U. S. Bot Oard
THE I • ^»
7 Cj5
GREYSON LETTERS:
SELECTIONS
FROM THE
CORRESPONDENCE OE R. E. Ho GREYSON, ESQ. f^^
EDITED BY
HENRY ROGERS,
AUTHOR OF "the ECLIPSE OP FAITH," "REASON AND FAITH,
THEIR CLAIMS AND CONFLICTS," ETC.
BOSTON:
aOULD AND LINCOLN,
59 WASHINGTON STREET.
NEW YORK: SHELDON, BLAKEMAN & CO.
CINCINNATI : GEORGE S. BLANCHARD.
1857.
Elcctrotyped by
Y/ r. DRAPER, ANDOVER, MASS.
r r fn t e (1 by
CXO C. IJAND & AVKUY, BOSTON.
ADVERTISEMENT
TO THE
AMERICAN EDITION
The title of tliis volume might lead the reader to conclude that
Mr. Rogers had performed only a subordinate part in its produc-
tion. A further examination of the work, however, would quickly
undeceive him. The title is, in fact, only a pleasant fiction ; " Mr.
Greyson " and Mr. Rogers are one and the same person. Every
letter in the volume is radiant with the genius of the author of " The
Eclipse of Faith."
Whether these letters are part of an actual correspondence —
whether they were written under the circumstances indicated and
addressed to the persons to whom they purport to be addressed —
may give rise to some doubt. A careful consideration of the inter-
nal evidence will perhaps convince the reader that this feature of the
work, too, is only a fiction — that " Mr. West," and " Dr. Ellis," and
the rest, are no more real than " Mr. Greyson." If this be so, it fur-
nishes fresh ground for admiring the author's genius, so fine is the
(III)
IV ADVERTISEMENT. "
simulation of the actual, so naturally conceived are the imaginary
situations.
At this late day, no encomium on the writings of Henry Rogers
can be needed. Those who have read " The Eclipse of Faith " will
agree with the London Quarterly Revieto in feeling little doubt that
" his name will share with those of Butler and of Pascal in the
gratitude of posterity." But it may be remarked that this new
work presents its author in a new light. While it shows him to be
the peer of Bishop Butler as a reasoner, it also shows him to be not
the inferior of Charles Lamb as a humorist. The great charm of
the work is that it sets forth a melange of the " grave and gay,
the lively and severe," mingled in admirable proportions. Wit and
humor alternate with profound argument on some of the gravest
questions that concern mankind.
For the convenience of those not versed in any other than the
English language, translations of all foreign words and phrases
occurring in the volume have been inserted at the end in the form
of notes.
It may be proi:)er to say here, that the American edition is printed
from early sheets for which the Publishers have already paid to the
Author the amount for which he offered them the work.
Boston, Sept. 1, 1857.
PREFACE.
From a large mass of Mr. Greyson's "Letters" the following
have been selected for publication. It may be inferred that the
Editor thought them worthy of it ; whether the public will think
so, the public only can determine.
That all readers should concur in approving the whole, can
hardly be anticipated. Some will think the volume contains an
excess of grave matter — some, an excess of light. It is fortunate
for an editor when objections are diametrically opposed, as it may
be hoped they will neutralize one another. At all events, each
reader, finding something he likes, may forgive something else he
may wish away.
It may be permitted me, however, to say that one principal
reason for admitting so many of the lighter letters, has been to
relieve and diversify graver matter, and allure to its perusal.
Their specific levity^ it is hoped, may assist in buoying up and keep-
ing afloat those more ponderous letters which might otherwise have
gone at once to the bottom.
By many in all ages, and by as many in this age as in any,
Truth is regarded as a medicine which should be disjmised in
honeyed vehicles ; or, if regarded as wholesome food, is thought
much more nutritious when made palatable by pleasant condiments.
With the materials, so conveniently at hand, for complying with this
1* (V)
VI PREFACE.
general humor, the Editor thought it -would be wisdom to use
them; since he might thereby entice young persons to read JNlr,
Grey son's letters on subjects which, whatever may be thought of
his mode of treating them, are at least as grave and momentous as
can well occupy the human mind.
At the same time, should it be thought that the lighter letters are
sufficiently instructive or amusing to repay perusal for their own
sake, the Editor begs to assure the reader that there are plenty
more very much at his service.
The letters on graver subjects may be thought now and then a
little longer than private letters generally are, or ought to be, —
though brief enough in relation to the extent and importance of
the topics treated. The reader must be informed that Mr. Greyson
was much, perhaps unduly, impressed with the benefit that might
accrue from private correspondence : he was in the habit of saying
that "Affection, if it but spoke the Truth, was Truth's best
pleader ; " and that " if any man would submit to so odious a task
as writing a long letter, — provided love plainly dictated it, — for the
special behoof of some one person, it was hardly in human nature
that that one should not read it with grateful attention , and that
thus a little tract in the shape of a letter, might do more good than
a treatise intended for everybody in general, and nobody in partic-
ular."
I know he greatly admired an amiable and very accomplished
friend, (since deceased,) who, secluded from other and more public
methods of being useful, spent much of his time on a large corres-
pondence ; actuated, in a great measure, by the hope of obliquely
benefiting his friends, especially the young. I say obliquely ; for,
like a wise man, he did it without seeming to do it : there was
PREFACE. VII
ncitlier assumption, nor formality, nor dogmatism, in liis letters,
wliile there was j^lenty of vivacity. Mr. Greyson used to say of
this friend, that he acted " as gratuitous chamber-counsel ; " and
that " he deserved as much praise for his quiet benevolence as a
preacher who should prepare a discourse though he knew he should
have but a single auditor for his congregation, or a writer who
should write a book with little hope of more than a solitary reader."
Some traces of haste, here and there, will be found in these let-
ters, and need not be apologized for ; for when were private letters
free from them ? Some repetitions, also, of fact or sentiment (and,
now and then, almost of expression) will as naturally be expected ;
for this, too, is an unfailing characteristic of all collections hke the
present.
I think I have observed that such compilations often retain details
so minute as to be uninteresting to the reader ; or allusions to pri-
vate aifairs so obscure as to be quite unintelligible. I have, there-
fore, for the most part, left out all such matters.
The chronological order in the arrangement has been generally
adopted ; — a little dislocated, however, in the latter part of the
volume, for the purpose of bringing letters, on related subjects,
into proximity. Some of them are without dates ; and these have
been inserted where they seemed most appropriate. In some of
the more serious letters the reader will here and there find a
vein of persiflage^ which, perhaps, he would hardly approve in a
grave treatise : he must recollect that he is not reading a grave
treatise, but familiar letters, where a little innocent gayety is natural
and welcome, and perfectly understood by the correspondent. Mr.
Greyson, however, does not often need apology in any such matter ;
he may say, as Cowper said, " My readers will hardly have begun
VIII PREFACE.
to laugh, before they "will be called upon to correct that levity, and
peruse me with a more serious air."
Another class of readers may object that expressions are often
too colloquial, or the pleasantry too trivial ; they must be content
with similar criticism, and remember they are reading familiar let-
ters. Fireside prattle, — table-talk, — the sheet of gossip with a
friend, — who could endure in the style of a hook ? If this will not
satisfy the more formal reader, I must leave Mr. Greyson to his
fate.
One thing more I must in justice tell the public. It Is impossible,
I think, that the reader should not discern certain similarities in
sentiment and style between this volume and some parts of the
" Eclipse of Faith." I beg to say — on the principle ofsuum cidque
— that I am largely indebte(i to Mr. Greyson for his contributions
to that work. Indeed, I willingly ascribe to him the far larger
share of whatever merit an indulgent public has been pleased to
see in it, and take all its faults to myself.
Should any inquisitive reader ask to know a little more of Mr.
Greyson's history than is disclosed in his own correspondence, I
answer that his biography, if ever written, — and he took infinite
pains to prevent any one's having the materials for the purpose, —
must be written by one who knew him, in his younger days, much
better than I did. I apprehend, however, that there would be but
little to tell. Few men ever led a more recluse life, or one more
barren of incidents that could at all interest the public.
July 6, 1857.
CONTENTS
Lettek. Page.
I. To Alfred "West, Esq. — On his Recovery from Illness ; Anec-
dotes of Convalescents, - - - - - - 15
11. To THE Same. — On a Law of Association, - - - 19
III. To THE Same — A Novel Expedient, - - - - 22
IV. To TifE Same. — Extemporaneous Cookeiy; 'JSTe Sutor,' - 25
V. To THE Same. — On Death-bed Consolations, - - - 29
VI To Mrs. C R . — On the Loss of an Infant, - - 34
VII. To C. Mason, Esq. — Query — Condolence or Congratulation?
Anecdote of a Miser, - - - - - - 38
VIII To THE Same. — Speculations on Avarice ; Anecdote, - - 42
IX. To HIS Sister, Mrs. Evans, in India. — A Letter of Home
Gossip; Early Experiences, - - - - - 45
X. To C. Mason, Esq. — Old Age sometimes Beautiful, - - 52
XL To THE Same. — An Amateur Physician, - - - 55
XXL To the Rev. Charles Ellis, B.D. — Solutions that are none, 57
XIIL To C. Mason, Esq. — On the Penny Postage, - - - C2
XIV. To Alfred West, Esq. — Description of a " bustling " Man, G4
XV. To THE Sasie. — On the Language of Emotions, - - 67
XVI. To M. . — A Letter of Expostulation, - - - 75
XVII. To THE Rev. C. Ellis, B.D. — "Mysteries " of Providence
often none, - - - - - - - 77
X CONTENTS.
Letter. Page.
XVIII. To C. Mason, Esq., ... - - - 82
XIX. To Captain Evans in India. — English God Manufac-
turers; Effects of Civilization, - - - - - 84
XX. To . — The Delights of Reconciliation; Anec-
dote, 88
XXI. To Edwin Gretson, Esq., - - - - - 92
XXII. To T. Greyson. — Letter of Counsels to a Youth, - 93
XXIII. To Alfred West, Esq. — On the Freaks of Association, 96
XXIV. To THE Same. — " Societies " and " Branches," - 99
XXV. To Alfred West, Esq. — Speculations on compulsory
" Virtue," - - 102
XXVI. To THE Same. — " Strikes : " Estimate of " Knowledge," 107
XXVII. To THE Same. — Anecdote of Robert Hall; Human Pug-
nacity, *-....-- 110
XXVIII. To THE Same. — On unjust Suspicions; Job and his
Friends, 113
XXIX. To THE Same. — Antediluvian Friendships ; Immortality, 118
XXX. To A Friend who had narrowly escaped spending
a Night in St. Alban's Abbey. — On the Power of Imag-
ination, - - - - - -- - 122
XXXI. To Alfred West, Esq. — What are the best Punish-
ments of Hypocrisy ?------ 128
XXXII. To the Sa3ie. — Parental Long-suffering; the Second
Schooling for Vice, - - - - - -131
XXXIII. To the Rev. C. Ellis, B.D. — " Christian Evidences," 135
XXXIV. To the Rev. S. W . — On Pulpit Style, - - 145
XXXV. To C. Mason, Esq., — Habitual Actions — Automatic or
Not? 149
XXXVI. To THE Same. — Early Rising — Preaching and Practice, 154
CONTENTS . XI
Lbtteb. Page.
XXXVII. To THE Same. — A Dialogue " between Myself and Me/' 158
XXXYIII. To Miss Mart Greyson. — The First of Four Letters on
Novel Reading, - - - - - . - 163
XXXIX. To THE Same. — Subject continued, - - -170
XL. To THE Same. — Subject continued, - - -173
XLI. To THE Same. — Subject continued, • - - 176
XLII. To the Same. — On " Yes " and " No," - - - 182
XLin. To Alfred West, Esq. — On the Treatment of Crimi-
nals, - - . . - - 189
XLIV, To C. Mason, Esq. — The Madman and the Devil, - 194
XLV. To . — First of Five Letters to an incipient Neol-
ogist, ...-..,. 199
XLVI. To THE Same. — Subject continued, - - -202
XLVII. To THE Same. — Subject continued, - - - 206
XLVIII. To THE Same. — Subject continued, - - -211
XLIX. To THE Same. — Subject continued, - - -215
L. To . —Letter on " Prayer," - - - 218
LI. To THE Same. —Letter on " Prayer," - - - 223
Ln. To . — Fu-st of Three Letters on the " Atonement," 230
LIII. To THE Same. — Subject continued, - - - - 231
LIV. To the Same. — Subject continued, .... 237
LV. To Alfred West, Esq. — Symptoms of imperfect Virtue, 242
LVL To THE Same. — Unconscious Profundity, - - 245
LVII. To C. Mason, Esq. — On Human Inconsistencies, - - 253
LVin. To Alfred West, Esq. — A Dream, - . - 256
LIX. To Alfred West, Esq. —Thoughts on Emigration, - 261
LX. To the Rev. J S , Missionary in India, - - 264
XII CONTENTS.
Letter. Paob.
LXI. To Alfred West, Esq. — On a Pedantic Author, - 268
LXII. To Mrs. L. B., in New Zealand. — To a Friend in New
Zealand, - - - - - - - - 271
LXni. To Alfred West, Esq. — On the Essentials of Friend-
ship, 277
LXIV. To THE Same. — On the Love of Contradiction, - - 282
LXV. To C. Mason, Esq. — Mountains versus Books, - - 287
LXVI. To , Esq. — Counsels to a Dyspeptic Friend, - 291
LXVII. To R S . — A question on " Conscience " answered, 294
LXVIII. To . — On a Sophism of " Secularism," - - - 298
LXIX. To A HoMCEOPATHic Friend. — First of Three Letters to
a Homoeopathist, -----.- 300
LXX. To THE Same. — Subject continued, - - - . 30G
LXXI. To THE Same. — Subject continued, - - - -310
LXXII. To Alfred West, Esq. — Feats of the Electric Tele-
graph, -..---.. 31G
LXXIII. To A Mesmeric Enthusiast. — First of Three Letters to
a Mesmeric Enthusiast, ------ 320
LXXIV. To the Same. — Subject continued, - - - 323
LXXV. To THE Same. — Subject continued, - - - - 327
LXXVI. To the Rev. C. Ellis. — " Contre-temps," - - 331
LXXVn. To THE Same. — Subject continued, - - - -336
LXXVIII. To C. Mason, Esq. — On the " Memoirs of a Stomach," - 338
LXXIX. To R D , A Quaker . — On the Peace Principles, - 341
LXXX. To Alfred West, Esq, — On the Peace Principles, - 345
LXXXL To the Rev. Charles Ellis, B.D,— On the Arguments
for Immortjvlitj', - - - - - - - 352
LXXXII. To THE Same. — On Comini/ to the Use of Spectacles, - 357
CONTENTS. XIII
Letter. .Page,
LXXXIII. To . — On Behalf of a Young Offender; Visit to
the Zoological Gardens, ---... 352
LXXXIV. To THE Rev. C. Ellis. — " Reformatories," - 365
LXXXV. To Alfred West, Esq. — Anglo-Saxon Criminal
Code, - . - - • - - -371
LXXXVI. To THE Same. — " Sedatives of Anger; " Youthful
Hopes, - - - . - - - .374
LXXXVII. To THE Same. — On the "Plurality of "Worlds" Contro-
versy, - - - . - - - - 376
LXXXVIII. To THE Same. — Subject continued, - - -383
LXXXIX. To THE Rev. C. Ellis. — A Double Defeat and no Vic-
tory. — Dispute between an Atheist and Deist, - - 386
XC. To THE Same. — Subject continued, - - - -391
XCI. To A Friend who had become a Deist. — First of
Eight Letters to a Deist, - - - - - - 400
XCII. To THE Same. — Subject continued, - - -405
XCIII, To THE Same. — Subject continued, - - -409
XCIV. To THE Same. — Subject continued, - - - 415
XCV. To THE Same. — Subject continued, - - -417
XCVI. To THE Same. — Subject continued, - r -423
XCVII. To THE Same. — Subject continued, - - -430
XC VIII. To the Same —Subject continued, - - -432
XCIX. To C. Mason, Esq. — On the Discoveries of Dr. Hassall's
Microscope, --.-... 435
C. To Alfred West, Esq. — True Catholicism, - . 442
CI. To C. Mason, Esq. — On Beards, - - . . 445
CII. To a Gentleman who would be a Christian —
YET rejected ALL THE PECULIAR FaCTS AND DOCTRINES
OF " HISTORICAL " CHRISTIANITY, . . - . 449
2
Xiv CONTENTS.
Letter. Page.
CIII. To A Young Friend disposed to make the " Discrep-
ancies" IN Scripture a reason for renouncing
Christianity, ..--.-- 455
CIV. To the Same. — Subject continued, ... - 4G1
CV. To Alfred "West, Esq. — " Transmutation " and " Develop-
ment" Theories, ------- 4(:7
CVL To the Same. — Subject continued, - - - -470
CVII. To the Same. — Subject continued, .... 475
CVIII. To his Nephew T G , Student in the University
OF Edinburgh. The " Prima Philosophia," - - 481
CIX. To the Same. — Hints for an " Encomium Atheismi," - 489
ex. To THE Same — Notice of certain Atlieistical Sopliisms, - 496
CXI. To THE Same — Brief Answers to Three Queries, - - 505
GEEYSON LETTERS.
LETTER I.
TO ALFKED WEST, ESQ.
London, Dec. 10, 1838.
My dear West,
I congratulate you on having passed that painful, though
hopeful, stage of convalescence, in Avhich, with a lion of an
api^etite within, you are allowed only panada, taj^ioca, sago,
and that entire genus of insipidities, of which we may say,
as did Job of the "white of an egg,^^ "Is there any taste in
it ? " To give such things as these to a convalescent aj^pe-
tite is like feeding the full-grown Hercules with pap.
There is nothing to me more amusing or gratifying, than
to see a patient, who, after an exhausting illness, has at
length been pronounced beyond the chances of a relapse,
fairly dismissed by his physician, to what is to him the great
business of life — the re-edification of the dilapidated outer
man. Lean and gaunt as a wolf, ye gods ! what an insati-
able maw the man has! How does all thought, feeling,
affection, centre in that one thing of satisfying — which yet
is an impossibility — the appetite : it is as if brain, and
heart, and soul, had all gone to reside in the stomach.
With what gusto and infinite relish does he accept the small
hourly prelibations of broth, an oyster, even an egg^ which
break that seeming eternity, (his impatient fancy counts it
no seeming)^ between the great events of the day, breakfast
(15)
16 THE GREY SON LETTERS.
and dinner! What an infinite absurdity appears to him
that languid " coy toying with food," which the mad people
in health waste their time in ; and what an equal folly that
ceremonious leaving of the last piece on the dish, appropri-
ated of old time to " Colonel Manners ! " How spotlessly
clean is the condition of every platter and cup brought away
from him, and how superfluous the scullion's ablutions !
How is every stray crumb picked up and appropriated with
a gratitude which says as plainly as any voracious "philan-
thropic society," " The smallest contributions thankfully
received ! " How, in the eager impatience of his expectancy
of a first meal of roast^ does it seem to him that the sun and
all the clocks in the universe are standing still, and that the
stupendous blessing of a mutton chop will never come.
Ah me ! I fear that this very description will make your
mouth water in an unlawful manner, unless you happen to
take it in hand in that brief post-prandiimi of half an hour
or so, which is all the repose, doubtless, that the wolf within
you allows
Yet I once knew a philosophic convalescent who delighted
in the agreeable torments of imagination. He was pro-
nounced out of danger, but not out of danger of a relapse^
and was still confined to the nauseating things called
" slops." At this stage his favorite reading was the " Cook-
ery Book," which he insisted on having to bed with him ;
and after making up all the choicest dishes, and compound-
ing the most savory receipts, he devoured them — in fancy.
To most men, I imagine, the employment would have been
torture, not i^leasure ; as exasperating as the mirage of the
desert to the traveller famishing with thirst.
Far different was the case of another friend of mine. He
had just recovered from an attack of fever, and at length,
after centuries of delay as seemed to him, the great auspi-
cious day dawned (an epoch in his life, not to say of the
TO A CONVALESCENT. 17
universe) when he was to smell roast in his chamber again,
and taste a delicate slice of a shoulder of mutton ! His
wife, his faithful nurse all through, brought up at the ap-
pointed hour to the ravening man the dainty dish — the
odor of which steamed towards him- more fragrant than all
the spices of " Araby the blest." But she had unfortunately
forgotten the knife and fork, and hastened, after depositing
the dish in the remotest corner of the room, wdiither she
thought his drooping, wasted limbs could never drag them-
selves, to fetch the implement wherewith to cut off that
delicate transparent sliver, which was all the medical Tan-
talus had, in his cruel wisdom, permitted. She was gone
but a moment, but to great minds moments suffice for great
deeds ; and when she returned, she found, to her horror,
that her supposed helpless patient, made heroically strong
by appetite and the scent of burnt flesh, had dragged him-
self from his bed to his prize, and greatly scorning all the
precautionary wisdom of doctor and nurse, and all the re-
finements of a shallow civilization, had seized the whole
joint with both hands, and, in night-cap and with beard of
a fortnight's growth, sat tearmg the flesh from the bones
like a famished wolf. She told me that, what between ter-
ror of the consequences and the grotesqueness of the spec-
tacle, she did not know whether to faint or to laugh. As
to wheedling it away from him, she might as well have come
between a lion and his prey.
I think it is Marryat who tells us, in one of his novels,
speaking of shipwrecked folks and the Thyestes' feasts to
Avhich hunger compels them, that " no man knows what
hunger really is till he is willing to eat his own brother."
Certainly I do not know, if that be the case. I have some-
times thought — though perhaps you^ with your present
experience, will rebuke the fond presumptuous confidence —
that I would sooner be the meat than the guest at such a
2*
18 THE GllEYSON LETTERS.
feast. Yet the uniformity with whicli the phenomenon
presents itself, when that extremity of hunger presses,
makes me doubt ; at all events, it is one of those cases in
which one w^ould prefer presumptuous ignorance to the
ghastly wisdom of experience.
Well, my friend, be thankful that you are not likely to
be cast on such alternatives. Don't look on your nurse or
your wife with longing eyes, I beseech you. Remember
there are still beeves and sheep and corn in store, and be
thankful.
I have read that, at some siege — of Rochelle, I think —
the inhabitants were driven to such extremity, that after
having cleared off the w^hole race of cats, rats, mice, and all
other unclean beasts, and doubtless even stewed down cast-
off buckskins, and perhaps old boots ("unco tough," as
those of Major Bellenden) for a piece de resistance, they
were driven even to tui'n their parchment title-deeds into a
costly, though, I apprehend, thin j^otage. Tliink of snipj^ing
up three or four hundred a year for a basin of mock vermi-
celli, or to make one poor cup of thin gelatine ! What an
appropriate punishment for an old miser ! Nay, methinks
even the genuine, frank-hearted, hospitable man, who had
called his friends together to partake of this costly, yet
delicate refection, w^ould press them, with a somewhat rue-
ful complaisance, to take a cut of that delicious parchment
fricassee, or try another spoonful of the strong vellum soup !
Thrice happy you ! who are not driven to such Apician
luxuries, — Apician at least in point of expense, if not of so
l^alatable a quality. " But go thy way, eat the fat and drink
the sweet ; " but ah ! forget not the latter part of that ex-
quisite verse, which so beautifully harmonizes permitted
selfish enjoyment with benevolence towards others — "And
send portions to them for whom nothing is provided!''''
Methinks now I hear you grumble out, with your mouth
A LA^y OF ASSOCIATION. ID
full and your spoon going, that you have not enough for
yourself! Well, well, a week or two hence will do ; eat
away just now ; but I promise you I shall be surprised and
disappointed if other people's stomachs are not the better
for your lone: fist. You are not the man to foracet a thank-
offering to Ilim who can so easily disjoin our blessings, and
give us food without appetite, or appetite without food.
Ever yours,
E. E. II. G.
LETTER II.
TO THE SAME.
Dec. 27, 1838.
My deak "West,
There is a peculiarity about our mental constitution
as respects " association," which is worthy, I think, of more
notice than metaphysicians have generally bestowed upon it.
They have said much, and judiciously, on the principles and
laws of suggestion in general, and many of the more remark-
able facts which prove them. But I do not recollect that
the fact, of which I have to-day had experience most painful,
yet not unpleasing, has received the attention it deserves,
though it has been sometimes touched upon. Such facts
seem very instructive, both as affording an indication of the
beneficence with which our mental constitution is construct-
ed, and a presumption of the indestructible vitality which
probably belongs to every thought and emotion that has
once been present to us, — " being graven as with a pen of
iron" on the tablets of memory " forever."
The fact to which I refer is this : — that while, from habit^
those objects become in<:lifferent to us which in themselves
are most likely to excite vivid associations with any of the
20 THE GKEYSON LETTERS.
great events of our past life, and which immediatel}' after
the occurrence of such events, did so to a pitch of rapture
or agony, the most trivial of such objects that happens to
have lain concealed, and is suddenly discovered after a lajDse
of years, shall prove to us that the whole power of associa-
tion is unimpaired. Unlocking the cells of memory which
had been closed perhaps for a quarter of a century, it shall
set the soul deeply musing, and seem to chide it for being
so stolidly forgetful in the daily presence of objects much
more intimately connected Avith our feelings of that distant
date ; and finally perhaps, (as has been the case with me
this day), dissolve us in emotions which we vainly thought
we had ceased to feel for ever ! Thus, for example, on
losing one very dear to us, every object is a Medusa's head ;
the sight, the presence of mere trifles wall excite profound
melancholy, or melt us into tears. But as day after day
passes, new associations deposit themselves, so to speak,
around these objects ; or rather, if I may change the meta-
phor, cover the exposed and exquisite nerves of the bleeding
soul with a new cuticle, and thus mercifully blunt its sensi-
bility. Thus we can still linger in the dwelling wdiich the
death of those we love has for ever darkened, and read the
books again we once read together ; touch the piano, over
which those loved fingers strayed ; sleep in the very cham-
ber where they looked the last look of love ; pass the very
path w^liich leads straight by the sepulchre where we laid
them in such agony of sorrow, and often, yes, often never
think of them at all ! But meantime, in turning out the
contents of an old drawer, in setting to rights a desk or
wardrobe, let but the eye rest on some memorial of the past,
never seen since those happy days, — trivial enough it may
be, — and it seems to come straight to us from the distant
land wdiere they dwell, to upbraid us with our forgetfulness.
It may be a little note, utterly valueless in its contents, but
A LAW OF ASSOCIATION. 21
in that sweet hand ^ve remember so well ; a faded ribbon,
love's gift in those yonthful days ; an old broken pencil case ;
a little book, redolent still of the dying fragrance in which
love had embalmed its gift ; and swift ! — the past is pres-
ent, the distant near ; solemn shapes beckon to ns from the
depths of time ; the voices of memory mnrmur in our ears,
and the soul lives all its sorrows over again vividly as ever.
It has been so with me to-day. It was a trifle, such as the
above mentioned ; a flower, pale and faded, emblematic of
the joys it told of, carefully smoothed and folded, m a little
book. And so it told me when it was given, and to whom,
and for what ; and how it had been taken great care of
when it was first given, and that the book had been faithful
to its trust. I am (shall I confess it ?) half ashamed to say
that I sat down, and looked and mused at the poor symbol
till memory overwhelmed me with the past, and I shed
some of the most bitter and j^assionate tears I have shed
since childhood.
ISTo wonder that the classifications of the laws of sugges-
tion, Hume's three, or Brown's four, or somebody else's
dozen for aught I know, are insufiicient to comprehend all
possible cases of association. Resemblance, contrast, con-
tiguity in time or place, cause and efiect, do not exhaust
them : for to these must be added any relation whatsoever
between any two or more things whatsoever ; and I hope
that is comprehensive enough! Anything may suggest
anything, according to the momentary mood of the individ-
ual mind, as well as according to the laws of mind in general.
But, assuredly, the things now adverted to are presump^
tion of both the fiicts I set out with : — that the past but
" sleeps " and is not " dead " within us ; and that it is a
proof of the beneficence with Avhich the mind has been
constructed, that we become blind and deaf to objects far
more fit to awaken memory than are the rarely seen trifles
22 THE GRFA'SON LETTERS.
that often do what the former cannot. If it were otherwise,
it would be impossible to live in the Avorld at all after any
great trouble. Everything would Avear perpetual mourning
to us. I know no reason why it should not be so : why
everything should not continue to aifect us as strongly as at"
first, or as strongly as these insignificant things which if not
seen for a time possess this strange power ; for to say it is
habit is but to repeat the fact that we are so constituted.
We know no reason ; we can only say that such is our con-
stitution ; and like the other laws of mind, it affords a prj3-
sumption of a beneficent Creator who knew that we must
not remember the ^:)as^ every day, or we could not live the
present day to any purpose : nor wholly forget the past^ but
be held to it by invisible ties, else the discipline of sorrow
and the schooling of life would be for us in vain.
Ever yours,
R. E. H. G.
P. S. — I rejoice to infer from your letter that you are
quite yourself again, and have had no relapse.
LETTER III.
TO THE SA:JrE.
London, March 22, 1839.
My dear "West,
I gave the poor man, as you requested, a few shillings,
because lie came from you ; and if he had been without any
such recommendation, I would gladly have given him as
much to get rid of him. What a terrible hore he is ! He
is, I doubt not (as you say), a sensible man : but there are
people whose sense is worse than other people's nonsense ;
and as you listen to the solid, unimpeachable, prolix, slowly-
pronounced common-place, you feel almost made a convert
A MORAL PROPOSED. 23
to paradox, and are ready to deny everything that the good
soul utters. The truest and the grandest things in the
world suifer inexpressibly from such doleful commentators.
I almost think there ought to be a tax imposed on every
dull good man who ventures to open his lips in the way of
moral prosing, considering the injury he does truth and
goodness ; he ought to be forbidden to preach to his fellow
creatures, except by what is infinitely more persuasive than
any eloquence — good deeds and an attractive example.
It is melancholy to think of the havoc which a dull speaker
will soon make in a crowded audience. The preaching of
some good parsons is like reading the Riot Act, or reminds
one of that ingenious method by which it is said the magis-
trates of St. Petersburg sometimes cool the zeal of a mob in
that genial climate, — that is, by playing on them with a
fire-engine.
I cannot conceive of what use this poor clergyman can be,
unless indeed our churches and chapels were crowded to
suffocation ; then one or two like him might be employed
to itinerate about the country and bring down crowded con-
gregations to par. A very few, however, would be sufii-
cient ; the efifects of the sermon, and consequently its length,
might be regulated by a thermometer. But great care
would be necessary in the ajopUcation : for a little excess in
the duration of the humdrum might end in the extinction
of the audience altogether. In any case, I think, it should
be provided by law that no such enthusiasm-extinguisher
should be permitted to play more than an hour, lest the
congregation should be annihilated. One might then read
such announcements as these : " The church of that lively
preacher, the Rev. , was on Sunday sen'night so exces-
sively crowded, even to the aisles and pulpit-stairs, that it
was found necessary to send for the most ' distinguished ' of
the ' extinguishing' preachers, to counteract the efiJects of
24 THE GKEYSON LETTERS.
his oratory last Sunday night. So effectual was the elo-
quence of this gentleman, that in twenty minutes the ther-
mometer fell ten degrees in the gallery, and the air of the
church before the benediction became delightfully cool and
salubrious !"
But our dull acquaintance told me one thing I was glad
to hear. So young W is really applying to his pro-
fession in earnest. As it was said of some pope (Leo. X.,
if I recollect), that he would have been an excellent man
if he had had but the slightest tincture of reUgioii^ and of
another pope, that he was a very good man for a pope, —
so I am ready to say of our young friend, that he has been
a good student for a young man of expectations, and that
he would make an excellent lawyer, if he had but the
slightest tincture of "law." He certainly has, and emi-
nently, all the qualities of mind which would make an ex-
cellent lawyer: great logical acuteness; ingenuity in the
" invention" of arguments, — I use the word in its rheto-
rical, not in any invidious sense, — and much subtlety and
quickness of apprehension. And so I hope I shall yet hear
of him shining at the bar. If not, — at least if some seri-
ous occupation of life does not engross him, — all his money
will not save him. He is of too lively a temperament, and
too excitable passions, to live a life of fat indolence. " Mo-
ney answereth all things," saith Solomon ; and so it doea
in one sense. It can " answer the purpose " of all things
that it will exchange for, or that will exchange for it ; it
can purchase other people's time, industry, learning, if we
have none of our own, and can even pick up a sort of
second-hand faded beauty and reputation ; but it cannot,
amongst other things, buy the advantages which attend the
very process of producing the things it buys. These advan-
tages of our possessions come in the getting of them, and
are usually far more valuable than the possessions them-
EXTEMPORANEOUS COOKERY. 25
selves ; — I mean freedom from eymui / a mind habitually
preoccupied, and thus shut against many temptations, " not
at home " when Satan knocks at the door ; imagination and
passions in the busy school and under the ferula of the prac-
tical reason, and without leisure to go gaping out into the
streets in search of idleness, mischief, vain hopes, and moral
chuck-farthing; a contented, because a busy mind; the
consciousness of useful exertion at the day's end ; the
healthful weariness which brings healthful repose; all of
which are amongst the guards, if not the rewards of
virtue.
Ever yours affectionately,
R. E. H. G.
LETTER IV.
TO THE SAME.
LoxDON, July, 1839.
Eupr/Ka ! Evpi^Ktt ! Congratulate me, my dear friend. I
am made, for life. If every other resource fail, I find I can
turn cook.
Yesterday was a broiling day with us. I am speaking of
the weather, and you see how naturally I fall into metaphors
congruous to my new occupation. Thermometer at 86 in
the shade.
But to my business ; only follow me to the cuisine^ and
I promise you shall all but die with envy at the thought of
my accompUshments.
My little household yesterday consisted of my sister and
two servants. An old acquaintance of my sister's was
expected to a family dinner. I wanted a little business done
in two different directions, and wished the two servants to
go. " But the dinner ! " said my housekeeper. I looked
3
26 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
despairingly through the Venetian blinds at the blazing sky.
A bright thought struck me. " It is better to roast than
be roasted, any way," said I ; "7" will cook the dinner."
She laughed, and asked " Who would eat it ? " This saucy
challenge confirmed me. " Away with them," said I ;
" put me in possession of the kitchen. What is to be
cooked ? " " Oh, it is only to roast a leg of lamb ; and as
to the pudding, anything you Z/A'e," said she maliciously ;
*' but whether anybody else will like it, I have my doubts."
No sooner said than done. I shut and barred the kitchen
door and went to work. I cudgelled my brains to remem-
ber what I had seen in that region of fiery but pleasing
mysteries when I was a child, and used to Avatch with won-
der and delight, and keen presaging appetite, the progress
of the " neat-handed Phillis." Faint were the " antiquse
vestigia flannnse." However, I made short work with the
fiery part of the process. I looked at the joint — had dim
recollections of having seen it well sprinkled with flour and
then put to the fire : I sprinkled it accordingly, and com-
mended it to Vulcan. " Let him look after it noAv," said
I; "it is his business, and not mine." Then came the
grand arcanum — the pudding. " Simplicity," said I,
" after all, is the great secret of cookery, as of every other
fine art." I resolved on a primitive form, — a pudding
under the meat. That is soon made, I thought. A couple
of handfuls of flour, with a little water, were mixed up in a
bowl ; it was too soft y more flom-, too dry / more water,
too soft ; more flour, too dry ; more water, — and so it
went on, and I began to despair of the fji-q ayav, the 7ie
nimis — tha juste milieu — the — what word can express
the happy mean of solid and fluid, wherein the law of
cohesion only just reigns? Meantime my ugly pudding
was assuming alarmingly voluminous dimensions. At last
I got it of the required consistence, rolled it out into a huge
NE SUTOR. 27
plane that half covered the dripping-pan, and chucked it in
to let it take its chance. I then sat down, complacently
enough, at the further extremity of the cool kitchen with
a book ; occasionally glancing with a curious yet admiring
eye, at the twirling joint, and hearing with much satisfac-
tion the click of the jack as it reversed the motion ; now
and then alarmed, however, lest the whirligig should stop
and involve in catastrophe my entire planetary system. At
length the servants returned, near dinner-time. I abdicated
with secret joy and outward solemnity, and left the kitchen
to their undisputed occupancy. I heard the jades giggling,
as I went up stairs, doubtless at that huge, ill-conditioned,
hapless puddmg that was lying sprawling and seething in
the dripping-pan.
Well, dinner came at last, and was brought in amidst
suppressed titters by Anne, and not sujopressed laughter
from my sister and her friend. I was as grave as a judge,
and felt that, having now provided so elegant a repast, it
became me to do the honors of my table with due ein-
pressement. I played the assiduous Amphitryon accordingly.
As to the pudding, it was a phenomenon. On the south
side, (towards the fire, that is,) scorched to a cinder; on
the north, unknown regions of flabby, ill-looking dough:
the east and west exhibited delicate tints of every shade
between black and white. In the centre a Mediterranean
puddle of dripping. I make no doubt that it was exquisite
in taste, but unhappily I could not get any one to partake
of it. I attributed this, of course, to their wish that I
should have this delicacy, which was the chef (Vceiivre of
my art, all to myself. It was in vain that I assured them
that there was enough and to spare ; they would not hear
of such a thing as depriving me of a j^article of it. Not to
be outdone in politeness, and determined that I would not
greedily appropriate so rare a delicacy to myself, I, with
28 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
much moderation of mind, contented myself with taking on
the tip of my fork the merest morsel, which, I assure you,
I found rich beyond description ; then, rather than seem
selfish, I waived the incomparable dish away. I doubt not,
after all, that my sister and her friend saw it go away with
secret remorse and misgivings ; or were they, after all, so
envious of my skill that they were determined not to be
able to^ bear witness, by an experimentmn gustus^ to my
superiority ? If so, envy, as usual, was its own punishment ;
for, rely upon it, they would never taste any thing like that
pudding again as long as they lived.
" But what as to the leg of Iamb ? " you will say. My
dear friend, it was roasted on the most philosophical prin-
ciples, just as the earth is roasted by the sun ; quite after
the planetary model ; and what more would you have ?
There was the north and south pole, where the arctic and
antarctic fat still lay in primitive whiteness. There w^as the
torrid zone, just opposite the equatorial fire, utterly scorched
up, and unendurable, as the ancients assure us we ought to
find the tropics. But let me tell you, there was on each
side of this a happy strip of a tem2)erate zone, extending a
full inch each way, from w^hich I cut some delicious slices,
and which, if there had but been another parallel or two
of latitude, would have sufficed for the whole household.
You may say, perhaps, that this was not an economic way
of cooking a leg of lamb. But can there be a better ^\^J
than that adopted by the sun Aerself, as our Saxon fathers
would say, — " that fair, hot wench in the flame-colored
tafieta ? " The only improvement I can suggest, and cer-
tainly I shall try it next time, — that is, if I can ever get
admittance into the ciiisme for a second experiment, — is
this ; not to let the axis of revolution be perpendicular to
the plane of the dripping pan, but exactly adjusted to an
angle of 23° 30': in this way I doubt not I shall have a
DEATH-BED CONSOLATIONS. 29
larger temperate region, and shall be able to get dinner
enough for a moderate household out of a couple of legs of
mutton or so. Give me your felicitations, I beseech you,
on this happy occurrence in the history of your friend, and
believe me
Yours truly,
E. E. H. G.
P. S. — Should you be giving any large parties durmg the
coming winter, I shall be most happy, as Counsellor Pley-
dell said, in reference to the " sauce for the wild ducks,"
to give you " my poor thoughts " on any of the more diffi-
cult entrees or entreinets you may be ambitious of trying.
LETTER V.
TO THE SAME.
Auff. 1839.
My Dear "West,
I have often wondered what an Atheist can have to say
at a death-bed : though I suppose he is seldom present at
any — except his own. It must surely be an awkward place
for hira. A man who thinks this w^orld all, must find it hard
to say anything consolatory to one who feels that all fleet-
ing away from him. How consoling it must be for a wife
to be told by her husband — " We are about, my dear crea-
ture, to part, — and to part forever ; but let not that disturb
you ; let me remind you that it is a universal law. You
are nothing but a chance-composition of organic molecules,
nor am I anything more ; we shall never have individual
consciousness again. But let me tell you, for your unspeak-
able consolation, that you will pass into new forms, and
sublimely, though unconsciously, last forever I " The conso-
lation is "unspeakable."
3*
30 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
On the other hand, the Christian at a death-bed has often
just as Uttle to say ; not because nothing can be said — but
because Uttle need be. I will give you an example.
I was recently asked one summer evening by a friend (a
medical man in the country, with whom I was staying) to
visit the cottage of a poor fellow whose wife was dying of
consumption. It was just one of the common cases ; the
germs of our national j^lague were in her constitution from
the beginning. She had married ; she had borne one child.
Soon after her confinement, the symptoms of consumption
rai^idly develoj^ed themselves ; and she bore up bravely
against the malady as long as she could. Her husband had
obtained for her all the comforts he could command ; and
my benevolent friend, the practitioner aforesaid, bestowed
all his skill gratis. He had, on the like charitable terms,
obtained the opinion of a physician, because he thought it
would be an additional satisfaction to his poor patient to
know that no meaps had been left untried. The physician
saw at a glance that nothing was to be done — except the
painful task of saying so ; a task, however, which he shrank
from performing. The usual jDalliatives in the early and
later stages had all been tried with the customary fruitless-
ness ; and all that, as usual, was left for the physician, Avas
to " indorse " the customary declaration respecting his
brother-practitioner's most judicious and most useless treat-
ment, and certify that the patient was dying in the very
best way possible under the conduct of much human wisdom
and skill, — which means, in all such cases, human ignorance
and impotence.
I told her as gently as I could — what I supposed not only
her own fears had told her already, but my medical friend also
— that human art could do no more and that she must prepare
to die. The husband was sitting by her bed-side. I saw a
shudder pass through his frame, and that hope had only that
DEATH-BED CONSOLATIONS. 31
moment been dislodged from his heart ; he looked at me with
a peculiar expression of mingled stupefaction and hon-or. But
he broke out into no womanly complaints, for he was a strong
minded man. After a moment, he turned a fixed look of pecu-
liarly solemn tenderness on his wife, and gently laid his hand
in hers, as if he w^ould arrest her as she was setting out on the
dark passage. On the other hand, to my surprise, she w^as far
less aifected than he. She received the tidino-s wdth calm
and silent acquiescence ; then said simply, " I am j^repared
for it; I have sometimes felt it must be so." She glanced
at the opened Bible which her husband had been reading to
her, and turning to him, said — " We shall meet again ; I
know Whom I have believed ; and you know Him too.
In our Father's house are many mansions, and He has gone
to prepare a place for us." She quoted some of the pas-
sages which glow with the poetry of heaven and immor-
tality ; and as he listened, his sorrow seemed to catch
bright gleams from the reflection of her ow^n calm enthu-
siasm ; like a dark cloud at the close of a wintry day, which
the setting sun suddenly lights up with a glow of transient
splendor. I sat gazing upon them in speechless sympathy.
They did not seem sensible of my presence ; for they were
absorbed in those all-unutterable thoughts which make the
presence of all the world just the same as solitude. Keither
did they say much ; they were talking with their eyes, and
were speaking volumes in moments of time.
Here was a strange thing ! Here was something, then,
that had reversed the natural position of these two crea-
tures. The peace was hers, w^ho w^as about to die — the
perturbation and the sorrow chiefly his, wdio w^as to live :
nay, whatever softened gleam of lustre relieved his sorrow
was the brigl^t reflection of her setting glory. " Let it be
all a grand delusion," thought I ; " yet since Death is, for
all of us, the great event of life — in the transaction of
32 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
which we live more than a life, while those who survive
have the whole of after-life affected by it, — how priceless
must be that, whatever it is, which gives hopes like these !"
The cottage window was open ; the setting sun shone in
with a flood of radiance ; the evening zephyr, laden with
the fi-agrant breath of jasmine and honeysuckle, gently
stirred the window-curtains to and fro, as though minister-
ing spirits were stealing in and out of that peaceful room.
At any other moment I should have regarded all this as a
horrible incongruity. I can recollect that qjice or twice in
my life, in the chamber of the dying, I have lifted the win-
dow-curtain in the weary morning watch, and, as I looked
into the cold gray dawn, and saw the last pale stars so peace-
fully shining and heard the faint preluding twitter of the birds
beginning their matin carol ; or, more incongruous still ! —
caught a glimpse of the broad sun lifting up his jocund
face from the horizon, and calling a busy, thoughtless world
to renewed activity and care, — I have thought it almost a
sin in nature to be so deeply peaceful while humanity lay
wrestling there in its last agony. But I had no such
thoughts on this occasion. The setting sun, which shone
through and through the clouds which lay on the horizon,
and turned them to molten gold, seemed to me a fitting
emblem of a Hope which thus converted the darkest sor-
rows of life into a diadem of glory. The living world it
was which now looked so cold and dreary. It was we — the
living — who seemed to have our faces towards the bleak
north, and to be journeying from the sun. To him, to me
also, from sympathy — she seemed the enviable. She was
about to be born — born into Immortality ; while we, the liv-
ing, were but ensepulchred in a world on which the shad-
ows of night and death lay so heavy ^
Who shall estimate the value, in such an hour, of that
hope and faith which thus lead the parting soul to enter on
DEATH-BED CONSOLATIONS. 33
its lonely journey with tranqnillity ? which enables the ear
(as it were) already to catch, as we descend the dim -pas-
sage between this world and the next, the sound of the key
turning in the lock which shuts out from us eternal sunshine ;
the key of " Him who opens and no man shuts, who shuts
and no man opens ; " of Him who Himself passed through
the same " via dolorosa," but who, as His faithful disciples
enter it, lovingly shows Himself at the gate which opens
into Paradise, lets in on the ravished soul the streaming
light of the everlasting day, and suffers it to catch glimpses
of the ever-vernal scenes beyond ?
"It is all a dream," says the Atheist. Then let me
dream on, you fool. The dream is better than reality —
this falsehood than the truth !
For what is your truth worth, most truth-loving Atheist,
in that hour to which these poor souls had come, and to
which all must come in a few short years of troubled joys,
j^erhaps of hardly any joys at all ?
Let us hold fast to our lie, my friend, if it be one ; for it
is infinitely better than an Atheist's verities. The time
must come at last when the value of his theories must be
tried ; the one hour, when only to have lived in happiness,
if there be nothing further to hope, will inflict a pang for
which that happiness is no compensation ; hoAV much less if
there be not only nothing to hope, but everything to fear !
Yours ever,
E. E. H. G.
34 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
LETTER YI.
TO MES. C 11 .
London, 1839
JMy Sweet Cousin,
I liave in vain tried to tell a lie for your sake, and say, —
I condole with you.
But it is impossible. Plow can I, with my deep convic-
tions that your little floweret, and every other so fading, is
but transplanted into the more congenial soil of Paradise,
and shall there bloom and be fragrant forever ? How can I
lament for one who has so cheaply become an " heir of im-
mortality ? " who will never remember his native home of
earth, nor the transient pang by which he was born into
heaven ! who will never even know that he has suffered ex-
cept by being told so ! Shall we lament that he has not
shared our fatal privilege of an experience of guilt and
sorrow ? Is this so precious that we can wish him partaker
of it ? My cousin, those who die in childhood are to be
envied and felicitated, not dej^lored ; so soon, so happily
have they escaped all that we must wish never to have
known.
" Innocent souls, thus set so early free
From sin, and sorrow, and mortality."
who can weep for them^ as he thinks of the fearful hazards
that all must run who have gro^vTi up to a personal acquaint-
ance with sin and misery ?
An ancient Greek historian tells us it was a custom among
a people of Scythia to celebrate the birth of a child with
the same mournful solemnities with which the rest of the
world celebrate a funeral. So intensely dark, yet so true
(apart from the gospel), was the view they took of what
awaits man in life ! The custom was fully justified, in my
ON THE LOSS OF AN INFANT. 35
judgment, by a heathen view of thhigs ; and if it would be
unseemly among us, it is only because Christianity has
brought " life and immortality to light," and assures us that
this world may become, for all of us, the vestibule of a
better.
" You are very philosophical," you will say ; " you talk
very fine — but you do not feel as you talk." Excuse me,
my dear, I talk just as I have always felt ever since I came to a
knowledge of Christianity and of human life ; and often — yes,
often in the course of my own, (and let the thought be con-
solation to you, for how do you know that your little one
might not have tasted the same bitter experience ?) — often
in the course of my life, as I have looked back and seen how
much of it has been blurred and wasted ; what perils I have
run of spiritual shipwreck ; what clouds of doubt still often
descend and envelop the soul ; what agonies of sorrow I
have passed through, — often have I cried, with hands smit-
ing each other and a broken voice, " Oh ! that I had been
thus privileged early to depart ! " — But you cannot imag-
ine a mother echoing such feelings in relation to her own
child ! Can you not ? Come, let us see.
There was once a mother, kneeling by the bedside of the
little one whom she hourly expected to lose. With what
eyes of passionate love had she watched every change in
that beautiful face ! How had her eyes pierced the heart of
the physician, at his last visit, when they glared rather than
asked the question whether there yet was hope ! How had
she wearied heaven with vows that if it would but grant —
" Ah ! " you say, " you can imagine all that without any
difficulty at all."
Imagine this too. Overwearied with watching, she fell
into a doze beside the couch of her infant, and she dreamt
in a few moments (as we are wont to do) the seeming his-
tory of long years. She thought she heard a voice from
36 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
heaven say to her, as to Ilezeldah, " I have seen thy tears,
I have heard tliy prayers ; he shall live ; and yourself shall
have the roll of his history presented to you." " Ah ! "
you say, " you can imagine all that too."
And straightway she thought she saw her sweet child in
the bloom of health, innocent and playful as her fond heart
could wish.
Yet a little while, and she saw him in the flush of open-
ing youth ; beautiful as ever, but beautiful as a young
panther, from whose eyes wild flashes and fitful passion ever
and anon gleamed; and she thought how beautiful he
looked, even in those moods, for she was a mother. But
she also thought how many tears and sorrows may be need-
ful to temper or quench those fires !
And she seemed to follow him through a rapid succession
of scenes — now of troubled sunshine, now^ of deep gather-
ing gloom. His sorrows were all of a common lot, but
mvolved a sum of agony far greater than that which she
would have felt from his early loss : yes, greater even to
her — and how much greater to him ! She saw him more
than once wrestling with pangs more agonizing than those
which now threatened his infancy ; she saw him involved in
error, and with difiiculty extricating himself; betrayed into
youthful sins, and repenting with scalding tears; she saw
him half ruined by transient prosperity, and scourged into
tardy wisdom only by long adversity ; she saw him worn
and haggard with care — his spirit crushed, and his early
beauty all wan and blasted ; worse still, she saw him thrice
stricken with that very shaft which she had so dreaded
to feel but once, and mourned to think that her prayers had
prevailed to prevent her ow^n sorrows only to multiply his ;
worst of all, she saw him, as she thought, in a darkened
chamber, kneeling beside a cofiin in which Youth and
Beauty slept their last sleep ; and, as it seemed, her own
ON THE LOSS OF AN INFANT. 87
image stood beside hira, and uttered unheeded love to a
sorrow that " refused to be comforted ; " and as she gazed
on that face of stony despair, she seemed to hear a voice
which said, " If thou icilt have thy floweret of earth unfold
on earth, thou must not wonder at bleak winters and inclem-
ent skies. Z would have transplanted it to a more genial
clime ; but thou wouldest not." And with a cry of terror
she awoke.
She turned to the sleeping figure before her, and, sob-
bing, hoped it was sleeping its last sleep. She listened for
his breathing — she heard none ; she lifted the taper to his
lips — the flame wavered not ; he had indeed passed away
while she dreamed that he lived ; and she rose from her
knees, — and was comfokted.
" Ah ! " you will say, — " These sorrows could 7iever have
been the lot of my sweet child ! " It is hard to set one's
logic against a mother's love : I can only remind you, my
dear cousin, that it has been the lot of thousands, whose
mothers, as their little ones crowed and laughed in their
arms in childish happiness, would have sworn to the same
impossibility. But for you^ — you know what they could
only believe ; — that it is and impossibility. Nay, I might
hint at yet profounder consolation, if indeed, there ever ex-
isted a mother who could fancy that, in the case of her oicn
child, it could never be needed. Yet facts sufliciently show
us, that what the dreaming mother saw, — errors re-
trieved, sins committed but repented of, and sorrows that
taught wisdom, — are not always seen, and that children
may, in spite of all, persist in exploring the path of evil —
" deeper and deeper still ! " With the shadow of uncer-
tainty whether it may not be so with any child, is there no
consolation in thinking that even that shadow has passed
away ? For ought we know, many and many a mother
may hereafter hear her lost darling say — " Sweet mother, I
4
38 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
was taken from you a little while, only that I might abide
with you forever ! "
Remember Coleridge's " Epitaph on an Infant," and let
it console you :
" Ere Sin could blight or Sorrow fade.
Death came with friendly care,
The opening bud to heaven conveyed,
And bade it blossom there."
Ever yours affectionately,
E. E. H. G.
LETTER YII.
T o c. maso:n-, esq.
London, 1839.
My dear Mason,
I have been writing to our charming cousin Mrs. R
a letter — of condolence I can hardly call it ; of congratula-
tion, it ought rather to be called — on the death of her little
one. And why should it not ? Now do not think me
another Herod — for I do not wish sucklings to be sent out
of the world in his fashion ; but I never could understand
the extreme sorrow which mothers in general evince at the
death of very young infants ; " Rachel weeping for her chil-
dren, and refusing to be comforted." The absolute uncer-
tainty of a child's lot, if spared, and the certainty (as I take
it) that all dying in their cradles are nurselings of heaven ;
not only snatched from much suffering and temptation, but
made happy in Him who has '' redeemed them " to himself,
who on earth so expressly challenged them for his own, and
who, I doubt not, will welcome them to Paradise, is suffi-
cient to reconcile my mind to their death. Why should
we grudge them their early rest, or wish to postpone it ;
QUERY — CONDOLENCE OB CONGRATULATION? 89
nay, as far as we can see, endanger it, by keeping tliera
here ? When our Saviour was on earth, mothers pressed
with their infants to let them be encircled in those lovino:
arms, and have His hand rest upon their little heads one
moment. Why should they repine that He takes them from
their unsafe guardianship, and folds them in the " everlast-
ing arms " for ever ? that they are gone where they are to
know only good without evil, and joy, but never sorrow ?
But it is hard to get any mother to subscribe to this
sound doctrine ; they won't believe that a little one of theirs
has aught but a bright life before him ; and I dare say
Madam Eve never for a moment dreamt that little Master
Cain could come to any ill.
It may be morbid, — I dare say it is, — but I never could
look on childhood's green leaf without thinking of the sear
of autumn, and mourning that it should live to reach it.
" Time that spoils all things, " says Cowper, " will turn my
kitten into a cat ; " or as Bishop Earle says of the young
child — " The older he is, he is a stair lower from God, and,
like his first father, much worse in his breeches. " I feel
with the good old humorist — " Could the child put off his
body with his child's coat, he had got eternity without a
burden, and exchanged but one heaven for another."
For my part, I fancy I should not grieve if the whole
race of mankind died in its fourth year. " If that were the
case, " you will say, " the human race would die out in the
next generation." Very true ; and as far as loe can see, I
do not know that it would be a thing much to be lamented ;
but since it is not His will, who permits this world of sin
and sorrow to continue, it becomes us to beheve, though we
cannot see, that it is for the best.
I have often thought that if (as I think the ISTew Testa-
ment and reason equally teach us, maugre the opinion of
some uncharitable fethers who thought the contrary,) all,
40 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
wlio die infants, are young denizens of heaven, we may look
with somewhat mitigated horror even on one of the worst
practices of the heathen, — though, as usual, the undesign-
ed consequences do not make their actions the less atrocious.
Infimticide, we may well hope, has peopled heaven with
myriads upon myriads of happy immortals, who, if they had
grown up, would have worn scalps at their girdles, and
been devout worshippers of the great ''Tonguataboo," or
some such divine monster. The Arch-enemy has in this
case outwitted himself; he has been rendering heaven more
populous, much against his will; hounding into the ever-
lasting fold the young lambs of the flock, who would other-
w^ise have lost themselves on the " dark mountains. " "The
tender mercies of the wicked are cruel ; " it is well that
sometimes his cruelties should undesignedly turn out merciful.
In serious earnest, however, I think that of all calamities
Providence visits us with, that of the loss of an infant a few
days old is, with the New Testament in our hands, about
the most tolerable. That cup has but a very slight tincture
of the waters of Marah ; others require skilful infusion of all
the mgredients of the Gospel to turn them into a cup of
thanksgiving, — or even overcome their mtense bitterness.
But do not tell Charlotte this, — or she will certainly think
me hard-hearted.
I rejoice that you have got fifty pounds for your "Dis-
pensary " from so unexpected a source. I can hardly be-
lieve that you are not jesting with me. Surely you must
have had the old miser at some advantage, given you by
your art ; perhaps he thought himself at death's door, —
and you secretly threatened, — if he did not do the hand-
some thing, — to let him die unaided by professional skill.
Would that be an evil ? some calumniators of your art
might say.
I can assure you I feel much as Fontenelle did, when
ANECDOTE OF A MISER. 41
Regnier, secretary of the French Academy, was collectmg
subscriptions of the members for some common object, and
inadvertently applied to the President Roses (who was an
old miser) a second time. He said he had paid. " I be-
lieve yon, " politely said Regnier, " though I did not see it ;
"and I," said Fontenelle, "though I saw it, do not believe it."
Your miserly patient, in the complacency with which he
gloats on his successful speculations, and recounts his acts
of saving as if they were highly virtuous, — reminds me of
an old Lancashire gentleman who lived and died under a
similar delusion. " Yes " — said he, with much gravity, to
a worthy clergyman who was visiting him, and enlarging
on the use of the talents committed to us, — "yes, — sir,
very true ; God has given all of us our talents^ which must
be diligently em^^loyed. I trust it has been my own case ;
he has given me, I know, a talent for business, and I have a
humble hope that I have not hidden it in a napkin. " " A
word spoken in season, how good is it ! " " So let your
light shine before men ! "
The utter unconsciousness of the old miser that he had
said anything ridiculous, must have put the gravity of the
spiritual adviser to a severe test.
I remember reading a clever epigram, I think . of Herder,
on the man who " had hidden the single talent, " and " re-
turned his lord's money;" it is very happy; but I cannot
recall it. I only remember that it felicitously hits off the
sordid temper of the man, and his rigorous sense of meum
and tuum / for he takes care in unwrapping the talent to
reclaim the — handkerchief!
" Take that Is — thine,
The handkerchief is — mine."
Yours ever,
K. E. II G.
4*
42 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
LETTER YIII.
TO THE SAME.
LONDON, Aug. 1839.
My dear Mason,
I am rejoiced to find that the fifty pounds' donation was
a " spontaneous " act, and that your art had nothing to do
with it. Wonders will never cease ; at least let us hoj)e so :
this, the first of the series, is at all events a staggerer. But
He who made the rock pour forth water to cheer the desert
withal, can no doubt make even the heart of a miser, — the
nether mill-stone is pumice-stone to it, — soft and tender.
Certainly there is no one passion of man so enthralling as
the love of money ; nor was it without a profound knowl-
edge of the depths of the human heart, that those ominous
words were spoken. " How hardly shall they that have
riches ! " I have often endeavored to account to my-
self, speculatively, for the peculiar intensity of this so child-
ish a passion ; for money is really of no use the moment the
miser gets hold of it. This curious idolater is content to
deprive his god of the only attribute it possesses, and to live
without the very things, the power of purchasing which is
its solitary prerogative ! I have often, I say, speculated
upon the folly, but I have never been able fully to satisfy
myself. It is worse than the worship of the dead ^ there,
in theory at least, the incense is offered not to the deserted
shrine of the departed spirit, but to the spirit itself, ad
mtliera latum / here it is to the mere mortal cerement of
gold, which has been stripped of its only use, robbed of its
only power ; it has been voluntarily thus divested, so that
the fool actually kills his god, and then falls down and
adores it.
Is it that, as the love of gold itself is what moralists call
ANECDOTE. 43
a " secondary " passion, — a passion transferred from the
object symbolized to the symbol itself, — men are permitted,
as the instances of perverted desires and unnatural appe-
tite, to punish themselves by more miserable dotage than
ever the natural passion or appetite is likely to fall into ?
Is it that, as all acquired tastes are stronger than natural
ones, this follows the same law ? Is it that, as it is usually
of slow growth, but of life-long continuance, the strength
of habit is simply proportioned to the length of indulgence
and the frequency of impression ? Is it that, as it gets
stronger and stronger as other passions decay, it engrosses
and monopolizes all the remaining energies of our nature to
itself? Is it that, as it usually obtains its full dominion as
our minds get feebler, there is less power in the declining
faculties to resist and control it, and so the whole soul falls
into a childish, all but idiotic, submission to it ? Or is its
ascendency due to all or several of these things combined ?
I know not ; but certainly of all the mysteries of our pitia-
ble huihanity, none is more profound than is presented in
the spectacle of a miser clothed in rags, dwelling m squalid
want, depriving himself of the ordinary comforts of life,
yet gloating with insane delight over that worthless gold,
which he has first divested of all its activity, and then gives it
its apotheosis ? Such a worshipper certainly makes a great
sacrifice ; for he sacrifices himself and his god too, to the
fervor of his adoration.
I heard of a sad " night-scene " the other day, which
would do as an accompaniment to your " morning-scene ! "
Your old acquaintance's soul is, I hope, opening to the
dawn, though it will be a late wintry morning, and a brief
day at best. The soul of the unhappy mortal of whom I
speak closed to the light in mid-day ; that is, he closed his
own shutters, by which any man may make night when he
pleases. It is a striking example of the power of riches, or
2*
44 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
fancied riches ; for here everything is by comparison. He
was a young man in the receipt of a decent salary in some
merchant's office, — just enough to provide him with every
comfort and some luxuries ; but nothing to spare " worth
saving," as we say. He was liberal to tlie full measure of
his ability, and brought out his guinea to religious and
benevolent objects as freely as any. He had a bequest from
a distant relative, (some three or four thousand pounds, I
believe,) suddenly left him. Now mark the sequel, and see
what a fool human nature can make of itself My infor-
mant tells me that a gentleman who had been in the habit
of receiving this man's annual contribution to some phi-
lanthroj^ic society, congratulated himself that, on his next
visit to the happy legatee, he should probably get " first
fruits," " thank offerings," and heaven knows what, besides
the annual guinea ! A few months after the bequest he
called, and to his surprise found the metamorphosed man
would not give him a farthing. No representations of the
astonished visitor could make the slightest impression. At
last he said, " Why, Mr. , you always used to be most
liberal, and I cannot account for your present mood at all.
I thought that having, as I hear, come in for a considerable
legacy, you would probably have doubled your subscription.
" That," said the unhappy man, " is the very reason why I
can give you nothing. While I was in the receipt merely
of my salary, I could save nothing. But now that I have a
larger sum, which I am not compelled to touch, and which
will go on accumulating, every little I can add to it will
telV* And from this he could not be beaten off. It is a
very instructive anecdote, and might almost make one pray —
only that it is, in most cases so very superfluous — that no
wealthy friend may mention us in his will, lest he should be
unwittingly consigning to us the poisoned robe of Nessus !
Ever yours faithfully,
E. E. H. G.
TO A RELATIVE IN INDLV, 45
LETTER IX.
TO HIS SISTEE, MES. EVANS, IN INDIA.
London, Dec. 1838.
My Dear Kate,
At length comes a letter of gossip, that " savory " food,
which, like Isaac's venison, every lady " loveth." I have
at last, at your request, been down to our native village
and traversed the " old scenes ; " nay, old no longer ;
for had I been transported to some spot m your India, or
woke up like Rip Van Winkle after a thirty years' sleep, I
could hardly have been more bewildered. You talk of the
" dear familiar spots so bright in memory ; " but I fancy
you would hardly recognize them if you saw them. As to
your request that I would send you a sketch or two, it is
out of the question ; any chance picture in a book of travels,
of some new " Troy " or " Jericho " rising in the far west,
would be quite as Hke.
If, then, as you say, the transcripts in your memory are
vivid and bright, be pleased to keep them so, for that is all
you are likely to get. You speak as if everything in " Old
England " were exempt from the law of change ; as if its
houses were fossil remains, its men and women petrifactions (a
good many of them may be) ; its scenery stereotyped. Now,
my dear, I want to tell you, that we are passing through a
great social revolution which will change the face of this
country more in the next fifty than it has been in the last
three hundred years.
It is hard to say what remote villages the huge network
of our railways, when completed, will not embrace ; what
towns the diversion of traffic may not leave, like stranded
vessels, high and dry on the beach, to rot — no more to be
touched by the refluent tide ; or what obscure hamlets
46 THE GREYSON LETTERS
may not be turned into busy marts of a new created
commerce.
Our native hamlet is just going through the process of
decomposition / whether it will ever be reconstructed into
something better, I know not. The great railway, of which
you have heard, between London and Birmingham, and
which is expected to be opened through its entire length
next summer, passes straight by Berkhampstead, • — sweet
Cowper's birthplace, — and steers through that little home-
stead a few miles beyond, which is the birthplace of our
less celebrated selves. It cuts the quaint garden in two,
and has parted for ever the old house, which still stands in
rickety desolation, from the summer house, which is tot-
tering in still greater decrepitude on the other side of a
huge embankment along which the railway passes. So
there is an end of your dreams of my tasting once more the
fruit of the ancient mulberry-tree, and of my sending you
a honeysuckle, or rose or two, from the fragrant wreaths
which used to mantle the porch. But I can send you a few
cinders that have dropped from one of the " puffing mon-
sters " that roar and rush in triumph through this scene of
desolation, — if that will be of any solace to you. But I
forget ; you can have no conception of these monsters.
Well, then, imagine that sons and daughters of Gorgon and
Briareus, Gog and Magog, have intermarried for some
generations, and that a railway locomotive is a promising
scion of the family.
Just at the end of the little meadow, and by the copse
where we used to watch the setting sun, is an interesting
collection of staring red brick workmen's cottages, — back
to back in admirable uniformity, — with a little interval of
cabbage-garden between them, and displaying a charming
vista, (but not so pervious to the sun as the old foliage,)
of sheets, gowns, and petticoats flaunting in the breeze.
TO A RELATIVE IX INDIA. 47
At the end of the row, of course, there is a public house
wilji an ambitious sign of the " Railway Tavern," whence
I smelt fumes as I passed very unlike the scent of jasmine,
and heard strains not much like those of your piano, my
love, though they recalled it.
From thence I wandered over the four fields into the
village, which, though greatly metamorphosed, and bearing
certain equivocal marks of " progress " and " civilization "
in the shape of three beer shops and one little methodist
chapel, was not so changed as to be beyond recognition.
The little green pool by Farmer Bloomfield's, — (another
occupant now dwells there, and has done so these fifteen
years,) — was as verdant as ever ; and in it were dabbling
some geese that might, for aught I know, have been lineal
descendants of those that furnished forth our Michaelmas
dinner thirty years ago : but who shall say ? It is certain
they made much the same noise, and looked uncommonly
like.
I thence strolled to the little squab church and its quiet
churchyard, which, except that the last looked rather more
populous with silent inhabitants than in days of yore, seemed
nearly unaltered. The well-remembered grassy mounds in
the corner remain untouched, and the loved ones beneath
still slumber peacefully there. It is a good thing the great
railway did not require to pass through the churchyard, or,
sure as fate, the monster would have done so without cere-
mony or compunction, and hustled the poor skeletons to the
right and left in premature resurrection.
I spent some time in the churchyard spelling out the
names of some of the old inhabitants of our early days, and
beholding, with pleased surprise, from the (as usual) truth-
ful epitaphs, that many of them were garnished and deco-
rated with virtues of which, while they lived, I had not the
48 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
smallest suspicion ; so artfully had Christian humility con-
cealed their excellencies !
Superstition no longer deifies the dead, but affection an-
gelizes them. For my part, I think if I were bedaubed and
bedizened with one of the tawdry epitaj^hs I have some-
times seen in a country churchyard, it would be enough to
make me get up in the night and scratch it out. There was
our old acquaintance, farmer Veesey's fat wife, who re-
sembled, (as some one said of her like,) " a fillet of veal
upon castors," decked out in a suit of virtues which might
not have misbecome a seraph. Several others of our old
acquaintances I found were such wives, mothers, neighbors,
friends ; so charitable, gentle, forgiving! Surely the parson
in our time must have had an easy time of it, an absolute
sinecure with such a flock.
It is really odd to see so much wickedness above ground,
and so much goodness under it. Ah ! if they could but
change places, what a pleasant world it would be ! Or
rather, perhaps we ought to say, " Who can wonder, that
so much iniquity is left among the living, when such cart-
loads of all the cardinal and other virtues are thus yearly
shovelled into the earth by the undertaker ? " Any way,
however, it is a pleasant thing to find our old friends im-
proved by keeping ; and looking better in their winding-
sheets than ever they did in silks or satins.
As I had a fine autumn day before me, I made across the
country by Berkhampstead and Boxmoor to Church End,
and the common beyond, where I passed so many " bitter-
sweet," happy-miserable hours in my first school days, and
recognized the very spot where, on a fine May evening,
sprawling on the green sward, while my companions were
at play at a little distance, I had, at eight or nine years of
age, my first notion of — " Love," you will say, like a woman
as you are. Pooh ! my dear ; pray do not put such thoughts
TO A RELATIVE IN INDIA. 49
into a child's head ; no, I was no more thinking of love than
you, under the blazing sun of India, are thinking of a Christ-
mas dinner of roast beef and plum pudding. I was thinking
of something very different and of much more importance ;
it was then that I had, if you oniist know, my first notion
of the " Infinite." " There," you will say, " that will do ;
pray do not trouble me w^ith any of the metaphysical stuff
of which you used to be so fond." But, begging your par-
don, madam, it will oiot do, for I consider the phenomenon
a rather striking one. " And pray, then, what were your
thoughts ? I imagine my deej^ly interested sister to ask.
"Ah ! it is imagination," you reply, " for I feel no curiosity
in the matter." I can hear you, my dear, at this distance,
right across the equator, as plain as if you were at my
elbow. You are not at all interested, you protest, in any
such philosophic gibberish. Well, then, I will be brief. As
I lay sprawling on my back, day-dreaming as I too often
used to do, and do still, I saw the stars come gleaming out
in the deep azure, one after another, and I said to myself,
" Suppose I could fly up to that bright star ;" looking at
one relatively nearj that is, not more than a few billions
of millions of miles or so from me. — " What if I could fly
up there ? " I thought within myself again. " Well, what
then ? Suppose I could get to the little faint spark beyond
that. Well, what then ? And then to the fainter, paler,
twinkling light beyond ; still, w^iat then ? Should I here
come to the end of the — Goodness gracious ! — end of
\chat f If there is anything to end the Avorld, it must be
still something which ends it, and therefore there cannot be
any end ; " and so, at all events, ended the catechism ; and
the notion dawned upon me that there was and must be an
Infinite^ and that " Space" was one of its forms. I do not
think I have advanced much beyond that point in my phi-
losophy to this day ; I fancy all we know is about as much
5
50 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
as this — that there must be an Infinite — and that it is a
contradiction to think otherwise ; that the mind has no pos-
itive notion of it, otherwise the finite would not comprehend
the Infinite, — a contradiction too ; and lastly, that the
mode in which the notion is developed in iis, is by some
such process of successive augmentation of magnitudes as
that to which my boyish logic was invited on that May
evening. So, if you ask, as you doubtless will, for a philos-
ophy of the infinite — voila ! and in a form finite enough.
La pliilosophle
De I'Infini —
C'est, dans ces petits mots, tout compris.*
Have you "perpended" and "prehended" my words.
" Not a whit," you will say ; " I really have not time to at-
tend to any such nonsense ; I must go and look after the
Captain's curry." Well, I acknowledge that I have been
too brief, but I Avas obliged not to be " tedious ;'''' to wdiich
I can imagine you saying, as the cruel Canning once said to
a clerg-yman who gave the same reason for his brevity —
" But you ivere tedious." Now do not say that I have put
the saucy speech into your mouth ♦ I know beforehand that
you will think some such thing ; for in truth, Kate, you are
incorrigible.
Well, then, to leave the Infinite. I saw on the Common
the noble tree, a huge arm of which nearly crushed me when
about nine years of age, as I was listening to the glorious
music of its foliage, and that of its giant fellows on a stormy
autumn day ; — the stream in which I was nearly drowned,
at about the same aofe, and whence I was dracr^ed insensi-
ble to the bank ; - — and the pool in wdiich I broke the ice,
* For the benefit of the general reader, a translation of the foreign
words and phrases oceurring in these pages has been furnished at the end
of the volume.
TO A RELATIVE IX INDIA. 51
and sank in up to my neck — a foot or two further in, and
there would have been an end of me, I suppose. As I re-
called these narrow escapes, I felt strangely moved, dear
Kate, by opposite emotions ; now filled with grateful love
to that gracious Being who, unseen, "guided me in the
slippery paths of youth," and " led me up to man ; " and
now with something like repining, as I looked back on many
a blotted, wasted page in my life, that the little history was
not cut short with the first chapter. " It had been better,"
I muttered, " had the tree — the stream — the ice " — but
better feelings prevailed, and I ended with very sincerely
calling myself an ungrateful dog. " You know," I said to
myself, " that like all the rest of your grumbling race, you
deserve more kicks than halfpence, and yet you have re-
ceived more halfpence than kicks ; be thankful that you have
been spared so long, strive that the residue of your years
may be more useful than the past, and remember " the bar-
ren fig tree ! " And so I hope, dear Kate, that the ramble
did me good.
I wisli I could find a remedy for my lapses into doubt and
despondency. They are, I often flatter myself, physical in
their origin; so whispers indolence, and so whispers, per-
haps, good sense. But it is a consolation I am slow to ap-
ply, for it is rather dangerous to administer such opiate
cataplasms to an inert will and feeble faith. They may go
a great way to make a man contented not to strive against
vincible infirmities. By the way, our men of science — a
few that is, and a few philanthropists as great fools as they
— are providing admirable p/i?/5ic«7 explanations of all moral
evil. If a man put his hand into his neighbor's pocket,
poor soul ! it is entirely the fault of a peculiar cerebral or-
ganization ! So runs the cant. If he commits murder, he
is an unfortunate victim of a morbid condition of the ner-
vous system ! There is one comfort to be sure, that society
52 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
will hano" him from a similar morbid condition of i7s nervous
system ; if the one be necessitated to murder, so will the
other be to hang.
Thank you for the pretty little specimens of Indian coin ;
the two or three sicca rupees, however, I should rather have
had a " lac " of. But my tastes, my dear, are not so exclu-
sively antiquarian or foreign as to be displeased with our
own coins ; and if you can conveniently send a bushel or
two of English sovereigns, I assure you they will range very
well in my cabinet with the Indian specimens.
Your promise to send your little Kate next year, fills me
with delight ; her education shall be well cared for. As for
your grave caution that I am not to spoil the little thing, I
shall simply say, it is pretty well from a fond mother, and
she too an Indian mother ! Why, my dear, I shall be only
too thankful if I do not find the thing already done to my
hands. Kiss the little pet for me. I long to hear her gab-
ble her Hindostanee gibberish, and sing " Ruanah Keesti."
My kind regards to the Captain, and tell him I hoj^e he will
not forget his promise to send the MS. notes of his journey
to the Himalayas.
Believe me, my ever dear sister.
Yours afiectionately,
K. E. H. G.
LETTER X.
TO C. MASON, ESQ.
London, Sept. 4, 1839.
My Dear Mason,
I have just been spending a few days Avitli our old rela-
tion, John Wilmot. Although at the age of eighty he is as
cheerful as a cricket : and with a voice by the way, nearly
OLD AGE SOMETIMES BEAUTIFUL. 53
as shrill. He eats heartily, sleeps soundly, is vivacious in
manner and expression, and has that most lovely feature of
age, sympathy with the young. He bears the " burden "
of years cheerfully, and is studiously anxious not to impose
a grain's weight on others, if it can be avoided.
The spectacle of extreme old age is, generally, not pleas-
ing, sometimes how supremely pitiable ! To see it hobbling
and shuffling along on its three legs (according to the flible,)
the third, by the way, the best of the three ; flummocking
down, like a sack, into its easy chair of piled cushions — ut-
tering the inanity which indicates that intellect is gone, but
exhibiting a peevishness and fretfulness, which prove that
passion is still alive ; who, as he sees this, with whatever
compassion, would wish to be so compassionated ? Who,
on such terms, would wish for longevity ?
