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ART   AND    LIFE 


BY  THE  SAME  AUTHOR 

POETRY 
The  Vinedresser  and  Other  Poems,  1899 
Aphrodite  against  Artemis,  1901 
Absalom,  1903 
DanaS,  1903 

The  Little  School,  1905 
Poems,  1906 

PROSE 
The  Centaur  and  the  Bacchant,  1899 

From  the  French  by  Maurice  dt  GuMn 

Altdorfer,  1900 
Durer,  1904 
Correggio,  1906 


GVSTAVE    KLAl'BERT 


ART  AND  LIFE 


BY 

T.  STURGE  MOORE 


WITH   EIGHT   ILLUSTRATIONS 


First  Published  in  igio 


Goethe  .  .  .  behauptete  .  .  .  alle  Philosophie  miisse  geliebt  und 
gelebt  werden. 

Goethe  .  .  .  maintained  .  .  .  that  all  philosophies  must  be  loved 

and  lived. 

Goethe  aus  naherm  personlichen  umgange  dargestellt. 
Ein  nach  gelassenes  Werk  von  Johannes  Falk,  p.  79 


INTRODUCTION 

MAN  but  doubtfully  forecasts  his  own  per- 
fection and  only  defines  its  character  in 
so  far  as  he  achieves  it :  therefore  success  is  the 
true  criterion.  It  follows  that  the  number  of 
suffrages  is  indifferent,  their  quality  all-important ; 
so  that  he  who  first  arrives  may  alone  be  able 
to  recognise  that  fact. 

"  Be  natural "  will  then  convey  two  opposite 
meanings:  "Complete  your  development,"  or  "Rest 
content  as  you  were."  So  soon  as  simplicity  and 
ease  have  been  acquired  it  is  time,  by  attacking 
new  difficulties,  to  become  laboured  and  artificial 
once  more ;  for  only  new  can  preserve  us  from 
the  tyranny  of  dead  habits,  only  riper  inherit  the 
generosity  of  raw  passions.  Every  capacity  has 
been  unnatural  and  singular  once ;  perhaps  virtues 
remain  so,  since  progress  is  always  unwelcome 
to  those  who  hope  things  need  not  change.     The 


viii  ART   AND   LIFE 

methods  of  a  master  must  be  factitious  and 
experimental,  his  purposes  unaccommodating. 

This  book  seeks  to  trace  the  above  general 
conception  through  art's  relations  with  science 
and  morals  :  it  contends  both  against  those  who 
believe  that  poetry  arises  "  naturally  out  of  life, 
as  tree,  flower  and  fruit  spring  from  the  soil," 
and  those  who  hold  that  art,  like  instruction, 
should  be  addressed  to  the  improvement  of 
persons. 

Within  the  writer's  horizon  Flaubert  and  Blake 
seemed  the  most  strongly  characterised  instances 
of  men  conceiving  of  art  as  an  ideal  life :  he 
therefore  uses  them  as  illustrations ;  and,  since 
the  French  writer  is  ill-known  amongst  us  as  an 
individual,  an  author,  and  as  a  theme  of  con- 
troversy, sets  out  with  a  brief  review  of  his  life, 
his  work,  and  the  criticism  to  which  both  have 
been  subjected. 


CONTENTS 

PAGB 

Introduction     .......  vii 

GusTAVE  Flaubert  ......  i 

Critics,  Man  and  Work         .  .  .  .  .19 

The  Critics  and  the  Man           ....  ai 

The  Critics  and  the  Work   .                                    .            ■  VJ 

Madame  Bovary             .....  30 

Salammbo     .......  35 

I'Education  sentimentale           ....  41 

La  Tentation  de  saint  Antoine  -47 

Les  Trois  contes             .....  52 

Bouvard  et  Pecuchet           •            •            •           •           •  55 

A  Fairy  Drama  ......  62 

Samples             .......  ffj 

I.MPERSONAL  Art      ......  77 

Reality  and  the  Ideal  .  .  .  .131 

William  Blake  and  his  iEsTHETic       ...  193 

Visionary  Art  .          .           .           .           .           .          .  217 

Prospects                           .           .           .   '       .           .  243 

Art  and  Science       ......  245 

Art's  Social  Status          .....  250 

Epilogue            .......  255 


X  ART   AND   LIFE 

PAOB 

Appendices  .......  26s 

I.  Maxime  du  Camp      .           .           .*          .           ,  265 

II.  "Was  he  Intelligent?"   ....  266 

III.  "Washe  Warm-Hearted  ?"  •  .270 

IV.  The  Word  Romantic       ....  274 
V.  Contradictions  over  Madame  Bovary                     .  275 

VI.               „           „        Salammbo  .  277 

VII.               „           „        L'Education  sentiraentale      .  282 

VIII.               „           „       La  Tentation  de  saint  Antoine  285 

IX.              „           „       Bouvard  et  Pecuchet         .  290 

X.  Dramatic  and  Posthumous  Works  .            .           .  29$ 

XI.  Contradictions  over  Impersonal  Art      .            .  299 

XII.  The  Double  Genitive,  &c.     .                       .           .  302 

XIII.  Parallels  between  Claude  Bernard  and  G.  Flaubert 

in  regard  to  the  Experimental  Method       .  304 

Index     ........  309 


The  author  is  indebted  to  the  Editor  of  the  Quarterly  Review 
for  leave  to  reprint  parts  of  an  article  on  William  Blake  which 
appeared  in  January  1908,  and  to  the  Editor  of  the  New  Quarterly 
for  leave  to  reprint  the  substance  of  Flaubert  and  Some  Critics  from 
the  numbers  for  October  1908  and  April  1909. 

His  thanks  are  also  due  to  Dr.  J.  H.  W.  Laing  and  Miss  A.  H. 
Moore  for  valuable  assistance  in  correcting  proofs. 


LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS 


r.    MEDALLION   PORTRAIT  OF  GUSTAVE  FLAUBERT  FrottHspiece 

From  the  Monument  by  H,  Ckapu,  at  Rouen 

FACINO  PAGE 

2.  ELIJAH   IN  THE  FIERY  CHARIOT 193 

Engraved  on  Wood,  after  the  colour-printed  original 

3.  "PITY   LIKE  A  NAKED  NEW-BORN   BABE 

STRIDING  THE  BLAST,   OR   HEAVEN'S  CHERUBIM   HORSED 

UPON  THE  SIGHTLESS  COURIERS  OF  THE  AIR"  .  .   201 

iiacheth.  Act  I.  x.  vii.    Colour  Printed 

4.  JOB  CONFESSING  HIS   PRESUMPTION  TO  GOD  ....   213 

Water-colour 

5.  THE  ENTOMBMENT 217 

Water-colour 

6.  PAGE   8  OF  THE  BRITISH   MUSEUM  COPY  OF  "JERUSALEM"   .   23 1 

7.  THE  WISE  AND  FOOLISH  VIRGINS 239 

Water-colour 

8.  THE     ANCIENT     OF    DAYS    STRIKING    THE    FIRST    CIRCLE    OF 

THE  EARTH 255 

From  the  print  in  tlie  Whitworth  Institute,  Manchester,  which 
Blake,  on  his  deathbed,  coloured  for  Frederick  Tatham 


The  author's  thanks  are  due  to  Messrs.  Macmillan  &  Co.  for 
No.  2,  which  is  from  their  edition  of  Gilchrist's  Life  of  Blake; 
for  permission  to  reproduce  Nos.  3,  4,  and  5,  to  Mr.  Graham 
Robertson  ;  No.  6,  to  The  Trustees  of  the  British  Museum  ; 
No.  7,  to  Miss  Carthew  ;  and  to  Mr.  A.  G.  B.  Russell  for  much 
kind  assistance  in  compiling  this  list. 


GUSTAVE   FLAUBERT 


The  youngest  [^readers]  say  that  I'Education  sentimentale  has 
saddened  them.  They  do  not  recognise  themselves  in  it ;  they  have 
not  yet  lived,  but  hug  illusions  and  say :  "  Why  does  this  man,  so 
good,  so  gay,  so  simple,  so  sympathetic,  wish  to  discourage  us  in 
regard  to  life  f  " 

They  reason  badly  in  saying  this  ;  but  since  the  thought  is  instinc- 
tive perhaps  it  should  be  considered. 

George  Sand  to  Gustave  Flaubert,  January  9,  1870 


GUSTAVE    FLAUBERT 

A  BIG  man,  he  had  been  a  beautiful  child.  An 
Apollo,  for  years  as  welcome  as  the  sunlight, 
in  consternation  at  terrible  nervous  seizures  he 
collected  himself ;  then  grew  bald  and  heavy  stoop- 
ing over  a  large  round  table,  always  blotting  what 
he  had  written  because  he  saw  how  to  better  it, 
prompt  to  believe  that  something  he  did  not  know 
would  improve  an  inspiration,  never  shrinking  from 
any  effort  which  could  give  his  love  of  rhythmic 
speech  confidence  that  it  was  justly  used.  In  him 
the  social  delicacy  of  introspective  and  affectionate 
natures,  the  enthusiastic  timidity  of  a  recluse, 
inherited  boisterous  frankness  and  the  love  of 
expansion. 

Nobody  was  more  unworldly,  more  hearty,  or 
more  easily  irritated.  His  senses  were  extremely 
refined,  his  appetites  disordinate,  his  life  sober  and 
monotonous,  and  his  home  a  seventeenth-century 
mansion   with    an    ungainly   Empire   fafade  ;    the 


4  ART  AND   LIFE 

heavy  and  dark  furniture  had  slowly  accumulated  ; 
but  the  woodwork  was  painted  white,  and  Flaubert 
loved  large  and  semi-Oriental  chintz  patterns  for 
his  curtains. 

Summer-through  the  ample  dressing-gown  in 
which  he  worked  was  boldly  figured  with  gay 
flowers  on  a  light  ground,  but  in  winter  brown, 
like  a  Franciscan  habit.       JlVA'i^Ut. ' 

Every  night  he  soared  into  the  realm  of  vision 
and  nice  adjustments.  From  time  to  time  he  made 
excursions  into  the  world,  like  some  grand  moth 
offended  by  the  garish  day,  but  full  of  rapid  energy 
and  determination  to  find  what  he  sought. 

His  father,  eminent  in  his  profession,  was  sur- 
geon-in-chief at  the  hospital  of  Rouen.  Gustave, 
nine  years  younger  than  his  brother,  three  years 
older  than  his  sister,  was  dreamy,  and  so  trustful 
that  an  old  servant  could  bid  him  "Go  into  the 
kitchen  and  see  if  I  am  there."  Coming  to  the 
cook,  the  child  of  six  would  say,  "  Pierre  sent  me 
to  see  if  he  is  here,"  and  would  stare  at  the  laugh 
he  provoked,  as  though  half-divining  some  mystery. 

Subdued  and  suffering  forms  could  be  seen 
pacing  to  and  fro  from  the  garden  where  he  and 
his  sister  played.  Sometimes  the  children  would 
clamber  up  to  the  laboratory  window  and  watch 
the  dissectors,  while  flies  disturbed  from  feasting  on 


GUSTAVE  FLAUBERT  $ 

a  corpse  buzzed  round  their  flaxen  polls.  Presently 
their  father  would  raise  his  head  and  bid  them  be  off. 

Where  is  the  use  of  learning  your  letters  when 
opposite  the  hospital  gates  lives  an  old  gentleman 
who  is  ever  willing  to  read  to  his  little  friend  ?  But 
when  at  nine  years  old  Gustave  realised  that  'pere 
Mignot "  could  not  go  to  school  with  him,  the  art 
was  rapidly  mastered.  His  correspondence  began 
forthwith,  being  from  the  outset  concerned  with 
acting  and  authorship.  A  billiard-table  formed  the 
stage  on  which  the  children  and  their  friends  per- 
formed little  pieces  written  or  adapted  by  them- 
selves. 

Gustave  hated  school-life  regulated  by  beat  of 
drum,  and  could  never  feel  like  one  of  a  herd. 

To  vanquish  the  fear  of  darkness  he  roamed 
stealthily  about  at  night ;  and  many  half-holidays 
were  spent  walking  round  the  coping-stones  of  a 
church  tower  until  no  vestige  of  dizziness  remained. 
He  had  several  chums,  but  Alfred  Le  Poittevin, 
slightly  his  senior,  alone  knew  his  whole  mind. 
Precocious  adepts  in  the  romantic  literature  of  the 
period,  they  went  on  to  brave  the  summits  and 
abysses  of  speculative  thought.  They  read  much 
and  well :  Alfred  was  strong  at  metaphysics,  Gus- 
tave in  history.  Measured  by  this  first  friend, 
Flaubert  later  found  the  most  intelligent  men  of 
the  epoch   wanting,  and   considered   whatever  he 


$  ART   AND   LIFE 

was  worth  mainly  due  to  this  inspiring  influence. 
They  were,  besides,  the  centre  of  a  group  of  insa- 
tiable laughers  ;  jests  lived  for  years,  especially  "  le 
gargon,"  a  character  which  any  one  might  assume 
to  ridicule  the  world  as  the  Philistine  sees  it,  with 
certainty  of  Homeric  success. 

When  fifteen,  by  the  seaside  at  Trouville,  Gustave 
fell  hopelessly  in  love  with  the  wife  of  a  gallant 
musical  publisher  who,  unsuspicious  as  the  lady 
herself,  confided  to  his  young  friend  his  many 
successes  with  sirens  of  less  distinction.  This 
experience  led  him  to  meditate  suicide — a  then 
fashionable  study. 

Out  of  bravado  he  next  allowed  a  housemaid  to 
make  (as  the  phrase  will  have  it)  a  man  of  him ; 
in  his  own  words,  to  fill  him  with  disgust  and 
bitterness.  Possibly  at  this  period  a  habit  of  sur- 
passing the  vicious  in  immodesty  of  language  was 
formed — cynicism  which  occasionally  may  have 
passed  into  action  in  order  to  astonish  them. 
Voltaire  had  been  read,  the  human  race  despaired 
of,  and,  in  imitation  of  Byron  and  Rabelais,  a 
determination  formed  to  injure  it  by  laughing  in 
its  face.  At  nineteen,  having  written  les  Memoires 
d'unfou,  he  started  for  Paris  to  waste  time  study- 
ing law,  a  profession  chosen  for  him  by  his  father. 
The  first  holiday  was  spent  in  Corsica  ;  at  Marseilles, 
on  the  way  out,  a  lady  from  Lima  made  him  very 


GUSTAVE   FLAUBERT  7 

happy.  After  this  his  letters  refer  to  such  absorp- 
tion over  the  development  of  imagination  as  left 
him  for  three  years  unconscious  of  being  a  male. 
Plucked  at  the  examination,  after  returning  home 
he  had  the  first  of  those  terrible  seizures  so  much 
debated  on  by  doctors. 

The  sufferer  himself  attributed  them  to  intem- 
perate exercitation  of  his  visionary  faculty,  resulting 
in  its  passing  beyond  control ;  and  thought  that  by 
bringing  physical  relief  to  the  inward  fermentation 
of  emotional  and  sensuous  illusions  which  he  had 
provoked,  they  left  his  head  cooler  and  did  him 
good.  By  the  time  he  was  somewhat  recovered  his 
sister  married,  and  the  whole  family  accompanied 
her  on  the  honeymoon  as  far  as  Genoa,  where, 
before  a  Flemish  picture,  la  Tentation  de  saint 
Antoine  was  first  thought  of.  The  bride  and 
bridegroom  sailed  for  Naples ;  he  with  his  parents 
returned  to  their  new  country  home  at  Croisset. 
Before  seven  months  were  run  his  father  died  ; 
before  the  full  year  his  sister,  with  whom  he  had 
maintained  intimacy,  followed,  leaving  a  baby-girl. 
A  few  weeks  later  Alfred  Le  Poittevin  took  a  wife, 
and  within  a  couple  of  years  he  too  was  dead,  as 
it  seemed  to  Gustave  for  a  second  time.  While 
plunged  in  desolation  just  after  his  friend's  marriage, 
he  had  met  a  poetess,  renowned  for  beauty, 
lauded  by   literary  Paris.     She,   turning  from  the 


8  ART   AND   LIFE 

endearments  of  a  celebrated  philosopher,  mistook 
Flaubert  for  the  coming  lion,  and,  resolute  as 
Cleopatra,  netted  her  Caesar.  The  first  blaze  of 
exultation  subsiding,  his  probity  accepted  the 
responsibilities  of  an  adventuress's  paramour. 
Happily  Mme.  Louise  Colet  lacked  the  fortitude 
to  outlast  his  self-imposed  noviciate,  and  ere  the 
time  his  first  book  appeared  had  shattered  their 
stormy  communion.  The  de  Goncourts  were 
surprised  to  find  Flaubert  speak  of  her  without 
bitterness  ;  while  to  Felix  Frank  he  said,  "  What  a 
strange  woman  !  She  was  always  charging  me  with 
infidelity,  whereas  it  was  she  who  was  unfaithful." 

Equally  unfortunate  was  his  choice  of  a  friend 
to  replace  Alfred  Le  Poittevin.  Maxime  Du  Camp,i 
like  the  lady,  enchanted  Flaubert  by  a  prodigal 
facility  of  emotional  energy  ;  but,  like  the  lady, 
deplored  the  steadfastness  with  which  he  neglected 
to  make  way  in  the  world. 

The  fits  became  more  frequent.  Swimming  and 
canoeing,  Gustave's  two  favourite  pastimes,  had  to 
be  renounced  in  deference  to  maternal  anxiety,  and 
a  promise  given  not  to  venture  far  by  himself. 
With  Maxime  he  made  a  tour  through  Brittany, 
and  the  account  of  it,  over  which  they  collaborated, 
was  the  first  work  Flaubert  wrote  with  difficulty. 
Rather  later  he  was  ordered  south  ;  but  before  start- 
'  See  Appendix  I.  p.  265. 


GUSTAVE   FLAUBERT  9 

ing  a  first  version  of  la  Tentation  de  saint  Antoine 
was  read  to  Du  Camp  and  Bouilhet — a  young 
medical  student  with  poetical  ambition  and  finan- 
cial difficulties.  Mme.  Flaubert,  listening  outside 
tfie  door  in  the  early  hours  of  the  morning,  over- 
heard the  discouragement  loyally  accorded  to  her 
son  by  his  two  friends,  and  never  forgave  them. 
From  Bouilhet's  advice  on  this  occasion  sprang  the 
design  of  Madame  Bovary. 

During  eighteen  months  the  two  friends  voyaged 
in  a  "cange"  up  the  Nile,  and  on  camel-back  under 
the  desert  sun ;  they  bathed  in  the  Red  Sea,  explored 
Palestine,  Lebanon,  and  Rhodes,  coursed  over  crisp 
snow  on  the  Asian  shore  of  the  Bosphorus,  battled 
with  rain  and  sleet  when  lost  at  night  on  Cythaeron, 
visited  excavated  Pompeii  and  the  museums  of 
Rome  in  the  dancing  spring.  Gustave  bid  farewell 
to  his  nervous  disorder,  and  to  all  illusion  about  a 
companion  whose  enthusiasms  needed  galvanising 
by  hopes  of  worldly  success,  while  Maxime  found 
his  friend  over-persistent  in  jest  and  earnest. 

Apollo's  looks  and  tresses  gone,  but  with  health 
refound,  mature  in  thought  and  habit,  Flaubert 
buried  himself  in  the  country,  to  comfort  his 
mother,  teach  his  little  niece,  make  a  brother  of 
Bouilhet,  renew  correspondence  with  Louise 
Colet,  and  write  Madame  Bovary.  Working  far 
into  the  night,  he  never  failed  on  his  way  bedward 


lo  ART  AND   LIFE 

to  bend  over  a  pillow  which  the  "Bonsoir,  mon 
Gustave,"  murmured  in  response  to  his  filial  kiss, 
did  not  disturb  but  composed  to  deeper  sleep. 
He  rose  late  ;  before  his  bell  sounded,  the  house- 
hold crept  on  tiptoe.  After  breakfast  he  taught  the 
child  geography  and  history,  but  above  all  how  to 
give  consequence  to  attention  and  memory.  His 
gaiety  yearned  for  that  of  those  near  him,  whom 
in  his  free  hours  he  delighted  in  amusing. 

Sudden  fame  resulted  from  the  publication  and 
prosecution  of  his  novel.  Henceforth  the  winter 
months  were  spent  at  Paris,  Flaubert  and  his 
mother  taking  separate  apartments  in  the  same 
house.  New  friends  were  won — Jules  Duplan, 
Charles  d'Osmoy,  and  Ernesti  Feydeau.  Besides, 
his  correspondence  is  enriched  with  letters  to 
literary  ladies,  a  nucleus  of  les  dames  de  la  des- 
illusion,  that  "  seraglio  of  a  more  or  less  religious, 
moral,  and  aesthetic  character"  which,  as  Goethe 
sajd,  "tends  to  collect  round  a  man  of  any  im- 
portance." 

Once  his  notes  for  Salammbo  had  been  collected, 
he  spent  a  month  exploring  the  site  of  Carthage ; 
five  years  later  its  publication  matured  his  prestige. 
Soon  after  he  joined  the  fortnightly  dinners  at 
Magny's,  which  brought  together  Sainte-Beuve, 
Gautier,  the  de  Goncourts,  Renan,  Taine,  &c.,  and 


GUSTAVE   FLAUBERT  ii 

frequented  the  salon  of  la  princesse  Mathilde, 
Napoleon  III.'s  blue-stocking  sister,  round  whom 
a  similar  group  centred.  George  Sand  now  becomes 
his  correspondent ;  for  her  was  sketched  one  of  his 
huge  jests,  the  life  of  the  reverend  father  Cruchard 
des  Barnabites,  directeur  des  dames  de  la  desillusion. 
This  caricature  of  Flaubert's  relations  to  distin- 
guished ladies  flourished  till  her  death,  though  in 
the  hour  of  need  it  was  rather  she  who  played  the 
part  of  ghostly  counsellor,  but  then  it  was  he  whom 
bereavements  and  loss  of  fortune  overcharged  in  a 
period  of  public  calamities. 

Caroline  Homard,  who  had  found  more  than  a 
father  in  her  uncle,  in  1864  married  the  young  master 
of  some  steam  sawmills,  M.  Commanville. 

L'Education  sentimeniale  appeared  on  the  eve  of 
the  Franco-Prussian  War.  Before  hostilities  com- 
menced the  deaths  of  Sainte-Beuve,  Jules  de  Gon- 
court,  Jules  Duplan,  and  Louis  Bouilhet  followed 
one  another.  Lieutenant  in  the  Garde  Nationale, 
Flaubert  took  command  of  a  patrol,  while  his 
medical  studies  enabled  him  to  serve  as  wound- 
dresser  at  the  hospital  round  which  he  had  played 
as  a  child,  and  where  his  brother  had  succeeded 
their  father. 

The  cultivated  enemy  billeted  at  Croisset  re- 
spected his  home  and  library,  but  the  spectacle  of 
"men    who    understood    Sanscrit"    riding    about 


12  ART   AND   LIFE 

giving  "  orders  stupid  through  sheer  brutality " 
revolted  him ;  and  oh  !  the  smell  of  their    boots  ! 

The  invasion  was  followed  by  the  still  more 
humiliating  Commune.  Immediately  after  this 
Flaubert  had  to  fight  in  the  theatres  for  the  fair 
treatment  of  dramas  left  by  Bouilhet,  and  against 
the  municipality  of  Rouen  over  a  fountain  memorial 
of  him. 

La  Tentation  de  saint  Antoine,  entirely  re-written 
after  Madame  Bovary\  but  put  aside  for  fear  of 
provoking  a  second  prosecution,  had,  amid  his  dis- 
couragements, been  once  more  taken  up  by  the 
harassed  and  overwrought  master.  In  spite  of 
renewed  seizures  of  his  malady  this  beautiful  poem 
was  finished  in  1872,  a  few  months  after  the  death 
of  his  mother  had  left  him  lonely  at  Croisset. 
Courage  to  publish  failed  him,  and,  though  he 
yielded  to  the  persuasions  of  Tourgueneff,  a  new 
and  dear  friend,  his  comedy,  "  le  Candidal,"  had 
been  written,  played,  and  withdrawn  before  the 
book  appeared. 

His  health  grew  worse.  Bouvard  et  Pecuchet 
demanded  more  buoyancy  than  he  could  muster. 
Mme.  Commanville's  husband  failed  in  business, 
and  her  uncle  gave  up  the  major  part  of  his  fortune 
to  pull  him  through.  George  Sand,  he  owned, 
restored  his  desolation  to  self-respect  in  those 
dark  days. 


GUSTAVE   FLAUBERT  18 

In  Brittany,  at  Concarneau,  Hotel  Sergent,  to  be 
near  his  friend  G.  Pouchet,  the  naturahst,  he  com- 
menced les  Trois  contes  by  way  of  recreation.  Alas  I 
un  Cceur  simple,  designed  especially  to  please  George 
Sand,  was  not  finished  before  she  died. 

While  often  weeping  for  her,  Bouilhet,  and 
Gautier,  friends  never  to  be  matched  again,  Flaubert 
could  still  draw  abundant  amusement  from  an 
invention  of  long  standing.  On  the  quays  he 
had  once  come  across  an  old  engraving  of  the 
bewildered  St.  Polycarp  holding  both  hands  to 
heaven,  and  inscribed,  "  My  God,  my  God,  on  what 
times  hast  Thou  cast  my  life  i "  He  pretended  to 
see  in  it  his  own  effigy  and  a  proof  of  pre-existence. 
Though  indignation  against  the  "  imbeciles  in 
present  power"  and  the  widespread  stupidity 
which  maintained  their  incompetence  was  abun- 
dantly justified,  he  thoroughly  appreciated  the 
wild  and  delightfully  ludicrous  gesture^  it  aroused 
in  his  tumultuous  physique.  The  feast  of  St. 
Polycarp  was  kept  by  some  ladies  and  gentlemen 
of  Rouen  whom  he  frequented.  Anticipation 
prevented  steady  work  for  a  fortnight  before 
it  came  round,  and  of  the  "  gay  and  original 
inventions,"  toasts,  &c.,  with  which  it  was  cele- 
brated he  kept  a  dossier  labelled  "  the  remedy  for 
indignation." 

Dread  of  losing  both  Croisset  and  independence 


14  ART  AND  LIFE 

long  weighed  on  his  spirits  ;  promises  of  State  aid 
were  made  and  broken.  Two  years  before  the  end, 
however,  he  received  a  sinecure  worth  ;^i2o  per 
annum — money  which  he  arranged  to  have  repaid 
after  his  death.  The  8th  of  May,  1880,  having 
just  come  from  his  morning  bath,  he  was  found 
on  the  vast  divan  of  his  work-room,  unable  to 
articulate,  and  never  spoke  again. 

An  attack  of  epilepsy  was  bruited  by  certain 
friends,  but  the  doctor  who  had  been  called 
expressly  declared  that  there  were  no  such  symp- 
toms, and  attributed  death  to  apoplexy.  Flaubert 
had  been  in  exceptionally  good  health,  and  for  seven 
years  free  from  nervous  seizures.  He  was  dead, 
but  silly  notions  about  him  lived  on,  and,  sanctioned 
by  those  who  should  and  might  have  known  better, 
are  repeated  even  to-day.  Described  as  incapable 
of  enjoyment,  because  he  could  regretfully  reflect 
that  there  had  been  more  elements  claiming  appre- 
ciation in  any  given  happy  moment  than  he  had 
actually  been  conscious  of,  this  soul  of  exceptional 
response  both  to  pleasure  and  pain  has  been  pitied 
by  mediocrities. 

Perfect  and  adored  as  a  son,  as  a  brother,  as  an 
uncle,  as  a  friend,  as  a  master,  he  had  cherished 
piety  ;  in  hard  winters  his  gate  was  thronged  by  the 
poor — eighty  were  fed  at  one  time  on  the  eve  of 
the  war.     Every  Watch-night   he   marched  at  the 


GUSTAVE   FLAUBERT  ij 

head  of  his  household  to  the  midnight  Mass.  His 
freedom  of  thought  felt  no  need  to  trouble  those 
who  could  not  share  it.  Both  simple  and  cultured 
were  delighted  by  his  extravagances  in  dress, 
gesture,  and  speech,  and  won  by  his  childlike  whole- 
heartedness.  Ingrainedly  he  answered  to  the  nick- 
name given  him  by  fellow-students  at  Paris,  and  was 
"  le  vieux  seigneur." 

Cordial  friendship,  both  for  the  lady  whom  he 
had  loved  at  fifteen  and  her  husband,  began  at 
Trouville,  matured  at  Paris,  and  did  not  die  away 
when,  after  1850,  they  settled  in  Germany,  while 
his  letters  prove  that  he  would  gladly  have  shared 
with  her  children  and  grandchildren  the  care  of  her 
decHne  when  she  became  a  widow.  Nor  was  this 
an  exception  :  all  friends  from  whom  life  had 
separated  him  were  as  sure  of  welcome  as  those 
with  whom  habitual  commerce  had  strengthened 
affection.  His  hatreds  were  no  less  persistent — for 
the  journalist  who,  to  debauch  the  present,  neglects 
past  and  future,  for  the  professor  who  makes  much 
of  mediocrities  and  belittles  the  great,  for  the  con- 
servative who  preserves  nothing,  for  the  radical  who 
respects  nothing,  for  the  bourgeois  whose  home  and 
immediate  interests  distort  or  banish  ideals,  while 
they  overload  and  abuse  the  civic  state.  Peculiar 
hideousness  suffuses  these  lives.  He  preferred 
even  wastrel  initiative  and  passion  to  that  sordid 


I6  T^  ART  AND   LIFE 

prudence  ;  the  vulgarities  of  adventurers  in  thought 
and  art  seemed  venial  compared  with  such  sedulous 
warming  of  purblind  meanness.  The  blaze  of  his 
indignation  once  and  again  frightened  a  few 
worldlings  into  performing  some  obvious  duty 
which  they  had  decided  to  neglect,  but  as  a  rule  he 
explained  his  aloofness  by  shouting — 

"  Honours  dishonour, 

"  Titles  degrade, 

"A  function  deadens." 

Retired  life  alone  made  work  regardless  of  expense 
in  effort  possible;  his  avowed  ambition  was  "to  live 
like  the  middle  classes  but  to  think  like  a  demi-god." 

This  exuberant  vitality  had  once  more  been  at 
full  power,  when,  by  an  accident,  in  a  moment,  it 
was  ended.  Five  large  windows  opened  from  that 
room  which  such  splendid  visions  had  filled,  where 
such  heroic  discontent  with  what  was  good  had  so 
often  created  perfection.  Maytime  leaf  and  flower 
framed  the  vast  landscape  :  on  the  left  a  shrub- 
clad  cliff  which  rose  behind  the  house,  then  the 
many  steeples  of  Rouen,  and,  facing  them  across 
the  river,  the  chimneys  of  its  factories  ;  in  front, 
meadows  dotted  with  red  and  white  cattle  ;  while  to 
the  right  a  forest  on  a  long  sweep  of  hill  closed  the 
horizon.      The   calm,  wide   Seine,  full    of    islands 


GUSTAVE  FLAUBERT  17 

tufted  with  trees,  curved  across  the  broad  valley, 
coming  close  so  that  the  sails  of  hidden  boats, 
like  white  clouds,  drifted  behind  the  great  tulip-tree 
in  the  garden  which,  Flaubert  loved  to  think,  had 
been  paced  both  by  Pascal  and  the  Abbe  Prevost, 
their  eyes  soothed  by  so  much  that  his  own 
treasured. 


CRITICS,    MAN.   AND   WORK 


In  La  Harpe's  day  the  grammarian  judged,  in  Sainte-Beuve's  and 
Taine's  the  historian.  When  will  it  be  the  artist,  nothing  but  the 
artist,  the  thorough  artist  f  Where  is  there  a  critic  who  is  intensely 
preoccupied  by  the  work  as  such  f  They  analyse  very  delicately  the 
circumstances  in  which  it  was  produced  and  the  causes  which  led 
up  to  it ;  but  the  unconscious  cesthetic,  whence  it  is  drawn  f  the 
composition  f  the  style  f  the  author's  point  of  view  f    Never. 

Great  imagination  would  be  needed  for  such  criticism,  and  great 
goodness,  I  mean  a  factdty  for  enthusiasm  always  alert ;  and  then 
taste,  a  rare  quality,  even  among  the  best  endowed,  so  much  so  that 
it  is  no  longer  spoken  of. 

What  rouses  my  indignation  every  day  is  to  see  a  masterpiece  and 
a  turpitude  ranked  side  by  side.  Little  talents  are  cried  up,  great 
talents  disparaged;  nothing  could  be  more  stupid,  nor  more  immoral. 

CoRRESPONDANCE  DE  G.  FLAUBERT,  Serie  iii.  p.  386 


THE   CRITICS  AND  THE   MAN 

MEN  disagree  about  the  gods.  There  is  often 
something  unaccountable,  mysterious,  out 
of  reach,  connected  with  subjects  on  which  the 
intelHgent  contradict  one  another.  French  critics 
unanimously  allow  Flaubert's  work,  or  at  least  part 
of  it,  to  be  all  but  perfect.  Yet  few  such  simple 
questions  have  so  divided  them  as  :  Was  he  intelli- 
gent ?  Was  he  warm-hearted  ?  ^  The  Creator  of 
the  universe  stands  in  the  like  case.  Dante,  Shake- 
speare, Goethe — how  passionately  the  value  of  their 
thought  has  been  denied ;  again,  how  absolutely 
forgotten  behind  lifeless  praise  !  I  will  confess 
that  the  controversy  over  his  books  has  been  so 
drastic  as  to  clench  for  me  a  foregone  surmise  that 
Flaubert  participated  in  the  nature  of  divine  men 
and  insoluble  problems.  Those  who  claim  to  have 
found  some  quality  are  more  easily  credited  than 
'  See  Appendices  II.  and  III.  pp.  266-273. 


22  ART   AND   LIFE 

those  who  assert  it  not  to  exist  where  it  should 
presumably  have  been.  The  excellence  of  Madame 
Bovary,  recognised  by  those  who  deny  this  author 
intelligence,  creates  such  a  presumption,  and  in 
1903  M.  Rene  Dumesnil  wrote — 

"The  fashion  even  was  to  pretend  that  he  was 
incapable  of  metaphysical  speculation.  We  have,  on 
the  other  hand,  shown  the  inanity  of  such  a  supposition 
— above  all  damaging  to  those  who  dared  to  formulate 
it,  for  it  is  easier  to  deny  that  a  writer  has  any 
philosophy,  than  to  refute  that  philosophy." ' 

Alas  !  he  was  too  hopeful,  for  in  1905  M.  Emile 
Lauvriere  produced  the  blackest  Flaubert  yet 
sketched  :  the  "  tainted  "  "  victim  "  of  a  "  maniac 
hatred "  and  a  "  murderous  passion "  ;  while,  if 
he  avoided  the  word  "unintelligent,"  he  left  us  a 
"poor  used-up  writer  whose  noble  but  narrow 
ambition  never  believed  in  anything  save  the 
virtue  of  phrases."  2 

Flaubert  himself  had  recognised  the  difficulties 
he  was  creating. 

"  People  have  a  ready-made  opinion  about  me 
which  nothing  will  root  up  (it  is  true,  I  take  no  trouble 
to  undeceive  them),  namely  :  that  I  possess  no  kind  of 
feeling,  that  I  make  a  joke  of  everything,  that  I  am  a 

»  Rene  Dumesnil,  Flaubert,  p.  297. 

'  Emile  Lauvriere,  Salammbo,  Oxford  Higher  French  Series, 
pp.  xlii,  xxxvii. 


THE  CRITICS   AND   THE   MAN         23 

loose  liver  (a  kind  of  romantic  Paul  de  Kock),  some- 
thing between  the  Bohemian  and  the  Pedant.  There 
are  even  some  who  pretend  I  look  like  a  drunkard, 
&c.,  &c. 

"  Nevertheless,  I  believe  myself  neither  a  hypocrite 
nor  a  poser.  No  matter,  folk  always  get  hold  of 
wrong  notions  about  me.  Whose  fault  is  it  ?  Mine, 
no  doubt."  '■ 

This  half-baked  legend  waxed  and  flourished  for 
twenty  years  after  those  lines  were  written.  The 
publication  of  Flaubert's  correspondence  checked 
but  failed  to  dissipate  it. 

As  Barbey  d'Aurevilly  had  said,  "  It  seemed 
repugnant  to  man's  nature  "  for  an  author  neither 
to  relieve  his  feelings,  expound  his  philosophy, 
demonstrate  a  psychology,  promote  political  or 
class  interests,  nor  even  artlessly  to  betray  unusual 
sensibility,  refinement,  wit,  brilliancy,  distinction 
while  narrating.  True,  the  best  stories  had  not 
been  so  serviceable. 

A  survival  of  this  heartburning  plagues  a  few 
even  to-day.  Yet  M.  Hennequin  could  draw  from 
comparatively  limited  information  a  more  generous 
conception : — 

"Towards  the  end,  Flaubert's  pessimism  was  pene- 
trated with  sweetness.  .  .  .  The  writer  appears  to  pity 

'  Letire  h  Mile.  Amelie  Bosquet,  cited  by  Felix  Frank,  without 
date,  but  between  1859  and  1869. 


24  ART   AND   LIFE 

the  ills  he  reveals,  and  perhaps  we  ought  to  believe 
that  on  the  eve  of  old  age  Flaubert  felt  that  it  was  not 
fitting  to  separate  the  cause  of  great  men  from  that  of 
the  herd,  who,  victims  as  surely  as  they  are  torturers, 
doubtless  bear  their  part  in  the  sufferings  which  they 
help  to  embitter."  ^ 

Fine  intuition  though  that  reveals,  there  is  to-day 
something  strange  in  so  delicate  a  critic's  finding 
the  author  of  Madame  Bovary  inconsiderate  of 
humble  lives.  The  homage  paid  to  them  in 
Elizabeth  Leroux  had  several  times  been  under- 
lined even  then ;  but  not  only  when  he  can 
sympathise  is  Flaubert  just.  Had  he  not  far  more 
respect  even  for  the  pilloried  chemist  than  his 
critics  have  shared  with  him  ?  Homais  embodies 
a  vice  which  cankers  all  mankind,  but  he  is  rich 
in  the  very  quality  which  Flaubert  considered  his 
own  work  deficient  in — easy  fellowship  (bonhomie). 

"  I  divine  in  Flaubert  a  kind  of  speculative  affection 
for  those  beings  who  represent  everybody,  who  are 
barely  responsible,  who,  with  a  great  deal  of  egoism, 
have  some  kindliness,  who  work  and  are  tasked  like 
ourselves  .  .  .  ,"  says  M.  Jules  Lemaitre,  who  had 
enjoyed  personal  contact  with  Flaubert  ;  and  later  on 
he  cries,  "  Ah  !  what  great  pity  can  live  by  all  that  is 
implied  in  renouncing  expression  of  particular  pities  \"' 

'  Emile  Hennequin,  Quelques  ecrivains  franfais,  pp.  31,  32,  1890. 
'  Jules  Lemaitre,  Les  Contemporains,  Serie  vi.  pp,  246,  248,  1896. 


THE   CRITICS   AND    THE   MAN        25 

Though  driven  by  the  amusingly  low  estimate 
which  he  had  formed  of  Flaubert's  intelligence 
to  suppose  Madame  Bovary  literally  a  miracle  pro- 
duced without  the  aid  of  secondary  causes,  like 
wisdom  out  of  the  mouths  of  babes  and  sucklings, 
even  M.  France  had  seen  enough  of  Flaubert  to 
affirm  that  he  was  good  and  incapable  of  lying, 
and  adds — 

"  At  the  bottom  I  believe  that  Flaubert  was  not  so 
unhappy  as  it  strikes  us  he  was.  At  least  he  was  a 
pessimist  full  of  enthusiasm  for  a  part  of  human  and 
natural  things.  Shakespeare  and  the  East  threw  him 
into  ecstasy.  Far  from  pitying  him,  I  pronounce  him 
happy :  his  was  the  good  part  in  the  things  of  this 
world;  he  knew  how  to  admire."' 

One  who,  reading  Flaubert's  book,  had  been 
deluded  in  the  common  way,  confesses  : 

"  As  soon  as  you  became  intimate  with  him  you  made 
the  most  surprising,  the  most  touching  of  discoveries. 
.  .  .  You  found  a  heart  of  gold  with  a  good  man's 
thrills  of  generosity  and  the  caressing  tenderness  of 
a  young  girl.  This  worn  sceptic  had  the  adorable 
candour  of  a  child,  and  he  who  had  been  thought  of 
as  an  indifferent  egoist  revealed  himself  in  daily  life  as 
capable  of  the  noblest  self-sacrifice,  the  most  amiable 

'  Anatole  France,  La  Vie  littdraire,  Serie  ii.  pp.  22,  23, 1887. 


26  ART   AND   LIFE 

virtues  .  .  .   under  the   most  startling  audacities   [of 
language]  a  timid  soul  was  divined."^ 

Ready  enough  to  acclaim  genius  when  it  appears 
theatrically,  men  will  try  hard  to  justify  their  neglect 
when  honours  have  been  avoided  and  the  judgment 
of  those  who  obviously  cannot  know  contemned. 
In  explanation  of  the  reluctance  shown  in  admitting 
Flaubert's  mental  reach  let  me  adapt  Browning's 
image  :  a  little  water,  as  a  sphere  of  glass  is  turned, 
can  visit  the  whole  inner  surface,  yet  air  fills  the 
vessel  and  holds  thrice  that  weight  of  water  resolved 
in  itself.  So  discursive  intelligences  run  over  ideas 
with  which  a  finer  mind  is  in  constant  relation,  the 
first  watched  by  all,  the  second  rarely  noticed. 

Those  who  have  never  been  there  will  hardly 
believe  that  the  July  sun  tells  equally  on  lofty 
snow-fields  and  in  the  dust  of  the  valley  road ; 
similar  was  the  reluctance  to  credit  an  author, 
whose  work  had  been  kept  so  pure,  so  bright,  so 
keen,  so  high  above  the  world,  with  experience 
of  such  stress  as  that  which  compels  the  humblest 
cry  of  affection. 

*  Auguste  Sabatier,  Journal  de  Geneve,  Mai  i6, 1880. 


II 

THE  CRITICS  AND  THE   WORK 

FLAUBERT'S  (Euvres  Completes  runs  to  eight 
volumes ;  in  each  of  them  save  the  last  some 
reputable  critic  has  found  the  masterpiece.  The 
name  of  those  for  whom  Madame  Bovary  (vol.  i.) 
occupies  this  position  is  legion.  Salaminbo  (vol.  ii.) 
is  so  acclaimed  by  George  Sand  and  H.  M.  Stanley 
the  explorer  ;  I' Education  sentimentale  (vols.  iii.  and 
iv.)  by  Zola  and  Pierre  Gauthiez ;  la  Tentation  de 
saint  Antoine  (vol.  v.)  by  Emile  Hennequin,  R.  L. 
Stevenson,  and  Professor  Saintsbury ;  les  Trots  contes 
(vol.  vi.)  by  Renan  and  Maupassant ;  Bouvard  et 
Pecuchet  (vol.  vii.)  by  Remy  de  Gourmont  and 
J.  C.  Tarver  (author  of  Gnstave  Flaubert  as  seen  in 
his  Work  and  Correspondence,  1895). 

Several  prize  equally  highly  two  or  three  of  these 
works ;  for  some  la  Tentation  and  Bouvard  et 
Pecuchet  are  complementary  parts  of  one  master- 
piece. I  have  known  ardent  admirers  who  pre- 
ferred his  Correspondance  to  any  of  his  books,  and 

27 


28  ART  AND   LIFE 

M.  Auguste  Sabatier^  would  seem  to  lend  them 
his  countenance.  Such  great  diversity  of  opinion 
about  an  artist's  best  is  a  very  rare  distinction. 
Evidently  the  nature  of  his  subjects  divides  his 
admirers,  for  they  are  unanimous  on  the  quality 
of  his  workmanship.     Listen  to  the  chorus. 

"  Care  for  precision,  love  of  colour,  hunger  for  light, 
are  everywhere  felt  in  his  work.  That  is  something,  it 
is  much.  Take  care,  press  me  but  a  little  and  I  shall 
say,  it  is  everything."  = 

"  One  of  the  greatest  European  artists  in  the  second 
half  of  the  century,  and  perhaps  the  most  accomplished 
writer  of  French  prose  in  our  whole  literature."  3 

"  It  is  his  ...  to  have  written  the  most  beautiful 
prose  works  extant  in  French." 4 

"  The  perfect  writer."  s 

"  He  sought  immortal  workmanship,  while  others 
only  seek  one  that  will  wear.  They  are  honest  folk; 
he  was  a  saint."  "^ 

"  The  greatest,  purest,  most  complete  of  our  literary 
artists."? 

'  See  Appendix  X.  p.  2^7. 

'  Edmund  Scherer,  Etudes  sur  la  litierature  contemporaine, 
Serie  iv.  p.  301,  1870. 

3  Maurice  Spronck,  Les  Artistes  litteraires,  p.  297,  1889. 

*  Emile  Hennequin,  Quelques  ecrivains  franfais,  p.  68,  1890. 

s  Anatole  France,  Herodias:  Compositions  de  G.  Rochegrosse. 
Preface  par  A.  F.,  p.  xxvii,  1892. 

^  Antoine  Albalat,  I' Art  d'ecrire:  Ouvriers  et  procedes,  p.  248, 
1896. 

7  Paul  Bourget,  Taylorian  Lecture  at  Oxford,  1897. 


THE  CRITICS   AND   THE   WORK       29 

"  Flaubert,  in  all  his  works  and  on  every  page  of  his 
works,  may  be  considered  as  a  model  of  style."  * 

It  is  amusing  to  watch  the  aesthetic  anarchy  of 
to-day,  especially  at  a  distance.  From  one  country 
it  is  quite  clear  that  the  critics  of  another  hardly 
ever  try  to  see  the  work  they  judge  for  its  own 
sake,  but  mainly  as  it  may  be  used  to  illustrate 
principles  to  which  they  adhere  or  against  which 
they  animadvert.  So  eager  are  some  to  further 
"the  party  behind  which  they  throw  their  weight," 
or  hinder  that  "against  which  the  forces  of  the 
future  must  tell,"  that  they  very  rarely  do  see  what 
their  eyes  so  passionately  devour. 

Readers  who  refer  to  the  Appendices  will  find  that 
I  have  tried  to  give  the  date  of  each  pronounce- 
ment. For,  though  since  his  death  Flaubert's 
work  has  steadily  risen  in  the  esteem  of  all  who 
love  beauty,  a  reaction  came  to  its  head  in  the 
early  nineties,  being  caused  by  the  extravagances 
of  some  who  passed  for  his  followers.  Can  any 
one  doubt,  besides,  that  the  author  of  masterpieces 
like  I'Histoire  comique,  le  Mannequin  d'osier,  and 
les  opinions  de  M.  Jerome  Coignard  would  reprove 
some  expressions  and  assertions  made  in  la  Vie 
litteraire  ?  Perhaps  he  would  not  allow  that 
Flaubert's  reputation  is  outstripping  even   that   of 

'  Emile  Faguet,  Flaubert,  p.  149, 1889. 


30  ART   AND   LIFE 

Renan,  yet  were  he  now  thirty  years  younger  he 
might  even  do  that :  in  any  case  he  must  agree  that 
the  distance  between  that  master's  work  and  even 
the  best  produced  by  men  Hke  de  Goncourt,  Zola, 
Daudet,  and  Maupassant,  has  yawned  into  a  gulf, 
consisting,  as  it  does,  in  breadth  and  maturity  of 
significance,  as  well  as  in  perfection  of  execution. 
While  we  smile  to  distinguish  the  different  points 
made  in  this  Battle  of  Books,  we  may  certainly 
admire  the  equipment  and  dash  of  many  of  the 
combatants. 

MADAME   BOVARY 

The  hazards  of  adultery  have  as  pre-eminent 
attraction  for  French  readers  as  equally  high  stakes 
on  raw  virginity's  elections  have  for  English.  Not 
only  had  Madame  Bovary  lovers,  but  Napoleon  the 
Third's  Government  advertised  her  intrigues  by  a 
prosecution  which  it  lost.  For  once  a  work  of  art 
inherited  the  glamour  and  stir  of  a  scandal :  it  has 
been  the  better  studied,  but  judgments  on  it  are  the 
more  open  to  suspicion.  On  the  other  hand,  this 
book  was  written  while  Flaubert  was  still  young, 
and  several  incidents  in  la  Tentation  which  date 
from  the  same  period  are  well-nigh  as  universally 
admired.  There  is  a  seduction  about  Shakespeare's 
and  Milton's  earlier  work  which  even  their  grandest 


THE   CRITICS   AND   THE   WORK       31 

creations  may  be  felt  to  lack.  Had  Keats  gone  on 
to  produce  greater  things,  they  would  probably 
have  grown  poorer  in  just  those  qualities  which 
most  intoxicate  his  devotees.  Adultery  being  for 
French  novels  as  stale  a  theme  as  the  idyll  of  im- 
pulse is  in  English  fiction,  the  interest  needed  a 
new  import. 

"  Have  you  noticed  how  that  book  is  one  of  those 
which  mark  a  date  not  only  in  a  literature,  but  in  the 
moral  history  of  a  nation,  because  they  put  an  end  to 
certain  influences  which  have  long  been  paramount, 
and  in  ending  them  change  the  optical  and  hygienic 
conditions  of  the  public  standpoint  ?  For  the  false 
ideal  brought  into  fashion  by  the  romantic  school  and 
for  the  dangerous  sentimentality  which  resulted  from  it, 
Madame  Bovary  was  very  really  what  Don  Quixote  had 
been  for  the  chivalrous  mania  when  it,  in  Spain,  had 
lasted  too  long,  or  again  what  Moliere's  les  Precieuses 
ridicules  and  les  Femmes  savantes  had  been  for  the 
influence  of  the  Hotel  Rambouillet.  .  .  .  Just  as  Cer- 
vantes gave  its  death-blow  to  the  chivalrous  mania 
with  the  very  weapons  of  chivalry,  so  with  the  very 
methods  of  the  romantic  ^  school  Gustave  Flaubert 
ruined  the  false  ideal  which  it  had  brought  into  being ; 
drawing  on  resources  created  by  the  imagination,  he 
painted  the  vices  and  errors  of  imagination."  * 


»  See  Appendix  IV.  p.  274. 
Emile    Montegut,    Le    Roman   en    1876,    "  Dramaturges    et 
romanciers,"  p.  262. 


32  ART   AND   LIFE 

All  later  critics  have  either  acknowledged  or  be- 
trayed their  indebtedness  to  that. 

Yet  to  Arnold,!  as  to  Sainte-Beuve,  it  seemed 
unheard  of  that  a  novelist  should  trust  you  to  pity 
one  whose  helplessness,  folly,  and  ruin  he  had 
shown,  instead  of  specially  pleading  for  his  chosen 
sinner.  It  never  occurred  to  them  how  much 
finer  a  thing  it  is  to  recognise  events  in  their  true 
proportions  at  sight  than  only  after  the  school- 
master's pointer  has  traced  them  over. 

George  Sand  justly  exclaimed,  "They  say  his  [the 
author's]  indignation  is  not  felt.  What  matter,  if 
he  rouses  yours  ?  "  Arnold  thought  Flaubert  had 
not  seen  what  he  showed,  had  not  felt  what  he 
inspired :  or  would  he  imply  that  Emma's  vices 
should  have  been  veiled  in  order  to  set  off  her  un- 
happy fate  ?  But  it  is  not  only  the  virtuous  who, 
naked,  suffer  and  fail,  the  vicious  also  are  crucified 
on  either  hand.  We  are  too  apt  to  see  only  one 
cross  where  there  are  three,  and  thus  brush  its 
divine  bloom  from  that  humanity  which  gives  them 
significance. 

Baudelaire  must  have  felt  the  beauty  of  Flaubert's 
book,  but  his  review  is  indolent  and  ironical.^  He 
teases  Flaubert  about  his  pet  theory,  and,  bowing 
to  intellectual  ladies  who  are  complacently  sure  of 
having  taken  the  highest  places,  suggests  that  they 
*  See  Appendix  V.  p.  275.  '  See  Appendix  V.  p.  276. 


THE  CRITICS   AND  THE   WORK       33 

may  be  called  on  to  make  room  for  others.  Per- 
haps he  sincerely  regarded  Emma  as  too  fine  to  be 
true,  since  she  owns  not  only  her  creator's  visionary 
habit,  but  "imagination,"  "sudden  energy  in  action, 
rapidity  of  decision,"  and  "the  inordinate  love  of 
winning  others  over  and  dominating  them "  which 
he  shared  with  all  great  men.  And  thinking  of  her 
soul's  native  complexion  we  might  well  agree :  but 
inborn  qualities  must  succeed  before  they  are  fully 
possessed,  and  Emma  is  ruined  partly  by  inclement 
circumstances,  chiefly  through  inability  to  study 
what  lay  immediately  under  her  nose.  She  had 
none  of  Flaubert's  aptitude  for  taking  boundless 
pains  and  thereby  correcting  and  directing  ambition. 
Common  judgments  depend  on  narrow  associa- 
tions. An  item  of  police  news  attracts  many  as 
offal  will  flies :  in  other  minds  it  becomes  a  nucleus 
for  Pharisaical  prejudice,  and  can  only  so  cloaked 
be  thought  of  and  remembered.  Interests  take 
fresh  import  when  felt  in  relation  to  new  pre- 
occupations. For  the  first  time  Flaubert  raised 
this  French  interest  in  adultery  to  the  realm  of  con- 
templation, and  produced  its  "  unalterable  beauty." 
Elevation  and  refinement  distinguish  the  book;  to 
lay  stress  on  its  realism  is  like  dwelling  on  the  the- 
ology of  Paradise  Lost.  The  sciences,  the  Russian 
steppes,  spice  islands,  old  wars,  mummied  kings, 
and  Scythian   idols   provide  images :    nor   in   this 

D 


34  ART   AND   LIFE 

expectation  of  a  highly-cultured  reader  have  we 
its   only  affinity  to   that  great  poem.     With   what 
success   Flaubert    laboured    to    give    his    prose    a 
rhythm   as   lovely   and   vital   as   that   of   poetry  is 
known.      Yet   another   bond   between    Milton   and 
this  French  novelist  is  the  lack  of  a  general  sense 
of  easy  fellowship,  by  which   both  are  less  happy 
than  Shakespeare   and   La   Fontaine.    Their  work 
bears  such   an  impress  of  strain   perhaps  because 
they  could  expect,  and  indeed  found,  little  imme- 
diate comprehension.     If  Madame  Bovary  shaped 
history,   as  M.   Mont^gut  thought,  or  could  appal 
Stevenson  ^  by  raising  ghosts  of  Calvinistic  moods, 
these  effects  of  its  rare  integrity  occasioned  by  the 
needs  of  others  are  of  little  moment  to  us ;  for  in 
the  harmony  of  its  proportions  and  the  unfailing 
music  of  its  periods  lives  "the  splendour  of  truth, 
beauty."  2      Yes,    beauty,    "  resignation    with    the 
world  as  it  is,"  and  "  an  immense  compassion,  that 
which  is  born  from  science  applied  to  life,  silently 
disengage    themselves    from     Flaubert's     novel,"  3 
mused   on   and   re-read. 


'  See  Appendix  V.  p.  275. 

"  Plato,  cited  in  Correspondance  de  G.  Flaubert,  Serie  iii.  p.  80. 

3  Jules  Lemaitre,  Les  Contemporains,  Serie  vi.  p.  287. 


THE   CRITICS   AND   THE   WORK       35 

SALAMMB6 

We  have  been  told  on  excellent  authority  that 
ancient  Carthage  is,  and  can  be,  nothing  to  us,  and 
that  Flaubert  chose  it  wisely  since  we  are  not  pre- 
possessed in  respect  to  it :  that  his  novel  instructs 
too  much  to  amuse,!  and  that  it  does  not  instruct 
at  all,  for — 

"  Wishing  to  paint  Punic  civilisation,  he  painted  any- 
thing but  that ;  we  have  the  right  to  say  then  that  his 
novel,  having  missed  its  mark,  loses  all  interest."  " 

These  egregious  sentiments  possibly  proceed  from 
a  mind  better  prepared  to  treat  problems  of  archae- 
ology than  of  art.  It  may  be  that  Flaubert,  recon- 
structing Carthage,  was  misled  both  by  what  he 
knew  and  did  not  know;  for  knowledge  can  hardly 
be  said  to  extend  beyond  an  extremely  meagre  list 
of  monuments  and  texts  of  difficult  interpretation, 
and  his  intention  was  to  produce  a  vivid  epic 
picture.  He  says  that  he  consciously  invented 
details,3  and  admitted  chronological  improbabilities.4 
His  picture  was  to  be  typical  and  to  correspond  to 
a  vague  idea  s  that  existed  in  men's  minds,  and  this 

*  See  Appendix  VI.  pp.  277-281. 
^  M.  Pezard,  Mercure  cie  France,  Fevrier  i6,  1908. 
3^5  Correspondance  de  G.  Flaubert,  Serie  iii.  pp.  212,  251,  248, 
249,  and  153. 


36  ART   AND   LIFE 

he  wished  to  transform  as  hachisch  enhances  recol- 
lections. ^  From  the  unnoted  marriage  of  facts  in 
the  outskirts  of  attention,  that  idea  had  been  born : 
he  traced  it  to  its  sources,  and  developed  them  by 
logic  and  imagination,  so  as  to  arrest  his  contem- 
poraries by  revealing  the  implication  of  their 
"  henid  "  ^  perceptions  in  a  magnificent  picture.  He 
who  silenced  the  archaeologists  of  his  own  day 
might  make  short  work  of  M.  Pezard,  even  though 
recently  acquired  knowledge  may  tend  to  discoun- 
tenance some  of  his  suppositions. 

When  the  nineteenth  century  dreamed  of  the 
past,  portions  appeared  as  ineffable  idylls,  others  as 
reaping  the  harvest  of  universal  aspirations,  but 
not  a  few  like  nightmares.  To-day  thought  tends 
to  reduce  these  peculiarities.  The  embryo  of 
Flaubert's  vision  existed  in  other  minds,  as  that  of 
the  Inferno  among  the  Florentines.  M.  Pezard 
asks,  "  Have  not  the  greatest  masterpieces  sprung 
from   observation  of   actual    life  ? "    Salammbo  as 

*  Journal  des  Goncourt,  tome  i.  p.  307. 

'  Sex  and  Character,  by  Otto  Weininger,  p.  99.  "  I  propose  for 
psychical  data  at  this  earHest  stage  of  their  existence  the  word 
Henid  from  the  Greek  'iv,  because  in  them  it  is  impossible  to  dis- 
tinguish perception  and  sensation.  ...  A  common  example  .  .  . 
may  .  .  .  illustrate  what  a  '  henid '  is.  I  may  have  a  definite  wish 
to  say  something  in  particular,  and  then  something  distracts  me, 
and  the  '  it '  I  wanted  to  say  is  gone.  Later  on  .  .  .  the '  it '  is  quite 
suddenly  reproduced,  and  I  know  at  once  that  it  was  what  was  on 
my  tongue,  but  [I  know  it],  so  to  speak,  in  a  more  perfect  stage  of 
development." 


THE   CRITICS   AND   THE  WORK       37 

certainly  did  as  Michael  Angelo's  Last  Judgment 
or  as  Goethe's  Faust;  but  in  them  observation  of 
life  is  transformed  and  organised  by  an  intense 
creative  imagination. 

^^Salammbo,  like  the  Iliad,  is  only  a  continual  car- 
nage full  of  descriptive  repetitions  .  .  .  Sainte-Beuve 
did  not  understand  that  Homer,  despoiled  of  the 
translator's  modifications,  has  in  the  original  the  same 
violence,  the  same  brutality,  as  Flaubert.  .  .  .  M. 
Taine,  who  is  both  critic  and  artist,  showed  more 
perspicacity  when  he  wrote  in  his  Voyage  en  Italie  :  * 
'  Homer  forgets  pain,  danger,  and  dramatic  effect,  he 
is  so  taken  up  with  colour  and  form.  Flaubert  and 
Gautier,  who  are  considered  singular  innovators,  write 
to-day  exactly  similar  descriptions.'  And  M.  Taine  adds 
profoundly,  '  The  ancients  need  artists  for  commenta- 
tors.    Till  now  they  have  only  had  closet-scholars.'  " " 

While,  according  to  M.  Anatole  France,  Flaubert 
unphilosophically  preferred  barbarous  antiquity  to 
his  own  day,  M.  Paul  Bourget  deems  that  he  held 
both  periods  in  equal  contempt.3 

A  taste  for  rich  colour  and  generous  profusion 
is  good  ground  for  the  preference  of  stupidity  in 
caftan  and  balloon  trousers  to  stupidity  in  a  health- 
officer's  frock-coat.  M.  France  must  have  lived  in 
a  great  many  ages  to  be  so  sure  that  vulgarity  was 

'  Tome  I",  p.  132. 

