so far as in

;

circumstances admit of your doing

so,

with your

the production of substantial means and that only of life food, clothes, house, or fire make either labour can such your own living, you by One of our lately admitted or anybody else's.

own

hands,

—

in

—

Companions wrote joyfully and proudly to me the other day that she was making her own living,' meaning that she was no burden to her family, *

To whom I but supported herself by teaching. and be the answer now generally answered, understood by all our Companions, that Jtobody can live by teaching, an}' more than by learning

—

—

:

and learning are proper duties or pleasures of it, but have nothing

that both teaching

of

human

whatever

life,

to

do with the support of

it.

Food can only be got out of the ground, or the What you have done in fishing, air, or the sea. fowling, digging, sowing, watering, reaping, milling,

shepherding, shearing, spinning, weaving, building, carpentering, slating, coal-carrying, cooking, costermongering, and the like, that is St. George's work,

—

and means of power.

All the rest is St. George's his not his labour. or devotion play, And the main message St. George brings to you is that you will not be degraded by this work nor

—

—

saddened by it, yoii, who modest resignation, take it

in

righteous will and

upon

you

for

your

LETTER

XCIII

435

servant-yoke, as true servants, no less than chilbut, so far as it dren, of your Father in Heaven does mean an acknowledgment that you are not ;

better

than

the

poor,

and are content

share

to

you enter into the and of sacred monastic soul innermost good very and and have the loveliness sanctity of it, life, their lowliness in that humility,

sorrow or the danger separating yourfrom the world and the flesh, only in their selves witliout the

sin

of

and

;

in their pain.

Nor, so far as the praise

men may be good and

above

all,

good

be wanting. one of these

helpful

to

you,

for tliem to give you, will

—

it

and, ever

Do you yourself even if you are who glory in idleness think less of

Florentine Ida because she

is

—

a working girl ? or

esteem the feeling in which "everybody called her " less honourable than the crowd's stare Signora '

'

at

my

lady in her carriage ?

But above world in

its

you separate yourself from the There are no chagrins so sorrow. all,

venomous as the chagrins of

the idle

;

there are

no pangs so sickening as the satieties of pleasure. Nay, the bitterest and most enduring sorrow may be borne through the burden and heat of day bravely to the due time of death, by a true worker. And, indeed, it is this very dayspring and fount of

peace in the bosoms of the labouring poor which has till now rendered their oppression possible.

Only the

idle

— the brave — and make

among them

revolt against their state

;

workers die passively, young and old no sign. It is for you to pity them,

FORS CLAVIGERA

436 for

to stand with them, for

you

you

to cherish,

and

save.

And

be sure there are thousands upon thousands who are joined in no already leading such life

—

own

recognized fellowship, but each in their

doing happy of a friend's

while

I

was

service to

letter,

all

I

place

this piece

received only a day or two since,

what

just thinking

could give you from real "

Read

men.

plainest

examples

I

life.

have just returned from

W

,

where

I lived in

a house of which the master was a distributor of sacks

of grain, in the service of a dealer in grain, while his did, one of them the whole work of the

two daughters

house, including attendance on the old mother who was past work, and the other the managing of a little shop

—

" in the village, work, with all (father and daughters) " was I there for some months, beginning at five a.m.

and never saw a fault. was that the daughter, who you was an admirable cook, was conversant with her poets, and was perfectly I wanted to

What

dealt

with,

tell

quoted Wordsworth and Burns, when I led her that way, and knew all about Brantwood, as she had carean account of it from an old Art fully treasured Journal."

Think what praise is in ^Perfectly dealt with.' what straightforward underthose three words !

—

Think, standing, on both sides, of true hospitality (for one of the modes of life quickest open to you what roadside-inns might be and serviceablest,) !

—

—

You kept by a true Gains and Gaia of Fors one in far back it held haps

—

!

'

'

have per-

my

wildest

LETTER

XCIII

437

sayings, that every village should have, as a Holy at one end, a Holy Tavern at the other

Church

the

better

will

I

may be will tic

!

side by side, if have entered into another mystery of monas-

life,

number

by the plan given of a

as you shall see

the second forthcoming Monastery of Valle Crucis * where, appointed in

Cistercian

its

—

now by adding "they you will." And then you

saying

in

'

*

—

due place with the Church,

and the school,

the

Scriptorium

the Hospitium for entertaining And why not awares also ? strangers unawares. Judge what the delight of travelling would be, for is

nice travellers, (read the

—

word

'

nice

'

in

any sense

every village there were a Blue Boar, you will) with Mark or a Green Dragon, or Silver Swan t if at

Tapley of the Dragon for Ostler

Swan

— and

— and

—

Boots of the

Mrs. Lupin or Mrs. Lirriper at Girton in all that for Hostess trained only becomes a Hostess in the nineteenth century for

Boots

—

!

Gentle

girl

-

readers

mine,

is

any excess of makes j^ou

it

Christianity in you, do you think, that *

['Mending the

in

Sieve,'

the volume entitled 'Verona, and

other Lectures,' p. 133.]

t "

And should I once again, as once Visit Martigny, I will not forget Thy Thy

I

may,

hospitable roof, Marguerite de Tours, Heaven prosper thee." sign the Silver Swan.

(Rogers' In ful

schools at Oxford

I

Italy.')

have placed, with Mr. Ward's beauti-

copy of Turner's vignette of the old Cygne, at Martigny, my " La Poste/' early drawing of the corridor of its neighbour inn once itself a convent.

own

—

my

'

FORS CLAVIGERA

438

shrink from the notion of being such an one, instead of the Curate's wife ?

—

My in

time

fails

trying

when

me

to

— my thoughts

imagine what

meek

how much more

this

sweet world

indeed, and the has been of faithful handmaiden lowliness every For the day tvill come, the regarded of her Lord. will

be,

the

inherit

it

expectation of the poor shall not perish for ever. Not by might, nor by power, but by His Spirit the meek shall He guide in judgment, and the meek

—

shall

He

teach His way.

'A

\

IM

111

ii

LETTER XCIV RETROSPECT Brantwood,

Tjist

Decetnbcr, 1883.

a provoking sort of fault in our English language, that while one says defect, defection, and

It

is

defective

— one ;

retrospect, retrospection,

and retrospective,

etc., says prospect and prospective, but not respect and respective, but not reprospection perspective, but not perspect, nor perspection ;

;

spection ; praefect, but not prsefection ; and refection, with a quite different manner of but not refect, difference in the uses of each admitted, or reasons

—

for refusal of each refused, form, in every instance

and therefore

I

am

obliged to 439

warn

my

:

readers that

FORS CLAVIGERA

440 I

don't

mean

the above

of this last

title

—

'

Fors

'

of

be substantive, but participle; that is to 1883 I don't mean that this letter will be a retrospect, say, or back-prospect, of all Forses that have been to

'

'

;

but that

it

will be in its

own

tenor,

distance, RetrospectzV^ only the end of the word, because tion to be complete as far as

I

to a

Hmited

cut the 'ive' from

I

.-

and

want the retrospecreaches.

it

Namely, of the essential contents of the new series of Fors up to the date of this letter and in con'

'

;

nection with them, of the First letter, the Seventeenth, and the Fiftieth, of the preceding series.

begin with the seventeenth letter; which bears directly on the school plan given in my report I

will

for this year.

It will

be seen that

that plan the three R's from

I

struck out in

the things prowrote privately with some

among

mised to be taught, and I indignation to the Companion

who had ventured

to

promise them, asking her whether she had never read this seventeenth letter to which she answered ;

that

'

inspectors of schools

R's imperatively,

—

to

'

which

now I

required the three again answered, with

indignation at higher pressure, that ten millions of inspectors of schools collected on Cader Idris should

make me teach in my schools, come to them who liked, a single thing I did not choose to. And I do not choose to teach (as usually undernot

stood) the three R's first, because, as I do choose to teach the elements of music, astronomy, botany, and zoology, not only the mistresses and masters ;

capable of teaching these should not waste their

LETTER XCIV time on the three R's

44I

but the children themselves

;

would have no time to spare, nor should they have. If their fathers and mothers can read and count, they are the people to teach reading and numbering, to

earliest

children count,

dame

For orphans, or and mothers can't read or

infancy.

intelligent

whose

fathers

schools in every village (best in the

almshouses, where there might be dames enow) are all

that

is

wanted.

Secondly. I do not care that St, George's children, as a rule, should learn either reading or writing, be-

cause there are very few people in this world

who

get

any good by Broadly and practically, whatever foolish people read, does them harm, and whatever they write, does other people harm and nothing either.

:

can ever prevent

this, for a fool attracts

folly as

decayed meat attracts flies, and distils and assimihe can get lates it, no matter out of what book as much out of the Bible as any other, though of course he or she usually reads only newspaper or ;

—

novel.* * Just think, for instance, of the flood of human idiotism that spent a couple of years or so of its life in writing, printing, and the whole of that vital energy and reading the Tichborne trial,

—

time being not only direct

loss,

but loss in loathsome

thoughts

and vulgar inquisitiveness. Had it been spent in pure silence, and prison darkness, how much better for all those creatures' souls and eyes But, if they had been unable to read or write, and made good sailors or woodcutters, they might, instead, have prevented two-thirds of the shipwrecks on our own coast, or made a pestilential province healthy on Ganges or Amazon. Then think farther though which of us by any thinking can of the pestilence of popular literature, as we take measure? !

—

—

FORS CLAVIGERA

442

Even with children of good average see, for example, what happened in our own I went in by Coniston school, only the other day. But

thirdly.

— sense,

chance during the hour for arithmetic and, inserting myself on the nearest bench, learned, with the rest ;

of the class,

how much seven-and-twenty pounds

bacon would come to

of

ninepence farthing a pound, with sundry the like marvellous consequences of the laws of number; until, feehng myself a little

shy

in

perceive

at

remaining always, though undetectedly, it

now accommodating

people, in chopping up

its

itself to the tastes

of an enlightened now too hard

formerly loved authors

and too pure

for its understanding,

at the

—

appetite— into crammed Think of Miss gorgeable.

for its

or blood-puddings swiftly and buy, for subject of Braddon's greasy mince-pie of Scott awed meditation, 'No i. One penny, complete in itself (pubHshed by Henry Vickers, 317, Strand), the Story of Oliver Twist, by Charles Dickens, re-arranged and sublimed into Elixir of Dickens, and Otto of Oliver, and bottled in the following series of aromatic

sausages,

!

—

—

chapters,

headed thus Chap.

:— I.

II.

III.

IV.

V.

VI.

At the Mercy

of the Parish.

In the Clutches of the Beadle.

Among Among

the Coffins.

Thieves.

Fagin the Jew. Before the Beak. '

'

VII. Bill Sikes. VIII. Nancy. IX. Nancy Carries on.

X. The Burglary planned, XI. The Burglary. XII. A Mysterious Stranger.

XIII. The Murdered Girl.

XIV. The Murderer's Flight. XV. The Murderer's Death. XVI. The Jew's Last Night Alive.

LETTER XCIV bottom of the all

rest a Httle

and

to let us

begged the master

class, I ;

443

in this

a sovereign out of my if they had ever been

breathing interval, taking pocket, asked the children

shown

the

Queen's

Arms

on it?

(Unanimous silence.) " At any rate, you know what the Queen's Arms are ? "

"

(Not a whisper.) a roomful of English boys and

What

!

girls,

and nobody know what the Queen's or the King's " the Arms of England ? Arms are (Mouths of no but with a little purpose open, mostly

—

Eyes also, without any immediate object speech. of sight.) "

Do you

not even remember seeing such a thing

on them

as a harp

"

sponse.) Httle three

Nor

a

?

"

(Fixed

beasts

attention,

on his hind

lion

running

in

— no

legs ?

each

re-

Nor

corner ?

(Attention dissolving into bewilderment.) "Well, next time I come, mind, you must able to

tell

me

all

about

it;

—here's

"

be

the sovereign

and when you've learnt it, you may How many of you are there if you can. divide it " in here to-day ? addition, taking more time (Sum to

look

at,

—

than usual, owing to the difficulty of getting the It is established finally that figures to stand still. there are thirty-five.) "

And

how

many

pence

in

a

sovereign

?

"

(Answer instantaneous and vociferous.) "And thirty-fives in two hundred and forty?" The master comes to the (All of us at pause.

FORS CLAVIGERA

444

recommends us

rescue, and

of thirty-fives.) " It seems, then,

if five

to try thirties instead

of you

virill

can have eightpence apiece. " will stand out ? rest

And

left

I

their leisure,

stand out, the

Which

of

you

that question for them to resolve at seeing that it contained the essence

of an examination in matters very

much higher than

arithmetic.

And now, suppose that there were any squire's sons or daughters down here, for Christmas, from Christchurch or Girton, who could and would accurately and explicitly tell these children " about the Queen's Arms what the Irish :

"

all

Harp

—

meant, and what a Bard was, and ought to be; what the Scottish Lion meant, and how he got

caged by the tressure of Charlemagne,* and

— —

who

Charlemagne was; what the English leopards meant, and who the Black Prince was, and how he would not all this be more reigned in Aquitaine, useful,

in

all

true

senses,

to

the children,

than

being able, in two seconds quicker than children to

outside,

say

how much twenty-seven pounds

of bacon comes to at ninepence farthing a pound ? And if then they could be shown, on a map,

without

any

was, and would it

Poitiers, not,

their lives

*

in

—

on it, where Aquitaine and where Picardy, and Crecy,

railroads

for children who are likely to pass Coniston, be more entertaining and

See Fors, Letter

XXV.

(vol.

ii.

pp. 12-14).

LETTER XCIV more is,

445

" New Orleans " profitable than to learn where any new Joan to be named from it), or

(without

New Jerusalem, without any new Not only do the

Fourthly.

life

to be lived in

arts

of

it

?

literature

and arithmetic continually hinder children in the are apt greatly to acquisitiofi of ideas,— but they Read confuse and encumber the memory of them. Plato's renewed with lovely parable of care, now,

Theuth and the King of Egypt (XVII. vol. i. p. 335), and observe the sentences I translated, though too not medicine (to give the power) of divine memory, but a quack's drug for memorandum, I myself, for instance, leaving the memory idle."

"It

feebly.

is

have written down memoranda of many skies, but have forgotten the skies themselves. Turner wrote

—

And this is much but remembered all. nothing, true of things that depend for their beauty on sound and accent ; for in the present fury of print-

more

ing,

bad verses, that could not be heard without

and read as if there them while all the best was nothing wrong powers of minstrel, bard and troubadour dependecl disgust, are continually printed in

;

on the memory and voice, as distinct from writing.* All which was perfectly known to wise men ages ago, and

it

is

continually intimated in the different

forms which the myth of Hermes takes, from this

Theuth of Egypt down to Correggio's most read perfect picture of Mercury teaching Cupid to Ibis

;

* side

See

lives of Beatrice

Songs of Tuscany.'

and Lucia,

in the first

number

of

'

Road-

FORS CLAVIGERA

44^

—where,

3^ou will look at the picture wisely, you really ought to be called, Mercury trying, 2iW^ failing,^ to teach Cupid to read For, indeed,

see that

if

it

!

from the beginning and to the end of time, Love reads without letters, and counts without arithmetic. But, lastly and chiefly, the personal conceit and ambition developed by reading, in minds of selfish activity, lead to the disdain of manual labour, and the desire of

all

sorts of unattainable things,

and

the streets with discontented and useless persons, seeking some means of living in town society by

fill

their wits.

I

need not enlarge on

reader's

experience increasing plague of striving to in

make

must

avow

this

for itself

head

this

the

fermenting

what

it

;

every

extent

and

imbecility,

calls a

'

position

life.'

In sight, and thought of all these sources of evil our present staples of education, I drew out the scheme of schoohng, which incidentally and in

partially

'

defined in various passages of Fors (see mainly Letter LXVII. voL iii. p. 374), I now sum as '

follows.

Every parish school to have garden, playground, and cultivable land round it, or belonging to it, enough to employ the scholars in fine weather mostly out of doors. Attached to the building, a children's library, in spacious

which the scholars who care *

to read

may

learn that

Sir Joshua, with less refinement, gives the same meaning to the myth, in his picture of Cupid pouting and recusant, on being " required to decipher the word, pinnioney."

LETTER XCIV

^

447

art as deftly as they like, by themselves, helping a suffieach other without troubhng the master cient laboratory always, in which shall be specimens ;

of

common

all

elements of natural substances, and

where simple chemical,

and pneumatic exand according to the

optical,

be shown

may

periments

—

;

and importance of the school, attached workbut always a carpenter's, shops, many or few, and first of those added in the better schools, a size

—

potter's.

In

school

the

music,

itself,

the things

geometry, astronomy, botany,

drawing, and history,

all;

taught will be

gift for either.