But our relation is another sort of person, and makes you
feel that old age may be not only venerable but beautiful,
and the object of reverence untinctured by compassion.
The intellect, the emotions, the affections (the best of them,)
all alive, — it is the passions and appetites only that are
dead ; and who that is wise and has felt the plague of them,
does not, with the aged Cephalus, in Plato's " Republic,"
account a serene freedom from their clamorous importuni-
ties, a compensation for the loss of then* tumultuous plea-
sures ? In John Wilmot humanity is not a mere ruin ; its
grossness is refined and purged away, but that is all. He
looks like some ancient edifice, only the more beautiful for
the traces of antiquity. There is to me an indescribable
charm in the contrast between his gray locks falling down
his shoulders, and his still ruddy cheeks and sparkling eye.
His whole face is a commentary on the conservative power
of Virtue. How each placid and unfurrowed feature tells
of moderate passions, temperance, and habitual self-control,
benevolence, and, in a word, all healthful emotions ! The
5*
54: THE GREYSON LETTERS.
change from youth, indeecT, is perceptible enough, but it is
all legitimate — the soft chisellings of Time alone ; none of
the rents, scars, and deep furrows which turbulent passions
leave behind them. Such features are eloquent of goodness
and its rewards.
I cannot look on him without feeling the exceeding beau-
ty of the expression of Solomon about "the hoary head
found in the way of righteousness, being a crown of glory."
You do not expect, perhaps, and hardly wish to be as old
as he ; but if you are, may such be your age ! Your death
can hardly fail to prove, as I doubt not his will — " Eu-
thanasia."
I was amused with the pertinacity with which he refuses
all offers to do for hmi anything he can possibly do for him-
self. He cannot bear to give trouble or seem an incumbrance.
It may seem to some, an indication of a desire not to appear
old. Yet this is not the case, for he talks freely of his be-
ing the old man ; and never attempts anything he cannot
do. It is a natural dislike to be a child — a baby — again.
If you seek to assist him on such occasions, when he thinks
he wants it not, there is, I noticed, a little impatience — the
only times in which he ever shows it. And on such occa-
sions he will have his own way. Your only plan is to busy
yourself with something else, and seem not to notice him.
He will then fumble for five minutes to2:ether to tie a shoe-
string or button his great coat, but do it he will. To assist
him is like assisting a stammerer ; Avho, you may observe,
will never take your anticipations of the word he tries at
but cannot pronounce, or any other you may suggest to
him ; but will persist in hammering away at the refractory
vocable, till he has mastered it, — at least, if you have pa-
tience to wait for him, — if it takes him fortnight.
My visit has prompted me to read again Cicero's " De
Senectute,'.' which I had hardly looked into since I was at
AN AMATEUR rHYSICIAN. 55
school. How beautiful many parts of it appear now, to
what they did then ! How very suj)erior to the greater
part of his philosophical writings ! The tedious Tusculan
Disputations are not to be compared with it, or with the
" De Amicitia.
Yours, &c.,
R. E. II. G.
LETTER XI.
TO THE SAME.
London, Dec. 27, 1839.
My Dear Friexd,
I write to introduce to you my benevolent and intelli-
gent friend Dr. S. R , a doctor of physic, but who has
retired from i3ractice, except as an amateur, if I may be al-
lowed so odd an expression. Yet is it very proi:>er ; like
Johnson's soap-boiler, who, wearied of the tedium of his
suburban " box," and drove into London to give his gratui-
tous aid to his successor on " boiling days," Dr. R. has plea-
sure in now and then giving his advice to a patient, — advice
not the less welcome that it is without a fee. I will not
say indeed, for I do not believe, that the benevolent hope
of doing some good has no j^art, or even a little, in this
promptness to resume his quondam profession. But I am
confident that, even without any such stimulus, the effect
of long habit, and the gratification of the professional taste^
would impel him to give his advice to any patient that
asked it ; though pretty sure that he could do no good.
He will gloat on a " beautiful case," and detail its symp-
toms with rapture. ^NTow a "beautiful case," in the
language of science, is a " case " that illustrates, in the
most striking manner, some doctor's theory or some scien-
56 THE GREYSON LETTERS
tific princii:)le, quite irrespective of the amount of suffering
involved, or the disastrous issue. The "beauty" of the
case is quite independent of any such accidents, and is not
at all impaired by them.
A case may be much more " beautiful " which has been
attended Avith the uttermost amount of anguish, and has
terminated fitally, — jH'ovided it illustrates, with more than
usual clearness, some pathological jDrinciple, and lias al-
lowed the physician, all the way through, to see how Nature
has been doing her tragical Avork — than a humdrum case,
in which the j^atient has been merely restored to health ;
probably by some obscure j^rocess of ignorant Dame Na-
ture, which illustrates no " principle," and which that
" empirical " lady has carried through without j)aying any
attention to the physician's science at all.
Dr. R gets quite eloquent and enthusiastic on a
" beautiful case," as he calls it. " But, Doctor," you say,
the " patient died ? " " Oh ! of course ; but what has that
to do with it ? " says the Doctor.
I sometimes tell him in jest that he would prefer seeing
a patient die, provided he distinctly knew lioio^ than see
him recover, and be unable to see the reason of it. He
now and then reminds me of another enthusiast in the
same profession, who, having j^rescribed an emetic to a pa-
tient in bad, but not aj^parently desj)erate circumstances,
called the next day and found him dead. The curious
doctor solemnly asked if the emetic had oi^erated, just as
if it was at all to the i3urpose. He was told it had ;
he begged to see the contents of the stomach, if possible ;
he Avas gratified ; he pronounced them very abominable, in
very learned terms. " Well," said he, " dead or alive, it is
a good thing tliat is off his stomach, any Avay."
But you Avill find my friend full both of useful and en-
tertaining knowledge ; and if you Avant advice for any of
SOLUTIONS THAT ARE NONE. 57
your patients, do not hesitate to avail yourself of his obso-
lete diploma.
Ever yours,
E. E. H. G.
LETTER XII.
TO THE EEV. CHARLES ELLIS, B. D.
London, Dec. 11, 1839.
My Dear Friend,
In the last statement of your letter I most entirely agree.
Foolish attempts to get over any of the difficulties of that
great mystery — the " Origin and Permission of Evil " —
by insufficient solutions, are irritating to skepticism, rather
than sedative. For example, look at that hypothesis, (not
even plausible if Ave go at all below the surface,) which
Deists often resort to by way of accounting for the stupen-
dous pJiy steal evils of the universe, the " Sad Accident "
column of the world's daily journal; — namely, the sup-
posed inevitable effi^ct of the establishment of " general
laws." It really throws no light whatever on the mystery.
" If ' general laws ' be established," say our wise j^hiloso-
phers, " it would be unreasonable to demand their suspen-
sion in order to avoid occasional aeeidents ; if the 4aw of
gravitation ' be in force, a man falling down a precij^ice will
break his leg or his neck." To be sure, if he does fall
down a precipice ; no one wants him to be suspended, like
Mahomet's coffin, between heaven and earth. Certainly
that were as unreasonable as the suspension of the " lav:>r
But is the suspension either of the man or the law the only
alternative? Miglit not the more "general" laws be so
combined with the secondary laws which, as we see in fact,
58 THE GREYSON LETTERS. *
modify their effects, that they should never be otherwise
than beneficial ? ISTay, are they not already so combined
as to secure this end in nine hundred and ninety-nine cases
out of every thousand ? and will any one pretend that not
even Infinite Power and Wisdom could have j)revented
the solitary thousandth case of accident also ? Is not the
muscular system of animals, for example, so perfect that
ten thousand people shall pass by a precijDitous road on a
mountain side, and not even one of them fall, though if he
does fall, he will doubtless be dashed to atoms ? Are not
horses, and dogs, and asses, men, women, and children,
wriggling in and out all day through the streets of London,
and not half a dozen " accidents " in the four and twenty
hours? Are not tens of thousands of fires blazing, and
billions of sparks flying about there from morning to night,
and yet is not a conflagration a comj^arative rarity?
\Yould it be impossible for Omnii^otence, had it so pleased,
to combine the general laws and the secondary laws in
such a way that tliis infinitesimal residue of exceptional
mischief should otot occur, without any suspension or re-
moval of the more general laws, — seeing that it would
only be doing in every case what is already done in the im-
mense majority of cases? One would imagine, to hear
some of these philosophers talk, that the said " general
laws " can i:>rove their existence and vindicate their dignity
only by jiunishing an occasional violation of them or pro-
ducing a certain small amount of misery ; as if the law of
gravitation could not be sufiiciently valued for its innumer-
able beneficial and beautiful results unless the equally
admirable and beautiful laws of muscular action failed now
and then (though very rarely) to adapt themselve to it,
and to counteract the evil consequences thereof; as though
it could not be adequately estimated unless it now and
SOLUTIONS THAT ARE NONE. 59
then broke a leg or a neck, or sent a sensitive creature fly-
ing though the air !
No ; say that the stupendous and varied miseries of our
Avorld — stupendous, I mean absolutely considered, but re-
ally not so if viewed in comparison with the good — have
been allowed to enter it for reasons which we cannot com-
l)rehend, but which are especially connected with man's
moral condition and education, (and hardly anybody that
is not an idiot will refuse to acknowledge, in tlie conscious-
ness of his ignorance, that it may be so,) and then Faith,
finding that Reason affirms its own valid grounds for be-
lieving in the dominion of an Intelligent and Benevolent
Ruler quite independent of all such difficulties, is able to
confront, though it cannot vanquish them. But it irritates
reason and faith too, (at least it does mine,) to be treated
with solutions that are worse than none.
I am the more surprised when I find, as I occasionally
do, some Christians using the above argument of "general
laws," as an answer to the difficulties in question, since they
at least professedly believe in the possibility of a world in
which, though there will doubtless be " general laws," those
laws will as certainly be combined with such mental, moral,
and physical conditions (whatever these last may be) of
the inhabitants, that, as the ages of eternity roll round,
there will be no " sad accidents " to mar the universal fe-
licity. Men ought to conclude, on such principles as those
just commented on, that Omnipotence cannot j^repare sucli
a place, consequently there will be none ; that heaven itself
Avill now and then exhibit a sera]:*!! who has lost his voice,
or been lamed in the wing; or a young angel who has
strayed into infinite space, and is lost to his disconsolate
celestial kinsfolk, or broken his legs or his nose by stumb-
ling on the treacherous smoothness of the jasper pavement !
Akin to such shallow and inadequate hypotheses as that
60 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
of which I liave been speaking, is anotlier often insisted on
by the Deist and the Christian, by way of illustrating the
Benevolence of the Deity ! " How bountifully/' say they,
" is prey provided for the various species of animals !
How exactly fitted is the entire organization of the lion
or the shark for seizing, and killing, and devouiing his
food ! How perfectly good is his appetite, and with what
gout he swallows his dinner ! How is all about the sweet
beast subservient to his happiness!" Yes; but what, in
the meantime, is to be said for the Prey f Is that de-
voured with as much relish as the other devours it ?
Hudibras says —
• " Surely the pleasure is as great
In being cheated as to cheat " —
but I think he would hardly have said —
Surely the pleasure is as sweet
In being eaten as to eat I
I doubt not that the thing is all right, but I cannot accept
reasoning Avhich thus refutes itself.
I have even known Deists, and good Christian men, too,
go further.
Even in print., I have seen it stated, by way of diminish-
ing the impression of general suffering, that as we know
that the chase is a great delight of the beast who takes his
prey, so we know not what delight there may be in being
hunted down (and truly I think we do not know !) — We
are told there may be a delicious excitement in the stag or
the hare in the attempts to baffle his i^ursuers ! If so,
surely he has the oddest ways of showing it. I shall next
expect to hear a sentimental angler exj^atiate on the dear
delight the little fishes perchance feel in getting hooked !
" Handle him," says old Isaac Walton, in giving directions
SOLUTIONS THAT ARE NONE. 61
for impaling a frog or worm on the hook, " handle him ten-
derly, as though you loved him." " Nay," such a philo-
sophic angler Avould reply, " I do love him and am proving
it ; he likes to be thus transfixed. His wriggle is but a
wriggle of delight."
No ; I agree mth you that such arguments as these only
irritate the mind that listens to them, as all inconclusive
arguments are apt to do ; it is but special pleading for God,
who, rely on it, does not need any such refinements, if, as
Leibnitz says, we but knew all. " Shall we argue wickedly
for God, and speak deceitfully for him ? "
We do not know all, or rather we know next to nothing,
and hence the difiiculty ; but we know enough, if we at-
tend to it, not to allow ourselves to be baffled by what we do
not know. From an immensity of proof, we may understand
that intelligence and wisdom, and for the most part good-
ness, are j^rodigally disj^layed over the whole of creation,
and we may find the last confirmed still further by (what I
must confess Z need) Revelation; and here we may rest,
leavinof insoluble difficulties unsolved. As for those con-
nected with the " Origin of Evil," having studied them
enough to know that you cannot master them, leave them
alone. As Lord Bacon says, though applying the words to
another subject, "Give to Reason the things of Reason,
and to Faith the things of Faith."
If you will continue to revolve this mournful mystery,
and to jield to its horrible fascination, you will darken and
distress your mind. Experto crecle. And ever remember
this, that, however sublime and momentous the theme
of our meditations, if it really be beyond us, it is just as
much a waste of our energies and our time to meddle with
it, as to busy ourselves with the veriest trifle in existence.
If you look ever so fixedly into utter darkness, it is but a
waste of eyes, and you might as well keep them shut. I
6
62 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
would remind you of what some plain j^reacher once said :
" Infinite," said he, "have been the disputes as to the origin
of evil ; but the real question of importance is, not how
we got i7ito it, but how we are to get out of it."
Should we not be surj^rised at a man who, having tum-
bled into a ditch, instead of scrambling out as fast as pos-
sible, lay still in the mud, resolving in himself the question,
— "I wonder how I got here ? " About as wise are many
— be not you of the number — who have sj^ent no incon-
siderable portion of their time and energies in resolving
the question of the origin of " evil," without a thought
of how they may evade its consequences.
Ever yours^
E. E. H. G.
LETTER XIII.
TO C. MASOX, ESQ.
London, Thursday night, Jan. 9, 1840.
My Dear Friend,
I have nothing in the world to say to you. I write
simply because to-morrow is the day on which one may
send one's thoughts five hundred miles for a penny ; so
that the old saying of " a penny for your thoughts " is
likely to be more frequently on our lips than exQw
This letter is just to say "How d'ye clo?" and "I am
well." If you can say "So am I," by way of reply, I shall
consider it a cheap pennyworth.
This Postal revolution is, indeed, glorious, and well worth
any fifteen "political" ones. Nor have I the slightest fear
of the revenue ultimately suiFering. In twenty years (my
life for it !) the postal gains will be greater than ever.
But will not cheap postage lead, think you, to a revolu-
THE PENNY POSTAGE. 63
tion in our epistolary style ? Shall we not become Spar-
tans, and laconise f Crossed letters, I imagine, are now
things of the past, and will henceforth exist only as curios-
ities in museums. When one had to tax a friend ninepence
or a shilling for a letter, it seemed but decency to let him
have something for his money, in quantity at least, what-
ever the quality. But now that the whole cost is one
penny sterling, and that, too, paid by the writer, there will
be a strong tendency to save time and trouble ; and so let-
ters will dwindle — except love-letters, perhaps, which al-
ways were, and always will be, I suppose, equally volumin-
ous and incomprehensible — to the Lilliputian dimensions
of the iDostage.
Pleasant — will it not be ? — should the revolution lead
to the imiversal adoption of the cm't commercial style.
As thus —
Dear Sir,
Received yours of 10th ult., and note contents. Pleased
to find that expressions of condolence on your wife's death
approved ; would have enclosed some samples of " senti-
ment," but that is a mere drug since the penny postage.
Health here very indifierent ; deaths on the rise ; drugs
firm ; doctors and undertakers looking up ; j^alls and j)lumes
at a premium.
But " matrimonial " also active, and produce market tol-
erably brisk and lively. Mr. T. just presented with twins.
Of " fat " infants, however, and of j)rime quality, a scanty
supply at the present sickly season. Measles and scarlatina
filTQ.
In the last fortnight a glut of rain ; clouds dull and
heavy, and go sloAvly ofl*; no sunshine at any price. Ther-
mometer operating for the rise ; barometer for the fall.
" Politics," a shade easier. During th6 recent election.
64 THE GREY SON LETTERS.
bribes clown as low as five pounds ; plumpers, 23 1 to 25 ;
split votes at the usual quotations.
Yours to command,
Y. Z.
Such may j^erhaps be the classic hierogljq^hic in which
our wise sons may communicate with their friends, to the
great saving, surely, of pens, ink, paper, j)ence, time,
thought, feeling, heart, and brains !
Ever believe me,
My dear friend.
Yours affectionately,
E. E. H. G.
LETTER XIV. *
TO ALFKED WEST, ESQ.
London, March 10, 1840.
My Dear West,
I went to the office of Messrs. D , and saw the
younger about your business. What a funny little man he
is, — like a pea on a drum ! — I got from him the memo-
randum you want, which I inclose ; but I got it with ten
times the trouble I need have had. He is what they call a
bustling man ; — and a most amusing variety of the species
— if you do not happen to be in a huiTy.
But stay ; I think if Bishop Earle had hai^joened to in-
clude it in his quaint sketches, entitled " Microcosmogra-
phy," he would have proceeded somewhat as follows : —
A " bustling " man is, to a man of businessj what a mon-
key is to a man. He is the shadoAV of despatch, or rather
the echo thereof; for he maketh noise enough for an
alarum. The quickness of a true man of business he imi-
tateth excellently well : but neither his silence nor his
A BUSTLING MAN. 65
method, and it is to be noted that he is ever most vehe-
ment about matters of no significance. He is always in
such headlong haste to overtake the next minute, that he
loseth half the minute in hand, and yet is full of indigna-
tion and impatience at other people's slowness, and wasteth
more time in reiterating his love of despatch than would
suffice for doing a great deal of business. He never giveth
you his quiet attention with a mind centred on what you
are saying, but hears you with a restless eye and a perj^et-
ual shifting of posture ; and is so eager to show his quick-
ness, that he interrupteth you a dozen times, misunder-
stands you as often, and ends by making you and himself
lose twice as much time as was necessary.
He cannot keep his tongue quiet any more than his
hands or his feet, which are in perpetual motion ; and you
cease to w^onder that he does not concentrate his mind on
his business, since it is more than half employed in man-
aging the motions and postures of his body. It is to
be noted that he always performs the formalities and
routine of business (for which only he is fit) with much
energy; yet even these things he never does well. He
writeth the merest note with an air ; useth the blotting-
paper with a thump as if he would crush it ; foldeth it
with a flourish; sealeth it with such eagerness that he
burnetii his fingers, upsetteth the taper, and, in short, mak-
eth noise and wind enough for twenty times the business.
In his hurry he is continually mislaying what he wants, and
then causeth worse confusion by turning out the whole
contents of a drawer or a desk in finding it. If he comes
to see you on business, he rusheth into tlie room, throweth
down his hat and gloves, as if he had not time to place
them anywhere, and, taking out his watch, expresseth his
regret that he can give you only two minutes, while you
think the two minutes too long. After he is gone, with a
6*
66 THE GREYSON LETTERS
slam of the door that goes through you, he steppeth back
three tunes to mention some thmgs he liad forgotten. If
you go to see liim on business, he placeth you a chair
with ostentatious haste, begs you will excuse him while he
despatcheth two or three messengers on most urgent busi-
ness, calls each of them back once or twice to give fresh
instalments of his defective instructions ; and, having at
last dismissed them, regretteth, as usual, that he hath only
five minutes to spare, whereof he spendeth half in telliug
you the distracting number and importance of his engage-
ments. If he be to consult a ledger, the book is thrown
on the desk with a thump as if he wished to break its back,
and the leaves rustle to and fro like a wood in a storm.
Meantime he overlooketh, Avhile he gabbles on, the very
entries he wants to find, and sj^endeth twice the time he
would if he had joroceeded more leisurely. In a word,
everything is done with a bounce, and a thump, and an air,
and a flourish, and sharp and eager motions, and j^erpetual
volubility of tongue. His image is that of a blind beetle
in the twilight, which with incessant hum, and drone, and
buzz, fiieth blundering into the face of every one it chanc-
eth to meet. Your true man of business — with silent des-
patch, quickness without hurry, and method without noise
— will do as much in an hour as a man of " bustle " will
do in the twenty-four, and every bit of it twenty-four times
as well.
Such is a sketch of the peculiar species of the genus
" bustling man " whom your letter sent me to consult for
you. Consider, I beseech you, the trouble I have taken
on your behalf, and either allow me a liberal commission
as your agent — Avhich I am sure I well deserve — or re-
pay me by a long letter. Recollect I have not heard from
you, except the three shabby selfish lines which imposed
this task upon me, for these three months.
LANGUAGE OF EMOTIONS. 67
Pray make my apologies to yom* neighbors (who, I pre-
sume, have long since retm-necl from their " honeymoon,"
and possibly have had time enough by this for two or three
little "family jangles "), for not having acknowledged their
wedding-cards. The fact is, I get more weary of all such
formalities, more and more negligent about them, and in-
creasingly grudge the time, postage, and patience expended
on them. Well, thank Heaven, in heaven they " neither
marry or are given in marriage ; " and so, I suppose, we
shall get rid of the nuisance of " wedding-cards " at any
rate. As they also " die no more," we shall be free from
the yet more odious ceremonial and formalities of funerals.
In that world there will be no lawyers, for there will be no
wi*ongs to be redressed, and no rights that need to be con-
tested ; no physicians, for there will be no diseases to be
cured, or aggravated ; no clergy, for all shall be Avell-taught
and well-behaved ; and not least, there will be no under-
takers ! Happy world, even if known only by negatives !
Ever yours truly,
E. E. H. G.
LETTEK XV.
TO THE SAME.
TOTTERIDGE, Herts, May 22, 1840.
My DEAR West,
Your friend's wild hysteric laugh of anguish at the immi-
nent peril which one so dear to him was threatened, and his
burst of joyful tears when it passed away, were both very
natural ; and yet how paradoxical !
Your description put me on an old si^eculation in which
I have sometimes indulged ; — whether if the appropriate
68 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
symbols of joy and grief, pleasure and pain, and so of our
other emotions, were all at once to change places ; if, for
example, the loss of a dear friend were announced by a
simper or a giggle, and a sudden accession of fortune by a
groan or a sigh, we should ever learn by habit to regard
these as the natural signs of emotion ; as natural as our
present.
You know that there are those who hold that the
" beautiful " is icholly factitious ; that consequently the
signs which express it are quite arbitrary in themselves, and
derive their fancied power from pleasing associations alone ;
that is, from associations with what the constitution of our
nature makes the sources of happiness to us ; that, conse-
quently, these signs have no specific propriety apart from
such associations ; that if health and youth were always
united with the comj^lexion of a corpse, and disease and
pain with ruddy cheeks and sj^arkling eyes, our associations
would soon change places ; Ave should grow enamoured of
gray hairs and wrinkles, and horrified at vivacious features
and blooming complexions.
One cannot deny that it may be so ; I certainly must
admit that association, in many cases, has great power to
transform the once indifferent into the beautiful or the ugly ;
nay, the beautiful into the ugly, and the ugly into the
beautiful. Still, I cannot help fancying that there are limits
to this power, and that there is a propriety in the very
symbols (even if they might be reversed without j)ermanent
confusion in our interpretation of them) by which the vari-
ous emotions are, originally, either excited or expressed;
a propriety arising out of the entire constitution and organ-
ism of our nature. I cannot help fancying that not only
are there limits to the magic power of association to alter
or reverse them, but that even Avhen it can do it, the effect
is never so perfect as when association acts in accordance
LANGUAGE OF EMOTIONS. 69
with certain signs, and does not counterwork them ; — that
is, that the symbols are natural.
If it be the case with the symbols by which the " beau-
tiful" in objects is presented to us, it ought to be also in
the symbols by which the emotion is expressed ; and, by
parity of reason, with the symbols of all our other emotions.
It is next to impossible to imagine, indeed, what w^ould be
the effect if the emotions were to play a masquerade, and
express themselves by the oj^posite symbols ; whether we
could ever learn (not to interpret them, — that we certainly
could do), but whether we could ever think them to be
as appropriate as those we use now. That we could learn
to interpret them is plain ; w^e do^ even the most arbitrary
signs of emotion ; — as w^hen an oriental smites his breast,
or rends his garments, or throws ashes on his head in deep
grief; and, doubtless, if it became the fashion among us, in
a similar case, to express our dejection by unbuttonmg one
of our braces, taking off our stockings, or sw^allowing a
dose of rhubarb, these actions would soon become full of
grave significance, and be thought admirably adapted to
alleviate calamity !
Wbat a pity that we cannot make a few^ experiments in
this matter ! Yet it is plainly out of the question ; the
above arbitrary signs, — who could attempt to bring into
fashion, however admirably conceived ? Who could stand
the lauo^hter such ludicrous sorrow would create ? And as
to the inversion of the natural signs, it w^ould be still w^orse.
The experimental pliilosopher who should laugh at a funeral
or groan at a w^edding, w^ould be liable to be kicked out of
the company.
I confess I am sometimes staggered w^hen I see how as-
tonishingly easy it often is to acco^nmodate the signs of
emotion to the most opposite sources, and how nearly similar
in many cases is the language of joy and sorrow, of plea-
70 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
sure and pain, of hope and fear, and how frequent and rapid
the interchange of smiles and tears. There are tears of joy,
and smiles of sorrow, as well as tears of sorrow and smiles
of joy ; — nay, they often both dwell at the same moment
on the same face, and so blend in their appropriate, as well
as their interchanged, expressions, that it is impossible to
tell which is which, under the infinitely subtle combinations
of emotion to which the mysterious heart of man is subject.
How often, in such moods, do we see gleaming radiance,
and passing shadows, and glittering tears, all cliasing each
other, and melting into one another, — meeting and breaking,
like the shifting sunshine and showers, the shadowy clouds
and falling spangles of an April day ! Similarly, to a stranger,
it is liard always to distinguish a blush of modesty from a
blush of shame ; to say whether paleness be the effect of
extreme fear or extreme rage ; whether a sigh, w^hich is
equally the utterance of pleasure and pain, and often par-
takes of both, come from the '' fountain of sweet water,"
or " bitter ; " whether a smile be a smile of melancholy or
a smile of complacency, or a smile of that j^leasing sadness
which is allied to both. Ujwn my word, as I think of these
things I am half inclined to fancy that though the book of
emotional expression be doubtless a very significant volume,
it would be almost as intelligible if read upside down !
I was sitting at my solitary breakfast yesterday, when the
servant came in with her arm bound uj) ; and, on asking
her what was the matter, she told me with a giggle, that
she had cut her wrist nearly to the bone, by the slii:»ping of
a sharp knife. She ended her account ^Wth something like
a laugh, — which at first appeared rather unseemly ; but on
reflection, " Poor girl," said I, " the accident has made
her hysterical this morning," I told her that she should
have every care taken of her, and that her sister should
stay with her till she was well. Her face immediately
LANGUAGE OF EMOTIONS. 71
clouded over, and she began to whimper her thanks. This
seemed strange too ; " but," thought I, " the girl has a
grateful heart, I see, and she cannot bear much this morn-
ing." Yet one could hardly help thinking that her giggle
and her whimper might just as well have changed places.
A good woman, of whom I sometimes buy eggs, and
with whom I sometimes have a gossip, came in shortly after,
and told me, with a frequent application of her apron to
her eyes, that she had just had a loving letter from her son,
whom she had given over as one of the crew of the bark
" Fair Susan," recently wrecked on the coast of North-
umberland. He had, however, been unexpectedly taken
up ; and she told me (fairly blubbering now) that she was
daily expecting to be blessed with a sight of him. " What
a strange thing is a mother's heart ! " said I to myself. " A
looker-on might imagine that she Avas greatly disappointed
at finding her ' Enfant Perdu ' turning up again.
On going, further on in the day, to visit a cottage of a
peasant in distress, I found things in so much worse case
than I had anticipated, — the husband, a great hulking fel-
low, out of work, the wife sick, two out of three children
very ill with the measles, and the third lying dead, — that
I was surprised into a much larger gratuity than I had
thought of giving, and promised to send doctor and nurse
into the bargain. The poor fellow, who had gazed at all
this misery with the stolid eye of desperation, no sooner
received the money I put into his hand, than he burst into
a passion of tears ! How very odd ! yet in the whole
" signal-book " of Nature was there any more natural way
of expressing his joy ?
Still I had my doubts about the feasibility of the meta-
physical theory I above referred to, and they were con-
firmed by a dream of last night. Hear it, and confess how
much better philosophers we are in our sleeping than in our
72 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
walking moments ; tliough, by the way, dreams — sleeping
or waking — have always been an unfailing resource with
philosophers ; I do not know what they would do without
them.
In my dream, I did actually, somehow, get into a world
where all the signs of emotion wo see hero were reversed ;
as for the effects — voila ! Methought a dear friend came
in to inform me that his daughter was going to be married
the next day ; and " very happily," as he said, with a long
face and the voice of an undertaker. It seemed to me so
ridiculous that I could not help laughing, on which he re-
marked that he could not think why his intelligence should
have caused me any chagrin ; and giggling himself, told me
he was very sorry foi' it, deeply cut to the heart by my be-
havior indeed, I immediately i)ut on a lugubrious face of
sympathetic joy, and accepted, with as deep a sigh as I
could fetch up, the invitation to be present at the wedding.
I went accordingly, having put on a black suit, and crape
round my hat, to grace the joyful occasion.
Being too late, I met the merry procession in the streets,
— dressed, of course, in deep mourning, looking very grave
and solemn, and escorted by a band of music playing a tune
about half as airy and quick as the " Old Hundredth," or
the " Dead March in Saul." In short, it looked just like a
funeral. When we returned home, however, the scene,
methought, was not so utterly unlike a merely mortal wed-
ding. Several were weeping indeed, and looking very dole-
ful ; but then is it not just so in those April scenes in the
waking world ? — where festivity is so curiously shadowed
and checkered with a sort of " bitter sweet ? " — where
handkerchiefs are often put up to fair eyes ; and the parting
bride and the disconsolate mother hardly know whether to
laugh or weep ? — where there is often, on the part of youn-
ger sisters, a burst of sorrow, which calls for that comic
LANGUAGE OF EMOTIONS. 73
consolation a friend of mine addressed to a broken-hearted
fair one on such an occasion, — " Not lost, but gone before !"
In short, they are scenes in which a stranger would doubt
whether congratulation or condolence was most significantly
expressed by those half-radiant, half-tearful faces.
But there could be no doubt about my theory, on going
into a church ! Here I found the whole audience awaiting
the commencement of the service with a light and riaoit ex-
pression of devout levity, and a pious simper on every flice.
The preacher skipped up the pulpit stairs, taking two or
three steps at a time, and began the prayers with a down-
right giggle, which no doubt proceeded from the dejDths of
religious emotion. I laughed outright from a very different
cause, — at the oddity of the spectacle, and was doubtless
looked upon as a prodigy of pharisaic devotion for my well-
timed hilarity. But suddenly, on recollecting where I was,
I assumed a very grave countenance, not unmingled with
indignation, and was forthwith simperingly reproved for
my levity of manner by a scandalized old lady, who said,
turning pale, that she was ashamed of my want of decorum
in a place of worship ! In some confusion, I escaped from
the church ; and was no sooner in the street than I encoun-
tered a funeral procession, of which the model seemed to be
taken from " David dancing before the Ark ! " The people
who carried the coffin came along at a minuet pace, which
I thought every moment would have brought the poor
swaying corpse to the ground. A band played a lively an-
them, which sounded about as funereal as "Begone dull
care," or " Life let us cherish." The chief mourners giggled
and laughed till tears really dropped down their cheeks
(though I had difficulty in imagining them tears of sorrow),
and jumped and capered in this new " Dance of Death " like
mad. Perhaps you will think that the symbols of emotion
might be quite as sincere, and hardly more inverted than
7
74 THE GREYSON LETTERS,
those with which decorous hypocrites too often carry a dead
friend to his last resting place in this waking world ; that is,
with a joyous heart and a mourning countenance; and cer-
tainly the farce in my dream would often come easier to our
mutes and undertakers than the doleful comic masque in
which they now perforin.
However, the incongruity of the spectacle seemed so
laughable that I awoke, and felt that, however association
may modify and transform our conceptions of the beautiful,
or make the language of the emotions transpose its symbols,
there are limits to its power which neither time nor custom
can transcend; and that though the constitution of human
nature is very amenable to habit, habit can as little recon-
cile us to an absolute houleverseinent of certain aboriginal
principles of our mental constitution, as it can reconcile
" eels " to the process of " skinning," which, according to
the benevolent suggestion of the cook, is " nothing when
they are used to it."
Believe me,
Ever yours faithfully,
E. E. II. G.
P. S. — I am living here in pleasant lodgings, and shall
do so for two or three weeks. I have little to do but to
scribble to my old friends, and you, as one of the oldest, are
mdulged with a letter proportionably long.
TO A VOLATILE YOUTH. 75
LETTER XVI,
TO M .
ToTTERiDGE, May 29, 1810.
My dear M ,
Your letter found me here, where I am staying for two
or three weeks. I do not like your proposed new plan at
all : better to
. . . . " bear those Ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of"
If you do not take heed, you will be lost to any useful
purposes in life ; for the time is fast passing in which you
will have either the power or the will to fix yourself to the
steady pursuit of any profession. Your habit of volatile
change will strengthen by every indulgence, till you will
have energy for nothing ; and even if repentance comes, and
perseverance as its fruit, it will come too late for successful
efibrt. At four and twenty, and after so many changes of
plan, your friends begin to look on your case with just
anxiety.
The simple fact is, you are under the dominion of your
fancy. It alternately plays the tricks of the microscope and
the telescope with you, according as the objects are near or
remote. To the present it applies itself as a microscope ;
and everything that is disagreeable there is magnified a
thousandfold ; to the distant future it applies itself as a tel-
escope ; and all the beautiful features of the smiling land-
scape, — even the seeming peacefiil 3moke of the distant
city does not ofiend you, — are brought mto view, without
any of the annoyances, the noise, the turmoil, the ill odors,
which, when you get into them, you will experience, — just
as you Jiave found in scenes you have already tried. All is
76 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
" silent as a jiicture," and as softened too. Cure yourself,
I beseech you, of this boyish folly.
As to your new project — what earthly reason have you
to think you will like it better, or prosecute it with more
success, than the old. Remember, you at first attached
yourself to these with the same enthusiastic expectations.
In addition to your predominant tendency to day-dreaming,
you are, let me tell you, too impatient for success. It will
not come without toil and perseverance, — let your choice
of your profession be what it may. In the present case
your entire hopes are built on inexperience ; you are confi-
dent because you do not know the difiiculties and irksome-
ness of what you fancy you will like so well. Let me teU
you a story : the application I will leave to you.
My sister, Mrs. Evans, once told me of a gallant young
fellow, a lieutenant in India, who, in walking into Cal-
cutta one evening, was vehemently appealed to by two
ladies riding in a carriage. From certain spiral windings
of their horses to the right and the left of the road, they
suspected, either that the horses were drunk, or that their
coachman was ; so, thinking the last the more likely suppo-
sition of the two, they with difiiculty got him to stop, and
appealed to our pedestrian in uniform as to whether he could
undertake to drive them into Calcutta. ISTow ray young
soldier knew no more of driving than he did of astrology ;
but he was as gallant as he was gallant^ and no more
thought of disobeying a lady (even though he should break
her neck by compliance) than he would of disobeying his
commanding officer, and would face any " breach," except
a breach of politeness. So, mounting the box, he took the
reins from the suspected coachman, and drove off with an
air ; but before he had gone five hundred yards, this Phae-
ton overset tJieir phaeton, and laid the ladies, the coachman,
and himself, at the bottom of a muddy ditch.
"MYSTERIES" OF PROVIDENCE OFTEN NONE. 77
I fear a similar mishap for you, only I doubt whether
your bed may be quite so soft. Be no longer the dupe of
that faculty, which, in most of us, ought to have a strait-
waistcoat on between sixteen and twenty-one, but generally
begins to be a little more sober after that period : I mean
the imagination. It is the most prodigious fortune-teller^
hut the worst prophet^ in the world.
You ought now, at four and twenty, to have learned to
distrust its promises ; to tone down its bright-colored vis-
ions ; not to believe that every mirage in the desert is a de-
licious lake, — or every " apple of Sodom " the genuine
fruit of Paradise, till it turn to ashes in your mouth. Re-
turn to your discarded profession, pursue it energetically,
and you will yet do well. You have talent — opportunities
— friends, — everything but steadfastness of soul. Get
this, and you are made ; without it, you are lost. I wish
you well for your father's sake, but no less for your own ;
so forgive these words of honest freedom. N^ay, rather
thank me, and praise me, for not keeping a treacherous
silence. Your conscience must tell you that I can have no
other motive for writing than the hope of doing you good.
Believe me.
Ever faithfully yours,
E. E. II. G.
LETTER XYII.
TO THE EEV. C. ELLIS, B. D.
pENTOxriLLE, Nov. 1840.
My Dear Friexd,
I do not half like your falling into that little bit of " cant "
about that good man T. D . " His troubles," you say,
" are an unaccountable mystery of Providence." There is
7*
78 THE GR]'.YSON LETTERS.
nothing more unreasonable tlian the talk of what are often
called " mysteries of Providence," if by that be meai^t, that
they leave us in any doubt whatever as to the equity and
justice of the Divine Government. The sufferings and ca-
lamities which are often allowed to gather round excellent
persons, are, in truth (as I will show you in five words,) no
mysteries at all ; certainly not half so much so as the pros-
perity of flaunting and triumphant wickedness. That there
are great mysteries connected with the divine Government
I admit ; so great, that no tool of reason, however fine its
edge or hard its temper, can touch the adamant. Our only
way of dealing with the objections thence derived, is by
showing that there is yet stronger evidence for the existence
of a sui^remely wise and intelUgent Ruler of the universe,
than for admitting the conclusion to which such invincible
objections would lead us, — that there is no such Kuler at
all. These difticulties can only be met obliquely, and by an
ad ahsurdicm argumentation. Such are the " origin of
evil," and some of its consequences ; such the sufierings and
death of the brute creation, and of innocent infancy. These
problems, baffled reason in vain strives to solve, except in
the way just mentioned ; and for any direct solution, remits
us to the logic of faith and hope — not of syllogism or in-
duction.
But what are ordinarily called " mysteries of Providence,"
and about "which irreligious men, and sometimes religious
men too, make such a hubbub, are none at all to me ; nor,
I fancy, to you, (if you reflect,) in spite of that little bit of
current " cant " for which I have ventured to rebuke you ;
nay, I will dare to say, they can be no objection to any
Theist in the world ; to none who profess to believe in a
Divine Government of the universe at all. As to Atheists,
they need not surely wonder at anything ; nor, of course,
can they blame anybody for anything that may befall them.
" MYSTERIES " OF PROVIDENCE OFTEN NONE. 79
They might, on their theory, as well " bay the moon," or
chide the winds for howUng, as profess to find anything un-
accountable in blind chance or a blind necessity ; for of
what, on any such hy[30thesis, can there be any account ?
To them all must be "mystery;" and perhaps the greatest
mystery of all ought to be, that the world jogs on as well
as it does ! But to Theists, I say such things as you men-
tion are no mysteries ; and if you ask for my proof, it is
this : that I have never met with the man, nor have you,
nor has any one else that I ever heard of, who would de-
liberately lay his hand on his heart and say, " The dispen-
sations of God have been such to me, that not only I
cannot see the goodness and mercy of them all, — which
may well be, — but I deny the justice of them. I do not
mean that I do not see the connection between this or that
trouble and some immediately j)receding conduct, — for
this may also happen to anybody, — but I dare to say that,
on the whole retrospect of my life, the conduct of God has
been wijiist to me ; that I have on the whole suffered more
than I deserved." I repeat, I have never knoAvn any man
who has been willing to say any such thing ; to affirm, " If
I were admitted to plead my own cause with God, I would
accuse him of having given me, on the entire balance of
my life, more evil than I have merited." Now I say that
unless you can find such a man, there is, practically^ an end
of " mysteries " in the case. That no man, with even that
self-partiality which is the characteristic of us all, will de-
liberately venture (I will except, if you like, half a dozen
madmen in as many centuries) to accuse God of injustice,
shows us that there is really no " mystery " in the matter ;
— for where is the mystery, if, Avhatever the sufferings and
calamities Avhicli befall us, each "man for himself is ready
to affirm, "I have received less of evil than I have de-
served ? "
80 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
You may say, perhaps, " Yes, each man may say it for
himself 'i but he finds it difiicult to see it in the case of oth-
er s^ Exactly ; but that is tlie very source of the fallacy ;
it is because we judge of others by the outside^ and of our-
selves by the inside ; of them, by our eyes — by the very
little — for it is little — that each man knows of his fel-
lows' interior and far more important history ; and of our-
selves, from our consciousness.
This last alone must speak, and if it lets judgment go by
default, by declining the challenge I have referred to, (as
in each man it does,) it is sufficient to answer the objection
of " mystery ! " You see in the i:>resent case, it is your
friend Thomas ~D you are thinking of, and not your-
self, Avhen you exj^ress yourself thus half re2)iningly. For
aught I can see, you suffered just as " unaccountable things"
ten years ago, and I lately ; and yet you and I were not at
all more disj^osed, for ourselves to think our case " hard," as
people say, than I dare say T. D is to judge his own so.
You will say, perhaps, " But is it not rather an uncharita-
ble thing, Avlien we see great and strangely accumulated cal-
amities befalling any one, to suppose that there is some sj)e-
cial concealed iniquity that calls for them ? " It would be,
undoubtedly, most uncharitable thus to judge ; but neither is
it necessary. It may be, (and I doubt not often is,) some
concealed iniquity, of which the world susj^ected nothing,
(for such cases do often come to light,) which is at the bot-
tom of the matter ; but as the world knows nothing, the
world should say nothing, no, nor even surmise anything ;
there are plenty of other alternatives. It may be subtle
evils, of which man, till better taught by discipline, thinks
little, but which, in the estimate of God, may be of great
moment, that require correction ; it may be spiritual, and
not social or moral vices, which are thus chastised ; it may
be, not flagrant acts, but habits of mind and feeling and
"MYSTERIES" OF PROVIDENCE OFTEN NONE. 81
temper, for which a man may not be thought much worse
by his fellows, but which, unsubdued, may bar heaven's
gates against him ; it may be religious apathy, ingratitude,
thoughtlessness, which thus need rebuking ; the visitation
may be not directly punitive at all, though not inequitable
in relation to the man's entire conduct ; it may be designed
as corrective of what is still evil in him, or as a means of
developing nobler forms of good ; it may be for the mere
pruning of a too florid and unfruitful virtue, which runs
out into luxuriant foliage of talk and spiritual pride. But
still, to return to my first assertion ; as the man himself
does not accuse the justice of God, but avows that he be-
lieves His proceedings equitable, you, without forming any
h}^3othesis of the special reasons for them, ought to have
done with " mysteries." It is not uncharitable to the man
to suppose there is no injustice, when he declares there is
none ; and as it apj^ears that each of us thinks the same in
his own case, we are not uncharitable in thus adopting the
man's own estimate of himself; for it seems, we think no
worse of him than we do of ourselves ; and though we are
commanded to " love our neighbors as ourselves," I know
not where it is wi'itten that we are to love him better than
ourselves. Excuse this long " prelection," on an expression
which I am sure, on reflection, you will see the imj3ropriety
of. To judge of God's proceedings towards any body on
earth besides ourselves (so long as the window in each man's
breast remains shut), is just as wise as to criticise the sentence
of a judge, without knowing an}i;hing of the law or the
evidence, or to pronounce on the prescriptions of a physi-
cian without knowing either his science or the symptoms
of the j^atient. Each man must judge for himself; and in
that case, it seems each man gives a sentence for God ; and
till you find a man who does 7iot<i l^t us cease to talk of the
mysteries of Providence in such cases as those of T. D .
82 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
If you say you mean nothing more than that the phenomena
are unaccountable to you, that is very true ; only then you
ought, in strictness, no more to speak about the mysteries
of Providence than the mysteries of T. D .
Yours ever faithfully,
E. E. II. G.
LETTER XVIII.
TO C. MASOX, ESQ.
Pextonville, London, Jan. 8, 1811.
My Dear Mason,
I am very sorry to hear that my young friend Edward
exhibits such a love for the class of amusements you men-
tion. Innocent they may be in themselves, as you say, and
within certain Hmits they are ; but, pursued with avidity
and recommended by indolence (to which they are wel-
come and which they tend to feed), they ever lie on the
fi'ontiers of vice, and a vacant mind easily crosses the line.
Yet I doubt whether it will be wise to attempt to argue
with him much, perhaps not at all, on the abstract impro-
priety of his course. You, with thirty years more experi-
ence of life and human nature on your shoulders, may
know, and do know full well, that the very greenest and
most innocent looking " by path meadow " in the Avorld,
may lead, by little and little, to the most dreadful deflec-
tions fi'om the " highroad to virtue and happiness ; while it
may be quite impossible to show this to an inexperienced
youth, not to say that if he does not see it, argument will
but make him, in all probability, more obstinate, besides
weakening parental authority. If he were only ten years
of age this course might do ; but at eighteen or nineteen it
is hardly practicable, and never wise. Take my advice ;
TO C. MASON ESQ. 83
never seem, at this comparatively harmless point, even to
know of his gayety, but have him down into the country,
and, as idleness seems to have been his bane, let plenty of
emj^loyment be the antidote. As he is fond, you say, of
his profession, excite in him emulation to excel, (which is
easily done,) by stimulating him to exertion, and then
heartily praising him for it. Give him all proper indul-
gencies, but of a totally different cast, if possible, from
those he has lately been prone to, and thus try what
Chalmers calls the " exj^ulsive power of a new affection."
You remember the coachman who said to the gentleman
on the box, "Do you see that off leader there, sir?" "Yes,
— what of him ? " " He always shies, sir, when he comes
to that 'ere gate. I must give him something to tliinh
on^ No sooner said, than up went the whirling thong,
and came down full of its sting on the skittish leader's
haunches. He had " something else to think on," no time
for panic or affected panic, and flew past the gate like
lightning. If we can but give youth, in time, " something
else to think on," we may keep out of their minds, by
preoccupation, more evil than we can ever directly expel.
One of the essential properties of matter may be said to
be also one of the essential properties of mincl^ — impen-
etrability; it is as impossible that two thoughts can
coexist in the same mind at the same time, as that two
particles of matter can occupy the same space. I shall be
anxious to hear again.
Ever yours,
E. E. H. G.
84 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
LETTER XIX.
TO CAPTAIN EVANS, IN INDIA.
Pentonville, "Wednesday, May 12, 1841.
My dear Evans,
.... So much for home gossip, of which Kate is so un-
conscionably greedy. Now for a question I wish you could
get answered for me. I have heard, but can hardly believe
it, that large quantities of your Indian gods are the genu-
ine workmanship of our own Christian manufaturers —
and that large " assortments " of these divine deformities
are regularly made up for exportation. What a comment
on idolatry ! Gods made by the Infidel, and sold to the
devout, for worship ! But we^ I think, are the worse of the
two. We send out missionaries to reclaim the heathen
from superstition, and then (that the missionaries, I pre-
sume, may never lack employment), we manufacture deities
for the said heathen, of the most approved pattern and the
very best materials. If there are " firms " that thus deal in
bronze, — metalic and otherwise, — and drive a gainful
trade in gods, one would like to have a peep at some of
their invoices. How droll they would read ! Fancy some
of the items, or imagine advertisements running thus : " To
the devout; a bargain! A miscellaneous assortment of
gods of various sorts and sizes, — the lot to be disposed of
cheap." " A splendid Brahma, best bronze, warranted to
stand all weathers." " A Vishnoo, a little cracked in the
head, and a flaw in the nose ; a proportionate reduction
made." "A Seeva, gilt-lacquered, an extraordinary bar-
gain." " A lot of damaged gods, warranted none the worse
for worship, at a very low figure. K. B. The above
worthy of the attention of any one about to form his god-
establishment, or fit for a present to a Temple or Pan-
ENGLISH GOD MANUFACTURERS. 85
theon." " Messrs. Muck, and Co., agents for a celebrated
English god-manufacturer, being about to quit the god-busi-
ness, beg to call the attention of their devout customers to
their unrivalled stock of Deities, now selling oif at extreme-
ly low prices." — Perhaps it would be wise for our god-
manufacturing smiths to issue a catalogue and advertise
thus : " Messrs. Smith and Co., by si^ecial permission, god-
makers to the Deities of India, beg to call the attention of
the enlightened public of that religious continent to their
catalogue of spick-and-span new divinities, of the most ap-
proved patterns and finished workmanship, at the extraord-
inarily low prices affixed. Messrs. S. and Co. venture to say
that their gods will be found quite equal to any of the native
manufacture, and fully as attentive to the prayers of their
worshippers. Any gentleman or lady wishing to furnish a
house with a proper assortment, will be met on the most lib-
eral terms. Whole-sale god-buyers allowed a handsome
discount."
It is hard to imagine that condition of the human intel-
lect which can reconcile it to Idolatry at all ; it is quite as
hard to imagine how its votaries can accept gods manufac-
tured by those who laugh at all such trumpery ! The gods
themselves, it seems, graciously favor " free trade," and in-
sist on no monopoly for their worship^^ers. Not only their
devotees, but their enemies, may create these accommodat-
ing deities in all their perfections. But perhaps the thing
hardest of all to conceive, is the moral condition, not of
the heathen, but of those so-called Christians, who, pro-
fessing to laugh at and abhor all such idolatry, can pander
to it for a little gain ; and while praying each* Sunday that
God would be pleased to " confound all idols," can do their
best to perpetuate them for a miserable 10 per cent.
But it is not a solitary blot on our superior civilization.
A few missionaries go to teach Savages purity of morals,
8
86 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
and thousands of profligates go along with them, who by
rapacity, cunning, and cruelty, shall make the white man
stink in the nostrils of a whole archipelago, and do in a
year what an age of missionary instruction and effort can
hardly repair. Surely our boasted European civilization
has been a strangely inconsistent thing : a " fountain " that
sends forth " sweet waters and bitter." A solitary Howard,
once in many ages, consecrated his life to the captive and
the broken-hearted ; and, contemporaneously, thousands of
slove-traders bought and sold their living cargoes, at the
price of sorrows millions of millions of times greater than
ten thousand Howards ever soothed. A single Bartholo-
mew Las Casas devotes himself to the championship of the
poor Indians ; and Cortez and Pizarro, and a score of rapa-
cious adventurers more, teach them that superior science
means only superior wickedness. We boast of carrying to
the savage the arts of life, and too often destroy life itself
by other arts. The early settlers of America, says Knick-
erbocker, taught the natives the use of many admirable
medicines, and in order that they might not be blind to
their obligations, nor think they had received things noth-
ing worth, imj^oited at the same time the diseases for which
they had furnished the infallible specifics !
Sometimes, when I think of such things, I am almost
ready to ask whether our civilization has hitherto been a
curse or a blessing to the world at large. To suppose the
former, however, would be a false conclusion, I have no
doubt. But as to those who abuse it, like our god-makers,
one would think they were a sort of Manichaeans, and wor-
shipped indifferently the good and evil principles, by turns
now gave Ormuzd a lift, and now Arimanes.
Civilization is, doubtless, a good thing and tends to good ;
but not simply as civilization. It must be penetrated and
animated by virtue and religion. It is a nonsensical notion
EFFECTS OF CIVILIZATION. 87
of many m the i)resent day, that civilization, superior
knowledge, and science, onust do much, of themselves, to
regenerate the world. Every day's experience in private
life — where we so often see great knowledge wielded by
as great wickedness, — and still more the page of history,
ought to con\ince us that, like commerce, j^oetry, eloquence,
the press, — CiAdlization (of which these indeed are but
some of the forms) is in itself nearly indifferent to moral
good and evil ; more naturally (as every thing else worth
having), the ally of goodness, provided something else first
produces that goodness ; but not necessarily. In itself it
has no direct tendency to create virtue, and is as capable
of being employed for the devil as for God.
You will say, j^erhaps, like an old Indian as you are, that
in India, whatever injuries abused civilization may have
caused, these have been largely overbalanced by the bene-
fits of its legitimate influence, and in this I quite agree.
^N'ay — in that country, even our worst oppressions have
been tolerable, compared with those inflicted by the native
governments. But, though I doubt not you can prove it
quite a paradise, pray make haste and come home, and
bring Kate with you. I wish you could have, for only six
months, the latter AaZ/*of the modest demand of that con-
tented East Indian official who said that all he desired was
summed up in the old English lamentation — " Alas and
alack a-day ! "
Yours ever,
My dear Evans,
R. E. H, G.
88 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
LETTER XX.
TO
London, Nov. 8, 1841.
My dear Friend,
I heartily congratulate you on the adjustment of your
family differences. Jeremy Taylor says that the " returns
of kindness are sweet," and never was a truer word. The
sensations of "reconciliation" are indeed delicious; and it
is well, i^erhaps, that j^eople do not fully appreciate the
luxury, or they would be ready to quarrel for the pleasure
of — making it up again !
I hope that will not be the case between you and your long
estranged brother. Pomponius Atticus says, in the funeral
oration for his mother, that he had never been reconciled
to her — never having quarrelled with her all his days;
may you and your brother, in that sense, die "unrecon-
ciled," — never having quarrelled again !
I can imagine the expansion of heart with which you
met after so long an alienation. I dare say each of you
l^rotested, in exuberance of candor, (as is customary on
such occasions,) that he alone was to blame, and that the
other had been a paragon of all that was excellent and
virtuous! I have been sometimes amused at the extreme
reaction of humility and self oblivion which on these occa-
sions is apt to transform our repentant selves into devils,
and our opponents into angels. Heaven forgive us ! I fear
that Truth in these cases has to pardon something to charity.
"I can't think," says one, "howl could be such a fool as to
lose my temper, my dear friend," when perhaps he would
have been an angel if he had kept it. "It was ???y fault —
mine entirely," says the other, with as little regard to truth.
" Nay, don't say so," says the first, bent on proving himself
DELIGHT^S OF RECONCILIATION. 89
a villain, and " refusing to be comforted," if you attempt
to show that he is oiot one. In vain ; each, in that mood
of gushing tenderness, refuses to "extenuate aught" in
himself, or to "set down aught" against the other "in
malice."
I remember once seeing two friends so vehemently pro-
testing, in the ardor of returning love after a bitter quarrel,
— each that the other was not in the wrong, that I almost
began to fear lest they should quarrel again because neither
v/ould believe the other to be such a rascal as each pro-
claimed himself!
Ah! well a-day! It is beautiful — it is comical; and for
the rarity of the thing one may pardon it, since it is so sel-
dom that in this way the heart gets the better of the
head.
In other ways, heaven knows, it has more questionable
advantages ; in a thousand cases, it wheedles the poor head
out of all its brains, as easily as a \\dfe gets on the blind
side of her husband.
I have often thought there is something very beautiful
in the consolation Avhich, in the moment of reconciliation,
Joseph addresses to those rapscallions, his brothers. "Now
therefore," said he, " be not grieved, nor angry with your-
selves, that ye sold me hither ; for God did send me before
you to preserve life." Kind heart ! Apart from the fact
that his soul " yearned over " his brothers, and that, there-
fore, he spoke as he felt, this would have been a most un-
conscionable apology for them.
' Oh, fie!" I imagine some austere infidel saying, — such
a stickler for a precise morality, when he looks into the
Bible, and so lax when he examines any other book, — " do
not say a word m excuse ; the prevarication of the Patri-
arch is quite awful. To think that he should thus have
trifled with Truth, and ' nail't wi' ScriptureJJ" But beg-
8*
90 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
ging your pardon, dear Mr. Infidel, it was no trifling with
truth at all. Poor Josei^h spohe as he felt ; it were well if
you always did. Overwhelmed with adoration at the
thought of the all-controlling Wisdom which had thus sud-
denly brought good out of evil, yearning with affection for
his brethren, and feeling, to agony, their agony of shame
and repentance, — he spoke out of the fulness of his heart,
and I dare say, hardly " wist " what he said ; as, indeed, is
exquisitely indicated in that beautifully natural, yet utterly
irrelevant question which precedes, — " Doth my father yet
live ? " — a fict of which he could have no doubts after his
preceding interview's. And so, instead of an instance of
lying, Mr. Infidel, you have what the Bible is everywhere
presenting us with, — a profound trait and exact transcript
of human nature.
I have read somewhere, (is it not in one of our Essayists?
— the Tattler perhaps, but I am not sure,) — of one who
was so delighted to bring about reconciliations, that he
used to make no scruple of robbing Truth to enrich Char-
ity. If he found two neighbors estranged, and, as usual,
sulky, he would go to them separately, and expatiate with
mendacious unction on all the kind things which each had
said of the other ; how i:>rofoundly each yearned for recon-
ciliation, if he could but think the other would accept his
advances ! " I am so grieved," he would say to one, " to
hear that you and Mr. have quarrelled. I should
never have thought it to hear what he was saying of you
the other day ; what respect he felt for you, and how much
he loved you! " " If I thought so ," of course would
be the reply to this flattery ; " I am sure it was a very fool-
ish misunderstanding; I dare say it was more my own
fault than his — I Avish you would tell him so." Back, of
course, the loving liar goes to the first, and declares how
much his enemy mourns over the quarrel, and what very
ANECDOTE. 91
handsome things he has said. Their reconciliation, after
such reciprocal compliments, becomes an easy task. Truly
may it be said in this case that charity " never faileth."
Your little niece is quite well, and thanks you for the
pretty book. She is noAV six, and often amuses me by her
na'ive remarks. I was endeavoring, the other day, like a
wise moral instructor, to inculcate, from, the sage cat who
sat on a chair washing herself with utmost diligence, a les-
son of cleanliness; not that Mary particularly needs it, but
out of the superfluity of suj^erior Avisdom, anxious to eni-
l^loy any incident as a handle for a little moral prosing.
" Look at the cat, Mary," said I ; " see how diligent she is
to make herself look clean and handsome this morning."
But the little i^uss — the human puss, I mean — taught me
that parabolical instruction sometimes halts, and that ev-
erything may be laid hold of by " two handles." " I don't
think it is so very clean of her," said she — " to lick her
own feet and then rub them over her face ! "
She has already decided to her perfect satisfaction the
subtle question of an immaterial princij)le in animals, —
which has divided so many philosoj^hers ; for Avhen I asked
her whether the cat had a " soul," she replied with great
gravity — " The cat has a mind., but she has not got a souV^
So that, you see, she promises to be a great philosopher by
the time she is out of her teens.
Yours truly,
E. E. H. G.
92 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
LETTER XXI.
TO EDWIN GEEYSON, ESQ.
Pentonville, London,
Friday, Feb. 11, 1842.
My Dear Brother,
Enclosed, I send young Tom a few lines, as you wished.
Be pleased to expand a little those last hints about the use of
"Yes," and "ISTo; — for, credit me, I fear the lad's gentle-
ness of disposition and bashfulness of tongue more than
anything else. ISlow these are in themselves, and rightly
managed, admirable things ; and it is dismal beyond ex-
pression that they should be used as " handles " whereby
the devil may the better catch hold of the soul. It is to
aiTest a bird by his wings ; — to imprison him by the very
things that should enable him to soar upwards toward
heaven.
The litigious gentleman you inquire after, has lost his
cause, after a long trial. The costs are considerable. He
will not carry the matter further. He is something like
the Jew in the reign of King John, from whom that tyrant
demanded ten thousand marks, and for refusing to pay,
condemned him to lose a tooth a day till he complied.
The usurer held out till he had lost seven teeth, and then
gave in. As an old author remarks, if he had given in at
once, he would have had his money bags empty, but his
jaws full, and if he had persevered, he might have had his
money bags full, though his jaws were empty. As it was,
both jaws and money bags were empty alike. It is much
the same with Mr. S .
Ever your loving Brother,
R. E. n. G.
COUNSELS TO A YOUTH. 93
LETTER XXII.
TO T. GEEYSOX.
Feb. 11, 1842.
My Dear Boy,
You are now fifteen — have been inducted into a tail coat
— and are about to " enter on life," — as your father expres-
ses it ; and so he wants me to give you a little advice. He
evidently feels in a great fright about you, — as most fath-
ers do when their sons arrive at your age. And I fear I
must add, that the generahty of them seldom feel any
fright till then. They seem to think that their lads, till
they summon them into the counting-house, or determine on
their profession, are exclusively the mother's care ; and pro-
vided she looks after them in childhood — keeps their join-
afores clean — sends for the doctor if they are ailing —
teaches them their catechism on Sunday, and desj^atches
them with a correct inventory of their linen to school, the
generality of fathers trouble themselves buf little about the
matter. When their son's character is really /bn??ef? to all
intents and purposes — nay, often so set that nothing can
alter it, then these wise fathers begin to think what they
are to do towards forming it, and, for the first time in their
life, awake to their responsibility.
But I find I am beginning to lecture fathers rather than
children ; and, to speak truth, I should be guilty of a
double error if I were to go on in this strain ; for your
father is tiot one of these fathers, and if he were, it is you,
not he, whom I am called upon to address.
Yes, my boy, he has done his duty, not less than your
mother. Your nurture has been careful throughout. Still
he is evidently in no little perturbation about you ; not that
he has observed anything ^vrong, or that gives him cause
94 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
to doubt you — he assures me of the contrary ; but because
he knows, my dear youth, what you know not — the dan-
gers which meet every one who for the first time leaves
the nest, — the father's eye, the mother's wing ; because he
knows all the perils of a flight into this wide bleak world
■ — the hawks in the air and the nets and the gins on the
earth.
Well, I can but repeat what you have already been
taught, till experience give it a deeper meaning, and im-
presses it as no other teaching can, — that " the fear of the
Lord is the beginning of wisdom," and the '-'•love of the
Lord" is the consummation of it. And if you have but
these, as taught and exemplified to us by that gracious Sa-
viour who came to make known to us the Father, and to
lead us to Him, you are safe enough. Let the love and the
fear of God be as wings to your soul; and then, to recur to
the image which I used just now, you are safe from each
" snare of the fowler," and from all the " powers of the air."
And remember where the secret of all spiritual force to
cope with the world and its temptations lies ; — " They
that loctit on the Lord shall renew their strength — mount
up as on eagles' wings." They shall dwell rather above the
earth than U230n it — alight rather than abide here — soar,
when they please, into mid heaven, and at last take their
flight into heaven itself.
How happy for you, if you early make choice of the " bet-
ter part which will not be taken from you ! " To think that
at fifteen, you will have secured the felicity of two worlds.
Yes, — the felicity even of this, — as to all that most essen-
tially constitutes it ; for " with a conscience void of oflence
towards God and man," and in the hope of a better world
when this has passed away, you will have loithin, however
the tempest may bluster, and however dark may be the
night, without^ the elements of a perpetual content ; you
COUNSELS TO A YOUTH. 95
"will only have to step within yourself, to find the fire bright
and the hearth swept, and all the peaceful enjoyments of an
inviolable home.
On the other hand, — if you go wrong, it will be a tre-
mendous aggravation of all your sorrows, that from child-
hood you knew the " better way," and would not walk in
it ; that you set out with your face to the " heavenly city,"
yet turned your back on its golden pinnacles, and marched
obstinately into the land of shadows. The tears of repent-
ance are ever bitter ; — yours, if they ever come when an
evil heart has perverted knowledge and seared conscience,
will be tears of molten lead ! But I will " hope better
things " of you. May you never spend youth in that worst
of speculations — laying up sorrows for age.
As to practical rules of life, in your intercourse with the
world, you know, like all the rest of us, more than enough
to keep you straight, if you do but practise them. But if
I may venture to drop a hint or two, I should, from what I
have perceived of a certain tendency to bashful irresolution,
lecture you against that. Believe me, it is a most danger-
ous quality in youth, — for the devil is an impudent fellow,
and he wins a thousand more by false shame than he does
by finding them shameless. It has been said, and well said,
that the great lesson to be taught youth is how to say
" No ; " it is equally important to know how to say, " Yes."
If when some tempter says of something he ridicules, but
which you hold sacred or serious, — " Surely you do not be-
lieve in that nonsense," — you have the boldness to say,
" Yes^ I do ; " and if, when he says in the equally cajoling
way, — " Come, you will go with us noAV, I know," — you
can answer firmly, " No," when conscience bids ; — in short,
if you learn when and how to say " Yes " and " No," you
will not only have learned one of the most important lessons
of life, but will have set up about you such a sturdy, prickly
96 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
quickset hedge against temptations that hardly one of the
devil's imps will think it worth while to scratch himself
by trying to scramble through.
Ever your affectionate uncle,
E. E. H. G.
LETTER XXIII.
TO ALFEKD WEST, ESQ.
Windermere, June, 1842.
My dear Friend,
It has been raining here at such a rate for the last four
days, that if " Captain Noah," (as he is irreverently called
in one of our old " Mysteries,") were on earth, he would
certainly tliink it high time to set about the building of
another ark.
Can you procure for me, at a moderate price, Heyne's
Homer — the nine volumes, I mean? By the way, this
seems an odd question after such an exordium. So I must
jnst stop a minute to explain to you the connection between
" Captain Noah " and Heyne's Homer ; for though the con-
nection maybe obvious to you, it is just possible it may not.
I had put down my pen for a moment to contemplate the
ceaseless down-pour with that despairing look which we
generally cast to the heavens in such cases, when the rain
itself, together with the mention of Noah, naturally led me
back to the deluge — the deluge to the ark of that pnmeval
navigator; and so just stepping in, to get out of the rain, I
entered the cabin at that critical moment when Noah had
oj^ened the cabin window to leeward, and had the raven on
his fist, preparing for his flight. The thought of the raven
naturally led to the thouglit of the dove, — the dove to
those far less fortunate " Columbse " in Deucalion's deluge,
whose nest, according to Horace, was so inconveniently vis-
FREAKS OF ASSOCIATION. 97
ited by the fishes ; this unaccountable freak of imagination
entirely disorganized the whole train of my reverie, and
sent me rambUng among the Roman classics ; the Roman
classics, by what metaphysicians call either a suggestion of
" resemblance," or a suggestion of " contrast," — let the
metaphysicians, and, in their default, the critics, decide
which, — led me to the Greek classics; these to their
Coryphaeus, Homer, and to my long-coveted copy of
Heyne. Procure it for me if you can, but let it be at a
moderate price.
The above devious course of thought is about as tortuous
as that which Hobbes mentions as a proof of the odd freaks
of association. He says that in a company which was occu-
pied in discussing the tragedy of Charles the First's execu-
tion, the good folks were startled by one of their number
suddenly asking the value of a Roman denarius. It seems
that, while they pursued their topic, this absent man had
gone on a ramble of associations. The death of Charles had
recalled the idea of the traitors who had a finger in it ; the
traitors, Judas Iscariot ; Judas, the thirty pieces of silver ;
and that, the value of the coin denarius !
On all this I am induced to make the origin3,l remark,
that the faculty of association is certainly a very strange
one. Like everything else on earth, it has its two handles ;
its good and its bad sides ; its uses and abuses. If it be it-
self the great auxiliary of memory, it as often puts to fliglit
another ally of the same great faculty, attention; if it be
able to intensify, often absolutely create, the beautiful, it can
as suddenly destroy it by forcing on us some cruel capriccio
of whimsical incongruity ; if it can strengthen and fortify
virtue, it can perform the same friendly office for vice ; if it
often suddenly hands us just what we want, or by an unex-
pected turn brings our wearied thoughts to their journey's
end, it as often presents us with ten thousand things that
9
98 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
we want not, or sends us out on an idle tour over three-
fourths of the universe.
The most casual mistake — the most innocent inadver-
tence — nay, even the most appropriate illustration — shall
send half an orator's audience, especially if it be a Christian
congregation^ a million leagues from the subject of his dis-
course. I remember a preacher once innocently but irrele-
vantly indulging in some " illustrations " derived from " in-
ductive and experimental philosophy." Those unlucky il-
lustrations ruined the attention of as many hearers — to wit,
of three friends and myself. The most amusing thing was
to observe, that they had sent us all off by differefit routes
of association — such is the activity of this versatile faculty.
On comparing notes, we found one of us had no sooner heard
the words, than he was transported in imagination to a lec-
ture-rooni of the Royal Institution — peeped into two or
three jars of chemicals — received a shock or tAvo from a
new galvanic apparatus, — saw two or three young gentle-
men cut a caper under the influence of the nitrous oxide, —
and could not get back till the preacher uttered the words
*' thirdly and lastly." The second instantly found himself
deep in the first book of Bacon's " Novum Organum," and
unconsciously illustrating the idola tribus. The third was
sent instantly into the very midst of the mechanism of a new
pump for which he was about to take out a patent, and got
so entangled amongst levers, pistons, valves, and tubes, that
he did not recover hunself till the benediction. For myself,
the mention of inductive philosophy sent me to Newton ;
Newton sent me on a long ramble through the planetary
system — comets rushed by, and I went belter skelter on
with them into the very thick of the fixed stars — the fixed
stars led me up to heaven — heaven, by a very natural reac-
tion, brought me back to my duties on earth; and I found my-
self in church at my devotions again, just as the preacher was
FREAKS OF ASSOCIATION. 99
insisting on the duty of keeping our thoughts from wander-
ing during religious ser^dce,
Perhaps there was not one of the audience an inch nearer
heaven for the illustrations. " The preacher's ' experiment '
was a failure," said one of my friends. "It was all naturally
' induced ' by his * inductions,' " said a second. " After all,
what has Christianity to do with * exiDcriraental philoso-
phy ? ' " said the third. " Quite as much as we had," re-
plied I, " or, for the matter of that, the preacher either."
But is it not mortifying to think that a chance word, a
passing absurdity, a little inadvertence, may, like a pebble
thrown among a flock of pigeons, send half the minds of
the audience lohir — iohirri7ig a thousand different ways ?
Surely the faculty of association is one that a public speaker
ought to be well acquainted with.
I begin to think, from that last illustration, that Plato
was right when he makes Socrates ludicrously compare the
ideas in our minds to a flock of pigeons in a large pigeon-
house ; they certainly go flying about with similar volatility,
are as easily startled, and as difficult to catch.
If anybody wants hay this year, he must, should this
weather continue, *' fish for it," as Horace Walpole said.
Yours truly,
E. E. H. G.
LETTER XXIV.
TO THE S^OIE.
Windermere, June, 1842.
My dear Friend,
* * * * So much in answer to your queries. For-
give me that I did not reply yesterday ; but just as I was
going to begin, my lodgings were visited by two ladies to
100 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
solicit a subscription to some new " society " (or some
" branch " of one) they are going to estabUsh in this neigh-
borhood for a local and, no doubt, very humane object,
though it appeared to me no more deserving of a separate
" organization " than a thousand and one others. Nay, I
fancy the end would be answered a thousand times better
if every man that really desires it, would use his private
influence and example to aid it, instead of ostentatiously
setting up an " organization " to work it out secundum ar-
tem. The waste of time and energy in canvassing and
speechifying, in gadding, and talk, and gossip (to say noth-
ing of the provocatives to vanity, etc.), occasioned by the
needless multiplication of these modern modes of benevo-
lence, is prodigious. A " society " against the formation
of any oieedless societies would be an excellent thing, and
would be sure to find me a subscriber. The principle of
" Division of Labor," in these social forms, is run mad, and
ought to be strait-waistcoated.
Of course, all large objects, which really require confed-
eracy, must have such organizations ; who doubts it ? But
they should be as few as possible; and confined to objects
which are too vast and comprehensive to disj^ense with them.
This would economize time, money, agency, everything.
But we now see societies formed, not only for all great
objects, but for the most trivial local ones ; multiplied far
beyond necessity, either by excessive subdivision of objects,
or by want of consolidation when the objects are nearly
identical ; all the purposes in view might just as well be
secured by half the number. It is quite humiliating to
think of the loss of time and patience, of breath, money,
and oratory that all this entails. No sooner does some
benevolent crotchet enter the mind of some philanthropic
gentleman or lady, straightway a " committee " must be
formed, and meetings — weekly, monthly, and annual —
"SOCIETIES" AND "BRANCHES." 101
held ; the post actively plied ; placards and reports printed ;
circulars issued ; and, in short, all the usual machinery set
in motion — to the injfinite plague of quiet souls like myself,
and of multitudes who have much more important business to
attend to, and cannot find time for it. Nor can it be concealed
that the expense of these " organizations," if they multiply at
the present rate, will, in due time, swallow up no small por-
tion of the capital of benevolence. No wonder so man}^ of
these " societies " languish, and that their whole history is
little but a continued series of " appeals."
Inspired by a noble ambition, Z think also of starting my
own little association. Pray let me have a " branch " in
your part of the country. I am not yet decided as to its
object — but no matter ; there is no lack of them, for any
one of " the ills flesh is heir to " may furnish a foundation.
I think, however, the "wooden-legged" men have been
strangely overlooked, and that I shall entitle my " organi-
zation," " The poor Wooden-legged Men's Friend's Socie-
ty " (it is well to have a long name), for providing them
with that supplementary limb gratis. I delight myself
with thinking what an imposing appearance my array of
" wooden legs " will make at my " annual meeting,'' and
with what clatter of emphasis they will knock their applause
at eloquent periods by means of the timber toe. An array
of the " two wooden-legged " might, methinks, grace the
front of the platform — seated on rather high chairs to
exhibit to the audience, at a properly conspicuous angle, the
good results of the " organization." N. B. Contribu-
tions received either in money or timber.
I please myself also with the droll specimens of philan-
thropy which (as is wont in other cases) will garnish my
annual Report ; such as " an old bed-post " from one con-
tributor, the proceeds of a " gold-headed cane " from
another, or "six fathoms of well seasoned oak as a thank-
9*
102 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
offering for the giver's needing none of it," from a third.
However, do not think in such items I intend any satire on
any genuine acts of j^hilanthroj^y, however trivial: I am
only laughing at the foolish vanity which too often leads
men, instead of "giving with simplicity," — as the Apostle
so beautifully expresses it — to temj^t the derision of the
world by parading their benevolence in the odd forms in
which it often greets us in print. . .
Yours faithfully,
E. E. H. G.
LETTER XXV.
TO ALFKED WEST, ESQ.
Great Barr, Staffordshire, Aug. 1842.
My dear Feiexd,
I am sorry to find that you are so troubled with indiges-
tion, that even the slightest irregularity is punished. Well ;
you must comfort yourself with the thought that you are
not likely to become a gourmand^ and that you need take
no " pledge " to preserve your temperance ; though, as
you have no temptations, that I know of, to be either glut-
ton or drunkard, the security may seem to you rather super-
fluous. I met the other day with an ej^igram in the Greek
anthology, to the effect, that it would be a good thing if
the " headache came before the drinking-bout instead of
after it." Here it is :
Et Tots ixe^ua-KS/xej/ois ^Kaffrrjs rifi^pas
Thv oLKparou r]fjL(ai/ oiiSe cts eirivev 6.v '
NDy Se irp6T€p6y yc rod irovov ttju tjSov^v
TlpoXafx^duoures iiaTepoufxev Taya^ov.
Certainly with even less than that we should find the
morals of mankind wonderfully improved ; I mean, if retri-
COMPULSORY "VIRTUE." 103
bution was but simidtaneous with transgression; — if, for
example, that thing we call " conscience " were attached
to one of the vertebra?, at the same time that it Avarned
us, began to tug away at some exquisitely sensitive nerve.
What alderman would gloat on venison if, after having
taken as much as was good for him, conscience, the moment
he sent up his plate for a superfluous slice, admonished him
of his folly by a sudden fit of the colic, instead of a sleepy,
dozy intimation that ten or twenty years hence, if he lived
so long, he would repent it ; or if a liar, the moment his
tongue began to wag, found his face blushing with St. An-
thony's fire instead of the faint tints of shame ; or if a thief
detected the incipient feeling of covetousness by a desperate
contemporaneous twinge of gout in his great toe ; or if the
hypocrite (as, according to Swedenborg's notion of " spirit-
ual correspondencies," he is or ought to be) were told of
his fault by a swinging paroxysm of toothache ! . . .
The forms of nervous disease are endless, — the A'agaries
of hypochondriasis infinite. Let me give you a droll in-
stance. I have a friend Avho exactly illustrates the beneficial
efiTect of that constitution of " conscience " just spoken of.
Except that he is odd and hypochondriacal, and therefore
perfectly miserable, he is one of the most enviable men I
knoAv. He is eminently virtuous, temperate, gentle, com-
passionate, kind-hearted, with all his appetites singularly
under control. I was complimenting him a little the other
day on his happy temperament, when I observed an expres-
sion of nausea, as if he had taken a dose of tartar emetic.