»  Antoine  Albalat,  Lc  Mai  d'Ecrire,  p.  134,  1895. 

3  See  Appendix  VI.  p.  281. 


38  ART  AND  LIFE 

as  oppressive  in  Athens  430  B.C.  as  it  is  in  London 
to-day.  But  Flaubert  agrees,  and  calls  "  the  times 
of  Pericles  and  of  Shakespeare  atrocious  epochs 
in  which  beautiful  things  were  made,"^  indicating 
the  nature  of  his  preference.  Two  equally  offensive 
civilisations  may  yet  yield  very  dissimilar  harvests 
for  the  eye  of  an  artist ;  in  the  one  his  sense  might 
be  full  fed,  in  the  other  starved.  The  Parthenon 
may  be  superior  to  the  Orleans  railway  station, 
even  though  the  men  who  condemned  Socrates 
were  no  better  than  those  who  condemned  Dreyfus. 
So  when  they  choose  a  beautiful  background  for 
their  dreams,  the  wise  often  seek  far  into  the  past. 
Swinburne  found  in  a  drawing  by  Michael  Angelo 
"such  a  mystic  marriage  as  that  painted  in  the 
loveliest  passage  of  Salammbo,  between  the  maiden 
body  and  the  scaly  coils  of  the  serpent. "2  Experi- 
ences differ ;  M.  Faguet  cannot  believe  a  reader 
to  be  honest  who  pretends  that  he  has  "read 
Salammbo  without  quitting  it  several  times  for  a 
pretty  long  rest;  "3  whereas  some  years  back, 
frequently  suffering  from  toothache,  I  found  it  the 
only  book  which  could  hold  my  attention  in  spite 
of  the  pain  ;  while  Professor  Saintsbury  well-nigh 
bridges  this  gulf : — 

*  Correspondance  de  G.  Flaubert,  Serie  iv.  p.  75. 
'  A.   C.    Swinburne,    Notes  on  Designs  of  the  Old  Masters  at 
Florence,  1864.    Essays  and  Studies,  p.  321,  1875. 
3  Emile  Faguet,  Flaubert,  p.  46,  1899. 


THE  CRITICS  AND  THE  WORK       39 

"  I  have  mentioned  my  own  impression  in  first 
reading  Salammbo — how  I  wondered  at  the  lack  of 
interest  (as  it  then  seemed  to  me)  which  distinguished  it, 
although  at  the  same  time  I  found  it  impossible  to  drop 
or  skip  it,  and  how  years  afterwards  I  read  it  again, 
and  then  it  no  longer  seemed  to  me  to  lack  interest, 
and  I  was  no  longer  in  doubt  as  to  what  had  made  me 
read  it  through  at  first  almost  against  my  will."  ^ 

George  Sand  wrote  :  Flaubert's  literary  form 

"is  as  beautiful,  as  striking,  as  concise,  as  grandiose" 
in  Salammbo  "  as  in  no  matter  what  verse  in  any 
language  on  earth.  His  imagination  is  as  fecund,  his 
pictures  are  as  terrible  as  Dante's  :  his  inward  anger  is 
as  intentionally  cold  :  in  order  not  to  fard  the  horror  of 
his  vision,  he  no  more  spares  the  onlooker's  delicacy."' 

M.  Louis  Bertrand,  who  to-day  knows  the  north 
of  Africa  well,  claims  that  this  book,  while  owning 

"the  purely  ideal  life  of  great  works  of  art,  is  also 
animated  by  the  wholly  actual  and  almost  contemporary 
life  which  the  novel  of  to-day  strives  to  arrest.  .  .  . 
The  old  Semitic  spirit  of  Carthage,  always  live  in  spite 
of  revolutions,  has  once  again  triumphed — and  that 
with  the  same  characteristics  of  guile,  cupidity,  cruelty, 
fanaticism,  and,  at  times,  furious  madness.  The 
mercenary  barbarians  troop  thither,  more  numerous 
than  ever,  from  all  the  Mediterranean  countries,  with 

'  G.  E.  B.  Saintsbury,  Essays  on  French  Novelists,  p.  374,  1891. 
"  Questions  d'art  et  de  litterature,  p.  308,  1863. 


40  ART   AND   LIFE 

the  same  lust  of  lucre  and  domination  as  in  the  days  of 
the  inexpiable  War,"  ' 

Foreign  and  antique  life  repel  many,  attract  but 
few.  Only  the  adventurous  seek  Beauty  so  far,  or 
those  who  count  her  worthy  any  toil — who  forget 
pain  like  Homer,  lifted  above  it  by  delight  in  colour 
and  form.  Yet  who  can  say  that  either  he  or 
Flaubert  really  forgot  others'  anguish,  save  when 
the  sufferers  themselves  forget  in  the  heat  of  battle  ? 

"  I  would  give  the  demi-ream  of  notes  which  I  have 
written  in  these  last  five  months,  and  the  ninety-eight 
volumes  which  I  have  read,  to  be  for  the  space  of  three 
seconds  really  moved  by  the  passion  of  my  heroes." 
"  Since  literature  exists  never  was  such  a  mad  enterprise 
undertaken  !  .  .  .  Shape  folk  speech  out  of  a  language 
in  which  they  did  not  think  !  Nothing  is  known  of 
Carthage.  .  .  .  No  matter,  it  must  correspond  to  a 
certain  vague  idea  which  there  is  about  it.  If  I  croak 
under  the  task,  that  will  be  a  death  at  least.  And  I 
am  convinced  good  books  are  not  made  in  this  fashion. 
This  will  not  be  a  good  book.  No  matter  ! — // 
through  it  great  things  are  dreamed  about."  ^ 

After  it  was  finished  he  confessed  that  the 
pedestal  was  too  big  for  the  statue  ;  Salammbo 
should  have  been  personally  as  engrossing  as 
Madame  Bovary. 

'  Revue  dc  Paris,  Avril  i",  1900,  pp.  617,  623. 

*  Correspondance  de  G.  Flaubert,  Serie  iii.  pp.  103, 153. 


THE  CRITICS   AND  THE   WORK       41 

Esmeralda,  Quasimodo,  Claude  Frollo,  Phoebus  ; 
Salammbo,  Matho,  Schahabarim,  Nar  Harvas. 

Though  little  resemblance  obtains  between  these 
individuals,  are  not  the  interrelations  between  either 
set  akin  ?  Victor  Hugo's  genius  was  not  merely 
"verbal,"  and  Flaubert  owed  more  to  him  than 
seems  to  be  recognised.  He  believed  human 
relations  to  be  most  beautiful  when  they  were  both 
general  and  intense,  pushed  to  an  extreme  and 
simple.  Such  his  master  had  evoked.  And  if  the 
pattern  he  had  well-nigh  worshipped  was  here 
shadowed,  he  was  no  doubt  as  unconscious  of  the 
fact  as  his  critics  have  proved  since.  The  note  of 
Gringoire  chimes  in  the  one  harmony  somewhat 
as  that  of  Spendius  does  in  the  other,  and  the 
muttering  bass  of  crowds  and  vagabonds  tells 
similarly  to  that  of  mercenaries  and  nomad  peoples. 
Flaubert  retained  from  Hugo,  whom  he  sifted  as 
searchingly  as  he  admired  him  loyally,  the  large 
sense  of  harmonies  woven  from  interplay  of  things 
base  and  hideous,  but  as  beautiful  and  even  more 
rare  than  the  choicest  single  profile,  bird,  flower, 
shell,  or  play  of  light. 

L'EDUCATION    SENTIMENTALE 

M.  Hennequin  speaks  of  "the  high  and  difficult 
import"  of  Flaubert's  books;  no  wonder,  then,  if  the 


4S  ART  AND   LIFE 

careless  reading  of  other  critics  has  created  enigmas 
in  I'Education  sentimentale,  and  its  hero's  love  been 
described  as  saved  by  renunciation  and  wasted  by 
incompetence.! 

In  the  scene  referred  to,  the  transference  of 
Frederic,  the  hero's  ideal  of  himself,  to  Mme. 
Arnoux,  the  heroine,  is  finally  completed ;  and  he 
feels  how  further  familiarity  must  murder  in  her 
what  had  been  slowly  done  to  death  in  himself. 
Flaubert  is  exquisitely  just.  Mme.  Arnoux  and 
Dussardier  take  away  that  ideal  of  himself  which 
Frederic  had  conceived  but  never  realised,  and 
they  alone  had  provided  the  climate  which  his  soul 
needed,  they  alone  had  sacrificed  their  immediate 
interest  to  their  more  generous  conceptions.  He 
bids  farewell  to  himself  and  her  with  open  eyes, 
knowing  hers  to  be  sealed.  His  repression  of  a 
momentary  return  of  "  raging  lust "  is  made  easier  by 
his  dislike  of  "embarrassments"  and  "  dread  of  being 
tired  of  her  later  on."  Her  gratitude  is  doubled 
by  the  refusal  of  what  it  had  felt  bound  to  offer,  and 
makes  the  hero  of  his  sometime  dream  her  abiding 
possession ;  this  sense  of  what  he  seems  to  her 
softens  resignation  with  what  he  is,  his  last  flicker  of 
abnegation  "being  thus  rewarded,  while  her  whole 
life's  effort  inherits  what  he  might  have  been.  The 
crown  of  virtue  is  always  better  than  recognition  of 
'  See  Appendix  VII.  p.  284. 


THE   CRITICS   AND   THE   WORK       43 

an  isolated  fact.  A  complementary  foil  to  experi- 
ence, the  vision  of  what  might  have  been  and  may 
in  other  cases  be,  counterbalances  the  actual  failure, 
and  in  simple  hearts  often  altogether  supplants 
perception  of  it. 

M.  Lemaitre  has  excellently  cleared  up  what  to 
several  had  seemed  enigmatic  in  Frederic  and 
Deslaurier's  agreement  that  the  boyish  glamour  of 
their  bootless  visit  to  "  La  Turque  " 

" '  is  perhaps  the  best  we  have  known  of  life ' ;  best 
because  only  the  dream  of  it  was  theirs,  and  that  dream 
was  the  first.  A  recollection  so  melancholy,  that  it 
ceases  to  be  impure  ;  a  judgment  so  big,  in  its  wilful 
baseness,  with  unexpressed  considerations,  that  its  cyni- 
cism is  no  longer  felt,  but  only  its  terrible  sadness."  ^ 

They  first  sought  love  in  advantage  taken  of 
others'  vice,  and  all  their  after  plans  have  the  same 
defect.  Parasites,  they  think  to  profit  by  the 
ambient  corruption  rather  than  by  their  own  merit. 
Not  that  Flaubert  shows  worldly  success  justly 
allotted ;  undeservers  obtain  it  and  it  proves  trash 
in  their  hands,  nor  is  it  true  that  the  two  friends  are 
"  abject "  2  and  ignoble.3  Frederic  is  unusually 
friendly,    generous,    open-minded,    and    amiable  : 

*  Jules  Lemaitre,  Les  Contemporains,  Serie  vi.  p.  253,  1896. 
'  Henry    James,    Critical   Introduction    to   ''Madame    Bovary," 
p.  XX,  1901. 
3  F.  Brunetiere,  Le  Roman  naturaliste,  p.  192,  1880. 


44  ART   AND   LIFE 

Deslauriers  has  a  rare  energy  and  perseverance ; 
that  one  is  limp  and  the  other  blunt  and  indelicate 
does  not  prevent  those  qualities  being  real.  Youth 
gives  them  beauty  for  a  time,  and  we  feel  their 
loneliness  in  a  crowd  made  up  of  themselves,  of 
which  they  truly  represent  the  pick.  Better 
educated,  better  surrounded,  they  would  have 
shown  creditably.  Carefully  avoiding  "  the  really 
furnished,  the  finely  civilised  consciousness"  ^ 
because  it  is  exceptional,  dependent  on  peculiar  gift 
and  therefore  inexplicable,  a  subject  for  speculation 
and  admiration  only,  Flaubert  chose  characters  ill- 
furnished  and  half  civilised,  which  being  general 
may  be  portrayed  with  universally  recognised 
impulses  and  motives.  Art  of  a  lyrical  and  exces- 
sive nature,  like  ^schylean  and  Shakespearean 
tragedy  or  the  farce  of  Aristophanes  and  Rabelais, 
can  employ  extremes  which  are  inconvenient  else- 
where, and  above  all  not  typical  of  the  modern 
world  he  had  set  himself  to  describe.  Sentimental 
writers  conveniently  isolate  chosen  characters,  but 
these  are  shown  mingled  in  the  woof  of  history,  the 
personal  incidents  glinting  amid  numbers  of  others 
as  rare  and  pregnant. 

"  For  not  only  is  I'Educaiion  sentimentale  the  story  of 
two  youths  very  particularised  as  individuals,  and  very 

»  Henry  James.    See  Appendix  VII.  p.  283. 


THE   CRITICS   AND   THE   WORK       45 

general  as  types,  since  they  represent,  one  the  romantic 
and  the  other  the  positivist  young  man,  and  that  at  the 
precise  moment  when  the  period  of  positivism  was  with 
us  about  to  succeed  to  the  period  of  romanticism  ;  and 
not  only  is  this  story  combined  with  a  study  of  ideas 
and  of  manners  in  the  last  years  of  Louis  Philippe's 
reign  :  VEducation  sentimentale  is  something  more  :  a 
history  of  the  picturesque,  moral,  social,  and  political 
aspects  of  the  revolution  of  1848  ;  it  profoundly  portrays 
the  barricades  and  the  clubs,  the  streets  and  the  draw- 
ing-rooms :  it  shows  us  that  extraordinary  spectacle, 
the  bewildered  middle  class  set  face  to  face  with  the 
Revolution,  that  Revolution  which  their  fathers  effected 
sixty  years  before,  and  which  they  believe  has  ended, 
since  it  has  enriched  them  ;  which  they  are  indignant 
to  see  begin  again,  or  which  rather  they  no  longer 
recognise  when  it  menaces  them  in  their  turn,  and 
which  they  then  repudiate  with  horror  and  anger. 
There  perhaps  is  as  considerable  a  theme  as  the 
campaign  in  Russia."  ^ 

"  I  know  and  I  admire  the  richness,  superabundant, 
and  almost  equal  to  life  itself,  which  belongs  to  that 
tangled  thickset  novel.  War  and  Peace.  But  have  we 
none  of  those  novels  fashioned  on  the  complexity  of 
things  .  .  .  ?  Give  attention,  and  you  will  find  one 
in  les  Miserahles^  perhaps  even  more  will  you  find  one 
in  VEducation  sentimentale.  I  say  it  after  reflection  and 
with  confidence."  * 


'  Jules  Lemaitre,  Les  Contemporains,  Serie  vi.  p.  250. 
'  Ibid.,  p.  249. 


46  ART   AND   LIFE 

But  so  far  we  have  only  discussed  Flaubert's 
subject,  which,  as  Zola  well  said, 

"  is  one  of  the  most  original  conceptions,  one  of  the 
most  audacious,  one  of  the  most  difficult  to  succeed  in, 
that  French  literature  has  ever  attempted,  though  our 
literature  be  not  in  general  lacking  in  boldness."  ' 

Then,  turning  aside  from  the  theme,  he  says  what 
could  never  be  said  of  les  Miserables  or  of  War  and 
Peace,  that  it  was  brought  to  completion  "  with  that 
masterly  unity  and  concentration  on  executive 
detail "  in  which  Flaubert's  strength  lies. 

"  It  is  a  magnificent  marble  temple  raised  to  human 
weakness  and  incapacity.  Of  all  Gustave  Flaubert's 
works,  it  is  certainly  the  most  personal,  the  most  vastly 
conceived,  that  which  gave  him  most  trouble,  and  which 
will  long  be  least  understood." » 

Like  the  Parthenon,  this  "  marble  temple "  has 
quite  another  moral,  quite  another  aesthetic  value 
than  that  which  it  was  built  to  enshrine,  for  it  too 
represents  human  virtue,  human  insight,  at  their 
highest,  as  they  can  only  adequately  be  represented 
by  their  action,  in  their  creations.3     "  Lofty  equity," 

'  Emile  Zola,  Les  Romanciers  naturalistes,  p.  147. 
"  Ibid. ;  see  also  Appendix  VII.  p.  282. 
3  See  Appendix  III.  p.  271. 


THE   CRITICS   AND   THE   WORK       47 

"  immense  compassion," '  an  example  of  suffering 
with  and  for  others,  of  insistence  on  integrity  as  the 
touchstone  of  life's  value,  by  these  is  Flaubert 
Milton's  peer.  Their  presence  makes  I'Education 
sentimentale  grand.  The  central  harmonies  have 
been  denied  because  they,  like  granite  walls,  are 
coated  with  so  fine  a  mosaic  of  precious  cubes. 
Goethe,  in  his  Wilhelm  Meister,  gave  the  suggestion 
that  such  architecture  might  be  possible  :  but  his 
mobile  and  widely  enterprising  nature  could  not 
command  the  arduous  consecutive  application 
needed,  and  his  book  is  most  admired  for  accidental 
accretions,  like  the  incident  of  Mignon  or  the 
criticism  of  Hamlet,  which  form  no  part  of  what 
should  have  been  its  design. 

LA  TENTATION    DE  SAINT   ANTOINE^ 

La  Revue  de  Paris  has  published  the  earlier  ver- 
sions of  La  Teniation,  and,  in  a  footnote,  a  vision 
written  for  the  final  work,  but  rejected.  At  a  great 
distance  a  modern  city  appears ;  there  St.  Antony 
sees  Jesus  fall  under  the  weight  of  His  cross  and 
watches  Him  mobbed  by  those  who  execrate  in  Him 
the  cause  of  wars,  persecutions,  public  and  private 
hatreds,  all  Christian  history  ;  and  others  who  hold 
that  He  has  duped  them  into  vain  renunciations  and 

'  See  above,  p.  34.  =  See  Appendix  VIII.  pp.  285-289. 


48  ART   AND   LIFE 

mortifications.  He  is  left  a  shapeless  mass  in  which 
His  heart,  visibly  shining,  flickers  out  like  a  dip  in  a 
lantern.  Why  did  Flaubert  delete  this  vision  ? 
Perhaps  his  chief  reason  was  that  it  seemed  to  draw 
a  conclusion  that  no  one  has  any  right  to  draw.  It 
was  a  prophecy ;  a  future  event  was  represented, 
which  may  be  in  course  but  which  is  certainly  not 
complete.! 

What,  then,  is  the  significance  of  Christ's  final 
apparition  in  the  sun  ?  First,  the  historical  fact  is, 
that  Antony,  though  tempted,  died  a  saint.  The 
terrors  of  darkness  did  not  efface  for  him  the 
beatific  vision.  Still,  this  termination  may,  I  think, 
have  borne  for  the  writer  further  import. 

"  I  happen  on  Flaubert,  just  as  he  is  starting  to 
Rouen  ;  under  his  arm,  fastened  with  three  locks,  the 
cabinet  minister's  portfolio,  in  which  his  Tentation  de 
saint  Antoine  is  enclosed.  In  the  cab,  he  talks  to  me 
about  his  book,  of  all  the  trials  which  he  makes  the 
hermit  of  the  Theba'ide  undergo,  and  from  which  he 
issues  victorious.  Then  just  as  we  are  parting,  at  la  rue 
Amsterdam,  he  confides  to  me  that  the  final  defeat  of  the 
saint  is  due  to  the  cell,  the  scientific  cell.  The  curious 
thing  is  that  he  seems  astonished  at  my  astonishment."  ^ 

*  La  Premiere  tentation  de  saint  Antoine  has  since  appeared  in 
book  form  (Charpentier,  1908),  and  in  a  footnote  the  statement 
that  Flaubert's  niece  holds  this  vision  to  have  been  deleted  from 
fear  of  wounding  pious  consciences.  This  is  only  one  aspect  of  the 
reason  I  suggest,  and  we  know  that  where  he  thought  facts  fully 
bore  him  out  Flaubert  was  not  restrained  by  such  scruples. 

'  Journal  des  Goncourt,  tome  iv.  p.  352,  18  Octobre,  1871. 


THE   CRITICS   AND   THE   WORK       49 

It  will  be  remembered  that  Antony  sees  the  most 
rudimentary  forms  of  life,  cells  moved  by  cilia ; 
deliriously  cries  out,  "  I  have  seen  life  born,  move- 
ment begin,"  and  ends  by  desiring  to  become 
matter.  Then  the  sun  rises.  In  its  disc  he  beholds 
Jesus  Christ,  and,  crossing  himself,  returns  to  his 
prayers.  The  idea  that  life  is  not  the  expression  of 
an  idea  or  a  purpose,  but  itself  its  own  ultimate 
explanation,  makes  him  for  a  last  time  lose  self- 
control  ;  though,  almost  immediately,  daylight 
brings  him  repentance. 

Writing  books  and  saying  prayers  are  perhaps 
equally  futile  effects  of  aspiration  and  application. 
This  very  present  possibility  often  spoilt  Flaubert's 
joy  in  his  own  work.  The  end  is  out  of  sight,  and 
may  be  in  no  sort  related  to  our  efforts,  utterly 
disparate  and  disappointing.  Vital  energy  must 
needs  prosecute  its  daily  task,  replying  to  all 
optimists  as  Candide  and  Martin  do  to  Pangloss  : 
"Well  said,  but  we  must  work  at  our  garden,"  or 
"  Let  us  work  without  reasoning  ;  it  is  the  only  way 
to  make  life  bearable."  Inwardly  thus  admonished, 
Flaubert  went  on  writing,  and  Antony  resumed  his 
prayers. 

"  How  he  resigned  himself,  and  consented  to  turn  the 
mill  of  life  without  illusions,  is  well  known.  But  it  is 
less  known  .  .  .  that,  like  his  well-beloved  saint,  he 

B 


50  ART   AND   LIFE 

often  sought  consolation  and  a  strange  delectation  in 
mentally  caressing  temptations,  even  after  he  had 
judged  them  deceptive  and  blameworthy.  Casuists 
and  theologians  have  given  this  mania  the  name  of 
delectatio  morosa.  Delight  taken  in  the  insistent  and 
vain  evocation  of  illusory  pleasures,  is  intellectual  sin 
in  all  its  insidiousness."  ' 

Is  it  ?  and  if  so,  did  Flaubert  indulge  ? 

"This  great  consoler  of  life,  imagination,  has  a 
special  privilege,  which  makes  her,  when  all  is 
reckoned,  the  most  precious  of  gifts  ;  it  consists  in 
this,  that  her  sufferings  are  delectable.  With  her,  all 
is  profit.  She  is  the  foundation  of  the  soul's  health, 
the  essential  condition  of  gaiety.  She  enables  us  to 
enjoy  the  madness  of  the  mad  and  the  wisdom  of 
the  wise."' 

Renan  is  undoubtedly  right.  Imagination  is 
good,  like  thought,  like  health,  like  affection,  like 
humour  ;  most  men  do  not  get  enough  of  any  of 
these ;  they  starve.  Evil  exists  :  imagination  re- 
moves it  to  a  safe  distance,  makes  it  an  object  of 
contemplation.  Her  enchantment  bathes  remote 
and  intangible  things.  Our  prejudices  and  greeds 
are  out  of  place  there ;  put  to  silence,  like  vulgar 

'  La  Premiere  tentation  de  saint  Antoine :  Preface  par  Louis 
Bertrand,  p.  xxi,  1908. 

*  E.  Renan,  Lettre  a  M.  Gustave  Flaubert  sur  la  "  Tentation  do 
saint  Antoine,"  1874  :  Feuilles  dctachces,  p.  347. 


THE   CRITICS   AND   THE   WORK       51 

people,  they  drop  behind  ashamed.     Never  is  any 
mind  so  free  from  self-interest  as  in  contemplation. 

"  That  the  procession  of  humanity's  dreams  at  times 
resembles  a  masquerade,  is  no  reason  to  forbid  the 
representation  of  it." ' 

"  Among  us,  a  book  is  expected  to  instruct,  edify  or 
amuse.  .  .  .  The  prime  amusement  and  philosophic 
exercise,  contemplation  of  reality,  spectroscopy  of  the 
universe,  is  little  understood."' 

"  He  has  opened  a  brilliant  dream  before  the  imagi- 
nation. That  is  enough  ;  neither  archceologist,  nor 
moralist,  nor  historian,  nor  politician,  has  anything  to 
say.  Nothing  is  bad  in  the  way  of  art,  save  that  which 
has  no  style  and  no  shapeliness."  3 

Here  the  supercilious  accent  may  be  heavy,  but 
the  sense  is  sound.  In  plain  language,  what  does 
Kenan  call  "  dunghills"  ?  4  Why,  all  mankind's  faded 
speculations,  sear  religions,  dead  gods,  the  left-ofT 
wear  of  ancient  kings,  hopes  shed  by  mighty 
peoples,  stranger  than  our  strangest  dreams.  Flau- 
bert has  marshalled  them  all  before  "that  inward 
eye  which  is  the  bliss  of  solitude."  With  Saint 
Antony  we  wonder,  are  delighted,  laugh  to  our- 
selves, indignation  rouses  or   terror  stirs,  but   the 

'  E.  Renan,  Lettre  a  M.  Gustave  Flaubert  stir  la  "  Tentation  de 
saint  Antoiite,"  1874:  Feuilles  detachecs,  p.  349. 
'  Ibid.,  p.  346.  3  Ibid.,  p.  345. 

*  See  Appendix  VIII.  p.  287. 


52  ART   AND   LIFE 

enchantment  is  never  broken  ;  these  objects  keep 
their  distance,  they  touch  us  only  as  we  are 
moved  by  tales — 

"  Of  woful  ages  long  ago  betid." 

The  moral  effect  may  well  enable  us  to  resume 
our  tasks,  feeling  that  to  work  is  to  pray,  while 
Christ's  gaze  fills  Apollo's  sphere;  for  this  vision 
was  created  by  self-annihilating  work,  and  bears 
the  impress  of  the  greatest  human  dignity  in  its 
precision,  equity,  elevation. 

LES  TROIS   CONTES 

Very  few  voices  have  been  raised  against  les 
Trots  conies.  Brunetiere,  having  allowed  one 
masterpiece  to  an  author  whom  he  had  hastily 
classed  with  the  Naturalistes,  did  not  fail  to  bark 
like  the  good  watch-dog  he  believed  himself  to  be. 
However,  M.  Auguste  Sabatier,  as  early  as  1877, 
called  them 

"  three  statues  which  have  lived  and  under  whose 
white  envelope  a  human  heart  has  beaten.  Cry  '  A 
miracle  ! '  if  you  like  ;  discern  therein  a  personal  foible, 
I  agree  :  but  I  confess  I  took  interest  in  Herodias^ 
I  was  touched  to  the  quick  by  Felicite,  I  wept  while 
reading  the  last  pages  of  Saint  Julien,'" 


THE   CRITICS   AND   THE  WORK       53 

Readers  to-day  probably  stare  at  the  implication 
that  others  did  not  find  un  Cceur  simple  poignant, 
Saint  Julien  moving.  Renan  pronounced  this  last 
perfect,  and  M.  Paul  Adam  cries  : — 

"  He  (Saint  Julien)  liberates  himself  from  cruelty, 
from  murder,  from  blood,  from  wealth  and  power,  as 
the  ascetic  (Saint  Antony)  had  stripped  himself  of 
pagan  illusions  which  invited  him  to  believe  himself 
master  of  certainty.  .  .  .  He  becomes  a  ferryman,  and 
welcomes  a  leper  beneath  his  thatched  hovel.  To 
warm  him  he  stretches  his  body,  his  health  and  his  life 
against  the  innumerable  ulcers  of  the  poor  wretch. 
Then  the  leper  is  transfigured,  he  arises  Christ,  he  be- 
comes the  light  that,  in  manifesting  itself,  recompenses." 
Soaring  aloft,  "his  triumphant  divinity  carries  up  the 
man  who  had  sacrificed  himself  to  ease  another's 
misery.  Nothing  is  certain  except  the  beauty  of 
Christian  sacrifice.  ..."  * 

As  much  might  be  said  of  the  legend  as  given 
by  Saint  Antoninus.^  Such  praise  is  like  the  blame 
bestowed  on  /'  Education  or  Salammbo  as  common- 
place or  embroiled  in  blood  ;  an  appreciation  of  its 
theme  is  mistaken  for  criticism  of  the  work  of  art. 
A  little  child  recognises  objects  as  good,  nasty,  big 
or  little  even  in  a  picture  :  we  are  rightly  thankful 

'  Paul  Adam,  Le  Mystere  des  Foules,  Preface,  p.  xxiv,  1895. 
"  La  Legetide  de  saint  Julien  I'Hospitalier :  Compositions  par  L.  O. 
Merson.    Preface  par  Marcel  Schwob. 


54  ART   AND   LIFE 

when  a  critic  can  do  as  much  without  mistake. 
Flaubert  admired  and  portrayed  the  lovely  creations 
of  the  Christian  spirit,  but  their  beauty  was  only 
the  occasion  for  that  of  his  tale,  as  the  inadequacy 
of  the  middle  classes  had  been  for  the  beauty  of  his 
longest  novel.  In  like  manner,  lago,  as  an  admir- 
able part  of  Othello's  tragedy,  is  distinct  from  the 
cynical  humanity  of  such  a  man.  Herodias  for 
many  has  the  qualities  of  Salammbo  and  la  Tenta- 
tion  without  the  length  of  the  first  or  the  over- 
simple  mechanism  of  the  second.  In  his  introduc- 
tion to  it,  M.  Anatole  France  well  says  of  Flaubert :  ^ 

"  This  strong  man  sought  out  difficulty.  His  athletic 
nature  urged  him  to  wrestle  with  his  work.  This  time 
too  he  came  forth  victor  from  the  struggle  with  the 
angel." 

And  again  : — 

"  This  powerful  evocator  has  known  how  to  restore 
colour  and  form  to  the  vague  ghosts  of  history,  and  his 
tale  is  a  wonderful  poem." 

The  accumulative  effect  of  so  many  extreme  pro- 
nouncements has  by  now  perhaps  inclined  most  of 
those  who  have  perused  the  Appendices  to  accord 
Guy  de  Maupassant  his  point,  when  he  indignantly 
replied  to  carpers  : — 

'  Herodias :  Compositions  de  G.  Rochegrosse.  Priface  par  Anatole 
France,  pp.  xxviii,  xxvi,  1892. 


THE   CRITICS   AND   THE   WORK       55 

"  If  the  man  who  has  left  such  books  as  VEducation 
sentimentale  and  Madame  Bovary,  Salammho,  and  la 
Tentation^  without  counting  that  prodigious  masterpiece 
entitled  Saint  Julien  I'Hospitalier, — if  this  man  is  not 
a  genius,  I  am  totally  ignorant  of  what  genius  is."  * 

BOUVARD   ET   PECUCHET 

It  is  as  common  a  judgment  to  consider  Bouvard 
et  Peciichet  an  absolute  failure  as  to  see  in  Madame 
Bovary  Flaubert's  greatest  success.  The  subject  of 
the  one  appeals  as  little  to  the  vulgar  as  that  of  the 
other  greatly  fascinates  them.  Such  widespread 
contempt  needs  no  illustration.  What  will  interest 
in  this  case  are  the  rare  appreciations.  They  are 
sampled  in  the  Appendix  ;  2  here  I  will  merely  quote 
an  account  of  the  book  by  a  personal  friend  of 
Flaubert's  last  years  : — 

"A  witness  of  the  long  elaboration  of  Bouvard  et 
Pecuchet,  and  knowing,  I  believe,  better  than  any  one 
the  parent  idea  from  which  it  sprang,  and  which  I  have 
discussed  with  the  author  above  a  score  of  times,  I 
simply  wish  to  show  that  he  has  not  written  an  in- 
significant or  worthless  book.  ...  *  Quite  true,'  he 
used  to  say,  '  my  two  heroes  are  not  interesting  ;  but 
I  needed  them  as  they  are  :  my  arrangement  resembles 
a  chest  of  which   the  chapters  are  the  drawers,  and 

'  Le  Gaulois,  25  Octobre,  1881 ;  see  also  (Euvres  completes  de 
G.  Flaubert,  vol.  vii.  p.  xliv. 
»  See  pp.  290-292. 


56  ART   AND   LIFE 

there  are  too  many  drawers  ;  but  this  defect  belongs  to 
my  subject ;  I  have  tried  to  disguise  but  not  to  suppress 
it,  for  that  would  mean  suppressing  the  work  itself. 
Perhaps  there  is  no  name  in  any  language  for  what 
I  have  done  ;  but  as  I  cannot  prevent  its  being  taken 
for  a  novel,  I  should  like  folk  to  see  in  it  a  philosophical 
novel.  It  is  my  testament,  the  summing  up  of  my  ex- 
perience and  my  judgment  on  man  and  his  works.  .  .  . 
"  '  I  am  not  writing  a  popular  novel.  If  three  hundred 
people  in  Europe  read  my  work  and  get  a  glimpse  of 
its  import,  I  shall  be  satisfied.  The  second  volume  of 
notes  which  will  follow  the  novel  will  set  them  on 
the  track.'"' 

M.  Sabatier  goes  on  to  show  how  the  crazes  of 
Bouvard  and  Pecuchet  shadow  the  movements  of 
middle-class  society  from  the  close  of  Louis  Philippe's 
reign  to  the  end  of  Napoleon  the  Third's. 

"  Take  care  ;  when  we  pity  and  laugh  at  them,  our 
laughter  and  compassion  return  on  ourselves.  They 
fail  miserably.  But  have  we  done  anything  else  with 
all  our  reforms  and  all  our  revolutions  for  forty  years 
past  ?  Modern  Society  is  the  true  hero.  These  two 
good  fellows  are  essentially  idealists  ;  they  set  out 
every  time  with  confidence,  naive,  so  whole-hearted  is 
it,  in  the  power  of  human  reason  and  of  science.  They 
love  instruction  ;  .  .  .  a  thousand  times  their  criticisms 
are  reasonable  ;  .  .  .  they  are  really  the  most  enlight- 
ened and  the  most  generous ;  they  represent  initiative 

'  journal  de  Genh)e,  3  Avril,  188 1. 


THE   CRITICS   AND   THE   WORK       57 

and  progress :  .  .  .  yet  they  fail,  .  .  .  they  ruin  them- 
selves where  their  farmer  succeeds  and  grows 
fat.  .  .  ." 

We  can  but  mistrust  one  who  in  Flaubert's  in- 
terest continues  : — 

"  Let  us  at  last  draw  the  conclusion :  ^  Society  lives 
on  errors  and  on  prejudices  ;  do  not  take  them  away, 
for  that  which  you  offer  in  their  stead  cannot  possibly 
replace  them.  That  which  makes  society  strong  is  not 
the  truth,  nor  can  she  find  a  use  for  the  truth.  Man's 
life  needs  illusions,  customs,  traditions  ;  reforms  are 
catastrophes,  truth  leads  to  nothing,  for  the  void  alone 
is  true.     Silliness  of  sillinesses,  all  is  silly  here  below." 

After  this,  M.  Sabatier  impersonates  Flaubert 
again  :  "  Sad,"  he  would  reply  ;  "  enough  to  disgust 
one  with  life.  //  that  disgust  is  born  from  my 
book,  it  is  because  I  have  experienced  it,  and  before 
dying  wished  to  express  it."  Flaubert  may  easily  be 
imagined  using  some  such  words,  but  M.  Sabatier's 
conclusion  is  only  one  of  many  that  may  be  tied  to 
Boiivard  et  Pecuchet,  as  the  citations  in  the  Appendix  2 
from  MM.  Remy  de  Gourmont,  Jules  de  Gaultier, 
and  J.  C.  Tarver  indicate.  The  "if"  with  which 
Flaubert  began  was  not  forgotten,  though  its  signifi- 
cance escaped.  He  had  felt  that  disgust,  but  that 
was  not  the  only  thing  that  he  had  felt  or  expressed. 

'  See  pp.  85,  86.  "  Appendix  IX.  pp.  291,  292, 


58  ART   AND   LIFE 

The  accusation  of  Nihilism  has  been  lightly  made. 
Some  are  perhaps  convinced  that  no  fulfilment 
awaits  man's  aspirations,  but  it  is  not  the  same 
thing  to  believe  that  none  has  yet  been  achieved. 
As  M.  Levy-Bruhl  remarks,  his  mental  attitude,  like 
Montaigne's,  "  is  positive,  rather  sceptical."  Those 
who  regard  Bouvard  et  Pecuchet  as  an  attack  on 
science  as  greatly  overween  as  those  who  see  in 
la  Tentation  an  onslaught  on  religion.  For 
Flaubert,  science  was  a  discipline,  a  means  to  an 
end ;  its  rules  preserve  men's  minds  from  that 
corruption  by  pre-imagined,  pre-desired  goals  to 
which  they  are  so  prone.  He  realised  the  tentative 
and  confused  nature  of  theories  resulting  from 
actual  scientific  essays ;  but  when  the  method 
should  be  fully  grasped  "  it  would  above  all  be 
applicable  to  art  and  religion,  those  two  grand 
manifestations  of  idea,"  and  would  lead  by  degrees 
to  "the  art  of  the  future,  the  hypothesis  of  the 
beautiful  and  the  clear  conception  of  its  reality,  to 
that  ideal  type  towards  which  all  our  efforts  ought 
to  tend."  I  His  satire  strikes  that  common  futility 
which  thinks  to  advance  either  life,  art  or  worship 
without  method,  though  it  may  asperse  presumption 
hopeful  of  replacing  habits  or  beliefs  which  it  only 
sees  how  to  ridicule.  M.  Sabatier's  memory,  or  else 
his  comprehension,  was  at  fault,  in  putting  this  secon- 
*  Correspondance  de  G.  Flaubert,  Serie  ii.  pp.  338. 


THE   CRITICS   AND   THE  WORK       59 

dary  effect  first.     "On  the  lack  of  method  in  human 
inquiries  "  ^  had  been  thought  of  as  a  sub-title. 

The  end,  Hke  the  beginning,  is  out  of  sight ;  hope 
is  natural  since  the  universe  presents  an  objective 
to  man's  effort ;  depression  is  natural,  so  little  pro- 
portion obtains  between  his  means  and  this  task. 
"  To  work  is  the  best  way  of  scamping  life  "  ;  2  for 
to  call  even  the  most  thorough  application  adequate 
is  absurd.  There  is  no  escape  :  toil  we  must,  since 
everything  else  is  far  less  satisfying.  Persevering 
labour  has  its  reward ;  the  master-workman  feels 
that  he  is  in  the  way  of  truth,  he  achieves  faith  and 
renews  his  strength.  His  last  letter  glows  with 
triumph  : — 

"  I  was  right  ;  because  aesthetic  is  truth,  and  at  a 
certain  intellectual  level  (when  method  is  ours)  mis- 
takes are  no  more  made.  Reality  does  not  yield  to  the 
ideal,  but  confirms  it." 3 

Bouvard  et  Pecuchet  is  a  fine  exposition  of  all  that 
in  ourselves  and  in  society  besets,  hampers,  and 
defeats  work.  The  only  vengeance  which  the 
victor  took  on  his  enemies  was  to  describe  them  ; 
and  those  enemies  were  not  persons,  as  is  too 
often  assumed,  but  habits  of  thought.     Good-will, 

'  (Euvres  completes,  tome  vii.  p.  xix  ;  also  Correspondance,  Serie 
iv.  p.  348. 
'  Journal  des  Goncourt,  tome  i,  p.  307. 
3  Lettres  a  sa  niece  Caroline,  p.  523. 


6o  ART   AND   LIFE 

energy,  initiative  Bouvard  and  Pecuchet  possess  in 
a  remarkable  degree  :  but  more  is  necessary — 
method,  infinite  patience,  readiness  to  begin  all 
over  again,  time  after  time.  Nor  could  this 
necessity  be  better  shown  in  a  more  abstract 
form ;  Flaubert  had  analysed  and  rejected  that 
light  and  careless  play  with  general  ideas  which 
so  fascinates  "the  intelligent ," ^  "feeling  shame  to 
expend  on  it  attention  perhaps  sufficient  for  some 
good  thing,"  as  Montaigne  says  of  chess.  Abstrac- 
tions are  only  pregnant  in  particular  relations,  to 
re-word  them  avails  nothing ;  there  is  no  magic  in 
formulas,  they  must  be  shown  in  living  instances. 
Therefore  with  immense  pains  he  created  an 
aquarium  in  which  the  most  widespread  modern 
notions  could  be  watched  alive,  under  the  simplest 
conceivable  conditions,  in  an  unusually  clear  light, 
so  that  their  subtle  interrelations  with  common 
passions,  common  prejudices,  common  meanness, 
might  be  followed.  He  says,  "  Look,  you  will  see 
all  that  you  are  constantly  talking  about  rendered 
new  and  strange  by  immersion  in  the  inexpressible 
life  which  is  a  fundamental  condition  for  its  com- 
prehension." And  as  sea-monsters,  which  were 
repulsive  and  opaque  stranded  on  the  shore,  be- 
come beautiful  in  the  glass  tank  when  they  revive 
and  the  light  shines  through  them,  so  slimy,  ugly, 
*  See  Appendix  II.  p.  267. 


THE   CRITICS   AND   THE   WORK       6i 

clumsy  notions  receive  beauty  from  the  way  they 
are  shown  ;  its  clarity,  its  distinctness,  its  perspec- 
tives set  them  off  and  transfigure  them. 

Before  the  first  volume  was  complete  Flaubert 
died  :  of  the  second  next  to  nothing  has  been  pub- 
lished. In  it  Bouvard  and  Pecuchet  were  to  have 
copied  passages  which  had  struck  them  from  primers, 
text-books,  and  classical  authors,  thereby  revealing 
the  solidarity  of  faulty  action  in  trained  and  gifted 
minds  with  the  habits  of  brains  raw  and  ordinary. 

Indulgent  in  private  life,  his  pen  served  justice ; 
from  Chateaubriand,  whom  he  admired,  he  yet 
made  a  rich  collection  of  ineptitudes,  and  told 
Sabatier,  "  My  two  heroes  .  .  .  are  two  fools, 
nevertheless  I  want  them  to  be  loved  and  pitied."  ^ 
They  are  certainly  more  significant  than  the  Pick- 
wick Club,  and  though  they  find  us  less  readily, 
every  time  I  re-read  the  book  they  win  on  my 
affection,  and  I  laugh  more  heartily.  "  Endowed 
with  the  sense  of  veneration  .  .  .  their  life  is 
nothing  but  a  perpetual  comedy  which  they  play 
by  themselves,  a  continual  effort  to  love  and 
understand."  2 

They  were  to  have  copied  into  the  second  volume 
not  only  "  stupidities,"  but  three  more  stories  :  3  le 


'  Journal  de  Genh>e,  i6  Mai,  1880. 

^  Jules  de  Gaultier,  Le  Bovarysmc,  pp.  53,  35,  1892. 

3  (Euvres  completes,  vol.  vii.  p.  xxxvii. 


(52  ART   AND   LIFE 

Combat  des  ThermoPyles  (he  wanted  to  make  of  this  a 
kind  of  patriotic  narrative  simple  and  terrible,  that 
might  be  read  to  the  children  of  any  race  to  teach 
them  to  love  their  country) ; "  ^  une  Nuit  de  Don 
Juan,  for  which  a  marvellous  sketch  has  been 
published  ;  2  and  a  modern  version  of  the  Matron 
of  Ephesus.2  Thus  of  the  whole  which  Flaubert 
intended  we  have  less  than  half,  while  to  the 
other  belonged  the  most  attractive  items. 

A   FAIRY   DRAMA. 

Before  Flaubert's  death  La  Vie  moderne  published 
a  fairy  play  composed  in  collaboration  with  Louis 
Bouilhet  and  Charles  d'Osmoy  (who  are  under- 
stood to  have  disclaimed  any  real  share  in  the 
invention),  which  Flaubert  entirely  rearranged  and 
re-wrote  before  it  appeared.  If  well  translated  le 
Chateau  des  cceiirs  might  win  a  wider  public  here 
than  it  has  in  France,  where  fancy  and  make- 
believe  are  less  at  home.  Not  so  pretty  as  Peter 
Pan,  it  is  more  powerful.  On  its  appearance 
a  certain  Mr.  Lee  connected  with  the  Strand 
Theatre  wrote  for  permission  to  compose  inci- 
dental music  to  it ;  but  probably  his  manager 
could  not  satisfy  Flaubert  that  the  stage  direc- 
tions would    be    implicitly   obeyed  ;  their    exigent 

*  (Euvres  completes,  tome  vii.  p.  xlv. 
'  Ibid.,  xxxvii.  ^  ibid.,  xlv. 


THE   CRITICS   AND   THE   WORK       63 

character  seems  to  have  frustrated  more  developed 
negotiations  with  Paris  theatres,  and  could  only  be 
complied  with  where  expense  was  not  regarded. 
Another  difficulty  is  the  scene  at  the  banker's 
house,  for  that  the  wife's  adultery  should  serve 
her  husband's  swindle  passes  as  "  of  course  "  ;  and 
though  for  young  people  probably  incomprehen- 
sible, as  the  world  grown-up  is  wont  to  seem,  it 
might  shock  more  initiate  aunts  and  nurses.  Worse 
occurs  every  year  at  Drury  Lane,  yet  the  absence 
of  buffoonery  and  coarseness  must  make  this  more 
dangerous.  Flaubert's  "feerie  "  should  be  an  abso- 
lute refutation  of  the  charge  of  misanthropy  and 
lack  of  heart.  Hardly  a  critic  mentions  it ;  but 
Wagner  "  fell  in  love  with  it,  and  wished  to  make 
an  opera  of  it."i 

Yes,  critics  whose  reputations  stand  at  present 
highest  have  been  found  most  decided  in  dis- 
paragement of  this  great  master.^  Men  of  initia- 
tive and  energy  are  naturally  the  least  tentative. 
Like  Milton's,  Flaubert's  work  has  obvious  limita- 
tions of  mood,  of  temper,  though  he  never  passed 
what  was  careless  and  bad  as  Goethe  and  Shake- 
speare often  did.  M.  Jules  Lemaitre  well  says, 
"There    is    no    thorough    comprehension   without 

'  Charles  Lapierre,  Esquisse  sur  Flaubert  intime,  p.  52, 1898.    For 
Flaubert's  remaining  works  see  Appendix  X.  pp.  295-297. 
"  See  Appendix  IX.  pp.  292-294. 


64  ART   AND   LIFE 

love  : "  perhaps  there  is  not  even  passable  under- 
standing without  respect. 

Few  opinions  published  before  Flaubert's  death 
have  been  referred  to  :  they  are  either  well  known 
or  their  writers  already  forgotten.  Contradictions 
on  simple  and  gross  points  have  alone  been  chosen  ; 
more  subtle  discrepancies,  if  numberless,  are  often 
less  clearly  expressed,  and  therefore  harder  to  ex- 
hibit. Doubtless  the  conflict  is  rather  apparent 
than  real,  and  if  the  parties  to  it  forced  them- 
selves to  find  out  and  set  down  what  they  thought — 
no  more,  no  less — consent  would  accrue  to  those 
who  have  taken  most  pains.  Licence  in  assertion 
must  then  be  foregone,  and,  as  Flaubert  did,  many 
might  cease  to  please  themselves.  His  attitude 
recalls  Huxley's,  comparison  with  whom  (creative 
power  and  a  highly  developed  aesthetic  sense  being 
added)  might  help  better  than  that  with  Milton, 
which  causes  an  imported  syntax  and  elaborate 
diction  to  be  first  thought  of,  though  they  find 
no  parallel.  Yet  what  other  English  writer  owned 
at  once  such  erudition,  such  austerity,  such  love 
of  beauty  ?  Then  too,  if  succinct  and  straight- 
forward, the  French  master's  prose  is  also  musical, 
often  grandiose,  sonorous,  lofty. 

"  Coming  at  the  end  of  a  long  period  of  culture, 
resuming  in   himself  the   whole   intellectual   effort  of 


THE   CRITICS   AND   THE   WORK       65 

several  generations,  he  is  chock  full  of  things  and  of 
ideas.  His  sentences,  so  serried,  so  condensed,  are 
like  Virgil's  verses — Virgil  whom  he  loved  and  read 
passionately,  over  whom  '  he  swooned  with  pleasure 
[his  own  words]  like  an  old  professeur  de  rhetoriqtie.' 
And  again,  as  with  Virgil,  .  .  .  the  sense  of  humanity 
has  in  him  prodigiously  widened.  In  barbarous  periods 
he  will  comfort  noble  souls,  and,  by  their  means,  save 
the  highest  moral  conceptions  of  our  race,  with  the 
purest  form  of  its  genius  ;  and,  in  periods  of  renascence, 
to  recognise  in  his  pages,  as  in  an  ancient  poem, 
luminous  divinations  of  the  future,  will  give  delight."^ 

English  readers  may  ask,  "  How  does  Flaubert 
stand  in  relation  to  Balzac,  Hugo,  or  George 
Sand  ? "  The  reply  leaps  out,  "  He  is  that  Her- 
cules who  cleaned  out  stables  which  had  become 
impossible  through  their  neglect."  But,  imperti- 
nence apart,  I  dare  not  answer ;  only  those  great 
prolific  writers  have  not  so  drawn  my  study  on. 
For  me,  he  is  the  literary  event  since  Goethe. 
Wordsworth,  Keats,  and  others  have  been  as  choice, 
but  his  work  has  the  wider  range  and  more  of  it  is 
sound.  With  those  of  the  best  poets  alone  can  I 
rank  his  finest  pages,  which,  if  never  more  popular 
than  theirs,  will  surely  never  win  less  love,  less 
admiration. 

'  Louis  Bertrand,  Flaubert  et  I' Afrique :  Revue  de  Paris,  i  Avril, 
1900,  p.  600. 


SAMPLES 


Some  little  intelligence  is  gained  through  cultivating  imagination, 
and  much  nobleness  from  contemplating  beautiful  things, 

CEUVRES  COMPLETES  DE  G.    FLAUBERT,  tome  Vi.   p.   183 


SAMPLES 

PERHAPS  this  section  of  my  work  should  not 
close  without  an  attempt  to  give  the  English 
reader  some  notion  of  the  beauty  of  Flaubert's 
prose.  Translations  have,  indeed,  been  published, 
but  such  as  it  were  useless  to  refer  to  for  this  pur- 
pose. Flowers  culled  from  an  author,  who  held 
that  "  Style  lives  in  continuity  as  virtue  does  in 
constancy,"  like  woodland  leaves  in  a  vase,  have 
lost  their  variety,  number,  and  relative  positions ; 
and,  if  still  lovely,  seem  wistful  for  a  world  of  their 
own. 

Besides,  the  melody  of  English,  not  being  that  of 
French,  does  not  lend  itself  to  similar  effects,  so  my 
success  can  only  resemble  that  of  a  taxidermist  at  a 
Natural  History  Museum. 

Therefore,  to  take  the  dead  taste  out  of  the  reader's 
mouth,  I  have  added  a  passage  from  the  greatest  of 
English  prose  writers,  which  Flaubert  would  no 
doubt  have  got  by  heart  had  he  been  born  amongst 

69 


70  ART   AND   LIFE 

us  :  and  this  I  do  the  more  confidently  as  its  theme 
is  one  discussed  in  a  later  chapter. 

But  first  of  all,  let  me  try  to  fill  all  ears  that  can 
test  it  with  a  music  as  unforgettable  as  ever  any 
poet  has  created. 

The  Lament  of  his 

Egypte  !  Egypte  !  tes  grands  Dieux  immobiles  ont 
les  epaules  blanchies  par  la  fiente  des  oiseaux,  et  le 
vent  qui  passe  sur  le  desert  roule  la  cendre  de  tes 
morts.^ 

Lovers  in  Paris 

La  lueur  des  boutiques  eclairait,  par  intervalles,  son 
profil  pale  ;  puis  I'ombre  I'enveloppait  de  nouveau  ;  et 
au  milieu  des  voitures,  de  la  foule  et  du  bruit,  ils  aUaient 
sans  se  distraire  d'eux-memes,  sans  rien  entendre, 
comme  ceux  qui  marchent  ensemble  dans  la  campagne 
sur  un  lit  de  feuilles  mortes. 

Chateaubriand  in  the  East 

II  part  encore ;  il  va,  remnant  de  ses  pieds  la 
poussiere  antique ;  il  s'assoit  aux  Thermopyles  et 
crie  :  Leonidas  !  Leonidas  !  court  autour  du  tombeau 
d'Achille,  cherche  Lacedemone,  egrene  dans  ses  mains 
les  caroubiers  de  Carthage,  et,  comme  le  patre  engourdi 
qui  leve  la  tete  au  bruit  des  caravanes,  tons  ces  grands 
paysages  se  reveillent  quand  il  passe  dans  leurs  soli- 
tudes. 

'  For  translations  of  these  passages  see  Appendix,  p.  298. 


SAMPLES  71 

The  Close  of  Bouvard  and  PecucheVs  First  Day  in  their 
New  Home 

Deshabilles  et  dans  leur  lit,  ils  bavarderent  quelque 
temps,  puis  s'endormirent,  Bouvard  sur  le  dos,  la 
bouche  ouverte,  tete  nue ;  Pecuchet  sur  le  flanc  droit, 
les  genoux  au  ventre,  affuble  d'un  bonnet  de  coton,  et 
tous  les  deux  ronflaient  sous  le  clair  de  la  lune,  qui 
entrait  par  les  fenetres. 

The  Swallow 

A  swallow  neared  :  we  watched  her  flying  ;  she  came 
from  the  sea,  soared  up  softly,  the  fine  edge  of  her 
feathers  cleaving  the  fluid  and  luminous  air  in  which 
her  wings  swam  at  large  and  seemed  to  enjoy  the  entire 
freedom  of  their  play.  Still  she  mounted,  higher  than 
the  cliff-top,  and,  mounting  always,  disappeared. 

(Euvres  completes,  tome  vi.  p.  250 

Silent  Love 

Leon  would  not  know,  when  in  despair  he  left  the 
house,  that  she  got  up  in  order  to  see  him  in  the  street. 
She  concerned  herself  about  his  affairs  ;  she  furtively 
watched  his  features  ;  she  carried  through  an  elaborate 
fiction  for  a  pretext  to  visit  his  room.  The  chemist's 
wife  was  deemed  very  fortunate  to  sleep  under  the 
same  roof  with  him  ;  and  her  thoughts  constantly 
settled  down  on  that  house,  like  pigeons  from  the  Lion 
d'or,  which  congregated  in  its  gutters  to  bathe  their 
pink  feet  and  white  wings. 

Ibid.,  tome  i.  p.  146 


72  ART  AND   LIFE 


The  Rich  at  Carthage 

Three  times  a  moon,  they  had  their  couches  set  on 
the  high  terrace  which  ran  round  the  wall  of  the  court ; 
and  from  below  they  could  be  seen  at  table  in  the  open 
air,  buskins  and  cloaks  laid  aside,  the  diamonds  on  their 
fingers  wandering  over  the  meats,  and  their  large  ear- 
rings stooping  between  the  flagons — all  strong  and  fat, 
half-naked,  happy,  laughing  and  eating,  against  the 
azure,  like  great  sharks  rollicking  in  the  waves. 

(Euvres  completes  de  G.  Flaubert^  tome  ii.  p.  120 


Socialism  in  the  Revolution  of  1848 

Its  theories,  although  they  were  as  new  as  "  hunt 
the  slipper,"  and  had  for  forty  years  been  sufficiently 
debated  to  fill  whole  libraries,  yet  scared  the  middle- 
class  man  like  a  hail  of  aeroUtes  ;  he  was  indignant,  for 
every  idea,  because  it  is  an  idea,  at  first  provokes  his 
hatred,  and  later  on  seems  glorious  because  he  execrated 
it,  always  superior,  no  matter  how  mediocre  it  be,  to 
this  opponent. 

In  those  days  respect  for  property  reached  the  plane 
of  rehgion  and  became  difficult  to  distinguish  from  God. 
Attacks  on  it  appeared  sacrilegious,  almost  as  revolting 
as  cannibalism.  In  spite  of  legislation  more  humane 
than  had  ever  been  known,  the  spectre  of  '93  rose  up, 
and  the  shutter  of  the  guillotine  flashed  in  every 
syllable  of  the  word  republic  ; — yet  could  not  save  that 
government's  weakness  from  contempt.  France,  con- 
scious she  had  no  master,  set  up  a  wild  howl  like  a 


SAMPLES  73 

blind  man  groping  for  his  stick,  or  an  urchin  who  has 
lost  his  nurse. 

CEuvres  completes,  tome  iv.  p.  143 

The  Monks 

I  recall  a  journey  that  I  once  made  with  Ammon 
to  discover  solitudes  suitable  for  the  foundation  of 
monasteries.  On  the  last  evening,  side  by  side  we 
quickened  our  steps,  murmuring  hymns,  but  not  talking. 
By  so  much  as  the  sun  sank  lower,  our  two  shadows 
lengthened  out  like  twin  obelisks,  always  growing  taller 
and  seeming  to  walk  before  us.  With  pieces  of  our 
staves  here  and  there  we  planted  a  cross  to  mark  some 
site  for  a  hermitage.  Darkness  was  long  in  coming,  and 
lakes  of  black  shade  spread  the  earth  over  while  a  vast 
rosy  hue  still  occupied  the  sky. 

CEuvres  completes  de  G.  Flaubert,  tome  v.  p.  240 

The  Treasures  of  Herod  Antipas 

The  darkness  exhaled  a  breath  of  warm  air.  A 
curved  alley  led  downwards  :  they  took  it  and  came  on 
the  threshold  of  a  cavern,  of  greater  extent  than  the 
other  vaults  ;  its  further  end  opened  through  an  arcade 
in  the  precipice  which  on  that  side  defended  the 
citadel  A  honeysuckle  clung  under  the  roof,  but  its 
flowers  swung  down  full  in  light.  Flush  with  the  floor, 
a  trickle  of  water  murmured. 

White  horses  were  there,  perhaps  a  hundred,  eating 
barley  from  a  wooden  shelf  on  a  level  with  their  mouths. 
Their  manes  were  all  dyed  blue,  their  hoofs  in  mittens 
of  esparto  grass,  and  the  hair  between  their  ears  curled 


74  ART   AND   LIFE 

above  their  foreheads  Hke  a  periwig.  With  very  long 
tails  they  softly  beat  their  fetlocks.  The  proconsul  was 
struck  dumb  with  admiration. 

They  were  marvellous  animals,  supple  as  serpents, 
light  as  birds.  Starting  off  apace  with  their  rider's 
arrow,  they  would  overthrow  men,  biting  into  their 
vitals,  disengage  themselves  from  difficult  places  among 
rocks,  leap  ravines,  and  across  plains  keep  one  frantic 
gallop  up  all  day  long  ;  a  word  would  stop  them.  As 
soon  as  Ia9im  entered,  they  flocked  to  him  like  sheep 
when  they  see  the  shepherd,  and  stretching  their  necks 
forward,  gazed  at  him  wistfully  with  childlike  eyes.  By 
force  of  habit  he  threw  out  a  raucous  cry  from  the 
depths  of  his  throat,  which  set  them  prancing  gaily  : 
they  reared  up  hungry  for  the  open,  pleading  to  run. 
(Euvres  completes,  tome  vi.  p.  ii8 

These  passages  must  not  be  regarded  as  plums  ; 
well-made  books  cannot  be  rifled  of  their  best 
things  any  more  than  the  heart  may  be  torn  from 
a  living  man.  Translated  extracts  as  little  bring 
home  the  beauty  of  Flaubert's  prose  as  engraved 
patterns  of  stuffs  enable  you  to  picture  Neaera 
filling  the  coming  season's  dress. 