And

to

children

finally, to all

zoology,

to

who have

children of what-

grade, or age, the laws of Honour, the habit of Truth, the Virtue of Humility, and the Happiness of Love.

ever

gift,

I say, the "virtue of HumiHty," as including all the habits of Obedience and instincts of Reverence

which are dwelt on throughout Fors,' and all m.y other books* but the things included are of course '

—

the primary ones to be taught, and the thirteenth *

Compare

Lecture IV. or Govern,

—

'

especially

Crown

of

Wild

Olive,' § 144 to

—

end of

"Educate, repeat emphatically the opening sentence Education does not they are one and the same word. I

—

know what they do not know it means It is not teaching teaching them to behave as they do not behave. the youth of England the shapes of letters and the tricks of numbers, and then leaving them to turn their arithmetic to roguery and their

mean

teaching people to

It is, on the contrary, training them into the and kingly continence of their bodies and souls, by kindness, by watching, by warning, by precept, and by praise, but above all, by example."

literature to lust.

perfect exercise

—

—

FORS CLAVIGERA

448

Aphorism of

that sixty-seventh letter cannot be too "

Moral education begins in repeated, that making the creature we have to educate, clean, and " " obedient." In after time, this virtue of humility often

is

to

to

its

be taught to a child chiefly by gentleness failures, showing it that by reason of its

narrow powers,

cannot but

it

fail.

I

have seen

master, the Rev. Thomas Dale, beating his son Tom hard over the head with the edge of a grammar, because Tom could not

my

old

clerical

construe a Latin verse, when the rev. gentleman ought only with extreme tenderness and pitifulness to have explained to Tom that he wasn't Thomas

—

the Rhymer. For the definitely vice of Pride,

contrary cultivation of the compare the education of Steerforth

by Mr. Creakle. (' David Copperfield,' chap, vi.) But it is to be remembered that humilitj' can only be truly, and therefore only effectively taught,

when

the master

is

faculties of children,

and

that

it

function to

swift to recognize the special

no

less than their

weaknesses,

quite highest and most noble discern these, and prevent their disis

his

couragement or effacement in the vulgar press for a common prize. See the beautiful story of little '

George,

Friends in Council.'

A certain kind of writing, Next, as to writing. will take from half an hour to an hour for

which

a line, will indeed be taught in

the

St.

George's Schools

manner of

it

at p.

—as long ago promised,

examples being given of 318 of vol. i., and vol. iii., ;

LETTER XCIV

449

from qualifying the pupil for a lucrative immediately taking clerkship in a Government office, or a county banking-house, or a solicitor's p.

310; but, SO

far

ante-room, the entire aim of our training will be to disqualify him, for ever, from writing with any

degree of current speed ; and especially from producing any such aeschrography, (as everybody writes

Greek-English nowadays,

I

use this term in order

more

clearly to explain myself,) as the entry in my own Banker's book facsimiled at p. 240, vol. iii., and the Dec' for December here facsimiled from a '

London tradesman's

R

the ornamental

bill

just sent

engrossed on

in,

my

^

l^j,

^

or

Father's ex-

ecutor's articles of release, engraved at p. 314 of vol. i. ; but to compel him, on the contrary, to

write whatever words deserve to be written in the

most perfect and graceful and

legible

manner pos-

sible to his hand.

And in now more

this

resolution, stated

fixed than ever;

long since,

I

am

having had much ex-

perience lately of handwriting, and finding, first, that the scholar who among my friends does the

most as

v/ell

as the

deliberately beautiful

best work, writes the most

hand

:

and that

all

the hands

of sensible people agree in being merely a reduction of good print to a form producible by the steady

motion of a pen, and are therefore always round, and extremely upright, becoming more or less picturesque according to the IV.

humour

of the writer, but 2 F

FORS CLAVIGERA

450

never slurred into any unbecoming speed, nor subby any merely mechanical habit,* whereas

dued

the writing of foolish people is almost always and that of beggingmechanically monotonous letter writers, with rare exception, much sloped, ;

and sharp

at the turns.

be the law of our schools, therefore, that

It will

who want

the children letter

be troubled by

lis to

and begging-

to write clerk's

hands, must learn them write at

home and will not The children who

at

;

all.

want to write like gentlemen and ladies, (like St. Jerome, or Queen Elizabeth, for instance,) will learn, as aforesaid, with extreme slowness. And, if you will

now

referred

read

carefully

you

to,

the

will find

fiftieth

much

letter,

above

to meditate upon,

home

as well as school teaching; more the home-teaching of the mining districts especially the and home library of cheap printing, with (p. 30), And as the small value of it to little Agnes (p. 23).

respecting

it

chances

—

for

in this letter

—

I

I

have no more time for retrospect will

close

it

with the record of a

lesson received again in Agnes's cottage, last week. Her mother died three years ago and Agnes, and another family is her sister Isabel, are at service

—

;

:

* Sir Walter's hand, from the enormous quantity and constancy of his labour, becomes almost mechanical in its steadiness, on the pages of his novels ; but is quite free in his letters. Sir Joshua's is curiously slovenly ; Tintoret's, grotesque and irregular in the extreme Nelson's, almost a perfect type especially in the point of not hurrying, see facsimile just before Trafalgar, *Fors,'

hand

:

;

vol.

iii.,

p.

334.

William the Conqueror and

could only sign a cross for their names.

his

queen Matilda

LETTER XCIV in the cottage

— and another

45 1

little girl,

younger than

Agnes, "Jane Anne," who has two elder brothers, and one little one. The family have been about a year there, beginning farmer's life, after miner's, with much ill-fortune, the last stroke of which was the carrying away of the entire roof of their grange, midnight, by the gale of nth December, the timbers of it thundering and splintering over the The little girl was so roof of the dwelling-house. at

terrified that

she had a succession of fainting

fits

next day, and was sent for a week to Barrow, for

When

I went up on Wednesday were going on, she had come things back that morning, and was sitting with her childI brother on her lap, in the corner by the fireside. stayed talking to the mother for half an hour, and

change of scene. last to see

how

younger child was so quiet must be ill but, on my asking, thought '* but he's been jumping mother the said, he," and making such a fuss all the morning, all

that time the it

sfetting-

that

I

— " Not

;

his sister back, that

now

about about

he's not able to

stir."

But the dearest child of the cottage was not there. Last spring they had a little boy, between these two, full of intelligent life, and pearl of chief price to them.

He went down

to the field

by the brookside

(Beck Leven), one bright morning when his elder The child came up behind brother was mowing. without speaking and the back sweep of the scythe ;

His brother caught the leg, and divided a vein. and what swift binding carried him up to the house ;

FORS CLAVIGERA

452

could do was done

— the

doctor, three miles away,

coming as soon as might be, arranged all for the best, and the child lay pale and quiet till the evening, speaking sometimes a little to his father and mother. But

evening he began to sing.

at six in the

on, clearer

and

Sang

—

through the night, so clear at last, you might have heard him, his mother " far out on the moor there." said, Sang on till the clearer, all

of morning, and so passed away. " " Did he I asked. sing with words ? " the bits of Oh, yes ; just hymns he had learnt at

full light

the Sunday-school." So much of his education finally available to him, you observe.

Not

the multiplication table then, nor catechism commandments then, these rhymes only

—

then, nor

remained "

to

him

for his last happiness,

in delirium only,"

say you ? wisdom, and all true knowledge, seem so to the world but, without question, the forms of weakness of body preceding

Happiness

All

true

love,

all

true

:

death, or those during life which are like them, are the testing states, often the strongest states, of the

The "Oh,

could prophesy

"

of Harry Percy, neither dream, nor delirium. And the lesson I received from that cottage history, and which I would learn with my readers, is of soul.

I

!

is

the power for good in what, rightly chosen, has been rightly learned by heart at school, whether it show at

The hymn may be forgotten in the or ineffective afterwards in restraining playground,

the time or not»

LETTER XCIV contrary habits of feeling and

453 life.

But

that

all

and good and right retains its unfelt authority; the main change which I would endeavour to effect is

make the pupils exercising them in not by painful effort, but by

in ordinary school discipline is to

read

less,

and remember more

committing to memory,

;

but remember, patient repetition, until they cannot is right, accentuation the that (and observing always

—

for if that be once right, the understanding will

come

in

due

time), helping farther with

whatever

elementary music, both of chant and instrument, may be familiarly attainable. To which end, may I modestly recommend all musical clergymen, and

churchwardens, to dispense

—

if

funds are limited

—

with organs in the church, in favour of harp, harpsichord, zittern, or peal of bells, in the schoolroom :

endeavour generally to make the parish enjoy proper music out of the church as well as in on Saturday as well as Sunday. it, and I hope to persevere in these summaries through

and

to

meantime, this curiously apposite pasone received this morning, from a much

next letter

;

sage in valued Companion, needs instant answer (she is the second tutress in a school for young girls, which

has been lately begun by a German lady, resolved to allow no cramming ') '

:

—

who

is

"We have nineteen

pupils now, and more are promised. progressing satisfactorily, and seem happy, but our path will be up-hill for some time to the come. Sewing is in a very backward condition

The

children are

all

;

children think

it

would be better done

in the

machine.

FORS CLAVIGERA

454

Hardly any of them can decent poetry

large-hand !

What

is

write,

and we

And

copy-books. to

can't get

don't

they

any like

be done with such matter-of-fact

On

the other hand, they are loveable young persons? and intelligent children, much interested in the garden (they are to have little gardens of their own when the Birds, you observe, not spring comes) and the birds. merely sparrows; for though we are only on the edge of the Liverpool smoke we have plenty of robins and starlings, besides one tomtit, and a visit from a chaffinch the other day. We have not been able to begin the

cookery class school

;

yet,

we hope

for

we

to take

are not actually living at the there next term.

up our abode

Mrs. Green,

—

my 'principal,' I don't see why I shouldn't I like the word much better, could teach mistress, say

—

she had a wheel, only then people would say were insane, and take the children away from us.

spinning

we

if

"I am very much obliged

last 'Fors,' and denew one nearly ready. But would you please be a little bit more explicit on the subject of 'work' and 'ladyhood.' Not that what

hear that there

lighted to

is

for

a

you have said already seems obscure

to

disagree as to the interpretation of it. I proposed to a few fellow-disciples

make an ship to

me

some

capitalist's.'

we should

put ourselves in serviceable relationfew of our fellow-creatures, and they told

was the landlord's business or the

Rather disheartening, to a person who has

no hope of ever becoming a landlord or

my

Capitalist

—of

other night

that

effort to

that 'all that

Yes,

me, but people

The

—

capitalist."

dear, and very finely the Landlord and in the sense these people use the

words

land-taxer and labour-taxer, have done that Land and labour appear business of theirs hitherto !

LETTER XCIV to

be discovering

— and rather

fast

455

— that

now-a-days

if

they perhaps they might get along by themselves, Of that, more next letter; for the try.

—

were to answers is

to

— the sewing a wretches — — mine not expression,

your main questions

a serious one.

well-trained

The

young

interjectional

on

'

'

(this is

little

lady's

my

in this,

reading the passage to her)

must be got out of all that as soon as you can. For plain work, get Miss Stanley's book, which gives you the elements of this work at Whitelands, (I

—

hope, however, to get Miss Greenaway to sketch us a pattern frock or two, instead of the trimmed waterbutts of Miss Stanley's present diagrams)

work, make them every one sew

fine

with plenty of

sampler,

the tomtit and

visitors

robins

chaffinch,

— and a

for

proper

and your and any motto

in

it,

they like in illuminated letters, finished with gold the ground, silk. Then, for my meaning thread, as to women's work, what should I mean, but

—

scrubbing furniture, dusting walls, sweeping

making

the beds,

floors,

washing up the crockery, ditto the

children,

and whipping them when they want

mending

their clothes, cooking their dinners,

when

there are cooks

it,

—

—and

more than enough, helping

with the farm work, or the garden, or the dairy ? Have I not fifty Is that plain speaking enough ? times over, in season and out of season, dictated and insisted and asseverated and what stronger word else there may be that the essentially right

—

life

for all

woman-kind

is

—

that of the

— and given Gotthelf's Freneli for sanne,

Swiss Paythe perfect

FORS CLAVIGERA

456 type of

to

her in

*

*

Proserpina

the

pans}'' in

a rougher life

and dedicated

the world, keeping only the poor one of the sand-hills for Ophelia ? But in

fairest little

it,

way

yet

— take

now

in old Scotland, seen with

the

facts

Walter

of such

own

Scott's

eyes. "

I

have often heard Scott mention

some curious

particulars of his first visit to the remote fastness of one of these Highland friends ; but whether he told

the stoiy of Invernahyle, or of one of his own relations of the Clan Campbell, I do not recollect I rather think the latter was the case. On reaching the brow of a bleak eminence overhanging the primitive tower and its ;

tiny patch of cultivated ground, he found his host and three sons, and perhaps half a dozen attendant gillies,

stretched half asleep in their tartans upon the heath, with guns and dogs, and a profusion of game about them; while in the courtyard, far below, appeared a company of women, actively engaged in loading a cart

all

The stranger was not a little astonished discovered, on descending from the height, that among these industrious females were the laird's

with manure.

when he

own

but lady, and two or three of her daughters of been detected seemed unconscious they quite having

in

;

an occupation unsuitable to their rank

sently to their 'bowers,'

—

retired prein

and when they reappeared

other dresses, retained no traces of their morning's work, except complexions glowing with a radiant freshness, for one evening of which many a high-bred beauty would have bartered half her diamonds. He found the young ill informed, and exceedingly agreeable \ and the song and the dance seemed to form the invariable termination of their busy days."

ladies not

LETTER XCIV

You

my

barbarism for ever past?

think such

dears

;

it

is

457 No,

only the barbarity of idle gentlemen

—

They will have to fill the carts you to drive them and never any more evade the burden and heat of the day they, in shooting birds and each other, or you in walking about in sun-hats and parasols, like this that

must

pass.

—

;

—

,;

-^l*'.-..

;^>

X'^y

kW^^ Jiili/ISK

"s^

LETTER XCV FORS INFANTIJE October, 1884. I

DO

not well

know whether it has more distressed, how much is wanting, and

or encouraged me, to find

how much

to

be corrected, in the hitherto accepted for our youngest chil-

modes of school education

dren. Here, for the last year or two, I have had the most favourable opportunities for watching and trying various experiments on the minds of country children, most thankfully recognizing their native power and most sorrowfully the inefficiency of the ;

means

at the schoolmaster's disposal, for its occu-

For the strengthening of pation and development. his hands, and that of our village teachers and dames in general, I have written these following notes at 459

FORS CLAVIGERA

460

speed, for the brevity and slightness of which I must pray the reader's indulgence he will find the substance of them has been long and deeply :

considered.

But

first

let

me

fulfil

the pledge given in last

number of Fors by a few final words about the Land Question needless, if people would read my '

'

—

preceding letters with any care, but useful, as a general heading of them, for those who have not time to do so.

The plan of St. George's Guild is wholly based on the supposed possession of land by hereditary proor if by societies, under certain prietors, inalienably ;

laws of responsibility to the State. In

common

possession

language, and in vulgar thought, the of land is confused with "freedom."

But no man is so free as a beggar and no man is more solemnly a servant to God, the king, and the laws of his countr}'', than an honest land-holder. The nonsense thought and talked about Nationalization of Land,' like other nonsense, must have ;

'

its

day,

I

suppose,

—and

I

hope, soon,

its night.

All

from the beginning of the world, on land,* are founded on hereditary tenure, living and perish when either the lords or peasants sell health}^ states

their estates, hire.

The

Gaunt

much more when they

single line of the last

let them out for words of John of

"Landlord of England art thou now, not King," expresses the root of the whole to

*

As

Richard

distinct

II.,

from those living by trade or piracy.

LETTER XCV

461

matter; and the present weakness of the Peers in their dispute with the Commons is because the Upper

House

is

composed now no more of Seigneurs, but

of Landlords.

Possession of land implies the duty of living on

and by

it,

it,

if

there

is

own

enough

to live

on

;

then,

own having got by labour or wise superintendence of labour, if there is more land than is enough for one's self, the duty of one's

making can

it

live

fruitful

on

life

from

and beautiful

it

for as

one's

many more

as

it.

The owner of land, necessarily and justly left in a great measure by the State to do what he will with his own, is nevertheless entirely responsible to the State for the generally beneficial management of his territory and the sale of his land, or of any of it, only allowed under special conditions, portion ;

and with solemn public registry of the transference above all, the landmarks by to another owner :

which estates are described are never

to be

moved.

