Not the least attention is really paid to equity, butonly to thedecrees of the Court as recorded. A Suitor petitions for redress. The petition is not examined to be determined upon the matters therein stated. First—ThePetitionmust be in all respects in due form, according to the recorded rules. Second—The matter of it must be such as the Court will consider, and such as may come before the Court. Third—Are the Parties in the Jurisdiction, and are all the parties who may be interested, duly notified and present; or, if not present, accounted for. Fourth—Are the matters for the Court only, or must it be assisted by some petty judges to ascertain the facts. Fifth—The petition being at last before the Judge, he may not look into it, unless the Lawyers look into it with him; and, then, no opinion (decree) can be given until the Records are fully examined, to discover if anything of the sorthas beenrelieved. If a similar case be found, then the petitioner is called upon to prove his case as stated in his petition; and, if he fail to prove his exact case (though he may make a stronger show for relief), he is ordered out of Court, and condemned to heavy costs (tin-tin). If the case be proved, then the Judgereserves his judgment. For he must very carefully compare all the cases, examine all the voluminous Records, besides examining the innumerable Papers which have grown up around the Petition during all the proceedings (often spreading over many years), before he dare to order the recording of hisdecree. For, this done, he has added another Case to the King's conscience; that is, to the highest form of Law and of human Justice!
He dare not do this unless justified by the Records;interminable, stretching backwards to the first King who pretended to have a conscience; obscure, contradictory—he dare not unless justified by the Records—Precedents. If he mistake, grossly, he will be certain to be called to account by the Lawyer-Caste, who make a business of seeking for discrepancies; in fact, he is bewildered—not by the case; that is simple, orwasoriginally, simple enough; but, by the arguments of the Lawyers, the documents overlying and enveloping the case,and by the difficulty of deciding according to the Precedents. Could he merely announce hisownjudgment, there is no difficulty—but that is the last thing to be thought of—in truth, if reduced tothat, he is bound to refuse any relief, however clear it is thatequityrequires it!
Thus the Judge, old and wearied; a man tottering over his grave, feeble, irresolute, takes the course which maybe looked for—and postpones, and postpones; other like cases accumulate on his hands; he dismisses some, "reserves" others,refersto another judge what he can decently, decides none! Or only those which are petty, or those which are really unopposed, or those exciting no interest.
Meantime, the parties to thePetitionare dead, or absconded, or beggared. Years have elapsed; all parties are worn out or impoverished by the enormous expenses—at length, there is no one to pay Lawyers and the Court Officers—the thinglapses—dies. Term after Term (as Sessions of the Court are called), the Case is called. Some poor wretch struggles still to save something of the propertytied upin the Court by the Case—he triesto call up from the mass of dusty and forgotten Records, a reminiscence of the lost Petition. In vain—the thing is a wreck, and has wrecked its builders!
The Case lies forgotten amid the interminable processes, affidavits, answers, pleas, replications, rejoinders, motions, applications, notices, subpœnas, summonses, commissions, bills of amendments, and of supplement; documents of all sorts, making up theCase, mouldering away in the stone alcoves of the huge Records; as the poor victims of it lie mouldering in similar forgetfulness! Not, however, without profit to the Lawyer-Caste; for some miscreant of this profession, perchance, discovering the Case, in his searches after means of spoil, sees howhemay gain by it. He knows of an estate remotely touched by the matter of the old and forgotten Petition, and he knows quite well that there is really nothing affecting the property; yet, he sees fees and spoil. It is merely to frighten the possessor of the estate by an intimation of adefect of title, and refer to this old Case, never decided. Thebandit[khe-te] sets in motion the machinery of the High Court of Chancery. One of its officers summonses the poor man to come into that Court, and answer to the allegations touching his right to possess the house in which, perhaps, he has lived for twenty years! and lived without objection from any source!
Now it does not matter at all that there is no sort of ground for this attack; the moment it is made, the title of the poor unoffending man to his own house is ruined—almost as completely as if by the sentence of the Court he had been deprived of it. The robber whoattacks wishes merely to force the owner of the house to buy him off. To secure this spoilhe records his summons in the Court, and from that moment no one will buy the house, nor will any one lend any money upon the security of it until that record be removed. If the victim of this oppression be in debt, or have but little money, or but little more than his house, or if he have borrowed money upon his house—in fact, unless he be a man quite rich, he is inevitably ruined! He is ruined, because the lawyer has,by the Record, practically deprived him of his estate. And this is done by a Petition to the Court, making allegations artfully and untrue. Yet, as they are not supported by any sort of evidence, and are merely bareinsinuationsoften of anybody—it does not the least matter—is it not inconceivable that such a thing should be allowed? That merely upon theRecordof a Petition, without any evidence, without any character, without any surety for its truth, without any, the least, inquiry, or any, the smallest deposit in Court to cover the expenses to which the summoned party may be put, should it appear he has been wrongfully summoned—this great injustice may be perpetrated, and perpetrated without risk of any punishment! "But surely the Court will immediately dismiss this iniquitous case?" Not at all; the Court cannot be reached; all the endless proceedings and delays already mentioned intervene. The fees and expenses are enormous—the decision far off. The victim cannot get a hearing. He borrows money and employs lawyers—in vain. He can do no more—he is bankrupt. The lawyer who has ruined him getsnothing in such a case, because the victim prefers poverty to gratifying the robber. He gets nothing, because he has no real case, and drops it as soon as he sees he can make nothing out of it. Should the party be very rich upon whom the robbery is attempted, he may fight it out and finally clear his property, and get adecreefor some costs (only a portion) against the other party. But thisdecreeis worthless; the party has no property and cannot pay.Hehas foughtfor luck, having nothing to lose, but all to gain.
Usually, however, as the Lawyer well knows, the party attacked will hurry to buy off the suit!
In this way, old Causes are Mines, which the Lawyer-Caste work to their own peculiar advantage. They have every facility, both from their experience and from the usages of the Caste. The very Judges of the Courts are of the same Caste, and give every assistance in matters of forms, continuances, motions, dilatory proceedings, and the countless processes by which Lawyers make fees and their clients are robbed.
Thus the Court of Equity, with a mocking irony, becomes a Court of Iniquity! and the very tribunal designed to do more perfect Justice is perverted to the most scandalous use—made an engine the most oppressive and destructive ever contrived for the misery of Society, short of one invented to destroy it wholly!
The Court was originally organised by Priests who had acquired the Roman learning, or some tincture of it, and endeavoured to strengthen their own Class, and to soften the barbarous harshness of the common Law, by erecting this Court. The laws of the Barbarianswere savage, in civil as well as in criminal things; and the Priests, more cultured, endeavoured to soften and temper this harshness, or, at any rate, to get more complete control by it. They formed it, and administered it at first, and for a long time. But the Lawyer-Caste have now its administration, and they have not so much respect for the opinions of the general public as had the Priests, and have made the Court abye-word and a shame[Kri-mi]!