" My dear friend," said he, " I beg you will not give me
pain ; and, in order to avoid it " (dropping his voice to a
mysterious whisper, and looking round to see that no one
was within hearing), " Know that the Adrtue on which you
compliment me is, between ourselves, nothing but selfish-
ness ; so never compliment me again, for it makes me
104 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
wretched. My conscience — a morbid one if you will —
has, somehow, got entangled with my nervous system, and
I cannot think an evil thought without torture. If I see
the hungry, and feel disposed to pass them unrelieved, I
seem immediately seized with pangs of hunger myself; I
liave no peace till I have satisfied my own stomach by fill-
ing those of other people, and may thus be said to feed
myself by other people's mouths. In the same manner, if
an emotion of covetousness obtrudes itself, I have an imme-
diate sensation in my throat and cliest just like that we feel
when, in company, we have bolted a hot morsel, and sent it
hissing down the throat, because we could neither put it out
nor keep it in the mouth. If I have any feeling of disingen-
uousness, that moment my too physical conscience warns
me by a film over my eyes ; and if I were to tell a lie, I do
believe she would strike me stone blind at once. If I feel
any disposition to exceed the most moderate indulgence at
table, I have a twinge in the great toe of the right foot,
which would reconcile me to oatmeal porridge and pease-
bannocks for a fortnight ; and if I am tempted to vanity^
as I was just now when you flattered me so agreeably, I
feel qualms at the stomach as if I had taken an emetic. In
short, between ourselves, my virtue, as you call it, is all
mere deception, — disguised selfishness. I wonder whether
any one has ever been similarly afllicted ! '
" Afilicted ! " said I, laughing ; " I wish all mankind were
so afilicted. I wish your disease were contagious, and that
you could infect the world ; or bite us all round like a mad
dog, and inflict on us a moral hydro-phobia I "
" Ah ! " said he, with a melancholy air, " do not say so ;
I am perfectly miserable. For what can be more wretched
than involuntary virtue ? — to have seeming benevolence,
and feel it is all selfishness ? How I sigh," he continued,
whimsically, "for the power to do any one good thing
COMPULSORY "VIRTUE." 105
imconstrained ! — and, alas! how shall I ever be sure that
I am in a condition of confirmed virtue while necessity
thus backs conscience!" Was he (for he was a very
modest man) laughing at me all this time, and, as usual
with such men, depreciating his own excellences, and
guarding against unwelcome flatteries ? Or was it really
one of the infinite freaks which nerves out of tune v/ill
play a hj^DOchondriacal patient ?
Whether it were so or not, the last observation recon-
ciled me to the ordinary condition of our probation. Yes,
thought I, as I took my leave, — forcing my features, as well
as I could, to sym2:)athize with the expression of his lugubri-
ous virtue, — it would be indeed sad, if we were never
sure that we should act as we ought, when not under an
impossibility of acting otherwise; and this consideration
sufficiently vindicates our present condition of proba-
tion, if we are to be made really and indefectibly virtuous;
self-poised by active vital forces from within, not kept
upright by painful bands and ligatures ; by right motives,
not by material springs and pulleys ; which last would
reduce us to a sort of Punch-and-Judy automata of virtue.
Nevertheless, something may be learned from ray friend's
dix)ll experiences. In a somewhat similar condition ought
virtue to end^ though not so to begin ; in a sensitiveness to
conscience as keen as sensation, but moral, not mechanical,
— and the reward, not the foundation of Adrtue. Happy
is it Avhen the Christian has so long practised the pre-
cepts of his Master that he feels that the wants of others
trouble him nearly as much as his own ; — till he cannot
help " weeping with those who weep, and rejoicing mth
those who rejoice ;" — " till he cannot say to the hungry and
thirsty, the cold and naked, " Be ye warmed and filled,"
and do nothing more ; — till, like my poor whimsical friend,
he must eat by proxy, and till as it were, his stomach by
106 THE GREYSON LETTERS
Other people's mouths ! Sensation cannot form virtue, but
virtue should lead to emotions almost as vivid without
being as painful.
Query ; — seriously and soberly, and without any talk of
nervous necessitation, — how much of the virtue of the
world is owing to similar non-virtuous motives ? How
often is that which seems benevolence, only a form of self-
ishness ? " Always," say some of our philosophers ;
"charitable folks are uneasy if they refrain, and so they
gratify themselves by giving ! " Delightful theory. Master
Hobbes ! Then this virtue is on a par with that of my
good hyi^ochondriac, whose modesty is kept alive by
nausea, and whose comj^assion is generated by the colic !
Perhaps it may be said, " Well ; what is the difference to
the world ? Who can distinguish between the most refined
selfishness and the most refined benevolence, since the for-
mer, if it really calculate its own interests, will produce
just the same effects as the latter?" Exactly the same, I
believe ; so that a world of truly calculating Ej^icureans
would do just the same things as a world of virtuous men.
Yet somehow, dear Epicureans, Ave feel that two acts are
toto coelo different when the sources of the said acts are
different ; — as different as the blush which is called up by
modesty from that erubescence which is the effect of a
blister.
I am afraid that all this excellent disquisition will hardly
reconcile you to your dyspepsia. Wishing that you may
soon be so rid of it that you need not doubt whether your
abstinence be involuntary or your prudence comj)ulsory,
believe me,
Ever, my dear Friend,
Yours affectionately,
R. E. II. G.
" STRIKES." 107
LETTER XXVI.
TO THE SAME.
Great Bare, Sept. 1S42.
My dear West,
I trust we are at leno-th comiiiQ^ to the end of that for-
midable " strike " among the colliers, which has kept this
part of the country in such commotion during the past few
Aveeks. Poor fellows ! it makes one almost despair of ever
rescuing them from the tyranny of their own follies. One
would have thought that the experiments already made
must have convinced them that " strikes," injurious to all,
must be chiefly injurious to themselves; that it is just
" cutting off the nose to be revenged on the face," as the
proverb says. Here is a million or more of wages lost to
themselves and their families; the little hoards which
ought to have been a sacred deposit for old age or a day
of adversity, exhausted ; the community at large subjected
to great loss and anxiety ; the habits of thousands amongst
tlie artisans themselves dee2)ly, and in many cases incurably,
injured; and nothing in the world to show for it, except a
few Aveeks of frenzied excitement and ruinous idleness. The
only peojDle benefited are the keepers of beer-shops, and
those fools or knaves (for one or other they must be) who
seduce the poor creatures into the notion that " strikes "
are wise things. As for the leaders, a " strike " is, of course,
for a month or two, a fool's paradise; they spout and
speechify — they form "committees" — they preside over
them — they travel gratis — they assume state — they are
agreeably inflated (even next door to bursting) with the
fumes of conceit and self-importance. Really, when one
considers how, on these occasions, the poor folks are led
by the nose ; how plain it is, that come what come will of
108 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
a, strike, and be the j^rovocation to it what it will, the
laborers themselves must be the chief losers, and yet how
slow they are to learn truth so obvious, it almost makes
one despair. But you, I know, do not despair ; neither in
truth do I, though I have not the faith which some of our
modern savans and reformers profess in that infallible
" sj^ecific " — knowledge ! " Knowdedge is power " — they
are eternally chanting. Why, aye ; and so is ignorance, —
as our strike-demagogues agreeably find ; indeed, I fear, if
w^e consult history, that we shall find, so far as mere power
goes, that great events have depended for their possibility
quite as much on the ignorance of men in general as on the
knowledge of those who have j^ractised ujjon it ; not to
say that half the great things men have accomplished would
have been unattemj^ted, if a happy ignorance had not
shrouded, at the commencement, the tremendous obstacles
to be encountered. " INTaturalists have observed," says
South, " that blindness is a very great help and instigation
to boldness. And amongst men, as ignorance is commonly
said to be the mother of devotion, so in account of the
birth and descent of confidence too ... he who makes
ignorance the mother of this also, reckons its pedigree by
the surer side."
Knowledge, I grant, is a more respectable source of
power than ignorance ; but still, whether it be a beneficial
power depends on a variety of conditions with which it has
no essential connection in the world. 3Iere enlightenment
is as little capable of subduing a refractory will and selfish
passions, as ignorance ; and surely the history of the world,
— of unscrupulous ambition and crooked policy, — suftice
to show that intellect and knowledge are in themselves in-
struments merely, and are just as ready to serve wrong as
right — villany as virtue. I should as little hope by mere
knowledge to make a man act aright, as to get incendiary
ESTIMATE OF "KNOWLEDGE." 109
"Hodge" (as some one has said), just as he is about to
stick his torcli into a wheat-stack, to forego his enhght-
ened j^urpose by reading to him the treatise on " Heat "
out of the Library of Useful Knowledge, and showing him
that, by the laws of tlie communication of " caloric," the
said wheat-stack would first " expand " and then inconven-
iently "contract" under the action of that mysterious
element.
Mere " political " knowledge, however sound, will effect
the object just as little. Indeed, Hodge, ignorant as he
may be, has quite light enough, before kindling his confla-
gration, to see by. What is wanted is n t7rdnin(/ that shall
operate on habit ; a training^ religious and moral as well
as intellectual ; that alone will do the business.
If it be said that the schooling^ by which knowledge is
imparted, will do good, — that I admit most willingly; any
decently managed school is, in that point of view, beyond
all price ; but then, though the giving of the hioidedge is
the avowed object, the great benefit reaped is amoral one;
it is the effect produced in the very process itself of acqui-
sition that constitutes the chief value of schooling ; it is
because industry, perseverance, j^atience, punctuality, ve-
racity, honesty, and so on, are practically taught in the
course of this school discipline; it is because it involves
the right employment of time, and the exclusion of temp-
tation.
When right habits^ indeed, have been formed, then the
knowledge imparted during their formation becomes inval-
uable, and an instrument fit to be profitably used ; but, in
itself, it is as liable to moral abuse as ignorance. If (to
use a Socratic figure) you could i^our all this knowledge into
a lad's mind " as from a ^-essel," at once, and without the
moral process of schooling, it would as little follow tliat it
would be rightly used, or prove beneficial (though a " pow-
10
110 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
er " it would be), as the gifts of genius, which, we know
familiarly enough, are no infallible passj^ort to virtue. It
is just the same with mere knowledge. Neither capacity
nor knowledge have, in themselves, any reference to virtue,
any more than anything else that is merely instrumental,
and that may be, like these, used or abused.
In the meantime, it is hard to say how long it will be
before our artisans and mechanics will learn j^ractical wis-
dom, since exjjerience itself has so often failed to teach it.
I fear that thousands of families, in the present case, will
find the table of " Dry Measure " in Bonnycastle utterly
wrong, and that a " strike " is anything but equal to " two
bushels," while, not " twenty strikes," but " one," will prove
a "load" of intolerable misery !
Ever yours faithfully,
R. E. H. G.
LETTER XXYII.
TO THE SAME.
Leicester, Dec. 19, 1842.
My dear West,
I met last night, at the house of a friend in this place,
one who knew the celebrated Robert Hall. Among other
things, he told me he had heard that, when a student at
Bristol, Robert had been brought before the College au-
thorities for being present at a prize-fight ! He defended
liimself half in jest and half in earnest, and to the great
liorror of the square-toes, confessed the fact, but denied
any fault ; on the contrary, contended that a prize-fight
was a very instructive sight for a youth to witness ! One
can imagine the consternation of the seniors, while perhaps
the young scapegrace insisted that it was a fine exhibition
HUMAN PUGNACITY. Ill
of vigilance, patience, and fortitude ; as such, eminently
desirable for a Christian, and most desirable of all for a
Christian minister to gaze upon ; that Paul himself had
evidently been at many a prize-fight, as shown by his fond-
ness for the imagery derived fi-om it ; that it was also a
most melancholy exhibition of human depravity and corrup-
tion, and therefore full of solemn and tender suggestions
to one whose business it would be to rebuke and correct
iniquity ; and in short (for Robert was not the lad in those
days to halt at a half paradox), that it was a singularly in-
structive and monitory spectacle for young ministers of the
Gospel !
There is certainly something very attractive in a fight of
any kind, let us say what we will. It was only the other day
that I felt this (shall I confess it ?), when I saw two little
imps pitching into one another with much good-will — that
is, ill-will — in the street. Out of regard for the pubhc
peace, or to prevent some member of the " Peace Society,"
should any such one come along, from knocking their
heads together by way of teaching them to abstain from
all violence, I magnanimously " struck up " their swords —
I mean, their fists — with my umbrella, looked awful, and
said solemnly, "Sirs, ye are brethren ; Avhy do ye wrong one
another ? " Yet, methinks, I coitld have stayed and seen a
round or two with much comfort and edification. " After
all," thought I, as I went along somewhat uplifted and
vainglorious, " how do I know that I have not impeded
justice, and given indemnity to the wrong doer? How do
I know that I have saved weak innocence from tyrannous
strength ? Nay, how do I know, (on which ever side lay
justice or injustice,) I have really done anj'thing?" And
this last, probably, was the coiTcct view; for, as soon as
my back was turned, the great suit most likely proceeded
to its ordinary arbitration, as if no such potent mediator had
112 THE GREYSON LETTEPwS.
appeared. It was just like many, more important, actions ;
whetlicr our interference does good or hann, we know
not ; or, for the matter of that, whether it has any effect at
all.
You remember the feeling, I dare say, with which, at
school, the symptoms of a " fight " were hailed. "A ring, a
ring," shouted the amiable bystanders, ignorant of the cause
of the quarrel, and afraid only of its being too early accom-
modated. Certainly the love of a contest, of seeing energy
and passion exhibited, must be strong in our pugnacious
race ; for whether it be a fight between a matador and his
brute antagonist, or of two knights at a tourney, or an in-
tellectual combat between acute and accomplished minds,
it seems to be witnessed with much the same eagerness by
the sjjectators as the fights of our school-days by us. Too
often men feel as little regard to the justice of the cause as
we did, when we watched, perhajis fomented, the first happy
symptoms of a quarrel; trembling lest a little reasonable
diplomacy should rob us of our treat ! In that case we felt
as much defi'auded as the servant girl whose mistress had
given her a holiday — to see an execution. She came back
in tears, and her mistress was needlessly afraid that the
sorrows of the sj^ectacle had been too much for her sym-
pathetic nerves. The lady was never more mistaken.
"Oh, ma'am," sobbed the girl, "the man Avas not hung after
all!"
What would you not have given to see the young scape-
graces of Athens who assembled round Socrates, and lis-
tened to his disputes with the Sophist tribe ? It would have
been almost as interestinof to watch their countenances as
those of the chief combatants. How few amongst them
should we have found fairly and ingenuously awaiting
the issue of the investigation ! How few cared an
obolus about the truth ! How few were willing to adopt
LANGUAGE OF EMOTIONS. 113
the practical teaching of the great sage they admired!
Yet who can question that the delight with which these
subtle youths watched the process by which the redoubted
athlete of logic cast to the ground his antagonists, was
most intense ? Just as intense, I dare say, as that with
wliich many of the hearers of the eloquent preacher with
whom I began, listened to his fervid inculcation of the
sublimest truths — and then forgot to practise them ! . . .
Yours truly,
E. E. H. G
LETTER XXVIII.
TO THE SAME.
Tuesday, June 10, 1S43.
My DEAR Feiend,
The " suspicions," you say, of your friend were unjust
and hard to bear. Yes ; unjust suspicion is always the very
hardest thing to bear, — except, indeed^ Jitst susj^icion. Do
we want proof ? Why, look at Job. There we see a sub-
mission, equally magnanimous and sweet, till his friends
came to " comfort him." What, by the bye, must be the
condition of a man, when his greatest j)lagues are his " con-
solations ? "
Thus was it with the Patriarch. His wife was bad enough,
no doubt ; and truly politic was the astute malignity of Sa-
tan in letting her remain, whatever else he took away ; ac-
cording to Coleridge's epigram : —
" He took his honors, took liis •wealth,
He took his children, took his health,
His camels, horses, asses, cows, — ■
And the sly devil did not take his spouse."
10*
114 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
But his wife was nothing to \m friends. She was a blas-
phemous idiot — unless the translators have done her injus-
tice ; and Job gets rid of her, as the Antiquary might have
done, by telling her she si3ake as one of the " foolish woman-
kind." But only think of the greater folly of the three phi-
losophic " Consolers," — who came to see their friend in the
extremity of his desolation, and had nothing better to tell
him than that they were very sorry to find him a great rep-
robate ; hoped that, instead of offensive protestations of in-
nocence, he would make a clean breast of it, and gratify
them by tellmg them what a hoary old hyjDOcrite he had
been ! It is a thousand pities that they broke their long
silence of "seven days;" — they would have done much
better in their character oimutes^ and might have thus play-
ed their parts as decently as our modern friends of the same
name, in other funereal scenes.
It is true that Job spake many things " unadvisedly with
his lips ! " but how can we wonder at it, goaded on by such
peculiar " consolations ? "
It would evidently have been better for Job, if he had
said at once, "Not at home," on his dunghill, to these
" comfortable gentlemen." It is observable that his tone
was altered immediately after their appearance. When he
spoke, even before they had spoken to him, he seems a
changed man. He did not open his mouth to curse his day
and to give expression to all those bitter, yet sublime and
pathetic lamentations that he " had ever seen the light," till
he saw these curious sympathizers before him. I sometimes
think there must have been something in their very pres-
ence that galled him; that they gazed at him, perhaps even
before they S2:)oke, with severe and sanctimonious looks
which betrayed unuttered suspicions, or assumed a little of
tliat pompous air with which complacent prosperity is apt to
regard humiliation and misery. There is something very
JOB AND HIS FRIENDS. 115
sweet in the reproof given to these unfriendly friends in the
" denouement " of the scene. It has always appeared to me
as if, in entirely passing by Job's unquestionable folly in
some of his passionate utterances, the Divine Benignity
made allowance for those harsh speeches as extorted from
him in the anguish of his soul under the pressure of his ca-
lamities, the most bitter of which was his friends' condo-
lence. It is as though God looked on these as involuntary,
torn from him under a condition in which moral self-control
was lost in physical and mental agony ; and so, thinking
only of the substantial truth of Job's declarations of recti-
tude, and of the more enlarged views which, on the whole,
he took of the divine administration, his condescending
Maker refuses to take notice of these escapades of His afflict-
ed child, — while He visits with severe rebuke the conduct
of Bildad the Shuhite and his t^^o amiable auxiliaries ; be-
cause, while uttering many " wise saws " and solemn tru-
isms, they had indulged in such uncharitable suspicions, and
had been so utterly careless about the anguish they were
causing. He was " angry " that they had not spoken the
thing that was right, " as His servant Job; " and they were
to go to His " servant Job " to be prayed for, and eat hum-
ble pie, and a good large slice of it too (I should hke to have
seen their faces while they were munching it), else their
leisurely and inhuman philosophy would have got them into
a scraj)e.
By the bye, is there not exquisite nature in the gradual
way in which the " wordy strife," once begun, goes on in-
creasing in harshness and uncharitableness ? The " friends "
at first express their suspicions with circumlocution and po-
lite ambiguity, and the " ifs " — which however, are no
" peacemakers " — are abundant. But as the controversy
proceeds, they become as thoughtless of Job's feelings and
of the pangs they cause, as a Majendie in dissecting a live
116 THE GREYSON LETTERS-
jackass ! There is human nature for you ! Once get angry
for an hypothesis, even though an ethical one, and our ethi-
cal philosopher will trample charity, pity, truth itself, and
every cardinal virtue under heaven in the mire, sooner than
surrender a tatter of it.
The pathos of that bitter .cry, — "Have pity on me, oh,
my friends ! have pity on me, for the hand of God hath
touched me," — extorts nothing from the " Consolations of
Philosophy " on this occasion. EHphaz the Temanite is
prompt to " answer the multitude of words " with a greater
multitude ; and, " full of talk " himself, asks whether " a
man full of talk is to be justified ? " Zophar the Naamathite
has heard the " copy of his reproach," and hastens to show
that he is not going to stand that ; while Bildad the Shu-
hite wants to know, in a jDrolix speech, how long it will be
before Job " makes an end of words ?" One and all hasten
to enter their protest against Job's reasonings, and vindicate
their system of dogmatic theology ; bring him in guilty of
"uttering lies," "mocking God," "casting off fear," "re-
straining prayer ;" of a " crafty tongue," and the " hope of
the hypocrite ! " ]N^o wonder at last, after Job's final and
most sublime self-vindication, that he intrenches himself in
that indignant silence which is yet more touching than his
pathos, — and exclaims, " The words of Job are ended." It
is a great wonder to me that the good man did not fairly
succumb under the weight of his friends' sympathy and con-
solation.
From this unlucky experiment, I think we may infer that
when we see any man in trouble, and have nothing better
to say to him than that he is probably scourged for sins of
which we know nothing, we had better hold our tongues ;
but, at all events, let us not wonder that such suspicions
embitter the spirit of man far more than the troubles them-
selves.
JOB AND HIS FRIENDS. 117
By the Tray, — and quite apart from this particular and
unexampled case of condolence, I should say that it is bet-
ter, at least in great trouble, to be at first loithout humian
sympathy altogether. A man in his senses, left alone with
God and himself, manages, I sometimes think, better than
with a host of merely mortal " Consolateurs." In the pres-
ence of the Infinite, — like Job before those accursed
tongues began to wag, — we fall down prostrate, and hush
the heart in silence. But if we begin to talk much with oth-
ers, or they with us, — beshrew that confounded tongue
(theirs and ours) ! — it somehow reacts on the heart and the
understanding, and produces disquiet. Like the clang of a
trumpet, it excites emotions that, but for it, might have
slumbered. Sometimes, too, the platitudes which a mind
at ease utters to a mind in anguish (however true they may
be), and the provoking tranquillity with which they are doled
out, chafe and irritate us. Sometimes we are told we grieve
too much^ and sometimes not in the right w^ay ; sometimes
a consolation is hinted which is felt to be none ; sometimes
we are told to be cheerful, when we feel we can't ; and more
frequently than all, and perhaps worse than all, comes a bit
of mortal moral " prosing," which has been anticipated by
our own mind a thousand times, and the repetition of which
only tends to make us impatient. Perhaps I am peculiarly
sensitive in this matter ; but I confess I have never been in
profundis (and I have several times been so) without Avish-
ing every friend that came to see me, at Jericho.
I remember, in one of the most sorrow^ful hours of my
life, meeting by chance with a relation who had sufiTered a
like calamity. I had not seen lier for years ; I have ncA^er
seen her since ; I can never see her again, at least in this
world. We met, clasped hands, looked into each other's
eyes, — read, reciprocally, the Avhole tale of ench other's
sorrows there, — exchanged all unutterable thoughts, —
118 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
and, without speaking one word, passed on. I will venture
to say we said more, and more to the purpose too, than if
we had been exchanging common-places of condolence
from that day to this.
Ever yours,
E. E. H. G.
LETTER XXIX.
TO THE SAME.
Great Barr, Aug. 1843.
My dear "West,
I am not ashamed to say that, after you left me, I felt
very much like a fish out of water, if indeed you know how
that feels. I could settle to nothing. My books seemed
uninteresting, — the garden walk, we had so often paced
of late, intolerably lonesome, — the silent j^iano a positively
disagreeable object. The sun shines as bright over the green
fields and hills as when we rambled and talked so merrily
there yesterday, and yet it seems to shine with a sombre and
melancholy light. Certainly those of us who live almost
absolutely in solitude are much to be pitied when we have
parted with a friend ; for, if the pleasure of seeing him is
keen in proportion to the rarity of the enjoyment, the sep-
aration is felt with a far more exquisite sensibility than can
ever be experienced by those to whom each day brings a
new guest, and whose memories, like the waxen tablet of
the ancients, are ready each moment to receive a new im-
13ression.
These partings, — when will they cease ? or cease to be
regretted because they can be at pleasure eternally re-
newed ? But in this world, and at our age, I cannot help
thinking, whenever we part, of what Cowper says so pathet-
ANTEDILUVIAN FRIENDSHIPS. 119
ically, that " the robin red-breast may be chirping on the
grave of one of ns before the winter is over." I sometimes
envy the patriarchs their longevity, who could, without ab-
surdity, invite a friend to pay a visit, " if all be well," half
a century, or, for the matter of that, two centuries hence,
and at sixty besj^eak the honor and j^leasure, " if nothing
happened," of your company at their three hundred and
fiftieth birthday ! — at all events, when they did meet, could
speak not only of an ancient friendship of thirty or forty
years, as we poor ephemerals so complacently do, but of
one of five or six centuries ! Terribly long-winded, though,
depend upon it, must have been some of those stories which
the old gentlemen told over a winter fire ; I imagine Me-
thuselah's youngest son, a stripling of eighty or so, must
often have anticipated the maxim of Montaigne, " Les
vieillards sont dangereux." No doubt, he often quietly
slipped out of the room just as the patriarch began that
desperately tough affair of his " first love," when he was a
gay youth of just one hundred. Cannot you imagine the
ancient, surrounded with his great-great-great-great-grand-
children, to the seventh or eighth generation, in a small fam-
ily party of seven hundred and forty-five, — all assembled to
celebrate his eight hundred and fifty-first birthday ? What
prodigious lapses of time, methinks, would the old gentle-
man be aj^t to deal with ; — how he remembered sojne-
thing four hundred and fifty years ago, " come next fall,"
as well as if it happened "yesterday;" how he remem-
bered it very well, because his eldest daughter's great-
grandchild's fifth daughter's son's nephew was then a little
lad of forty years of age, and died of the measles !
Yet, on second thoughts, it seems irreverent thus to talk
of the imagined prosiness of him on whose silver hairs we
should have looked as on the snowy summit of Mont Blanc ;
whose eyes had gazed on those of Adam ; who could tell
120 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
US traditions of tlie young beauty of Eve, and carry us back
to memories of the world's dawn !
But would even patriarchal longevity suffice us ? I trow
not. Even that must come to an end ; and if we were to
live not only as long as Methuselah, but as long as Voltaire's
little man of Saturn, whose term w^as 30,000 years, or even
as " Micromegas " himself, w^e should still say, " This, you
see, is just to be admitted to a glimpse of the world ; we
are doomed to die, as one may say, the moment we are
born." No question but Methuselah himself often read sage
lessons in his nine hundredth year on the extreme brevity
and vanity of human life, and told his descendants, when
near a thousand, that his days were but " as a shadow," and
" as a dream in the night." What then the remedy ? Ah !
my friend, how these partings make one long for that im-
mortality in which there shall be none, or none that shall be
attended with regrets; because we shall be assured that
after a little interval — yes, for even if separation be for a
thousand years, it will be little in comparison with eternal
duration — w^e shall meet in joy again, and friendship know
no death. Strange, glorious issue of things ! when friends
shall bid each other farewell, even for five hundred years,
witli an unmoistened eye : set out, on a little tour of some
small portion of the universe (to visit Cassiopea, for exam-
ple, or Orion, for two or three centuries,) and come back,
still to find the charmed home-circle unbroken, the " immor-
tal amaranth " still mantling the porch with its unfading
leaf, and gardens ever verdant, because there " eternal sum-
mer dwells."
Mystery of mysteries ! that human folly should ever fore-
go these enchanting hopes, and count itself " unworthy of
eternal life : " still greater mystery, that sin should ever in-
duce us to do anything to forfeit them ! Yet, in truth, the
latter mystery will enable us to comprehend the former ; for
IMMORTALITY. 121
the fact that man is such a fool as to imperil immortal de-
light for momentary gratifications, too well explains his
apathy. Apart from the consciousness of demerit, there is
not a human being who would not, amidst the sorrows and
separations of this world, sooner part with anything than
the hopes — even though they be faint — of immortality.
Let a future life be only matter of guesses and conjectures,
yet, if man thought that the sole alternatives it joresented
were Nothing or "eternal happiness," you would see all
mankind true to the principles on which they generally act,
and believing as the will directed them. Yes, ready to
knock anybody on the head Avho but whispered a doubt of
that fair reversion which man's hopes would soon teach him
to convert into certainty.
Strange that any one for the sake of a little gain, or a prof
i table lie, or the momentary gratification of any passion or
appetite whatever, should do anything to cloud such bright
hopes, which surely, even if delusive, are, so long as they
are believed, by far the most solid and precious of all our
j^leasures ! May you and I, my friend, seek, in the only
right way, the realization of these hopes, and every day
earnestly strive to render ourselves less strange to the scenes
which await us, by foregoing every appetite and passion
which is inconsistent with them. \Ye shall then at length
greet each other, I doubt not, in that world where we shall
either part no more, or part and meet, and meet and part
without end ; — • meet with ever fresh delight, and part with-
out fear or sorrow ; where " farewell " — no empty wish —
will always fulfil itself, and " welcome " will be repeated
for ever.
Yours ever,
E. E. H. G.
11
122 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
LETTER XXX.
TO A FRIEND WHO HAD ISTAREOWLT ESCAPED SPENDING A
NIGHT IN ST. ALBAn's ABBEY.*
My dear Friend,
Far from laughing at you for that pit-a-pat at the heart
as you saw the gleam of sunlight lessening in the great
western door of the Abbey, and thought you were in for
an autumnal night in the dreary pile, (standing so isolated,
that by no possibility could you have made your voice
heard,) I assure you, I quite felt for you, and was conscious
of a sympathetic pit-a-pat even at your descrijJtion.
I think I have as much physical courage as most men,
and perhaps more than the average moral courage ; and
yet I am so persuaded that mere courage, physical or moral,
is imj^otent against the cuinidative effects of imagination
when that faculty is subjected to the continuous pressure
of influences favorable to its unchecked activity, that
I would not answer for myself, or for any man in the cir-
cumstances in which you seemed likely to be placed.
In truth, let the imagination be ever so feeble, let it be
with or without culture, still I believe fully that its latent
energies may, under the operation of novel, imj^ressive, and
sufficiently i^ersistent influences, be roused into such in-
tense action, as to overmaster every other faculty ; subdue
not only reason and judgment by ideal terrors, but impose
laws on sensation itself; make the eyes see, and the ears
hear, just what it pleases.
I dare say you may recollect reading of sentinels during
* Finding the door open, he had wandered in one autumn afternoon,
and, lost in thought, was musing in the ancient pile, when he heard steps
near the distant door. He turned, and had just time to call to the vanish-
ing figures. A minute later, and he would have been shut in all night.
POWER OF IMAGINATION. 123
the Peninsular War, who, having been stationed on the
outskirts of the field after a day's skirmish, have been
known to desert in the night, not from fear of living
enemies, but from inability to endure the proximity of
the dead ! There lay the foe in the dread silence of his
last sleep, and put his living foe to flight ! I can easily
imagine such a thing happening even to a brave man.
I remember, when a lad of sixteen, it used to be some-
times my lot to pass a remarkably dreary and isolated
churchyard about a mile distant from a very ancient
country town. Like some other ancient towns, it has
gradually shifted its site and left its churchyard behind it,
as if the dead and the living had quarrelled; — no bad
separation, by the way. If I were writing now to our
worthy friend, the Rector of , I would maliciously sug-
gest whether it might not be from antipathy to " sermons "
that we thus find old towns sometimes hitching away
from the church !
At that time of life, an imputation of fear was my
greatest fear. So feeling ashamed of a certain uneasy
consciousness of gladness when my horse had fairly turned
the corner of the road which led into the churchyard, I
resolved, one wild-looking, stormy November evening, to
face and conquer this indefinite dread. I tied my horse
to the gate which led into the charmed ground, and de-
termined to walk fairly round it. I did so, — and I need
hardly say saw nothing; yet I will own to you that
before I had made the circuit, the senses were sufficiently
quickened to convince me that it only required sufficient
time to make me see and hear any thing that imagination
should choose to palm upon me. The melancholy autumn
wind sighed and moaned with peculiar solemnity among
the branches of the dark trees which edged the wall of
the churchyard ; and as it rustled in the long grass of the
124 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
graves over which I stumbled, and made the sear leaves
patter on the grave-stones, I could almost fancy I heard
the feet of supernatural visitants; the shimmering of
a Avhite tomb seen in the distant gloom looked like a
" sheeted ghost ; " and as I was just getting round to the
point which led straight to the churchyard gate, all at
once, and without any reason or warning, I had a sort of
vision, as my eyes rested on ^ a large tomb, of a figure
lifting its arm with a menacing gesture. It w^as, I doubt
not, the fancy-transformed shape of some monumental
sculpture ; but it came with such startling suddenness
that it left me without power of reasoning upon it. I
made a strong effort to walk straight on, though quick-
ening my pace, and was glad enough, I am not ashamed
to say, to regain my horse's back, — who, happily proof
against all imagination, was quietly munching his grass,
and, I dare say, wondering in his mind at the unreasonable
hour I had chosen for my devotions !
I once had a friend who lost his way on one of the
mountains of Cumberland one autumn evening ; and fear-
ful of walking down some precipice, and equally afraid of
going to sleep, he paced out a little walk, before it became
quite dark, and resolved to keep in motion to and fro on
that sentinel's beat all night. He told me that as he
looked at the giant peaks and the shadowy glens by the
light of a waning moon, and listened to the distant roar
of waters in the still and solemn night, his imagination
possessed and terrified him almost to madness ; and I can
well believe it.
Had you been caught, I can easily suppose that you
might have been fairly over-mastered before morning, and
come out an — idiot! You would have had an endless
variety and succession of sights and sounds wherewith
fancy might play you tricks, — making you at last see
POWER OF IMAGINATION. 125
what is invisible, and hear what is inaudible. No doubt
you would have spent the hour of fading twilight in
pacing up and down the echoing aisles, trying to persuade
yourself of the folly of ideal terrors, and that, beyond the
absurdity and inconvenience of your situation, there was
really nothing to disturb you. But, as you felt chilly
with the night wind, and weary and faint with fasting (for
an empty stomach has a good deal to do with a haunted
brain, yea, a glass of warm negus has a mighty power of
laying ghosts), imagination would begin to plague you;
and the very echo of your footsteps, as you trod the
resounding pavement, would seem to suggest sounds
whispering in the roof. A sudden gleam of moonlight,
as it broke through a cloud and chased a shadow near
some distant pillar, would seem to show your startled eye
that some living shape had glided behind the column ; or
as it brought out into shimmering light a distant monu-
mental figure, would animate the marble with fancied life
and motion. The very look of that low black door in the
spacious north transept, seen in such vivid contrast with
the white walls and columns, and leading down (so tradi-
tion says) to the tombs of the old abbots — would, if I
am not mistaken, almost seem to you, as you passed it at a
distance, half open ; nay, do you not hear some strange
sounds within it? There are also, you feel confident,
mutterings and whisperings in the long cloistered walk
over head among the second tiers of pillars. Hark! what
was that sound? Pshaw! it is but a distant turret door
slamming to with the night wind. You are but just con-
vinced of it, when a rustling sound behind you seems to
show that footsteps are pattering near. No, it is but the
swaying of the branches of the old yew-tree against a
distant window. Another burst of moonlight suddenly
calls out of darkness a grotesque and grinning monster near
11*
126 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
you. Look again ; pish ! it is but a fantastic ornament of
tomb or pillar. All at once, the sharp shrill scream of the
owlet startles the ear of night ; — how deep, how appalling,
is the silence that follows ! Suddenly there is again a sound
behind you, and, as you turn, a flickering shadow is seen ;
it is certainly some one disappearing behind that j^illar.
One — two — the clock tolls midnight ; its vibrations are
painfully distinct to the ear . . . and you think there are six
long hours of darkness still before you !
In short, my friend, I am very glad you ivere not
called to face this nocturnal adventure, for I fear that long
before you had pished and pshaioed^ and pooh-poohed
away the sights and sounds which haunted you, imagi-
nation might so have transformed and misinterpreted
them, as to make a fool of reason.
Did you ever stand and watch the dead, alone and
steadily for some time — especially by candle-light ? I
have, and without a particle of fear ; but as I have con-
tinued to gaze, I have seen how easily imagination might
be deceived. I could sometimes almost have sworn that
I had seen a slight movement of the heavy eyelashes, or a
very slow rising and falling of the shroud, as of a perfectly
noiseless breathing !
Plow exquisitely does Walter Scott depict the effect on
the rude Deloraine, as he takes the "mighty book" from
the Wizard's " dead hand," in Melrose Abbey ! The
flickering light on the face of death will often give just
the appearance of that "dread frown."
" Then Deloraine in terror took
From the dead hand the mighty book,
AVith iron elapsed, and with iron bound
He thought as he took it, the dead man frowned.
But the glare of the sepulchral light,
Perchance had dazzled the warrior's sight."
POWER OF IMAGINATION. 127
No doubt habit will reconcile iis to any thing; and
people would, in a little while, sleep as sound in a charnel-
house or in your abbey, as anywhere else. But place
them in totally novel circumstances, and the old suscep-
tibilities revive, and imagination asserts its supremacy
again.
It is well, no doubt, to be freed from all superstitious
fears ; but the universal tendency of the human mind to
people, with ideal shapes, solitude and night, and the
abodes of the dead, — a tendency which assumes, in gen-
eral, so intense a form in that hour when men draw near
the " land of shadows," — does it not seem to indicate,
my friend, that there are faculties in our nature Avhich
prophesy, fxavTcvovcn, as a Greek would say — presage,
give us an " inkling " of, the supernatural ? Do not sus-
ceptibilities, which are so easily awakened in almost every
bosom, aiford a presumption that we are in affinity with
another world, and continually stand on the frontiers of
it? I know that this alo?ie would be an inadequate
argument for such a conclusion; but supposing it made
out by other and more tangible evidence, is not this
sensitiveness of the imagination to all the circumstances
which insulate us from the world, and seem to bring us in
fancy to the confines of the world of spirits, in harmony
with this solemn conclusion ?
I know that it is the custom of many philosophers not
only to laugh at ideal terrors — which is very proper —
but to laugh also at this universal tendency^ and resolve it
all into association ; — even the presaging inquietude of a
dying hour. But whether they be philosophical in this is
another question.
They reason thus : that as we are so often beguiled by
ideal terrors, therefore this whole tendency of the imagi-
nation is illusory, and death and its revelations as little to
128 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
be dreaded as night and silence. Other men, so far as
they lay any stress on this sensitiveness of imagination at
all, would argue that it rather indicates that there are
unseen realities than that there are 7iooie^ though, no
doubt, it often befools itself; just as shadows indicate a
substance, or as dreams are the counterpart of realities.
One thing, at all events, both of us know well enough ;
that many who are most contemptuously incredulous in all
such matters prove the greatest cowards when the trial
comes. Abundance of examples show that those who have
gathered courage from the illusory character of su23ersti-
tious fears to j^roclaim, while in health and strength, the
equally illusory character of the terrors of death itself, are
ajjt at last to prove arrant cravens. This so frequent failure
of courage ought to make these Bardolphs and Bobadillas
of the devil a little more modest ; — they should not, for
very shame, boast and swagger over their cups, in high
blood and in broad daylight, since, like so many of their
fellows, they may be found showing the " white feather "
when the inevitable hour, which can alone test their courage,
comes.
Yours faithfully,
K. E. H. G.
LETTER XXXI.
TO ALFRED WEST, ESQ.
Januakt, 1844.
My dear West,
So J. S. is unmasked at last. Upon my honor I
almost pity him ; — not for being unmasked, for on that
he ought rather to be congratulated, since it has at least put
a term to a course of what must have been unparalleled
FIT PUNISHMENT OF HYPOCRISY. 129
self-torture, and was a necessary condition of even a chance
of reformation ; but I almost pity him to think of the
frightful suffering he must have imjjosed on himself in
wearing so long that close vizard, which must, one would
think, have almost suffocated him. How much more hard,
if the hy]^)ocrite did but know it, to seem than to he vir-
tuous !
As to your question, " what punishment would be a])-
propriate for hyj^ocrisy," — it is hard to say ; I only know
that as few can be too severe for it, so few can be more
so than that which its eternal arts against detection, its
shifts and self-constraint, must inflict on itself. I only
know of one thing that could make it much worse ; and
that would be (if we had the j^ower to manage it), to com-
pel hy]:>ocrisy to act the hypocrite perfectly ; that is, not
only to give smiles, gestures, words, or tears, in homage to
i-eligion and virtue, but acts — though still reluctant acts ;
practical hypocrisy, in short, in which virtue should be
exactly simulated, and have nothing wanting in the world,
except that trifling thing — its essence. Only think of the
rueful acquiescence with which a benevolent hypocrite would
back his bland spnpathy with distress and misfortune —
by a constrained donation of a guinea ; — the too sincere
groans and grimaces with which a h^^iocrite in religion
would perform the secret devotions to which he felt him-
self internally driven by an irresistible impulse, without
meaning a word of the long prayers he uttered ; the vexa-
tion with which he would find that sleep fled his eyelids
till he had punctually performed his two hours of evening
meditation and devotion (a genuine penance surely), for
which he was taking credit of the world ! How pleasant
for the sentimental philanthropist to find himself, perforce,
whispering consolation at the bedside of the sick and dying,
and adored as a Howard mthout a particle of claim to it!
130 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
the "gay Lothario," sore against his will, compelled to
make good that "promise of marriage" under which he
intended to betray! the concealed toper always finding
his secret flagon filled with delightfully transparent and
insipid water ! the disguised rake, playing airs of chastity
so well, as to frighten every lady of his acquaintance at
his austerity, and the masked wanton enacting the j^rude
so inimitably as to j^revent every eye from regarding her
in any other light than as an angel who had mistaken her
way and stepj^ed into a body by mistake ! Plere, you see,
we should have every virtue under heaven and not one
l^article of it ; all its good effects though itself non-existent !
You will agree with me, I think, that it would be an intol-
erable punishment thus to " do the works of God" and be
the " servant of the devil," — to take more pains to go to
hell than other people to go to heaven. No doubt ; but
then the prescribed actions are precisely what such people
pretend to be doing, and I would merely turn the pretence
into reality.
But how, by the way, shall we deal with that curious
class of hypocrites who affect fliilings which they have not;
who acknowledge " sins" of which they were never guilty,
for the sake of being rej^uted saints among those who make
a merit of " voluntary humility ; " or who parade vices to
which they are strangers for the sake of being thought
men of ton and spirit ? To i3unish these by comi^elling
them to act the vices they dissemble would, I fear, be no
j^unishment at all : the " saint " Avould soon qualify him-
self thus to be a " sinner;" and the rake do his best, at all
events, to justify his boast of profligacy. It is hard to say
how these are to be treated on any such plan. Perhaps
the best way would be to get the world to resolve, that
when the things hypocritically assumed are considered dis-
creditable in themselves, those who assume them for the
ESTIMATE OF "KNOWLEDGE." 181
enhancement of humility, shall always find themselves
believed^ and pass for true-spoken, not self-traducers ; those
who do so to gain credit among " the men about town,"
shall be accounted liars ; thus will the " saint " get credit
for his " sins," and the rake no credit for his " spirit."
How little men would like, in the former case, to be sup-
posed to speak the truth, we have a notable example in
that old story of the monk who heard the confessions of a
certain cardinal. " I am the chief of sinners," said the
cardinal. " It is too true," said the monk. " I have been
guilty of every kind of sin," sighed the cardinal. " It is a
solemn fact, my son," said the monk. " I have indulged
in pride, ambition, malice, and revenge," pursued his Em-
inence. The j^rovoking confessor assented without one
pit}dng word of doubt or protest. " Why, you fool," at
last said the exasperated cardinal, " you don't imagine I
mean all this to the letter." " Ho, ho ! " said the monk,
" so you have been a liar too, have you ? "
Yours faithfully, and " without hyi^ocrisy,"
B. E. H. G.
P. S. If you have an opportunity, please to take an ex-
act measure of J. S 's face. If I mistake not, you will
find it at least one inch and three quarters shorter than it
used to be.
LETTER XXXII.
TO THE SAME.
Mat, 1844.
My dear Friexd,
A youth of whom you knew something, though little
good, young B , has finished a short career of vice and
folly by going to sea, and left his widowed mother, after
all her passionate love and sacrifices, with a broken heart.
132 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
What a dance the young rascal has led his guardian angel,
if indeed he ever had any ; though I fancy he has given
up his charge long ago in despair. The mother, it seems,
has not j but then a mother surely is more than angel. A
strange mystery of love — that parental instinct! How it
outlives the worth of its object, and sets j^i'vidence, and
calculation, and reason itself, all at defiance. When a child
is cast off by all the rest of the world, there is one fond
heart that still throbs and is breaking for him ; and when
every other door is closed, there is still one left ajar. There
the foot-fall even of his reeling stej^s at midnight, as he
comes from his drunken orgies, is often watched and lis-
tened for with intense agony. Such have often been the
vigils, i^assed amidst tears and terror, of this broken-
hearted widow. Beautiful, no doubt, most beautiful, is
this instinct of parental love — and yet strangely akin to
folly ; necessary, I suppose, in this evil world, to give effect
to the Divine comj)assion which " wills not that any should
perish, but that all should come to repentance;" yet, in
itself, hardly reconcilable with reason.
Il^evertheless a time must come, I supj^ose, when even
this instinct would be wearied out, if fathers and mothers
were unmortal upon earth, though not, perhaps, till the full
tale of the " seventy times seven " had been duly told.
Still, the time would come at last, when even parental love
would tire of the task, "never ending, still beginning,"
of witnessing alternate disobedience and repentance ; when
even a father must say to the ungrateful child — "The ex-
periment is over ; never more will I be to thee a father ;
never more shalt thou be to me a son." Reason revolts
at the absurdity of an eternal series of offences and for-
givenesses.
Must it not also be so with the incorrigible children of
the Father of all, — who exercises a like long-suffering ?
PARENTAL LONG-SUFFERING. 133
However men may dispute about hoio experiment is to
end, — whether in ultimate annihilation, or hopeless exile
from the all-cheering Presence, the spectacle of a responsible
being permitted eternally to transgress and eternally to
repent, is an absurdity which the intellect and the moral
sense alike rebel against.
But in this world, at all events, parental love is almost
never extinguished. I have met with men whom insulted
patience, accompanied with severe self-control, and a sensi-
bility feeble by nature or subdued by habit, has armed, to
all visible appearance at least, with power to cast off a
worthless child. I say to all visible aj^pearance ; for we
cannot be quite sure. Sometimes we see that a sudden
gush of reviving tenderness sweeps away as with a flood
all the barriers which a stoical pride had erected, and shows
us that the fountain had been dammed up, not dry. But,
however it be with men, I have never yet seen a woman, —
not herself criminal, — who has utterly suppressed the
yearning love for a child, however worthless.
And so this poor widow sits and weeps over the cruel
flight of this detestable cub, who has robbed her, ruined
her, and brought down " her gray hairs with sorrow to the
grave ; " as if his making ofi" were not the very best thing
that could befall her ! She still persists in calling the young
scamp's misdeeds " errors," not " crimes," and talks of his
faults being rather those of his head than his heart, — as if
the young brute ever had a heart ! But who can contra-
dict her, or set his ruthless logic against the fallacies of
maternal love?
For myself, if I were his father, I think I should bless
the hour of his departure, and devoutly pray that he might
get what it is likely he loill get, — a round dozen before
he has been a week on shipboard, I think I should feel
so, I say, but I know not. As it is, I thank heaven I am
12
134 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
not his father, and so I will ease my indignation by wishing
him not only the round dozen aforesaid, but a weekly
repetition of the dose till he comes to a true repentance.
And perhaps it may be so. God often suffers vice thus
to choose its own hard school, and then at length teaches
it wisdom. When the schooling of boyhood is over. He has
a second school for a multitude of young fools, and there,
by bitter experience, enforces the lessons which milder dis-
cipline besought them to con in vain. No university for
your young prodigal like that in which " swine " are the
" fellow-commoners," and " famine " spreads the cloth, and
the " husks," — and those grudged, — are the dainty fare.
" The way of transgressors is hard," says the great book,
and so it obviously must be if the transgressor is ever to be
reclaimed at all. Having in obedience to intense selfishness
defied all the allurements of love, it must be first taught,
by a salutary severity, the xmprojitableness of selfishness.
When I think of such cases as that of this graceless lad,
whose graduation in vice, for the last four years, has been
recklessly prosecuted in sight of the all unutterable sorrows
he has inflicted; — w^hen I think that every step in his
career has been deliberately taken, though every step sent a
pang to his mother's heart — chasing sleep from her couch,
and making her gray before the time, — I know not w^hether
to laugh or be indignant at the cant of that pseudo-philan-
throj^y which persists in regarding hardened crime and fixed
vice as still quite amenable to the law of kindness, and pleads
for such a relaxation of penal discipline as in fact would
render all penal discipline a mockery. All needless and
improfitable severity, who would not wish, on all grounds,
to avoid? But as to indulgence and kindness, can any
system of penal discipline afford to show the thousandth
part of the long-suffering which a hardened criminal has
generally set at defiance? A likely matter, that honied
"CHRISTIAN EVIDENCES." 135
words and nursery expostulations will operate on those
who have, a thousand times, wrung the fibres of a mother's
heart, and set at naught her tears of anguish ; trampled
under foot all the sanctities of home, and slept sound, and
laughed, and sung, and drunk, sj^ite of the haunting spec-
tacle of the comprehensive ruin they have sj^read around
them ! This is to imagine that the ice which would not
relent to the sun, will melt in the beams of the aurora
borealis. Nothing but the *' furnace" of affliction, seven
times heated, can usually perform the first part of the
process by which the adamant of a selfish heart is to be
softened ; and that is the method God's providence generally
takes. After that, the " law of kindness " may be under-
stood.
Hardships at sea, Avreck, pinching want, captivity, sick-
ness on a foreign shore, and, together with one or other of
these, the biting memories of that love he has wronged
and that home he has lost, may be the appointed " rod and
ferula " to bring this j)oor lad, as they have thousands more,
to himself.
Yours ever faithfully,
jEl« £• H* G»
LETTER XXXIII.
TO THE KEY. C. ELLIS, B. D.
January, 1845.
My dear Fkiekd,
That the writer of the note you have enclosed should
talk of the " dry repellent character " of the discussions
involved in the question of the truth of Christianity, and
say that they are more likely to make infidels than to re-
claim them, is not wonderful j for he is evidently almost
136 THE GREYSON LETTERS. J
an infidel already — at least inclined to be one; — and I 1
never knew any young gentleman so inclined, that could
not, like most people whose wills have bribed their under-
standings, find arguments to suit them. But that you
should seem to give any countenance to the nonsense that
is talked on the subject in the present day, does, I confess,
surprise me. You fear, you say, that so much " thorny "
argument as to the " evidences " — canvassing the historic
truth of the miracles, — replying to objections, — harmo-
nizing " discrepancies," and so forth, tends rather to nurse
scepticism than to cure it ; and that you " half feel " with
him on the subject. It is very natural that he should en-
deavor to evade the only mode in which, in his present
condition, you can reach him ; — I say the only mode ; for
try the other arguments on which you, and I, and every
other Christian lays so much more stress than on any ex-
ternal evidence, — and you will soon see how easily he will
turn their edge aside. Meantime there are others he
cannot evade ; and he is, of course, for getting rid of them,
very naturally, by this coup de main ; and, by the way, if
those arguments are thorny and intricate, he and those
like him, have, for their own purposes, mainly contributed
to render them so. I never knew a sceptic who, in discus-
sing the general historic evidences, did not instantly take
refuge in minute " objections " and petty " discrepancies ; "
Avhich, however little they can affect the main points at
issue, necessitate, of course, plenty of wrangling, nay, all
the more for their very minuteness ; and the more of such
objections your adversary can discover, and the greater
the intricacy of the statements which his own pertinacity
renders necessary, the better he is pleased. Indeed that
plain, broad line of argument derived from the external
evidences, which proves the truth of Christianity, (quite
apart, I mean, from the more transcendental evidence of a
"CHRISTIAN EVIDENCES." 137
moral and experimental kind, which you and I should deem
the strongest,) is in itself easy enough of apprehension, and
may be stated, as it often has been, in a very few words.
The things which chiefly render the subject voluminous
and intricate have been the handiwork of Infidelity itself;
which, ignoring the great decisive facts of evidence that
carry the general verdict, hunts up, with exhaustive in-
genuity, every little cavil and objection, and demands their
discussion and settlement. This, of course, must needs
involve a great deal of minute counter-statement, compu-
tations of authorities, citations and opposing citations,
comparison of dates ; tedious investigations, philological,
historical, chronological, and antiquarian, — heaven knows
what ; and then, from amidst the thick jungle into which
infidelity has voluntarily plunged, and compelled you to
plung after it, it turns round with admirable modesty, and
complains of the tediousness, aridity, spinosity, and un-
23rofitableness of these discussions !
It is much the same here as in other historic investiga-
tions embracing complicated evidence. The main and
decisive facts shall converge to one, and but one, result ;
meanwhile there are enough minute points on. which in-
genuity may suggest doubts, and on which it will be found
impossible to satisfy a disingenuous or sceptical understand-
ing. These points, if a man choose not to acquiesce in the
evidence which satisfies you and the rest of the world, Ae,
not yow, will insist on ; he will pet them ; make much of
them ; render, for refuting him, tedious circumstantial ex-
amination of irrelevant details necessary; weary himself
and every soul about him with alleged trifling oppositions
of testimony and discrepancies of statement; and then
pleasantly declare that it is impossible to see one's way
clearly through all that dust — which himself has raised !
Try the thing on any one in the mood of your young
12*
138 THE GREYSON LETTERS
acquaintance ; he will desire nothing better than that you
should depreciate the " external evidences of Christianity ; "
and if, as yoii propose, you should insist on the spiritual
beauty and excellence of the religion, and the experimental
proof of it from your own intimate feeling of its worth, —
my life for it, the " subjective " young philosoj^her will tell
you, with a complacent smile, that it 7nay be all this to
you y but that it is evidence which can only be yours^ not
his / that you, doubtless, sincerely imagine that Christi-
anity so speaks within you, but that he is not capable of
judging of that ; he has not your experience. If, thus
bafiicd, you attempt to find any bridge of words, any via-
duct of logic, by which you may reach his mind, and pro-
ceed to discuss that which, in such a mood of mind, is the
only thing he can discuss, — the historic evidence, — I will
answer for it, Ae, not you^ will be the first to make the dis-
cussion the thorny thing he complains of; he will plunge
with delight into some very minute question ; lie will be
profoundly anxious for instant satisfaction in the great
afiair of the " two genealogies of Christ ; " he will wish to
know, above all things, whether the accounts of the death
of Judas can be reconciled ; the cursing the barren fig-tree
will be a tremendous moral obstacle ; the question as to
whether two blind men were cured, or one only, at the gate
of Jericho, and whether it was as our Lord went into the
city, or as he came from it, will be of paramount importance
with him. Such are the things, I say, which will form his
favorite topics with you ; which, if you decline, he will
say that you do not fairly discuss the truth of Christianity ;
and if you accept his challenge, and go into them with the
requisite fulness, he will say, — just as he does say, — that
the evidences of Christianity are voluminous, and dry, and
thorny, and intricate, and interminable, and intolerable ! —
But he has first made them so.
"CHRISTIAN EVIDENCES." 139
It is plain, of course, that in discussing the question with
him it will be your duty as much as possible to recall him
constantly to the great leading lines of historic argument,
and induce him if you can, to see that it is question of a
balance of evidence. You must, if possible, guard yourself
and him from playing hide and seek in trivial objections
which never have prevented, which never will prevent, the
majority of men from acquiescing in the substantial truth
of Christianity in spite of such cavils. But if you talk with
him at all, you must, in his present mood^ resort to the ex-
ternal evidences, because they- are the only ones in which
there can be any access of your mind to his, or of his to
yours ; it is the bridge between you just now, and the only
one ; not the best bridge, perhaps, but the best you have.
Therefore, if you would not give in to any pernicious delu-
sion, which he would very well like to spread, do not talk
in the style of your last letter about the — danger of dis-
cussina; the Christian evidences !
If you say that it is a pity you cannot immediately assail
hhn with that species of evidence, — the spiritual and ex-
perimental, — which you feel to be so much more potent,
it is so indeed ; for if he were in a condition to appreciate it,
you need not insist on it at all ; he would already feel it,
and be beyond the need of your logic, because already con-
vinced. If you say it is a pity that you should be compelled
to argue Christianity on lower ground than you feel it is en-
titled to occupy, that also is true ; but then it is your op-
ponent's fault, not yours ; if you wish to do him good, you
must attempt it in the ways, and the only ways he leaves
open to you. You may regret that he will walk with you
only in moonlight, when he might do so by sunlight ; but
if you wish to aid him in his journey, you must not refuse
to go because he chooses an inconvenient hour and an un-
certain light.
140 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
If you say that it appears to give him an advantage, to
argue the matter on less than what you feel the highest
grounds, — it is very true ; but you are to recollect that
you may lament, but cannot envy, his tactics ; his victories,
like those of Pyrrhus, are victories that may well ruin him.
Meantime, you must do battle with him, if you do battle
with him at all, on common ground. The one cannot fight
in the heavens, and the other on the earth.
If you say that perhaps it would be better to decline con-
troversy with such men altogether, and trust exclusively to
the silent persuasion of a lofty, consistent, practical exhibi-
tion of a Christian life^ — I assure you that whatever im-
portance you attach to this last, I attach just as much ; so
much, that if all Christians, or Christians in general, did
full justice to this argument, I believe it would produce
more eifect than all other arguments put together ; but if
you can do your opponents any good by word of mouth, as
well as by this silent eloquence too, — especially as this si-
lent eloquence is often lacking — pray do not decline doing
so ; but then be pleased to recollect that if you attempt it,
you must not throw cold water on the only sort of topics
which can be argued between you.
I must once more insist that through our internal experi-
mental proof of the truth of Christianity is to us the greatest
of all, it is also the one most easily evaded, so far as any
mere statement of it goes. If polite the infidel will say, with
a smile, — "I dare say you think so. I dare say you are
quite sincere in your confident tone;" and if conceited will
add, " but in my judgment, it is all enthusiasm — fanati-
cism — ' Schioarmerei ' — it is all ' subjective,' I want the
' objective ;'" and so, if you talk with him at all, to the ex-
ternal and historic you must perforce both go. However,
as I have said, you make the experiment for yourself.
"CHRISTIAN EVIDENCES." 141
The examples yon allege seem to me utterly beside the
13m-pose. You quote the passage of Cowj^er's Cottager,
"spinning at her own door," —
" Who knew, and only knew, the Bible true —
A truth the brilliant Frenchman never knew," —
and then ask, " what she could have gained by reading Pa-
ley's Evidences ?" Why little or nothing, of course. But
what conceivable relation is there between her and those
for whom such books are chiefly, and indeed in the last re-
sult, solely written? for it is to guard against possible attacks
from those who " beUeve not," that they become of any
value to those who do. If already convinced by that
more intimate knowledge, that sj^iritual illumination, that
" peace " which the bible brings to all who truly love it and
live according to it (as was the case with Co^q^er's poor spin-
ner), every such work as Paley's is utterly useless, excej^t
as it is ahvays well not only to have implicit and uncon-
scious, but conscious and explicit, reasons of the " hope that
is in us." She had, as all such have, a vivid faith, which
can dispense with all books of e\adence ; but what has this
got to do with the case of infidelity ? What bearing has it
on the best method of dealing with one who is averse to
Christianity ? Of what use is it to urge that it is not ne-
cessary to adopt any such method with those who love it ?
I am so far from having any difference with you on this
point, that I quite agree in thinking that those j^reachers
err, if indeed there are any such, — I cannot think there
are many in our day, — who make the "evidences" of
Christianity and objections against it the staple of their
sermons to their already convinced flocks. Whether, as
you think, such " sermons " tend rather to excite doubt
than to appease it, I know not ; but assuredly it may Avell
make folks impatient to hear that continually iterated which
142 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
they do not dispute, and that proved of which they never
doubt ; nor can they get spiritually fat on such a lean Alpine
pasturage. In some instances too, it may well be that the
very objections which might never have been heard of but
for such unwise obtrusion of them, may occasion doubts
which the answer would not remove. If I were a preacher,
I should certainly take opportunity, now and then, as it
fairly offered itself, to give folks a clear and brief statement
of the outline of the Christian evidences, and the principal
grounds on which a reasonable faith is founded — on the
princij^le that they ought to be, like the Bercean converts,
intelligent as well as sincere Christians. But I should as
little think of descanting frequently or diffusely on infidel
objections, as of talking to an aj^ple-woman about the prin-
ciples of 23olitical economy, on which, like the rest of the
world, she, without knoAving it, bought and sold. But
what has all this to do with the mode in which you are to
deal with the infidel himself? If the road be thorny, still
he chooses it, even while he complains of its ruggedness,
and you must needs follow him.
You say, and say truly, that you cannot but think that
the Bible so reflects, as in a mirror, the great facts of man's
S23iritual condition and necessities, that if any one will read
it with " simj^licity," he must feel how true it is to our na-
ture. I quite agree with you ; but, first, a man may admit
the vmnts of human nature, yet object to the Bible mode
of meeting them ; may admit the disease, and yet reject
the remedy. Now the very question is here ; and directly
the man comes to that^ the historical problem returns ; for
surely as long as he doubts the remedy, he is not likely to
take it. What are the facts of Christianity, and on what
grounds are they to be accepted as such ? — this question
he perforce in such a mood must revolve. A man may ad-
mit a vague, or even distinct sense — there are few, that
"CHRISTIAN EVIDENCES." 143
are not idiots, but will — of man's moral destitution ; his
weakness, guilt and fears ; his uncertainty on all the great
moral j^roblems which it most imports us to know ; whence
we came, and whither we are going ; — but he will not, on
that account, take the remedy proposed, unless he believes
it to be such. Do not then, since you must deal with such
men, fall into the foolish cant which represents it of little
use to argue with them on the question of the " Christian
evidences " — for though you may think, and think justly,
tliat the men defraud themselves of a great benefit when
they make the evidences so " long and thorny a path," it is
tlie path for the present in which alone you can encounter
them.
And tlien, secondly, as to reading the New Testament
with " simplicity," this is, in foct, to suppose the principal
work done ; get them to do that, and you need not argue
with them long. Meantime, I fancy your " simplicity " is
great, if you expect they will do it. For my own part, I
think it is but too plain that the generality of such folks
read the Bible for no other purjDose than to hunt up objec-
tions. They are like the sceptic of whom Fuller says —
" He keeps a register of many difficult places of Scripture ;
not that he desires satisfaction therein, but delights to puz-
zle divines thercAvith ; and counts it a gi-eat conquest wben
he hath posed them. Unnecessary questions out of the
Bible are his most necessary study ; and he is more curious
to know where Lazarus's soul was, the four days he lay in
the grave, than careful to provide for his own soul when he
shall be dead."
In a word, your position in reference to such is much
like that of the ethical philosopher in relation to some
young idiot, — we now and then meet mth one, -^ who pro-
tests he can see no distinction between " moral right and
\\Tong," — believes that conscience is a bundle of " conven-
144 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
tionalitics" and "artificial associations," and the rest of the
gibberish proj^er to that theory. You may decHne reason-
ing with him, certainly, but if you Jo, it is of no use to in-
sist on the transcendental evidence which you have in your
own consciousness, of which he denies the experience in
himself; — though, by the bye, you may perhaj^s shrewdly
suspect the young scamp lies ; — nor can you insist on the
" sublimity, and beauty, and grandeur " of Virtue and the
" deformity " of Vice, since he denies their very existence.
Haj^pily there are not many such people ; but if you rea-
son with them at all, you must take the old way of logic
and induction, — you must reason fYoro. facts : and assured-
ly you will then soon find them comi:)laining of this " dry,
logical " treatment of the subject ; they at the same time,
by every art of soj^histry, making it ten tunes as " thorny "
as it need be !
If you do not choose to argue with such a man in the
only way his peculiar position allows, you must close the
disjDute with Dr. Johnson's concise dilemma, — " Either the
man believes what he says, or he does not ; if he does 7iot.,
he is a liar ; if he does, why, then, let us count our spoons !"
Most cordially do I agree with you that, to those who
will experimentally prove Christianity, there is evidence as
far transcending all logical demonstration as the conscious-
ness of the happiness of well-doing surpasses a mere intel"
lectual conviction that virtue will lead to hapj^iness.
It is our felicity that we " know whom we have believed ;"
-^ — that Ave " speak that we do know, and testify that we
have seen," when we say that the Gospel is no " cun-
ningly devised fable." I also firmly believe that even he
who does not fully yield to it, will do so if he honestly ex-
amines with a desire to understand and a willingness to re-
ceive it. " He that will do the will of God shall know of
the doctrine whether it be of God," But this requires do^
PULPIT STYLE. 145
cility and candor : where there are these, the " evidences "
in the ordinary sense would be brief enough, and would no
longer be " thorny."
Yours ever faithfully,
K. E. II. G.
P. S. This is a tract rather than a letter ; but the im-
mense importance of the subject induced me to express my
thoughts very fully.
LETTER XXXIV.
TO THE REV. S. W .
March, 184r).
My DEAR Mr. W ,
As a comparative stranger, I have no right to trouble you
with advice ; yet as a sincere well-wisher, who admires your
talents, and is most anxious that you should do justice to
the glorious function you have assumed, permit me to make
one or two remarks on a sentiment which I lately heard you
express, and which a little alarmed me for your success.
You said, I recollect, that " as you were going to a re-
mote country village, it would be easy to satisfy your rustic
congregation ; that you did not apprehend they would make
large demands on preparation ; and that simple truth, ex-
pressed in simple language, would be quite enough for
Mem."
Enough, I am sure, if the words be rightly understood ;
only I fancy that, if that be the case, it will be found that
" simple truth, expressed in simple language," must involve
very careful preparation. " Simple truth " must not mean
common-place, nor " simple language " any plain words that
come to hand. If you would produce any lively or durable
impression on any audience (rustic or polished matters not),
13
146 THE GKEYSON LETTERS.
you must give them thoughts that strike^ and these must be
expressed in apt words ; and to speak in this fashion will re-
quire, depend on it, very careful study. Take heed of the
fallacies lurking in the terms " simple truth " and " simple
language ; " for they are rocks on which many a man has
struck.
*' Simple truth " — the simple truth of the Gospel, — I
ti'ust, will ever be the basis of your preaching, as I am sure
you desire it to be. Apart from that assemblage of doc-
trines and precepts which can alone make Christianity a
thing worth listening to by sorrowful and guilty humanity,
all pulpit eloquence will be but " sounding brass or a tink-
ling cymbal." I hope, too, that these truths (as you pro-
pose) will be expressed in " simple language." But Truth
— the most important truth a preacher can enforce — may
be easy of comprehension, and it may be expressed in forms
none can misunderstand, and yet its advocate may have ut-
terly neglected his entire duty notwithstanding. His busi-
ness is, by apt method, arrangement, illustration, imagery,
vivacity of language, animation both of style and manner, to
render Truth, not simj^ly understood, assented to with a
drowsy nod, then slept over^ — but felt ; not only known,
which, by the way, it generally is before he opens his lips,
— but the object of symj^athetic intelligence, and the source
of emotion ; to animate it with life, to clothe it with beauty,
and make it worthy of" all acceptation."
Now, to do all this for your rustic audience, will demand,
(take my word for it,) not less study and effort than if you
were preaching to the most polished audience in the land :
in some respects more, for you might legitimately speak to
these last (and perhaps more easily to yourself) on many
subjects which would be mere Hebrew and Greek to the
parishioners of your Ultima Thiile ; and, for similar rea-
sons, the range of your diction will also be more limited.
PULPIT STYLE. 147
On the other hand, rely on it (and I say it after much ob-
servation of the effects of public speaking), if the topics are
such as your audience can deal with (and let me tell you
they can deal with a good deal more than is generally
thought), none of the pains you may bestow on your dis-
courses — on the arrangement of your thoughts, and on your
modes of illustrating and expressing them — will be thrown
away. Your audience, however rustic, w^ll show that they
appreciate excellence of style, though they may not be con-
scious of the lohy^ and perhaps never dream — simple souls !
— that you are eloquent at all. So much the better, my
dear sir ; — and better still, if, which is much more difficult,
you can forget it too.
However, though they know nothing of " analytical criti-
cism," nothing of the " principles of logic and rhetoric," youb
do ; and you will see that if you comply with the genuine
" rules of art," by truly adapting your discourse to your au-
dience, your audience will show that they naturally obey the
laws of criticism, though they do not comprehend them.
They will show here, as in other cases, the characters " of
the law written on their hearts," though never studied in the
codes of rhetoricians. Among your rustic hearers, as well
as among the most refined of our species, pathos will exact its
tears ; affection and earnestness, sympathy. With them, as
with their betters, vivacious imagery and force of diction will
light up the eye, and awaken intelligence, attention, and
emotion.
The fact is, that great injustice is often done to plebeian
hearers. The praise which is lavished on the critical Athen-
ians, as though they were miracles of taste, because they
hung with rapture on the lips of Demosthenes, is nearly as
applicable to many other crowds. Look at the history of
our great political speakers. Take the most famous names
of the House of Commons. Was it there only they were
148 THE GPwEYSON LETTERS.
listened to with rapture? Were not Fox and Burke as
welcome at the hustings as ever they were at St. Stephens ?
Did not promiscuous crowds Usten as applaudingly as their
more select audience of fellow representatives ? Is it not so
always ? Take again the greatest preachers. Have not
men of all orders of intelligence, and of the widest degrees
of culture, formed their congregations ?
Speaking of the difference between provincial dialects and
the national idiom, — the latter of which is understood by
those who speak the former, though the former may be un-
intelHgible to those who speak the latter, — Dr. Kenrick
curiously observes: "The case of languages, or rather
speech, is quite contrary to that of science ; in the former,
the ignorant understand the learned, better than the learned
do the ignorant ; in the latter it is otherwise." Something
like it may be said of true eloquence : a common artisan
may appreciate the point, force, vivacity, of a discourse,
nay, instinctively feel the elegance and music of it, and not
be able to speak a single sentence grammatically. You will
not, of course, suj^pose that I wish you to attempt a style,
whether of thought or expression, ambitiously above your
rude flock ; that would be anything but true eloquence in
my esteem : all I mean is, that there is to them, as to every
one, as great a difference between a commonplace treatment
of the very same Christian truth, and one really adapted to
awaken attention and kindle emotion, as there is between
the style of the dullest retailer of soporific truisms and the
style of Demosthenes; and that to attain such a genuine el-
oquence, if you have, as I believe you have, a sacred ambi-
tion to do good, is well Avorth your utmost diligence and is
not to be attained without it.
Forgive this little exercitation on " Rhetoric,"
And believe me
Yours truly,
K. E. H. G.
HABITUAL ACTIONS — AUTOMATIC OR NOT? 149
P. S. I intend, next summer, to visit your part of the
country ; if so, I shall ensconce myself some Sunday morn-
ing in a remote pew, in your old-fashioned church, and see
how far you have thought my remarks worth attention !
LETTER XXXV.
TO C. MASON, ESQ.
Sutton, Oct. 1845.
My dear Mason,
I know you used to take a lively interest in that old met-
a^^hysical dispute, — which, I suppose, like most other met-
aphysical disputes, will be always revived and never decid-
ed, — as to whether our habitual actions are automatic ; or
whether, however rapid they are and however little trace
they may leave on our consciousness, the will in each case
interposes with a special act. You used, I remember, to
take the former view, while I rather inclined to the latter.
Last night, a most absurd thing happened to me, which al-
most inclines me to take your side. And yet, as you will
see, I am not sure that the pleasant ingenuity with which
mind is always too subtle for itself when it asks its wise self
about its own phenomena, cannot find plenty of arguments
against it. But first to my fact. Except to you who know
me, it might perhaps seem incredible.
You are aware of my fidgetiness about ^rey reason good,
— since I was once within an ace of being burnt down
through a neighbor's negligence. Nevertheless, by the
way, I am so wakeful that I almost always, in summer read
in bed, undisturbed by any fear lest somnolence should sur-
prise me before I have extinguished the light. In winter, I
find it hard to leave the fireside and go shivering to those
hyperhorean regions above stairs ; and sometimes have sat
1^
150 THE GREY SON LETTERS.
up (I am ashamed to say) half the night, musing and read-
ing, from sheer rekictance to confront the miseries of those
arctic regions. Well, at last, still in a reverie (I should think
this absurdity has happened to me some scores of times), I
have lighted a chamber candle, gone to bed, and then, when
the liglit has been extinguished and I am just beginning to
get cosey, I have been perversely unable to recollect whether
I have put out the candles below, or not ! After having in
vain tried (as usual in such cases) to coax reason and con-
science into the belief that all is right, — and sometimes I
in vain have debated the matter a good half hour, — I have
found that there was no help for it but turning out, groping
my way down stairs, and seeing , I was going to say, if all
was perspicuously dark ! Strange to say, I never did yet
find that the habitual act, of wdiich I should have been so
glad, on many a cold night, to catch the faintest reminiscence,
had failed me. I always found that the light had been ex-
tinguished, though the remembrance of the act had been
simultaneously extinguished too. This, in the course of my
solitary life of the last twenty years, had occurred to me, as
I have said, considerably more than a score of times. " What
a fool you must be !" I imagine I hear you say, sotto voce /
but it is nothing to my folly of last night — if, indeed, I
ought not rather to take it as a jDroof of a profound capacity
of abstraction ! For, will you believe it ? after making this
unwilling journey, I foundj on regaining my chamber, that
in the very act of descending, my mind had been arrested
by the subject which had been previously occupying my
thoughts, and I had actually come back, unconscious — to-
tally unconscious — as to whether the candles had been ex-
tinguished or not ! Luckily, I had not got into bed, or else,
the night being cold, I almost think I should have preferred
the risk of being burned down to going down stairs again.
As it was, down I went, and, by due and diligent effort to
HABITUAL ACTIONS — AUTOMATIC OR NOT? 151
keep my mind from wandering, peered into the darkness,
and clearly saw that there was nothing to be seen. This is
literal fact,
Now such a thing is almost enough to convince me of
what, at other times, opposite arguments have convinced
me is false — namely, that our habitual actions may be per-
fectly automatic, and that Mistress Mind, having given
general orders to the footmen and housemaids of her organ-
ism, to do such and such things, said menials proceed to
execute them, while Mind retires to her " pineal gland,"
or wherever else she pleases to go, and troubles herself no
more about the matter. It is a very pretty little theory ;
but, like most other metaphysical theories, is capable of
being confronted and confuted by equally conclusive argu-
ments ; Avhile (what is the most provoking thing of all) that
very Mind, about whose condition the Avhole dispute is,
takes alternately both sides, or stands staring at herself
like a dolt, and cannot tell whether she has anything to do
with the said acts or not.
Yet, with due submission, I must think, after all, that,
on the whole, the arguments in favor of Mind's having
something to do with even the most automatic of our
actions preponderate. The principal arguments against it
are the inconceivable rapidity of the acts, and the subse-
quent unconsciousness of the mind's having had any part in
them. As to the last argument, begging Mind's pardon, I
do not think it worth a button, considering how deplorably
ignorant Mind is of herself and her doings, which, from time
immemorial, she has been perpetually disputing about. Her
opinion, either way, founded on her knowing nothing about
the matter, cannot be of much importance. It is too plain
that she is every day, and still more every night, occupied,
in her flighty way, with a thousand thoughts of which she
retains no traces in the memory !
152 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
As to the former argument, the mere rapidity of the
acts ; — for example, of a rope-dancer's ever-shifting pos-
tures, — a conjurer's tricks, — a skilled musician's compli-
cated, and all but simultaneous movements, — a public
speaker's voluble utterance, — as to these, and the like
stock examples, of those who take your side of the question,
they do not, I confess, much move me : and that for a
reason which I do not recollect having seen insisted on by
any metaphysical writer, but which appears to me abso-
lutely conclusive on the subject ; for, ought the mere velo-
city of material movement, which we see in all these cases
is attained, to be any argument against the possibility of
equal velocity of thought and volition ? Ought we not, a
fortiori^ to judge that if eyes and fingers — mere material
organs — can and do perform such inexi^ressibly nimble
feats. Mind can more than keep up with them ? And, if
so, that very velocity will serve to explain the former diffi-
culty, to which I have already given an answer not quite so
complimentary to Mind, — that no trace is left in the con-
sciousness. That, probably, is due to the very rapidity with
which the acts are performed.
And yet how strange it seems, now I think of it, that
Mind, which is urging all this in its own behalf, and using
its too notorious obliviousness as an argument in favoc of
its activity, should not be able to decide the matter, and is
probably only saying what will appear to you the most
improbable conjecture !