A

certain quantity of public land (some belonging the to king and signory, some to the guilds of crafts-

men, some

to the

town or

village corporations)

must

be set aside for public uses and pleasures, and especially for purposes of education, which, rightly comprehended, consists, half of it, in making chil-

dren familiar with natural objects, and the other half in teaching the practice of piety towards them (piety

meaning kindness use of the

And

to

living

things,

and

orderly

lifeless).

throughout the various passages referring to

FORS CLAVIGERA

462 this subject in

'

Fors/

it

will be

found that

I

always

pre-suppose a certain quantity of carefully tended land to be accessible near our schools and universities,

not for exercise merely, but for instruction

see last

Of

;

—

'

Fors/ p. 446. course, schools of this kind cannot be in large

—

the town school must be for townspeople ; towns, but I start with the general principle that every school is to be fitted for the children in its neigh-

bourhood who are

likely to

grow up and

live in its

The

idea of a general education neighbourhood. which is to fit everybody to be Emperor of Russia,

and provoke a boy, whatever he is, to want to be something better, and wherever he was born to think it a disgrace to die, is the most entirely and the countless stupidities into which the British nation has been of late betrayed

directly diaboUc of

by

its

all

avarice and irreligion.

tain elements of education

There

are, indeed, cer-

which are alike necessary

Cleanlievery spot of earth. of laws first the mechanics, music, ness, obedience, and geometry, the primary facts of geography and to the inhabitants of

astronomy, and the outlines of history, should evidently be taught alike to poor and rich, to sailor and shepherd, to labourer and shopboy. But for the rest, the efficiency of any school will be found to increase exactly in the ratio of its direct adaptation to the circumstances of the children

it

receives

;

and

the quantity of knowledge to be attained in a given time being equal, its value will depend on the possibilities

of

its

instant application.

You need

not

LETTER XCV

463

teach botany to the sons of fishermen, architecture shepherds, or painting to colHers still less the

to

;

elegances of grammar to children who throughout the probable course of their total lives will have, or to have, little to say, and nothing to write.* Farther, of schools in all places, and for all ages, the healthy working will depend on the total ex-

ought

clusion of the stimulus of competition in any form Every child should be measured by its

or disguise.

own

standard, trained to

its

by

just praise.

praise, not the success

whether

student

own duty, and rewarded the effort that deserves nor is it a question for any its

is

It ;

he

is

cleverer

than

others

or

whether he has done the best he could with the gifts he has. The madness of the modern duller, but

cram and examination system

arises principally out

of the struggle to get lucrative places ; but partly also out of the radical blockheadism of supposing that

all

men

their

way

child

is

absolutel}^ (if

able at

are naturally equal, and can only make by elbowing ; the facts being that every born with an accurately defined and

—

limited

ca-pacity

* I

am

that

he

is

naturally

some things and unable for and no teaching can add one

able for

all)

others; that no effort particle to the granted

to

;

ounces

of

his

available

with most preceptors as to the use of grammar In a recent examination of our Coniston school I

at total issue

any body.

observed that the thing the children did exactly best, was their

and the thing they did exactly worst, their repetition. Could stronger proof be given that the dissection of a sentence is as bad a way to the understanding of it as the dissection of a beast to parsing,

the biography of

it

?

FORS CLAVIGERA

464

that by competition he may paralyse or ; pervert his faculties, but cannot stretch them a line and that the entire grace, happiness, and virtue of

brains

;

depend on his contentment in doing what he can, dutifully, and in staying where he is, peaceably. So far as he regards the less or more capacity of his

life

others, his superiorities are to be used for their help, not for his own pre-eminence and his inferiorities ;

to be

no ground of

mortification, but of pleasure in

the admiration of nobler powers. to express the quantity of delight

It I

is

impossible

used to

feel in

the power of Turner and Tintoret, when my own skill was nascent only; and all good artists will

admit that there

is

far

less

personal pleasure in

doing a thing beautifully than in seeing it beautifully done. Therefore, over the door of every school, and the gate of every college, I would fain see engraved in their marble the absolute Forbidding mjSev Kara ipiOeiav y Kei'oSo^tav be done through strife or vain glory :

"Let

and

I

?iothing

would have fixed

:'"'

for each age of children

and

students a certain standard of pass in examination, so adapted to average capacity and power of to exertion, that none need fail who had attended their lessons

of

and obeyed

trial

should

their masters;

yet admit

while

of the

its

natural

variety distinctions attaching to progress in especial subarts. Beyond such indicajects and skill in peculiar tion or acknowledgment of merit, there should be

neither

prizes nor honours;

these

are meant by

LETTER XCV Heaven sistent

and

to be the

465

proper rewards of a man's conlife, not of a youth's temporary

and kindly

selfish exertion.

Nor, on the other hand, should the natural torpor of wholesome dulness be disturbed by provocations, or

The wise proverb by punishments. every schoolmaster's mind to be deeply " You cannot make a silk purse of a sow's

plagued in

ought set

—

expanded with the

ear;"

farther

scholium that

not be the least disguised by diamond earring. in a woman, If,

the flap of giving it a

it

will

beauty without discretion be as a jewel of gold a swine's snout, much more, in man, woman, or child, knowledge without discretion the knowwhich fool a to receives ledge only puff up his in

—

stomach,

and sparkle

his

in

cockscomb.

As

I

matters moral, most men are not intended to be any better than sheep and robins, that

said,*

so,

in

tended

— duly fully

in

matters intellectual, most men are not into be any wiser than their cocks and bulls,

strong,

it

is

is

in the

Notes on the

;

but ultra,

— ne

sutor,

wholesome indisposition of the due prothe quantity of dull work which

for intellectual labour that

made

must be done

IV.

all

to the simplest

average mind vision

of

each in

and ordained ne fossor.

And

yard and pasture, peacebeyond. To be proud and his place and work, is permitted

scientific of their

nescient

for in

life

stubbing the Thornaby wastes of

of Santa Zita

('

Songs of Tuscany," Part 2 G

II.).

FORS CLAVIGERA

466

Modern Utopianism imagines

the world.

that the

stubbed by steam, and human arms world not perceiving that and legs to be eternally idle thus it would reduce man to the level of his cattle to be

is

;

who can only graze and gore, but not dig indeed certain that advancing knowledge will

indeed, It

is

!

guide us to less painful methods of human toil but in the true Utopia, man will rather harness ;

himself, with

The

oxen, to his plough, than leave

his

the devil to drive

it.

body of teaching throughout the Fors Clavigera is one steady assertion of the necessity that educated persons should share their thoughts with the uneducated, and take also entire

series of

'

'

But there

a certain part in their labours. sentence implying that the

education

should be

to be

a

alike, or that

there

is

no

is

not

of

all

distinc-

or of scholar from That education should be open to all, is as certain as that the sky should be but, as certainly, it should be enforced on none, and benevolent Nature left to lead her children, whether

tion

of master from servant,

clown.

;

men

or beasts, to take or leave at their pleasure. Bring horse and man to the water, let them drink

if,

and when, they

education will dislikes

Of

it,

will

;

— the

be bettered by

child it;

who

the

desires

child

who

only disgraced.

course,

I

am

speaking here of intellectual edu-

The laws of virtue and honour cation, not moral. be to taught compulsorily to all men ; are, indeed, whereas our present forms of education refuse to

LETTER XCV

467

teach them to any and allow the teaching, by the persons interested in their promulgation, of the ;

laws of cruelty and lying, until we find these British islands gradually filling with a breed of men who cheat without shame, and kill without remorse. It is beyond the scope of the most sanguine thought to conceive how much misery and crime

would be effaced from the world by persistence, even for a few years, of a system of education thus directed to raise the fittest into positions of influence, to give to every scale of intellect its natural sphere,

and

to

ciple. silent,

ferate,

every

line of action its

unquestioned prin-

At present wise men, for the most part, are and good men powerless the senseless vociand the heartless govern while all social ;

;

law and providence are dissolved by the enraged agitation of a multitude, among whom every villain has a chance of power, everj'- simpleton of praise, and every scoundrel of fortune.

Passing now to questions of detail in the mode of organizing school instruction, I would first insist on the necessity of a sound system in elementary music. Musicians, like painters, are almost virulently deter-

mined in their efforts to abolish the laws of sincerity and purity and to invent, each for his own glory, new modes of dissolute and lascivious sound. No ;

greater benefit could be conferred on the upper as well as the lower classes of society than the arrangement of a grammar of simple and pure music, of

which the code should be in the land.

My

alike taught in

every school

attention has been long turned to

FORS CLAVIGERA

468 this object, but to

I

have never

begin serious work upon

till it.

lately

had

leisure

During the

last

year, however, I have been making experiments with a view to the construction of an instrument by

which very young children could be securely taught the relations of sound in the octave unsuccessful only in that the form of lyre which was produced ;

months of labour, by the

for me, after facturer,

was

British

manu-

as curious a creation of visible defor-

mity as a Greek lyre was of grace, besides being For the present, nearly as expensive as a piano !

abandoning the hope of at last attaina ing simple stringed instrument, I have fallen back and I think, probably, with final good reason on the most sacred of all musical instruments, the therefore, not

— '

—

Bell.'

Whether

the cattle-bell of the

hills, or,

from the

cathedral tower, monitor of men, I believe the sweetness of its prolonged tone the most delightful and

wholesome

The

dwelt on here

account

will

and mind of all instruis too wide to be farther

ear

the

for

mental sound.

subject

of experiment or progress made, be given in my reports to the St. ;

George's Guild.

Next

The

foundational importance has been disgraced by the speaking confusion of it with diplomatic oratory, and evaded for elocution.

of beautiful

by the vicious notion master learned in it

management and perhaps

that

it

can be taught by a

as

a

separate

of the lips, tongue,

should,

be

so

art.

The

and throat may,

taught;

but

this

is

LETTER XCV

469

properly the first function of the singing master. Elocution is a moral faculty; and no one is fit to

be the head of a children's school

who

is

not both

by nature and attention a beautiful speaker. attention, I say; for fine elocution means an exquisitely close attention to, and intelligence of, the meaning of words, and perfect

By

first

sympathy with what with

indicated

feeling

reserve.

but they describe In this reserve, ;

always fine reading and speaking, (virtually one art), differ from " recitation," which gives the statement or sentiment with the explanatory accent and gesture of an actor.

In perfectly pure elocution, on the contrary, the accent ought, as a rule, to be much

and gentler than the natural or dramatic one, and the force of it wholly independent of gesture

lighter

or

expression

of

feature.

A

fine

reader should

read, a great speaker speak, as a judge delivers his charge and the test of his power should be to ;

read or speak unseen. At least an hour of the school-day should be spent in listening to the master's or some trustvisitor's reading, but no children should attend unless they were really interested ; the rest being allowed to go on with their other lessons

worthy

a large average of children, I ; are able to sew or draw while they yet suppose, attend to reading, and so there might be found or

a

empIo3mients

fairly

large

who were

audience, of

whom however

those

usually busy during the lecture should not be called upon for any account of what they

FORS CLAVIGERA

470 had heard had allowed ;

but,

on the

to

blamed,

if

they be diverted by the

contrar}'^,

their attention

reading from what they were about, to the detriof their work. The real audience consisting

ment

whom

of the few for

should

chosen,

be

the book had been specially

required

unbroken attention

to

give

perfect

and

what they heard to stop the reader always at any word or sentence they did not understand, and to be prepared for casual to

;

examination on the story next day. I say on the story ^ for the reading, whether or poetry prose, should always be a story of some '

sort,

whether

true

history,

travels,

romance,

or

In poetry, Chaucer, Spenser, and Scott, for the upper classes, lighter ballad or fable for fairy-tale.

the lower, adventure.

contain always

No merely

some thread

of pretty

didactic or descriptive

books

should be permitted in the reading room, but so far as they are used at ail, studied in the same

and Shakespeare, accessible time in the library in small and play always editions to the large young and old alike, should

way

as

grammars

;

at

never be used as a school book, nor even formally He is to be known or continuously read aloud. by thinking, not mouthing. I have used, not unintentionally, the separate words and library. No school reading room '

'

should be considered as organized at all, without the reading these two rooms, rightly furnished with its convenient and students' desks, room, pulpit ;

in

good

light,

skylight

if

possible, for drawing, or

LETTER XCV

47 I

—

the library with its broad tables for taking notes books out on, and recesses for niched readlaying

and plenty of lateral light kept carefully short of glare both of them well shut off from the schoolroom or rooms, in which there must be always more ing,

:

or less of noise.

The in

Bible-reading, and often that of other books is divided into verses or stanzas,

which the text

should be frequently conducted by making the children read each its separate verse in important passages, afterwards committing them to memory, the pieces chosen for this exercise should of

—

course

be

the

same

at

all

schools,

—with

wider

given within certain limits for choice in profane literature requiring for a pass, that the children should know accurately out of the passages chosen, a certain number, including not less than five

scope

:

hundred hues, of such poetry as would always be therefore never helpful and strengthening to them ;

melancholy, but didactic, or expressive of cheerful

and resolute

No

feeling.

discipline

is

of

more use

to a child's character,

bearing on intellect, memory, and morals, than the being accustomed to relate accuThe story rately what it has lately done and seen. with threefold

of Eyes and No Eyes in Evenings at Home is intended only to illustrate the difference between inattention and vigilance but the exercise in nar'

*

;

ration

the

is

a subsequent and separate one

lucidity,

ment.

;

it

completeness, and honesty of

is

in

state-

Children ought to be frequently required to

FORS CLAVIGERA

472

give account of themselves, though always allowed "I would rather not say, reserve, if they ask :

mamma," should be

accepted at once with serene confidence on occasion but of the daily walk and ;

work the if

account,

should

child

questioned

;

take pride in giving full the parent or tutor closely

lopping exaggeration, investigating elision, guiding

and aiding

into order,

historical style

may

The

in expression.

be illustrated

in the

finest

course of

the narration of the events of the day. as partly stated Next, as regards arithmetic already in the preceding Fors,' p. 441, children's :

'

time

should

never

troubled with

tached to

it

is

be

wasted,

nor

The importance

it.

a mere filthy

folly,

their

heads

at

present atcoming of the

notion that every boy is to become first a banker's clerk and then a banker, and that every woman's

—

business

principal checking the cook's accounts. Let children have small incomes of pence

won by due difference

is

labour,

in

— they

will

soon find out the

between a threepenny-piece and a four-

how many of each go to a shilling. Then, watch the way they spend their money,* and teach them patience in saving, and the sanctity of a time-honoured hoard (but for use in a day of need, penny, and

not for lending at interest) so they will painlessly learn the great truth known to so few of us that ;

* Not in Mrs. sum given it to wisely

;

money.

and

it

Pardiggle's fashion

:

—

a child ought to have a certain

give away, and a certain sum to spend for itself ought not to be allowed to give away its spending

Prudence

is

a

much more

rare virtue than generosity.

LETTER XCV two and two make

473

four, not five.

Then

insist

on

of things ; perfect habits of order and putting-by and this involves continually knowing counting how

The

multiplication table may be a longish addition sum learned when they want it will always do instead ; and the mere mechanism of

there are.

many

—

multiplication and division and dotting and carrying can be taught by the monitors ; also of fractions,

much

as

as that ^

means a half-penny and ^ a

farthing.*

Next

There

for geography.

is,

I

suppose, no

subject better taught at elementary schools ; but to the pursuit of it, whether in advanced student-

ship or in common life, there is now an obstacle set so ludicrously insuperable, that for ordinary

people the

it

simply an end to

is

moment

this

to

have the

first

effort.

plate

I

happen

at

to

finish

for

Bible of Amiens,' giving an abstract of the I took for reduction, as of

'

features of France.

convenient

probably containing all I wanted map in the Harrow Atlas of Modern

size,

to reduce, the

'

Geography,' and found the only clearly visible and the

only accurately delineated things in

it,

were

the railroads To begin with, there are two Mont Blancs, of which the freeborn British boy may take !

his

choice.

biggest *

Written

of them,

in

at

some distance from the italics, are the words

small

I heard an advanced class tormented out of its life the other day at our school to explain the difference between a numerator and denominator. I wasn't sure myself, for the minute, which was which and supremely didn't care. ;

FORS CLAVIGERA

474

"Grand

St.

suppose

to

Bernard," which the boy cannot but but refer to some distant locality ;

Mont

neither of the

each represented as engraved with anything like Blancs,

a circular pimple, is the force and shade of the

Bar

le

Due

hills

Argonne

about

while the southern chain of the

;

of

hills

as

is

similarly represented greatly Burgundy more elevated than the Jura. Neither the Rhine,

except with a nor is any boundary of province to be follens lowed by the eye patches of feeble yellow and

Rhone, Loire, nor Seine

is

visible

;

;

pale brown, dirty pink and grey, and

melt

other

green, wrigglings of infinitesimal ways, not merely black lines,

;

but

myriapede caterpillars, break up it

were crackling

uncertain

helplessly across while the raildots

each

into

all

centipede or France, as if

into senseless

clay,

and shape-

which the eye cannot distinguish even the great lines of railway them-

less divisions, in

from the rest

selves, nor any relative magnitudes of towns, nor even their places accurately, the measure of nonsense and misery being filled up by a mist of multitudinous names of places never heard of,

—

much

less

spoken

of,

by any human being ten

miles out of them.