•'  In  verse,"  he  would  say,  "  the  poet  possesses  fixed 
rules.  He  has  metre,  caesura,  rhyme,  any  number  of 
practical  indications,  a  complete  technical  science.  In 
prose,  a  profound  feeling  for  rhythm  is  necessary,  an 
elusive  rhythm,  without  rules,  without  fixity;  inborn 
qualities  are  needed,  and  also  a  power  of  reasoning, 


SAMPLES  75 

an  aesthetic  sense  infinitely  more  subtle,  more  acute, 
that  the  movement,  the  colour,  the  sound  may  at 
every  instant  change  to  accord  with  the  varying 
theme.  When  a  man  knows  how  to  handle  that 
fluid  thing,  French  prose  ;  knows  the  exact  value 
of  words,  and  knows  how  to  modify  that  value 
according  to  the  place  he  gives  them ; — when  he 
knows  how  to  draw  the  whole  interest  of  a  page  to 
one  hne,  and  give  rehef  to  one  idea  among  a  hundred 
others,  solely  by  the  choice  and  position  of  the  terms 
which  express  it ; — when  he  knows  how  to  strike  with  a 
word,  a  single  word,  set  in  a  certain  manner,  as  with  a 
weapon ;  knows  how  to  overwhelm  the  soul,  fill  it 
suddenly  with  joy  or  fear,  with  enthusiasm,  chagrin  or 
anger,  by  merely  passing  an  adjective  beneath  the 
reader's  eye  ; — he  is  truly  an  artist,  the  paragon  of 
artists,  a  master  of  prose."  ^ 

Conjectures  Concerning  the  Invention  of  Devils 
from  ''A  Tale  of  a  Tub" 

"  And  whereas  the  mind  of  man,  when  he  gives  the 
spur  and  bridle  to  his  thoughts,  doth  never  stop,  but 
naturally  sallies  out  into  both  extremes  of  high  and 
low,  of  good  and  evil ;  his  first  flight  of  fancy  commonly 
transports  him  to  ideas  of  what  is  most  perfect,  finished, 
and  exalted  ;  till  having  soared  out  of  his  own  reach 
and  sight,  not  well  perceiving  how  near  the  frontiers 
of  height  and  depth  border  upon  each  other  ;  with  the 
same  course  and  wing,  he  falls  down  plumb  into  the 
lowest  bottom  of  things  ;  like  one  who  travels  the  east 
into  the  west  ;  or  Uke  a  straight  line  drawn  by  its  own 

'  (Euvres  compldtes,  tome  vii.  p.  liv. 


■j6  ART   AND   LIFE 

length  into  a  circle.  Whether  a  tincture  of  malice  in 
our  natures  makes  us  fond  of  furnishing  every  bright 
idea  with  its  reverse  ;  or  whether  reason,  reflecting 
upon  the  sum  of  things,  can,  Hke  the  sun,  serve  only  to 
enlighten  one  half  of  the  globe,  leaving  the  other  half 
by  necessity  under  shade  and  darkness  ;  or  whether 
fancy,  flying  up  to  the  imagination  of  what  is  highest 
and  best,  becomes  overshot,  and  spent,  and  weary,  and 
suddenly  falls,  like  a  dead  bird  of  paradise,  to  the 
ground  ;  or  whether,  after  all  these  metaphysical  con- 
jectures, I  have  not  entirely  missed  the  true  reason  ; 
the  proposition,  however,  which  hath  stood  me  in  so 
much  circumstance,  is  altogether  true,  that,  as  the 
most  civilised  parts  of  mankind  have  some  way  or  other 
climbed  up  into  the  conception  of  a  god,  or  supreme 
power,  so  they  have  seldom  forgot  to  provide  their 
fears  with  certain  ghastly  notions,  which,  instead  of 
better,  have  served  them  pretty  tolerably  for  a  devil." 

Swift,  as  a  rule,  used  his  Pegasus  for  a  cart-horse, 
since  it  was  strong,  and  he  sorely  importuned  by 
the  press  of  men  and  notions  in  need  of  condign 
punishment :  but  even  when  plodding  in  the  ruts, 
its  motion  betrays  the  mettle  in  which  it  here  revels. 
The  chime  of  "wing"  with  "  things"  is  probably 
the  only  blemish  which  Flaubert  would  have  detected 
in  the  marvellous  music  of  this  page ;  but  he  also 
acknowledged  that,  however  great  the  older  French 
classics  were,  it  was  only  quite  the  moderns  who, 
though  of  less  pregnant  virtues,  had  been  scrupulous 
in  removing  flaws. 


IMPERSONAL   ART 


It  should  be  our  earnes  endeavour  to  use  words  coinciding  as 
closely  as  possible  with  what  we  feel,  see,  think,  experience,  imagine, 
and  reason.  It  is  an  endeavour  which  we  cannot  evade,  and  which 
is  daily  to  be  renewed. 

Let  every  man  examine  himself,  and  he  will  find  this  a  much 
harder  task  than  he  might  suppose  ;  for,  unhappily'  a  man  usually 
takes  words  as  mere  make-shifts ;  his  knowledge  and  his  thought 
are  in  most  cases  better  than  his  method  of  expression. 

Goethe's   "  Maxims  and  Reflections,"  translated  by 
Bailey  Saunders,  p.  129 

Literature  first  transgresses  equity  by  not  conforming  to  cesthetic 
law,  which  is  nothing  but  a  finer  justice, 

CORRESPONDANCE  DE  G.  FLAUBERT,  Serie  iv.  p.  8 1 


I 


^  "I  believe  that  great  art  is  scientific  and  impersonal.  You 
f'should  by  an  intellectual  effort  transport  yourself  into  characters, 
not  draw  them  into  yourself.  That  at  least  is  the  method  ;  which 
amounts  to  saying  :  Try  to  have  a  great  deal  of  talent  and  even 
genius  if  you  can.  What  vanities  all  poetics  and  criticisms  are  ! 
And  the  self-assurance  of  those  gentlemen  who  write  them  knocks 
me  down.    Oh  !  Nothing  makes  them  uneasy.  .  .  !  "  ' 

THIS  description  of  great  art  has  been  more 
debated  than  understood ;  some  notion  of 
the  result  may  be  gathered  from  the  Appendix.  2 
Wherein  personaUty  consists  is  not  known ; 
many  conceptions  are  implicit  in  common  speech. 
Some  assume  that  there  is  no  absolute  element ; 
all  shifts  and  changes,  we  are  what  we  seem,  not 
what  shapes  our  seeming.  The  impress  of  most 
men  on  surviving  thought  is  gone  like  the  shadow 
of  a  cloud  from  the  sea  :  yet  a  few  ride  there 
like  stately  ships  which,  even  when  distant,  hang 

'  Correspondance  de  G.  Flaubert,  Serie  iii.  pp.  331  and  332. 
"  See  pp.  299-301. 

79 


8o  ART   AND   LIFE 

indefinitely  on  the  horizon — or  reappear  a  mirage 
in  the  sky. 

"A  beautiful  life,  it  has  been  said,  is  a  youth's 
great  thought  realised  in  man  full  grown."  ^  But 
could  the  lad  meet  his  destined  self,  theca  might  be 
no  recognition,  for  the  finished  work  never  has  been 
what  its  author  first  conceived  ;  even  when  neither 
transcending  nor  falling  short,  it  has  been  other 
than  he  meant.  The  same  and  not  the  same, 
planned  and  accidental,  permanent  and  fleeting, 
complex  fact,  admits  the  whole  gamut  between  these 
statements.  To  pretend  that  one  alone  is  compre- 
hensible may  amuse,  but  must  soon  seem  silly. 
'  Impersonal '  in  aesthetic  was  for  Flaubert  the 
equivalent  of  *  disinterested '  in  administration.  It 
did  not  mean  '  not  personal '  any  more  than  that 
excludes  taking  any  interest  or  than  *  unselfish ' 
implies  '  non-existent.' 

"  For  from  the  moment  you  offer  a  work  [to  a  publisher] 
if  you  are  not  a  knave,  you  believe  it  good.  You  ought 
to  have  made  every  possible  effort,  and  have  put  your 
whole  soul  into  it.  One  personality  cannot  be  substi- 
tuted for  another.  A  book  is  a  complicated  organism. 
Then  every  amputation,  every  change  operated  by  a 
stranger,  takes  from  its  integrity.  Though  it  might  be 
less  bad,  no  matter,  it  would  not  be  itself."* 

'  F.  Paulhan,  Les  Caracteres,  Introduction,  p.  23. 
"  Correspondance  de  G.  Flaubert,  Serie  iii.  p.  326, 


IMPERSONAL  ART  81 

"  His  worship  of  beauty  made  him  say :  '  Morality 
is  only  a  part  of  aesthetic,  yet  is  its  fundamental 
condition,'"^ 

"  Wit  is  not  enough.  Without  character,  works  of 
art,  whatever  you  may  do,  will  always  be  mediocre ; 
honesty  is  the  first  condition  of  art."' 

Man  believes  he  must  act  as  a  whole,  not  as  a 
fluctuating  chaos  of  desires  and  fancies.  He  must 
hold  himself  responsible  for  his  various  faculties 
and  be  able  to  pledge  their  action  when  he  will. 
Integrity,  common  honesty,  the  hope  and  founda- 
tion of  civil  progress  demand  impersonality  from 
the  artist,  as  justice  demands  fair  play  in  human 
dealing.  Should  beauty  be  created  to  seduce  ? 
is  it  a  cloak  for  self-indulgence,  or  armour  for 
malignity  ?  Nay,  such  perversion  spoils  it.  Besides, 
a  man  cannot  write  even  of  himself  save  relatively; 
then  he  need  attend  to  both  terms  of  each  com- 
parison. If  he  is  naturally  engrossed  by  home 
affairs,  effort  must  overcome  lukewarmness  on 
foreign  questions,  that  his  credit  where  all  can 
judge  may  stead  him  where  he  alone  has  infor- 
mation. His  own  advantage  will  not  let  him  see 
himself  magnified  and  others  dwarfed,  for  decisions 
so  ill  prepared  will  often  prove  erroneous,  nay,  even 
ridiculous.     There  must  be  no  pretence  of  knowing 

»  Correspondance  de  G.  Flaubert,  Serie  i.  p.  xxjcviii. 
»  Ibid.,  Serie  iv.  p.  299. 

e 


82  ART   AND   LIFE 

what  he  ignores,  nor  neglect  where  imagination 
might  be  nourished  with  matter  of  fact  or  chastened 
by  more  reflection.  What  these  imperatives  mean 
to  each  individual  will  depend  on  his  capacities,  on 
his  social  and  historical  position.  Learning  is  only 
y  necessary  to  him  who  sees  it  from  such  a  vantage 
that  he  longs  for  it.  So  much  of  what  we  can  know 
as  we  feel  we  ought  to  know,  is  alone  requisite  for 
sincerity.  M.  Dumesnil  has  amply  shown  how 
Flaubert's  capacities  and  situation  claimed  an  un- 
usual erudition.  In  assimilating  this  he  suffered 
the  throes  of  style.  To  attain  fine  cadences  he 
needed  his  subject-matter  at  hand  and  in  order. 
"  Image  or  sentiment  wholly  clear  in  the  head 
brings  the  right  word  on  to  the  paper."  ^ 
And  we  read  in  another  place — 

"  Perfection  has  the  same  characteristics  everywhere, 
X  precision  and  justness.  If  this  book  that  I  suffer  so  much 
over  writing  turns  out  well,  I  shall  have  established 
by  the  mere  fact  of  its  execution  the  following  truths 
which  for  me  are  axioms,  namely,  in  the  first  place  that 
poetry  is  purely  subjective,  that  there  are  not  for  literature 
aesthetically  beautiful  subjects,  and  that  therefore  Yvetot 
is  as  good  as  Constantinople  ;  and  consequently,  no 
matter  what  may  be  written  as  well  as  whatever  it  may 
be.  The  artist  ought  to  raise  everything:  he  has  within 
him  a  great  pipe  which  goes  down  into  the  bowels  of 
things,  into  the  lower  beds  j  it  sucks  up  and  sends  high 

*  Corresfondance  de  G.  Flaubert,  Serie  ii.  p.  331. 


IMPERSONAL   ART  83 

towards  the  sun  in  giant  spouting  fountains  that  which 
lay  spread  under  the  earth  and  out  of  sight."' 

Here  is  one  of  those  contradictions  with  which 
Flaubert  has  been  so  sagely  reproached.  How 
indeed  can  art  be  purely  subjective  and  impersonal 
at  the  same  time  ? 

Man  does  not  choose  a  universe;  one  is  offered 
to  study,  yet  the  temper  and  pains  with  which  it  is 
inspected  may  be  improved  ;  and  perhaps  as  much 
delight  has  been  found  in  understanding  finely  as 
was  anticipated  when  the  discovery  of  congenial 
things  was  hoped.  Style  is  ideally  the  ultimate 
manner  of  seeing  and  thinking  and  must  be  af)-  ^ 
proached  by  departing  from  present  ways.^  If  to 
apply  the  mind  both  shape  and  strengthen  it,  then 
those  who  at  times  perceive  and  think  splendidly 
will  grow  less  and  less  like  their  own  and  other 
mortal  selves.  In  them  and  not  in  the  object  of 
their  study  sojourns  consideration  free  from 
personal  concern,  which  can  only  be  conceived 
of  as  thus  subjectively  existing.  All  men  desire 
that  what  in  such  happy  hours  has  been  created 
may  outlast  the  anxious  and  greedy  make- 
shifts with  which  they  buy  off  necessity  or  waste 
their  time  and  strength.  Hence  works  of  art, 
though  subject  to  accidental  destruction,  are 
defended  by  widespread  if  often  ill-judged  efforts. 

*  Corresfondance  de  G.  Flaubert,  Serie  ii.  pp.  252,  253. 
'  Ibid.,  Serie  iii.  p.  199  ;  Serie  ii.  p.  71. 


II 


THE  authority  of  this  impersonal  attitude   in 
literature  will  grow  as  we  discover  the  like 
influences  elsewhere. 

"  Seekest  thou  great  things  ?  seek  them  not." 
"  I  lay  down  my  life,  that  I  may  take  it  again." 
"  Magnanimity  despises  all,  in  order  to  possess  all." 
"  He  that  loves  himself 
Hath  not  essentially  but  by  circumstance 
The  name  of  valour." 
"  Every  man  may  be  said  to  be  mad,  but  every  man 
doth  not  show  it." 

"  Egoism  gives  the  measure  of  inferiority ;  a  perfect 
being  would  no  longer  be  egotistical." 
"  Hide  thy  Hfe." 

"  The  man  is  nothing,  the  work  is  all." 
"  We  need  to  efface  our  own  opinions  as  well  as 
those  of  others  when  confronted  with  decisive  ex- 
periment." 

"  Let  us  prove  keen  and  honest  in  attending  to  any- 
thing which  is  in  any  way  brought  to  our  notice,  most 
of  all  when  it  does  not  fit  in  with  our  previous  ideas." 

84 


IMPERSONAL  ART  »S 

These  sentences  express  vividly  a  widespread 
sentiment  of  opposition  between  two  categories 
of  motive,  which  may  conveniently  be  called 
selfish  and  unselfish,  corrupt  and  disinterested, 
personal  and  impersonal,  or  subjective  and  objec- 
tive, according  to  the  field  of  action  pro- 
posed. In  psychology  and  history  phenomena 
lie  beyond  the  reach  of  thorough  investigation 
and  uniform  experiment,  therefore  the  attempt  to 
be  too  precise  must  here  be  unintelligent.  If  any 
man  doubts  the  existence  of  two  such  lines  of 
conduct,  one  effective,  the  other  ineffective,  no 
proof  is  possible.  Whether  or  no  choice  be  a 
necessary  illusion,  those  subject  to  it  cannot 
determine.  They  may  surmise  as  much, — perhaps 
they  should,  if  they  gain  thereby  a  greater  elas- 
ticity in  choosing ;  since  he  who  decides  for  ever 
is  under  a  self-imposed  illusion  that  he  must  not 
choose  again.  Flaubert's  "  The  supreme  ineptitude 
consists  in  wishing  to  conclude"*  is  another  way 
of  saying  "  Judge  not  that  ye  be  not  judged  : "  but 
choose  we  must  to  die  to  this,  live  to  that  tendency  ; 
starve  these,  feed  those  faculties ;  embrace  or  neglect 
one  of  two  opportunities. 

"  A  man  must  be  mad  to  undertake  such  a  task  I 
But  we  should  do  nothing  if  we  were  not  guided  by 

'  Correspondance  de  G.  Flaubert,  Serie  i.  p.  338. 


86  ART  AND  LIFE 

false  ideas — a  remark  of  Fontenelle's  which  I  think 
far  from  silly."  ^ 

These  choices  are  experimental  :  we  must  expect 
to  regret  and  correct  them ;  they  are  not  conclusions 
or  judgments,  only  the  short-sighted  so  regard  them. 
Saints  ever  need  some  form  of  salvation  by  grace, 
because  it  forbids  man  to  conclude  himself  saved 
or  lost.  The  last  shall  be  first;  let  those  who  stand 
beware  lest  they  fall.  The  sons  of  God  were  com- 
rades once  :  "  the  brightest  fell." 

Flaubert  rightly  says  : — 

"  Reality  is  always  misrepresented  by  those  who  wish 
to  make  it  lead  up  to  a  conclusion  ;  God  alone  may  do 
that.  .  .  .  Every  religion  and  every  philosophy  has 
pretended  to  possess  God,  to  measure  the  infinite  and 
know  the  receipt  for  happiness.  What  pride  and  what 
inanity !  I  see  on  the  contrary  that  the  greatest 
geniuses  and  the  grandest  works  have  never  con- 
cluded. Homer,  Shakespeare,  Goethe,  all  the  elder 
sons  of  God  (as  Michelet  says)  have  been  careful  not  to 
meddle  with  anything  save  representation." " 

But  if  some  still  think  the  assertion,  "  The  artist 
should  take  such  measures  as  will  make  posterity 
think  he  has  never  lived,"  3  mere  midsummer  mad- 
ness, Renan  has  yet  other  considerations  to  offer. 

'  Corrcspondance  de  G.  Flaubert,  Serie  iv.  p.  334. 

»  Ibid.,  Serie  iii.  p.  270. 

3  Ibid.,  Serie  ii.  p.  77  ;  see  also  Appendix  XI.,  p.  299. 


IMPERSONAL   ART  87 

"Anonymity  is,  for  a  book  destined  to  become 
popular,  an  immense  advantage.  Obscurity  of  origin  is 
the  condition  of  prestige  ;  a  too  clear  view  of  the  author 
belittles  the  work  and,  despite  ourselves,  from  behind 
the  finest  passages  obtrudes  on  us  a  scribe  busied 
polishing  phrases  and  combining  effects."* 

Not  only  books  that  in  the  same  sense  as  the 
Imitation  are  to  be  popular,  but  all  grand  works, 
benefit  when  dangers  run  in  their  native  homes  can 
be  forgotten,  so  much  so  that  divinity  has  received 
the  credit  of  some.  Even  self-reflections  like 
Montaigne's  triumph  by  an  estranging  attribute, 
when  we  wonder  how  any  mind  could  treat  its  soul 
so  like  a  third  party.  The  secret  of  strong  cha- 
racters has  often  lain  in  capacity  to  think  of  them- 
selves comparatively  unmoved.  It  will  appear  later 
that  Flaubert  recognised  originality  as  some  equiva- 
lent for  impersonality  ;  a  master  might  be  so  unlike 
others  that  neither  modesty  nor  oblivion  could  add 
the  prestige  of  more  wonder  to  his  work. 

*  Etudes  (thistoire  religieuse,  p.  317. 


Ill 


ART  selects  and  exhibits  perceptions  appealing 
for  their  recognition  to  a  chosen  audience, 
since  the  artist  must  divine  the  capacity  he  addresses 
and  the  suitability  of  his  means  of  expression  both 
to  it  and  for  rendering  his  theme.  The  rest  is 
experimental,  for,  as  Claude  Bernard  says,  "  an 
intuition  cannot  be  established  and  proved  save  by 
experiments " ;  ^  the  artist  must  track  beauty  as 
scientists  follow  up  the  immediate  causes  of 
phenomena.  Doubtless,  like  them,  he  has  to  work 
with  imperfect  instruments  under  variable  con- 
ditions, for  his  faculties  dilate,  contract,  and  are 
hindered.  There  is  not  even  relative  safety  till  that 
extreme  of  sensibility  be  reached  at  which  he  best 
responds  to  pleasure  and  is  most  revolted  by 
offence.  Discord  arrests  the  born  artist,  because 
the  means  of  exposition  are  sensuous  and  his  sole 
aim  is  to  exhibit  beautifully.  He  is  rightly  con- 
vinced that  harsh  accidents  prove  him  not  to  have 

'  L' Introduction  a  I'itude  de  la  niddecine  expirimentale,  pp.  56, 71. 

88 


IMPERSONAL   ART  89 

grasped  the  true  nature  of  his  initial  perception  ; 
otherwise  he  has  expressed  something  that  cannot 
be  harmoniously  rendered,  which  was  none  of  his 
business.  Yet  he  acted  on  faith  in  an  intuitive 
forecast  that  the  chosen  perception  was  suitable  :  to 
justify  this  he  must  conclude  that  what  he  has 
embodied  is  not  what  he  meant  to  embody  ;  then 
to  discover  differences  he  must  compare  the  copy 
with  the  original  anew,  which  leads  to  his  treating 
this  latter  with  yet  nicer  respect.  Thus  his  pas- 
sionate hunger  for  harmony  begets  effort  to  master 
every  inertness  in  respect  to  observation  or  analysis. 

"  I  declare  for  my  part  that  the  physical  overbears 
the  moral.  No  disillusion  gives  such  suffering  as  a 
rotten  tooth,  nor  can  an  inept  remark  exasperate  me  so 
greatly  as  a  creaking  door ;  and  that  is  why  an  asso- 
nance or  a  grammatical  kink  causes  the  best-intentioned 
sentence  to  bungle  its  effect."  ^ 

Everything  invented  so  as  to  fill  mind,  heart,  and 
soul  is  true.2  Inventions  are  not  mature  just  as 
facts  have  not  been  digested  till  the  whole  man  is 
alive  to  them.  Some  myths,  some  imaginations, 
some  statements  of  fact  have  set  poets  tingling  with 
complete  harmonies,  hence  arose  masterpieces ; 
proportion    dwells  between   their  parts,  music  and 

'  Correspondance  de  G.  Flaubert,  Serie  ii.  p.  383. 
'  See  p.  117. 


90  ART   AND   LIFE 

fascination  inform  all  their  details.  "  Poetry  is 
simply  the  most  perfect  speech  of  man,"  in  which 
his  organs  of  perception,  conception,  and  expression 
are  at  one,  and  Flaubert  called  their  union  style. 
To  discover  this  in  any  work  you  must  read  it 
perfectly  aloud — which  includes  faultless  thought 
and  feeling  about  its  theme.  Before  you  can  do  or 
at  least  imagine  this  your  opinion  on  its  beauty 
is  merely  hazarded.  The  criterion,  satisfaction  given 
to  thoroughly  trained  and  copiously  gifted  men,  is 
inborn,  absolute,  and  necessary.  "  Indeed,  the 
greatest  truths  are  at  bottom  only  sentiments,"  ^  as 
Claude  Bernard  said,  and  an  eminent  English 
physicist  is  even  bolder : — 

"Scientific  truth  or  aesthetic  beauty  are  but  different 
names  for  that  which  satisfies  the  instinctive  needs  of 
the  creative  imagination." » 

Unfortunately  he  has  not  emulated  the  French 
master's  caution,  but,  led  away  by  Oscar  Wilde's 
paradoxical  ingenuity,  has  overstated  his  case. 

"  A  great  man  of  science  invents  a  theory  and  life 
tries  to  live  up  to  it.  He  is  no  thick-skulled  rationalist, 
but  a  dreamer,  and  his  dreams  come  true.  He  dreams, 
and  messages  flash  across  the  empty  ocean  ;  he  dreams 

*  Introduction  h  I'dtude  de  la  mMecine  experimentale,  p.  48. 

•  Norman  R.  Campbell,  "  The  Meaning  of  Science  "  (the  New 
Quarterly,  October,  1908,  p.  503). 


IMPERSONAL  ART  91 

again,  and  a  new  world  springs  into  being  and  starts 
upon  the  course  that  he  has  ordained." 

Does  Mr.  Campbell  really  believe  that  their  planet 
did  not  exist  till  Adams  and  Leverrier  conceived 
that  its  creation  would  account  for  the  deflection  of 
Uranus's  orbit,  when  it  obediently  came  into  being  ? 
Rossetti  and  Burne-Jones  found  elements  for  the 
types  of  beauty,  which  they  are  said  to  have  created, 
among  actual  women,  selected  and  set  them  off  by 
well-calculated  arrangements  of  dress  and  hair ; 
these  were  copied  by  ladies  who  had  some  slight 
resemblance  to  the  type  thus  defined,  and  the 
intention  of  the  fashion  was  recognised  when  men 
found  themselves  constantly  reminded  of  a  beauty 
which  had  been  and  remained  extremely  rare.  It 
would  in  the  same  way  be  more  rational  to  think 
that  Balzac  taught  us  to  see  the  nineteenth  century 
than  that  he  invented  it.  Mr.  Campbell's  statement 
would  be  better  worded,  "  Scientific  truth  or 
aesthetic  beauty  are  but  different  names  for  that 
which  satisfies  man's  imaginative  instinct."  Genius 
creates  the  description,  not  the  object  described, 
and  our  nature  hankers  after  true  and  harmonious 
descriptions,  for  they  alone  consist  with  all  our 
impressions.  If  the  diverse  facts  concerning  a 
complex  object  raise  conflicting  feelings  we  are  not 
satisfied  ;  for  us  the  criterion  of  truth  is  the  integrity 


92  ART  AND  LIFE 

of  sentiment.  In  other  words,  all  parts  of  an  object 
with  which  we  are  concerned  must  have  compre- 
hensible interrelations  and  evoke  its  harmonious 
representation  in  our  minds. 

The  part  played  by  imagination  in  scientific 
method  cannot  be  better  described  than  by  Claude 
Bernard : — 

"  It  is  true  that  the  results  of  experiment  must  be 
recorded  by  a  mind  stripped  of  all  hypotheses  and  pre- 
conceived ideas.  But  we  must  be  careful  how  we 
proscribe  the  use  of  ideas  and  hypotheses  when  the 
work  in  hand  is  to  set  experiments  on  foot,  or  imagine 
means  of  observation.  Here,  on  the  contrary,  as  we 
shall  soon  see,  the  imagination  must  be  given  free 
course  ;  the  idea  is  the  principal  root  of  all  reasoning 
and  all  invention,  to  it  is  due  all  the  credit  for  every  kind 
of  initiative.  To  stifle  or  drive  it  away  under  pretext 
that  it  might  do  harm  were  folly  ;  all  we  need  is  to 
regulate  it  and  provide  a  criterion  for  it."  * 

'  Introduction  h  I'itude  de  la  mddecine  experimcntale,  pp.  40 
and  41. 


IV 


APART  from  the  truth  or  erroneousness  of  its 
positions,  this  impersonal  method  in  art  has 
been  rejected  as  impracticable.  The  effort  required 
is  held  to  put  felicity  out  of  question,  so  that  still- 
born harmonies  alone  can  result. 

"  Most  writers  sin  by  an  excessive  confidence  in  the 
infallibility  of  their  genius.  Flaubert  has  sinned  by 
excessive  distrust  of  his.  .  .  .  Goethe  said,  *  Poetry  is 
deliverance.'  .  .  .  Flaubert  might  have  said  on  the 
contrary,  '  Poetry  is  torture  '..."* 

But  this  is  misrepresentation  :  for  Flaubert  never 
denied  that  ease  and  joy  in  production  were  desir- 
able, or  had  belonged  to  great  masters.  His  letters 
tell  how  he  experienced  them  himself. 

"If  at  times  I  pass  galling  hours  which  cause  me 
almost  to  cry  with  rage,  I  so  feel  my  impotence  and  weak- 
ness, there  are  others  also  when  I  can  hardly  contain 

*  Paul  Bourget,  (Euvres  completes,  tome  i^  pp.  138  and  143. 
99 


94  ART   AND   LIFE 

myself  for  joy  ;  something  profound  and  super-volup- 
tuous overflows  me  in  hurried  gushes  like  an  ejaculation 
of  the  soul.  I  feel  myself  transported  and  intoxicated 
by  my  own  thoughts."  * 

However,  not  a  present  rapture,  but  a  child  sound, 
vigorous,  and  capable  of  a  long  career  was  what 
Flaubert  craved  for. 

"  He  had  an  exquisite  passion  for  what  is  properly,  in 
the  sense  of  ease  and  pleasure,  poetical  Luxury  ;  and 
with  that  it  appears  to  me  he  would  fain  have  been 
content,  if  he  could,  so  doing,  have  preserved  his  self- 
respect  and  feel  of  duty  performed  ;  but  there  was 
working  in  him  as  it  were  that  same  sort  of  thing  as 
operates  in  the  great  world  to  the  end  of  a  Prophecy's 
being  accomplished :  therefore  he  devoted  himself 
rather  to  the  ardours  than  the  pleasures  of  Song, 
solacing  himself  at  intervals  with  cups  of  old  wine."  ^ 

Thus  Keats  wrote  of  Milton ;  the  words  apply 
equally  well  to  Flaubert,  who  speaks  of  the  lyric 
opportunities  which  the  severity  of  his  tasks  allowed 
him  and  of  the  "  good  times  "  when  he  was  writing 
the  early  version  of  Saint  Antoine,  as  one  who  loved 
and  refused  himself  "  cups  of  old  wine." 

"  Taking  a  subject  which  left  me  entirely  free  as  to 

'  Correspondance  de  G.  Flaubert,  Serie  ii.  p.  i88  ;  also  p.  91. 
'  Notes  on  Milton's  Paradise  Lost, 


IMPERSONAL  ART  95 

lyricism,  movement,  extravagances,  I  found  myself  well 
within  my  nature  and  had  only  to  go  ahead.  Never 
again  shall  I  find  the  rapturous  abandonment  to  style 
that  I  then  gave  myself  during  eighteen  long  months."  * 

And  even  over  subjects  "which  stank  in  his 
nose  "  2  when  he  had  worked  himself  up  to  the  full 
pitch  he  would  spend  entranced  hours. 

"  No  matter,  well  or  ill,  writing  is  delicious — to  be 
yourself  no  longer,  but  to  circulate  through  all  the 
creation  of  which  you  are  speaking.  ...  Is  it  pride  or 
pity,  is  it  the  silly  overflow  of  an  exaggerated  self-satis- 
faction ?  or  really  a  vague  and  noble  religious  senti- 
ment ?  Anyway,  when  I  ruminate  after  experiencing 
those  delights,  I  should  be  tempted  to  put  up  a  prayer 
of  thanks  to  the  good  God  if  I  knew  He  could  hear  me. 
Be  He  blessed  then,  since  He  has  not  let  me  be  born  a 
cotton  merchant,  a  vaudevilliste,  a  man  of  wit,  &c. ! "  3 

Men  do  not  choose  what  they  shall  suffer  and 
enjoy  ;  they  are  capable  or  incapable,  can  train  and 
acquire  taste  or  can  not.  Though  our  sensitiveness 
may  be  controlled  in  various  degrees,  some  with- 
out effort  can  make  light  of  much  that  is  untoward, 
.while  others  with  great  self-mastery  rarely  obtain  a 
thrill  of  spontaneous  satisfaction  even  in  chosen 
surroundings.     Flaubert  was  as   enthusiastic  as  he 

*  Correspondance  de  G.  Flaubert,  Serie  ii.  pp.  70. 
'  Ibid.,  Serie  iii.  p.  331.       3  Ibid.,  Serie  ii.  p.  359. 


96  ART   AND   LIFE 

was  irritable.  He  had  the  good  fortune  to  be  ever 
up  and  down  with  a  vengeance,  so  that  his  was  an 
unusually  vivid  appreciation  of  both  the  goods  and 
the  ills  of  life.  In  love  with  art,  he  felt  as  continu- 
ally provoked  by  difficulty,  hindrance,  and  imper- 
fection, as  he  was  thrown  into  ecstasy  by  all  great 
examples  and  achievements.  Emulous,  yet  a  keen 
analyst,  his  pleasure  in  his  own  success  was  the 
least  likely  to  endure. 

Walter  Pater  grasped  this  question  more  firmly 
than  many  of  Flaubert's  countrymen  : — 

"The  unique  term  will  come  more  quickly  to  one 
than  another,  at  one  time  than  another,  according  also 
to  the  kind  of  matter  in  question.  Quickness  and  slow- 
ness, ease  and  closeness  {sic :  effort  ?)  alike,  have  nothing 
to  do  with  the  artistic  character  of  the  true  word  found 
at  last.  ...  If  Flaubert  had  not  told  us,  perhaps  we 
should  never  have  guessed  how  tardy  and  painful  his 
own  procedure  really  was."  ^ 

Flaubert  did  not  tell  us ;  he  told  his  intimates, 
who  for  our  good  thought  right  to  disregard  his 
declared  wishes.  The  proper  roles  of  ease  and 
pleasure  in  creating  art  can  be  endlessly  discussed  ; 
yet  reason  why  so  much  is  made  of  them  by 
brilliant  critics  may  be  suggested  without  a  wish  to 
dogmatise  where  circumstances  ought  to  determine. 

*  Appreciations,  1890,  Style,  p.  29. 


How  delightful  it  is  to  watch  a  child's  eyes  as, 
enchanted,  it  tilts  a  tray  on  which  beads  of 
quicksilver  "  roll  and  unite,  then  self-divide  anew  ! " 
M.  Anatole  France,  following  his  bright  and  mobile 
reflections,  exerts  a  similar  charm.  "  According  to 
me,"  Flaubert  had  said,  "  the  artist  is  a  monstrosity, 
something  outside  nature  ; " '  and  his  critic  cries, 
"  There  is  the  mistake.  He  did  not  understand  that 
poetry  should  be  born  naturally  out  of  life,  as  tree, 
flower,  and  fruit  spring  from  the  earth,"  2  to  which 
let  Renan  reply,  since  only  for  him  M.  France  uses 
the  deference  due  to  a  superior.  "  Scarcely  human, 
scarcely  natural.  Doubtless,  but  we  are  only  strong 
by  opposing  nature.  The  natural  tree  does  not  bear 
fine  fruit.  The  espalier  bears  fine  fruit,  that  is  a  tree 
which  is  no  longer  a  tree."  3  Yes,  all  civilisation,  all 
religion,  all  art   have   been    bought   at   that   price. 

'  Correspond ancc  de  G.  Flaubert,  Serie  ii.  p.  19. 

'  La  Vie  litteraire,  Serie  iii.  p.  305. 

3  Souvenirs  d'enfance  et  de  jeuncsse,  p.  341. 
H  97 


98  ART   AND   LIFE 

Flaubert's  correspondence  abounds  in  proofs  of 
how  he  loved  freedom,  wildness,  ease,  like  a  truant 
revelling  the  more  in  his  own  and  his  friends'  escape 
since  he  had  realised  how  the  crucified  tree  nailed 
to  the  wall,  like  the  man  nailed  to  the  tree,  were 
symbols  of  the  tax  too  often  levied  on  excellence. 
"  Not  ideal ! "  he  gibes  the  pilloried  orchard : 
"  but  necessary  "  ;  he  bows  his  head.  Fortified  by 
the  discovery  of  this  contradiction,  M.  France, 
taking  the  words  out  of  Brunetiere's  mouth,'  who 
might  have  found  them  on  Louise  Colet's  lips,^  says 
he  is  not  intelligent. 

Though  too  prudent  so  to  speak  of  a  great  artist, 
M.  Bourget  may  yet  have  led  M.  France  astray ; 
this  latter  has  told  us  how  he  then  thought  no  man 
was  ever  more  intelligent.3 

"That  which  because  it  moves  us  we  seek,  in  the 
work  of  great  old-world  poets,  is  the  impression,  on 
tangible  material,  of  this  soul-shape  forever  vanished; 
it  is  the  charming  line  of  the  little  leaf  of  a  morning 
reproduced  on  a  stone  which  remains,  and  which 
permits  us  to  muse  endlessly  over  it.  Such  is  the  truth 
against  which  Flaubert  rebelled  all  his  life  long."  4 

No  plant  ever  laboured  to  print  its  form  on   a 

'  Histoire  el  litterature,  tome  ii.  p.  131. 

"  Correspondance  de  G.  Flaubert,  Serie  ii.  p.  385. 

3  La  Vie  litteraire,  Serie  ii.  p.  10. 

♦  Paul  Bourget,  CEuvres  completes,  tome  i.  p.  146. 


IMPERSONAL   ART  99 

stone,  much  less  to  print  that  of  other  objects 
which  it  had  studied  and  loved,  tracing  the  beauty 
of  some  creating  harmony  by  the  arrangement  even 
of  those  deficient  in  grace.  The  choice  of  that 
image  reveals  the  untrustvvorthiness  of  the  writer's 
critical  conception  which,  as  Flaubert  said, 

"perforce  leads  to  talent  being  treated  as  negligible. 
The  masterpiece  has  no  longer  any  significance  save 
as  an  historical  document.  .  .  .  Once  literature  was 
believed  to  be  a  wholly  personal  affair,  and  works  fell 
from  heaven  like  aerolites.  Now  all  purpose,  every- 
thing absolute  is  denied.  The  truth  lies,  I  believe, 
between  the  two."  * 

Yet  M.  Bourget  is  able  to  blame  others  for 
"  more  and  more  repressing  in  their  books  the  study 
of  the  will."  2 

Now  after  "  toute  volonte  "  Flaubert  added  "  tout 
absolu."  Modern  critics,  in  tracing  developments 
and  seeking  origins,  are  prone  to  ignore  absolute 
values. 

"  The  feeling  for  beauty,  for  truth,  for  good  .  .  . 
these  sentiments  are  facts  revealed  by  study  of 
human  nature,"  3  says  a  great  scientist ;  and  he  has 
treated  one  of  them  as  "  primordial,"  and  "  imposed 

'  Correspondancc  dc  G.  Flaubert,  Serie  iii.  p.  196. 
'  Paul  Bourget,  (Euvres  completes,  tome  i.  p.  126. 
3  Dialogues  philosophiques,  par   V,.   Renan.      Berthelot's  reply, 
pp.  235  and  236. 


100  ART   AND   LIFE 

on  us,  apart  from  all  reasoning,  all  dogmatic  creed, 
all  idea  of  penalty  or  recompense" ;  as  "  never  again 
to  be  compromised  by  the  downfall  of  metaphysical 
systems."  ^ 

The  study  of  objects  in  series  may  cause  inborn 
and  necessary  perceptions  to  fall  into  abeyance. 
Since  no  one  thing  is  absolutely,  and  everything 
may  be  relatively  true,  good,  or  beautiful,  expec- 
tancy of  better  or  worse  influences  criticism,  as  it 
enters  into  a  nurse's  praise  or  blame.  Yet  where 
is  the  analogy  ?  No  work  of  art  ever  improves  or 
deteriorates  in  this  sense.  Terms  have  been  used 
of  objective  relations  which  are  only  proper  to  the 
living  subject.  The  historical  evolution  of  stylistic 
characters  is  not  regular  or  continuous  in  regard 
to  beauty,  and  any  stage,  independently  of  ante- 
cedents or  prognostics,  may  approach  most  nearly ; 
neither  source  nor  climax  has  the  better  chance.^ 
A  fervid  preference  for  mature  or  primitive  art 
springs  from  some  pathetic  fallacy.  Thus  his- 
torical study  betrays   and   deludes  the  critic.     "  A 

'  Dialogues  philosophiqiies,  par  E.  Renan.  Berthelot's  reply, 
p.  209. 

"  Chinese  notions  were  saner  ;  "  the  style  varied  with  the  subject," 
instead  of  with  the  age.  "  Nothing  is  more  unsafe  than  to  generalise 
about  the  style  of  a  Chinese  or  Japanese  artist ;  one  never  knows 
what  manner  or  model  he  may  not  adopt "  ;  a  primitive  one  for 
this  mood,  the  most  up-to-date  for  this  other  :  it  being  clearly  recog- 
nised that  the  excellence  attained  may  be  at  once  diverse  and  equal. 
See  L.  Binyon,  Painting  in  the  Far  East,  pp.  45  and  92,  1908. 


IMPERSONAL   ART  loi 

link  in  the  chain,"  he  says,  when  another  at  its  far 
end  is  alone  valuable.  Partial  resemblances  to 
childhood,  virility,  age,  seduce  him,  and  kindness 
for  his  own  dear  life  tunes  sentiment  in  regard  to 
utterly  disparate  things.  To  maunder  over  early 
or  late  failures  as  we  spoil  children,  or  flatter 
senility,  has  seemed  profound,  exquisite — nay,  even 
judicious.  Again,  as  the  colour-blind  perceive 
only  one  or  a  few  tints,  appreciation  of  subtleties 
in  character  or  psychic  developments  is  to-day 
a  fashionable  jaundice  indicative  of  insensibility 
to  completer  harmonies,  in  which  such  quality 
plays  but  one  of  many  parts,  and  is  sometimes 
subordinate.  This  lop-sided  admiration  soon 
tempts  an  artist  to  adopt  forms  in  which  he  is  at 
ease.  His  self-development  may  be  watched  most 
advantageously  when  he  is  freed  from  preoccupa- 
tion with  it ;  discipline  is  relaxed  ;  leaf  covers  leaf, 
though  fruit  be  sparse  and  never  ripen. 

We  can  all  correct  our  fellows  ;  even  M.  France 
accepts  Flaubert's  theory  for  this  purpose  : — 

"  To  set  the  same  value  on  what  every  man  does  for 
himself  as  on  what  one  alone  does  for  all  ;  to  weigh, 
as  Mr.  Laujol  appears  to,  the  nurture  of  a  child  against 
giving  birth  to  a  poem,  amounts  to  proclaiming  the 
inanity  of  beauty,  of  genius,  of  thought,  of  every- 
thing." ^ 

'  La  Vie  litteraire,  Serie  iii.  p.  301. 


102  ART   AND   LIFE 

Yes,  and  to  point  this  out  amounts  to  saying  that 
"poetry  is  not  born  naturally  out  of  life,  as  tree, 
flower,  and  fruit  spring  from  the  earth,"  i  or  as 
children  arrive  in  due  course. 

To  those  who  live  on  inherited  intellectual  and 
moral  capital  the  conviction  that  we  do  not  know 
or  feel  or  act  as  well  as  we  might  by  taking  pains 
may  easily  appear  a  little  ridiculous.  Even  when 
they  have  striven  in  youth  to  augment  their  fortune 
they  put  away  childish  thoughts  and  accept  them- 
selves for  what  they  are.  Their  gifts  push  forward, 
flower,  and  bear  almost  unconsciously  ;  and  who 
would  dispute  their  happiness  ?  But  if  genius 
remains  childlike,  as  is  sometimes  asserted  ;  if  to 
live  and  die  for  others  be  not  always  futile;  if 
barriers  that  checked  man's  advance  have  been 
taken  down  by  conscious  effort  and  voluntary 
suffering  ;  to  call  those  unintelligent  who,  instead 
of  spending  the  much  that  is  to  hand,  strive  to 
mine  or  mint  for  currency  the  more  that  is  still 
to  seek,  may  not  only  be  ungracious,  but  deserve 
that  lightly  bandied  disparagement. 

Great  powers  and  inherent  convictions  will  be 
obeyed ;  a  man  is  not  more  his  own  when  singled 
out  from  classes  and  masses  by  originality,  but 
becomes  the  servant  of  forces  we  cannot  measure. 
In  his  case  our  standards  cease  to  be  adequate ; 
'  La  Vie  litUraire,  Serie  iii.  p.  305  ;  see  above,  p.  97. 


IMPERSONAL   ART  103 

in  describing  him  our  science  meets  a  fact  of  which 
the  parallels  are  too  widely  scattered,  too  variously 
conditioned  for  safe  generalisation.  Here  is  love's 
happiest  use,  here  admiration  nourishes  while  those 
starve  who  contest  ;  to  receive  is  here  to  give,  since 
only  attention,  receptiveness,  and  respect  are  asked 
for. 


VI 


BELLOWING  and  chanting  his  periods,  Flau- 
bert gauged  their  fitness  to  be  heard,  uttered, 
and  delighted  in  by  the  human  organism. 

"  A  sentence  will  live  when  it  answers  to  the  needs 
of  respiration.  I  know  it  is  good  when  it  can  be  read 
out  loud."  ^ 

If  the  current  of  thought  is  embarrassed,  the 
effort  to  attend  causes  hesitation  ;  if  the  vocables 
do  not  lead  harmoniously  one  on  to  the  other 
delivery  is  impeded,  and  if  these  two  streams  do 
not  keep  pace,  the  voice  will  pant  after  the  sense 
or  the  thought  pause  while  a  sinuous  verbosity  over- 
takes it.  Both  must  rush  or  both  must  loiter,  or 
one  will  tax  our  faculties  in  excess  and  cause  a 
dislocation.  This  conception  was  rendered  yet 
more  fertile  by  its  application.  On  discovering  a 
flaw   or    hitch    Flaubert    refused    to    tinker,    and 

*  G.  Flaubert,  CEuvres  completes,  vol.  vii.  p.  lii. 
104 


IMPERSONAL  ART  105 

returned  to   his   idea   convinced   it   had  not  been 
thoroughly  grasped. 

"  As  to  correction,  before  carrying  a  single  one  out, 
re-meditate  the  whole  and  try  hard  to  ameliorate,  not 
by  excisions,  but  by  a  new  creation.  Every  correction 
ought  to  be  reasoned  ;  the  subject  should  be  thoroughly 
ruminated  before  a  thought  is  given  to  the  form  ;  a 
good  form  only  occurs  to  the  mind  if  the  illusion  of 
the  subject  has  become  an  obsession."  ^ 

When  his  conception  shall  live  in  him,  the 
musical  expression  will  gush  forth  and  be  found 
also  more  lucid  and  complete.  Hackneyed,  idle, 
or  vague  epithets,  purposeless  repetitions  of  sense, 
sound  or  rhythm,  conventional  circumlocutions,  he 
early  banished  altogether.  Vivisection  of  his  own 
work  and  of  acknowledged  masterpieces  had  shown 
that  they  could  always  be  replaced  or  omitted  with 
advantage.2  The  best  vocables  are  explicit  to  the 
brain,  while  they  satisfy  heart  and  voice,  so  that  the 
whole  body  is  in  tune  with  the  mind  when  it  utters 
them. 

"  He  intoxicated  himself  with  the  rhythm  of  verse 
and  the  cadence  of  prose  (which  should  also  lend  itself 
to  reading   aloud).      Badly  written   sentences  cannot 

*  Correspondance  de  G.  Flaubert,  Serie  ii.  p.  350. 
'  See  Appendix  XII.  p.  302. 


io6  ART   AND   LIFE 

stand  this  test;  they  oppress  the  lungs,  hamper  the 
beating  heart,  and  are  thus  outside  the  pale  of  vital 
conditions."  ^ 

He  was  not  alone.     Montaigne  had  said  : — 

"  When  I  see  (in  the  Latin  authors)  those  fine  forms 
of  explaining  \vhat;is  meant,  so  lively,  so  profound,  I  do 
not  say  'well  said,'  I  say  'well  thought.'  The  bravery 
of  the  imagination  lifts  and  fills  out  the  words,  pectus 
est,  quod  disertum  facit;  we  (French)  think  judgment 
lies  in  speech,  and  that  fine  words  are  as  good  as  full 
conceptions."  » 

Boileau:  "That  which  is  well  conceived  is  clearly 
deUvered."  3 

La  Bruyere :  "  Let  us  only  try  to  think  and  speak 
exactly,  without  wishing  to  win  others  over  to  our 
taste  and  our  feelings ;  that  is  too  vast  an  undertaking.4 

"Among  all  the  diverse  expressions  which  can  render 
a  certain  thought  for  us  only  one  is  good:  we  do  not 
always  come  across  it  when  speaking  or  writing,  never- 
theless it  exists,  and  a  good  judge  who  wishes  to  make 
himself  understood  finds  everything  else  feeble  and 
unsatisfying.s 

"All  an  author's  power  consists  in  defining  and  paint- 

'  Priface  aux  DemQres  chansons  de  Louis  Bouilhet:   (Euvres 
computes  de  G.  F.,  vi.  p.  i8i. 
'  Essajs,  Livre  iii.  ch.  v.  s  L' Art podtique,  Chant  Premier. 

*  Les  Caracteres  :  Des  Outrages  de  I' esprit,  par.  ii. 
s  Ibid.,  par.  xxvi. 


IMPERSONAL   ART  107 

ing  well ;  ...  to  write  naturally,  strongly,  delicately, 
you  must  express  the  truth.* 

"  Mediocrities  think  to  write  divinely,  a  fine  intelli- 
gence hopes  to  write  reasonably." ' 

Fenelon :  "  If  a  work  is  to  be  truly  beautiful,  the 
author  must  forget  himself,  and  allow  me  to  forget  him ; 
he  ought  to  leave  me  alone  in  full  liberty."  3 

Montesquieu :  "An  organ  more  or  less  in  our  mechan- 
ism would  have  necessitated  another  eloquence,  another 
poetry.  ...  If  the  constitution  of  our  organs  had 
rendered  us  capable  of  a  longer  attention,  all  rules 
which  proportion  the  disposition  of  the  subject  to  the 
measure  of  our  attention  would  no  longer  exist;  .  .  . 
laws  founded  on  the  fact  that  our  mechanism  is  of  a 
certain  kind  would  be  different  if  our  mechanism  were 
not  of  that  kind."  4 

Buffon ;  "  To  write  well  is  at  the  same  time  to  think, 
to  feel,  and  to  render  well ;  it  means  wit,  soul,  and 
taste  conjoined."  5 

Goethe :  "  Everything  depends  on  the  conception."  ^ 

This  last  the  French  master  amplified  thus  : — 

'  Les  Caracteres :  Des  Ouvrages  de  Vesprit,  par.  xv. 

'  Ibid.,  par.  xxix.  3  Lettre  a  I'Academie,  p.  63. 

♦  Essais  sur  le  gout :  Des  plaisirs  de  notre  ame. 

5  Discours  sur  le  style. 

"  In  order  to  form  a  correct  judgment  on  what  he  was  writing 
Buffon  would  have  his  manuscript  read  to  him  by  a  stranger.  If 
the  reader  became  embarrassed,  if  he  did  not  read  freely  and  har- 
moniously, Buffon  marked  the  passage  and  re-worked  it  later  on, 
then  put  it  to  the  same  test  again  "  (Antoine  Albalat,  Le  Travail 
du  style,  pp.  153  and  154). 

^  Quoted  by  Flaubert,  Correspondattce,  Serie  ii.  p.  132. 


I08  ART   AND   LIFE 

"The  more  beautiful  an  idea  is,  the  more  sonorous 
will  be  its  expression.  .  .  ,  The  precision  of  the 
thought  is  and  necessitates  that  of  the  word."* 

French  artists  have  been  perhaps  pre-eminently 
conscious  and  rational,  and  by  her  prose  has  France 
taken  highest  rank  among  the  nations  of  the  world. 
If  Flaubert  understood  the  statements  of  his  fore- 
runners as  well  as  he  continued  their  achievements, 
then  we  may  call  art  scientific,  because  it  implies  the 
discovery  of  the  physiological  conditions  which 
determine  aesthetic  approbations.  These  artists, 
following  the  same  procedure  as  men  of  science, 
intuitively  divine,  then  develop  the  hypotheses  thus 
formed  by  more  or  less  consequent  experiment. 
Taste  is  only  subjective  in  the  same  sense  that  all 
knowledge  is :  and  though  at  present  more  imma- 
ture than  some  branches  of  science,  yet  the  same 
method  that  has  given  them  consistency  must 
consolidate   its   essays. 

However,  the  end  of  art  not  being  physiological 
knowledge,  but  an  application  of  it,  whether  em- 
pirical or  reasoned,  art  is  not  that  science  any  more 
than  a  water  supply  is  hydraulics.  Results  may  be 
excellent  where  very  little  or  no  conscious  method 
has  been  exerted,  and  may  be  bad  where  great 
mastery  over  principles  has  wrestled  with  niggardly 
nature. 

'  Correspondance  de  G.  Flaubert,  Serie  iii.  p.  Ii6. 


VII 


THE  words,  "I  believe  that  great  art  is  scien- 
tific," had,  however,  a  further  significance  for 
Flaubert :  though  they  never  meant,  as  is  generally 
assumed,  that  to  represent  fact  is  her  sole  function, 
for  he  added,  "  I  regard  technical  details,  local 
information — in  short,  the  historical  and  exact  side 
of  things — as  altogether  secondary."  ^  Still  Flau- 
bert thought  that  artists,  in  preparing  their  subjects, 
might  apply  the  methodical  wariness  by  which 
accidental  and  personal  decoys  have  been  elimi- 
nated from  scientific  study. 

Perfect  docility  would  dispose  the  mind  con- 
tinually to  assimilate  new  impressions ;  but  men 
rest  on  old  association,  or  are  welded  into  it — 
then  their  only  escape  is  by  voluntary  renunciation. 
Effort  may  achieve  what  youth  in  a  measure  enjoys 
and  some  more  happy  natures  maintain — freshness 
in  pursuit  of  experience.  When  sight  dims,  instead 
of  the  old  horn  spectacles  of  prejudice  and  desire, 

'  Correspondattce  de  G.  Flaubert,  Series  iii.  p.  331,  iv.  p.  220. 
109 


no  ART  AND   LIFE 

let  us  employ  the  pure  lens  of  disinterested  examina- 
tion, polished  by  patience.  He  would  not  have  the 
artist  less  imaginative  or  inventive,  but  let  him 
use  better  material  —  as  Michael  Angelo  applied 
the  knowledge  of  anatomy  to  the  creation  of 
unheard-of  types  which  dwarf  mere  men.  This  if 
he  can ;  but  less  ambitious  designs  will  mature  by 
the  same  process.  Better  provided,  each  inventor 
has  a  greater  range  of  choice,  and  fixes  on  the 
best,  not  the  second  best,  feature  for  his  purpose; 
besides,  in  the  presence  of  those  vast  and  intricate 
vistas,  his  own  passions  and  peculiarities  take  a 
truer  proportion  and  seem  less  absorbing,  leaving 
him  free  to  sympathise  with  more  varied  existences.^ 
He  might  be  tempted  to  forget  himself  in  his  work.^ 
Learning  from  the  Mayor  of  Trouville  in  1853  that 
during  forty  years  there  had  only  been  two  con- 
victions for  theft  among  a  population  of  three 
thousand,  Flaubert  writes: — 

"To  me  that  seems  luminous.  Are  fisher-folk 
moulded  of  other  clay  than  labourers  ?  what  is  the 
reason  ?  I  believe  it  should  be  attributed  to  contact  with 
vastness  ;  a  man  who  has  ever  before  him  as  much  space 
as  the  human  eye  can  scan  should  draw  a  disdainful 
serenity  from  frequenting  it  (witness  the  prodigality  of 
sailors  of  all  grades,  careless  of  life  and  money).     I 

'  Correspondance,  Serie  iii.  p.  203.  '  Ibid.,  Serie  ii.  p.  298. 


IMPERSONAL  ART  ill 

believe  the  morality  of  art  should  be  sought  in  the  same 
direction." 

And  of  natural  science  he  cries  : — 

"  Look  what  stretches  of  facts  !  what  an  immensity 
open  to  thought  ! " 

Haunted  by  that,  who  will  filch  a  satisfaction  for 
his  vanity,  his  sentimentality,  or  his  comfort  ? 

In  this  sense  the  art  of  Homer  and  Shakespeare  is 
scientific ;  like  sailors  on  the  high  seas  they  gave  all 
and  were  whatever  they  might  be.  A  fundamental 
docility  in  respect  of  experience  was  the  air  by 
breathing  which  they  held  all  human  beliefs  lightly. 
Their  curiosity  was  animated  with  reverence  for 
things  observed  rather  than  with  personal  needs  and 
preferences.  This  temper  was  for  Flaubert  the  soul 
of  great  art,  by  which  it  is  akin  to  science.  M. 
Rene  Dumesnil  ^  set  passages  from  his  letters  side  by 
side  with  others  from  L' Introduction  a  I'etude  de  la 
medecine  experimentale  in  order  to  show  that,  like 
Claude  Bernard,  Flaubert  had  been  a  spiritual 
grandson  of  the  great  doctors  Bichat  and  Cabanis, 
and  such  parallels  may  be  extended.  ^  Though  no 
number  of  them  can,  of  course,  show  that  Flaubert 
could,  if  he  would,  have  written  some  such  perfect 

'  Flaubert :  son  heredite — son  milieu — sa  methode,  p.  294,  &c. 
'  See  Appendix  XIII.  pp.  304-307. 


lia  ART   AND  LIFE 

Introduction  to  Experimental  Method,  perhaps  they 
indicate  that  he  might  have  tabulated  the  main 
positions,  and  was  at  least  far  on  the  road  to  grasp 
their  full  bearing,  before  the  publication  of  Claude 
Bernard's  master  thesis. 

Critics  forget  what  hasty  outpourings  his  letters 
were,  written  after  the  day's  work  to  friends, 
arguing  with  them,  shouting  to  rouse  them  ;  eager 
to  make  notepaper  a  substitute  for  personal  com- 
munion, and  so  serve  both  as  relief  and  recreation. 

"  Often  Flaubert  gave  outrageous,  paradoxical,  or 
provoking  expression  to  his  ideas  :  so  much  so  that  he 
has  been  accused  .of  ferocity  or  immorality.  Their 
profound  justness  will  strike  those  who  relate  them  to 
the  social  period  of  their  enunciation  and  their  due 
place  in  the  mind  that  conceived  them."  ^ 

However,  for  us,  the  main  interest  of  this  parallel 
between  the  great  doctor's  and  the  great  writer's 
thought  lies  in  the  latter's  application  of  such  ideas 
to  aesthetic  ends.  He  regarded  experimental  pre- 
paration as  neither  necessary  nor  binding  on  every 
artist  :  the  realist  alone  must  suffer  from  lack 
of  it. 

"  And  then,  that  (scientific  preparation)  matters  very 
little,  it  is  secondary.     A  book  may  be  full  of  enormities 

'  G.  Lanson,  Pages  choisies  des  grands  ccrivains :  G.  Flaubert, 
Introduction,  p.  xxix,  1895. 


IMPERSONAL   ART  113 

and  blunders  and  be  none  the  less  very  beautiful.  Such 
a  doctrine,  if  it  gained  ground,  would  be  deplorable  ; 
I  know  that  in  France  above  all,  where  the  pedantry  of 
ignorance  is  rife.  But  I  see  in  the  opposite  tendency — 
which,  alas  !  is  mine — a  great  danger.  Study  of  the  coat 
makes  us  forget  the  soul."  ^ 

Writers  who  abjure  phantasy  can  be  scientific 
and  create  beauty  only  by  keeping  to  "probable 
generalities,"  2  and  by  displaying  "  more  logic " 
than  can  be  traced  through  "  the  hazard  of 
occurrences."  3 

"Characters  must  be  worked  up  to  the  height  of 
types  :  paint  that  which  will  not  pass  away,  try  to  write 
for  eternity."  < 

"  Special  cases  are  for  that  reason  false ; "  for 
exceptions  s  will  not  fuse  in  harmonies  based  on 
cause  and  effect  rather  than  on  the  author's  senti- 
ment. 

Flaubert  well  perceived  the  danger  of  vain 
curiosity,  which  hovers  round  such  odd  incidents  as 
must  lack  definite  significance  and  therefore  cannot 
yet  form  parts  of  intelligible  wholes.  Mysteries, 
unless  typical  of  some  ignorance  which  plays  a 
constant  and  recognised  part  in  human  life,  cannot 

'  Correspottdance  de  G.  Flaubert,  Serie  iii.  p.  103. 

'  Ibid.,  Serie  iii.  p.  340.  3  ibid.,  p.  376. 

*  Ibid.,  p.  209.  s  Ibid.,  p.  306. 
I 


114  ART   AND  LIFE 

beget  mature  emotion,  and  sound  impertinent  in 
any  sequence  of  vital  impressions.  Instead  of 
wooing  our  contemplation  they  rouse  us  from  it 
with  a  start.  Thus  Flaubert,  wishing  to  work  with 
conscious  observation  and  experiment,  is  anxiously 
on  his  guard  against  bootless  excursions  ;  and, 
devout  to  achieve  beauty,  is  not  content  to  surprise 
alone,  but  seeks  always  to  entrance  and  fascinate. 

uf  I  believe  .  .  .  you  may  interest  with  any  subject  :, 
as  to  creating  beauty  with  any,  I  think  that  too, 
theoretically  at  least,  but  am  less  sure."  * 

And  he  says  of  a  scene  in  Madame  Bovary  that 
"even  perfectly  succeeded  in  ...  it  will  never  be, 
beautiful  on  account  of  the  subject."  2 

In  order  to  nourish  our  sense  of  beauty, 
curiosity  must  not  be  merely  irritated,  but  attuned 
to  follow  a  definite  evolution,  and  return,  instead  oi 
fainting  exhausted  where  its  tether  becomes  taut 

"  I  try  to  think  well  in  order  to  write  well.  But  to 
write  well  is  my  end,  I  make  no  secret  of  it."  3 

The  risk  of  loss  is  thus  diminished  :  not  only  has 
an  outlook  been  achieved,  but  a  golden  stair  thither 
is  provided  by  perfectly  fitting  words.  Thus  the 
forms  of  enlightened  interest  may  become  a  racial 

'  Correspondance  de  G.  Flaubert,  Serie  ii.  p.  319. 
»  Ibid,,  p.  275.  3  Ibid.,  Serie  iv.  p.  221. 