Yet I may further say, in defence of the hypothesis I
rather prefer, that some of the strongest instances some-
times urged against it are really in its favor. The supposed
automatic movements on which its opponents lay so much
stress, are often, as appears to me, by no means automatic,
but necessarily imply, in many cases, however rapid, an
equally rapid succession of distinct and conscious mental
HABITUAL ACTIONS — AUTOMATIC OR NOT? 153
acts. An accomplished master of the piano, for example,
will play at sight the most intricate music put into his
hands, as well, or nearly as well, as he will play it the fifti-
eth time. Now the combinations are, and must be, new
to him. The same may be said in the case of the accom-
plished extemporaneous speaker. The series of rapid
changes are all novel, and yet must be accompanied with
distinct intellectual efforts and volitions. I do not wonder,
however, at your obstinate defence of your theory ; for as
I look at a musician before some grand organ, — see how
rapid and complicated are his movements, — how his fingers
fly over the keys, — how they strike the most complex har-
monies, yet find time to draw out this stop, and shut that,
Avhile legs and feet are flinging out right and left at the
pedals, — the whole man looking as if he were about to
explode into space imder some tremendous internal forces,
— I am ready to ask whether it can be that Mind is present
at every act, and decrees a distinct volition for it ; and, if
so, whether she ought not to be able to give a more dis-
tinct account of the matter ? Yet as to the rapidity^ surely
I have answered that y and as to the want of consciousness,
why, if poor Mind has been thus worried and flustered, is
it any wonder that she does not distinctly trace her own
acts ? ^Yell, we must leave it there ; but almost anything
seems to me more • reasonable than that in those cases of
rapid combinations of our habitual acts, which imply novelty
at each step, and which seem to involve the highest mental
activity. Mind is asleep, and only the body awake !
But it is plaguy strange that Mind can give no more in-
telligible account of the matter, it being her own affair
entirely.
Ever yours,
K, E. 11. G.
154 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
LETTER XXXVI.
TO THE SAME.
Sutton Colefield, October, 1845.
My deak Feiend,
Instead of an attentive reconsideration of our old met-
aphysical problem, based on the curious experiences I sent
you, you have favored me with a lecture on my late hours ;
and assure me that if I went to bed earlier, and rose earlier,
I should not have any such experiences. On my word, it
is sharp practice to make such an exceedingly irrelevant
use of my arguments against myself!
I quite agree with you, my dear friend, in all you can
say in praise of early rising ; proho raeliora / and have
done so in this matter any time these twenty years. I
believe firmly there is scarcely one habit which youth can
form so important as that of early rising, — so conducive to
health of body, to a vigorous old age, to regularity and
method, to success in life, — in short, one might go on to
the " nineteenth head '' of discourse on this subject; sol
will sj^are you, and say Amen !
He who begins late in the morning, and bustles about in
a vain eifort to overtake the clock, is in the condition of
the good man who said he had lost a quarter of an hour
and was afterwards running after it all day and could not
catch it.
" Fine se^itiments ! " you will say. Oh ! if you are for
fine sentiment, I can give it far finer, and in the purest
Johnsonese, as Mr. Macaulay would say ; — as thus ; " The
hours which are wasted in superfluous slumber must be de-
ducted from the sum total of mortal existence ; nor is it
paradoxical to affirm that the man of eighty who should
compute the time which he has thus subtracted from his life,
EARLY RISING — PREACHING AND PRACTICE. 155
ought not to imagine himself to have passed beyond the
hmits of threescore years and ten."
" Then I am ten years yomiger than I thought myself,"
I am afraid an incorrigible old sinner in this kind would be
apt to say. — But it is easy to preach : the great moralist
I have just ventured to mimic for a moment was preaching
on this very topic all his days, and never reformed himself.
Nevertheless all you say is true enough ; and yet — and
yet — oh ! the slavery of hahit ! I have been lecturing
myself for twenty years, and must say I have ever found
myself a most attentive auditor, and still it is in vain. How-
ever, I believe I should not be so quiet under self-reproach
if I did not believe that I had sufficient excuses. " There,"
you will say, " that will do ; I have no hope of you."
Nay ; strike, but hear me. (Conscience, be quiet, I say ;
what a clamor you are making ! — I can't hear myself
speak for you ; ahem ! — ) I protest that my example, at
least for many years past, has afforded not the shadow of
an excuse for any one's following it. I cannot say I have
wasted my time in sleep ; I have not for these twenty years
had sleep enough ; I rarely get so many as six hours' sleep
in the four-and-twenty.
Next ; I generally go to bed at very late hours, or rather
very early — 1, 2, 3, a. m., as the case may be. Aye, you
will perhaps say, that is a reason why you sleep so ill.
Stop a minute. I have tried both early and late hours ;
and, in either case, have often been visited with a sleepless-
ness so intense, that I have been obliged to get up, and
read during the rest of the night. Many a cold winter's
night have I risen and lighted a fire, rather than remain
turning from side to side in vivid wakefulness without
something to divert thought. To let the mill go round
without grist — this is desperate work, let me tell you, for
the mental machinery ! But, as a physiologist, you know
15G THE GREYSON LETTERS. **
that well enough. Under such circumstances, do not
blame me if I take sleep when I. can get it. Lastly, I
cannot say that when I have indulged in — what is cer-
tainly very luxurious — an hour or two of matin meditation
in bed, it has been time wasted, or often sj^ent in unprofita-
ble thought. On the contrary, I am conscious, in common
with many much greater men, that my mind has never
wrought so freely as then, nor presented to me so many
thoughts I should wish to retain. Unhappily, they often
will not come again, when I have once risen.
If it be said this is a dangerous apology, I answer that it
is no apology at all ; it is a simple fact, of which I am not
ashamed. Honi soit. Each man must judge for himself.
To me, I say, such late hours are needful, and, waking or
sleeping, are not hours of sloth. So that you see, like
Daniel O'Rourke, I am a man more to be pitied than blamed
among you. I acknowledge that I often find things going
so wrong, — such miserable dislocation of the engagements
of the day, (owing to breakfast always being a " movable
feast " between eight and ten) — that I cannot quite ap-
pease conscience ; but then, when the jade has once got the
habit of complaining, she will often go on maundering and
muttering in the most unreasonable manner.
I have no doubt you enjoyed your view of the sunrise in
your recent journey. And so you would have me suppose
that you have often seen it, and are pleased to suppose that
I never have ! As to you, — if you had often seen it, you
would never have broken out into these raptures; it is
the rarity of the spectacle, my fiiend, that has made you
so eloquent. From your transports, I am induced to ques-
tion whether you ever saw it before in your life. As to me,
let me tell you I have seen it several times. Yes, several;
once on the top of a coach, in the olden times, when I was
travelling all nighty — once on board a steamer in the same
EARLY RISING — PREACHING AND PRACTICE. 157
predicament^ — once when I slept on Snowclon on purpose, —
and once again on the Righi. Pray don't suppose that no
one ever saw the rising sun except yourself. But it is too
glorious a spectacle to be seen often ; familiarity would
breed contempt ; the thing would become too cheap. Let
us, my fine fellow, economize, and be chary of, such
delights !
I had a dear friend, who ingeniously proved that though
very late in the morning for many years, ha was always an
early riser. He said that, in his youth, he had risen for
years much too early — four and half-past four, a. m. ; when
I knew him, nine and half-past nine was his hour ; but he
contended that, striking " a mean " between his excesses
and defects, he still reckoned that he rose about seven reg-
ularly. I am not quite sure, if I were to take " the mean "
of my own doings in this way, that Z could not prove my-
self a regular early riser too.
I remember once hearing an aged relative expostulate
with a youth, his nejohew, on his lying in bed ; he pleaded
the difficulty of getting up. " Difficulty ! " the other said ;
" there is no difficulty in it. I have risen at five for these
forty years, and I could not lie in bed after that." " My
dear uncle," said the young scapegrace, "and I cannot
get up. If you want to measure my difficulty in getting
up, you ought to lie in bed till nine. It is really no credit
in you to be an early riser ! "
However, in spite of all the badinage in this letter, be
assured that none can be convinced more deeply than I, of
the excellence of your advice in general, and of its futility
to me in particular. Now is not that just what all your
patients tell you ?
Ever yours,
E. E. 11. G.
14
158 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
LETTER XXXYIIo
TO THE SAME.
Nov. 1845.
My dear MAS0?>r,
For "auld lang sjTie's" sake, I am again going to dis-
course to you of one of our old metaphysical problems ;
though I am afraid that, as before, you will prove yourself
unworthy of our College aspirations, refuse to deal with
any such knotty questions, and treat me with a musty lec-
ture on the duty of going to bed early, and, what is harder,
rising early. However, I heard the other day as pretty an
argument as you could desire to hear, on a summer's day,
on that old question, — " Does the mind always think, even
in sleep f "
" Between whom ? " you will say. Well, between my-
self and me ; and, strange as it may seem, never were two
people of more opposite opinions. " And how did it end ? "
In that charming haze, my friend, in which nearly all dis-
putes that concern that elaborately self-ignorant thing, the
Mind of man, are so apt to end. I assure you, as I listened,
I seemed to doubt of, and to acquiesce in, each ingenious
argument ; in short, felt tossed to and fro, like a shuttlecock
between two battledores — only that i" unluckily was both
shuttlecock and the battledoors. What a mystery of mys-
teries that same mind is ! That it should ask itself — and,
for the life of it, cannot tell itself — whether it is always
conscious or not ! That it should be equally ignorant of
a thousand other things about its own self ? How humil-
iating, that that which maps the heavens, tracks the j^lanets,
calculates eclipses, covers the earth with the monuments
of its science and art, should thus grope, and stumble, and
blunder, when it crosses its own dark threshold ; nay, dis-
DIALOGUE BETWEEN "MYSELF AND ME." 159
pute everlastingly with itself and others, what it is, and
where and how it exists ! Surely we ought to be modest
people. To think of one's mind asserting against other
minds, and often against itself in different moods, — some-
times with ludicrous dubiety, as often with more ludicrous
dogmatism, — the most contradictory conclusions respecting
its very self! To think that Mind does not know whether
it always tliinks ; whether, for half its time, it is conscious
or unconscious, busy or idle ! ,
The dialogue began something in this way. I, who felt
disposed to think that the mind always thinks, even in the
deepest slumber, — that is, dreams even when it does not
remember it, — asked myself, —
"Do you not acknowledge that we know nothing of
either matter or mind, except from their properties ; the
one made known to us by our sensations, and the other by
our consciousness ? "
" I do," said JVlind, with the confidence of an oracle,
though thus avomng its ignorance of itself.
" If you were asked what Matter was, would you not say,
that it is that which possesses solidity, divisibility, impene-
trability, and so on ? " enumerating the other essential quaU-
ties of matter.
" I should," said Mind.
" And in like manner would you not say. Mind is
that which possesses the qualities of thought and
feeling ? "
" I should," still said Mind.
" If, now, you were asked what matter was, when di-
vested of those essential properties, — stripped of solidity,
and so forth, — what would you say ? Would you not say
that if it ceased to have such essential properties, that
which you call matter existed no longer — that it was an-
nihilated?"
160 THE GREYSON LETTEIiS.
" I should," Mind said.
" Then ought you not to say the same of mind, if its es-
sential properties — those by which alone you know that
it exists at all — were taken away from it ? Ought you
not, therefore, to say that mind is anniliilated every time
you sleep without thinking ; and created afresh every time
you wake from such a state ? "
I really thought it was a very pretty little dilemma ;
l)ut Mind could argue though it could not prove, and was
not going to be balked by such a trifle as the loss of its
essential properties. "Nay," said Mind, "the poioers of
thought remain in me, though not exerted^
" Nay," said I ; " you surely are not impudent enough
to pretend that you are conscious that you have powers
while you say you have absolutely no consciousness ? But
let that pass. — Would you say, then, if you could conceive
of such a thinsj as matter denuded of what is its essential
property of solidity, that the potver of solidity was there,
only no longer exercised P Would you not rather say that,
for aught you could conceive, matter, which you knew only
by such j^roperties as this, existed no longer ? "
" I certainly should," sighed Mind.
" Then you ought to say the same of mind."
Argument the first ; which made me think that the mind
always thinks, though Mind itself protested against it.
But Mind retorted it very cleverly. It began to illustrate
the point, first, from chemical facts Avhich show that heat,
for example, is present in bodies, though latent ; and that
the same substance may exist in allotrojnc forms ; never-
theless the matter did not seem quite plain to me. But it
ingeniously proceeded to say, —
" Do you not think that the mind exists before it acts f
The mind in the embryo, for example, — of the ' rational
jinimal,' the moment it comes into the world, — must it
A DIALOGUE "BETWEEN MYSELF AND ME." 161
not already exist before it acts ? and does it not wait to
exercise thought and feeling till, by a slow process, the
senses aid its development ? If so, does not the mind ex-
ist, though its essential powers be dormant ? And if so,
may it not be in just such a state in deep sleep ? "
This seemed a staggerer, I confess ; but I was a bold
metaphysician, and I scrupled not to rejoin, — forgetting
the rebuke I had administered to Mind for falling into a
like blunder, — " If, by saying that the mind of the embryo
or of the newly-born infant, cannot thinks you mean that
it cannot understand the ' Principia ' of Newton or Mil-
ton's ' Paradise Lost,' I gi-ant it ; but I deny that it does
not manifest its essential properties^ though not in perfec-
tion. Mind feels, and that is one of the forms of con-
sciousness ; — it has sensations."
" Surely," said Mind, slyly, " you have not the impudence
to pretend that you are conscious that you had feelings in
states of which you are wholly unconscious. But let that
pass, as you said to me. — Pray, had you thoughts in that
state as well as feelings ? "
"Yes, and thoughts^'' said I, boldly, — for I was not
going to give up my argument for a trifle, — " thoughts,
though very rudimentary, of course ; for how can there be
sensatio7i without thought f So that though," I continued,
with exquisite logical ^^recision, " though, in the order of
thought, the existence of the mind is before its action^ yet
in fact its existence and its action are synchronous ; and
the one begins when the other does."
Argument second ; — and still I seemed to think that
the argument for peii^etual thought had the best of it,
though I confess I felt that myself and I were whimsically
jierplexed about a matter which ought surely to have been
as plain as consciousness could make it !
Here we left the dark maze of essences and essential
14*
162 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
properties, and embryo states, and came out into the open
champaign of facts, and the inductive philosophy. " Now,"
thought I, " we shall be able to see." Xot a whit. Luck-
less Mind! Bacon might as well not have written,
for any j^ower his j^hilosophy gives of solving such a ques-
tion, — which, however, would seem to need no solving at
all, but a simj^le reference to every man's own conscious-
ness. But now for /acts.
" If," said I, in a didactic and patronizing way, as though
I were not talking to myself and striving to enlighten my
own ignorance, " If you take notice. Mind, you will find, on
awaking from sleep, that, on instantly reverting to con-
sciousness, you have always been thinkmg^ dreaming of
something, and will immediately recall it."
But Mind, after a minute's reflection, protested that it
had no such uniform consciousness — that it thought it often
recollected having been awakened out of profound sleep,
with an utter blank of memory when it sought for what it
was last thinking about. Here was a fix ; Mind not know-
ing whether it had been thinking the moment before or
not ! " Oh ! Mind, Mind," thought I, innocently, " what a
fool you are making of yourself ! " '^£\\e first person would
have been more j^roper.
" But again," said Mind, " as to that last argument, sup-
posing the fact just as you state, it proves nothing; the
mind is so active that long trains of thought, which seem to
have occupied hours, may pass through the mind in a min-
ute, — which I often experience when I take an afternoon
nap ; I seem to have slept for hours, and my watch tells me
I have slept but for five minutes ; thus the supposed recol-
lected dream might all be manufactured in the very instant
between sleeping and waking." I thought again, and could
not deny that it might be so. "And yet," retorted I,
" though you suppose the mind so active as to crowd ages
ON NOVEL READING. 163
into moments, you suppose it is actually dormant during the
greater part of every night? And again, — granting, as
you say, that you can spin, what seems to be six hours'
dreaming, in a minute, — you cannot tell, except by the
watch^ whether you have been a minute or six hours about
it, and often think the last when you have been asleep but
for an instant ! Of what value," said I, complacently, as
if I were no way concerned in the rebuke, "is the testi-
mony of one that is thus caught napping ? In short. Mind,
to tell you a bit of my mind, I do not believe you know a
word about the matter."
Mind smiled, and said it knew just as much as I did ;
which recalled me to the most paradoxical fact of all —
that it is we ourselves who in such controversies ask our-
selves what is our own consciousness, and, instead of giving
an intelligible answer, can only stare at ourselves idioti-
cally. ....
Yours faithfully,
K. E. H. G.
LETTER XXXVIII.
TO MISS MAEY GEEYSOIST.
Sutton, July 7, 1846.
My dear Niece,
I am going to write you a long letter ; but I scarcely
think it will be pleasant to you to read it, — for it is to
chide you. Yet> as you know I should not chide you ex-
cept for your good, or what I believed your good, I hope
you will read these lines attentively, for your loving uncle's
sake.
I saw, my dear, with regret, during my recent visit, that
you are too fond — far too fond — of novel reading. There ;
164 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
I see your imploring look, and hear the expostulation, " Oh,
uncle ! — do you really think so ? " Of course I think so,
Mary, or I should not say so, for I never say what I do not
think.
But I certainly do not expect to hear from you, my love,
— for you are a girl of sense (be pleased to recollect, again,
that I do not say what I do not think, — will not that pro-
pitiate you?), — the answer I once received from a young
lady to whom I addressed a similar expostulation. " I sup-
pose, then," said she, " you would disapprove of all novel
reading ? " That, thought I, is an answer perfectly worthy
of one whose logic has been fed on novels. " If," said I to
her, " I were to blame a lad for eating too much, or too vo-
raciously, or filling his stomach with tarts and sugar-j^lums,
would you infer that therefore I meant that he was not to
eat at all, or that pastry and sweatmeats were absolutely
forbidden him ? "
No, I am far from thinking that novels may not be in-
nocently read ; — so far from that, I think they may be
heneficially read. But all depends, as in the case of the
tarts and sugar-plums, on the quality and quantity.
The imagination is a faculty given us by God, as much
as any other, and if it be not develoj^ed, our minds are
maimed. Now, works of fiction, — of a high order, I mean,
such as the best of Walter Scott's or Miss Edgeworth's, —
healthfully stimulate this faculty ; and in measure, there-
fore, they should be read.
Taste should be cultivated, — and fictitious works, in-
spired by real genius, have a beneficial tendency that way.
Novels may, and often do, inculcate important lessons of
life and conduct, in a more j^leasing form than the simply
didactic style admits of.
When based on knowledge of human nature, and devel-
oped with dramatic skill, a novel may teach many an im-
ON NOVEL READING. 165
poi-tant truth of moral philosophy more effectively than an
abstruse treatise on it.
When the style of novels is what it ought to be, — and
what it will be, if they are worth reading, — they tend (al-
ways an important part of education) to add to our knowl-
edge of language, and our command over it.
Lastly, as we must all have some mental relaxation (and
if the greater part of our hours be diligently given to duty,
we are both entitled to it and in need of it), such relaxa-
tion is easily and legitimately found in the occasional peru-
sal of a judicious work of fiction.
You see how liberal I am, and that it is no old, musty,
strait-laced critic that sj^eaks to you : therefore " perpend
my words."
Everything, you observe, depends on quality and quan-
tity. These must determine whether the novels you read
be mental aliment or mental poison. Now, as to the y?rs^,
I have no hesitation in saying that the immense majority
of novels have no tendency to fulfil any of the ends I have
pointed out ; they are mere rubbish ; and, forgive me, sev-
eral of those I recently saw in your hands from your circu-
lating library deserve no other character. For my part, I
should not care if some Caliph Omar treated all novels —
except some three thousand volumes or so — as the original
Caliph treated the Alexandrian Library, and made a huge
bonfire of them. " Three thousand volumes ! " you will
say ; " why that is at the rate of a novel a week for twenty
years ! You are liberal, indeed."
Very true ; but I did not say you would do well to read
them all, though as many may be worth reading. And let
me tell you, that you may infer something else from my ad-
mission. With so many more good novels at command
than you can possibly read, will you not be utterly inex-
cusable if you indulge in any of the trumpery of which I
166 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
have been just speaking ? Kely upon it, my dear, that the
reading of the second and third and fourth-rate class of
novels not only does not secure any of the ends of which
I have spoken above, but has a directly contrary tendency.
These books enfeeble the intellect — impoverish the imag-
ination — vulgarize taste and style — give false or distorted
views of life and human nature, — and, what is perhaps
worst of all, waste that precious time which might be given
to sohd mental improvement. I assure you I have often
been astonished and grieved at the manner in which young
minds, originally capable of better things, have been injured
by continual dawdhng over the slip-slop of inferior novels.
They sink insensibly to the level of such books ; and, how
can it be otherwise ? — for this pernicious appetite, " which
grows by what it feeds on," prevents the mind's coming in
contact with anything better, and these wretched comi^osi-
tions become the standard. Observe that these minds are
enfeebled, not only in tone, — for that would result from
reading too much of any novels, even the best, just as the
stomach would get disordered from eating too much pastry,
though the Queen's daintiest cooks might make it; — but I
mean enfeebled, degraded in taste, — in the j^ercej^tion of
the True and the Beautiful in works of high intellectual art.
Such impoverished minds talk with rajDture of the interest-
ing " characters " in these volumes of miserable fatuities ; of
some " charming young Montague," or some " sweet Emma
Montfort " (both more insipid than the " white of an ^^^^ "),
who talk reams of soft nonsense, and get involved in absurd
adventures which set all probability at defiance. You
young ladies often melt into tears at maudlin scenes, which
to a just perception or a masculine taste could only pro-
duce laughter ; condescend to weigh the merits of slip-slop
sentiment or descriptive platitudes beneath all criticism;
and sagely compare the power of the three vols, of the inane
ON NOVEL READING. 167
"Julia Montresor, or the Broken heart," with the equally-
inane three vols, of " Pizarro, or the Bandit's Cave ; " when
the only question with any reader of sense (if any such
reader could wade through the pages of either) is as to
which of the two works is most utterly bankrupt in knowl-
edge, taste, character, style, and, in fact, every element that
can redeem a work of fiction fi-om being utterly contempti-
ble and intolerable !
And this depravity of taste, believe me, may go on to
any extent ; for, as the appetite for reading such works be-
comes more and more voracious and indiscriminate, it leaves
neither power nor inclination to a23preciate better books.
The mind at last becomes so vitiated that it craves and is
satisfied with anything in the shape of a story ^ — a series
of fictitious adventures, no matter how put together ; no
matter whether the events be probably conceived, the char-
acters justly drawn, the descriptions true to nature, the dia-
logue spirited, or the contrary. So preposterous is the
interest that may be taken in a mere tram of fictitious inci-
dent, quite apart fi'om the genius which has conceived or
adorned it, that many a young lady will, go through nearly
the same story a thousand times in a thousand difierent
novels, — the names alone being altered ! I assure you it
is an inscrutable mystery to me, my dear, how they can
still endure that charming Miss , whom, under a
hundred aliases they have already married to that sweet
young gentleman with an equal number of names, in spite
of the opposition of parents on both sides, dangerous rivals,
and the most impossible hair-breadth " 'scapes by flood and
field."
You will, perhaps, say, (what is very true,) that it is pos-
sible to get so entangled in a mesh of fictitious incidents,
that though you know, or soon suspect, the novel to be un-
worthy of perusal, you do not like to lay it down till the
168 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
denouement. Do you ask how you may break the spell,
and escaj^e ? Then I will tell you, provided you will prom-
ise to act on my advice. Read any such novel, my dear,
Hebrew-fashion, that is, backwards ; go at once to the end
of the third volume — and marry oif the hero and heroine,
or drowTi them, or hang the one, and break the heart of the
other, as maybe most meet to you and the writer. If, after
having thus secured your catastrophe, you cannot find heart
to " plod your weary way " through the intervening desert
of words, dejDcnd upon it you will lose nothing by throwing
the book aside at once. And, further, you may take this
also for a rule ; — if you do not feel, as you read on, that
what you read is worth reading for its own sake^ — that you
could read it over again with pleasure ; — if you do not feel
that the incidents are naturally conceived, the scenes vividly
described, the dialogue dramatic and piquant, the characters
sharply drawn, be sure the book is not worth sixpence. No
fiction is, intellectually^ worth anybody's reading, that has
not considerable merit as a work of art ; and such works
are ever felt to be worth reading again, often with increas-
ed interest. It is indeed the truest test of all the highest
efibrts of this kind ; — new beauties steal out upon us on
each perusal. Dip anywhere into the " Macbeth " of Shak-
speare, or the " Antiquary " of Walter Scott, and you still
find that, though you know the whole from beginning to
end, the force of painting, the truth, yet originality of the
sentiments, — the spirit of the dialogue, — the beauties of
imagery and expression, — still lure you to read on, wher-
ever you chance to open, with ever renewed delight.
Now let me add that if, for a little while, you never read
any fiction but such as will bear to be often read, you will
need no caution against any of an inferior kind. Your taste
will soon become pure and elevated, and you will nauseate
a bad novel as you would a dose of tartar emetic.
ON NOVEL HEADING. 169
I shall ever feel grateful to the memory of Walter Scott.
I happened to fall in with his best novels when quite a boy ;
and I never could endure afterwards the ordinary run of
this class of literature. When Laidlaw w'as acting as aman-
uensis to Scott in the composition of " Ivanhoe," he could
not help congratulating the author on the happy effects
which his beautiful fictions w'ould have, by sweeping clean
the circulating libraries of infinite rubbish. " Sir Walter
Scott's eyes," he tells us, " filled -with tears." And no
doubt his fictions had considerable effect in elevatinc: the
taste of that novel-reading generation ; but a " new gene-
ration, w^hich know not" Walter are being introduced to
tons of the ephemeral current nonsense before they have
the means of institutmg a comjDarison. Be not you one of
them. . . .
By the way, I may tell you that I fell in with " Ivanhoe,"
at thirteen, on a bright July morning in my midsummer
holidays. I had been sent to the house of a relative, about
a mile off, with some message, I forget wdiat ; I found the
family out ; but I found " Ivanhoe " at home — it was lying
conveniently at hand ; I looked into it, became absorbed,
and spent the whole day in the garden reading it, utterly
forgetful of dinner, tea, and supper, and never stopped till I
had finished it ! There are, among Scott's fictions, several
I admire much more now, but none ever did me such ser-
vice.
Ever your loving Uncle,
R. E. II. G.
15
170 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
LETTER XXXIX
TO THE SAME.
July IG, 1816.
And now, my dear Mary, I come to the second " head "
of my discourse ; so hnagine yourself in church, and that
your good clergyman is sending (as I doubt not he often
does, you monkey) an admonitory glance towards your pew,
as he arrives at the same critical stage in his sermon. My
second " head," then, is to show that you may read too
many even of the very best novels. " True," you will say
" if I read nothing else." Aye, and very far within that
limit may you read too many ; let me add that any excess
has a tendency to make you relish reading nothing else.
I have said that, in moderation, they are useful to devel-
ope and stimulate the imagination ; but the imagination may
be too much stimulated, and too much developed, — " de-
veloped " till it at length stunts all the other faculties, and
" stimulated " till it is not exhilarated merely, but tipsy.
The severer faculties demand a proportionate culture, and
a more sedulous one ; for to cultivate the imagination, in
whatever degree it is susceptible of it at all, is the easiest
thing in nature ; the difficulty is to train it justly. Some
hardy flowers will bloom in any soil, and with little or no
culture — and so will those of fancy.
The greater 2:)art of your time should be given to solid
studies or practical duties ; this should be your rule. As
relaxation, to be of any value, should be moderate, so nov-
els must not claim much of your time. They should be the
condiments and spices, the confectionary of your ordinary
diet; not the substantial joints, not \\\q piece de resistance.
You might as well attempt to live on creams and sylla-
bubs.
ON NOVEL READING. 171
But you will say, perhaps, " Is it possible to read a novel
by chapter ? Is it in human nature to leave off in the very
middle of that critical adventure in which the hero saves the
life of the heroine, or close the book just in the middle of
his declaration, and without listening to the delicious lov-
ers' nonsense which passes on that occasion, or finding out
how it all ends ? " To me^ my dear, it would be very easy ;
or rather I should find a difiiculty perhaps, in general, in
not skipping — pray don't look so cross — all that same de-
licious nonsense. But I admit that it is difficult for many
young ladies to do so ; or for any novel reader, when the
fiction has real merit ; — to most young novel readers the
task would be impossible.
And so, that you may not say I counsel you to perform
" impossibilities," my dear, take my advice. Do not tie
yourself to any such restriction as a chapter at a time. " O,
delightful ! " you will say. Stay a minute.
I would have you read novels only so moderately that
there shall be no occasion for restricting yourself when you
do read them. Let them be read now and then as a reward
of strenuous exertion, or for having mastered some difficult
book ; or let them be reserved for visits and holidays. Do
not, — if I may use a metaphor of that vulgar kind I have
already so frequently employed, — do not have a novel
always in cut. Keep it for an hour of well-earned leisure,
or as a relief after arduous duty, and then read it without
stint. This occasional full meal will then do you no harm ;
and, depend on it, the flare will be doubly delicious, from
the keenness of the appetite, the previous fast, and the rari-
ty of the indulgence. But you will say, " What shall I do
for my daily hour or so of rightful mental relaxation, t.o
which you admit I am entitled ? " Well, if you will take
my advice, you will ordinarily choose — and oh ! the infinite
treasures, which neither you nor I can fully exhaust, litera-
172 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
ture spreads before us ! — something, wLicli, while it fully
answers the purpose of healthful and innocent mental amuse-
ment, will not hold attention too long enthralled, or lead
you to turn to other less exciting compositions with a sigh.
Take, for example, some beautiful poem ; or a paper of one
of our British Essayists ; or an interesting book of travels ;
or an article of Macaulay, who, of almost all writers, com-
bines, in greatest perfection, instruction and delight. The
names of Milton, Gray, Cowper, Addison, Johnson, Crabbe,
and a thousand more, show what a boundless field of selec-
tion lies before you.
And now do you want a practical rule as to when you
have been reading novels (however good) too much or too
long? Here, then, is an infallible one. When ordinary
books of a sober and instructive character, are read with
disrelish ; Avhen, for example, a work of well-written history
seems to you, as compared with the piquant and vivid de-
tails of fiction, as if you were looking on the wrong side of a
piece of tapestry ; when you cannot away with dull, sober
reality ; when you return to practical duties with reluctance
and the work-a-day world looks sombre and sad-colored to
you, rest assured that you have been lingering too long in
fairy-land, and indulging too much in day-dreams. And,
further, remember this ; — that as long as you are liable to
any such unlucky consciousness, you have not carried the
culture of your intellectual powers or your practical habits
to the right point ; for the moment that is done, such a re-
sult becomes impossible. A mind thus equipped for life and
duty, can indulge in fiction only within certain moderate
limits ; for purposes of innocent imbending, of legitimate
amusement. Beyond that point fiction cloys; and the heal-
thy mind, so far from repining that it cannot live longer in
the Fool's Paradise, — or, if you like not that harsh term,
— among Elysian shadows, is conscious of as strong a desire
ON NOVEL READING. 173
to come back to the regions of daylight and reality, as the
inveterate novel reader feels to dream on in cloud-land. It
sighs for a return to the substantial and the real ; and can
no more live in fiction than it can bear to be always danc-
ing polkas, or playing eternally at back-gammon. Perse-
vere for a certain time, — for the next two or three years,
— I thmk you are now eighteen (you need not blush to ac-
knowledge your age yet), — in disciplining your mind, and
you are safe, I will answer for it, from the too dominant sway
of any, even the greatest, enchanters of fiction. But my
strongest reasons of all for the advice I am giving you, are
yet behind, and I must reserve them for another letter.
Ever yours,
K. E. H. G.
LETTER XL.
TO THE SAME.
July 29, 1816.
My DEAR Mary,
I now proceed to those " stronger " reasons to which I
alluded in my last. I have reserved them for the close of
my " sermon," because they are the most important.
All inordinate indulgence in works of fiction, then, tends
to pervert our views of life instead of enlarging them,
which, if judiciously chosen, and read in moderation, they
will do ; and to quench benevolence, -which, under similar
restrictions, they will tend to cherish.
The excessive indulgence perverts, I say, views of life.
The young mind is but too prone of itself to live in a
world of fancy ; indeed, in one sense, it is necessary that
the imagination should thus be ever creating the future for
us, or we should not act at all ; but then its influence must
be well regulated by a due regard to the laws of the prob-
10*
174 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
ahle^ or we shall lase the present and the future too : the
present, in dreaming of an irrational future ; and the
future, becai^e we have not prepared ourselves for any
possible future by the proper employment of the present.
If a young gentleman or young lady's mind, of any intel-
ligence, could be laid bare, and all the fantastical illusions
it has ever indulged exposed to the world, I am afraid it
would fairly expire in an agony of shame at the disclosure ;
it would be often found, quite apart from novel reading, to
have indulged largely in the veriest chimeras of hope and
fancy. But then this tendency, difficult to control at the
best, is ajit to be fatally strengthened by undue indulgence
in fictitious literature. If a too early love-aifair and a cir-
culating library should both concur to exasperate the mal-
ady, you may look for stark " mid-summer madness." — I
fear that anticipations of unlooked-for windfalls of for-
tune, — of success achieved without toil, — of fame got for
the longing after it, — of brides a few degrees above angels,
and husbands in whom Apollo and Adonis are happily com-
bined, — are a not uncommon result of dwelling too long
in congenial fiction. Nor do I at all doubt that a thousand
instances of failure in professional life of sudden and im-
prudent engagements, of ridiculous or ill-assorted matches,
may be ascribed to the same cause. At all events, this j^er-
nicious practice prolongs and intensifies the natural tendency
to day-dreaming. Had it not been for this, the spell would
have been broken — the imaginative sleep-walker awakened
by the rude shocks and jogs of practical life. But the
dream and the walk are often continued too long, and the
unhappy somnambulist vanishes — over a precipice !
But still more pernicious is the effect of this bad habit
on benevolence. This may seem strange, but it is very true
nevertheless. I grant that sympathy and sensibility depend
in a very high degree on the activity of the imagination —
ON NOVEL READING. 175
on our power of vividly picturing to ourselves the joys and
sorrows of others ; but do not hastily conclude tliat excess
in reading fiction, provided that fiction be a just jncture of
life, (wliich I now assume,) can, whatever harm it may do
in other directions, do none in this. It may quicken sym-
pathy and strengthen sensibility, — nay, in one sense it will
do so, — and yet, I stick to my j^aradox notwithstanding;
namely, that it tends to weaken j^ractical benevolence, and
may end in quenching it altogether.
However, I must make the preliminary remark, that, even
if the habit did not render benevolence less active, sensi-
bility is of no value except as it is under the direction of
judgment and reason; Avhich presupposes, therefore, the
harmonious culture of all the faculties and susceptibilities
of our nature. Apart from a Avell balanced mind, neither
prompt sympathy nor acute sensibility are of much value,
and often only inspire visionary, whimsical, perhaps very
sublime, but also very impracticable, projects.
But I would not have you ignorant, my dear, that the
indulgence in question is liable to be attended with a much
more serious evil than this. To be truly benevolent in
heart, and strive to show it, even though the mode were so
absurd as to prove that the heart had robbed the head of
all its brains, would be something; — to be laughed at as
an idiotic angel would still have some consolation. But
the mischief is, that a morbid indulgence of sympathy and
sensibility is but too likely to end in extinguishing benev-
olence. I imagine I hear you say, " Sensibility to distress,
and sympathy w^ith it, quench benevolence ! this is, indeed,
a hard lesson ; who can hear it ? " It is true notwithstand-
ing; and as S}Tnpathy with distress, — fictitious distress,
you understand, — and sensibility to it, increases, active
benevolence may be in precisely inverse ratio.
If you ask hoio this can be, I answer, that it depends on
176 THE GIIEYSON LETTEliS.
a curious law of our mental mechanism, wliicli was pointed
out by Bishop Butler, — with whose writings, by the bye,
I hope you will be better acquainted some time Avithin the
next two years, and which will do you a world more good
than a whole Bodleian library of novels. Among many
other curious facts in man's moral anatomy, which the great
philosopher lays bare, are these two, — which by the Avay
show distinctly for what God designed us, and what course
we ought to take in our own culture, — " That, from our
very faculty of habits^ passive im^^ressions, by being repeated^
grow toealcer^ and that practical habits are formed and
strengthened by repeated actsP
But I find my sermon has been so long, that, like other
preachers, I must, if I continue, huddle up the last, though
most important part, in haste ; therefore, as they sometimes
do, I will reserve what I have to say for another discourse,
begging you, my fair hearer, to ponder on tlie words I have
just transcribed for you — if so be you may spell out their
meaning, and jirofit thereby.
Yours affectionately,
K. E. H. G.
LETTER XLI
TO THE SAME.
Aug. 6, 1846.
My DEAR Mary,
I resume the "thread" of my last discourse by expound-
ing the seeming paradox with which it closed. " Who
can be more tender-hearted," perhaps you will say, " than
heroes and heroines in novels, or more ready to cry than an
inveterate novel reader ? " Nevertlieless be pleased to re-
member that however prompt the fancy may be to depict
ON NOVEL READING. 177
distress, or the eye to attest he genuineness of the emotion
that distress has awakened, they indicate what may be
merely passive states of mind ; and no benevolence is
worth a farthing that does not proceed to action. Now,
the frequent repetition of that species of emotion which
fiction stimulates tends to prevent benevolence, because it
is out of proportion to corresponding action ; it is like that
frequent " going over the theory of virtue in our own
thouglits," which, as Butler says, so far from being auxiliary
to it, may be obstructive of it.
As long as the balance is maintained between the stimu-
lus given to imagination with the consequent emotions^ on
the one hand, and our practical habits, which those emo-
tions are chiefly designed to form and strengthen, on the
other, so long, I say, the stimulus of the imagination will
not stand in the way of benevolence, but aid it ; and, there-
fore, my dear, if you loill read a novel extra now and then,
impose upon yourself the coiTcctive of an extra visit or
tAVO to the poor, the distressed, and afflicted ! Keep a sort
of debtor and creditor account of sentimental indulgence
and practical benevolence. I do not care if your pocket-
book contains some such memoranda as these : " For the
sweet tears I shed over the romantic sorrows of Charlotte
Devereux, sent three basins of gruel and a flannel petticoat
to poor old Molly BroAvn;" "For sitting up three hours
beyond the time over the ' Bandit's Bride,' gave half a
crown to Betty Smith;" "My sentimental agonies over
the pages of the ' Broken Heart ' cost me three visits to
the Orphan Asylum and two extra hours of Dorcas Society
work ; " " Two quarts of caudle to poor Johnson's wife
and some gaberdines for his ragged children, on account of
a good cry over the pathetic story of the "Forsaken
One.' "
But if the luxury — and it is a luxury, and in itself noth-
178 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
ing more — of sympathy and mere benevolent feeling be
separated from action^ then Butler's paradox becomes a
terrible truth, and "the heart is not made better," but
worse, by it.
And the following causes are peculiarly apt to render the
species of emotion which fiction excites, not merely dis-
proportionate to the habits of benevolence, but unfriendly
to tlieir formation. First ; in order to make the represen-
tations of fictitious distress pleasant^ — and that is the ob-
ject of any fiction which depicts it, for it is a work of art, —
there must be a careful exclusion of those repulsive features
of distress which shock genuine sensibility and sympathy
in real life. Poverty, and misfortune, and sickness are to
be " interesting," captivating ; the dirt, the filth, the vul-
garity, the ingratitude, which real benevolence encounters
in the attemj^t to relieve them, must be removed, not merely
from the senses, but as far as possible from the imagination
of the reader ; no offensive aura must steal from the sick
chamber where tlie faithful heroine suffers or watches, or
from the chamber of death itself ; none which even the
fancy can detect; chloride of lime, and eau de Colog)ie^
double-distilled of fancy, — must cleanse from the sweet
pages every ill odor, lest the delicate reader that lies lan-
guidly on the sofa, wrapt in the luxury of woe, (perhaps
with streaming eyes and frequent ap})lication of the fine
cambric), should feel too acutely; — lest the refined pleas-
ure thus cunningly extracted out of the sorrows of the
world should turn to pain ! Now the more this feeling is
indulged, the more fistidious it becomes ; till at last, if
the 2)ract ice of benevolence has not been in full j^roportion,
the obstacles encountered by benevolence, when it attempts
its proper task, become insurmountable, and its efforts are
quenched at once. Accordingly, many a young lady has
found, on her first attempt to visit the cabins of the poor,
ON NOVEL READING. 179
and relieve the wants of the sick, that, as a great general
declared " nothing was so unlike a battle as a review," so
nothing is so unlike real benevolence as the luxurious sem-
blance of it excited by a novel, and acted " with great ap-
plause " on the theatre of the imagination. So squeamish
may this feeling become, that even novels may depict
scenes of sorrow, all too real. Even the reflected light of
real life may be too strong for it. The fair reader, in dan-
ger of dying of " aromatic pain," cannot tolerate the vivid-
ness of this pre-Raphaelite style of literary jiainting !
Perhaps as cu% it ought not to be tolerated ; for art ought
to be confined within the limits which secure an overbalance
of pleasure. But whether this be a correct canon of art
or not, the moral effect of too much novel reading, (let the
novels be ever so excellent as works of art,) is just what
I say. It is apt to produce a fastidiousness, which cannot
bear the real ; no, nor even the faithful delineation of the
real. Many a dear novel reader, one would imagine, sup-
poses that the '•'■final cause " (but one) of all the misery
in the Avorld, is to furnish the elements of the picturesque
and the " interesting," the raw material for the fictitious
painter, — and the " final cause " itself, the delicious luxury
of that sentimental sympathy with which he insj^ires the
elegant and fastidious reader !
Pleasurable sympathy with fictitious distress and be-
nevolent desire to relieve real., differ infinitely. How
picturesque some loathsome, squalid cabin, or a gipsies'
tent often looks in a picture ! " How prettily," we all say,
" that little piece of humanity is introduced there ! " yet
how few would relish the thought of entering the reality !
With what reluctance would they do it, even though
benevolence bade! See there an illustration of the dif-
ference between sentimental emotion and benevolent
principle.
180 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
The luxury of mere sympathy and sensibility, (now do
not look so shocked,) of the "fine feelings" excited by
fiction is, when disjoined from practical benevolence, so
great, that it may actually form a notable element in a
person's daily felicity, and yet he may be one of the most
selfish creatures in the world !
How delightful it is to sit still, and play, not only with
no trouble, but with the liveliest pleasure, the part of
great philanthropists ! What ignorance and sorrow have
been relieved — in fancy, by soft enthusiasts! What
sums expended — without costing a farthing! What
content and felicity diffused everywhere — and the un-
grateful world none the better or the wiser for it all!
Sentimental philanthropists, who thus revel in secret
well-doing, transcend the Gospel maxim of not "letting
their left hand know what their right hand doeth," for
they let neither their " right " nor their " left hand " know
any thing of the matter ! Out upon them !
Now, this selfish luxury not only blinds those who
surrender themselves to it by the mask of seeming worth
it wears, but by daily craving, like any other pleasant
emotion, a more unrestrained indulgence, it makes real
benevolence, and its hardy tasks, more and more impos-
sible. And thus, as Bishop Butler justly says, the heart
may be growing all the more selfish for all the heroic
sacrifices of an imaginary virtue.
Pray observe too, — and it is well to remember it in
the present tendencies of popular literature, — that similar
effects, in the absence of a genuine practical benevolence,
may be produced by an opposite class of delineations
from those which exhibit fictitious distress : I mean those
which exhibit almost exclusively the follies and weak-
nesses of mankind. When such descriptions are too
often read, — no matter how kindly the vein of the hu-
ON NOVEL READING. 181
morist, — the man who has not trained his heart to pity-
by actual benevolence is soon apt to fall into a cynical
contempt of human infirmity, and to think that all the
world's absurdities are game for laughter, when at least
as often they call for compassion.
You may perhaps be still j^uzzled a little to reconcile
the paradox of the hardening effects of excessive sensi-
hillty. — You will find all difficulty removed if you suffi-
ciently meditate on the fact so beautifully pointed out by
the great moralist I quoted in my last. So little (as he
shows) is emotion, — even the best and most refined, —
in itself any index of virtue, that emotion may be weak-
ened, and indeed is so, by every practical advance in
virtue. It is as he says, a great law of our nature,
(and nothing can be more beautifully adapted to our
condition as creatures who are designed for real practical
virtue,) that while our passive emotions decay in vivid-
ness by repetition, (though it is true w^e crave them more
and more strongly,) our practical habits strengthen by
exercise; so that, as this writer observes, a man may be
advancing in moral excellence by that very course which
deadens his emotions. He, whose sensibility gloats over
fictitious scenes of sorrow, as the exciting cause of agree-
able passive sensations, is in the oj^posite position ; he
craves them more and more, though he feels them less
\avidly, just as is the case with the drunkard and his
dram — he hankers for it more and enjoys it less. Prac-
tical habits, on the other hand, render emotion less vivid,
but become more and more easy and pleasant — nay, like
all habits, crave their wonted gratification. So true is it,
however, that practical habit generally deadens passive
impressions, that you i^ay lay it down as a rule, that he
who feels poignantly, — I do not say deeply^ but poig-
nantly, — the distress he relieves, is a novice in benev-
16
182 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
olence ; and hence novel-reading young ladies and gen-
tlemen often entirely mistake the matter, when they call
a man hard-hearted only because he does not dis2:)lay all
the sensations and clamorous sentiments of their own
impotent benevolence, but just quietly does all that they
talk of, and j^erhaps hluhher about. We know that a
benevolent medical man may take off a limb as coolly as he
would eat his dinner, and yet feel ten times as much real
sensibility for the sufferer as a fine lady who would run
away, hide her face in her hands, and throw herself on
a sofa in the most approved attitude for fainting or hys-
terics at the sight of even a drop of blood.
My dear Mary, take it as a caution through life, quite
apart from the subject I have been preaching about; —
Suspect, — I do not say condemn and hang, — but suspect
all who indulge in superfluous expression of sentiment, all
excessive symbols of sensibility. Those who indulge in
these are always neophytes in virtue at the best; and,
what is worse, they are very often among the most heart-
less of mankind. Sterne and Rousseau were types of this
class, — perfect incarnations of sensibility without benev-
olence, — having, and having in perfection, the "form" of
virtue, but " denying the power thereof."
Your loving uncle,
K. E H. G.
LETTER XLII.
TO THE SAME.
Sutton, Oct. 12, 1846.
So you hope, my dear niece, that I shall soon send you
another lecture on the " proprieties," for that my lectures
are very amusing ! Upon my word you pay me a pretty
"YES" AND "NO." 183
compliment, yon monkey : yon are as bad as the fashion-
able lady, who, having heard a very pathetic sermon on a
i'cry solemn text, was heard to remark, as she left the
chnrch, "Well, really we have had a very entertaining
evening ! "
Well, Mademoiselle, thanks to that little giddy pate of
yonrs, I fmcy there will be no lack of subjects whereon
to admonish yon. Your Mentor, believe me, will hold no
sinecure. However, if I must lecture, hear me, — though
speaking lightly, — on a very grave subject.
It is my purj^ose, my dear, to carry on your gram-
matical studies a little, by doing what I humbly venture
to think your governess must have left partially undone,.
— I must indoctrinate you in the true theory and right
use of "yes" and "no." Do not be alarmed; I am not
about to trouble you with any tedious inquiry into the
etymology or syntax of these important j^articles. These
Ave leave to those whom it concerns ; but as to the mean-
ing and use of these atoms of speech, depend on it, they
are of more importance than the meaning and use of the
most centipedal polysyllables that crawl over the pages
of Johnson's Dictionary.
You remember the last pleasant evening in my last
visit to Shirley, when I accompanied you to the party at
Mrs. Austin's. Something occurred there, which I had no
opportunity of improving for your benefit. So as you
invite reproof, — an invitation which, who that is mortal
and a senior can refuse, — I will enlarge a little.
The good lady, our hostess, expressed, if you recollect, a
fear that the light of the unshaded camphene was too bright,
in the position in which you sat, for your eyes. Though I
saw you blinking with positive pain, yet, out of a foolish
timidity, you protested — " Ko, — oh no, — not at all ! "
184 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
Now that was a very unneighborly act of the tongue, thus
to set at naught the eye ; the selfish thing must have for-
gotten that " if one member suffer, all the others must suffer
Avith it." My dear, never sacrifice your eyes to any organ
whatever ; at all events not to the tongue, — least of all,
when it does not tell the truth. Of the two, you had
better be dumb than blind.
Now, if I had not interposed, and said that you icere suf-
fering, whether you knew it or not, you would have played
the martyr all the evening to a sort of a — a — what shall
I call it ? — it must out, — a sort of fashionable fib ! You
may answer, perhaps, that you did not like to make a fuss,
or seem squeamish, or discompose the company, and so,
from timidity, you said " the thing that was not." Very
true ; but this is the very thing I want you to guard against ;
I w^ant you to have such presence of mind that the thought
of absolute Truth shall so preoccupy you as to defy surprise,
and anticipate even the most hurried utterances.
The incident is very trifling in itself; I have noticed it,
because I think I have observed, on other occasions, that
from a certain timidity of character, and an amiable desire
not to give trouble or " make a fuss," as you call it, (there,
now, Mary, I am sure the medicine is nicely mixed — that
spoonful of syrup ought to make it go down,) you have
evinced a disposition to say, from i^ure want of thinking,
what is not precise truth. Weigh well, my dear girl, and
ever act on, that precept of the Great Master, which, like
all His i^recepts, is of deepest imj^ort, and, in spirit, of the
utmost generality of application, " Let your yea be yea, and
your nay, nay."
Let truth — absolute truth — take precedence of every-
thing ; let it be more precious to you than anything else.
Sacrifice not a particle of it at the bidding of indolence.
"YES" AND "NO." 185
vanity, interest, cowardice, or shame ; least of all, to those
tawdry idols of stuffed straw and feathers, — the idols of
fashion and false honor.
It is often said that the great lesson for a young man or
a young woman to learn is how to say " no." It would be
better to say that they should learn aright how to use both
" yes " and " no," — for both are equally liable to abuse.
The modes in wliich they are employed often give an
infallible criterion of character.
Some say both so doubtfully and hesitatingly, drawling
out each letter, " y-e-s," " n-o," that one might swear to
their indecision of character at once. Others repeat them
with such facility of assent or dissent, taking their tone
from the previous question, that one is equally assured of
the same conclusion, or, what is as bad, that they never
reflect at all. They are a sort of parrots.
One very important observation is this, — be pleased to
remember, my dear, that " yes " in itself always means
" yes," and " no" always means "no."
I fancy you will smile at such a profound remark ; never-
theless many act as if they never knew it, — both in utter-
ing these monosyllables themselves, and in inter25reting
them as uttered by others. Young ladies, for example,
when the question, as it is called, par excellence^ (as if it
were more important than the whole catechism together,)
is put to them, often say "no," when they really mean
" yes." It is a singular happiness for them that the young
gentlemen to whom they reply in this contradictory sort of
way have a similar incaj^acity of understanding "yes" and
" no ; " nay, a greater ; for these last often persist in think-
ing " no " means " yes," even when it really means what it
says.
"Pray, my dear," said a mamma lo her daughter of
16*
186 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
eighteen, " what was your cousin saying to you when I
met you, bhishing so, in the garden ? "
" He told me that he loved me, mamma, and asked if I
could love him."
" Upon my word ! And what did you say to him^ my
dear ? "
" I said, ' Yes,' mamma."
" My dear, how could you be so "
" Why, mamma, w^hat else could I say ? it was the —
truths
Now I consider this a model for all love-passages ; and
when it comes to your turn, my dear, pray follow this truth-
loving young lady's examj)le, and do not trust to your
lover's powers of interpretation to translate a seeming
" no " into a genuine " yes." He might be one of those
simple, worthy folks who are so foolish as to think that a
negative is really a negative !
I grant that there are a thousand conventional cases in
which "yes" means " no," and "no" means "yes;" and
they are so ridiculously common, that every one is sup-
posed, in politeness, not to mean what he says, or rather is
not doubted to mean the contrary of what he says. In fact,
quite apart from positive lying, — that is, any intention to
deceive, — the honest words are so often interchanged that
if " no " were to prosecute " yes," and " yes " " no," for
trespass, I know not which would have most causes in
court. Have nothing to do with these absurd convention-
alisms, my dear. " Let your yea be yea," and your " nay,
nay." If you are asked whether you are cold, hungry,
tired, — never, for fear of giving trouble, say the contrary
of Avhat you feel. Decline giving the trouble, if you like,
by all means ; but do not assign any false reason for so
doing. These are trifles, you will say, and so they are ; but
"YES" AND "NO." 187
it is only by austere regard to truth, even in trifles, that
we shall keep the love of it spotless and pure. '.' Take care
of the pence" of truth, " and the pounds will take care of
themselves."
Not only let your utterance be simple truth, as you ap-
prehend it, — but let it be decisive and imambiguous, ac-
cording to those apprehensions. Some persons speak as
falteringly as if they thought the text I have cited, ran,
" Let your yea be nay, and your nay, yea." And so they
are apt to assent or dissent, according to the tenor of the
last argument : " Yes — no " — " yes — no " — it is just like
listening to the pendulum of a clock.
It is a great aggravation of the misuse of " yes " and
" no," that the young are apt to lose all true apprehension
of their meaning, and think, in certain cases, that " yes "
cannot mean " yes," nor " no," " no."
I have known a lad, whose mother's " no " had generally
ended in " yes," completely ruined because, when his father
said " no " in reply to a request for unreasonable aid, and
threatened to leave him to his own devices if he persisted
in extravagance, could not believe that his father meant
what he said, or could prevail on justice to turn nature out
of doors. But his father meant " no," and stuck to it ; and
the lad was ruined, simply because, you see, he had not
noticed that father and mother difiered in their dialects, —
that, in his father's, " no " always meant " no," and nothing
else. You have read "Rob Roy," and may recollect that
that amiable young gentleman, Mr. F. Osbaldestone, with
less reason, very nearly made an equally fatal mistake ; for
every word his father had ever uttered, and every muscle
in his face, every gesture, every step ought to have con-
vinced him that his father always meant what he said.
In fine, my dear niece, learn to apply these little words
188 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
aright and honestly ; and, httle though they be, you -will
keep the love of truth pure and unsulhed.
Ah me ! what words of joy and sorrow — what madden-
ing griefs and ecstasies — have these poor monosyllables
conveyed ! More than any other words in all the diction-
ary have they enraj)tured or saddened the human heart ;
rung out the peal of joy, or sounded the knell of hope.
And yet not so often as at first sight might appear ; for
these blunt and honest words are, both, kindly coy in scenes
of agony. There are occasions, — and those the most ter-
rible in life, — when the lips are fairly absolved from using
them, and when, if the eye cannot express what the muffled
tongue refuses to tell, the tongue seeks any stammering,
compassionate circimilocution rather than utter the dreaded
syllable. " Is there no hope ? " says the mother, hanging
over her dying child, to the physician in whose looks are
life and death. He dare not say "yes," — but to such a
question silence and dejection can alone say " no."
May there be to you, dear Mary, not many scenes in
life, — some there will, there must be, — when you cannot
utter either of these monosyllables ; when truth will not let
you say the one, and compassion will not let you breathe
the other.
Believe me,
Ever yours affectionately,
E. E. H. G.
TREATMENT OF CRIMINALS. 189
LETTER XLIII.
TO ALFEED WEST, ESQ.
Sutton, October, 1847.
My deak West,
. . . "The treatment of criminals," — a question on
which you ask my opinion — is indeed a puzzling one. As
to the plan of keejDing them all in this country, — unless
the most absolute necessity comj^els us, — it is the very
worst of all ; at least, if the wretches are to be turned
loose, after a term of imprisonment, on a dense population
and an often glutted labor-market : this is simply the most
comprehensive cruelty both to the innocent and the guilty.
The criminal thus turned out of jail, enfranchised with a
pernicious freedom, cannot but relapse into crime. He
cannot compete with honest poverty, unless the door of
the counting-house and the factory be shut m its face in
flivor of the ticket of leave. Perhaps, here and there, one
of our mad philanthrof)ists would sacrifice unblemished
worth to an absurd sympathy with guilt ; but not one ui
ten thousand would ; and, in nearly every case, the relapse
of the criminal is inevitable.
The difiiculties of the question almost force one on one
of two courses ; either a return, under some modifications,
to strictly penal settlements — a horrible alternative ! — or
(what, in some moods, I have thought the truest mercy,
not only to society, but to criminals themselves) the plan
of making all the crimes of violence, — murder, highway
robbery, burglary, arson, — inexpiable except by enslave-
ment for life / the criminal to be employed all his days on
public works, under a system of strict military law ; the
triangle and the platoon to be the prompt and instant
avengers of every serious offence against discipline. Why,
190 THE GKEYSON LETTERS.
indeed, at any rate, should the criminal code be milder
than that of the camp ?
I have sometimes fancied that such a chastisement of
every deliberate forfeiture (by commission of crimes of vio-
lence) of the protection of society, would do more than
anything else to prevent them. If every one disposed to
invade his neighbor's liberty, saw over every prison door
Dante's terrible inscription, —
"Abandon lioj)c, all ye "vvbo enter here," —
I am inclined to think few crimes of violence would be de-
liberately committed.
But it is a question of immense difficulty. I remember,
some years ago, reading all that Bentham — all that Bec-
caria — all that others have said on the treatment of crim-
inals, and thought it incomparably the most perplexing
problem in political science.
If we could but give ourselves wholly to one of the two
great aims of penal legislation, — the prevention of crime,
— and leave the reformation of the criminal quite out of
sight ; if we could but make that which is the princij^al,
the sole object, and apply to crime remorselessly the maxim,
" Experimentum fiat in corpore vili," — I fancy the most
awful punishment and the most efiectual deterre^it of crime
would be just to let it have its play among those wlio had
been tainted by it ; to select for example, some island in
the deep recesses of the ocean, — of sufficient fertility, and
no more, to yield a scanty subsistence to its inhabitants, if
they chose to w^ork the stubborn glebe, — and then put
ashore there every one who had committed certain heinous
crimes, and let them do their best or worst ; the Govern-
ment simply keeping a port, and cruisers Avho should see to
it that none ever escaped from that dreadful prison ; but
never interfering to prevent any ill consequences of this
TREATMENT OF CRIMINALS. 191
concentration of evil ; to stay any tumult, to redress any
wrongs, to punish any cruelties in this region of huge mis-
rule.
You will think, perhaps, that sheer necessity, — the
necessity which exacts " honor " (such as it is) " among
thieves," would lead on to some sort of government ; and
it doubtless would, for extermination would be the result
if the principles of evil had unchecked sway. "But of all
despotisms or republics the world has yet seen, I suppose
this would be incomparably the worst ; in which truth and
justice would be recognized only so far as they were reluc-
tantly felt to be necessary to the very existence of the body
politic, — a striking homage, by the way, even that, to the
moral constitution of the universe ; for it proves that even
when men have discarded virtue itself, they must still wear
the semblance of it. But still, what dreadful excesses,
within the limits of " thieves' honor " would evil passions
oive birth to ! Who can imao'ine the horrors of a commu-
nity of lust, cruelty, cunning, greed, blasphemy, — a com-
munity in which hope and shame would be dead ; where
the heaviest woe of all would be that very tyranny — that
" Right of Might " — which yet would be the only thing
which could keep such a society from extinction ; where he
of the Red Right-hand might be king ; the makers of law
those \\h.o had been most famed for breaking it ; in which
a murderer might be chancellor, and every judge a felon !
But most probably there could be no stable government
even of this horrible kind ; a succession of brief anarchies
Avould form the crimson annals, diversified only by the mo-
mentary pre-eminence of some superior fiend, — " Beelze-
bub, the prince of the devils, casting out devils." In short,
the picture is too dreadful to dwell on ; humanity shudders
at the thought of it ; so we must give \v^ this promising
speculation ; we have no business thus to antedate Hell.
192 THE GREYSON LETTERS,
Yes — Hell. For to be evil, and to be abandoned to evil ;
to live in the midst of those whose countenances reflect
only evil passions, stamped with cruelty, lust, cunning,
malice ; and to feel (most dreadful of all) that their coun-
tenances are but the mirrors of our own ; that we are free
to " Avork all manner of evil " against one another, wliich
the utmost selfishness, armed v^dth cunning, unchecked by
conscience, and checked only by fear, can inflict; what,
after all, is that but hell ? Did you ever read Sir James
Mackintosh's description of the feelings with which he once
found himself standing alone amongst the felons of i^ew-
gate, on a casual visit of compassion to that prison ? As
he saw around him the multi2:)lied images of depravity, —
every variety of expression of hatred, malignity, cruelty,
lust, cunning, — he confesses to a feehng of the most sick-
ening horror and dread. It must have been hardly better
than standing alone in the serpents' house in the Zoologi-
cal Gardens, without anything between the reptiles and
the spectator, and — the doors locked!
But to return. If, I say, it were not for humanity, such
a "habitation of dragons" as I have supjDosed would,
surely, be the true thing to deter men from crime, and
maintain in them a wholesome fear of coming into such a
place of torment. How would its very mystery of veiled
hon-ors strike the imagination ; — that land of silence of
Avhich no tongue could tell anything, — on which the foot of
innocence had never trod, from which that of guilt never
returned; — that land for ever divided from the living
world, as much as if the gi^ave had already closed on its
weary inhabitants ! "VYho can tell what wholesome aifright-
ing myths — what salutary appalling tales — would shape
themselves out of the hints and whispers of those who had
only gazed on the melancholy isle ! How would the voy-
agers who but sailed in view of the " unblessed land " trans-
TREATMENT OF CRIMINALS. 193
fer even to its physical features the gloomy associations of
their fancy, and exaggerate whatever riiggedness nature
had given it, tenfold ! How, as they looked at it with
hushed breath, would their own feelings deepen its myste-
rious silence, and paint it to imagination in darker colors
than those of reality ! How would it thrill the mind with
horror to find officers of the watchful cruisers reporting that
on such a dark night they had heard loud shrieks at Mur-
der Cove ; on another, had seen fires blazing far inland as
if some bloody raid was going forward ; that sometimes old
graybeards and children, with their throats cut, — mere
lumber to be got rid of by these thrifty colonists, — came
floating by !
Ah, by the way, how are Ave to j)rovide for the babies of
that horrible community? for babies — some at least —
tliere will be ; though I apprehend Mr. Malthus need not
be in any alarm about excess of population. Alas ! this
argument alone, if there were no other derived from hu-
manit}', Avould be enough to frighten us from this hoj^eful
scheme ; unless, by the way, men were sent to one island,
and women to another, which I fear would but complete
the horror of both ; or unless none but ladies well stricken
in years and crime were deemed eligible for such select so-
ciety; or other equally objectionable preliminaries of citi-
zenship were insisted upon. At any rate, to doom inno-
cence to be born into such a place as that, would be a fouler
crime tlian any the criminals there had committed. That
spot would in that case be darker than hell itself; for in
hell, doubtless, as in heaven, "they neither marry nor are
given in marriage."
I presume, therefore, we must give u^) all hope of real-
izing any such " normal prison." Yet it is not without its
use, to let the mind dwell on such a theme, if it but excite
17
'o
194: THE GREYSON LETTERS.
one salutary thought of the horror of going into any re-
sembUnc: Avorld ! . . . .
Ever yours,
E. E.. H. G.
LETTER XLIY.
TO C. MASON, ESQ.
Inverart, July, 1848.
My dear Mason,
I think if you had been with us yesterday, you would
have been amused, — not to say instructed, — -by the illu-
sions of a harmless sort of madman, who — be not shocked
— turned out to be an intimate friend of the " de'il."
I was seated in comjoany with a young stranger, on a
stone bench in front of a little inn on my way here, lazily
looking out on the sunny mountains, when a man, decently
dressed as to the materials, though rather fantastically as
to the colors, sat down beside me ; and the mutter of his
lips, his restless air, and the bright but wandering eye, con-
vinced me that he was " no just that right in his mind."
He was a Scotchman, who, like so many of his country-
men, had received in his youth an education much beyond
that of a similar class in our own country ; and seemed to
have lost none of his native shrewdness under the influence
of his malady. After sitting for a few minutes, twitching
his features, muttering his "wayward fancies," stealing
rapid glances at me, shifting his limbs in incessant restless-
ness, he suddenly turned, and, with that mysterious con-
fidential undertone in which a maniac loves to utter his
absurdities, and which renders them so fearful to the lis-
tener, said " Did ye e'er see the de'il, mon ? "
THE MADMAN AND THE DEVIL 195
" I do not know that I have ever seen him," said I.
" I have, then," said he, with much such an air of supe-
riority as a vulgar tuft-hunter might have assumed in chiim-
ing acquaintance with my Lord Duldrum ; (nodding his
head and compressing his lips at the same time ,) " I have,
then," said he ; " mony's the fine crack we hae had the-
gither ; amaist always by night, ye ken," he added, with a
mysterious air ; " he dinna bide a blink of the sun, I 'm
thinking."
" Why," said my young stranger-companion, who seemed
to know something of the madman, " they say, Dandie, that
there Avas never such a thing as the de'il ! "
"Ah ! are ye there now, mon? " said the madman, in high
dudgeon. " He kens yoK, mon, better than ye ken him.
He was a gay gude preacher as once said to a daft young
fule like you, ' Ye're an undutifu' laddie to deny your ain
fiither.' If ye dinna ken him yet, ye will, mon, ye will if
ye live; or if you dinna live, ye'U ken him still better, I'm
thinking."
Madman you may be, thought I ; but, like many more
of your brotherhood, you have a sharp humor of your own.
" Well, but," said I, wishing to humor his illusion, and
desiring I fear, — Heaven forgive me ! — to derive a little
amusement from it ; at the same time anxious to prevent
the passion into which it was evident the thoughtlessness
of the youth might plunge him by wanton contradiction, —
" Well, but Dandie, have you never seen him by day ? "
" To be sure, I have," said he with an air of suj^eriority ;
" though not sae often as by night, — that I canna gainsay.
And when I hae seen him by day, it is mostly in the
shadow of yon i3ine wood, which you can just see frae this,
in a dark glen where the stream comes tumbling down,
and sounds awsome in the gloaming. I hae whiles met
him there, and had a wee crack wi' him ; but he does na
196 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
seem that cheerful and frankUke as in the bonny star-
light."
" Pooh ! " said the young man, Avho seemed to take a de-
light in teasing him; "you've seen some madman wander-
ing there, Dandie, and have mistaken him for the de'il ;
tliat's all."
" Begging your pardon, then, Mr. Mac Donald, the de'il 's
nae mair wud than I am ; " little thinking of the compli-
ment he was paying his patron.
" Well, but," said I, " did you ever see him in the broad
daylight ? " ^
" Ance I did," said the maniac, sinking his voice to a con-
fidential whisper ; " but, eh ! sirs, it's a sair sight that ; I
wadna see it again. Ye maun ken we were walking a wee
bit out of the shade of the wood on a stormy day, and just
then the sun glinted frae between the clouds in a bright
light ; but it wasna to shine on him, or he wadna be shone
upon by it ; a dark shadow fell in a ring all about him, and
in that shadow I seemed to feel as cauld as I would under
the northern peak of Ben Cruachan yonder!"
" And has he," said I, " the claws and hoof usually given
to him ? "
" Na, na," replied this enlightened gentleman, — " that is
just vulgar superstition, mon. He is as weel favored a
gentleman, — dressed in black, though, ye ken, like a cler-
gyman, for he aye likes seeming, — as Zam."
" But," said I, soothingly, " did you never use your priv-
ilege to tell him that some of the young folks of our ac-
quaintance doubt his existence altogether? "
" That have I," said he ; " and it's amaist the only time
I ever saw a giggle on his foce. ' Aye, aye,' says he, * that
is just what I tell them mysel, and they sj^eak as I bid
them, puir unconscious fules ! It's at times ane o' my de-
lights now to hear them saying there is na sic thing as the
THE MADMAN AND THE DEVIL. 197
de'il, while I am just at their elbows, and hae put that vera
lie into their mouths. But it is na aften that I am at the
pains ; for the greater part of manldnd are sic fules that
they are equally deceived, though they do believe that
there is a de'il ! ' Eh ! but," said the madman, " the de'il
spak truth there, ony way. Oh ! but it's sad to see that
man will throw away life, weal, wife, childer, heaven, and
a' for a gill o' whiskey or a bit rag o' painted harlotry.
They say the de'il is very busy in tempting men ; but he maun
hae an easy time o't, I'm thinking. All of them meet him
mair than half-way. Ilk ane seems to gang to him, and
say — ' Hae na ye some dainty temptation for me to-day,
now, Daddie Satan ? I'm sair wracked for a coaxing temj?-
tation.' "
"Well, but," said I, "Dandie, have you never expos-
tulated with him on the cruelty of his conduct, and asked
him Avhat pleasure he can have in inflicting tortures on
the miserable victims of his arts ? You remember what
your countryman Burns says in his address to the de'il —
" I'm sure sma' pleasure it can gle ye — "
" Hoot, mon," broke in the madman ; " Rob was a fine
poet — puir fellow — nae doot o' that; but I'm thinking
he was na always in his right senses ; when the whisky
AYas In^ the brains were out^ ye ken; and I'm sure he was
never sae weel acquent wi' auld Clootie as I am, puir
blinded mon ! " — he continued, as if his intimacy was a
singular privilege.
" But," said I, recalling him, "about his cruelty, now —
did ye never expostulate with him ? I really think, that,
as a good man, you should. Who knows what you might
do with him ? "
"I kenna," said he, sagely shaking his head; "he's a
dour carl to persuade to onything ; and, after a', how does
17*
198 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
he do waur than mony a king and great captam, who slay,
and hang, and burn thousands upon thousands to slake
then' j^ride and vain -glory ? "
" But the cruelty of toraienting men," said I
"And how do ye ken it is just cruelty?" said this
devil's advocate, "ony mair than it's just cruelty that
makes kings and captains cut throats, and burn towns and
villages. It's, may be, just the luve o^ power ^ — and what
for suld na Satan be as fond of a braw kingdom as a
man ? "
Here our curious colloquy closed; for his last answer
set me musing. Yes, thought I, this madman has un-
wittingly rej^lied to one of the f^ivorite arguments for the
devil's non-existence, — the supj^osition of gratuitous and
motiveless malignity. Why should there not be, as the
solemn intimations of the Scripture seem to show us, a
greater than even the greatest of evil men, fighting for
empire, for the gratification of pride, ambition, and " im-
mortal hate ? " And how is his conduct, on that suppo-
sition, more inexplicable than that of the petty conquerors
among men, who, with less potent means, do mischief
from the same motives? who, as my madman said, burn,
and slay, and hang, and cut the throats of thousands —
for power ? Can even the devil do more than those who
cry " havoc ! " and wantonly " let slip the dogs of war,"
for ambition's sake ? who know that the burning roof-tree,
fathers murdered on their own hearth, and weejjing cap-
tives, and smoking harvests, are among the " incidents " of
conquest ?
And if it be said, as sciolists are so apt to say, that God,
with His omnipotence, would not let such a being as the
devil play such pranks as are attributed to him, in His
universe, — alas ! the question returns — May He not, for
reasons unknown to u,s, permif.it, — since, for reasons
TO AN INCIPIENT NEOLOGIST. 100
equally unknown, He has suffered so many incarnate
demons to lay waste and desolate this fair world of
ours? . . .
Yours faithfully,
* E. E. H. G.
LETTER XLY.
TO
Near Brodick, Arran, Aug. 1848.
My dear Friend,
I am living here in absolute solitude, but in the midst
of the most delightful mountain scenery you can imagine.
I am " located," at a little farm-house of the most prim-
itive Highland simplicity, in two tiny rooms about twelve
feet by fifteen, and lighted by windows two feet square.
I have just sufficient books to fill a little mantel-j^iece ;
and on wet days, they and my pen form my only re-
sources. But I live on the banks of such a mountain
stream, and at the entrance of such a glen, — why, it is
like stepping out of an Indian wigwam into Paradise, the
moment I cross the threshold. This reconciles me to my
lot, and to the absolute loss of society; for I hardly
reckon my old host and hostess to be any. We seldom
exchange more than five words at a time, and they are
not such as to invite more.
I know not how it is that I have got the character of a
very merry, sociable sort of person ; for few j^eople enjoy
solitude more than I do, or have had more of it. I sup-
pose it is because, going seldom into society, I enjoy it
with all the more gusto from my customary hermit's life.
Never was there a character, however, worse bestowed ;
for I fear there has seldom been a man more sombre, or
that, on an average, has smiled or laughed less.
200 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
Such is the force of habit, nevertheless, that I caimot
recollect that I ever left any com2:>any, however congenial
and however merry, and felt solitude irksome; my quiet
study, those sij^nt friends, my. books, have never seemed
unwelcome. I believe I have spent more hours alone
than any man of my acquaintance, or j^erhaps than any
man who has not been condemned to solitary imprison-
ment for life ; and yet, such is habit, that sometimes, and
for many days together, I feel as if I could bear never to
see again a " human face divine ; " — certainly could dis-
pense with seeing my own. Yet neither philosophy nor
religion assent to this morose life : not philosophy, for I
should be forced to light my own fire and cook my own
mutton; nor religion, for the Allwise himself has said,
what all experience confirms, " that it is not good for man
to be alone."
And yet Adam, I sometimes fancy, half doubted this
truth by the time Eve had been in Paradise a few days
and made the serpent a morning call. I rather think he
heartily wished he was munching his solitary peaches
again.
A few days ! why, some of the schoolmen doubted
whether Eve remained in Paradise a single day before she
committed \\\q faux pas ; and they said so, I fancy, from
sheer difficulty of imagining that a lady's frailty could
hold out longer. But commentators were always an
ungallant and churlish set. For my part, I confidently
believe that Eve held out much longer; — three whole
days, at the very least.
One w^onders what would have been the condition of
the world, if little Eve had eaten, and Adam had not ; if
he had politely handed her ladyship to the side door in
the wall of Paradise ; told her that " separate main-
tenance " would be her lot on the other side, amongst the
TO AN INCIPIENT NEOLOGIST. 201
" thorns and thistles ; " and so fairly turned the key upon
her. If he had been as brutal a husband as a good many
of his descendants, I can imagine him returning to his
spade and dibble with great scmg froid^ without even
throwing the poor creature a few apples over the wall.
But as it was — alas ! the story reads profoundly nat-
ural^ whether in the book of Genesis or Milton's Epic.
For Eve, Adam " lost the world, and was content to lose
it ; " what an Antony and Cleopatra ! " All for love, and
the world well lost ! "
I fancy I hear some dubious lady say, " Who can doubt
that the gentleman had a ' wee bit ' of curiosity as well as
Eve, and a sweet tooth of his own in his head ? "
Well, be it so ; but there is j^rofound nature in the
tumult of sympathy with which Milton represents him
as actinoj :
" with thee,
Certain my resolution is to die ;
How can I live without thee, how forego
Thy sweet converse, and love so dearly joined,
To live again in these icild icoods forlorn ! "
Well might Eve be ravished by the compliment by
which Paradise Avas forfeited and a world undone, —
" O o-lorious trial of exceeding love." . . .
N'o doubt, like all of us millions of fools of Adam's sons,
who have acted with similar folly to his OAvn when we
have yielded to temptation, Adam went as " an ox to
the slaughter," — without thinking ; but then that jwt
thinking, — alas! it is his and our crime. — Not less pro-
foundly true to human nature is Milton's description, a
little after, of the recrimination that ensues ; and most of
all, that which is given in Genesis. Any thing, it seems,
rather than take a fault to ourselves! "The woman
202 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
whom thou gavest me;" — so that Adam upbraids God
with His own gifts, as we all do when we have made a
bad use of them. " The serpent beguiled me," says Eve ;
and I dare say if the serpent had been asked, he, too,
would have said, that it was God's own fault for having
put the " tree " in his way.
Any thing, — the woman, — the child, — the devil, —
God himselfj rather than man will ingenuously confess
himself in the wrong !
But I have been running on, and have not ansAvered
your question respecting the best way, not out of, but into
this Scotch paradise. Tell your nephew to take the
steamer from Liverpool, — go up to Greenock, and he
will find Clyde steamers hither twice a day i which is to
be taken, will de^^end on the time of his arrival in the
Clyde.
Yours truly,
R. E. H. G.
LETTER XLVI.
TO THE SAME.
Arran, Aug. 1848.
My dear Friend,
I little thought my late hadmage was to elicit from you
so serious an expression of doubts^ or I should have shrunk
as much from writing in so playful a strain as from light-
ing a squib over a barrel of gunpowder. However, I will
do my best, as you desire, to reply ; so a truce to all
nonsense for the present.