For maps of with

this kind, there

any reasonable

human

can be no question creature

that,

first,

and proper physical maps should be substituted the diagrams of secondly, proper historical ones ;

;

the

railways

being

left

to

Bradshaw

;

and

the

fungus growths of modern commercial towns to

LETTER XCV the

sellers

of

maps

for

475

And

counting-houses.

for pure shame, Geological Society should, neither write nor speak another word, till it has true models to scale of the

the

produced

known

effectively

of

countries

the

world.

These,

photo-

all that light, would give good graphed distribution and the of was necessary proportion * and these of mountain ranges photographs should

side

in

;

made

afterwards be

the basis of beautiful engravings,

district completely, giving the character of every whether arable, wooded, rocky, moor, sand, or

snow, with

the

carefullest

and

clearest

tracing

and, in of magnitude, as stars equally careful distinction on the celestial globe, the capitals and great probut absolutely without names or vincial of the sources and descent of

its

rivers;

towns;

The boy who cannot, inscriptions of any kind. from of the inscription, know York help except by Lancaster, or

Rheims from

Dijon, or

Rome

from

his geoVenice, need not be troubled to pursue to The keys every map, with graphical studies. the names, should form part of the elementary school geography, which should be the same over the whole British Empire, and should be extremely and brief; concerning itself in no wise

simple with manners and customs, *

number of

inhabitants,

the cheap barliarisms and abortions of modern cram, the method of representing mountain chains by black bars All mountain chains is about the most ludicrous and abominable. are in groups, not bars, and their watersheds are often entirely removed from their points of greatest elevation.

Of

frightful

FORS CLAVIGERA

47^

or species of beasts, but strictly with geographical completed by so much intelligible geology,

fact,

should explain whether hills were of chalk, slate, or granite, and remain mercifully silent as to whether they were Palaeo- or Kaino-zoic, Permian or Silurian. The age, or ages of the world, are as

not of the smallest consequence either to ants or myrmidons, either to moths or men. But the ant

—

and man must know where the world, now is soft

Of made would

or

existent,

cultivable or quarriable. once a system of drawing

flint}',

course, rightly universal, the hand-colouring of these maps be one of the drawing exercises, absolutely

costless,

and entirely

maps should

instructive.

The

as a

historical

matter of course, be of also, in successive centuries the state every county of things in the nineteenth century being finally ;

simplified into a general

brown

—

fog, intensified

to

blackness over the manufacturing centres. Next, in astronomy, the beginning of all is to teach the child the places and names of the stars

when for

it

the

can see them, and to accustom it to watch The nightly change of those visible.

register of the visible stars of first magnitude and planets should be printed largely and intelligibly for every day of the year, and set by the schoolmaster every day and the arc described by the sun, with its following and preceding stars, from point to point of the horizon visible at the ;

place, first

should be drawn, at least weekly, as

of the drawing exercises.

the

LETTER XCV

477

These, connected on one side with geometry, on the other with writing, should be carried at least as far, and occupy as long a time, as the exercises in

music

;

and the relations of the two

meaning of the words and

*

grace,'

'

early insisted

arts,

and

'

'

symmetry,' should be very

composition,' '

harmony upon and

in

both,

For

illustrated.

purposes, every school should be

all

these

furnished with

progressive examples, in facsimile, of beautiful for nothing could be more illuminated writing conducive to the progress of general scholarship :

and

taste

than that the

children

clever

for

the

first

natural instincts

imitation

or,

often,

of

the

invention of picture writing, should be guided and stimulated by perfect models in their own kind.

number shows very curiously what complete harmony there is between a clever child's way of teaching itself to draw and

The woodcut

write

own,

prefixed to this

— (and if

no teaching is so good and the that can be had)

—

for

it

as

its

earliest types

The indifference as of beautiful national writing. to the places of the letters, or the direction in to be read, and the insertion of that are to spare for the filling of corners or

which they are

any

otherwise blank spaces in the picture, are exactly the modes of early writing which afterwards give rise to its

—a

certain delight in the dignity of

always tion.

most beautiful decorative arrangements

at the

enigma being base of this method of ornamenta-

The drawing

is

by the same

little girl

v/hose

anxiety that her doll's dress might not hurt

its

FORS CLAVIGERA

478

feelings has been already described in my second This Oxford, on the Art of England.

lecture at

executed nearly at the same time, when she was six or seven years old, may be compared by antiquarians, not without interest, with early fresco,

Lombardic MSS.

It

needs,

I

no farther

think,

than some notice difficulty caused by the substitution of t for J in the title of

elucidation

the

Z

in of 'The Jug,' and the reversal of the letter that of 'The Zebra,' and warning not to mistake the final E of The Cake for the handle of '

'

a spotted tea-cup. involution

is

that of

The most beautifully Lombardic " The Fan," written

—

TnH E

A

^

I am taking the initiative in required myself, by directing some part of the funds of the St, George's Guild to the pro-

Next, for zoology,

what

is

vision of strongly ringed frames, large

enough

to

contain the beautiful illustrations given by Gould, Audubon, and other such naturalists and I am ;

cutting my best books to pieces for the filling of these frames, which can be easily passed from

school to school and I hope to prepare with speed a general text for them, totally incognisant of all ;

or inquiry concerning species, and the but simply calling a hawk a hawk, thereof; origin and an owl an owl and trusting to the scholars'

quarrel

;

sagacity to see the difference;

but giving him

all

LETTER XCV attainable

and

beast.

which there are quite

botany, for

Similarly in

unlimited

concerning the habits and

information

talents of every bird

means of

479

illustration,

in

the

exquisite

original drawings and sketches of great botanists, now uselessly lying in inaccessible cupboards of the British Museum and other scientific instituBut the most pressing need is for a simple tions.

— —

handbook of the wild flowers of every country French flowers for French children, Teuton for Teuton, Saxon for Saxon, Highland for Scot severely accurate in outline, and exquisitely coloured

by hand (again the best possible practice in our drawing schools) with a text regardless utterly of any but the most popular names, and of all ;

but teaching children the ; as they grow, and their culinary beauty of plants

microscopic observation

uses

when

and

gathered,

that,

such

except for

uses, they should be left growing.

And

of needlework.

lastly

I

find

the

among

thrown together long since, but never used, the following sketch of what the room

materials of

'

Fors,'

of the Sheffield tion,

was meant

" All civilized

the

Museum,

acicular

— from

set apart for its illustra-

to contain. art

of

nations,

Lapland boot,

savage and no snow

letting in

—

to water, to Turkey cushion bossed with pearl, the to in valance of Venice gold needlework,

—

counterpanes

ancestresses —

and

samplers

imitable,

of

perhaps,

our

own

once more,

lovely

with

good help from Whitelands College and Girton.

It

FORS CLAVIGERA

480

was but yesterday my own womankind were in much wholesome and sweet excitement, dehghtful to behold, in the practice of some new device of remedy

for

Rents

(to think

how much

two methods of intonation of

the

Tear

of evil there

the two senses of that four-lettered

is in

!

),

whereby

might be daintily

it

with a newness which would never

— eyes

the

in

likeness

!

in

synonym, effaced, and

make

it

to

my

The process began — beautiful even formed

word

its

worse. unin-

of

herringbone masonry, crimson on white, but it seemed to me marvellous that anything should yet be discoverable in needle process, and that of so utilitarian character.

"All that to

be in our

is

reasonable,

first

I

work is Athena and

say, of such

Museum room

;

all

that

Penelope would approve. Nothing that vanity has invented for change, or folly loved for costliness. "

fur

and a and cotton, of and silk, micro-

Illustrating the true nature of a thread

needle, the

structure

first

of wool

and hair and down, hemp,

scope permissible, here,

if

flax,

anything can be shown

why wool is soft, and fur fine, and cotton downy, and down downier and how a flax fibre differs from a dandelion stalk, and how the substance of of

;

mulberry leaf can become velvet for Queen crown, and clothi'ng of purple for the housewife of Solomon. a

Victoria's

"Then the phase of its dyeing. What azures and emeralds and Tyrian scarlets can be got into fibres of thread

!

LETTER XCV

48 1

"

Then the phase of its spinning. The mysterj' of that divine spiral, from finest to firmest, which renders lace possible at Valenciennes

was "

—

anchorage Hardy had done as he

possible, after Trafalgar, (if

;

bid).

The eternal mystery of weaving. of all and manner of woof; harmony warp the art which knotting, knitting, and reticulation Then

the

of

;

makes

possible woven from the top draughts of fishes possible, miraculous

garments

throughout enough, always, when a pilchard or herring shoal ;

gathers

— which

itself

into

makes,

companionable

catchableness

;

in fine, so

and Saxon and Norman

many nations possible, beyond the rest.

"And, finally, the accomphshed phase of needlework the Acu Tetigisti of all time, which does indeed practically exhibit what mediaeval theo-

—

logists

'

'

— — how vainly disputed many angels can stand

on a needle

point, directing the serviceable stitch, to the separate into the inseparable." Very thankfully I can now say that this vision of

draw

thread and needlework, though written fancy had too much possession of me, is in all its

friends,

when my now being

branches realized by two greatly valued spinning on the old spinning-wheel,

— the

most happy and increasingly acknowledged results, systematized here among our Westmorland with

by Mr. Albert Fleming the useful sewing, by Miss Stanley of Whitelands College, whose book on that subject seems to me in the text of it all

hills

;

that can be desired, but the diagrams of dress IV.

2

H

may

FORS CLAVIGERA

482

perhaps receive further consideration. the schools of

For indeed

young womankind

are in great need of such instruction in dressmaking as shall comply all

with womankind's natural instinct for self-decoration

worthy and graceful ways, repressing in the rich their ostentation, and encouraging in the poor their wholesome pride. On which matters, vital to the comfort and happiness of every household, I may have a word or two yet to say in next Fors being content that this one should close with the subjoined extract from a letter I received lately from Francesca's mother, who, if any one, has right in all

'

'

;

and the main purport, contrary to much that I have both believed and taught, but, falling in more genially with the temper of recent tutors and governors, may by them be gratefully acted upon, and serve also for correction of what I may have to be

heard on the subject of education

rather that

it is,

;

in

myself too servilely thought respecting the need of compulsion. "

If

world,

I

have the

it

is

good and principle

is

for

least

teaching

perfectly that no

faculty

happy going government

except

self-government, right, if told which

for

and

the

anything

in

this

and making them

children,

along. of the

is

worst

My

whole

least

use

children

will

is right and wrong, and that Then I have a fashion, they must act for themselves. told me by a friend when Francesca Avas a baby ; which

do

is

this,

—

children notice

it,

7iever see evil^

but pj-aise good ; for instance,

if

untidy, do not find fault, or appear to but the first time possible, praise them for

are

being neat and

fresh,

and they

will

soon become

so.

I

LETTER XCV dare say you can account for tried

it

many

times,

this, I

483 cannot

but

;

and have never known

it

I

have

fail.

I

—

have other ideas, but you might not approve of them, the religious instruction I limited to paying my little friends for learning Dr. Watts' "Though I'm now in

younger days," but

I

suppose old

is

that,

hopelessly children can learn this verse from generally,

"

'

I'll

it

:

—

my

system

Very

young

like

fashioned.

not willingly offend. easily offended

Nor be

;

What's amiss I'll strive to mend, And endure what can't be mended.'

There was an old American sea captain who said he had been many times round the world comfortably by the help of this verse."

\lt^

I

J,

LETTER

XCVI.

(terminal.)

ROSY VALE Christmas, 1884.

"St. David, having built a monastery near Menevia, which is from him since called St. David's, in a place called the

Rosy

Valley, (Vallis Rosina,)

—

gave this strict rule of monastical profession, 'That every monk should labour daily with his

hands

for

the

common good

of

the

Monastery, according to the Apostle's saying, He that doth For those who spend not labour, let him not eat. their time in idleness debase their minds, which

become unstable, and bring

forth

which restlessly disquiet them.'

impure thoughts,

The monks

there

refused all gifts or possessions

offered by unjust men ; they detested riches ; they had no care to ease their labour by the use of oxen or other cattle,

every one was instead of riches and oxen to himself and his brethren. They never conversed

for

together by talking but when necessity required, but each one performed the labour enjoined him, thereto prayer, or holy meditations on Divine things and having finished their country work, they returned to their monastery, where they spent the remainder of the day, till the

joining

:

487

FORS CLAVIGERA

488

evening, in reading or writing. at the sounding of a bell, they

In the evening, all

left

their

work

and

immediately repaired to the church, where they remained till the stars appeared, and then

went all together to their refection, eating sparingly and not to satiety, for any excess in eating, though it be only of bread, occasions luxury. Their food was bread with roots or herbs, seasoned with salt, and their thirst they

and

quenched with a mixture of water

Supper being ended, they continued about three hours in watching, prayers, and genuflexions. After this they went to rest, and at cockmilk.

crowing they arose again, and continued at prayer till day appeared. All their inward temptations and thoughts they discovered to their superior. Their Whosoever clothing was of the skins of beasts. desired to be admitted into their holy convocation was obliged to remain ten days at the door of the

monastery as an into

their

be scorned

unworthy to be admitted and there he was exposed to

offcast,

society,

during that time, he patiently endured that mortification, he was received by the ;

but

if,

who had charge of the gate, whom In that he served, and was by him instructed. condition he continued a long time, exercised in painful labours, and grievous mortifications, and at religious senior

was admitted to the fellowship of the brethren. " This monastery appears to have been founded St. David, some time after the famous British by

last

synod assembled

in

the year 519, for crushing of

the Pelagian heresy, which began again to spread

LETTER

XCVT.^i

489

had been once before extinguished by St. Germanus, Bishop of Auxerre, and St. Lupus, Bishop of Troyes. This monastery is not taken notice of in the Monasticon, any more than the other two above, after

and

it

same reason, as not coming within any

for the

of the orders afterwards

known

England, and

in

having had but a short continuance for what became of it, or when it finished, is not known." ;

I chanced on this passage in the second volume of Dugdale's Monasticon,' as I was choosing editions of it at Mr. Quaritch's, on one of the curious days '

'

*

suppose most people recognize as white the many-coloured ones of their Hves that among

which

I

;

days when everything goes v/ell, by no management of their own. About the same time is

to say, the

received the following letter from a very old and dear friend I

:

" In

—

'

you ask for information about you have not had it already, here is some. As you know, it is in the plain between Paris, Sevres, and Versailles a station on the Versailles line a little descend,' and fewer still station, at which few persons ascend the ladies of the still somewhat primitive and rather ugly little village being chiefiy laundresses, and an old

Nanterre.

'

Fors

If

—

:

'

;

preferring, as I should in their place, to go to Paris in Nanterre has, their own carts with the clean linen.

however, two notable transactions in

makes

cakes, sold in Paris as

dear to childhood's ears

—

it

aesthetic,

soul.

It its community. Gateaux de Nanterre,' and A^id now prick up your '

—

yearly elects a Rosiere. self-conscious product,

Not a forced,

high-falutin'

and

in

an

FORS CLAVIGERA

490 unsuitable sphere

;

but a real Rosiere

— a peasant

girl,

chosen for beauty, or reading or writing, neither of she may possibly possess ; but one who has in

not

which

some

signal, but simple, un-selfconscious way done her duty in the state of life unto which it has pleased God to call

her,

— done

sun, in the

who

it '

known

is

her life. " She

in the open, fresh air,

white light

and under the bright

'

of village public opinion ; to young and old, and has been known all

fierce

crowned with roses in May, and has a portion more than i,ooo francs. She is expected soon to marry, and carry on into the higher functions of wife and mother the promise of her maidenhood." is

of rather

And

with this letter came another, from Francesca, giving me this following account of her servant * Edwige's native village. ' " I have been she says it asking her about Le Rose such a pretty place, and the road has a hedge of beauti'

;

is

ful

roses on each side,

But now

and there

are roses about

all

the

can hardly finish my letter, for since she has begun she cannot stop running on about her birthplace, and I am writing in the midst of a long houses.

.

.

.

I

discourse about the chestnut-trees, and the high wooded and hill, with the chapel of the Madonna at its summit, the stream of clear water where she used to wash clothes,

and

I

know

She has a very affectionate and I do it was the beautiful country in which she grew up not what else

!

recollection of her childhood, poor as

think that

;

I am very thankful gave a sort of brightness to her life. that her story is going to be printed, for it has been a

help to me, and will be, See

'

I think, to

others."

Roadside Songs of Tuscany,' No.