The expenses and fees are beyond belief. A Lawyer who gets one good Chancery Case into his hands, lives upon it luxuriously. I was once shown aBill of Costs, as these items of fees are styled.
I observed that one would be charged for a thing done and for the same thing not done—in other words, for the doing and for the not-doing. Thus, if one requests a thing be done, the Lawyer will charge for "receiving instructions," "for reducing the same to writing," "for instructing a clerk," and the like—then, having sent away the clerk onanothermatter, he will charge for taking new instructions and going over the same ground again. Thus, actually charging for the delay and obstruction caused in the affair.
Again, if you ask a Lawyer something, he will presently say, "I must take counsel," meaning he wishes to ask another Lawyer. When theBillis examined you will find, say, "for being asked and not knowing, 6s. 8d.; for taking your instructions to counsel, 6s. 8d.; for attending upon counsel, £1 1s.; for fair copy made for him, £2 2s.;" and so on. Your simply unansweredquestionhas thus served the following purposes:—If ithad been answered at once the fee would have been, say, 6s. 8d.; but as it was not, but carried elsewhere, it has given the first Lawyer five times more of fees, and hisbrotherin the Caste also a handsome sum! One may judge how ignorant the first Lawyer will be likely to be, and how often he finds it convenient to help his higher Caste brother, especially when in helping him he so greatly helps himself! We have some cunning rogues in our Central Kingdom, but such astuteness as this is beyond them!
I once visited this tribunal of Chancery to witness the proceedings—but they are so dull and prolix as to drive one away as soon as possible. The presiding Judge, and all the High-Caste Lawyers, wear wigs and gowns. The lower Lawyers, who are called Solicitors, sit in a sort of well, below and at the feet of the High, and have no badge of distinction. In fact, they are not respected, and only tolerated by thebigwigs(as the High Lawyers are often called) as the jackals who provide them with prey. They immediately act in matters with the victims of the Court, and do all the dirty work, extracting the fees, and the like—the High Lawyers taking the most of the plunder, although, for decency sake, they will not see the victims of their rapacity if they can help it.
Thewigsspoken of are very absurd, and make the wearers seem to be engaged in masquerading, or fooling. (We have no term corresponding to the former.) The lappets of thick hair come down over the ears of the Judge, to enable him (as it occurred to me) to take hisnap[qu-iz] with less danger of being disturbed.
No one can be a Judge, nor a High-Caste Lawyer, who does not wear the wig. It has a funny appendage behind, like a pig's tail, exactly fitting to fall upon the small of the neck; and is itself a curiously curled "frizzle" of horsehair, selected for uniformity of whitish colour. There is somethingcabalisticin this thing, which is carefully hidden from the outside world.
If a Judge take it off, all business immediately stops. A Lawyer instantly loses his power of speech if his wig fall off. It was told me in confidence, that the tail (like that of swine) had a peculiar significance, to say; the utter selfishness of the Caste andgreed—another whispered a darker thing, referred to the Devil of the Superstition: that, anciently, this Caste struck a bargain with the Demon, and he made it obligatory upon the Lawyers always to wear this chief sign ofdiabolism! This may be merely the chaff [pti-ni] of these Barbarians. At any rate, somethingoccultis attached to the thing; and a curious respect is shown to it, mixed of fear and contempt, even by outsiders.
The Judge sits so highly exalted, as to be out of the way of hearing the passages occurring among the Lawyers. He is generally half-blind, half-deaf; quite worn out with age, and the ceaseless wretchedness of his Court and the Lawyers, and incapable of vigorously dealing with anything. In this Court the most imbecile is most fit; for nothing is expected but imbecility (so far as the public is concerned), and fees for Officers and Lawyers.
When a Case ison, the Lawyers begin to talk, and toread from the big books, on one side, and then on the other. Neither tries to get at the truth, but each in turn does his best to mislead the Judge. Both read from the interminable and conflicting Records, and both find ample records which fit the precise Case, which each contends for. The poor old Judge, now and again, takes a note of these quotations from the Big Books of records—for he is to decide not upon the equity but upon the records, as we have seen. By the time he has found hisspectacles[Qu-iei] he has forgotten the Book, the number, the Recorder's name, and the many other things, needful to find where the record is, and when he is again told, lifting up his wig-pallet, he only hears imperfectly, andmistakes. So, when, perhaps a long time after, he tries to make up a decree to fit the Case, therecordto which he turns refers to nothing in the world like what was intended!
Hour after hour, and sometimes day after day, these speeches of the Lawyers go on. For the longer the talk the larger thefees—nobody thinks of Justice! The old Judge understands the trick of thefarcegoing on, perfectly well; in his younger days he was famous for his skill in all the arts of the High-Caste Lawyers, and obtained his present position on that account, and because others wanted to get a formidable rival out of the way; he understands how very little (but fees) is involved in the endless talk and reading, and begins to nod—even, the gods would nod. The Lawyer observes, stops a bit; the unexpected silence awakens the wearied old man—he opens his watery, blinking eyes, fumbles his papers, or takes a pinch of snuff, and says: "Go on,brother Bounce, I'm with you"—meaning he is attending to him; and soon falls asleep again.
Perhaps one of the talking Lawyers is of the High Q.C. I am told that such is the dread of this Lawyer-Caste, that the Sovereign constantly flatters the tribe, and gives to them thefattest[phig-sti] offices. All Judges and the Keeper of the Sovereign's Conscience—this Court—and a great many other most important places, and exaltation to the Highest Caste of Lords [Tchou], falls to them by established rule—in truth, the Caste is chief in the Law-making Houses, and, consequently, in Government itself. The Q.C. is, however, a thing done to many who cannot, as yet, get fees from the public treasure, that they may get them from out-siders more amply. The right to attach these symbols to the name of Lawyer also gives him asilk gown(during the present reign) worked by the sacred hands of Royalty itself! The honoured wearer of this is a Q.C.—that is, Queen's Champion—and binds all its wearers to defend the Sacred Head (Pope) of the Superstition from the machinations of the Evil One, and those of their own order who, sold to the Devil, may possibly be put up by him to plot mischief, not only against the general outside world, but against "Crown and Altar!"
Perhaps, after days of this weary work, one of the Lawyers suddenly discovers that somebody, or something required in the intricate and dubiousprocesses, is wanting; or in some document some erasure is detected; or somethingto hang a pointupon is seized hold of—and at once a wrangle between the Lawyersensues. The Judge fairly awakes; the wholecase breaks down[kei-tz-se]; and everybody, but the poor victims in the case, anticipate more fees. The victims, however, who have already beggared themselves in it, suddenly despair; perhaps the case never again comes on, and the property involved in it wastes away in dark obscurity beneath the gnawing rats, which infest the Court.
