Love, Music, and Salad are the three biggest things in life. Mr. Franklin has not only outlined the situation with extraordinary precision, but he has placed these three basic factors in their exact scientific order. Love comes first. Indeed, we only come because Love calls for us. We find it waiting with outstretched arms on arrival. It smothers5 our babyhood with kisses, and hedges our infancy6 about with its ceaseless ministry7 of doting8 affection. Love is the beginning of everything; I need not labour that point. Where there is no love there is neither music nor salad, nor anything else worth writing about.
Mr. Franklin was indisputably right in putting Love first, and immediately adding Music. You cannot imagine Love without Music. I am hoping that one of these days one of our philosophers will give us a book on the language that does not need learning. There is room for a really fine volume on that captivating theme. Henry Drummond has a most fascinating and characteristic essay on The Evolution of Language; but from my present standpoint it is sadly disappointing. From first to last Drummond works on the assumption that 218human language is a thing of imitation and acquisition. The foundation of it all, he tells us, is in the forest. Man heard the howl of the dog, the neigh of the horse, the bleat9 of the lamb, the stamp of the goat; and he deliberately10 copied these sounds. He noticed, too, that each animal has sounds specially11 adapted for particular occasions. One monkey, we are told, utters at least six different sounds to express its feelings; and Darwin discovered four or five modulations in the bark of the dog. ‘There is the bark of eagerness, as in the chase; that of anger, as well as growling12; the yelp13 or howl of despair, as when shut up; the baying at night; the bark of joy, as when starting on a walk with his master; and the very distinct one of demand or supplication14, as when wishing for a door or window to be opened.’ Drummond appears to assume that primitive15 man listened to these sounds and copied them, much as a child speaks of the bow-wow, the moo-moo, the quack-quack, the tick-tick, and the puff-puff. But in all this we leave out of our reckoning one vital factor. The most expressive16 language that we ever speak is the language that we never learned. As Darwin himself points out, there are certain simple and vivid feelings which we express, and express with the utmost clearness, but without any kind of reference to our higher intelligence. ‘Our cries of pain, fear, surprise, 219anger, together with their appropriate actions, and the murmur17 of a mother to her beloved child, are more expressive than any words.’
Is not this a confession18 of the fact that the soul, in its greatest moments, speaks a language, not of imitation or of acquisition, but one that it brought with it, a language of its own? The language that we learn varies according to nationality. The speech of a Chinaman is an incomprehensible jargon19 to a Briton; the utterance20 of a Frenchman is a mere riot of sound to a Hindu. The language that we learn is affected21 even by dialects, so that a man in one English county finds it by no means easy to interpret the speech of a visitor from another. It is even affected by rank and position; the speech of the plough-boy is one thing, the speech of the courtier is quite another. So confusing is the language that we learn! But let a man speak in the language that needs no learning; and all the world will understand him. The cry of a child in pain is the same in Iceland as in India, in Hobart as in Timbuctoo! The soft and wordless crooning of a mother as she lulls22 her babe to rest; the scream of a man in mortal anguish23; the sudden outburst of uncontrollable laughter; the sigh of regret; the titter of amusement; and the piteous cry of a broken heart,—these know neither nationality nor rank nor station. They are the same in castle as in 220cottage; in Tasmania as in Thibet; in the world’s first morning as in the world’s last night. The most expressive language, the only language in which the soul itself ever really speaks, is a language without alphabet or grammar. It needs neither to be learned nor taught, for all men speak it, and all men understand.
Was that, consciously or subconsciously24, at the back of Mr. Franklin’s mind when he put Music next to Love? Certain it is that, in that unwritten language which is greater than all speech, Music is the natural expression of Love. Why is there music in the grove25 and the forest? It is because love is there. The birds never sing so sweetly as during the mating season. For awhile the male bird hovers26 about the person of his desired bride, and pours out an incessant27 torrent28 of song in the fond hope of one day winning her; and when his purpose is achieved, he goes on singing for very joy that she is his. And afterwards he ‘gallantly perches29 near the little home, pouring forth30 his joy and pride, sweetly singing to his mate as she sits within the nest, patiently hatching her brood.’ Both in men and women it is at the approach of the love-making age that the voice suddenly develops, and it is when the deepest chords in the soul are first struck that the richest and fullest notes can be sung.
Music, then, is the natural concomitant of Love. 221That is why most of our songs are love-songs. If a man is in love he can no more help singing than a bird can help flying. You cannot love anything without singing about it. Men love God; that is why we have hymn-books. Men love women; that is why we have ballads31. Men love their country; that is why we have national anthems32 and patriotic33 airs.