II., p. 80.

LETTER XCVI

491

—

as also Yes, a help, and better than that, a light, this that follows, being an account just sent me by

Francesca, of a Rosy Vale in Italy, rejoicing round Living Rose.

its

The Mother

of the Orphans.

"

In the beautiful city of Bassano, on the Brenta, between the mountains and the plain, Signora Maria Zanchetta has passed the eighty-five years of her busy,

happy, and useful life, bringing a blessing to all who have come near her, first in her own family, and afterwards, for the last forty-five years^ to one generation another of poor orphan girls, to whom she has

after

been more than a mother. She always had, from childhood, as she herself told me, a wish to enter a religious life, and her vocation seems to have been rather for the active than for the contemplative side of life. She belongs to an honourable family of

such a

Bassano, and appears to have had an especial love and reverence for her parents, whom she would never leave as long as they lived. After their death she continued to live with an invalid sister, Paola, whom she re-

members always with spoken of

still,

great

tenderness,

by those who knew

very near a saint. " I have often wondered

how much

her,

and who as

is

something

of Signora Maria's

sweet and beautiful Christian

spirit, which has brought comfort into liundreds of lives, may be owing to the

influence of the saintly elder sister, whose helpless condition must have made her seem, to herself and others, comparatively useless in the world, but who lived always so very near to heaven

no longer needed

at

!

After Paola died, Maria, being

home, resolved

to

give

herself

FORS CLAVIGERA

492

entirely to some charitable work, and her mind turned to the Girls' Orphan Asylum, close to her own house.

Her brother and

other relations would have preferred

that she

should have become a nun in one of those

convents

where

girls

of noble

families

are

sent

for

more She honourable,* and better suited to her condition. In told me this part of her story herself, and added,

education,

considering

that

such

a

was

life

'

should have been paid for my work, but I wanted to serve the Lord without recompense in this There she world, and so I came here to the orphans.' the convent

I

has lived ever since, wearing the same dress as the poor entering into all their pleasures, overseeing the washing, giving a hand to

living their

girls,\

and troubles

;

life,

the mending, leading a humble, laborious life, full, one A would think, of wearisome cares and burdens.

mother's burdens, without a mother's instinct to supthem but still, if one may judge by her face,

port

;

And how young she has Hved in perpetual sunshine. she looks still She must have been a delicate blonde !

beauty in her youth, and she still retains a complexion like a sweet-briar rose, and her kind blue eyes are as Her hair, still abunclear and peaceful as an infant's.

dant as in youth, *

Let

to think

is

quite white,

me earnestly pray the how constantly their

and

yet not like snow,

descendants of old Catholic families has pride, the primary mortal sin,

all they had most confidently founded it on, and they strove to build on such foundation. t The good Superiora's example, comparing what we are told of the dress of the girls themselves at page 502, may well take the about dress, summed in place of all I had to say in this last Fors, Till you can the simple advice to all women of rank and wealth, till you can dress your poor beautifully, dress yoMYselves plainly

been the ruin of all

— ;

feed

all

your poor healthily,

live yourselves like the

Rosina, and the message of Fors

is

ended.

monks

of Vallis

/LETTER XCVI

493

be snow with the evening sunshine upon it one sees in a moment that it has once been golden, and unless

it

it

;

than anything that I ever saw, excepting Her dress is of the poorest and plainest, cannot feel that she would be more beautiful

finer

is

thistledown.

and yet I in any other.

A

blue cotton dress, and cap of the same, with a handkerchief and apron, such as are worn by the but all arranged with scrupulous contadine, nothing else ;

in the hfe.

she

will;

nor nothing monastic in the dress, is free to stay or go as she Maria Signora bound by no vow, belongs to no order;

There

neatness.

is

is

there has been nothing but the love of God, and of the all these long poor children, to hold her to her place She has some property, but she leaves the use years.

of

it

to her family, taking for herself only just what is own maintenance in the asylum, that

sufficient for her

I had not take anything from the orphans. this good Signora Maria, and know to wished long

she

may

May, I had the great pleasure of seeing her. had sent to ask at what hour she could see me, to which she replied, Any time after six in the morning,' which I thought was pretty well for eighty-five " When, the next morning, I went with Edwige to the modest little orphan asylum, and we entered the very its low ceiling and counter, with call as it, they bottega, where they sell artificial flowers, and certain simple medicines of their own preparing, in which the Bassano

finally, last

1

'

!

and where also they receive people have great faith orders for ornamental laundry-work, and for embroidery ;

—

of a religious description,* when, as I was saying, we half-a-dozen entered this room, elderly women were all in the same old-fashioned standing talking together, *

I should

be inclined considerably to modify these directions of

institutions here. industry, in the organization of similar

FORS CLAVIGERA

494 blue dresses.

asked

I

if

I

could see the Superiora, at

and young-looking lady came

which

this very pretty the forward; and I, not dreaming that she could be for whom I was looking, repeated my saint aged A servirla she replied. I was obliged to question. the astonishment, which I could not conceal, '

'

!

explain

by saying, that

had expected

I

to

see a

much

older

answered, 'but I have good old,' lady. And then she led us through Lord the thank health, the room where a number of girls were doing the 'I

she

afti

'

!

laundry-work

peculiar

of which

I

have spoken,

— one

used about it;* cannot call ironing, y»r«^ but with their fingers, and a fine stick kept for the linen into all kinds of purpose, they work the starched iron

it

is

They all rose and bowed politely a^ us up the passed, and then the old lady preceded so she mounted stone staircase (which rapidly that she and conducted us to a behind left us some

delicate patterns.

we

way

her),

where we all sat down together. pleasant upper chamber, On this day, and on those following when I was taking her own life, gathered many particulars of write down must I which the and also about institution, one by one as I can remember them, for I find it

her portrait,

I

order. impossible to arrange them in any

me women and

She told

seventy-five, between has a right Every girl taken into the institution girls. never and will if she for it in many to a home life, do leave it they return to or if choose to leave

that they were in

all

;

''

it,

they

but others have married, or gone to service, or to with their relations. Once, many years ago, she her had seven little slave put temporarily under

it

;

live

girls,

*

I italicize

notice

;

I

here and there a sentence that might otherwise escape italicize the whole text, if I could so express my

might

sympathy with

all it relates.

LETTER XCVI

495

good missionary who had bought them She seems to have a peculiar tenderness

care by a

in

Africa.

in

her remembrance of the poor httle unbaptized savages. 'The others call me Superiora,' she said, 'but they

used to to

call

me Mamma

more than

its

Maria.'

And

usual gentleness

her voice softened

as

those

she said

words.

"And now

must leave the dear old lady for a moment, to repeat what Silvia told me once about those same little slave girls. It was a warm summer's evening, and Silvia and I were sitting, as we often do, on the broad stone steps of the Rezzonico Palace, between the two immense old stone lions that guard the door and watchAnd Silvia was ing the sunset behind the mountains. I

;

me

how, when she was a very small child, those to the house, and what girls were brought As wild black faces they had, and what brilliant eyes. lawn behind Palazzo they were running about the wide Rezzonico (which stands in a retired country place about

telling little

African

a mile from the city), they caught sight of those stone lions by the door, and immediately pressed about them,

embracing them, as if they had been dear * and friends, and covered them wnth tears and kisses Silvia thought that they were thinking of their own country, and perhaps of lions which they had seen in I asked Signora Maria if she their African deserts. knew what had become of those poor girls. She said

and

fell

to

;

that she

had heard

a convent years

\

for five *

;

that

two of them afterwards entered

but she had lost sight of them

all for

many

and, indeed, they had only remained in Bassano

months.

This is to me the most lovely and the most instructive fact I ever heard, in its witness to the relations that exist between man and the inferior intelligences of creation.

FGRS CLAVIGERA

496 "

While I was drawing the old lady's portrait, a tall, strong, very pleasant-looking woman of fifty or so came in and stood beside me. She wore the same dress as the Superiora, excepting that she had no cap, nor other covering for her wavy black hair, which was elaborately braided,

and knotted up behind,

in the fashion

the contadine in this part of the She had very bright eyes, in which a smile

commonly followed by country.

seemed

have taken up

to

when the

rest of her face

its

was

permanent abode, even Her voice was serious.

— there seems to be something

in the atmosphere of which makes everybody's voice soft but her movements were rapid and energetic, and she evidently had a supply of vigour and spirit sufficient for She was exhalf-a-dozen, at least, of average women.

soft,

that orphanage

!

—

tremely interested in the progress of the picture, (which she said was as much like the Superiora as anything could be that was sitting still), but it was rather a grievance to her that the old lady would be taken in her Come now, you might wear that other homely dress. '

'

cap

!

she said, bending over the

putting her strong

arm very

softly

little

fair

Superiora,

around her neck, and

speaking coaxingly as if to a baby ; then looking at me 'She has such a pretty cap, that I made up for her 'I wear it when I go myself, and she will not wear it out,' said Signora Maria, 'but I would rather have my :

'

!

likeness in the dress that I always wear at home.' I, she was. too, said that I would rather draw her just as '

I

suppose you are

I

thought

right,'

said

the

younger woman, '

much

prettier in that cap her quite pretty enough in the old blue cap, '

regretfully,

but she

and kept on with

is

my

so

work.

Meanwhile

!

I

asked some

Signora Maria said questions about the institution. that it was founded in the last century by a good priest,

LETTER XCVI-T

497

endowed by known in his

D. Giorgio Pirani, and afterwards farther D. Marco Cremona, whom she had herself How old this D. Marco was she could not old age. remember; a cast of his face, which she afterwards showed me, and which she told me was taken after his death, represented a very handsome, benevolent-looking man, of about seventy, but I imagine (judging from the rest of the conversation) that

he must have been much

me

that the founder, D. Giorgio, having inherited considerable property, and having no relations the land and three or four that needed it, had

older.

She

told

bought

houses, which he had thrown into one ; ,and had given '.>rj ]'' it all for poor orphan girls of Bassano.

"The

place

accommodates

seventy-five

girls

and

Thirty centimes a day are allowed for the maintenance of each girl, and were but times have probably sufficient in D. Giorgio's time, since then. However, they do various kinds

women, and

is

always

full.

changed

of work, principally of a religious or ecclesiastical nature, making priests' dresses, or artificial flowers for the altar, or wafers to be used at the

communion;

besides sewing,

of all kinds and the women knitting, and embroidery work for the children, and the whole seventy-five live The old united family. together in one affectionate and ;

as she calls the lady seemed very fond of her 'tose,' which I should loved also and said that they her,

—

girls,

think they would, for a more entirely loveable

woman

it

would be hard to find. " She has the delightful manners of an old-fashioned Venetian, full of grace, sweetness, and vivacity, and

would think

that she failed in

one of the

first

Christian

the laws of politeness. She never once failed, during our rather frequent visits at the institution, to come downstairs to meet us, receiving

duties

if

she did not observe

all

FORS CLAVIGERA

498

me

always at the outside door with a kiss on both cheeks ; and when we came away she would accompany us into the cortile, and stand there, taking leave, with the sun on her white hair. When, however, she found

made me rather uncomfortable, she her politeness being rather of the heart than of etiquette, she never fails in comprehending and this last attention

for

desisted;

considering the feelings of those about her. " But to return to our conversation. with the black,

wavy

hair,

The woman

whose name was,

as I

found

with regard to the good Don he died so young, poor man

out, Annetta, remarked, '

Giorgio Pirani, that

As

it

'

!

seemed he had accomplished a good deal in his was rather surprised, and asked, How young ? '

'

life, I

To which '

Only

she replied, in a tone of deep compassion, But then he had worn poor man !

seventy-five,

himself out with the care of the institution, and he

had a great deal of

Annetta calculated age in and with the

trouble.'

the Bassano fashion

;

in this healthy air,

usually simple habits of life of the people, longevity is The portrait of Don the rule, and not the exception. in the refectory, his beside Giorgio's mother hangs with an inscription stating that it was painted 'in the

year of her age eighty-nine

Daciana

Pirani,

Giorgio and

and

Santi,

that in

'

;

she

their

also that her

name was

assisted her two

charitable

work

sons,

for

the

bears the date 1774, and

The picture represents a fresh-coloured, erect, very pleasant-looking dressed in a lady, with bright, black eyes, very plainly with a little blue and brown apron, gown long-waisted dark-coloured cap, which time has rendered so indistinct plain that I cannot quite make out the fashion of it. orphans.

itself

A

is folded handkerchief, apparently of fine white linen, to the bare are arms her elbows, and over her bosom,

LETTER XCVI

499

with a fine Venetian gold chain wound several times around one of them, her only ornament, excepting her She is standing by a table, on little round earrings.

—

which are her Superiora told

crucifix,

me

that

The prayer-book, and rosary. when Don Giorgio was engaged

and fitting up his asylum, sometimes at the mother would observe that he was absent and at which she would low-spirited, and had little appetite, What ails you, my son ? and he ask him anxiously, would reply, I have no more money for my workmen.' At this she always said, Oh, if that is all, do not be

in building

table his

'

'

'

'

troubled

I will

!

see to

'

it

!

And,

rising

from the

table,

she would leave the room, to return in a few minutes with a handful of money, sufficient for the immediate Don Giorgio himself must have had, if his expenses. portrait tells the truth, a singularly kind, sensible,

and

cheerful face, with more regular beauty than Don Marco Cremona, but less imposing, with dark eyes and white Of Santi Pirani I could learn nothing, curling hair.

excepting that he was a priest, an excellent man, and his brother's helper.

"But

to

return

to

what

I

was saying about the

It is not long since Bassano fashion of reckoning age. a Bassano gentleman, himself quite a wonderful picture of vigorous health, was complaining to me that the health of the city was not what it used to be. Indeed,' he said, with the air of one bringing forward an un'

answerable proof of his assertion,

among

all

a hundred

my !

acquaintances,

My

father

I

knew

'

at this present time,

know several

only one man past but now they all ;

seem to drop off between eighty and ninety.' And he I asked some questions about shook his head sadly. his centenarian friend, and was told that he was a poor man, and lived on charity. 'We all give to him,' he IV.

2

I

FORS CLAVIGERA

500 '

said ; he always worked as long as he could, and at his age we do not think it ought to be expected of him.' " As nearly as I can understand, people here begin to

be considered elderly when they are about

who

those

untimely.

by name Bartolo Mosca, seventy-two teen,

and

and

years.

He

who

lived

with

them

for

entered their service at four-

(for a better world, I

at eightybefore he died, his master kept a servant expressly to wait upon

He

six.

eighty, but

die before ninety are thought to have died Signora Maria's family had an old servant,

left

it

was quite feeble

hope)

some time

for

A woman servant, Maria Cometa, died in their house of nearly the same age, having passed all her life him.

in their service.

"

I

was much interested

in

observing Annetta's be-

was half reverential, half tell whether she considered Anxious the old lady as a patron saint or a pet child. to know what was the tie between them, I asked Annetta how long she had been in the place. She did haviour to her Superiora I could hardly caressing. ;

a

it

cyphering on her fingers, and then said, Forty In answer to other questions, she told me that '

little

years.'

her father and mother had both died within a few weeks of each other, when she was a small child, the youngest of seven and her uncle, finding himself left with the ;

burden of so large a family on

his

had

shoulders,

thought well to relieve himself in part by putting the She smallest and most helpless with the orphans.' has been my mother ever since,' she said, dropping her '

'

and laying her hand on the little old lady's She added that some of her brothers had come on in the world, and had wished to take her home, and that she had gone at various times and stayed in their families, but that she had always come voice,

shoulder.

LETTER XCVI

50I

back

to her place in the institution, because she could never be happy, for any length of time, anywhere else. I asked if the girls whom they took in were generally

good, and repaid their kindness as they should do, to which the old lady replied, Many of them do, and are '

a great comfort but others give us much trouble. What can we do ? We must have patience we are here on purpose.' 'Besides,' said Annetta, cheerfully, ;

;

'

it

would never do for us to have all our reward in this if we did, we could not expect any on the other

world

;

side.'

"The Superiora told me many interesting stories about the institution, and of the bequests that had been left to it by various Bassano families, of which the most valuable appeared to be so7ne land in the country with one or two contadiiie houses, where the girls are sent occasionally to pass a day in the open air and enjoy themselves. Mapy families had bequeathed furniture

and

pictures to the institution, so that

where massive nutwood chairs and inlaid,

all

one sees everycarved and

tables,

of old republican * times.

One

picture, of

which I do not recollect the date, but it is about two hundred years old, I should think, represents a young lady with fair curls, magnificently dressed in brocade and jewels, by name Maddalena Bernardi, who looks always as if wondering at the simple unworldliness of the life about her and beside her hangs the last of her race (her son, I suppose, for he is much like her in ;

feature frate,

Maria

Don *

;

but no one knows now), a poor Franciscan did a great deal for the orphans,' Signora

'Who says.