Sometimes (as I was told) some poor man, or woman, who had scraped together the last farthings to pay the Lawyers (for they will in no wise act unless paid beforehand, feeling that such service as they render is not likely to be gratefully recompensed, and it being the severest rule of the order never to show any pity for outsiders), being in Court when they see all hope destroyed, and themselves and their children beggared, have fallen down and been carried out of Court with reason for ever gone; or with such a deadly blow that never more do they revive, but soon die, and are buried at the public charge!
You will see wretched creatures trying to look decent in well-brushed rags, darned and patched, with shoes through which the toes protrude, but over which the blacking [di-yte] is carefully smeared—you will see these victims of the Court, like ghosts, flitting about the passages, and watching for the entry of the Judge. One will attempt to address him—but he is conveniently deaf. He knows thevictimis there, and though a party may speak, has the right to speak for himself, and the Judge is bound to hear, yet, such a thing is unknown. The mysteries of the Court denyto anysaneman the attempt. These poor creatures are insane—or, what answers just as well, have been branded by the Lawyers asInsane. So the miserable wretch, trembling, raises his voice, "My Lud" (meaning my Lord), "My Lud;" here the Court-officer cries outSilence; or, if the man be,for the first time, attempting to call attention to his case, by the time he has got so far as to fairly say "My Lud!" what with the jeering looks of the Lawyers, his own ignorance of the mysteries, and his wretchedness, he either completely breaks down—or if the Judge, seeing anewface, asks him to "go on"—almost at once perceives that the man is only a "poor ruined suitor," and is entirely out of order, andcannotbe heard! He says: "You must sit down. CaseHoggsv.Piggs is in order. Mr. Clerk callHoggs and Piggs." Thus "My Lud" will be as far as any "poor ruined suitor will ever get!"
Besides the numerous, worse than useless, idlers (Lawyers) who fatten upon the industry of others, and the loss inflicted by their voracity and by the other expenses, this Court devastates upon a scale beyond belief. I was told by an English Barbarian that he once tried to obtain one thousand of money from the Court, which the lawyers said there would be no difficulty in getting, as it was clearlyhis; it would be only a matter of form, possiblysomedelay. "Well," said he to me, "I instructed my lawyer to go to the Court and get the money. He demanded fifty pounds to cover fees [tin]. To make a short story, he went to the Court,but I never got any money! After I had actually paid in fees more than half of the one thousand, theobstacles had grown to be so insurmountable that I merely dropped the matter." "But," I said, "the thousand—who has that?" "Oh, it is in the Court of Chancery!"
Another honest Barbarian told me that he had spent all his life (he was sixty) studying and endeavouring to awaken attention to the abuses of this Court—but in vain. The attempt seemed hopeless. The Court was entrenched in the very frame of the body politic, and nothing butreconstructionwould answer; and that reconstruction is probably only possible after firstdemolishing!
This man said that a prodigious sum—sixty millions of English money—wasdirectlylocked up; and that of property of all sorts, subject to theclutchor injured by the processes of the Court it was incalculable, and, very likely, would represent a tenth of all the valuables in the whole Kingdom!
In my walks and in my travels, sometimes in the city, I would notice many houses, with windows smashed out, the walls tottering, the doors hanging loosely, or wholly gone, the approaches filthy, the whole place anuisance, injuring and depopulating all about it, or filling the ever-spreading mischief with the vilest population. I have asked an explanation—"Oh, it is in Chancery." In the midst of a village, suddenly one comes upon a vacant space; it is an abomination; everything near catches the infection, all that portion of an otherwise pretty place becomes anuisance. The character of the village at length suffers; it becomes known as a place ruined by the Court of Chancery. Infine, whenever one sees a wrecked building, or any property marked by neglect and verging to total destruction, the explanation is: "It is in Chancery." And the same thing is often said of ruined men and women: "Oh, they have lost everything in the Court of Chancery!"
To such an extent is the destruction of the Court carried, that the Law-making Houses are forced to interfere, or perhaps the Officers of Health. These may abate anuisance, and sometimes mere filth and indecencies are removed. But nobody will improve a property to which he cannot have a certain and quiet possession. Therefore, when the evil becomes intolerable, the Law-making Houses make a Law by which a property of this sort is sold, under theirguaranteethat the buyer shall have perfect possession. This is a thing next to an impossibility; and nothing less than a great public evil too great to be endured, will ever induce the Lawyers who control the Houses to interfere with the legitimate work of the Court.
It is wonderful that the English Barbarians submit to this Court; but one must consider that, after all, it is not so inconsistent with Barbarian habits as it at first sight looks. Plunder is natural to all the tribes, and especially to the English. As nearly all plunder, the thing is normal. Lawyers must live; and the common English Barbarian makes a business tokeep outof their hands. The Higher Castes enjoy so large a share of the gains, and are, in fact, so largely interested in preserving the Court, thattheydo not care to move. Then, to other causes, must be added the stolid conceit of theEnglish Barbarians, who really think everything English so much better than what can be found elsewhere, that, in respect of this very Court, admitting some abuses, yet, after all, "Where else can you find such Judges—men who cannot be bribed?"
On the whole, therefore, with that conceited stolidity of character, more remarkable in the English than in any other Barbarians, they come to regard even the worst oftheir institutionsas better than the best of the rest of the world!
CHAPTER IV.
UPON EDUCATION: A FEW REFLECTIONS.
Inour Illustrious and Central Kingdom, from times long before the Barbarians beyond the great Seas existed, or, at any rate, had any name or place in the earliest records, it has been the established rule that Learning (Li-te-su) should be the fountain of honour—that there is no nobility of birth. Under the Illustrious, the Son of Heaven, all were equal subjects—children—and that which made one more distinguished than another wasWisdom. This Wisdom, a knowledge of men and things; of the proper maxims [ri-te-es] of morality and government, and their proper application to human affairs. TheCentral idea was to know oneself, and thus to know others—to add to this, technical knowledge, and the knowledge of our Illustrious annals and customs.
The mandarins, great officers of our Illustrious, have no rights of birth. According to their class in the Schools of Examination, they are selected to advise, to administer, to govern in the Provinces, and order the forces for the keeping of due order. They rank in the degree of the excellency of their registration in the great Schools of Examination.
But it is very different with the Western Barbarians, wherebirthgives a right to exalted place in Government! Power, among the English, is wholly in the hands of this hereditary class—calledNobility—elsewhere called Aristocracy [Fo-hi]. Thus, learning has been unimportant, unless as a sort of accomplishment; and been mostly confined to Priests. With them, it was a means of increased influence, and added to the effect of the Superstitious pretensions. Force and fraud being the main agents of Government and sources of distinction, learning was not merely disregarded, but held in contempt by the High-Caste. What learning there was (chiefly confined to the Priests), busied itself with the Superstition, and with the ancient tongues; because with these Superstition had itsliterary roots.