IMPERSONAL  ART  115 

possession,  a  dance  of  thought.  Then  generations 
joining  in  will  be  carried  through  certain  figures  on 
lovely  rhythms  by  which  every  step  is  determined. 
The  beyond  not  yet  subject  to  vision  or  survey  will 
be  better  divined  and  explored  by  those  for  whom 
past  experience  is  consolidated  in  habits  effecting 
the  ends  proposed,  exhilarating  the  performers  and 
beautiful  to  witness ;  reading  aloud  might  be  all 
this.  Some  Greek  rhapsodist  or  actor  with  a  happy 
audience  may  have  touched  this  ideal.  Homer  may 
have  once  produced  his  due  effect,  and  style  been 
freed  an  hour  from  the  gaol  in  which  the  lack  of 
harmonious  training  and  exercise  universally  con- 
fines it. 

"  The  world's  injustice,  baseness,  and  tyranny,  and 
all  the  turpitudes  and  fetidness  of  existence  revolt 
you  ..."  (Flaubert  says  to  the  artist). 

"  But  are  you  quite  sure  of  knowing  life  ?  Have  you  been 
to  the  bottom  of  science  f  Are  you  not  too  feeble  for 
passion  ?  Let  us  not  accuse  alcohol,  but  our  stomachs 
or  our  intemperance.  Who  among  us  without  hope 
of  recompense,  without  personal  interests,  without 
expectation  of  profit,  constantly  strains  to  approach 
God  ?  Who  works  to  be  greater  and  better,  to  love 
more  strongly,  to  feel  more  intensely,  to  understand 
more  and  more  ?  " 

"How  can  we,  with  our  bounded  senses  and  finite 
intelligence,  reach  absolute  knowledge  of  truth  and 
good  ?  Shall  we  ever  grasp  the  absolute  ?  If  you 
want  to  live,  you  must  do  without  a  clear  idea  of  any- 


ii6  ART   AND   LIFE 

thing  whatsoever.  .  .  .  Life  is  so  hideous  that  the  only 
way  of  enduring  it  is  to  avoid  it.  And  it  may  be 
avoided  by  living  in  art,  in  ceaseless  search  for  truth 
rendered  by  beauty."  ^ 

To-day,  beauty  may  express  truth  more  directly 
than  in  myths  and  legends  :  for  of  them,  as  of  his 
licentious  tales,  La  Fontaine  might  have  said  : — 

"  The  beauty  and  grace  of  these  things  lie  neither  in 
truth  nor  in  verisimilitude,  but  in  the  manner  of  telling 
them  alone." ' 

Yet  beauty  is  "  the  splendour  of  truth  ? "  3  Yes, 
but  not  only  that  of  ascertained  circumstances. 
Sincerity — truth  about  what  a  man  thinks  and 
feels  even  when  he  is  ignorant,  deceived,  and 
vicious — nay,  even  when  he  is  jesting,  ridiculing,  or 
romancing — is  capable  of  admirable  expression.  It 
includes  the  best  that  has  yet  been  thought  of 
human  life.  Errors,  illusions,  dreams  have  in  the 
past  been  rendered  by  beauty,  often  doubtless 
charged  with  detached  or  half-apprehended  verities  ; 
now,  with  the  experimental  method  and  the 
historical  sense  added,  modern  artists  have  the 
opportunity  of  thus  rendering  the  probable  and  the 
known.     Solidarity  of  thought,  feeling,  and  expres- 

'  Correspondance  de  G.  Flaubert,  Serie  iii.  pp.  85,  i55>  85,  86. 
*  Preface  de  La  Fontaine  pour  la  seconde  edition  du  premier  livre 
de  ses  contes,  1665. 
3  Correspondance  de  G.  Flaubert,  Serie  iii.  p.  80. 


IMPERSONAL  ART  117 

sion  begets  beauty.  He  who  would  use  objective 
reality  in  art  can  never,  as  Flaubert  said,  have 
enough  sympathy  ;i  for  heart  and  soul,  as  well  as 
mind,  must  be  filled  by  the  facts  studied,  or  he  will 
fail. 

"  Everything  invented  is  true,  be  sure  of  that ;  poetry 
is  as  precise  a  thing  as  geometry  ;  induction  is  as  good 
as  deduction.  And  then  on  reaching  a  certain  level, 
mistakes  are  no  longer  made  about  all  that  belongs  to 
the  soul ;  without  doubt,  at  this  very  hour,  my  poor 
Bovary  suffers  and  weeps  in  twenty  villages  of  France 
at  once." " 

The  throes  of  style  are  caused  by  the  painful 
parturition  of  what  is  comprehensible  in  thought 
and  emotion  from  what  is  incoherent.  Flaubert 
felt  that  so  much  as  could  live  in  other  minds,  and 
augment  their  efficiency,  must  be  freed  from  all 
taint  of  matters  which  could  only  swell  prejudice 
and  hasten  corruption.  The  public  should  have  his 
best  after  it  had  passed  the  inquisition  of  his  most 
active  hours. 

"  He  did  not  lay  down  principles  in  order  to  give 
authority  to  his  natural  bent,  but  in  order  to  defend 
himself  against  it,  rectify  and  complete  it."  3 

'  Correspondance  de  G.  Flaubert,  Serie  iii.  p.  367. 
«  Ibid.,  Serie  ii.  p.  284. 

3  Pages  choisies   des   grands  icrivains :  Gustave  Flaubert,  par 
G.  Lanson,  Introduction,  p.  xxxv. 


tt8  ART   AND   LIFE 

A  large  amount  of  incomprehensible  jargon  passes 
unnoticed  in  the  work  of  those  who  address  their 
contemporaries  ;  but  to  win  a  hearing  from  men 
'who  will  use  quite  other  cant,  and  detest  the  old- 
fashioned,  a  writer  must  traverse  current  opinions 
for  a  better  view  of  his  object.  Though  he  dis- 
associate himself  from  those  who  are  called  "the 
intelligent  " — who  are  introducing  the  next  fashion, 
or  wielding  the  present  one  with  exceptional  fluency 
— he  may  approach  minds  of  far  distant  periods  and 
purge  his  conceptions  of  temporary  oddities.  The 
lasting  esteem  due  to  reason  is  worth  the  risk  of 
seaming  a  litde  out  of  date  to-day.  Those  who 
strain  after  immediate  effect  are  often  nettled  by 
those  who  suffer  that  their  work  may  live.  .  Alas ! 

"  the  strong  also,  the  great,  have  said  in  their  turn, 
*  Why  not  agitate  this  crowd  hourly  instead  of  making 
it  dream  later  on  ? '  And  they  have  climbed  on  the 
platform,  they  have  written  for  newspapers  ;  and  there 
they  are,  buttressing  with  immortal  names  ephemeral 
theories.  ...  To  me  it  seems  finer  to  reach  several 
centuries  ahead  and  to  set  beating  the  hearts  of  genera- 
tions to  come,  flooding  them  with  pure  joys  ;  who  shall 
tell  the  divine  thrills  that  Homer  has  caused,  all  the 
tears  that  the  good  Horace  has  sent  flowing  through 
remembrances  ? " ' 

^  Correspondance  de  G.  Flaubert,  Serie  i.  pp.  158  and  159. 


VIII 


"  T~)OOR  Flaubert  could  never  understand  what  Sainte- 
X"^  Beuve  tells,  in  his  Port-Royal,  of  those  solitary 
souls  who,  passing  their  whole  life  in  the  same  house, 
addressed  each  other  as  '  Monsieur '  to  their  dying 
day."^ 


Flaubert  had  written  to  Sainte-Beuve  : — 

"  It  is  precisely  because  their  ways  are  very  far  from 
mine  that  I  admire  your  talent  in  making  me  under- 
stand them,"* 

which  is  not  quite  the  same  thing.  However,  the 
reproach  which  immaculate  criticism  might  venture 
on  would  probably  be  that  here  implied  by  Renan. 
For  though  profound  respect  from  his  intimates 
rarely  failed  him,  Flaubert  perhaps  leaned  towards 
the  extreme  that  breeds  contempt  rather  than  that 

'  E.  Renan,  Souvenirs  d'enfance  et  de  jeunesse,  p.  339. 
'  Correspondance  de  G.  Flaubert,  Serie  iii.  p.  250. 
X19 


lao  ART   AND   LIFE 

which   regards   the    asking  of  a   service    between 
friends  as  "  an  act  of  corruption."  ^ 

To  explain  the  contrast  between  his  attitudes  in 
work  and  leisure,  he  says : — 

"  I  have  always  tried  not  to  belittle  art  for  the  satis- 
faction of  an  isolated  personality."  = 

Could  he  have  foregone  his  freedom  with  those 
whom  he  trusted,  have  tamed  his  exuberance  in 
private  as  in  public,  making  life  itself  a  work  of 
impersonal  art,  as  saints  have  done,  he  had  been 
more  irreproachable,  if  hardly  more  lovable. 

He  never  dared  to  compare  himself  with  the 
Shakespeares  and  Rabelais  who  are  assumed  to  have 
produced  with  ease, — not  even  with  the  Montaignes 
who  say  just  what  comes  into  their  heads.  Carefully 
and  respectfully  though  M.  Albalat  has  defended 
his  judgments,  he  has  not  done  justice  to  their 
coherence.  He  thinks  "  the  method  matters  little, 
for  to  re-work  again  and  again  proves  to  be  the 
necessity."  3 


"  Talent  consists  in  understanding  that  you  can  do 
better."  4 

"  E.  Renan,  Souvenirs  denfance  et  de  jeunesse,  p.  339. 

'  Correspondance  de  G.  Flaubert,  Serie  i.  p.  128. 

'  Le  travail  dn  style,  p.  10.  ■♦  Ouvricrs  ct  procedis,  p.  325. 


IMPERSONAL  ART  121 

Anxious  not  to  exclude  any  great  reputation,  he 
failed  to  grasp  the  catholic  nature  of  Flaubert's 
physiological  test.  The  nice  convenience  of  voice, 
heart,  and  brain  while  reading  aloud,  as  it  could 
only  be  applied  by  a  perfect  man,  would  only  dis- 
cover one  style  capable  of  adequately  varying  with 
every  subject.  Divergencies  between  actual  styles, 
not  derived  from  change  of  theme,  are  necessarily 
due  to  imperfections  in  writers.  Fortunately,  great 
men  have  owned  as  diverse  excellences  as  faults,  so 
that  true  eloquence  exists  in  their  successes,  though 
no  one  has  complete  control  of  it.  But  for  each 
man's  style  Flaubert's  method  holds  good,  though 
its  effect  will  vary  with  individual  limitations.  All 
good  writers  have  probably  used  it,  though  often 
unconsciously,  and  with  every  degree  of  thorough- 
ness. M.  Albalat  even  champions  some  whom 
Flaubert  consistently  admired  against  a  severity 
which  he  reads  into  his  theory. 

"  To  conceive  of  art  as  the  expression  of  a  collec- 
tive (?)  sensibility,  is  to  declare  the  inferiority  of  works 
of  personal  sensibility  and  of  reflective  autobiography 
such  as  Montaigne's  Essays^  Adolphe,  Rene^  Rousseau's  Con- 
fessions^ Hugo's  poetry,  certain  pieces  by  Lord  Byron. 
The  predominance  of  a  personality  in  a  literary  work 
seems  to  us  as  reasonable  as  the  non-intervention  of  the 
author,  and  as  powerful  works  may  result  from  treating 
only  of  yourself  as  from  treating  exclusively  of  others."  * 
'  Ouvriers  et  procedes,  p.  245, 


132  ART  AND   LIFE 

Yet  we  have  seen  that  M.  Albalat  admits  the  very 
best  works  to  be  all  impersonal.^ 
What  was  Flaubert's  contention  ? 

"  Poets  are  of  two  classes — the  very  great  and  the 
rare  ;  the  true  masters  sum  up  humanity  ;  preoccupied 
neither  with  themselves  nor  with  their  passions,  throw- 
ing their  personality  on  the  rubbish-heap  in  order  to 
absorb  themselves  in  those  of  others,  they  reproduce 
the  universe,  which  is  reflected  in  their  works,  sparlding, 
varied,  manifold,  as  a  whole  sky  is  mirrored  in  the  sea 
with  all  its  stars,  and  all  its  azure  ;  there  are  others 
who  have  only  to  create  in  order  to  be  harmonious, 
only  to  weep  in  order  to  touch  us,  and  only  to  occupy 
themselves  with  themselves  in  order  to  remain  with  us 
eternally  ;  they  could  not  perhaps  have  gone  farther  by 
acting  dififerently,  but  in  default  of  ampleness  they  have 
ardour  and  zest,  so  much  so  that  had  they  been  born 
with  other  temperaments  they  would  perhaps  have  had 
no  genius.  Byron  was  of  this  family,  Shakespeare  of 
that  other  ;  of  a  truth  is  there  anything  to  tell  what 
Shakespeare  loved,  what  he  betrayed,  what  he  felt  ? 
He  is  a  Colossus  who  terrifies,  it  is  difficult  to  believe 
that  he  was  a  man.  Ah  well,  fame  !  we  want  ours  to 
be  pure,  true,  sound  as  that  of  those  demi-gods  ;  we 
put  ourselves  out  of  joint,  we  strain  and  strut  to  reach 
their  level,  we  lop  away  from  our  talent  naive  caprices 
and  instructive  fancies  in  order  to  fit  them  into  the  type 
agreed  upon,  into  a  ready-made  mould  ;  or  possibly  at 
other  times  one  has  the  vanity  to  believe  that  it  suffices, 
like  Montaigne  and  Byron,  to  say  what  comes  into  head 
'  See  Appendix  XI.  p.  300. 


IMPERSONAL  ART  123 

and  heart  in  order  to  create  beautiful  things.  This  last 
method  is  perhaps  the  wisest  for  those  who  are  original, 
for  writers  would  often  have  far  more  qualities  if  they 
strove  less  after  them,  and  the  first  man  to  hand  who 
knew  how  to  write  correctly  could  make  a  superb  book 
of  his  memoirs,  completely,  sincerely  written.  Now 
then,  to  come  back  to  myself.  I  saw  I  was  not  of 
sufficient  stature  to  make  true  works  of  art,  nor  eccen- 
tric enough  to  fill  them  with  myself  alone  ;  and  not 
having  cunning  enough  to  procure  success,  nor  genius 
enough  to  conquer  glory,  I  condemned  myself  to  write 
for  my  own  satisfaction,  as  one  smokes  a  pipe  or  goes 
out  riding."  ^ 

Flaubert  had  an  "  inverted  hypocrisy,'*  2  as 
Sabatier  says,  and  willingly  gave  you  to  understand 
less  than  the  truth  about  his  motives.3 

In  any  case  perfection  pleased  him,  and  his  exer- 
cise was  a  rigorous  and  patient  effort  to  compass  it. 
He  would  invent  sequences  of  articulate  sounds 
which,  even  when  the  information  they  conveyed 
should  be  outgrown,  might  still  seem  worth  repeat- 
ing for  the  sake  of  hearing  such  melody  and  utter- 
ing with  so  much  grace  thoughts  buoyant  with 
sympathy.  Why  publish  what  is  less  well  written, 
unless  it  be  news  or  discoveries  ?  He  was  neither 
journalist   nor    scientist,    nor    even    an    historian. 

»  Correspondance  de  G.  Flaubert,  Serie  i.  p.  180. 

'  Journal  de  Geneve,  Mai  l6,  l88o. 

3  Correspondance  de  G.  Flaubert,  Serie  i.  p.  115. 


J24  ART   AND   LIFE 

Having  observed  matters  that  any  one  might  look 
into,  he  thereafter  retold  tales  as  Homer  and  Virgil 
had,  or  composed  a  new  one  out  of  scraps  as  Shake- 
speare sometimes  did.  Dances,  songs,  and  more 
ponderate  rhythms  outlive  systems,  catch-words,  and 
arguments  because  they  enchant,  they  occupy  the 
living  with  beauty  and  re-create  joy.  Harmony  is 
more  explicit  than  any  language ;  it  alone  informs 
the  soul,  begetting  the  temper  which  welcomes 
knowledge  and  achieves  peace.  In  spite  of  the 
grandeur  of  this  conception  Flaubert  was  not  con- 
sistently so  contemptuous  of  his  own  effort  as  in 
the  passage  quoted  above — at  other  times  he  is 
kinder  to  his  hopes  than  to  treat  them  as  a  self- 
indulgence. 

"  In  writing  this  book  [Madame  Bovary]  I  am  like 
a  man  playing  the  piano  with  a  lead  shot  tied  to  every 
finger-joint,  but  when  I  shall  know  my  fingering,  if  I 
hit  on  an  air  to  my  liking,  and  can  play  with  my  sleeves 
turned  up,  it  will  perhaps  be  good.  .  .  . 

"  /  believe  that  as  to  this  I  am  in  line,  what  you  create 
is  not  for  you  but  for  others.  Art  need  not  take  ac- 
count of  the  artist  :  so  much  the  worse  for  him  if  he 
does  not  like  red,  green,  or  yellow,  all  the  colours  are 
beautiful,  the  thing  is  to  copy  them."  ^ 

Flaubert  manfully  copied  dull  colours  while  pre- 
ferring bright  ones  ;  he  felt  that  subjects  imposed 

'  Correspondance  de  G,  Flaubert,  Serie  ii.  p.  128  ;  see  also  p.  91. 


IMPERSONAL   ART  125 

themselves  and  were  not  chosen ;  modern  life  in- 
vited observation,  bygone  and  foreign  existences 
baffled  it,  and,  as  Buffon  says  : — 

"  Human  intelligence  can  create  nothing,  and  only 
produces  when  fertilised  by  experience  and  meditation  ; 
knowledge  is  the  seed  of  its  productions."' 

Madame  Bovarv  and  I'Education  embody  know- 
ledge which  alone  could  impregnate  such  concep- 
tions of  the  imagination  as  Salammbo  and  Saint 
Antoine.  Not  to  have  repined  at  having  to  seek  his 
experience  in  such  colourless  dirt  would  have  been 
grander  :  but  those  to  whom  he  complained  were 
always  ready  to  listen,  and  many  of  us  are  delighted 
to  overhear. 

'  Discours  sur  le  style. 


IX 


As  Flaubert's  critics  have  but  little  followed  up 
this  idea  of  impersonal  art,  so  they  have  ill- 
obgerved  his  application  of  it. 

"  If  the  reader  does  not  draw  from  a  book  the  lesson 
which  ought  to  result  from  it,  that  must  mean  either 
that  the  reader  is  an  idiot  or  that  the  book  is  in- 
accurate. .  .  ."  ^ 

"  By  virtue  of  the  profoundly  just  dilemma  which 
he  thus  formulates,  Flaubert  always  abstains  from  ap- 
preciating both  the  events  which  he  exhibits  and  the 
characters  which  he  develops." 

M.  Dumesnil  is  not  alone  in  making  this  observa- 
tion ;  most  of  the  critics  I  have  quoted  acquiesce  in 
it  more  or  less  explicitly ;  yet  we  read  in  Madame 
Bovary : — 

" '  I  bear  you  no  ill-will,'  he  said. 

"  Rudolph  remained  silent.    Charles,  holding  his  head 

*  Corresi>ondance  de  G.  Flaubert,  Serie  iv.  p.  230. 


IMPERSONAL  ART  127 

in  both  hands,  spoke  again  with  faded  roice  and  the 

resigned  accent  of  a  limitless  grief. 

"  '  No  !  I  no  longer  bear  you  any  ill-will  I ' 

"He  even  added  a  great  comment,  the  only  one  he 

ever  made. 

"  '  The  fault  lies  at  fate's  door.'  "  ^ 

The  whole  book  is  written  by  one  of  Charles 
Bovary's  school  friends,  to  whom  Flaubert  not  only 
attributes  his  own  powers  but  his  self-restraint  in 
the  use  of  them.  This  very  decided  appreciation  of 
his  hero's  pronouncement  occurs  in  a  position  that 
gives  it  the  air  of  being  the  corollary  of  the  whole 
history.  Again,  where  will  you  find  a  more  definite 
appreciation  than  that  of  Dr.  Larivi^re  or  than  that 
of  Rudolf's  heart,  when,  after  reviewing  his  mistresses' 
letters,  he  says  to  himself : — 

" '  What  a  heap  of  rot ! ' 

"  Which  summed  up  his  opinion,  for  his  pleasures, 
like  the  boys  in  a  school  playground,  had  trodden  his 
heart,  till  nothing  green  grew  there  ;  and  that  which 
passed  over  it,  more  giddy  than  children,  never  even 
left,  as  they  will,  a  name  cut  on  the  wall."" 

Could  Rudolf  himself  have  written  that  ?  No, 
only  one  of  Charles  Bovary's  companions  could  so 
express  his  appreciation  of  such  a  man. 

'  (Euvres  computes,  voL  i.  p.  474.  '  Ibid.,  p.  275. 


^28  ART   AND   LIFE 

Not  pedantically  impersonal  we  found  his  theory, 
and  so  from  his  practice,  too,  pedantry  is  absent  : 
but  he  strove  to  remove  from  his  pictures,  apprecia- 
tions, and  aspersions  all  colour  of  ignorance,  passion, 
prejudice,  insolence,  negligence,  or  indifference 
that  he  found  deforming  his  first  impressions.  He 
felt  he  "  could  never  command  sympathy  enough  "  ' 
to  be  wholly  just  and  wholly  lucid. 

*  Correspondance  de  G.  Flaubert,  Serie  iii.  p.  376. 


X 


FLAUBERT'S  "  A  new  aesthetic  is  latent  in  every 
proposed  work,  which  it  is  our  business  to  dis- 
cover," I  is  indeed  the  flattest  contradiction  of  all 
arid  conformities.  Yet  for  him  perfection  had  every- 
where the  same  characters  of  power,  of  precision, 
and  of  inconclusiveness  ;  that  is,  it  never  fell  flat,  or 
struck  at  random,  or  overweened.  Feebleness,  aim- 
lessness,  and   pretension   always   mar. 

Man's  perceptions  are,  for  the  time  being,  seen 
independently  of  his  origin  and  destiny,  they 
appear  essential  and  necessary  just  as  much  even 
of  his  ignorance  does  ;  therefore  if  he  is  true  to 
them,  that  like  the  night  sky  will  serve  to  con- 
centrate and  set  off  their  light.  Blunders  and 
errors  will  not  outweigh  great  gifts  save  where 
the  individual  should  have  been  conscious  that 
he  might  and  could  have  avoided  them  :  for  in- 
sincerity spreads  like  blight.  George  Sand  and 
Tourgueneff     had     Flaubert's    hearty    admiration, 

'  Correspond ancc  dc  G.  Flaubert,  Serie  ii.  p.  380, 
K  129 


I30  ART  AND   LIFE 

though  he  could  have  passed  little  of  their  work. 
From  him  it  would  have  been  insincere.  They 
were  happily  blind  to  its  defects ;  and  the  power 
and  large  freedom  of  their  conceptions  is  often 
patent  in  spite  of  clumsy  construction  and  careless 
writing.  But "  Boileau  will  last  as  long  as  Hugo  .  .  . 
La  Fontaine  as  Dante," '  because  though  they 
were  not  so  richly  endowed,  they  embodied  what 
they  had  more  perfectly.  Great  men  carry  off  an 
ill  fit :  he  lesser  men  need  to  be  perfectly  dressed. 
Most  critics  have  found  that  Flaubert's  faults  might 
easily  have  been  trusted  to  his  ample  nature  :  he 
thought  otherwise,  and  though  born  a  downright 
Brobdingnagian  conformed  himself  to  soft-skinned 
and  squeamish  Lilliput  in  matters  of  toilette.  As  a 
consequence  he  has  been  adored  and  admired,  but 
not  always  by  the  same  people.  Little  wits  find 
the  giant  too  gross  for  love — and  we  know  the 
scrupulous  stylist  astonished  his  easy-natured  and 
prolific  comrades  by  wasting  so  much  effort  and 
conscience  over,  for  them,  imperceptible  niceties. 
Those  who  are  neither  too  great  nor  too  delicate 
might  make  sure  of  the  advantage,  had  not  several 
critics  like  Gulliver  proved  first  too  big  and  then  too 
little. 

»  Corresfondance  de  G.  Flaubert,  Serie  ii.  p.  194. 


REALITY   AND   THE    IDEAL 


Do  not  read,  like  children,  for  amusement,  nor,  like  the  ambitious, 
for  instruction.  Read  to  live :  compose  for  your  soul  an  intellectual 
atmosphere  emanating  from  all  great  minds. 

CoRRESPONDANCE  DE  G.  FLAUBERT,  Serie  iii.  pp.  329  &  330 

To  read  books  treating  of  grave  matters,  is  not  what  I  call  serious 
reading,  but  to  read  well-built  and  above  all  well-written  books, 
realising  for  oneself  each  author's  method. 

Felix  Frank,  "Gustave  Flaubert  d'apres  des  documents 

INTIMES  ET  INEDITS" 

Try  in  reading  the  great  masters  to  grasp  their  methods,  to  draw 
near  to  their  souls,  and  you  will  come  forth  from  study  in  a  blaze  of 
admiration,  Joyous.    You  will  feel  like  Moses  descending  from  Sinai. 
CoRRESPONDANCE  DE  G.  Flaubert,  Serie  iii.  p.  86 


I 


ART'S  functions  were  for  Flaubert,  as  for  all 
great  masters,  the  evocation,  development, 
and  perpetuation  of  beauty.  If  you  asked  him  to 
define  he  replied  by  telling  you  what  beauty  did 
for  him. 

"  He  reads  us  his  notes  ;  we  are  closeted  the  whole 
day ;  at  its  end  we  are  tired  with  running  over  all  those 
countries  and  picturing  all  those  landscapes. 

"  By  way  of  rest  the  reading  is  cut  in  lengths  by  short 
pipes  which  Flaubert  smokes  quickly,  and  by  literary 
dissertations,  contentions  entirely  opposed  to  the  nature 
of  his  talent,  show-off  and  ready-made  opinions,  and 
sufficiently  complicated  and  obscure  theories,  about  a 
beauty  not  local,  not  particular ;  a  pure  beauty,  a  beauty 
to  all  eternity,  a  beauty  in  the  definition  of  which  he 
loses  himself  in  a  maze  whence  he  escapes  wittily 
enough  by  this  phrase,  '  Beauty — beauty  is  that  by 
which  I  am  vaguely  exalted.'  "  * 

Flaubert   himself   said   of  his  friend  and   disciple 
Bouilhet — 

'  Journal  des  Goncourt,  tome  ii.  p.  159. 
133 


134  ART   AND   LIFE 

"  He  thought  art  should  be  seriously  treated  ;  the 
vague  exaltation,  which  it  aimed  at  producing,  sufficed 
to  give  it  moral  value  ; "  * 

vague,  or  rather  indeterminate,  because  it  must  be 
comprehensive. 

"  In  art  neither  to  provoke  laughter  nor  tears,  nor 
lust,  nor  rage,  seems  to  me  to  be  highest  (and  most 
difficult),  but  to  act  after  Nature's  own  fashion,  that  is, 
to  set  musing."' 

i 

Particular  emotions  grow  tyrannous  and  drown 
other,  often  exquisite,  perceptions  that  might  have 
set  them  off. 

"  There,  that  is  poetry  as  I  love  it, — tranquil  and  crude 
as  nature,  without  a  single  striking  idea,  and  every  line 
of  which  opens  an  horizon  to  set  you  musing  all  a  day 
long."  3 

Like  emotions,  ideas  easily  usurp  more  than  their 
due  attention.  Abstract  thought  seems  jealous  of 
the  five  ways  in  which  matter  carries  on  her  com- 
merce with  us.  General  definitions  only  exist  by 
ignoring  subtle  shades,  but  these  distinguish  indivi- 
dual objects.     Artists  cannot  be  rigidly  intellectual, 

'  (Euvres  Computes,  vol.  vi.  p.  178. 

'  Correspondance  de  G.  Flaubert,  Serie  ii.  p.  304. 

3  Ibid.,  p.  41. 


REALITY   AND   THE   IDEAL         13S 

since  logic  to  become  practical  must  yield  some- 
thing to  the  sensuous  illusion  in  which  life  is 
immersed.  Anatole  France  was  perhaps  feeling 
after  this  fact  when  he  made  the  clumsy  assertion 
that  Flaubert  was  unintelligent. 

"God  is  ever5rwhere  present  in  the  universe,  nowhere 
visible  :  so  should  an  author  be  in  his  work.  Since  art 
is  a  second  nature,  its  creator  ought  to  act  in  an 
analogous  manner  in  order  that  a  secret  and  infinite 
impassibility  may  be  felt  in  every  atom,  in  every  aspect ; 
the  effect  on  the  spectators  should  be  a  kind  of  dum- 
foundedness.  '  How  has  it  all  been  done  ? '  they  should 
say  :  and  let  them  feel  crushed  without  knowing  why. 
Greek  art  was  on  those  lines,  and  to  attain  its  end  the 
more  quickly,  persons  were  chosen  from  exceptional 
social  conditions — kings,  gods,  demigods ;  it  did  not 
interest  you  with  yourself,  the  divine  was  aimed  at."  ^ 

No  doubt  Keats  laboured  with  a  similar  experi- 
ence when  he  wrote — 

"  Poetry  should  be  great  and  unobtrusive,  a  thing 
that  enters  into  one's  soul,  and  does  not  startle  it  or 
amaze  it  with  itself,  but  with  its  subject." ' 

On  questions  of  beauty  the  authority  of  Keats 
and  Flaubert  is  as  good  as  any :  both  had  actual 

'  Corresfondance  de  G.  Flaubert,  Serie  ii.  p.  155. 

'  J.  Keats,  letter  to  T.  H.  Reynolds,  dated  February  3,  1818. 


136  ART   AND   LIFE 

experiences  in  view,  and  neither  was  sophisticated 
by  the  metaphysics  of  subject  and  object.  The 
import  of  their  words  is  practical.  Goethe,  at  times 
their  peer  in  aesthetic  sensibiHty  and  in  other  ways 
the  superior  of  both,  powerfully  grasped  the  same 
idea — 

"  I  for  my  part  should  be  glad  to  break  myself  of 
talking  altogether,  and  speak  like  creative  nature  only 
in  pictures."  ' 

"  Unhappily,"  Flaubert  cries  in  another  place, 

"  French  mentality  so  rages  for  amusement,  and  so 
imperatively  demands  garish  things,  that  it  little  lends 
itself  to  what  is  for  me  the  essence  of  poetry,  exposi- 
tion,— whether  effected  sensuously  in  pictures,  or 
morally  by  psychological  analysis."  =^ 

The  organism  that  shall  thus  represent  will  not  only 
receive  an  image,  but  find  it  living  room ;  more 
than  a  faithful  mirror,  its  sympathy,  like  a  still  lake, 
will  give  new  relations  to  objects  without  disturbing 
those  proper  to  them,  and  reflect  them  enhanced, 
more  luminous,  intangible.  Less  perfect  poetry 
shows  the  grain  of  some  current  or  has  a  ripple  : 
it  may  seem  more  lively,  but  less  completely  lives. 

'  Falk,  Characteristics  of  Goethe,  trans.  S.  Austen,  vol.  i.  p.  55. 
^  Correspondance  de  G.  Flaubert,  Serie  ii.  p.  252. 


REALITY   AND   THE    IDEAL  137 

Effective  as  the  tide  on  limp  seaweed,  the  full 
mood  bathes  our  impressions  and  memories,  dis- 
plays them  with  unforgettable  grace,  and  enables 
the  artist  enchantingly  to  dispose  sounds,  words, 
colours,  or  forms.  That  felicitous  access  is  as 
necessary  to  the  poet  as  the  deep  and  vital  water 
to  the  weed.  Before  perception  can  dilate,  the 
faculties  must  be  relieved  from  pressure  of  anxiety, 
greed,  business,  inquisitiveness,  or  any  insistent 
effort.  The  nice  poise  of  innumerable  tender  hosts 
should  entertain  the  fluid  aspects  of  all  things  con- 
templated with  unflagging  cordiality.  Therefore, 
like  perfect  expression,  the  whole  beauty  of  the 
world  exists  for  the  ideal  man  alone.  The  fine 
capacity  of  the  creative  atmosphere  or  temper  is 
tested  by  the  complexity  and  crudeness  of  the 
matters  which  without  strain  it  can  envelop,  while 
its  integrity  is  gauged  by  power  to  order  the  symbols 
of  expression  as  the  vibrations  of  musical  notes 
arrange  sand  on  a  plate  of  glass.  Are  not  mis- 
fortune and  suffering  the  ordeals  of  moral  fibre  ? 
Will  not  holiness  compose  feelings,  thoughts,  and 
deeds  in  lovely  pattern,  despite  harsh  circumstance  ? 
Human  success  must  ever  be  more  than  it  has  been  ; 
for  man,  not  to  advance  is  to  give  way.  "  How  will 
he  show  under  trial  ?  "  we  muse  about  one  with  a 
native  tact  for  behaviour, — "  Has  his  rich  patrimony 
been  kept   in   training  ? "  and  we  make  the  same 


138  ART   AND  LIFE 

reflection  about  an  artist :  "  Is  it  gift  alone,  or  that 
backed  by  mastery  ? "  Sometimes  the  heir  of  in- 
tegrity or  strenuousness  may  fail  to  achieve  the 
graces  and  decencies  that  enchant  and  give  con- 
fidence. In  every  case  personal  effort  has  com- 
pleted endowment  before  we  acknowledge  a  master 
in  art  or  life. 

As  the  radiance  of  a  star  must  encounter  a  sen- 
sitive nerve  before  it  can  be  perceived,  a  polished 
surface  before  it  can  flash  again,  and  would  other- 
wise for  ever  permeate  dark  space  in  vain, — so  un- 
admired,  unemulated  beauty  is  futile  as  eloquence 
poured  out  above  a  crowd  both  deaf  and  blind. 
Only  known  when  felt,  like  sound,  light,  heat ;  like 
form,  life,  goodness,  it  cannot  be  defined,  yet  as  a 
literary  quality  its  character  is  constant  as  that  of 
"  the  ideal  type  towards  which  all  our  efforts  ought  to 
tend."  I 

*  Correspondance  de  G.  Flaubert,  Serie  ii.  p.  338 


B 


II 


EFORE  he  commenced  Madame  Bovary  Flau- 
bert wrote : — 


"  Literature  has  lung  disease.  .  .  .  Christs  of  art  are 
needed  to  heal  this  leper."  * 

Several  critics  have  independently  thought  that 
he  answered  this  need. 

"  He  is  the  Christ  of  literature.  During  twenty  years 
he  wrestled  with  words,  he  agonised  over  phrases.  .  .  . 
His  case  is  legendary."" 

"  Such  a  method  only  allowed  him  to  attain  beauty 
by  a  long  ascent,  every  stage  of  which  was  an  affliction, 
and  implied  an  ordeal. "3 

"  Flaubert  conceived  of  aesthetic  creation  under  guise 
of  a  moral  effort,  and  every  one  of  his  sentences  is 
rigorously  a  sacrifice  of  pleasure  to  duty."  4 

'  Corresfiondance  de  G.  Flaubert,  Serie  ii.  p.  ii. 

'  A.  Albalat,  Travail  du  style,  p.  65,  1905. 

3  Rene  Dumesnil,  Flaubert,  p.  252,  1903. 

*  G.  Lanson,  Pages  choisies  de  G.  Flaubert,  p.  xxxvi,  1895. 

139 


I40  ART   AND   LIFE 

"  To  state  the  matter  simply,  he  is  our  operative 
conscience,  or,  as  may  be  said,  our  vicarious  sacrifice  ; 
animated  by  a  sense  of  literary  honour,  attached  to  an 
ideal  of  perfection,  that  enable  us  comparatively  to  sit 
at  ease,  to  surrender  to  the  age,  to  indulge  in  what 
lapses  we  may  find  profitable.  May  it  not  in  truth 
be  said  that  we  practise  our  industry,  so  many  of  us, 
at  comparatively  little  cost,  because  poor  Flaubert, 
producing  the  most  expensive  novels  ever  written,  so 
handsomely  paid  for  it  ?  "  ^ 

How  old  our  minds  are  !  "  Let  us  sin  now,  that 
grace  may  abound  "  ;  what  Gnostic  argued  thus  ? 
Happy  Mr.  James  !  Because  the  master's  work 
is  lucid,  are  we  absolved  from  having  a  definite 
meaning  and  clear  expression  ?  I  fear  nonsense 
is  still  as  futile  as  before  those  novels  appeared. 
There  is  in  all  this,  however,  something  that  takes 
from  M.  Mauclair's  apparent  wildness  when  he 
wrote  of  Flaubert,  "  The  pessimist  threw  himself 
at  the  foot  of  the  cross,"  and  his  "Work  yields 
but  one  conclusion — believe.  The  victory  of  the 
Christian  spirit  dominates  it  throughout."  2  Why 
should  we  not  charge  M.  Sabatier,3  sometime 
doyen  of  the  faculty  of  Protestant  Theology  at 
Paris,  and  M.  Brunetiere,4  defender  of  the  Pope, 
with  having  failed  to  recognise  a  primary  attitude 
of  the  great  ensample  of  their  sects,  when  assumed 

'  Henry  James,  Introduction  to  Madame  Bovary,  p.  xxv. 
'  See  Appendix,  p.  272.       3  Jbij,  p.  ^oo.       *  Ibid.  p.  268. 


REALITY   AND   THE    IDEAL  141 

in  a  new  field  by  a  man  who  communicated  with 
neither  Church  ? 

Flaubert  was  in  no  marked  sense  a  Christian. 
Though  an  exceptionally  affectionate,  generous, 
and  loyal  man,  neither  chastity  nor  charity  was 
by  him  pursued  for  its  own  sake.  Yet  in  his 
art  their  equivalents,  concision  and  impartial 
sympathy,  were  paramount ;  and  such  scrupulous- 
ness there  is  perhaps  rarer  even  than  in  the  social 
sphere.  When  we  slight  our  fellows,  revenge  or 
discontent  informs  us  of  the  fact :  but  when  reason 
and  mental  delicacy  are  flouted,  who  is  sufficiently 
concerned  to  take  offence  ?  Few  men  have  done 
more  by  self-discipline  :  yet  his  temper  may  have 
only  reaped  some  thirty,  while  his  art  profited 
a  hundredfold. 

"  In  religion,  it  was  with  the  temperament  and  views 
of  M.  Renan  (1875-1878)  that  he  most  sympathised. 
Like  the  latter,  he  delighted  in  the  religious  emotion 
and  disdained  formal  worship  and  dogma.  '  You  are 
a  Christian,'  he  would  say  to  me  at  times,  '  I  remain 
pagan  ;  I  am  religious  in  my  own  way.  Atheism  is  a 
great  stupidity  ;  but  my  God  is  the  unknown  God.' " ' 

Action  is  more  veracious  than  words;  there  is 
a  flavour  of  humbug  about  verbal  professions.    A 

'  A.  Sabatier,  Journal  de  Geneve,  16  Mai,  1880  ;  see  also  Corre- 
spondance  de  G.  Flaubert,  Serie  iii.  p.  143. 


14^21  ART   AND   LIFE 

rule  describes  a  series  of  instances  :  a  million  will 
claim  conformity  for  one  whose  life  is  in  line. 

If  Flaubert's  great  effort  proved  that  art's 
autonomy  implied  loving  obedience  and  emotional 
freedom  from  self-concerns,  similar  to  those  which 
Jesus  had  prescribed  for  His  kingdom,  perhaps  no 
nominally  subjected  province,  no  Church  was  in 
such  a  condition  as  ought  to  have  startled  him 
into  recognition  of  the  fact.  Besides,  he  may 
have  perceived  it,  but  refrained  from  the  pre- 
tentiousness of  insistence  ;  for  he  did  write  : — 

"That  is  what  Socialists  all  the  world  over  have 
always  refused  to  see  with  their  eternal  materialistic 
preaching ;  they  have  denied  suffering,  they  have 
blasphemed  three-quarters  of  modern  poetry  ;  Christ's 
blood  which  stirs  in  us — nothing  will  extirpate  that, 
nothing  will  drain  its  source  :  our  business  is  not  to  dry 
it  up  but  to  make  channels  for  it."  * 

A  later  letter  suggests  how  he  thought  art  could 
furnish  channels  for  vicarious  suffering. 

"Some  natures  do  not  suffer — are  people  without 
nerves  happy  ?  Yet  of  how  many  things  are  they 
not  deprived  ?  Nervous  capacity — that  is  to  say,  power 
to  suffer — augments  the  higher  you  trace  the  scale  of 
beings  ;  to  suffer,  to  think — are  they  one  and  the  same  ? 
Genius  may  be  after  all  only  a  refinement  of  pain — that 

'  Correspondance  dc  G.  Flaubert,  Serie  ii.  pp.  129  and  130. 


REALITY   AND   THE   IDEAL  143 

is  to  say,  a  meditation  on  the  objective  throughout  the 
soul.  Moliere's  melancholy  sprang  from  the  human 
stupidity  which  he  felt  comprised  within  him  ;  he 
suffered  from  the  Diafoiruses  and  Tartuffes  who 
crowded  into  his  brain  through  his  eyes.  I  think  the 
soul  of  Veronese  imbibed  colours  like  a  piece  of  stuff 
plunged  in  a  dyer's  boiling  vat ;  all  objects  appeared  to 
him  with  their  tints  so  heightened  as  to  arrest  his  gaze. 
Michael  Angelo  said  that  blocks  of  marble  trembled  on 
his  approach  ;  that  he  trembled  on  approaching  blocks 
of  marble  is  certain." ' 

The  reluctant  soul  must  receive  impressions,  how- 
ever importunate  they  may  be  (as  Christ  is  supposed 
to  have  accepted  the  sins  of  the  world)  or  confess 
that  since  it  cannot  carry  that  burden  the  in- 
transigence of  desire  and  aspiration  is  insane 
presumption.  The  ideal  must  comprise  the  real 
or  be  irrelevant.  Had  Veronese  been  unable  to 
use  the  tints  his  eye  discriminated,  had  Michael 
Angelo  lacked  power  to  turn  the  quarried  mass 
to  account,  had  Moliere  failed  to  provoke  laughter 
over  what  he  ached  to  perceive,  might  not  their 
impotencies  have  well  thought :  "  Better  be  a  dog 
without  taint  of  speculation  "  ? 

'  Correspondance  de  G.  Flaubert,  Serie  ii.  pp.  329,  330. 


Ill 


FLAUBERT  thought  the  Hterary  artist  should 
find  every  event,  transposed  as  by  an  illusion, 
lend  itself  to  verbal  description,  and  should  count 
no  sacrifice  great  by  which  that  pregnant  ecstasy 
was  fostered. I  With  what  pride  he  spoke  of  having 
been  finely  worked  up  1^  And  to  render  truth  by 
beauty  was  the  final  triumphs  when  *^  reality,  instead 
of  yielding  to  the  ideal,  confirmed  it."  4 

His  language  has  often  disconcerted  those  whose 
acquaintance  with  beauty  was  conventional  or  at 
secondhand. 

"  I  do  not  share  Tourgueneff's  severity  in  regard 
to  'Jack'  nor  the  immensity  of  his  admiration  for 
'  Rougon.'  The  one  has  charm,  the  other  strength. 
But  neither  is  in  the  first  place  preoccupied  with 
that  which  is  for  me  the  end  of  Art,  namely,  beauty. 
I  remember  with  what  violent  pleasure  my  heart  beat 

'  (Euvres  completes,  tome  vi.  p.  184. 

^  Correspondance  dc  G.  Flaujjfti,  Serie  ii.  p.  359  ;  iii.  pp.  192,  223, 
313  ;  iv.  p.  77. 
3  Ibid.,  Serie  iii.  p.  86.         *  Leltres  a  sa  niece  Caroline,  p.  523. 

144 


REALITY  AND   THE   IDEAL         145 

when  contemplating  a  wall  of  the  Acropolis,  a  quite 
bare  wall  (that  which  is  on  the  left  as  you  go  up  to 
the  Propylaea).  Well,  I  wonder  if  a  book,  quite  apart 
from  what  it  said,  might  not  produce  the  same  effect  ? 
In  the  precision  of  its  groupings,  the  rarity  of  its 
elements,  the  polish  of  its  surfaces,  the  harmony 
of  the  whole,  is  there  not  intrinsic  virtue,  a  kind  of 
divine  force,  something  eternal  Uke  a  principle  ?  (I 
speak  as  a  Platonist.)  Thus,  why  is  there  a  necessary 
relation  between  the  right  word  and  the  musical  word  ? 
Why  does  one  always  write  a  verse  when  one  con- 
denses one's  thought  too  much  ?  The  law  of  numbers 
then  governs  sentiments,  and  what  appears  external  is 
very  really  the  inside.  If  I  continue  long  at  this  rate 
I  shall  poke  my  linger  in  my  own  eye :  for,  from  another 
point  of  view,  art  ought  to  take  its  ease  {etre  bon- 
homme) ;  or,  rather,  art  is  what  you  can  make  it,  we 
are  not  free.  Each  follows  his  own  course  willy-nilly. 
In  short,  your  Cruchard  no  longer  has  a  single  idea  in 
his  head  that  stands  on  its  feet."  * 

Brunetiere  quoted  the  first  half  of  this  passage 
by  itself.  His  comment  was,  "  This  means  that 
words  need  not  express  ideas,  and  that  if  you 
group  them  somewhat  harmoniously,  without 
troubling  further  about  their  significance,  the  end 
of  art  is  attained.  Or,  if  you  like  it  better,  it 
means  that  thought  is  no  help  to  a  writer,  and  is 
even  a  hindrance."  2 

'  Correspondance  de  G.  Flaubert,  Serie  iv.  p.  227. 
'  Brunetiere,  Histoire  et  Litterature,  vol.  ii.  p.  144. 


146  ART  AND  LIFE 

Such  gross  misrepresentation  would  be  dishonest 
in  one  who  was  not  passion's  slave.  The  passage 
really  develops  Buffon's. 

"  Now  a  style  is  only  beautiful  by  the  vast  number  of 
truths  which  it  presents.  All  the  intellectual  beauties 
which  are  found  in  it,  all  the  inter-relations  of  which  it 
is  composed,  are  so  many  truths  as  useful  as  those  in 
which  the  subject  treated  can  consist,  and  perhaps 
more  precious  to  the  human  spirit."^ 

The  niceties  of  conception,  the  clarities  of  ex- 
position, the  proprieties  of  temper  and  humour 
in  approach  and  pursuance,  are  in  very  deed 
more  beneficial  to  men's  minds  than  information 
can  easily  be.  A  powerful  and  delicate  rendering 
implies  that  the  given  subject  has  been  grasped 
as  a  whole  and  justly  conceived.  Thoroughness 
and  fineness  are  among  the  most  beautiful  things 
we  know — they  have  a  divine  force,  there  is 
something  eternal  about  them.  So  much  of  the 
subject  as  might  be  conveyed  in  less  happy  words 
is  negligible,  is  perhaps  a  commonplace.  Thus 
the  felicity  and  harmony  of  sentences  are  a  more 
important  part  of  thought  than  can  exist  else- 
where, its  truest  truth,  its  adequacy ;  and  the 
musical  is  the  only  right  word,  since  in  it  dwells 
the    splendid    soul.    Thus    the    law    of    numbers 

'  Discours  sur  le  style. 


REALITY   AND   THE   IDEAL         147 

governs  our  feelings,  for  the  melody  is  all  we 
know  of  its  burden,  which  only  lives  in  us  while 
we  hear  it.  Thus  the  envelope  is  the  contents 
and  the  outside  very  simply  the  inside.  Beauty 
is  not  produced  without  thinking  but  by  the 
most  subtly  pervading  intelligence.  And  then 
too,  Flaubert  cries,  all  should  be  miracle,  done 
with  ease,  found  as  readily  as  an  honest  smile. 
Yet  both  ease  and  smile  must  needs  result  from 
a  man's  own  or  his  forefathers'  effort ;  and  it  is  a 
snob  that  spends  without  adding  to  the  stock. 

The  pith  of  perfect  book  or  poem  cannot  be 
extracted,  for  all  is  essential.  Write  it  shorter 
or  expatiate  upon  it,  you  blight  its  rarest  effect. 
The  true  subject  exists  only  in  that  form  which 
no  other  can  rival.  To  show  such  work  is  the 
only  way  to  praise  it ;  nor  can  it  be  possessed  till 
learnt  by  heart.  This  is  why  those  who  expound 
the  psychology  of  Flaubert's  personages  are  so 
irritating.  He  himself  has  pictured  all  far  more 
completely.  Why,  he  even  took  greater  pains 
than  any  one  else,  let  alone  the  more  patent  dis- 
proportions in  point  of  intellect  and  genius. 


"  If  I  had  my  way,  books  would  be  written  by  simply 
rounding  periods,  as  to  keep  alive  you  have  only  to 
breathe  the  air  ;  tricks  of  design,  combinations  of  effect 
are  what  gravel  me,  all  those  sub-calculations  which  are 


148  ART   AND   LIFE 

none  the  less  part  of  art,  since  style  depends  on  them 
for  its  effect,  and  that  exclusively."  ^ 

"  What  I  think  fine,  what  I  should  like  to  write,  is  a 
book  about  nothing,  a  book  without  external  connec- 
tions, which  would  hold  together  by  the  internal  force 
of  its  style,  as  the  earth  without  being  underpropped 
hangs  in  the  air  ;  a  book  well-nigh  devoid  of  subject  or 
at  least  with  an  almost  invisible  subject,  if  that  is  possible. 
The  most  beautiful  works  are  those  with  least  substance  ; 
the  nearer  expression  comes  to  thought,  the  more  closely 
the  word  fastens  upon  it  and  disappears  into  it,  the 
more  beauty  there  is.^ 

"  I  believe  art's  future  lies  in  that  direction.  I  see  it, 
in  maturing,  refine  as  much  as  possible,  from  Egyptian 
pylons  to  Gothic  needles,  from  Hindoo  poems  twenty 
thousand  lines  long  to  the  tirades  of  Byron.  Form  in 
becoming  skilful  attenuates  ;  it  quits  all  liturgy,  all  rule, 
all  proportion,  abandons  the  epic  for  the  novel,  verse 
for  prose,  no  longer  acknowledges  any  orthodoxy,  and 
is  free  like  each  individual  will  which  produces  it. 
This  affranchisement  from  materiality  is  found  in  every- 
thing: and  governments  exemplify  it,  from  Oriental 
despotisms  to  the  Socialisms  of  the  future. 

"  That  is  why  there  are  neither  beautiful  nor  ugly 
subjects,  and  why,  from  the  point  of  view  of  sheer  art, 

'  Correspondance  de  G.  Flaubert,  Serie  ii.  p.  252. 

"  Remark  that  Flaubert  is  indifferent  as  to  whether  the  word 
disappears  in  the  thought  or  the  substance  in  the  form  ;  his  idea  is 
that  both  must  merge  in  an  indissoluble  entity,  so  that  to  think  the 
same  thought  would  necessitate  reinventing  or  else  repeating  those 
identical  words.  Thus  the  subject  of  a  book  would  only  exist  in  it, 
and  could  not  be  conceived  of  by  any  other  means  ;  this  is  actually 
the  case  in  a  poem  like  Keats's  "  Ode  to  a  Nightingale." 


REALITY   AND  THE   IDEAL         149 

an  axiom  might  almost  be  laid  down  that  there  is  no 
subject,  style  being  in  itself  an  absolute  manner  of 
seeing  things  ;  I  should  need  a  whole  book  to  develop 
what  I  want  to  say.  I  shall  write  about  all  that  in  my 
old  age  when  I  have  nothing  better  to  make  a  mess  of  ; 
in  the  meanwhile  I  work  heartily  at  my  novel.  Are  the 
good  times  of  St.  Antony  about  to  come  back  ?  "  * 

To  understand  Flaubert's  lyrical  cry,  "A  book 
about  nothing,"  we  must  go  to  another  artist :  critics 
will  be  of  no  use,  they  lack  the  necessary  experience. 

"  There  are  some  who  think  that  this  simplicity  is 
a  proof  of  small  invention.  They  do  not  consider 
how,  on  the  contrary,  all  invention  consists  in  making 
something  of  nothing."  ' 

No  modern  has  ever  spoken  of  the  subject  with 
more  contempt  than  Racine  does  here  :  it  is  that 
nothing  of  which  his  invention  can  make  a  tragedy  : 
and  he  was  composedly  inditing  a  preface,  not  in 
excitement  scribbling  a  letter  to  a  friend.  That  the 
best  books  are  those  which  have  the  least  substance 
was  altogether  Racine's  feeling.  There  is  weight 
enough  in  legendary  tale  or  pure  invention  envelop- 
ing a  few  chosen  circumstances  or  a  fascinating 
situation,  such  as  from  age  to  age  may  be  endlessly 
transformed, — not  burdened  by  any  definite  problem 

'  Cgrrespondance  de  G.  Flaubert,  Serie  ii.  pp.  70,  71. 
'  Jean  Racine,  Pre/ace  a  ^^  Berenice"  1670. 


ISO  ART  AND  LIFE 

or  weighty  conviction,  but  capable  of  re-achieving 
life  in  the  right  mood,  as  the  skeleton  rose  of 
Jericho  responds  with  delicate  green  to  the  caress 
of  humid  winds  ;  then  the  philosopher  may  glean 
hints,  the  man  of  the  world  tact,  while  the  child's 
eye  gathers  wonder,  the  young  man's  love,  awe, 
and  the  girl's  beauty,  peace,  as  each  listens  or  reads. 

"  Perhaps  the  plaintive  numbers  flow 
For  old,  unhappy,  far-off  things, 
And  battles  long  ago  : 
Or  is  it  some  more  humble  lay, 
Familiar  matter  of  to-day  ? 
Some  natural  sorrow,  loss,  or  pain. 
That  has  been,  and  may  be  again  ? " 

That  it  was  familiar,  that  it  had  been  and  might 
be  again,  was  an  essential  quality,^  Flaubert  felt,  in 
choosing  a  near  theme ;  while  that  those  more 
rare  should  be  old,  unhappy,  far-off  and  full  of 
strife,  added  to  their  fitness.  I  am  a  little  re-drap- 
ing his  conceptions  with  aid  from  analogies  pre- 
sented by  English  achievements.  Though  splendidly 
sensuous  compared  with  most  French  classics,  he 
had  the  Latin  delight  in  precise  and  ultimate  ex- 
pression, and  responded  where  we  remain  insensitive. 
The  whole  Roman  spectacle,  like  a  boundless 
horizon,  was  given  to  his   eye   by    Montesquieu's 

'  Correspondance  de  G,  Flaubert,  Serie  ii.  p.  264. 


REALITY  AND  THE   IDEAL         151 

stately  dialogue  between  Sylla  and  Eucrates,*  as 
lines  from  Wordsworth  will  bring  about  us  the  hills 
and  the  beauty  of  frugal  uncrowded  human  life. 
The  Campagna  on  a  fine  day  might  effect  this 
better  for  men  of  our  race  than  those  clear-cut 
sentences,  and  Flaubert  would  have  fully  relished 
that  prospect;  but  the  well-turned  and  resonant 
reflections  of  the  historian  could  overwhelm  him 
with  infinite  perceptions,  as  a  distant  peal  of  bells 
can  immerse  us  in  an  atmosphere  and  local  asso- 
ciations too  complex  and  far-reaching  for  words. 
M.  G.  Lanson  has  admirably  remarked  : — 

"  It  is  not  himself  that  Flaubert  wishes  to  transport 
to  Rome;  he  wanted  to  put  off  the  Flaubert  he  is, 
French  and  of  the  nineteenth  century.  .  .  .  '  Have  you 
sometimes  thought  about  the  evening  of  a  triumph, 
when  the  legions  returned,  and  perfumes  were  burning 
round  the  car  of  the  victorious  general,  while  the  captive 
kings  walked  behind  ? '  He  does  not  put  himself  on 
the  scene,  he  does  not  make  himself  its  centre  ;  he  is 
only  an  onlooker,  an  anybody  among  the  antique 
folk.  .  .  .  'And  those  poor  Kaffirs,  what  are  they 
dreaming  of  now  ? ' 

"  That  is  Flaubert's  attitude.  How  far  are  we  from 
romanticism  ?  Since  there  is  no  question  of  sensation- 
ally enjoying  or  stretching  oneself,  the  imagination  will 
no  longer  obey  appetites  and  temperaments,  it  will 

'  Paul  Bourget,  (Euvres  completes,  Critique  I.,  p.  139. 


152  ART  AND  LIFE 

have  its  own  rule  and  direction  in  the  intellect ;  it  will 
become  an  instrument  of  exact  knowledge  and  concrete 
resurrection.  .  .  . 

"  But  art  cannot  possess  this  high  value  .  .  .  save  on 
condition  of  serving  to  translate  something  other  than 
the  ephemeral  self  ...  let  it  find  a  form  which  is  not 
simply  the  artist's  satisfaction,  the  relief  of  his  sensa- 
tions, but  which  by  expressing  the  intrinsic  beauty  of 
things,  inexhaustibly  communicates  that  to  all  gene- 
rations to  come."  ^ 

'  G.  Lanson,  Pages  choisies  de  G.  Flaubert:  Preface,  pp.  xxvi, 
xxviii,  including  quotations  from  Correspondance  de  G.  Flaubert, 
Serie  i.  p.  102,  and  Serie  iii.  p.  10. 


IV 


GUY  DE  MAUPASSANT  was  not  deeply  pre- 
occupied with  beauty,  and  would  perhaps 
never  have  given  it  the  importance  as  a  constituent 
of  style  which  he  did,  had  he  not  been  Flaubert's 
disciple.  The  Preface  to  Pierre  et  Jean  and  the 
Introduction  to  Bouvard  et  Pecuchet  well  represent 
the  master's  advice  to  a  writer  whose  subject-matter 
was  mainly  direct  observation.  But  all  he  would 
have  taught  a  young  genius  of  lyrical  and  mystical 
tendencies,  still  to  seek,  is  needed  to  complete  the 
exposition  of  his  ideas.  Doubtless,  as  he  urged  the 
observer  to  respect  beauty  in  certain  ways,  he  would 
have  bid  a  poet  nourish  his  visions  on  matter  of 
fact. 

"  In  order  to  describe  a  bonfire  and  a  tree  in  the 
field,  plant  yourself  in  front  of  them  till  they  seem  no 
longer  to  resemble  any  other  tree  or  fire.  That  is  the 
way  to  become  original."  ^ 

'  Pierre  et  Jean,  p.  22. 
153 


154  ART  AND  LIFE 

"  The  unexplored  is  in  everything.  .  .  .  The  least 
object  contains  an  unknown  element  or  aspect.  Find 
that." » 

"  Whatever  you  may  want  to  say  there  is  only  one 
word  that  will  express  it,  one  verb  that  will  animate 
it,  one  adjective  that  will  qualify  it.  You  must  hunt 
then  till  you  have  discovered  them."^ 

To  supplement  such  maxims,  we  should  have 
to  distil  passages  of  Flaubert's  letters  which  have 
been  very  rarely  quoted,  wherein  the  ideas  of 
nicety  and  precision  suddenly  take  a  second 
place,  and  the  excessive,  the  colossal,  are  held  up 
to  admiration. 

"  Never  fear  to  be  exaggerated,  all  the  very  great 
have  been  so — Michael  Angelo,  Rabelais,  Shakespeare, 
Moliere.  .  .  .  But  in  order  that  the  exaggeration  may 
not  shock,  it  must  be  everywhere  constant,  propor- 
tional, in  harmony  with  itself  ;  if  your  good  folk  are 
a  hundred  feet  high  your  mountains  must  be  twenty 
thousand  ;  and  what  is  the  ideal  if  it  be  not  that  kind 
of  bulking  out "  ?  3 

''  Let  us  always  remind  ourselves  that  impersonality 
is  the  sign  of  strength  ;  let  us  absorb  the  object  and 
let  it  circulate  in  us,  that  it  may  reproduce  itself  outside 
without  leaving  room  for  any  one  to  understand  the 
marvellous  chemical  process.     Our  hearts  should   be 

'  Pierre  etjean,  p.  22.  »  Ibid.,  p.  23. 

