A strong common sense, which it is not easy to unseat or disturb, marks the English mind for a thousand years: a rude strength newly applied1 to thought, as of sailors and soldiers who had lately learned to read. They have no fancy, and never are surprised into a covert2 or witty3 word, such as pleased the Athenians and Italians, and was convertible4 into a fable5 not long after; but they delight in strong earthy expression, not mistakable, coarsely true to the human body, and, though spoken among princes, equally fit and welcome to the mob. This homeliness8, veracity9, and plain style, appear in the earliest extant works, and in the latest. It imports into songs and ballads10 the smell of the earth, the breath of cattle, and, like a Dutch painter, seeks a household charm, though by pails and pans. They ask their constitutional utility in verse. The kail and herrings are never out of sight. The poet nimbly recovers himself from every sally of the imagination. The English muse11 loves the farmyard, the lane, and market. She says, with De Stael, “I tramp in the mire12 with wooden shoes, whenever they would force me into the clouds.” For, the Englishman has accurate perceptions; takes hold of things by the right end, and there is no slipperiness in his grasp. He loves the axe13, the spade, the oar6, the gun, the steampipe: he has built the engine he uses. He is materialist14, economical, mercantile. He must be treated with sincerity16 and reality, with muffins, and not the promise of muffins; and prefers his hot chop, with perfect security and convenience in the eating of it, to the chances of the amplest and Frenchiest bill of fare, engraved17 on embossed paper. When he is intellectual, and a poet or a philosopher, he carries the same hard truth and the same keen machinery18 into the mental sphere. His mind must stand on a fact. He will not be baffled, or catch at clouds, but the mind must have a symbol palpable and resisting. What he relishes19 in Dante, is the vice20-like tenacity21 with which he holds a mental image before the eyes, as if it were a scutcheon painted on a shield. Byron “liked something craggy to break his mind upon.” A taste for plain strong speech, what is called a biblical style, marks the English. It is in Alfred, and the Saxon Chronicle, and in the Sagas22 of the Northmen. Latimer was homely23. Hobbes was perfect in the “noble vulgar speech.” Donne, Bunyan, Milton, Taylor, Evelyn, Pepys, Hooker, Cotton, and the translators, wrote it. How realistic or materialistic24 in treatment of his subject, is Swift. He describes his fictitious25 persons, as if for the police. Defoe has no insecurity or choice. Hudibras has the same hard mentality26, — keeping the truth at once to the senses, and to the intellect.
It is not less seen in poetry. Chaucer’s hard painting of his Canterbury pilgrims satisfies the senses. Shakspeare, Spenser, and Milton, in their loftiest ascents27, have this national grip and exactitude of mind. This mental materialism28 makes the value of English transcendental genius; in these writers, and in Herbert, Henry More, Donne, and Sir Thomas Browne. The Saxon materialism and narrowness, exalted29 into the sphere of intellect, makes the very genius of Shakspeare and Milton. When it reaches the pure element, it treads the clouds as securely as the adamant30. Even in its elevations31, materialistic, its poetry is common sense inspired; or iron raised to white heat.
The marriage of the two qualities is in their speech. It is a tacit rule of the language to make the frame or skeleton, of Saxon words, and, when elevation32 or ornament33 is sought, to interweave Roman; but sparingly; nor is a sentence made of Roman words alone, without loss of strength. The children and laborers35 use the Saxon unmixed. The Latin unmixed is abandoned to the colleges and Parliament. Mixture is a secret of the English island; and, in their dialect, the male principle is the Saxon; the female, the Latin; and they are combined in every discourse36. A good writer, if he has indulged in a Roman roundness, makes haste to chasten and nerve his period by English monosyllables.
When the Gothic nations came into Europe, they found it lighted with the sun and moon of Hebrew and of Greek genius. The tablets of their brain, long kept in the dark, were finely sensible to the double glory. To the images from this twin source (of Christianity and art), the mind became fruitful as by the incubation of the Holy Ghost. The English mind flowered in every faculty37. The common-sense was surprised and inspired. For two centuries, England was philosophic38, religious, poetic39. The mental furniture seemed of larger scale; the memory capacious like the storehouse of the rains; the ardor40 and endurance of study; the boldness and facility of their mental construction; their fancy, and imagination, and easy spanning of vast distances of thought; the enterprise or accosting41 of new subjects; and, generally, the easy exertion42 of power, astonish, like the legendary43 feats44 of Guy of Warwick. The union of Saxon precision and oriental soaring, of which Shakspeare is the perfect example, is shared in less degree by the writers of two centuries. I find not only the great masters out of all rivalry46 and reach, but the whole writing of the time charged with a masculine force and freedom.
There is a hygienic simpleness, rough vigor47, and closeness to the matter in hand, even in the second and third class of writers; and, I think, in the common style of the people, as one finds it in the citation48 of wills, letters, and public documents, in proverbs, and forms of speech. The more hearty49 and sturdy expression may indicate that the savageness50 of the Norseman was not all gone. Their dynamic brains hurled51 off their words, as the revolving52 stone hurls53 off scraps54 of grit55. I could cite from the seventeenth century sentences and phrases of edge not to be matched in the nineteenth. Their poets by simple force of mind equalized themselves with the accumulated science of ours. The country gentlemen had a posset or drink they called October; and the poets, as if by this hint, knew how to distil56 the whole season into their autumnal verses: and, as nature, to pique57 the more, sometimes works up deformities into beauty, in some rare Aspasia, or Cleopatra; and, as the Greek art wrought58 many a vase or column, in which too long, or too lithe59, or nodes, or pits and flaws, are made a beauty of; so these were so quick and vital, that they could charm and enrich by mean and vulgar objects.