Still, some grew more inquisitive, especially outside the Priestly order, and learning made some progress. Gradually, there emerged from the Halls of Learning, rules, which (countenanced by some Sovereigns), began to influence Society. For Sovereigns, and the High-Caste, had begun, in some measure, to affect a liking for learning—confined, however, almost wholly to the narrow range referred to. Theseruleswere in factDEGREES; which conferred upon the possessor a Literary distinction.
TheHalls of Learning, which had been in good measure established by Sovereigns, out of plunder, upon the orders of Priests (who would obtain the money through the Ruler's dread of the devil, when apprehending or near to death); these, alone, could confer the degrees. No power accompanied them. They, merely,became requisite to any one who wished to enter upon, what is called, theLearned professions. These are of theSuperstition, of theLaw, and ofMedicine. Soon, in these employments, the degrees became quiteCabalistic; and made these callings mysteries to the rest of the world.
What was intended to be evidence of fitness, was soon perverted to be a form ofinitiationinto an exclusive Society; whose members insisted, not upon fitness, but upon compliance with arbitrary rules. This was made especially the case with the Law, and with Medicine. Thedegreewas supposed to refer to proper qualifications for the practice of Law, and knowledge of Medicine, with its proper use in the healing art. It did nothing of the sort. It gave apresumption(but by no means a true one) that its holder knew something of the ancient Roman and Greek languages: not any presumption that, in the case of Medicine, there was any knowledge of the articles of Medicine, nor of their proper use; or of the human body to which they were to be administered. Nor any, that in the Law, there was any knowledge of the Statutes, laws and customs of the Realm, nor even of its Common annals! Medicine and Law suffered from thisSham; because men naturally used what little they did know; and, as to the Roman tongue,some, and the Greek,less, were in their heads; and the whole practice of Medicine and Law was in their ignorant hands; what could follow, but to muddlethesewith the useless obscurity and jargon of the unknown forms!
The Priests had also thrown around the Superstitionthe same jargon, and kept up the requisition for adegree—as if any true morality and worship were necessarily connected with aliterature, denounced by themselves as impure andpagan! Notwithstanding these ignorant and selfish abuses, it was impossible to make the acquisition of even such narrow learning wholly useless. It was narrow, and even hurtful, by being perverted to selfish ends, and preventing honest and independent research. Still, it did work upon some minds to better use; and it gradually evolved a better learning, when the Ancient Literature really worked in free and broader channels. The High-Castes are less indifferent to literary attainments; and learning, in a more comprehensive sense, is becoming more esteemed. It is no longer limited to verbal knowledge; to ancient, dead forms—though these are still so paramount that, if a man were to be the wisest and most learned of mankind, and was deficient in these, he could not receive aDegree—he would be unlearned!
Useful, true and honest knowledge, outside the great Halls of Learning, is making some advance; thoughin them, the old, pedantic, and superstitious notions yet prevail. The newLiterati, founders of a larger and truer teaching, endeavour with difficulty to get some respect and honour to attach to thedegreeswhich they timidly register. The High-Caste, in general, disregard this better knowledge, and adhere to the old Superstitions and traditions—regarding that man only as learned who has the ancient badge; though, to any useful purpose, a fool.
The High-Caste also stupidly support the old preparatory schools; and will not, if they can help it, suffer any of the Lower-Caste to enter them.
In these, the barbarous customs continue; if one goes into them, he is at once carried backwards into thedark ages(as even the Barbarians call them); ages, when the Priests had all the Learning—wretched as it was—and when theSuperstitioncoloured and directed everything. Here, the dead tongues are the chief studies, with something of the ancientpuzzlesas to Lines and Points—for the most part useless—with a style of administration fitted to the savage brutality of those times. The only part of the training cared for by the youths, is that which developes the forces of the body. The disgustingRing Fight, referred to elsewhere, is a common pastime; and the lad is a milksop [kou-ad] who really avoids the rude crowd, and wishes to study. To be respected he must fight his way, and be feared. If, by chance, some lad of the Lower-Caste be entered, by the foolish wish of the father to bring the son into thepolishedcircle of the High-Caste, he will bepolished off(as these young Barbarians say), in a manner never dreamed of. The poor lad will be beaten, humiliated, and driven from the School; unless, indeed, he be strong enough to bully and beat his tormentors!
Very comically, in one part of these brutal fights, when one has got his antagonist completely in his power, and can bruise him as he pleases, the position is calledbeing in Chancery! One of the fittest illustrations possible, of the universality of the judgment which places that Court among things the most repulsive!
The younger in these schools are theSlaves, for the time being, to the older and stronger; in fact, the whole effect of the training is really to make these youths selfish, quick of quarrel, hardy of body, and barbarous; to prepare them for the lives of predatory exploit, upon which fortune and all the best honours depend—learning being subordinate, and disregarded, unless it further the main purpose.
Force is still the god of these Barbarians, andJahis worshipped because he, in this, fits them. The intellect is improved only that Force may be developed and disciplined to its most effective use.
One sees this everywhere. To invent the most destructive engines of war for the wholesale slaughter of the human species, to add to the swiftness of movement, to the durability and weight of action, to the means of assault and of defence, to bend the mind to uses based upon the idea that the normal condition of man is that ofa tiger with man's intellect, to make the beast something inexpressibly dreadful!
The greater portion of the people remain sunk in the grossest ignorance—scarcely knowing (the most of them) much even of the Superstition, other than crude notions of Hell and the Devil. In this, probably, they are not much to be pitied; though in losing the precepts of Christ, and seeing around them the conduct of Christ-god worshippers, they are to be commiserated. They look with the contempt of ignorance upon foreigners, and call the people of distant seasHeathen, only fit for the Hell! As I have said, in another place, some attempts are being made to give this degraded populace, at least, the rudiments of learning. The task is hard, and made nearly impracticable by the stolid indifference of the Low-Castes, and their positive hostility to anything which interferes with their habits. They are very English, not different from their betters, and resent any sort of change as an interference with their individual freedom of action. To make these degraded beingsslaves, you must not seize the individual—you must act upon them as a class—and they resent the attempt to teach them. Compulsion will be resorted to. The English Barbarians have a proverb [li-tze], "One may lead a horse to the water, but who can make him drink?" These people may be forced to the springs of learning, but who shall make them drink—unlessbeer? (This is the common drink, very muddling; used to an astonishing quantity.)
The women are not admitted to the Halls of Learning, though they are to be seen everywhere. Men do not wish them to be educated in those things admired by men—it would, as they think, make brutes of them. In this they are right; yet there is no consistency of idea in the general treatment of the sex, as will easily be gathered from theseobservations.
A learned woman—that is, one who has acquired the sort of education recognised by theLiterati—is disliked by her own sex as well as by the men. The men will not marry her, unless she can buy a husband. This she may be able to do if she have money in abundance.