3  Correspondance  de  G.  Flaubert,  Serie  ii.  p.  247. 


REALITY   AND   THE   IDEAL         155 

good  for  nothing  save  to  feel  what  those  of  others  feel. 
Let  us  be  magnifying  mirrors  of  the  truth."  * 

"  How  excessive  the  great  masters  are  !  They  push 
an  idea  to  its  last  limit ;  Michael  Angelo's  men  have 
cables  rather  than  muscles,  in  Rubens'  bacchanals  folk 
piss  on  the  ground,  see  all  Shakespeare,  &c.,  &c.,  and 
the  last  of  that  family,  old  father  Hugo,  what  a  beautiful 
thing  Notre  Dame  is !  I  have  lately  re-read  three 
chapters,  the  Truands  among  others  ;  that  is  strong.  I 
believe  the  characteristic  of  genius  is,  before  all  else, 
strength ;  thus  what  I  most  detest  in  art,  that  which 
sets  my  teeth  on  edge,  is  ingenuity,  wit.  How  different 
it  is  with  bad  taste  !  that  is  a  good  quality  gone  astray, 
for  to  produce  what  is  called  bad  taste,  you  must  have 
poetry  in  you.  But  wit,  on  the  contrary,  is  incom- 
patible with  true  poetry  ;  who  ever  had  more  wit  than 
Voltaire,  and  who  was  less  a  poet  ? "  = 

"The  prijne  quality  in  art  is  illusion  :  emotion,  often 
obtained  by  certain  sacrifices  of  poetic  detail,  is  an 
altogether  different  thing  and  of  an  inferior  order.  I 
have  wept  at  melodramas  which  were  not  worth  two- 
pence ;  and  Goethe  has  never  moistened  my  eye,  unless 
it  has  been  with  admiration."  3 

"  Very  beautiful  works  set  you  musing  as  nature  does. 
To  look  on  they  are  serene  and  incomprehensible  ; 
in  their  processes  they  are  motionless  as  cliffs,  rough 
as  the  sea,  as  full  of  sprays,  verdancies,  and  murmurs  as 
the  woods,  forlorn  as  the  desert,  blue  as  the  sky. 
Homer,  Rabelais,  Michael  Angelo,  Shakespeare,  Goethe 
seem  to  me  pitiless  ;    their  work  is  an  abyss,  infinite, 

'  Correspondance  de  G.  Flaubert,  Serie  ii.  p.  348. 
»  Ibid.,  pp.  277  and  278.  3  ibid.,  p.  320. 


t$6  ART   AND   LIFE 

manifold.  Through  tiny  rents  we  catch  glimpses 
of  precipices  :  blackness  is  down  there,  to  make  you 
giddy,  and  yet  something  singularly  sweet  hovers  over 
the  whole  !  It  is  the  ideal  of  light,  the  smile  of  the 
sun,  and  how  calm  it  is,  how  calm  and  strong  !  It  has 
neck  and  dewlaps  like  Leconte's  bull."  ' 

"  None  the  less,  one  thing  saddens  me,  namely,  to  see 
how  great  men  achieve  effects  easily  outside  the  pale  of 
art ;  what  could  be  worse  constructed  than  a  crowd 
of  things  in  Rabelais,  Cervantes,  Moliere,  and  Hugo  ? 
But  what  sudden  hits  straight  from  the  shoulder  !  what 
power  in  a  single  word  !  "  ^ 

"The  prodigious  thing  about  Don  Quixote  is  the 
absence  of  art,  the  perpetual  fusion  of  illusion  with 
reality,  which  make  the  book  at  once  so  humorous 
and  so  poetical."  3 

"  Generalisation  and  creation  are  the  mark  of  great 
geniuses ;  they  sum  up  scattered  individuals  in  a  type 
and  make  mankind  conscious  of  new  characters  ;  do  we 
not  believe  in  Don  Quixote's  existence  as  in  Caesar's  ? 
Shakespeare  is  formidable  from  this  point  of  view.  .  .  . 
Those  folk  have  no  need  to  work  at  style,  they  are 
strong  in  spite  of  all  faults  and  on  account  of  them  ; 
but  we,  the  dwarfs,  we  only  count  through  finished 
execution.  Hugo  in  this  century  will  knock  out  every 
one  else  although  he  is  full  of  bad  things  ;  but  what 
go  !  what  go  !  I  will  here  hazard  a  proposition  that  I 
should  not  dare  to  utter  anywhere  else  :  those  great  men 
often  write  very  badly — so  much  the  better  for  them. 
You  must  not  seek  the  art  of  form  there,  but  among 

'  Correspondance  de  G.  Flaubert,  Serie  ii.  pp.  304  and  305, 
»  Ibid.,  p.  189.  3  Ibid.,  p.  148. 


REALITY   AND   THE   IDEAL         157 

geniuses  of  secondary  importance  (Horace,  Labruyere). 
You  must  know  the  masters  by  heart  and  idoUse  them  ; 
try  to  think  as  they  did,  and  then  part  company  with 
them  for  ever.  In  the  matter  of  technical  instruction 
you  can  reap  more  profit  from  learned  and  skilful 
geniuses."  ^ 

These  passages  throw  the  precepts  on  observation 
and  style  which  Flaubert  taught  into  perspective. 
He  never  considered  himself  the  equal  of  those 
whom  he  admired.  Several  critics  have  thought 
he  failed  to  give  his  full  measure  because,  though 
mature,  he  held  himself  in  need  of  further  school- 
ing. Others  see  in  him  the  only  master  who  largely 
combines  the  abundance  and  strength  of  great  with 
the  virtues  of  perfect  writers.  His  ambition  had 
certainly  entertained  this  last  notion  as  a  programme. 

"  We  must  show  the  classical  school,"  he  says,  "  that 
we  are  more  classical  than  they,  and  turn  the  romantics 
pale  with  rage  by  surpassing  their  intentions  ;  these 
two  purposes  are  really  one  and  the  same,  therefore  I 
believe  the  thing  may  be  done." ' 

Every  one  of  his  works  is  so  absolutely  what 
it  is,  that  it  could  only  be  rivalled  in  another  field. 
The  same  task  is  never  attempted  twice,  whereas  all 
the  books  of  many  authors  are  approximations  to 

'  Correspondance  de  G.  Flaubert,  Serie  ii.  p.  138. 
'  Ibid.,  p.  252. 


158  ART  AND  LIFE 

one  they  never  write.  But,  for  him,  the  con- 
ception of  every  intended  work  carried  within  it  a 
new  aesthetic,  the  laws  of  which  must  be  found 
and  applied.* 

It  may  be  that  by  achieving  this  distinct  character 
in  each  volume  he  did  what  Michael  Angelo,  Rem- 
brandt, Rubens,  Shakespeare,  Moliere,  or  Cervantes 
had  done.  Were  they  really  less  deliberate,  or  does 
he  only  seem  to  have  disciplined  his  gift  more 
strictly  ?  The  gradual  stages  by  which  these  great 
personalities  cleared  their  talents  survive  in  abun- 
dance, whereas  he  destroy^  as  he  went  along  all 
trace  of  hesitation  or  wandering  after  false  scents. 
The  world  presented  him  with  a  more  perplexed 
spectacle;  science  had  dissolved  those  grandiose 
generalisations  in  which  the  mundane  pageant  had 
for  them  been  comprehended.  The  Creator  had 
withdrawn  ;  [>erhaps  for  a  reason  analogous  to  our 
experience,  that  beauty  can  only  be  perfected  when 
the  artist  has  purified  emotion  from  self-concern ; 
thus  Flaubert,  like  those  great  masters,  formed  him- 
self on  the  most  authoritative  example.  They  had 
divined  a  god,  and  shaped  a  world  in  his  likeness 
because  they  conceived  this  earth  to  have  been  so 
moulded  :  in  the  modern  master's  work  the  author's 
character  must  ba£Be  curiosity,  as  he  had  found 
his  own  nonplussed.  Both  e£Forts  are  grand,  both 
'  Comafcmdmmot  tU  G.  FlmAeri^  Serie  H.  p.  38a 


REALITY  AND  THE   IDEAL         159 

are  religious  and  in  the  best  sense  of  the  word 
impersonal ;  for  their  efficacy  consisted  in  winning 
free  from  petty  aims  and  sordid  considerations. 

"Sancho  Panza's  belly  bursts  the  girdle  of 
Venus," »  he  would  say  to  those  who,  like  Leconte 
de  Lisle,  wished  to  copy  antique  models  and  repro- 
duce effects  peculiar  to  a  vanished  world ;  and  he 
tiiought  that  the  infinity  of  science  had  dwarfed  the 
miracles  of  Christian  passion,  by  presenting  a  wonder 
more  apt  to  overwhelm  and  annihilate  each  man's 
self-absorption. 

*  Omrspomdatut  de  G.  FUmbert^  Serie  u.  p.  377. 


V 


MANY  of  his  admirers  have  attempted  to  foist 
their  own  conclusions  on  the  master.  M. 
Gaultier  beh'eves  that  as  bees  taught  botanists  to 
distinguish  the  members  of  certain  families  of  plants, 
so  artists  of  Flaubert's  very  rare  type  start  before 
the  attentive  philosopher  coveys  of  ideas,  which 
hitherto,  like  pheasants  by  bracken,  were  screened 
under  unobserved  facts,  but  which,  breaking  cover, 
can  be  shot  down  by  a  theory  loaded  with  coined 
words  for  slugs.  Rembrandt,  Shakespeare,  Mozart, 
and  Corneille  were,  he  thinks,  this  sort  of  beaters  to 
the  sportsman  philosopher.^  M.  Emile  Bergerat, 
"wishing  to  humiliate  man  before  the  mere  animal," 
described  him  as  "  endowed  for  sole  privilege  with 
the  power  of  conceiving  himself  to  be  other  than  he 
is."2  M.  Gaultier  cried,  "  So  Emma  Bovary  con- 
ceived herself  to  be  a  refined  lady  when  she  was 
only  a  farmer's  daughter ; "  and  so  on  through  all 
Flaubert's  characters  to  Bouvard  and  P^cuchet,  who 

'  Le  Bovarysme,  1892,  p.  3,  and  ch.  i.,  1902.        "  Ibid.,  p.  18. 
160 


REALITY   AND   THE   IDEAL         i6i 

typify  humanity  which  conceives  itself  as  capable 
of  possessing  knowledge  that  it  will  never  conquer, 
since  a  formidable  disproportion  yawns  between  the 
questions  asked  by  the  uneasiness  of  our  spirit  and 
our  means  of  answering  them.^ 

Consciousness  consists  in  conceiving  things  as 
being  other  than  they  are.  If  an  intelligence 
grasped  the  truth,  subject  would  be  fused  with 
object  and  it  would  lose  consciousness  both  of  self 
and  the  universe.^ 

But  I  should  wrong  M.  Gaultier's  ingenious  and 
suggestive  developments  if,  like  an  Italian  beggar 
closing  his  accordion,  I  squeezed  all  the  wind  out 
of  Le  Bovarysme  to  fit  it  into  my  box. 

M.  G.  Palante  has  very  well  shown  how  hypo- 
thetical the  bases  of  this  theory  are.  .  .  .  The  exist- 
ence of  the  non-apparent  normal  must  be  assumed, 
in  order  that  the  glamour  of  the  object  may  cause 
the  subject  to  deviate  from  that  true  line  of  develop- 
ment. Yet  how  can  so  much  be  granted,  if,  like 
M.  Gaultier,  we  hold  the  personality  to  be  absolutely 
determined  by  heredity  and  environment  ?3 

The  Devil  says  to  Saint  Antony  : — 

"  Things  only  reach  thee  through  the  mediation  of 
thy  spirit,  which,  like  a  concave  mirror,  deforms  objects  ; 

'  Le  Bovarysme,  1892,  p.  56.  «  Ibid.,  1902,  p.  199. 

3  Mercure  de  France,  tome  xlvi.  p,  75  et  seq. 

M 


i62  ART   AND   LIFE 

— and  thou  lackest  all   means  wherewith  to  verify  its 
exactness. 

"  Never  wilt  thou  know  the  full  extent  of  the  universe, 
therefore  thou  canst  not  conceive  of  its  cause.  .  .  . 
May  not  appearance  be  the  truest  truth  that  exists, 
illusion  the  only  reaUty  ?  .  .  .  Perhaps  there  is  nothing ! "  ^ 

In  regard  to  things  we  do  not  know,  the  act  of 
faith  is  not  to  confide  in  any  theory — no  more  in 
illusionism  or  nihilism  than  in  Satan's  suggestion 
that  he  alone  is. 

M.  Rene  Dumesnil  calls  his  book  Flaubert:  son 
heredite — son  milieu — sa  methode,  and  claims  to 
have  followed  this  last :  yet  Flaubert  held  it  in- 
applicable to  just  such  cases. 

"  So  much  the  better  if  Taine's  English  Literature 
interests  you.  His  work  is  dignified  and  solid,  though 
I  find  fault  with  the  position  from  which  he  sets  out. 
Art  contains  more  than  the  environment  wherein  it  is 
exercised  and  the  physiological  antecedents  of  the 
workman  can  account  for.  By  that  theory,  the  series, 
the  group,  may  be  explained  ;  but  never  individuality, 
the  special  fact  which  makes  a  man,  that  man,"  ^ 

"  The  first  man  to  hand  is  more  interesting  than  M.  G. 
Flaubert,  because  he  is  more  general  and  in  conse- 
quence more  typical."  3 

'  (Euvres  computes  de  Gtistave  Flaubert,  vol.  v.  p.  236. 
'  Correspondance  dc  G.  Flaubert,  Serie  iii.  p.  195  and  196.     The 
continuation  of  this  passage  is  quoted  above,  p.  99. 
3  Ibid.,  p.  306. 


REALITY  AND   THE   IDEAL         163 

The  books  about  him  prove  that  Flaubert  was  vastly 
more  fascinating  than  the  first  man  to  hand.  The 
attraction  that  is  felt  for  great  men  is  not  and  cannot 
be  scientific,  but  is  analogous  to  that  exerted  by  the 
supernatural.  As  Renan  said,  "  the  miraculous  is 
only  the  unexplained," — the  unaccountable  must 
necessarily  be  the  most  essential  factor  in  a  peerless 
man  ;  so  much  as  is  typical  of  common  mortals  or 
of  great  men  as  a  class  lessens  this  glamour.  A 
unique  fact  cannot  be  classed  ;  the  exception  only 
proves  the  rule  in  the  sense  that  light  makes  the 
nature  of  darkness  more  obvious.  If  Flaubert's 
heredity  and  circumstances  explain  him,  why  was 
his  brother  who  shared  them  so  different  ?  The 
most  important  factor  in  him  is  obviously  one 
which  neither  experiment  nor  observation  can  con- 
trol. The  greater,  the  rarer  a  genius,  the  less  can 
cause  and  effect  be  traced  in  respect  to  him,  to  portray 
such  a  man  will  be  proportionally  difficult.  Flaubert 
always  spoke  of  Shakespeare,  Rabelais,  Homer,  Aristo- 
phanes as  giants,  as  vaguely  defined  and  monstrous 
beings  beyond  the  reach  of  our  senses,  our  judgment, 
our  science.  He  could  only  picture  Michael  Angelo 
to  himself  as  an  old  man  seen  from  behind.^ 

Nearly  all  the  causes  of  Flaubert's  characteristics 
discovered  by  M.  Dumesnil  may  quite  as  well  be 
denied  or  explained  differently. 

*  Correspondance  de  G.  Flaubert,  Serie  ii.  p.  77. 


f64  ART   AND   LIFE 

"  His  impulsive  character  and  his  exaggerated  love  of 
the  grotesque,  which  make  so  large  a  part  of  the  par- 
ticularity of  his  genius,  are  attributable  to  his  nervous 
malady." 

But  this  impulsiveness  and  this  love  of  the 
grotesque  are  remarkably  expressed  in  the  early 
letters  and  the  Memoires  d'un  fou,  written  before 
Flaubert  was  stricken ;  while  M.  Dumesnil  tells  us 
that  his  personal  antecedents  before  his  first  attack 
present  no  noteworthy  fact  which  might  have  led 
to  the  incidence  of  his  nervous  malady  being 
foreseen. 

Is  it  not  likely  that  M.  Dumesnil's  real  ground  for 
the  first  of  these  statements  was,  that  he  had  failed 
to  find  sufficient  analogy  for  such  impulsiveness 
and  love  of  the  grotesque  in  the  characters  of 
Flaubert's  forefathers,  and  therefore  sought  its 
cause  in  the  one  salient  influence  to  which 
Gustave  was  subjected  and  from  which  his 
brother  was  free  ?    Again  we  read  : — 

"  Flaubert  incontestably  owes  his  aristocratic  cha- 
racter to  his  maternal  ancestors."^ 

Yet  his  father  disdained  money,  titles,  honours ; 
expressed  anger  openly,  had  beautiful  hands,  exer- 
cised a  paternal  hospitality,   possessed  a  debonair 

»  Dumesnil,  F/aMfc^r/,  pp.  113,  86,  87, 15. 


REALITY   AND   THE   IDEAL         165 

majesty  :  why  should  not  these  traits  have  counted 
in  that  result  ? 

M.  Dumesnil  has  not  recognised  the  limits  of  the 
method  he  seeks  to  employ,  and  therefore  his  whole 
book  is  erroneous,  quite  apart  from  the  questionable 
nature  of  such  deductions  and  of  the  many  mis- 
statements which  have  escaped  his  vigilance.  The 
passage  which  he  quotes  in  order  to  show  that 
Flaubert's  blessing  rests  on  his  enterprise  runs 
thus : — 

"  Literary  criticism,  like  natural  history,  must  work 
without  moral  ideas  :.  it  is  not  our  business  to  declaim 
against  such  and  such  a  form,  but  to  show  in  what  it  con- 
sists, how  it  links  with  another  and  by  what  means  it 
lives  (aesthetic  awaits  its  Geoffroy  Saint  Hilaire,  that 
great  man  who  demonstrated  the  legitimacy  of  monsters). 
When  the  human  soul  shall  have  for  some  time  been 
treated  with  the  impartiality  that  in  physical  science  is 
given  to  the  study  of  matter,  a  great  stride  will  have 
been  made.  .  .  .  There  is  perhaps,  as  in  the  case  of 
mathematics,  nothing  but  a  method  to  find,  which  will 
be  applicable  in  the  first  place  to  art  and  to  religion, 
those  two  great  manifestations  of  idea.  Let  us  imagine 
a  beginning  thus  :  the  first  idea  of  God  being  granted  {the 
most  rudimentary  possible),  the  first  glimmer  of  poetic 
feeling  {however  trifling  that  may  be),  find  at  the  outset 
its  manifestation,  and  this  may  easily  be  traced  among 
children  and  savages,  &c.  ;  there  is  your  first  step  ;  from 
it  you  ascertain  its  relations ;  then  go  ahead,  taking 
count  of  all  relative  contingents,  climate,  language,  &c. ; 


i66  ART  AND   LIFE 

then  from  level  to  level  you  may  climb  to  the  art  of  the 
future,  and  the  hypothesis  of  the  Beautiful^  to  a  clear  con- 
ception of  its  reality,  to  that  ideal  type  towards  which  our 
whole  effort  should  tend.  .  .  ."  ^ 

M.  Dumesnil  omits  the  phrases  in  italics,  making 
the  last  words  run  "  to  the  art  of  the  future  and  to 
the  clear  conception  of  the  Beautiful,"  and  assumes 
elsewhere  that  "  such  and  such  man  of  genius " 
might  have  been  substituted  for  the  words  "  such 
and  such  form  "  at  the  outset  of  the  passage  ;  but 
forms  of  literary  art — lyrical,  narrative,  dramatic,  &c. 
— are  in  question,  not  individualities,  much  less  ex- 
ceptional ones.  Referring  to  Flaubert's  criticism  of 
Taine  ^  M.  Dumesnil  remarks  :  "  That  is,  he  blames 
him  for  attaching  too  much  importance  to  the  seed 
(i.e.,  heredity,  &c.)  and  not  enough  to  the  soil 
(i.e.,  personality)."  Had  Flaubert  used  this  metaphor 
the  seed  would  surely  have  been  personality  with  its 
vital  capacity  ;  the  soil,  hereditary  and  other  in- 
fluences which  conditioned  its  growth.  He  differed 
from  his  brother  by  the  kind  of  energy  with  which 
he  drew  sustenance  from  or  reacted  against  hered- 
itary and  other  influences — by  being  able  to  wage 
a  better  battle  both  within  himself  and  against  the 
world. 

The  superior  vitality  commonly  attributed  to  love- 

'  Correspofj dance  de  G.  Flaubert,  Serie  ii.  p.  338,  and  Dumesnil, 
Preface,  pp.  v  and  vi.  '  See  passage  quoted  above,  p.  162. 


REALITY  AND  THE   IDEAL  167 

children  points  to  fulness  of  excitement  in  their 
begetters  as  a  cause  of  rare  endowment.  Any  who 
have  experienced  the  vitalising  effect  of  contact 
and  situation  will  easily  credit  post-natal  conjunc- 
tures also  with  considerable  efficacy.  Some  flowers 
await  fecundation  by  a  single  kind  of  insect,  and  if 
it  fails  them  die  fruitless  ;  so  the  child  who  at  the 
due  season  meets  the  rare  stimulus  develops  and 
hence  encounters  fresh  pregnant  occasions  ;  each 
time  having  a  better  chance  of  repeating  the  process. 
He  alone  will  explore  the  full  riches  both  of  his 
hereditary  resources  and  of  his  environment,  while 
his  less  lucky  companions  wistfully  resign  them- 
selves to  spiritual  sterility.  The  possibilities  which 
children  of  the  same  race  receive  at  birth  must 
almost  necessarily  be  fairly  equal.  A  series  of 
timely  outward  accidents  produces  keys  giving 
access  to  closed  rooms  in  the  soul's  mansion  and 
permitting  her  to  throw  open  to  the  sun  her  long 
shuttered  heirlooms.  Most  find  one  or  two,  some 
ten  or  a  dozen  keys,  but  who  has  ever  handled  the 
whole  bunch  ?  while  every  generation  adds  room  or 
furniture.  Education  proceeds  on  some  such  as- 
sumption, but  its  success  is  restricted  by  the 
difficulty  of  recognising  and  commanding  the 
germ-bearing  contingencies. 

Psychologists    naturally    wish     to     simplify    the 
problems  that  baffle  them,  but  the  soul  smiles,  con- 


i68  ART   AND   LIFE 

scious  of  inexhaustible  complexity,  and  does  not 
expect  their  success.  They  may  describe  her  more 
common  misfortunes  but  never  estimate  her  worth. 
I  must  add  that  while  demurring  to  his  conclu- 
sions I  have  found  M.  Dumesnil's  work  most  valu- 
able and  suggestive.  Like  MM.  Albalat  and  Lanson, 
he  has  the  great  advantage  of  loving  Flaubert. 


VI 


/^^LAUDE  BERNARD  has  very  well  said  :— 

"  In  the  search  for  truth  by  this  (the  experimental 
method)  sentiment  always  takes  the  initiative,  and  gives 
birth  to  the  a  priori  notion  or  intuition  ;  reason  next 
develops  the  idea  and  deduces  its  logical  consequences. 
But  if  sentiment  needs  to  be  enlightened  by  reason, 
reason  in  turn  should  be  guided  by  experience."  ^ 

Reason  and  experiment  are  impossible  where 
facts  are  unique,  for  there  is  none  save  general 
science,  therefore  exceptional  beings  can  only  be 
known  intuitively  ;  and  in  regard  to  excellence  sen- 
timent is  love.  Flaubert  was  here  most  worthy 
imitation,  for  his  many  admirations  always  partook 
largely  of  adoration.  He  knew  how  far  experi- 
ment and  reason  could  take  him,  and  never 
appealed  to  them  out  of  bounds.  It  is  our 
instinct  for  self-defence  against  the  crushing 
superiority  of  the   universe  that   bids  us  worship 

'  Introduction  h  l'4tude  de  la  midecine  expSrimentale,  p.  47. 
169 


IT©  ART   AND   LIFE 

the  unknown  god.  Great  men  are  less  oppres- 
sive ;  we  know  something  of  them,  but  still  we 
must  be  their  lovers  in  order  to  profit  by  com- 
merce with  them.  Phantom  masters  of  the  mind, 
sentiment  must  continually  take  the  initiative  or 
they  will  delude  our  powers.  The  first  step  must 
be  taken  first,  and  in  the  dark,  without  assurance 
that  the  second  and  third,  although  highly  desirable, 
will  ever  be  possible. 

"  In  other  words  man,  confronted  with  things  beautiful, 
good,  and  true,  goes  out  from  himself,  and,  suspended 
by  a  celestial  charm,  annihilates  his  puny  personality, 
exalted,  absorbed.  What  is  that  if  it  be  not  to 
adore  ?"^ 

Objection  may  be  raised  that  Flaubert  failed  to 
love  the  unknown  God.  He  has  been  accused 
of  pessimism,  of  nihilism — words  used  extremely 
loosely,  with  as  little  scruple  as  justice. 

"  Quit  then  thy  sex  as  thy  fatherland,  thy  religion 
and  thy  parish  :  we  should  be  soul  to  the  greatest 
possible  extent,  and  by  this  aloofness  will  the  im- 
mense sympathy  with  things  and  beings  reach  us 
more  abundantly."* 

''  !n  his  mystic  moments  he  imagined  that  for  man, 

*  Renan,  Etudes  d'histoire  religieuse,  p.  419. 
'  Correspondance  de  G.  Flaubert,  Serie  ii.  p.  309. 


REALITY   AND   THE   IDEAL         171 

by  filling  out  his  own  measure,  exercising  his  con- 
science to  its  extreme  limit, 

"a  time  will  arrive  when  something  wider  and 
higher  will  replace  the  love  of  humanity  as  that  is 
replacing  patriotism," 

and  he — 

"  will  love  nothingness  itself,  so  greatly  he  will  feel 
himself  to  participate  in  it. 

"  '  I  said  to  the  worms  in  the  grave,  You  are  my 
fathers,  &c."'' 

"  When  I  look  at  one  of  the  little  stars  in  the  Milky 
Way,  I  say  to  myself  that  the  earth  is  no  larger  than 
one  of  those  sparkles.  And  I  who  gravitate  for  one 
minute  on  this  spark,  what  am  I  then,  what  are  we  ? 
This  feeling  of  my  lowliness,  of  my  nothingness,  re- 
assures me.  I  seem  to  have  become  a  grain  of  dust 
lost  in  space,  and  yet  I  form  a  part  of  that  limitless 
grandeur  which  enfolds  me.  I  have  never  understood 
how  that  might  breed  despair,  for  it  is  quite  possible 
that  there  is  nothing  behind  the  black  curtain.  Besides, 
the  infinite  submerges  all  our  conceptions  ;  and,  since 
it  exists,  why  should  it  present  an  aim  to  things  so 
relative  as  we  are  }"" 

Such  passages,  on  which,  I  suppose,  is  founded 
the  accusation   of   nihilism,  are  by  Flaubert  only 

'  Correspondance  de  G.  Flaubert,  Serie  ii.  p.  309. 
=■  Ibid.,  Serie  iii.  p.  329. 


i;4  ART  AND   LIFE 

used  as  dissolvents  for  chimerical  anticipations,  to 
help  "  disillusioned  ladies  "  to  feel  independent  of 
distant  possibilities.  "  The  search  for  a  cause  is 
anti-philosophic,  anti-scientific,"  ^  because  it  is 
hopeless.  In  a  methodical  treatise  such  sugges- 
tions might  have  appeared  as  arguments,  but 
certainly  would  not  have  figured  as  conclusions. 

He  showed  his  love  of  God  by  demanding  that  He 
should  be  conceived  of  as  divine  in  very  deed,  and 
hence,  for  minds  preoccupied  with  evil,  unknowable. 

"  The  ideal  is  only  fruitful  when  everything  is 
brought  into  it.  It  is  a  labour  of  love,  not  of  ex- 
clusion." » 

He  hated  the  proprietary  familiarity  of  popular 
religion  whose  ministers  confidently  prate  about 
"  the  goodness  of  God,  the  anger  of  God,  and  offending 
God,"  till  such  phrases  become  for  them  "  a  sort  of 
habitual  sneezing."  3  Saints  do  not  possess  God, 
but  are  possessed  by  Him.  "The  world  is  His 
and  the  fulness  thereof."  To  exclude  is  to 
blaspheme.  Let  us  rather  suppose  human  men- 
tality may  account  for  evil  than  that  it  opposes 
God  because  it  oppresses  men.  Above  all,  be 
honest,  and,  when  you  do  not  know,  say  you  do 
not  know. 

'  Correspondance  de  G.  Flaubert,  Sefie  iii.  p.  281. 

'  Ibid.,  Serie  ii.  p.  366.  3  Ibid.,  Serie  iii.  p.  123. 


REALITY  AND   THE    IDEAL         173 

Thus  he  thought  the  methods  and  discoveries  of 
science  should  be  regarded  as  better  material,  by 
using  which  the  ideal  constructions  of  religion  and 
art  might  be  grandly  extended.  Every  man  is  a 
determinist  in  his  own  trade  ;  in  practice  we  can- 
not reject  all  that  this  idea  has  achieved.  The 
notions  of  Fate,  Providence,  Chance,  and  Abso- 
lute Mechanism  are  in  the  same  quandary,  it  is 
impossible  to  justify  their  ways  to  man  ;  events 
are  not  moral,  and  apparently  useless  suffering 
exists.  But,  like  science,  morality  is  based  on 
sentiment,  which  "  always  takes  the  initiative " ; 
and  though  it  too  has  been  enlightened  by  reason 
and  solidified  by  experience  it  has  not  so  de- 
veloped in  regard  to  these  vast  relations.  Still 
spontaneous  there,  how  it  shall  be  illumined  and 
compacted  cannot  be  even  imagined ;  but  that 
necessary  first  step  is  "  none  the  less  respectable," 
however  ridiculous  the  "  ephemeral  dogmas "  ^  in 
which  from  time  to  time  it  hopes  to  express 
itself.  If  by  conquering  his  vices  and  by 
obliterating  the  effects  of  egoism  an  artist  dis- 
appear from  his  work,  the  Creator  of  the  universe 
may  be  invisible  because  He  is  without  fault  and 
selfishness. 

Respect  for  the  object  silences  the  artist's  im- 
pulse to  explain  and  palliate.     Imagination  fails 

'  Correspondanu  dc  G.  Flaubert,  Serie  ill.  p.  281. 


i74  ART  AND   LIFE 

us  ere  the  analogy  can  be  pushed  so  far  as  this, 
yet,  while  confessing  this  inadequacy,  such  a 
conception  as  Flaubert's  remains  vital  with  awe 
and  reverence. 

-  "  We  must  lay  our  heads  on  the  pillow  of  doubt," 
as  he  was  fond  of  repeating  after  Montaigne,  and 
"  we  shall  find  life  tolerable  once  we  have  consented 
to  be  always  ill  at  ease."  ^  For  here  he  turned  to 
another  of  those  spiritual  fathers  in  whom  he  so 
greatly  rejoiced. 

.  *"  Let  us  work  without  reasoning,'  said  Martin,  '  it  is 
the  only  way  to  render  life  bearable.' 

"  Every  member  of  the  little  group  took  up  with 
this  praiseworthy  intent,  each  began  to  use  his 
talents  (instead  of  wildly  chivying  chances  as  hereto- 
fore). The  little  plot  of  ground  brought  forth  plenti- 
fully. Cunegonde,  it  is  true,  was  very  ugly,  but  she 
became  a  first-rate  pastrycook ;  Paquette  embroidered  ; 
and  the  old  woman  looked  after  the  linen.  Every  one, 
even  brother  Giroflee,  helped  :  he  became  a  carpenter, 
and  even  an  honest  man.  .  ,  ."  '^ 

rill       '^111.-; 

Voltaire's  "  Let  iis  wor'k  at  our  garden  "  is  at  once 
the  most  substantial  and  most  widely  accepted  appli- 
cation of  "  What  shall  it  profit  a  man,  if  he  shall 
gain  the  whole  world  and  lose  his  own  soul  ? " 
A  bird  in  hand  is  worth  two  in  the  bush  ;  and  who 

'  Correspondance  de  G,  Flaubert^  Serie  i.  p.  86,  io6, 
'  Candide,  chap.  xxx. 


REALITY   AND   THE    IDEAL  175 

so  poor  as  not  to  have  a  soul  ?  Time  lost  is  life 
lost.  Speculation,  like  the  lover's  quest,  like  for- 
tune-hunting, is  an  endless  adventure  ;  our  integrity 
must  strictly  limit  it.  Nevertheless,  we  depend  not 
on  our  own  action  alone,  but  on  that  of  forces 
which  we  have  never  controlled,  never  even 
described.  Science  may  often  figure  as  know- 
ledge of  an  enemy's  tactics ;  to  obtain  it  we  had 
to  neglect  our  business  and  risk  our  best.  Whether 
a  foe's  or  a  friend's,  those  great  movements,  since 
they  may  checkmate  us,  must  be  reconnoitred  and 
interpreted  as  best  we  can.  Woe  to  us  if  absorp- 
tion over  home  concerns  blind  us  to  the  advance 
of  a  pestilence,  or  of  an  army  which,  even  though 
friendly,  must  devastate  those  who  are  unprepared  1 
A  judgment  sufficiently  free  from  personal  pre- 
occupations is  essential  to  defence  as  it  is  essen- 
tial for  honest  work,  the  one  foundation  of  science, 
art,  and  of  religion.  Skill  whole-heartedly  employed 
achieves  knowledge,  beauty,  goodness.  That,  and 
that  only,  gives  life  value.  The  workman,  scorn- 
ing sordid  needs  and  particular  utilities,  has  acted 
for  some  hours  as  though  the  resources  of  heaven 
were  his,  and  the  leisure  of  the  angels  would  be 
theirs  who  should  enjoy  his  work  ;  he  does  not 
address  the  busy.  Religion  is  life  honestly  thus 
lived — that  is,  not  for  success  or  maintenance,  but, 
whether  it  end  soon  or  late,  as  though  it  would  be 


1^  ART   AND  LIFE 

continued  for  ever — and,  therefore,  willing  to  accept 
death  rather  than  deterioration  of  character. 

The  soul  is  not  tied  to  a  locality,  and  may  be 
cultivated  anywhere.  A  Bedouin  carries  his  work 
with  him,  and  therefore  needs  the  longer  sight,  the 
more  nimble  judgment,  for  he  must  treat  mirages  as 
such,  and  never  be  the  dupe  of  even  distant  appear- 
ances. What  does  it  matter  to  the  owner  of  a 
cabbage-patch  whether  the  distant  city  he  descries 
be  real  or  not  ? — he  will  never  need  to  travel  beyond 
his  market.  But  the  nomad  must  not  swerve  from 
his  chosen  course  to  avoid  or  approach  the  mighty 
vision. 

Now,  it  is  by  doing  what  lies  to  hand  that  the 
soul  progresses;  not  by  actual  locomotion.  Yes,  in 
kneading  dough,  threading  bobbins,  folding  sheets, 
dove-tailing  corners,  and  in  digging  and  in  manur- 
ing, honesty  may  be  achieved,  so  long  as  there  be 
no  hope  that  well  enough  will  produce  the  equivalent 
of  as  well  as  possible.  It  may,  on  female  hearts,  on 
the  applauding  world,  and  in  the  mart;  but  those 
chances  are  the  lake,  the  palm-trees,  the  minarets 
and  cupolas — to  turn  towards  which,  as  Flaubert 
knew,  is  to  be  lost  in  the  boundless  and  shifting 
sands,  like  Cambyses'  army. 


VII 


TILL  now  we  have  considered  no  idea  of 
Flaubert's  which  lacked  ancient  and  wide 
authority  gathered  in  the  service  of  illustrious 
minds:  nor  need  originality  be  claimed  for  one 
which  is  certainly  more  distinctive  of  him,  since 
the  notion  that  evil  is  disarmed  by  knowledge  and 
familiarity  has  been  matter  for  proverbs.  Our  fore- 
fathers thought  it  well  that  a  young  blood  should 
sow  his  wild  oats;  and  to  know  the  worst  commonly 
gives  satisfaction  to  sensible  folk.  But  the  man 
who,  subject  to  epileptic  (?)  fits,  counteracted  the 
mesmeric  effect  they  often  exert  over  their  victims 
by  scientific  inquiry  into  nervous  disorders » — the 
man  who  devotedly  studied  stupidity  and  baseness, 
and  thus  cleansed  his  own  mind  from  their  adhesive 
ubiquity — the  man  who  amusedly  sought  out  all 
kinds  of  lasciviousness  and  lubricity  and  won  there- 
by a  disdainful  mastery  over  his  own  waywardness 

'  Corrcspondance  de  G.  Flaubert,  Serie  iii.  pp,  84,  85 ;  see  also 
Dumesnil,  Flaubert,  pp.  336-350. 
N  177 


178  ART   AND   LIFE 

— the  man  who  perseveringly  analysed  the  bad  art 
of  wretched  authors  that  he  might  improve  a  style 
which  emulous  admiration  of  the  great  masters  had 
benefited  to  the  full — such  a  man  raises  the  prin- 
ciple of  the  Spartan  prevention  for  drunkenness  by 
contemplation  of  an  awful  example  to  a  pre-emi- 
nence which  it  surely  never  attained  before.  Indeed, 
"the  intelligent"  thought  the  long  and  painful 
prosecution  of  such  researches  so  absurd,  that  they 
ascribed  to  disease  and  defect  that  which  was  due 
to  profound  intuition  and  deliberate  purpose.  A 
crowd  of  passages  from  his  letters,  and  anecdotes 
reported  by  his  friends,  put  it  beyond  all  question 
that  Flaubert  consciously  and  gratefully  fostered 
the  impulse  which  in  childhood  had  directed  his 
curiosity  to  the  dissection  of  evil. 

His  notorious  hatred  for  le  bourgeois^  and  the 
attraction  resembling  that  of  love  which  he  felt 
towards  its  object,  can  only  be  intelligibly  conceived 
as  a  vigorous  branch  of  these  his  life's  pursuits — 
intuitive  in  its  origin,  but  reasoned  in  its  develop- 
ments. 

The  boy  of  nine  who  in  a  letter  prattles  to  his 
friend, 

"  I  will  write  comedies  and  you  shall  write  your 
dreams,  and  since  a  lady  who  comes  to  see  papa  always 
tells  us  lots  of  stupid  things,  I  will  write  them  down,"  ' 

*  Correspondance  de  G.  Flaubert,  Serie  i.  pp.  i,  2. 


REALITY   AND   THE   IDEAL  179 

has  already  set  forth  on  the  enterprise  which  will 
result  in  that  anatomy  of  average  mental  processes, 
Bouvard  et  Pecuchet.  The  young  author  who 
carries  a  volume  by  the  Marquis  de  Sade  in  his 
pocket,  and  ostentatiously  proclaims  it  the  most 
amusing  of  books,  on  occasion  can  reflect  "  It 
is  the  last  word  of  Catholicism.  Let  me  explain.  It 
is  the  spirit  of  the  Inquisition,  the  spirit  of  torture, 
the  spirit  of  the  mediaeval  Church,  of  horror  at 
nature.  .  .  .  Note  this,  there  is  no  mention  of 
animal  or  tree  in  de  Sade."  ^ 

And  years  before  we  find  him  wrestling  with  the 
still  more  daring  idea,  that  the  fertility  of  the  human 
soul  in  creating  symbols  to  express  evil  has  a  func- 
tion akin  to  that  of  the  knowledge  which  strips  it 
of  its  fascination  and  of  the  familiarity  which  breeds 
contempt  for  it. 

Some,  who  will  never  understand  anything  about 
beauty,  have  truncated  the  following  passage  for 
abusive  purposes: — 

"  Let  us  not  confound  the  yawn  of  the  common  soul 
over  Homer  with  that  profound  meditation,  with  that 
intense  and  almost  painful  reverie  which  comes  over  the 
poet  when  he  measures  colossi  and,  sick  of  heart,  says, 
'0  altitudo!' 

"And  then  I  admire  Nero:  the  man  of  the  antique 
world  culminates  in  him  !  woe  to  any  who  has  never 

*  Journal  dcs  Gottcourt,  tome  i.  pp.  259,  309, 


i8o  ART   AND   LIFE 

thrilled  in  reading  Suetonius.  I  have  lately  read  the 
life  of  Heliogabalus  in  Plutarch.  His  beauty  is  different 
from  Nero's ;  more  Asiatic,  more  feverish,  more  ro- 
mantic, more  unbridled.  It  is  the  evening  of  Nero's 
day  ;  but  Nero  is  calmer,  more  beautiful,  more  antique, 
more  stable,  in  sum  superior.  The  masses  have  lost 
their  poetry  since  Christianity.  Don't  talk  to  me  of 
the  grandiose  in  modern  times.  There  is  not  enough 
to  satisfy  the  imagination  of  a  novelette  writer."  * 

Like  a  popular  poem,  Nero's  life  fastened  on  the 
common  imagination,  and  had  in  a  measure  been 
moulded  by  it,  since  he  perpetually  conceived  of 
himself  as  a  spectacle  for  the  whole  world  and 
addressed  the  masses  with  native  divination.  Flau- 
bert relates  him  to  Homer  as  the  devil  confronts 
God.  He  is  the  sublime  in  the  depths,  a  revelation 
of  man  to  man,  the  antichrist  who  for  a  last  time 
embodied  the  plastic  and  sensuous  pagan  ideal. 
His  beauty  outrivalled  that  of  Satan,  as  the  Christ's 
did  that  of  Jehovah  or  of  Jove.  In  a  fragment 
written  about  the  same  time  as  the  above  letter, 
Satan  calls  Nero  "  the  beloved  son  of  my  heart,  the 
greatest  poet  the  earth  has  seen."^  Difference  of 
moral  value  takes  nothing  from  the  apt  significance 
of  such  symbolical  figures,  nor  from  their  beauty; 
they  were  conceived  to  express  that  contrast,  and 

'  Correspondance  de  G.  Flaubert,  Serie  i.  p.  72. 
'  (Euvres  completes,  tome  vi.  p.  350. 


REALITY   AND  THE   IDEAL         i8i 

neither  is  complete  without  its  opposite.  Indeed, 
the  poetry  of  Hell  may  be  regarded  as  reaching 
maturity  later  than  that  of  Paradise  or  Olympus, 
and  the  tendency  of  modern  art  be  seen  in  the 
fusion  of  the  two  which  is  already  foreshadowed 
in  the  poems  of  Marlowe  and  Milton.  For  all 
the  ultimate  figures,  whether  historical  ^  or  mythical, 
which  stand  like  boundary  pillars  round  the  world 
of  human  imagination,  Flaubert  had  the  instinctive 
reverence  of  the  craftsman  for  unsigned  master- 
pieces. The  dulness  which  misconstrues  his 
admiration  is  as  common  as  the  capacity  to  share 
in  it  is  rare.  He  as  fully  realised  the  relative  moral 
values  of  the  ancient  and  modern  worlds  as  he  had 
that  of  their  aesthetic  creations. 

"Christianity,  though  we  seek  to  defend  ourselves 
against  admitting  it,  has  come  to  enlarge  all  that  [i.e., 
the  antique  conception  of  man] ,  but  also  to  spoil  it, 
by  introducing  suffering.  The  human  heart  is  only 
enlarged  by  means  of  a  cutting  edge  that  tears  it."  ' 

The  religious  and  the  aesthetic  imaginations  raise 
ideas  and  forms  above  fact  by  outrivalling  its  vivid- 
ness, and  thus  enable  memory  and  desire  to  intermit 
mechanical  perception  and  provide  the  standards  of 
comparison  without  which  our  minds  could  not  exist. 

*  Correspondance  de  G.  Flaubert,  Serie  i.  p.  202. 
»  Ibid.,  p.  116. 


i82  ART   AND   LIFE 

Reflections  from  his  study  of  evil  run  through 
the  richly  variegated  tissue  of  Flaubert's  letters, 
like  threads  of  fire  flashing  mysteriously  now  and 
again,  and  inviting  to  rare  and  pregnant  meditation. 
A  few  instances  may  be  cited. 

"  In  the  first  place  this  woman  is  atrociously  ugly  ; 
she  has  nothing  in  her  favour  save  a  very  great  cyni- 
cism full  of  naivety  which  highly  delighted  me. 
Besides,  I  witnessed  the  expansion  of  her  nature  in 
its  fury,  always  a  beautiful  thing  to  see :  and  then,  as 
you  know,  I  like  that  kind  of  spectacle  well  enough. 
My  taste  for  it  is  inborn — ^the  ignoble  pleases  me,  it 
is  the  sublime  in  the  nadir  ;  when  genuine,  it  is  as  rare 
as  that  in  the  zenith.  Cynicism  is  wonderful ;  the 
caricature  of  vice,  it  at  the  same  time  corrects  and 
annihilates  it  ;  all  great  voluptuaries  are  extremely 
modest ;  till  now  I  have  not  come  across  a  single 
exception.^ 

"Who  has  counted  all  the  base  actions  that  must 
be  contemplated  in  order  to  build  up  a  truly  great 
soul  ?  all  the  sickening  miasmas  that  must  be  swallowed 
down,  all  the  mortifications  undergone,  all  the  tortures 
endured,  before  a  good  page  can  be  written  ?  We 
authors  are  sewermen  and  gardeners  ;  we  draw  delect- 
able things  from  putrefaction  and  grow  baskets  of 
flowers  on  spread-out  miseries.  The  fact  distils  into 
form  and  mounts  on  high  like  a  pure  incense  of  the 
spirit  towards  the  Eternal,  the  immovable,  the  abso- 
lute, the  ideal.  .  .  .  Have  you  ever  mused  over  the 

^  Correspondance  de  G.  Flaubert,  Serie  i.  p.  148. 


REALITY   AND   THE   IDEAL         183 

number  of  wives  who  have  lovers,  the  number  of 
husbands  who  have  mistresses — over  all  those  homes  ? 
What  lies,  what  tears,  what  anguish  !  All  that  gives 
relief  to  the  grotesque  and  to  the  tragic  ;  indeed,  they 
are  one  and  the  same  mask,  and  cover  a  single  void, 
while,  like  a  row  of  white  teeth  under  a  black  hood, 
fantasy  laughs  in  the  midst.^ 

"  More  than  anybody  I  have  felt  after  others.  I 
have  been  to  sniff  unknown  dunghills,  and  have  had 
compassion  for  many  things  over  which  sensitive 
people  are  not  tender.  Whatever  my  Bovary  may  be 
worth,  there  wiU  be  no  lack  of  heart  in  the  book. 
And  yet  irony  seems  to  me  dominant  in  Ufe.  Why 
is  it  that  I  have,  when  weeping,  often  gone  to  look 
at  myself  in  the  glass  ?  This  disposition  to  look  down 
from  a  height  on  oneself  is  perhaps  the  source  of  all 
virtue.  Far  from  prisoning  you  in  the  personal,  it 
sweeps  you  away  from  yourself.  The  extreme  comic, 
the  comic  that  does  not  make  you  laugh,  cynicism  in 
not  taking   things    seriously,'   is   the   quality  I    most 

'  Correspondance  de  G.  Flaubert,  Serie  ii.  pp.  360,  361. 

'  I.e., "  The  caricatiure  of  not  taking  things  seriously,  the  corrective 
of  that  temper  and  its  annihilation."  "  Cynicisme  dans  la  blague  " 
describes  the  divorce  of  conviction  which  is  the  natural  outcome 
of  love  and  admiration  from  intellectual  conceptions,  on  the  ground 
that  these  latter  are  necessarily  relative  and  experimental.  Pas- 
sion can  only  achieve  particular  ends.  Many  problems  are  laugh- 
ably too  big  for  it.  The  student  confesses  ignorance  and  is  patient ; 
over-eagerness  in  learning  counts  on  a  speedy  occasion  to  desist, 
and  may  easily  seem  irreverent.  Let  us  gibe  at  every  trace  of 
fanatic  fever ;  after  all  it  is  usually  more  important  to  catch  a  train 
than  to  solve  the  riddle  of  the  universe,  to  rescue  a  bird  from  a 
cat  than  the  human  race  from  the  devil,  to  sweat  over  polishing 
one  sentence  than  over  the  systematisation  of  knowledgCj  reso- 


i84  ART   AND   LIFE 

hanker  for  as  a  writer.  Both  elements  exist. 
The  Malade  Imaginaire  probes  further  through  the 
inner  world  than  all  the  Agamemnons.  *  Would  there 
not  be  danger  in  talking  of  all  these  diseases  ? ''  is 
worth  *  He  might  die.'  ""  But  how  on  earth  make 
pedants  understand  that  !  It  is  a  queer  thing  what 
a  strong  comic  sense  I  have  as  a  man,  and  how  my 
pen  refuses  to  serve  it.  My  powers  converge  more 
and  more  thither  as  I  become  less  gay,  for  it  is  the 
final  sadness.3 

"  Hideousness  in  subjects  drawn  from  modern 
middle-class  life  ought  to  replace  the  tragic  which  is 
incompatible  with  them.4 

"  Read  the  bad  and  the  sublime,  not  the  mediocre. 

lutely  to  know  one  friend  than  to  presume  with  God.  The  first 
of  such  contrasted  aims  is  but  an  initial  preparation  for  the  dis- 
tant second.  Objects  too  vast  or  too  distant  demand  a  passive,  not 
a  miUtant  reverence:  their  authority  is  real,  but  commands  our 
silent  expectancy,  not  our  action  or  eloquence.  For  Wisdom, 
history  is  a  lie  which  only  fools  and  fanatics  believe  ;  she,  in 
Emerson's  words,  "  does  not  like  our  benevolence  or  our  learning 
much  better  than  she  likes  our  frauds  and  wars.  When  we  come 
out  of  the  caucus,  or  the  bank,  or  the  Abolition  convention,  or  the 
Temperance  meeting,  or  the  Transcendental  club,  into  the  fields 
and  woods,  she  says  to  us,  '  So  hot,  my  little  sir  ? '  " 

'  This  trait  is  not  in  Moliere's  comedy  :  the  idea  is  often  immanent, 
but  is  never  so  concisely  expressed.  The  nearest  approaches  are 
in  Act  III.  Scene  IX.  :  "  Look  you  now,  all  those  diseases  that 
I  know  nothing  of  oppress  me,  those  .  .  ."  And  in  Act  III. 
Scene  XVII.  :  "  Is  there  no  danger  in  counterfeiting  death  ? " 

*  The  reference  is  to  Corneille's  Horace,  Act  III.  Scene  VI. : — 

^^  Julia:  What  would  you  have  him  do  single-handed  against 
three  ? 
"  Horace  the  Elder :  He  might  die." 
3  Correspondance  de  G.  Flaubert,  Serie  ii.  pp.  97,  98. 

*  Ibid.,  p.  350- 


REALITY  AND   THE   IDEAL         185 

...  I  assure  you  that  in  the  matter  of  style  those 
whom  I  detest  most  have  been  more  useful  to  me  than 
any  others."  ^ 

Both  love  and  hatred  are  useful,  yet  the  latter 
has  been  less  consciously  and  less  constantly 
employed.  To  raise  his  nature  to  its  highest 
efficiency  man  must  learn  to  hate  with  determina- 
tion and  refinement  (that  is,  impersonally),  as  the 
best  have  known  how  to  love  ;  equally  honest  and 
serious  study  is  needed  for  success.  To  realise 
precisely  what  you  want  not  to  be  helps  to  define 
what  you  would  be.  The  saint  has  aa  abyss  con- 
stantly beside  him — "  the  brightest  fell."  The  man 
least  likely  to  lie  mangled  at  the  foot  of  a  preci- 
pice is  he  who  has  climbed  down  its  face  and 
acquainted  himself  with  its  footholds  and  treach- 
eries. Holiness  is  irresistibly  drawn  to  the  morally 
sick,  its  essence  is  expressed  most  perfectly  by 
conquering  their  resistance ;  where  is  most  diffi- 
culty is  most  glory.  The  best  climber  is  chosen 
to  risk  his  life  for  the  companion  who  has  fallen. 
The  man  who  is  most  familiar  with  danger  has 
least  to  fear. 

"  The  Dutch  and  Venetians  are  colourists,  not  the 
Neapolitans  ;  for  living  always  in  fogs,  they  love  the 
sun. 

'  Correspondance  de  G.  Flaubert,  Serie  ii.  pp.  99, 100. 


i86  ART   AND   LIFE 

"  Let  a  man  be  small  or  great,  when  he  wants  to 
meddle  with  the  good  God's  works,  he  must  begin,  if 
only  on  the  score  of  health,  by  putting  himself  in  a 
position  not  to  be  their  dupe.  Thou  shalt  depict 
wine,  love,  woman,  glory — on  this  condition,  my  good 
fellow  :  that  thou  art  neither  drunkard,  nor  lover,  nor 
husband,  nor  soldier-lad.  Life  is  seen  badly  by  those 
mixed  up  in  it ;  they  either  suffer  from  it  too  much, 
or  enjoy  it  too  much."  ^ 

The  common  run  turned  from  contemplation  of 
the  devil  and  were  either  haunted,  or,  stumbling  on 
him  unawares,  terrified  out  of  their  wits.  For  the 
unknown  is  respected  and  gathers  portentousness  ; 
what  is  great  attracts.  Hell's  mouth  devoured 
crowds.  But  the  artists  and  poets  pursued  Old 
Nick  and  inventoried  every  circle  of  hell,  till 
familiarity  bred  contempt. 

Study  is  pricked  on  by  a  stirring  of  attraction  ; 
but  to  desire  evil  is  repugnant  to  reason ;  how  then 
can  it  be  so  well  known  as  to  be  contemned  ?  The 
artist  longs  to  give  every  perception  harmonious 
form  and  function  in  a  mental  world.  Evil  exists, 
impresses,  must  be  rendered  ;  this  imperative  keeps 
him  busy.  William  of  Orange  while  directing  his 
gunners  said  to  a  gentleman — 

"  Do  you  know,  sir,  that  every  moment  you 
spend  here  is  at  the  risk  of  your  life  ?  " 

'  Correspondancc  de  G.  Flaubert,  Serie  ii.  p.  19. 


REALITY  AND  THE   IDEAL         i8; 

"  I  run  no  more  risk  than  your  majesty." 
"  Yes,  but  'my  duty  brings  me  here  ;  yours  does 
not." 

A  few  seconds  later  the  gentleman  was  killed. 
Though  those  who  prosecute  tasks  of  moment  may 
only  seem  to  bear  charmed  lives,  they  are  at  least 
exonerated  from  courting  danger.  It  is  more  com- 
prehensible that  the  artist's  preoccupation  may  save 
him  from  obsessions  fatal  to  idle  minds.  The  note 
of  depression  which  in  later  life,  after  the  night- 
mare year  of  the  Franco- Prussian  War  and  his 
own  private  losses  in  friends  and  fortune,  so 
often  clouded  Flaubert's  enthusiastic  and  worship- 
ful nature,  was  perhaps  caused  by  his  having 
too  steadfastly  inspected  evils  for  which  neither 
he  nor  any  one  else  could  conceive  an  ade- 
quate image  or  an  ideal  significance.  Those 
who  launch  on  grand  adventures  are  liable  to  be 
thus  stranded  naked  beyond  the  reach  of  human 
aid.  It  was  George  Sand's  inexhaustibly  buoyant 
emotional  force  which,  though  comparatively  igno- 
rant, yet  restored  to  him  the  love  and  devotion 
needed  in  the  prosecution  of  his  labours.  For  a 
period  he  had  been  unable  to  achieve  his  daily 
hours  of  impersonal  life  ;  his  own  woes  drew  him 
tyrannically  away  from  those  of  his  characters.  No 
longer  sustained  by  the  aesthetic  passion  of  finding 
harmonious  expression  for  the  ills  he  recognised,  he 


l88  ART   AND   LIFE 

felt  their  dreadful  fascination — the  wish  to  yield  to 
them,  to  be  crushed,  to  be  seduced,  to  feed  their 
Juggernaut  progress  with  yet  another  mangled  life. 
Yes,  he  realised  once  more  what  he  had  often 
said,  that 

the  less  you  feel  a  thing,  the  better  fitted  are  you 
to  express  it  as  it  is  (as  it  is  always  in  itself,  in  its 
generality,  and  disengaged  from  every  ephemeral  con- 
tingency). But  it  is  necessary  to  have  the  faculty  of 
making  one's  self  feel  it.  This  faculty  is  no  other  than 
the  genius  of  seeing — of  having  the  model  before  you, 
posing."  * 

Tears  are  the  worst  possible  spectacles  :  and  he 
was  weeping  who  had  wished  to  raise  himself  above 
the  happiness  that  the  sense  of  well-doing  brings, 
in  order  that  even  so  much  rosy  colour  might  not 
tinge  the  purity  of  his  vision. 

"  Alas,  vice  is  no  more  fecundating  than  virtue  ;  it  is 
necessary  to  be  neither  the  one  nor  the  other,  neither 
vicious  nor  virtuous,  but  above  all  that." ' 

Indeed,  the  ideal  man  will  be  consciously  neither 
good  nor  wicked  ;  he  will  be  above  all  that,  seeing 
things  as  they  are,  and  expressing  them  in  their 
beauty ;   he  will  be  adequate  to  the  universe  and 

*  Correspondance  de  G.  Flaubert,  Serie  ii.  p.  82. 
'  Ibid.,  p.  121. 


REALITY   AND   THE   IDEAL         189 

satisfy  his  own  nature,  without  pride,  without  anxiety; 
evil  will  no  longer  exist  for  him  save  as  the  blood- 
shed round  Troy  walls  is  present  with  lovers  of  the 
Iliad.  His  science  will  control  all  elemental  forces, 
his  polity  have  purged  the  crowd  of  any  taint  of 
the  ancestral  beast  and  intermediate  villain,  fool, 
and  prig.  To  count  on  such  a  consummation  is 
to  overween  as  Flaubert  never  dared :  yet  at 
times  he  was  forced  to  cry  : — 

"Has  life  not  made  thee  aware  of  a  somewhat  loftier 
than  happiness,  than  love,  than  religion,  because  it 
springs  from  a  more  impersonal  fount  ?  A  somewhat 
which  sings  through  everything,  whether  we  stop  our 
ears  or  delight  ourselves  with  listening  :  on  which  con- 
tingencies have  no  effect  and  which  is  of  the  nature  of 
the  angels  who  do  not  eat :  I  am  speaking  of  idea. 
They  love  by  its  means  whose  life  it  is."  * 

That  is  from  his  last  letter  to  Madame  Louise 
Colet  :  and  in  the  last  he  ever  wrote,  twenty-six 
years  later,  the  same  note  is  sounded  again,  though 
on  a  paltry  occasion,  with  more  precision  : — 

"  Guy  has  sent  me  my  piece  of  botanical  informa- 
tion. I  was  right  !  .  .  .  My  authority  is  the  professor  of 
botany  at  the  Jardin  des  Plantes,  and  I  was  .right,  be- 
cause aesthetic  is  true,  and  at  a  certain  intelledtual  level 
(when  method  is  ours)  we  no  longer  make  mistakes. 

'  Correspondance  de  G.  Flaubert,  Serie  U.  p.  397. 


I90  ART   AND   LIFE 

Reality  does  not  yield  to  the  ideal  but  confirms  it.  For 
Bouvard  et  Pecuchet  I  had  to  make  three  journeys  into 
different  regions  before  I  found  the  neighbourhood 
proper  to  the  action.  Ah  !  ah  !  I  triumph  !  That  is 
a  success  !  and  one  that  flatters  me." ' 

Those  words  which  I  have  itahcised  give  fresh 
expression  to  that  which  raises  Spinoza  above  philo- 
sophers, and  makes  his  temper  and  character  an 
object  of  contemplation  for  many  whom  his  reason- 
ing cannot  satisfy.  Flaubert  has  been  called  a 
pantheist,  and  his  niece  has  in  a  measure  authorised 
this  designation.2  However,  I  feel  sure  that  he  had 
not  been  willing  to  subscribe  to  any  system,  even 
that  of  his  adored  Spinoza.  Perhaps  the  whole 
extent  of  his  pantheistic  leanings  is  expressed  in  the 
devout  conviction  of  the  assertions,  "  Reality  does 
not  yield  to  the  ideal,  but  confirms  it,"  "  The  ideal 
is  only  fruitful  when  everything  is  brought  into  it,"  3 
which  are  but  another  way  of  saying  that  "  Beauty 
is  the  splendour  of  truth,"  4  and  "  Style  the  absolute 
manner  of  seeing  things,"  s  since  only  by  its  achieve- 
ment can  any  subject  be  grasped  with  lustre  entire. 

That  every  fact  would  confirm  the  hopes  of  one 
who  had   so   deftly   hated   waste   as    to   live   both 

*  Lettres  a  sa  niece  Caroline,  p.  523. 

"  Correspon dance  de  G.  Flaubert,  Serie  i.  p.  xxxv 
3  Ibid.,  Serie  ii.  p.  366  ;  see  above,  p.  172. 

*  Ibid.,  Serie  iii.  p.  80  ;  see  above,  p.  34. 

5  Ibid.,  Serie  ii.  p.  71  ;  see  above,  p.  149. 


REALITY   AND   THE    IDEAL  191 

exactly  and  musically,  and  so  shunned  injustice  as 
to  realise  charity  both  in  deed  and  in  representation, 
is  a  proposition  to  be  neither  gainsaid  nor  asserted 
lightly.  But  say,  "  The  ideal  demands  a  labour  of 
love,  not  of  exclusion,"  ^  and  few  will  demur  from 
the  practical  rule  suggested,  however  diffident  they 
might  feel  in  prospecting  its  logical  outcome  across 
the  future.  Evil  may  grow  transparent  to  those 
who,  no  longer  dreading,  study  it,  and  with 
ignorance  might  vanish  away  ;  as  the  loathsome 
leper,  when  St.  Julian  had  conquered  the  last 
shudder  of  his  natural  repugnance,  became,  on  the 
instant,  the  very  presence  "of  that  ideal  type  to- 
wards which  all  our  efforts  ought  to  tend."  2 

'  Correspondance  de  G.  Flaubert,  Serie  ii.  p.  366. 
'  Ibid.,  p.  338. 


