The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1880-03-31
HOW JACK HARRIS BECAME AN
AESTHETIC.
4 Suggestion From Theophile
Gautier.

For this reason he welcomed Jack and
vas willing to take no little trouble to
win him to his side. 30 he talked much
and at great length, overpowering Jack
with perfect shower-bath of words, out
of which Jack managed to piece together
certain coherent facts, certain stray
scraps of dogma, to take away with him
and ruminate upen. He learned that
the true maxim Of life was cart for art"
Hedid not know what it meant, neither
did Theocritus; but Jack did not know
that, and SO he accepted it as one OF the
essential canons Of new faith which was
being propounded unto him, and which
was awakening within him strange pull
sations Of agreement, of conviction.
Poor Jack was of that kind who are not
difficult to convince in a brief directly
opposite to that which they have in
dulged in for a long time. Fine shades
Of opinion would be lost upon them;
they would not understand the idea of
ground shifted few PAGES farther on or
further back, by the mystery Of uncom-
promising logical proof; but there is
something to them so attractive in the
glitter of fireworks thrown up around
the very diverse Of their moral medal,
that they fall into simple snare with
exceeding ease; flying from pole to pole
of opinion, when they would have
grudged hairs breadth to Socrates or
Cicero. Jack learned too in this fateful
interview with the aesthetic poet Theo-
critus Marlowe, that another great thing
was beauty for beauty's sake, that the
moral laws which bound plain work-a-
day folk (the Philistines, Theocritus
called them) were not fashioned to gall
the necks of all who were of the artist
world, that the souls of fire, and children
of the night, were in fact freed from all
responsibility for their acts, on the
ground that genius gave them authority
to do as they liked, plenary indulgence
for any amount of peceavi-crying. 1t
was novel to Jack to learn that the moral
laws did not exist for him, it was pleas
ant to hear that he was thus exempted
from the common lot by reason Of his
genius.
Encouraged by these observations, he
submitted to the eyes of the poet his
own productions, which he had brought
with him. Theocritus received the imi-
tations of Blackstone and DR.. Darwin
coldly, and proceeded to read Jack let
ter on the complete art of poetry, such
as would have startled Master George
Puttenham could that worthy Eliza.
bethan have listened to it. 4ck learnt
that the first business Of poetry was pas
sion, that in hysteria and delirium a
great deal Of capital was to be found,
that little general blasphemy of what
the majority believed inalways told we'll,
and gave the utterer>the appearance OF
boldness of thought; but that, above all,
the great thing was to startle. He gave
a good many excellent receipts for start
ling the herd, as Theocritus designated
the public; Ego into ecstasies of equal
delight over rotting corpse Of beauti-
full woman; tell everything that most
people would leave untold, describe all
that ordinary civilization leaves unde.
scribed; be old English, or old Greek, OF
old Provencal, or old French, or any.
thing at all but what you are; assume
that passion is the only thing worth car
ing for or writing about, and the only
thing anyone wishes to hear about; talk
a great deal about beauty, and revel in
the foul, and you will do," said Theo,
critus-or such, at least, was the lesson
Jack learnt.
To further him in this aim, Theocri.
tus lent Jack a small library of works
comprising his own poems and those Of
his friend Heliogabalus Murdle, the trag.
edies "Semiramis" and "Imperia" of that
eminent author Hanbury Pattle, and the
exquisite essays on the higher culture Of
Greece, the Renaissance and the Nee
pagans by Boiardo Polwheedle. These
with young Lord Lydgate's translations
from the French, and come numbers Of
an aesthetic review to which these young
men contributed, and which they chiefly
read, THE Stoa," completed the list.
Jack took these treasures to his cham.
,ers-a glance or two at their contents
rs he walked through the streets warn
Ing him that they did not seem to be o.
q nature calculated to arouse proper
degree Of enthusiasm in his parents OF
even in cousin Maggie-and for the first
time since he had been in those bailowed
iut dusty dwellings, he let old father
antic the law sleep undisturbed upon
his shelves.
Jack began at the top Of his pile and
read steadily. After going little way
through Biardo Polwheedle's essays, and
finding them little mystical to his un
trained mind, he turned to the poetry
and dipped boldly into Heliogabalu;
Murdle's first volume, can Epic Of Sin
and other poems." After he had read
few pages Of this promising young au
thor, whose first appearance in the liter
ary world futtered the readers of "Tht
Stoa" SO greatly, and caused that I'm
happy quarrel between Murdle and hi
father which compelled Murdle to de
grade his talents by working for living
Jack began to blush and to look arounC
uneasily, lest even the only specimen O
womanhood near the place-the old wo
man who looked after the chambess-
..:..L4 o,,@o, opd fud him of o,rch nova