A man must think that age well taught and thoughtful, by which masques and poems, like those of Ben Jonson, full of heroic sentiment in a manly60 style, were received with favor. The unique fact in literary history, the unsurprised reception of Shakspeare; — the reception proved by his making his fortune; and the apathy62 proved by the absence of all contemporary panegyric63, — seems to demonstrate an elevation in the mind of the people. Judge of the splendor64 of a nation, by the insignificance65 of great individuals in it. The manner in which they learned Greek and Latin, before our modern facilities were yet ready, without dictionaries, grammars, or indexes, by lectures of a professor, followed by their own searchings, — required a more robust66 memory, and cooperation of all the faculties67; and their scholars, Camden, Usher68, Selden, Mede, Gataker, Hooker, Taylor, Burton, Bentley, Brian Walton, acquired the solidity and method of engineers.
The influence of Plato tinges69 the British genius. Their minds loved analogy; were cognisant of resemblances, and climbers on the staircase of unity70. ‘Tis a very old strife71 between those who elect to see identity, and those who elect to see discrepances; and it renews itself in Britain. The poets, of course, are of one part; the men of the world, of the other. But Britain had many disciples72 of Plato; — More, Hooker, Bacon, Sidney, Lord Brooke, Herbert, Browne, Donne, Spenser, Chapman, Milton, Crashaw, Norris, Cudworth, Berkeley, Jeremy Taylor.
Lord Bacon has the English duality. His centuries of observations, on useful science, and his experiments, I suppose, were worth nothing. One hint of Franklin, or Watt73, or Dalton, or Davy, or any one who had a talent for experiment, was worth all his lifetime of exquisite74 trifles. But he drinks of a diviner stream, and marks the influx75 of idealism into England. Where that goes, is poetry, health, and progress. The rules of its genesis or its diffusion76 are not known. That knowledge, if we had it, would supersede77 all that we call science of the mind. It seems an affair of race, or of meta-chemistry; — the vital point being, — how far the sense of unity, or instinct of seeking resemblances, predominated. For, wherever the mind takes a step, it is, to put itself at one with a larger class, discerned beyond the lesser78 class with which it has been conversant79. Hence, all poetry, and all affirmative action comes.
Bacon, in the structure of his mind, held of the analogists, of the idealists, or (as we popularly say, naming from the best example) Platonists. Whoever discredits80 analogy, and requires heaps of facts, before any theories can be attempted, has no poetic power, and nothing original or beautiful will be produced by him. Locke is as surely the influx of decomposition81 and of prose, as Bacon and the Platonists, of growth. The Platonic82 is the poetic tendency; the so-called scientific is the negative and poisonous. ‘Tis quite certain, that Spenser, Burns, Byron, and Wordsworth will be Platonists; and that the dull men will be Lockists. Then politics and commerce will absorb from the educated class men of talents without genius, precisely83 because such have no resistance.
Bacon, capable of ideas, yet devoted84 to ends, required in his map of the mind, first of all, universality, or prima philosophia, the receptacle for all such profitable observations and axioms as fall not within the compass of any of the special parts of philosophy, but are more common, and of a higher stage. He held this element essential: it is never out of mind: he never spares rebukes85 for such as neglect it; believing that no perfect discovery can be made in a flat or level, but you must ascend86 to a higher science. “If any man thinketh philosophy and universality to be idle studies, he doth not consider that all professions are from thence served and supplied, and this I take to be a great cause that has hindered the progression of learning, because these fundamental knowledges have been studied but in passage.” He explained himself by giving various quaint87 examples of the summary or common laws, of which each science has its own illustration. He complains, that “he finds this part of learning very deficient88, the profounder sort of wits drawing a bucket now and then for their own use, but the spring-head unvisited. This was the dry light which did scorch89 and offend most men’s watery90 natures.” Plato had signified the same sense, when he said, “All the great arts require a subtle and speculative91 research into the law of nature, since loftiness of thought and perfect mastery over every subject seem to be derived92 from some such source as this. This Pericles had, in addition to a great natural genius. For, meeting with Anaxagoras, who was a person of this kind, he attached himself to him, and nourished himself with sublime93 speculations94 on the absolute intelligence; and imported thence into the oratorical96 art, whatever could be useful to it.”
A few generalizations97 always circulate in the world, whose authors we do not rightly know, which astonish, and appear to be avenues to vast kingdoms of thought, and these are in the world constants, like the Copernican and Newtonian theories in physics. In England, these may be traced usually to Shakspeare, Bacon, Milton, or Hooker, even to Van Helmont and Behmen, and do all have a kind of filial retrospect99 to Plato and the Greeks. Of this kind is Lord Bacon’s sentence, that “nature is commanded by obeying her;” his doctrine100 of poetry, which “accommodates the shows of things to the desires of the mind,” or the Zoroastrian definition of poetry, mystical, yet exact, “apparent pictures of unapparent natures;” Spenser’s creed101, that “soul is form, and doth the body make;” the theory of Berkeley, that we have no certain assurance of the existence of matter; Doctor Samuel Clarke’s argument for theism from the nature of space and time; Harrington’s political rule, that power must rest on land, — a rule which requires to be liberally interpreted; the theory of Swedenborg, so cosmically applied by him, that the man makes his heaven and hell; Hegel’s study of civil history, as the conflict of ideas and the victory of the deeper thought; the identity-philosophy of Schelling, couched in the statement that “all difference is quantitative102.” So the very announcement of the theory of gravitation, of Kepler’s three harmonic laws, and even of Dalton’s doctrine of definite proportions, finds a sudden response in the mind, which remains103 a superior evidence to empirical demonstrations104. I cite these generalizations, some of which are more recent, merely to indicate a class. Not these particulars, but the mental plane or the atmosphere from which they emanate105, was the home and elements of the writers and readers in what we loosely call the Elizabethan age, (say, in literary history, the period from 1575 to 1625,) yet a period almost short enough to justify106 Ben Jonson’s remark on Lord Bacon; “about his time, and within his view, were born all the wits that could honor a nation, or help study.”
