Sacramento daily record-union., 1882-01-21
OSCAR WILDE AID H1s CULT.

gested by the description of the lecturer
will be that Gilbert has not after all gone
very far in the direction of caricature
when painting Bunthorne, in Patience.
But though Mr.. Wilde is not above that
affectation of mannerism which is among
the more transparent hypocrisies practiced
by the would.be founders of new cults, it
is to the matter of his discourse that the
inquiring mind will turn with most inter-
est. And it is probable that the first i'm.
preston will be disappointing. There is
certainly kind of "prettiness in the
speakers style; a suggestion of Ruskin
and Swinburne and Rosetti and Morris and
other authors of the esthetic school. The
words flow smoothly and gracefully on.
There is a certain melody and rythm in the
sentences. But what it all means is quite
another question. Mr.. Wilde seeks to ex-
plain his cult. Apparently he mas sup
posed that it was unknown in this coun.
try, and that he was coming as revela.
tor. But in truth what he chooses to call
the art movement, and what Philstines
called Estheticism, has been acclimated
in the United States for some time, so far
as that can be accomplished by faith
full imitation of all its absurdlties.
There are probably almost as many
"Early English" and Japanese interiors
in New York as in London. The worship
of the Sun-hower and the Lily has been
taught on Murray Hill as well as in Gros-
venor Square. The language of what
Philistinism calls "the Aeshly school
has long since crossed the Atlantic. Mr..
Wilde also is known here as something
more closely resembling the bufoon than
the prophet of his cult.
He is the Maudle of Punch, and not
much exaggerated as Maudle. But for
all the absurditIes Of his action he shows
in this lecture an appreciation of the agen-
cies which win men ard forward new
doctrines. There is in fact a sacerdotal
element in his teaching which has a curl
ously familiar aspect. Mr. Wilde breaches
Estheticsm, in short, as g religion. Art,
he tells his audience, is not to be found by
seeking. 1t is mystery which must be
revealed to each individual. Here we
have precisely the same Shibboleth that the
religious preachers employ. Again, Mr..
NNi1la 10 hot - as{Y % I,a
received passively. 1t must not be ques-
toned. The duty of the seeker after es-
thetic truth is receptive. He must not
venture to inquire or to discuss or to an
alyze. Indeed it will be best for him if he
dees not think at ALL Here Mr.. Wilde
comes perilously close to Rousseau, who
declared that "t the man who thinks is
"depraved animal" Nor must the neo.
phyte presume to exercise his reason
over the matters conveyed to him. He is
simply to accept everything with absolute
submission and complete reverence, and he
is to attune his mind to that placid
condition in which, though negation of
sense, he will become rapt in ecstasy.
This is curiouslY like come of the teach
ipgs OF the Yogi. A similar doctrine was
known to the European monks of the
Middle Ages. An anchorite of the eleventh
century could have given Mr.. Wilde sew
eral points in this kind of business. This
is the way he taught the cult: "When
thou art alone in thy cell, shut thy door,
"and seat thyself in corner raise thy
"miud above all things vain and transi-
tory recline thy beard and chin on thy
breast; turn thy eyes and thoughts toward
the middle of thy abdomen, and mark
"the place of the heart, the seat of the
"soul. At first all will be dark and COM
{" FORTRESS but if thou persevere day and
might thou wilt feel aa ineffable joy, and
"no sooner has the soul discovered the
"place of the heart, than it is involved in
=" a mystic and ethereal light" The same
doctrine is taught in India to-day. 1t is
by this kind of contemplation that one be-
comes a Rikshi, and finally attains to Mir
vana. Buddhism in short has anticipated
the principal ideas in Mr.. WiEe's cult,
and all other religions have anticipated the
theory of revelation which he has intro
duced to it. We cannot say much for the
ingenuity or the brilliancy of the new
scheme, indeed. Il seems to US to be a
clumsy and dsomewhst gross copy OF the mys.
tical cults which have perpetualIy bean held
as whips over the heads Of mankind, and
which have been used to dominate them
through their superstition and ignorance.
The pretense of revelation transcend.
ing reason is that which has ever been the
last shift of creed whose foundations Rea-
son overthrows. When it is possible to
explain everything about q cult SO that the
simplest can understand it, its priesthood
always fall back upon the very convenient
theory of revelation and conversion.
They posit mystical and incompreheusi.
bic operation of the spirit, the proofs OF
which cannot be brought to light, which is
known only to the individual and the par
ticular divinity worshipped, and which
must be secret between them. Just SO
is it with Oscar Wilde's cult. He tells US
that the getting of an insight into Art is
like the getting of Christian grace u:
matter beyond and above Reason, and not
to be profanely examined. There must of
course always be I" Holy of Holes in
every cult, or the vulgar would not believe
in it; and though, like the sacred inner
most recess of the Temple OF Jerusalem,
the curtain falls before perfectly empty
chamber, there must still be curtain
there to crafty the demand for mystery.
Bat in the case of the esthetics the motive
for concealment is the absence of tangible
secret. In the Mysteries of Eleusis the
epopes did find, in the ark he was
hidden to explore at the close of his trials,