The times., 1901-03-10

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lightcnment of the eighteenth century.
! The early ideas of Coleridge were the
ideas Of Rousseau and of Bernardin de
St Pierre who was like Coeridge, but
more energeticaIly. seeker for an ideal
land where Pantisocracy might flourish
and a clown might be the poets broth
er"
In poetry. in poetic corm, Coleridge was
the real and daring ,nnovator, inspired
10y the eighteenth century reaction against
convention and played on ike an aeolian
harp 10y every wind of his mystic spirit.
His reaction was too violent even for
Lamb: his originality too extreme even
for Wordsworth. In him, of all our later
poets. the unconscious self was the
strongest and the most free, and of all our
poets he had the hardest battle with the
duh Augustan survival in such critics as
/ Jeffrey To them all the ripened fruit Of
. the bIoss0ming time Of the late eighteenth
century. the poetry Of Scott and Of Words
/ worth was but dimly Ineligible, but
C0leridge was the most unintelligible Of
all From the Germany Of the late eight
/ eeDth century came one of Scott's springs
/ Of poetic action; from the "Lenore' or
/ Burger Ga popular ballad rewrittem and
/ from the ''Goetz Won Berlichingen' of
/ Goethe. These were the days when Scott
: loneed to possess a skull and crossbones.
and in a love letter dilated on his choice
/ Of a sepulchre. But what came to Cole
ridge from Germany was the late eight
eenth century's reaction against the truly
common sense" ideas of Hume the phi
Iosophy of Kant. Schelling, and Fichte. In
this field too. he was unintelligible (and
no wonder) but he was but adapting the
ideas of 177o-lSgg, and the neo-Hegelians
of oxford are doing the same thing. A
reaction against the materialtsm OF COM
mon sense was inevitable; Mesmer, Swe-
denborg and Kant began what survives
in the hands of the Master of Baiiiol and
Of Prof. William James.
In a more recent generation Byron pro-
longed the Wertherism Of Werther, Byron
being thus a grandson Of Rousseau while
he borrowed his form, and borrowed it
very ILL., from what Scott borrowed Of Cole
ridge. The genius of Byron is not con-
tested by the sane, but except in satire 1t
seldom found clear and adequate, because
IT sought hurried needless. and tumultu-
Gus. expression. Scott had better ear
and was not so reckless an improvisatore.
Poems that can endure are not written
Ike Byrons. in the brief leisure of fash
ionable industry. We admire the native
impetus of Byron, his gift Of satire, his
sensitiyeness to elemental force Of nature
and in man, but We cannot understand
the furore which was so much the child
Of his title. his beauty, his recklessness,
and his studiously cultivated air Of mys-
terry. Mr.. Lenville, as reported by Mr..
Folair. said that Nicholas Nickleby was
"a regular stick Of an actor. and its only
the mystery about him that has caused
him to 20 down with the people here.
though Lenville says he don't believe
there's anything at all in it later age
must partly adopt the same theory Of
Byrons original and unparalleled success
in Europe as well as in England. He was
mysterious Manfred, he was Childe Har-
old. he was the Corsair; a hero Of Mrs. Rad
cliffe's. with an oriental air and gloomy
secret and a heart burning with indigna-
tion against the unworthy species Of men.
What had Byron done? Even Goethe was
curious. believing wild anecdotes: now we
really do not care what Byron did, recog-
nizing in him his genius and his pose, not
so much the Satanic" as the result Of
hysteria and madness in his race. Satan
ism. from Of old has been mainly hyste-
ria The element OF personal reclame in
Byron has faded. and with it fades his
reputation as an earth-shaklng poet. At
tempts TO revive that fame, in our day
attempts 10 bring us back TO the noble
poet" are respectable. being based on 10y
atty to the taste of our great grandfathers
and graudmothers in all civilized coun-
tries. But the efforts are futile. BY
ron" says Mr.. Saintsbury, seems 10 me
a poet distinctly Of the second class, and
not even Of the best kind of second, in
asmuch as his greatness is chiefly derived
from a sort Of parody, a sort Of imitation
of the qualities OF the first. His verse is
to the greatest poetry what melodrama
is TO tragedy. what plaster is 10 marble,
what pinchbeck is TO gold" Such, how
ever unpopular they may be. are my own
candid sentiments for though from child
hood / could and did read all our great
poets with pleasure. Il was not with the
kind Of pleasure which Byron in his satire
and his defamation could occasionally
give me. He is monotonous. he IS rhetori-
cal. his versidcation is often incredibly
bad and he IS more obscure. mainly by
dint Of hurry bad printing, and bad gram
mar, than Mr.. Browning. Thus Byron
leaves us impressed as with a vast even
volcanic. yet dandified force, unframed
and often misdirected. Either by nature.
or in reaction, he professed sympathy with
the Augustan school of Queen Anne's
reign, and sided with Pope in the long
quarrel as TO whether Pope is a poet.
Even the modern opponents Of Byron
must recognize in him qualities which
won the admiration and affection Of Scott
and Shelley. In Shelley we had a true
child of the Revolution, the Anfklarung
and the later eighteenth century. His boy
hood trif1ed with chemical science (proba-
bly, not then popular with the human boy),
his adolescence was given to converting
schoolgirls into dear little atheists"
His social ideas, Ike those Of some ad-
vanced moderns, aimed at the absolute
destruction Of the family; and the moral
of 'Laon and Cynthna" went far behind
the morals Of the most backward saw
ages, who make incest a capital offence.
Shelley, a boy all his life was more boy
ishly devoted 10 destruction than even the
newest writer's on the relations OF the
sexes In making all things new" both
he and they are IN fact, relapsing on a
condition Of society which, if ii ever ex-
listed is so old that it may be called pre-
human" and is contrary TO nature, as far
as We can study human nature in the
least developed Of tribes. His ideas con-
Quoted Shelley 10 the tragedy and farce
OF his career: his desertion Of one young
wife followed by her suicide. and his mar
riage with another, in entire opposition
10 his own opinions. In literature he be-
gan al school with a devout following Of
Mrs Radcliffe; while, in Queen Nab
and "Alastor" Vigorous but vague and
misty "Chnde Harold" wandering in mo
Mans LAND he first displayed his origi-
p4T