Such richness of genius had not existed more than once before. These heights could not be maintained. As we find stumps107 of vast trees in our exhausted108 soils, and have received traditions of their ancient fertility to tillage, so history reckons epochs in which the intellect of famed races became effete109. So it fared with English genius. These heights were followed by a meanness, and a descent of the mind into lower levels; the loss of wings; no high speculation95. Locke, to whom the meaning of ideas was unknown, became the type of philosophy, and his “understanding” the measure, in all nations, of the English intellect. His countrymen forsook110 the lofty sides of Parnassus, on which they had once walked with echoing steps, and disused the studies once so beloved; the powers of thought fell into neglect. The later English want the faculty of Plato and Aristotle, of grouping men in natural classes by an insight of general laws, so deep, that the rule is deduced with equal precision from few subjects or from one, as from multitudes of lives. Shakspeare is supreme111 in that, as in all the great mental energies. The Germans generalize: the English cannot interpret the German mind. German science comprehends the English. The absence of the faculty in England is shown by the timidity which accumulates mountains of facts, as a bad general wants myriads112 of men and miles of redoubts, to compensate113 the inspirations of courage and conduct.
The English shrink from a generalization98. “They do not look abroad into universality, or they draw only a bucket-full at the fountain of the First Philosophy for their occasion, and do not go to the spring-head.” Bacon, who said this, is almost unique among his countrymen in that faculty, at least among the prose-writers. Milton, who was the stair or high table-land to let down the English genius from the summits of Shakspeare, used this privilege sometimes in poetry, more rarely in prose. For a long interval114 afterwards, it is not found. Burke was addicted115 to generalizing, but his was a shorter line; as his thoughts have less depth, they have less compass. Hume’s abstractions are not deep or wise. He owes his fame to one keen observation, that no copula had been detected between any cause and effect, either in physics or in thought; that the term cause and effect was loosely or gratuitously117 applied to what we know only as consecutive118, not at all as causal. Doctor Johnson’s written abstractions have little value: the tone of feeling in them makes their chief worth.
Mr. Hallam, a learned and elegant scholar, has written the history of European literature for three centuries, — a performance of great ambition, inasmuch as a judgment119 was to be attempted on every book. But his eye does not reach to the ideal standards: the verdicts are all dated from London: all new thought must be cast into the old moulds. The expansive element which creates literature is steadily120 denied. Plato is resisted, and his school. Hallam is uniformly polite, but with deficient sympathy; writes with resolute121 generosity122, but is unconscious of the deep worth which lies in the mystics, and which often outvalues as a seed of power and a source of revolution all the correct writers and shining reputations of their day. He passes in silence, or dismisses with a kind of contempt, the profounder masters: a lover of ideas is not only uncongenial, but unintelligible123. Hallam inspires respect by his knowledge and fidelity124, by his manifest love of good books, and he lifts himself to own better than almost any the greatness of Shakspeare, and better than Johnson he appreciates Milton. But in Hallam, or in the firmer intellectual nerve of Mackintosh, one still finds the same type of English genius. It is wise and rich, but it lives on its capital. It is retrospective. How can it discern and hail the new forms that are looming125 up on the horizon, — new and gigantic thoughts which cannot dress themselves out of any old wardrobe of the past?
The essays, the fiction, and the poetry of the day have the like municipal limits. Dickens, with preternatural apprehension126 of the language of manners, and the varieties of street life, with pathos127 and laughter, with patriotic128 and still enlarging generosity, writes London tracts129. He is a painter of English details, like Hogarth; local and temporary in his tints130 and style, and local in his aims. Bulwer, an industrious131 writer, with occasional ability, is distinguished132 for his reverence133 of intellect as a temporality, and appeals to the worldly ambition of the student. His romances tend to fan these low flames. Their novelists despair of the heart. Thackeray finds that God has made no allowance for the poor thing in his universe; — more’s the pity, he thinks; — but ‘tis not for us to be wiser: we must renounce134 ideals, and accept London.
The brilliant Macaulay, who expresses the tone of the English governing classes of the day, explicitly135 teaches, that good means good to eat, good to wear, material commodity; that the glory of modern philosophy is its direction on “fruit;” to yield economical inventions; and that its merit is to avoid ideas, and avoid morals. He thinks it the distinctive136 merit of the Baconian philosophy, in its triumph over the old Platonic, its disentangling the intellect from theories of the all-Fair and all-Good, and pinning it down to the making a better sick chair and a better wine-whey for an invalid137; — this not ironically, but in good faith; — that, “solid advantage,” as he calls it, meaning always sensual benefit, is the only good. The eminent138 benefit of astronomy is the better navigation it creates to enable the fruit-ships to bring home their lemons and wine to the London grocer. It was a curious result, in which the civility and religion of England for a thousand years, ends, in denying morals, and reducing the intellect to a sauce-pan. The critic hides his skepticism under the English cant15 of practical. To convince the reason, to touch the conscience, is romantic pretension139. The fine arts fall to the ground. Beauty, except as luxurious140 commodity, does not exist. It is very certain, I may say in passing, that if Lord Bacon had been only the sensualist his critic pretends, he would never have acquired the fame which now entitles him to this patronage141. It is because he had imagination, the leisures of the spirit, and basked142 in an element of contemplation out of all modern English atmospheric143 gauges144, that he is impressive to the imaginations of men, and has become a potentate145 not to be ignored. Sir David Brewster sees the high place of Bacon, without finding Newton indebted to him, and thinks it a mistake. Bacon occupies it by specific gravity or levity146, not by any feat45 he did, or by any tutoring more or less of Newton &c., but an effect of the same cause which showed itself more pronounced afterwards in Hooke, Boyle, and Halley.
Coleridge, a catholic mind, with a hunger for ideas, with eyes looking before and after to the highest bards147 and sages148, and who wrote and spoke7 the only high criticism in his time, — is one of those who save England from the reproach of no longer possessing the capacity to appreciate what rarest wit the island has yielded. Yet the misfortune of his life, his vast attempts but most inadequate149 performings, failing to accomplish any one masterpiece, seems to mark the closing of an era. Even in him, the traditional Englishman was too strong for the philosopher, and he fell into accommodations: and, as Burke had striven to idealize the English State, so Coleridge ‘narrowed his mind’ in the attempt to reconcile the gothic rule and dogma of the Anglican Church, with eternal ideas. But for Coleridge, and a lurking150 taciturn minority, uttering itself in occasional criticism, oftener in private discourse, one would say, that in Germany and in America, is the best mind in England rightly respected. It is the surest sign of national decay, when the Bramins can no longer read or understand the Braminical philosophy.
