Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924027240484 Cornell University Library PN 4500.N87 Essa 3 1924 027 240 484 The Essay CLARK SUTHERLAND jSIORTHUP. Ph.D., Assistant Professor of the English . Language and Literature in ConieD'Universily (S«If-bitnic(i« Uidcr Expert Gd^aec) CHICAGO CojjyrlBht, 1910, LA SALLE EXTENSION UNIVBRSITT. THE ESSAY. BY CLARK S. NORTHUP. , , This lecture discusses? What the essay is; how the essay has grown up; the chief, ,kinds_ of essays; what an essay ojight to be; how to study the essay. In the^ appendix are given selections from well-known essayists. What It Is. , -i In this lecture we are to: study a form of prose litera- ture about Vliicli comparatiyely little has been written, but which exists in our language in IsCrge and increasing quantities. It is, moreoyer, so useftil and interesting that we shall find it well worth pur while to study this form and see what are its chief varieties and qualities. What is an essay? When the question is asked, we be- gin to think of various things: the "essays" we had tO write at school, perhaps on "A bay at the County Fair," or "The Life of Napoleon"; and the essays of Bacon, Macaulay or Emerson. Now all these* are widely different in subject- matter, scope, and quality, which suggests that thqterm itself has a wide.meaning. How has tie word "essay" ac- quired this variety of; senses? , Its etymology will help us to a starting-point. It comes through the French from the Latin word "ex^gi- um," which means "a weighing, trial, test, inquiry into something." It is the same word in a diffei^ent form as "assay," "a testing of metals,", and is closely related to the word "examination," which goes back to the Latin "exag-men," having the same root but a different ending.^ The word has the general sense, then, of "an attempt, a trial." And this is exactly what our earliest English es- says were. Bacon in his "Essays," was accustomed to weigh the pros and cons of qualities of character or motives of conduct. -To these short series of reflections he gave the 4 CLARK S. NORTHUP name "essays"; the word, he said (in his dedication to Prince Henry), was new, but the thing was ancient. Aftei^ Bacon's time the term came to be applied to any short composition, even if it was only a narrative, and oc- casionally to longer and more formal works, in which the wi-iters modestly disclaimed the purpose, of treating their subject exhaustively, as, for example, Locke's "Essay on the Conduct of the Human Understandiiig," and Warton's , "Essay on the Genius and Writings of Pope," which fills two volumes. Johnson regarded the essay as "a loose sally of the mind; an irregular, indigested piece; not a regular and orderly composition." Tcfday the word is much more widely used, probably, than it should be- A treatise, some- times called a monograph, should not be called an essay; it differs from the essay in being a complete, comprehen- sive and Orderly treatment of a subject in all its branches. A tract as well as a tractate may be either an essay or a treatise; it is a little^ more likely to be the former than the latter. Milton's famous "Tractate on Edijcation," however, is riather an essay, though a somewhat lengthy one. ■*In strictness we ought to apply the word "essay" to a shoi*t meditation *br series of observations on" any subject, the diiief characteristic being not so much scientific method and completehess as an inclination to wander at will through such phases of thd subject as are interesting at the moment The essayist is often!' willing to reveal his personality; he may be jEamiliar and intiinate; he may seem anxious only that our mood shall chime with his own. He ha,s something to say— this is important; yet with him the iSubject is not so important as his method of approaching it, of dealing with it, of departing from it, leaving us in a mood like that which we experience after a satisfying talk with a friend. I have said that the essay may be written on any subject; the prime requisite is that it shall be in- teresting to the writer, so that hei shall write on it with THE ESSAY 5 spoiitaneity and* zest; there must be no forcing, no impres- ^sion that the writer feels it is all a bore, anyhow. Subject only to this restrietion, the essay may deal with any topic under the wide heavens — ^from the immortality of the soul to the rheumatism in your left shoulder, as Miss Yirgiaia Stephen puts it. We may criticize a book, or tell a reminis- cence, or muse on the objects seen on a walk; we may attack the deepest problems of existence or moralize on the weaknesses of ants; if we merely express our vie^s in an easy, not painfully methodical, fashion, we shall pre- slunably be writing an essay. Ybu must not get from these remarks the impression that any piece of prose that cannot be called anything else must hence be an essay. The essay is a distinct and defi- nite species of literature. The fact that it may be on any subject and the other fact that it should not be too syste- matic or exhaustive do not require us to suppose that it has no laws, no regularity of structure. It is scarcely a formless thing; and it is not easy to write. Indeed there are critics who affirm that just because of the slightness of the limitations imposed upon the writer, the essay is the most difficult of forms to write. It must be artistically done; there must be no seams, no revealing of' artifice; it must be simple, unaffected and genuine. Since the art which conceals art is the most difficult of all to achieve, the essay requires for its most perfect fonn a large mind, understanding itself, in syinpathy with the world, and in- clined to be "^sociable." Mere loquacity will not make a good essay; mere eagerness to impart facts will likewise be insufficient. There must be behind the words and the facts the humane man or woman. lEven the relatively im- personal critical essay which has grown up in the last eeiitury (and which we shall study later) is not free from this fundamental requisite. 6 CLARK S. NORTHUP How the Essay Has Grrown TJp. It is commonly said that the essay begins with Mon- taigne and Bacon; this, however, is a mistake. The essay, at least in its incipient forms, can be found in the literature of ancient Greece and Rome. In the shorter writings of Xenophon, for example, on housekeieping, on tyranny and on hunting, and in the easy, rambling yet constantly varied ahd effective dialogues of Plato, we have the essential qual- ities of the essay. Theophrastus, in his "Characters," in which he shrewdly dissects general faults, deals with the natural history of morals and reminds us of the simple, unadorned style of Bacon- Plutarch wrote essays on a great variety of subjects — the restraint of wealth, indis- cretion, false, shame, the desire for wealth, self-praise which does not offend, progress in virtue, the cessation of oracles, precepts on marriage. A man of enormously wide reading, his work perhaps suffered from too little medita- tion on his part; he wrote as he might 'have, tajked, and great talkers do not always have time to stop and- think. Lucian wrote what are virtually iiewspapef essays more than fifteen hundred years before they are supposed to have had their birth in the brains of Addison and Steele. He continued the Platonic dialogue-essay in his celebrated "Dialogues of the Bead," "Necromancy," "Dialogues of the Gods," "The Assembly of the Gods," "Zeus as a Trage- d^ian," and so on — lively, brilliant, satirical, often ironical, yet always informed with a moral purpose. TWo, centuries earlier, in his charming studies of old age and friendship ("Cato Major" and "Laelius"), the Roman Cicero had written longer essays of enduring worth. The nine books of letters of Pliay the Younger are full of the quality of true essays and reveal an interesting personality. Con- temporary with Lucian was Aulus Gellius, who has our gratitude for his diligence in stringing together in dia- logue-essay form a mass of extracts and quotations from THE ESSAY 7 previous writers on literature, law, philosopliy and natural history, with comments, to which he gave the title "Attic , Mghts." We pass over the long thousand years of the Age of Faith, in which men Were too seriously engaged in dis- cussing the dogmas of faith or expounding the theories of science to engage in the lighter employment of writing essays. The keen wit of Erasmus found expression in his "Familiar Colloquies," published at Basel in 1524, in which a brilliant mind plays over many of the foibles of men, scourges the vices, and in the words of Chaucer "sounds always toward virtue." His deep purpose, does not pre- vent him from indulging in many a laugh at the' super- stitions and absurdities of his time. His dialogues are in the spirit of Lucian. Some of his conceits