The things which may make them attractive and entertaining to the men, and be likely to secure a desirable husband, are the only things cared for. Somemusic, some drawing, a little acquaintance with the language of the chief tribe on the main parts, reading and writing, are the intellectual studies. But the engrossing pursuits are those which are supposed to add to female attractiveness. ToDRESS, so as to enhance the delight of form; to cover, and yet to show with added suggestion; to move with grace; to carry the head; to use with tender, or arch, or modest, or haughty expression, the eyes; to turn the feet and arrange the limbs; to make the shoulders beautiful, and the neck and bust charming; to torture the hair and ornament the whole body; the ear-tips, the fingers, the eyebrows and lashes—to do these, and innumerable other things by which the sex shall be madeirresistible[Kou-ket], these are the real cares.Dancing[ma-d-wo] is among the most admired of all accomplishments, and the game ofWaltzingits most perfect development. In this art of dancing both sexes take part, and I may merely say to our Flowery Land, that we have nothing like it, and what little we have in any degree to represent it is confined tolicensedgirls, without, even with them, permitting men to take part! In this dancing the utmost female art (blandishment) is permitted, and it is the one by which, and in the intricacies of which the male is most surely expected to be ensnared!
Women are, also, particularly among the High-Caste, taught in riding on horses, in driving them attached to carriages; in running and walking; and even in swimming. Also in rowing in boats, in the use of bows and arrows, and many other things, which are very strange to us. But the sex like passionately the outdoor sportsof men; and, in truth, show the barbarous instinct quite as clearly as do the males. They are attached to dogs, cats, and other creatures, which they fondle anddandlein the most disgusting manner.
The women of the Low-Castes, to the best of their ability, follow the example of their superiors; and make such copy as they can. They imitate the dress, the gait, theairs and gracesof the High-Caste, often with a ludicrous effect! When they dance, they may not dance with the elegantabandon[lan-gu-tze] of the lazy and rich, but they can contrive to be quite aseffective! The male of the Low-Caste feels but cannot escape the snare!
Accomplishments, directed to the one object of finding a desirable man, who will take them at the least cost off the hands of their relatives, are the things which occupy the time of women; the lower orders, in so far as possible, giving to the poor imitations that time which ought to go to useful objects. A poor and obscure girl prefers to besomething likea lady (that is, a bad copy in dress and bearing), than to be really instructed in letters: because she sees herself more admired by the male, and more likely to dispose of herself to a husband.
The great pursuit among High-Caste families is man—a man who may be bought, and whom it is desirable to buy, to be a husband for a daughter, or relative. All domestic art and diplomacy are bent to this end; and, as men do not like learned women, whom they nick-namestrong-minded, women do not wish to be learned. If from exceptional circumstances a young woman be well educated, and wish to marry, she carefully concealsher knowledge, and displays her accomplishments, and all "the power of her charms" (as the English poets have it). An educated female had better appear to be anaccomplishedfool, than a wise and learned woman—if she wish to buy a husband. For she must have a large sum, indeed, if she be known to be learned!—aBlue-stocking[Zu-re-to].
There are some women who have acquired knowledge, and look with disdain upon thearts,airs, andgracesof their "weak Sisters." They appear in public Halls of debate (as talking-places are called); and, mixing with men, assume an equality of mental force and culture. They interest themselves like men, in all matters of general concern. They take in hand, or endeavour to take in hand,the care of Women; and demand an enlarged sphere for her action, and a reformed and proper recognition of herrights. Hence, these women are called, besides strong-minded,Women's rightswomen. They are nearly always old, ugly, and wholly and hopelessly incapacitated from longer pursuing men; even, in their inordinate vanity,thatpursuit is abandoned.
There are some trifling exceptions—of women who like to astonish, and of others who, intalking, find a means of living—to whom all personal comeliness is not yet a tradition. But for these, theWomen's rightsmovement would dwindle away; these sometimes commanding an influence either of money or family, draw into their circle a few men—remarkable, in general, for eccentricity of some kind, or led very often completely by a woman of the order.
The whole thing is inexplicable to our social usages;but is not an excrescence—only a natural outgrowth upon a diseased system. The position of women in the Barbarian Society is a feature very striking and very anomalous, and may receive attention in another place.
On the whole, one may see that education in its true and exalted sense is scarcely comprehended among the Barbarians. The moral function and the mind subordinate to that, and the body—its passions, its greed, its brutality, wholly subordinate to the morally trained mind—education, grounded upon thiscentral idea, has but feeble recognition.
CHAPTER V.
OF THE LITERATURE OF THE ENGLISH.
Thereare innumerable books; and the conceit of these Barbarians attaches to them as to everything in theirEnlightened World(Litz-i-ten). Nothing outside of the Christ-god worshippers is allowed to be enlightened—all else is darkness. This is true as to their opinion, strange as it looks; and all the Literature in every part of it shows this. The attainments and the experience of all to whom this worship is unknown, receive no other than a curious attention from a few of the literati. But we know that this conceit is absurd; ignorant and superstitious Barbarians really think that, without the adoption of theirJah-Christ-Jewsuperstition, with all theCanons, no true morality, no real civilisation, exists, nor can exist!
This I must premise; because we may dismiss at once the larger portion of the Barbarian Literature, inasmuch as it relates to the great Superstition. It is everywhere, striking into and permeating everything, to be sure; but I refer to works avowedly devoted to it. It makes the Books largely unreadable to one having no sympathy with the author; and it requires patience and a long use to get over the disgust caused by the offensive pretensions and ignorant references.
The Poetry of a people is generally placedfirstamong the BarbarianLiterati; and of this form the Western tribes are very fond. The English boast that in this they excel all others; though, for that matter, the same boast is made in everything.
The larger part of the Poetry may be calledtrash(ru-b-isti). Iterations and reiterations of the same conceits, the same shallow sentiments, the same metaphors, mostly of an amatory and indelicate sort. Poems, often tedious, verbose, strangely mixed with matters of the Superstition and of the ancient (Roman) myths; laudatory performances,beslobbering(spr-au-fo) great men with empty compliments, or giving lying exaltation to the fancied virtues of the eminently bad; dull and long-winded reflections from minds too obscure to reflect anything, unless with an added obscurity; an enormousWaste(Ban-s-he) which the English themselves never traverse.
Poetry with the Barbarians is far more esteemed than with us, although in our annals are found evidences of its immemorial existence. As with us, it takes many forms, and is reduced to an art. The two greatest names are Milton and Shakespeare. The first of these is esteemed as the most sublime of all poets, ancient or modern—but it is needful to fix the quality, the essence of the sublime! Of the gloomy grandeur of the man, and of his power of suggesting the vast and the intangible, there can be no doubt. Nor is he wanting in a mournful sweetness—the plaint of a beneficent being who feels an eternal despair! Nor can it be otherwise, for the grand imagination of Milton iswholly occupied with the devils of the Barbarian Superstition! With its terrible images—with the Hell in which they and lost men for ever burn in eternal fires, and yet are never consumed! He introduces the reader (in his great Poem) to Paradise [Kar-din], where man once lived in perfect wisdom and happiness—and here the Poet is full of that sad, that tender, that inexpressible, sweet despair! From this Paradise (as said elsewhere) man was enticed by Satan, who had been set free from Hell for the very purpose; and then follow all the surprising pictures, vast, terrible, indescribable—only possible to a mind fully possessed by all thehorrorsof the Jew Jah-god Idolatry.