In the decomposition and asphyxia that followed all this materialism, Carlyle was driven by his disgust at the pettiness and the cant, into the preaching of Fate. In comparison with all this rottenness, any check, any cleansing151, though by fire, seemed desirable and beautiful. He saw little difference in the gladiators, or the “causes” for which they combated; the one comfort was, that they were all going speedily into the abyss together: And his imagination, finding no nutriment in any creation, avenged152 itself by celebrating the majestic153 beauty of the laws of decay. The necessities of mental structure force all minds into a few categories, and where impatience154 of the tricks of men makes Nemesis155 amiable156, and builds altars to the negative Deity157, the inevitable158 recoil159 is to heroism160 or the gallantry of the private heart, which decks its immolation161 with glory, in the unequal combat of will against fate.
Wilkinson, the editor of Swedenborg, the annotator162 of Fourier, and the champion of Hahnemann, has brought to metaphysics and to physiology163 a native vigor, with a catholic perception of relations, equal to the highest attempts, and a rhetoric164 like the armory165 of the invincible166 knights167 of old. There is in the action of his mind a long Atlantic roll not known except in deepest waters, and only lacking what ought to accompany such powers, a manifest centrality. If his mind does not rest in immovable biases168, perhaps the orbit is larger, and the return is not yet: but a master should inspire a confidence that he will adhere to his convictions, and give his present studies always the same high place.
It would be easy to add exceptions to the limitary tone of English thought, and much more easy to adduce examples of excellence170 in particular veins171: and if, going out of the region of dogma, we pass into that of general culture, there is no end to the graces and amenities172, wit, sensibility and erudition, of the learned class. But the artificial succor173 which marks all English performance, appears in letters also: much of their aesthetic174 production is antiquarian and manufactured, and literary reputations have been achieved by forcible men, whose relation to literature was purely175 accidental, but who were driven by tastes and modes they found in vogue176 into their several careers. So, at this moment, every ambitious young man studies geology: so members of Parliament are made, and churchmen.
The bias169 of Englishmen to practical skill has reacted on the national mind. They are incapable177 of an inutility, and respect the five mechanic powers even in their song. The voice of their modern muse has a slight hint of the steam-whistle, and the poem is created as an ornament and finish of their monarchy178, and by no means as the bird of a new morning which forgets the past world in the full enjoyment179 of that which is forming. They are with difficulty ideal; they are the most conditioned men, as if, having the best conditions, they could not bring themselves to forfeit180 them. Every one of them is a thousand years old, and lives by his memory: and when you say this, they accept it as praise.
Nothing comes to the book-shops but politics, travels, statistics, tabulation181, and engineering, and even what is called philosophy and letters is mechanical in its structure, as if inspiration had ceased, as if no vast hope, no religion, no song of joy, no wisdom, no analogy, existed any more. The tone of colleges, and of scholars and of literary society has this mortal air. I seem to walk on a marble floor, where nothing will grow. They exert every variety of talent on a lower ground, and may be said to live and act in a sub-mind. They have lost all commanding views in literature, philosophy, and science. A good Englishman shuts himself out of three fourths of his mind, and confines himself to one fourth. He has learning, good sense, power of labor34, and logic182: but a faith in the laws of the mind like that of Archimedes; a belief like that of Euler and Kepler, that experience must follow and not lead the laws of the mind; a devotion to the theory of politics, like that of Hooker, and Milton, and Harrington, the modern English mind repudiates183.
I fear the same fault lies in their science, since they have known how to make it repulsive184, and bereave185 nature of its charm; — though perhaps the complaint flies wider, and the vice attaches to many more than to British physicists186. The eye of the naturalist187 must have a scope like nature itself, a susceptibility to all impressions, alive to the heart as well as to the logic of creation. But English science puts humanity to the door. It wants the connection which is the test of genius. The science is false by not being poetic. It isolates188 the reptile189 or mollusk190 it assumes to explain; whilst reptile or mollusk only exists in system, in relation. The poet only sees it as an inevitable step in the path of the Creator. But, in England, one hermit191 finds this fact, and another finds that, and lives and dies ignorant of its value. There are great exceptions, of John Hunter, a man of ideas; perhaps of Robert Brown, the botanist192; and of Richard Owen, who has imported into Britain the German homologies, and enriched science with contributions of his own, adding sometimes the divination193 of the old masters to the unbroken power of labor in the English mind. But for the most part, the natural science in England is out of its loyal alliance with morals, and is as void of imagination and free play of thought, as conveyancing. It stands in strong contrast with the genius of the Germans, those semi-Greeks, who love analogy, and, by means of their height of view, preserve their enthusiasm, and think for Europe.
No hope, no sublime augury194 cheers the student, no secure striding from experiment onward195 to a foreseen law, but only a casual dipping here and there, like diggers in California “prospecting for a placer” that will pay. A horizon of brass196 of the diameter of his umbrella shuts down around his senses. Squalid contentment with conventions, satire197 at the names of philosophy and religion, parochial and shop-till politics, and idolatry of usage, betray the ebb198 of life and spirit. As they trample199 on nationalities to reproduce London and Londoners in Europe and Asia, so they fear the hostility200 of ideas, of poetry, of religion, — ghosts which they cannot lay; — and, having attempted to domesticate201 and dress the Blessed Soul itself in English broadcloth and gaiters, they are tormented202 with fear that herein lurks203 a force that will sweep their system away. The artists say, “Nature puts them out;” the scholars have become un-ideal. They parry earnest speech with banter204 and levity; they laugh you down, or they change the subject. “The fact is,” say they over their wine, “all that about liberty, and so forth205, is gone by; it won’t do any longer.” The practical and comfortable oppress them with inexorable claims, and the smallest fraction of power remains for heroism and poetry. No poet dares murmur206 of beauty out of the precinct of his rhymes. No priest dares hint at a Providence207 which does not respect English utility. The island is a roaring volcano of fate, of material values, of tariffs208, and laws of repression209, glutted210 markets and low prices.