are quaint in the extreme. A colloquy against those Christians who do not practice what they preach is called "Cyclops, or The Gospel-Carrier." Toward the end Cannius asks the Cyclops how people gather that the world is so near •> an end, and Polyphemus replies : "Because, they say, people are now doing just as they did before the Flood; they are eating and drinking, mar- rjdng and giving in marriage;- they are lascivious, they buy, they sell, they pawn and lend upon tisury, and build; kings make war, and priests study to increase their reve- nues, schoolmen make syllogisms, monks run up and down the world; the rabble makes inobs, and Erasmus writes colloquies; and in, fine, no miseries are wanting, hunger, thirst, robberies, hostilities, plagues, seditions; and there is a great scarcity of all that is good: and do not all these things argue that the' world is near an end?" Other colloquies are "The Profane Feast," in which he ridicules the superstition that lays too much stress on fasts and the choice of meats, at the same time talking of the whole management of a feast, temperance, vegetarian- ism, and the like; "The Notable Liar"; "The Apparition," 8 CLARK S. NORTHUP in wMch the wiles of impostors are exposed and credulity is ridiculed; "The Religious Pilgrimage," in which he cen- sures those who are mad upon going on pilgrimages under pretence of performing a religious duty; "The School- master's Admonitions," teaching a boy proper manners; and "The Notable Art," in which it is shown that there is no royal road to learning. Erasmus was one of the great teachers g of the THE ESSAY 13 club; of tlie Spectator's visit to Sir Roger's estate at Coy- erley, and of Sir Roger's experiences in London; of visipils, allegories and dreams; of Milton's poetry, " Chevy Chase," and the Bible; of town talk, dress, food, table manners, vulgar wealth, servants and a hundred other topics. What is said never palls on us; it is scarcely less fresh today than when first brought into the breaMast-robm on the morning after publication. . From Addison and Steele we must pass on to elephan*' tine old Samuel Johnson and his "Rambler," modisled'; after "The Spectator." Like Addison, the Rambler -vVas a pi-eacher, perhaps too much so; and his moral disquisi- tions in measured phrases and sentences were far removed from the easy and urbane comment of Addison; they con- tained, nevertheless, much sound sense and practical wis- dom. Johnson was, of course, a much greater talker than he was a writer; and "The Rambler" and "Thie Idler" live today chiefly by the reflected interest which we have in them because of the spirited conversation reported by Bos" well in his immortal biography. Of the other periodicals of the eighteenth century, most were failures. Among the number, however, I must not fail to mention Groldsmith's "Citizen of the World," which in its ease and kindly sympathy, its careful and graphic por- traiture, and its humorous satire on the foibles of his fel- low-men, comes nearest to the work of Addison and Steele of all the essays of the eighteenth century. When we come to the nineteenth century, we find re- markable developments of all varieties of the esSay. The name that comes first to our notice, of course, is that of Chalrles Lamb, whose "Essays of Elia," contributed to "The London Magazine" between 1820 and 1822, continue to be the delight of many readers. They are full of' quips and cranks, of lively sallies and apostrophes, but are chief- ly characterized by an undercurrent of tender melancholy, an "unobtrusive pathos," which arises partly from the 14 GLABK S. NORTHUP tragic circumstances of Lamb's life. Drawing inspiration from Elizabethan and Stuart wells, Lamb gives Us many a reminiscence of Fuller and Burton and tbe old drama- tists. In his hands the personal essay becomes a subtle in- strument on which he plays in various moods and produces varying effects — ^mostly inimitable. Highly amusing as is Mrs. Battle, for whom whist was the divine game, none the less pathetic is the reverie on "Dream Children"; none the less subtle is the charm of "Detached Thoughts on Books and Reading." The essays of Leigh Hunt, a genuine man of letters, are scarcely original in the highest sense of embodying fresh creations aind reveal little imagination; yet they are mark- ed by delight in the world of .beauty, and by a desire to see men happy. "He is a lounger," says Mr. Symons, "in the gardens of literature; a plucker of fruits from the trees of Unf alien Edens." He writes of pleasant subjects, mainly of books and nature, in a graceful and charming, slightly archaic style. i Contemporary with Lamb and Hunt and less emotional and more modern and critical than either, was William Haz- litt, whose *6ssays are marked by sound substance, good sense and taste, and a manly and attractive style. His en- thusiasm f o;r literature was great, and his best essays deal with literary subjects. Between 1820 and 1830 he contrib- uted to "The Exaniiner" and other papers a large number of essays, of which it has been well said that they still stand unrivaled as a stimulating introduction to the study of lit- erature. They suggest striking points of view; their ex- position is lucid ahd souhd; their criticism is generally just.- Dr. Garnett, after praising the critical powers of Hazlitt, says'of his essays: **As an essayist, he is even more effect- ive than as a critic, for his style of composition allows more scope to the striking' individuality of his character. Being enabled to select his own subjects, he escapes dependence upon others either for his manner or his illustrations, and THEilSSAY 15 presents himself by; turns as a metaphysiciaii, a moralist, a hiimorist, a pain,ter of manners and characteristics, but always, whatever his ostensible theme, deriving the essence of his commentary from his own bosom. This combination of intense subjectivity with strict adherence to his subject ip one of ISazlitt's most distinctive and creditable traits. Intellectual truthfulness is a passion with him. He steeps his topic in the hues of his own individuality, but never uses it as a means of self -display." The tradition of the largely personal essay as exempli- fied in the work of these men has been carried on by many later writers, among the most distinguished of whom., per- haps, are Dickens, in some of the "Sketches by Boz," Thackeray, in "The Book of Snobs" and "Roundabout' Papers," Sir Arthur Helps, in "Friends in Council," An- drew Lang, Charles Whibley, Gilbert K. Chesterton, Au- gustine BirreU, Stevenson, in "Virginibus Puerisque," and Arthur C. Benson. In the last century, moreover, we find the essay enter- ing more largely thaii ever before into the service of crit- icism. Occasionally Addison and Steele and Johnson had introduced into their periodicals short critidal essays ; these, however, had formed only a part of the variety Of matter there presented. The founding of "The Edinburgh Re- view" in 1802 and of "The Quarterly Review" in 1807 made possible the development of a new kind of essay, an extended critical discourse of a somewhat more formal and impersonal type, frequently exhibiting hi^ literary finish. Ostensibly this discourse was in the form of a book review; the real aim of the writer, however, was to pre- sent his own views of the subject. Of the essays of this newer type, conspicuous masters were Jeffrey, Carlyle, Macaulay, Hazlitt, De Quincey, Lockhart, Sydney Smith, Lord Brougham and Matthew Arnold. To these men we can hardly give the attention that their work deserves. Jeffrey was the filrst editor of "The Edin- 16 CLARK S. NORTHUP fetil'gll Beview," and for twenty-six years^ directed the pol- icy of what s;^eedily became the most influential critical orgian in Great Britain. In substance Jeffrey had nothing especially new to say, and he was on the whole rather nar- row and primly pedantic. Time played havoc with some of his critical utterances^ notably that on Wordswoxth. He possessed, however, sound sense, a certain readiness and aittness in illustration, and an easy, fluent style. Carlyle began writing critical essays when he was about twenty- five, and achieved a considerable; reputation in this field before he began to compose his longer and more ambitiouis Vorfes. He wrote much on Grerman literature, to which he ^as one bf the fitst to bring the attention of. the British public. Never a logical thinker, Carlyle possessed wonder- ful insight, marvelous powers of imagination, and a style, which, though repellent to Some, must be considered effec- tive in a high degree. Sis four volumes of "Critical and' Miscfeillaneous Essays" contain much just and valuable criticism. The essays of Macaulay, most of which were contributed to "The Edinbttrgh Review" between 1825 and 1844, became immtosely