CLAUSE II
This clause has been inserted because of the historic, though often mistaken, notions accreted round a legend of Fall and of a Paradise lost; and it is of interest to detect the germ of truth which these ancient ideas contain. It may be regarded as really an appendage of, or introductory to, the next clause.
The sense of guilt and shame is to some extent displayed by a dog; but it appears to be due to domestication, and to be a secondary result of human influence. In any case, it is certainly only the higher animals that thus exhibit the germ of conscience, and the sense of shame and remorse: a sense which is most real and genuine when it is independent of externally inflicted and of expected punishment. Wild animals appear to have no such feeling, they glory in what we may picturesquely speak of as their “misdeeds,” and in running the gauntlet of danger to achieve them; and though often cruel, they are free from sin. Some savages—our own Norse forefathers among others—must on their freebooting expeditions have been in similar case. So were some of the Homeric heroes. It would be only the highest and most thoughtful among them that could rise to the sense of guilt and degradation. Only those who have risen are liable to fall. The summit of manhood is attained whenevil is consciously overcome. The period before it was recognised as such has been called the golden age; but the condition of unconsciousness of evil, though joyous, is manifestly inferior to the state ultimately attainable, when paradise is regained through struggle and victory.
Mere innocency, the freedom from sin by reason only of lack of perception, is not the highest state; it has been thought ideal from the point of view of inspiration and poetry, but it is a condition in which advance is necessarily limited. Sooner or later fuller knowledge and consciousness must arrive; and then ensues a long period of discipline and distress, until first a Leader and ultimately the race find their way out, through temptation and difficulty, once more to freedom and joy.
A perception that the possibility of backsliding is a necessary ingredient in the making of man, and the consequent discernment of a soul of goodness in things evil, constitute a large part of the teaching of Browning:
“Then welcome each rebuffThat turns earth’s smoothness rough,Each sting that bids nor sit nor stand, but go!Be our joys three parts pain!Strive to hold cheap the strain;Learn, nor account the pang: dare, never grudge the throe.”
“Then welcome each rebuffThat turns earth’s smoothness rough,Each sting that bids nor sit nor stand, but go!Be our joys three parts pain!Strive to hold cheap the strain;Learn, nor account the pang: dare, never grudge the throe.”
“Then welcome each rebuffThat turns earth’s smoothness rough,Each sting that bids nor sit nor stand, but go!Be our joys three parts pain!Strive to hold cheap the strain;Learn, nor account the pang: dare, never grudge the throe.”
“Then welcome each rebuff
That turns earth’s smoothness rough,
Each sting that bids nor sit nor stand, but go!
Be our joys three parts pain!
Strive to hold cheap the strain;
Learn, nor account the pang: dare, never grudge the throe.”
And again—
“We fall to rise, are baffled to fight better,Sleep to wake——”
“We fall to rise, are baffled to fight better,Sleep to wake——”
“We fall to rise, are baffled to fight better,Sleep to wake——”
“We fall to rise, are baffled to fight better,
Sleep to wake——”
The intervening period between fall and victory, between loss of innocency and gain of righteousness, is the period with which all human history is concerned: and there is often a corresponding period in the life-history of every fully developed individual, during which he gropes his way through darkness and longs for light.
Immense is the area still to be traversed and illumined: only faint gleams penetrate the dusk. A Light has indeed shone through the darkness, but the darkness comprehended it not. The race itself is still enveloped in mist, and only here and there a glint of reflexion heralds the brightness of a coming dawn. Yet a time will come when we shall cast away the works of darkness and put upon us the armour of light, and stand forth in the glory of completed manhood:
“Nor shall I deem his object served, his endAttained, his genuine strength put fairly forth,While only here and there a star dispelsThe darkness, here and there a towering mindO’erlooks its prostrate fellows. When the hostIs out at once, to the despair of night,When all mankind alike is perfected,Equal in full-blown powers—then, not till then,I say, begins man’s general infancy.”
“Nor shall I deem his object served, his endAttained, his genuine strength put fairly forth,While only here and there a star dispelsThe darkness, here and there a towering mindO’erlooks its prostrate fellows. When the hostIs out at once, to the despair of night,When all mankind alike is perfected,Equal in full-blown powers—then, not till then,I say, begins man’s general infancy.”
“Nor shall I deem his object served, his endAttained, his genuine strength put fairly forth,While only here and there a star dispelsThe darkness, here and there a towering mindO’erlooks its prostrate fellows. When the hostIs out at once, to the despair of night,When all mankind alike is perfected,Equal in full-blown powers—then, not till then,I say, begins man’s general infancy.”
“Nor shall I deem his object served, his end
Attained, his genuine strength put fairly forth,
While only here and there a star dispels
The darkness, here and there a towering mind
O’erlooks its prostrate fellows. When the host
Is out at once, to the despair of night,
When all mankind alike is perfected,
Equal in full-blown powers—then, not till then,
I say, begins man’s general infancy.”