In the absence of the highest aims, of the pure love of knowledge, and the surrender to nature, there is the suppression of the imagination, the priapism of the senses and the understanding; we have the factitious instead of the natural; tasteless expense, arts of comfort, and the rewarding as an illustrious inventor whosoever will contrive211 one impediment more to interpose between the man and his objects.
Thus poetry is degraded, and made ornamental212. Pope and his school wrote poetry fit to put round frosted cake. What did Walter Scott write without stint213? a rhymed traveller’s guide to Scotland. And the libraries of verses they print have this Birmingham character. How many volumes of well-bred metre we must gingle through, before we can be filled, taught, renewed! We want the miraculous214; the beauty which we can manufacture at no mill, — can give no account of; the beauty of which Chaucer and Chapman had the secret. The poetry of course is low and prosaic215; only now and then, as in Wordsworth, conscientious216; or in Byron, passional; or in Tennyson, factitious. But if I should count the poets who have contributed to the bible of existing England sentences of guidance and consolation217 which are still glowing and effective, — how few!7 Shall I find my heavenly bread in the reigning218 poets? Where is great design in modern English poetry? The English have lost sight of the fact that poetry exists to speak the spiritual law, and that no wealth of description or of fancy is yet essentially219 new, and out of the limits of prose, until this condition is reached. Therefore the grave old poets, like the Greek artists, heeded220 their designs, and less considered the finish. It was their office to lead to the divine sources, out of which all this, and much more, readily springs; and, if this religion is in the poetry, it raises us to some purpose, and we can well afford some staidness, or hardness, or want of popular tune61 in the verses.
The exceptional fact of the period is the genius of Wordsworth. He had no master but nature and solitude221. “He wrote a poem,” says Landor, “without the aid of war.” His verse is the voice of sanity222 in a worldly and ambitious age. One regrets that his temperament223 was not more liquid and musical. He has written longer than he was inspired. But for the rest, he has no competitor.
Tennyson is endowed precisely in points where Wordsworth wanted. There is no finer ear, nor more command of the keys of language. Color, like the dawn, flows over the horizon from his pencil, in waves so rich that we do not miss the central form. Through all his refinements224, too, he has reached the public, — a certificate of good sense and general power, since he who aspires225 to be the English poet must be as large as London, not in the same kind as London, but in his own kind. But he wants a subject, and climbs no mount of vision to bring its secrets to the people. He contents himself with describing the Englishman as he is, and proposes no better. There are all degrees in poetry, and we must be thankful for every beautiful talent. But it is only a first success, when the ear is gained. The best office of the best poets has been to show how low and uninspired was their general style, and that only once or twice they have struck the high chord.
That expansiveness which is the essence of the poetic element, they have not. It was no Oxonian, but Hafiz, who said, “Let us be crowned with roses, let us drink wine, and break up the tiresome226 old roof of heaven into new forms.” A stanza227 of the song of nature the Oxonian has no ear for, and he does not value the salient and curative influence of intellectual action, studious of truth, without a by-end.
By the law of contraries, I look for an irresistible228 taste for Orientalism in Britain. For a self-conceited modish229 life, made up of trifles, clinging to a corporeal230 civilization, hating ideas, there is no remedy like the Oriental largeness. That astonishes and disconcerts English decorum. For once there is thunder it never heard, light it never saw, and power which trifles with time and space. I am not surprised, then, to find an Englishman like Warren Hastings, who had been struck with the grand style of thinking in the Indian writings, deprecating the prejudices of his countrymen, while offering them a translation of the Bhagvat. “Might I, an unlettered man, venture to prescribe bounds to the latitude231 of criticism, I should exclude, in estimating the merit of such a production, all rules drawn232 from the ancient or modern literature of Europe, all references to such sentiments or manners as are become the standards of propriety233 for opinion and action in our own modes, and, equally, all appeals to our revealed tenets of religion and moral duty.” 23 He goes on to bespeak234 indulgence to “ornaments of fancy unsuited to our taste, and passages elevated to a tract116 of sublimity235 into which our habits of judgment will find it difficult to pursue them.”
23 Preface to Wilkins’s Translation of the Bhagvat Geeta.
Meantime, I know that a retrieving236 power lies in the English race, which seems to make any recoil possible; in other words, there is at all times a minority of profound minds existing in the nation, capable of appreciating every soaring of intellect and every hint of tendency. While the constructive237 talent seems dwarfed238 and superficial, the criticism is often in the noblest tone, and suggests the presence of the invisible gods. I can well believe what I have often heard, that there are two nations in England; but it is not the Poor and the Rich; nor is it the Normans and Saxons; nor the Celt and the Goth. These are each always becoming the other; for Robert Owen does not exaggerate the power of circumstance. But the two complexions239, or two styles of mind, — the perceptive240 class, and the practical finality class, — are ever in counterpoise, interacting mutually; one, in hopeless minorities; the other, in huge masses; one studious, contemplative, experimenting; the other, the ungrateful pupil, scornful of the source, whilst availing itself of the knowledge for gain; these two nations, of genius and of animal force, though the first consist of only a dozen souls, and the second of twenty millions, forever by their discord241 and their accord yield the power of the English State.