popular, and still retain a Strong hold on the gfeat public. Macaulay was a very Wide reader, and possessed a powerful memory and the |act|lty of making constant use of his immense stores of learning. He Was. always cock-sure. and dogmatic| he had a too great fondness for antithesis, and a heightened man- ner of putting things, which sometimes, as in his essay on Bacon, resnlted in giving a misleading impression; but his stj^le* was attractive, and his impressive confidence in him- self removed for many of his readers the necessity of think- ing for themselves. Here, too, must be mentioned De Quin- cey, that strange medley of triviality, intellectual curiosity, subtle reasoning, and majestic eloquence. A voluminous writer. of criticism, history, political studies, biography and prose-poetry, he will be longest remembered by those flights of imagination whieh*are embodied in his more per- THE ESSAY 17 sonal essays; for even "The Confessions of an Opium-Eat- er" may be regarded as only a series of essays. He is one of the most stimulating of writers and one of tli'e most care- ful. "Ah, reader!" he remarks, "I would the gods had made thee rhythmical, that thou mightest comprehend the thousandth part of my labours in the evasion of cacoph- ony." Bead the "Confessions," the sketches of J^sffaK and Bentley, "The Eevolt of the Tartars," the papers on "Rhetoric" and "Style," the daring and amusing "Murf- der Considered as One of the Ene Arts," "Joan of Ar^," "The English Mail Coach," and "Levana and Our Ladies of Sorrow," and you cannot fail to be powerfully impressed by the variety of his talents, the great value of his criti- cism, and the sweep and the splendor of his eloquence; in these things De Quincey stands among the greatest of his time. Matthew Arnold wrpte two series of "Essays in Criticism," which rauk high among his works, as well as several other essays under various titles* His "Dis- courses in America," which are virtually essays, was the book by which he desired to be remembered. His works conibine careful literary finish witji careful and clear thought and soimd discrimination. His reputation as a critic has in late years increased. In our own country the essay has long been a vigorous and popular form of literature, which not even the novel and the short story have driven from the field. Irving, in his "Salmagundi" and "The Sketch Book," contipuecl the Addisonian tradition— that of easy, and graceful com- ments on life and manners, not too deeply charged with, thought, yet d^istinctly worth reading for .what ihey con- tain as well as for the manner in which the author speaks. Irving 's reflections on John Bull and his attitude toward America and on our attitude tow;ard England did much •to restore friendly feelings to the tT^o countries after the bitterness of two wars. Nathaniel Parker Willis wrote two interesting and popular series of essays, "Pencillings 18 CLARK S. NORTHUP by the Way" and "Letters from Under a Bridge"; of these many are still worth reading. It is said, that between 1840 and 1850 Willis, was the best paid writer in America. Our greatest American essayist, of course, is Emerson. He has in an eminent degree the qualities necessary for the essayist — love of meditation, discursiveness, kindli- ness. The two volumes of liis "Essays" contain a wealth of reflections on many topics. Likie Wordsworth, Emer- son felt, the impulse toward Nature strong within him, and wrote of Nature in all her moods. He was also greatly interested in the world of men. He took a deep interest in the affairs of his village, and liked to study men in the concrete. "Character," he says, "is nature in the high- est form." All the things of ordinary life interested hitni politics, manners, gifts, experience, art, the gres^t virtues, love, friendship, heroism, self-reliance, prudence. It has been a Common saying that Emerson's style is hard to fol^ low. He himself felt the dif&cidty of writing coherently, and complained that his sentences were "infinitely repel- lent particles." Yet clarity was the virtue he most prized in a writer; and he strove hard, and not altogether with- out success, to make himself clear. As a matter of fact his "Essays" are for the most part easily analyzed; and ' his reputation for an obscure and difficult style is partly undeserved. On the other hand, the dignity, the calm majesty with which his expression moves, rising at times to the exalted plane of prose-poetry, are qualities which render his prose of- great intrinsic excellence. Of the large number of other essayists who have adorned American letters, I shall mention only two or three. Thoreau was pre-eminently a prose-poet of Nature. He writes of man in contact with Nature; he lets us see how Nature affected himself. He is the first of a long line of nature-lovers who have! employe^ 4Se essay to convey .the message of revivifying Nature to jaded humanity. James Eussell Lowell was one of our greatest American THE ESSAY 19 critics. His tEree passions, it has been well said, wete books, patriotism and ISTature; he looked upbn all things with the eyes of a rather bookish professor. His work, nevertheless, shows great versatility. "Aristocratic,'' says Mr, Bailey, "in the best sense pf that much abused t^rm, cultured in manner, robust ^nd vigorous in thought, clean a,nd fresk in mind, LoWeU still stands forth as America's finest representative man of letters." Holmes had in marked degree the temperament of the essayist. In his ,'■ Autocrat of tlie Breakfast Table," which willlong en- dure, we have wisdom and liumor blended With a genial and hopefuT philosophy of life. Finally, George William Curtis, from his Easy Chair in "Harper'^ Magazine," for nearly forty years made use 'of the essay form for utter- ances which not only entertained two generations of read- ers but al^o did much to free America from provincialism arid to introduce higher and nobler ideals of the art of Uving. Two 6r three volumes of these essays have been made; they deserve to stand on the shelf with "The Spec- tator" and "The Citizen of the World."; The Chief Kinds of Essays. It is of course impossible to classify the vast number of essays in our literature according to any hard and fast lines. As we have seen, the essayist may write about any subject; a classification by subjects, then, would mean lit- tle. It may be said, however, that probably the ma,jority of the essays of today deal with literary, historical, philo- sophical or nature subjects. Writers on science generally deal more exhaustively with thdr subjects, though in the field of what is often called "popular science" there have been many good essays written, for example by Huxley and Tyndall. Essays cannot be classed as narratives, des- criptions, expositions or arguments, since they may con- tain any or all of these kinds of writing at the same time. '.. 20 CLARK S. KORTHUP Perhaps the most significaat classification that can he made is that of personal and di dac tic essays. In the per- sonal essay, the^vxTler is largely concerned with himself, revealing his own likings and dislikings, his moods and temperament. Thus Hazlitt begins his essay "On Going a Journey" with these words: "One of the pleasantest things in the world is going a journey; but I like* to go by myself." The essay is a record of the things the author likes in connection' with journeying, and of some of his pleasant experiences in travel. Abraham Cowley wrote a very ejitertaining essay "Of Myself." Goldsmith begins "The Man in Black" as follows: "Though fond of my ac- quaintances, I desire an intimacy only with a few* The Man,in Black, whom I have often mentioned, is one whose friendship I could wish to acqtiire, because he possesses my esteem, ' ' etc. Montaigne wrote personal essays almost altogether; so did Lamb, Hunt, Holmes and Stevenson. Benson and Crothers are today writing essays of this sort. In the other type of essay, the didactic, the writer is primarily interested in imparting facts or opinions ; he is giving information (didactic, from a Greek word, means "teaching"), and is indifferent about his own moods; or he is endeavoring to lead his readers to adopt certain views or courses of action. Of this class are the essays of Bacon, Johnson, Jeffrey, Macaulay, Carlyle, Emerson and Tho- reau. The essays of Addison and Steele were largely of this kind. Of our second division, the didactic essay, various sub- divisions may be distinguished. The editoriaL article — ^in England called a "leader" — is a discussion of some topic on which the editor or the editorial ma,nagement undertakes to speak with something like expei't authority, backed by the weight and prestige of the periodical itself. The editorial article may vary in length from one to several paragraphs, and in tone may be