BLAKE   AND    HIS   ESTHETIC 


^ 


It  is  a  fine  thing  to  write  our  very  thought,  it  is  man's  privilege. 

The  freedom  which  inspires  English  men  of  genius  would  please  me, 

if  passion  and  party  spirit  did  not  corrupt  the  most  estimable  half  of 

that  precious  liberty. 

Voltaire,  "  Candide,"  chapter  xxv 


I 


ART  needs  autonomy,  but  for  the  artist's  sake 
accepts  many  imposed  tasks  ;  for  only  through 
him  can  she  become  "  self-schooled,  self-scanned, 
self-honoured,  self-secure." 

Her  servants,  in  France  and  England,  have  had 
contrasted  characters  and  circumstances.  If  we 
liken  the  author  to  an  host,  the  French  type  will 
seek  a  peer  or  even  a  superior  in  his  reader ;  hence 
anxiety  to  inform  succinctly,  deferentially  to  enter- 
tain, and  that  self-effacement  which,  wherever 
possible,  leaves  guest  and  theme  in  presence, — 
having  only  drawn  back  the  curtains,  cleaned  the 
windows,  and  tempered  the  atmosphere,  like  a 
collector  who  shows  a  treasure  he  knows  the 
value  of  to  a  judge  whom  he  respects. 

The  English  host  receives  poor  relatives  and  such 
as  would  gladly  know  the  owner  of  such  property, 
whoever  he  might  be.  Confident  that  to  them  his 
ideas,  his  talents,  his  knowledge,  his  temperament, 
reveal  the  divine,  he  feels  free  to  dictate  a  reverent 
absorption  or  an  ecstatic  trance,  to  browbeat  and 
depress,  rally  and  detect,  teach,  be  hearty,  hob-nob ; 

195 


196  ART  AND  LIFE 

or,  if  his  mansion  be  sufficiently  palatial,  he  need 
not  trouble  himself  to  appear.  Thus  even  Shake- 
speare is  included. 

Pedantry  is  the  pitfall  in  accepting  an  outside 
standard ;  the  presumption  of  inspiration  leads  to 
fatuity.  There  the  poet  so  dreads  suggesting  that 
he  has  taken  the  lead  of  your  comprehension,  that 
he  neglects  his  own  thought  to  show  appreciation  of 
what  yours  surely  is.  Here,  whether  his  walk  be 
through  Paradise  or  with  Pickwick,  he  ignores 
every  alternative  of  gait  or  bearing,  unweariably 
maintaining  the  first  he  happened  on.  Across  the 
Channel  adopted  virtues  often  stifle  spontaneous 
growths  ;  on  this  side  you  must  look  for  every  kind 
of  fruit  on  one  proud  plant,  sometimes  a  bramble. 

The  most  admirable  products  of  both  soils  have 
been  extremely  diverse  ;  but  now  the  exchange  of 
influences  has  begun  and  will  proceed. 

We  have  already  considered  Flaubert,  who  may 
stand  for  the  French  type  at  its  strongest.  In  Blake 
the  English  presumption  of  a  God-illumined  judg- 
ment reached  its  acme  of  assurance  ;  no  writer  of 
the  same  force  has  deviated  from  initial  impulse  so 
little,  or  gathered  less  from  experience  and  observa- 
tion. The  path  of  destiny  was  for  him  strangely 
straight  and  bright.  All  that  he  learned  in  pain 
was  the  pace  at  which  his  course  might  be  run,  till 
at  last  he  was  patient  and  trod  delicately  as  a  lamb. 


II 


A  GREAT  critic  has  said  that  applied  to  work 
the  word  "  genius  gives  .  .  .  the  notion  of 
felicity  and  perfection"  ;  but  mark  in  "this  divine 
gift  of  consummate  felicity"  how  large  a  part 
we  allot  to  effortless  power  to  receive  or  effect. 
Such  unaccountable  superiority  is  more  generally 
thus  denoted  than  perfection  itself.  Men  do  not 
ask  whether  fertility,  delicacy,  proportion,  coherence, 
and  serenity  were  his ;  they  call  Blake  a  genius  in 
spite  of  his  obvious  deficiency  in  many  of  these 
qualities.  Nor  does  recognition  "  that  his  ideas  and 
language  are  substantially  underived  "  give  a  writer 
the  fame  of  originality,  but  our  sense  that  his 
nature  compels  him  to  be  eloquent,  that  he  is 
apprehended  by  his  conceptions  rather  than  with 
labour  and  forethought  become  their  master.  All 
ideas,  like  all  language,  must  of  necessity  be  derived  : 
few  will  even  inquire  how  apparent  the  lineage  of 
a  great  man's  thoughts  may  be.  "  He  has  made  it 
his  own,"  they  say,  and  bid  us  observe  how  those 

197 


198  ART   AND   LIFE 

whose  poetry  or  action  was  their  life,  not  merely  an 
occupation,  shape  their  own  rules. 

The  Poetical  Sketches,  though  full  of  direct  thefts 
from  Elizabethan  poetry,  produce  the  effect  of  a 
very  marked  originality  in  their  author  ;  whereas  we 
have  all  read  verse  not  to  be  reproached  with  stolen 
phrases,  but  making  no  such  impression. 

Blake  believed  his  verses  to  be  the  voice  of  God 
within  him,  and  held  "the  worship  of  God  is 
honouring  His  gifts  in  other  men,  each  according 
to  his  genius,  and  loving  the  greatest  men  best. 
Those  who  envy  or  calumniate  great  men  hate  God, 
for  there  is  no  other  God."  Hence,  conscious  of 
great  powers,  he  saw  no  occasion  to  correct  his 
work,  and  misconceived  the  motives  of  those  who 
urged  him  to  better  it.^  He  failed  or  refused  to 
learn  the  A  B  C  of  history,  of  literature,  of  art,  of 
religion,  of  prosody  :  this  gave  his  confidence  an 
air  of  madness.  Commercial  obscurity  surrounded 
the  issue  of  his  work,  and  deprived  it  of  immediate 
influence.  As  soon  as  they  were  known,  and 
wherever  they  became  known,  both  poems  and 
pictures  told  on  original  artists  as  an  influence, 
while  lesser  talents  did  their  best  to  imitate  them. 
If  his  poetry  had  even  less  effect  than  his  designs  on 
his  contemporaries,  that  is  because  fewer  encoun- 
tered it.  Blake  was  in  touch  with  professional 
'  Edwin  J.  Ellis,  The  Real  Blake,  pp.  46  and  47. 


BLAKE   AND   HIS   ESTHETIC         199 

artists,  but  the  only  poets  he  came  in  contact  with 
were  mere  dilettanti,  like  Hayley.  Had  death  and 
fate  permitted  Collins,  Gray,  or  Cowper  to  chance 
on  the  lad  who  wrote  the  Poetical  Sketches,  there  is 
no  reason  to  suppose  that  they  would  have  been 
less  impressed  than  were  Fuseli,  Flaxman,  and 
Romney  with  his  designs ;  and  if,  later,  Wordsworth, 
Coleridge,  or  Lamb  had  come  to  know  Blake 
personally,  they  would  have  made  at  least  as  much 
of  him  as  did  Lawrence,  Richmond,  or  Linnell  ; 
while  we  can  imagine  Shelley  sitting  at  his  feet  with 
Calvert.  On  men  of  talent  not  the  felicities  alone, 
but  the  very  imperfections  of  his  pictures  and  poems, 
are  calculated  to  exert  attraction.  Fuseli  put  it 
grossly  when  he  said  Blake  was  "  damned  good 
to  steal  from."  Works  of  genius  which  have  never 
benefited  by  the  second  heat,  or  that  long,  patient 
process  of  sifting  and  clarifying  which  so  often 
precedes  it,  must  need  gleam  with  stimulating 
accidents  for  the  experienced  workman's  eye, 
inspiring  him  with  both  thought  and  word  which 
he  can  but  prize  the  more  because  they  first  arose 
in  another  mind,  and  are  real  additions  to  his 
primary  perceptions,  however  truly  their  final  shape 
may  have  become  his  own. 

With  the  exception  of  a  few  stanzas  and  lines, 
the  Poetical  Sketches  and  Songs  of  Innocence  and 
Experience    contain    all    of    Blake's    poetry   which 


200  ART   AND   LIFE 

should  be  called  beautiful.  What  remains  is  in 
movement  and  diction  neither  simple  nor  sensuous ; 
and,  if  impassioned,  lacks  that  ease  and  grace  which 
passion  sometimes  gives ;  only  to  provoke  thought 
and  arouse  curiosity  can  it  claim  effectiveness. 
Surveying  the  earlier  work,  one  notes  how  largely 
it  is  preoccupied  with  poetical  commonplaces ; 
there  is  little  new  observation,  few  subtleties  of 
sentiment ;  yet  all  is  fresh,  ardent,  naive,  and  not 
infrequently  felicitous.  The  influence  of  Blake's 
peculiar  religious  apprehensions  has  already  been 
felt ;  and  henceforth  the  burden  of  dark  meaning 
will  increasingly  overstrain  syntax  and  rhythm. 
Thel  has  been  made  much  of  because  it  is  less 
horrid  ;  yet  is  it  not  insipid  ?  Passages  about  the 
awakening  of  birds  and  flowers  are  relished  in 
Milton  that  elsewhere  would  appear  hackneyed  in 
theme  and  less  magical  as  effect. 


7,  >  tr. 

K  <  a: 


Ill 


IT  may  help  us  to  discover  the  Hterary  value  of 
Blake's  prophetical  writings  to  enumerate 
those  of  their  main  characteristics  which  criticism 
would  seem  to  have  established,  and  such  as  are 
obvious  the  moment  they  are  set  beside  accepted 
masterpieces. 

1.  They  were  intended  to  present  Christianity 
afresh  ;  or,  as  Matthew  Arnold  would  have  phrased 
it,  "to  renew  the  intuition  that  righteousness  is  not 
an  observance  of  rules,  but  a  well-head  of  mutual 
forbearance  and  effort  springing  up  to  spiritual 
reunion  within  us." 

2.  The  Christianity  presented  is  orthodox  in  its 
main  outline  :  the  Fall,  the  insufficiency  of  the  law 
(righteous  observance)  as  a  means  of  salvation,  the 
sufficiency  of  spiritual  union  in  Jesus  to  redeem, 
and  the  final  establishment  of  the  kingdom  of 
heaven  by  his  means. 

3.  It  is  "advanced,"  like  the  "higher  criticism," 
in  the  sense  that  it  presented  this  orthodox  sub- 


202  ART   AND   LIFE 

stance,  not  merely  as  an  historical  fact,  but  mainly 
as  a  symbolical  description  of  the  inner  life. 

4.  It  was  eccentric  in  that  it  identified  Jesus  with 
the  imagination,  in  that  it  added  a  vast  structure  of 
heterogeneous  elements  to  the  traditional  myth,  and 
in  the  literalness  with  which  it  accepted  the  sugges- 
tion that  the  apparent  universe  was  a  veil,  could  be 
put  off  as  a  garment,  and  would  finally  by  every 
man  be  laid  aside. 

5.  It  was  efficacious  in  effect  on  Blake's  character 
and  life  because  the  psychology  inherent  in  it  was 
borne  out  by  experience,  in  the  same  sense  as  that 
of  the  Churches  is  ;  while  the  myth  which  expressed 
it  equally  gave  enhanced  importance  to  the  events 
and  sentiments  of  individual  lives,  by  showing  them 
as  parts  of  a  grandiose  whole. 

6.  Its  psychology  was  apparently  more  complex 
than  any  that  is  usually  associated  with  the  tradi- 
tional myth,  and  in  this  better  corresponded  to  the 
infinitely  complex  conception  of  the  material  uni- 
verse which  has  been  gaining  on  the  European 
mind  since  the  time  of  Descartes. 

7.  The  myth  which  embodies  this  psychology  is 
confused  and  ugly  because  its  personifications  of 
tendencies  and  forces  are  not  complete  enough, 
and  are  never  entirely  freed  from  their  roots  in 
abstraction.  They  are  continually  undergoing 
metamorphoses  and  are  always  distinct  from  their 


BLAKE   AND   HIS  iESTHETIC        203 

actual  appearance.  No  kind  of  tolerable  plasticity 
or  comeliness  could  be  or  is  maintained  for  more 
than  a  short  passage  with  this  ungainly  machinery. 
Besides,  the  habits  of  these  tremendous  persons  are 
extremely  few  and  mostly  gross ;  they  are  without 
the  finer  shades,  and,  like  their  emotions,  are 
bewilderingly  common  to  a  whole  group  of  names. 
One  can  but  deplore  that  reality  as  revealed  by 
vision  is  neither  so  varied,  so  highly  organised,  nor 
so  beautiful  as  the  material  universe  that  deludes 
the  senses. 

8.  It  is  obvious  that  the  writer  of  these  books  was 
becoming  less  and  less  observant  in  regard  to  this 
unworthy  "contraction  of  spirit  perceived  by  the 
five  senses ; "  and  so  his  stock  of  images  steadily 
perished,  losing  in  fineness  and  vividness  as  the 
subtler  shades  of  all  that  in  youth  he  had  been  so 
eagerly  enchanted  by  wore  out  in  his  vision- 
laboured  mind. 

9.  The  language  he  employs  grows  more  and 
more  monotonous  and  exasperating,  since  all 
aesthetic  control  over  it  is  abandoned,  even  when 
he  does  not  write  subconsciously  at  the  dictation 
of  visions  endowed  with  only  part  of  the  faculties 
of  their  amanuensis.  Tedious  repetitions  of  every 
kind  abound,  while  the  natural  malapropism  of  a 
self-educated  mind  leads  to  peculiar  efficacy  being 
attached  to  just  those  words  the  writer  does  not 


204  ART  AND  LIFE 

quite  understand,  such  as  "  redound,"  "  chartered," 
&c. 

Certainly  if  it  is,  as  I  think,  not  to  be  gainsaid, 
that  the  above  are  main  characteristics  of  the 
prophetic  books,  these  must  be  very  poor  literature. 
With  so  absolute  a  trust  in  vision  it  is  not  likely 
that  they  can  hold,  in  respect  to  great  poetry,  a 
relation  more  favourable  than  that  which  the  Book 
of  Ezekiel  or  the  Apocalypse  bears  to  the  Book  of 
Job.  But  even  as  compared  with  Ezekiel's,  Blake's 
prophecies  stand  at  a  very  sorry  disadvantage ;  not 
having  so  simple  a  message,  so  significant  a  relation 
to  history,  or  so  intelligible  an  aim  as  the  establish- 
ment of  an  ideal  theocracy.  The  elder  prophet's 
visions  are  not  subject  to  violent  metamorphoses ; 
nor  can  it  be  claimed  that  any  of  Blake's  is  so 
acceptable  as  that  of  the  valley  of  dry  bones,  or 
presents  so  elaborate  and  imposing  a  cumulative 
effect  as  that  of  the  four  living  creatures, — combined, 
as  it  magnificently  is  in  Ezekiel's  last  chapters,  with 
the  completion  of  the  holy  city.  And,  of  course, 
the  style  of  "Milton,"  "Vala,"  and  "Jerusalem"  is 
nowhere  when  compared  with  our  Authorised  Ver- 
sion of  the  book  written  on  the  banks  of  Chebar. 

On  the  other  hand,  Blake  having  apprehended 
with  marvellous  integrity  certain  of  Jesus'  most 
penetrating  intuitions,  at  which  popular  Christianity 
has  always  boggled,  a  far  richer  harvest   may  be 


BLAKE   AND    HIS   .ESTHETIC        205 

gleaned  from  his  prophetic  writings  than  from 
those  of  Ezekiel  in  Hnes  and  phrases  vividly  ex- 
pressing an  exquisite  religious  sense. 

"  If  God  dieth  not  for  Man  and  giveth  not  himself 
eternally  for  Man,  Man  could  not  exist,  for  Man  is  Love 
as  God  is  Love  ;  every  kindness  to  another  is  a  little 
Death  in  the  Divine  Image,  nor  can  Man  exist  but  by 
Brotherhood."  ' 

No  reasonable  man  will  feel  convinced  that 
Blake's  prophetic  writings  have  been  understood 
until  he  is  shown  a  full  paraphrase  of  them  which 
he  can  understand.  In  the  meantime  there  may  be 
less  impertinence  than  appears,  in  advancing  con- 
siderations why  we  should  not  hope  ever  so  to 
understand  them.  The  most  overwhelming  is  that, 
though  a  man  possessed  by  great  themes  insecurely 
grasped  may  write  confusedly,  no  man  not  mad, 
having  definite  and  important  ideas  to  convey, 
would  so  impenetrably  have  wrapped  them  up. 
This  reflection  brings  those  who  entertain  it  great 
advantage  ;  by  it  they  become  defenders  of  Blake's 
sanity.  They,  and  not  those  devoted  scribes  who 
labour  to  discover  the  immaculate  order  of  his 
system  of  ideas,  should  be  fired  by  a  conscious 
generosity.  Though  less  quixotic,  are  they  not 
as  chivalrous  ?  For,  as  Professor  Raleigh  says, 
'  Jerusalem,  ed.  by  Russell  and  Maclagan,  p.  n8. 


2o6  ART   AND   LIFE 

"  What  can  be  intelligibly  deciphered  can  be  intel- 
ligibly expressed,  so  that  it  needs  no  deciphering ; " 
and,  we  add,  must  much  better  have  been  so 
expressed. 

Perhaps  mysticism  must  always  lead  to  a  licen- 
tious use  of  language ;  while,  like  poetical  licenses, 
mystical  ones  may  sometimes  justify  themselves  by 
bringing  within  range  of  expression  conceptions 
that  lie  beyond  it.  Though  we  cannot  measure  the 
necessary  bondage  of  thought  to  speech,  I  ask  all 
Blake's  hopeful  editors.  Is  it  really  conceivable  that 
thoughts  should  be  clear  in  a  mind  that  could 
choose  to  express  them  in  words  so  far  wrested 
from  their  common  use,  or  in  such  a  code  of 
symbols,  as  Blake's  ?  ^  I  think  it  is  greatly  to  the 
credit  of  his  sanity  that  a  nucleus  of  ideas  was 
consolidated,  in  spite  of  the  untrustworthy  nature 
of  the  mental  recreation  which  he  wrongly  supposed 
to  be  the  best  ;  and  I  think  it  proves  that  his 
character  was  very  much  more  constructive  than 
his  mind. 

'  It  is  useless  for  Mr.  Ellis  to  bid  us  learn  the  code  and  become 
familiar  with  it,  as  with  a  foreign  language,  so  as  to  enjoy  it.  It 
is  not  a  foreign  language  ;  it  is  nothing  so  beautiful,  so  vast,  so 
approved.  It  has  not  quickened  in,  grown  in,  and  mastered 
millions  of  minds.  It  is  a  crude  and  barbarous  novelty  ;  it  is  one 
man's  bastard,  stained  and  soiled  throughout  by  insensitive  incon- 
gruities, and  its  every  fault  is  a  crime  against  our  own  most 
beautiful  tongue  ;  it  is  a  code  in  English. 


IV 


BLAKE'S  education  was  wretched,  and  his  genius 
makes  its  inadequacy  horribly  obtrusive  ;  he 
was  too  impatient  ever  to  feel  the  force  of  ignorance, 
while  the  power  of  his  mind  made  it  easy  for  him 
to  despise  accepted  conclusions.  He  read  consider- 
ably, but  understood  only  about  half.  No  one  can 
picture  Blake's  mind  who  does  not  realise  how 
every  passage  which  baffled  his  immediate  compre- 
hension was  supposed  by  him  to  be  transcript  from 
a  visionary  revelation.^  His  enemy  was  the  intellec- 
tual assurance  that  has  never  surveyed  the  world 
it  presumes  to  judge,  and  judges  most  things  by 

'  An  amusing  instance  of  his  ineffectual  reading  is  reported  by 
Crabb  Robinson  (A.  Symons,  William  Blake,  p.  263).  He  said 
Milton  had  come  to  him  in  vision  and  begged  him  to  correct  the 
false  doctrine  promulgated  in  Paradise  Lost  "that  sexual  inter- 
course arose  out  of  the  fall."  The  famous  passage  (Bk.  iv.  1.  741) 
actually  illustrates  the  opposite  opinion.  But  both  Blake  and  the 
visionary  Milton  had  forgotten  or  failed  to  grasp  this  fact.  What 
mental  deterioration  awaits  a  great  poet  when  he  is  forced  to  visit 
such  ill-trained  minds  to  supply  them  with  reality  and  save  them 
from  the  illusion  of  matter-of-fact  knowledge  ! 

ao7 


2o8  ART   AND   LIFE 

standards  not  applicable  to  them.  His  madness  is 
that  of  ignorance  with  the  best  intentions,  trying  to 
set  machinery  it  does  not  understand  in  motion. 

Like  those  citizens  at  the  time  of  the  French 
Revolution,  who  revealed  to  the  world  that  they 
had  not  received  preparation  as  a  governing  class, 
by  making  monstrous  mistakes,  Blake  reveals  that 
he  had  not  received  or  been  able  to  achieve  the 
culture  necessary  for  the  adequate  treatment  of 
themes  which  he  rightly  perceived  to  be  the  proper 
ones  for  great  poetry.  He  alone  felt  the  need  and 
answered  it  to  the  best  of  his  ability ;  though  his 
effort  was  abortive,  it  is  honourable.  The  main 
result  of  all  his  spiritual  warfare  was  determined 
by  the  assumptions  of  popular  Christianity,  which 
he  had  imbibed  in  childhood  before  he  could  think 
for  himself.  These  he  never  doubted,  though  he 
did  reinterpret  them.  The  question  of  his  sanity 
will  be  reduced  to  this  question  :  Have  not  many 
of  the  greatest  intellects  done  less  to  conquer  their 
faults  of  temper  and  sensuality  than  did  this  man 
to  conquer  his  ignorance  ?  Is  not  his  victory,  with 
its  industry  supported  without  weariness,  its  poverty 
free  from  all  envy,  its  violent  temper  subdued 
almost  entirely  to  peace  and  forgiveness,  its  dis- 
appointed ambition  accepted  finally  without  rancour 
or  despair,  its  lifelong  preference  for  the  things  of 
the   spirit   over  those   of   this  world,  of   being  to 


BLAKE   AND   HIS   .ESTHETIC        209 

seeming  and  having — is  this  not  of  the  very  essence 
of  sanity  ?  Is  it  not  hoHness  ?  Could  we  have 
hoped  for  a  judgment  from  Voltaire  on  a  man  like 
Blake,  comparable  to  that  vision  reported  by  Crabb 
Robinson,  in  which  Voltaire  said  to  Blake,  "  I 
blasphemed  the  Son  of  Man,  and  it  shall  be  for- 
given me ;  but  my  enemies  blasphemed  the  Holy 
Ghost  in  me,  and  it  shall  not  be  forgiven  them."  * 

There  may  have  been  periods  when  a  nation's 
mind  has  needed  men  like  Blake ;  when,  under 
Druid  oaks,  the  reverent  colleges  of  elect  souls 
would  have  listened  in  the  moonlight  to  his  admired 
dreams.  The  ideal  is  always  partly  located  in  the 
past,  partly  in  the  future ;  the  father  and  the  son 
of  man  are  divine.  We  lose  while  we  gain.  Blake 
may  have  been  born  too  late,  he  may  have  been 
born  too  early.  I  prefer  to  think  that  nothing 
essential  divided  him  from  the  men  with  whom 
he  lived ;  that  he  was  no  belated  antediluvian,  nor 
yet  "  fallen  all  before  his  time  on  this  sad  world," 
but  that  accidental  circumstances  prevented  his  full 
effectiveness.  The  improvement  shown  in  the  style 
of  the  "Ghost  of  Abel"  may  have  been  due  to 
the  influence  of  Byron's  poetry.  Can  we  not 
imagine  Blake's  having  felt,  when  reading  that  or 
Wordsworth's,  how  his  own  books,  true  and  vital 

'  A.  Symons,  William  Blake,  p.  301. 

P 


210  ART  AND  LIFE 

though  their  burden  was,  were  not  fit  for  publica- 
tion in  this  world  ?  Are  not  his  words  to  Crabb 
Robinson  an  arch  and  gentle  confession  of  this  ? 
"  I  shall  print  no  more  :  when  I  am  commanded  by 
the  spirits,  then  I  write ;  and  the  moment  I  have 
written,  I  see  the  words  fly  about  the  room  in  all 
directions.  It  is  then  published.  The  spirits  can 
read,  and  my  MS.  is  of  no  further  use."  ^  ^' 

Every  young  and  in  consequence  half-educated 
man  of  pregnant  parts  has  been  through  a  similar 
experience.     Things  written  and  thought  with  the 
eccentricity  natural  to  ignorance  he  has  come  across 
done  adequately  by  fully  equipped  minds ;  and  of 
some  tasks  once  lightly  undertaken  perhaps  been  con- 
vinced that  they  were  not  for  him,  for  he  could  never 
acquire  the  scholarship,  breadth  of  experience,  or 
dexterity  required.     Yet  they  truly  had  been  revela- 
tions to  him,  and  some  may  receive  them  even  now 
best  from  his  work ;  besides,  it  often  happens  that 
the  more  fully  equipped  prophets  have  only  half  the 
message   or  have   mingled   it  with   errors.     Blake 
did  not  talk  like  that  about  his  designs ;  he  was 
surrounded  by  young  and  ardent  admirers  of  them, 
and  if  the  spirits  were  even  more  enthusiastic,  still, 
his  latest  and  best  designs  were  commissioned,  pub- 
lished,  and   paid   for.     Gazing   on   his   picture   of 
"Cain  Fleeing  from  the  Face  of  his  Parents  by  the 
'  A.  Symons,  William  Blake,  p.  268. 


BLAKE   AND   HIS   ESTHETIC        211 

Grave  of  Abel,"  in  that  distracted  figure  he  came  to 
see  not,  as  he  had  intended,  the  murderer,  but  the 
spiritual  form  of  the  murdered  in  agony  demanding 
vengeance  ;  and  wrote  his  last  poem.^  A  murder 
was  an  accident  of  no  consequence,  a  material 
event ;  vengeance,  the  living  influence  of  the  dead 
man  on  his  surviving  friends,  was  big  with  evil  import 
and  strong  to  perpetuate  war  against  the  forgiveness 
of  sins, 

"  '  In  Hell  all  is  self-righteousness.  There  is  no  such 
thing  there  as  the  Forgiveness  of  Sins.'  '  It  is  not  because 
angels  are  holier  than  men  or  devils  that  makes  them 
angels,  but  because  they  do  not  expect  holiness  from 
one  another,  but  from  God  only.'  '  Men  are  admitted 
into  Heaven,  not  because  they  have  curbed  and 
governed  their  passions  or  have  no  passions,  but 
because  they  have  cultivated  their  understandings.' 
'  The  fool  shall  not  enter  into  Heaven  let  him  be  ever 
so  holy.' "  '^ 

These  interpretations  are  beautifully  apt  to  prick 
the  bubbles  of  popular  religion  which  the  rich 
blow  for  the  poor  and  the  clever  for  the  stupid, 
that  they  may  amuse  them.  Intelligence  is  an 
essential  part  of  the  ideal,  and  holiness  is  not  holy 
enough  without  it. 

'  See  the  "  Ghost  of  Abel,"  Poetical  Works  of  W.  Blake,  ed.  by 
J.  Sampson,  Preface,  p.  xvii. 
»  E.  J.  Ellis,  The  Real  Blake,  pp.  326,  327,  325. 


V 


NOT  merely  in  religious  devotion  to  art  and  in 
fascinated  horror  at  vulgar  errors  does  Blake 
resemble  Flaubert,  but  he  has  formulated  very 
similar  aesthetic  principles  :  indeed,  his  contempt  for 
reason  and  science  alone  divides  them. 

Like  BufTon,  he  understood  that  the  manner  of 
seeing  things  may  be  as  rich  in  revelations  of  truth 
as  the  simple  perception  of  any  object  can  be,i 
perhaps  richer,  and  said,  "  The  tree  which  moves 
some  to  tears  of  joy  is  in  the  eyes  of  others  only  a 
green  thing  which  stands  in  the  way.  .  .  .  To  the 
eyes  of  the  man  of  imagination.  Nature  is  Imagina- 
tion itself "  :  2  or,  as  Flaubert  put  it,  for  the  artist, 
"The  accidents  of  the  world,  as  soon  as  they  are 
perceived,  should  appear  transposed  as  though  to 
serve  an  illusion  intended  for  description  "  3  [i.e.,  a 
vision  prepared  for  art's  means). 

*  For  a  more  literal  translation,  see  above,  p.  146. 

•  The  Letters  of  William  Blake,  ed.  by  A.  G.  B.  Russell,  p.  62. 
3  (Etwres  completes,  vol.  vi.  p.  184. 


JOB   CONKESSING   HIS    PRESUMPTION    TO   GOB 


BLAKE  AND   HIS  ^ESTHETIC        213 

Like  La  Bruy^re,'  he  perceived  that  style  was 
a  consequence  of  sincerity. 

"  No  man  can  write  or  speak  from  his  heart  but 
he  must  intend  truth."  2  "  Expression  cannot  exist 
without  character  as  its  stamina."  3 

Therefore  for  him,  too,  "  Execution  is  the  Chariot 
of  Genius."  ..."  Invention  depends  altogether 
upon  execution  or  organisations "  .  .  .  "  Grandeur 
of  ideas  is  founded  on  precision  of  ideas  ; "  4  and 
this  results  in  a  parallel  to  the  theory  of  the  one 
right  word  :  "  Ideas  cannot  be  given  but  in  their 
minutely  appropriate  words.  Nor  can  a  design  be 
made  without  its  minutely  appropriate  execution."  s 

Hence  the  necessity  of  hard  work :  "  Without 
unceasing  practice  nothing  can  be  done.  Practice 
is  art.     If  you  leave  off  you  are  lost."^ 

Then  his  "  Exuberance  is  beauty,"  or  "  The  road 
of  excess  leads  to  the  palace  of  wisdom,"  7  corre- 
sponds to  Flaubert's  admiration  for  exaggeration.^ 

Nor  could  a  stronger  estimate  of  the  beauty  and 
permanence  of  types  be  found  than  in  Blake's 
"  Chaucer  makes  every  one  of  his  characters  perfect 

'  See  above,  p.  107. 

*  Poetical  Works,  edited  by  E.  J.  Ellis,  vol.  i.  p.  212. 

3  Gilchrist,  The  Life  of  W.  Blake,  ed.  by  W.  Graham  Robertson, 
p.  525.  ■»  Ibid.,  p.  282.  s  The  Real  Blake,  p.  302. 

*  Poetical  Works,  edited  by  E,  J.  Ellis,  vol.  i.  p.  434. 

7  Marriage  of  Heaven  and  Hell,  pp.  10  and  7. 

8  See  above,  p.  154. 


214  ART  AND  LIFE 

in  his  kind ;  every  one  is  an  antique  statue,  the 
image  of  a  class,  and  not  of  an  imperfect  indi- 
vidual ; "  ^  or  when  he  says  :  "  The  oak  dies  as  well 
as  the  lettuce,  but  its  eternal  image  or  individuality 
never  dies  but  renews  by  its  seed.  Just  so  the 
imaginative  image  returns  by  the  seed  of  contem- 
plative thought."  2 

The  association  of  sympathy  with  intelligence  is 
for  him  as  for  Flaubert  a  guarantee  of  fruitful 
labour — 

"  Be  assured,  my  dear  friend,  that  there  is  not  one 
touch  in  those  drawings  and  pictures  but  what  came 
from  my  head  and  my  heart  in  unison."  3 

The  necessity  of  banishing  foregone  moral  con- 
clusions from  both  representations  and  inquiries 
shone  for  Blake  like  the  noonday ;  for,  as  he  says, 
"  Here  [i.e.,  in  heaven],  they  are  no  longer  talking 
of  what  is  good  and  evil,  of  what  is  right  or  wrong, 
and  puzzling  themselves  in  Satan's  Labyrinth,  but 
are  conversing  with  eternal  realities  as  they  exist 
in  human  imagination."  4  The  study  of  evil  and 
admiration  for  art's  portrayal  of  types  of  evil,  was 
for  him,  as  certainly  as  for  Flaubert,  an  antidote 
for  the  fascination  exercised  by  infernal  powers. 

'  Gilchrist,  p.  506.  '  The  Real  Blake,  p.  318. 

3  The  Letters  of  William  Blake,  p.  104. 
*  The  Real  Blake,  p.  323. 


BLAKE  AND   HIS  ^ESTHETIC        2is 

"  The  uses  to  society  are  perhaps  equal  of  the  Devil 

and  of  the  Angel :    their  sublimity  who  can  dispute  ? 

.  .  Let  the  young  reader  study  what  he  [Chaucer] 

has  said  of  her  [the  Wife  of  Bath]  ;  it  is  useful  as  a 


scarecrow. 


"  I 


As  La  Fontaine  is  Dante's  equal  where  both  are 
at  their  best,  Wordsworth  is  Shakespeare's  when  he 
writes  about  Hartley  Coleridge,  six  years  old  : — 

"This  is  all  in  the  highest  degree  imaginative  and 
equal  to  any  poet,  but  not  superior.  I  cannot  think  that 
real  poets  have  any  competition.  None  are  greatest  in 
the  kingdom  of  heaven.     It  is  so  in  poetry."  " 

Even  impersonality,  at  least  in  respect  of  narra- 
tives, is  upheld  by  Blake — 

"  Reasons  and  opinions  concerning  acts  are  not 
history,  acts  themselves  alone  are  history.  .  .  .  Tell 
me  the  acts,  O  historian,  and  leave  me  to  reason  upon 
them  as  I  please.  .  .  ."3 

Doubtless  Blake's  practice  was  not,  like  Flaubert's, 
consequent  on  these  principles.  He  did  not  view 
them  clearly ;  their  disentanglement  from  that  old 
poetry  of  a  last  judgment,   a   forgiveness  of  sins, 

'  Gilchrist,  pp.  505  and  508. 

'  A.  Symons,  William  Blake,  p.  299. 

3  Gilchrist,  p.  517. 


2i6  ART  AND  LIFE 

a  happy  life  to  come  as  a  reward  to  faith  and 
self-conquest,  might  have  caused  him  to  demur. 
Occasionally  he  may  be  found  contradicting  this  or 
that  one  rebelliously  even  in  his  extant  writings. 
Yet  was  he  not  bound  to  reach  acquiescence  in 
them,  however  associated  ?  Born  an  artist,  every- 
thing else,  even  the  apocalyptic  character  of  his 
visions,  was  accidental,  had  grown  out  of  un- 
propitious  circumstances.  Besides,  can  the  truth, 
in  view  of  what  is  and  is  not  known  about  it,  be 
conceived  as  less  glorious  than  these  prophetic 
dreams?  Any  answer  to  have  weight  must  come 
from  as  valiant  and  as  faithful  a  spirit. 


THE    EXTOMBXIEXT 


VISIONARY    ART 


There  is  no  surer  way  of  evading  the  world  than  by  Art ;  and  no 
surer  way  of  uniting  with  it  than  by  Art, 

Goethe's  "Maxims  and  Reflections,"  translated  by  Bailey 
Saunders,  p.  172 


I 


BLAKE  was  entirely  deluded  about  the  historical 
development  of  art,  and  therefore  misinter- 
preted the  origin  and  needs  of  his  own  gift.  Stylistic 
characters  were  for  him  faithful  copies  after  spiritual 
objects  seen  in  vision.  He  considered  that  Michael 
Angelo  had  gazed  on  men  nine,  twelve,  or  fifteen 
heads  high  ;  and,  when  he  grouped  them  together 
so  that  it  was  very  difficult  to  make  out  what  they 
were  doing  or  why  they  were  moved,  it  was 
because  he  in  trance  had  watched  them  behaving 
so.  He  thought  the  long  straight  lines  of  Gothic 
sculpture  and  the  simplified  forms  dictated  by  the 
difficulty  of  overcoming  stone  with  chisels  and 
fitting  statues  to  pillars  were  a  literal  rendering 
of  spiritual  realities.  And  all  the  stylistic  characters 
which  he  adopted  from  ancient  tombs,  old  prints, 
or  even  from  his  contemporaries,  had  been  seen  by 
him  in  vision,  and  proved  that  those  other  artists 
had  seen  the  same  things  in  the  same  way.     Thus 

we  see  that  he  was  fundamentally  in  the  dark  as  to 

319 


2J0  ART  AND  LIFE 

the  nature  of  his  own  art,  as  to  its  relations  with 
other  art,  and  as  to  its  limitations  and  their  relation 
to  the  materials  and  implements  employed.  Had 
he  been  consequent  in  these  ideas  he  would  have 
seen  that  Rubens'  women  or  Titian's  children  were 
as  necessarily  copied  from  vision,  since  in  their 
work  the  stylistic  developments  from  natural 
forms  are  quite  as  marked.  But  Blake  was  not 
observant  enough  to  make  such  a  reflection.  The 
commercial  world  was  the  work  of  Satan,  and 
artists  who  obviously  appreciated  it  were  demons. 
They  delight  in  deep  shadows,  vague  perspectives, 
and  the  soft  confusion  of  rich  wardrobes  ;  their 
women  belong  to  the  satisfied  classes,  who  are  not 
pilgrims  but  leaseholders  in  respect  to  material  con- 
ditions. To  contemplate  such  pictures  results  in 
a  higher  value  being  set  on  good  living,  not  in  a 
longing  for  rustic  simplicity. 

Blake  confesses  that  "the  spirit  of  Titian  was 
particularly  active  in  raising  doubts  concerning  the 
possibility  of  executing  without  a  model."  At  such 
times  "  memory  of  nature  and  of  pictures  of  various 
schools  possessed  his  mind  instead  of  appropriate 
execution."  We  who  perceive  that  his  mind  was 
equally  possessed  by  memories  when  it  was  most 
self-satisfied  can  explain  his  experience  better.  The 
stylistic  character  with  which  Titian  tempted  him 
could  not  be  used  at  once,  like  those  which  he  had 


VISIONARY   ART  221 

unconsciously  got  by  heart  through  constant  copy- 
ing when  young.  Probably  he  viewed  him  through 
even  worse  travesties ^  than  the  prints  which  veiled 
Raphael  and  Michael  Angelo  from  his  divining 
enthusiasm.  His  very  limited  stock  of  mannerisms 
failed  before  this  new  revelation  ;  he  had  to  rack 
his  memory,  and  wanted  to  explore  the  correspon- 
dences which  he  intuitively  felt  must  exist  between 
Titian's  stylistic  developments  and  natural  forms. 
But  he  tells  us  he  had  "  the  courage  to  suffer  poverty 
and  disgrace,"  rather  than  enrich  his  mind  by  quit- 
ting the  narrow  circle  of  his  acquired  habits  docilely 
to  learn  of  yet  another  great  master.  He  had  taken 
up  with  the  spirit-world,  and  easily  believed  that  his 
senses  deceived  even  when  they  delighted  him. 
Still,  he  was  no  consistent  Puritan.  Affinities  to 
Michael  Angelo,  who  "  created  his  visions  of  beauty, 
pity,  and  terror  through  the  sole  instrument  of  the 
human  body,"  may  be  too  heavily  insisted  on  ;  for 
the  Englishman's  preferences  were  not  so  exclusive  ; 
certain  motives  of  landscape  and  idyllic  life  had 
always  an  equal  power  over  him,  and  in  his  treat- 
ment of  these  he  is  really  more  akin  to  the  Venetian 
than  to  the  Florentine  school.  He  did  not  love  the 
solidity  of  the  nude  in  nature  as  did  Michael  Angelo. 
What  he  found  in  the  great  Florentine's  art  was 
a  stylistic  treatment  of  the  human  body  in  harmony 

'  Gilchrist,  p.  283. 


iM  ART   AND   LIFE 

* 
with  august  and  religious  emotion — just  what  he 
found  in  Gothic  draperies  and  peaceful  poses. 
Thus  the  whole  reach  of  his  art  is  provided  with  a 
language  of  outline  ;  and  if  any  other  element  be 
added,  it  is  something  from  the  conventional  art  of 
his  own  time — high-waisted  damsels  floating  like 
wind-flowers  from  their  toe-tips  in  a  gush  of  senti- 
mental ravishment.  He  had  no  idea  that  all  these 
characters  had  been  slowly  evolved  from  the  study 
of  nature  and  humoured  into  harmony  with  moods 
that  were  equally  a  conquest  over  the  world. 
He  had  no  objection  to  detail  or  homely  accident, 
only  to  the  use  of  both  made  by  the  Dutch  painters. 
Had  it  been  granted  to  him  to  see  them  in  pic- 
tures by  Puvis  de  Chavannes  he  would  certainly 
have  been  enchanted.  His  pupils,  Calvert  and 
Palmer,  were  doubtless  encouraged  by  him  to  make 
a  similar  if  less  perfect  use  of  such  motives.  In  the 
illustrations  to  the  Book  of  Job  and  the  Eclogues  of 
Virgil — nay,  even  here  and  there  in  the  borders  of 
Milton  and  Jerusalem — we  find  a  treatment  of  such 
themes  really  worthy  of  comparison  with  that  of 
the  great  French  painter-poet. 

Blake  never  dreamed  that  the  materials  and 
implements  used  had  dictated  each  its  proper 
stylistic  tendency,  and  that,  tutored  by  these,  every 
master  had  shaped  yet  another  natural  trait  till  it 
conformed  with  their  straitness.     His  theory  of  in- 


VISIONARY  ART  9a$ 

spiration   left    him   at  the  mercy  of    every  inane 
impulse  or  freak  which  arose  in  an  exceptionally 
mobile  imagination.     Reynolds  was  the  only  man 
he  met  who  could  have  understood  his  difficulties 
and  have  helped  him  to  overcome  them,  but  bigotry 
prevented  him  from   profiting   by  that   noble   and 
seasoned   experience.     His  education   as  an   artist 
rigorously  limited  his  means  of  expression ;  while 
he  was  debarred  from  adding  to  these  formulas,  as 
most  great  artists  do,  by  his  dogmatic  dread  of  the 
influence  of  memory  and  nature.    The  slow  process 
of  evolving  out  of  the  wilderness  of  natural  sugges- 
tions articulate  items  capable  of  working  together 
for  a  definite  pictorial  effect  was  unknown  to  him, 
for  both  superstition  and  impatience  prevented  his 
discovering  it,  though  he  was  continually  prompted 
thereto  by  his  native  gift  and  the  needs  it  created. 
Added  to  this  endless  difficulty,  which  was  always 
tripping  up  Blake's  feet  whenever  he  might  have 
made   an   advance   in   his  art,  was  a  superhuman 
power   of  self-delusion.     He  tells  us  in  an   often 
quoted  passage,  "  I  question  not  my  corporeal  eye 
any  more  than  I  would   question  a  window  con- 
cerning a  sight  " — a  very  foolish  negligence  indeed 
if  the  window  happened  to  be  dirty  or  have  bubbles 
in  it.     "  What  1 "  it  will  be  questioned,  "  when  the 
sun  rises  do  you  not  see  a  round  disc  of  fire  some- 
what like  a  guinea  ?  "     "  Oh  I    no,  no  !    I  see  an 


224  ART   AND   LIFE 

innumerable  company  of  the  heavenly  host  crying 
— '  Holy,  holy,  holy  is  the  Lord  God  Almighty  ! ' " 
With  the  same  lovable  perversity  he  appears  never 
to  have  seen  his  own  works,  but  always,  in  their 
stead,  a  vision  flattering  their  creator.  Compare 
his  own  description  of  the  colouring  and  finish  of 
the  items  in  his  catalogue  with  that  of  Crabb  Robin- 
son, or  with  the  works  themselves,  and  one  is 
immediately  convinced  of  this  happy  self-delusion, 
which  would  seem  to  have  proved  contagious  for 
one  or  two  of  his  admirers.  He  asserts  that 
"precision,"  "clear  colours,"  and  "determinate 
lineaments "  are  the  qualities  aimed  at — and,  one 
can  but  conclude  from  his  tone  of  confidence, 
attained— in  such  works  as  "The  Bard,"  "Pitt," 
and  "The  Canterbury  Pilgrims."  As  a  matter  of 
fact  the  colour  is  not  clear,  and  "  precision  and 
determinate  lineaments"  are  the  last  qualities 
attributable  to  at  least  two  of  these  strange  pictures. 
Even  his  "  rival "  the  contemned  Stothard's  "  Can- 
terbury Pilgrims,"  however  vulgar  and  vapid,  is  at 
least  clearer  in  colour  and  nearer  to  its  original 
appearance  than  Blake's  dull  and  ineffective,  if 
weightier  and  more  pregnant  picture.  Yet  he  tells 
us  "All  frescoes  are  as  high  finished  as  miniatures 
or  enamels,  they  are  known  to  be  unchangeable." 
To  this  capacity  for  self-delusion  must  be  attributed 
the  unbelievable  carelessness  of  a  great  number  of 


VISIONARY   ART  .^35 

his    works,    which    come    within    no    measurable 
distance  of  the  standards  set  by  the  rest. 

But  if  this  artist  is  thus  self-impeded  and  stunted, 
on  the  other  hand  he  is,  at  his  worst  as  at  his  best, 
entirely  free  from  the  superstitions  and  confusions 
that  frustrate  the  more  part  of  his  fellows.  There 
is  no  tendency  to  regard  accidental  nature  as  a 
fetish,  nor  to  confuse  the  idea  of  beauty  with  that 
of  truth  or  the  aim  of  science  with  that  of  art.  He 
is  always  direct  and  sincere  ;  if  the  result  is  not 
beautiful,  that  is  merely  because  the  impatient 
creator  neglected  to  sort  and  select,  or  to  balance 
and  complete,  and  contented  himself  with  hasty 
work,  or  the  deadly  smoothness  of  elaborated 
mechanical  processes  which  have  been  dreamed 
over.  Instinctively  conscious  of  the  limitations  of 
his  materials,  he  is  sometimes  careless  in  employing 
them  ;  and  he  always  has  an  intention,  if  often  that 
intention  is  crude  or  silly.  His  line  work  is  some- 
times direct  and  bold  as  that  on  a  Greek  vase  ;  but, 
instead  of  the  fund  of  observation  which  the  best 
vase  painters  added  to  their  limited  and  conventional 
means  of  expression,  he  is  for  ever  making  snap- 
shots at  sublime  effects,  which  had  been  attained, 
through  very  much  more  elaborate  processes,  by 
masters  patient  of  the  necessarily  slow  evolution 
of  beauty.  His  sudden  recollections  were  visions, 
spurring  his   hand — already   impatient  to   a  fault. 


226  ART  AND  LIFE 

When  he  is  at  his  best  he  goes  as  straight  to  his 
point  as  a  caricaturist,  and  is  then  unsurpassed  for 
accent  and  power  of  suggestion. 

Blake  knew  little  about  the  anatomy  of  horses  ; 
yet  he  has  been  strangely  fortunate  in  treating  them. 
The  horses  in  the  "  Canterbury  Pilgrims "  have 
been  found  to  need  apology.^  But  all  artists  and 
designers  will,  in  this  dull,  over-laboured  pro- 
duction, be  first  delighted  with  these  horses. 
"  Wherever  did  Blake  get  them  from  ?  "  we  cry .2 
The  artist  tells  us  lies  about  equine  anatomy  per- 
haps, but  he  never  pretended  to  tell  the  truth  on 
that  subject ;  what  he  was  full  of  was  the  grandiose 
aspect,  the  proud  stepping,  superb  holding  of  the 
head,  the  sculpturesque  stability  and  groomable 
simplicity  of  their  forms.  Two  of  them  are  fine 
inventions  in  picture  language,  and  could  be  used 
decoratively  in  a  thousand  ways,  because  they  speak 
so  simply  and  so  well  about  equine  impressiveness. 
Between  them  and  those  on  the  Parthenon  frieze 
there  are  the  difference  and  the  affinity  that  exist 
between  Giotto  and  Michael  Angelo.  One  could 
imagine  a  good  and  interesting  artist  who,  having 

'  The  Real  Blake,  p.  327.  ^  ^^  ^^^"  ' 

'  Mr.  A.  G.  B.  Russell  informs  me  that  they  are  undoubtedly  de- 
rived from  an  engraving  on  which  Blake  may  have  worked.  Its  title 
runs  :  "The  Procession  of  King  Edward  VI.  from  the  Tower  of 
London  to  Westminster,  Feb.  xix,  mdxlvii,  previous  to  his  corona- 
tion. Engraved  from  a  coeval  painting  at  Cowdray  in  Sussex,  the 
Seat  of  Lord  Viscount  Montague,  by  James  Basire." 


VISIONARY   ART  29f 

once  invented  them,  would  have  used  them  his  life 
through  ;  nay,  a  school  of  designers  that  would  have 
repeated  them  for  centuries.  But  Blake  does  not ; 
he  has  created  others  as  fine  and  quite  different : 
those  with  the  stormy  manes  in  what  is,  I  think,  his 
grandest  creation,  "Elijah  in  the  Chariot  of  Fire"  ; 
that,  finest  of  all,  with  the  griffin-like  head,  in  "  The 
Rider  of  the  Pale  Horse  "  ;  those  crouching  low  on 
the  earth,  almost  invisible,  behind  "  The  Bard "  ; 
and  last,  though  not  least,  the  sightless  couriers  of 
the  wind  in  "  Pity,"  All  these  have  the  superb 
directness  of  the  greatest  art,  though  they  have  not 
its  completeness. 

Blake  apprehended  that  the  obsolete  tempera  and 
fresco  would  yield  greater  beauties  than  the  oil 
medium,  the  consummate  use  of  which  was  still 
extant  in  his  day.  He  set  to  work  to  rediscover 
these  lapsed  mediums, from  insufficient  inquiries  leap- 
ing to  insecure  results.  His  two  finest  "frescoes" 
are  "The  Bard,"  from  Gray,  and  "Pitt  Guiding 
Behemoth."  Both  are  unusually  delightful  to  the 
eye  ;  we  think  of  the  most  decadent  Tintorets  or  El 
Grecos  as  we  gaze  at  their  gleaming  topsyturvydom. 
There  is  something  grand  about  them  that  suggests 
how  Blake  might  have  evolved  a  technique  with 
Venetian  affinities,  resembling  that  of  G.  F.  Watts, 
whose  "  Curse  of  Cain  "  in  the  Diploma  Gallery  is 
in   every   respect  such    a   monumental   picture  as 


i!»  ART   AND   LIFE 

would  have  satisfied  Blake's  innate  aspirations  fully. 
Perhaps  the  most  enchanting  of  his  drawings  is 
*'  The  Wise  and  Foolish  Virgins,"  of  which  Law- 
rence ordered  a  replica.  "  It  was  Sir  Thomas's 
favourite  drawing,"  and  "  he  commonly  kept  it  on 
his  table  in  his  studio,  as  a  study  " — "  which  is  high 
praise  when  we  remember  that  Lawrence's  collec- 
tion of  drawings  by  the  Old  Masters  was  one  of  the 
finest  that  has  ever  been  brought  together."  ^  On 
the  other  hand,  the  artist's  intention,  not  the  actual 
work  on  the  actual  paper,  wins  praise  for  "  The 
River  of  Life,"  since  the  composition  suggested  has 
never  been  really  found.  This  drawing,  and  even 
more  "The  Entombment,"  and  "Job  Confessing 
his  Presumption  to  God,"  make  one  think  how, 
more  fortunately  situated,  Blake  might  have  become 
to  Fra  Angelico  something  of  what  Puvis  de 
Chavannes  became  to  Piero  dei  Franceschi. 

Blake  is  a  real  art  force  :  therefore  he  would 
certainly  have  benefited — not,  like  Barry  and 
Fuseli,  been  rendered  impossible  for  ever — by 
gazing  up  at  the  Sistine  ceiling  or  wandering 
through  the  cells  at  San  Marco. 

Evidence  of  the  way  Blake  must  often  have  been 
hypnotised  by  his  own  work  is  to  be  found  in  the 
much  vaunted  minute  detail  in  some  of  his  colour 

'  The  Letters  of  William  Blake,  Introduction  by  A.  G.  B.  Russell, 
p.  zzi. 


VISIONARY  ART  2^ 

prints,  which  is  entirely  thrown  away,  because  it  is 
out  of  scale  with  the  design  as  a  whole,  and  out 
of  harmony  with  its  generalised  character.  Of 
course  the  forms  of  these  plants  growing  like  sea- 
anemones  over  the  hills  and  valleys  of  his  visionary 
world  were  suggested  by  the  peculiar  patterns  that 
the  sticky  oil  paint  raised  upon  the  paper  when  the 
millboard  was  torn  from  it,  and  had  nothing  to  do 
with  the  design  as  originally  conceived.  Blake's 
attention  is  caught  by  this  strange  surface,  and  he 
follows  its  suggestions,  obliviously  elaborating  fan- 
tastic forms  of  vegetable  growth,  helping  to  explicit- 
ness  the  hints  it  gave,  like  a  child  tracing  fairy  trees 
on  a  frosted  window-pane.  In  the  much  later 
water-colours  for  "  Dante,"  we  find  him  drawing 
these  same  growths  from  recollection  as  an  inherent 
part  of  the  design — an  absurdly  minute  scale  being 
no  longer  imposed  by  the  broken  surface  left  by  the 
sticky  millboard.  In  the  same  way  he  had  no 
doubt  been  hypnotised  by  the  colours  in  his  paint- 
box or  on  his  palette  when  he  painted  the  tiger  green. 
His  books  were  printed  by  a  similar  process, 
revealed  to  him  in  a  dream  by  his  brother's  spirit. 
Presumably  the  possibilities  of  some  such  invention 
had  been  discussed  between  the  brothers  before  the 
younger's  death.  These  books  are  great  rareties, 
especially  copies  worth  having  ;  they  are  therefore 
often  overestimated.     A  few  pages  reveal  an  instinc- 


230  ART  AND   LIFE 

tive  sense  of  decorative  propriety ;  the  more  part  is 
rather  curious  than  beautiful. 

It  was  a  fresh  study  of  old  engravings  and  other 
works  of  art,  to  which  he  was  roused  by  the  sym- 
pathy and  encouragement  of  younger  artists  like 
Linnell,  Palmer,  and  Calvert,  which  caused  the 
great  improvement  in  his  illustrations  to  the  Book 
of  Job.  This  work  must  really  count  among  the 
finest  ever  produced  in  England ;  the  designs  for 
"  Dante,"  begun  later,  are  of  much  inferior  promise, 
being  less  coherent  and  less  central  in  conception. 

Folk  who  complain  of  Blake's  bad  or  incorrect 
drawing  do  not  understand  what  they  are  talking 
about ;  for  such  censure  is  as  relevant  as  complaints 
of  the  incorrectness  of  Japanese  paintings  in  the 
same  respects,  or  that  of  a  Gothic  statue.  It  is 
not  fidelity  to  natural  fact  which  is  wanting,  but 
sensitiveness  as  to  what  forms  are  cheap  and 
empty,  what  fully  developed  and  refined.  He  did 
not  pretend  to  copy  nature,  but  visions  ;  unfortu- 
nately he  neglected  to  insure  that  these  visions  were 
always  the  best  he  was  capable  of  receiving,  and 
sometimes,  in  his  impatience,  he  treated  them  more 
cavalierly  than  even  the  shoddiest  deserved. 


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^^^^ 


I'AGE   8   OF    THE    BRITISH    MUSEUM    COHY   OF    "JERUSALEM 


II 


BLAKE  was  probably  right  in  believing  that  the 
greatest  artists  had  worked  from  vision ; 
"students  of  nature"  clumsily  supply  their 
physical  defect  by  handicapped  labour.  Michael 
Angelo  and  Rembrandt  watched  the  world  in  order 
to  enrich  their  visions,  not  each  item  piecemeal  for 
each  several  work ;  hence,  as  in  fine  literature, 
their  observation  is  thoroughly  assimilated.  On  a 
lower  plane,  Wordsworth's  "  bliss  of  solitude,"  and 
"  eye  upon  the  object,"  suppose  a  visionary  habit 
perhaps  less  vivid  but  possibly  better  trained  than 
Blake's  :  but  in  Flaubert's  case  we  have  indisputable 
evidence  that  one  as  exceptional  can  be  treated 
seriously. 

"  Do  not  class  the  artist's  inward  vision  with  those 
of  the  hallucinated.  During  what  is  properly  called 
hallucination,  terror  is  always  present  ;  you  feel  your 
personality  escaping,  you  think  yourself  about  to  die. 
With  the  poetic  vision,  on  the  contrary,  joy  comes, 
something  enters  into  you.     Yet  none  the  less  truly  you 

331 


232  ART   AND   LIFE 

know  not  where  you  are.  .  .  .  Such  a  vision  often  forms 
slowly,  piece  by  piece  as  the  parts  of  a  scene  slide  on  to 
the  stage  ;  but  often  also  it  is  sudden  and  fugitive  like 
the  hallucinations  of  sleep.  Something  passes  before 
your  eyes  ;  then  you  must  throw  yourself  eagerly 
upon  it. 

The  taste  of  arsenic  was  so  really  in  my  mouth  when 
I  described  how  Emma  Bovary  was  poisoned,  that-  it 
cost  me  two  indigestions  one  upon  the  other — quite 
real  ones,  for  I  vomited  my  dinner."  ^ 

Imagination  cultivated  to  the  point  of  vision,  if  of 
great  service  to  an  artist,  needs  a  constant  supply  of 
trustworthy  material,  and  correction  by  a  free  critical 
reference  to  logic  and  aesthetic  judgment  ;  for,  like 
any  other  human  faculty,  it  must  be  disciplined  and 
not  worshipped  blindly.  Flaubert  was  at  vast  pains 
to  acquire  a  stock  of  precise  information  about 
objects,  persons,  places,  and  periods  with  which  his 
work  was  concerned,  though  we  are  to  understand 
that  he  often  wrote  his  actual  descriptions  from 
visions  for  which  his  mind  had  been  thus  prepared. 
Blake  would  have  dreaded  the  influence  of  any  pre- 
paration other  than  prayer  or  good  deeds,  since,  in 
his  belief,  it  could  only  have  imposed  on  the  real 
spiritual  world  shadows,  stains,  and  contortions, 
characteristic  of  the  outward  spectacle,  which  was 
inherently  false. 

*  Correspondance  de  G.  Flaubert,  Serie  iii.  pp.  349  and  350. 


i^i^ 


III 


THE  surmise  that  there  exists  in  the  actual 
ordinance  of  sensuous  objects  far  more  sig- 
nificance than  has  yet  been  divined,  enhances  the 
value  of  correctness  in  memories  and  of  probability 
in  imaginations,  just  as  it  spurs  on  the  analytical 
observer.  This  hope  was  strong  in  Flaubert ;  it 
barely  existed  for  Blake ;  yet  both  owned  the 
visionary's  power  of  re-picturing  things  no  longer 
present,  and  the  artist's  impulse  to  construct 
novelties  out  of  similar  elements.  Blake  infinitely 
preferred  the  most  adventitious  of  these  creations  to 
the  mere  fidelity  of  remembrance.  His  own  eager 
divinations  could  alone  be  consulted  as  to  their 
import — which,  since  they  were  fortuitous,  was 
always  possibly  rare.  At  least  they  were  no  common 
experiences  ;  his  neighbours  could  not  bid  him 
correct  his  first  impressions  of  them  or  reconsider 
their  significance.* 

However,  even  these  visions  possessed  some  con- 
'  The  Letters  of  W.  Blake,  p.  114.     • 


234  ART   AND   LIFE 

sequent  characters  and  were  subject  to  a  few  critical 
comparisons.  Since  the  pieces  in  his  mental 
kaleidoscope  were  numbered,  more  especially  the 
larger  and  more  striking  ones,  the  delight  Blake 
took  in  reviewing  their  arrangements  would  cause 
him  to  welcome  the  same  or  similar  combinations 
in  differing  moods  :  and  then  he  compared  new 
with  old,  as  we  all  do  with  sense  impressions  at 
first  hand.  Besides,  he  had  instructors — the  great 
artists  who  had  won  his  boyish  admiration  for 
forms,  shades,  and  colours  supernaturally  pro- 
portioned and  unlike  any  seen  abroad.  Goethe 
remarked  how,  after  studying  pictures,  objects  in 
the  street  appeared  isolated  and  modified  to  suit 
the  style  of  the  master  he  had  been  absorbed  with  j 
that  is,  his  eye  instinctively  selected  those  qualities 
the  artist  in  question  would  have  chosen,  and 
adapted  them  to  the  effects  which  his  pictures  had 
aimed  at.  From  his  earliest  youth  Blake  thus 
played  not  only  with  real  but  with  visionary  appear- 
ances. Whenever  he  turned  over  his  loved  prints 
or  saw  new  works  by  those  great  spirits,  his  inward 
world  no  doubt  received  that  kind  of  castigation 
which  our  first  impressions  gain  from  renewed 
inspection  of  object  and  scene.  Later,  however, 
not  even  so  persuasive  a  daimon  as  Titian  could 
induce  him  to  acclimatise  quite  foreign  organisms. 
The    flames    of     his     indignation     girt    the    strict 


VISIONARY  ART  235 

innocence  of  his  passionately  adored  Eden  against 
the  amenities  and  perspectives  of  luxury. 

