The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-11-22
MAETERLINCK EXPLAINS HIMSELF

MAETERLINCK EXPLAINS HIMSELF.
M. Maurice Maeterlinck has very re-
Gently published a little volume enti-
tied THE Treasure of the Humble"
which expounds the authors philoso-
ply and his aesthetic system. 1t ex-
plains the significance of the Maeter-
linckian drama, which, when attached
to philosophy, becomes, not more in
teresting, but an object of more con-
sideration than previously. ''The
been introduced to the English-read-
ing world, but in the current number
of Cosmopolis M. Faguet reviews it in
his customary lucid, luminous way, and
from him we learn that M. Maeterlinck
is intoxicated with the unconscious.
For him there is truth only in what
is unrefecting to the point Of spon-
taneity, spontaneous to the point of
being instructive, and instructive to the
point Of being absolutely unconscious"
The obscure, vegetative life of the soul
which lies just outside of conscious
ness, ''the thought before thinking. the
feeling before it has been felt" con-
stltute for him the souls real life. and
he finds in this mysterious and unac-
cessible psychic country everything
that is sublime and infinite.
The conclusion which M. aMaeterlinck
draws from his conviction as to the
supreme desirability of the uncon-
scious is that only the simplest souls
approach the true life. The true sci
ence is that of the ignorant. MAN
departs from the truth in comprehend
ing 1T, because by comprehending it.
ne limits it. He departs from the true
intelligence by becoming intelligent.
since the unconscious is infinite and
the intelligent is limited Man loses his
soul in finding it or, in finding it
ne narroWs it, applies it to things
small, restrained and practical. In
other words he loses his soul by Der
cefying that he has one Men are
merely intelligences. Only children.
primitive people, those of the ecstatic
type and of amorphous, uncrystallized
mentality are souls"
From all this follows an aesthetic
system. If the true is the unconscious.
then the beautiful should be the unex-
pressed. Beauty, like truth, is OBJ
scure, inaccessible, bathed in mystery.
When it becomes clear and precise. it
becomes harsh and unattractive. There
must be something indeterminate, I'M
finished, sketehy in the beautiful. Ac-
cording to this doctrine beauty made
manifest is not beauty, but as the
crowd has not yet learned to compre-
bend that silence is the supreme elo
quence, some slight concessions must
be made to their point of view. Speak.
If you must, but say as little as posi-
bic. That beauty whose manifesto
ton approaches as near as possible to
non manifestation is the nearest true
beauty. Speak, then, through closed
lips; think without having precise
ideas; feel without rendering an ac-
CoAhI " yOoi 1CCl4AS0, communicate
with your audience by a kind of sug-
gestion, sweet, slow, envefoping, i'm
perceptible The result will be high
art
Ali this is not very convincing, and,
as M. Faguet points out, it affords
scoffers a chance to say that the only
way to be supremacy intelligent is to
be an idiot. The reader irresistibly
reminded Of a story told by Col. John
Hay of a certain Spanish church, to
which the Virgin presented an invisible
mantle which is kept in a carefully
guarded Golfer. The proof Of the pres
ence of the invisible mantle is the fact
that when you open the Golfer you
see nothing!
But, let the scoffers be as merry as
they will, 1.-The Treasure of the Hum
BILE" has it's value. in that it explains
M. Maeteriinck and illustrates how hu-
man ingenuity can avail to fortify an
untenable POSITION It has generally
been held that work of art should
explain and justify itself. but, as very
few Of Maeterlinck's dramas have any
obvious excuse for being, their author
has evolved a defense for them so In
genious that 1t stamps him at once
with the mark of that intelligence
whose appearance he has hitherto sue
cessfu1ly avoided