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witty
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convertible
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fable
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| n.寓言；童话；神话 | |
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oar
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| n.桨，橹，划手；v.划行 | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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homeliness
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| n.简朴，朴实；相貌平平 | |
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veracity
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| n.诚实 | |
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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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muse
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mire
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axe
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| n.斧子；v.用斧头砍，削减 | |
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materialist
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| n. 唯物主义者 | |
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cant
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sincerity
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| n.真诚，诚意；真实 | |
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engraved
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| v.在（硬物）上雕刻（字，画等）( engrave的过去式和过去分词 )；将某事物深深印在（记忆或头脑中） | |
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machinery
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| n.(总称)机械，机器；机构 | |
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relishes
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| n.滋味( relish的名词复数 )；乐趣；（大量的）享受；快乐v.欣赏( relish的第三人称单数 )；从…获得乐趣；渴望 | |
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vice
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| n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的 | |
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tenacity
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| n.坚韧 | |
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sagas
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| n.萨迦（尤指古代挪威或冰岛讲述冒险经历和英雄业绩的长篇故事）( saga的名词复数 )；（讲述许多年间发生的事情的）长篇故事；一连串的事件（或经历）；一连串经历的讲述（或记述） | |
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homely
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| adj.家常的，简朴的；不漂亮的 | |
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materialistic
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| a.唯物主义的，物质享乐主义的 | |
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fictitious
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| adj.虚构的，假设的；空头的 | |
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mentality
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| n.心理，思想，脑力 | |
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ascents
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| n.上升( ascent的名词复数 )；（身份、地位等的）提高；上坡路；攀登 | |
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materialism
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| n.［哲］唯物主义，唯物论；物质至上 | |
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exalted
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| adj.(地位等)高的，崇高的；尊贵的，高尚的 | |
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adamant
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| adj.坚硬的，固执的 | |
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elevations
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| （水平或数量）提高( elevation的名词复数 )； 高地； 海拔； 提升 | |
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elevation
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| n.高度；海拔；高地；上升；提高 | |
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ornament
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| v.装饰，美化；n.装饰，装饰物 | |
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labor
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| n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦 | |
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laborers
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| n.体力劳动者，工人( laborer的名词复数 )；（熟练工人的）辅助工 | |
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discourse
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| n.论文，演说；谈话；话语；vi.讲述，著述 | |
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faculty
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| n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员 | |
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philosophic
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| adj.哲学的，贤明的 | |
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poetic
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ardor
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| n.热情，狂热 | |
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accosting
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| v.走过去跟…讲话( accost的现在分词 )；跟…搭讪；（乞丐等）上前向…乞讨；（妓女等）勾搭 | |
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exertion
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| n.尽力，努力 | |
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legendary
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| adj.传奇（中）的，闻名遐迩的；n.传奇（文学） | |
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feats
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| 功绩，伟业，技艺( feat的名词复数 ) | |
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feat
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rivalry
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vigor
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| n.活力，精力，元气 | |
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citation
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| n.引用，引证，引用文；传票 | |
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hearty
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| adj.热情友好的；衷心的；尽情的，纵情的 | |
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savageness
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| 天然，野蛮 | |
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hurled
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| v.猛投，用力掷( hurl的过去式和过去分词 )；大声叫骂 | |
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revolving
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| adj.旋转的，轮转式的；循环的v.（使）旋转( revolve的现在分词 )；细想 | |
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hurls
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| v.猛投，用力掷( hurl的第三人称单数 )；大声叫骂 | |
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scraps
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| 油渣 | |
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grit
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| n.沙粒，决心，勇气；v.下定决心，咬紧牙关 | |
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distil
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| vt.蒸馏；提取…的精华，精选出 | |
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pique
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| v.伤害…的自尊心，使生气 n.不满，生气 | |
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wrought
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| v.引起；以…原料制作；运转；adj.制造的 | |
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lithe
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| adj.(指人、身体)柔软的，易弯的 | |
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manly
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| adj.有男子气概的；adv.男子般地，果断地 | |
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tune
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| n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整 | |
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apathy
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| n.漠不关心，无动于衷；冷淡 | |
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panegyric
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| n.颂词，颂扬 | |
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splendor
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| n.光彩；壮丽，华丽；显赫，辉煌 | |
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insignificance
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| n.不重要；无价值；无意义 | |
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robust
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| adj.强壮的，强健的，粗野的，需要体力的，浓的 | |
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faculties
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| n.能力( faculty的名词复数 )；全体教职员；技巧；院 | |
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usher
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| n.带位员，招待员；vt.引导，护送；vi.做招待，担任引座员 | |
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tinges
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| n.细微的色彩，一丝痕迹( tinge的名词复数 ) | |
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unity
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| n.团结，联合，统一；和睦，协调 | |
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strife
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| n.争吵，冲突，倾轧，竞争 | |
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disciples
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| n.信徒( disciple的名词复数 )；门徒；耶稣的信徒；（尤指）耶稣十二门徒之一 | |
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watt
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| n.瓦，瓦特 | |
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exquisite
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| adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的 | |
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influx
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| n.流入，注入 | |
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diffusion
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| n.流布；普及；散漫 | |
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supersede
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| v.替代；充任 | |
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lesser
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| adj.次要的，较小的；adv.较小地，较少地 | |
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conversant
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| adj.亲近的，有交情的，熟悉的 | |
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discredits
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| 使不相信( discredit的第三人称单数 )； 使怀疑； 败坏…的名声； 拒绝相信 | |
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decomposition
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| n. 分解, 腐烂, 崩溃 | |
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platonic
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| adj.精神的；柏拉图（哲学）的 | |
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precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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rebukes
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| 责难或指责( rebuke的第三人称单数 ) | |
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ascend
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| vi.渐渐上升，升高；vt.攀登，登上 | |
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quaint