Shakespeare, with a healthier mind, one not distorted by the Superstition, and with a human, natural vigour and feeling, writes in a manner to interest man. On the whole, the English Barbarians place him far above all others of any time or place—call him the Divine Shakespeare! This is very easy with a people who know nothing of the poetry of the great East, nor of that of our Flowery Kingdom—in truth, have but a slight acquaintance with the writers of the other Barbarians!
Disregarding this foolish conceit, we may admit that this man shows a broad and comprehensive intellect—he is one who knows something of himself, and that self is a manly self. And he simply exhibitshimselfin those creations of his fancy, wherein a great variety of men and women show the passions, follies, and changing interests of life. He has the power of vividly seeing and of clearly showing what in his mind he sees,and in language often low and uncouth, but frequently in fine and lofty tones. His certain knowledge of himself gives pithy form to his wit; and his expressions are the direct utterances of one who sees, not of one who does not nor cannot see. His, on the whole, was a very large and true manhood, which, in spite of unfavourable influences and some tarnish, manifested itself, and occasionally in grand and beautiful forms. In very garbage there are sparkling gems. He often offends decency, but is less indecent than his time—and when he is simply himself, the natural morality of a large man becomes conspicuous. Some of his minor things, based on the affectations of his period, and formed on bad models, which he weakly copies, are not without marks of his rich fancy, yet are so indecent that in our Flowery Land they would be suppressed. None the less, you will find these objectionable verses in the hands of the youth of both sexes.
This degradation of the moral sense is very common. It finds form in the versification of those poets whom the English styleAmatory—chiefly with them, but more repulsively with the play-writers. Examples of this indelicacy and coarseness are lying about anywhere. It seems to us very strange: for to what good? No doubt, poetry very properly deals with human emotions and interests; but why should the poet dare to print what he would not dare to utter, unless among the shameless!
Some of these trivialities are not wanting in sweetness and tenderness—and some have a very refined feeling. The great blemish isfalseness.
The Western Barbarians addict themselves always to a false and affected mode whenever they address themselves to the female: and the style is absurd. It is borrowed from the obsolete manners of ages ago, when it was the fashion [phan-ti-te] to pretend the most exalted reverence for the sex. They were addressed as goddesses, and there was a whole armoury of weapons of Love, from which these fantastic poets armed their divinities, and pretended to be pierced through and through, wounded, bleeding, at their feet! Dying, transfixed, and rolling their languishing eyes in death, imploring the goddesses to save them, even if by one glance of their bright eyes! The amount of this nonsense is perfectly astonishing!
I give a fair specimen here from a much admired writer of this class:—
"Sweet Phillis, idol of my heart,Oh, turn to me those tender eyes!Transfix my breast with Cupid's dart,But listen to my dying sighs!"I cling, imploring, to your knees;Oh, cruel goddess, turn to me!One kiss the burning pain will ease—Thy lips give Immortality!"
The Elegiac [mo-un-fu] is, perhaps, the most cultured among the refined poets. The most distinguished of the English living writers of verse is very elegant in this form. He cannot emancipate himself from the habits of his people—for the wretched he can find no solace but in the Superstitions of the Christ-god worship. He demands aSacrificequite inhuman, when hesuggests the only remedy for human grief. Possibly, he finds in this, a meaning of a different kind from what the language (used in the Superstition) itself implies. He may see a meaning common to all sorrowful and thoughtful men—Self-Sacrifice, demanded by the highest perception of justice, and, therefore, inevitable. In this department some of the minor poets sing very sweetly, tenderly—with a nice refinement. Generally, however, there is a sort of despair wailing in an under-tone of pathos. It would seem to arise from the gloomy spirit of the Barbarian nature, intensified by the terrible Superstition.
The comic poets are coarse, trivial, and not much esteemed. There is humour, but it is of the barbarous and unclean. It is frequently strangely fantastic, and delights in laughing at the terrific in the "Sacred Writings," or at the Priests, in a covert manner; often intravestiesof the prayers,rites, and otherholythings, which no one would dare openly to ridicule. Poetry is not much read, unless by young girls and lads, who, in the season of the sentiments, find food to feed their desires, or to print their tender epistles and speeches, in the Sentimental Authors.
Very rarely is there anything striking or true; and the mass of Verses, after receiving thepaid-forattention of the daily writers, sleep a sleep of oblivion.
The Prose writings are innumerable—largely, however, merere-hashes[mi-pi-stu] of existing works. It is a trade to make these new forms of old books—cutting down, working over, and revising. History, accounts of bloody fights, forays, commotions, massacres, andburnings, now by one Christ-god tribe and now by another; Biography, Travels, Lives ofGreat men(never heard of out of some Barbarian tribe); these are many, and read by theLiterati. A few books, rarely read, devoted toScienceand toArt, are printed, commonly to the ruin of the printers.
Of romances and novels there are no ends. With these and the newspapers the English Barbarians almost entirely occupy themselves, when they do read. The novels pretend to portraylife, in its usual vicissitudes and with a natural show of the feelings. But the feeling depicted is that of Love, and the Life, the life of a Lover. In this curious creature, unknown in our Central Kingdom, the English young people of both sexes delight. I cannot describe him; he has no existence outside of a diseased brain. The great Shakespeare describes him, "Sighing like a furnace, with a woful ballad made to his mistress' eyebrow!" which will do as well as a more extended notice.
There areMetaphysicalworks. We have no term to represent it. It is a book which dimly suggestsphantoms—things unseen, and not to be seen—mere words without bodies. Usually, making the matters of the common Worship still more inscrutable.
Close to these, and blended often in a confused mixture with them—a compound defying all reasonable analysis—come the Philosophical. This term is a grand one with the Barbarians, and embraces all knowledge. The Philosophical writers pretend to the most exalted insight and outsight—they measure the whole infinite and finite, mind, matter, and the very nature of moraland divine things. The Philosopher loves Wisdom, and Wisdom loves and teaches him!
Each philosopher, however, knowing everything, knows some things better than others; and usually exhibits to the world thateccentricityby which he is known. He parades this on all public occasions of theLiterati; and feels happy and serene mounted on hisHobby-horse(again we have nothing to fit this word)—he appropriates the name of the ridden Hobby. Thus, some time since, one of these discovered and taught that man was an Ape—an Ape of high form. This discovery was not very well received; however, he was afterwards honoured by a title derived from his ancestor, and styled theSimianphilosopher. In the old Roman,Simiameans Ape. He is vulgarly and better known, however, as the Hobby-horse philosopher, from his own name,Hobbs!