It seems to me that you have been a little touched with
the malaria of " Rationalism " — the neological Epidemic,
TO AX INCIPIENT NEOLOGIST. 203
SO widely sj^reacl in our day. You have taken it mildly ;
but be assured that the virus is in your constitution, and
may lead to more formidable symjrtoms, and a worse type
of the disease ; for there is, as I shall try to show you, no
consistency — no i^rinciple — in your objections. You
might as well carry them a thousand leagues further, and
reject not only iGhat you say you are inclined to reject,
but every shred of the supernatural in the Bible history ;
nor stop there, but go on, if your, logic be but consistent,
to Atheism itself. I speak seriously ; and though I am not
in the habit of speaking defiantly, I do challenge you to
justify yourself against the arguments Avhich I shall
employ against you.
You tell me frankly that you have no difficulty in receiv-
ing the Bible, generally^ as a divine revelation ; nor in ad-
mitting its history to be, generally^ authentic, and its mira-
cles, facts ; but you ask — how can you receive " demon-
strable discrepancies " and " grossly improbable legends "
as true ? counting among these last, it seems, the literal his-
tory of the Temptation and Fall, — the history of. Balaam's
ass, — and the history of Jonah.
Now, at the outset, I must beg you to distinguish between
things that differ, and differ toto coelo^ — discrepancies in
statement, and seeming improbabilities in the history. You
speak of them as if they were to be treated alike.
As to those discrepcmcies which you say are " demonstra-
bly contradictions, " — if there are any such, do as you
please — I ask no man to believe "demonstrable contradic-
tions ;" only be sm'e they are so : for my part, I hesitate to
say it. — I know of none such as yet / and I say so for these
reasons: 1. I have seen so many of the alleged " demon-
strable contradictions " reconciled, that I am rather chary
of belief in them ; and, with regard to those still unresolv-
ed, am willing to wait with patience for further light before
204 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
pronouncing absolutely. 2. I know tnat many discrepan-
cies " may be expected, without at all touching the original
claims of the writers to inspiration, — since, unless God has
wrought multitudinous miracles every day on all the tran-
scribers' pens and fingers, many must have crept into tlie
text. 3. I see that a great part of the remainder, (which
cannot be so accounted for,) may be fairly set aside, if we
bear in mind that circumstances may be omitted in the nar-
rative, which if we but knew them, would prove the alleged
discrepancies apparent only ; and indeed, such circumstan-
ces in by far the greater number of cases, may be imagined
as will reconcile them. I know it is the fashion of a certain
sort of critics, as blind as owls, to say that such criticism is
conjectural only ; but conjectural or not, they forget, that
where a contradiction is asserted between tAvo statements,
the mere showing that it ya possible they may both be true,
is sufficient, (with anybody who has five grains of logic,) to
neutralize ^A«(f. If A swears that he has seen B in Man-
chester at twelve o'clock, and C that he saw him walking
about the fields forty miles off an hour or so after, it is quite
enough to neutralize the apparent discrepancy, if it be shown
that B might have got there by an express train within tlie
specified time, — though no proof whatever were offered, or
to be found, that that is the mode of reconciling the state-
ments. 4. Though I admit there may be cases where I can
suggest no solution whatever, I prefer waiting for furtlier
light before pronouncing them absolutely insoluble ; for it
may be that they may turn out errors of transcription, and
not of the original documents. However, we are at all
events agreed that the discrepancies, which can at all be
supposed " contradictions," are, as any candid sifting of
them will show, few, turn on trivial points, and are utterly
insignificant compared with the weight of evidence which
converges to the conclusion that the Bible, as a whole, came
TO AN INCIPIENT NEOLOGIST 205
from God J so that even if they be supposed errors of the
original writers, — permitted for some unknown reason,
perhaps to teach them and us humihty, and committed in
momentary obscuration of the i^reternatural light witli
which they were generally favored, — the passages in
which such errors occur may be rejected with no percepti-
ble deduction from the result. " I know not," says Paley,
" a more rash or unphilosophical conduct of the understand-
ing, than to reject the substance of a story, by reason of
some diversity of the circumstances with which it is related.
When accounts of a transaction come from the mouths of
different witnesses, it is seldom that it is not possible to pick
out apparent or real inconsistencies between them. These
inconsistencies are studiously displayed by an adverse plea-
der, but oftentimes with little impression upon the minds of
the judges."
And I know you will also agree that, if we dismiss the
hypothesis of the suj)erhuman origin of the Bible in general,
and suppose the Book a collection of merely human records,
it is a far more puzzling thing that so few discrepancies
should exist than that some should ; it is far more difficult
to account for its wonderful harmony, — for the paucity and
insignificance of the discrepancies found in it, — than to
suppose a few permitted to exist, on the theory of its divine
origin, as the result of our ignorance of omitted facts or tlie
accidents of transmission ; nay, I can imagine some discre-
pancies permitted for many other reasons ; but no causes,
known or unknown, will account for the unity of the Bible
on the theory of a human origin. Considering that it is
a collection of nearly seventy tracts — written by at least
thirty authors, — extending over some thousands of years
in time, — composed in different languages, — full of the
minutest historic details, — it is incomprehensible to me
that it should exhibit such an astonishing approach to liar-
18
206 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
luony, and that the " discrepancies " to which a searching
criticism has reduced the objections of infidelity, should be
so few, on the supposition that no superhuman wisdom pre-
sided over its composition and compilation.
But these discrepancies, — few or many, (which you are
called on, however, to " demonstrate " to be contradictions^
before you can reject the portions of the Bible in which
they are found,) — stand on a totally diiferent footing from
those " improbabilities " (as you call them) in the history,
which, as presumed to be marked by " legendary or mythi-
cal " characteristics, you also make a stumbling block. For-
give me if I say that here I entirely miss your ordinary
good sense, and I am sure that your objections have not a
particle of sound logic in them. Why I speak thus strongly,
I will tell you in another letter.
Yours ever faithfully,
K. E. H. G.
LETTER XLVII.
TO THE SA:&rE.
Arran, N. B., Aug. 1S48.
My dear Friexd,
The reason Avhich induced me to sj^eak so emj^hatically at
the close of my last is, that I can discern no one principle^
nor shadow of a principle, on which you accej)t and reject the
" preternatural." You say you believe the story of Dan-
iel's being thrown into the lions' den, and his getting safe
out of it ; but not the story of Jonah being swallowed by
the great fish, and getting safe out of that : you believe in
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego being cast into the fiery
furnace, and coming forth without the smell of fire upon
them ; but 7iot the story of the serpent speaking to Eve :
TO AN INCIPIENT NEOLOGIST. 207
you believe the manifestations of God in human form to
Abraham at Mamre, and of His appearance in the form of
an angel to Joshua in the plains of Jericho, and are not even
disturbed by the phenomenon of the " drawn sword ;" but
you do not believe that He ever appeared as an angel
" wrestling " with Jacob ! Now, why, in the name of won-
der, do you believe and disbelieve thus capriciously ? What
lyrlnciple guides you in these seemingly random selections
and rejections? I can imagine, indeed, two courses, either
of which would be consistent enough, — though not equally
justified by the evidence ; but your course is to me utterly
imintelligible. 1. I can imagine a man saying, " I reject all
miracles, not j^erhaps as impossible^ but as so eminently hn-
probable that no strength of external evidence can establish
them; and, therefore, I reject all those things just enumer-
ated, and everything else like them ; everything that breaks
in upon my little jog-trot of familiar ' antecedents and con-
sequents.' " This man, as we shall shortly see, ought, in
sound logic, to go a little further, — but, so far, he is at
least consistent. 2. Another man may say, " I believe not
only that supernatural facts may occur, but that they can
be proved to have occurred by appropriate evidence ; I be-
lieve that evidence to have been given in relation to the
Scriptural narratives of that kind ; all of them, therefore,
that I see supported by the same degree of external evidence^
I equally believe ; for I atn a judge of the evidence in their
support, and of its equality in the different cases ; but, ad-
mitting the supernatural to have occurred at all, I am no
judge in the world as to the modes in which God may have
permitted it to appear. He alone is the adequate judge of
the degree and forms in which He shall exhibit it."
I can imagine, as I have said, the first of these two men
(still consistently) going a step further, and saying, " I re-
ject all supernatural occurrences as infractions of my little
208 Till-: GREYSON LETTERS.
familiar series of ' antecedents and consequents,' and there-
fore reject all of that nature that appears in the Bible ; I
cannot conceive, with some halting reasoners, one of these
events to be, a i^riorh at all more probable than another ; it
seems just as unlikely that Christ should have recalled a lit-
tle c-irl of twelve to life the instant after death had done its-
work, or turned water into wine, or fed five thousand by
five barley loaves and a few fishes, as that Balaam's ass
should have rebuked his master, or the young prophet's axe-
head float ; — so, further still, — nothing can appear a more
startling infraction of my snug little exj^erience than that a
Jirst man should ever have sprung ' out of the dust,' or been
' develoj^ed ' out of a * tadpole ; ' or, still more incredible,
that there should ever have been a time when my familiar
system of ' antecedents and consequents ' Avas non-existent
altogether. I therefore come to the conclusion that it
7iever began, — that 'men' and 'tadpoles' are, alike, eternal
series, — and that the Truth is to be found only in — Athe-
ism !"
But as for yoii^ what can you or any such inconsistent
dabbler in Rationalism say ? I know not — except this one
thing : " I admit that there is nothing wonderful in mira-
cles — for I admit scores ; I admit that it is quite ' natural '
that, in a ' supernatural ' system, the supernatural should be
expected^ and that does not trouble me in the least ; but I
am a judge, from my a priori conceptions, — my tastes, my
fancy (even where the external evidences are just the same),
— as to how far God would j^ermit the ' supernatural ' to
appear, and in what forms; and therefore I decide, from a
certain feeling of intrinsic propriety (a caprice of fancy, /
should call it), that God may have let Daniel escape out of
the lions' den, but would never have let Jonah slip down
the fish's gullet ; that He may have saved Shadrach, Me-
shach, and Abednego, though they were thrown into the
TO AN INCIPIENT NEOLOGIST. 209
Sery furnace, but that it is totally inconceivable that He
should let Balaam's ass speak good sense ! " My dear friend,
you really have nothing to go upon here, but certain a pri-
ori conceptions and feelings of what God is likely to do : —
of which neither you nor I can judge.
This is, however, the Trpiarov i/^eGSos — the floating Delos
of all Kationalism ; and you see, by experience, that it is
utterly unstable. You see a thousand different men arriv-
ing at a thousand different conclusions, as to how much
they shall admit ! In this impossible w^innowing of the con-
tents of Scripture by their a 2^riori winnowing-fan, some
admit more than you do, — some less ; — some almost all
the Bible, — some hardly any ; all measure it with that one
deceitful, variable bushel of theirs. They think that,
though the external evidence for supernatural facts may be
the same in several cases, they yet are justified neither in
rejecting all, nor accepting all, (whereas there is no other
way out of the dilemma,) but that they may judge it cer-
tain God would do this^ and w^ould not do that. This is a
parallel folly with the famous a priori criticism which, in
Germany, has led to such ludicrously A^ariable results in
profane literature, and results still more ludicrous (if they
were not so serious) in sacred.
If you say, "Well ; must I receive every fable that pro-
fesses to be ' supernatural,' because I am no judge of what
it is probable that God will do or permit? " — I have abun-
dantly answered that. You are not to receive any super-
natural history, unless you have appropriate evidence for
it ; but if you have it for nine facts you admit, and also for
a tenth you reject, you are utterly illogical in rejecting that
tenth in virtue of any such fantastical criterion as the a
priori human view of the probable in God's administration
of the universe : you need omniscience and infallibility to
guide you.
18*
210 . THE GREYSON LETTERS.
But if you really think you can trust any such discerning
" spirit " within you, be pleased at least, to let it sjDeak im-
partially. If you do, I rather fancy you will reject more
than half the facts in the constitution of the world around
you, in spite of the general evidence for Theism ; for how
fewof them, viewed in their entire relations, are such as man's
a priori wisdom would have conjectured! As I said of
the consistent objector to all suj^ernatural facts, that he
must, if he carry his principles fairly out, ultimately become
an Atheist, so he who rejects certain things because he
thinks them unlikely to be done or permitted by the Deity,
must reject no inconsiderable part of the most notorious
phenomena as having originated with Him or as having
any sanction of His. Nay, that such a world as this should
have been credited at all, — that so many mysteries of sor-
row should have been permitted to overshadow it, — that
such a bundle of absurdity and misery as man should ever
have been permitted to crawl upon it, — that the develop-
ment and education of an immortal spirit should have been
involved in all the humiliating and joerilous conditions of
such a material existence as ours, (to say nothing of the in-
finite anomalies in this world's administration,) — seem,
looked at a priori^ as unlikely as any of those things you
make such wry faces at swallowing. Nor is there anything
that leads the pseudo-philosopher to think otherwise, except
that most foolish of all sophisms, which the philosopher
above all men ought to be ever on his guard against, —
namely, that the things we happen to he accustomed to are
to he ruled not at all mysterious^ while everything else is!
But, depend on it, that the inhabitants of a differently and
more happily constituted world than ours, would, unless
they were much better philosophers than Ave are, account
the phenomena of this planet (if they Avere faithfully related
TO AN INCIPIENT NEOLOGIST. 211
to them) much more calculated to pose belief and proA^oke
Bcepticism, than the stories of Jonah's Fish and Balaam's
Ass!
Yours faithfully,
E. E. 11. G.
LETTER XLVIII.
TO THE SAME.
Arran, Aug, 1848.
My dear Friend,
You will see that I have hitherto said nothing as to the
two specific instances which you incidentally gave as speci-
mens of what I call your incipient "Rationalism," and
which led to the last two letters. I thought it much more
important to argue against the general principle, — or
rather the want of any-, — which seems to me to lie at the
basis of your doubts ; an " ignis fxtuus," Avhich, if you take
not the better heed, may lead you a pretty dance before it
disappears, — or, more probably, will cause you to disap-
pear, before itself vanishes, in some enormous boghole of the
great quagmire of Rationalism over which it flickers.
Of what I have hitherto said, this is the sum ; — Judge
imiDartially of evidence, and do not weigh it in " a false
balance." If you doubt whether the same external evi-
dence does apply to two facts, one of which you reject, and
the other you accept, — that is another thing ; fight as long
as you will — that is, as long as you rationally can — about
that. The authority, for example, of a particular chapter
may be disputed ; but if, as you allow, the external evi-
dence for the literal truth of Jonah's or Balaam's history,
is as strong as that for Daniel's or Pharaoh's, I see not, I
confess, anything but caprice, (which may and does assume
a thousand different shapes in diflferent minds,) in accepting
212 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
the one as historic truth, and rejecting the other as fabulous
nonsense !
And now a word or two as to your two instances. First,
you say the "Temptation," even putting out of sight the
'preternatural about the transaction, (the objection to that
must depend on the validity of the general j^rinciple already
considered,) seems to you incomprehensible; that the
" command," which was to constitute the probation of our
first parents, was " trivial," " non-moral," and " arbitrary."
As to its being " trivial," be pleased to observe that, if so,
it was all the more easy to be obeyed ; and that, therefore^
it illustrates rather the moderation than the rigor of the
Imposer. Would Adam have been better j^leased if it had
been harder ? Would not his jDosterity then have said that
the test of obedience was too difficult, as they now say it
was too " trivial ? '
As to its being " non-moral," you must reflect that any-
thing, though in its own nature indifierent, becomes moral
in its obligation, if imposed by the rightful authority.
Though not a duty in itself, an indifierent action becomes
so, if the will of a legitimate Master impose its performance ;
yes — though it were only a command to brush the dust
ofi" our shoes, never to shave the beard, or always wear a
wig. Above all, the will of the Creator is " supreme law "
to every rational creature ; and such a creature will make
no more objection to fulfil His arbitrary commands, when
the idea of His authority is thus suj^erinduced upon them,
than those commands, the essential moral character of
which is seen to be diffiised through them.
As to its being " arbitrary," I doubt whether you have
ever sufficiently reflected on the real nature of the prob-
lem. I think you forget that, in Adam's condition, an " ar-
bitrary " command (as you call it) was a more apj^ropriate
test of obedience than what you would call a " moral " com-
TO AN INCIPIENT NEOLOGIST. 213
mand. This subject, if I mistake not, is judiciously touched
in some part of Butler's " Analogy." At all events, wliat
^ve now ordinarily call a " moral " command would have
insufficiently tested the absolute obedience of one whose
whole original condition is rejDresented as such, that no
moral command could have involved any great temj^tation
to disobey. Imagine a being, all whose faculties are as yet
in harmony and equilibrium ; — who does not know .what
" evil " is ; — in blissful ignorance of the conflict of the Pas-
sions and the Reason, the Appetites and the Conscience ;
— whose outward condition is that of j^erfect health and
exemption from all Avant ; — pray, which of the commands
of the Decalogue would seem very formidable to hhn f ,
I remember hearing of an Irish lecturer, who suj^posed
these commands addressed by an angel to an Irish Adam.
The answers were given, I was told, in a truly Irish man-
ner ; yet, I think, very naturally. A s I did not hear the
lectm-er myself, I cannot precisely report the Irish Adam's
answers ; nor can I imitate the true Paradisaic " brogue ; "
but I believe they would very reasonably run something
like this : —
Thou shall have no other gods before me.
" Arrah, thin, your honor ; I never as much as heard of
any other at all at all."
Thoic shall not make unto thee any graven image., nor
the likeness of anything^ to how cloion thereunto., to loor-
ship,
" Why, thin, plase your honor's glory, I cannot say I ever
felt the laste taste of a temptation in life for that same.
Do ye think I 'd be afther making a bi%te baste of myself? "
Tlioii shall not take the name of the Lord thy God in
vain.
" And would n't it be mighty quare if I did, your honor ? "
2%ou shall honor thy father and thy mother.
" By the Powers, did ye never know that my father and
214 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
mother are not yet born ? and how thin would I dishonor
them ? "
T/ioii sJialt not steal.
" And is it stealing you'd be afther keeping me from ?
HoAV can I steal what is my own entirely ? " (N. B. Adam
could not say this, when the " command " about the " tree,"
("arbitrary," as you call it,) was given him; so that, you
see, he is condemned for " eating," even by the Decalogue.
But to go on with his catechism.)
Thou shalt not comtnit adultery,
"Sure it would be sthrange if I committed adultery with
my own wife; forsorra another woman do I see here; and
sh(i's enough, any way." (N. B. Too much, in one sense,
Adam soon found her.)
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's goods .
"Covet? and hav'n't I told you it 's all my own, — from
a j^each to a porcupine? "
Thou shalt do no murder.
" Murder ? and who is there to murder except the mis-
thress ? And what for should you think I should murder
her? Is it just for a thrifle of j^ace and quietness? and is
it she, the sweet crathur, that's part of myself? And faix,
would n't that be flat suicide ? Throth, your honor,. I won-
der what the angels, — no offince in life, — can be made of;
for niver a commandment of the tin has anything to do
with Paradise ! "
I really think this Irish Adam is worth your attention.
The command, however, about stealing, you see, is easily
evaded on the supposition that your " arbitrary command "
is not given : if it b#, arbitrary though you are pleased to
deem it, an article of the Decalogue comes in, and Adam
is required to make a distinction between " Meum " and
" Tuum."
Ever yours,
E. E. H. G.
TO AN INCIPIENT NEOLOGIST. 215
LETTER XLIX.
TO THE SAME.
Arran, Sept., 1818.
My dear Friexd,
The other instance of the presumed " legendary " style
you gave, as a si^ecimen of the narratives you feel disposed
to reject, is the history of Balaam. I j^ut out of view, as
in the previous instance, the miraculous in the affair, inas-
much as I have dealt with that on general grounds ; and
because, in the abstract, you acknowledge you have no
objection to miracle. All your difficulty seems to be about
the degree and Jci7id of the miraculous you deem worthy of
reception.
ISTow whether it be more prohaUe that an ass should
speak than fire cease to burn, (as in the case of the Three
Children,) or hungry lions practise fasting, (as in the case
of Daniel,) — both which last you admit to be historic, —
is really a question I cannot enter into ; the reception of
the fact as miraculous must, as in other cases, be deter-
mined by this : — Is the external evidence for this miracu-
lous narrative as unexceptionable as for other similar events
which we scruple not to admit ? In the present case you
must reason in the same way.
As for the matter of what Balaam's ass says, I am sure
you will concede that to have been most excellent sense,
and very superior to the talk of Balaam himself; — so
superior, indeed, that it is hard to say, on this occasion,
which loas the ass, — the ass or the ass's master; or rather
it is easy, — for it is very certain that Balaam was far the
greater ass of the two.
And, indeed, this is one of your a priori grounds for
believing this history of Balaam to be no history all. You
216 tup: greyson letters.
cannot, you say, imagine a man so illuminated — so pre-
ternaturally privileged with S23iritual knowledge — acting
so like a dolt.
Pardon me, my dear friend ; but this is the weakest rea-
soning of all. Depend on it, the pictures of human nature
in the Old Testament — even the most Rembrandt-like —
are all true to the life, — exact types of what is every day
quite as unaccountable in human character and conduct.
Nay, if you will but go with sufficient metaphysical depth
into the phenomena of a depraved will acting against the
clear light of reason and conscience, you will find every
act of deliberate sin equally — that is, perfectly — inexpli-
cable ! That man — that any man — should, with his eyes
perfectly oj^en, do what he knows, what he feels, reason
and conscience both condemn, and of which he himself will
often even tell you he will bitterly repent, is an intractable
paradox ; and every man who so acts — and Avho has not
so acted ? — only repeats the " mad prophet's " story.
Do we not see, every day, instances enough in which the
largest, clearest knowledge of duty, the divinest endow-
ments of genius, the highest intellectual illumination, are
not at all inconsistent with the commission of the coolest,
the most enormous wickedness ? Is not history, is not
common life, full of illustrations of this mournful truth ?
Do we not see men, whose i^revailing and habitual 23roi:)en-
sities carry the day against convictions which no revelation
could make clearer ? — against ex2)erience which no miracles
could make more conclusive ?
But- as to this question, — whether Balaam's character
and conduct hQ psycliologically possible or probable^ — read
Butler's wonderful sermon upon it. I think you will doubt
no more that the portrait is true to human nature and hu-
man nature's j^ower of juggling with itself; and that your
philosophy, not that of the Bible, is superficial. Neither
TO AN INCIPIENT NEOLOGIST. 217
knowledge nor endowments of any kind or degree are any-
absolute security against any amount of moral absurdity
or obliquity. " But miracles ! " you say, — " immediate
consciousness of preternatural communications!" — No,
nor even these. The question of " natural" or " preter-
natural " has nothing to do with the matter. The thing
that constitutes the mystery is the breach of a law which,
at the very moment we break it, we confess to be absolutely
authoritative; and whether that conviction comes to us
"naturally or "preternaturally" makes no diiference. Now
of this practical paradox all men, as well as Balaam, show
themselves capable enough in every act of deliberate vio-
lation of conscience ! As to miracles, I will show you in
a moment, that belief in them as little involves any incred-
ibility in Balaam's conduct.
You will acknowledge, I suppose, that it is the belief
that miracles are really wrought, — whether really wrought
or not, — that can alone be supj^osed to have any moral
bearing, or give the conception of them any moral force.
Well, among the ancient Jews, — among the ancient
heathens, — through the middle ages, was not that belief
universal and sincere ? Did that belief that " miracles "
were often wrought, — that direct communications Avere
still maintained between the natural and sui^ernatural, —
that the door of the unseen world was, as it Avere, left
ajar, — act in any appreciable degree as a deterrent from
crime on man? Was there any lack of crimes in conse*
quence ? Were there not as deliberate and flagrant sins
committed then as in our more scej^tical age? Were they
not wrought in spite of man's being haunted by this very
conviction that he lived amidst " miracles, " which might
at any moment disclose or avenge his guilt, and though he
was often miserable in proportion to that belief? Miracles
no doubt have an important function ; a valid intellectual
19
218 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
bearing ; they are of use, as evidence in given cases, to
confirm the message of God to man ; but the most sincere
— the most vivid beUef in them has, of itself, no power
to oj3erate a moral change on man's depraved will.
And it were strange if it could, when he is so often
seen acting against a knowledge of duty clear as the sun at
mid-day, — clear as the clearest convictions which any evi-
dence from earth, heaven, or hell, can produce upon him.
So profoundly true is that saying of Christ, — " If they
will not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they
believe though one rose from the dead."
Ponder these things a little, and remember the moral
phenomena which the history of man in every age presents ;
and I fancy you wall be slow to pronounce any of the moral
portraits of the Bible incredible, however great the moral
j)aradox they may involve.
Believe me.
Yours faitlifully,
E. E. H. G.
LETTER L.
TO
Sutton, Friday Jan. 12, 1849.
My dear Youth,
I have heard, — need I say with dismay ? — from your re-
lative, and my dear friend, Mr. W , that you have
become such a "philosopher" as to have discovered the
inutility of all " prayer," and that you have resolved to
give it up !
Pardon me for saying, that it would have been
better if you had given up your " pliilosophy " — such
philosophy, I mean ; for it is a " philosophy falsely so
"PRAYER." 219
called." True pliilosopliy demands no such sacrifice ; and
I hope, from the regard you have for me, you will at least
read with patient attention what I have to say to you.
Philosophy ! why, my dear youth, one fact^ which, I am
told, you acknowledge to be still a puzzle to you, is enough
to show that a genuine philoso2:)hy, — the philosophy of Ba-
con, — the philosophy you profess so revere so much, —
distinctly condemns your conclusion as utterly w?iphilosophi-
cal. You confess, it seems, that seeing the clear inutility
of prayer, from the impossibility of supposing God to con-
travene the " order of antecedents and consequents," or to
infringe His oa\ti laws, (of all which babble by and bye,) it is
to you a great " puzzle " that the overwhelming majority
of the race in all ages, — of j^hilosophers and peasants, —
of geniuses and blockheads, — of the refined and the vul-
gar, ' — the bulk even of those who plead for the doctrine
of " moral necessity " itself, — have contended for the pro-
priety, the efficacy, the necessity of prayer ! that man, in
trouble, seems naturally to resort to it ! that, for the most
part, it is only in prosperity that those who deny its value
can afford to do so ; that when they come to a scene of dis-
tress, or a deathbed, even they, in the greater number of
cases, break out, — if they believe, as you do, in a presiding
deity at all, — into cries for helj^, and supplications for
mercy ; just as naturally as they weep when sorroAvful, or
rejoice when happy !
You call these facts a puzzle ; they seem a curious exam-
ple of human " inconsistency," — of the tardiness of man
to embrace a genuine philosophy ! Ha ! ha ! ha !
I fancy there is another explanation that smacks a little
more of a geyiuine philosophy. Surely, if the great bulk
of mankind, all their lives long, whimsically admit in theory
the propriety and efficacy of prayer, even while they daily
neglect it in practice, — if multitudes, who would like very
220 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
well to have a burdensome and unwelcome duty wliicli they
neglect, proved to be no duty at all, are still invincibly con-
vinced that it is such, — must not a genuine inductive phi-
losoj^hy confess that such a concurrence of wise and vulgar,
of philosophy and instinct, and all too against seeming inte-
rest and strong passions, — is an indication that the coiisti-
tution of human nature, itself favors the hypothesis of the
efficacy and propriety of prayer ? — and, if so, ought not
that to be taken into account in your philosophy? J^ con-
tend that it is decisive of the controversy, if you are really
to jihilosophize on the matter at all. Meantime it seems, you
account it merely a great puzzle^ amidst that clear demon-
stration you have, of the inutility and absurdity of prayer !
If you say, " I have confessed it is a puzzle ; what does
it prove ? " — I answer, " Prove ? my fine fellow ; w^hy it
proves this^ — that the fact which ought to determine your
philosophy on this question is against you. Yes; — the
fact which a Bacon would take i^rincipally into account, ut-
terly refutes you. Stick fairly to your induction^ and I
will give you leave to infer as long as you will. The facts
you call a " puzzle " prove that the normal constitution of
human nature pleads, distinctly, both for the propriety and
efficacy of j)rayer. Such facts say as plainly of man, he
w^as made to do this or that, — it is his nature to do this or
that, — as the fire to burn or the sun to shine.
If you say, as you do say, " But I cannot accoimt for the
efficacy of prayer with my belief of ' unvarying laws,' or
reconcile the practice with my ijhilosopliy^'' the true Ba-
conian answers, " And w^ho asks you to reconcile, in all
cases, observed facts with other observed facts, or with sup-
posed consequences from them ? The question with 'tne is
as to the facts^ and not as to their reconciliation with other
facts which I may or may not be able to eflect. There are
many observed facts in all departments of science which I
"PRAYER." 221
know not how to reconcile with others : but I have noth-
ing to do with that ; I have to do with the facts, and a just
induction from them." So lar from your objection being
reasonable, one of the plagues of philosoj^hy is, that men,
while they profess reverence for Bacon, will thus perpetu-
ally forget his maxims; and, when they do so, never fail
to poison science by making their reception of facts depend
on their hypotheses for reconciling them !
Do you not see, then, that if the facts of the case be,
what I contend and you concede them to be, you in ig-
noring them and calling them a "puzzle," so far from
being the Baconian you boast, are rather imitating the
"schoolmen" whom he derides, — pooh poohing and
passing by facts because you deem them irreconcilable
with other facts or presumed facts ? If facts^ your duty,
as a Baconian, is to receive them into your philosophy,
even though they be by you utterly irreconcilable.
And do you not also see that your difficulty may be
retorted on you? Ought you not to confess to two
" jiuzzles " instead of one ? Is it not irreconcilable with
your theory, as a Theist, that an infinitely wise Being
should have so constituted human nature that man is
prompted to the exercise of prayer, and usually acknowl-
edges its duty and propriety even while he neglects it,
while yet prayer has no significance in the world, and is a
senseless mockery of the Deity, who nevertheless, it seems
has necessitated it ? If you will not have any jDhilosophy
oi facts (which is Bacon's philosophy) till you can recon-
cile them, be j^leased to reconcile this caprice of God
in the constitution of human nature with your " unvary-
ing laws," which tell you that prayer is mockery and folly.
Will it not sound odd to say that God has instituted
" iinvarying laws," which render all prayer to Him absurd
and inefficacious, and yet lins bestowed upon man such a
19*
222 THE GKEYSON LETTERS.
nature that he is normally impelled to offer prayer, and
even when he does not^ to acknowledge its propriety and
efficacy, while yet it is an essential absurdity ? I beseech
you to apply your philosophy of induction impartially.
If you would but reason in the 2)resent case as you
would with the Atheist on the question of Theism, you
would see how illogical was your conclusion. Against
Mm^ I know you would argue that the normal tendency
of man to admit a Deity of some kind, — and to manu-
facture a thousand rather than be without one, — is, in
your estimation, a strong indication of there being a Deity,
and of this religious tendency in our nature being be-
stow^ed by Him ; but whether originating Avith Chance or
God, you would reasonably argue that it is a j^roof of the
religious nature of iiian^ and that, as all your philosophy
must be founded on that nature such as it is, and not as it
is not^ we must acquiesce in the conclusion that there is a
Deity, though there be none. You would also, j^^i'haps,
say that, for that very reason, the enterj^rise of Atheism
to eradicate this notion from men's minds must be utterly
futile; and if asked why, you would say that, Avhether
there be a God or not,/ac^ shows that it is the consti-
tution of human nature to believe in one, even though
there be none. Apply a similar argument to this subject
of prayer, and I fancy you will find it tolerably parallel.
But you are still more unreasonable in your position than
the Atheist in his. The Atheist in the parallel case might
still have to utter a little apologetic nonsense, from which
you would be debarred. He might say, " Well, admitting
it to be a principle of our nature that men will believe in
a God, and that therefore I shan't be able to eradicate it,
it may have been imj^lanted by that Chance which has
already done so many other wonderful things ! " But as
to you, — no such doughty tnachina as chance is at your
"PRAYER.' 223
beck; if you admit that the impulse to "prayer," and
belief in its j^roj^riety and necessity, is a normal flxct in
the constitution of humanity, — that it is the spontaneous
conclusion of unsophisticated reason and feeling, — you,
with your views of an Alhvise Fabricator of man's nature,
cannot resort to any similar hypothesis. All this I have
said, because you admit they^c^ adverted to; and I say
that instead of calling it a "puzzle," and sitting down
content with that, you are bound to take it into your
philosophy. Now if you do so, I think you will have as
insoluble a problem as that supposed "incompatibility of
prayer with general laws," Avhich induces you to reject all
23rayer; — namely, an "unvarying law" within man which
prompts him to l^ray, and " unvarying laws " loitlwut.,
which inform him, it appears, that he will always j^ray to
to no purpose !
But this letter has grown to a greater length than I
intended ; if I conclude it here, do not suppose that I am
going to leave your soi-discmt "philosophy" unassailed.
I say, indeed, that the general facts I have insisted on,
established by induction, ought to induce you to recant
your opinion ; but, quite apart from that, I deem it shal-
low, and, in another letter, will endeavor to i^rove it so.
Your sincere friend,
K. E. H. G.
LETTER LI
TO THE SAME.
My DEAR tou:n-g Feiend,
Jan. 15, 1849.
")
I write without waiting for any reply to my last;
because, of the two, I would prefer letting you have my
views in full without any answer from you whatever.
224 THE GREYSON LETTEllS.
Supposing that fact true on which I have so much
insisted in my last letter, then, even if I were to admit all
that your j^hilosophy claims, what would follow ? Why,
that you could not, as you say, reconcile the " efficacy of
prayer " with the " unvarying laws of nature." Now, as I
contend that there are many other things in the coex-
istence of which you believe, though you cannot reconcile
them, — as, for example, in the absolute prescience of God,
and the responsibility of man — His infinite goodness, in
sj^ite of the permission of evil — and the connection of
body and mind, though there seems to be utter dissimi-
larity of substance — (not to mention a hundred more,) —
I presume I grant you very little, if I concede in the
present case your impotence to reconcile paradoxical
truths ; and that you take a great deal more than either I
or any one else will give you, when you assume that
because you cannot reconcile " j^rayer " with the "immu-
tability" of God, and the unvarying oj^eration of His
laws, therefore the efficacy of prayer is an illusion.
But now let me examine your i^hilosophy itself, and see
what it is worth. You say, first, that as "general laws"
of unvarying uniformity have been enacted by divine
wisdom, and the Deity is immutable, prayer can have no
efficacy ; it cannot avert the evil nor proj^itiate the good,
which, in either case, will and must befall us, whether we
pray or not; so that to "pray is to play the fool."
I wish, when you talk of "general laws," you would
not forget that they are perj^etually modified and trav-
ersed by laws which have to iis^ all the efiect of special
laws ; which produce events to us contingent and fortu-
itous, and which may be, for aught you can prove^ infi-
nitely varied m operation, relatively to a number of con-
ditions of which "prayer" maybe one. A house is burned
down : }'ou say it is the law of fire to burn ; very true —
** PRAYER." 225
but when, of five men in it, one escapes and four perish,
what is the general law which produces these opposite
results ? A vessel is wrecked, and goes down ; but why
seven are saved and twenty-seven drowned, it might, in
like manner, be difficult to show by any general law.
The results to us are so fortuitous, and so little under the
dominion of known lav\ that we never dare to spec-
idate on them; and, by the minutest difference in the
arrangement of the most trivial circumstances, these re-
sults may be endlessly modified. Now it is out of these,
to us, " fortuities," in Avhich, as seen by an infinite intellect,
there is "law," as everywhere else, though loe can trace
none, that God selects the instruments of that discipline
which He exercises over each one of us, and which, for
aught we can demonstrate^ He may actually vary and
modify, but, at all events, may have determined before-
hand shall be "varied and modified," with reference to
Prayer. Even if one were to sup2:>ose the results mod-
ified quite ijro re natd^ in reference to the ever-shifting
conditions of the individual mind, it would be impossible
for you to disj^rove it, though I deem the notion unphilo-
sophical; there would be no impossibility in it. The
Infinite Wisdom that Aveaves " the whole web of our life "
can, if He pleases, insert a thread or draw out a broken
one ; and yet the entire plan, except at the point of such
" callida junctura," may remain as it was, and the general
result be reached by a slightly varied road. All this
would, if He pleased, be as easy to Him as for an old
woman to mend a cabbage-net. But not to insist on this.
However foreseen and provided for, it is by the aforesaid
endless intricacies in the operation of " general laws," —
intricacies which we can never reduce to calculation,
because they are the result of the intervention of a thou-
sand secondary laws, more or less general, and of which
226 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
the condition of "i^rayer" may be one, — that God se-
cures our absohite dependence on Ilim^ — renders that
" Prevision " on which proud science is so fond of counting
as its ultimate triumj^li, an impossible vanity, — and
ciFectually prevents us, and Avill ever prevent us, with all
our wisdom, from knowing " what a day or an hour shall
bring forth." And as by these contingent events — I
mean contingent to us — He secures our perpetual de-
pendence, — so Avithin these limits man instinctively feels
is the sphere of prayer. When we have once ascertained
a "general law," we never pray that that may cease to
act : no sane man prays that gravitation may be sus-
l^ended ; that he may never die ; that if his house catch
fire, fire may not burn it; but only that things may be
granted or averted, which, in millions of ways, he sees,
by experie7ice^ admit of either alternative.
I see your objection here; but, pardon me, I have
already anticij)ated both it and the answer to it. You
will object^ of course, that though the events to which I
have referred are " fortuities " to us^ they are not so to an
infinite intellect (which not only I grant, but contend
for) ; that they have been " pre-arranged," and will take
effect, in due time and order, in the rigid concatenation of
"antecedents and consequents." Very well; but not to
content myself with what I have already said, I answer
thus : — Must you not grant that the phenomena of men's
!Minds, as well as all outward events, are among the
things which enter into this concatenation of pre-arrange-
ments? 3Inst you not grant that they are among the
most important " antecedents" of almost all human events?
Now, can you show that "Prayer" is not one of these
mental " conditions " and " antecedents " of certain effects?
Let us suppose, and I am confident I may defy you to
disprove it, (I indeed believe it is the absolute truth,) that
"PKAYEll." 227
amongst other " pre-arrangements " of Divine Wisdom, —
and to the maintenance of which, therefore, all that " im-
mutahiUty," on Avhich you found so much, is pledged, — it
has been decreed that " Prayer " shall be one of the indis-
pensable conditions of the stable enjoyment of God's favor.
Let us suppose He has decreed, that, since it is fit and
right, in itself, that the creatures of His power, the subjects
of His law, the objects of His bounty, should express their
homage ; — that since they can be fully hapj^y (as He wills
they should be) only in the continual recognition of their
dependence on Him ; — that since, whatever inferior good
He may bestow upon them, they cannot (such is their
nature) know what permanent and unalloyed felicity is, but
in His " favor which is life, and His loving kindness which
is better than life," — let us suppose, I say, for these rea-
sons, He has decreed that, as an act of fealty, as an expres-
sion of gratitude, as a symbol of dependence, as an utterance
of want, prayer shall be an unvarying pre-requisite of all
real permanent good ; — that though He may often refuse a
petition for seeming temporal good, because it is hut seem-
ing, or refuse it because He intends yet greater good by
denying, — He has decreed, and for ever, that in the end
only he shall be truly happy, get what he hopes, and receive
what he needs, who "seeks His face," — let us suppose, I
say, all this, (and I am very certain you cannot show its
improbability or absurdity,) what then ? Why just this, —
that if this he a condition of the Divine conduct towards
us, if it be one of the " wise pre-arrangements " — one of
the " unvarying laws," — your " philosophy," my young
friend, is still very true, but unluckily confutes your " con-
clusion ! " I have introduced, you see, but another of your
pleasant " antecedents," and your little syllogism holds no
longer.
If you say you cannot see the reasonahleness of the con;
228 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
dition itself, as you can of industry being a condition of
success in life, or uprightness a condition of possessing the
esteem of others, — I answer, that Z neither know nor can
conceive of any condition more reasonable than that a
creature should express his dependence, a beggar appeal
to a benefactor ; nor anything more reasonable than that
the Sovereign Beneficence should shed no bounties on those
who, though in abject poverty, are too proud or too pre-
sumptuous to seek aid of Infinite Affluence !
If you say that you see not how prayer should change
the purpose of an Immutable Deity, I have replied, on the
very scheme of your own philosophy, that prayer may be
one of the antecedents fixed by that very Immutability ;
and if so, your argument is retorted with interest ; — for
then 7iot to i^ray is to expect that He will change His " im-
mutable " purj^ose, and nullify His own conditions of our
success !
If you say, you cannot see a casual connection between
prayer and its fulfilment, I reply, that you know it is the
boast of modern philosophy to have discovered that we know
not the real casual connection between any antecedent and
its consequent. I am sure, as I have above said, that this
" antecedent and consequent " may be seen to be as rea-
sonable as any in the world.
Finally — I would ask you, why you ever address a prayer
for aid to your fellow man ? If you say, as doubtless you
will, " Oh, but he is capable of being moved, — • of having
his will changed," — I answer, very true ; but go one step
further back, and see whether you are not in the same
dilemma as before : for these determinations of your neigh-
bor's mind are among the " pre-arrangements," elements in
the huge complications of " general laws," on which you
lay so much stress ! They are " pre-arranged " before you
utter a syllabic ; and though whether they shall be in your
"PliAYEK." 229
favor or not, is unknown to yoii^ it is all known by the
Infinite Intellect, and the result has entered into His " pre-
arrangements." If you say, as it is certain you will say, —
" But my appeal may be among the pre-arranged methods
of operating that result, I answer — " Exactly so. Stick
to that argument ; only remember that it may equally hold
for the necessity and duty of prayer."
In short, the mere concatenation of antecedents and con-
sequents, — even to the admission of the most rigid doctrine
of" moral necessity," — will not avail to prove the " ineffi-
cacy of prayer ; " as, indeed, the immense majority of those
who have advocated that doctrine have never pretended
anything of the kind. You can only render your argu-
ment conclusive by turning your " general laws " into the
Mahometan's " fate ; " and then you may dispense, with
equal reason, with all conditions of " predestined " events.
" What is to be is to be ; " that will settle everything for
you. You may, for that reason, dispense Avith industry as
a condition of success in your profession, with prudence in
the choice of a house or a wife, just as with " prayer " as a
condition of God's blessing.
If you choose to go thus far, I think you will be consis-
tent, — but you will certainly be undone. You may say,
if you please (as, I dare say, a metaphysical sophist would,
though I hope you would not,) — " Well, my philosophy
still holds true; — for it seems the 'laws' are unvarying,
and you have but introduced another ; and as all the phe-
nomena are concatenated, if I am to pray as an indispensa-
ble condition, it is already decreed that I shall ; and if not,
I am exempted from further troubling myself about the
matter." In that case I shall not think it worth while any
longer to argue with you ; only remember that if prayer
be an indispensable pre-condition of God's favor, then if
you do not pray, you " lose the blessing." If you act on
20
230 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
such a theory, you may triumph in your soi-disant philo-
sophy ; but such a victory, my young Pyrrhus, without
waiting for another, will ruin you.
I have not thought it of moment to reply to the logical
refinement sometimes urged — that even if it be granted
that prayer is an indispensable pre-condition of the divine
favor its iuefficacy as a proper cause may still be main-
tained ; — for I am convinced that you would not urge it
seriously. As to the events it is all one, and I do not think
it worth while to discuss such subtleties.
If a man were to ofier you an estate on the payment of
a peppercorn rent (and our " prayers " are worth not so
much to the Deity), it is certain that the man's bounty,
and not the peppercorn, would be the cause of your good
fortune ; but as without the peppercorn you would be
without the estate, I imagine you would have little inclina-
tion to chop logic Avith him about its being " casual " or
otherwise.
It is my unfeigned " prayer," my young friend, that you
may speedily revise your opinion, and not be " spoiled by
philosophy and vain deceit," which by the way, in the
present case, are but different terms for the same thing.
Ever yours faithfully and affectionately,
E. E. II. G.
LETTER LII.
TO .
August, 1849.
My dear Friend,
So you have really the effrontery to suppose that I
shall admit your caricature of the doctrine of the Atone-
ment to be a true picture ! I am resolved to be plain with
you on this subject, and to tell you, once for all, my mind.
I shall first vindicate my own views ; but do not imagine I
THE "ATONEMENT." 231
shall stop there ; gird your sword-belt tight, for, be assured,
you shall be j^ut on the defensive before I have done with
you. But I cannot write to-day. In a day or two expect
to hear from me. I could not delay, however, sending this
brief protest against your most odious and unjust car-
icature.
In spite of all,
Your affectionate friend,
E. E. II. G.
LETTER LIIL
TO THE SAME.
My DEAR Feiend,
You have discovered, it seems, that you cannot be-
lieve the " mysterious doctrine of the Atonement." I am
sure you cannot, neither can jT, if the doctrine of the Atone-
ment be what you represent it. You will say, perhaps,
that it is the doctrine of the majority of Christians. I am
certain it is not ; but if it were, it is not inine, ; and it is
mine that I am bound to expound, and you to confute.
I will talk to you in freedom, as we used to do when we
lived nearer ; with love, as our long friendship demands,
and with honesty no less claimed by truth. And, my dear
friend, bear with me, if, here and there, affection seems
urgent ; for I do, in very truth, believe that the essence of
the Gospel consists eminently in this one article. And so
have thought far greater and better men than I pretend to
be — and (which is significant) have thought so more
strongly as they grew older, and felt increasmgly, by per-
sonal experience, the value of what they held so dear. In
this eminently was their Hope. Thus it was with R. Hall,
Foster, Chalmers, Dr. Johnson.
232 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
And now for your fancy sketch. You say, that accord-
ing to the " current " notions of Christians, " God is repre-
sented, in moody inexorable wrath, as averse to save man
till, Moloch-like, He was unjustly propitiated by innocent
blood ; till Christ's sufferings wrung from Him a sullen and
ungracious pardon." Who can believe this, you ask ?
Who, indeed ? I caimot, for one ; but then I know of no
one else who does.
I grant that in some bygone ages, and even now, among
some uneducated folks, that know not how to think clearly
or to speak justly, — perhaps also in some fanatical or in-
judicious hymns, of whose authors the same may be said,
and, of course, in the select but very limited circle of anti-
nomianism, — you may meet with extravagances of state-
ment which, more or less, justify your caricature ; but it
is certain, nevertheless, that it is a caricature, even of the
most injudicious representations ; and the immense majority
of Christians would, I am perfectly confident, refuse to ac-
cept it as their doctrine of the Atonement just as much as
I do.
At all events, if it is with ^ne you think you are in con-
troversy, you are quite mistaken. I reject and abhor your
description of the doctrine as much as you can do, and you
must therefore give a very different reply to my arguments ;
and when I say my arguments, I know I also speak the sen-
timents of the vast majority of Christians. But at all events,
be pleased to argue with one.
In the first place, then, so far from believing God averse
to save man, I believe that it was the very intensity of His
desire to do so, (as the New Testament plainly teaches,)
wliich prompted Him to interpose in our behalf: " God so
loved the world as to give His only begotten son ; " and as
to what you say of " injustice^^'' I belive that whatever was
done, was done with Christ's own perfectly voluntary con-
THE "ATONEMENT." 233
currence, as the same book teaches : " No man taketh my
Hfe from me ; I lay it down of myself." Kow, if this were
done by Christ's volmitary act, where is the injustice ?
How, indeed, was it more unjust for God to allow Christ
thus to lay down His life, of His oicn free-will^ on my the-
ory than on yours ? I shall presently show that it is at least
more incomprehensible on yours. For since you admit that
Christ did not die for any fault of His own, and contend that
He did not die for any fault of ours, for what did He die,
and for what reason did God let Him ? On your theory, all
this not a little perj)lexes me. But I shall come to that
presently. Depend on it, I shall not fail to ask you for a
theory of the rationale of Christ's death.
Well, then, we believe that it was God's intense love for
man which led Him to adopt so stupendous a method of
evincing it, and that He justly could do so, because Christ
was as willing to be " given " for man as God to " give "
Him. But you say : — " Why could not God forgive the
sin of man without any such intervention? Could He not
forgive just as a father can — absolutely and without any
compensation to law? Who can believe the contrary?"
jTcan, for one. I do not mean to say that I should be
justified, — apart from what I deem the revealed fxct, that
Atonement has been provided, apart from the evidence of
Scrij^ture on the matter, — in affirming the contradictory of
your proposition, or in pronouncing at all confidently either
way. The subject is, in my judgment, " far too high for
us " to be dealt with a priori. But in spite of the confi-
dence with which this seemingly simple view of yours is
often propounded, I do mean to contend that, even by the
light of nature, (if we enter into the subject at all profound-
ly,) there is quite as much reason to doubt your theory as
to affirm it. And the more the subject is investigated, tlie
20*
234 THE GUEYSON LETTERS.
less reason I apprehend will there appear for a summary a
priori determination of it.
Nor do I fear lest one of your candor should indulge in
the usual talk of " absurdity," " antiquated prejudices," and
the like. I know that you will concede that I am as quali-
fied by thought and reading to form an opinion as yourself;
I know you will admit that many minds of the very first or-
der have also arrived at the same conviction, namely, that
there may have been, that there may be, a moral impossi-
bility in the way of proclaiming a universal amnesty to a
guilty world without some homage, like that of the Atone-
ment, to the principle of Law.
To your question, therefore, " Can we conceive that it is
not always possible for a father to forgive, as a father, sim-
ply and absolutely ? And cannot God do so too ? " I re-
ply, it does not follow that even 7nan can forgive his own
son, simply and absolutely, if he be a King as well as a
Father : and, for a similar reason, it does not follow that God
can. And it is precisely here, as I conjecture, that we should
find, if we could comprehend the entire problem instead of
a very small part of it, — if we knew the great " arcana " of
the divine government in all its immensity, — if Ave knew
all the relations of this world to other worlds, of our race to
other races, and of the bearings of Time on Eternity, — the
origin of the real difiiculty in man's salvation, and the ne-
cessity for the Atonement. We can only reason a little
way ; but as far as we can reason, I do not flinch from say-
ing that every fact we know is against the theory of your
simple unconditional forgiveness.
We can but reason in reference to a subject so vast, and
in all its bearings so infinitely transcendental to our com-
prehension, by analogy. Now it is certain, that in any
moral government with which we are acquainted, or of
THE "ATONEMENT." 235
which we can form any conception, — in any government
whose subjects are ruled by motives only, and where icill is
unconstrained, the principle of the prompt unconditional
pardon of crime on profession of repentance, and purpose of
amendment, would be most disastrous ; — as we invariably
see it is, in a family, in a school, in a political community.
Now, have we any reason to believe that in a government
most emphatically r)ioral^ — a government of which all the
moral governments with which we are acquainted are but
imperfect imitations, and which are, indeed, founded on a
very partial application of the laws which a jDcrfect moral
government implies, similar easy good-natured lenity would
be attended with less ruinous effects? If we have none,
then, since w^e cannot think that God's government will or
can cease to be moral ; or that He ever will physically con-
strain His creatures to be happy or holy, — indeed the very
notion involves a contradiction in terms, — would not the
proposed course of universally pardoning guilt on profession
of penitence prove, in all probability, most calamitous ? Let
us then suppose (no difficult thing) that God foresaw this ;
— that such a procedure would be of pernicious consequen-
ces, not to this world only, but for aught we know, to
many ; that it would diminish His authority, relax the ties
of allegiance, invite His subjects to revolt, make them think
disloyalty a trivial matter ? If so, — and I defy you to
prove that it may not be so, — then would there not be
benignity as Avell as justice, mercy as well as equity, in re-
fusing the exercise of a weak compassion which would de-
stroy more than it would save ? Let us sui:)pose further,
that knowing all this, God knew also that His yearning
compassion for lost and guilty man might be safely gratified
by such an expedient as the Atonement ; that so far from
weakening the bonds of allegiance, such an acceptance of a
voluntary propitiation would strengthen them; tliat it
236 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
would flash on all worlds an indelible conviction no less of
His justice than of His mercy; — of His justice that He
could not pardon without so tremendous a sacrifice, — of
His mercy that He would not, to gratify it, refrain even
from this ; — that it would crush for ever that subtle soj^h-
ism so naturally springing in the heart of man, and which
gives to temptation its chief power — that God is too mer-
ciful to punish ; I say, if all this be so, — and I fancy you
Avill find it difficult to prove that it may not be so, — does
not the Atonement assume a new aspect ? Is it any longer
chargeable with absurdity or caprice ? May it not be just-
ly pronounced a device worthy of divine wisdom and be-
nignity ? Is it not calculated to secure that which is its
proposed end? — at once to make justice doubly venerable
and mercy doubly dear ? — justice more venerable that it
could not be lightly assuaged ; mercy more dear that it
would be gratified, though at such a cost ?
Thus (so far from your representation being just) our
theory is, that God was intensely desirous, as well as Christ,
of man's salvation; and that the mode of achieving it,
though we cannot, a priori^ speculate on it, Avas the result
of a great moral necessity, which Love was resolved to con-
front since it could not evade it. And hence it is that so
many millions, won and vanquished by this spectacle, have
declared (and this is the only just influence of the doctrine)
that it is the "Atonement" which has chieflv furnished
them, as with hope and i^eace, so with the strongest mo-
tives to revere Justice, to obey Law, to " go and sin no
more." If you say that the presumed moral necessity for
some such method of salvation, — which should provide a
safe amnesty for guilt by securing the law from dishonor,
is a mere speculation, — I grant that, apart from Scrip>tiire^
it is so ; but I also contend that if wo. consider what a moral
government is, and must ever involve, it is as prohahle^ and
THE "ATONEMENT." 237
as truly philosophical^ as the counter-speculation you would
substitute for it.
And, after all, must not you too imagine some unknown,
inscrutable, moral necessity for so astounding a fact as the
death of Christ ; for the most cruel and agonizing death of
the only human being who, as you believe not less than I,
was perfectly innocent, and deserved not to suffer at all ?
And here, havmg vindicated my view, as intrinsically not
less probable and philosophical than your own, I proceed to
show that it is abundantly more so, and to retort upon you,
with interest, the charges of " caprice " and absurdity. We^
at all events, assign an adequate cause of Christ's death ;
you assign none at all, or none that does not increase the
difficulty. Yes, my friend, pardon me for saying it, but
that very argument on which you lay so much stress, name-
ly, that the Atonement is needless in itself, and presents a
" savage '' view of the government of God, may, as I con-
ceive, be retorted, on your theory of the death of Christ,
with tenfold cogency. But I must reserve the expression
of my sentiments for another letter.
Yours sincerely,
K. E. II. G.
LETTER LIV.
TO THE SAME.
Sept. 1&49.
My dear Friend,
Yes, — I repeat, that on your theory the death of Christ
is an utterly incomprehensible enigma ; we cannot assign,
we cannot imagine, any reason for a sacrifice at once so cost
ly, yet so gratuitous. In Christ we have the only example
(yourself being witness) of perfect and faultless innocence
238 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
which has ever been exhibited to the world, and we see
Him, through life, involved in the deepest shades of sor-
row, and subjected to a death of terrible and mysterious
agonies ! perfect holiness, perfect obedience to God, perfect
love to man, requited with more scorn and oppressed with
more suffering than even the foulest guilt in this world ever
was subjected to ! And all for — what ? For nothing, ab-
solutely nothing that is intelligible ! You tell me that He
suffered as an example to us. As an example? An ex-
ample of Avhat ? Was it as an example of this — that the
more men obey and love God, the darker may be the divine
frown, and the greater the Uahility to suffer imder the in-
comprehensible mysteries of the divine administration ? So
that if we were to become absolutely j^erfect as Christ was,
that moment we might reach the climax of misery ! That
as He wiio was alone " without spot " was condemned to the
worst doom, so, for aught we can infer from such an exam-
ple, innocence and happiness may be in inverse projDortion !
If you say He suffered to show us with what sweetness and
patience ice ought to suffer, — you forget that not only
would less than such bitterness as His teach that lesson, but
that His suffering so much more than we do, with no guilt.
His own or ours, to cause it, unteaches the lesson ; it unhin-
ges our trust in the divine equity altogether. You forget,
it seems to me, that there is a double aspect of these suffer-
ings. How do they affect our ajDprehensions of God ? Can
we reconcile it with that benignity and equity for which
you are so jealous, to visit perfect innocence with more sor-
row than guilt, merely to show the guilty how they ought
to learn to bear a just j^unishment ? I assure you that, on
such a theory of the divine administration, the death of
Christ is to me the darkest blot on the divine government,
— the most melancholy and perplexing phenomenon of the
THE "ATONEMENT." 239
universe, — the most gratuitous apparent departure from
rectitude and equity with Avhich the spectacle of the divine
conduct presents us ! •
And this I feel with double energy and intensity when I
recall the agony of that prayer with which the Redeemer
prayed that, " if it were possible," the final horrors might
be spared Him — " the bitter cup pass away from Him."
And that this i)rayer did not refer to the transient cloud
of Gethsemane, but to the prosj^ective horrors of Calvary,
is, I think, evident from the expressive figure used by our
Lord at His apprehension, and which is recorded by the
evangelist who does not record the j)i'^yer in Gethsemane.
"The cup," says He, "which my Father hath given me to
drink, shall I not drink it ? " — an expression, Avhich is not
only, as Paley says, an instance of undesigned harmony in
the narratives of difierent evangelists, but, as I think, also
shows, by the character of the metaj^hor, what was the
meaning of the prayer in the garden.
Thrice, then. He ofiered that' prayer; and thrice in vain.
Yet, on your theory, where was the necessity? Why was
it " imjDossible " that the cup should j)ass from Him ? Im-
230ssible ? Nothing would seem more easy ; nay, notliing
more impossible than that, having deserved no sorrow at
all. His prayer should be uttered in vain ? Is this the way
in, which you would give us a more attractive view than
the doctrine of the Atonement affords, of the love of God ?
Is it by showing us the only being, in human form, who
never deserved to feel His justice^ striving in vain to j^ro-
pitiate His 'mercy f
liVe^ at least, assign an adequate cause of all this mys-
tery ; loe suppose that it was to rescue a lost world that
God "willed" that "the cup should not pass from Him;"
and that Christ, who thus prayed, also " willed " to drink
it rather than decline it, at such a cost as the fi-ustration of
240 THE GREY SON LETTERS.
His divine compassion and tlie surrender of a world to per-
dition. But you, what reason can you assign ? Is it a
more conciliating view of the divine justice and love that
they tlius afflicted innocence for nothing? or nothing that
is intelligible ? and in spite of its own heart-rending cries
that if any other expedient remained within the reach of
Omnipotence itself, Omnipotence taxed to the uttermost
of its resources, that " cu^d might ^^ass away ? "
So deeply do I feel the dark shadow Avhich this view
throws over the divine administration, that even if. the pos-
itive texts for the reality of the " Atonement " were less
numerous and decisive than I conceive they are, this mys-
terious spectacle of Perfect Innocence treated by Divine
Justice more severely than guilt, for no imaginable neces-
sity, would go far to convince me of the truth of the doc-
trine ; but when I further compare all the inferences from
the transaction itself with the testimony of Scripture, —
when I see how naturally the doctrine harmonizes with the
entire strain of Revelation, — with ancient rite and sacri-
fice, — with dogmatic statement and casual allusion, — with
imagery, type and symbol, — with direct assertion and
oblique reference, — I am beyond all doubt that the doc-
trine of the Atonement is a genuine doctrine of Chris-
tianity.
Such, my friend, is my view of the Atonement ; not le^is
philosophical, I contend, even vicAved, a priori^ than any
other which human reason can devise ; more naturally sus-
tained by the prevailing language of Scripture ; and neces-
sary^ if we Avould not render the death of Christ (so far
from being a relief) a terrible aggravation of all the diffi-
culties of the divine administration, — an inscrutable mys-
tery, far harder than the doctrine of the Atonement itself!
Argue against this doctrine, if you like, and I will weigh
with scrupulous conscientiousness every syllable on so vital
THE "ATONEMENT." 241
a tlieme ; but your argument must not be against a j^han-
tom of your own creation, wJiich I renounce as much as
you ; it must be founded on no supposition of the divine
reluctance to save — for it was God's love which provided
the sacrifice ; nor on jjresumed injustice in the infliction —
for Christ Himself ap23roved it ; nor on the fancy that we
hold some base huckstering theory of precisely so many
ounces of suffering for so many ounces — parsimoni-
ously w^eighed out — of mercy! This is absurd per se,
for hoB^ can transient suffering be exactly equal to pangs
of eternal duration? — it is derogatory to the divine
mercy, for if justice exact a precise quid pro qico, where is
the scoj)e for mercy at all? — and it is utterly unnecessary,
for the homage to law consists in the principle of the
Atonement, not in the amount of suffering.
You must avoid, therefore, all such abjured views, or you
will not touch 07ie ; while your cnmi theory must fairly an-
swer those objections to the divine equity, goodness, and
love, which, as I have endeavored to show, may be justly
retorted on it. And remember that if you insist on the
injustice of God's inflicting suffering on Christ for the sins
of others, you cannot escape similar difficulty, and greater
in degree, on your own system ; for can it be less unjust to
inflict such sufferings on Christ for no sins at all f If it
be unjust to accept Him as a sacrifice for the guilty, liow
much more unjust must it be to insist on the sacrifice for
nothing, and when the victim thrice implored in agony that,
" if it w^ere possible," the " cuj) might pass fi'om Him ? "
You are bound to demonstrate the " «w2possibility." How
you should do so on your hypothesis is to me utterly in-
conceivable ; for you say that God can, wdth utmost ease,
pardon guilt without any compensation to His justice ; if
so, where could be the difficulty of sparing innocence ? —
rather, how w^as it possible to do otherwise? Till you
21
242 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
answer these things fairly and fully, I shall continue to
believe the doctrine of the Atonement not only more con-
sonant to Scripture, but a more rational account of Christ's
Death, that your own.
Ever yours,
E. E. II. G.
LETTER LV.
TO ALFEED WEST, ESQ.
Friday, May 11, 1849.
My dear Friend,
If it be the climax of virtue to have practised it till duty
is transformed into j^leasure, — as I am inclined to believe
it is, — I am far enough at i:>resent from having attained
that j)oint. On the contrary, I find — confess, now, that it
is the same with you — that things pleasant enough in
themselves, at least not painful, become, the moment they
assume the shape of duties, irksome. They j^ut on, as it
were, a stiff, starched dress, and lose all their alluring, se-
ductive looks.
I will give you a whimsical illustration of this. In my
recent anonymous brochure^ which met with more appro-
bation from the public than perhaps it deserved, — cer-
tainly more than I expected, — I felt, with my accustomed
fastidiousness, when it came out, that a thousand things
might be altered for the better. As I impatiently glanced
over it, I felt, mingled with mortification, a positive j^lea-
sure in mentally making improvements, — adding something
here, expunging something there, — gi^dng a phrase a new
turn, — illustrating a bare thought by an image or metaj^hor.
The task, thus voluntarily prosecuted, was a j^ositive delight.
When, a few days ago, it was intimated that a new edition
was called for, and I was requested to furnish the j^iiuter
SYMPTOMS OF IMPERFECT VIRTUE. 243
with any alterations I might be meditating by a fixed day,
it is inexpressible Avith what reluctance I tm-ned to the
task ; and the thought that it must be done by a certain
time has turned a j^leasant amusement into insui3poi'table
drudgery. But what perverseness ! The task is the same :
and why should the thought that it ought to be done make
it less pleasant ? I have therefore set to work with a v:ill^
and am reaj^ing my reward by finding that the task is be-
coming less a task as I j^ursue it, though duty has unques-
tionably marred the pleasure.
In the same way I have often found that if it be neces-
sary to read a given book on a given day, there is not a
book, out of the five thousand I have around me, that I
would not rather take up than that !
I have somewhere read — and so have you I doubt not —
of a petty German despot who, having heard that an old
woman of seventy had never been beyond the precincts of
her native city, thought he should like to " have it to say "
(what is too costly or cruel for a desj^ot if he " would like
to have something to say ! ") that one who had lived to be
a very old woman had never been beyond the limits of
the city, and therefore decreed that she should never be
permitted to do so. It is said that the ^ooy old lady so
laid to heart the loss of that liberty which she had volun-
tarily lived mthout, all her life, that she took to her bed,
and died in a few days ! Surely human nature is the very
image of that old woman.
We might at least learn, one would think, to submit
without gi'umbling to any necessity, which, so long as it
was no necessity, was not only submitted to without com-
plaint, but was embraced as a pleasure ! It was a smart
saying of Locke, " Let your will go whither necessity would
drive, and you will always preserve your liberty." Very
true — very sagacious, but rather difficult to practise. Simi-
244: THE GREYSON LETTERS.
larly we may say, make duty your pleasure^ and it will be
just the same thing as pleasure; but, like the other, it is
more easily said than done. The culmination of virtue —
and no doubt, by "perseverance in well doing," we may
approximate to it, though in heaven alone we shall fully
attain it — is to find pleasure in duty, as such ; to find not
only that duty does not — as in my absurd condition, so
frankly confessed, it often does, — make pleasure itself
irksome, but that, when not absolutely painful, (and in
heaven I suppose there will be no painful duties,) it is in
itself a distinct source of pleasure. I believe even now,
and in our imperfect condition, that the hamng done our
duty is a source of greater pleasure than an;yi:hing else ;
but then it is the having done it, I fear. We enjoy it by
a reflex act, and possibly often linger so long in complacent
retrospect, that we forget the next duty in admiring our-
selves ! If we could but feel pleasure in duty while it was
a-doing, how happy should we be, for we should then be
happy all the day long ! And it will be so if we persevere.
" At first we cannot serve God," says Jeremy Taylor, " but
by doing violence to all our wilder inclinations. The sec-
ond days of virtue are 2:>leasant and easy in the midst of
all the appendant labors. But when the Christian's last pit is
digged, when he is descended to his grave and hath finished
his state of sorrows and suffering, then God opens the river
of abundance, — the river of life and never ceasing felici-
ties." But so different from this is the condition of men
in general, that I almost think one of the best ways of
teaching some duties would be to enjoin the due and regu-
lar abstinence from them. Tell a lazy man that he is never
to get out of bed till ten in the day, and, my life for it, he
will fall in love with early rising. Tell an irreligious man
that he shnll lK'^•er enter a church, and there you will
straightway find him. Certainly, in the present amiable
UNCONSCIOUS PROFUNDITY. 245
condition of man, the very presence of a law is a great pro-
vocative to neglect or violate it — a fact to which the Apos-
tle seems to allude in the seventh of Romans ; a passage, by
the way, which ought not to have caused all the pother it
has among the commentators.
I was amused by your defending yourself against the
charge of negligence in writing, before you were accused.
I am sure I said nothing, and, what is more, meant nothing.
by my silence. It is a self-betrayal second only to that of
the good Athenian in Hierocles. He told his Spartan friend,
who had commissioned him to purchase some books, that
he had " never received the letter about the books." " Let
me tell you," said a West Indian proprietor to his assembled
slaves, after some theft of which he wished to detect the
perpetrator, " Let me tell you that it is in vain for you to
attempt concealment ; for he who has committed the deed
will find a tumor sprouting out of the tip of his nose, which
will effectually betray him." Up went the finger of the
luckless criminal to see whether the threatened i)imple was
a-coming — and so he was detected. My remarks on
negligent correspondents were quite general ; but you have
put your finger to your nose, and stand self-confessed.
Yours truly,
E. E. II. G.
LETTER LVI.
TO THE SAME.
Arran, Monday, July 23, 1849.
My DEAR Feiend,
I casually met the day before yesterday, on board a
Clyde steamer, with one of those rare youths at whom we
have so often laughed, who have seduced themselves into
the belief that they have obtained a profound knowledge
21*
246 THE GREYBON LETTERS.
of philosophy, by muddling their brains with dark transla-
tions of German metaphysicians, and the writings of tliose
geniuses for obscurity who have so successfully imitated
them in this country. Certainly there are minds Avhich,
like certain surfaces, absorb all the colors of light, and re-
flect you back only an aspect of perfect blackness: and
they deserve to be called the Hottentots of Philosophy.
What share vanity may have in affecting to know what
others cannot pretend to understand, I cannot say ; but
these folks will go on using phrases, and terms of art, of
marvellous vagueness, and exchanging formulae of pro-
digious generality, just as if they had a meaning. Yet
let me tell you, from my recent experience, that you can
get on with them remarkably well. " By stopping them,"
you will say, " and requesting a rigid definition of their
dark terms of art." Why, in that case, you would not get
on at all. Your philosopher would be arrested at once.
" How, then ? " you will say. If you have a pretty good
memory and a little invention, nothing more easy ; be as
profound as himself; assent to what he says, though you
do not understand, and reply to it with something which
you understand as little, and which he will as little under-
stand. Let it be what it will, however, if it be sufficiently
dark, he will be afraid not to appear to understand. Go
on boldly with the same imposing obscurities 2Ci\^ formulate
with the same tremendous sounding phrases, and rely on it,
you are as safe as he is. It is a great advantage of this
species of philosophy, that you may be profound in it with-
out having passed your novitiate, and talk a deal of deep
metaphysics Avithout knowing it.
We began on Kant, and did not absolutely desert day-
light as long as we kept by him ; at least we were in twi-
liglit ; for he had a meaning, and often a profound one,
though expressed in the most uncouth style which Philo-
UNCONSCIOUS TROFUNDITY. 247
sopliy — not in his case "musical as is Aj)ollo's lute" —
ever mumbled in.
But we soon made a deep plunge into utter midnight,
and my young friend and I both frantically laid hold of
anything in tlie darkness, — terms and words, that is to
say, without any definite meaning, — just to keep ourselves
up. I am sure we both did admirably, if anybody could
but have comprehended it.
He said that he did not see anything so very difficult in
Hegel's paradox, — which sciolists had made such a pother
about, — that " nothing " is equal to " being," and that if
"being and nothing be conjoined, you have existence."
He asked me what I thought of it ? I told him that noth-
ing could in my appreliension be more j^rofound ; and that
it became as lucid as profound, if we only remember Hegel's
theory of " the evolution of the concrete." According to
that theory (he must remember, I was sure,) " the concrete
is the idea^ which, as a unity, is variously determined, —
having the principle of its activity in itself, while the origin
of the activity, the act itself, and the result are one, and
constitute the concrete.'^'* " Precisely so," said he ; " the
hmate contradiction of the concrete is the basis of its de-
velopment, and though difierences arise, they at last vanish
into unity. To use the words of Hegel, there is ' both the
movement and repose in the movement. The difference
hardly appears before it disappears, whereupon there issues
from it a full and concrete unity.' " I was glad to hear it.
Having thus discussed, though in a somewhat abstract
form, the theory of the " concrete," he proceeded to say
that all this throws admirable light on the great philoso-
pher's statement that the Idea^ concrete and self-developing,
is an organical system, — a whole comprehending in itself
indefinite treasures of degrees and momenta; while phi-
losophy is nothing in the world but the knowledge of this
248 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
evolution, and, so far as it is systematic and self-conscious
thought, it is the very evolution itself." To such elemen-
tary statement I could not but nod in acquiescence.
We then got on to the Hegelian "Absolute." " This," said
lie, " is nothing but a continual ' process of thinking,' vnth-
out beginning and loithoiit endP About this last, too, I
made no difficulty ; on the contrary, I firmly believed it ; so
that we were still entirely unanimous. " Now," said he,
" that the evolution of ideas in the human mind is the process
of all existence — the essence of the Absolute — of a Deity,
so that Deify is nothing more than the absolute ever
striving to realize itself in human consciousness," — (very
imperfectly as yet, thought I, if Hegelian consciousness be
the criterion), — "who can doubt?" Without venturing
to contest so j^lain a doctrine, I asked him whether, never-
theless, there was not a little to be said for Schelling's
notion that the rythmical law of all existence is cognizable
at the same time by the internal consciousness of the sub-
jective self, in the objective operation of Nature ? He said
he saw clearly enough its great ingenuity, — which was
more than I could, — but thought his " three movements
or potencies, — that of ' Reflexion,' whereby the Infinite
strives to realize itself in the Finite, — that of ' Subsump-
tion,' which is the striving of the Absolute to return from
the Finite to the Infinite, — and that of the ' IndiflTerence-
point,' or j^oint of junction of the two first, — were not to
be admitted ; for," said he, " is it not clear as the day that
the poles ever persist in remaining apart — the indifference-
point having never been fixed by Schelling." I could not
help thinking it would be by his readers; however, I
gravely told him I thought it was a very serious objection,
and I should duly consider it.
I said I could not wonder that many, who had not our
light, should refuse to allow, with Fichte, that "the ine was
UNCONSCIOUS PROFUNDITY. 219
the absolute generating principle of all things," or the
great Hegel's theory of the identity of object and subject.
To this he shrugged his shoulders ; — as much as to say,
the evolution of the process of " eternal thinking," which
constitutes God and all philosophy, is uncommonly slow in
mankind — that's a fact. But he added that there could
" not be the shadow of a doubt that the ' subjective ' and
* objective' were really one, and that by their junction is
constituted the only reality, which, Avhether we call it the
subject-object or object-subject, is of not the slightest con-
sequence in the world." I acquiesced entirely in that last
observation ; yet I could not but feel, I told him, that the
" poles of all existence, though the indifference-j)oint Avas
thus found, seemed, after all, to be annihilated by coales-
cing ; " and that I still found some little difficulty about tlie
" process of thought assuming the objective form it does in
nature y " and asked him whether he coincided in Hegel's
solution of this difficulty — namely, that there is a " descent
of the absolute idea from subject-object into a state of
separation ? " He condescended to acknowledge that it
was one of the great difficulties of Hegel's system. I asked,
Avhether, in the supposed case, the relation^ which was the
sole reality, between the subjective and objective would
not be altered ? He was pleased to say that that question
touched the very quintessence of the whole system, and
that it was a good deal to the purpose. Perhaps it was ;
and, at any rate, I was very glad to hear that I had spoken
so much to the purpose without knowing it. I rather think
it staggered him, as I am sure it did me, for I know no
more than the dead what was the meaning of it.
"Again," said I, as if it had something to do with the
subject, or at least the subject-object, — and perhaps it
had, for I do not clearly see what was the subject, or our
object — " since Hegel begins with zero, and evolves the
250 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
universe by a logical process of thought without any realistic
stand-point, is there not some difficulty in conceiving how
' the process of thought ' (to use his words) can ever exter-
nalize itself into the region of nature ? " " Phenomenally,"
said he, " it may." " Phenomenally," said I, " no doubt it
may ; and so perhaj)s the subjectivity of the mind, subjec-
tifying the objective in nature, leaves the subject-object
still one."
In spite of all difficulties of this trivial kind, he expressed
himself delighted with the Hegehan philosophy, and espec-
ially its simplicity of conception ; it began, he said, avow-
edly on the principle that in the analysis of thought, as
" identical with existence, we must take the very emptiest,
most meaningless, and abstract notions we can find." I ad-
mitted that Hegel had in that succeeded admirably.
We then had some equally interesting conversation on
Fichte's system ; but we both thought that it was impossi-
ble to acquiesce in his notion — that the me gave its entire
reality to the not-me^ — especially as the reality which the
me, in that case, transfers to the not-me^ it must get, after
all, from the me / so that the me constructs the not-me.
Yet every fool imagines the not-me different from the me.
On the other hand, according to this theory, the not-me
most evidently limits the we — though itself non-existent ex-
cept as a limitation of me ! Who could admit this ? — The
plausibility of Fichte's theory, however, he conceded, and
the clearness with which it was expressed^ to which I, of
course, cheerfully assented.
We now happily drew near Dunoon, where he said he
was about to stop. I begged to know Avhat book he had
in his hand ? He said it was the " Physio-PhilosoiAy " of
Oken, and asked me if I had ever read it ? — as if I could
be ignorant of so profound a philosopher ! He remarked
that it was one of the greatest contributions to science in
UNCONSCIOUS PROFUNDITY. 251
our time, and wondered that shallow folks should have com-
plained of its being inserted in the publications of the " Ray
Society." I frankly acknowledged there were some few
things in it I could not satisfactorily comprehend, on Avliich
I thought he looked a little pleased at his own superiority.
" For example," said I, opening the book at random, *' I
should be obliged if you would explain what is meant by
this passage?" — I had no difficulty in pitching on one as
dark as Tartarus.
To any one else, I dare say, it would have been a poser ;
but, from what I saw of my young friend's profundity, I
have no doubt he would have made it all as clear as he had
done the philosophy of Hegel. He reluctantly excused him-
self, as the boat was just about to stop.