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| adj.古雅的，离奇有趣的，奇怪的 | |
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deficient
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| adj.不足的，不充份的，有缺陷的 | |
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scorch
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| v.烧焦，烤焦；高速疾驶；n.烧焦处，焦痕 | |
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watery
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| adj.有水的，水汪汪的；湿的，湿润的 | |
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speculative
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| adj.思索性的，暝想性的，推理的 | |
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derived
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| vi.起源；由来；衍生；导出v.得到( derive的过去式和过去分词 )；（从…中）得到获得；源于；（从…中）提取 | |
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sublime
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| adj.崇高的，伟大的；极度的，不顾后果的 | |
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speculations
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| n.投机买卖( speculation的名词复数 )；思考；投机活动；推断 | |
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speculation
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| n.思索，沉思；猜测；投机 | |
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oratorical
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| adj.演说的，雄辩的 | |
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generalizations
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| 一般化( generalization的名词复数 )； 普通化； 归纳； 概论 | |
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generalization
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| n.普遍性，一般性，概括 | |
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retrospect
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| n.回顾，追溯；v.回顾，回想，追溯 | |
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doctrine
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| n.教义；主义；学说 | |
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creed
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| n.信条；信念，纲领 | |
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quantitative
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| adj.数量的，定量的 | |
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remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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demonstrations
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| 证明( demonstration的名词复数 )； 表明； 表达； 游行示威 | |
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emanate
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| v.发自，来自，出自 | |
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justify
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| vt.证明…正当(或有理)，为…辩护 | |
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stumps
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| （被砍下的树的）树桩( stump的名词复数 )； 残肢； （板球三柱门的）柱； 残余部分 | |
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exhausted
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| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
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effete
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| adj.无生产力的，虚弱的 | |
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forsook
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| forsake的过去式 | |
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supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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myriads
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| n.无数，极大数量( myriad的名词复数 ) | |
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compensate
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| vt.补偿，赔偿；酬报 vi.弥补；补偿；抵消 | |
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interval
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| n.间隔，间距；幕间休息，中场休息 | |
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addicted
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| adj.沉溺于....的，对...上瘾的 | |
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tract
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| n.传单，小册子，大片(土地或森林) | |
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gratuitously
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| 平白 | |
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consecutive
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| adj.连续的，联贯的，始终一贯的 | |
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judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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resolute
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| adj.坚决的，果敢的 | |
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122
generosity
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| n.大度，慷慨，慷慨的行为 | |
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123
unintelligible
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| adj.无法了解的，难解的，莫明其妙的 | |
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124
fidelity
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| n.忠诚，忠实；精确 | |
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125
looming
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| n.上现蜃景（光通过低层大气发生异常折射形成的一种海市蜃楼）v.隐约出现，阴森地逼近( loom的现在分词 )；隐约出现，阴森地逼近 | |
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126
apprehension
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| n.理解，领悟；逮捕，拘捕；忧虑 | |
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127
pathos
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| n.哀婉，悲怆 | |
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128
patriotic
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| adj.爱国的，有爱国心的 | |
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129
tracts
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| 大片土地( tract的名词复数 )； 地带； （体内的）道； （尤指宣扬宗教、伦理或政治的）短文 | |
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130
tints
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| 色彩( tint的名词复数 )； 带白的颜色； （淡色）染发剂； 痕迹 | |
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131
industrious
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| adj.勤劳的，刻苦的，奋发的 | |
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132
distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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133
reverence
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| n.敬畏，尊敬，尊严；Reverence:对某些基督教神职人员的尊称；v.尊敬，敬畏，崇敬 | |
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134
renounce
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| v.放弃；拒绝承认，宣布与…断绝关系 | |
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135
explicitly
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| ad.明确地，显然地 | |
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136
distinctive
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| adj.特别的，有特色的，与众不同的 | |
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137
invalid
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| n.病人，伤残人；adj.有病的，伤残的；无效的 | |
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138
eminent
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| adj.显赫的，杰出的，有名的，优良的 | |
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139
pretension
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| n.要求；自命，自称；自负 | |
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140
luxurious
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| adj.精美而昂贵的；豪华的 | |
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141
patronage
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| n.赞助，支援，援助；光顾，捧场 | |
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142
basked
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| v.晒太阳，取暖( bask的过去式和过去分词 )；对…感到乐趣；因他人的功绩而出名；仰仗…的余泽 | |
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143
atmospheric
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| adj.大气的，空气的；大气层的；大气所引起的 | |
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144
gauges
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| n.规格( gauge的名词复数 )；厚度；宽度；标准尺寸v.（用仪器）测量( gauge的第三人称单数 )；估计；计量；划分 | |
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145
potentate
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| n.统治者；君主 | |
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146
levity
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| n.轻率，轻浮，不稳定，多变 | |
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147
bards
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| n.诗人( bard的名词复数 ) | |
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148
sages
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| n.圣人( sage的名词复数 )；智者；哲人；鼠尾草（可用作调料） | |
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149
inadequate
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| adj.(for,to)不充足的，不适当的 | |
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150
lurking
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| 潜在 | |
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151
cleansing
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| n. 净化(垃圾) adj. 清洁用的 动词cleanse的现在分词 | |
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152
avenged
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| v.为…复仇，报…之仇( avenge的过去式和过去分词 )；为…报复 | |
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153
majestic
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| adj.雄伟的，壮丽的，庄严的，威严的，崇高的 | |
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154
impatience
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| n.不耐烦，急躁 | |
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155
nemesis
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| n.给以报应者，复仇者，难以对付的敌手 | |
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156
amiable
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| adj.和蔼可亲的，友善的，亲切的 | |
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157
deity
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| n.神，神性；被奉若神明的人(或物) | |
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158
inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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159
recoil
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| vi.退却，退缩，畏缩 | |
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160
heroism
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| n.大无畏精神，英勇 | |
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161
immolation
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| n.牺牲品 | |
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162
annotator
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| n.注释者 | |
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163
physiology
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| n.生理学，生理机能 | |
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164
rhetoric
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| n.修辞学，浮夸之言语 | |
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165
armory
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| n.纹章，兵工厂，军械库 | |
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166
invincible