Just now, this speculation has revived again, with but slight change. One Darwin dreams of immortality from the usefulness ofhistheory. In this, man no doubt is found in theSimia, but hepasses throughthat type; it is well enough to find there the immediate origin, but the truegermlies further back among thetadpoles!
I do not know what tadpoles are, and did not think it worth while to inquire.
This philosophy, called Darwinian, is greatly admired for its profundity—especially by the select circle of Mutual Admiring Thinkers—but is strongly denounced by the Bonzes, and by the Halls of Learning and Literati of the Superstition. It makes man no immortal being at all, these say; and dethrones all the gods.
In our Flowery Land we may smile at these speculations andeccentricities—for such and similar vagaries are as old as Literature; and the special notion of Darwin, as to theOrigin of Species, has not even the attraction of novelty. Thespeculation of evolution, by which all visible forms are developed from a form less perfect below it, and this from another below that, and so on, down to the beginning, is a clumsy mode of stating that original forms were few, and contained wrapped up in them, many—and that possibly there may have been primarily onlyone, containing all! The Sovereign Lord Himself! In truth, it is the immemorialout of nothingidea; for when a creator of worlds, in the shape of man, has got to a single form containing all, he has yet to account for thatSingle Form.
The few, most advanced of the Barbarian Philosophers, cut adrift entirely from theSuperstition. They copy largely from the Greeks, Romans, and ancient peoples, who said, on such subjects, over and over again what these modern imitators say—and said it better. InPhysicsthese moderns think themselves wiser. They may be, in the use of some things, but are not in the nature. Our Sect calledTaos-seresemble these speculative writers in many things: the English may not directly teach theMetempsychosis; but in effect it is the same. Evolution may hold to an original germ which is fixed and indestructible; yet what matters if to the observer this germ takes on every possible shape! The Metempsychosis does not contradict the notion of an original germ—it is entirely consistent with it. This speculative inquiry into the nature of things is as oldas man, who, even before he knows how to formulate his thoughts, has the deep shadows of them. The Old Greeks introducedthe Literatureof these fancies to the Western Barbarians, though themselves were no more than bright and beautiful dreamers of old dreams. The human intellect will always, as it has always, search into the unsearchable, applying to it whatever of sharpness, of imagination, of culture, it may have. There will be the inquiry, but never the answer. The mind itself finds its advantage; nor could the Sovereign Lord have designed otherwise, else the intellect would not persist in a vain task. Nevertheless, wise men rest satisfied with theintuitionsof the moral and intellectual nature. The origin and essence of the Sovereign Lord and of the visible world cannot be known. The source, the purpose, the end, and the nature of Things are beyond the scope of man. He may ask, and he may find delight in the asking; for new ranges and glimpses of the infinite may flash upon him. But when he thinks heknows—that he hasdiscovered—he is a fool!
Another department of what is calledPhilosophydeals with the mind, as the part just referred to more particularly affects to deal with matter. And writers upon the mind, when they speak of the moral function, callthatby another name. Thus we have theIntellectualandMoralphilosophers, with their many books. Very commonly this division is not sustained, and moral and merely mental evolutions run together. Indeed, there are those who deride this division, and assert that the moral has no real existence; that the mind itself is but matterinstinctof life, and has noexistence independent of material organisms. They say that man is an animal endowed withLife, and that this occult and hidden force is indivisible. That divisions of the faculties may be convenient to give exactness to mental movements, but are otherwise fanciful. They deny a "Moral faculty," asserting that it is only a peculiar refinement of the life-instinct; that the wish to do honestly is no more than this, and, educated to enlarged views, expands into all that man conceives of Justice. That you may just as easily train one to do dishonestly; and then an honest act gives pain. This proves the very proposition denied—the faculty may be misinformed—the pain demonstrates the existence of the faculty. An animal has the Life-Instinct or mind, if you will; but who imagines that the animal is ever pained by any remorse! To this, these philosophers reply that the pain does not really exist only as the remains of asecondary instinct, remembering consciously or unconsciously the penalty awaitingdisobedience. The animal, they say, may be so trained that it will feel this pain or shame; and man, for ages disciplined, transmits to his offspring thissecondary instinctof inherited fear; and,here, is the so-called moral faculty.
I may be pardoned in this tedious attempt to give the Flowery Kingdom some insight into the thoughts of the Barbarians on abstract matters, not for their novelty, but as a further illustration of that which is so well understood by ourLiterati—to say, the ceaseless activity of the human mind and its tireless inquiry into the things of the mighty world. A beneficent fact or it would not be. Perverted by vain thinkers, whodo not think, because egotist; yet in humble men, conscious of ignorance, a solace. These reverence the Sovereign Lord, never comprehending other than His infinite Wisdom (and this by delightful flashes), nor His works, nor His methods, nor the use of Man, nor of any the smallest thing, nor the origin, nor the design! Enough that He is, and that by some inscrutable, though certain sense, man, with a grateful joy bounds towards Him, claims to be His, and feels Immortal!
The BarbarianLiteratihave often rested upon the Greeks as final in Metaphysics. Plato, whom they call Divine, was very generally followed in his notion respecting the eternal and independent existence of spirit and matter. But the newer men insist upon one substance only, and remove the Sovereign Lord so far back into the deeps of an Unknown, that he vanishes, or becomes an unintelligent and unconscious Cause. Here again reproducing theFateof remote antiquity.
One school of Philosophers indulges in a curious form of materializing the mind. Pretending to fix all the mental and moral processes in the very substance of the brain, they declare that by a careful examination of the head, the exact qualities of the individual may be discovered! Some of these pretend to be teachers andIndicators—for fees, giving a precise chart to any one who wishes of the forces of the brain, so that he may order his affairs accordingly.
They profess to tell parents in what art or business a child should be placed, and in what manner certain good qualities may be made to grow and bad ones to shrink! They say that over each thinking part of thebrain rises a correspondingbump[Ko-be], that thesebumpscontain: some thoughts of music, some of hate, some of love, some of numbers, some of place, and so on. They make charts showing these bumps and the thoughts which lie beneath them! These they sell, marking the bumps (after examination) to show the person what he is. If, for instance, hisacquisitiveness(thoughts to take things) is a very large bump, he must develop a counteracting bump or he will assuredly become a thief! It is not quite clear how this development is to be brought about. Some carry this absurdity so far as to say that a man with bad bumps is not responsible—he ought rather to be regarded as an object to be cared for by the State. Before the bumps of the child be formed and hardened,anyform may be given to them, by applying a gentle and continuous pressure. Government, therefore, ought to have all children examined in youth, and apply to the heads the proper moulds! In this way a perfectly moral society would be assured!
I refer to this nonsense as the only novel speculation among the Western Barbarians. And any one can readily discover in this, old notions moulded into a defined and material shape, to give charlatans [Qu-ak-st] an opportunity to plunder.