But the stroke of genius in Mr. Franklin lay in the addition of the Salad. If he had contented34 himself with Love and Music, he would have uttered a truth, and a great truth; but it would have been a commonplace truth. As it is, he lifts the whole thing into the realm of brilliance—and reality. For, after all, of what earthly use are Love and Music unless they lead to Salad? When to Love and Music Mr. Franklin shrewdly added Salad, he put himself in line with the greatest philosophers of all time. Bishop35 Butler told us years ago that if we allow emotions which are designed to lead to action to become excited, and no action follows, the very excitation of that emotion without its appropriate response leaves the heart much harder than it was before. And, more recently, our brilliant Harvard Professor, Dr. William James, has warned us that it is a very damaging thing for the mind to receive an impression without giving that impression an adequate and commensurate expression. If you go to a 222concert, he says, and hear a lovely song that deeply moves you, you ought to pay some poor person’s tram fare on the way home. It is a natural as well as a psychological law. The earth, for example, receives the impression represented by the fall of autumn leaves, the descent of sap from the bough36, and the widespread decay of wintry desolation. But she hastens to give expression to this impression by all the wealth and plenitude of her glorious spring array.
The New Testament37 gives us a great story which exactly illustrates38 my point. It is a very graceful39 and tender record, full of Love and Music, but containing also something more than Love and Music. For when Dorcas died all the widows stood weeping in the chamber40 of death, showing the coats that Dorcas had made while she was yet with them. Dorcas was a Jewess. At one time she had been taught to regard the name of Jesus as a thing to be abhorred41 and accursed. But later on a wonderful experience befell her. Could she ever forget the day on which, amidst a whirl of spiritual bewilderment and a tempest of spiritual emotion, she had discovered, in the very Messiah whom once she had despised, her Saviour42 and her Lord? It was a day never to be forgotten, a day full of Love and Music. How could she produce an expression adequate to that wonderful impression? Not in words; for 223she was not gifted with speech. Yet an expression must be found. It would have been a fatal thing for the delicate soul of Dorcas if so turgid a flood of feeling had found no apt and natural outlet43. And in that crisis she thought of her needle. She expressed her love for the Lord in the occupation most familiar to her. It was a kind of storage of energy. Dorcas wove her love for her Lord into every stitch, and a tender thought into every stitch, and a fervent44 prayer into every stitch. And that spiritual storage escaped through warm coats and neat garments into the hearts and homes of these widows and poor folk along the coast, and they learned the depth and tenderness of the divine love from the deft45 finger-tips of Dorcas.
Salad is the natural and fitting outcome of Love and Music. I have already confessed that when first I came upon the triune conjunction I thought it rather an incongruous medley46, a strange hotch-potch, an ill-assorted company. That is the worst of judging things in a hurry. The eye does the work of the brain, and does it badly. It is a common failing of ours. Look at the torrent of toothless jokes that have been directed at the contrast between the romance of courtship and the domestic realities that follow. The former, according to the traditional estimate, consists of billing and cooing, of fervent protestations and radiant dreams, of romantic 224loveliness and honeyed phrases. The latter, according to the same traditional view, consists of struggle and anxiety, of drudgery47 and menial toil48, of broken nights with tiresome49 children, of nerve-racking anxiety and an endless sequence of troubles. He who looks at life in this way makes precisely50 the same mistake that I myself made when I first saw Mr. Franklin’s Love, Music, and Salad, and thought it a higgledy-piggledy hotch-potch. It is nothing of the kind. Love naturally leads to Music; and Love and Music naturally lead to Salad. Courtship leads to the cradle and the kitchen, it is true; but both cradle and kitchen are glorified51 and consecrated52 by the courtship that has gone before. Our English homes, take them for all in all, are the loveliest things in the world.
The merry homes of England!
Around their hearths53 by night,
What gladsome looks of household love
Meet in the ruddy light!
There woman’s voice flows forth in song,
Or childhood’s tale is told;
Or lips move tunefully along
Some glorious page of old.
Here is a picture of Love, Music, and Salad in perfect combination. And what a secret lies behind it! The fact is that the heathen world has nothing at all corresponding to our English sweethearting. 225Men and women are thrown into each other’s arms by barter54, by compact, by conquest, and in a thousand ways. In one land a man buys his bride; in another he fights as the brutes55 do for the mate of his fancy; in yet another he takes her without seeing her, it was so ordained56. Only in a land that has felt the spell of the influence of Jesus would sweethearting, as we know it, be possible. The pure and charming freedom of social intercourse57; the liberty to yield to the mystic magnetism58 that draws the one to the other, and the other to the one; the coy approach; the shy exchanges; the arm-in-arm walks, and the heart-to-heart talks; the growing admiration59; the deepening passion; culminating at last in the fond formality of the engagement and the rapture60 of ultimate union; in what land, unsweetened by the power of the gospel, would such a procedure be possible? And the consequence is that our homes stand in such striking contrast to the homes of heathen peoples. ‘There are no homes in Asia!’ Mr. W. H. Seward, the American statesman, exclaimed sadly, fifty years ago. It is scarcely true now, for Christ is gaining on Asia every day; and the missionaries61 confess that the greatest propagating power that the gospel possesses is the gracious though silent witness of the Christian62 homes. Human life is robbed of all animalism and baseness when true 226love enters. And there is no true love apart from the highest love of all.