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| adj.不可征服的，难以制服的 | |
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167
knights
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| 骑士； （中古时代的）武士( knight的名词复数 )； 骑士； 爵士； （国际象棋中）马 | |
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168
biases
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| 偏见( bias的名词复数 )； 偏爱； 特殊能力； 斜纹 | |
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169
bias
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| n.偏见，偏心，偏袒；vt.使有偏见 | |
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170
excellence
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| n.优秀，杰出，(pl.)优点，美德 | |
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171
veins
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| n.纹理；矿脉( vein的名词复数 )；静脉；叶脉；纹理 | |
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172
amenities
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| n.令人愉快的事物；礼仪；礼节；便利设施；礼仪( amenity的名词复数 )；便利设施；（环境等的）舒适；（性情等的）愉快 | |
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173
succor
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| n.援助，帮助；v.给予帮助 | |
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174
aesthetic
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| adj.美学的，审美的，有美感 | |
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175
purely
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| adv.纯粹地，完全地 | |
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176
Vogue
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| n.时髦，时尚；adj.流行的 | |
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177
incapable
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| adj.无能力的，不能做某事的 | |
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178
monarchy
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| n.君主，最高统治者；君主政体，君主国 | |
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179
enjoyment
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| n.乐趣；享有；享用 | |
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180
forfeit
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| vt.丧失；n.罚金，罚款，没收物 | |
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181
tabulation
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| 作表，表格； 表列结果； 列表； 造表 | |
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182
logic
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| n.逻辑(学)；逻辑性 | |
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183
repudiates
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| v.（正式地）否认( repudiate的第三人称单数 )；拒绝接受；拒绝与…往来；拒不履行（法律义务） | |
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184
repulsive
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| adj.排斥的，使人反感的 | |
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185
bereave
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| v.使痛失(亲人等)，剥夺，使丧失 | |
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186
physicists
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| 物理学家( physicist的名词复数 ) | |
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187
naturalist
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| n.博物学家(尤指直接观察动植物者) | |
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188
isolates
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| v.使隔离( isolate的第三人称单数 )；将…剔出（以便看清和单独处理）；使（某物质、细胞等）分离；使离析 | |
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189
reptile
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| n.爬行动物；两栖动物 | |
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190
mollusk
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| n.软体动物 | |
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191
hermit
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| n.隐士，修道者；隐居 | |
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192
botanist
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| n.植物学家 | |
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193
divination
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| n.占卜，预测 | |
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194
augury
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| n.预言，征兆，占卦 | |
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195
onward
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| adj.向前的，前进的；adv.向前，前进，在先 | |
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196
brass
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| n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器 | |
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197
satire
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| n.讽刺，讽刺文学，讽刺作品 | |
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198
ebb
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| vi.衰退，减退；n.处于低潮，处于衰退状态 | |
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199
trample
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| vt.踩，践踏；无视，伤害，侵犯 | |
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200
hostility
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| n.敌对，敌意；抵制［pl.］交战，战争 | |
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201
domesticate
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| vt.驯养；使归化，使专注于家务 | |
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202
tormented
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| 饱受折磨的 | |
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203
lurks
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| n.潜在，潜伏；（lurk的复数形式）vi.潜伏，埋伏（lurk的第三人称单数形式） | |
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204
banter
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| n.嘲弄，戏谑；v.取笑，逗弄，开玩笑 | |
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205
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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206
murmur
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| n.低语，低声的怨言；v.低语，低声而言 | |
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207
providence
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| n.深谋远虑，天道，天意；远见；节约；上帝 | |
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208
tariffs
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| 关税制度； 关税( tariff的名词复数 )； 关税表； （旅馆或饭店等的）收费表； 量刑标准 | |
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209
repression
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| n.镇压，抑制，抑压 | |
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210
glutted
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| v.吃得过多( glut的过去式和过去分词 )；（对胃口、欲望等）纵情满足；使厌腻；塞满 | |
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211
contrive
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| vt.谋划，策划；设法做到；设计，想出 | |
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212
ornamental
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| adj.装饰的；作装饰用的；n.装饰品；观赏植物 | |
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213
stint
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| v.节省，限制，停止；n.舍不得化，节约，限制；连续不断的一段时间从事某件事 | |
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214
miraculous
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| adj.像奇迹一样的，不可思议的 | |
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215
prosaic
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| adj.单调的，无趣的 | |
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216
conscientious
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| adj.审慎正直的，认真的，本着良心的 | |
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217
consolation
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| n.安慰，慰问 | |
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218
reigning
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| adj.统治的，起支配作用的 | |
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219
essentially
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| adv.本质上，实质上，基本上 | |
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220
heeded
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| v.听某人的劝告，听从( heed的过去式和过去分词 )；变平，使（某物）变平( flatten的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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221
solitude
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| n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
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222
sanity
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| n.心智健全，神智正常，判断正确 | |
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223
temperament
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| n.气质，性格，性情 | |
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224
refinements
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| n.（生活）风雅；精炼( refinement的名词复数 )；改良品；细微的改良；优雅或高贵的动作 | |
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225
aspires
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| v.渴望，追求( aspire的第三人称单数 ) | |
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226
tiresome
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| adj.令人疲劳的，令人厌倦的 | |
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227
stanza
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| n.（诗）节，段 | |
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228
irresistible
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| adj.非常诱人的，无法拒绝的，无法抗拒的 | |
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229
modish
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| adj.流行的，时髦的 | |
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230
corporeal
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| adj.肉体的，身体的；物质的 | |
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231
latitude
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| n.纬度，行动或言论的自由(范围)，(pl.)地区 | |
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232
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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233
propriety
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| n.正当行为；正当；适当 | |
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234
bespeak
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| v.预定；预先请求 | |
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235
sublimity
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| 崇高，庄严，气质高尚 | |
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236
retrieving
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| n.检索（过程），取还v.取回( retrieve的现在分词 )；恢复；寻回；检索（储存的信息） | |
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237
constructive
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| adj.建设的，建设性的 | |
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238
dwarfed
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| vt.（使）显得矮小（dwarf的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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239
complexions
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| 肤色( complexion的名词复数 )； 面色； 局面； 性质 | |
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240
perceptive
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| adj.知觉的，有洞察力的，感知的 | |
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241
discord
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| n.不和，意见不合，争论，（音乐）不和谐 | |
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