Next

Giorgio, she

between him and good showed me a Venetian senator, all

to the frate,

Old stately times, Francesca means, when Bassano and CastelPadua and Verona, were all as the sisters of Venice.

franco,

FORS CLAVIGERA

502

robe and wig, with a face like nobody in particular, scarlet drapery tossed about in confusion, and a back-

ground of very black thunder-clouds. 'This picture,' she said, was left us by the Doge Erizzo, and represents one of his family. He left us also a hundred and twenty staia of Indian corn and two barrels of wine She yearly, and we still continue to receive them.' showed me also a room where the floor was quite covered with heaps of corn, saying, I send it to be '

*

we need many mouths

ground are so "

as

it

;

but

it

will

not

last

long, there

' !

During the many days that I visited Signora Maria, noticed several things which seemed to me different from other orphan asylums which I have seen. To be I

but from what have not seen a great many taken an imI have to been able have observe, hair cut their have that pression orphan girls usually sure

little

I

;

I

close to their heads,

and wear the very

ugliest clothes

that can possibly be obtained, and that their clothes are made so as to fit no one in particular. Also I think that they are apt to look dull and dispirited, with a

general effect of being educated by machinery, which is not pleasant. Signora Maria's little girls, on the conas is possible in the trary, are made to look as pretty

poor clothes, which are the best that can be afforded Their cotton handkerchiefs are of the gayest for them. patterns,

their

hair

is

arranged becomingly, so as to

make

the most of the light curls of one, or the heavy braids of another, and most of them wear little gold And if one speaks to them, they answer with earrings.

I do a pleasant smile, and do not seem frightened. not think that the dear old lady keeps them under an iron rule, by any means. Another thing which I noticed

was that while many of the younger children, who had

LETTER XCVI been but a

little

and showed older

girls,

still

who

almost without health.

It

was

washing-day,

sickly,

the marks of poverty and neglect, the had been there for several years, had, exception,

my good

an appearance of vigorous fortune to be there once on

when a number

of

apparently from

girls,

bare-armed (and some of

fifteen to

them

503

while in the place, looked rather

twenty years old, bare-footed), were hanging out clothes to dry in

and such a picture of health and beauty ; have seldom seen, nor such light, strong, rapid movements, nor such evident enjoyment of their work. " Next to the room where I did most of my work was

the cortile I

a long narrow room where many of the women and An inscription in elder girls used to work together. I black letters hung on the wall, 'Silentium.' large

suppose it must have been put there with an idea of to the place perhaps it giving an orderly conventual air it certainly did no other that served have purpose, may ;

!

The door was open between us, and the lively Once that went on in that room was incessant.

talking the old

'

and I thought lady by my side called to them, Tose that she was calling them to order, but it proved that she When conversation. only wanted to have a share in the for her portrait she used to sew or knit, as not '

!

sitting

She could do beautiful mending, and never wore spectacles. She told me that she had worn them until a few years before, ivhen her sight had she sat beside me.

come back quite strong as in youth. "But I must allow, in speaking of

my

of

friends

the orphan asylum, that some of their religious obserIn the large garden, vances are a little peculiar. on the side where Signora Maria has her flower border .

('We cannot '

says,

afford

.

.

much room

for

flowers,'

but they are the delight of the

Annetta

Superiora

!

')

FORS CLAVIGERA

504

a long walk unde*- a canopy of grape-vines, leading where stands, under the thick shade, a large wooden Madonna of the Immaculate Conception. She

is

to a niche

is

very ugly, and but a poor piece of carving

woman

heavy

expression

in

impossible whatsoever. The

drapery,

seven

;

a stout,

and with

stars

no

(somewhat

rusty and blackened by the weather) are arranged on a rather too conspicuous piece of wire about the head. The last time I saw her, however, she had

much improved,

if

not in beauty or sanctity, at least

of appearance, which Annetta accounted I gave her a coat of saying complacently

in cleanliness for

by

'

:

white paint myself, oil paint so now she will look well for a long time to come, and the rain will not ;

I observed that some one had placed a the clumsy wooden hand, and that her ears were ornamented with little garnet earrings. Annetta said, The girls put together a few soldi and bought those

hurt her.'

rose

in

'

earrings for the

and

Madonna.

bored the holes

They

are very cheap ones,

in her ears

myself with a gimlet.' Before this Madonna the girls go on summer afternoons to sing the litanies, and apparently find their devotion I

no way disturbed by the idea of Annetta's tinkering. She seems to do pretty much all the carpentering and repairing that are wanted about the establishment, and in

is

just as

well pleased to

'

restore

'

the

Madonna

as

was very sorry, at last, when the time anything came to say good-bye to the peaceful old house and its inmates. The Superiora, on the occasion of her last else.

I

presented me wdth a very pretty specimen of work a small pin-cushion, surrounded with artificial flowers, and surmounted by a dove, with on white linen, its shape, and even spread wings, sitting,

the

—

girls'

feathers,

quite

wonderfully

represented

by means of

LETTER XCVI the

505

tried to peculiar starching process which I have I can only hope that the dear old lady may

describe.

be spared to the utmost hmit of life in Bassano, which would give her many years yet, for it is sad to think of the change that must come over the httle community when she is taken away. She is still the life of the She reminds me house her influence is everywhere. ;

bear always of the beautiful promise, 'They shall yet her to was I Once fruit in old age.' my expressing It is a admiration for the institution, and she said, '

happy

made

And

institution.' it

so

it

is,

but

is

it

she

who has

so."

This lovely hi.story, of a life spent in the garden of God, sums, as it illumines, all that I have tried to teach in the series of letters which I now feel that

time to close.

it is

The "Go and do thou

which every

likewise,"

to kindly intelligent spirit cannot but hear spoken in each sentence of the quiet narrative, is of it,

more searching I

and

to

any appeal Looking back upon writings. last

twenty years,

I

make

my

in

with

the

infidelity

in

efforts

my own for

the

believe that their failure has

very great part owing to

been

urgency than

all-embracing

have dared

of this

my

compromise and my

outer world,

my pleading upon motives of and kindness, instead of on ordinary prudence foundation other the primary duty of loving God, I than which can no man lay. thought myself

endeavour

to

base

—

speaking to a crowd which could only be influenced by visible utility nor was I the least aware how ;

FORS CLAVIGERA

5o6

many

good and holy persons were and love of God as vividly and

entirely

in the faith

now

cally

ever

as

Christendom,

in

great illnesses which, for

bade

my

the

early

chiefly in

until,

accustomed

into closer personal

am

some time

literary labour,

I

of

after 1878, forI

was brought

relations with the friends in

spared to write

be seen that

enthusiasm

consequence of the

America, Scotland, Ireland, and I

living practi-

owe

Italy, to

whom,

if

any record of my life, it will the best hopes and highest

thoughts which have supported and guided the force of my matured mind. These have shown

me,

with

lovely

initiation,

in

how many

secret

places the prayer was made which I had foolishly listened for at the corners of the streets and on ;

how many

which the hosts of heaven hills

I

had thought

still

moved

in

left

desolate,

chariots

of

fire.

But surely the time faithful

Lord,

—

armies should

is

come when

all

these

up the standard of their not by might, nor by power, but by His lift

bringing forth judgment unto victory. That they should no more be hidden, nor overcome of If the enemy evil, but overcome evil with good. spirit,

Cometh rivers

in

hke a

how much more may the Are there not fountains of

flood,

of Paradise ?

the great deep that open to bless, not destroy ? And the beginning of blessing, if you will think of it, is in that promise, " Great shall be the peace

of thy children^ All the world is but as one orphanage, so long as its children know not God their

LETTER XCVI

507

and all wisdom and knowledge is only Father more bewildered darkness, so long as you have not taught them the fear of the Lord. Not to be taken out of the world in monastic ;

sorrow, but to be kept from its evil in shepherded peace ; ought not this to be done for all the children

—

held at the fonts beside which to

renounce the world

?

redeem

?

not, at last, to

The of

its

break rejoice,

we vow,

Renounce

!

in their

nay, ought

;

singing, and round and blossom as the rose into

!

we

— surely out

story of Rosy Vale is not ended silence the mountains and the forth

name,

it

hills

shall

the desert

INDEX

INDEX (The numbers

Abbeydale,

Adam

St.

and Eve

refer to the pages of this

vohime. )

George's Guild property, 8i, 127, 184. Ducal Palace, Venice, 24, 106.

sculpture,

Adulteration of honey, 133. Adventures of a Phaeton (by William Black), 314. Advertisements on St. Mark's, Venice, 115. .(Eschrography, base writing, 449. '

'

at

Agnes

Lawson Park,

Agubbio, 308. Allen, Mr. George,

450.

11.

Almsgiving, 391, 433. Amusement, its importance, Amusia,' 240, 242.

13, 14.

'

Anagallis tenella, 185, 284. Angelico, Fra, 70, 72.

Angels, 25, 209, 220, 221, 268, 269, 280, 481.

Apollo and Marsyas, 253. Koot el Kuloob and Enees Arabian Nights '

'

:

173

;

Argyll,

el Jelees,

398

;

Morgiana,

Parizade, 329.

Duke

of, 215, 321.

Aristotle, sculpture,

Ducal Palace,

103.

Arithmetic at schools, 440-445, 452. Art and modern life, 132-138, 281, 282. :

,,

and morals, 240, 246-255. and religion, 70-75, 130

,,

use of landscape, 133.

,,

,, ,,

,,

;

early gi-otesque, 416.

patronage, and dealing, 135-139museums and exhibitions, 132-140. See also Beauty, Drawing, Greek, Kensington, I.eucotbea, Music,

Needlework,

Poetry,

Sculpture,

5"

Symbolism, Writing;

and

FORS CLAVIGERA

512 Art (contint/ed):

—

Burne-Jones, Caldara, Carpaccio, CorMaurier, Gainsborough, Giotto, Greenaway, HardLuini, Masaccio, Millais, ing, Heilbuth, Leech, Lindsay, Northcote, Prout, Reynolds, Titian and Tintoret, Tissot,

Angelico, reggio,

Botticelli,

Du

Turner, Velasquez, Veronese. Asceticism, 212. Ashestiel, 418-423.

monks, 74. Astronomy, sacred and profane, 41-44 as part of education, 440, 476. Athena, symbolism of, 100. Author; {\.) Autobiographical :—l\\s, father, 371; mother, 381; their property and wills, 83, 84. His cousin, Mrs. Arthur Severn, and her family, 60, 88. Assisi,

;

His nurse, 405 various friends, 153, 154, 344. Inci de>its :—\n chWdhooA Mr. Good-do,' 380. In schooldays— the Rev. T. Dale and his son, 448.

—

;

,,

(1845)

,,

(1849

;

'

At Venice with Harding, 31. see Prceterita H. 418) Sibylla Dowie

at

Chamouni,

382.

(1858) ,,

,, ,,

At Turin,

73, 74.

(1871) Purchase of Bran twood, 86. (1872) Fig-seller at Venice, 23. (1874) At Assisi, 70, 74, 75 to Verona, 256.

Capuchin

;

at

Rome, 74

;

visit

St. Ursula's dianthus, 19. (1876) Christmas at Venice Discovery of (1877) Purification; sunrise at Venice, 52. ;

,,

inscription

at

St.

James

of

the

Rialto,

82.

The

Waitress at Brieg, 133. gondolier's daughter, 117. At Brantwood drawing Visit to Birmingham, 147-152. Anagallis, etc., 185. ,,

(1878)

At Brantwood, draining the moor, of illness, February 15, 329

symptoms ,,

337-339. 343(1880) Visit to Sheffield, 342. (1883) Fellow-travellers by

394;

rail,

309. ;

First

the illness,

tour in Scotland

and Whithorn, 405-420; at Coniston School, 442-444, 463 visits to Lawson Park,

to Abbotsford, Ashestiel,

;

the farm above Brantwood, 451.

„

Experiments in Education, 459, 463, 468. His disposal of his fortune, 84-88 money-matters in 1877, 87-90 see also Oxford, St. George's Guild. criticisms upon {\\.) His character:— %\'^\, 183, 282, 343; {1884)

;

;

him, 164-166, 283-290; expostulation and reply, 170174.

INDEX

513

,,

His allegiance to Oxford and the Church, 361, 362. Religious fallacy in his works before 1858, 70.

,,

Change of

Author

;

(II.)

attitude in 1858, 70-74.

Farther development in 1874, 74, 75, 294. Once more Turk than Christian," 74 then becoming a and writing as a Catholic, not a Romanist, 76, 201

,,

'

,,

;

;

Christian to

Christians,

296,

326

325,

and among

;

Christians, 506. ,,

(in.) His works

:—Y 0x1,

Clavigera, plans, aims,

and contents,

The later numbers 280-290, 341, 342, 359, 377. become more Christian, 69. It contains no new doctrines, I,

2,

116-121, 339, 340 174,

282

series,

and

;

but

;

is

carefully

carefully thought out, 173, written,

279, 280, 312, 362, 440

203.

The second

the 89th Letter given

;

to Trades Unions, 375. of his chief works, 120-122.

,,

Scheme

,,

Allusions to

Modern

:

—

Painters, 26, 70, 74, 245, 314, 424.

Stones of Venice, 70, 71, 74.

Unto this Last, 47, 266, 295, 378. Munera Pulveris, 82, 119, 310, 344, Sesame and Lilies, 154, 378, 402. Crown of Wild Olive, 69, 187, 295, Time and Tide, 224, 225, 231. Aratra Pentelici, 109, in.

366, 378.

447.

Eagle's Nest, 42. Proserpina, 20-22, 90, 342, 396, 456. Deucalion, 199. in Florence, 136. Bibliotheca Pastorum, vol.

Mornings

vol.

Laws

i.

,

ii.,

269. 157.

of F^sole, 327.

Mark's Rest, 46. Notes on Turner Exhibition

St.

(1878), 338.

Bible of Amiens, 473. Fiction fair and foul, 413.

Art of England,

Mending

11.,

the Sieve

('

478.

Verona,'

etc.), 437,

Baily's Magazine, 144, 194.

Baker, Mr. George, 144, 145, 147. Barber, Mr., 145. Barefoot lasses, 405.

Barmouth,

gift

of land to

Bassano, 491, 499.

St.

George's Guild, 144, 184.

SH

FORS CLAVIGERA '

Bastiat,

Political

Economy,'

176, 177.

'

Baubie Clarke,' 387-390. Beaconsfield, Lord, 5, 311. Beasts and man, 25, 26, 41, 53-60, 68.

Beauty, 392-397 Beer, 12, 13

English-Greek type, 381.

;

beer-gardens, 188.

;

Berwick ramparts for sale, 102. Bewdley, gift of land to St. George's Guild,

150, 184.

Bible, the Author's use of, 281, 294, 362. how to be read in schools, 471.

special passages for study, 77-81, 96, 166, 167. Pauline and Catholic Epistles distinguished, 77.

Greek Testament quoted, 464 passages quoted or alluded to Gen. xx.wii.

;

:

214, 318, 332.

—Vulgate,

'This dreamer cometh,' 331. Pharaoh's butler,' 261.

ig.

'

„ xl. Ex. XV. 2.

'He

my

is

God, and

«ill

I

Him

prepare

an

habitation,' 77. xvi. 19.

„

(Manna)

'

Let no man leave of

it

the morn-

till

ing.' 34'

Lev. X. 19.

Num.

xvi.

'

3. '

xxiii. 25

,,

Judg.

Ruth

'Have they not sped?' (mother About the beginning of barley

V. 30.

2 Kings xxi Job xix. 25. Ps.

13-

'As a man '

I

know

vi-ipeth

that

I.

,,

viii.

,,

viii. 4.

harvest,' 333.

a dish, turning

my Redeemer

Why

do the heathen rage ? (Commentary), 41. '

ii.

of Sisera), 333.

'

22.

i.

Such things have befallen me,' 70. Wherefore lift ye up yourselves?' 80. Neither curse them at all nor bless,' 79.

it,'

'

etc., 319.

What is man that Thou art mindful?' 'A little lower than the angels,' 379. '

„ „ ,,

viii.

etc., 345.

liveth,' 417.

5.

xix.

(Commentary), 38-42. 'Walketh in a vain show

x.\xix.

.

.

.

212.

disquieted in

vain,' 212. '

I.

„

xli.

,,

Ixxxvii. 4.

„

'

'

xci. 3.

Considereth the poor," Rahab,' 55.

He

23.

from the noisome pesti-

shall deliver thee

lence,' 324.

„ xciv.

'

19.

In the multitude of

my

thoughts within me,'

239-

„

cxiv.

,,

cxix. 103.

„ cxxxix.

8.