playful or serious, optimistic or censorious; but almost THE ESSAY 21 always it has the aim of influencing the opinion of readers, and it is invariably unsigned and impersonal. The great metropolitan newspapers of the type of ''The Evening Post," "The Sun," and "The Tribune" among dailies and •'' "The Independent" and *' The Outlook" among weeklies, in every issue print editorial articles written by the ablest members of their staffs of editors or contributors. In. the last century and a half has grown up the doctrine of edi- torial impeccability — which means that the editor can make no mistakes; how widely this doctrine is accepted oatside of the' newspaper b^fices themselves, however, it would be interesting to know. Another variety of the didactic essay is the book re- view, of which in turn there are several kinds. The re- view may be simply an estimate of the merits and faults of the book; or it may be an exposition of the author's views, or an expansion or condensation of certain parts of the book; or it may be an independent presentation of the reviewer's own opinions on the subject. Such are the longer articles published in "The Edinburgh" and "Quar- terly Reviews." Hazlitt's review of "The "Wanderer," by Madame D'Arblay, in "The Edinburgh Eeview" for February, 1815, was a sketch of the history of novel-writ- ing from "Don Quixote" to "Waverly." Croker'sS edition of Boswell's "Life of Johnson," published in 1'831, was reviewed by both Macaulay in "The Edinburgh Review" and Oarlyle in "Eraser's Magazine." Each writer pre- sented his personal views both of Bos well and of Johnson. Carlyle, for instance, devotes ten paragraphs to review- ing the qualities of Oroker's editorial work; nine para- graphs to Boswell, his character, his devotion to Johnson, and his skill as a biographer; nine paragraphs to the ''Life of Johnson" itself; and the rest of his essay — some sixty- three paragraphs — ^to Johnson himself and his times., In this part Carlyle expounds the significance of Johnson's life, without reference to either Boswell or Croker. 22 CLARK S. NORTHUP What an Essay Ought to Be. Let us now consider some of the qualities that are found in the best essays. The first quality is one that we shall agree is essential in all good writing — ^namely, unity. The essayist must be content to deal with one subject at a time and to keep that subject before his reader. He may work in allusions and quotations from the ends of the earth, but they must be pertinent. He may ramble and digress in the most informal fashion; but must not forget to return to the theme with which he started, and his digression must contrivfe in some way to carry forward the discussion. Obviously, too, as in all good writing, there must be what we call coherence. The passage from one sentence to another and from one paragraph to another must be easy and natural. The relationship between consecutive ideais must not be tea fanciful. At-the same time it must be remembered that the esSay is more commonly a chain of suggestions, or maxims, or detached observations, than a chain of closely connected links of reasoning; hence the connection between consecutive sentences or paragraphs , will not always seem so close as in some other fornis of literature. This is true, for. example, of the "Characters" of Thdophrastus, of La Bruyere, and of Overbury. In "Sartor Eesartus," Teufelsdroeckh's autobiography, which, it will be remembered, was sent by Herr Heusch- recke to the British editor, proved to be a miscellaneous collection in six paper bags, inside of which lay "miscel- laneous masses of Sheets, and of tener Shreds and Snips, written in Professor Teufelsdroeckh's scarce legible "cur- * siv-schrift"; and treating of all imaginable things under the Zodiac and^above it, but of his own personal history only at rare intervals, and then in the most enigmatic man- ner." Teufelsdroeckh is a true essayist. Another quality possessed by the ideal essay is move- ment, which gives us the sense of being carried sjieadiljr; THE ESSAY 23 forward, 'notwithstanding apparent digressions. Back- ward eddies of thought there may be, but emerging from them we should find ourselves measurably«further along in "the consideration of our subject. This onward move- ment need not be climatic — the word "cluhax" implies a certain heightening and intensifying of mood which some 'regard- as foreign to the true essay; but it should be noni6 the less evident as the reader continues. In the personal essay the conversational tone is of fim- damental hnportance. The atmosphere is always that of talk between equals. "The essayist," says Mr. Zabriskie, "is the man who chats. He is the club man of literature,, standing at the club-house window and making his com- ments on the life that passes., He takes down a book from the shelves and talks about it to Ihe group that gathers around him. Or he sits by the fire and tells unreservedly what he knows and thinks, and, in doing so, what he is." I As illustrating this I cannot forbear quoting a paragraph from an essay by Curtis entitled "At the Opera in 1864." The opera is "Faust." The essayist, sitting by our side, is talking to us about the audience: ;;j "Or, if you choose to lift youj" eyes, you see that woman with the sweet, fair face, composed, not sad, turned with placid interest towards the loves of Grretehen and Faust. She sees the eager delight of the meeting; -she hears the ardent v'ow; she feels the rapture of the embrace. With placid interest she watches all — she, and the sedate hus- band by her side. And yet when her eyes wander it is to see a man in the parquette below her on the other side, who, between the acts, rises with the rest and surveys the house, and, looks at her as at all the others. At this dis- tance you cannot say if any softer color steals into that placid face; you cannot tell if his survey lingers longer upon her than upon the rest. Yet she was Gretchen once, and he was Faust. There is no moonlight romance, no gairden ecstasy, poorly feigned upon the stage, that is not 24 CLARK S. NOBTHUP burned witli eternal fire into tteir memories. Night after night they come. They do not especially like this music. They are not infatuated with these singers. They have seats for the season; she with her husband, he in the or- chestra chairs. She has a pleasant home and sweet chil- dren and a kind mate, and is not unhappy. He is at ease in his fortunes, and content. They do not come here that they may see each other. They meet elsewhere as all ac- quaintances meet. They cherish np morbid repining, no sentimental regret. But every night therie is an opera, and the theme of every Opera is love; and once, ah! once, she was Gretchen and he was Faust. "Do you see? These are three out of the three thous- and. There is nothing to distinguish them from the rest. Look at them all, and reflect that all have their history; and that it is known, as this one is known, to some other old Easy Chair, sitting in the parquette and spying round the house. 'All the world's a stage, and men and women merely players.' "Is it quite so? Are ;these players? The young pale general there, the placid woman, the man in the orchestra stall, have they been playing only? There are scars upon that young soldier's body; in the most secret drawer of that woman's chamber there is a dry, . scentless flower; the man in the orchestra stalL could show yon a tress of golden hair. If they are players, v|;^ho is in earnest?" In the didactic essay the conversational tone may or may not be present; in the best of such essays it is often to be found. In Bacon, of course, it is conspicuously ab- sent; Macaulay has little of it; in Emerson and Garlyle it is very mUch in evidence. It is often said that brevity is a quality of the essay; and this is in general true. There are no essays known to me that one cannot read at a sitting; they may vary from a single paragraph to fifty or sixty pages. Montaigne's 107 essays average about six thousa,nd words each. Ba- THE ESSAY 25 con's average aboiit 825 words eacli. The forty-seven es- siays of Carlyle average a little over forty pages each. Likewise, the essay is genei'ally informal and uncon- ventional in tone. The writer may proceed by an ievideht plan, or he may not. Some plan, however, he must hav6, even if he conceals it in the writing. He may write an introduction, or he may plunge at once into the heart of the subject. He may conclude in a leisurely fashion. Or he may stop abruptly at the point where he is sure of leav- ing the right impression on his reader. Short essays often lack both introduction and conclusion. Longer essays, es- pecially of the didactic sort, are rarely without them. The esfig,yist may adopt the form of letters, as Hazlitt occasion- ally did and as do Mr. Lang and