There are many books of theMoral Philosophers, who make aScienceof certain movements of mind, and call itEthical. But these books are to our habits useless or absurd—sometimes positively hurtful. The idolatries and superstitions colour and distort—distinctions are confounded, and a rational morality wanting.A merely Jewish ordinance from theSacred Writingsis made as important as a plain moral precept. The human conscience is overloaded with arbitrary and unreasonable matters taken from theSuperstition, and, bewildered, despairs of well-doing. To offend in some priestlydogma, is more terrible than to break an established law of honesty. Disobedience in the false demoralises the conscience as much as disobedience in the true, when both are received as true.
In fact most of themoralbooks are merely books written to uphold the great Superstition, and the morality is debased by its injurious connection. By what strange perversion could the cultivated mind ever be brought to announce a principle like this, to say; "Belief alone saves man from eternal Hell; morality without it is only a snare of the Devil."Beliefmeans an undoubting acceptance of all the pretensions of theSuperstition(as explained elsewhere). What must be the effect of teaching so false and presumptuous an enormity? The Sovereign Lord will not deign to look with pity. He is a consuming fire! Heart and hands pure—a life of disinterestedness—worship warm, grateful. Nothing worse. First,Believe—in the most monstrous thing which the diseased human imagination ever created—the Jew-Jah theology and worship!
When a system of morals is based upon such a pretension, it can only be hurtful; unless, as is largely the fact, the healthy humaninstinctunconsciously rejects the error. Still, great harm is done—must be done. And how much of prevailing licentiousness and barbarism may be placed to account of this false system cannot be defined. It is the immediate father ofAtheism. Men reject the tremendous assumptions and believe nothing. But tender consciences, those in whom the divine faculty is large and clear, in general, directed by a true consciousness, simply disregard the horribly false things and attach themselves to the true. In this, vindicating the nobility of nature, which rises to its true recognition of the Sovereign Lord,in spiteof surrounding errors. But, others, not so strong, delicate in conscience and feeble in mind, become the victims of this dreadful system. Thus it is also the father ofIdolatry. For these victims, fearful of eternal destruction, place themselves entirely in the hands of the Bonzes, and adore all the gods and observe all therites. They cannot be sure, of themselves, that they do properlyBelieve; a thing of a very mysterious nature, concerning which (as I have remarked) the contention is ceaseless. Nor can these victims of the Superstition, ardentdevoteesthough they be, always obtain satisfactoryevidencethat theirSalvationis sure. Then follow the self-imposed penances, and the sacrifices imposed by the Bonzes. They arevictimisedby the Bonzes in an endless variety of ways. Some build Temples; some go about begging, in mean garbs, to get money for thepoorBonzes; and the like; much as we see among our superstitious devotees. Superstition merely reproduces its natural effects, varied according to the circumstances. Still there remain those poor creatures to whom no escape is possible. They struggle in vain with the dark doubts which envelop them. They believe in all the horrors of their worship: that but a few are savedfrom hell; that goodness, charity, self-sacrifice, gifts to the Temples, to the poor, even to the Bonzes—nothing avails. Unless they havebelievedand been duly accepted and enrolled among theElect-few, they are merely children of the Devil, awaiting death, when they become his associate inFires of the tormented, for ever and ever! These poor wretches feel already all thehorrorsof the damned. They find no solace in a moral life; no peace in a grateful heart, turned to a benign, Heavenly Father. To yield to the natural emotions, to indulge in this peace, is vanity—is to be ensnared in the wiles of the enemy of Souls!
They catch sometimes feebly at ahopeof Salvation, then fall again into a dreadful despair. At last the feeble mind gives way. They feel themselves already lost; they fancy they have committed the Sin which Jah himself will never pardon—(to use the words of theSacred Writings)—thesin against the Holy Ghost, for ever unpardonable—they writhe, they cry, they beat their breasts, they fall down in unspeakable agony—"the pains of Hell have got hold of them!" This is again from theSacred books. The scene closes in death, or worse, in amad-house; where in chains or under vigilant keepers (to prevent self-destruction or the destruction of others), these wretches vanish from human hope and sympathy! The frightful Superstition in these victims has been areality! And no human mind can bear that and live!
I will close these remarks upon theLiteratureof the English Barbarians, by giving some examples of the different poetic compositions.
From an Amatory poet, who refers to the conjugal endearments of the Roman Jupiter and his goddess—Queen Juno, on Mount Ida, where, according to the old traditions of the Greeks, these gods often resorted:—
"When Juno makes the bed for Jove,And waits the god with blushing grace—Soft music charms the air above,And breathing fragrance fills the place.Mortals expect the deep repose;Ocean is calm, the Winds are still,The heavenly rapture overflows,And Nature feels th' ecstatic thrill."
I think our poorest poets could have improved upon "makes the bed." In cold England, however, bed-making is important. And for a wife of the Upper Castes to make the bed for her Lord, with her own hands, is to show a great love and devotion. It is laughable to think of the goddess so domestically employed, though the top of Mount Ida must be cold enough!
The poetry of the Idolatry has much of an amatory sort, very curiously mixed with its terrors. I give a rather refined specimen, quite free of the diabolic:—
"What grief, what darkness fills my breast,That coldly I have strayed from thee!Thou art my Love, my Life, my Rest;All other love doth fade and die.Oh, never may the joys of sense,Entice my ardent soul again!Thou art my only sweet Defence—To love thee not is endless pain!"
From an unknown writer I extract the following, who refers to a great Sailor of the Western Barbarians. This man, repressing the revolts of his crew, with undaunted mind, day after day, and night after night, for weeks and weeks, still kept on, steeringwesterlyacross the infinite, big seas. Possessed with one great and fixed idea—thatLand lie beyond. At length, when all hope had nearly died, far away like a cloud, the greatNew Worldwas discovered! We know of this in our Annals, in the dynastyMing.
"To be—this marks the nobler man—this Force,Thisvisionedsoul, which sees the shadow castOf a great Object in its every course,Urging it onward—common men will restWith common things; such spirits are possessedBy greater somethings, which will not be hushedWith 'lullabys'—which are within the breastLike inspirations—sleepless as the rushOf world-surrounding waves, and which no earth can crush!"
This is a writer who takes theSeaas the scene of his poem. The style is affected; but much liked.
I add below an example ofBlank Verse, a form greatly in use:—
"The Morn, exultant, on the mountain tops,Leads in the Day—and over all the WorldDelightful Joy spreads forth his glorious wings!"
This appears to be a parody of Shakespeare, who says beautifully:—
"Oh, see where jocund Day stands tip-toe,On the distant, misty mountain tops!"
Very much of the poetry is obscured, and spoilt by the influence of the Superstition; and very much by artificiality and affectations. And everywhere there are poor or indifferent imitators of the ancient Greeks and Romans; upon whom theLiteratimould their poetic conceits.
Of the Comic and common it is well to read little. Coarseness and indecency seem inseparable from all vulgar humour.