Flaubert,  though  he  nourished  and  chastened  his 
visions  till  they  corresponded  to  a  highly  complex 
possibility,  nevertheless,  as  we  have  seen,  appre- 
ciated exaggeration  in  proportion,  though  only  so 
long  as  coherence  was  maintained.  For  him  the 
articulation  of  such  enlargements  must  remain  of 
the  natural  type,  though  they  would  acquire  a 
greater  ease  and  directness  from  the  exclusion  of  all 
the  supernumerary  details  which  so  distract  and 
confuse  observation  in  the  real  world.  Even 
visions  often  presented  him  with  more  detail  than 
his  art  could  cope  with  ;  then  a  conscious  synthesis 
must  be  undertaken  before  words  could  suffice. 
He  rightly  saw  in  this  process  a  method  of  thought 
parallel  to  the  determination  of  scientific  formulas 
which  describe  the  object  deprived  of  all  save 
general  qualities  and  relations  :  only  for  him  truth 
was  a  means,  beauty  the  end.  Man  sensuous, 
emotional,  intellectual,  harmonised  in  a  mood,  was 
addressed — not  his  understanding  isolated  from  its 
concomitants. 

Again,  Blake  never  clearly  grasped,  as  Flaubert 
did,  the  fact  that  "the  words  of  the  poet  are  not 
merely  symbols  of  what  he  wishes  to  say,  they  are 
what  he  wishes  to  say."  ^    For  him  vision  itself  was 

'  Dr.  Rudolf  Kassner,  quoted  in  The  Letters  of  W.  Blake,  p.  62  : 


330  ART   AND   LIFE 

V^a  purer  art  than  any  canvas  or  paper  could  assist; 
it  existed  in  the  real,  they  only  in  this  unreal  world. 
Thus,  the  lines,  tints,  and  shades  of  the  painter  did 
not  always  constitute  his  success ;  but,  like  much 
less  gifted  artists,  he  often  hoped  the  public  would 
meet  him  half-way,  and  supply  in  response  to  stale 
and  poor  indications  fulness  of  vision — persuaded 
that  what  sufficed  to  re-awaken  his  mind  ought  to 

V  arouse  theirs. 

His  equivocations  about  the  meaning  of  the 
word  "  reality "  balked  him  of  the  saving  health  of 
his  own  conviction  that  art  could  not  exist  without 
"  minutely  appropriate  execution."  i  His  paintings 
were  too  often  but  wretched  copies  of  his  true 
creations,  and  these  latter,  illusions  only,  were  all 
too  like  nature  in  being  devoid  of  the  characters  of 
appropriate  brush  or  pencil  work.  Thus  bigotry 
in  holding  a  silly  creed  robbed  him  of  the  benefit 
due  to  the  perception  that  art  is  outward  and  not 
inward,  that  style  is  thought,  and  that  complete 
ideas  only  exist  in  perfect  forms. 

"  Die  Worte  des  Dichters  kdnnen  nicht  nur  das  bedeuten,  was  er 
mit  ihnen  sagen  will,  sondern  sie  sind  es  auch." 
'  See  above,  p.  213. 


IV 


USURPATION  by  the  will  of  that  control  over 
sensation  normally  exerted  by  impress  from 
without,  lies  perhaps  at  the  root  of  expression. 
The  origins  of  speech,  like  the  first  subtleties  of 
grimace,  may  have  accompanied  the  reproduction 
of  sensations  without  the  aid  of  external  stimulus. 

A  volition  commands  the  senses  to  ignore  the 
world  and  serve  some  desire  ;  thus  thought  is  born. 
The  eager  divination  of  mechanical  inventors  and 
scientific  discoverers  watches  the  action  of  uncon- 
structed  machines,  predicts  the  result  of  investi- 
gations not  yet  set  on  foot.  Men  gifted  with  vision 
create  sensuous  illusions  by  transforming  and  re- 
arranging elements  furnished  by  memory ;  art's 
triumph  is  to  register  this  marriage  of  sensation 
to  purpose. 

If  abstractions  free  from  the  most  summary 
sensualisation  even  of  a  symbol  occur  in  thought, 
use  may  have  obliterated  the  process — as  is  perhaps 
the  case  with   instinct,  which  always  looks  like  a 

a37 


238  ART   AND   LIFE 

leap  in  the  dark  and  occasionally  proves  so.  The 
rapidity  of  mental  activity,  and  the  rareness  of 
capacity  for  self-observation,  make  testimony  on 
these  matters  extremely  unconvincing. 

Less  gifted  men  develop  their  conceptions  from 
sketch  to  sketch,  from  stage  to  stage,  till  at  length 
they  satisfy  the  impulse  which  drives  them,  weary  it, 
or  transform  it.  How  much  more  finely  must  the 
retentive  mind  correct  and  develop,  advancing  from 
vision  to  vision  1  while  thus  aided  skill  performs 
her  prestigious  miracles.  Genius  fluctuates  between 
these  two  habits,  always  in  some  measure  con- 
forming to  both. 

Every  perception,  divination,  and  expression 
awaits  corroboration  or  correction  from  the  re- 
newed experience.  Rash  judges  condemn  or  acquit 
a  thousand  times,  before  the  proper  witnesses  are 
cited  again  and  the  court  of  appeal  can  sit  to  quash 
or  uphold  each  finding.  Hence  the  tardiness  with 
which  the  conquests  of  exceptional  minds  are 
received  even  by  the  intelligent. 


THE   WISE   AND    FOdl.ISlI    MRGIXS 


WHO,  even  in  his  own  case,  can  rightly  appor- 
tion responsibihty  for  failure  between 
inherent  deficiencies  and  avoidable  disloyalty  ? 
Yet  can  we  think  any  of  his  contemporaries  more 
obedient  to  duty  than  Blake,  or  any  Frenchman  of 
his  day  more  conscientious  than  Flaubert  ?  Society 
was  hostile  to  the  excellence  and  maimed  the 
efforts  of  them  both.  This  oppression  revealed 
their  profound  genuineness  but  marred  its  efflores- 
cence. Human  perfection  implies  reciprocity  ;  no 
man  can  give  perfectly  unless  his  gift  be  as  well 
received. 

Both  were  precociously  independent  :  and  if  the 
one  was  poor,  the  other  well-to-do,  the  one  fully, 
the  other  under-educated,  yet  the  insanity  of  a 
fashion  may  be  as  cramping  as  want,  and  over- 
confidence  as  baffling  as  too  vast  a  task. 

Ecclesiastes  is  not  more  resigned  to  the  unin- 
telligible vanity  of  human  things  than  les  Memoires 
d'un  fou ;  but   that  book   was  written   in  reaction 

339 


240  ART   AND   LIFE 

from  violent  and  hopeless  passion.  The  recurrence 
of  the  same  mood  when  Flaubert  found  his  body 
mysteriously  stricken  only  proves  that  the  same 
person  suffered  both  misfortunes.  Every  thought 
of  competing  for  the  prizes  all  desire  was  banished ; 
as  much  as  any  hunchback  he  knew  himself  a 
monster. 

Blake  might  claim  to  be  at  home  with  prophets 
dead,  but  not  with  his  neighbours,  amongst  whom 
no  angel  could  have  felt  more  strange  :  and  the  only 
rivals  his  vast  ambition  espied,  rendered  it  ridicu- 
lous, so  despicable  they  seemed. 

The  Frenchman  was  quicker  to  take  advantage  of 
this  isolation,  to  feel  that  it  made  him  what  the  true 
artist  should  be,  a  Nazarite,  a  priest.  Proudly,  if 
with  a  shudder,  he  noted  how  other  human 
monsters  were  drawn  to  him,  as  to  a  brother  who 
yet  had  a  royal  strength  with  which  to  hold  his  own 
against  the  untainted  crowd.  He  had  touch  for  all 
whose  mentality,  whether  through  default  or  ex- 
cessive delicacy,  was  a  stranger — idiots,  savages, 
disillusioned  ladies,  poets,  artists,  monks,  and  the 
victims  of  vice. 

Blake  took  longer  in  resigning  himself  to  the 
fact  that  the  rich  and  powerful  chose  others  to 
paint  and  write  for  them ;  but  in  the  end  his 
serenity  was  more  beautiful.  Both  had  to  wrestle 
with  the  exasperation  of  those  who,  fully  endowed, 


VISIONARY   ART  241 

find  that  some  primary  instinct  is  being  starved  in 
them.  Blake's  marriage  proved  barren,  Flaubert 
probably  held  that  his  malady  forbade  him  to  think 
of  fatherhood.  No  doubt  there  were  compensations 
in  either  case  ;  for  Mrs.  Blake  was  an  ideal  wife, 
and  if  the  French  master's  makeshift  love-affairs 
were  unsatisfactory,  his  relations  with  his  niece  and 
later  on  with  Guy  de  Maupassant  were  in  the  best 
sense  of  the  word  paternal. 

Flaubert  poured  his  vitalising  enthusiasm  into  the 
conceptions  of  trained  freethinkers,  Blake  his  into 
the  prejudices  of  those  who  shared  Bunyan's  out- 
look :  both  splendidly  overflowed  these  moulds  and 
proved  them  inadequate.  Yet  the  Frenchman's 
advantage  was,  1  think,  as  great  here,  as  that  which 
the  Englishman  drew  from  his  genius  for  personal 
religion. 

The  first  cried — 

"  The  artist  has  no  right  to  live  like  other  men," 
the  second — 

"  All  men  should  be  painters,  poets,  sculptors,  or 
musicians  ;  for  none  save  artists  can  be  Christians." 

Flaubert  saw  in  style  the  crown  of  life  :  Blake  in 
power  to  forgive  sins  the  fruition  of  art's  labour. 

Agreement  underlies  their  difference.  Each,  with 
the  other's  advantages,  must  have  accepted  the  dual 
ideal.  The  one  harmonises  religion,  the  other 
science,  with  aesthetic  effort. 

R 


PROSPECTS 


Genius  is  not  rare  nowadays,  but  what  no  one  any  longer  has 
and  what  we  must  strive  for,  is  conscience. 

CORRESPONDANCE   DE   G.   FLAUBERT,   Serie  i.  pp.   202,   203 

Principles  imply  logic,  and  give  room  for  debate,  doubt,  and  ex- 
position ;  but  genuine  conscience  knows  only  feeling,  and  goes 
straight  forward  to  its  object,  which  it  tries  lovingly  to  compre- 
hend, and  when  comprehended  never  lets  go  again.  Like  the 
innocent  flock,  that  seeks  not  to  crush  under  foot  the  herbs  or 
flowers  which  instinct  teaches  it  are  pernicious  or  poisonous,  nor 
to  tear  them  up  with  impatient  rancour,  but  peaceably  passes  them 
by,  and  goes  in  quest  of  that  alone  which  is  its  appropriate 
nutriment  and  suited  to  its  gentle,  quiet  nature.  .  .  . 

Falk's  "  Characteristics  of  Goethe,"  translated  by 
S.  Austen,  vol.  ii.  p.  65 


ART  AND   SCIENCE 

THE  most  successful  artists  for  a  century  past 
have  recombined  in  relation  to  modern 
mentalities  elements  derived  from  bygone  arts. 
Alfred  Stevens  and  Watts,  Delacroix  and  Puvis 
de  Chavannes,  avail  themselves  of  the  opportunity 
to  do  this  as  of  a  chief  privilege  won  for  us  by 
the  superior  mechanical  prowess,  economic  stability 
and  sympathetic  freedom  of  our  times.  No  former 
age  could  have  enjoyed  such  touch  with  so  varied 
and  rich  a  past :  its  exercise  is  proof  of  the  utmost 
actuality. 

Nevertheless,  other  knowledge,  till  now  never 
dreamed  of,  exerts  strange  influence  over  souls  : 
the  temper,  the  co-ordination,  and  the  perspectives 
of  science  are  puissant  and  beautiful. 

Alone  among  their  contemporaries  Gustave  Flau- 
bert and  Antoine  Louis  Barye  perceived  ccsthetic 
possibilities  here. 

Of  course,  the  glamour  of  scientific  successes    , 
has    enervated    much    modern    art.      Crowds    of    f 

245  ^ 


246  ART   AND  LIFE 

aspirants,  as  though  hypnotised,  strive  to  rival 
the  insignificance  of  unco-ordinated  facts  :  others 
are  constantly  preoccupied  with  ill-digested  in- 
formation, exaggerating  tind  misapplying  the  so- 
called  results  of  investigation.  But  these  masters 
alone  sought  the  beauty  of  general  types  as  the 
scientist  seeks  for  laws  or  formulas  of  experience. 

How  can  you  know  in  what  a  fine  tiger  should 
consist  until  you  have  watched,  measured,  and 
compared  a  great  number  ?  Barye  taught  his 
eyes  to  distinguish  where  all  others  were  ignorant. 
Whether  of  a  man  or  a  stag,  he  knew,  as  precisely 
as  the  horse-trainer,  what  points  and  measures 
to  look  for  and  prize.  "  I  am  not  tempted,"  he 
said,  "  to  consecrate  in  sculpture  the  relative  dis- 
order of  an  individual's  forms."  With  an  equal 
patience  Flaubert  sorted  the  herd  of  men,  reveal- 
ing the  fateful  progress  of  mental  and  moral 
inadequacy,  like  a  Japanese  artist  inventing  demon 
or  dragon,  or  a  Gothic  sculptor  characterising 
a  chimaera — only  his  resources  were  as  infinitely 
more  varied  as  they  were  more  intimately  terrible 
to  the  soul. 

Barye's  biographer,  Roger  Ballu,  though  an  in- 
telligent man  and  thorough  scholar,  could  not  divine 
what  benefit  that  master  drew  from  recording  the 
measurements  of  so  many  animals  of  each  species  : 
and  Maxime  du  Camp  was,  of  course,  still  more  at 


ART  AND   SCIENCE  247 

a  loss  to  explain  Flaubert's  having  read  every  book 
on  mediseval  venery  before  writing  Saint  Julien 
I' Hospital ier.  The  idea  that  you  must  know  all  the 
facts  before  you  can  make  a  free,  a  reasoned,  or 
an  aesthetic  choice,  had  never  dawned  on  their 
minds :  though  the  former  had  made  a  special  study 
of,  and  the  latter  associated  with,  a  more  ample 
nature  who  from  it  drew  power  and  inspiration. 

This  experimental  method  of  study  adds  enor- 
mously to  the  difficulty,  if  perhaps  as  vastly  to 
the  possible  successes  of  art.  However,  enthusiasm, 
not  observance  of  or  abstention  from  any  practice, 
preserves  spontaneity  :  danger  lies  in  every  process 
to  which  our  zeal  is  not  equal. 

Art  is  the  science  which  determines  what  ex- 
pressions are  agreeable  to  the  best  developed 
human  senses. 

All  artists  are  consciously  or  unconsciously 
experimental  investigators  in  respect  to  the  means 
of  expression,  if  all  save  Flaubert  and  Barye  have 
mainly  been  empirical  in  regard  to  the  appreciation 
of  their  theme. 

Organs  of  sensation  act  variously,  but  wherever 
life  is  examined  the  same  disconcerting  instability 
of  phenomena  has  been  met ;  and  nevertheless 
its  limits  to  a  great  extent  have  been  determined 
and  allowed  for.     Likewise  sufficient  consent  exists 


248  ART   AND   LIFE 

that  recognised  masterpieces  eflFectively  impress, 
and  such  exceptions  as  arise  may  on  the  whole 
be  satisfactorily  explained. 

The  object  of  science  is  to  determine  the  con- 
ditions that  play  the  part  of  immediate  causes  in 
/respect  to  phenomena.     Art  discovers  those  con- 
ditions  in   respect    to    certain    highly    pleasurable 
emotions  and  sensations. 

In  most  undertakings  a  clear  view  of  the  con- 
ditions of  effort  and  of  the  goal  to  be  achieved 
saves  time  and  energy.  There  are,  of  course,  no 
royal  roads.  Men  have  diverse  gifts ;  and  the 
discipline  that  frees  and  consolidates  one  talent 
may  perplex  and  thwart  another.  Genius  goes 
its  own  way :  and  the  reason  of  its  procedure 
can  often  only  then  be  traced  when  glory  is 
reflected  back  from  a  happy  arrival. 

Goethe  said  :  "  My  investigations  in  natural 
science  delight  me  very  much.  It  seems  strange, 
and  yet  it  is  natural  that  in  the  end  a  kind  of 
subjective  whole  must  be  the  result  "^ — so  the 
modern  lop-sided  increase  in  knowledge  will  in 
time  find  its  emotional  equipoise,  and  a  weightier 
soul  be  formed. 

It  may  be  that  the  plenitude  of  the  future  will 

'  Correspondence  between  Schiller  and  Goethe,  translated  by  L.  D. 
Schmitz,  vol.  i.  p.  257. 


ART  AND  SCIENCE  349 

be  opened  to  us  by  those  who,  like  Flaubert  and 
Barye,  avail  themselves  of  the  aesthetic  opportunities 
offered  by  the  scientific  frame  of  thought.  All  so- 
called  realists  or  impressionists,  the  duped  students 
of  objective  and  subjective  accidents,  could  certainly 
only  gain  by  adopting  a  similar  method.  Yet  note 
that  both  the  sculptor  and  the  writer  who  lead  the 
way  were  men  of  intense  aesthetic  individuality, 
such  as,  had  they  been  willing  to  dilute  it  after 
the  fashion  of  the  common  run  of  great  geniuses, 
would  have  sufficed  to  dye  an  ocean  gaudy. 


ART'S   SOCIAL   STATUS 

j^  I  ^HE  social  relation  of  art  to  life  remains  to  be 
^^  x.  dealt  with  ;  that  is,  the  demand  for  autonomy, 
which  at  the  lowest  means  security  and  leisure,  at 
the  highest  deference  and  admiration.  Poverty 
may  be  congenial  to  morality,  which  consists  in 
the  victory  of  temper  over  circumstances  ;  if,  as 
Renan  says,  "To  command  and  to  enjoy  make 
virtue  more  difficult." 

Certain  forms  of  aesthetic  creativeness  demand 
expensive  materials,  and  imply  long  familiarity 
with  exquisite  conditions  ;  and  most  of  its  mani- 
festations require  a  degree  of  leisure  which  in  the 
commercial  world  is  well-nigh  beyond  the  reach  of 
those  who  earn  their  living,  be  they  never  so  ener- 
getic :  while  if  once  art  prefers  an  outward  demand 
to  the  inward  its  degradation  is  imminent, — or,  in 
Flaubert's  words,  "  Morality  is  but  a  part  of  aesthetic, 
yet  is  its  fundamental  condition." 

Some  qualities  can  only  develop  in  wealth,  others 
equally  admirable  ask  for  poverty.     Unfortunately, 

a9» 


ART'S  SOCIAL  STATUS  251 

the  man  for  whom  wealth  is  a  necessity  starves ; 
another  whom  ease  suffocates  pines  for  hardship. 
Social  freedom  to  exchange  their  estates,  and  such 
an  education  as  would  enable  them  to  do  so  wisely, 
are  ideal  requirements.  William  Blake  refused  the 
post  of  drawing-master  to  the  Royal  Family,  he 
so  dreaded  being  not  rich,  but  well-to-do.  Gustave 
Flaubert,  on  the  eve  of  old  age,  gave  away  his 
fortune,  so  that  he  was  forced  to  seek  employment 
in  a  library,  yet  for  years  he  had  enjoyed  a  generous 
competency,  and  for  art's  sake  had  desired  more. 
In  him  the  artist  ruled,  in  Blake  the  saint. 

Poverty  must  be  discriminated  from  want :  the 
latter  can  only  be  accepted,  like  death  itself,  as  a 
last  resource  to  preserve  integrity  in  the  ideal  if  no 
longer  in  the  real  world. 

Mrs.  Blake  did  not  dare  to  tell  her  husband  that 
want  had  crept  into  the  cupboard,  so  much  he 
grudged  the  time  required  to  turn  it  out  and 
secure  poverty  and  freedom  in  the  places  of 
honour  once  more.  Silently  she  set  an  empty 
dish  before  him.  He  understood,  and  turned  to 
the  drudge's  task  that  the  world  would  pay  for, 
leaving  that  which  it  could  not  value  till  he  had 
earned  the  pittance  which  freedom  cost  him. 

The  poverty  which  has  been  beautifully  sym- 
bolised as  a  bride  leaves  a  man  freer  than  riches 
can. 


252  ART   AND   LIFE 

Who  felt  most  like  the  slave,  Epictetus  or  Marcus 
Aurelius  ? 

This  is  the  gravest  difficulty  in  the  way  of 
Socialism  and  democracy ;  how  will  they  provide 
a  more  fluid  medium  for  the  man  of  genius  to  rise 
in,  not  only  than  our  makeshift,  and  in  the  main 
condemned,  commercialism,  but  than  any  monarchy 
or  republic  of  the  past  ?  The  examination  system 
is  perhaps  already  starving  corporations  and  govern- 
ments of  superior  intellects  and  characters.  The 
future  may  be  even  more  anxious  than  the  present 
to  discover  a  man,  and  even  more  incapable  of 
recognising  one. 

Blake  and  Flaubert  were  as  unlikely  candidates 
for  examinations  as  Bismarck  himself.  Such  men 
do  not  strike  athwart  the  beaten  track  through  in- 
capacity ;  no,  Nature  has  sent  them  to  a  better 
school,  from  which  they  must  be  truants  were 
they  to  heed  the  professor's  lesson.  Later  on 
they  set  themselves  far  more  difficult  tests,  which 
they  could  hardly  pass  after  following  the  routine 
preparation  for  a  post. 

>  For  this  reason  the  motive  of  art  for  art's  sake 
seems  more  trustworthy  than  that  of  work  for  the 
State. 

The  individual  must  set  himself  the  standard  of 
attainment ;  society  cannot  do  this,  cannot  reward 
his    doing    it,   except    blindly.     Why   should    not 


ART'S   SOCIAL   STATUS  253 

smiths  and  carpenters,  manufacturers,  and  rail- 
way companies  refuse  to  provide  the  public  with 
anything  less  than  the  best  work,  the  best  service, 
irrespective  of  reward  ?  They  could  only  do  so 
when  ruled  by  a  free  and  noble  will,  such  as  has 
never  yet  existed  save  in  an  individual  "self- 
schooled,  self-scanned,  self-honoured,  self-secure." 

Socialists  might  do  well  to  regard  the  profes- 
sions of  religion,  music,  painting,  and  poetry  as 
asylums  for  the  over-sensitive,  which  to-day  they 
practically  are.  Even  the  doll-like  functions  of 
dwelling  in  pretty  houses  and  wearing  fine  clothes 
might  prove  worth  more  than  they  cost. 

The  crowd  of  unproductive  failures  fans  and 
disperses  enthusiasm  ;  and,  as  a  mirror  in  a 
schoolboy's  hand  flashes  its  round  of  light  into 
the  dingiest  corners  of  the  class-room, — nay, 
suddenly  by  inadvertence  well-nigh  blinds  his 
master, — so  prodigal  sons  have  danced  the  glory 
of  genius  through  conventionality's  gloomiest  re- 
treats, and  dazzled  eyes  that  cared  not  a  whit 
whether  or  no  its  sun  were  risen. 

Untaxed  centres  of  light  and  leaven  might  do 
much  to  mellow  the  strenuousness  of  a  world  at 
last  aware  of  its  more  obvious  duties  and  willing  to 
grapple  with  them. 


THE   ANCIENT   OF    DAVS   STRIKING   THE    FIRST   CIKCLE   OF   THE    EARTH 


EPILOGUE 


"Dock  ihr,  die  echten  Gdttersdhne, 
Erfreut  euch  der  lebendig  reichen  Schdne! 
Das  Werdende,  das  ewig  wirkt  und  lebi, 
Umfasz'euch  mit  der  Liebe  holden  Schranken, 
Und  was  in  schwankender  Erscheinung  schwebt, 
Befestiget  mit  dauernden  Gedanken !  " 

"  But  ye,  the  pure-bred  sons  of  God,  rejoice 
In  the  profusion  of  life  and  beauty !    Let 
What  becomes,  what  ever  works  and  lives,  fold  you 
In  love's  boon  bands;  and  what,  through  changeful 

guise 
Hovers,  stablish  ye  in  enduring  thoughts ! " 

Goethe,  "  Faust,"  Prolog  im  Himmel,  11.  102-107 


EPILOGUE 

THE  idea  that  life  might  be  beautiful,  lovable, 
and  intelligible  perhaps  results  from  so 
much  of  experience  as  combines  the  faculties 
harmoniously. 

Those  who  are  never  attuned  neither  entertain  it, 
nor  taste  the  vigour  and  buoyancy  which  it  pro- 
motes. Though  sluggishness  deprive  most  men 
of  that  pregnant  poise  which  surely  forbids  the 
dread  of  a  fortuitous  or  merely  mechanical  universe, 
a  disordinate  appetency  for  sensuous,  for  intellec- 
tual or  for  moral  stimulus  balks  not  a  few. 

A  fine  fusion  of  our  energies  foreshadows  the 
universal  symphony  so  insistently  that  the  artist 
can  but  labour  to  perfect  all  his  works. 

Religious  history  may  show  a  ghastly  record  of 
the  greedy  and  fantastic  exercitation  of  this  mood  : 
art  collections  and  libraries  seem  drowned  in  the 
eccentricities  of  its  partial  and  distempered  expres- 

S  »57 


)^ 


258  ART   AND   LIFE 

sion,  and  the  not-yet-included  tyrannously  menace 
all  its  purest  manifestations. 

We  may  not  be  able  to  see  whence  the  expecta- 
tion of  comprehensive  harmony  is  derived  :  and  we 
may  anxiously  note  that  creative  felicity  is  more 
easily  promoted  in  narrow  social  frames,  and  in 
early  manhood,  since  under  these  conditions  fewer 
elements  are  viewed  massed  together  as  by  distance, 
and  a  standpoint  may  more  readily  be  found  from 
which  all  things  compose  a  perfect  whole,  falling 
into  wise  perspectives. 

Nevertheless,  notions  of  unity  and  proportion  in- 
here through  every  organised  structure.  Nothing 
can  be  described  as  taking  form  or  ripening  to 
efficiency  save  as  it  assimilates  to  them.  Their 
"  henids  "  ^  prompt  instinct,  thought,  and  art,  and 
we  are  quickened  by  every  semblance  of  affinity 
with  them  in  lifeless  matter. 

Because  masses  of  men  live  and  breed  without 
enthusiasm  for  constructive  excellence,  can  it  no 
longer  ensure  the  survival  of  the  fittest  ? 

"  Nature  is  in  everything  superfluous,"  and 
squanders  a  million  germs  that  a  few  may  de- 
velop. 

Why  should  not  our  acquired  taste  and  judgment 
have  as  necessary  a  relation  to  the  future,  as  our 
animal  appetites  to  the  past  and  present  ? 

'  See  above,  p.  36. 


EPILOGUE  259 

Origins  loom  through  such  remote  speculations 
as  make  "the  search  for  a  cause  anti-philosophic, 
anti-scientific":  yet  Goethe  splendidly  insisted  on 
being  the  equal  of  his  thought.  While  we  admit 
the  problem  of  a  first  cause  to  lie  beyond  the  reach 
of  science  and  philosophy,  man's  tendency  to  train 
his  character  into  the  full  complement  of  his  intellect 
impels  us  to  suppose  our  efforts  worthily  derived, 
since  they  have  achieved  so  many  values  in  con- 
duct, discernment,  and  art. 

The  mood  in  which  intelligence  and  nobility 
come  to  poise  is  imaginatively  fruitful.  Who, 
tasting  it,  has  not  waxed  strong  and  buoyant,  like 
the  two  artists  I  have  chosen  as  illustrations  ?  To 
maintain  it  (or  rather  the  staling  recollection  of  it) 
by  shutting  our  eyes  on  fresh  experience,  is  to  side 
with  Blake  against  science  and  reason,  too  often 
without  pursuing  what  he  with  whole  heart  under- 
took— the  conquest  of  the  natural  man  in  respect  of 
social  disposition  and  emotional  aspiration  ;  while 
a  maniac  grapple  with  things  hideous,  hate-worthy, 
and  insignificant,  leads  to  lamentations  over  our 
imbecility  and  the  extravagance  of  our  needs,  like 
those  which  desolated  so  many  of  Flaubert's  heaviest 
hours. 

Sympathise,  see  beauty,  and  understand  inter- 
relations ;  only  passion  born  of  failure  to  obey  that 
summons  saves  man  from  degradation.     He  knows 


26o  ART   AND   LIFE 

not  whether  the  whole  be  lovable,  beautiful,  or 
intelligible,  yet  neither  does  he  know  that  it  is  not ; 
for  still  social  effort  reveals  more  goodness,  art  more 
beauty,  science  more  order. 

"  The  child  whose  eyes  take  light, 

When  thou  dost  near, 
As  oft  would  smile  and  bright 

Wert  thou  not  here, 
But  over-sea,  or  dead  ; 
By  others  in  thy  stead 
His  joy  were  fed. 

As  on  thy  youth's  top-hour 

Noon  shines  to-day, 
Where  thine  once  kissed  a  flower 

Lips  as  fond  may  ; 
Answers  thy  heart  received 
Had  been  as  well  beHeved 
Hadst  thou  ne'er  breathed. 

Light  did  not  wait  for  eyes  ; 

Homeless  love  starts  ; 
Suns  o'er  void  worlds  arise ; 

Live  tend  dead  hearts  : 
Powers,  by  thee  found  kind, 
Work  also  where  thy  mind 
Gropes  or  is  blind. 

Leave  better  than  for  thee 

Was  ready  found  ; 
To  toil  'mid  hostility 

Masters  feel  bound. 


EPILOGUE  261 

From  beyond  mammoth-time 
Our  spirit  draws  its  prime 
Strength,  and  may  climb 

Till  it  learn  how  that  past 

Owned  a  control, 
Was  willed,  has  prospered,  last 

Sanctioned,  is  whole, — 
When,  having  striven  through, 
Man  who  makes  all  things  new 
Shall  know  and  do." 


APPENDICES 


APPENDIX    I 
(See  p.  8) 

MAXIME  DU  CAMP'S  Souvenirs  lilteraires  have 
been  a  principal  source  of  error  in  respect  to 
Flaubert's  life  and  opinions.  Fortunately,  so  many  of 
his  statements  have  been  discredited,  and  such  an 
animus  revealed,  that  the  conception  he  claimed  to 
have  formed  of  his  friend  now  concerns  his  biographer 
rather  than  Flaubert's. 


265 


APPENDIX   II 
(See  pp.  21-26) 

Was  he  Intelligent  ? 

"  T;7VERYTHING  seems  to  have  been  said  about 
l^v  him  and  yet  still  to  need  saying,  he  suggests 
so  many  ideas,  he  raises  so  many  problems.  No  doubt, 
he  lacked  the  serene  fecundity  of  sovran  souls  who  are 
not  arrested  by  a  critical  faculty  ceaselessly  alert;  he 
possessed  as  an  offset,  through  this  sureness  of  judgment, 
the  incomparable  merit  never  to  have  produced  a  page 
which  was  not  well-nigh  perfect."  ' 

"  Flaubert's  ideas  are  enough  to  drive  any  sensible 
man  mad.  They  are  absurd  and  so  contradictory  that 
he  who  should  try  to  conciliate  only  three  would  soon 
be  seen  clasping  his  temples  with  both  hands  to  keep 
his  head  from  splitting.  .  .  ." 

".  .  .  The  unalterable  beauty  which  extends  through- 
out the  pages  of  Madame  Bovary  every  day  enchants 
me  more.  But  the  man  who  wrote  that  book  so  surely 
and  with  such  infallible  control,  that  man  was  an  abyss 
of  incertitudes  and  errors."  * 

'  Maurice  Spronck,  Les  Artistes  litter  aires,  p.  296,  1889. 

=  Anatole  France,  La  Vie  litt^rairc,  Serie  iii.  pp.  301,  303,  1890. 


APPENDICES  267 

"  Flaubert  was  a  thinker  of  rare  breadth  of  mind, 
who  assimilated  with  surety  and  ardour  ever  the  same 
all  that  from  near  or  far  bore  on  literature  and  art. 
His  critical  insight  was  as  great  as  his  pictorial  power. 
He  leaves  us  not  only  masterpieces,  but  the  example  of 
a  method  of  rigorous  inquiry  which  we  should  follow, 
because  it  alone  is  efficacious,  it  alone  is  sound.  Try 
to  write  and  judge  as  he  did.  There  is  no  fear  that  we 
shall  have  enough  talent  to  lead  us  aside  where  he 
permitted  himself  to  swerve.  .  .  ." 

".  .  .  His  admirations  were  often  extreme,  but  he 
knew  how  to  admire  everything,  and  nothing  could 
discourage  his  faith,  lower  his  standard  of  taste,  or 
lesson  the  sureness  of  his  critical  sense,  which  was 
extraordinary."  ^ 

"  Flaubert  lacks  the  critical  sense  entirely,  and  does 
not  like  it  in  those  who  have  it ;  to  possess  it  is  enough 
to  estrange  him." 

"  Evidently  the  realm  of  ideas  is  absolutely  closed 
for  him,  and  an  intelligent  man  seems  to  him  an 
abnormal  being  and  something  of  an  evildoer." 

"  He  cannot  lay  hold  of  or  is  wounded  by  the  intel- 
ligent, the  reasoners,  the  witty,  the  gracious,  and  the 
lovable :  he  turns  away  from  them,  or  else  insults 
them. " "" 

"  For  a  mind  such  as  Flaubert's,  nourished  on 
Montaigne,  can  there  be  question  of  a  system  ?  It  is 
enough  if,  like  Montaigne,  he  holds  a  group  of  views 
which  agree  together.  Flaubert's  are  sufficiently 
concordant,    and    he    held    them    with    remarkable 

•  Antoine  Albalat,  Ouvriers  ei  precedes,  pp.  278,  271,  1896. 
'  Emile  Faguet,  Flaubert,  p.  31,  1899. 


268  ART   AND   LIFE 

perseverance  ...  he  is  distinguished  by  interest  in 
a  quantity  of  subjects  about  which  for  the  most  part 
jnen  of  letters  in  his  day  troubled  little.  He  loved 
science  for  its  own  sake.  ...  He  did  not  prize  history, 
like  a  merchant  who  furnishes  rich  hangings,  as  the 
romantic  school  were  wont,  but  for  itself.  .  .  .  He 
understood  that  modern  methods  were  about  to  trans- 
form it.  Lastly,  he  loved  the  great  writers  of  antiquity, 
and,  what  is  more  rare,  those  of  foreign  literatures. 
Don  Quixote  had  fascinated  him  in  childhood,  he 
returned  to  it  all  through  life.  He  was  at  great  pains 
to  read  Sophocles  and  Shakespeare  in  the  original. 
He  grasped  the  greatness  of  Goethe.  .  .  .  Flaubert 
thought  it  necessary  to  understand  his  own  day  in 
order  to  portray  it.  That  he  might  be  a  novehst,  he 
became  an  historian  and  a  philosopher."  * 

"  Flaubert  was  an  artist,  nothing  but  an  artist,  one 
of  those  artists  in  whom  two  or  three  predominant, 
exclusive,  absolute,  tyrannical  faculties  shrivel  up,  absorb, 
and  finish  by  literally  annihilating  all  others.  The 
result  is  that  Flaubert  understood  nothing  of  the  world 
and  of  life  save  so  much  as  he  could  consume  personally 
with  profit,  as  he  said." » 

"  Binding  fast  with  this  prodigious  literary  effort  the 
complete  history  of  mentality  and  of  the  actions  it 
suggests,  Gustave  Flaubert  must  have  known  unheard-of 
felicities.  He  must  have  passed  miraculous  hours 
intoxicated  by  the  joys  of  knowledge. 

*  L.  Levy-Bruhl,  "  Flaubert  philosophe,"  La  Revue  de  Paris, 
February  15,  1900,  p.  851. 

■  Ferdinand  Brunetiere,  Histoire  et  litterature,  vol.  ii.  p.  130 
February,  1884. 


APPENDICES  269 

"  He  has  dowered  France  with  the  emotion  of 
thought  which  ^schylus  offered  to  Greece,  Lucretius 
to  Rome,  Dante  to  Italy,  Shakespeare  to  England, 
Goethe  to  Germany."  ' 

It  is  M.  Faguet's  due  to  mention  that,  unlike 
M.  France,  whose  statements  are  left  in  the  air,  he  cites 
passages  in  which  Flaubert  expressed  slight  esteem 
for  the  acumen  of  Sainte-Beuve,  Proudhon,  Bossuet 
(La  Politique  iiree  de  VEcriture)^  Thiers  and  Auguste 
Comte,  and  refrains  from  mentioning  his  admiration 
for  Montaigne,  Spinoza,  Boileau,  La  Bruyere,  Montes- 
quieu, Buffon,  Voltaire,  Goethe,  Michelet,  Schopen- 
hauer, Littre,  Renan — all,  one  would  suppose,  reasoners, 
pre-eminently  intelligent,  many  of  them  gracious,  not  a 
few  witty.  Unfortunately  M.  Brunetiere  can  no  longer 
tell  me  whether  he  ever  understood  anything  that  he 
could  not  consume  personally  with  profit. 

'  Paul  Adam,  La  Mystere  desfoules,  Preface,  p.  xxv,  1895. 


APPENDIX   III 
(See  pp.  21-26) 

Was  he  Warm- Hearted  ? 

*'  T  T  E    had    passed    his    life    '  writing    harmonious 

X  JL  sentences  and  avoiding  assonances,'  but  the 
power  to  Hve,  which  is  the  power  to  feel,  had  remained 
intact.  .  .  . 

"  He  truly  had  the  right  to  say  '  I  believe  that  the 
heart  does  not  age  ;  there  are  even  some  in  whom  it 
quickens  as  they  grow  older.'  "  ^ 

"  [Like  his  Saint  Antony,]  after  he  had  accomplished 
one  by  one  labours  prodigious  by  reason  of  the  sacri- 
fices entailed,  he  experienced  only  an  immense 
weariness  and  the  vague  horror  of  having  been 
deceived.  When  death  surprised  him,  nihilism  was 
withering  his  intelligence  and  the  blackest  of 
pessimisms  ravaging  his  heart.  That  intelligence 
was  nevertheless  worthy  of  the  joys  which  compre- 
hension brings,  and  that  warm  heart  intended  for 
loving."  ^ 

"  Now  all  that  [Flaubert's  pessimism,  &c.]  flowed 
from  a  profound  love  of  humanity.  .  .  ,  His  heart  was 

'  Pierre  Gauthiez,  Revue  Bleu,  No.  22,  tome  xlvi.  p.  696,  1890. 
'  Henry  Laujol,  Revue  Bleu,  No.  9,  tome  xlv.  p.  269,  1890. 

370 


APPENDICES  271 

obliging,  his  hand  open,  he  adored  his  friends.  No 
one  had  more  the  spirit  of  family  affection.  A  patriot 
bled  in  this  impassible  when  the  terrible  year  [1870] 
arrived.  And  this  scorner  of  love  had  experienced  it  to 
the  depths  of  his  soul,  although  he  had  tried  to  stifle 
even  the  dream  of  it."  ^ 

" '  If  he  had  feeling,'  said  Villiers  (de  I'Isle  Adam) 
.  .  .  '  he  would  have  everything.'  "  ^ 

"  I  have  always  marvelled  that  the  gift  of  sympathy 
should  have  been  denied  to  Flaubert,  because  he  did 
not  with  effrontery  express  his  own,  while  this  gift  is 
supposed  to  characterise — shall  we  say  ? — the  English- 
woman George  Eliot.  Never  could  Flaubert's  lofty 
equity  have  permitted  him  to  indulge  in  the  heavy 
raillery,  with  an  unconscionable  abundance  of  which 
Eliot  overwhelms  the  simple  folk  of  The  Mill  on  the  Floss. 
And  for  the  humble  poor  whom  she  loves  .  .  .  her  soul 
has  the  artificially  Christian  disposition  of  a  philosophical 
and  enlightened  Protestant  visiting  the  homes  of  his 
inferiors.  At  least,  with  Flaubert,  there  is  no  trace  of 
this  frightful  condescension."  3 

"  M.  Flaubert  has  no  emotions,  oh  no  !  he  has  no 
judgment,  at  least  none  that  is  appreciable.  Incessant 
and  unweariable  narrator,  analyst  who  never  feels 
uneasy,  he  describes  even  the  most  finikin  subtlety,  but 
himself  listens  to  all  he  recounts  like  one  deaf  and 
dumb.  With  a  lover's  scrupulousness  he  maintains 
indifference  for  all  he  portrays." 

'  Felix  Frank,  Gustave  Flaubert  d'apres  des  documents  inedits, 
p.  13,  1887. 
»  Camille  Mauclair,  L' Art  en  silence,  p.  49,  1901. 
3  Jules  Lemaitre,  Les  Contemporains,  Serie  vi.  p.  245,  1896. 


i72  ART   AND   LIFE 

"...//  is  repugnant  to  man's  nature  to  take  a  subject 
in  hand  and  not  regard  it  with  love  or  hatred.  This 
custom,  which  seems  a  law  of  human  minds,  is  none  for 
M.  Flaubert.  Still  young  for  so  much  coldness,  he 
begins  where  old  Goethe  ended."  ^ 

"  What  we  know  .  .  .  enlightens  us  as  to  the  con- 
descension, the  submissiveness,  the  timid  charity,  of  this 
great  child  of  whom  advantage  was  taken  right  up  to 
his  death,  and  who  underwent  everything  with  good 
humour,  consoling  himself  with  his  [art] -worship,  in 
which  he  found  at  once  torture  and  f orgetf  ulness,  showing 
an  inexhaustible  goodness,  accepting  the  advice  of 
Bouilhet,  putting  himself  to  great  pains  in  order  to 
direct  Mme.  Colet ;  importuned  by  his  relatives,  lovable 
and  without  gall,  even  in  seasons  of  suffering  .  .  .  the 
pessimist  threw  himself  at  the  foot  of  the  Cross. 

"  He  did  not  perhaps  believe  in  the  sense  usually 
given  to  the  word,  but  his  whole  soul,  his  whole 
aesthetic  and  his  whole  ethic,  concluded  in  an  extremely 
powerful  deism.  From  this  point  of  view  Flaubert's 
work  yields  but  one  consolation,  but  one  lesson — 
believe.  The  victory  of  the  Christian  spirit  dominates 
it  throughout  .  .  .  his  is  an  Hegelian  metaphysic  leading 
through  the  worship  of  beauty  to  a  deism  opposed  to 
the  scientific  materialism  of  our  epoch."  * 

"  Absolute  truth  being  the  opposite  of  beauty,  and 
scientific  study  of  the  real  the  irreconcilable  antithesis 
of  art's  effort  .  .  .  the  record  of  Flaubert's  case  is  most 
precious.     He  who  wished  to  live  by  passionate  love 

'  Barbey  d'Aurevilly,  xix'  Siecle ;  Les  (Etivres  et  les  hontmes,  4° 
Partie,  pp.  63,  64,  1865. 
»  Camille  Mauclair,  L'Art  en  silence,  p.  62,  1901. 


APPENDICES  273 

for  the  beautiful  alone,  we  see  whither  he  was  led, 
against  his  will,  .  .  .  the  faculty  of  loving,  like  that  of 
suffering  or  that  of  admiring,  depends  on  a  certain 
ignorance,  or,  to  put  it  better,  on  a  certain  intimate 
illusion  and  a  momentary  forgetfulness  of  surroundings. 
.  .  .  On  the  day  when  Flaubert  should  have  proved 
able  to  love,  he  would  have  ceased  to  be  himself  :  he 
would  have  lost  that  constant  power  of  objective 
assimilation  ...  to  which  he  owed  his  most  celebrated 
works. — One  cannot  say  that  he  would  have  been 
greater,  for  he  would  have  ceased  to  exist,  to  make 
room  for  another  man."  ^ 

Here  the  melee  resolves  itself  into  a  question  of 
information.  MM.  Barbey  d'Aurevilly,  Villiers  de  I'Isle 
Adam,  Spronck,  and  Laujol  did  not  know  Flaubert,  and 
were  either  wholly  at  the  mercy  of  report  or  by  it  led 
to  mistranslate  insufficient  documents. 


il 


'  Maurice  Spronck,  Les  Artistes  litt^raires,  pp.  276,  279,  293,  296, 


.CC 


lO 


APPENDIX  IV 
(See  p.  31) 

THE  word  "romantic"  will  rarely  occur  in  this 
book.  Flaubert  has  never  been  rightly  called 
either  "a  romanticist"  or  "a  realist."  These  words 
should  not  be  applied  to  individuals  save  as  repre- 
sentatives of  a  fashion.  The  youth  whose  enthusiasm 
read  Candide  twenty  times  and  translated  it  into  English  * 
was  not  a  type  of  the  romantic  frame  of  mind,  just  as 
the  master  whose  chief  preoccupation  was  beauty  could 
never  head  any  school  of  "  realists"  or  "  naturalists." 

M.  Faguet  tried  to  discriminate. 

"Now  Flaubert  has  all  romanticism  in  his  soul 
except  the  very  bottom  of  romanticism.  .  .  . 

"  And  thus  was  formed  this  singular  realist-romantic 
which  Flaubert  was.  And  which  of  the  two  was  the 
true  bottom  of  the  illustrious  author  ?  Verily,  I  know 
nothing  about  it,  and  does  one  ever  know,  in  a  com- 
plex man,  where  the  bottom  is  ?  ...  If  you  want  my 
intuition  on  this  question,  it  seems  to  me  that  the 
bottom  in  Flaubert  was  romanticism.  .  .  . 

"  Yes,  the  bottom  is  rather  romantic."  ^ 

Scared  by  this  awful  example,  I  avoid  the  fallacious 
convenience  of  the  above  words. 

'  Correspondance  de  G.  Flaubert,  Serie  i.  p.  72. 
'  Flaubert,  par  Emile  Faguet,  pp.  28, 32,  and  33. 
374 


APPENDIX  V 
(See  pp.  32-34) 

Contradictions  over  "  Madame  Bo  vary  " 

I 

"  'THHE  poetry  of  adultery  is  what  the  author  shows 
X     you,  and   I  ask  you  again  whether  these  las- 
civious pages  are  not  profoundly  immoral  ? "  ^ 

"  When  Flaubert  wrote  Madame  Bovary^  I  believe  he 
thought  chiefly  of  a  somewhat  morbid  realism  ;  and 
behold !  the  book  turned  in  his  hands  into  a  masterpiece 
of  appalhng  morality."  ^ 


II 

"  The  treasures  of  compassion,  tenderness,  insight, 
which  alone,  amid  such  guilt  and  misery,  can  enable 
charm  to  subsist  and  to  emerge,  are  wanting  to 
Flaubert.  He  is  cruel,  with  the  cruelty  of  petrified 
feeling,  to  his  poor  heroine  ;  he  pursues  her  without 

'  E.  Pinard,  Speech  for  the  prosecution  when  Flaubert  was 
tried  for  offending  public  and  religious  morality  in  Madame  Bovary. 
See  (Euvres  completes,  vol.  i.  p.  491. 

»  R.  L.  Stevenson,  Essays  in  the  Art  of  Writing,  p.  66. 

275 


276  ART   AND   LIFE 

pity  or  pause,  as  with  malignity  ;  he  is  harder  upon  her 
himself  than  any  reader  even,  I  think,  will  be  inclined 
to  be."  ^ 

"  Do  you  not  feel  that  Flaubert  loves  poor  Emma  ? 
Vicious  and  silly,  but  so  naive  at  bottom,  and  so 
unhappy  !  Oh,  those  home-comings  in  the  omnibus  ! 
Oh,  the  tipsy  song  of  the  blind  beggar  which  drowns 
the  prayers  for  the  dead  !  Who  has  said  that  this  book 
lacked  the  bowels  of  compassion  ? "  * 

III 

"A  poor  creature,  in  fine,  the  heroine  of  the  volume, 
rebellious  and  romanesque  without  grandeur,  disgusted 
with  her  prosaic  home,  but  in  love  with  an  ideal  such 
as  the  reading  of  novelettes  might  nourish  .  .  .  lacks 
even  the  sinister  poetry  of  absolute  depravation."  3 

"  To  sum  up,  this  woman  is  truly  great ;  she  is  above 
all  to  be  pitied,  and  in  spite  of  the  systematic  rigour  of 
the  author,  who  has  made  every  effort  not  to  be  seen  in 
his  book  and  to  perform  the  function  of  a  marionette 
showman,  all  intellectual  women  will  thank  him  for 
having  raised  the  female  to  such  high  power,  so  far 
above  the  mere  animal  and  so  near  to  the  ideal  man, 
for  having  given  her  participation  in  that  double 
character  of  calculation  and  reverie  which  constitute 
the  perfect  being."* 

'  Matthew  Arnold,  Essays  in  Criticism,  Second  Series,  p.  276, 
1887. 

'  Jules  Lemaitre,  Les  Conteniporains,  Serie  vi.  p.  247,  1896. 

3  Maurice  Spronck,  Les  Artistes  litteraires,  p.  281,  1889. 

*  Charles  Baudelaire,  L'Art  romantique  (Pe««  Bib.  Lemerre), 
P-  373- 


APPENDIX  VI 
(See  pp.  35-41) 

Contradictions  over  "Salammbo" 


T' 


properly  speaking  the  historical  novel,  for  that 
supposes  a  complete  familiarity  and  affinity  with  the 
subject.  There  is  between  it  and  us  a  breach  of  con- 
tinuity, an  abyss." 

"  How  do  you  expect  me  to  interest  myself  in  this 
forgotten  war  ?  .  .  ,  What  does  the  duel  between  Tunis 
and  Carthage  matter  to  me  ?  "  ^ 

"  Once  again  my  blood  has  coursed  furiously  through 
the  veins  as  it  did  when,  a  boy,  Ivanhoe's  magic  pages 
first  burst  upon  my  enraptured  sense.  Now,  as  then,  I 
knov^r  what  power  lies  in  a  stirring  book  .  .  .  the  best 
of  them  is  excelled  as  an  historical  romance  by  the 
wonderful  Salammbo.  .  .  .  The  marvellous  realism  of 
the  pages  is  so  very  unusual ;  .  .  .  we  are  in  a  sensuous 
atmosphere,  where  the  senses  are  lulled  into  harmony 
with  tropic  scenes  created  for  our  enjoyment."  " 

*  Sainte-Beuve,  Nouveaux  lundis,  Serie  iv.  pp.  80,  84,  1862. 

•  Sir  H.  M.  Stanley,  the  African  explorer,  in  a  letter  to  M.  French 
Sheldon,  the  first  translator,  quoted  on  the  fly-leaf  to  the  second 

277 


278  ART  AND  LIFE 

II 

"  It  is  not  worth  the  trouble  it  takes  learning  to  trace 
reality  as  though  against  a  window,  laboriously  studying 
how  to  set  down  in  a  word  the  slightest  appearance  of 
things,  if  this  curious  talent  is  only  to  be  applied  in 
describing  the  imaginary  gardens  of  Hamilcar  and  the 
conjectural  temples  of  Tanith  or  Baal-Eschmoun."  * 

*■'  Salammbo  must  be  regarded  as  Flaubert's  master- 
piece. It  is  the  book  in  which  his  powers  found  freest 
scope,  and  in  which  he  is  at  his  best." » 

ni 

"Salammbo  has  fully  satisfied  no  one  but  its  author. 
.  .  .  We  are  forced  to  repeat  what  a  great  seventeenth- 
century  lady  said  of  La  Pucelle :  '  It  is  beautiful,  but 
boring.' 

"  The  epoch  should  be  sufficiently  known  to  us  before- 
hand ;  for,  if  it  is  not,  an  historical  novel  instructs  us  too 
much  to  move  us."  3 

"  Flaubert  chose  his  antiquity  wisely  :  a  period  of 
which  we  know  too  Uttle  to  confuse  us.  .  .  .  The  illu- 
sion is  perfect ;  these  people  may  not  be  the  real  people 
of  history,  but  at  least  they  have  no  self-consciousness, 
no  Christian  tinge  in  their  minds."  ♦ 

edition  ;  it  is  also  recorded  that  Salammbo  was  one  of  tlie  last  books, 
if  not  the  last,  before  Shakespeare  and  the  Bible,  thrown  away  to 
lighten  his  packs.  •   • 

*  Ferdinand  Brunetiere,  Le  Roman  naturaliste,  p.  52,  1877. 

'  J.  S.  Chartres,  Preface  to  his  translation  of  Salammbo,  p.  xi, 
1888. 
3  Emile  Faguet,  Flaubert,  p.  46,  1899. 

*  Arthur  Symons,  Introduction  to  ^^  Salammbo,"   translated   by 
J.  W.  Matthews,  pp.  ix,  xii,  1901. 


't'TAPPENDICES  >2JI9 

IV  t^ 

"All  those  rough  epic  heroes  are  not  only  like  fne 
limp  bourgeois  of  Madame  Bovary\  more  or  less 
negligible,  they  are  frankly  disgusting.  The  human 
soul  is  everywhere  portrayed  in  this  cynical  epic  as 
cruel,  perfidious,  pitiless,  depraved."  i 

"The  exquisite  humanity  of  all  the  central  figures  in 
this  book,  which  vi^ould  make  an  illustrious  play,  is  here 
and  there  almost  Shakespearean." 

"  There  is  a  magic  in  the  atmosphere,  a  truth  in  the 
delineation  of  passion,  so  abundant  a  synipathy  in  the 
accounts  of  the  battles  and  the  privations  of  the  com- 
batants, and  such  a  simpUcity  and  strength  in  the 
hundreds  of  genre  pictures  scattered  through  the  book, 
that  it  must  be  accounted  a  masterpiece.  ...  It  awakens 
only  noble  thoughts,  despite  its  sensuous  setting.  It  is 
like  an  exquisite  piece  of  Greek  sculpture,  mighty,  yet 
too  ethereal  in  its  beauty  for  modern  hands  to  create, 
set  against  a  background  flooded  with  sumptuous 
colour."  ^ 

Sainte-Beuve,  Brunetiere,  Faguet,  Lauvriere  ;  unhke 
the    echo,    criticism    repeating    itself    grows    louder. 

"  '.  Emile  Lauvriere,  Salammbo :  Oxford  Higher  French  Classics, 
p.  xxvi,  1906.  The  peculiar  felicity  which  dogs  educationalists  is 
well  exemplified  in  the  docteur  es  lettres  chosen  to  introduce  this 
classic  to  the  English  schoolboy  who  might  possess  an  enthusiastic 
translation  or  obtain  one  for  a  crib.  Of  course  cordial  hatred  of 
the  work  and  contempt  for  the  author  were  not  the  only  qualifica- 
tions regarded  when  an  expurgator  was  sent  for.  Yet  an  intelligent 
youngster  could  not  fail  to  wonder  why  the  book  was  chosen,  if  all 
that  was  said  about  it  were  true.  Surely  there  are  more  edifying 
classics  ? 

»  Edward  King,  Introduction  to  "Salammbo,"  Englished  by 
M,  French  Sheldon,  pp.  xvii,  xix,  xx,  1885. 


^?D  .     ART   AND   LIFE 

Parisian  imaginations  are  not  so  hungry  as  those  of 
explorers  and  schoolboys.  The  Goncourts  had  the 
courage  to  avow  their  dislike  of  the  Iliad,  which  not  all 
the  professional  critics  dare,  so  that  we  are  not  surprised 
to  read  in  their  journal* : — 

"  Flaubert  sees  the  East  and  the  antique  East  in  the 
guise  of  Algerian  exhibition  stalls.  ...  As  to  a  moral 
resuscitation,  poor  Flaubert  is  his  own  dupe,  the  senti- 
ments of  his  characters  are  the  most  commonplace  and 
general  .  .  .  his  Matho  is  only  an  opera  tenor  in  a 
barbarous  poem." 


"  Flaubert  overflowed  with  invectives  against  the 
present.  He  deemed  it  commonplace.  Here  his  philo- 
sophy seems  to  me  at  fault.  For  every  epoch  is  com- 
monplace for  those  who  live  in  it ;  in  whatever  age  a 
man  may  be  born,  there  is  no  escape,  an  impression  of 
vulgarity  is  disengaged  from  things  in  the  midst  of 
which  he  is  belated."' 

"  Was  the  setting  of  the  nightmare  of  life  worth  much 
more  in  the  so-called  heroic  ages  than  it  is  to-day  .  .  .  ? 
Would  the  stupid  ferocity  of  the  mercenaries  who  feasted 
in  Hamilcar's  gardens  have  seemed  less  sickening  to  a 
noble  spirit  than  the  stupid  coarseness  of  guests  at  the 
Bo  vary  wedding  or  that  of  Frederic's  supper-friends  ? 
.  .  .  questions  in  answer  to  which  Flaubert  throws 
down  the  pages  of  his  two  epic  poems  of  the  ancient 

'  Tome  I   ,  p.  373. 

•  Anatole  France,  La  Vie  litteraire,  Serie  ii,  p.  22. 


APPENDICES  281 

world,  displa5ring  an  equal  contempt  for  what  was  and 
what  is."  ^ 

That  change  from  the  setting  of  life  to  its  moral  gross- 
ness  is  surprising,  and  may  reveal  the  confusion  under- 
lying the  contradiction  between  these  clear  critical 
minds. 

'  Paul  Bourget,  Essais  de  Psychologte  contemporaine :  (Euvres 
completes,  tome  i.  p.  115,  1882. 


APPENDIX  VII 
(See  pp.  41-47) 

Contradictions  over  "  l'Education  sentimentale  " 


"   A    NOVEL  like  l'Education  sentimentale  is  outside 
1\     the  province  of  literary  criticism.     It  has  no 
real  value  save  as  evidence  on  an  epoch  of  our  contem- 
porary history.  .  .  ." " 

"  The  mark  of  good  books  is  that  the  oftener  tbey 
are  re-read  the  more  excellent  they  seem.  ...  I  never 
re-read  l'Education  without  judging  it  to  be  a  little 
better.  I  am  thus  come  almost  to  find  that  it  no  longer 
bores  me.  ...  I  attach  importance  to  this  remark 
because  it  may  cause  l'Education  sentimentale  to  be 
re-read,  and  it  has  this  defect,  that  it  does  not  invite 
you  to  re-read  it.  .  .  .  To  sum  up,  if  Flaubert  had 
not  written  Madame  Bovary  he  would  still  have  his 
masterpiece." ' 

II 

"  This  disconcerting  chronicle,  voluntarily  written  in 

'  Ferdinand  Brunetiere,  Le  Roman  naturaliste,  p,  72,  1877. 
*  Emile  Faguet,  Flaubert,  pp.  125,  126,  1899. 
a8s 


APPENDICES  ^«3 

style  as  lax  as  that  of  SalamtnbS  is  braced,  discourages 
the  heart  as  much  as  the  spirit."  i 

"  Of  these  processes  (those  which  he  has  analysed  in 
Madame  Bovary  and  Salammho)  only  the  least  artificial 
subsist  in  VEducation  sentimentale  .  .  .  this  concentra- 
tion and  the  adroit  choice  of  significant  details  border 
on  the  miraculous.  .  .  .  There  are  even  passages  which 
in  the  attempt  to  express  indefinable  soul  movements, 
seem  to  have  required  powers  beyond  the  reach 
of  art."^ 

Ill 

"  He  never  approached  the  complicated  character,  in 
man  or  woman,  or  the  really  furnished,  the  finely 
civilised  consciousness."  3 

"The  subject,  in  art,  has  no  interest  save  for  children 
and  the  unlettered.  What  is  the  subject  of  the  most 
beautiful  poem  in  the  French  language,  of  our  Odyssey, 
VEducation  sentimentale  ?  "  * 


IV 

"  Before  the  multitude  of  our  contemporaries  who 
have  treated  love  as  a  deception,  Flaubert  expressed  in 
VEducation  sentimentale  how  only  those  women  remain 
lovable  whom  we  never  succeed  in  possessing.     The 

'  Emile  Lauvriere,  Salammbo :  Oxford  Higher  French  Classics) 
1906. 

'  Emile  Hennequin,  Quelques  ecrivains  frangais,  pp.  15,  20. 

3  Henry  James,  Critical  Introduction  to  "Madame  Bovary," 
p.  xxxiii,  1902. 

*  Remy  de  Gourmont,  Le  Problhme  du  Style,  p.  25,  1902. 


2884  ART   AND   LIFE 

revelation  of  Mme.  Arnould  {sic)  was  the  symbol  of  this 
dogma  denying  love."' 