Mr. Benson. He may use dialogue, as did Lucian and Erasmns and Sir Thomas Strachey and Ctirtig. He may even adopt the dramatic paonologue, in which the speaker talks both for himself and an imaginary interlocutor, as Mrs. Caudle does in her celebrated curtain-lectures. He may use the editorial "we" or the personal "I". He may' be playful or grave in tone; like the Spectator and the Ramblef and the Easy Chair, he will usually be reflective in substance and' ef- fect. ' Knally, most essajys are full of allusions and quota- tions. Many of our great essayists have been inveterate collectors of proverbs, quotations, "bons mots," and the like, and have unloaded these into their essays. Hazlitt, for example, in "On Groing a, Journey," quotes from Cob- bett, Pope, iterate, Johnson, Coleridge and Etheredge, be- sides referring to Lamb, "Paul and Virginia," Pannie Burney's "Camilla," and "^^ The New Elpise," and Gribel- in's engravings and Westall's drawings, and introduces at least eight quotations of verse.' Stevenson heads "An Apology for Idlers" with a quotation from Bos well and alludes to Alexander and Diogenes, Macauky; Johnson at Oxford, Tennyson's "Lady of Shalott," the law of kinetic 26 CLARE S. NORTHUP stability, Dickens, Balzac, Mr. Worldly Wiseman, in "THe Pilgrim's Progress," the Mood, the French Eevolution, Thackeray's "Newcomes," Barabbas, Hazlitt, Shakes- peare and Sir Thomas Lncy, and Pharaoh and the Israel- ites. Burton's "Anatomy of Melancholy" has been called "one mass and mosaic of anecdote, refejence, and quota- tion." < . How to Study the Essay. After we have considered the essay from these various points of view, historical and analytical, a suggestion on how to study the essay may seem almost superfluous. It may be Well, howeyer, to bring together here in conven- ient form some hipts as to how to make profitable studies of the essay as literature; and it will be best, perhaps, to put these hints into the form of questions.* Structure. 1. What is the purpose or object of the author? Is it merely to entertain, or to teach or communicate facts in an orderly manner, or to give a view of a certain aspect of life, or to criticize a book or other work? 2. Under what conditions does he write? Is his work part of a general discussion of a subject, or wholly de- tached and independent? Does he write apparently after having mastered the subject, or is he merely clearing the ground by setting down preliminary observations? ^3. ¥ov whom is he writing?/ Does he explicitly say wtom he addresses ? What is his attitude toward hi^ audi- ence? Does he reveal his personality freely? Does he talk about himself too much? Or is he reticent and im- personal? ' 4. What kind or kinds of writing does he chiefly pre- sent: — ^narrative, description, exposition or argument? *Many valuable details concerning such studies are to be found in "Studies in Struciure and Style" by William T. Brewster (Macmillan, 1896), to which. I am indebted for some suggestions here. THE ESSAY 27 5. If' narrative, is it history^ biography or fiction? Does he write as an eye-witness or a partisan? ^6. If description, wliat is his point of view? What chief niethods of description does he employ? Do you get a clear general impression of the object he describes? 7. If exposition, what methods do6s he employ? (The three chief methods are to tell what the subject is, what it is not, and what if is like.) Do yon understand him? 8. If argumentation, does he convince you? Does his chain of reasoning seem firm and conclusive? a,. 9. Is the essay divisible into introduction, body and conclusion? 10. What does the author do in the introduction? Does he lay out any plan. Or suggest any points of ^de- parture? Or does he seek merely to arouse yoUf inter- est? 11. What are the chief points that he makes in the body of the essay? How closely are they related? 12. Und^r the individual heads, does the author pro- ceed from details or particulars to a conclusion, or from general statements to particulars? 13. Is the conclusion of the summarizing type, or is it merely intended to leave a certain impression on your mind? 14. Have th6 paragraphs unity; that is, do they each refer to a single idea? ' 15. Are the various ideas properly connected? How are the transitions from point to point generally made? Does the author pass naturally and easily from one point to another? A paragraph in which this is true is said to possess coherence. ' 16. Are the main ideas properly emphasized, so that they stand out clearly and unencumbered by minor de- tails?- 17. By reason of what qualities does_the essay appeal to you? Why do you like or dislike it? 28 CLARK S. NORTHUP Style. . 18> Wliat general impression does the style of the es- say make on you? Is it easy or hard to read? Are there mannerisms or affectations % 19. How does the style harmonize With the apparent purpose of the author? Is it in any way indicative of his personality? Is it conversational? 20. Does he use the right word in the right place? Does he use good English of the present day? Is he collo- quial or formal? Do any of his expressions- seem to you trite or hackneyed ? 21. Does he ever, use words drawn from the vocabu- lary of poetry? , , 22. What kinds of sentences does he prefer — ^long or short, loose or periodic, statements or questions ? 23. To what extent does he msike use of quotations and allusions? Does his style appear to have been affect- ed by reading any book, as the Bible? 24. To what extent does he address the reader direct- ly? How often does he speak of himself? 25. Does he repeat himself? If so, is his thought pre- sented more clearly as a result? Summary. Let us now catch up the scattered threads of this study and see what we have gleaned. We have seen that the^ word "essay" means "an attempt, or trial"; that Bacon applied it to a short meditation in which he weighed two sides of a question; that it has come to mean an informal , discussion of any subject, in which the writer does not hesitate at will to reveal his own personality and in which" he manifests a humane and sympathetic attitude toward life. The essay has its real beginnings in ancient G-reeee and Eome. The Middle Ages produced na specimens of it. THE ESSAY 29 ErasiMos' "Colloquies" were virtually essays. Montaigne produced the fullest type, Witli Bacon begins the history of the essay in English; his essays were not so much famil- iar talks with readers as contributions toward a handbook of practical wisdom. In the prose of Overbury, Temple, Collier, Dryden and others, the; seventeenth century ad- vanced the development of the essay appreciably, paving the Way for the demand for and appeal of the pieriodical essays of Steele, Addison, Swift, Johnson and Goldsmith, wliich inake the eighteenth century notable in our litera- ture. In tjie nineteenth century the essay has a highly personal note in Lamb, Hunt, Thackeray, Lang, Birrell and Stevenson; and a less personal and more criticalnote in Jeffrey^ Carlyle, Macaulay and Matthew Arnold, In America the type has been variously exemplified and de-' veloped jn the work of Irving, Willis, Emerson, Thoreau, L6well, Holmes and Curtis. Essays may be cliassified as personal, in which the au- thor reveals much of himself, and didactic,. in which the writer is chiefly occupied with imparting his views On some subject in jtself important. The didactic essay includes the editorial article or leader, which is the official utter- ance of an editor; and the book review, which is a criticism of a book, often connected with an exposition of the writ- er's independent views on the subject dealt with in the book. The essay should possess unity (one general idea should predominate) ; coherence (the passing from one part to another should be easy and natural) ; movement (a steady current of thought, moving steadily ahead); the familiar tone of conversation; brevity, as a rule, though this is not indispensable; and an informal and unconventional tone. Its value and interest are often enhanced by allusions and quotations which stimulate the mind of the reader, . The essay is most profitably studied with reference (a) to matter (the purpose of the writer, conditions under 30 CLARK S. NORTHUP < •wMcli lie writes, his audience, the methods he employs, the points he makes), and (b) to- style (the impression made by the essay, the right and appropriate use of word?, the usiB of allusions and quotations.) ~ APPENDIX GF STUDIES. Studies serye for delight, for ornanient, and for ability. Their chief use for delight is in privateness and retiring; for ornament, is in discourse; and for ability, is in the judgment and disposition of business. , For expert men can execute, and perhaps judge of particulars,' one by one; but the general counsels, and the plots and marshalling of aif airs, come best from those that are learned. To spend too much time in studies is sloth"; to use them too much for orna- ment, is affectation; to make judgment wholly by their rules, is the humor of a scholar. They perfect nature, and are perfected by experience : for natural abilities are like natural plants, that need proyning [cultivating], by study; and studies -themselves do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience. Crafty men contemn studies, simple men adrnire them, and wise men use them; for they, teach not their own use; but that is a wisdopi without them, and above them, won by observation. Read not to con- tradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor tq find talk' and discourse; but to weigh and consider. Some hooks are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested ; that, is, some books are to -be read only in parts; others to be read, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention. Some books also may be read by deputy, and extracts made of them by others ; but that would be only in the less important arguments, and the meaner sort of books; else dis- tilled books are like common distilled waters, flashy things. Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact- man. And there- fore, if a man write little, he had need have a great memory; if he con- fer little, Jie had need have a present wit: and if he read little, he had need have much cunning, to seem to , know that he doth not. ^ His- tories make men wise; poets witty; the mathematics subtile; natural philosophy deep; moral grave; logic and rhetoric able to contertd. Abefnt studio in mores [studies go into and influence manners]. ,Nay, there is no stond or impediment in the wit but may be wrought out by fit studies; like as diseases of' the body may have appropriate exercises. Bowling is good for the stone and reins [kid- neys] ; shooting for the Jungs and breast; gentle walking for the stomach; riding for the head; and the like. So if a man's wit be wandering, let him study the mathematics; for in demonstrations, if his wit be called away never so little, he must begin again. If his wit be not apt to distinguish or find differences, let hirti study the Schoolmen ; for they are cymini j^c/orw [splitters of hairs]. If he be not apt to beat over . matters, and to call up one thing to prove and illustrate another, let him study the lawyers' cases. So every defect of the mind may have a special receipt. — ^francis bacon: Essays, 1635. SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY. The first of our society is a gentleman of Worcestershire, of ancient descent, a baronet, his name Sir Roger de Coverley. His great-grandfather was inventor of that famous country-dance which is called after him. All who know that shire are very well acquainted with the parts and merits of Sir Roger. He is a gentleman that is very singular in his behaviour, but his singularities pro- ceed from his good sense, and are contradictions tb the manners of the world 31 32 CLARK S. NORTHUP only as he thinks the world is in the wrong. However, this humour creates him no enemies, for he does nothing with sourness or obstinacy ; and his being un- > confined to modes and forms makes him but the readier and more capable to please and oblige all who know him. When he is iij town, he lives in Soho' Square. It is said he keeps himself a bachelor by reason he was crossed in love by a perverse beavftiful widow of the next county to hini. Before this dis- appointment, Sir Rbger was what you call a fine gentleman, had often supped with my Lord Rochester and Sir George Etheredge, fought a duel upon his first coming to town, and kicked Bully Dawson in a public; coffee-house for calling him "youngster." But being ill used by the above mentioned widow, he was very serious fof a year and a half; and though, his temper being naturally jovial, he at last got over it, he grew careless of himself, and never dressed after'ii'ards. He continues to wear a coat and doublet of the same cut that were in fashion at the time of his repulse, which, in his merry humours, he tells US, has beei; in and out twelve times since he first wore it. He is now in his fifty-sixth year, cheerful, gay and hearty; keeps a good house both in town and country; a great lover of mankind; but there is, such a mirthful cast in his behaviour, that he is rather beloved than esteeriied. His tenants grow rich, his servants look satisfied, all the young women profess to love hiair and the young men are glad of his cortipany: when he comes into a house he calls the servants by their names, and talks all the way up stairs to a visit. I must not omit that Sir Roger is a justice of the quorum; that he fills the chair at a quaiter-Se'Ssion with great abilities; and, three months ago, gained universal applause by explaining a passage in the Game Act. — sir richard Steele: from l^he Spectator, No. 8, March 3, 1711. THE SICK CHAMBER. From' the crowded theatre to the sick chamber, from the 'noise, the glare, the keen delight, to the lonelineS^, the darkness, the dullness and thei pain there is but one step. A breath of air, an overhanging cloud, effects it ; and though tl'e transition is made in an instant, it, seems as if it would last forever. A sudden ilhiess not only puts a stop to the career of our triumphs and agreeable sensations, but blot? out all recollection of and desire for them. We lose the, relish of enjoyment; we are effectually cured of our romance. Our bodies are confined to our beds; nor can our thoughts wantonly detach themselves and take the road to pleasure, but turn back with doubt and loathing at the fair evanes- cent t)ha«itom which has usurped its place. If the folding-doors of the imagina- tion were thrown open or left ajar, so that from the disordered couch where Vfe lay, we could still hail the vista of the past or future, and see the 'gay and gorgeous visions, floating at a distance, however denied to our embrace, the contrast, thbugh mortifying, might have something soothing in it, the mock- splendour might be the greater for the actual gloom; but the misery is that we cannot conceive anything beyond or better than the present evil: we are shut-up and spell-bound in that, the curtains . of the mind are d'rawn close, we cannot escape from "the body of this death," our souls are conquered, dismayed, "cooped and cabined in," and thrown with the lumber pf our corporeal frames in one fcorner of a negleictfed and solitary room. We hate ourselves and everything else; nor^oes one' ray of comfort "peep through the blanket of the dark" to give us hope. How should we entertain the image of grace and beauty when our bodies writhe with pain? To what purpbse invoke the echo of some rich, strain of music, when we ourselves can scarcely breathe? The Verj' attempt is an impossibility. We give up the vain task, of linking delight to agony, of urging torpor into ecstacy, which 'makes the very heart sick. We feel the present pain, and an impatient longing to get rid of it This were indeed "a consum- mation devoutly to be wished"; on this we are intent, in earnest, inexorable, all else is impertinence and folly; and could we but obtain Ease (that goddess THE ESSAY 33 of the infirm and suffering) at any price, we think we could forswear all other joys and all other sorrow. Hoc erat in votis [this was among our vowsj. All' other things but our disorder and its cure seem less than nothing and vanity. It assumes a palpable form; it becomes a demon, a spectre, an incubus hover- ing over and oppressing us: we grapple with it; it strikes its fangs into us, spreads its arms round us, infects us with its breath, glares upon us with its hideous aspect; we feel it take possession of every fibre and of every faculty; and we are at length so absqrbed and fascinated by it, that we cannot divert our reflections from it an instant, for all other things but pain (and that which we suffer most acutely) appear to have lost their pith and power to interest. They are turned to dust and stubble. This is the reason of the fine resolutions we sometimes form in such cases, and of the vast superiority of the sick-bed to the pomps and thrones of the world. We easily renounce' wine when we have nothing but the taste' of physic in our nibuths; the rich banquet temps us not, wheh "our very gprge rises" within us. Love and Beauty fly from a bed twisted into a thousand folds by restless lassitude and tormenting cares, tjie nerve of pleasure is killed by the pains that shoot through the head or rack the limbs:' an indigestion seizes you with its' leaden grasp and giant force (down. Ambition!) — you shiver and tremble like a leaf in a fit of the ague. (Avarice, let gO; your palsied hold!). We then are in the mood, without ghostly advice, to betake, ourselves to the life of the "hermit poor," "In pensive, place obscure"— and should be glad to prevent the return of a fever raging in the blood by feeding on pulse, 3nd slacking our thirst at the limpid brook. These sudden resolu- tions, however, or "vows mad^ in pain as, violent and, void," are generally of short duration: the excess and the sorrow for it are alike selfish; and those repentances which are thS most loud and passionate are the sui;est t^o end speedily in a relapse ; for both originate in the same cause, the being engrossed by the prevailing (whatever it may be), and an utter incapacity to look beyond it. "The Devil was sick, the Devil a. monk would be: The Devil grew well, the DeVil a monk was he;" —WILLIAM hazlitt: from "The Sick Room," The New Monthly Magazine, August, 1830. BOOKS AND; READING. ITo mind the inside of a book is to entertain one's self with the forced prod- uct of another man's brain. Now, I think a man of quality and breeding may be much amused with the natural sprouts of his own.