Salad may seem a prosaic63 thing to follow on the heels of Love and Music; but the salad that has been prepared by fingers that one thinks it heaven to kiss is tinged64 and tinctured with the flavour of romance. All through life, Love makes life’s Music. All through life, Love and Music lead to Salad. And, all through life, Love and Music glorify65 the Salad to which they lead. They transmute66 it by this magic into such a dish as many a king has sighed for all his days, but sighed in vain.
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1
conglomeration
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| n.团块，聚集，混合物 | |
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2
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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3
jumble
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| vt.使混乱，混杂；n.混乱；杂乱的一堆 | |
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4
scrutinize
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| n.详细检查，细读 | |
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smothers
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| （使）窒息， （使）透不过气( smother的第三人称单数 )； 覆盖； 忍住； 抑制 | |
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infancy
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| n.婴儿期；幼年期；初期 | |
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7
ministry
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| n.(政府的)部；牧师 | |
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8
doting
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| adj.溺爱的，宠爱的 | |
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9
bleat
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| v.咩咩叫，(讲)废话，哭诉；n.咩咩叫，废话，哭诉 | |
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10
deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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11
specially
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| adv.特定地；特殊地；明确地 | |
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12
growling
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| n.吠声, 咆哮声 v.怒吠, 咆哮, 吼 | |
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13
yelp
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| vi.狗吠 | |
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14
supplication
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| n.恳求，祈愿，哀求 | |
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15
primitive
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| adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物 | |
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16
expressive
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| adj.表现的，表达…的，富于表情的 | |
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17
murmur
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| n.低语，低声的怨言；v.低语，低声而言 | |
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18
confession
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| n.自白，供认，承认 | |
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19
jargon
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| n.术语，行话 | |
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20
utterance
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| n.用言语表达，话语，言语 | |
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21
affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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22
lulls
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| n.间歇期（lull的复数形式）vt.使镇静，使安静（lull的第三人称单数形式） | |
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23
anguish
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| n.(尤指心灵上的)极度痛苦，烦恼 | |
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24
subconsciously
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| ad.下意识地，潜意识地 | |
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25
grove
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| n.林子，小树林，园林 | |
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26
hovers
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| 鸟( hover的第三人称单数 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫 | |
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27
incessant
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| adj.不停的，连续的 | |
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28
torrent
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| n.激流，洪流；爆发，(话语等的)连发 | |
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29
perches
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| 栖息处( perch的名词复数 )； 栖枝； 高处； 鲈鱼 | |
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30
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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31
ballads
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| 民歌，民谣，特别指叙述故事的歌( ballad的名词复数 )； 讴 | |
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32
anthems
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| n.赞美诗( anthem的名词复数 )；圣歌；赞歌；颂歌 | |
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33
patriotic
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| adj.爱国的，有爱国心的 | |
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34
contented
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| adj.满意的，安心的，知足的 | |
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35
bishop
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| n.主教，（国际象棋）象 | |
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36
bough
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| n.大树枝，主枝 | |
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37
testament
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| n.遗嘱；证明 | |
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38
illustrates
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| 给…加插图( illustrate的第三人称单数 )； 说明； 表明； （用示例、图画等）说明 | |
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39
graceful
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| adj.优美的，优雅的；得体的 | |
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40
chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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41
abhorred
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| v.憎恶( abhor的过去式和过去分词 )；（厌恶地）回避；拒绝；淘汰 | |
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42
saviour
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| n.拯救者，救星 | |
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43
outlet
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| n.出口/路；销路；批发商店；通风口；发泄 | |
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44
fervent
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| adj.热的，热烈的，热情的 | |
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45
deft
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| adj.灵巧的，熟练的（a deft hand 能手） | |
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46
medley
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| n.混合 | |
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47
drudgery
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| n.苦工，重活，单调乏味的工作 | |
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48
toil
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| vi.辛劳工作，艰难地行动；n.苦工，难事 | |
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49
tiresome
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| adj.令人疲劳的，令人厌倦的 | |
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50
precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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51
glorified
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| 美其名的，变荣耀的 | |
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52
consecrated
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| adj.神圣的，被视为神圣的v.把…奉为神圣，给…祝圣( consecrate的过去式和过去分词 )；奉献 | |
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53
hearths
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| 壁炉前的地板，炉床，壁炉边( hearth的名词复数 ) | |
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54
barter
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| n.物物交换，以货易货，实物交易 | |
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55
brutes
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| 兽( brute的名词复数 )； 畜生； 残酷无情的人； 兽性 | |
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56
ordained
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| v.任命（某人）为牧师( ordain的过去式和过去分词 )；授予（某人）圣职；（上帝、法律等）命令；判定 | |
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57
intercourse
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| n.性交；交流，交往，交际 | |
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58
magnetism
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| n.磁性，吸引力，磁学 | |
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59
admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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60
rapture
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| n.狂喜；全神贯注；着迷；v.使狂喜 | |
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missionaries
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| n.传教士( missionary的名词复数 ) | |
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Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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63
prosaic
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| adj.单调的，无趣的 | |
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64
tinged
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| v.（使）发丁丁声( ting的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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glorify
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| vt.颂扬，赞美，使增光，美化 | |
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transmute
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| vt.使变化，使改变 | |
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