"  '  I  should  have  liked  to  make  you  happy ' — though 
desire  stronger  than  ever,  furious,  rabid,  resurged  within 
him,  he  abstained  from  her  *  in  order  not  to  degrade  his 
ideal,'  his  conception  of  love  which  he  had  preferred  to 
love.  This  final  avowal  of  genuine  attraction  by  Mme. 
Arnoux  accentuates  the  chimerical  nature  of  Frederic's 
passion,  powerless  to  seize  a  happiness  which  was  so 
near  him  ;  and  the  novel  terminates  on  this  impression 
of  a  great  tenderness  wasted."  * 

If  Frederic's  love  is  preserved  by  his  abstention, 
why  on  the  death  of  Arnoux  does  he  not  prepare  to 
marry  his  widow  ?  If  Mme.  Arnoux  feels  what  M. 
Gaultier  implies,  why  should  she  have  contemplated 
him  "  in  happy  wonder  "  when  he  refused  what  she 
offered  ?  Why  should  she  have  cried,  "  How  delicate 
of  you  !  No  one  is  like  you — no  one  is  like  you "  ? 
Flaubert  did  not  intend  to  illustrate  a  maxim  of  Neo- 
Christian  mysticism,  nor  can  the  significance  of  the 
beauty  he  created  be  unravelled  by  the  hasty  application 
of  a  single  formula  by  the  "  illusionist "  philosopher. 

*  Paul  Adam,  Le  Myst^re  des  Foules,  Preface,  p.  xxiv,  1895. 
'  Jules  de  Gaultier,  Le  Bovarysme,  p.  42,  1892. 


APPENDIX  VIII 

(See  pp.  47-52) 

Contradictions  over  "  La  Tentation  de  Saint 
Antoine  " 

I 

" ''  I  ^HIS  bizarre,  wearisome,   formless  composition, 

X     la  Tentation  de  saint  Antoine.''^  ^ 

"  Reading  this  philosophic  poem  it  is  possible  some- 
times to  admire,  it  stirs  interest  if  not  emotion  here  or 
there,  and  even  sometimes  sets  one  thinking. 

"...  Aspiration  after  beauty  ...  is  felt  .  .  .  from 
one  end  to  the  other  of  the  antique  episode  in  the 
Second  Part  of  Faust.  It  is  almost  the  opposite,  and 
at  least  a  curious  hunt,  for  the  ugly,  the  mean,  the 
burlesque,  for  all  that  disenchants,  which  is  felt  from 
one  end  to  the  other  of  la  Tentation  de  saint  Antoine.'' ' 

"  Heyday,  you  eminent  professors !  in  what  good 
taste,  good  sense,  good  order,  morality,  ideality  you 
have  your  being,  all  that  is  what  every  honest  well-read 
man  can  put  into  a  book  !     I  myself  could  do  it  did  I 

'  Ferdinand  Brunetiere,  I'Erudition  dans  le  rotnan,  1877  ;  Le 
Roman  naturaliste,  p.  52. 
'  Emile  Faguet,  Flaubert,  pp.  63,  6o. 
285 


286  ART   AND   LIFE 

want  to  !  But  the  splendour,  sound,  overflowing 
songfulness,  the  profusion  of  dazzling  images  in  les 
Contemplations;  the  strangeness,  the  plastic  per- 
fection in  la  Tentation,  there  is  what  only  Hugo  and 
Flaubert  were  capable  of !  They  had  better  have 
added  good  taste  and  good  sense  ;  .  .  .  those  common 
qualities  can  indeed  contribute  to  a  book's  perfection  ; 
but,  by  themselves,  they  figure  poorly  enough."^ 


II 

"Never  has  humanity  received  such  a  slap  in  the 
face.  The  discreet  satire  and  hidden  laughter  of 
Madame  Bovary  and  VEducation  sentimentale  are  left 
far  behind.  It  is  no  longer  the  stupidity  of  one  society 
that  Flaubert  paints  in  order  to  revenge  himself  on  it, 
but  the  stupidity  of  the  world  .  .  .  vast  spectacle, 
unprecedented  picture  of  the  continual  fall  of  man  and 
his  religious  conceptions  into  the  unknown.  Even 
when  the  saint  returns  to  his  prayers,  this  action, 
following  upon  the  vision  of  a  world  void  of  gods,  seems 
like  an  added  irony  ;  he  bows  his  shoulders  by  force 
of  habit,  and  inspires  us  only  with  an  immense  pity. 
All  Gustave  Flaubert  is  in  that  :  ...  he  yields  to  a 
need  for  negation,  for  absolute  doubt,  condemning  all 
religions  in  the  same  degree.  .  ,  ."  ^ 

"  What  makes  the  poor,  gross,  ignorant,  cenobite 
Antony  all  at  once  a  sublime  figure,  the  very  image 
of  man  tempted  by  the  infinite  ?  It  is  faith.  The  very 
instant  that,  seized  by  the  devil,  he  raises  his  eyes  to 

'  Jules  Lemaitre,  Les  Contemporains,  vol.  i.  pp.  241  and  242. 
'  Emilc  Zola,  Les  Romanciers  naturalistcs,  pp.  158,  159. 


APPENDICES  287 

heaven,  he  becomes  a  saint,  and  thereafter  sees  Luxury 
and  Death,  the  Sphinx  and  the  Chimasra,  the  confused 
and  inferior  forms  of  primitive  materiaUsations,  and 
the  monads,  without  being  troubled.  In  the  centre  of 
every  atom  he  perceives  God.  The  temptation  has 
faded  away  in  the  unity  and  beauty  of  faith."  * 

III 

"  Keep  your  backgrounds  ;  they  are  perfect ;  but 
turn  them  to  account.  Add  a  mere  nothing  ;  put,  as 
in  Madame  Bovary,  a  flower  on  these  dunghills.  The 
good  and  the  beautiful,  like  evil  and  ugHness,  exist. 
You  will  know  how  to  paint  them  admirably  when 
you  want  to." ' 

"  In  the  master-work.  La  Tentation  de  saint  Antoine, 
beauty  and  truth  are  fused  .  .  .  penetrated  with  signi- 
ficance and  splendidly  decorated,  this  work  consigns 
in  one  last  effort  Flaubert's  whole  spiritual  and  mystic 
wealth  [to  us  his  heirs]."  3 

IV 

"The  traditional  perspective  in  which  Flaubert's 
work  is  still  regarded  must  be  reversed,  and  Madame 
Bovary  and  UEducation  sentimentale  thrown  into  the 
background :  they  are  nothing  but  two  satires  on 
middle-class  decadence,  and  should  remain  on  the 
outskirts  of  his  true  work.    Salammbo,  la  Tentation^ 

'  Camile  Mauclair,  L'Art  en  silence,  p.  58. 

'  E.  Renan,  last  paragraph  of  Lettre  h  M.  Gustave  Flaubert  sur 
la  "  Tentation  de  saint  Antoine"  :  Feuilles  detach^es,  p.  354,  1874. 
3  Emile  Hennequin,  Quelques  icrivains  franfais,  p.  20,  1890, 


2«8  ART   AND   LIFE 

Herodias,  are  the  pure  expression  of  what  he  wanted 
to  do.  But  his  true  subject,  the  ideal  subject  which 
hovered  above  all  his  labour,  is  the  East  considered  as 
the  source  of  all  life  and  of  all  beauty.''  * 

MM.  Mauclair  and  Zola  must  needs  draw  a  conclu- 
sion. Each  imposes  his  own.  Flaubert  carefully 
refrained  from  any. 

"  In  La  Teniation  de  saint  Antoine  .  .  .  ought  we  not 
to  see  before  all  else  the  artist's  exploitation  of  a  new 
vein  .  .  .  that  of  abstract  ideas,  which  also  belong  to 
the  realm  of  his  art  since  words  can  render  them  ?  .  .  . 
Without  troubling  about  their  intrinsic  worth,  he  copies 
them  because  they  exist.  .  .  ."» 


English  Appreciations 

"  I  find  I  have  no  time  for  reading  except  times  of 
fatigue,  when  I  wish  merely  to  relax  myself.  O — and 
I  read  over  again  for  this  purpose  Flaubert's  Tenta- 
tion  de  St.  Antoine;  it  struck  me  a  good  deal  at  first,  but 
this  second  time  it  has  fetched  me  immensely.  I  am 
but  just  done  with  it,  so  you  will  know  the  large  pro- 
portion of  salt  to  take  with  my  present  statement,  that 
it's  the  finest  thing  I  ever  read  !  Of  course,  it  isn't 
that,  it's  full  of  longueurs  and  is  not  quite  '  redd  up,'  as 
we  say  in  Scotland,  not  quite  articulated  ;  but  there  are 
splendid  things  in  it."  3 

»  Louis  Bertrand,  "  Flaubert  et  I'Afrique,"  Revue  de  Paris,  Jan. 
4,  1900,  p.  619. 

'  Jules  de  Gaultier,  Le  Bovatysme,  pp.  7,  8,  1892. 

?  Letters  of  R.  L.  Stevenson  to  his  Family  and  Friends,  1899, 
vol.  i,  p.  82  ;  to  Mrs.  Sitwell,  1874. 


APPENDICES  289 

"  He  could  be  frankly  noble  in  Salammho  and  Saint 
Antoine ;  whereas  in  Bovary  and  V Education  he  could 
be  but  suggestively,  but  insidiously,  so."  ^ 

"  This  Temptation  is  my  own  favourite  among  its 
author's  books." ' 

'  Henry  James,   Introduction   to    the   translation  of  "Madame 
Bovary"  p.  xxxi. 
'  G.  E.  B.  Saintsbury,  Essays  on  French  Novelists,  p.  364,  1891. 


APPENDIX   IX 
(See  pp.  55-62) 

"BOUVARD   ET   PeCUCHET" 

Contradiction  over  its  Style 

EVEN  the  style  of  Flaubert's  last  work  has  been 
sadly  called  "literary  Jansenism";'  it  "has 
neither  flesh  nor  blood  ;  nothing  remains  but  the  bone 
structure."  * 

"  The  amateur  of  style  will  not  deny  that  Bouvard  et 
Pecuchet  is  ...  a  poem  in  the  full  sense  of  the  word, 
a  poem  in  which  sonority  employed  by  way  of  contrast 
to  the  flatness  of  the  images  achieves  a  pecuHar  comic 
effect."  3 

'  Antoine  Albalat,  L'Art  cVecrire;  Ouvriers  et procedes,  p.  277. 

*  Antoine  Albalat,  Travail  du  style,  p.  69. 

3  Camille  Mauclair,  L'Art  en  silence,  pp.  59  and  60,  1901.  Unfortu- 
nately M.  Mauclaire  cites  as  an  example  a  sentence,  "  //  fiit  succes 
sivement  epris  d'une  demoiselle,"  &c.,  whereas,  on  p.  83,  the  text 
runs,  '^s'etant  tour  a  tour  epris  d'une  danseuse,"  &c.  It  is  strange 
indeed  that  this  study  should  have  been  reprinted  in  volume 
form  without  a  correction  of  such  paramount  importance  for  the 
theory  expounded.  However,  independent  readers  assure  me  that 
there  is  for  French  ears  occasionally  some  such  quality  in  the 
original. 

190 


APPENDICES  291 

Appreciations 

In  La  Tentaiion  "  the  cohort  of  religious  and  meta- 
physical systems  refute  one  another  by  the  simple  fact 
of  their  confrontation.  .  .  ." 

In  Bouvard  et  Peciichel  "  the  enterprise  appears  to 
us  more  rash,  inasmuch  as  it  tries  to  shake  a  belief 
of  which  the  effect  on  men's  minds  is  still  actual.  .  .  . 
Only  a  few  superior  spirits  escape  this  yoke  ;  for  the 
common  run  faith  in  science  is  absolute."  ^ 

"  Bouvard  et  Pecuchet  is  the  work  which  places 
Flaubert  among  the  gods  ;  if  he  had  never  written  that 
book  he  might  have  been  classified  as  a  writer  of  strong 
but  clumsy  romances  ;  a  man  of  great  genius,  but  some- 
how ineffective,  a  man  who  had  never  found  the  right 
form  in  which  to  deliver  his  message,  or  who  had  only 
found  it  in  the  form  of  three  short  stories  ;  but  this 
book  exactly  suits  his  pecuHar  temperament ;  ...  it  is  as 
individual  and  distinctive  as  Faust  is  of  Goethe,  Frederick 
the  Great  of  Carlyle,  Henry  IV.  of  Shakespeare,  Don 
Quixote  of  Cervantes,  Pantagruel  of  Rabelais.  .  .  .  One 
of  the  chief  merits  of  the  work  is  that  the  reader  has 
continually  to  exert  his  own  acuteness  in  order  to  see 
where  the  satire  is  bearing  ;  and  in  this  way  its  interest 
is  maintained.  .  .  .  Bouvard  not  unfrequently  says  ex- 
actly the  right  thing.  And  this  is  perhaps  an  additional 
stroke  of  satire,  that  the  right  thing  should  be  not 
infrequently  said  by  a  man  whom  the  ordinary  person 
writes  down  a  fool."  ^ 

"  Flaubert  is  our  Homer  as  much  as  our  Cervantes, — 

'  Jules  de  Gaultier,  Le  Bovarysme,  pp.  47,  49,  1902. 
'  J.  C.  Tarver,  Life  and  Letters  of  Gustave  Flaubert,  pp.  301,  358, 
1895. 


292  ART   AND   LIFE 

his  work  contains  so  much  reality,  poetry,  philosophy, 
and  such  demonstration  of  the  properties  of  manners." 

"  Those  of  Flaubert's  books  which  are  most  admired 
to-day,  la  Tentaiion  and  Salammbo,  though  a  dowry 
sufficient  to  crown  two  great  writers  with  glory,  are  the 
least  pure  and  the  least  beautiful.  .  .  .  What  are  the 
descriptions  of  Salammbo  with  their  long  cadenced 
periods  when  opposed  to  the  brief  indications  and  con- 
densations of  Bouvard  et  Pecuchet  f  That  book  can 
only  be  compared  to  Don  Quixote  and  amuses  us  as 
Cervantes'  novel  amused  the  seventeenth  century.  .  .  ." 

"  Madame  Bovary,  V Education  sentimentale,  Bouvard  et 
Pecuchet  must  be  read  consecutively.  Only  in  this  last 
book  is  the  work  consummate,  and  the  man's  genius 
appears  in  all  its  transparent  beauty."  * 

Parallel  Conclusions 

Guy  de  Maupassant  published  a  selection  of  the 
ineptitudes  which  had  been  collected  for  quotation  by 
Bouvard  and  Pecuchet.  Under  the  title  Insults  to  great 
men,  we  read  : — 

"  Posterity,  to  whom  Goethe  has  given  his  work  for 
judgment,  will  do  her  duty.  She  will  write  on  bronze 
tablets  : — 

"  '  Goethe,  born  at  Frankfort  in  1749,  died  at  Weimar 
in  1832,  great  writer,  great  poet,  great  artist.' 

"  And,  when  the  fanatics  of  form  for  form's  sake,  of  art 
for  art's  sake,  of  love  at  all  costs,  and  of  materialism, 
come  and  ask  her  to  add  : — 

"  *  Great  man,'  she  will  reply  :  '  No.'  "  ^ 

'  Remy  de  Gourmont,  Le  ProbUme  du  style,  pp.  99,  105,  1902. 
»  A.  Dumas  fils,  July  23,  1873. 


APPENDICES  293 

After  which  let  me  place  this  parallel : — 

Gustave  Flaubert  and  Gustave  Coiirhet 

"  I  consider  Madame  Bovary,  in  its  kind,  very  superior 
to  Casseurs  de  pierres ;  but  both  the  master  of  Croisset 
and  the  master  of  Ornans  were  of  the  same  order,  and 
rearranging  the  famous  line  of  de  Mussel's  : — 

'  Artists,  if  you  will,  but  great  men,  no  ! ' 

For  it  is  not  enough  to  make  a  great  man,  nor  above  all 
a  great  spirit,  to  have  produced  a  masterpiece,  two 
masterpieces,  three  masterpieces."  ^ 

Again,  under  the  same  title,  we  read  : — 

(Buonaparte)  "  is  indeed  a  great  winner  of  battles, 
but,  beyond  that,  the  least  of  generals  is  more  skilful 
than  he  was."  ' 

After  which  let  me  place  : — 

"  We  have  here  enough  to  humble  our  feeble  wisdoms  ; 
this  man  [Flaubert],  who  owned  the  secret  of  far-reach- 
ing words,  was  not  intelligent."  3 

Under  what  title,  with  what  peers,  would  Flaubert 
have  classed  the  following  ? — 

"  Evidently  Flaubert  drew  inspiration  for  la  Tenta- 
tion  from  a  picture  by  Breughel  seen  at  Geneva  {sic : 
Genoa  ?)  in  1845,  since  he  says  so,  but  much  more  from 
the  Second  Part  of  Faust,  which  made  a  profound  im- 

»  Ferdinand  Brunetiere,  Histoire  et  littirature,  vol.  ii.  p.  147. 
'  Chateaubriand,  De  Buonaparte  et  des  Bourbons. 
3  Anatole  France,  La  Vie  littdraire,  Serie  ill.  p.  299. 


294  ART   AND   LIFE 

pression  on  him,*  particularly  by  the  episode  entitled  a 
Classical  Walpurgis  night." ' 

The  only  mention  of  Goethe's  Faust  in  Souvenirs 
intimes  is  on  p.  xxxvii,  where  11.  384,  385,  391,  392,  409, 
and  410,  from  Nacht  in  the  First  Part  are  quoted.  I 
believe  no  reference  of  Flaubert's  to  the  Second  Part 
has  yet  been  published,  and  should  be  surprised  if  any 
exists  that  would  in  any  degree  lend  colour  to  M.  Faguet's 
statement :  characteristically  he  has  based  the  best  part 
of  a  chapter  on  the  supposed  reference  in  Souvenirs 
intimes. 

It  pained  Flaubert  to  set  off  "  stupidities  "  from  an 
author  whom  he  loved  like  Chateaubriand  :  may  I  be 
credited  with  similar  reluctance  in  the  choice  of  these 
parallels  ? 

'  Souvenirs  intimes  de  Caroline  Commanville  en  avant  propos  de 
la  Correspondance  de  Flaubert. 
"  Emile  Faguet,  Flaubert,  p.  55. 


APPENDIX  X 
(See  p.  63) 

Dramatic  and  Posthumous  Works 

THE  only  work  of  Flaubert's  which  does  not 
promise  me  increased  pleasure  when  read  again, 
is  Le  Candidal,  a  comedy  in  four  acts  given  at  the 
Paris  Vaudeville  in  1874,  and  withdrawn  by  the  author 
after  four  performances.  The  main  idea  is  genial,  but 
vivacity,  fun,  and  allusiveness  are  to  seek.  Flaubert's 
vein  in  comedy  was  poetical  or  extravagant,  and  not 
sober. 

Besides  Bouvard  et  Pecuchet  his  posthumous  works 
include  "  that  masterpiece  of  description  called  Par  les 
champs  et  par  les  greves."  ^ 

"...  This  narrative  of  a  tour  contains  pages  which 
can  be  classed  and  will  remain  among  the  greatest  and 
most  perfect  of  this  rare  writer."  ' 

"  It  is  the  first  thing  I  wrote  with  difficulty — painfully 
— laboriously  (I  don't  know  where  this  difficulty  in 
finding  the  right  word  will  stop,  I  am  not  inspired  as 
much  as  is  needed)  ;  but  I  am  altogether  with  you  as  to 

'  A.  Albalat,  Formation  du  style,  p.  126. 
•  A.  Sabatier,  Journal  de  Genhve,  Decembre  6,  1885. 
295 


296  ART   AND   LIFE 

the  jokes,  vulgarities,  &c.,  they  abound  ;  the  subject 
accounts  for  much  ;  think  what  it  means  to  write 
'  travels '  with  a  predetermination  to  tell  everything. 
.  .  .  You  don't  think  La  Bretagne  sufficiently  excep- 
tional to  be  shown  to  Gautier,  and  you  want  his  first 
impression  of  my  work  to  be  violent.  It  is  best  to  fore- 
go, you  remind  me,  to  be  proud.     Thank  you."  * 

Les  Memoires  d'un  fou^  an  autobiography  similar  to 
Rene  in  form,  written  when  he  was  eighteen  or  there- 
abouts, was  published  by  the  La  Revue  Blanche,  15 
Decembre,  1900 — i  Fevrier,  1901. 

La  Tentation  de  saint  Antoine,  versions  of  1849  and 
1854,  La  Revue  de  Paris,  February  15,  March  i,  March  15, 
April  I,  1908.  They  are  most  instructive  as  showing 
the  cost  at  which  the  immense  superiority  of  the  final 
version  was  attained. 

For  what  still  remains  unpublished,  see  E.  W. 
Fischer  {Etudes  sur  Flaubert  inedit,  Julius  Zeitler, 
Editeur,  76,  Dresdenerstrasse,  Leipzig,  1908),  and  Rene 
Descharmes,  Flaubert;  sa  vie,  son  caractere  et  ses  idees 
avant  1857  (A.  Ferroud,  127,  Boulevard  Saint-Germain, 
Paris,  1909),  founded  on  a  study  of  unpublished  papers 
and  MSS.  I  much  regret  that  this  book  did  not  appear 
in  time  for  mine  to  profit  by  the  fresh  information 
which  it  contains. 

Contradictions  over  the  Value  of  his  "  Correspondance " 

"Outside  his  books  .  .  .  Flaubert  interests  very  little  ; 
he  is  nothing  but  dregs."  " 

"  Has    Flaubert,  by  means  of  his   life   and   death 

'  Correspondance,  vol.  ii.  p.  87. 

'  Remy  de  Gourmont,  Le  ProbUme  du  style,  p.  107,  1902, 


APPENDICES  297 

struggle  with  style,  ever  written  anything  more  beautiful 
than  this  page  [Cor.  iii.  108],  which  all  of  a  sudden 
gushed  from  his  heart  ? " 

"  When  I  read  certain  pages  of  his  Correspondance,  I 
cannot  help  thinking  that  Flaubert  never  gave  his  full 
measure  in  his  works  "...  [than  these  letters]  "  I  do 
not  know  many  published  works  of  more  sap  and 
marrow,  more  exclusively  and  more  passionately 
literary."  * 

"  Greatness  always  astonishes.  That  of  the  vagaries 
which  Flaubert  heaped  up  in  his  letters  and  conversa- 
tions is  prodigious. 

**  On  hearing  him  pay  out  in  a  terrible  voice  inept 
aphorisms  and  obscure  theories  that  every  line  which 
he  had  written  rose  up  and  gave  the  lie  to,  one  said  to 
oneself,  stupefied  :  Behold,  the  scapegoat  of  romantic 
follies,  the  chosen  animal  in  whom  go  the  sins  of  the 
whole  tribe  of  geniuses."  * 

"  A  complete  code  might  be  extracted  from  his  cor- 
respondence, such  rules  as  a  writer  who  devotes 
himself  to  the  cult  of  that  which  has  sometimes  been 
called  Art  for  Art's  sake  ought  to  follow.  ...  If  now, 
gentlemen,  you  pass  from  Flaubert's  Correspondance, 
where,  on  almost  every  page,  his  ideas  are  expressed  in 
this  abstract  and  doctrinal  fashion,  to  the  work  over 
which  his  patient  and  relentless  labour  was  consumed, 
you  will  remark  at  once  that  his  books  are  nothing  but 
his  ideas  put  into  practice."  3 


»  Auguste  Sabatier,  Journal  de  Genhve,  Avril  26,  1891. 
»  Anatole  France,  La  Vie  litteraire,  vol.  iii.  pp.  302,  303,  1891. 
'  Paul  Bourget,  Gustave  Flaubert :  Studies  in  European  Literature 
being  the  Taylorian  Lectures,  1 889-1 899. 


298  ART    AND   LIFE 

Translation  of  passages  quoted  on  pp.  70  and  71 

"  Egypt !  Egypt  !  the  shoulders  of  thy  great  motion- 
less gods  are  white  with  bird  droppings,  and  the  wind 
which  scours  the  desert  trundles  the  cinders  of  thy 
dead ! "  ^ 

"  Light  from  shop-windows,  at  intervals,  lit  up  her  pale 
profile  ;  then  darkness  muffled  it  again  ;  and,  in  the 
thick  of  carriages,  of  the  crowd  and  noise,  they  passed 
on  undistracted  from  themselves,  hearing  nothing,  like 
those  who  walk  together  in  the  country  over  beds  of 
dead  leaves."  ^ 

"  Setting  out  again,  he  goes,  to  stir  the  dust  of  the 
ancient  world  with  his  feet  ;  to  sit  above  Thermopylae 
and  cry,  Leonidas  !  Leonidas  !  to  course  round  the 
tomb  of  Achilles,  seek  for  Lacedaemon,  strip  berries 
with  his  fingers  from  the  clusters  of  Karoub-trees  at 
Carthage,  and,  like  the  drowsy  shepherd  who  lifts  his 
head  at  the  sound  of  a  caravan,  all  those  great  land- 
scapes wake  up  when  he  passes  through  their  solitudes."3 

"  Undressed  and  in  bed,  they  chatted  some  time,  then 
fell  asleep,  Bouvard  on  his  back,  mouth  open,  bare- 
headed ;  Pecuchet  on  his  right  side,  his  knees  under 
his  chin,  rigged  out  in  a  cotton  night-cap  ;  and  both 
snored  under  the  moonlight  which  slanted  in  through 
the  windows."-* 

•  (Euvres  completes,  tome  v.  p.  194.         "  Ibid.,  tome  iv.  p.  338. 
3  Ibid.,  tome  vi.  p.  338.  *  Ibid.,  tome  vii.  p.  26. 


APPENDIX   XI 
(See  p.  79) 

Contradictions  over  Impersonal  Art 

Ferdinand  Brunetiere 

"Now  it  is  quite  certain — Flaubert  is  right  here — 
that  in  this  sense  and,  as  mathematicians  say,  other 
things  being  equal,  works  take  by  so  much  the  higher 
place  in  the  heaven  of  art  as  they  .  .  .  avoid  revealing 
what  manner  of  man  the  artist  was,  and  above  all  the 
history  of  his  Hfe  and  sentiments."  * 

Anatole  France 

"  Besides,  he  was  stark  mad  about  impersonal  art. 
He  said,  *  The  artist  should  take  such  measures  as  will 
make  posterity  think  he  has  never  lived  ! '  This  mania 
inspired  him  with  sorry  theories.  But  no  great  harm 
was  done.  It  is  all  very  fine  to  be  on  your  guard  ;  we 
have  no  news  to  tell  save  of  ourselves,  and  our  every 
work  speaks  of  nothing  else,  for  all  that  it  knows  is 
what  we  are.  Flaubert  cries  in  vain  that  he  is  absent 
from  his  work.  He  threw  himself  completely  armed 
into  it,  as  Decius  {sic :  Curtius  ?)  did  into  the  abyss."  ' 

'  Htstoire  et  litterature,  vol.  ii.  p.  137,  1884. 

'  Anatole  France,  Lcs  Idees  de  Gustave  Flaubert:  La  Vie  littiraire, 
Serie  iii.  p.  306,  1891. 

"99 


300  ART   AND   LIFE 

Antoine  Alhalat 

"  There  is  something  grand  about  conceiving  art  as 
an  objective  and  general  representation  .  .  .  the  study 
of  past  work  lends  authority  to  this  lofty  conclusion." 

The  most  "  beautiful  works  are  impersonal ;  the 
author  is  lost  sight  of  and  never  interferes — for  example, 
the  Gospels,  the  Odyssey,  the  Iliad^  the  Oresteia^  the 
tragedies  of  Shakespeare,  Don  Quixote — to  cite  only  the 
best.  Nature,  the  supreme  example  of  creation,  is 
there  to  prove  that  the  Creator  has  vanished  from  his 
work.  Why  should  art  have  an  end  in  view  since 
Nature  has  none  ? "  ' 


Auguste  Sahaiier 

"  His  theory  of  objective  art  was  false.  .  .  .  Never 
has  idea  held  closer  to  sensation  nor  the  brain  kept  in 
more  intimate  or  more  constant  relation  to  the  heart. 
His  works  sprang  no  less  from  his  vitals  for  being 
impersonal,  and  it  will  be  difficult  to  judge  them  well 
without  knowing  the  man  himself."  ' 

Jules  de  Gaultier 

"  The  pure  love  of  form  and  the  intentional  suppres- 
sion of  the  artist's  opinions  can  produce,  and  can  alone 
produce,  work  that  suggests  to  the  critical  spirit  quite 
new  moral  opinions,  quite  new  psychological  percep- 
tions." 3 

*  Ouvriers  etprocidds,  p.  244,  1896. 
■  Journal  de  Gendve,  Mai  8,  1887. 
3  Le  Bovarysnte,  p.  2,  1892. 


APPENDICES  301 

Remy  de  Gourmont 

"  As  though  a  great  writer,  as  though  a  man  of  strong 
excessive  domineering  extravagant  sensibility  could  be 
— what  ?  the  opposite  of  the  only  word  which  can 
define  him  !  .  .  .  mediocre  productions  are  alone  im- 
personal. .  .  .  Flaubert  incorporated  his  whole  sensi- 
bility in  his  works;  and  by  'sensibility'  I  understand 
here,  as  everywhere,  the  general  power  of  feeling,  such 
as  we  find  it  variously  developed  in  every  human 
being  .  .  .  reason  itself  is  only  crystallised  sensibility. 
.  .  .  Far  from  its  being  his  work  which  is  impersonal, 
the  roles  are  here  reversed  :  it  is  the  man  who  is  vague 
and  a  tissue  of  incoherences  ;  it  is  the  work  which 
lives,  breathes,  suffers,  and  smiles  nobly;  .  .  .  the  true 
interest  .  .  .  begins  when  a  personality  has  been  so 
disengaged  as  to  become  peerless."' 

Words  have  been  said  to  fit  like  gloves.  M.  Remy  de 
Gourmont  turns  them  inside  out ;  he  means  what  Flau- 
bert said,  only  the  seamy  side  is  not  so  neat.  In  the 
sense  which  MM.  France  and  Sabatier  were  pleased  to 
alone  consider,  "  the  perfect  writer  "  '  had  never  sup- 
posed that  books  could  be  impersonal. 

**  Every  work  of  art  contains  a  particular  element       v 
proper  to   the  artist's  personality,  which,  quite  apart       /^ 
from  the  execution,  seduces  or  irritates  us,"  3  he  says 
in  the  first  paragraph  of  the  only  literary  criticism 
which  he  ever  published. 

T  Le  Probldme  du  style,  pp.  106  and  107,  1092. 
»  Anatole  France,  Preface  to  Herodias,  1892. 
3  GLuvres  completes,  vol.  vi.  p.  157. 


APPENDIX  XII 
(See  p.  105) 

MANY  mare's  nests  have  arisen  round  restrictions 
Flaubert  is  supposed  to  have  formulated,  such  as 
that  in  regard  to  the  double  genitive ;  yet  the  de  Gon- 
courts  reporting  Gautier  on  ideas  of  Flaubert's  which  he 
confessedly  did  not  understand  have  no  indiscutable 
authority.^  The  phrase  instanced,  "  Une  couronne  dejleurs 
d^oranger^^  does  not  occur,  while  ^Ui'un  garfon  de  classe'' 
and  ^'d'une  quinzaine  d'annees"  are  found  in  the  first  fif- 
teen lines  of  Madame  Bovary^  a  proportion  by  no  means 
exceptional  for  that  or  any  other  French  classic.  Flau- 
bert, therefore,  could  not  have  been  in  despair  merely 
because  a  single  one  had  proved  unavoidable.  The 
modification  of  the  articles  according  to  gender  and 
number  makes  double  genitives  less  clogging  in  French 
than  they  would  be,  were  it  not  for  the  possessive  s' 
in  EngUsh,  just  as  the  diversity  of  sound  between  that, 
which,  and  who  mitigates  for  us  the  effect  of  neighbour 
relatives,  while  the  number  of  letters  in  those  words 
tends  to  annul  this  advantage.  Zola  as  ridiculously 
censures  the  frequent  but  modest  sound  of  the  con- 
junction et  by  false  analogy  with  the  obviously  objec- 
tionable que  and  qui.'  Critics  love  to  harp  on  these 
foolish  mysteries  because  they  have  never  examined  the 

'  journal  des  Goncourt,  tome  ii.  p.  14. 
'  Les  romanciers  naturalistes,  p.  215. 


APPENDICES  303 

facts.  M.  Albalat  has  ably  dissipated  another  wonder 
by  explaining  how  Flaubert  could  say  he  had  deter- 
mined the  fall  of  every  period  in  some  as  yet  unwritten 
pages.'  Long  passages  were  sketched  and  re-sketched 
in  advance,  while  the  closing  cadence  of  each  period 
must  first  be  chosen  before  the  effect  of  the  whole 
could  become  a  definite  goal  for  attainment.  As  a  map 
quickens  and  corrects  the  memory  of  an  old  explorer, 
so  these  skeleton  pages  enabled  Flaubert  to  recapture 
and  fulfil  his  inspiration.  The  approximate  notion 
which  most  men  prate  of  as  an  idea  was  for  him  but 
vague  rumour  or  prophecy  of  the  idea  which  would  only 
exist  when  words  it  was  equally  delightful  to  utter  and 
to  hear  brought  it  home  to  the  mind. 

Masterpieces  produced  intuitively  are  only  made 
human  by  our  recognition  of  their  value,  but  for  which 
a  madman's  ecstasy  would  be  their  exact  parallel. 
Flaubert  nursed  his  theme,  but  it  fed  itself,  thanks  to 
his  methods,  taking  from  his  and  adding  to  its  own 
life.  A  classic  continues  to  grow  at  large,  nourished 
by  the  strength  of  all  who  love,  admire,  quote,  or 
imitate  it,  till  its  significance  may  outstrip  even  the 
highest  flight  of  its  author's  hope  by  establishing  re- 
lations which  for  him  were  undreamable,  so  tardily 
was  Time's  revealing  hand  to  open.  This  fact  has 
vastly  amused  M.  Anatole  France,  but  perhaps  he 
might  just  as  well  have  laughed  with  the  other  side 
of  his  face ;  such  amusement  is  often  in  itself  funny. 
And  Virgil's  thought  may  have  been  more  truly  what 
his  admirers  imagine  than  it  was  that  seed  of  its  final 
significance  which  he  himself  could  have  described. 

'  Journal  des  Goncourt,  tome  ii.  p.  14. 


APPENDIX  XIII 
(See  p.  Ill) 

Parallels  between  Claude  Bernard  and  G. 
Flaubert  in  regard  to  the  Experimental 
Method 

"  "f  T  7"  H  Y  try  to  explain  incomprehensible  things  ? 
VV  To  explain  evil  by  original  sin  is  to  explain 
nothing  at  all.  Search  for  the  cause  is  anti-philosophic, 
anti-scientific;  and  therein  religions  displease  me  yet  more 
than  philosophies,  since  they  affirm  that  they  know  it. 
A  need  of  the  heart  is  it  ?  Well  and  good.  That  need 
is  respectable,  not  ephemeral  dogmas."  ' 

"The  nature  of  our  spirit  prompts  us  to  seek  the 
essence  or  the  why  of  things.  In  this  we  aim  further 
than  the  mark  which  it  is  given  us  to  attain ;  for  experi- 
ence soon  teaches  us  that  we  cannot  go  beyond  the 
how — that  is  to  say,  beyond  the  immediate  cause  or  the 
conditions  proper  to  the  existence  of  phenomena." ' 

"  At  first  sentiment,  overbearing  leason  single-handed, 
created  the  truths  of  faith — that  is  to  say,  theology. 
Reason  or  philosophy,  winning  the  mastery  later,  gave 

'  Corrcspondance  de  G.  Flaubert,  Serie  iii.  p.  281. 
»  Introduction  a  l' etude  de  la  mcdccine  experimentale,  p.  126. 
304 


APPENDICES  305 

birth  to  scholasticism.  At  last  experience — that  is  the 
study  of  natural  phenomena — taught  man  that  the  truths 
of  the  external  world  are  found  ready  formulated  neither 
in  sentiment  nor  in  reason."  ^ 

Closer  and  more  disinterested  examination  must 
necessarily,  then,  transform  both  sentiment  and  reason. 
Thus  art  will  have  fresh  and  better  material,  and  if  the 
creative  impulse  remains  as  strong  the  results  should  be 
correspondingly  grander. 

"  A  fine  book  might  be  written  on  the  literature 
which  aims  at  proving  ;  the  moment  that  you  prove^  you  lie. 
God  knows  man^s  beginning  and  end  ;  the  middle,  art,  like 
man  himself  in  space,  ought  to  remain  suspended  in 
infinity,  complete  in  itself,  independent  of  its  pro- 
ducer." » 

"  When  discussions  and  experiments  are  undertaken 
...  to  prove  a  preconceived  idea  at  all  costs,  tke  mind 
is  no  longer  free,  truth  is  no  longer  sought."  3 

"  Our  intelligence  is,  indeed,  so  limited,  that  we 
cannot  know  either  the  beginning  or  the  end  of  things ; 
but  we  can  grasp  the  middle — that  is  to  say,  all  that 
immediately  surrounds  us."^ 

"That  very  fashionable  phrase,  the  social  problem, 
is  repugnant  to  me.  The  day  on  which  it  shall  be 
solved  will  be  the  last  of  this  planet.  Life  is  an  eternal 
problem,  and  history  also  ;  everything  is."  s 

"  Certainly  we  shall  never  know  the  conditions  which 

'  Introduction  h  I'etude  de  la  medecine  experimentale,  p.  47. 

'  Correspondance  de  G.  Flaubert,  Serie  ii.  p.  76,  1852. 

3  Introduction  h  I'etude  de  la  medecine  experimentale,  p.  81. 

•»  Ibid.,  p.  63. 

s  Correspondance  de  G.  Flaubert,  Serie  iii.  p.  87,  1857. 

X 


306  ART   AND   LIFE 

absolutely  determine  the  existence  of  everything  ;  man 
could  no  longer  exist."  ^ 

"  That  is  the  beauty  of  the  natural  sciences :  they  do  not 
set  out  to  prove  anything :  and  look  what  stretches  of 
facts,  what  an  immensity  open  to  thought !  We  should 
treat  of  men  as  they  do  of  mastodons  and  crocodiles  ; 
are  they  angry  about  this  one's  horn  or  that  one's  jaw- 
bone ?  Show  them,  stuff  them,  pickle  them,  that  is 
enough,  but  judge  them,  no  :  who  are  you  yourself, 
little  frog  ? "  » 

"  In  teaching  man,  experimental  science  has  the  effect 
of  diminishing  his  pride,  by  proving  every  day  that  first 
causes,  as  well  as  the  objective  reality  of  things,  will 
always  be  hidden  from  him,  and  that  he  can  only  know 
some  inter-relations."  3 

"  You  complain  that  women  are  *  monotonous.'  The 
remedy  is  very  simple  ;  do  without  them.  *  Events  are 
not  varied.'  That  is  the  realist's  complaint ;  and  be- 
sides, what  do  you  know  ?  They  need  examining  more 
closely.  Have  you  ever  believed  in  the  existence  of 
things  ?  Is  not  everything  an  illusion  ?  Nothing  is 
true  save  'inter-relations' — that  is  to  say,  our  mode  of 
perceiving  objects.  *  Vices  are  petty,'  but  all  is  petty  ! 
'  There  are  not  enough  turns  of  phrase ! '  Seek,  you 
will  find."  4 

'*  Henceforth  truth  will  never  appear  to  man's  intelli- 

*  Introduction  a  I'etude  de  la  ntedecine  exf6rimentale,  p.  223. 
'  Correspondance  de  G.  Flaubert,  Serie  ii.  p.  197,  1853. 

3  Introduction  a  I'etude  de  la  medecine  experimentale,  p.  46. 

*  Correspondance  de  G.  Flaubert,  Serie  iv.  p.  302,  1878.  (By  this 
date  Flaubert  is  probably  quoting  from  Claude  Bernard.) 


APPENDICES  307 

gence  save  under  the  form  of  a  relation  or  an  absolute 
and  necessary  inter-relation." ' 

"  Neither  I  nor  anybody  knows  what  those  two  words 
mean,  soul  and  body — where  one  ends  or  the  other 
begins.  We  feel  forces,  that  is  all.  Materialism  and 
spiritualism  still  too  greatly  oppress  knowledge  about 
man  to  allow  of  the  impartial  study  of  phenomena."  * 

"  Once  the  search  for  the  conditions  which  determine 
phenomena  is  laid  down  as  a  fundamental  principle  of 
the  experimental  method,  there  is  no  longer  any  room 
for  materialism  or  spiritualism,  nor  for  matter,  animate 
or  inanimate  ;  there  are  only  phenomena,  the  condi- 
tions of  which — that  is  to  say,  the  circumstances  which 
in  relation  to  those  phenomena  play  the  part  of  im- 
mediate causes — must  be  determined."  3 

*  Introduction  h  I'itude  de  la  midecine  experimentale,  p.  48. 

'  Correspondance  de  G.  Flaubert,  Serie  iii.  p.  147,  1859. 

3  Introduction  a  I'etude  de  la  midecine  experimentale,  p.  348. 


INDEX 


Adam  (Paul),  53,  269,  284 
Adams  (John  Couch),  91 
^schylus,  44,  269 
Albalat  (Antoine),  28,  37,  107, 

121,  139,  168,  267,  290,  300 
Angelico  (Fra),  228 
Aristophanes,  44,  163 
Arnold  (Matthew),  32,  201,  275, 

276 


B 

Ballu  (Roger),  246 

Balzac  (Honore  de),  65 

Bar  bey    d'Aurevilly,    23,    271, 

272,  273 
Barry  (James),  228 
Barye  (Antoine  Louis),  245, 246, 

249 
Baudelaire  (Charles),  32,  276 
Bergerat  (Emile),  160 
Bernard  (Claude),  88,  90,  92, 

III,  112,  169,  304-307 
Berthelot  (Marcellin),  99,  100 


Bertrand  (Louis),  39,  50, 65,  288 
Bichat  (Marie  Frangois-Xavier), 

III 
Binyon  (Laurence),  100 
Bismarck  (S.  O.  Count  von),  252 
Blake  (William),  viii,  196-236, 

239-241,  251,  252,  259 
Blake  (Mrs.),  241,  251 
Boileau  Despreaux,  xo6, 130, 269 
Bosquet  (Amelie),  23 
Bossuet  (Jacques-Benigne),  269 
Bouilhet  (Louis),  9,  11,  12,  62, 

106,  133,  272 
Bourget  (Paul),  28,  37,  93,  98, 

151,  281,  297 
Bouvard  et  Pecuchet,  12,  27,  55- 

62,  7i»  153.  160,  179,  190, 

290-292,  295 
Breughel  (Peter  the  elder),  293 
Browning  (Robert),  26 
Brunetiere  (Ferdinand),  43,  52, 

98,  140,  145,  268,  269,  278, 

279,  282,  285,  293,  299 
Buff  on    (Jean    Louis    Leclerc, 

Comte  de),  107,  125,  146, 

212,  269 


309 


3IO 


ART   AND  LIFE 


Bunyan  (John),  241 
Byron,  6, 121,  122,  148,  209 


Cabanis  (Pierre  Jean  George), 

III 
Calvert  (Edward),  199,  222,  230 
Cambyses,  176 
Campbell  (Norman),  90,  91 
Candidal  {le),  12,  295 
Carlyle  (Thomas),  291 
Cervantes,  31,  156,  158,  291,  292 
Chartres  (J.  S.),  278 
Chateaubriand,  61,  70,  293 
Chateau  des  coeurs  {le),  62,  63 
Chaucer  (Geoffrey),  213,  215 
Coleridge  (Samuel  Taylor),  199 
Coleridge  (Hartley),  215 
Colet  (Mme.  Louise),  8,  9,  98, 

189,  272 
Collins  (William),  199 
Commanville  (Ernest),  11, 12 
Comte  (Auguste),  269 
Corneille  (Pierre),  160,  184 
Courbet  (Gustave),  293 
Cowper  (William),  199 
Crabb  Robinson  (Henry),  207, 

209,  210,  224 
Curtius,  299 


Dante,  21, 130,  215,  229,  269 
Daudet  (Alphonse),  30 
Decius,  299 


Delacroix  (Eugene),  245 
Descartes  (Rene),  202 
Descharmes  (Rene),  296 
Dreyfus  (Alfred),  38 
Du  Camp  (Maxime),  8,  9,  246 
Dumas  (fils),  292 
Dumesnil  (Rene),  22,  82,  iii, 
126,  139,  162-168,  177 


Education  sentimentale  (/'),  11, 

27.  41-47.  53>  72,  73.  125, 
282-284,  286,  287,  292 

Eliot  (George),  271 

Ellis  (Edwin  ].),  206 

Emerson  (Ralph  Waldo),  184 

Epictetus,  252 

Eucrates,  151 

Ezekiel,  204,  205 


Faguet  (Emile),  29,  38,  267,  269, 

274,  278,  279,  282,  285 
Fenelon  (Francois  de  Salignac 

de  la  Mothe),  107 
Fischer  (E.  W.),  296 
Flaubert  (Gustave),  viii,  2-196, 
212-215,  231-233,  239-242, 
245-252 
his  brother,  4,  163 
his  father,  4,  164,  165 
his  friends,  10,  11,  15 


INDEX 


511 


Flaubert  (Gustave),  his  letters, 
20,  23,  27,  34,  35,  40,  58, 
59,78-83,85,86,89,95,97- 
99,  loi,  105,  108,  109,  113, 
114,  n6,  120,  123,  126,  128, 
129,  132,  134-136,  138,  139, 
142,  145,  148,  149,  154, 159, 
166,  170, 174, 177, 178,  180- 
186,  1 88-191,  232,  274,  294, 

,h:     296,  297,  304-307 

his  mother,  9,  10,  12 

his  niece,  7,  10,  11,  48 

his  sister,  4,  7 

his   unpublished   works,  62, 

295 
Flaxman  (John),  199 
Fontenelle  (Bernard  le  Bouyer 

de),  86 
France  (Anatole),  25,  28,  29,  37, 

54,  97,   98,   loi,  102,  135, 

266,  269,  280,  293,  297,  299, 

3oi>  303 
Frank  (Felix),  23,  271 
Fuseli  (Henry),i99,  228 


Gaultier  (Jules  de),  57, 160, 161, 

284,  288,  291,  300 
Gauthiez  (Pierre),  27,  270 
Gautier  (Theophile),  10,  37 
Gilchrist  (Alexander),  213,  214, 

215 
Giotto,  226 
Goethe  (Wolfgang  von),  v,  10, 

21,  37.  47.  63,  65,  86,  93, 


107,  136,  155,  218,  234,  244, 

248,  256,  259,  269,  272,  291, 

292,  293,  294 
Goncourt  (Jules  et  Edmond  de), 

8,10,  11,30,36,48,59,  133, 

280,  302,  303 
Gourmont  (Remy  de),  27,  57, 

283,  292,  296,  301 
Gray  (Thomas),  199,  227 

H 

Heliogabalus,  180 
Hennequin  (Emile),  23,  27,  28 

41,  283,  287 
Homer,  37, 40,  86,  iii,  118, 124 

155.  163,  179,  180,  291 
Horace,  118,  157 
Hugo  (Victor),  41,  46,  121,  130, 

155,  156,  286 
Huxley  (Thomas),  64 

J 

James  (Henry),  43, 140,  283,  289 
Jesus,  47,  49,  52, 142, 143,  204 

K 

Kassner  (Dr.  Rudolf),  235 
Keats  Gohn),  31,  65,  94,  135 
Kock  (Paul  de),  23 


La  Bruyere  (Jean  de),  106,  107, 
157,  213,  269 


312 


ART   AND   LIFE 


La  Fontaine  (Jean  de),  34,  116, 

130*  215 
La  Harpe  (Jean  Francois  de),  20 
Lamb  (Charles),  199 
Lanson  (G.),  112,  139,  151,  152, 

168 
Laujol  (Henry),  loi,  270,  273 
Lauvriere  (Emile),  22,  279,  283 
Lawrence  (Sir   Thomas),   199, 

228 
Leconte  de  Lisle,  156,  159 
Lee  (?),  62 
Lemaitre  (Jules),  24,  34,  43,  45, 

63,  271,  276,  286 
Le  Poittevin  (Alfred),  5,  6,  7,  8 
Leverrier  (Urbain  Jean  Joseph), 

91 

Levy-Bruhl  (L.),  58,  268 
Lima  (the  lady  from),  7 
Linnell  (John),  199,  230 
Littre  (E.),  269 
Lucretius,  269 

M 
Madame    Bovary,    9,    22,    24, 
25.  27,  30-34,  40,  71,  117, 
124-127,  139,  183,  232,  266, 
275,  276,  279,  280,  286,  287, 
292,  293,  302 
Marcus  Aurelius,  252 
Marlowe  (Christopher),  181 
Mathilde  (la  princesse),  11 
Mauclair    (Camille),    140,  271, 

272,  287,  288,  290 
Maupassant  (Guy  de),   27,  30, 
54,  153,  189,  241,  292 


Mimoires  dun  fou,  6,  164,  239, 

296 
Michael    Angelo,   36,  38,   143, 

154,  155.  158,  163,  219,  221, 

226,  231 
Michelet  (Jules),  86,  269 
Mignot  (le  pere),  5 
Milton  Gohn),  30, 34, 47,  63,  64, 

94,  181,  207 
Mohere,  31,  143,  154,  156,  158, 

184 
Montaigne  (Michel  de),  58,  60, 

87,  106,  120,  121,  122,  174, 

267,  269 
Montegut  (Emile),  31,  34 
Montesquieu    (Charles  de   Se- 

condat,  Baron  de  la  Brede 

et  de),  107,  150,  269 
Mozart    (Wolfgang    Gottlieb), 

160 

N 
Napoleon  IIL,  30,  56 
Nero,  179,  180 


O 

Osmoy  (Charles  d'),  10,  62 


Palante  (G.),  161 
Palmer  (Samuel),  222,  230 
Pascal  (Blaise),  17 
Pater  (Walter),  96 
Paulhan  (Fr.),  80 


INDEX 


313 


Pezard  (Maurice),  35,  36 
Piero  dei  Franceschi,  228 
Pinard  (E.),  275 
Plato,  34 
Plutarch,  180 
Prevost  (Abbe),  17 
Proudhon  (Pierre  Joseph),  269 
Puvis  de  Chavannes,  222,  228, 
24s 


Rabelais,  6,  44,  120,  154,  155, 

156,  193,  291 
Racine  (Jean),  149 
Raleigh  (Walter),  205 
Raphael,  221 
Rembrandt,  158,  160,  231 
Renan  (Ernest),  10,  27,  30,  50, 

50.  51.  S3,  86,  97,  99,  119, 

120,  141,  163,  170,  250,  269, 

287 
Romney  (George),  199 
Rousseau  (Jean  Jacques),  121 
Rubens,  155,  158,  220 
Russell  (A.  G.  B.),  226,  228 


Sabatier  (Auguste),  26,  28,  52, 
56,  57.  58,  123,  140,  141, 
295.  297,  300 

Sade  (Marquis  de),  179 

Sainte-Beuve  (C.-A.),  lo,  11,  20, 
32,  119,  269,  277,  279 

Saint- Hilaire  (Geoffroy),  165 


Saintsbury  (G.   E.  B.),  27,  38, 

289 
Salammbo,  10,  27,  35-41,  53,  72, 

125,  277-281,  287,  292 
Sand  (George),  2,  11,  12,  13,  27, 

32,  39,  65,  129, 187 
Scherer  (Edmond),  28 
Schopenhauer  (Arthur),  269 
Schwob  (Marcel),  53 
Shakespeare  (Wilham),  21,  30, 

34,  38,  44,  63,  86,  III,  120, 

154,  155,  156,  160,  163,  196, 

268,  269,  279,  291 
Sophocles,  268 
Spinoza  (Benedict),  190,  269 
Spronck  (Maurice),  28, 266,  273, 

276 
Stanley  (H.  M.),  27,  277 
Stevens  (Alfred),  245 
Stevenson  (Robert  Louis),  27* 

34,  275,  288 
Stothard  (Thomas),  224 
Swift  (Jonathan),  76 
Swinburne  (Algernon  C),  38 
Symons  (Arthur),  207,  209,  210, 

215,  2;8 


Taine  (Henri),  10,  20,  37,  132, 

166 
Tarver  (J.  C),  27,  57,  291 
Tentation  de  saint  Antoine  {la), 

7,  12,  27,  30,  47-55,  58,  73, 

94,  125,  149,  161,  162,  285- 

289,  291 


314 


Thiers  (Louis  Adolphe),  269 
Titian,  220,  234 
Tourgueneff  (Ivan),  12,  129 
Trois  contes  {les),  13,  27,  52-55, 

74 
Trouville    (lady    of),     6,     15 ; 
Mayor  of),  no 


ART   AND   LIFE 

Voltaire,  174,  195,  209,  269 


Veronese  (Paul),  143 

Villiers  de    I'lsle  Adam,    271, 

273 
Virgil,  65,  124,  222,  303 


W 

Wagner  (Richard),  63 
Watts  (G.  F.),  227,  245 
Weininger  (Otto),  36 
Wilde  (Oscar),  90 
William  of  Orange,  186 
Wordsworth  (William),  65, 150, 
199,  209,  215,  231 


Zola  (Emile),  27,  30,  286,  288 


Ube  (Bresbam  press, 

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SON. 

IN  MEMORIAM. 

THE  PRINCESS. 


MAUD. 


21 


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29 


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CASTING  OF   NET.S. 
DONNA  DIANA. 

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SWORD. 


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CHEAP  JACK  ZITA. 

KITTY   ALONE. 

URITH. 

THE  BROOM  SQUIRE. 

IN  THE  ROAR   OF   THE  SEA. 

NOEMI. 

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Messrs.  Methuen's  Catalogue 

Glelg  ;Chaples).    BUNTER'S  CRUISE. 


ARM  I  NELL. 

}!L.\DYS  OF   THE  STEWPONEY. 

Barr  (Robert}.    JENNIE  BAXTER. 
IN  THE  MIDST  OF  ALARMS. 
THE   COUNTESS   TEKI..\. 
THE  MUTABLE  MANY. 

Benson  (E.  F.).    DODO. 
THE  VINTAGE. 

Bronte  (Charlotte).    SHIRLEY. 

Bpownell   (C.   L.).     THE    HEART    OF 
JAPAN. 

Burton  (J.  Bloundelle}.    ACROSS    THE 
SALT  SEAS. 

Caffyn   (Mrs.).    ANNE  MAULEVERER. 

THE     LAKE     OF 


Capes    (Bernard). 
WINE. 

Clifford   'Mrs.  W.   K.). 

SUMMER. 
MRS.   KEITH'S  CRIME. 


A  FLASH  OF 


Corbett    (Juliani      A 
GREAT  WATERS. 


Croker  (Mrs.  B-  M.) 

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JOHANNA. 


BUSINESS     IN 
ANGEU 


THE    DIVINE 
ROUND  THE  RED 


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COMEDY  (Gary). 

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LAMP. 


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OF   CONSOLATION. 

THOSE  DELIGHTFUL  AMERICANS. 

Eliot    (George).    THE  MILL  ON  THE 
FLOSS. 

GREEN 


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Gallon  (Tom).    RICKERBVS  FOLLY. 

Gaskell  (Mrs.).    CRANFORD. 
MARY   BARTON. 
NORTH  AND  SOUTH. 

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MONY. 
THE  CONQUEST  OF  LONDON. 
MADE  OF  MONEY. 

Gissing  ;g.).  the  town  traveller. 

THE  CROWN  OF  LIFE. 

Glanville    (Ernest).     THE    INCA'S 
TREASURE. 

THE  KLOOF  BRIDE. 


Grimm     (The    Brothers). 
FAIRY  TALES. 


GRIMM'S 


Hope  Anthony  .    A  MAN  OF  MARK. 

A  CHANGE  OF  AIR. 

THE    CHRONICLES    OF    COUNT 

ANTONIO. 
PHROSO. 
THE  DOLLY  DIALOGUES. 


Hornung  (R.  W.). 
NO  TALES. 


DEAD  MEN  TELL 


Ingraham  U.  H.).    THE  THRONE  OF 
DAVID. 

Le    Queux    (W.i.     THE    HUNCHBACK 
OF  WESTMINSTER. 

Levett- Yeats  (S.  K.).    THE  TRAITORS 

WAV. 
ORRAIN. 

Linton    (E.    Lynn\     THE  TRUE    HIS- 
TORY OF  JOSHUA  DAVIDSON. 

Lyall  (Edna).    DERRICK  VAUGHAN. 

Malet  (Lucas).    THE  CARISSIM.4. 
A  COUNSEL  OF  PERFECTION. 

Mann    (Mrs.    M.    E.).      MRS.    PETER 

HOWARD. 
A  LOST  EST.\TE. 
THE  CEDAR  STAR. 
ONE  ANOTHER'S  BURDENS. 
THE  PATTEN  EXPERIMENT. 
A  WINTER'S  TALE. 


Marchmont  (A.  W,). 

LEY'S  SECRET. 
A  MOMENT'S  ERROR. 


MISER   HOAD- 


PETER  SIMPLE. 


Marryat  (Captain). 

JACOB   FAITHFUL. 

March  i  Richard.  A  METAMORPHOSIS. 

THE  TWICKENHAM  PEERAGE. 

THE  GODDESS. 

THE  JOSS. 

Mason  (A.  E.  W.).    CLEMENTINA. 

Mathers  (Helen\    HONEY. 

GRIFF  OF  GRIFFITHSCOURT. 

SAM'S  SWEETHEART. 

THE  FERRYMAN. 

Meade  (Mrs.  L.  T.).    DRIFT. 

Miller  .Esther.  .LIVING  LIE.S. 

Mitford  (Bertram).  THE  SIGN  OF  THE 

SPIDER. 

i  Montresor  ,F.  F.).    THE  ALIEN 


Fiction 


Morrison    :Arthur\     THE    HOLE    IX 
THE  WALL. 

Nesblt  (E.).    THE  RED  HOUSE. 

Norris  (W.  E.].    HIS  GRACE. 
GILES  INGILBY. 
THE  CREDIT  OF  THE  COUNTY. 
LORD  LEONARD  THE  LUCKLESS. 
MATTHEW  AUSTEN. 
CLARISSA  FURIOSA. 

Ollphant  (MPS.).    THE  LADY'S  WALK. 
SIR  ROBERT'S  FORTUNE. 
THE  PRODIGALS. 
THE  TWO  MARYS. 

Oppenheim  [E.  P.).    MASTER  OF  MEN. 

Parker  (Gllberti.    THE  POMP  OF  THE 

LAVILETTES. 
WHEN  VALMOND  CAME  TO  PONTIAC. 
THE  TRAIL  OF  THE  SWORD. 

Pemberton    (Max).    THE   FOOTSTEPS 

OF  A  THRONE. 
I  CROWN  THEE  KING. 

PhiUpotts  (Eden;.    THE  HUMAN  BOY. 
CHILDREN  OF  THE  MIST. 
THE  POACHER'S  WIFE. 
THE  RIVER. 

'Q'    (A.    T.    Quiller    Couch}.     THE 

WHITE  WOLF. 

Ridge  ;W.  Pett;.  A  SON  OF  THE  STATE. 

LOST  PROPERTY. 

GEORGE  and  THE  GENERAL, 


ERB. 

Russell  (W.  Clark'.    ABANDONED. 
A  MARRIAGE  AT  SEA. 
MY  DANISH  SWEETHEART. 
HIS  ISLAND  PRINCESS. 

Sergeant  (Adeline).    THE  MASTER  OF 

BEECHWOOD. 
RALBARA'S  MONEY. 
THE  YELLOW  DIAMOND. 
THE  LOVE  THAT  OVERCAME. 

Sldgwlck   (Mrs.   Alfred).    THE    KINS- 
MAN. 

Surtees  (R.  S.).    HANDLEY  CROSS. 
MR.  SPONGE'S  SPORTING  TOUR. 
ASK  MAMMA. 

Walford  (Mrs.  L.  B.).    51 R.  SMITH. 

COUSINS. 

THE  BABY'S  GRANDMOTHER. 

TROUBLESOME  DAUGHTERS. 

Wallace  (General  Lew).    BEN-IIUR. 
THE  FAIR  GOD. 

Watson  (H.  B.'Marrlott).    THE  ADVEN- 
TURERS. 

*CAPTAIN  FORTUNE. 

Weekes  (A.  B.}.    PRISONERS  OF  WAR. 

Wells  (H.  C).    THE  SEA  LADY. 

White  (Percy).    A   PASSIONATE   PIL- 
GRIM. 


PRINTED  BY  WILLIAM  CLOWES  AND  SONS,  LIMITED,  LONDON  AND   BECCLES. 


t^-^^^tr-^l 


Unlwr^o<  C'SKSy  facility 
"°  —  which  It  was  bornweo^