— lord foepingtqn, in TKe Relapse. . An ingenious acquaintance of my own was so much' struck with this bright sally of his Lordship, that he has left off reading altogether, to the great imT provement of his originality. At the hazard of losing some .credit on this head, I must confess that I dedicate no inconsiderable portion of my time to other (people's thoughts. I dream away my life in other's speculations. I love to lose myself in, other men's minds. When I am not walking, I am reading; I cannot sit still and think. Books think for me. I have no repugnances. Shaftesbury is not too genteel for me, nor Jonathan Wild to low. I can read anything' which I call a book. There are things ita that shape which I cannot allow for such. ... To be strong-batked and neat-bound is the desidiratnm of a volume. ;Mag- nificence comes after. This, when it can be afforded, is not to be lavished upon all kinds of books indiscriminately. I would not dreSs a set of Magazines, for instance, in full suit. The dishabille of half binding (with Russia ^ajdss ever): 34 CXsARK S. NORTHUP I is our costume. A Shakespeare or a MJlton (unless the first editions), it were mere foppery to trick out in gay appjirel. The possession of them confers no dis- tinction. The exterior of them (the things themselves being so common, strange to say, raises no sweet emotions, no tickling sense of ptoperty.in the owner. Thomson's Seasons, again, looks best (I maintain it) a little torn and dog's- eared. How beautiful to a genuine lover of reading are the sullied leaves, and worn-out appearance, nay, the very odour (beyond Russia) if we would not forget kind feelings :in, fastidiousness, of an old "Circulating Library," Tom Jones, or Vicar of Wakeiield! How they speak of . the thousand thumbs that ^lave turned over their pages with Relight! — of the lone sempstress, whom they ihay have • cheered , (milliner,' or hard-working mantua-maker) after her long day's needle-toil," running far into midnight, when she has snatched an. hour, ill spared from sleep,, to steep her cares, as in some' Lethean cup, in spelling out their enchanting contents! Who would have them a whit less soiled? What better condition could we desire to see them in? . . . ^Jiall I he thought fantastical, if I confess, that the names of soine of our PQets sound sweeter, and have a finer relish to the ear — -to mine, at least — than that of Milton or of Shakespeare? It may be that the latter are more staled ^nd rung upon in common discourse. The sweetest names, and which carry a 5perfume in thfe mention,, are Kit Marlowe, Drayton, Drummond of Hawthornden, and Cowley. , ' • , ' , ' Much depends upon when and where you read a book. In the five or six impatient minutes, before the dinner is quite ready, who would think of takitig up the Fairy Queen for a stop-gap, or a volume of Bishop Andrews' sermons? , Milton almost requires a solemn service of music to be played before you enter upon him. But he brings his music, to which, who listens, had need bring docile thoughts, and purged ears. . , Winter evenings — the world shut out — with less of ceremony the gentle Shake- speare enters. At such a season the Tempest, or his own Winter's Tale. ' These two poets you cannot avoid readiiig aloud — to yourself, or (as it chances) to some sirlgle person listening. More than one— and it degenerates into an audience. .... I am not mUch of a friend to out-of-doors reading. I cannot settle my spirits to it. I knew, a Unitarian minister, who wfis generally to be seen upon Snow Hill (as yet Skinner's Street was not), between the hours of ten and eleven in the morning, studying a, volume of Lardner. I own this to have been a strain of abstraction beyond my reach. I used to admire how he sidled along, keeping clear of secular contacts. An illiterate encounter with a porter's knot, or a bread- basket, :would have, quickly put to flight all the theology I am master of, and have left me worse than indifferent to the five points. . . . — CHARtES lamb: from "Detached Thoughts on Books and Readings," in The London Magazine July, 1823. ■ • COMPENSATION , [An outline ; the figures r^fer to paragraphs.] Introduction: 1. , A discourse on Compensation wbuld show the prtesent action of the soul of this world, and bring comfort. c^]^: 2. Emerson's desire to write this discourse was confirmed by hearing a preacher •say that judgment was executed in. this wo;-ld. . 3. The preacher, must Have meant compensation in material goods. -4. He_ referred to a base ■ and short-sighted estimate of manly success. 5. 'Daily life belies this unmanly theology. ■ , , 6. Emerson will try to indicate the path of the law of c6mpens,ation. ^HE ESSAY ^ Discussion. 7. Action and. reaction exist in every part of nature: light, darkness; upper, under. ' • ' ' ' ' "' ' \ 8. As the world is dual, so is each of its .parts. , ' , : 9. The theory of the mechanic forces is another example: gain in power is balanced by loss in time. , ' , , ©, - 10. 11. The same dualism is found in man's nature and condition. ' 12. This is the law of cities and nations. 'Things refuse to be mismanaged long. . 13, 14. The universe is represented in every one of its particles. ' ,15. The soul, within us a .sentiment, outside of, us is a law. Justice is not postponed. 16.. Every. act rewards or punishes itself. 17, 18. Men are constantly trying tp gratify the senses with impunity. Body wars with soul. ' , ' ■ . 19, 20. No one ever succeeded in this unequal contest. . ■ ?1. Literature is true to these facts.' Achilles and Siegfried were vulnerable at a single point.- - 23. The ancients called this law Nemesis. < •■ 23. The voice of fable is divine, representing that which flowed not -from a single writer's imagination but from his' inheritance. 24. Likewise proverbs, the literature of Reason, are the sanctuary of the intui- tions. * •' '25. All things are double (cf. 7), as numerous proverbs testify. , 26. individual action is always overmastered by the law of natur.e (cf> 18). 27. A man cannot speak without drawing his portrait for his corapaniofis. " 28. You cannot do wrong without suffering wrong (cf. 19, 20). ' ; '. 29, 30. Infractions of love and equity in social relations are punished by fear. '31. Of like nature is the expectation of change at' the, zenith of prosperity. 32i'33. Since debts, tnust be paid, it is better to, pay as one goes. 34, 35i Labor is governed by tlie same law: cheapest is dearest; if you take, you must give. . 36. Virtue and nature are leagued against vice; mufder will out. 37; So' with right action; love, and you shall be loved. ■■,■ , 38, 39. No defect is without its use. 40. TJie same guards which protect from disaster also defend from selfish-' ness and fraudi 7jr ' . t \ '. 41. Persecution is like trying to make water run up hill. •:'^y,('. ' Conclusion. \ 42. The doctribe of complensation is not the doctrine of indifference. 43. A deeper fact in the soul than compensation is its own nature. ' 44. The unpunished criminal still carries the malignity with him, and "so far deceases from liature. ^ , , 45. On the other hand, there is no penalty to virtue; no limit to the soul. 46. All external, material good lias its tax, and may disappear ; the soul's good", earned by laboi" of heart and head, is abiding.. 47. In the nature of the soul inequalities of condition are compensated. The heart and Soul of all men being one, the bitterness of his and mine ceases. 48. . Sp calamity is merely a phase of a nature whose law is growth. 49. Our friends only go out that archangels ' may come in. 50. The compensations of calamity become evident after a long interval. • r— RALPH WALDO EMERSON: Essays, 1841. 