He took leave of me with the most flattering expressions
of pleasure at having fallen in with one who took a kindred
interest in his favorite studies, and hoped we should shortly
meet again ; — a hope which I devoutly hope may be dis-
appointed.
I felt exceedingly elated, however, at having been able
BO creditably to take my j^lace with a deep philosopher,
without my knowing or his knowing a syllable that we had
been talking about. And I suspect he parted from me still
better pleased. Milton records with innocent vanity, that
he reflected with satisfaction that he had not unworthily
supported his part in a Latin conversation with some foreign
ambassadors, when they did him the honor of dining Avith
him, or, as we should now say, when he did them the hon-
our of entertaining them ; for thus does the " whirligig of
time bring about the revenges " of genius, and the poet
takes precedence of all ambassadors. You remember what
is told of Leibnitz, that being anxious to gain admission to
the society of some alchemical adepts, he took sundry books
of their delusive art, and stringing together at random all
252 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
the very hardest terms he could find, sent his lucubration to
them as a card of introduction. They were astounded at
one who could write so profoundly on their favorite sci-
ence, and admitted him at once.
You think, perhaps, that it would require a good memory
to recall some of the terms and phrases with which my
"profundissimus" and I pelted one another. That is per-
haps true ; but you need not always stop for that ; combine
the hardest and most general terms, — the more incompre-
hensible the better, — and, bandied to and fro, they will
seem alive with a vague meaning, like an old scarecrow
fluttering: in the wind. That is sufficient. And to convince
you, I may tell you that some of the things I said were com-
binations a la mode Leibnitz ; and yet I fancy I may defy
you, or even your ingenious friend T M , to say
which is lohich. If you try, take heed ; for perhaps you
will find I can trap you by citing chapter and verse, where
you think I have been extemporizing !
Campbell says, and says truly, that we are not to suppose
that everything which is unintelligible is absurd, since we
cannot pronounce on its truth or falsity; — therefore be
l^leased to regard the utterances above with mysterious rev-
erence. " When the Teutonic theosopher," says the acute
critic, " enounces that ' all the voices of the celestial joyful-
ness qualify, commix, and harmonize in the fire which was
from eternity in the good quality,' I should think it equally
impertinent to aver the falsity as the truth of this enuncia-
tion."
Believe me.
Yours ever truly,
E. E. H. G.
HUMAN INCONSISTENCIES 253
LETTER LVII.
TO C. MASON, ESQ.
Arran, July 30, 1849
My dear Mas ox,
And so you are really surprised at the inconsistency of
your patient's sending for you, and requesting your advice
and medicine, while he neglected the one and never took
the other ? Well, you can easily take your revenge by mak-
ing him pay for both. He, at all events, is not so bad as
patients sometimes are who ask whether they may do that
they have already done. " Pray, doctor," says a joatient in
a wheedling way, " don't you think I might take a glass of
wine now ? " " No — not yet — it would not be safe," says
the doctor, with a solemn air. " Oh because I did take one
yesterday, and it seemed to do me so much good ! " I
have heard a medical friend say that this sort of ex post
facto justification, (at the doctor's expense too,) is the " un-
kindest " of all the cuts a doctor can receive from a patient.
An inhabitant of this world ought to wonder at nothing ;
at all events, pray keep any such emotion for greater rari-
ties than human inconsistencies. The schism between the
Pope and anti-Pope within us — between the Understand-
ing and the Will, — the Head and the Heart, — the Con-
science and the Passions, — the thoughts and the lips, is
daily manifesting itself, in effects sometimes ludicrous, some-
times lamentable. A whole volume might be filled, not only
with instances of maxims consciously contradicted by prac-
tice, (for if these were all recorded, " the world itself could
not contain the books that would be written,") but of utterly
unconscious inconsistency ; of sense and wisdom often
expressed in the dialects of folly — of vices that fancy them-
selves virtues, of religion masquerading itself in every form
22
254 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
of blind zeal and ferocious cruelty. We laugh at Gold-
smith's soldier, expressing, in profane oaths, his fears for
the extinction of religion, and at the debtor in jail, telling
the said soldier, from behind the grating, that his chief
alarm is for public liberty ; but though these are fictitious
examples, they maybe matched in the history of human na-
ture, and do not go beyond it. Similarly Sheridan's Sir
Anthony, who, in a towering passion, asks his son " what
the devil good can passion do ? Can't you be cool like one P"*
is a picture most of us have seen under some modifications
or other. Parson Adams, enchanted with the sentiments
of his travelling acquaintance as to that contemptible vice
of " vanity," regrets, as he fumbles in his pocket, that he
has left behind him the sermon in which he had endeavor-
ed to improve the topic, and which he would have felt such
jDleasure in reading to him ! It is by no means without a
parallel.
A Scotch friend of mine was recently at a public dinner.
A clergyman of the town was requested to "say grace."
He did it, with unusual propriety. On sitting down, a
young man whispered to my friend, with all the seriousness
in the world, "A devilish good grace that !"
Another, talking to some Scotch " Andrew Fairservice,"
whose religious " assurance " (in more than one sense) was
such that he professed to live without the shadow of a doubt,
fear, or perplexity respecting his spiritual condition, asked
him whether he really meant what he said ? — " De'il doot
it, mon," was the rej^ly.
There can be no doubt that Defoe had an unfeigned res-
pect for morality and religion, and that he sincerely design-
ed his Avritings to serve both. Yet how whimsical the
practical inconsistency which led him to suppose that the
" History of Moll Flanders," of " Roxana, the Fortunate
Mistress," of " Colonel Jack," could by any possibility an-
HUMAN IXCOXSISTENCIES. 255
swer this end! One would as soon expect virtue to be
promoted by the " prurient " discussions of certain casuists
whose canons for forming a superhuman purity contain, as
Fuller wittily expresses it, " the criticisms of all obscenity."
I met with a droll instance of practical inconsistency the
other day in a sermon of my old favorite Jeremy Taylor.
It is that on the " good and evil tongue." He takes occa-
sion to illustrate the text, " for every idle word we must
give account j " and he does so by indulging in a whole
paragraph of as idle words as ever came out of a preacher's
mouth. They are full of Latin quotations which must have
been utterly unintelligible to his audience, and not a few of
them very solemnly impertinent had they been otherwise.
He completes a long tesselation from the Fathers by telling
his wondering hearers " that St. Gregory calls every word
vain or idle, quod aut ratione justa3 necessitatis aut inten-
tione pisB utilitatis caret ; and St. Jerome calls it vain, quod
sine utilitate et loquentis decitur et audientis — which profits
neither the speaker nor the hearer." He then duly con-
firms it by Chrysostom and Gregory Nyssen, and says it
seems intimated in the word kcvov prjixa or p^/xa apyovl
Would that all inconsistencies of men were as trivial as these.
But how shall we wonder at any, when we find thousands
daily indulging in habits which they themselves are persua-
ded will ruin them, body and soul ; and, while professing to
desire happiness above all things, nevertheless persisting in
walking right on with their eyes open in a path which they
know beforehand can end only in misery ?
Yours ever,
E. E. H. G.
256 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
LETTER LVIII.
TO ALFRED WEST, ESQ.
London, Tuesday, Oct. 18, 1819.
My dear West,
You know my old failing; — always a little behind the
clock, five minutes or so; or else the clock is always a lit-
tle before me — I sometimes think that is the real secret
of my seeming want of punctuality.
Tliis failing suggested to me the other night a very ab-
surd dream. Methought I was striding up Fleet street in
the vain hope of overtaking an engagement the exact mo-
ment of which had already j^assed, — for I was, as usual,
a little behind my time, — when I saw in a window, in large
characters, the inscri23tion, " Waste time sold here." This,
said I to myself, is the very thing for me ; I will just step
in and buy a quarter of an hour or so. But seeing other
placards in the window, I stayed for a minute to examine
them. " It does not matter," said I to myself, " about the
loss of a minute or two which I can now so easily repair."
I found the other notices of a jDiece with the first. In one place
I read — "Some excellent lotsof time, — consisting of a week
and some days each, — to be immediately disposed of on
the most advantageous terms," — in another, fifty-two Sun-
days to be sold, a bargain," — in a third, " the whole of
that eligible month of February in lea]^ year — twent}'-
nine days, to be sold ; nothing charged for the odd day ; "
" Exchanges effected on the most reasonable terms — com-
mission not exceeding five minutes per centr You will
l^erhaps think I Avas a little surprised at all this ; perj^lexed
Avith sundry impossibilities which might be naturally sup-
posed to stand in the way of such bargains and exclianges.
You are mistaken; I felt no such suri)rise at all. The
A DUE AM. 257
only thing that surprised me was, that so admirable and
reasonable an arrangement had not been hit upon long
before. "In a world," said I to myself, "where money
answereth all things, as the wise man saith, — where goods
and chattels, houses and lands, character and fame, are all
bought and sold, it is very strange that we should never
have thought of buying and selling time before." Your
only true logician is sleep. It can make you incontinently
believe anything, and unsay, in an instant, every fact, max-
im, and 2^rinciple which you had held indisputable u]) to
the very moment you laid your head upon your pilloAV. It
can prove any conclusion it pleases from any premises, or,
if need be, without any ^^remises at all. It can do all that
logicians say cannot be done, and convince logicians them-
selves that their logic is wrong. IsTo wonder then that I
was not startled to find that I could, if I pleased, purchase
a quarter of an hour at a shop counter, and come away Avith
it safe in my pocket. On my waking, I certainly regretted
that there was no such office — for I dare say I should
often have droj^j^ed in to do a little business. I could not
help indulging myself in fancpng some of the odd scenes
Ave should witness if the time Avhich hangs upon men's
hands, and Avhich they know not Avliat to do Avith, Avere an
exchangeable commodity, instead of being simply suffered
to run to waste, like the Avater of a stream AA^hen the mill
is not at work.
It would be surely couA'-enient, if those AAdio haA^e more
time than they Avant could sell it to those who can employ
it, or think they can employ it, to better purpose ; or if we
could effect exchanges of time Avith mutual advantage.
You have a day you knoAV not what to do Avith — another
Avishes for tAvo days in one ; he has one a fortnight hence
AAdiich he Avouldbe glad to partAvith — you exchange yours
for it ; and thus tedium Avould be prevented on both sides !
22*
258 THE GUEYSON LETTERS.
TliG last metliod, indeed, Avould be a reasonable bargain,
and all could understand it, for human life would be none
the shorter for it ; longer indeed, if we measure life (as we
surely ought) rather by what we do and enjoy, than by the
hours which pass in vacant indolence. But it might be
imagined at first that none Avould have any time absolutely
to sell. Is it credible, we are ready to ask, that beings who
are continually complaining of the brevity of human life
can be willing to make it shorter? Yet I make no doubt
there would be j^lenty of business, even of this kind, for
such an office to transact. We know but little of human
nature, if we do not know that whatever it may say about
the shortness of life, most men are firmly convinced that
life is ten times too long ! Half our time is spent in de-
vising methods of wasting it, and half the remaining half
in putting them into execution. The only hours of life
worth much, in the estimation of the giddy and thought-
less, are those spent in pleasures which they cannot cheaply
and readily make for themselves, but which they must wait
for time to bring them ; they know not how to fill up the
interval with j^leasures of their own creating, and so can
rarely wait with j^atience. The moment they see a lively
pleasure in prospect, — be it an hour, a day, or a month
hence, — they think the interval between the present in-
stant and its arrival, as Avorse than useless and would be
glad to have it annihilated on any terms. Nothing would
be more common, I dare say, if my imaginary office were
in existence, than for a lover to sell whole weeks previous
to the wedding, from the sheer impossibility of enduring
the tedium ; while an alderman would gladly purchase a
blissful oblivion for some hours before a turtle feast, to rid
himself of the torment of expectation between the promise
and the fulfilment. And as to Sundays, — how many a
young scapegrace would sell the whole fifty-two in a bun-
A DllEAM. 259
die,. — except, perhaps, when Christmas Day falls on one
of them ? It is amusing, too, to think that, like all other
markets, the time-market would have its fluctuations.
There would be time when time would be a drug, and time
Avhen time would be dear — according to the season ; as
there are times for every thing, so there would be times for
" time " itself; for though one hour is as like another as
one egg is like another, and intrinsically of equal value, the
su})ply and the demand must chiefly determine their price.
In a season of pressing business or public merry-making,
how Avould hours be at a premium, while Sundays and fast
days, I suspect, would go almost for nothing! Many a
young rogue, I doubt, would mortgage his whole church-
time up to fifty years of age ; while during Lent in Catho-
lic countries, and the Ramadan in Mahometan, there Avould
be an absolute glut, and the time-broker have more time
on his hands than he would know what to do with.
So much the better, you may say, for those devout souls
who would know the true value of time ; who might steal
into the market to purchase an additional day or two for
spiritual pleasures ; or haggle for a score or two of cheap
Sundays to enable them to get through a folio or two of
sermons and homilies ! Such customers would be rare. No
doubt, however, many would go with a long face, under
the pretence of transacting such business, and emj^loy the
time which they got in a very diflerent manner, A curious
thing is the human heart ; it likes to play the fool under
the mask of wisdom, and to practise even vice, if possible,
with the credit of virtue.
I had a droll example of human impatience in my dream.
Methought a couple of demure looking persons, one a
young man — the other a young woman — came in, and
reversed what, I fancy, Avould be the usual pro2')osals. In-
stead of wishing to sell the Sunday and buy the Aveek, they
260 THE GREYSON LETTERS
wished to pass the week in oblivion, and were impatient for
the Sunday to come. I was ahnost betrayed into the folly
of supposing it was out of sheer devotion. But it turned
out that the banns of their marriage were to be pubhshed
on that happy day for the last time !
One other thing in my dream, I must not forget. I
asked if it was possible to sell the hours of sickness and
sorrow : " Surely," said I, " they are burdensome enougli."
" They are so," was the reply, " but none can part Avith
them. There is enough to do — to bear them with ^:>«-
tience, and indeed they seldom last long enough to teach
that lesson. It is only the hours which you would sj^end
in yawning, in indolent vacuity, that it is permitted thus to
barter away. Men will not jiart with their hours of plea-
sure — they think them too precious for that ; and with
their hours of suffering, they cannot ; for Providence justly
deems these more precious still. But people often make
mistakes, and come to offer what they cannot part with,
or to get rid of it under pretences." At this very moment
there entered an old fellow, about sixty, Avith a curious
twist on his countenance as though he were vainly trying
to contort an ex^^ression of acute pain into a yawn oi ennui.
But just as he was saying that he had a fortnight of com-
plete leisure to dispose of, a sharp twinge effectually
banished his assumed expression of apathy, and extorted
an exclamation by far too lively for ennui. " You, my
friend," said the official at the counter, "have got quite
enough to do for the j^resent — you are in no condition to
sell ; — let me rather recommend you to buy an additional
day or two that you may con the lessons of fortitude and
patience a little more effectually." The sexagenarian de-
clined this j^roposal. Would not you and I do the same ?
Yours ever
K. E. H. G.
THOUGHTS OX EMIGRATION. • 261
LETTER LIX.
TO ALFRED WEST, ESQ.
London, Friday, Jan. 4, 1850.
My dear Feiend,
I have just had a mournful parting. The whole family
of T W have gone to Australia. I saw them on
board at Gravesend, and went a few miles down the river
with them.
" England, with all thy faults," — but I think I have seen
that quoted once, if not twice, before. Never mind ; the
sentiment will be ever young and fresh in our hearts, how-
ever hackneyed the j)oet's line; just as there are some
strains of music which not all the vilest street hurdygurdies
in the Avorld can make you hate, though you feel impatient
enough with the poor vagabonds that so desecrate them.
Not but what imagination is sometimes beaten, and the
sentimental fairly yields to the ludicrous ; as when I heard
a great raw-boned Scotchman, six feet high, bagpiping the
other day to " I 'd be a buttei-fly." It was impossible for
even Ovid to imagine such a metamorphosis. If it had
been " I 'd be a kangaroo," or " a long-tailed monkey," or
any other forest beauty of that kind, it would have been
natural. But to return.
I did not envy the emigrants, and can scarcely imagine
the stress of circumstances which would reconcile tne to
such a step. Yet they are happy in one point ; they sail
en masse. The whole family is uprooted, and gone to make
another home at the Antipodes. They leave no near rela-
tions behind them. Father, mother, brothers, sisters, every-
thing they held dear down to their favorite dog, all are
gone ; — all but the two loved ones that they leave alone
2G2 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
in the old familiar churcliyarcl ! Ah . how often, I will an-
swer for it, — how often already has the mother visited, in
fancy, that lone spot, and heard the whisper of the tall dark
trees Avhich edge its border and the rustling of the grass
over the graves, even above the long swell of the Atlantic !
I was with the voyagers in imagination almost all last
evening, and entered so deeply into sympathy with them,
that when I slept I was still dreaming that I was on board.
I know not how I could bear the trial, since (I am half
ashamed to say it) the very thought of it dissolved me in
tears. Even if one is not about to quit one's country for
ever, there is something profoundly melancholy in all the
sights and sounds which surround one when parting on a
distant voyage. As the sun goes down behind the fading
hills, and the solemn stars come out to watch, and the mel-
anclioly surge keej^s up its monotonous music, and the land
breeze, with its faint smell of earth and flowers, wafts to us
the last breath of home, — what a pensive hour is that !
How eagerly does the eye watch the still twinkling lights
on the shore, and the melancholy pencil of radiance from
the lighthouse which streams fainter and fainter as the
waves bear us on ; how eagerly does the ear catch the
sound even of a watch-dog on the hills ! What, then, must
be the feelings of those who thus gaze and listen for the last
time ; — as they lose the last twinkling lights, and drink in
the last dying fragrance of their native fields ! What a
pang must they feel as vivid memory recalls the home of
childhood, and the altars where their fathers worshipped !
Methinks many a mother must feel a pang almost as of re-
morse and cruelty in leaving, in un visited solitude, the ashes
of those they have loved and lost.
" Pooh ! " I fancy I hear you say, with your abominable
practical sense. " I dare say these worthy folks were too busy
THOUGHTS ON EMIGRATION. 263
Tvdth pressing cares to suffer half as much as you fancy.
Very likely they were all sea-sick ; and who was ever trou-
bled with sentimental sorrows then ? "
Why, no ; I suppose that would be a ready cure. Though
I never felt it, I imagine, from what I have heard people
say, that a man- enduring that misery, would not care if his
whole generation were hanged. However, the tranquillity
of the night allowed poor W and his family no such
questionable antidote of sorrow. Neither do I wish them
so ill as to hope that they escaped the pangs of parting •.
not to have felt them would argue them brutal, and such
sorrows have a tendency " to make the heart better," and
soothe us while they lacerate.
And they will, at best, be j^assing shadows. In a few
days — ay, in a few hours — the changing scenes, the novel
sights, and sounds, and employments; — the returning
morning light, and the more cheerful asj^ect of the ocean
under its beams, — above all, the obliteration of the last
\dsible traces of home ; even the necessities of the body, —
nay, by Ceres ! the vulgar thoughts of breakfast and the
savory steams from the caboose ; well, well, — it is strange,^
but time. Man, that weeping, sighing, sorrowing, eating,
drinking, laughing thing, — is a curious phenomenon;
" that's a feet." In one little hour he shall shift his domi-
cile from the head to the heart, and from the heart to the
stomach, pass through all changes from agony and tears to
smiles and mirth, and yet in all may be perfectly sincere.
NY and his wife afford a noble j^roof of what a father's
and a mother's love can do. They forswear civilization —
for the sake of their young ones. They have looked the
thing fairly and bravely in the face — and jDrefer hardships
abroad, with rude i^lenty for their children, to straits and
precarious prospects at home. They have therefore gath-
ered up their little all, and propose to turn farmers on the
2G4 THE GliEYSON LETTERS.
edge of the wilderness. They voluntarily descend to quasi-
barbarism, that their young brood may flourish. They are
wise in this, — that they go in time. Their children are
too young to feel the change much ; they will not have
many habits to unlearn, and will scarcely know that their
adopted, is not their native country. A more miserable
spectacle can hardly be imagined than a grown uj) emigrant
family, born to better j^rospects, resorting to such a life - —
the sons embarrassed with a " polite " education, and the
daughters with the usual quota of accomplishments ; both
the one and the other bemg of about as much use in such
a situation as silk stockings and cambric shirts. A father,
a mother, may be capable of submitting without a murmur
to the sacrifices enforced by such a change, rather than see
their children starve. But where else can we find the hero-
ism or the patience necessary to face it ?
Ever yours,
E. E. II. G.
LETTER LX.
TO THE KEV. J S , MISSION AEY IN INDIA.
March, 1850.
My DEAR Sm,
Thank you very heartily for the gift of the version of the
New Testament in the " Pushtoo or Affghan " language.
I look on it with great reverence, though, when I open it,
I am not quite sure Avhether or not I am looking at it up-
side down ! But it will, I hope, speak to others, though it
is dumb to me ; at all events it is a cu7'iositi/, as we say.
What an uncouth -looking character it is !
Though I can no more make use of the volume than a
monkey of a watch, I can honor the faith and patience of
TO A MISSIONARY IN INDIA. 265
those who for so many years, amidst the neglect or con-
tempt of the world, have been silently employed in master-
ing the Babel of this world's dialects, for the j^urpose of
making the Bible the present jjolyglot of one hundred and
fifty tongues ! But courage ; this task is in a great mea-
sure accomplished ; and it was one of the most arduous
and essential of all. It has been a long work, and it will
be yet many years before it is perfectly accomj^lished.
This and all other labors of you and your devoted broth-
erhood, have been but the preparation for the great battle
between the gospel and heathenism ; it has been the scaf-
folding for the building. But, if I mistake not, things will
proceed henceforth at a greatly accelerated pace. Not
that the results, even now, are such as to disappoint any
reasonable expectation, as one decisive fact fully shows. I
see by the recent Reports of all our great missionary organ-
izations, that a very apj^reciable j^ortion of the funds — in
one as much as a fifth — has come from the missionary com-
munities themselves ; From Polynesians, Hottentots, Hin-
doos, and Caffres ! This fact is most significant, and speaks
for itself in lano-uao-e which cannot be mistaken : for men
will give their words for nothing, but when they give their
money, they are infallibly in earnest. When, in addition
to such fiicts as these, I consider that the word of God is
in almost every dialect of man ; that the world no longer
frowns on your enterprise, but condescends to take an in-
terest in it; that the most j^owerful governments, but
especially our own, are no longer hostile, but favorable ;
when I consider, further, that God seems giving such an
immeasurable superiority in powcF, wealth, science, and
art to the community of Christian nations as cannot but
insure them the moral mastery of the world, — an indirect,
but most momentous advantage, as you justly say, it is im-
possible not to anticipate a bright futurity for you.
23
266 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
One of the most hopeful symptoms is the attempt you
and other missionaries are making to qualify native converts
to be teachers of their countrymen. I wonder that it
should not have been made from the very first. This was
the primitive, and is the only rational method of evange-
lization. Till this be adopted, not only must missionary
operations be most expensive, and lavish of life, — for the
agents must be supported at a great distance and exposed
to unfriendly climates ; — but, for both reasons, the number
of such agents will be utterly inadequate. And, at best,
tlie agents themselves must ahvays work at an immense
disadvantage as compared with native teachers. It is not
in human nature to listen attentiA^ely to truth from lips that
utter it in stammering accents ; and it must be years before
the missionary can speak his adoj^ted language with fluency
and accuracy. I sometimes imagine to myself the uncon-
scious blunders, — no doubt often ludicrous enough, — nay,
the downright though most innocent errors, heresies, and
blasphemies, which have flillen from the missionary's lips
in his early eftbrts. I am afraid the Gospel, if loe were
heathens, Avould stand but a poor chance of being listened
to with attention if a foreigner came to preach it to us in
broken English, with a foreign pronunciation and a foreign
idiom • if one told us, with the Frenchman, " Dat de evan-
gile was ^'ome from heaven to be a book of revelation of
the will Divine, and to cause to repent a man of all his
sins ; " or with the German, " Dat it vos a melancholy
ever-by-man-to-be-remembered fact dat we vos all but cu-
cumbers of de groimd ! "
Come now, confess -the truth. Do you not fancy that
many a young Christian missionary, with more zeal than
knowledge, has thus acquired without inspiration, a gift of
speaking unlcnoion tongues ?
The immense advantage of tne native teacher is that he
TO A MISSIONARY IN INDIA. 267
has no sucb difficulties ; and if a true convert, and intelli-
gently convinced of the essential truths of Christianity, he
would in all probability more than make amends for his
partial ignorance by his possession of the vehicle of com-
munication. Of course there is a period during which a
missionary colony, like other colonies, must be supported
by the " mother country ; " but it is my sincere belief that
in many cases, the system of nursing has been continued
too long. In many fields of missionary enterprise, if we
may trust Reports (and as to some of the Polynesian islands
we know it is so,) the converts have been very numerous
for many years. Surely the object of the missionaries should
have been to train some of them to teach the Gospel they
had received — to dismiss them to their work — to leave
just a sufficient staff of missionaries to aid in training other
converts, and then at once to break new ground. This, at
all events, was the Apostolic method. To supply the
Christian colonies, which consist of these converts, with
teachers from the other side of the world for thirty or
forty years together, seems to me as needless as it is inex-
pedient ; likely to keep them always cripples, and to rob
still untaught heathen of the benevolence to which these
last have equal claims. I am rejoiced therefore to find that
you are training, at once, the first converts on whom you
can depend for sincerity and sense, to the work of teaching
their countrymen ; and, in short, that you are resolved to be,
m a modest way, the head of a College as well as a minister
of the Gospel. I heartily wish all our great societies would
set up a college for this purpose m every considerable field
of enterprise.
Well, go on and prosper ; it is a noble career in which
you are engaged : and so it ought to be, when I reflect on
the ties it rends asunder, and the sacrifices it involves.
Ah ! my friend, I shall never see you more in this world ;
268 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
and as I think of the clays never to return — of the walks
and talks of our early years — tears involuntarily fill my eyes.
How strange it seems that the besotted world was so long
in seeing that no man would choose such things as a Mis-
sionary encounters, and that such sacrifices as yours are at
least entitled to grateful and reverent mention, even if
judged to be the effect of an erring enthusiasm.
Ever yours,
K. E. H. G.
LETTER LXI.
TO ALFEED WEST, ESQ.
Great Barr, Tlmrsday, April 4, 18-[;0.
My dear Friend,
I have looked into the bulky volumes you were so oblig-
ing as to send me — for my amusement, as you fxcetiously
say ! I would as soon eat sawdust as read them. Even if
it were not a dishonest book, a vain j^arade of erudition ;
if the author's learning were as profuse as he would have
his quotations imply, its perusal would still be intolerable
to a man of sense. Here are two huge volumes of more
than five hundred pages each, and nearly half those images
contain only some ten lines of text, the rest made up of
closely printed notes in double columns, bristling with cita-
tions and references ! Each page reminds me of Ichabod
Crane, with his diminutive head resting on a pair of stilt-
like shanks. I calculate there are at least five thousand
references which purport to be the result of independent
investigation. Now in looking at a few pages only, I see
a great many that must have been merely copied from pre-
vious w^riters ; many others that really are nothing to the
purpose, and many more which remit us to authors so inac-
ON A PEDANTIC AUTHOR 269
cessible, obscure or worthless, that they could only have
been introduced for ostentation's sake, or because the
author was sure they would never be hunted up. But it
was enough that they would appear to have weight though
they had none, or at least evince the author's learning,
when they really show nothing but his pedantic vanity.
Those authors who have a simple desire to establish their
point, never needlessly accumulate citations or references.
When the thesis is such that authority is essential, or auxil-
iary to it, they will, even then, content themselves with the
tninhnmn of citations that will answer the purpose. They
reckon them by weight, not by number, — by the scales, not
by the bushel. Indeed Avhen one has cited two or three
names, which so far as authority can effect any thing at
all, are instar omniiim^ of what use is it to appeal to a
score or more of mediocrities ? If we can cite Aristotle
why go to Keckermannus — if Bacon, how shall we further
confirm the statement by appeal to Kettwigious? Not
only is a large part of the citations in these volumes mei-e
stuffing ; we cannot but feel assured that a great number
are simply pillaged from previous writers. It must be so,
if we consider what is implied in their being honestly quoted.
Those authors who know their proper business, know that
to hunt up a passage, to determine its real relevance, to
read for the purpose what goes before^ and what comes
after (and not, as many have done, take, by mere haste, an
objection the cited author is just going to refute, for his
own opinion and a sanction of ours !) requires time ; to
transcribe the passage or the reference, to verify it j^roperly
in the proof, and see that it is still accurate in the last
revise, requires more ; so that we are sure the task which
so many learned pedants, in such books as you have sent
me, would pretend they had honestly performed, is a task
only for a Methuselah. For tliis reason, as well as for the
9 p. *
270 THE GRKYSOX LETTERS.
Others already mentioned, an honest author will be as par-
simonious of his references and citations as possible — not
as profuse.
Thousands of such books as this, have the pedants among
our German neighbors produced ; amongst us they are
hapi)ily rare. The folly of ostentatious learning has indeed
its day at some period or other, in the development of
every national literature ; it had in ours two hundred years
ago. But I think it is not likely to revive : at least it is to
be hoped so.
For M'hat at the best is the use of such books ? They are
not read : how can they be ? Their only effect is to pro-
duce in a sciolist here and there an impression that the
autlior of a mere farrago is a very learned man ; and per-
haps, where the subject is one of controvei'sy, an impression
that the cause he advocates is impregnably fortified. It is
so, as far as such books can fortify it ; for who can confute
what nobody will read ?
As to reading them it is out of the question. "What can
your progress (every clause cut into two by references) be
compared to except bump, — bump, — bumping, in a rough
cart, over the frozen furrows of a ploughed field ? What
mortal patience is equal to the task of reading page after
page constructed on the model of such sentences as this, if
I may venture to imitate the inimitable :
" It is surely a mystery {JamUich. de Mysteriis : Gr. et
Lat. Ed. Th. Gcde. Oxon. 1678, passim) that you should
give to a friend {Plat: Phileb : 13 c. ; Thecetet. 143 b.
JEd. G. Stallbauni ; Arlstot. Ethic. JSficoon. lib. viii. Cap. 1
— 13 Ed. Im. JBekker ; or indeed even to an acquaintance
{CiceroJiis de Amicitid. pp. 1 — 4:% Ed. Joh. Giddens-
chaff ; Theophrast. frag, -n-epl <^tA.tas) a book that is incom-
prehensible (dKaraXryTrrov, ^;zWe Philonis de Somn. pp. 360
— 369; Prodi in Theologiam Plat : Yih.w. ptassim ;) even
TO A FRIEND IN NEW ZEALAND. 271
in its elements, (o-roixeta); the perusal of which, {vide Fac-
ciolati in voc. perUgere) : must involve pure waste of time
(Kettwigii de Usu Temporis^ vol. x. fol. p. 1 — 1098 : Test.
Vet. et. JVov. passim) and make us angry (vide Schelhorn
in Ammnitat. Litt. torn. ii. pp. 1 — 532) rather than pleased
with the lender."
Pray, my dear friend, study this last sentence, carefully
looking up all the references and ascertaining their rele-
vance ; and remember in your next loan of books that life
is but short ; and that as of the writing of many books, so
sometimes of the reading even of one., ''there is no end."
Yours truly,
E. E. H. G
LETTER LXII.
TO MRS. L. B., IN NEW ZEALAND.
London, Jan. 1851
My dear Louise,
I was amazed by the unusual length of your last letter re-
ceived last week, crossed, absolutely crossed, — a thing, I
think, in these penny-post days, I have hardly seen these
ten years. I dare say it may be discovered in the letters
of lovers, possibly also (as in our case) between very dear
friends who chatter to each other across the equinoctial
line, or endeavor to keep their love from starving by a
yearly letter, like the " Friends' Annual Ej^istle," between
the St. Lawrence and the Cape of Good Hope, or " Auld
Reekie " and Canton.
Many thanks to you for it. I assure you I accept it as a
greater proof of affection than if you had sent the choicest
curiosities of your adopted country. It pleased me better
than a genuine war-club, wielded by the redoubtable ai*m of
272 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
Waliitabahaoo, (wliicli jneans, my dear, " the Son of a Gun,'-
as you may see by consulting any of the native lexicons ;)
or a sheaf of arrows tipped with fish-bone ; or a pickled
head of some renowned captive, which the New Zealand gen-
try had preserved as a trophy ; or a grotesque plumed head-
dress by which some diabolical-looking war-chief vainly tried
to add to the horrors of his visage, furrowed with the tattoo
and the deeper signature of demoniacal passions. Nay, I
value your handwriting even more than if you had sent
(what I rather aifect than any such grim souve7iirs) a j^ot
or two of the most tempting preserved fruits, or a barrel of
the finest New Zealand pippins. Yet, if your afiection, my
dear Louise, so seeks to express itself, pray do not balk it.
The language of symbols is always expressive ; and if the
language of flowers be edifying, what must that of fruits
be ? If a Persian lady, instead of greeting her lover with
roses and lilies, were to manoeuvre with dates and guavas,
how much deeper the impression she would make on her in-
amorato. — Your letter, notwithstanding all its intersec-
tions, and, forgive me, my dear, its occasional meanderings
and waving deflections from absolute parallelism, Avas all
duly read ; though I deny not that some parts required
careful and frequent adjustment of my spectacles. I despair
of emulating your copiousness, but I am sure I return your
afl*ection.
The truth is, the mere toil of writing is becoming increas-
ingly burdensome, and therefore odious to me, every day.
I sometimes wish that all the world wrote and read short-
hand. It would be at least a prodigious saving of time and
labor. And why, by the way, should it not be a univer-
sal accomj^lishment ? Nay, I believe it will, some day. It
were easy to superadd this little trifle to the dozen other
things, which children, with that wonderful plasticity and
activity of the imitative fixculties Avliich God, for wisest pur-
TO A FRIEND IN NEW ZEALAND. 273
poses, has given to their age, so easily acquire. It is really
nothing compared with learning to walk, or to talk, or to
read (since that art, once learned, is itself auxiliary to learn-
ing short-hand), or to play on the piano. An intelligent
child of eight would master its chief difficulties in twenty
lessons, and at that age, would have time to become skilled
in the art of reading it, — which, by the way, is to adults
the chief difficulty. Nay, ordinary lesson books might soon
be printed in it.
What an economy of time, patience, paper, and ink, the
revolution Avould effect ! Methinks I see the results. What
sweet little hillet-doux which no dove need be employed to
carry, but which might be wafted on the wing of a butter-
fly! What delicious little note-paj^er should we see, 160mo,
and envelopes of the size of a peascod ! Farewell ail lum-
bering books and huge collections ; we should literally have
" pocket libraries ; " a gentleman might carry half the plays
of Shakspeare in one waistcoat pocket, and all Milton in
the other ; while a whole Bodleian almost would go into his
great-coat. Your good husband might have put the huge
Encyclopaedia, about which he Avas so terribly anxious, into
his portmanteau. Prithee set about learning and reading it
without delay.
To be sure we must expect, should this great revolution
be effected, to hear something about " vested rights," as in
all such cases ; of printers and paper makers perishing of
starvation, just as the old stage-coachmen Avere to do when
railroads were opened ! Petitions wdll perhaps be presented
for the taxing of all short-hand books. If any such tax
be imposed, let us hope that it Avill be in the ratio of their
cubical contents ; in that case the impost will not be ruin-
ous.
Shall we have the penny ocean-postage? I think we can
scarcely expect it ; nor as a financial measure would it be
274 THE GREYSON LETTERS,
wise. Twopence or threepence, however, would do well,
and that is surely little enough to pay for sending a missive
to the Antipodes. I have not the shadow of a doubt that
such a rate as that would pay its expenses, and, after a time,
even yield a fair revenue ; for we are but at the beginning
of the immense intercourse which will soon bring all islands
and continents into close neighborhood; everybody will
soon have friends and relatives everywhere, and the facili-
ties of communication will jog memory. In a little lime,
more thoughts will be exchanged, more love breathed fi'om
one end of the earth to the other in a month, than formerly
travelled between London and Edinburgh in a whole cen-
tury. It is no doubt sweet thus to converse, but I still
hanker for an improvement. I long for an occasional peep
at you by an " Electric-Telegraph Trip-train," and above
all, I want the Electric Telegraph itself to the other world,
and have a message now and then from those dear ones w^e
have loved and lost. Oh ! what a luxury would that be.
But it cannot be. I can talk to you on the other side of
the equator, but from that dread land of silence, divided
only by the " narrow stream of death," on the frontiers of
w^hich we ever stand, and into which we may any moment
glide, we can hear no tidings, and can send none thither.
You see the old wound still rankles.
And yet I am both presumptuous and ungrateful in talk-
ing thus. I am presutnptuoiis in saying " I can talk to you
at the Antipodes; " for at this very moment, my heart whis-
pers that you (and the thought chills as I write it) may al-
ready have passed into the Avorld of shadows, or /may be
a shadow before you read this ; and I am ungrateful^ for if
our hearts are where they ought to be, a.nd where our pro-
fessed " treasure " is, there will be no lack of sympathy and
communion between us and heaven ; if we cannot hold in-
tercourse with departed friends, we can with Ilim " in whom
TO A FRIEND IN NEW ZEALAND. 275
tliey abide," and who will not forget either them or us, as
long as we forget not Him. And when we can truly feel
thus, we need no celestial " telegraph " any longer ; at least
I can truly say, and nothing can wrest this experience from
me, that quicker than steam, than light, than electricity —
even as quick as thought^ God is present with us when, in
the full repose of a child's love and faith, we desire to be
present with Him.
Thus may you and I, dear Louise, often hold intercourse
with Him, and through Him, with one another ; thus may
we often see the patriarch's vision, " of angels ascending and
descending," busy in the ministries of love to us in this the
land of our pilgrimage ; and, at last, when we go hence to
the world beyond, may we see those " shining ones " who
have preceded us thither, coming down to the margin of the
" dark river " to welcome us with harp and song, as in the
immortal allegory of old John Bunyan. And now for a
little family gossip before I close.
.... Your old friend, Matilda M , is about to be mar-
ried. After living so many years, Avithout doing any exe-
cution in the world, it is odd that she should thus transfix
a heart at the age of forty-two. Yet I find I have been
guilty of two impro2:)rieties in a breath ; for how do I know
but she may have, in her desk, half a dozen tributes from
admiring swains twenty years ago ; and, in truth, if she at-
tracted none in her bloom, I am sure Cupid must be (as he
is represented) blind ; for, I fancy, few women could have
been more agreeable, and if never handsome, she must have
had pleasing features. You will doubtless tliink it a yet
more deadly sin against courtesy, that I should talk thus at
random about a lady's age. But, indeed, my dear, I still
spoke discreetly ; I said forty-two, and I judged so Uj lady's
measure ; for, to my certain knowledge, she was forty-five,
more than a year ago, according to the reckonimr of man's
276 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
more fleeting years. But ladies' measure of time is by a
wand which is truly an enchanter's wand. A year is a va-
riable quantity, and increases as they advance. Up to
twenty-five I do not observe any difference between a lady's
year and a gentleman's. It is a just annual revolution of
the sun from the first point of Aries to the same again,
neither more nor less. From twenty-five to thirty, it is, as
near as I can guess, about a year and a-half, as w^e men
count years ; from thirty to forty the dear creatures seldom
advance a year under three of ours ; and from forty to five
and forty, they have a natal day about once in every five
years ; after that time, each year is an immense lapse of du-
ration, and, in point of fact, I suppose that there are very
few ladies that ever do get beyond fifty. Dej^end upon it,
that Methuselah's wdfe was but fifty when he was in his nine
hundredth year !
Nay, I have known cases, where ladies, like the planets,
have not only had their stationary points, but their retro-
gradations ; they have to all appearance travelled back
from five and thirty to thirty, and then started forward
again.
Ask your friend Mrs. Dawson, who went out to New
Zealand at nineteen, and who ought now, therefore, to be
just thirty-eight. Rely on it, you will find that she is but
twenty-nine or thirty at most ; and if she appears older, it
is all the climate, my dear — that horrid climate
With kindest regards to your husband.
Ever yours affectionately,
K. E. II. G.
ESSENTIALS OF FRIENDSHIP. 277
LETTER LXIII.
to alfeed west, esq.
My dear Friend,
I thank you for your note, introducing Mr. L ; for
it is always pleasant to hear from you, though in the
present case I should have been better pleased had the
letter come by her Majesty's servant in the red coat.
I assure you that, for your sake, I did my best to do
the civil thing by your friend, and, I hope, not unsuccess-
fully. But, in short, we did not take ; you take me. By
the way, there is a double idiom for a despairing foreigner
to gape at !
You will say, perhaps, it might be owing to an inop-
portune hour for his visit, or some other casual circum-
stance. Perhaps so, in part. He did happen to drop in
when I was very busy ; and, what is worse, he stayed an
hour and a half, which I could ill spare. We talked for
some time on the proverbial platitudes which form the
usual introductions among Englishmen, — the weather —
the prospects of the harvest — the public health, and half
a dozen other topics, which, though very important, no
one cares a doit about, and which do not tend to make
our comj^any less irksome ; and then, when we got to
others, your friend seemed to me a little crotchety^ and of
the two, — crotchets or platitudes, — you know I de-
cidedly prefer the latter, dreadful as I admit the dilemma
to be. Something then, I allow, may be due to all this ;
but not alL Your friend is a decided gentleman, affable,
intelligent; but if you ask me further, why, — especially
as backed by so potent an introduction, — I did not take
to him more warmly, I can make you no other answer
24
278 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
tlian Je ne sais pas ; or quote those old lines of our school
days which seein to me to contain a good deal of latent
philosoj^hy : —
" I do not like you, Dr. Fell,
The reason wliy, I cannot tell ;
But this I know, and know fuU well,
I do not like you, Dr. Fell."
" Stuff! prejudice ! " methinks I hear you say ; " and so
you permit your heart to harbor unkind thoughts towards
a stranger, on account of such silly prepossessions as
these ! " Stop a minute, Mr. Lecturer. Who said a word
of unkindness, or even of prejudice, if that is to imply any
degree of ill-will? Can you not imagine such a thing as
a purely intellectual antipathy? a want of some corres-
i:>ondencies of taste, of sentiments, of association, which
shall render intimacy as impossible as though the parties
spoke different languages ? N^ay, more so, for minds may
be congenial — the eyes and features may show it, actions
may confirm it, when the tongue cannot. Cannot you, I
say, imagine all this ? can you not imagine that two men
may respect each other very much, and yet wish one
another at Jericho? I am sure I can; nay, I am con-
scious of sometimes feeling it. There is your friend,
now. I would as soon do him a kind turn, if I had it in
my power, as any one else of my species, (not reckoning,
of course, my intimate friends,) but if we two were the
only inhabitants in the world, I should wish — except
when we might be of substantial use to one another —
that we might see as little of each other as possible;
showing ourselves once a month, say, on the opposite sides
of a broad river, or two opposite mountain-peaks, and
making each other a profound salaam, by aid of a tele-
ESSENTIALS OF FRIENDSHIP. 279
scope, in token of our continued existence, respect, and
good will.
There are cases where all genial intercourse, and so all
the essential pre-requisites of friendship, are out of the
question ; and this even where you believe another, in
whom you find them not, much better than yourself; nay,
Aviiom it would require but a very little mending and
darning of a few holes in their humanity to clotlie in a
suit which a decent sort of angels might not be absolutely
ashamed of.
Friendship, my friend, is as some one has said, — or if
he has not said, I will say it for him ; — no, now I think of
it, I believe it was said of Matrimony (which, by the way,
is friendship, plus a circumstance or two) — friendship, I
say, is like a plum pudding, a conglomerate of a highly
complex and artificial character. Benevolence, indeed,
must be its basis, like plums in the pudding; but there
may be benevolence without friendship, though there
cannot be friendship without benevolence (see Aristotle's
Ethics, Cicero de Amicitia, and, in short, every other
moralist, which I think about as useM a reference as
many that the learned are in the habit of giving), and so,
in addition to these plums, there are a score of other
ingredients to be mingled in due proportion; to say
nothing of a very long concoction, and even the pudding'
hag of proximity, or at least oft-renewed presence (see
Aristotle again, and 7iot all authors this time, for the
remark is original), without which friendship becomes a
very wishy-washy thing; — like that plum-soup which a
Turkish ambassador, ambitious of giving his English
guests an English dish, presented in a tureen ; in Avhich
indeed all the ingredients of a plum-pudding — or rather
the disbanded " molecules " of one — were floating, and in
exact proportions too. The ambassador had unhappily
280 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
forgotten in his orders to the cook the insignificant, but
indispensable bag.
However, the presence of many ingredients, though they
are not all equally essential, is necessary for the j)udding;
and it is even so also with friendshij^ ; and I maintain that
there may be, and often is, an innate antipathy of mind,
sentiment or taste, without any ill-will or prejudice in the
world, which makes it imj^ossible that two men should
ever be friends ; no, not even by the most prolonged
concoction — or the very best pudding-bags in existence.
Well, well, you say, it will be different in heaven, at all
events. There, all intellectual as well as all moral an-
tipathies will be done away with, and everybody will be
everybody's friend. " I am no sae sure o' that," as that
deaf old Scotchman said, who was so fond of disputation
that he used to launch this formula of obstinacy, if he only
saw any one of the company making a strong affirmation,
and whether he heard it or not. That nobody Avill be
anybody's enemy in heaven, I grant ; that " love un -
feigned," true benevolence (glorious world!) will be con-
stant and universal, I have no manner of doubt; — that
there will also be all the amenities of social life, — such
tvwQ 2')oUtesse that even a Frenchman shall acknowledge,
without any hypocrisy of compliment, that the inhabitants
of heaven are "les gentilshommes les plus polls dans tout
le monde," — not excepting even Paris, — all this I be-
lieve ; but whether there will not be the same intellectual
sympathies necessary for the formation of close friendships,
I have my doubts ; — in other words, I doubt whether the
manufacture of moral plum-puddings may not go on in that
world as well as this, and whether, while plums shall be
still the basis, concoction and pudding-bags may not be
needed just as much as now. I don't know how it may
be with you, but I can fancy a man saying even in heaven :
ESSENTIALS OF FRIENDSHIP. 281
"Do you know angel So and So? He is really a most
worthy, excellent, estimable angel, but somehow we can't
get on well together ; he is a fine tall creature ; of a noble
presence ; has beautiful wings ; flies well ; but, to speak
the truth, he is a shade too musical for me ; is too fond of
his singing; will sing you through the 119th Psalm with-
out stopping, and then begin again; or — he is a little too
light and airy, will come flying through my oj^en window
when I would rather be alone, or alight, like some swallow
in our old world, upon my roof, and twitter and chirp
there, of course most divinely, for the hour together ; or —
he is a thought too j^rosy, and bores me a little with
philosophy ; or — he is too knowing, and has been here
too long to enable me to understand him fully; he is
always recurring to that little tour he made of the uni-
verse fifty thousand years ago; or — he is too much of a
virtuoso for my taste, and is full of that inimitable collec-
tion of cockleshells, flies, and the sixty thousand species of
amaranth which he has gathered from two thousand dif-
ferent worlds ; or — he is too much of a Public Angel for
me. He is always for dragging me to great ' assemblies '
and ^N'ew Jerusalem 'gatherings,' when I would rather
spend half of my time in some quiet nook of the ' ever-
lasting hills,' and muse alone." All this I say I can
imagine; I can imagine that even in heaven "tastes
differ;" but the beauty of the place will be, that tastes
shall give no offence, for no one will be offended with you
for not sympathizing with them. Yes — will you, can
you believe it ? — you may actually stop angel A in his
singing, at the hundredth stanza, and he won't take any
offence at it. You may say that you do not altogether
sympathize with angel B's dearest friend, and he won't
think the Avorse of you for it. Pray take the hint.
Yes ! my dear friend ; perfect congeniality in all moral
24*
282 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
tastes, perfect sincerity, and j^erfect superiority to offence,
will be heaven itself; but depend on it there will be varie-
ties of other tastes, and therefore degrees of sympathy, and
therefore degrees of intimacy, there as here ; and so, (which
is not least to be prized,) I shall have the precious privi-
lege of my solitary, but no longer morose, humors ; of
sometimes being for whole days quite alone ; and not as
you, with your more jovial and musical tastes, imagine, al-
ways in a crowd, chirping, singing, twanging harp-strings,
clapping wings, and performing celestial " sonatas." But
I grant all will be good — whether in company or solitude —
and that will be heaven ; it is not flat uniformity, identity
of feeling, monotony of employment. There is truth, I
firmly believe, in the conceptions of our great bard as to
unexpected analogies between heaven and earth. Nay, is
it not Raphael himself who speaks in the divine j^oem ?
Milton is but his " Reporter." ....
Yours truly,
E. E. H. G.
LETTER LXIV.
TO THE SAME.
July 29, 1849.
My DEAR Friend,
I little thought when I wrote to you last that x shoula
so soon see the counterpart of the litigious deaf Scotch-
man I mentioned. Surely, however possessed with the
spirit of controversy and contradiction, he could hardly
surpass a travelling companion I met with the other day
on the top of a coach — there are few such now — between
Grantham and Melton Mowbray. My positive friend broke
in with doubt or flat contradiction, no matter what was
said, — not exactly like the Scotchman, without hearing^
LOVE OF CONTRADICTION. 283
but, what comes to much the same thing, whether lie
understood what was said or not. What an odd humor it
is, and yet a not unfrequent trait of character.
On finding how egregiously this humor of opposition
possessed him, and that nothing coukl be started but he
threw himself into a pugiUstic attitude, I coukl not resist
the temptation to play a little on his foible by gently giv-
ing the conversation a curve when he had made some strong
assertion, and so coming round to an aj^pearance of agree-
ing with him ; no sooner done, than I immediately found
he was quite as ready to maintain nearly the opposite of
his former position. In short, his tongue, like the point of
a weathercock, boldly veered round, and faced the pre-
vailing wind, no matter what quarter it might blow from.
It was some time before I discovered this ingenious me-
thod of making him agree with himself and me too, and
so relieving our journey of that annoyance which a perpet-
ual wrangle between two people who cannot run away
from one another must needs occasion.
We talked of the weather (of course), of the crops (of
course too), of the Russian interference in the affairs of
Hungary, of the Queen's projected visit to Ireland and
Scotland, of the cholera ; but I found that whatever I said
I must necessarily be in the wrong. ^
In very weariness I thought it advisable sometimes to
nod a seeming acquiescence in what he said ; and I almost
think he would have quarrelled with my 7iod^ if he could ;
but whenever I attempted to modify his statements into
something near what I could agree with, I was favored with
a defen-ce (not very valid, I admit) of my own formerly
expressed oj^inions. Among other things, I happened to
remark that I thought it curious that after such immense
researches, in all parts of the world and among the most
sagacious of the medical j^rofession, into the nature and
284 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
causes of the cliolcra, so little light had been thrown on
the subject, lie, of course, did not think it at all strange ;
and said (what was true enough) that the real causes of
almost all diseases are difficult to ascertain. I admitted
tlie justice of the remark ; and said that, perhaps, consider-
ing tJiat<t we ought to wonder rather that medicine had
made so much progress than that it had made no more ; he
was disposed to douht that observation, and thought that
" considering their long and patient researches " (just what
I had started with in relation to a particular case !) much
more might have been done by the unlucky doctors.
I said that it must be very difficult to form a correct
diagnosis of disease, considering the complex and evanes-
cent phenomena to be observed, and remarked that the
very representations of the patient himself might often
mislead. I have heard, said I, laughing, physicians affirm
that they would rather attend a baby that could not si^eak,
than an adult — whose very absorption in his own sensa-
tions, and his exaggeration of them, might put medical
sagacity on a false scent ! I told him, (what was true
enough,) that I had seen a Latin Essay, written by a young
physician on taking his diploma, which expressly main-
tained this paradoxical thesis. He thought at once that a
j^hysician must be a hloclchead to say so ; for surely it must
be of great advantage to be able to get an articulate an-
swer to his questions — instead of listening only to inarti-
culate cries. I admitted it, and said that doubtless, on the
whole, a patient must be allowed to be a pretty good judge
of his own sensations, and in general would give a tolera-
bly accurate account of his symptoms. He was not so
sure of that, and declared that a Avise physician should
trust very little to his j^atient's information, and treat him
much as if he was a child!
Now there is a sense, no doubt, in which all these obser-
LOVE OF CONTRADICTION. 285
vations may be true enough under certain limitations and
modifications. They are among the " antitheta " (as Ba-
con would say) which will furnish rhetorical common-places
on both sides. The drollery was to see how eagerly my
acquaintance always took the opposite.
Thus delightfully, my dear friend, did we go on in this
pleasant game of conversational see-saw. I cannot give
you any idea of the manner of Mr. Positive ; it was prompt
and absolute — " decisive and clear, without one if or but" —
as if his speeches had been expressly framed on this prin-
ciple : " Whatever you say now, I will contradict it ; and if
you agree with me, I will condradict myself! Only let me
hear you say anything that I will not contradict ! " and ex-
cept you had told him that he was a very wise man, in
which case you would have told a great fib, I scarcely think
you could have found the proposition in which he would
have agreed with you. His very image was the Irishman,
who, despairing of a shmdi/ at a fair, — everything threat-
ening to end in unwelcome and unwonted tranquillity, —
took off his coat, and trailing it in the mud, said, " And
by St. Patrick, would'nt I like to see the boy that would
tread on that same ! "
I think I have met with men equally fond of contradic-
tion, — of taking the other side, — but they in general won-
derfally soften and disguise the humor by polite periphrases
and delicate circumlocutions. " Pardon me, but I really
think " — "I should agree with you entirely, but " — "I ac-
knowledge there is a great deal of force in that observation,
only " — "I am surprised to hear a person of your evident
good sense ." It is astonishing how much better these
things sound than " I do not think so " — "I am of quite
a different opinion " ■ — " that is a mistake." But it is an
odd humor at the best ; more odd, though scarcely more
agreeable than an oj^posite trait of character — I mean the
286 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
timid vacillation which defers to every opinion. These
two sets of characters ought by rights to go always toge-
ther, for their reciprocal annoyance, — one subjected to the
humiliation of perpetual assent, the other to the equal
misery of never encountering an antagonist !
I was reminded, in the neighborhood of Muston, of
Crabbe. I was anxious, if it might be, to catch a glimpse,
as we rode along, of the house he used to live in. I asked
the coachman of his " whereabouts." He looked thought-
fully for a moment, and then said, " Crabbe — Crabbe — I
never heerd on him, sir : I don't know of no such person
in these parts." " The poet " — said I, " the poet ! " He
shook his head, and then turning to a farmer behind, said,
" This gentleman wants to know where one Mr. Crabbe
lives." Ye gods ! one Mr. Crabbe, as if there were a dozen !
The farmer was not more enlightened. Only think of it;
Crabbe, dead not yet twenty years ; barely thirty since he
last lived in that neighborhood; and yet, though his name
has traversed England and America, it may be unknown,
it seems, at his own threshold. " A prophet is not without
honor save in his own country and his own house."
Much the same answer I got from a worthy farmer of
whom I inquired, in a pilgrimage many years ago to Chal-
font St. Giles, — « Which was Milton's cottage ? " He re-
plied that he did not know of any man of that name there-
abouts ; but that he might live in one of the new houses a
little further on ; some strangers had come lately ! By
the way, I fear the little room over the porch in which the
blind poet wrote (it is said) the "Paradise Regained,"
duriug the plague of London, exists no longer.
Yours ever affectionately,
K. E. H. G.
MOUNTAINS VERSUS BOOKS. 287
LETTER LXV.
To C. MASON, ESQ.
Isle of Skte, July 26, 1851.
My dear Mason^,
Your cousin has just arrived — out with such a load of
packages that I hardly know how he will manage to stow
them away in the Lilliputian apartment provided for him
in my modest lodgings here. Three boxes, two portman-
teaus ! — the former almost wholly filled with books ! I
tell him I am persuaded it is nothing but ostentation, —
the very Pharisaism of scholarship which has made him
come ^vith such a retinue of authors at his heels ; for Avho
ever did, would, or could study much amidst mountain
scenery ?
But I will be charitable withal ; for I remember well
that, in my younger days I made similar vain provision, un-
der like circumstances, for that intellectual appetite which
never came, or which would only languidly toy with a page
or two at a time, and to which a couple of Volumes, and
twice as many pamphlets would have been a Bodleian.
Yet have I lugged with me into the mountains scores of
books never to be read ; — a specimen or two of my favor-
ite poets, — three or four volumes of j^hilosophy, — only
think of metaphysics under the shadow of Scheliallion or
Ben Nevis! — a modest sprinkling of Greek and Latin
Classics — a few books of history and romance, — in short,
a well selected library in petto. The delusion is some-
thing like that of certain provident old ladies going a voy-
age for the first time, in the " Margate Hoy " days. What
hampers of provender — what choice ham, veal-pie, potted-
beef, and bottles of wine and ale ! But ah ! a roll or two
288 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
of the vessel as she got beyond the Nore, — and how su-
j^erfluous did all this foresight appear.
It is much the same with our intellectual provender in
such scenes as we have here, though the loss of appetite
arises from a pleasanter cause. As long as the weather is
fine, who can think of poring over his books, and after an
excursion to distant mountain or glen, who is not too Aveary
for it ? Yet {horresco ref evens) the books may be of service.
I shudderingly recollect — six — ten days of continuous
down-pour in this very Elysium, and then, what a treasure
were a few books and a gray goose quill ! But a very few
will do; and as to writing, — a good deal maybe scribbled
on a couple of quires of paper. But this library of your
cousin, why it looks, {ahslt omen !) it looks^ I say, as though
the fellow had made up his mind that we shall have wet
weather. However, let me hojDC that it may rather be an
amulet against it. When you go out without an umbrella,
the clouds, they say, are certain to take sly advantage of
your folly, and drench you to the skin. What perpetual
sunshine may we not expect when their malice sees that
we are thus fortified within doors against ennui!
He tells me that on wet days, we can read some of the
tougher books together, — another delusion ; I fancy we
shall hardly dip into them ; we may perhaps condescend to
lounge through a novel or so ; but as to regular study it
must be let alone. Two people are sure to converse rather
than read, or read only to converse. I remember once sit-
ting down with a very dear friend to a pamphlet which had
just come out, on a subject in which we both felt an interest.
Something in the very first page suggested some doubt on
my part ; it was expressed ; the propriety of my doubt was
doubted on his ; — the disputed point soon became, under
the clearing effects of debate, a certainty with him, — with
me palpably false ; and after wrangling the whole morning
MOUNTAINS VERSUS BOOKS. 289
in that preliminary discussion, we closed the yet uncut
pamphlet, and rushed out into the glorious sunshine, wish-
ing the jDamphlet, its author, and our discussion at the An-
tij^odes.
" What an intellectual epicure the love of the picturesque
has made you," — I fancy I hear you say. Not a whit ; —
but I confess I like to spend these little intervals of deli-
cious idleness — this " honeymoon " of the Soul and Nature,
as little i^estered by either business or literature as may be.
So I do not intend to let your cousin study much;
though that I fancy, will not give me much trouble, for in
three days his books will be as much forgotten as if he had
left them at home. As it has been rather a hazy, drizzling
morning, however, he has been busy in unpacking and ar-
ranging, them, and evidently thinks he has done a clever
thing in dragging all this lumbering weight of dead men's
brains with him. He has paid handsomely for land car-
riage, I promise you. "Books give us no trouble," says
Cicero, " they delight us at home and don't hinder us Avhen
we go abroad : " — " Delectant domi, non impediunt foris,
pernoctant nobiscum, peregrinantur, rusticantur."
I am not so sure of that, friend Cicero. I fmcy Master
Francis could tell a different story, and that a chest of
books — enough to break down a luggage-train — and of
a weight, figuratively, beyond all computation, is a very
serious addition to a traveller's " impedimenta."
We shall not, I think, leave this beautiful spot unless it
be for a week's run or so across the Kyles to Glen Urquhart
and Glen Shiel. But we squat here, as they say in Aus-
tralia, and the term is hardly too Australian for our primi-
tive lodgings, — the best we can procure however. I love
to see a gem of an island like this in perfection ; and the
only way to do so, is to locate yourself in a convenient
place, and radiate in successive excursions, day by day, to
25
290 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
all the most channing points of scenery, whether of moun-
tain, sea, glen, or stream, — surveying them all from tlieir
best aspects in all the glorious variety of light and shadow,
cloud and sunshine, morning or evening tints, — and soda-
guerreotyping each scene for ever on your memory. I have
been to Loch Coriskin, dark under the savage shadows of]
those singularly abrupt and gloomy mountains of green
granite ; but I hope to go often again. The spot well de-
serves all the admiration Scott has bestowed on it, in his
"Lord of the Isles," though his description hardly conveys
an exact impression. O that you could join us ! But I
suppose that is impossible. Your patients, like all other
foolish sick people, vnll have the notion that the doctor is
essential to them, — Avhen, I dare say, they Avould get on
just as well without him, — not to say a great deal better !
However, whether they have any need oiyoii or not, I sup-
pose you have need of them / — so I shall say no more
about it, except that I heartily wish there might come such
a season of public health as would allow the doctors to look
after their own. But I forget ; that would be worse than
all ; you would doubtless be found bemoaning the general
health more than the Great Plague itself
I remember hearing of a sexton and a doctor condoling
with each other at a casual meeting in a churchyard, on
the i^erverse salubrity of the season : " I have not dug a
grave, sir," said the disconsolate sexton, " for these three
week." " And I assure you, John, said the doctor, with an
equally lugubrious face, " there has not been a ' serious
case ' in the parish for a month i^ast." Perhaps the sexton
thought the doctor a little to blame for their being out of
work, and that if he had done his j^art, the one might have
had patients, and the other a grave or two to dig.
You will say, perhaps, at this jibe, — "A little learning
is a dangerous thing." If so, I shall feel inclined to retort
TO A DYSPEPTIC FRIEND. 291
on you (but perhaps with more reason) by quoting the per-
verse commentary of a Methodist preacher on that cele-
brated line. " ' A little learning,' says the poet, ' is a dan-
gerous thing.' Ah ! then, dear brethren, what must a great
deal of it be ? " Did ever ignorance plead its cause more
ingeniously ?
Ever yours,
E. E. H. G.
LETTER LXVI.
TO , ESQ.
Edinburgh, Mondaj'-, Aug. 4, 1851.
My dear Friend,
I am grieved to hear of your dyspepsia, and I have, as
you wished, spoken to your old physician. Dr. S . I
heartily wish it were in his power to give you more specific
advice than, at this distance, it is possible he should. To
prescribe four hundred miles off (or, for that matter, four
feet) without seeing the patient, is, in his opinion, the
merest quackery. The only cases in which it could be jus-
tified are those, — and I apprehend they are not infrequent,
— where the patient has nothing the matter with him. In
such cases, if the doctor wished to minister " to a mind dis-
eased " by amusing it, he might, if an allopathist, send a
prescription for colored barley-water in grotesque medical
Latin ; or, if a homoeopathist, an infinitesimal globule ;
though I am not quite sure that I could easily bring myself
to practise this innocent sort of cheat on my patient, even
to deceive him into health
But in any serious case (and any case, truly says Dr.
S , may become so by being treated injudiciously), this
mode of cure, by doing nothing under a learned name, is
292 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
out of the question. Though, therefore, it may do for a
conjurer, a clairvoyant, or a great "Indian Medicine^^ to
prescribe for disease at a distance, it will not do for any
genuine son of Esculapius. A physician really sagacious,
and prophetic by long experience, may give ever so seem-
ingly superficial a glance at a case, — and yet may rapidly
combine the sym2)toms and deduce a just conclusion from
them ; but he must at all events see his j^atient. There-
fore take your old friend's advice and, without delay, go to
the nearest physician of repute.
Symptoms very similar to yours, says S , may follow
from almost any one of the many species of the many genera
of dyspepsia, to which ingenious Nosologists vainly toil to
reduce that Protean malady ; a malady of which, notwith-
standing all their minute classifications, nature still presents
them with inexhaustible varieties. And as the different
varieties may and do require corresj^onding delicacy of
treatment, it is obviously imj^racticable for one at a distance
to prescribe for you.
To a certain extent, however, both he and I are willing
to prescribe for you ; for it requires no great skill and no
medicine at all. Comply to the utmost of your power with
the general conditions of health, which are equally to be
observed by everybody, and which, when diseases can be
cured, will generally suffice to cure them — though a wise
physician may do much to aid the 2:)rocess. Take all the
indications nature itself gives you, and act upon them rig-
idly. Be regular in your hours — take plenty of air and
exercise — do not rob yourself of the proper (p.iantmn of
sleep (wliich I suspect you do) for business, or for any
thing — however necessary you may deem it ; for your
first necessity is to get well. Above all, be careful to take
that diet which you feel by experience best agrees with
you. One word as to that deceptive appetite — that illu-
TO A DYSPEPTIC FRIEND. 293
sive voracity, wliicli you say sometimes i:)lagues you. Dr.
S says that you are not to listen to this lying oracle
in the stomach, which often deceives a dyspeptic patient.
— When the organ is empty, it assures him that it can and
will deal with a full meal ; and then when full, fails to ful-
fil its promises. This ^niscalculation^ — either from a mor-
bid appetite, which seems at i^resent to be your case, or
from a too voracious appetite, which is the case Avith the
majority of mankind, — is a frequent cause, as well as symp-
tom, of dyspepsia. We almost all eat more than can be
fairly assimilated, and hence a chronic faihire in the tone
of the organ habitually overAvorked. There is certainly
something very provoking in the not uncommon case of a
disproportion between a factitious hunger Avhich the empty
stomach affects, and its power of performance ; because the
clamor it sets up is a false sign-post, and misleads* As to
those, who, while the stomach says nothing, or even grum-
bles and resents, will overload the j^oor drudge, — they
deserve all that they suffer. It is the old story of a per-
verted Avill — a moment's present gratification, and a future
costly price of torment for it. The Avheedling j^alate says,
" another slice, or another cuj) " — and down it goes into
the reluctant recej^tacle. Here j^ity is out of the question.
But there is something very pitiable Avhen a poor mortal
is the Adctim of a deceitful lure — a factitiously voracious
appetite, — itself the result of disease, not of health. The
true way of taming this Avolf, as sometimes other wild
beasts, is by letting it fast.
But Avhether the taking of food beyond what nature re-
quires, be the effect of involuntary or voluntary depravity
of appetite, your old Mentor and mine is of opinion that, in
nine hundred and ninety-nine cases out of a thousand, it is
the cause, remote or proximate, of all the infinite forms of
tliat comprehensive disease, which lets our consciousnesf=i
25*
294 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
into a secret which nature intended we should be ignorant
of — namely, " that we have stomachs." He affirms, and I
rather think with truth, that nearly all the learned talk that
is made about the quality of food, as wholesome or other-
wise, difficult or easy of digestion, might be spared, if only
people sinned not in quantity. He says, men in health
might almost take anything that can be digested, provided
they took it in no excess. This seems confirmed by the
general experience of most who have plenty of vigorous
exercise, pure air, and but little to eat. Nay, how soon
does the pampered dweller in cities, who, perhaps, at home
was complaining from morning to night of a queasy stomach,
find this out in a rough tour through a country like this !
What a solvent is the keen mountain air — what a power
of dealing Avith anything that comes to hand (short of
gravel and oyster-shells) does the stomach attain ; and, if
moderate in quantity, how little does it " keck " at the
quality thereof!
Let me know how you are, soon. Dr. S., I should add,
(for the opinion of a physician one confides in, is itself one
of the very best prescriptions,) predicts that your symp-
toms will soon pass away.
Yours truly,
E. E. H. G.
LETTER LXVII.
Arkan, Aug. 12, 1851.
My dear Sir,
If I do not comply with your request so fully as you may
wish — for I have time only for a few brief hints — it is, as
you will be sure, from no lack of interest in your pupil. As
the son of an old friend, his welfare will never be indifFer-
CONSCIENCE. 295
ent to me. But to the point. He says, " It seems it can
never be wrong to follow conscience, let it lead to what it
will — and to doit must always be pleasant; that, there-
fore, even a conscientious Atheist must be blameless, and
may be happy and safe." But suppose there is no con-
scientious Atheist! What then? At that supposition
he would, no doubt, be indignant. Well, then, let us
waive it.
J. T is Uke many other youths of his age, enamored
of a half-truth, and, none the less that, seen in that state, it
looks like paradox, and moreover seems to promise, what
youth so dearly loves, a " Principle " which admits of no
modification, no exception. His statement contains a truth
indeed, but he must not suppose that there is anything very
novel in his discovery.
It is an undoubted truth, discovered long before J.
T was born, and clearly enough laid doAvn by a host
of moralists and casuists, — by Barrow, Jeremy Taylor,
Stillingfleet, Chillingworth, — that " a conscience, however
erroneous, obliges.'''' But though it is true that a man must
follow his conscience loheii made^ the question returns,
whether he may not have had a trifle to do with maJcing it.
It does not follow that because a man must obey his con-
science, he is blameless in so doing. To make him so, we
must assume that up to the time he is called on to act in
obedience to its authority, he has had nothing to blame in
the process by which he has come to have such a conscience ;
no prejudice, no indolence, no remissness in investigation,
no disingenuousness, no momentary listening to vanity,
waywardness, interest, or any other of the ten thousand
warping influences which bias our judgments. Only in the
case in which a man has impartially dealt with evidence,
up to the full measure of his opportunities and abilities, is
he blameless ^' and he is blamable, much or little, as he
296 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
has, much or little, deviated from this standard. So far
from its being true, therefore, that to follow conscience (no
matter whither) is certainly a " safe and pleasant duty," it
may be, and often is, the very curse of a man's past unfaith-
fulness. In a thousand ways may man contribute to the state
of mind in which he at last believes a lie to be the truth ;
and in proportion as he has done so, the necessity under
which he brings himself to follow the " blind guide " is cer-
tainly no matter of congratulation, unless it be any such,
" that both shall fall into the ditch."
It is true, indeed, that however pitiable his condition, it
is still blameless, (I fear it is an apology which will rarely
avail,) if it was absolutely imj^ossible for the man, be it
from the structure of his mind or his inevitable lot in life,
to prevent the result or modify it for the better !
We cannot doubt, I think, that many a Thug — many a
Mahometan fanatic — many a Romish Inquisitor — many
millions of Idolaters — have conscientiously j^erformed acts
which we call the most detestable crimes. Well, the errone-
ous conscience, while they are in that state, coerces them,
as much as a more enlightened conscience binds an apostle.
Does it, therefore, leave them as blameless ? Are we not
only to pardon a Dominick, but to regard him with compla-
cency — as we must if your pupil's principle be true? Is
it not absurd to say so ? We cannot even pardon him (as
I have shown) unless the state of mind into which he has
been brought is wholly and absolutely involuntary. If it
be, pardon him we must ; but even then we shall, at most,
pardon — and pity ; or shall we, like our young philoso-
pher, say that a Bonner deserves admiration as much as a
Hooper, — for both are conscientious ?
If J. T shrinks from this, and says " no," for it cannot
be that any man can conscientiously mistake acts, in them-
selves inhuman and cruel, for duty, (though I fancy he has too
CONSCIENCE. 297
much sense, in the face of history, to affirm that,) we should,
of course, say that this is begging the question. If he
should say, (what, perhaps, he would say) that his apology
for " an erroneous conscience " is not designed to apply to
the " practical," but to the " speculative " only, — to
" opinions " not to " actions," then the next thing must be,
• — and a difficult task he will find it, — 1st, to state the
limits within which the apology for an "erroneous con-
science " does not apply, by making the requisite distinc-
tion between " sjoeculative opinions " and their consequences,
involved as these are, especially in all matters of a moral
and religious nature, with one another. This complication
all superstition too plainly proves, — for as is the belief, so,
as a general rule, is the practice ; 2ndly, to prove that man
is not responsible for his head as well as for his heart ; for
his speculative opinions as well as for his practical prin-
ciples ; that while an *' erroneous conscience " does not
excuse him for the state of mind in which he conscien-
tiously believes that it is his duty to roast heretics, it does
excuse him for conscientiously holding the Pope to be
infallible, amidst so many j^roofs to the contrary ; or that
there is no God in the universe, amidst so many proofs that
there is one! And yet who does not see, in these very
instances, the impossibility of separating between specula-
tive opinions and their practical results ; for he who holds
the former of these tenets will naturally obey it, and, like
many a Dominick of the Roman Church, end by roasting
heretics, if the Pope bids him; while he who holds the
latter will not, I think, have much difficulty in coaxing his
conscience to any " practical principles " he pleases.
In accordance Avitli the spurious charity which character-
izes our day, J. T is, I perceive, most indignant with
those who think unfavorably of anybody for conscientiously
acting upon his opinions, be they what they may. The
298 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
very argument is self-confuting, find the bulk of mankind
are absolved from attending to it. For if men conscien-
tioitsly think, as most men do (and are likely to do, I
imagine,) that men are deeply censurable for the conditions
of mind in which they take egregious falsehoods for truth,
and practise abominable crimes as duty, they are excused
for conscientious condemnation of such conscientious people,
by the very terms of J. T 's own arguments ! We,
surely, are not to be blamed for following co7iscience any
more than such mad apologists for its eccentricities !
Such are a few hints which, if I were near you, I should
give him.
Yours truly,
E. E. H. G.
LETTER LXYIII.
TO .
LoNDOx, Dec. 11, 1851.
My dear Sie,
I cannot offer a single word of apology to your " secular "
guest for what I said. You know he distinctly affirmed,
in consistency with some of the " Secularist " authorities
of our time, that he believed it was desirable to get rid of
the conception of a presiding Deity under any possible
modifications ! — and that the absence of any such notion
was more favorable to human virtue and morality than its
presence. This opinion is asserted, as in some other Athe-
istical works (all obscure enough, to be sure,) so in a little
one which proposes it as the " Task of To-day," to anni-
hilate the — Deity! No doubt it will be the task of to-
morrow also, and, I should think, the day after that.
You will recollect that when your " secularist " acquaint-
ance affirmed the above strange dogmas, I gave him a fair
"SECULARISM." 299
opportunity of retracting, by saying that if he merely meant
that such a God as millions had worshipped, — a Belial, a
Moloch, — an obscene and cruel Deity, — even a Yenns or
a Bacchus, — might possibly be as bad as none, (or worse,)
many might agree with him ; but if he meant sicch a Deity
as implied Perfection of Wisdom, Justice, Power, and Good-
ness, none but a liar or a madman would. lie positively
reaffirmed, however, his opinion that, under cm^ modifica-
tion, the idea of a God was pernicious ; that Atheism was
better than Theism ; and particularly appealed to those
great " authorities," M. Comte, Mr. and Miss .
It was then I said, if you recollect, (what I still say, and am
prepared to maintain,) that I hold myself absolved from
arguing with any one who can affirm that the idea of a j^er-
fectly holy, invisible, ever-present, infallible Governor (sin-
cerely entertained), is more unfavorable to virtue than the
notion that there is no God at all ; or that, so far as it has
any conceivable bearmg on human conduct, it can be other
than auxiliary to every imaginable motive to morality ; that
I was convinced, so long as the human intellect was consti-
tuted as it is, that the man who asserted such a paradox
must be regarded by ninety-nine men out of every hundred
as a liar, and that the hundredth would only shield him from
that by supposing him onacl.
I still hold to every syllable of that declaration. It is im-
possible, constituted as we are, that we can believe any
man other than a hypocrite or an idiot, who tells us that,
if you add a motive or two motives coincident with ten
others, to these last, the whole will be diminished in force :
that the supposition of an unseen judge over the thoughts
as well as actions^ and who will infallibly reward or punish
them, in accordance with what even your "secularist" ac-
quaintance himself believes to be true principles of human
conduct, will be an impediment to right-doing ! Would
300 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
it not be just as easy to believe that two and two make
five?. . .
I am quite ready to argue with any candid Atheist, if
such tliere be, (of which I have my doubts,) as to whether
there is a God or not ; I am sure he will not descend to this
sort of knavish or idiotic paradox. If sincere, he will say,
"AVell, if there be no such God as you have described, so
much the worse for the world. I admit that ; one must
confess that it is desirable there should be such an one ; but
that does not prove that there is one." That is what I
should call intelligent and candid ; and the argument might
go on.
As to what he says of my want of charity — but let the
man say what he pleases. If he be a liar, who would, and
if an idiot, who could, reason with him ? and that he is either
one or the other, is beyond doubt with me. . . .
Yours very truly,
K. E. H. G.
LETTER LXIX.
to a homoeopathic feiend.
My dear Feiend,
I thank you for your kind inquiries after my health. I
am happy to say that I am much better, without going to
consult the homoeopathic doctor whom you so ardently re-
commend. But I have, — pray do not be offended — done
what is almost the very same thing ; that is, nothing. Dr.