(In Exitu), 36. ' How sweet are '

If I

there,

cxxxix. 24. Prov. i.

'

,,

,,

Cant.

xiv.

Thy words

make my bed

Search

100.

me and know my

I.

'

viii. 8.

heart,' 100.

(Commentary), 329-334. Every wise woman buildeth her house, 398. We have a little sister," 352. 'The sinners in Zion munitions of rocks,' 227. '

Isa. xxxiii. 14-16.

unto my taste,' 275. behold Thou art

in hell,

.

.

.

INDEX

515

Bible passages quoted or alluded to (co?ifinued) :— Thine eyes shall see the King in His beauty, Isa. xxxiu. 17. 228.

up mire and

'

Whose waters

'

Eveiy one neighed

Ivii. 2o.

,,

Jer. V. 8.

cast

dirt,' 319. after his neighbour's wife,'

320

'They that be wise shall shine as the stars,' 44. Every man under his vine and fig-tree,' 23. He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good, 76.

Dan. xii. 3. Micah iv. 4.

'

'

'

vi. 8.

„ Zech.

'Wounded

xiii. 6.

Wisdom Tobit

Surely vain are

'

xiii.

1-9.

V. 16.

in the

house of all

men,'

my

friends,' 344.

etc., 206.

'The young man's dog with them,' 55. Candle under a bushel,' 100. Give us this day our daily bread,' 302. If they have called the master Beelzebub?' 166. The mother of Zebedee's children,' 130. So also shall the coming of the Son of Man be,'

'

Matthew

v.

15

'

vi. II.

,,

'

X. 25.

XX. 20.

'

'

,

xxiv. 27.

„

xxiv. 48.

235-

My lord delayeth

'

his coming,' etc., 259-261.

'

Mark

vii. 22.

Lasciviousness,' 95. No man eat fruit of thee hereafter,' 27. 'They shall take up serpents,' 324.

'

„

14. xi.^

xvi. 18.

„

it shall be given unto you,' 226. Desiring to see Thee,' 256. Go thou and do likewise,' 505. Let your loins be girded, lights burning,' 260. 'Cut it down, why cumbereth it the ground?'

Give, and

'

Luke

vi. 38.

„ „ „ „

viii. 20.

'

'

X. 37.

'

xii. 35xiii.

7.

273,,

xiv. 18

'

I

„

XV. 18. '

,,

xix. 22. ii.

3.

,,

ii.

5.

„

ii.

7.

I

etc.;

265.

judge thee,

175-

They have no

'

John

have bought a piece of ground,'

Father, I have sinned,' 100. Out of thine own mouth will

'

'Whatsoever

wine,' 256, 304. He saith unto you,

do

it,'

256.

'

'

the water-pots » ith water, 304. This is the work of God that ye believe,' 273. Fill

'

„

vi. 29.

„ „

X. 12.

'Hireling shepherd,' 119. If thou wouldest believe thou shouldest

'

xi. 40.

see,'

etc., 326.

xiv. 22.

,,

(Jude's

question), 77.

Those that Thou gavest Me 1 have kept,' 97. 'Then saith He to that di-sciple, Behold thy

'

„

xvii. 12.

„

xix. 27.

„ „

XX.

'

29. '

xxi.

5. '

xxi. 12.

,,

Acts

'

i.

24.

mother,' 130. Blessed are they that have not seen,' 258. Children, have ye any meat

'

?

26.

Come and dine,' 26, 340. Show whether of these two Thou

hast chosen,'

63.

„

XX. 35.

Rom. I

'

'

X. 14.

Cor. X.

'

2. '

.\.

IV.

12.

More

blessed to give than to receive,' 433.

How

shall they hear

without a preacher?' 326. Baptized unto Moses in the cloud,' 21. Let him that thinketh he standeth,' 24.

2

K

FORS CLAVIGERA

5i6

—

Bible passages quoted or alluded to (co?iiinued) Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we I Cor. XV. 32. :

'

die,'

294. '

XV. 58.

„ Gal.

iii. iii.

„

'

Worketh miracles among

'

But ye have not so learned Christ,' 96. Let him that stole steal no more,' 96, 117. Let nothing be done through strife or vain-

5.

iv. 20.

Eph.

Steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding,' 223. perfect in the flesh,' 327.

'Made

3.

'

iv. 28.

,,

'

Phil.

ii.

3.

you,' 327.

glory,' 464.

Col. Tit.

ii. i.

'Touch

21.

'

Heb.

V. 6. '

xii. 24.

,,

'

James

i.

i. '

i.

,,

27.

iii.

,,

not, taste not,

'This witness

13.

'

10.

is true,'

handle

not,' 27.

297.

Order of Melchisedec,' 80. Speaketh better things than that of Abel,' Twelve tribes which are scattered abroad,' Pure religion and undefiled," 78.

My

2T. 76,

brethren, these things ought not so to be,'

230. I

John

iii.

'The message

11.

that ye have heard from the be-

ginning,' i56.

Jude ij

1-6.

(Commentary), 94-96.

10.

'What they know

naturally as brute beasts,

175'

,,

II.

,,

23.

Perished in the gainsaying of Kore,'

'Garment spotted by the flesh,' Now to him that is able, etc.,

79.

79.

'

,,

Rev.

24. ii.,

(Message to the Seven Churches), 269-277.

iii.

'

„

277.

xxi. 4.

The former

things are passed away,' 277.

BingJey Telephone, 359.

Birmingham, 147-153,

330.

Bishop of Manchester's sermon, 223. Bishops challenged, 79, 119, 174, 177, 224. in St. George's Guild, 84, 99. Blackford, Lord, 227. Blake, William ('.A.uguries of Innocence'), quoted,

26.

Bodleian, the working-man's, 358.

Books and reading, 4, 182-184, 289, 312-314, 423, 424, 441, 446, 469. 470 and see Fiction, Popular Literature, also Adventures, Argyll, ;

Author, Bible, Burns, Byron, Carlyle, Castle Blair, Dante, Dickens, Edgeworth, Fielding, Froude, Hinton, Horace, Kingsley, Kirk, Laffan, Lockhart, Martineau, Milton, Plato, Richardson, Scott, Shakespeare, Sidney, Tennyson, Voltaire, Wordsworth. Bottega, shop, 135, 493. Botticelli, 141.

Bright, John, 29, 45, 232. ' Bruce, the monument of, 406. '

Buckland, Mrs., her leopard, 309. Buckle,

'

History of CiviHzation,' 43, 313.

INDEX

517

Builder, newspaper, 231. Burne-Jones, Sir E., 140-142, 153, 317.

Burns, 424. >*

Byron, 424.

C^ADAS,

'

197.

Caldara, Signer,

Canal life, 59. Candida Casa,

20.

St.

Ninian's monastery at Whithorn, 407.

Canterbury tower, 348. Capital punishment, 195-200. 102-108. Capitals of Ducal Palace, Carlyle on the Eastern Question, 45, 317 '

J

;

destruction of his

MSS. 343 ,

;

'

Friedrich

quoted, 432. Carpaccio's St. Ursula, 20, 26, 395. St. Jerome (Schiavoni chapel), 26. ,, CasselTs Magazirie of Art, 357. 'Castle Blair,' 313.

Cathedra

Pestilentiae

('

siege perilous'), 317.

Catholic and Romanist, 76. Epistles, 77.

Chamouni, incidents Change, evil of, 219.

at, 382.

Cheerfulness creates beauty, 395, 396.

Cheney, Mr. Edward, on Venetian Confraternities, 49. Chichester, Earl

of, 293. 4>,e).,- ie£ ,a>i variety of powers, 448, 463-466. Children, their inspiration, 415 development of writing, 477, 478. ,, ;

,,

Miss Martineau on, 314-316. African orphans, 495. Coniston beauty, 396; school, 442-444, 459, 463; sickness

,,

and death, 450-452. French, starvation at Rouen, 351.

,,

Liverpool character, 453-455. Scotch and Irish, 387, 313, 314, 407.

,,

'

Mother

thrust the child into the snow,' 320, 430.

Christianity, practical, 225, 226, 229, 296 Christian Socialists in Germany, 331. Clarissa, order of pinks, 22.

Classes

and masses, 359-364

Clavigera, Nail-bearer,

;

and

its

see Rich

2, 151.

Clergy, 61-63, 92-94i 266. Cole, Sir Henry, 134, 143. Common fund in time of distress,

;

8, 9.

Competition in education, 463, 464.

temporal reward, 297.

and Poor

FORS CLAVIGERA

5i8 Confession, 99-102.

Coniston, 396, 442-444, 463. Consecrated ground, 364. Contemporary Review, 118.

Co-operation, 126. Cornhill Magazine,

Corn-law rhymes,

7.

30, 367.

Correggio, 445. Coiutship, 384, 385, 399. Coutet, Joseph, 52, 53. Crocodile, 55. to read, 445, 446,

Cupid taught

D^MON,

in

Daily News,

Greek sense, 220,

245.

7.

Dale, Rev. Thomas, 448. Dale, Rev. R. W. 321-323. ,

Dancing, 231, 249, 250. Dante, the supernatural

in,

Inf. xxiii.

,,

Inf. xxviii. 1-126.

417. '

110-126.

,,

But there brake

'Who

off,' etc.,

262.

e'en in words,' etc., 263

Purg. xi. 79, 80. Oderigi and Agubbio, 308. Purg. xxxi. 98. Asperges in Lethe, 21. Darwin, Mr., 93. ,,

,,

David, King, 41, 42.

Dawson, George, 321-324. Deans, David, and his daughters, 248-250. Death of Coniston farmer's child, 451-452. Decalogue, 96; the modern, 116. Deformity means want of manners or heart, 393-395. Demand created by fashion, 363. Design in literary art, 245-251. Despot and tyrant, 97. Italian poem on, 246. Devil, 34, 35 Dianthus of Carpaccio's St. Ursula, 20, 22, 52, 342. ;

Mark Tapley and other characters, Little Nell, 379 Dickens, 282 437; Mr. Creakle and Steerforth, 448; 'Oliver Twist in a penny ;

;

'

abridgment, 442. Dionysus, 217, 236, 254.

Dithyramb, 15. Dixon, Mr. Thomas, of Sunderland, 231, 234. '

Doge' of

Dog

Sheffield, 10.

of Toni, the gondolier, 53-55

;

dogs in Carpaccio's pictures,

Dor6, Gustave, 142. '

'

Douglas, Bishop,

Virgil

(Glossary), 412.

26.

INDEX Dowie, Mr. and Miss, 380. Dragon in mythology, 50-52,

Drawing

519

55.

lesson, iii.

Dress, 492. Drink, 12, 13, 186. Dugdale's Monasticon,' 489. '

Du

Maurier, 393.

Duncan, Dr. Matthews,

Eagle and

420.

falcon, 57.

Eastern Question, 36, 45, 297, 317, 321.

Edgeworth, Miss, 314, 387, 399. Edinburgh misery, 3, 390. Education aims, 372, 447, 452, 462 ment, 13 and be open to ;

;

should teach means of amuse-

forced on none, 448, 463, 466. and punishcompetition, 463-465; prizes ments, 448, 464, 465 teaching should not be means of ;

all,

Fallacies, 462;

;

livelihood, 434.

The

three R's, 440-446;

grammar,

463.

Subjects recommended, their treatment Arithmetic, 442-445, 472, 473.

and

limits

:

—

Astronomy, 440, 476. Botany and gardening, 440, 446, 462, 479. Carpentry and pottery, 447. Cleanliness, 448.

Dancing, 231. Drawing, 447, 476.

Geography and physical geology, 473-476. History, with object-lessons, 444, 447.

Music and singing, Narration of events,

16, 440, 452, 453, 467. etc., 471.

Needlework, 455, 479-482. Reading and elocution, 468-469; choice of books, 470, 471.

Science, with laboratory, 447.

Seamanship,

59, 60, 290.

„

Writing, 448-450, 477. Zoology and care of animals, 56-58, 440, 461, 478. Subjects should be chosen to suit neighbourhood, and status

,,

Examinations, 464.

,,

Moral

of the learners, 462.

,,

training, 447, 448, 467, 482

;

and

see Girls.

Religious, 92. Plato's scheme, 207-222; the Norwegian, 369.

Edwards, Thomas,

naturalist, 56.

FORS CLAVIGERA

520

Edwige, Miss Alexander's servant, 490. Elboeuf, squalor Elfin

Ellesmere

and misery,

349.

in nature, 416.

power

Friends in Council

('

'),

390.

English language, some anomalies, 439, Englishman's house his castle, loi.

Ephesus, the church of, 270, 273. Equality impossible, 462-466.

Erba Luisa, Et trick

20.

river, 420.

Euphemy and blasphemy,

252.

Euryclea (nurse of Ulysses), 405. Evenings at Home,' 471. '

Exchange of commodities between nations,

desirable between districts, rather than

is

9, 10.

Faith, and 'works,' 273. an element in Tragedy, 402. ,, nascent form shown in grotesque ,, ,,

the

power

of,

art, 416.

325, 326, 417.

Faithlessness of children, 316.

Mud and Father Dollar, 345. Father should be girl's confidant, 383. Fawkes, Mr. of Farnley, his Turners, 4. Fiction, design and morality in, 245-254, 379, 380, 402. Tom Jones alluded to, 237. Fielding, 194 Father

,

'

'

;

Fig-seller at Venice, 23, 27.

Fleming, Mr. Albert, 481. Floods, 291, 310.

Food-supply, 8-13, 34, 179, 186. Force the ground of tenure, 4 when honest, better than fraud, 5. Fors (destiny, chance), 60, 79, 125, 144, 176, 265, 298. Francesca (Miss Alexander), Ida,' 435 Roadside Songs of Tus;

'

'

;

cany,' 445,

490;

465,

'The Mother of

the

Orphans,'

491-505her mother, 482 her servant Edwige, 490. ,, Frankness, loi and see Secrecy. ;

;

Fraud and force, Freedom, 460.

2,

5, 176.

Freits, 412.

Froude, Mr.

'

History of England 317, 344-348 in England, 178-180. Fruit in Venice, 27-33 ;

,

;

Gainsborough,

72, 139, 141.

Gale, Mr. Frederic, 194.

'

quoted, 327.

INDEX

521

6.

Galignani's Messenger, Garibaldi, 80.

Gentlemen, 56-58, 207 and see Squires. 1 Georgian epoch, capital punishment, 95-1 99;

Giotto, 72, 75, 141, 417Girls, character and training, 379-404, 502-505.

Gladstone, Mr., 316, 317, 321God in Nature, 38-44.

Goethe, 222, 223. Gordon, Osborne, 197.

Gospel of Dirt, 65, 79. Gotthelf s heroine, Freneli, 396, 455. Grace, the law of, 300. Greek art, dependent on religious myths, 130, 131, 253. design and drapery, iii, 112. surviving in Venice, 103, 112, 113.

,,

,,

Greek chimsera, ,

416.

hierarchy, 220, 221. laws, 195-198.

.,

music, 15-17. 237, 251-254.

Greenaway, Miss, 455

;

and

see List of Illustrations.

Greg, Mr., 118.

Grosvenor Gallery, 138-142.

and

Guilds, 126, 201, 303, 373;

Halle,

see St. George, Venice.

Sir Charles, 135, 136.

Hamel, Dr. and the Mont Blanc accident of Handel's Harmonious Blacksmith, 69. ,

Hanging

in

Harding,

J.

1822, 53.

time, 198.

King George's D., 31.

Harrison, Mr. Frederic, 71.

Harrow

Atlas, 473.

Hawkins, Mr., Waterhouse, 55. Heaven, natural and supernatural, 339,

340.

Heilbuth, M., 142. Helps, Sir Arthur, Friends in Council,' 390, 448. Heraldry on a sovereign, 443, 444. '

'

Herbert, George, quoted,

Heroes

in

Greek

Take

stars for

belief, 209, 221.

Hesiod, 241. Hewlett, Mr., 227.

Highland 'barbarism,' 456. Hill,

Miss Octavia,

Hinton, James,

88.

53.

Honest force versus fraud,

5, 161, 163.

money,' 44.

FORS CLAVIGERA

5^2 Honey

a Swiss

at

Hood, Tom,

hotel, 133.

186, 199.

Horace, the supernatural ,, (Od. HI. iii. 9). (Od. in. xiii. i). (Od. IV. Huish, Mr., 139.

xi.

in,

417. arte Pollux, 209. Fountain of Bandusia, 417.

Hac

'The whole house

7).

laughs,' etc., 20.

Humanity, the religion of, 71-74. Humility, how to be taught, 448. Hypocrisy, 264, 432.

Ida, the story of (by Miss Alexander), 435. Idiot at

Chamouni, 382. modern, 229, 230.

Idolatry,

Idleness a social offence, 10.