36 CLAJtK S. NORTHUP THE FUTURE OF DEMOCRACY. [A Book Review.] The Promise of Ameficav Life. By Herbert Croly. New York,: The Macraillan Co. $2 net.' This is an eminently notable book. It is one of the best examples in recent, years o| a long-sustained flight in the region of realistic philosophical politics. The anipljitttde of discourse which the author allows himself is fairly warranted by the profundity of his analysis. His. eventual program is one of extensive State Socialism, but ,he appraises justly the indispensability of individual initiative and the value of individual distinction. The title of the book may direct attention to the author's point of departure, but it does not indicate the bopk's central theme. The real theme is twofold There is, first, a disclosure of the bankruptcy of our political theorizing in the past, when a vital national problem like slavery could be solved only by a courageous doc- trine which' shattered the sacred formula:s of all political creeds. There is, secondly, an application of what the author regards as an adequate political theory to the baf- fling questions in whose toils we now writhe. The first, or historical, part is con- ceived and executed with penetration and ability; the second, or constructive, part is more vulnerable. Mr. Croly begins by pointing out quite truly that Americans have commonly entertained the conviction that a bettef future awaits their country, a future to come about automatically by adherence to traditional, policies. This better future is conceived to include widespread economic prosperity and plentiful economic, opportunity, as well as political freedom and equality. The conditions which for, a time worked to this end — the abundance of free soil and immunity from f gr- eign f oes-7-have altered rapidly of late years. For the future, we must abandon hope in automatic melioration, and must substitute conscious effort to realize social « improvenient. The distribution of wealth must be made to conform to. the inter- ests of the whole society, and the national idealmust embrace higher ends-^*o- cial and moral — rather than confine itself to economic prosperity for the individual, if the "Promise" is to be fulfilled. To this preliminary overture there is no ex^ ception to be taken. ■ ' The only adequate political creed, according to the author, includes two es- ' sential points. There must be a realization of the end to be sought, the establish- ment of a true democracy: There must also be employed to this end a strong re- sponsible government consciously berit on a process of "constructive discrimina- tion" tcr attain the democratic ideal. He shows conclusively that neither the Hamil- tonian nof the Jeffersonian theory sufficed for>b6th of these purposes. Hamilton, it is true, endowed the central government with substantial power to act in the national i interest. But Hamilton distrusted democracy. He buttressed property rights in the Constitution, so- as to. make them invulnerable to popular attack or control. Jefferson in this point alone shines by contrast, for Jefferson trusted the ^people. But Jefferson's fat-al error -was that he made "faith in the people equivalent to a profound suspicion of responsible official leadership" (p. 170). Jefferson sought "an essentially equalitarian and even socialistic result, by means of an essentially individualistic tnachinery." In his mind, "democracy was tanta- mount tp extreme individualism" (p. 43). Thus throughoiit our Whole palitieal , history, until 1861, effectual political power was used only for equipping the national government with adequate authority and was exerted only in behalf of privileged classes. The adherents of Jefferson consigned themselves to virtual im- potence by forswearing the employment of the essential means^ to benefit the peo- ple as a whole. Not until slavery had become the dominant issue was the sterility of our -political thinking realized. Here Mr. Croly mercilessly dissects the pro- gramme of the' 'Whigs, the .Democrats, the ?idvocates of Squatter Sovereignty, the slave-owners, and the abolitionists. The last come in for castigation by reason of THE ESSAY 37 their separatist tendencies and their natural-rights philosophy. Of this philosophy- he declares: "Of alLperverted coaceptioiis of democracy, one of the most perverted and dangerous is that which identifies it exclusively with a system of natural rights" (pp. 80-87). In Lincoln, he finds the first responsible Americaii statesman ■ to proclaim "that American nationality" is "a living principle rather than a, legal bond." In Lincoln's attitude upon slavery, he discerns the concrete- exemplification ' of the fundamental i^equisite of political theory — the purposeful and, conscious use of national power for realizing essentially democratic ends. [After seven more paragraphs of exposition and comment,' the writer con- cludes thus:] , ' , Most open to question is his general conception of the purpose of democracy. Rightly insisting that democracy cannot be defined in terms of machinery alohe,' he contiends that the "salutary and formative democratic purpose consists in using the democratic organization for the joint benefit of individual distinction and Social improvement" (p. 207). To this it seems a fair rejoinder that democracy,, whether compatible with individual distinction or not, is simply not concernetl with individual distinction. Democracy in Switzerland is' perhaps more com- pletely realized than elsewhere in Europe. But in politics, as in art and literature 'individual distinction is markedly absent in the Swiss republic. One recalls Whist- ler^ chafif at the "sons of patriots" who in the domain of art are content >vith in-venting "the clock that turns the mill, ' and the sudden cuckoo, with difiieulty restrained in its box." A fair yerdict upon (he book would couple _ a commendation of Mr. Croly's analysis of our political history and of the political conditions, requiring' reform with a caveat at his project of "constructive discrimination." He is doubtless right ■ in heading that the abstract doctrine of "equal rights for all" is without cbn- structive power. Neither as a party amalgam nor as a political engine is the doc- trine efficient But the policy of "constructive discrimination," "the ceaseless crea- tion of a political, economic, and social aristocracy,, and their equally constant re- placement" is fraught with peril. Mr. Croly contradicts, himself in this matter. On page 209 we are told that the "democratic state should neyier (iiscriminate in favor of amything or anybody." On page 357 is urged the policy of legally recognizing the. large corporatiohs. This recognition, Mr. Croly himself admits, "amounts substantially to a discrimination in their favor." On page 209 we a,re taught that the democratic state can "only discriminate against all sorts of privilege." But on page 386 there is advocated a legal recognition of the privileges of labor uniohs with the, texpress admission that "this legal recognition means, in their case, also, substantial discriminaiion by the state in their favor." One may well shrink from endorsing a programme, even though conceived in the public interest, which begins by according special privilege to particular classes. The state has afeout all it can do in exerting adequate control in the public interest when the weed of class privilege has shown '• jts head in the national garden,; without going to the further extreme of sowing tbistles,i even if the ultimate purpose be cherished of making them serve a useful end. — The Nation, March 3, 1910, 38 CLARK S. NORTHUP Quiz Questions. 1. Give the etymolbgy of the word "essay." 2. State fully the kind of production to which the word "essay" should be applied. , 3. What incipient forms of the essay are found in the literature of ancient Greece and Rome'? 4. What did Erasmus teach in his ' ' Colloquies ' ' ? 5. What is Montaigne's method of writing in the essay "Of Prayers and OrisoUs"? . 6. I)eseribe Bacon's style. 7. Discuss the work of Addison and Steele. 8. What are the characteristics of Lamb's essays? 9. Into what service did the essay, enter in the last cen- tury? iName some of the essayists of that time? 10. What can you say of Emerson's style? 11. Give a characteristic of the essays of . Thoreau; of Lowell; of Holmes; of Curtis. 12. Distinguish between the personal 'essay and the di- J'^dactic essay. • 13. Name two subdivisions of the didactic »essay and state the characteristics of each. 14. What is meant by unity in the essay? Coherence? Movement? 15. Discuss the importance of the conversational tone in the personal essay; in the didactic essay. 16. Dlustrate the informality allowable in the essay. 17. How should the essay be studied from the viewpoint . of structure ? Prom the viewpoint of style? 18. Summarize the principal points of the study of the essay as presented in this liecture.