E , though not a homoeopathist, is, I believe, as well ac-
quainted with his profession as any man in it. Finding the
symptoms very obscure, he declined, like a wise man, pok-
ing about in the dark, and possibly doing me more harm
than good ; and advised me, after giving me a few simple
TO A HOMCEOPATHIST. SOI
directions as to diet and regimen, to put myself under all
the natural conditions of health among the mountains. I
did so — and voila / I have returned, I do believe, as well
as if I had taken — if I could be ever sure I had taken —
sundry trecillionths of a grain of that infallible specific you
were so kind as to prescribe for me.
Your zeal on behalf of homoeoi^athy amuses me ; but you
quite mistake matters, when you tax me with forgetting the
Baconian philosoj^hy. You say it does not become me to
reject well-ascertained facts, " because they are mysterious
and inexplicable."
I have no objection in the world to facts, be they ever
so mysterious and inexplicable. But I must be sure that
they are facts on a just induction. I assure you that if I
found, from a report of a " Joint Committee " of Allopatli-
ists and Homoeopathists, (and it must be so constituted, else
the two factions would have no efiectual check on each
other's prepossessions,) that of a thousand patients laboring
under a certain complaint, say scarlatina, 80 per cent, were
cured under allopathy, 70 per cent, without any treatment
at all (though I should not wonder if Dame Nature did just
as Avell as any of the faculty), and 90 per cent, under homce-
opathy ; and if the experiment, several times repeated, gave
each time the same or -approximate results, I should at once
become a homoeopathist, — all the mystery and mcompre-
hensibility of its " facts " notwithstanding. So that you see
I am, after all, a very consistent Baconian. But I cannot
receive qicasi " facts " as facts, without just evidence, and
certainly cannot take their "mysterious" character as an
antecedent presumption of i^robability. As to the general
'principle of homoeopathy — "Similia similibus curantur" —
I have nothing to say about it ; I am an incompetent judge;
as incomj^etent as yourself, who are an excellent lawyer, I be-
lieve, but, so far as I know, as little of a physician as I am.
26
302 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
I must leave the faculty, therefore, to wrangle about this
principle. But as to the minute doses, for the jjhysical effi-
cacy of which you vouch so manfully, I have a few things to
object. You say that it is as well ascertained a fact that the
ten thousandth part of a grain of antimony will produce an
appreciable effect, as that a scruple will ; or as any flict in
the range of inductive science. I doubt it ; I can and must
judge, principally, from my own consciousness, though not
from that alone. I take your prescribed globule, and can-
not find that it produces the slightest effect on me. I have
taken, — I am willing to take any of your decillionths of
grains, (only bargaining that I may be sure of the necessary
dilution or trituration by performing the process for myself,
but under your eye if you like,) from one to fifty. I have
done so, and I do not find that the effects you assign follow
from these minute elements. I have known many other
people say the same. What am I to think of the matter ?
You say that the experience of others is different : that
they find the minute doses palpably " potential ; " that the
effects of even a decillionth of some substances have been
appreciable. No such averments can annul the negative
instances I have mentioned ; for your inference, on the pos-
itive side, may easily be the fallacy of " ISTon causa j^ro
causa." For example, the peristaltic action is often slightly
increased by the mere imagination that medicine has been
taken, when it has not ; many other processes are similarly
quickened by fancy ; in many, again, all that is required, is,
instead of taking medicine, to use a little patience ; and na-
ture will perform her wonted task without the globules,
and will doubtless perform it none the less because of the
globules.
I have known a person, troubled with sleeplessness, take
his invaluable " minutissimum " of a soporific, — his narco-
tic atom, — and congratulate himself next morning that,
TO A HOMCEOPATHIST. 303
after only two hours or so of restlessness, lie fell into a calm
sleep, — all owing, of course, to the viaticum of a globule !
I, on the other hand, equally troubled with sleeplessness,
2)erform the same feat perpetually — without any globule at
all. Two or three hours of sleeplessness are not spent alto-
gether in vain. The simple solution is that both parties are
wearied out, and at last go to sleep.
Now I can account for the effects in many such cases,
without suj^posing your globule has had anything to do
with them ; but I cannot account for the icant of effect in
the negative instances; that is, where your globules, to all
consciousness, produce none.
You may reply, perhaps, that there are cases in which
large doses fail of their effect. I grant it ; there are no
doubt cases in which the effect is intercej^ted by special
causes; but we must go by general inductioyi^ and five
grains of opium or two scruples of rhubarb will effectually
convince nine hundred and ninety-nine out of every thou-
sand that they have taken something. The difference in
the two cases is, that those who venture to say they are
conscious of the effects of your decillionths are, so far as I
can find, very rare exceptions ; while, of those who take
the larger doses, the rare exceptions are those who are
not affected ; that is, the general rule and the excejjtions
change places. Again, even when the larger doses fail of
their general effect, they leave, I fancy, potent signs to con-
sciousness that something has been taken ; whereas I can
take one or ten of your decillionths of a grain every hour
for four-and-twenty hours together without any conscious
effects whatever; and other folks have similar obstinate
ex^^erience. Once more, then, what am I to think of the
matter as a Baconian ?
You tell me, and truly, but to no purpose, that the most
minute elements of nature arc often of the most potent
304 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
character ; that a drop of the Cobra's jioison is fatal ; that
in certain locaUties we breathe subtle forms of death,
which we cannot detect. But here is still the difference ;
we know these agents by their effects, which are the very
things which I do not find in the exhibition of your infini-
tesimal doses. About the bite of a rattlesnake (or even
of a mosquito, for the matter of that) there is no mistake ;
and if I could discern by any facts, whether of sense, con-
sciousness, or reasoning, that the millionth j^art of a grain
of belladonna had j^roduced any appreciable effect on me,
I should just as easily credit it. My difficulty is that I
cannot find the effects.
You say that there are some substances so potent, that
exceedingly minute doses — as of strychnine — have a sen-
sible effect. I admit it ; but still if you keep to the same
scale of minute doses, — minute proportionably as the med-
icine is potent, — the same objections apply. A fraction
of a gi'ain of strychnine is doubtless equal to many grains
of nux vomica; but if you give only a quadrillionth or
trecillionth of a grain, I shall still have no objection to
take it.
If you say there may be substances so potent that even
such a dose may be aj^i^reciable, I should think the wisest
way would be to have little to say to such dangerous j^oi-
sons, since you cannot, I fear, control them.
Another doubt I feel as to your infinitesimal doses is
this. How can you be sure that you have administered
them — that they liave got into the patient's stomach at all?
If they have not got there, I admit that they will j^roduce
no more effect than — they usually do when they have got
there. ]>ut I know not how to be sure that they have
reached their destination. They may, like the globule
which was arrested in the hollow tooth of Hahnemann's
patient (his solitary fatal case !) be waylaid by a million
TO A HOMCEOPATHIST 305
obstacles, each too much for the poor little atom. Like
the elements of natm'e, which you truly say are too subtle
for our inspection or control — the contagious air, for in-
stance, whence we inhale poison without knowing it — •
these infinitesimals are too minute for your manij^ulation.
You had better leave them alone.
Moreover, I cannot comprehend, on such a theory as
yours, how it is that we can remain in health for a day,
since we must be taking all day long through our lungs
and in our food, (especially in these days of adulteration,)
your minute doses of the most deleterious substances. If
you say, according to the usual assumption, (and it is noth-
ing more,) that they will only affect the man in disease,
and not in health, then when he is out of health, positively
ill, and under treatment, these j^otent, though inapprecia-
ble agents, must come into play, and, one would think,
must confound your therapeutics. If you say that they
all happily neutralize one another, I suppose your little glo-
bule will be but another element among them, and must,
one would think, get neutralized too ; certainly you know
as little what becomes of it as of them. At all events, it is
clear that if such a chance-medley of potent " infinitesimals "
can thus happily neutralize one another, anything like a
calculable administration of your solitary "infinitesimal"
is out of the question. One need not be surprised that
the homoeopathist, the contents of whose chest his children
got hold of, played with, and jumbled together, (all un-
known to him,) went on practising with the same success
as before ! In short, I cannot away with your hyj)othesis —
or rather, I must away with it.
Yours truly,
E. E. H. G.
26*
306 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
LETTER LXX.
to the same.
My dear Friend,
I begin to suspect the logic of your legal maxim, " De
non apj^arentibus et non existeiitibus eadem est ratio ; "
so valorously do you content for your infinitesimal doses.
I cannot get myself to go further into them, but they shall
be very welcome to go into me instead.
You have far outdone the generality even of the
homoeopathists themselves in the defence of Hahnemann's
strange theory of " dynamisation," that is, that infinitesimal
doses are not only potent, but potent in the ratio of their
minuteness ; really I am unable to say one serious word
to you.
According to this, the " second, third, fourth, .... nth
orders of infinitesimals " (as mathematicians would say)
are progi-essively powerful ; in i^roj^ortion, it seems, as an
atom becomes nearer to nothing, it becomes so much more
efficacious ! Just as it vanishes, I presume, it must be —
omnij^otent !
Nothing can exceed your doctrine except Hegel's philo-
sophical paradox — Nothing — Being. If your theory be
true, I marvel at the usual language of homoeopathists, who
speak of the higher dilutions in the order of feebleness, not
of potency, and tell a patient not to venture in such and
such a case on anything stronger than No. 30 ! They ought
rather to enlarge than diminish their doses, when they
wish to diminish the effect ! Nay — surely a scruple of
strychnine ought to produce less effect than a grain, and a
grain than the trecillionth of it !
But there is one argument in your last letter I cnnnot
let pass. You say that, at least, tlie public is indebted to
TO A HOMCEOPATFIIST. 307
the theory of minute doses for a modification in tlie prac-
tice of allopathists ; that it has abridged that wholesale
exhibition of drugs which used to be the fashion, and
which turned many a poor patient's stomach into a drug-
gist's shop. I am really pleased to believe that the rivalry
between the medical .factions has been attended with some
such eiFects. At the same time do not flatter yourself that
the revolution is greater than it is.
Too much physic used to be given, that is certain ; but
do not suppose that all was physic that was taken. Kely
on it, — as many a medical man's confession, if ingenuous,
would show us, — that it was not left to the hom(E023athists
to find out the art of doing nothing under the appearance
of doing something, just to amuse a patient; "vixerunt
fortes ante Agamemnona;" millions of bread j^iUs, millions
of innocent drauixhts of infusion of roses and a dram of
syrup, quite as harmless as your globules, used to travel
down the throats of patients, simply because they would
have something, and because the doctor must be paid.
The only difference between the two classes of 23racti-
tioners often is, that the one charges in the direct propor-
tion of the innocent bulky nothing, and your friends charge
in the inverse proportion of the innocent infinitesimal
nothing. It was, I grant, a rather absurd j^ractice ; but,
on the other hand, it was hard to know what to do, since
many patients would not be cured unless they swallowed
all this nothing ; and, what is much more important to the
doctor, would not pay unless they had, as they thought,
"value received" in the shape of the material drugs, in-
stead of reckoning their true debt to be his visits and his
skill.
Strangest of all, the law allowed the general j^ractitioner
his claims only in the shape of so much medicine from his —
shop ! For aught I know, the law remains as it Avas ; but
308 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
the sense of the peojole is beginning to see that a j^rofes-
sional man is to be paid for his knowledge and his time,
and not according to the "weight avoirdupois" of the
goods he supplies from his warehouse. But, be assured,
the essence of this branch of the art, — of doing nothing
under imposing forais, — was understood long before
homoeopathy was born, and will be understood as long
as the credulity of patients shall demand that something
be done when the medical man thinks that notliing
need be.
ISTor can I admit your sarcastic remark, that " if the
globules do no good, they at least cannot on iny theory do
harm ; and that this is more than can be said of allopathic
doses." I fear there are many cases, and I have seen some,
where your globules have done much harm by preventing
anything good being done ; — where symptoms that re-
quired prompt treatment, were dawdled with till disease
got strength, and it Avas too late to do anything. I must
also express my conviction that your doctors have an in-
comparable knack at making hypochondriacs; and, as I
must think, very naturally. How should it be otherwise ?
Your system teaches a patient to believe that his life is
ever at the mercy of infinitesimal elements and infinitesi-
mal changes. Can he be other than fidgety about matters
which never trouble other people's sleep ?
Certainly, as far as I have observed, there are no folks in
the world who require the doctor or take physic so often
as the homoeoi:)athic j^atient ; hardly a day passes without
the medicine-chest being opened ; well for him that it con-
tains nothing ! Sunilarly, nobody is so sensitive about all
sorts of innocent changes of air and diet. For my own
part, it would be a torment to live on the terms of some of
the votaries of your infinitesimal doses, whom I have
known.
TO A PIOMOEOPATIIIST. 309
However, I freely admit that such people are to be met
with often enough among the 2:>atients of allopathists ;
though I must think that your system is specially adapted
to befool a nervous temj^erament and stimulate a morbid
fancy.
I handsomely concede that there are classes of patients
to whom your practice may be beneficial. 1st. I think it
is of admirable use for those patients — and there are
many — who have nothing in the loorld the matter loith
them / for, as they will take physic, but require none, it is
better they should take nothing, though they think it
something! — at the same time, it must be said that the
bread i^ills and the infusion of roses might, on the other
system, do the work of nothing just as well. 2dly. For
those who suffer from anomalous conditions of the nervous
system, amenable, in a measure, to the fancy, (as they
often seem to arise from it,) but whose symj^toms baffle all
rational treatment. It is often very important that these
patients be amused with the apj^earance of something
being done, — though here again the more bulky vehicles
of nothing may do as well, for aught I can see, as the
infinitesimals. 3dly. For those who have, indeed, some-
thing the matter with them, but whose symptoms are so
obscure that a wise doctor is afraid to do anything lest he
do mischief; while yet (the general case) the j^atient
insists that something shall be done. Now here the glob-
ulets (if I may venture on the double diminutive) are
admirable, I admit ; though, again, the more corpulent pill
of bread may be just as efficacious.
I am afraid you Avill consider these large concessions of
the utility of your doses rather an insult than a compli-
ment ; but if so, you will please to recollect that it is ex-
tended with much imi^artiality to the opposite practice.
In good earnest, as long as men are so credulous in their
310 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
reliance on medicine, as to insist that when the doctor
knows that nothing need be done or can be done, or
knows not what is to be done, he yet shall do something.
I see no help for it. If it be gravely argued that it is
unworthy of a physician to administer a system of delu-
sion, and that he had better leave his patient uncured
than cheat him into health, it is a pleasant question of
casuistry which the doctor may, if he will, discuss in a
clinical lecture, and see what his patient says to it. If the
system be one of deception, I fear, nevertheless, that the
physician must, to some extent, practise it or — starve.
But, — pardon me for saying so, — excepting the above
cases, that is, when disease and its indications do not
summon to prompt and decisive treatment, I, for one, had
rather not trust to the globules.
Ever yours,
E. E. H. G.
LETTER LXXI.
to the sa]me.
My dear Feiend,
It is in vain that you reiterate that you have " seen the
good effects" of your darling globules — that you have
seen your children recover under their use. I have
already told you I have no diiBculty in believing any
" facts," merely on account of their " mystery ; " and that
if, on a fair induction, more patients were discovered to be
cured by your system than by any other, I should believe
in it, were it (if that be possible) ten times as mysterious.
But a single case or two, or indeed any man's private
experience, is not worth a rush in the controversy either
TO A HOMCEOPATHIST. 311
way: and for this simple reason — that every system of
medicine might be proved equally efficacious on the same
ground, inasmuch as it is the general rule that the sick get
well, whether you do anything or not. Now, if I found,
as I often should, that of three cases of (say) measles, all
recovered, though one was treated allopathically, and one
homoeopathically, and one not treated at all — (mind, I
say not that it is of httle consequence which system, or
whether any, be adopted, for Nature may be wisely aided
even when she is quite competent to the case) — what
right should I have to assign the cure, in the one case, to
the infallible globule? You will say, — "As much as the
allopathist to assign his cure to the more bulky drugs."
1 answer, just as much, — that is, none at all; for the
third cure, it seems, is to be attributed to — nothing ! In
fact, such individual instances are of no value; nor any-
thing less than the wide and patient inductions I men-
tioned in the outset.
A very common fallacy is that of " Non causa pro
causa," and esi^ecially in medicine, where a plurality of
causes or apparent causes may perpetually mislead. To
the generality of men, it is enough if a certain antecedent
has preceded a certain consequent, to satisfy them that
there is the relation of cause and effect.
Hence numberless fantastical remedies which differ-
ent ages and nations have prescribed as useful in dis-
ease, merely because their employment has happened to
be nearly coincident with the cure, though they have no
more caused it than the cock's crowing causes the sun to
rise. This credulous association of a mere antecedent of
the cure Avith the cause of it, (which is all but universal
with patients,) is, it must be allowed, too much encour-
aged by doctors of all kinds. Nothing is more common, in
reports of cases, than to find an improvement attributed
312 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
undoubtingly to the administration of such a medicine,
when the difficulty really is to establish the connection
If a i^atient gets icorse after the medicine, I never find
this sequence insisted on; though, for anything that we
know, it might be, just as reasonably. "Ah!" says a
patient, " it was a good thing I called in the doctor ; he
cured me." If he is cured without any doctor at all, he
thinks nothing of it ! If a patient recovers, it is always
the doctor that cures ; if he dies, ought it not often to be
the doctor that kills? But it is then always — Nature.
When the j^atient recovers, the doctor gets rid of the
disease in spite of Nature ; when the patient dies. Nature
gets rid of the patient in spite of the doctor ! How do we
know how often the statement ought to be reversed;
how often Nature saved the patient in spite of the doctor,
and how often the doctor killed the patient in S2>ite of
Nature ?
You will say, perhaps, that I speak like one who is
" sceptical " as to the use of medicine altogether ; you will
infer falsely then. I do indeed believe that attacks of
ordinary disease would in the immense majority of cases,
be cured, though every physician in the world were
poisoned; and that the great agent of cure is the "vis
medicatrix" with which God himself has fenced the
human organism, and by which it stoutly resists every
incursion of disease. But I believe there is a noble sphere
for the physician too ; though I frankly confess my fear,
that from the extreme difficulty of a really comprehensive
induction, — of establishing the true connection of " ante-
cedents " and " consequents," and from the infinitely va-
riable, evanescent phenomena the science has to deal
with, — it will yet be many ages before it attains much
certainty, and will always be, to a great extent, a science
of guessiJig, Nevertheless, even now the wise physician
TO A HOMCEOPATHIST. 313
has plenty to do, — especially if he will not promise or
attempt too much; if he will but be content to be the
cautious '-'-naturm ^ninister^'^ and stand by with the hoj^e
of aiding those processes within us, so many of which
transcend all his art, and which, if he be rash, he may
much more easily hinder than help ; if, in a word, he takes
that view of his j^osition to which "old experience does
attain," and which, in the language of Dr. Forbes, will
lead him to acquiesce "in a mild tentative or expectant
mode of 25i*actice;" — certain to appear wise " in old age,
Avhatever may have been the vigorous or heroic doings of
youth."
Surely we must allow that even if the physician only
alleviates pain, and abridges processes which might other-
wise be tedious, he is well worth all his fees. Nor less if
he takes charge of us in healthy and, studying its general
physiological conditions, endeavors to keep us well. In
truth, paradox as it may seem, it is when w^e are in health
that we ought chiefly to look to the physician, and to
avail ourselves of his skill. We should hear what he says
(usually wise enough) about how we are to keep out of
his hands ; about regimen, diet, hours, occupation, and so
forth: and the next best thing is to consult him, not when
we are^ but when we are going to be ill; when we are
" getting out of health," as the j^hrase is. Then he has a
chance of doing much more for us than in actual disease,
and can often ward sickness off*, or break its force. We
are told that the Chinese Emperor's j^lan is to pay his
physician while he is in health, and stop his i^ay when
sick : the j^lan is ingenious, but can hardly be safe ; for if,
as the Celestials allege, it will stimulate the doctor's dil-
igence, it is equally probable that should his Emperorship
be laboring under a chronic or incurable disease, which
might keep the doctor starving for a twelvemonth, it
27
314 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
might stimulate his industry a little too much, and usher
in the reign of a younger and a more healthy monarch !
Nevertheless, it is quite true that while the physician
keeps us in health he best deserves his fees, and if we
knew our own interest, we should then most Avillingly pay
them.
In sickness, as I surmise, his art becomes darker and its
success more dubious ; his study of physiology is calculated
to do more for us than all his study of pathology.
I have, you see, kej^t to my word, and said little or noth-
ing of your system, except in relation to that point in which
you have, to speak honestly, rather bored me, — the infini-
tesimal globules.
As to the " universal principle " of homoeopathy^ I leave
it to professional people to fight it out, though I must say,
for one, that the assertion of some one " universal princi-
l^le," on which all diseases are to be cured, (like " Similia
similibus curantur,") has a mighty occult quackish sound,
and looks much more worthy of Paracelsus than Bacon.
Neither does it seem quite fair of Hahnemann to charge all
other practitioners with uniformly j^roceeding on some one
opposite principle, as " allopathy or antipathy ; " for neither
" homoeopathy " nor " allopathy " was ever heard of till he
chose to invent the terms, and taking one himself, gave
the other to all the rest of the medical world ; whereas, I
suppose, there is hardly any practitioner that would deny
there are some cases in which his " similia similibus " would
apply well enough, though they would be loath to make it
a " universal principle."
By the way, I perceive with much satisfaction that these
infinitesimal doses, which you are so anxious to vindicate,
are no longer insisted on as necessary to the system, by
your homoeopathic friends, — many of whom are abandon-
ing them in practice. Most, I observe, are in open revolt
TO A IIOMCEOPATHIST. 815
against Hahnemann's principle of "clynamization," which
affirms that drugs are ])Otent in proportion to the attenua-
tion of the dose ; according to which a pinch of arsenic
equally diffused in the Atlantic might prove fatal to all the
fish in it ! — The curative property of a medicine is, accord-
ing to Hahnemann, developed in a far higher degree by an
inconceivably small than by a palpable dose !
Will you be angry if I tell you of a curious instance of
tlie power of fancy in relation to your globules ? One of
the "faithful" on a certain night had taken tico globules
instead of one ; — perhaps three ! Alas I what was to be
done in a case so imminent ? The unhappy man lived in a
small town near Edinburgh, in whose benighted pre-
cincts no homoeopathic practitioner was to be found, and
in desperation deigned to consult an allopathic doctor,
whom, in a tremor, he called up, to know whether he could
do anything for him. The mystic tube was placed in the
doctor's hands. The ignorant doctor looked at the globules
in des2:)air. At length he poured a dozen or two mto his
palm, and said, " My friend, I cannot save you, but I can die
with you ! " He swallowed them ; and nothing coming of
it, the patient took heart of grace, departed in peace, slept
soundly, and was cured of his nervous flmcies and his dread
of the despotic globules at the same moment.
Forgive me in conclusion, if I just hint that the bold ex-
hibition of your medicines, and the writing of " Defences ''
of homoeopathy by utterly unprofessional folks, gives your
system an undeniably empirical appearance to the world
in generaL It looks as if you thought medicine the only
thing that may be understood without study or experience ;
that instead of being the most difficult, it is nearly the
easiest of the sciences. Here are you, for example, a good
lawyer certainly, but ignorant of the very elements of all
those sciences which lie at the basis of the successful prac-
31 G THE GREYSON LETTERS.
tice of 3Icdicine, — of Anatomy, Physiology, Botany,
Chemistry, — yet becoming quite a homceopathic knight-
errant or evangelist ; — prescribing at any distance, and
sending your all-saving globules by post ! I think, if I
were a homoeopathic doctor, I should say of all such ama-
teurs — " Non tali auxilio ."
Yours truly,
K. E. II. G.
LETTER LXXII.
TO ALFKED WEST, ESQ.
London, Oct. 18G4.
My dear Friend,
The recovery of your casket was very remarkable ; and I
am sure you ought to reverence hereafter the "Electric
Telegra2)h," for without that you might never have seen it
again. Certainly it plays the part of Puck to admiration ;
and perhaps in time, to the shame of the nimble Ariel him-
self, will put a girdle round about the earth, not in five-and-
twenty, but in less than five minutes. I remember
prophesying to an engineering friend, when the wires were
first laid down a few miles out of London, that in all pro-
bability some twenty years hence we should be able to
transmit a message to Calcutta in seven minutes. He did
not shake his head in grave doubt, but shook his sides in
laughter of incredulity at the seeming extravagance of the
thouijht ; but when the first few miles of submarine tele-
graph were completed, he came over to my opinion, and
declared his belief that the thing might be.
Even in that case, however, we shall probably be as
much struck with the limitations imposed on man's j^OAver,
as with the extent of it; these will still be quite enough to
FEATS OF THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. 317
keep him humble, if anything could keej) him so. You
send home a message, for example, that trooj^s are instantly
to be sent to India ; but as they cannot be sent by " Elec-
tric Telegraph," they will make their appearance some
three months after date, and perhaps as many after the
crisis is over in which alone they could be of service. You
send word for the " Vulcan " or the " Gorgon," or some
other of those great war-steamers with the amiable names,
to come home immediately. The mandate reaches them
in five minutes ; they instantly obey, as far as the sluggish
nature of steam permits (oh ! ye powers ! that ever " steam "
should be so spoken of) ; and three months after, the lum-
bering old hulks (still by comparison I speak) make them-
selves visible at Spithead or the Kore. It is as though you
sent a monkey to a sloth, bidding him look about him and
be brisk ! The lightning of the " Telegraph " flashes from
hence to India, from one end of heaven to the other, in a
moment, and the report follows a quarter of a year after-
wards. But all is typical of human conditions still ; it is
the old contrast between promise and fulfilment — thought
and execution — the tongue and the hand — swift imagina-
tion and slow-paced reality. The electric flash is quick,
but the flash of thought is quicker still ; and yet, with inert
matter to deal with and vanquish, what years often elapse
between a bright concej^tion like that of Watt, and the
tardy realization !
Certainly some of the minor achievements of the " Tele-
graph" are very amusing, — as in your case. To be sure,
you would not call it so ; it was, to you, a grand feat, con-
sidering the A^alue of the recovered Avaif Perhaps, too, the
fond mother to whom the following happened, would think
the like in her own case. She was travelling by express,
and her little girl, feverish and thirsty, asked for a little
water just as they Avere leaving a certain station. The
318 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
mother threw open the window, and called to the guard to
order a glass. But the inexorable train was just starting.
" No time, madam," said the guard ; " but I will tell them to
telegraph for one at the next station." No sooner said
than done ; and at the next station, with due ceremony,
out came the glass of water ready for her, though at rather
a high price. Yet she thought it cheap enough.
I remember, a few months ago, leaving by express that
great trysting-place of railway trains — Normanton, where
sometimes, for a few moments, there is a charming chaos of
passengers and luggage to be despatched a thousand differ-
ent ways. A lady, who did not know that she was to
break her journey there, was suddenly summoned from her
trance of satisfaction, and hastily quitting the carriage, left
in the nettimx a nice silk umbrella. A few moments after
she left, I noticed it, and remarked to a gentleman sitting
by me, that we must remember, when we got out, to point
it out to the guard, and describe the person who had left it.
On getting to my destination, some thirty miles further on,
I had no sooner deposited my portmanteau on the platform
than I turned to look for some official that I might point
out the stray property to him. I saw a guard standing at
the door of the carriage I had just left, and told him : "All
right, sir," said he, " I have got it. It has been telegraphed
for from Normanton." But was it not too bad, to be thus
balked in this attempt to do a little bit of kindness and
honesty by that thief of a telegraph ?
But I think the most curious fact, taken altogether, that
I ever heard of the electric telegraph was told me by a
cashier of the Bank of England. You may have heard of
it. It may have been in print. I am sure it deserves to be.
" Once upon a time," then, on a certain Saturday night, the
folks at the Bank could not make the balance come right,
by just 100/. This is a serious matter in that little estab-
FEATS OF THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAni. 319
lishinent : I do not mean the cash, but the mistake in arith-
metic ; for it occasions a world of scrutiny. An error in
balancing has been known, I am told, to keep a delegation
of clerks from each office at work sometimes throuirh the
whole night. A hue and cry was of course made after this
100/., as if the old lady in Thread-needle Street would be
in the Gazette for want of it. Luckily on the Sunday
raormng, a clerk (in the middle of tlie sermon, I dare say,
it the truth were known) felt a suspicion of the truth dart
thix)ugh his mind quicker than any flash of the telegraj^h
itself. He told the chief cashier on Monday morning, that
perhaps the mistake might have occurred in packing some
boxes of specie for the West Indies, which had been sent
to Southampton for shipment. The suggestion was imme-
diately acted upon. Here was a race — lightning against
steam ! and steam with eight-and-forty hours' start given.
Instantly the wires asked, " Whether such a vessel had left
the harbor ? " " Just w^eighing anchor," was the answer.
*' Sto]) her ! " frantically shouted the electric telegraph. It
was done. " Have up on deck certain boxes marked so and
so : weigh them carefully." They were weighed ; and one
— the delinquent — was found heavier by just one packet
of a hundred sovereigns than it ought to be. " Let her go,"
said the mysterious telegraph. The West Indian folks
were debited with just lOOZ. more, and the error was cor-
rected without ever looking into the boxes or delaying the
voyage by an hour. Now that is what may be called " do-
ing business."
Yours,
E. E. H. G.
320 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
LETTER LXXIII.
TO A MESMERIC ENTHUSIAST.
3Iy DEAR Friend,
Your " furor mesmericus " amuses me. I quite agree
with you that there is no possibiUty of arguing against
tacts ; it is their amount and significance alone that I ques-
tion in the present case. I have no manner of doubt in the
workl that you have witnessed, as you say, the artificial
production of some curious phenomena. They seem to me
to resemble in many respects those which somnambulism
spontaneously presents, and probably depend on similar
conditions. I doubt, however, — see my moderation, — the
entire phenomena of " clairvoyance, " as you call it ; and
also whether even those more limited phenomena, the occur-
rence of which I do not doubt, are referrible to any myste-
rious influence proceeding from those who profess to
exercise the function of mesmerists ; whether there be any
" nervous emanation " issuing from them, or any incompre-
hensible dominion exerted over the will of their patients,
or indeed any other influence whatever than is implied in
activity of imagination and susceptibility of nerves in the
latter. It seems to me that it is loithin and not yylthout^
that the true causes of the phenomena, so far as they are
real, are to be sought ; in the advantage w^hich the condi-
tion of the patient gives the operator, not in any power
which proceeds from hhn ; not in the pokings and wavings,
called " passes, " of the operator's fingers. Of course the
stronger the belief in his mystical power the greater will be
the operator's chance of success ; but all such 2:)redisposing
causes are the patient's contributions to the result, not
those of the mesmerist. In a word, I believe the fortress is
surrendered, not taken by assault.
TO A MESMERIC ENTHUSIAST. 321
And this, I tliink, accounts in part for the capricious
character of the phenomena ; that one man is not at all
affected, another slightly ; this man soon, another slowly ; —
I think, I say, it accounts for the facts more easily than
your mysterious talk of " passes, " " mesmeric currents, "
" magnetic fluids, " and sympathetic " rapports."
I have myself been under a somewhat celebrated ope-
rator's hands ; and nothing came of it. I am so far, how-
ever, from being incredulous on that account, as to the
facts of which you speak, that I can the more readily credit
them ; for though I do not admit that they are due to some
mysterious influence on the operator's part, I am inclined to
believe, from my own experience, that there is perha^^s no
one who might not be brought into a condition of catalepsy
by subjection of the optic nerve, or possibly any other sur-
face of sensation, to prolonged and monotonous stimulation.
Nay, though the mesmerist's operation, (by the influence
which the flincy or nervous susceptibility of the patient
may give to him,) may facilitate the result, I believe that it
might generally be produced without any operation at
all ; — the effect being more or less rapidly induced, and
more or less marked, according to the constitutional pecu-
liarities of the individual. I quite believe that if a man,
even by hhnself^ were to fix his eyes intensely on a small
bright disk without wnnking, he would after a time find
himself (or rather be found) in a state of catalepsy. Some
of the familiar experiments we have most of us made, or
seen made, with birds, when we w^ere schoolboys, — and
the initial sensations which any man, alone, may induce in
himself at will, by playing similar scientific pranks, confirm
me in this suspicion. I have heard of a man involuntarily
playing the mesmerist on himself, while intently watching
delayed signals of the electric telegraph ; the intense
unbroken gaze at length terminated in a fit of catalepsy ;
322 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
and I can easily credit it. Probably there is no man, how
ever strong his nerves, who could endure an indefinitely
prolonged umoinhbig gaze on a small defined disk without
becoming unconscious ; the trial with the human eye is still
more difiicult, as boys who attempt the feat of " staring
each other out of countenance " soon find. Certainly, when
I underAvent my mesmerist's gaze, I felt how easily the
condition might be sui^erinduced in men of weak nerves ;
and that liahit and j)ower of endurance alone Avould settle
the question as to which was the operator and which the
patient. It might well happen, I fancy, that the operator,
if he chanced to meet with a sturdy customer, might find
himself operated upon instead of operating^ — conjugatmg
the " passive " instead of the " active " voice. At all
events, I doubt whether any man's eye could bear, without
being refreshed and brushed each moment (as nature
intends it should) by nictation, to gaze for an unlimited
time on a small bright disk; and I do not doubt, that if
compelled to do so, the phenomena of your mesmeric cata-
lepsy — or something resembling it — would supervene.
And it is very possible that the same might happen if the
auditory nerve, or some limited portion of the tactual sur-
face were similarly subjected to an unvarying stimulus.
Variety of sensation and variety of thought are essential to
us ; and mind and body bear testnnony to the same pecu-
liarity of our constitution. The same thought would soon
drive us mad ; and continued intense iteration of the same
sound, if it did not force poor mind to take refuge in sleep,
would, I fancy, force it to take refuge in catalepsy.
You see, therefore, that so far from denying those ''''facts "
of mesmerists about which you make so much noise, I be-
lieve them to be more universal than you do ; I also admit
them to be very curious and worthy of investigation,
though not more so than those of somnambulism ; only I do
TO A MESMERIC ENTHUSIAST. 323
not believe that they flow from some mysterious " influ-
ence" of your scientific hierophauts, whom I place, pace
tud^ on the same footing with fortune-tellers or conjurers.
Whether it be wise to superuiduce any abnormal state
like that of artificial catalepsy, — whether it is always safe
to do so, — I have my doubts ; or at least we should not
for the sake of mere curiosity.
Such are my views of ordmary " mesmeric " phenomena ;
but as to what you call " clairvoyance," whereby men, it
seems, may see with the back of their heads, and read out
of their toes, I regard it as unsophisticated nonsense.
Yours truly,
K. E. II. G.
LETTER LXXIV.
TO THE SAME.
l^ox. 1&51.
My dear Feiexd,
I am not a little amused by your putting me on the de-
fensive. "When you ask me how, as a disciple of the Induc-
tive Philosophy, I can call the alleged facts of " clairvoyance"
in question, I answer at once that it is precisely because I
amsueli. You say that the incomprehensibility of the facts
is no reason for their rejection ; it is quite true, but nothing
to the purpose. What I want is the facts ; undoubted,
well-authenticated facts. That people can read (or rather
divine what is in a book) M'ith their eyes shut ; tell what
is doing at a given moment, by people they have never
seen, in a house a hundred miles olT; send a person, at an
equal distance, to sleep, by means of a pair of mesmerized
gloves, — surely I may be excused for asking stringent
proof of such things. You say that there is adequate, un-
impeachable testimony to such facts, however strange they
324 THE GliEYSO^ LETTEKb.
may be. I answer, that when I sift the testimony, I do not
find it adequate. I find so much that requires to be at
once rejected, that it necessarily casts susjjicion on that
scanty remainder of quasi facts I cannot account for ; and
it is more rational to conchide that they are not to be re-
hed upon than that they are. 1st. I see that many of tlie
alleged facts I have heard, and some I have had an oppor-
tunity of investigating, have turned out to be absolute
trickery; neither better nor worse than a common con-
jurer's tricks; exactly on a par with the feats of the
renowned Sidroj^hel of " Hudibras," or Cadwallader of
" Peregrine Pickle ; " and who shall say how many more
of your feats of mysterious intelligence are similarly the
efiect of concert and collusion ? 2dly. Other wonderful
stories of the kind, when unswathed from the voluminous
folds of exaggeration in Avhich successive reporters have
wrapped them, (nay, the imagination of even two or three
will often suffice,) have shrunk into such minikin propor-
tions that we can hardly see anything wonderful at all.
What B has unconsciously given to the narrative of A, and
C to that of B, and D to that of C, has made something
jwrtentous in the accuracy of a clairvoyant's responses ;
when the real facts, at last got at, show only some vague
relation between question and answer, or, it may be, some-
thing like a curious coincidence. The glowing imagination
of an enthusiast can unconsciously shape these ductile and
fluent elements into what it will ; I say, unconsciously —
for it may all be done without lying. 3dly. Though most
desirous of seeing some of those wonderful things you say
you have imdoubtedly Avitnessed, they have somehow
always escaped me. I have unluckily seen no phenomena
which need, for their solution, any such hypothesis as
yours. You say " seeing is believing," and that you have
seen; I answer, perhaps so; but I have not seen; and in
TO A MESMERIC ENTHUSIAST. 325
such a case, and in such ragged condition of the testimony,
" not seeing " is (or ought to be) " not believing." 4thly.
I find that another large deduction from the reported facts
is to be made on another score, — the credulity of specta-
tors. I find that if clairvoyant conjurers find any difficulty
in bamboozling their audience, their audience often take
the trouble oif their hands by bamboozling themselves ;
they like to be duped, and duped they are. A little while
ago, a shrewd friend of mine (a medical man,) at an even-
ing exhibition of the " phenomena," got near a clairvoyante
who Avas conveniently en rapport with the chief exhibitor.
She, my friend was told, w^ould and could say nothing
except through the exhibitor as the mediiun. My friend,
however, kept near, and while Mr. Exhibitor was befooling
his gaping audience, threw her off her guard, and got the
dumb lady to speak. The meeting broke up in most ad-
mired disorder ; but what thanks did my friend get for un-
masking the cheat ? Just this — " Confound that Mr. ;
what right had he to i^ut in his oar ? He has completely
spoiled the evening ! " Are not such things almost enough
to make one say — ** Populus vult decipi et decipietur ? "
5thly. Your experiments are all of the " tentative " charac-
ter ; not only do they generally issue in nothing that needs
investigation, but they oftener issue in nothing, than not.
Pardon me for saying that your enthusiasm wholly runs
away with you when you so rashly affirm, that if you reject
the phenomena of clairvoyance, you must reject the miracles
of the New Testament ! It is impossible to imagine any-
thing more ludicrously unlike than the two things. Not
only is the testimony for the Scripture miracles utterly dis-
similar from that for your pretended wonders, in the several
respects I have already mentioned, but in this .last it is
diametrically opposite. If I found that Christ and His
apostles professed, like the Catholics at the tomb of the
28
826 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
Abbe de Paris, to i^erform miracles only of a " tentative "
character ; — if they sometimes tried to heal the .sick, and
more frequently failed than not ; to cure epilepsy or bad
eyes, and only now and then succeeded, I should know
what to think of the matter ; I should think it more proba-
ble tliat the precarious success m a few cases was owing to
favorable circumstances in the patients — to the conditions
of the nervous system, and the character of the disease —
than to any supernatural power. I should think the symp-
toms yielded to the mfluence of fxith and imagination in
the patient, (as in many diseases they often will,) not to
the power of the thaumaturge. And even so, when I find
that in the greater number of your exhibitions none of the
wonderful things promised are done, I naturally attribute a
few seeming prodigies to lucky guesses, curious coincidences,
accident or fraud, rather than to any mysterious jjowers in
your uncertain wonder-workers. 6tlily. I am compelled to
argue thus when I find that none of your clairvoyants can
or will solve any of the simple riddles proposed to them ;
for not a soul of you would even hazard a guess at the
number of that bank note in the Dublin Bank, which was
promised to tiie happy guesser ; — as I also hereby promise
to make you or any of your friends a present of the bank
note at which I am now looking, if you will but tell me either
the bank, the number, or the date ! In such cases there is
at least a chance of success, and yet none of you will seize
it. How confounding, again, are the failures in the case of
Sir John Franklin ! He ought to have been home long
ago, if clairvoyants had not been as blind as buzzards ; for
they have again and again hazarded the promise.
A few years ago some English engineers were employed
in raising a sunken vessel at the mo^ith of the Seine, (it had
been there many years,) which Avas confidently reported
to be the very vessel in which, at the first Revolution,
TO A MESMERIC ENTHUSIAST. 327
much of the royal plate and treasure had been wrecked.
"When the operation commenced, so heated were the fancies
of some who were interested in its successful accompUsh-
ment, that they could not help being tickled witli tlie
favorable visions of a celebrated clairvoyant^ who plainly
saw vases, goblets, salvers of gold and silver, ingots^ —
goodness knows what ! Half unbelieving, his hearers were
yet half cajoled by their own hopes. Alas ! it turned out
to be only a cargo of tallow.
Though your twitting me with a departure from the
caution of the " inductive philosophy," has provoked me to
carry the war into the enemies' quarters, and to show that
yoit are the party really chargeable with the fault, I shall
not scruple to say that these fantastical '-'■ facts " are among
the few things that I should think it quite competent to
reject on a priori grounds alone. There are two, which I
think quite enough to settle the question ; but as this letter
is already unconscionably long, I shall reserve them for
another
Yours,
E. E. n. G.
LETTER LXXV.
TO THE SAME.
Nov. 1851.
My dear Feiexd,
The two things which I deem sufficient to expose your
clairvoyant pretensions, are these, — 1. You require me to
believe that the laws which so palpably limit and control
both the mode and extent of human knowledge are capri-
ciously repealed, every time your Experimenters think
proper to demand it, for the most trumpery gratifications
of their trumpery curiosity ; when, for example, they think
proper to see bHndfold, or to tell us what is taking j^lace in
328 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
the beck drawing-room of No. 6, Russell Square, — the
clairvoyant never having been there, and being, at this
present, at ISTewcastle-on-Tyne, or Dublin ! If any one
thing is obvious as a general laio^ (and plainly necessary it
is for the government of the world,) it is this, — that we
are not allowed to look through " stone walls " nor into
other people's breasts ; that the heart of our neighbor is to
liim an inviolable sanctuary, except so far as the language
of his tongue or of his actions discloses his thoughts, and
that only the eye of Omniscience can pry there. This I
say is plainly the law under which we live, and indeed
Avithout it, society would be intolerable. Yet you suppose
that Omniscience entrusts the key of this lock to every quid
nunc of a clairvoyant ; and, as far as we can judge from
the trifling purposes for which the experiments are usually
made, and the equally trifling results in which they usually
end, for the mere gratification of an idle curiosity ! Nay,
you must believe, in efi*ect, that God delegates, for a mo-
ment, nothing less than the use of His omniscience to Mr.
A. or Mr. B., who is requested to be pleased to tell instan-
ter what Mr. Smith is doing at the present moment at any
house in London ; Avhat has become of Sir John Franklin
at the North Pole ; or what is taking place in the centre
of the earth, or the bottom of the ocean ; and all, so far
as I can discern, — all — ( proh pudor ! ) that a set of
gaping youths and gossiping dowagers may have an
idle hour enlivened and a foolish wonder gratified, as
they dawdle over a cup of tea in Professor Slowman's
drawing-room ! So strongly do I believe that the laws
which God has established secure the lock of every man's
thoughts from clairvoyant impertinence, that if (which I
never had a chance of) I saw any of the wonderful facts
to the contrary which you retail, I should certainly believe
that God, at least, had nothing to do with them. If after
TO A MESMERIC ENTHUSIAST. 329
having provided himself, for example, with such questions
as I alone could answer, and yet of the same trumpery
character as those which your friends, on the 18th ult., put
to their oracle, I found really accurate responses, I acknowl-
edge that I should at once agree with you that there was
something in it — and a devilish deal too ; but, so strong is
my a priori view of the extreme improbability of God's
systematically infringing His general laws at the beck of
your clairvoyants^ and for their nonsensical purposes, that
I should deem it far more probable that, in the particular
case, (perhaps to j^unish silly folks for their credulity, curi-
osity, and presumption,) he had for once permitted a
mischievous imp to play the oracle ; I should be inclined to
say — " Monsieur Clairvoyant, or Madame Clairvoyante,
(as the case may be,) I am now perfectly convinced that
there is something in you ; but being also convinced, as
strongly as I can be of anything, that the laws of God are
diametrically opposed to this habit of prying into our neigh-
bor's bosom, I am inclined to surmise that your power has
rather a suspicious origin, and the less I see of you the
better ; I beg to decline any further familiarity with your
familiar." However, I shall know how to deal with these
phenomena, which somehow never come in my way, when
I meet with them.
2. My second reason, wholly unconnected with any ex-
periments, is, that I do not find that man makes any appli-
cation of these wonderful powers ; Avhich I think he loould
do, if there were anything in them. There is one thing
which can infallibly be depended on, if nothing else can ;
and that is, that men are surprisingly 'cute, as Sam Slick
says, in discovering their own interest — " that's a fact."
When the steam engine — the railway — the illuminating
power of gas — the electric telegraph, are placed at man's
disposal, they are not permitted to remain idle toys ; they
28*
330 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
are instantly welcomed, and applied to the most compre-
hensive uses. And yet what are any of these or all of them
together, compared with the power, both for good and evil,
of the faculty of clairvoyance, if there were any such thing ?
Would either man's cupidity or benevolence be blind to
such a marvellous agent? What a means of detecting
criminals, — of tracing "lost, stolen, and strayed I " What
a reinforcement of Bow Street ! What a happy supplement
would it afford to evidence when a prisoner does not make
confession — or, for the matter of that, how easy to take a
peep into his bosom and make the confession for him I What
a help to the doctor, — and surely no less to the patient,
whose entrails might thus be subjected, not to a lamentable
jyost mortejn, but a salutary ante Tiiorteni examination !
What an instrument for diplomatists — what an invaluable
picklock to open hostile cabinets ! What a pleasant, painless
rack for wormmg out political secrets ! What an instru-
ment, above all, in war! How cheaply the newspapers
might keep " our own correspondent " in every quarter of
the world — who yet need never go beyond the sound of
Bow Bells ! How priceless, in all these cases, Avould be a
genuine clairvoyant !
You will say, perhaps, that there are those who consult
this oracle. Well, I believe some credulous persons do so
now and then, just as some go to the vulgar fortune-teller :
but iiit were found to ansioer^ everybody icoidd. No such
discovery will human interest and human cupidity, or even
human philanthropy, allow to remain unfruitful. You will
say, perhaps, that it would be a dreadful thing if clairvoy-
ance loere thus resorted to ; that men would be secretly cir-
cumventing one another, to the utter ruin of the world !
That is a very good reason, a priori^ against the existence
of such a power, and an excellent reason, if it did exist, why
men should not employ it ; but no reason — alas ! why they
'* CONTRE-TEMPS." 331
would not ; for when was there any lack of men ready to
use any instrument, good or evil, that answered their pur-
pose ? And in this case, if any did use it and found it effec-
tual, all micst, if only in self-defence ; just as, if bad men
draw swords, good men must draw them too.
Till I see the sharp wit of man thus turning your clair-
voyance (as everything else that can be so turned) to prac-
tical purposes, I shall continue to rank it with so many kin-
dred delusions, which in every age, for a few months or
years, amuse those whose fancy is stronger than their rea-
son, and then pass away for ever.
I am yours,
E. E. H. G.
LETTER LXXVI.
TO KEV. C. ELLIS.
Dec. 1854.
My dear Friexd,
Has it never struck you that many of the events of life
occur in such a serio-comic manner (as one may say), invol-
ving so much transient vexation, yet so barren, as far as we
can see, of any results, that if we did not believe all tilings
under the control of a superintending wisdom, one might
refer them to that sort of playful, sportive malice which
schoolboys certainly have, and fairies were formerly sup-
posed to have ; malice, which enjoyed the exquisite momen-
tary distress, the comic perplexity of mortals, yet without
any serious intention of doing any great mischief? I do
not wonder that our forefathers should have resorted to
Puck, Robin Goodfcllow, and their company, to account
for these contre-tetnjys.
I have just had a specimen of this sort of practical joke.
332 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
On a recent journey I had had a small box of important
docmnents intrusted to me by a friend ; I wiUingly took
charge of it, and as it was to . be under my own eye, I
scrawled on it in joke, " John Smith, passenger." On en-
tering the Babel-like station of one of the great centres of
railway traffic, the box intrusted to me was set down for a
moment with my portmanteau ; and while I was setthng
with the cabman, an officious porter, concluding that it was
going by a train just loading, carried it away, and by the
time I turned to take it, he and the treasure had vanished.
My train, by which I was to go, was within five minutes of
starting, and in a state of the greatest possible excitement I
raced up and down the chaos of stairs and platforms in
search of the box. Almost at the last moment, I found it
in a distant corner just opposite a train going in a totally
different direction : in five minutes it would have been
whirled off, and in three hours snatched half the length of
the kingdom from its negligent custodier. I probably
should have recovered it, but, possibly also, I should not.
Even the telegraph would not have helped me except I had
telegraphed to every point of the compass ; and then only
think of telegraphing for something belonging to " John
Smith, passenger." Ten to one there were a thousand
joackages so marked ! Unhappy name !
As it was, — nothing came of the matter that I could find,
then or since, except five minutes of exquisite panic and
vexation, — much such as a mischievous monkey maybe
supposed to delight in inflicting. Certainly, if I had be-
lieved in Puck I should have thought he had assumed the
guise of that " railway porter."
Yet we never know whether there may not be more than
seems in such apparently trivial things, — and my faith,
though not my reason, assures me there is. One compre-
hensive solution of many such tilings a devout man will
" CONTRE-TEMPS." 333
thankfully find in his ignorance of what might have occurred
had it not been for such diversion. It is obvious that five
minutes, nay, one, — nay, a second, may suffice for events
of the last importance to us ; to remain on this spot rather
than to move ten paces off, may be the difference between
death and life ; a change of purpose for a quarter of an hour
may lead us out of a great danger or into one ; being pre-
vented from going by this ship instead of that, may protect
us from shipwreck, or expose us to it ; a few minutes' con-
versation in the street with a bore we tremble to see coming
may delay us till some unknown peril, which may be cross-
ing our path, and which we should else have encountered,
has passed and left the way clear : in fact, the most insig-
nificant change or obstruction or acceleration of our purposes
may be connected, and cannot but be, with the most impor-
tant events of life to us all ; and thus they may subserve the
most momentous purposes, though we are ignorant of them.
The region of the " Media Scientia," as the scholastic divines
used to call it — the region of the " possible " — of the
things that loould happen if something else did not, — may
suggest the key to what often seem to us the most sportive
pranks of a purposeless destiny. And on reflecting, we may
perhaps see there is also another solution : for may they not
be designed to quicken gratitude ? Where transiently vex-
atious events have occurred without serious results, ought
we not thankfully to remember how easily they might have
terminated otherwise ? Shall we perversely desire a catas-
trophe because owe fears are disappointed ?
I remember, when a boy of ten years of age or so, lying,
on a tem^^estuous autumn day, at the foot of a huge elm at
the head of a noble avenue of like giant trees, and listening
with solemn delight to the roar of the wind in the branches ;
all at once I heard a sound which sharply rose above the
din of the storm ; — a crash — a sweej) — and I felt that
334 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
sometliing was the matter in the upper regions of the tree.
I rolled and scrambled away as fast as I could a few paces,
and a moment after, down came a heavy branch on the very
spot where I had been lying, and which, had I not got out
of its way, would have crushed me. Could I look, boy as I
was, on the escape, without a gush of gratitude ? And such
in every like case, spite of all the metaphysics of fatalism, is
the unsoi^histicated feeling of humanity.
Yet some " contre-temps " are so exquisitely droll that
one would almost suppose their chief object was to furnish
us, in the retrospect, with a more than compensating amuse-
ment for our vexation. *' Ha3c olim meminisse juvabit " —
would seem to apply to not a few of our minor distresses.
Did I ever tell you of a circumstance which our old friend
J. M. used to relate of some friends of his ? Two young
ladies in Devonshire one day wished to visit some relatives
a dozen miles off. Their brother, — a harum-scantm sort
of a fellow, and who rode a horse as Jiarum scarum as him-
self, which he had very properly christened " Mad Tom,"
— offered to drive them. Albeit Mad Tom was very restive
in harness, he assured them he could manage the brute.
They consented ; but such were the creature's flings, and
kicks, and shyings, and deviations to the right and left, that
he kept the sisters in a perpetual panic. However, they at
last reached their destination in safety ; but nothing could
induce them to repeat the experiment, and even young
harum-scarum did not seem to relish it. Accordingly, he
agreed to return on horseback, while his sisters borrowed
their host's little pony-chaise and his old gray pony, which
never forgot a becoming gravity either of pace or demea-
nor. They set out, on a lovely summer evening, on the
journey homeward. My young master stayed for half an
houi* or so, to take a parting cup with his host, and then
clattered off after his sisters. They, good souls ! w^ere qui-.
" CONTRE-TEMPS." 335
etly jogging, with the old gray pony, along a narrow lane,
fenced by a high hedge on each side, thinking no harm in
the world, and congratulating themselves that they had so
happily escaped Mad Tom. All at once they heard a terri-
ble tramp and shouting behind them, and, turning their
heads, saw, horror of horrors ! the ungovernable brute com-
ing at a pace which would soon bring him upon them. He
had e\idently got the upper hand, and then- brother's shouts
were to warn them to get out of the way. They edged and
edged towards the ditch — Mad Tom came uj:), just grazed
the wheel, but evidently out of malice prepense allowed
them as little room as possible — pushed, as he passed,
against the honest gray, and in a moment the pony and
chaise and the fair sisters were tumbled into the ditch, while
Mad Tom, and his equally mad rider, swept away like the
whirlwind.
The young ladies were, happily, uninjured; but they
often used to laugh, in after days, at their momentary terror
when they saw the demon of a horse aj^parently bent on
their destruction !
An old friend once told me that, having taken a long jour-
ney on horseback, he was musing, during the last stage, with
grateful memory, on the immunity from danger he had en-
joyed : that his horse had not fallen mth him, nor he fallen
from his horse, and so on ; when, unhappily, just in the midst
of his devout ejaculations, Dobbin stumbled, threw him on
his face, and almost broke his nose ! Was the good man,
by his ill-timed meditation, abstracted too much from the
outward practical duty of attending to his horse, and Avas
he thus to be taught that for " everything there is a season?"
or was he too much uplifted with the complacent thought
of the special ^Yo\:Q^Q^AO\\. and favor he had enjoyed? — for
such is our folly, that even pious gratitude is apt to express
itself in forms which look much more like absurd vanity.
336 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
Aj^art from some such views, this " contre-temps " look as
like a little piece of sportive malice, as one can well imagine^
Well, in spite of all contre-temps^ I hope to sj^end Christ-
mas with you; — that is, ?*/* nothing haj^pens to j^rcA^ent it,
as it is certain ten millions of things may ; if I am alive
and well ; if you are alive and well ; if no other friend has
met with any misfortune which shall keep me away ; ifi
when I have started, the railway train does not meet with
a mishap ; if that awful omnibus for the last five miles
does not break down, — no unlikely matter by the way .
and if I should survive that last dreary, doleful part of the
journey ! As to your giving me a welcome — that is a con-
tingency I do not think it worth while to sj^eculate about ;
so much more surely, after all, can we calculate on moral
than on the combinations of ^^Aysica/ causes; so much more
permanent, amidst all man's j^roverbial fluctuations, are the
relations which human character establishes, than those of
the ever shifting scene of events in which we play our part;
events the nearest of which we cannot foresee, and the
minutest of which we cannot control, amidst all the boasted
'•'' prevision " of science !
Yours truly,
E. E. H. G.
LETTER LXXVII.
TO THE SAME.
Dec. 11, 1854.
My dear Friend,
By way of postscript to my last, I must mention two or
three other droll incidents of the class referred to in my
last letter, which have since occurred to remembrance.
They will, if I mistake not, illustrate the subject rather
strikingly.
" CONTRE-TEMPS.' 337
A friend of mine, wlio lived a few miles from London,
was going thither in his i^ony-chaise one rainy morning,
and could not find his umbrella. He borrowed a silk one
of his sister in-law, and lost that on the way. " Well," he
thought, " poor girl, she shall have a good one to make up
for it." He bought for her one of the very best he could
find, and lost that going back!
Another friend, in the old coaching days, was going, one
cold winter's night, by mail from London, and debated in
his mind whether he should save the difference of the in-
side fare at the expense of his benumbed toes and fingers.
He thriftily reasoned that he wanted a new silk umbrella,
which the proposed economic dodge would just pay for.
But alas ! having fallen into a miserable nap in the morn-
ing watch, he found, when he woke, that his umbrella had
slipped out of his hand ; and thus he had the satisfaction
of travelling outside at inside price ! A third friend, stay-
ing for a night in Manchester, debated whether he should
take a cab and go to see some friend who lived in the
suburbs ; " But," thought he, " it is uncertain if I shall
find him at home, and if not, it will be five shillings thrown
away." So he thought he would just take a short walk
in the town instead. Before he had been out of the hotel
five minutes, he found himself minits a new silk handker-
chief, for which he had just given the very sum that would
have paid for the cab ! To such things as these even the
" Hcec olim memmisse juvabit " will hardly apply.
But the most provoking and serious of all such tragi-
comedies I ever heard of occun-ed a short time ago. You
may have seen some account of it in the newspapers. A
gentleman at Liverpool, about to remove to Oswestry, had
some valuable paintings which he thought he could not
take too mucli care of Afraid to trust them to the rough
handling of the rail, he had them carefully packed in a
29
338 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
van, and committed tliem to the leisurely transit of the
ordinary road. The journey was safely accomplished, all
but a poor mile or so j in fact, to within sight of Oswestry.
At that point the luckless wain had to cross the rail, and
some obstacle occurred, just as it got half across. At this
fatal moment, an approaching train was heard, the driver
got flurried, and before he could get his precious charge
across, the remorseless engine came up — dashed pell-mell
into the unlucky van, and sent all the treasures of art to
the four winds. A minute later or a minute earlier, and
all would have been safe. To have taken such pains to
escape the disasters of the railway — so nearly to have
accomplished the object and then to be smashed by one of
the very accidents against which there had been such covstly
securities, made the whole thing a thousand times more
provoking. It looked almost as if the genius of the rail,
jealous and angry of the implied distrust, had watched its
opportunity, and taken, at the last moment, a dire and ef-
fectual revenge. To complete the disaster, the poor gen-
tleman went to law to recover damages, and was — non-
suited !
Yours ever,
K. E. H. G.
LETTER LXXVIII.
TO C. MASON, ESQ.
1855.
My dear Mason,
I have just been running through the " Memoirs of a
Stomach" you sent me. There is some smartness in it,
and a good deal of sense too ; and yet it is impossible to
get over the absurdity of thus personifying the respectable
viscus, and making it chatter about anatomy, physiology,
ON THE "MEMOIRS OF A STOMACH." 339
and chemistry ! This sort of allegory will only admit of
the briefest j^ossible handling and the lightest touch. Ad-
dison might have given a graceful short paj^er on it, after
the manner of the fable of " Menenius Agripj^a," which
is almost as long as we can permit the separate organs of
the body to talk to us or with one another. When the
stomach twaddles away on pathology and metaphysics,
copies physicians' prescrijDtions, and refines on the effects
of " bismuth of lead " and " sesquicarbonate of potash," it
is a little de trop. I am speaking of the brochure simply
as a work of art — for really the philosoj^hy of it is as sen-
sible as if it came out of the brain instead of the stomach.
If we could suppose this poor patient drudge of an organ
a conscious unity, and animated by a separate intelligence
(as some j^hilosophers have held opinions quite as absurd),
who can express the ire it would feel at the treatment to
which it is subjected ? crammed to bursting with the me-
lange of an alderman's enormous meal ; tight as a dram ;
stuffed like a corj^ulent carpet-bag ; full of turbot, venison,
salads, wines, and fruits ; not an inch of free space for the
" animal spirits " to move in ! Yet is it expected to reduce
the chaos of viands to order, and that, too, with such cruel
despatch, that long before its task is half done, it finds the
ruthless gullet pouring down more. How may we imagine
it looking at its "kitchen," — all the fires put out, — in
despair ; sometimes fairly getting into the sulks, and dog-
gedly refusing to have anything more to do with the
thing; — now, in a fury, ejecting the whole "indigesta
moles " in a volcanic eruption, — now setting our old friends,
" the animal sjoirits," briskly to work, under the hard pres-
sure of necessity.
But I am not sure that it would not resent quite as much
the infatuation of the h5q)ochondriac who is hourly dosing
it, and will never leave well alone ! How would it ex-
340 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
plocle, in mingled wrath and astonishment, when, coveting
a hot-buttered roll and a cheering aromatic cup of coffee
(which it feels itself quite entitled to, and fully capable of
dealing with), it finds, as it gapes upwards in delighted ex-
pectation, the remorseless sesoi^hagus, without any "by
your leave " or " heads below there," sending down a hor-
rid potion of "black draught," or still worse, castor oil!
One can imagine the hurry with which it would summon
its scavengers to clear the streets of the filthy tide, and
throw wide the pylorus to let the abomination flow on !
How would it congratulate itself, in such a case, if homceo-
pathically treated ! absolutely unable to tell where the
poor trecillionth of a grain it was enjoined to take such
care of, was got to ! But sui:>pose the search were vain, it
would not matter; "Let it lie where it is'' — the stomach
might say — "an infinitesimal particle in an infinitesimal fol-
licle will do no harm if it lie there for a hundred years !
It is no incommodity to better guests, — it will give no
offence, poor thing ! I do not grudge it room ! "
More than threescore species of the genus Dyspepsia, —
so you doctors tell us, — ■ and the varieties of these infinite !
Fifty times as many substances which you doctors send
down the throat to cure them, while of not a tenth can
you certainly tell what chemical changes the subtle labo-
r.itory of the stomach may work ujDon them ! What a "glo-
rious uncertainty " in Physic, as well as Law ! How little
less than the cruelty of shooting a bullet of lead into the
stomach from the outside^ is that of firing a pellet of some
more subtle mineral into its inside I And yet, you folks
of the Medicis family (always renowned for poisoning) do
these things with as little remorse as you would eat the
wing of a partridge. Nay, you prescribe half a dozen
things at once, though with every ingredient in the pre-
scription the uncertainty of the ultimate product of the
ox THE peacp: principles. 341
vital chemistry may become still more hopelessly compli-
cated, and the result more inscrutable. Surely, the way in
which your "practice" terminates, must be often like that
of the ludicrous "practice" with the Lancaster gun on
board the " Arrow " off the Needles lately. The gunners
fired — but they could trace nothing of the ball in its flight ;
fired again — still nothing came of it. While they were
gazing in its presumed direction in stupid wonder, people
came running in consternation fi'om a totally different quar-
ter, to implore the inimitable marksmen to cease their sport,
for that their eccentric fire had been but too effective, only
in an unexpected direction, — having nearly knocked to
pieces the lighthouse !
Long may you have that greatest proof of a stomach,
that you know not that you have any! I have long
ceased, in this matter, to enjoy that "ignorance" which is
" bliss.'-
Forgive all this idle badinage on your venerable profes-
sion, for which none have, after all, a more sincere venera-
tion than I, wlien intelligently and cautiously practised —
that IS, as you practise it.
N. B. As I am about to visit you shortly, I think it is
as well to add this '•^placebo:'' My kind regards to your
" Catherine de Medicis."
Yours faithfully,
K. E. H. G.
LETTER LXXIX.
TO E D , A QUAKER.
October, 1855.
Dear Friend,
Thank you, — or if thee be more pleasing, imagine it
said, — for the pamphlet on the " Peace Question." I have
29*
S42 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
read it, and attentively, but remain where I was. Your
vieAY^s, in such a world, appear to me not only chimerical,
but, if practicable, most dangerous, oj^posed to "the spirit"
of Scripture, which you generally profess to revere, and
plausible only by a slavish adherence to the " letter " —
which, strange inconsistency ! you profess generally to
despise.
You say the words are express, — " Resist not evil ; "
" If any man smite thee on the one cheek, turn to him the
other also." Yes — and the Romanist says the words he
pleads for transubstantiation are express : " This is my
body." Pray, why don't you and he act consistently, and
interpret other passages with the same literality ? For
example, you see in the immediate vicinity of your abused
text; — "And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out and
cast it from thee ; — if thy hand offend thee, cut it off and
cast it from thee." How is it that I do not see thee blind
and maimed, worthy friend ? You will say, " These are
strong tropical modes of expressing the duty of self-denial
and self-mortification, when our senses would allure us to
sin." And, in like manner, say I, the words you abuse, are
a strong tropical mode of representing the spirit in which
we should receive affronts ; the forbearance and gentleness
with which, wherever we can, we should endeavor to disarm
malice, the patience with which we should rather suffer any
moderate wrongs than hastily resent them, or any wrongs
rather than abandon ourselves to a spirit of diabolical
revenge. But it is no warrant for our becoming suicides,
by letting miscreants kill us "unresisting, " if they please to
do so ; nor for quenching, when attacked, that instinct of
self-preservation, which as manifestly came from God as any
truth of Revelation, and which, in fact, except in the case
of a Quaker here and there, always vindicates itself the
moment life or safety is threatened, by acting, (as all our
ON THE PEACE PRINCIPLES. 343
instincts do) independently of our reason. A man is
assaulted in the dark, suj^pose ; if he has a weapon he strikes
out, asking no questions " for conscience' sake," or for
" reason's " sake, or for any other faculty ; any more than
he would ask, if thrown into the water, whether he is
permitted to swim ; or if starving, whether the roots and
wild berries he snatches are precisely the best food for
his digestion ; or whether Avhen he '* plucks the ears of
corn," he is not invading the " rights of property."
You will say, perhaps, that you do not forbid passive
resistance, of Avhich, indeed, there are singular examples, I
am well aware, among the " Friends ; " some of them so
singular as to make the difference between " active " and
" passive " not a little puzzling to any but a Quaker gram-
marian. But I know what you mean ; you will say you are
at liberty to struggle with your adversary with a view to
disarm him. But this cool calculation in sudden encounters
is as im^Dossible as to do nothmg. That same instinct which
prompts to resist, without consulting reason, as little trou-
bles itself to ask reason hoio it is to resist without doins:
any injury. If it has a Aveapon it strikes out, right and
left, without any nice questions as to the precise topograj^hy
of the blow it may inflict, whether on a vital, or a non-vital
part ; without asking whether the head of the patient be
thick enough to resist, if it alight there ; whether it will not
be best just to dislocate the wrist or shoulder ; or whether
just so many ounces of weight, and no more, will not be
sufficient for the purpose. You do not scrupulously calcu-
late whether you may riot smash the bone and make a
" comminuted fracture " of the business instead of simple
dislocation. You cannot tell your ruffian to stand still, that
you may be pleased to drill or pierce him in a non-vital
part, and that if he does not behave well, like a patient
under a surgical operation, you may wound an artery and
344 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
do him a miscliief, or that, as you mean him no harm in the
world, but a deal of good, he ought to take it patiently !
It is no time for such sang-froid on either side. It would
as soon occur to us whether it would not be possible to take
the miscreant, like trout, by tickling him.
And so, instead of attempting to argue against you, I
shall try your principle by a case which was put to another
of the " Friends," and ask you for a decision thereupon ; —
for that friend declmed it.
An acquaintance of mine was travelling one day with one
of your kith and kin, in a railway carriage, and they got on
this toj^ic. " Well," said my friend, " I will suppose a case.
You are a settler on the borders of the red man ; have
got your log hut up, and everything in a fair way of being
tidy and comfortable. You come home one evening from
the clearings, with your axe in hand and your rifle on your
shoulder ; but see with horror that your house is in flames,
and that a savage is pursuing your shrieking wife, with his
tomahawk in his right hand and his outstretched left within
a few feet of her dishevelled hair. There is just a moment
to bring your rifle to your shoulder and save her. I simply
want to know whether it would be your duty to fire ? "
The " Friend " hitched on his seat, first to the right and
then to the left, as if the shot itself had lodged in him,
though not in a vital part, and at last said, "I tell thee
what, friend ; thou hast no right to put such cases."
Which I conceive was a complete surrender.
You will say, perhaps, that he was inconsistent, as said
another " friend of peace, " to whom I put the case. This
last declared, 7iot that he would 7iot have fired, for he felt
that it was rather too bold to say that^ but that he ought
not to fire ! I turned to his wife, who happened to be sit-
ting by, and asked her how she relished such doctrine. I
promise you she protested most clamorously. I fancy, that
ON THE PEACE PRINCIPLES. 345
dying thus, she would have declared that her husband, and
not the savage, was her true murderer.
I will be equally merciful with you as with him. I do
not ask you whether you icoulcl fire — though the doubt
that nature miiversally inspires is a shrewd argument
against you ; for what is it but saying that nature is so apt
to confute your "principle," that you dare not say when
you are sure of being able to act on it ? but I ask you
calmly and conscientiously to say, whether you think you
ought to fire ?
However, thou shalt not answer me by letter ; it shall
be by thine own fireside, Avhen I next visit thee, and thy
pleasant wife shall be by thy side. And thou shalt look
into her bright eyes, and say, " I do not think, Martha, I
ought to save thy life, thou knowest, Martha." I fancy
she will know nothing of the kind. But I declare, before-
hand, I will not believe thee till the actual contingency
shall occur, and I find thee then acting up to thy princi-
ples. But "nature" will confute thee. Meantime, it is
easy for thee to say what thou pleasest.
Believe me.
Dear friendly friend,
Thine ever affectionately,
E. E H. G.
LETTER LXXX.
to alfred avest, esq.
My dear West,
I have been recently writing to our " Friend " Richard
D , anent his iJi'tnciples for the encouragement of
murder and robbery. Till human nature is wholly sub-
346 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
dued to the Gospel, they are impracticable ; when it is so
subdued, they will be superfluous; for as no one will
"wrong," no one need resist. But when that day comes,
— and come it will, for men may be taught not to murder,
though they cannot be well taught how to be murdered
without strong objections thereunto, we may well guess
the earth will be near its great transformation. Your
hopes, though you anticipate the speedy reign of universal
peace, — at least permanent peace among civiUzed nations,
aie less chimerical, and your projects too; and I cannot
but wish you God speed. I think you sanguine enough, I
own ; and I fear are antedating by a few generations or
BO — perhaps a century or two.
You think, on the contrary, that the world is even now
ripe for putting an end to all war by arbitration^ — would
to God it were! I cannot hope it while nations are so
contrasted by civilization and barbarism, knowledge and
ignorance ; while empires dark as midnight in aught else,
may yet have sufficient military science to make them
ambitious of conquest, the only distinction nations in such
stage of their history can attain or appreciate; and be
powerful enough to be formidable to the world, not en-
lightened enough to be a blessing to it. This is just the
condition of Russia at the present moment ; and to con-
vince the Czar Nicholas of the superior glory, as well as
felicity, of peace to war, is about as hopeful a business as
for Baillie Jarvie to induce Rob Roy to let his boys, Rob
and Hamish, become "puir spinner bodies in Glasgow."
But certainly good, only good, can come fi-om the dis-
cussion of the subject. Every one must rejoice in the
ventilation of your opinions by means of the press, —
jprovided you do not think it necessary to show as much
pugnacity for peace as other folks for war, nor give your
compatriots the notion — as some of you do — that you
ON THE PEACE PRINCIPLES. 347
are the most bellicose people in the nation. Guarding
against that, your efforts, — your speechifyings, your tracts,
cannot but do good; any thing that Avill make the nations
reflect on the absurdities, atrocities, and (what they are
apt to think much more of) the expenses of war, is a gain.
Certainly war is just as much a mark of the harharis^n
of nations tciken collectively^ as the princi23le and j^ractice
of jDrivate war are of the barbarism of any one nation,
such a period, of course, is found in the history of every
savage nation. The maxim then is, " every 'inan his own
soldier'''* — to fight his own battles and right his own
wrongs; and as long as that continues, the people, of
course, are savages. Is there any reason why we should
not afiirm the same of a family of nations, as long as they
exhibit the same state of things? In the case of a single
nation, civilization puts an end to the liberty of private
Avar, as it3 very first, its initial achievement, and remits
the arbitration of private quarrels to impartial judges.
When nations, collectively, are as civilized in this respect
as any one of those which deserve to be called so, the
same will be done in relation to war ; and till civilization
has discovered the means of doing it, they must be con •
tent, whatever their individual eminence in science or in
art, to be accounted — barbarians !
" But quis custodiet ipsos custodes ? " Who are to be
the judges, when each nation acknowledges no superior,
and the final arbiter is found still in — force ? No doubt,
at present^ the thing is impossible; but precisely the same
difiiculty must have been once felt in the case of any
single nation that has been reclaimed from barbarism at
all. When law asserted its supremacy, and put an end to
f)rivate feuds, who can doubt the ovitcry made at first by
many a " bullet-headed, iron-fisted old baron," who chafed
at the limitation of his rights, and clamored for the priv-
348 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
ileges of his petty local jurisdiction ? No doubt he would
not believe that there could be, in the universe, any im-
partial umpire of his rights, but himself. Nevertheless, lie
became convinced in time that it was possible to deny
him the felicity of his private brawls, and extinguish his
absolute independence, without perilling his interests, or
rather with great advantage to their security. So will it
be with the nations, when they have learned to appreciate
the blessings of the higher international cimlization.
They will say, when any, who belong to their voluntary
confederacy, propose to extemporize a little bit of " Donny-
brook Fair," anywhere or on any pretence, " It cannot be
allowed ; we are quite ready to consider your differences,
or to see you considering them in a peaceful way; — but
we shall take the mere noise of a ' shindy ' as a casus belli y
and we, gentlemen, are five to one; — so put up your
swords; cedant arma togoe^ They would say, as Mac-
gregor to Rashleigh and Francis Osbaldistone, when those
hot-blooded young gentlemen seemed inclined to renew
the duel in which he had interrupted them : — " By the
heavens above me, I will cleave to the brisket the first
man that mints anither stroke ! "
Meantime, ye political economists ! what a saving to the
nations would even such a measure be. The huge arma-
ments by which jealous nations now eternally watch each
other, might be disbanded for ever; for a very small,
though exquisitely disciplined and accoutred contingent
from each of these nations, would make together a resist-
less army when embattled against any one refractory
member. The expense of such a moderate police of the
nations would be a mere bagatelle.
This, probably, will be the first way in which the com-
munity of civilized nations, entering into a voluntary com-
pact, will attempt to realize your projects; that is, by
ON THE PEACE PRINCIPLES. 349
preliminarily knocking him on the head, whether right or
wrong in his claims, who begins by defying the police of
nations, and then giving due consideration to the differ-
ences which led to the row, in a congress of negotiators.
I can imagine — glorious day for the world, should it
ever dawn upon it — when civilized nations joyfully giving
in, one by one, their adhesion to the principles of this
higher international civilization, shall proceed one step
further, and solemnly inaugurate officers and functionaries,
whose sole business in life shall be to carry them into
effect. Methinks I see, in the course of ages, a nobler than
the old Amphictyonic Council, representing the fraternity
of civilized nations, consulting for the good, not of one
people, but of many, and deciding, by common consent,
not the petty differences between man and man, but be-
tween vast communities ; a council consisting of function-
aries, not, as we sometimes see now, extempora,neously
cliosen, but consecrated for life, like our OAvn judges, to
the study and practice of international law; segregated
from every other function; and instructed to put off, as
far as may be, the feelings of patriotism itself, and to
assume the cosmopolite ! Methinks it would be worth
while to assign these judges of the nations a separate
abode, — which, belonging to no nation, should be felt to
be sacred to all. Surely none would grudge them the most
beautiful island ever discovered in the recesses of the
ocean, so long as they performed their office Avell; and
how worthy of each nation to consecrate to such an office
wlioever was most conspicuous in it for probity and
wisdom ! What veneration would attach to this cosmop-
olite tribunal ! What honor, to belong to this Sacred
College of humanity — this Chancery of the Universe !
Nor is it visionary to imagine the esiwit de corps of this
sublime "College" such, that it would in a little time defy
30
350 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
all susj^icion of its members being warped by the petty in-
fluences oi private patriotism; just as we find may be the
case with the judges of a particular nation. Surely, if our
judicial functionaries have so clothed themselves with the
spirit of honor, that no one has for ages suspected them of
corruption, it may well be believed that this highest court
would aspire to render itself more aAvfuUy venerable, and
pride itself in keeping every particle of its ermine spotless
as the snow.
