The New York herald., 1874-07-30
THE PRESS ON THE SCANDAL.
Skeletons OF tho Ideal.


From Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper
II the old truism about every man having skele.
ton in his closet could be particularly ascrtbed to
men OF genius it would receive new significance.
Our best poets, novests, and even divines, II they
have not had monopoly OF the skeleton business,
have at least enjoyed the larger share Oft There
was Lord Byron, for instance, whose verse was in
the main the record OF HIS overpoweriDg passions
and his guilty loves. In recent years there was
the example Of Charles Dickens treating with con.
tempt the wife OF HIS youth. Earlier than either
of these was the marvellous selhshness
OF Dean Swift, who made the devotion
OF Stella aud Vanessa tho pIayth.ngs Of
lifetime. Turn where we may wo
ind men OF genius worshpping the ideals they had
set up for themselves quaking with fear over
the skeletons INTO which their ideals have turned
Both Beecher and TiltOn standing over tho
grave OF buried IDEAL and the great "Brooklyn
sorrow" is made hideous by the frantic attempts
to bring the skeleton from its grave.
The question naturally recurs in such case a.
this:-why Is it that literary men, and especially
the most highly endowed among literary men, SO
often forsake the wives OF their youth for some
other ideal or sfinityS The answer seems to be IN
single fact-namely. that the faithful wife seldom
shares the intellectual growth of gifted husband.
She either stands still and wOrshtps the mighty
man as he grows or she pricks him to the
quick with sharp tongue for no other offence
tnaQ not .Oe1ng az coarse Us BNe IS ueESolJ ne,
on the Otner hand, looks down upon her With
dlsdain in either event, and seeks to clothe some
physical nature with the ideal charms and srsoea
OF q noble womanhood. 1t is usually very sorry
as We'll as very sorrowiul business. The man
seldom becomes absorbed in his ideal sufficiently
to worship 1t or even to be true to 1t. The 1rst
sad disappointment OF his lie In the woman whose
undeveloped airlishness touched his boyish heart
clngs to him to blast every other aspiration. 1t Is
easy TO tear an uniathful wife out OF the afec-
tions, but the image of . poor wronged girl, whose
only fault Ii the lncapacity to grow with her lord
and TO expand before him as to give constant
JOY to MS quickened soul. Is not SO easily swept
into the oblivion of iOrgetulness. The ideal. TOO,
becomes q skeleton, and then the poor man car
take up T1ltons lines and say #
/ now am all berett-
As when some tower doth fall
%1sh xna raie Ssets%en.s nna Srdse sed and mal all
And nothing left.
With woman it Is not often so. There are few
Hester Prynnes among them, wearing the scarlet
letter on their DOsOms and setting it aglOw with
heroism BY the colors OF a deft embroidery. The
Dimmesdales we lear. are more frequent, hiding
hood. Catherine Gaunt is the more usual type OF
an absorbing love In a woman. Such was Swiit's
Elizabeth Tilton. 70 make such a woman posi-
BILE. It Is necessary that nigh intellectual nature:
msead the% Il is them that the Sentiment q
Boucicaut's line exerts its power over them,
saS aneyner ney feel snp .o II y sy
struggle, and they fall or they are cured. II
they fall. they are or ever undone, even though
that has yielded, and 1t breaks when it is tread
upon. With men, in such case, II IS the 1magtna-
tion which m1Sleads and the search after the Ideal
continues even when the capacity to recognize an
ideality Is lost, distorted bruCaiized. A womau's
81 he oae TO
passion; out with man IT IS leverish sentiment,
fitfu sympathy and fearful hate Dimmesdae
cannot endure to stand In the pilory ShouRh
Brother Leonard may find religious pleasure IN
winning the affections Of anothers wife. Hus.
bands like Mr.. Tilton may learn
How mated minds inmate;
but II the duties OF life were more clearly uuder
stood, II men of genius could know that the acecA
tion of woman Is one thing and literary sym.
pathy another, few poets would sing as Ttiton
Iclasped womsn's breast
As ii her heart knew,
Who proved-alas! she, too,
Unfortunateiy, too. the stern reality V utterly
unlike the fiction. In George ElOts women there
is a glamour OF the aspirations which beset the
to people their closets with skeletons. In her lilo
Mrs. Lewes s not utterly unworthy OF her herones,
his his ISL Is not Of the inferior genius Poor Dickens was was
her opposite snob without heart, vain.
remorseless, pitlless. IN david Copperdeld" he
but the requirements OF his art made 1t necessary
that the 'child vile" OF fiction should die. The
vile OF act was no such delicious picture OF simple
love and standstiIl lie. but woman whose tongue
was snarpened the more she was despised. And
appreciate his fane and he never tried to make
her feel that she still had his love, even though she
is the example of all; but most men go iurther,
and give themselves up to counting IDEALS and
most women yield to an absorbing love;
physical and unntellectual equals, the ideal sell.
dom becomes distinct. One person or the other
seeks some Indefinite remedy Tor dissatisfaction.
But with genus the gulf between the actual and
tie ideal is a source OF eternal woe. Mrs. Casau-
bon In s.MIddlemarch," (" had an abstract idea, but
never an IDEAL until Ladlslaw came to her In the
lightning nash as one who was not parchment-drted
like CasauOon, aud one VINO was her ideal. 1t ia
mn nj
fulni the dream O the higher Xantippe was not
the fault Of Xantlppe, but the curse Of Socrates.
1t is not every Abelard who may ind his Helotse.
Genius reads life between the lines; Is Impatient,
moody, aspiring; and we trace all the faults OF
Shakespeare to an attempt to please the smut
loving crowd winch gave his family ITS bread.
We do not blame genius 1or It's Ideals; we, tne
rather praise 1t for attempts to do It's duty to the
actual sacrificing this bit OF human poesy,
smothering that ache OF love after marriage labor.
ing and longing while carving It's trouoes 1nde' nae
We common people outrage genius more tnan We
know, demanding that 1t shall live upon us alone.
never having the unhappy sagacity to see that II
we cannot get up to its dream and, perhaps, to
it's practical Joy, II we had only the ablhty-we are
"Middlemarch'' Will know that Mrs. Casaubon,
with her great possibilities was either to be pulled
down to the ashen thought or Casaubon or rise to
the ideal which Ladislaw filed. Painters have
been known to have their wives for models OF the
Virgin, and Mrs Tilton had Theodore for likeness
OF Christ; but how many have failed In this
respect, and were sad
The Tilton case Is more remarkable than any tale
ever told in fiction-as intense as 1.-The Scarlet
Letter''-but showing woman, whatever her sin,
as devout as Catherine Gaunt; clergyman hover.
ing between the simplicity Of Brother Leonard and
the painful reserve OF the unfortunate Dmmes-
dale. and husband, not SO earnestly jealous a.
Gritfith Gaunt but more sternly un0rgving than
Roger Chlngworth. 1t is with all OF them the
sacrifce OF the ideal and the revelation OF the
skeleton. The story is the most marvellous COM
mentary IN all history on human passion ana sel-
fshness and whether or not there was SIN IN the
relations Of these people, all of them sinned griev-
ously in this, that they have wronged themselves
and wronged humanity by theff folly.
Jobs Wish.
From the New York Scotsman.l
Jobs wish that his enemy had written booe
has often been proved very sensible one The