Ingelow, Miss (Songs of Seven), Inquisition, 99-102. Interest, 119, 158, 161. Interests of England, 45, 127. Irish character, 314, Land

387

;

The lambs play

'

'

always,

League, 365.

Italian character, 258, 490-505.

Jael-Atropos (see vol. iii. 403), 335. Jane Anne, of Lawson Park, 451. Jezebel, type in Revelation, 275. John Bull and his pudding, 430. Judasian heresy, 200, 226.

Karl,

bombards

Prince,

Zittau, 432.

Keels of the Humber, 59. Kensington School of Art, 134, 143. 80.

Kinghood,

Kingsley's Sermon on Cana, 304-307. Kirk, Professor, on statistics of trade, Kitten and racehorse, 144.

Labour League Lady,

of America, 231.

loaf-giver, 433.

Laffan, Miss,

Land,

12.

'

Baubie Clarke

'

and

'

Tatters," 387-390.

366, 374, 375, 460, 461. Landlord, 460 and see Rent, 3, 4,

;

George's Guild as, 119. Laundry work at Bassano, 494, 504. Laodicea, church of, 272, 277. ,,

Laws

St.

of nature and

Leech, John, 393.

human

interference, 215, 310, 321-327.

212,

INDEX

523

Leisure for culture, 132, 189, 228, 232-234.

Leopold, Prince, 303. Leucothea, the Etruscan, 104, 109-112. squalor and misery, 352. Lincoln Gazette, 60.

Lille,

Lindsay, Sir Coutts, 139. Liverpool and art, 135. birds,

,,

and

children, 454.

Livy quoted, 262. Lockhart's Life of Scott,' 408-412, 424. '

London

misery, city

,,

3.

companies, 371. Bassano, 498-500.

Longevity in Longfellow (Psalm of Life), Life is Love, conduct in, 381-386, 399, 400. '

real,' 212.

Luini, 141.

Luna, sculpture on Ducal Palace, 105, no. Luxury, 225. Lycurgus, 195. Lydia, Seven Churches, 268.

MacColl,

Rev. Malcolm, 321.

Machinery, 180, 181, 282, 290, 302. Mallock, Mr. W. H., 190, 227. Manchester and art, 132, 134, 185, 200 Manchester Guardian, 129.

;

and Thirlmere,

Maps and

models, 473-476. Mariegola, Mother-law, 32, 332.

Marsyas, 253, 257. Martigny, 437. Martineau, Miss Harriet, 312-316. Masaccio, 141. Masters and men, 149, 298-303, 363.

May Queen

at Nanterre,

490

;

Tennyson's, 379.

Mazzini, 80. Piero, gondolier, 117.

Memory

hindered by writing, 445.

Michael, sculpture at Ducal Palace, 107,

Middleman, ir-13. John Stuart, 81,

Mi;i,

182, 224.

Millais, Sir J. E., 140-143.

Milton, the supernatural '

(Lycidas)

in,

417.

grim wolf with privy paw,'

Miracle, 322-327. Misery of poor, see Poverty.

93.

143, 201.

FORS CLAVIGERA

524

Monastic hospitium or hostel, 437. Monasticism, early, 487-489; the new, 435, 505-507. Monster, a social, 125. Moore, Mr. J. W., as Christy Blacksmith, 68. Morality and design in art and hterature, 245-254, 424.

independent of religion, 295.

,,

Moral influence of open laws to be taught ,, ,,

,,

air, 339.

to children, 447-483.

in trade disputes, 300.

Mornitig Post, 7. Most, Herr, German

Socialist, 331.

'

Miiller's

Dorians," 195. Murray, Mr. A. S., 252. Murray, Mr. C. F., 136, 146.

and see St. George's Guild. Music, Greek, 15-17, 236-238, 251-254 in Plato's scheme of education, 213-225, 239-242. in Italy, blacksmith's part-singing, 68 ,, military bands, 257.

Museums, 136-13B, 189-193

;

;

;

,, ,, ,,

,,

Manchester, reasons of improved taste, 134. as means of culture for the masses, 187, 188.

in

suggestions for school-teaching, 452, 453, 467, 468. opera-boxes as charity, 391 and see Oratorio. ;

Mutiny, 127.

Myths,

37,

no,

222, 253, 254.

Nationalization

of land, 460

;

and see Land.

Nailers, 151-153.

Nanterre, 489.

Needlework and

textile industries, 455,

479-481.

Nelson's writing, 450.

New commandment,

'Let him that hateth,'

Decalogue.

Newgatory philanthropy,

186, 199.

Newspapers, see Popular Literature. Nineteenth Century review, 67, 227, 321, 413. Nineveh, qualifying amiabilities, 174, 286. Noah, sculpture of the Ducal Palace, 24. Northcote, James, R.A. 242. ,

Norwegian peasantry and education, 368-370. CESTRUS, 202. Oliver, Mr. 20. ,

Opinions, 282, 290, 360, 368. Oratorio and opera, 251.

Orphan asylum

at Bassano, 491-505.

etc.,

125;

and

see

INDEX Orpheus, 63rd hymn Oxenham, Mr., 227. Oxford, Author's allegiance, 361, 362

525

translated, 336.

;

gifts, 4, 75,

437.

Packino, steamer at Venice, 66. Pall Mall Budget, 11. Pall Mall Gazette, 2, 5, 330, 331. Paris, 376.

Mungo, 408-412. Parsons, Dr., of Hawkshead, 339. Past and present, 27-35, 131. 161, 195-199. 345-355. 432-

Parli,

Pastor's office, 267. Peasantry of Italy, 258, 367, 396

;

Norway,

368.

Pergamos, church of, 271, 274. Philadelphia, church of, 272, 276. Picture dealing, 135. his plan of education, 207-222 Plato, 203 Critias quoted, 198. ,, ;

;

excludes writing, 445.

'

'

'Laws' quoted, 14-18, 64-66, 122-124,

,,

156, 202-221, 233, 236-

242, 251, 269.

Pleasure, sources of, 375, 376, 464. Poetical justice, 246.

Poetry, art of singing, not of writing verses, 445. of ironwork, 68 see also Fiction, Tragedy. ,, ;

Policemen, 390. Politeness of old Venetian manners, 497, 498. see also Bastiat, Common Political Economy, 377

Fund, Co-operation, Exchange, Food, Guilds, Interest, Labour League, Land, Landlord, Luxury, Machinery, Masters, Middleman, Monster, Moral Laws, ;

Nationalization, Poverty, Prices, Property, Prosperity, Registration, Rent, Rich, St. George's Guild Laws and Work, Slaves, Social, Stealing, Strikes,

Trades Unions, Usury, Water supply,

\\'ealth.

Popular literature, 182-184, 288, 317, 318, 431, 441. Poverty and distress, 178-181, 334, 349-355, 43°: 43ihow to be met, 9, 10, 225 and see St. George's Guild Laws. ,, ;

the despising of the poor, 169.

,,

Prayer, 34, loi, 226, 324-326. on St. George's land to be fixed, Prices of water-colour drawings, 135. :

,

,

Priesthood, 80.

Primogeniture, 366. Property, 3-5, 97 in wife and home, 401. Prophetic condition not morbid, 452. nature of genius, 298. ,, ;

Prosperity of

England

fallacious, 6, 7.

28.

FORS CLAVIGERA

526

and Papist, 230 Prout, Samuel, 135. Protestant

;

and see Author, Catholic.

Psyche at Naples, 381. Pun, a 'noble and instructive,' 199. Punch, 296, 308, 393, 430.

Racehorse and and

Rainfall

kitten, 144.

floods, 291, 310.

Reading aloud,

469.

Registration of income

Religion and

art,

and

false

,,

and occupation,

8,

70-74, 130-132. true, 100.

Religious pride, 248-250. service, 78, 212, 296.

,,

Rent, 119, 127, 158, 163, 266, 281, 367.

Reynolds, Sir Jo.^hua, 72, 446, 450.

Rhadamanthine law,

195, 197, 199, 201.

Rich and poor, 148-155, 169, 234, 235, 261. Richardson's novels, 399. Rivers of Scotland, 419, 420. Roadside Songs of Tuscany,' 445, 465, 490. '

'

Rogers' Rosiere,

Italy' quoted, 437. Queen, at Nanterre, 489, 490.

May

Rouen, squalor and misery, 350.

Salvini

in Othello, 400. Sardis, the church of, 269, 272, 276. St. David of Wales, 487. St. St.

St.

George's Chapel (dei Schiavoni) at Venice, 185, 284. George's cross, 66. George's Guild aims, 280, 428, 429, 460 more or :

;

actual

436, 456

life,

;

less realized in

and no new experiment,

114.

Creed, 69, 396.

Laws, 9-14,

Work,

99, 128, 207, 302, 303, 356, 367.

98, 126, 128, 225, 230, 265, 427, 434.

Intended schools, Sheffield

81, 321-325, 440-445.

Museum,

4, 20, 46, 102,

103, 105, 113, 129, 146,

357. 358, 428, 479-

Property, 69, 81, 88, 98, 127, 145, 147, 184, 428. Subscriptions, 357, 429.

Legal position, 145, 375. Trustees, 144.

Proposed 'bishops,' St.

Jerome, by Carpaccio,

St.

John the

Baptist, 13.

26.

84, 99.

INDEX St.

Mark,

527

46.

Ninian, 407. SS. Peter and Jude, their message, jj. St. Quentin, squalor and misery at, 354. St.

St.

Theodore, 46-52, 144.

St.

Ursula, 13, 19, 37, 52, 86, loi, 341, 342, 395.

Salaries should be fixed, 11.

Scenery, influence on character, 423, 424, 490. Schools or Confraternities of Venice, 47, 49. Scotland, scenery, 405-408, 418-422. Church method of ordination, 61-63. Scott, Michael, his burial-place, 406. Scottish

242-245 assertion of moral law, 248 treatment of the supernatural, 412-417 his decadence, 282. His homes, 418-425.

Scott, Sir Walter, his genius,

;

;

;

Handwriting, 450.

Highland friends, 456. and Mungo Park, 409-412. Lovers

in his novels, 399.

Lucy Ashton and Amy Robsart, 380. Jeanie Deans and her folk, 248-250, 396, Remarks on education and drink, 13.

405.

La

Demoiselle a Marier, 352. Scribe, Sculpture, Ducal Palace, Venice, 23, 24, 102-110. head over girls' school. Old Burlington Street, 143. ,, Psyche at Naples, 381. Secrecy involves guilt or danger, loi, 250, 383. Selfishness, 126, 128.

Seven chuiches of Asia, 268-277. Shakespeare, treatment of the supernatural, 416, 417 of usury 380 and men in love, 399 ;

;

;

of girls in love, Merchant of

in

'

Venice,' 82.

Midsummer

'

Night's Dream,'

iii.

—

'

Feed him with apricocks and

dewberries,' 28.

—

'

Landlord of England art thou now,' 460. 3.^' Oh, I could prophesy,' 452. Romeo and Juliet,' end. These be your enemies,' etc., 401-403, She hath deceived her father,' 247. 'Othello,' i. 3.

'Richard

'Henry

II.'

ii.

i.

IV.,' part

i.,

v.

'

—

—

'

'

Salvini's Othello, 400.

II

Sheffield, 4-11, 58, 60, 68, 108, 127, 199, 428.

Shoemaking,

98.

Sibylla Dowie, 380-383

Sidney, Sir Philip, Sillar,

Mr.

Simon, M.

W. C,

'

Psalter,' 157.

on Usury,

82, 158, 159.

'

Jules,

L'0uvri6re,' 348.

FORS CLAVIGERA

528 Sirens

and Muses,

i

253.

Slaves, 207, 232, 234.

Smith,

Adam,

117.

Smith, Mr. Goldwin, 109, 132, 181, 182.

Smoke

prevention, 187.

Smyrna, church

of, 271, 274. Social fallacies, 125, 175, 287. Socialists of Germany, 331. Social Science Association, 174.

Solomon, sculpture of Ducal Palace,

102.

Somervell, Mr., 98. Soul, in Plato's sense, 218.

Spartan laws, 195-198. Spectator, 283-290.

Spinning, 481. Squires,

3, 56.

Stanley, Miss, on Needlework, 455, 481. Stealing by rich from poor, 96, 116, 119, 202, 266.

Steamers at Venice, 27, 66, 68. Steam tram at Sheffield, 60. Stradivarius, 237. Street sweeping by machinery, 180, 181. Strikes, 298-301.

Supernatural, 412-417.

Swan, Mr. Henry, 146. Sycophant (' a fig-shewer, i.e., one who informs against persons exporting figs from Attica, or plundering sacred fig-trees ; hence a common informer, and so generally a false accuser,' Liddell and Scott), 28. Symbolism, heraldic and pictorial, 105 of Athena, no. ;

Talbot, Mr.

Q., 144.

'

Tatters, Flitters,

Tavern, a

and

the Councillor,' 387.

'

holy,' 255, 390, 437.

Temperance Question,

see Drink, Beer Gardens, Tavern.

Tempo, II (Venetian newspaper), 246. Tennyson, May Queen,' 379. ,, (Northern Farmer) Thornaby waste, 465. Nineteenth Century, prefatory sonnet, 67, no. ,, Theodolinda (a Bavarian princess, whose adventmes ended in a At marriage witli Autharis, King of the Lombards, at Verona. the end of one year it was dissolved by the death of Autharis,' A.D. 590, but the virtues of Theudelinda had endeared her to the nation, '

'

'

and she was permitted

to bestow, with her hand, the sceptre of the Itahan kingdom,' Gibbon, XLV.), 380.

Theuth and the King of Egypt,

445.

INDEX

529

Thirlmere, 143, 201, 308, 329. Thyatira, church of, 271, 275.

Tichborne

trial,

441.

Titian and Tintoret, 70-72, 141, 450.

Times,

5, 6, 56.

Tissot, M., 142.

Tobias and Tobit, 24, 55. Toni and his dog, 54. Trades Unions, 362-375. •

Tragedy, 213, 402. Tredegar, distress at, 334, 430. Turner,

Tweed

M. W.

J.

,

4, 72, 141,

445.

river, 418, 420.

Tylor, Mr. Alfred, 201.

from Kvpos, power,

for Koipavos, ruler,

Tyrannus (Doric

K{ipio%, lord)

97-

Universe without God a fearful sight and false,' 43, 44, Uriel, angel of the sun, in modern form, 108. Use the test of right to possess, 366. '

on Titian (' Titian it is who bears the banner'), 141 columns of the Piazzetta, 46. Ducal Palace, 23, 24, 55, 102-108. Early inscription on St. James of the Rialto, 82, 83.

Velasquez, Venice

-

82, 116, 157-164, 176, 281.

Usury,

:

,, ,,

;

72.

'

,,

St.

,,

Dialect, 48.

Mark's, 113-115. Confraternities or Schools, 49, 126.

Government, Laws, 27-33.

,-

23.

,,

Steamers, 27, 66, 68.

,,

The author

117 Ursula, 20.

at, 19, 23, 52,

Vervain in Carpaccio's Verona, 256.

St.

;

story of Toni' s dog, 54.

'

Queen of Sheba,' at Turin, 73. Verdi's music, 213. Verrocchio, Madonna, in Sheffield Museum, 146. Vigri, the Beata, at Venice, 329. Veronese,

Violin

and harp, 237. Due, on Mont Blanc,

Viollet le

291. Virgil (Georgic II. 160), Fluctibus, etc. (Benacus, i.e., leaping with waves and roar as of the sea), 320,

—

Voltaire, 312.

Vulgarity, 313, 394.

Lago

di

Garda

FORS CLAVIGERA

530 Wages,

125, 126, 302. at Turin, 73.

Waldensians

Ward, Mr., 103, 109. Water supply, 291-297, 308-311. Wealth defined, 3 statistics wanted, made by work, 372, 434. ,, ;

7.

infinite, 2-5; of England over-estimated, 6, 7, 301. primarily consists in worthy men and women, 378, 403. of Scotland, 405.

not

,, ,,

,,

Whithorn, 407. Willett, Mr. Henry, 291, 308.

Wisdom, Women's

the law of, 300.

and work, 152-155,

place

167, 168, 378, 437, 456,

457

;

see Girls.

Woolwich

infants

and Yorkshire infants, 6. The Animals of the Bible,'

'

Worcester, John,

Wordsworth

The waves

(Ode on Immortality),

,,

World,

'

(Daffodils),

'

68.

beside them,'

Heaven

lies

etc., 67.

about

us,' 415.

the, 309.

Works and

faith, 273.

Writing, caligraphy, 440-450.

Yarrow,

409, 411. Yorkshire, 1-6.

Zaleucus,

195.

Zanchetta, Signora Maria, Zittau

bombarded,

'

The Mother

of the Orphans,' 491-505

432.

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