And even if, in the course of a century or so, they made
some wrong decisions, it could hardly be in any very im -
portant or flagrant cases ; and as to the rest, — if they gave
some rocky islet, which might support three families and
twice as many cows, or grow with thrifty management five
bushels of potatoes, to France when it ought to go to Eng-
land ; or drew the boundary line of a disputed territory on
this side of a barren mountain-rancce when it ou2:ht to be
on the very ridge thereof, I suppose it would be of little
consequence compared with the infinite miseries which
have sprung from military arbitration of the like petty
claims ; not to say that this too is attended with just as
great probability, nay, far greater, of a wrong decision.
It must be confessed that the i:>retexts which have led
to wars, and the folly with which they have been prose •
cuted, are not ill satirized in a fable I have somewhere met
with.
A certain king, it is said, sent to another king, saying —
" Send me a blue pig with a black tail, or else ." The
other, in high dudgeon, replied — "I have not got one, and
if I had ," on which weighty cause they went to war
for many years. After a satiety of glories aud miseries,
they bethouglit them that it would be well to consult about
the preliminaries of j^cace ; but then a di]ilomatic explana-
tion Avas first needed of the expressions which liad formed
ON THE PEACE PRINCIPLES. 351
the ground of quarrel. ""What could you mean," said the
second king, " by saying, ' Send me a blue pig with a black
tall, or else ? ' " " Why," said the other, " I meant —
or of some other color. But," retorted he, " what could you
mean by saying, ' I have not got one, and if I had ? ' "
" Why, of course, if I had, I should have sent it ; " — an
explanation which was i^i'onounced very satisfactory, and
peace concluded accordingly.
But my i^roposed High Court of Equity for the world —
my " Amjohictyonic Council " of the nations, is a di'eam,
one may say. It is so for the j)resent ; — but it may come
true for all that.
Meantime, — though it seems a very paradoxical remedy,
I am not sure but the best immediate security against war
is to increase to the very utmost its destructiveness. I,
really think it would be worth while for every civilized
government to offer the most liberal rewards for every not-
able improvement in the art of wholesale butchery. When
war shall be to both parties as fital as duels fought
across a table, or as the fight between the Kilkenny cats,
who " ate each other up all but the tail ; " when ships shall
reciprocally blow each other into the air the moment they
come within sight of each other across the horizon, and
armies like Gorgons, are too terrible to be faced ; when
each great commander, at once gloriously victorious and
ignominiously defeated, may imitate Cassar's laconic de-
spatch, and say, "Vidi — et victus vici — ," we shall hear
of war no more. The increasing destructiveness of war,
combined with the determination of the " big boys " in the
great school of nations to make every " row," under any
pretence, a casus belli — a reason for the immediate and
general discharge of their preternatural ordnance at the
offenders, would positively effect pretty much the same
thing as our Amphictyonic Council.
352 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
God grant that wars may " soon cease ; " — and that they
sooner may, may they be made more dreadful, till every
popgun be even as a revolver, and every revolver as a
thunderbolt I
Ever yours,
E. E. H. G.
LETTER LXXXI.
TO THE KEV. CHARLES ELLIS, B. D.
October, 1854.
My DEAR Friend,
I have read the little essay on the " Immortality of the
Soul," as deduced from the light of nature. It contains
nothing but the usual arguments ; nor does the mode of
stating them (so far as I can see) add to their force, per-
haps I ought rather to say, diminish their feebleness ; — for
whatever the presumptions founded on certain facts, —
especially the apparent absurdity of man's having faculties
so disproportionate to the condition of an ephemeron, I
hold that absolute conclusiveness in our reasoning on
this subject is beyond us. It is true that ^/'man be merely
mortal, his whole nature, as far as we can conjecture, seems
to be "made in vain;" and thus the Theist, at least, is jus-
tified in deducing a strong probability of a future state.
But neither this, nor any of the other arguments usually
urged to prove it, ever made me feel more than the proba-
bility of the conclusion ; and I believe a fair examination of
the wavering decisions of the best heathen j^hilosophers
(the truest test we can appeal to — for in their case Ave
cannot suspect, as in that of a modern, that they were un-
consciously indebted to revelation) will clearly prove to
any candid reader, that they never arrived at anything bet-
im:mortality. 353
ter than a faltering hope. Nothing, I believe, but revela-
tion can assure us of a future state ; it is the Gospel alone
which can be said to have " brought life and immortality to
light," out of the haze of philosophical speculation and the
crepusGulum of the Jewish disiDensation.
Shall I confess to you that one of the strongest proofs of
a future state (though it does not strictly touch the ques-
tion of immortality) derived from the light of nature —
(light of nature ! perhaps we ought, if we would be exact,
to call it the darkness of nature), is one that, logically, it is
difficult to make much use of with a sturdy gainsayer : —
just as with one who says he is without a sense of right
and wrong, (though, by the way, you may think the fellow
lies, and is a rascal,) ethical argument is impossible. Pray
take care how you thread your way through the parenthe-
ses above, — for they lie uncommonly thick ; I jn-otest I
hardly know where I am myself. — On looking back half a
mile, I see I was saying that one of the strongest proofs of
a future state was one that we cannot insist on with a gain-
sayer. — What I refer to is the feeling^ generally growing
stronger, as men apjDroach death, that there is a future state.
It has, too, all the criteria, by which we measure the force
of an argument from consent. It has been acknowledged
by an immense majority of all mankind; — and especially
by the most elevated and comprehensive intellects ; it has
been the hope and the solace of the good ; it has been the
Gorgon of the eminently wicked. As to the former, at Se
(3e.XTL(TTaL {j/vKal ixavTCvovrai ravra ovrcos ^X^'-^' ^^ Plato says :
The good presage immortality ; not that that is quite the
right word for the term ixavrevovTaL, for which we have not
an exact equivalent in English ; but it means they have a
" divine presentiment " of immortality. As to the wicked,
— why, all history, proverbs, fiction, the drama, are full of
their presentiments.
30*
354 tiip: greyson letters.
I have said that it is not a toi^ic easily urged on a sturdy
gainsayer, who with a steady countenance can say that he
is unconscious of any such feeling ; but it is of little conse-
quence; first, because there are few such gainsayers,
and always will be if we may trust the nearly unanimous
voice of history. Secondly, because one is j^retty sure the
scamps do feel it in their secret soul, and if they do not, (as
perhaps is the case, in their youth or their cups,) will in old
age and on a death bed. There are few things more beau-
tiful in Plato than the perfectly natural manner in which
the placid Cephalus, in the enjoyment of a green old age,
speaks on this subject. It is, I take it, an echo of an all
but universal feeling — a witness to the constitution of hu-
manity. When Socrates had asked him whether his con-
tentment amidst the infirmities of age, and his freedom
from its customary peevishness, might not be attributed by
many to his wealth, which had spared him the vexations of
l^overty, — " for the rich have many consolations," — Ce-
phalus answers him that no doubt " there is something in
that; but not so much as is commonly supj^osed;" and
when further asked what he imagines the chief use of riches,
replies that he deems it one very little thought of by most
persons, namely, that of making restitution for any of the
wrongs done in one's past life ; for " be assured, Socrates,"
says he, " that when a man thinks he is going to die, he is
filled with fear about things that never entered his head
before. Those tales concerning a future state, which tell
us that the man who has been unjust here must be pun-
ished hereafter, tend, much as he once laughed at them, to
disturb his soul at such a moment ; — and the man, either
through the infirmities of age, or being now as it were, in
closer proximity to the unseen, views the future more at-
tentively, consequently becomes full of suspicion and dread,
and considers and reflects whether he has in anything done
IMMORTALITY. 355
any one a wrong ; and he who detects in his own life much
of iniquity, resembling children startmg in their sleep, is
full of terror In conformity with this, I deem the
possession of riches chiefly valuable as liberating
ns from the temptation of cheating or deceiving against
our will, or departing hence in dread, because we owe
either sacrifice to God or money to man."
To be sure, if the old gentleman attached any idea of
raerit to such simple acts of righting wrong, his theology,
as might be expected from a heathen, was not altogether
" evangelical ; " but the fact he bears witness to, — the in-
tense convictions of a future state, which are apt to beset
the mind as it nears the brink of the grave, is most signifi-
cant, and one is ready to say, " There spoke human nature."
Of such a feeling — so general — I cannot but make much,
though it may be little available with a captious disputant ;
and, in truth, in the case of any geiieral feeling, even though
reason had less to say for it than she has, it is imj^ossible
not to susj^ect that we are listening to an oracle, which
issues from a deeper fountain than mere logic can fully
explore.
For what else, after all, can we infer from the prevalence,
not to say universality, of such feelings, but that human na-
ture is so co7istituted that it cannot but so feel ?
Hence, at all events, we may conclude, even if the feeling
be a delusion, that it is in vain to argue against it ; and that
it is true wisdom, if we are to "follow nature," and not
spend life in vain attemjDts to stifle her, to act accordingly.
We may say to a man who denies or doubts of a " future
state " much as we may say to the atheist. To the latter it
may be said : Well, supposing there is no God, still if we
are to trust at all to induction from the phenomena of all
humanity in all ages and nations, mankind will believe there
is one : therefore, if wise, you will cease to argue against it ;
356 THE GREYSON LETTEltS.
for you will only lose your breath. If there bo no God,
man has somehow, it seems, been so constituted that he can-
not but arrive at the oj^posite conviction. — The like may
be said to those adventurous speculators who assure us that
all notions of moral differences — of a right and a wrong —
are a delusion. If we can trust the philosophy of induction
at all, as to what men will generally feel and think, from
what they have generally felt and thought, such philoso-
phers had better " save their breath to cool their porridge."
In short, much the same may be said in reply to any other
paradox diametrically opposed to convictions, which, right
or wrong, are founded in the constitution of our nature, and
which, if men were wise, would bring many a long-winded
dispute to a summary termination. Whether they arrive
at truth or error, men have nothing else from which to phi-
losophize than the constitution of their minds and faculties,
and you may as well " bay the moon " as strive to alter the
convictions normally founded on them. If wrong, the error
arises from the constitution of humanity, and must still be
supposed a truth. Hence the practical absurdity of all rea-
soning against the convictions of a material world ; or to
prove that our primary intuitions are all false. If they are,
philosoj^hy cannot mend them.
Finally, therefore, from the all but universal feeling that
there is a future state, I quite think men are constituted
thus to feel, and consequently it is at least waste time to
argue against it ; and then as to the fact whether there he
one, since I do not believe that God who so constituted us
is a liar^ I at least believe that there is one. But if you
want clear proof I know of no other way than proving
Christianity, and sending hopeful, but dubious, Nature to
the school of Revelation.
Yours,
E. E. H. G.
ON COMING TO THE USE OF SPECTACLES. 357
LETTER LXXXII.
TO THE SAME.
^ Nov. 1854.
My dear 1kie]st),
I have just come to the dignity of " spectacles," and am
writing with them for the first time. I little thought, a
few years ago, Avhen I used to read with such ease the
smallest print, that I should ever feel the want of these sup-
plementary eyes ; but finding, for some time, that my book
was gradually receding from me inch by inch, I began to
fear that I should soon have to fix it to the end of a stick, if
I went on much longer ; or that it would get away from me
altogether. The fact is, the lens has lost a little of its con-
vexity, and to spectacles of moderate power I have there-
fore reluctantly come.
On this I am induced to make this profound reflection :
How easily might the comfort of life be marred by the mal-
construction of a single sense ; and what a 2:)lague would life
itself be if all of them were mal-constructed together ! If,
for example, such pranks were played with us, as (were
Atheism true) we might expect ; if w^e w^ere the victims of
'indefinite monstrosity — such lusus natiLrce as to prove that
nature was in truth more fond of " play " than " work ; " if
we found, as we well might, a ridiculous failure in her
" nisus " — her " endeavor " — as our Atheists, with con-
tradictory metaphor, call her blind work (faith ! she would
need spectacles worse than I do), what a predicament we
should all be in ! As to the rubbish, that unintelligent
" Law," according to some, — " Chance," according to
others, (it does not matter a pin which, both being blind as
newborn kittens,) has unconsciously tumbled things into the
only possible " conditions of existence," so that if things
were othervme^ things could not go on, — why it is rubbish ;
358 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
for even if we could conceive exquisite order and adaptation
the result of blind agency, it is still utterly false, so far as
we can judge, to say that the conditions of our loell-belng
are also the conditions of our being. Man might have been
an indefinitely different and very miserable creature, and
yet have existed. If any such beings, on such an hypoth-
esis, could have appeared at all, they might have been very
execrable monsters — varieties of Caliban, — and yet have
lived. The so-called " lusus " we do now and then see,
might have been strangely multiplied and diversified, and
yet the poor beast, Man, have groped, and crawled, and
hobbled, and blundered through his threescore years and
ten to a most welcome grave. Half mankind might have
had the eyes of bats or owls, and the other half the feet of
oxen or the paws of kangaroos, or the locomotive powers
of the sloth, or the legs of a crane ; and a great many of
them might have been without hands or feet at all, — as
some few are. Nay, for aught we know, intelligences,
essentially like ours, might have been imprisoned under a
donkey's hide or a lobster's shell; in which last case, as
Sydney Smith said, " It is much to be feared that the mon-
keys would have made lobster sauce of us."
In this matter of eyes, — how easily might the Great
Optician who constructed them (or the ?^o optician " Chance,"
if it had constructed any eyes at all, could have done it too)
have plagued us with such convexity of the organ, that, like
the Stanhope lens, it would have revealed to us only what
was brought into contact with it, and then in such unlucky
perfection, as to make our own deformity as hideous as the
Brobdingnagians to the microscopic eye of Gulliver ; or, on
the other hand, given us such a distant focus, that we should
be obliged to recede half a mile in order to read the hour
by the parish clock.
It is melancholy to think that we never duly value our
ON COMING TO THE USE OF SPECTACLES. 359
blessings till they are impaired or taken from us. " Anotlior
profound remark," you will say. Yet why is it trivial?
only because we are a set of beasts. It loould be profound
to an angel — so profound, that he would regard it as incon-
ceivable and incredible ! Here have I been served by these
good servants, my eyes, for forty years, and at last know
their true value only — by looking through my spectacles !
I have often used them unmercifully — have compelled them
to play an everlasting game of focus-shiftmg and pupil-
changing — enlarging and contracting — compressing and
expanding — bobbing about with the axis and fiddling with
the iris, according to the distance of objects and the degree
of light. I have made them stare at a small '^riwt half
through the night, when they have declared that it is time
they should draw their curtains and get a little nap; and
the poor drudges have never so much as winked rebellion
till now ! I never felt how precious they were before.
And ah! must we not confess to the same sort of
thoughtless ingratitude in relation to yet higher blessings ?
Amidst " spiritual light," in the blaze of knowledge, and
the enjoyment of freedom, how little do we think of the
w^ords of Christ to His disciples, — true of us as of them, —
" Blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they
hear, the things which kings and prophets waited to see
and hear," but neither saw nor heard. How differently
should we feel, if we had been cast on times of ignorance
and persecution ; if, before we dared to peep into the tat-
tered fragment of a Bible deposited in the most secret
crypt we could find for it, we were forced to draw bar and
bolt of our chamber door, not, as our Saviour said (or not
for that only), that we might "be alone with God," but
that ^\'e might be alone from man ; — and then, carefully
shading the treacherous taj^er, and trembling at every
sound, as if we were doing a guilty thing, drag from its
360 THE GREY SON LETTERS.
hiding-place the Book of God, filch, as it were, in secret,
the promises of eternal life, and, with the semblance of
guilt and shame, steal into heaven ! — or if, Uke many of
our fore-fathers, we were glad to meet for worship by the
pale moon or the safer star-light ; or, safer still, on a stormy
night in some mountain glen, or by the woodside or in the
forest glade ; and so, amidst the desolations of the present
life, listen with a tremulous joy to the promises of a better.
I fancy, in such cases, we should more truly estimate the
knowledge and freedom we possess.
But it is the same with everything ; man is least grateful
for all that is most precious, for the very reason that ought
to endear it most, — because it is most common. What so
inestimable as light, air, and water ? They fetch no price
in the market ; no one will give anything for them ; for
they can be had for nothing. God has given them without
measure ; but ought they, from their very cheapness, to be
received without even the " peppercorn rent " of grateful
thought and love? Ah! if it were possible for human
tyranny, to do as it has so often done with mental light,
with knowledge, with freedom, — to sequester the sun-
beams, — to inclose to individual uses the *' fields of air " —
to monopolize and dole out at famine price stream and
fountain, — how well should we understand what was meant
by such words — " Blessed are your eyes, for they see the
light of day ; and your ears, for they hear the sounds of
whispering winds and falling waters ! "
How cautious should we be, lest our ingratitude in higher
matters should bring, as it easily may, its own punishment ;
lest the very cheapness of our boasted immunities should
lead us not only to undervalue, but, as a consequence, to
neglect them. It is to be feared that God and holy angels, as
they see us walking to heaven in the bright and peaceful
sunshine, may judge us, for that very reason, encompassed
ON COMING TO THE USE OF SPECTACLES. 361
with greater perils than those who found their way thither
under cloud and tempest. The storms of affliction made
our fathers gird that mantle about them which the summer
sun may entice us to throw aside. In the Valley of the
Shadow of Death and in Vanity Fair, the Christian of
honest John Bunyan " played the man : " it was when he
trod the " drowsy enchanted ground " that he felt the
access of that fatal lethargy. Sad to think that many a
poor ignoramus may have made better use of a tattered
leaf or two of the Bible, which, perchance, he could hardly
spell, than we who can have it not only in every house, but
in our memories ; and may more securely have groped his
way to heaven by the by-paths of dungeon and martyrdom,
than we to whom the portals of God's temple stand invit-
ingly open day and night.
Well really, after making such reflections, I begin to
think my spectacles are becoming more useful to me than
my eyes were ; and that I see things more clearly than
before, as well with the mental as with the bodily vision.
If so, I shall find them useful indeed, and shall wish, for all
my friends, similar infirmities to mine ; nay, even stark
blindness shall be welcome, if, in the words of Milton.
. ^ . . " celestial light
Shine inward, and the mind through all her powers
Irradiate.'*
Yours very truly,
E. E. II. G.
31
362 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
LETTER LXXXIII.
TO
London.
My dear Fkiend,
After the hints you gave me, I coukl have no doubt about
the guilt of the young knave, and, taking liim into my
study, roundly taxed him with it. He as roundly denied;
but it was of no use, for as fast as the false tongue vociferatee\
innocence, the more truthful eye gave the lie to it. I there-
fore calmly stuck to my text, urged proofs, and from proofs
proceeded to expostulations, and those tender topics of
appeal which, in for o conscientice^ avail more than the most
subtle argumentations of lawyers. I told him of the ruin
he was bringing on himself, the anguish he was causing his
mother, till at length the boisterous tongue became silent,
and the sympathetic eyes, that had saved him from being
wholly lost, began to drop tears over the wicked tongue's
prevarications. The tongue itself at last faltered out (it
was a good deal less glib than before) its confessions. I
hope he is not gone beyond recovery. I account none such
so long as there is this schism in the " body corporate ; "
so long as conscience can get one organ fairly to contradict
another ; when ruddy shame sits on the cheeks, and lurking
truth looks out from the eyes, however the tongue may
bluster. The saddest of all spectacles is when Truth can
get no organ to plead her cause ; Avhen the hardened brow
and the unflinching eye, as well as the tongue, are in a league
against her. Then, indeed, I give all up for lost. When
Truth looks out no longer from the eye, Avhen the light is
darkened and the curtains drawn in that windoAV of the
soul, I know she lies dead, and is corrupting within.
It is curious to see with how much more difiiculty the
eye can be utterly corrupted than the tongue. And how.
THE EYE AND THE TONGUE. 863
wlien the latter is asseverating falsehood, with oath upon
oath (impudent knave !) to make you believe it, the eye
often still calmly does homage to truth, and looks, " yes,
yes, yes," as fast as the other says '• no, no, no."
" Betwixt nose and eyes a strange contest arose," says
Cowper, in his amusing little lawsuit resj)ecting the " Spec-
tacles." " It is a far more important and less humorous
" cause " that is often pleading between the tongue and
the eye. If they had a separate consciousness, how mad
would the tongue be that the eye is apt to be such a blab
and tell-tale, and so inopportunely turns king's evidence !
" What need had you to put in your oar and spoil all ? "
one might imagine it saying : " why could you not be
quiet ? "
Wherever the seat of the soul is, I am confident it lies
much nearer to the eye than to the tongue. This organ,
as Talleyrand wittily but perversely said, (though he was
not the first who said it,) was given man to conceal his
thoughts ; but that ' cannot be said of the eye. How the
soul looks out from it ! Even when the tongue is honest,
it cannot utter truth and feeling half so well as the eye ;
it is a poor, imperfect, faltering, blundering organ in com-
parison. But in the eye the soul beams and kindles, and
lightens and flashes the Truth in that light which is Truth's
most glorious emblem.
But to return to the poor lad, who is, metaphorically,
just now " in sackcloth and ashes." Take him again, and
try him this once ; I say not for his sake only, or for his
mother's, or for mine ; but for His whose loving memory is
more powerful with you than all these. Remember " the
seventy-times seven," and the text about " saving a soul
from death and covering a multitude of sins," — and that
other about " the thousand talents," and that again about
" the merciful gardener " who pleaded " for the barren fig-
364 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
tree " — " Let it iilone this year also ; " — and every other
of the many hundred texts which may well arm us with
love and patience, if we listen to them. Take him to the
New Testament, instead of sending him to prison, and to
the Saviour instead of to the magistrate ; and I will hope
you will never repent it ; nay, whatever betide, I am per-
fectly sure you never will.
E. E. H. G.
P. S. I have been amusmg myself with a couple of visits
to the Zoological Gardens in Regent's Park : surely the
most entertaining place, — next perhaps to the Museum, —
of all that this wonderful city invites us to inspect. I cannot
be got, as many do, to pity the brutes in this their artificial
condition. They pay a certain penalty, just as man does,
for their quasi civilization. They give u]^, it is true, that
trifle, their liberty ; I mean it is taken from them. Well,
at all events, they cannot blame themselves for the loss;
and if they are but philosophical beasts, — and surely they
have time and leisure enough for meditation, — they must
weigh their counterbalancing advantages. Here is the lion,
for example, feasting away daily in his West End den on
excellent horse-flesh, without the trouble of hunting and
killing. Let him poise, if wise, the advantages of his so-
called prison against the starving freedom — the precarious
pot-luck of his old cave, when his fasts Avere often, I dare
say, inconveniently long, and he and his young cubs often
never tasted butcher's meat more than once a week. As
to the elephant, does he not live in a house good enough
for a ten pound householder, and levy tithes of cakes, buns,
and biscuits, from half the youth of the metropolis ? The
Polar bear, it is true, is more to be pitied, this warm " Yule;"
he doubtless feels this Christmas that our climate is too
sultry, and fancies the cold bath in which he laves to be
" REFORMATORIES." 365
always tepid. Our iiortli-easters, at wliich we shiver, are
a mere sirocco to him, and he yearns for those times whenj.
with the glass far below zero, he used to lie out on the ice-
bergs by night, and bask alfresco in the cool beams of the
Aurora Borealis. or the genial rays of liis cousin — Ursa
major.
LETTER LXXXIV.
TO THE EEV. C. ELLIS.
Dec. 18-J4.
My dear Feiend,
Have you ever been to one of the " Reformatories for
Juvenile Criminals" recently established? If you have
not, I would advise you to do so. I had paid some atten-
tion to the theory of them, and had watched with deep
interest the progress, of public opinion on the subject, but
never saw the inmates of a Reformatory till last Sunday.
I had been requested by a friend to " say a few words " in
the CA^ening to the poor little wretches, and truly, as Sam
Slick says, " it was a sight to behold ! '* There were about
thirty seated round a long deal table, and I must say they
behaved very well. They seemed quite under the com-
mand of their master, and had evidently been drilled to
their devotional exercises with commendable precision.
But such faces ! such a variety of " villainous low forehead!"
such furtive glances ! such airs of put-on goodness and de-
mure cunning ! such sharj) tAvinkling eyes, as they looked
up at me ! It reminded me of nothing so much as the
devil looking out of his up-stairs Avindows.
I inquired a little into the mode of government in this
little republic of juvenile thieves and vagabonds. I found,
somewhat to my surprise, that they were under no very
strict surveillance. To them "stonewalls" did 7iot a
31*
366 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
"prison make." They "were to conform to certain rules
and be in at certain hours; but they were not restricted to
any bounds of space , and if they chose to abscond from
the protection and escape the discii^line of the "school,"
nothing, as far as I could learn, prevented them. They
might ramble about the country, and if they chose, might,
at any moment, resume their old vagabond life and knavish
ways, and qualify themselves for being sent to "prison."
I know not whether the plan be similar in the other Kefor-
matories; and, from some escapades of these young gentle-
men which have been told me, I should rather doubt the
Avisdom of it. The liberty Indulged may be, as the school-
master said, " an appeal to theii moral sense ; " but I am
afraid the said "moral sense" would often fail to resj^ond.
It also afforded, he sagely remarked, a proof that they
valued the refuge assigned them; it does so certainly as
long as they continue in it. It enabled them, he further
argued, to show that they acted not from coercion^ but
from a sense of proj^riety — at least from a prudential
feeling ; which is again true so long as they comply with
the rules of the Reformatory, and duly make their aj^pear-
ance without a constable at their heels. Again ; their non-
abuse of these privileges showed, as the Reformatory Solon
remarked, that they are not destitute of " moral feeling," —
which is also true as long as they do not abuse them. Last-
ly, and above all, say the advocates of such a jDlan, it
allows the young criminals to converse with temptations —
temptations which they must meet wath when they return
to the world. But whether such converse is likely to be
improving to such persons is a question. To prevent their
parleying with Madam Vice at all, for a time, would seem
to be the wiser policy. Plowever, if the object be to pro-
vide them with temptations, there is certainly no lack of
that commodity in the neighborhood of the huge town, in
" REf OPwMATORIES," 367
the dejDraved and crowded suburbs of which this young
colony of incij^ient angels is located. "They may thus
coj^e with temptations, sir," said the philanthropic school
master, " which we can know they are capable of doing only
by experiencey Very true, when they do cope with them.
But for all that, I should not think it desirable to try an
infant virtue, just reclaimed from theft and knavery, Avith
too many of those tests. If ordinary boys, however care-
fully nurtured, are, at school, strictly kept within bounds ;
if it would be deemed dangerous and foolish to let them,
unattended by ushers and masters, have the run of the
whole neighborhood, I cannot see that it is altogether wise
to allow of such license to these less hopeful " hopefuls."
Be so kind as to inquire for me how it is with the Refor-
matory near you ; and if so, what is the experience of those
who have the management of it. One of the things against
which the philanthropy of the day has to guard is a too
sanguine estimate of the degree in which criminals are still
under the control of ordinary motives, and capable of ap-
preciating, rather than abusing, the lenity which to a
nature unfamiliar with crime is far more potent than
severity.
One of the things that much struck me was the mode in
which my congregation of young imj^s was assembled.
The Reformatory is situated in a wild and lonely spot,
about three miles and a half from the heart of the neisfh-
boring town ; it stands in the midst of retired fields, and
the access to it is by some deej) and miry lanes. It was a
pitch-dark November evening, and when I got there no
soul was to be seen in the desolate Reformatory, except the
Master and a friend of his who occasionally came up on a
Sunday evening, on the same charitable errand which had
brought me thither. I wondered whence my flock were to
come, and how they were to be gathered together. I was
3G8 THE GREYSON LETT FES.
not long in suspense. The master took down a large horn,
and going to the door, blew two or three loud blasts there-
on, and in about ten minutes, in the young scaj^egraces
came, tumbling in from the lanes and adjoining fields. It
reminded me of nothing so much as Wamba and Gurth
calling their herd of swine together ; but I fear it teas the
" 5^o^;^e," loith the " demls " in them I It was a most pain-
ful, as well as pleasing, spectacle.
It was 23leasing to think of the good that might be done
by this institution : that it insured to these young souls a
pause at least in their career of guilt and sorrow — an
asylum from some of their worst temptations — a break-
water between them and the raging sea without. On the
other hand, it was painful, inexpressibly painful, to see the
vivid traces of wrong-doing already stamped on their young
features — the scars already left of the conflicts with evil in
which, all young as they were, they had been engaged, and,
alas! in which they had been worsted; and above all to think,
that many of them would, in all iDrobability, after this lit-
tle lull of passion, be again caught by the tempest of temp-
tation, and be wrecked at last ; that after being arrested in
their fall, as it were, on a ledge of rock, they Avould roll
over into the abyss ! Most j^ainful also was it to reflect
that many of these youthful criminalshad probably never had
a chance of being otherwise ! How many among them had
been the children of vice, and consequently heirs of shame !
How many of them, cast on the world by their abandoned
parents, who had all the passions of beasts and none of
their kindlier instincts ! Some, perhaps, had been early
orphans, and falling into hard or cunning hands, had had a
better nature early perverted to evil. Ah ! if those who
brought these poor hapless ones into the world, could have
been the invisible spectators of their wrongs, it would have
been enough to poison heaven itself to them. Some per-
"REFORMATORIES." 369
liaps there were — most miserable of all — who had been
kindly and tenderly nurtured, — had been in their dawn
of life the objects of lavish cares and flattering hopes, —
of a ]nother's morning and evening j^rayers ; and at last of
agonizing doubt and terror, heart-rending sighs and tears,
as the enticements of evil companions and the strength of
youthful passions gradually fixmiliarized them with sin —
vice — crime, — until the very images of home, its love,
and its sanctities, the strongest ties that bind the youthful
soul to virtue, had faded from the memory, and with them,
for the present, the hopes of heaven ! Yet not in vain may
tlie poor parents have wej)t and prayed; for hoAV often
have the wanderers returned after long years of salutary
sorrow — wise at last; perhaps long after those whose fond
hearts they have tried and broken, have been safely housed
in heaven. " Hope on still," one would say to such, " for
not only is 'hope the only tie that keeps the heart from
breaking ; ' but, you know, that you are expressly assured
that in some way, though unknown, every act of ' faithful
love ' and ' loving faith ' shall be recompensed a thousand
fold." In thousands of cases besides that so inimitably
described by Him who came so far to seek the lost, has the
"prodigal" been reclaimed by that very school of vice and
suffering Avhich he chose, and which j^romised to qualify
him only for j^erdition.
Yet, yet, in spite of all such mitigations — what a world
it is ! When shall we cope with its mysteries of sorrow ? —
But it will not do to go on thus. To you and to me, it
seems a thousand times better, that this old hulk of a planet
should founder for ever in the depths of space. But we
onust be wrong, since He keeps it afloat with all its freight
of guilt and misery, with its cargo of slaves and convicts
cursing, blaspheming, tempting, falling, agonizing beneath
370 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
the hatches, through all the horrors of this middle passage i
And since He bears with it, who is both chiefly wronged
by it, and more offended with the evil in it than we can be,
let us learn to do what little we can, simply, faithfully,
zealously, to diminish, if only by a grain's weight, the evil
around us, and leave the great mystery of that evil, and of
(dl evil, to the day when alone, if ever, we shall understand
it. The?!, if we understand it not, Ave shall understand Him,
who permitted it, too Avell to doubt His wisdom; and,
better still, have faith, if not knowledge, equal to the task
of accepting the- conviction of His unlimited goodness.
For the present, we, at least Z, must not meditate much
on this theme ; — " that way madness lies.*' — So I say to
myself, " Up and be doing ! What are the engagements
of the day, you lazy dog?" — and that thought of simj^le
trusting duty sets me on my legs again, just as the involun-
tary chirruj) which accompanied the self-expostulation has,
I see, made poor Carlo, who had likewise been in a deep
fit of abstraction on a chair by the Avindow, all life and
spirits ! Bless your honest old face, you affectionate beast.
I wonder what you have been thinking of; perhaps of the
origin of evil to the dog species — or the lamentable num-
ber of houseless, half-starved, ill-used hounds there are in the
world. Thank you for your cheerful looks, old fellow ! You
often teach a lesson or two, better than any Cynic 23hiloso-
phei- I know of — Well, well, Ave Avill go out, if you like,
but you need not tear my coat all to pieces, you brute !
And so, my friend, Avith this little play Avith my dog, uj)
go the clouds Avhich I am sorry to say too often descend on
my soul Avhen I foolishly think of such things as I but noAV
dwelt upon. But the misty curtain is rising noAV under
the cheering breeze Avhich has sprung up. Fast up the
hill they lift and lift, — and noAV I can see the sunlight
ANGLO-SAXON CRIMINAL CODE. 871
struggling through a rift here and there ; and so I will out
on the hills with Carlo, for the good both of body and
mind ; fare thee well.
But I invite you to resume these edifying speculations
when we shall be less likely to be injured by them, and
less liable to interruptions; say, ten thousand five hundred
and forty-nine years hence, at your pleasant house in
"Paradise Street," in the heavenly city — the metro])olis
of the *' better country," in full view of the immortal
verdure and glorious sunlit summits of the "everlasting
hills." There will I wrangle with you with much delight
for a thousand years ! — But my dog gets impatient, and
has set up such a clamor of barking joy, that I cannot
Avrite for him.
By the way, I hope my "faithful dog may bear me
company;" so far I am an Indian. But, then, I do not
know anything in Christian theology that absolutely
forbids a faint hope of once more meeting with these
fond comj^anions, — these four-legged Abdiels — " faithful
amonsjst the faithless."
Ever yours.
E. E. II. G.
LETTER LXXXV.
TO ALFRED WEST, ESQ.
1854.
My dear Friend,
Have you read Kemble's "Anglo-Saxons? If not, it
is worth your Avhile. It has led me to rummage again
into their history, and I found equal instruction and
amusement in doing so. There Ave see the "incimabula
gentis nostrae," — the cradle of the great English giant —
372 THE GKEYSON LETIEIIS.
of that huge Colossus which iiovv bestrides the world. In
the Anglo-Saxon genius and institutions, we discern the
germs, at all events, of that wonderful constitution, the
great merit of which consists in its organic development :
that it has assumed its shape and attained its stature by
vital forces from within, not been hewn, fashioned, and
built up from without. Like an oak, it was not " made,"
but "grew," and the acorn, whence all its leafy honors
and all its wide-spreading foliage, was dropj^ed into the
soil more than a thousand years ago.
Some of the Anglo-Saxon institutions, however, were
certainly odd enough; and of all the droll things which
human legislation has concocted, their criminal code was
surely one of the drollest. The precise money-value which
they attached to the life of every man according to his
rank, and the precision with which the loss or mutilation
of every organ of the human body was api3raised, reminds
one rather of a butcher's shop, where Revenge might
either purchase the whole carcass or haggle for a partic-
ular joint at its good pleasure. You might have a king,
it seems, for "thirty thousand thrymsas," or about a
hundred and fifty pounds ; a prince for half the money,
and a bishop or earl for a third. Only think ! if such laws
were in force now, — a millionaire, — some Baron Roths-
child, — might take off half the bench of bishops, and
never miss the money !
As to mutilations, nothing to a Adndictive spirit can be
imagined more convenient. Do you want to " break the
thigh " of your enemy, or " cut off his ears ? " Twelve
shillings is the moderate price for the dainty gratification.
If you are contented to " cut off the finger," you may save
a shilling; if you simply "cut off his great toe," or tear off
"his hair entirely'','* ten shillings will do; while if you are
satisfied with merely ''knocking out one of his front
ANGLO-SAXON CRIMINAL CODE. 373
teeth," you will have.it, surely cheap enough, at six shil-
lings !
Methinks, in these civilized days, we should soon reduce
the system to convenient commercial forms. We should
make our revenge, like other luxuries, a question of ex-
penditure and income, and j^ut down so much for it, just
as for wine or cigars. Ladies, in their marriage settle-
ments, might bargain for their spite-inoney^ as now for
their pin-money ; while neat little Christmas bills might
be sent in, exhibiting the exact debtor and creditor con-
dition of the feud betAveen you and your adversary.
What jDleasant items !
John Smith, Dr., to John Brovm.
To the loss of my little child's great toe
To piercing my wife's nose
To knocking out my servant's eye-tooth
To breaking my boy's ann
Creditor, by having lost an arm in the
last scuffle
Balance due to J. B
£
s.
d.
11
9
4
6
1
10
12
18
But I suj^pose our Anglo-Saxon forefathers would have
found out admirable reasons for their fantastical system ;
equally fantastical, whether we consider its general prin-
cij^le, or the capricious rate of valuation of particular inju-
ries. Some, perhaps, would even have found out that,
however anomalous, the thmg worked icell, and could not be
disturbed without the most fatal consequences to the whole
common weal ! In the meantime, we can see that in one
respect it had a solid recommendation ; for, like most legis-
lative expedients of a rude age, it seems to have been a
transition from a worse system — that of the unlimited
32
374 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
prosecution of private revenge. Anything that will put a
legal limit to that, must be by comparison a blessing ;
otherwise each injury, sacredly consigned to revenge,
must lead on to an infinite series of similar acts, or can
terminate only w^hen one party to a feud is absolutely
exterminated. " I do not see," said some one to a New
Zealand chief, " how your wars, once begun, can ever be
ended ; for you say revenge is a sacred duty, and each
retaliation becomes a new aoisrression." The ISTew Zealand
chief, it is said, was rather puzzled at so novel an argu-
ment ; but on reflection admitted that it must be so. Of
course it must ; as was the case with our Gaelic fore-
fathers; among whom injuries w^ere heir-looms, and, pretty
often, the chief j^art of the ragged inheritance. A kills B,
C kills A, D kills C, and so on, down the wiiole alj^habet,
to Z, and then all to begin over again. Pleasant times to
live in, uj)on my w^ord ! Thank God, we live in better.
Yours very truly,
B. E. H. *G.
LETTER LXXXYI.
to the same.
My dear West,
I knew your friend Mr. G. w^as hasty ; from what you
say, he seems also to be sulky, which I did not suspect,
and can less readily forgive. It is a beneficent arrange-
ment of Providence, argues old Thomas Fuller, that a
stoi-m and a fog cannot come together ; for if there is a
storm, it clears away the fog, and if there is a fog, the
wind is calm. Your quondam friend seems to show that
that may be possible in the moral world which is impos-
"SEDATIVES OF ANGER." 375
sible in the natural. The vapors in his soul, like those on
a mountain side when the clouds lie low, may roll and
tumble, it seems, with the gusts of passion, but do not
disjDerse.
Anybody may be overtaken with sudden anger, and
when frankly acknowledged and repented of, it is easily
forgiven; nay, I have known some choleric j)ersons so
sweetly and ingenuously own their fault, that one can
hardly regret that it has been committed. But at all
events the temptation is sometimes so swift and sudden —
it is so difficult to intercept it by putting the soul into a
posture of defence — that one may easily be betrayed into
a transient emotion of anger. Many are the prescribed
prophylactics, but I know none that is infallibly effectual.
Some say, — " When inclined to be angry, bite your thumb
or your tongue till the blood comes ; that will operate a
diversion, and give you something to think about." Very
likely — but whether it will tend to calm our passion may
well be doubted. Others say — " Count a million or two,
and by the time you get to the end, you will be quite
cool." Very true — but the worst of it is, the mind must
be cool before it can think of any such remedy.
But continued resentment has no such excuse. It is a
sin of deliberation, and is persisted in by wilfully nursing
and petting it.
Do you remember that eminently beautiful passage in
Paley's "Moral Philosophy," — one of the few in which he
becomes genial and almost eloquent, — in which he sets
down the reflections proper for appeasing anger, and which
he calls its sedatives f They are all well-imagined, and
many of them very touching, and can scarcely ever be re-
volved by a mind in the condition described, without tran-
quillizing it. But the real difficulty is to get the mind into
the posture of pondering them ; if that be done, the mind
376 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
will already be comparatively calm. — If Paley had been
more of a metaphysician, he would have added to his other
sedatives of anger the salutary effect of the very attempt to
apply these " sedatives ; " for the moment we begin to re-
flect upon and analyze our emotion, the emotion is gone.
I hope your friend Mr. G. will begin to " analyze " without
delay.
M. L. is going out as cadet to India, with all the san-
guine feelings proper, at least natural, at his age, and utterly
improper and impossible at any other. Enviable magic of
youthful imagination! which thus converts all the future
into golden dreams, and presages not a cloud on the hori-
zon even as "big as a man's hand." Well, it is best that it
should be so ; for if it were otherwise, where were enter-
prise — that child of hope and fancy ? A picture brighter
in tints than ever artist painted, is the lure which leads all
young vigor to action. " Knowledge is power," and so is
ignorance, it seems ; and if it were not, the world would
stagnate. It is thus that Providence gently imjDels us to
take our places in His School, and learn our lessons and en-
dure His discipline ; from all which we should resile fast
enough, if we knew at the outset what a business it was
like to be. Here is this lad already anticipating his return
from India, (his mother of course is to be alive,) with no
end of rupees in his pocket, and not a touch of liver com-
plaint ! In like manner, a young ensign no sooner puts on
his uniform, than he becomes lieutenant, captain, major,
colonel, in no time ; nobody knows how great a man he is,
— which indeed is all very true ; and it is well if he is not
soon Commander-in-Chief, and returning home, after another
Waterloo, to hear the plaudits of a grateful nation, — all
unwitting that he may perish in a ditch before the beard on
his chin is fairly established. In like manner, the young
lawyer is apt to fancy himself already Lord Chancellor —
YOUTHFUL HOPES. 377
lias a vision of the woolsack, and of himself sitting upon it
almost as clear as in a dream — quite as clear, it ought to
be, for it is a dream ; while the young lover — but there is
no end to his romances ! What a paragon of excellences
and beauties is that young lady ! and what wonderful suc-
cess, for her sake, attends him in life ! Yet he can make
shift with little but love ; " a cottage of content," covered
of course with woodbines and honeysuckles, adorns the
waste of the future. If he wants it, he has in imagination
ten thousand a year — or if hot, imagination tells him that
a hundred or a hundred and fifty will do just as well ; it is
absolutely inexhaustible, and, Avith " love and content," can
purchase, furnish, and maintain his paradise. Yet out of
the dreams of hope, seldom to be fulfilled, are shaped the
realities of the stern future.
Commend me to the moderate ambition of that New
Zealand chief, of whom I have somewhere read, who, on
the distribution of some captain's gifts, said that " his heart
would burst if he did not get a Ao6," as some hai)i)ier com-
rade had done. A strange paradox is the human heart,
which not even the world can fill, and which yet, it seems,
may go to pieces for want of a hoe !
Believe me.
Yours faithfully,
E. E. n. G.
LETTER LXXXVII.
TO THE SAME.
Dec. 1854.
My DEAR Frtenp,
I have been reading, with intense interest, that curious
and ingenious book (have you read it ?) on the " Plurality
32*
378 THE GRFYSON LETTERS.
of Worlds, — and also a long article in rej^ly. Like other
folks, I of course muse with special eagerness on subjects
which, like this, we have no possible means of deciding; and
which if they were decided, can in no way concern us. All
that is quite natural. Here have I been spending the last
two or three mornings in a " Fool's paradise," — debating
whether or not other worlds are inhabited, while letters
which I had to write, and business which I had to transact
in this world (which unluckily is inhabited), were all neg-
lected ! But doubtless, it is much the same all over the
universe. The philosophers of Venus, — if she be inhabited,
and can boast of philosophers, — are, I do not question,
much more intent on finding out whether our world is in-
habited than in attending to the business of their own
proper planet. Meantime, is \i not pleasant to think that
our philosophers and their readers have so much leisure
time on their hands that they can afford to look after the
possible citizens of other worlds, and such expansive benev-
olence as to wish them all imaginable felicity ? It is a ques-
tion, I remember, in Martinus Scriblerus, whether " a possi-
ble angel be not more worthy of the divine regards than an
actually existent fly ? " From the keen interest with which
a philosopher can sometimes speculate on this question of
the " Plurality of Worlds " and the oblivion, in which, mean-
time, he may leave the affairs of this, one might certainly
imagine that, in his estimate, a possible inhabitant of Venus
is more worthy of attention than an actual inhabitant of
Earth.
" These discussions are all very well," I can hear some
Utilitarian groAvling out ; " but it would be better if your
philosophers would spend their time in promoting the wel-
fare of those they know exist and can benefit, and not gad
about the universe in search of imaginary ladies and gen-
tlemen of inaccessible worlds."
TLURALITY OF WORLDS. 379
Yet, with due submission to onr Utilitarian, I certainly
think the Essay on the " PluraUty of Worlds " may subserve
a very useful purpose ; and if it had been a little differently
constructed, I think it Avould have read us lessons entirely
unexceptionable, — as it even now teaches us many valuable
ones. I thought before I dipped into it (judging from
report merely), that it was an ironical argument, designed,
not seriously to call in question the probability of a " Plu-
rality of Worlds," — a conclusion which so many analogies
favor, and which will, I suppose, be always adopted by nine-
tenths of mankind, — but to show philosophers how little
they really hioio about the matter, and how little reason
there was for the confidence and doG^matism Avith winch
cosmologists have often chattered about such subjects. I
say there was ample ground for reading the world such a
lesson ; for really the conceit of modern science had been
getting on at such a rate with its " fire mists," its "condensa-
tions " of " subtle fluid matter," and its theories of " nebulas"
consolidating into stars, that thousands began to tlaink it
was the easiest thing in the world to make a world ; nay,
that they could even see them a-mciking. I almost fancy
some of our wise cosmogonists would hardly have blushed
to head a chapter in a similar way with one in Knicker-
bocker's " History of New York," — "Showing how that
the creation of a world is by no means so difficult a matter
as has been sometimes imagined."
On reading the book, however, though I think it does
convey some such reproofs very forcibly, I find many pas-
sages which look as if the author seriously designed, not
merely to challenge proofs of ingenious and plausible hypoth-
eses, or rebuke the confidence Avith which they have been
maintained, but to show that there is really a preponder-
ance of argument in favor of the hypothesis that otlier
worlds are not inhabited. On the other hand, his opponent,
380 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
the Reviewer, seems to me to speak as much too dogmati-
cally on the other side ; he lays much more stress on some
Scripture phrases than they will bear; nor does lie suffi-
ciently remember, — when he gives his scientific conjectures
of what is certainly jyossihle enough, or even probable
enough, — that the question which the author of the " Plu-
rality " constantly urges, is not what may be^ but what is /
not what may possibly be true, but what is hnoimi about
the matter.
That is assuredly little enough. We know but little even
" of our next-door neighbor" — the moon ; and Avhat we
do know seems to have pretty "svell convmced astronomers
that she is not inhabited ; we at the same time know that
our earth certainly is. These are the only two worlds of
whose condition, relatively to this subject, we are entitled
to speak with any measure of confidence; so that the data
seem lamentably meagre for a sweeping generalization either
way. The problem, in fact, seems to be much like this ; —
Given one world which is certainly inhabited, and one other
which most probably is not ; to discover whether other
worlds are inhabited or not. This sounds to me about as
promising as this ; — Given one river which has fish, and
another Avhich has none ; to discover wdiether other i-ivers,
of which nothing is known, have fish or not ; — a hopeful
problem for a priori speculation !
Yet, after all, though we Icnoio nothing about the matter,
I suppose all the books in the world will not prevent, men
from being of a very confident persuasion^ — arguing from
general analogy, — that the worlds above us are not all
empty solitudes ; but, like our own, either already, or des-
tined to be, the abodes of life.
Nevertheless, to show how little we hnov:! of the matter,
the hypothesis of the author of the " Plurality " or that of
his opponent may be absolutely true ; and, again, both may
PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 381
be partially true. It 'inay be that every one of the worlds
around us is in the predicament in which the aiithor of tlie
" Plurality " so ingeniously argues this world must have
been millions of years before life appeared in it. Even if
designed to be the abodes of life, they may be only build-
ing, not built ; not yet tenantable — the scaffolding all still
about them; the carpenter, upholsterer, and painter, not
yet admitted ; or, if I may change the figure, the " crust "
of these worlds may still be a-baking, or rather cooling^ if
that be the approved scientific mode in which the crust of
worlds is made. Our world may be the only one tho-
roughly fitted up. On the other hand, for aught we know,
this may be the last that was finished ; while they all may
have rejoiced in the completion of the process myriads of
ages ago ! Even the moon herself, on that side of which
we know nothing, may be a paradise, and full of happy in-
habitants ; and the side which alone we see, may be the
rocky foundations of her other glorious hemisphere — an
"Arabia Petraea" bordering an " Arabia Fehx." There
tnay be in other worlds no life as yet ; there may be only
forms of animal life inferior to man ; there may be rational-
ity conjoined with the most diverse organization from ours,
— mtelligence essentially like ours, but indefinitely superior
or indefinitely inferior to it ; there may be beings with only
one sense or two, and there may be others like Voltaire's
Little Man of Saturn, or like " Micromegas " himself, with
fifty senses, and a knowledge of " three hundred essential
properties of matter ; " there may be rational creatures, in
each of the various planets, adapted by special organization
to their physical conditions of light and heat, and local po-
sition in the universe, — affording, amidst essential unity of
plan conjoined with endless modifications in execution,
proofs of the inexhaustible fertility of the Divine invention,
the " manifold wisdom of God ; " and there may be, to
382 THE GKEYSON LETTERS.
prove that " manifold wisdom" yet more conspicuously, not
only rationality like ours, but even a physical organization
like ours too, in planets most dissimilarly situated in refer-
ence to the sun, and most dissimilarly constituted in them-
selves ; — and this by means of a modification of their sec-
ondary laws ; of a special physical apparatus, which, for
aught we know, may make Mercury as cool, and Saturn as
warm, as the Earth. So that, on the one hand, while the
planets are differently placed relati^'ely to the centre of the
system, they may have inhabitants organized very differ-
ently from ourselves, yet exquisitely adapted to them / or
they may have inhabitants like ourselves, in virtue of dis-
tinct adaptation of their own local laws to such inhabitants ;
or, which again is very possible, both these suppositions may
be true in different portions of the universe, and thus con-
jointly illustrate the infinitude of the divine resources.
Here is a " j^lentiful assortment" of conjectures, any one of
which may be true ; nay, all of them at the very same time,
in different regions of space! But as to what \^ hnoion^
demonstrable — how much is it ? i
The folks of other -worlds, — supposing those worlds to
be inhabited, — w^hat would they say if they knew that we
are writing books and waging strenuous controversies as
to their possible existence ? I fancy they would be inclined
to say of us, " The inhabitants of that little Avorld can have
very little to do, since they can find time for the active
pursuit of such visionary speculations ! " But what would
they say if they found that, in these and in many other
equally conjectural inquiries, philosophers could not refrain
from vehement objurgation and mutual rej^roaches ? —
sometimes even lost their temper, and charged each other
with absurdity and stupidity? — nay, with grave tenden-
cies to " Atheism, " if others did not " dream the same
dream" as they? Methinks our planetary friends would
PLURALITY OF WOKLDS. 383
say, lliat tlie " Know Thyself," wliich was said so long ago
to have " descended from heaven," still remains there ; and
that, Avhatever else our ^philosophers have succeeded in
fetching from other worlds, they had at least left that be-
hind them
Ever yours, etc.
R. E. H. G.
LETTER LXXXVIII.
to the same.
My dear Friend,
On recollecting what I wrote the other day, I half re-
pent of some of the sentiments I expressed. I laughed a
little at the busy idleness which sends us all roaming into
other worlds when we have so much to do in this,
and so little time to do it in, and perhaps it does look
rather whimsical ; yet, in calmly computing not only the
pleasure but the benefit of the hours I have spent with my
two authors, I am by no means sure that they have not
been wisely spent. If they have not given me knowledge,
I am not sure that they have not given me what is better.
How elevating is even speculation, — if we be at all sober
and modest, — on such a theme ! What can so teach us
humility, — our insignificance and weakness, — as such a
little tour through the universe ! How does even that ig-
norance, in Avhich we are at last compelled to acquiesce
instruct us yet more profoundly than our limited knoAvl-
edge ! How ennobling are those thoughts that ^' wander
through infinity," — at least raising us above this world if
they cannot reveal to us the condition of other Avorlds !
And even if ever so unprofitable, yet how inevitable, is
the curiosity which impels man to such speculations ! Who
384 THE GRF.YSON LETTERS.
can resist them ? Who can look up to the glittering lights
which steal out at solemn eventide, or blaze out all over
the azure arch on a frosty night, without asking the ques^
tions which these authors strive to solve, or feeling himself
the better for meditation on them ?
And if there be inhabitants of other worlds, depend on
it they feel much as we do. If there are folks on the other
side of the moon, — my word for it, they have scrambled
up to the ridge which divides their hemisphere from that
seen by us, and peered (even though they should risk their
necks by it) down on the earth ; — to them a glorious lamp,
about thirteen times the size of the full moon, hanging mo-
tionless in their sky ! Yes, I see it all ; their philosophers
are full of conjectures about us, and have absolutely settled
it in their minds that so beautiful an orb must be the abode
of innocence and happiness !
We know they are a little mistaken in this matter ; but
then, alas ! may not we be too, when we speculate in a sim-
ilar manner about the diffusion of happiness, as well as life,
in other worlds ! This, I confess, is one of the most dis-
mal thoughts which arrest us in our speculations on the
*•' Plurality of Worlds." We are apt to imagine these beau-
tiful abodes of light not only full of life, but of felicity also.
How far may "distance lend enchantment to the view?''
How far, as in other excursions of fancy, may we be the
dupes of the seeming fair and beautiful ? Do the shadows
of evil lie as deep on the surface of those shining orbs, in
spite of their radiant exterior to us, as we know they do on
our world, though the folks in the moon may be felicitat-
ing us on our splendor, and the poets of Venus returning
the compliments of our own to her, by sonnetteering us as
an " island of the blest ? " It will not do to dwell on this
side of the speculation; so let us come back, my friend,
while we are still only the wiser for our transient flights
PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 385
through space, to the httle chx-le of j^resent duty, and leave
the question of " Evil " to him who has said that " secret
things belong to God ; but the things that are revealed, to
us and to our children ; " and He has revealed that " He
will make all things work together for good to them that
love Him."
Yours ever affectionately,
E. E. H. G.
P. S. — On reflection, ichy should this matter of the
Plurality of AYorlds be so long and so doubtfully disputed?
Why should we have mere conjectures, when "modern
science " can so easily give us certainty ? Why does not
" clairvoyance " settle the matter for us ? What is the use
of it, if it cannot determine such a trifling controversy ?
All that a clairvoyant has to do is to put himself en rapport
with Mercury or Venus ; and he can tell us all about the
thing. As Hopeful says in the " Pilgrim's Progress," " Why
should I remain in this dungeon, when I have a key in my
bosom M'hich will open all the wards in Giant Despair's
castle." So say I ; why should we remain ignorant on
this question of the "Phirality of Worlds," while there are
clairvoyantes in the Jand? And there is the more induce-
ment, surely, for these knowing ones to speak, inasmuch as
they must have it all their own way ; none can contradict
them, unless, indeed (which is but too probable), they con-
tradict one another. If they tell us that the inhabitants of
Jupiter have two heads and ten eyes, pray, my dear friend,
can you or I deny it? But I forget; the thing is already
done ; see the revelations of the " Poughkeepsie Seer," and
you will find everything plain. The inhabitants of Jupiter,
in particular, are duly described, anatomically, physiologi-
cally, mentally, and morally. After this, who but must be
surprised that the controversy between our j^hilosophers
should go on?
33
386 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
I wish our clairvoyantcs, in the meantime, would just
condescend to tell us Avhether Austria is meditatins: treach-
ery this coming spring, and how many troops and what
munitions are at this moment in Sebastopol. Strange per-
verseness of these gifted beings ! They can tell us all sorts
of useless things : liow Mr. Brown is employed, in the tAvo
pair of stairs' back, No 10, of any street in London ; Avhat
Sir John Franklin was doing on such a day at the North
Pole ; what sort of creatures inhabit Jupiter ; and yet they
won't let us know anything that is of any earthly use to us.
How can they wonder that men are sceptical as to their
jDOwers, when tliey will not exercise them to any purpose ?
And strangely blind must they be to their own interests !
What would not the " Times " give for such a si^ecimen of
" Our own Correspondent ! " — what would not govern-
ment give for such an agent ! In the name of common
sense, try and persuade your clairvoyant friend, T. S ,
to do something for us.
LETTER LXXXIX.
TO REV. C. ELLIS.
Akran, July, ISol.
My dear Ellis,
I think you would not easny imagine how a part of last
evening was spent. Well, I will tell you. At the modest
little table (V hote at the Brodick Arms (there might have
been, perhaps, half a dozen of us present), I, with some
others, was watching the progress of a discussion between
two of the party, on a subject which I imagine they would
not have chosen to discuss in such a place, nor, I dare say,
before an audience of strangers. But they got insensibly
embroiled, and at last urged each other on to give the most
A DOUBLE DEFEAT AND NO VICTORY. 387
undisguised expression of opinion. The rest of us gradu-
ally left our commonplace chat to listen to them, except
two, who seemed to think the discourse either not interest-
ing or not important enough to detain them. " And what
was the subject?" you will ask. Oh! a mere bagatelle,
my dear friend, in these enlightened days; — it was simply
whether or not there be a God ! or whether man alone, so
far as we know, has the privilege of conscious intelligence
and personal importance in the universe ! Of the two com-
batants, one was an Atheist, and the other a Deist.
Confess, now, that you would not have guessed that such
a subject would have been discussed at a Uible d? hote. I
will add that you would not often hear it more acutely dis-
cussed in a college. Among the four or five of us who
became gradually interested listeners, was a citizen of Glas-
gow, — a plain Christian man, who had probably never
heard such undisguised impieties so calmly avowed and
discussed before. He sat, for the most part, in a sort of
fascination of horror, yet a highly interested and intelligent
listener; for to many a Scotchman a little bitof "meta-
pheesyks " is as dear as " oatmeal parritch." As he listened
to the reckless challenging of truths, which seemed to him
clear as the light, and infinitely more precious, he reminded
me of nothing so much as a bird under the fascination of a
serpent. At the close, however, he broke in with a very
decisive expression of his opinion, and showed that, how-
ever he might have been fixed for a while by the rattle-
snake gaze of a live Atheist, he was not going to jump
down his throat.
And what was the general result, you will ask, of the
controversy ? Did it not end, as most others end, in con-
vincing nobody?
Perhaps so; — but not in confuting nobody. Each
388 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
was victorious, triumphantly victorious, in defeating his
opponent.
Tlie issue was a little like that which, according to Sully,
attended a certain stratagem in the wars of the League.
The citizens of the town of Yille-Franche went out at
night to surprise the neighboring town of Montj^azier.
That very same night, the good folks of Montpazier had
taken it into their heads to surprise the town of Yille-
Franche ! Each party accoutred a sufficient force, and each
took a diffi3rent route; each found the enemy's quarters
obligingly vacated for the other's benefit ; and when morn-
ing dawned, each party found itself at once successful and
unsuccessful — victorious and defeated ! " On pilla, on se
gorgea de butin ; tout le monde se crut heureux jusqu'a ce
que le jour ayant j^aru, les deux villes connurent leur me-
prise."
Among other things, the Deist affirmed that he had an
" intuitional consciousness " of the Infinite and of the Deity.
The Atheist denied that he was conscious of anything
of the kind. Now, when one finite mind declared that it
had consciousness of the infinite, and another finite mind
denied it had any such consciousness, it is hard to see how
the controversy could go any further in that direction;
— unless indeed the Deist had told the Atheist that he
lied ; which I suppose Avould not have ended, but rather
changed the nature of, the controversy.
The Deist then got on to the old and, as I believe, irre-
fragable argument of the " Marks of Design " in the uni-
verse and every thing in it, and which, he contended, prove
an " intelligent author."
The Atheist did not deny that there were plenty of
marks of design , that is, just such things as design^ sup-
posing the universe the work of an intelligent author, would
A DOUBLE DEFEAT AND NO VICTORY. 389
have exhibited; but he affirmed with the great Comte,
that though tlie adaptations of things, one to another, were
infinite, they were not really indicative of design at all, but
were simply " conditions of existence ; " that if man's eyes
were not so and so constituted (surely an undeniable truth),
he would not see, and that because they icere so constituted,
he did see (equally undeniable) ; and that is all that is to
be said ! ^Yho but must be satisfied w ith so clear a state-
ment ?
The misfortune is that it explains nothing, but leaves the
whole argument just where it was. I must do my Deist
the justice to say that he exposed this sophism admirably;
he showed that it still attributed all the adaptations^ which
seem to indicate design, to blind chance or blind necessity
christened with a " new nothing," an unmeaning name ; —
it being still asked, how so many conditions of existence
came so happily to conspire ; as before it was asked how
so many " marks of design " came to exist without any
designer ? He also remarked that manifold adaptations
are not " conditions of being " merely, but conditions of
well-being ; that man doubtless coidd exist though he had
a score of deformities — a hump on his back, or club feet ;
— that he coidd put food into his stomach, though he had
no palate which made it pleasant to do so, and so forth. 1
am sure he handled his argument capitally, and, I thought,
M. Comte cut a very sorry figure.
But he further argued that supposing all these apparent
" marks " of design, apparent only, yet the mind of man
was so constituted, its " conditions " of logic such, that the
immense majority of the race could not help, for the life of
them, judging these " adaptations " to be the effects of
design ; that this was confirmed by all experience, and that
therefore, z/ Atheism Avas t)ie truth, still it would always
be rejected, and its advocates in fact might as well keep
390 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
their mouths shut. He affirmed that they must always be,
as they ever had been, a vanishing fraction of the race.
" Men will still dispute," said he, laughing, " whether there
ever was an Atheist or not. Nothing can be plainer from
all history than that man, however he got it, has a ' reli-
gious faculty ^^ and will be a religious animal."
This nettled our Atheist, and he retorted very cleverly,
— that if induction from the phenomena of the " religious
faculty " inferred a God, it equally inferred ten thousand,
of the most dissimilar attributes and the most grotesque
characteristics ; that the Deist must take the induction from
the phenomena of the race generally, and not from two or
three Deists in a corner, who were fond of stealing their
" Monotheism " from the Bible they abjured, and then
setting up as original oracles ; that the indications of reli-
gious truth are to be gathered from the phenomena of
entire humanity, and the incalculable majority of men in
all ages have been gross idolaters ; now if so, as neither
Atheist nor Deist know anything of a doctrine of "human
corruption," but deny any such, it must be inferred that
the " religious faculty," as its general^ that is, normal mani-
festation, pointed only to Gods, which, for aught we can
see, are little better than none ! From the Deist's " stand-
point " it was difficult to reply to this.
But when the Atheist came to demand the completion
of the Deist's system, and to ask how much he could cer-
tify of God ; what were His aspects towards man ; what
man's position and duties ; what man's origin and destinies ;
whether he was immortal or not, and so on : in a word,
when he came to press the Deist on points, without a solu-
tion of which his theory of a deity, to such a being as man,
IS stark naught, ignorance left him in as sorry a plight as
his adversary had been.
" Power and wisdom palpably present in the universe ;
A DOUBLE DEFEAT AND NO VICTORY. 391
goodness, extensively;" — he could get no further than
that. To all the questions man feels so intensely interested
in, he could answer only by conjectures and assumptions,
and these the Atheist twitted him with often filching from
the Bible he derided. " You may see," said he, " how
little man knows on such subjects by looking at him as ho
has been in nine hundred and ninety-nine cases out of every
thousand since history began ; you may see how little he
knows, and how blmdly he hopes and fears, on these sub-
jects. And you cannot, as the Christian can, talk of deprav-
ity, — for you, like me, deny it."
On the whole, the Scotchman was delighted with the
issue of the controversy. " Ye are twa stalwart chiels,"
said he, — " nae doot o' that ; ye are like twa fighting bulls
of Bashan that have got their horns sae fast locked, that it
is hard to see how they are to get loose, excej^t by pulling
ilk ither's heads aif. Faith, and I dinna ken that it wad
muckle matter. But ye hae proved one thing, ony way ;
that I canna afibrd to do without my Bible."
I confess I felt much the same. It, and it alone, so far
as I know, supplements the meagre truth of Deism, and
enables us to baffle, if we cannot wholly remove, the difii-
culties which chiefly provoke to Atheism.
Yours very truly,
R. E. II. G.
LETTER XC.
TO THE SAME.
My dear Ellis,
I wish I could gratify you by complying with your re-
quest, and give the very words of the entire dialogue to
which I referred in my last letter ; for it was very mstruc-
392 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
tive and interesting. But it is impossible to recall it ex-
actly, nor can I pretend to give you in full even that part
of the argument for which you more particularly ask, and
in which you seem to be so much interested : I mean that
in which the Atheist replied to the Deist's nndeniably
strong argument derived from the religious manifestations
of human nature in general. The retort would be easily
evaded by you or me, or any Christian, but from the stand-
point of the Deist who ignored the fact of aught abnormal
in the present condition of human nature, it seemed to me,
(what the Deist's silence confessed it to be,) quite unan-
swerable. But, though I cannot recall all the arguments
used, still less the expressions, you will not be far out if you
imagine the dialogue proceeding somewhat on this wise :
The Deist, as I told you, went on triumphantly for some
time with his argument from induction^ and I confess I
could hardly see how it could be contested ; when his ad-
versary said, very quietly, " You believe that the human
mind is so constituted as to believe the existence of a
God?"
"Assuredly," said the other.
*' That is, you believe that man w^as endowed with a
mind framed in such a way that he could not but arrive, m
the course of its normal development, at the idea of such a
being ! "
" Certainly."
"And you believe that man is now just what he was when
created. You do not believe that he has fallen from an
originally higher state ; you reject all the fixbles of the
* Golden Age,' the transient ' Paradise ' of Genesis, and all
[the other fables by which so-called revelations affect to ac-
count for the phenomena of presumed moral deterioration
on the part of miserable humanity."
" I acknowledge that I reject them all.
A DOUBLE DEFEAT AND NO VICTORY. 393
" For you are the disciple of Reason alone, and have
nothing to do with Revelations ? "
'^ Nothing."
^' What idea of God does that Reason, thus innate in
you, instruct you to form of the Deity ? "
" That He is One, Infinite, Eternal, Uncaused, Omni-
present, Omnipotent, and perfectly Benevolent."
'' Is that the idea which so many as one out of a million
of our race have formed ? Is it not the conception of the
very few ? One God ! have not the immense, the over-
whelming majority of mankind believed in hundreds? in
thousands ? Have they not had ' gods many and lords
many ? ' Gods coordinate and gods subordinate ? Gods of
different powers in the universe taken jointly, and gods of
them taken separately ? Gods of all objects natural, gods
of all objects artificial ? Monkey divinities and cat divin-
ities, sacred cows and sacred calves ? Divinities hewn with
a hatchet out of a block of Avood, and equally divine blocks
of wood w^ithout even the hatchet being employed upon
them ? Nay, has not man made out of the very same block
(as the Hebrew j^rophet said) the billet that kindles his fire,
and the fuel that heats his oven, and the God which he
bows down to and worships ? Has not the Fetichist pros-
trated his senseless soul, in adoring silence, before a bit of
tinsel or a glittering pebble ; and has not the Pantheist, with
equal sense, called all things — pebbles and tinsel mcluded
— the Deity collectively? Though it is sometimes said
that man's gods are usually made like himself, I must con-
tend that they are far below himself; destitute even of that
spark of intelligence which himself boasts of possessing.
He generally takes care before he condescends to worship
his god that that little spark of reason shall be put out !
Or rather," lie continued sarcastically, " I think it may still
be said that man's gods are usually a little above him —
394 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
simply because they, at all events, nave not thought them-
selves divine, nor Avorshipped what themselves have made.
An Egyptian may adore a cat, a Brahmin a sacred cow ;
but the cat and the cow neither believe themselves divine
nor worship one another. And if they could but compre-
hend the absurdity of wise man's genuflexions and offerings,
they would certainly break out into one of the distinguish-
ing characteristics of humanity, and indulge in a hearty
' guffaw ' at their human adorers. Some of you talk about
the necessary inference that, as man did not create himself,
he must owe his existence to a God who is uncaused ; rather,
from man's general practice through all races and all ages,
you ought to argue in a different way, and say that it is
one of the characteristic inferences of man's wise head,
that a god must be created before it is to be adored : for
man, you see, in the immense majority of cases, devoutly
worships the Avork of his own fingers, — generally clumsy
enough ! Instead of his gods fabricating him^ and hence,
having, as you say, a title to his worship, he creates them^
and then adores them for the attributes he has gratuitously
bestowed. You seem to think that it is the normal con-
dition of mankind to break out into the poetry, — sublime
poetry, I admit, — of the Hebrew bard, as he gazed on the
spectacle of the starry heavens : — ' When I behold the
heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars
which thou hast ordained, what is man that thou art mind-
ful of him, and the son of man that thou visitest him ? ' On
the contrary," said he, laughing, as he pursued the contrast
of men in general, " man Avhen he has surrounded himself
with his artificial divine deformities, the divine monsters he
has turned out of his own workshop, his little grotesque
images of clay, wood, or stone, and contemplates their ugly
perfections — seems to say to the frights — ' When I behold
the idols which my fingers have made — what is man in
A DOUBLE DEFEAT AND NO VICTORY. 395
comparison ? ' And sure enough he may well ask the
question. Now if you say that the bulk of the species have
looked beyond these works of their hands, and have recog-
nized a supreme God under these fantastic forms, I deny,
1. That many of them have; 2. That of those who have
acknowledojed that there are ranks and orders amons: their
divinities, very, very few have even apj^roximated to that
comprehensive, and I will even add, sublime abstraction by
which you have defined the Deity. As to the absolute
Monotheists, — they have ever been a most miserable
minority. Even those who have looked beyond subordi-
nate deities in any sense, and acknowledged a Father of
Gods and Men, — such as Jupiter, for example, (by my
faith, he was the father of a good many of them, by all ac-
counts — the name was not ill-bestowed,) have been com-
paratively few. As to Jupiter, as generally conceived, who
would not just as soon have worshipped any of the rabble
that filled his 01ym23us, as that old roue! The sort of
Supreme God recognized by some Polytheists has been far
enough from resembling that notion you have given of Him,
and which I suspect you have stolen from Moses and the
Bible, like the rest of you Deists. But as for the tnass —
the idea that these — the myriads of gross idolaters — have
risen, in the very midst of their grovelling, crawling super-
stitions, to the conception of such a God as you define, is
absurd ; the mere circumstance that they are idolaters
proves that such conceptions are veiled to them. To tell
me that a man has any sublime ideas of an infinite spiritual
Creator, an infinite Monarch of the universe, when he is all
the while moping and mowing in adoration of a monkey, or
a block of his own hewing, is nonsense. I can understand
a little what you mean (though I deny its force as argu-
ment) when you talk of looking up from Xature to Nature's
God : I understand what you mean when you talk of rising
396 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
from ' effects to causes' — though I deny that the one are
effects, and that the ' causes ' are any other than imaginary;
but that idolaters — who are the bulk of mankind — should
' look up ' from the idols of their own maki7ig^ to Nature's
God, — that is, from ' effects ' Avhich they worship as causes
to a Sujireme Cause of all things, — is to me quite incredible."
"Well, and Mdiat is the object of this long tirade?" said
the other, quite innocently, and apparently unconscious of
the retort preparing for him.
" Why, that if you have any candor, you must acknowl •
edge that the all but universal idea of God is not your idea ;
that yours is the idea of a \erjfeic/ that in the ratio of a
million to one, the notions of men have been the most
enormous and grotesque parodies on what you would call
the Deity!"
" Certainly — I wont, for I can't deny it ; but still they
have had the idea of a God ; in harmony with the condi-
tions which I have represented as a fundamental law of
the human mind."
" A God ! — an idea of ten thousand you mean. Why
did you say you inferred that the formation of such a notion
was one of the conditions of the constitution of the human
intellect?"
" Because in the immense majority of mankind, we find
some such idea developed. The Atheists are, and ever
have been, such a miserable minority."
" And just so I say of the Monotheists. M-go, if I grant
that it is one of the conditions of the human mind that it
should form some conception of a God, — because it is the
actual condition of the immense majority of mankind that
they have it, — you micst, in like manner, grant that it is
one of the conditions of the human mind that it should
form most various^ hideous^ odd^ grotesque^ imperfect^ de-
grading conceptions of a God, for such have been the con-
A DOUBLE DEFEAT AND NO VICTORY. 397
ceptions, such they are still, of the immense majority of the
race ; those who have resembled you, my deistical friend,
having been ' a most miserable minority.' You say man is
as he was created ; you say that he has just as much reason
and conscience as he ever had ; and you see what follows
from an induction of facts. If man necessarily forms some
idea of a God or gods, we must infer by parity of reason
from induction^ that he must ever form most unworthy
and degrading notions of him."
I was curious to see how the Deist would reply to this
argument ; I considered how I should answer it myself if
I were in his place. If I believed, as he did, that just what
God had created man, such man is now ; that man still
framed his notions of God, and of the worship due to Him,
in obedience to that law which God had originally impressed
on his nature, and under the conditions of thought origi-
nally assigned; it was hard, in the face of such general
results, to infer anything else than that either God had
made a strange mistake in constituting human nature,
if he really designed it to have that just and consistent
idea of Him proclaimed by the Deist ; or that he never
designed anything of the kind ; — or that, as the Bible says,
man is no longer what God made him. This last solution,
our Deist's reason had thrown aside contemptuously ; and
no outlet to the ravine of rock seemed possible in that
direction. I looked every way carefully, but could discern
no mode of escaping ; it was a cul de sac to a Deist.
Thus it seemed indisputable that the Atheist and the
Deist were both perfectly right ; successful in confuting
one another, without the possibility of escaping counter-
confutation. The Deist was right in maintaining that the
fundamental laws of the human mind necessitate, and must
ever lead to the adoption of, some notions of a Deity ; be-
cause from induction we see that in the immensely greater
34
398 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
number of cases, they have done so ; and the Atheist was
right in maintaining that the equally universal fact of man's
having formed notions of a Deity utterly degrading, gro-
tesque and unworthy, shows that this also, in the majority
of cases, is the inevitable condition of the human mind,
as i^roved by a similar induction ; so that it seems — strange
paradox! — that man is generally necessitated to discover a
God, but that ^V^ general He will be such that it hardly
matters two buttons whether He be discovered or not!
" Therefore," said the disciple of M. Comte, in conclusion,
" as you twit me with the uselessness of rtiy mission, and
the absurdity of attempting to convert mankind to my
vicTVB (which, I frankly acknowledge, have ever been con-
fined to a very few), you must permit me to remind yoii
that the folly of your efforts for the illumination of man-
kind is equally egregious. Indeed, those who haA^e held
your sublime views of the Deity, — pure monotheists, —
have been scarcely more numerous — except as they have
derived their notions from the Bible revelation, which you
reject — than the Atheists themselves."
My deistical friend made one desperate effort to recover
his ground ; but it was very slij^pery — and he fell. I had
no hope of his maintaining his footing ; but even I was
surprised at the little he could reply to the argument. The
Atheist pursued his advantage and said, com23lacently
enough, " I must, nevertheless, contend that you are charge-
able with one absurdity from which I am free. Believing
in no God, and that the human mind is merely an assem-
blage of " conditions " without a final cause, it is not at all
wonderful to me that some of its notions should be strange,
odd, and incongruous ; but if, as you say, man was formed
by that superior and matchless intelligence you adore ; if
he is now what that intelligence framed him, and equipped
with laws of thought which necessarily develope a knowl-
A DOUBLE DEFEAT AND NO VICTORY. 399
edge of the Deity ; how is it that he should every where
exhibit the curious phenomena I have insisted on ? It is
utterly incomprehensible. That man should fancy there is
a God when there is none, may be odd enough ; but that
when God has created him so as to know and adore Him,
man, being still possessed of all that God had originally
endowed him with, should fail to find Him, — is to me an
unfathomable mystery."
" What answer there is," said I, interposing, " or can be,
to this taunt, on the deistical hypothesis, I know not. Per-
mit me to tell you, however, that it is of no avail against
Christianity ; for the theories of Christianity and Deism
are antipodal. Man, as you have insisted, does form, in
the immense majority of cases, and ever has formed, the
most degrading and absurd notions of the Deity; but
Christianity is expressly founded on this admission, — on
the lamentable reality of all the difficulties, which you have
urged ; — it acknowledges as its foundation that while man
has a nature which prompts to religious thought and feel-
ing, that nature is corrupt — " and that the world by wis-
dom knew not God." He was polite enough to acknoAV-
ledge that the argument he had used did not affi3ct the
theory of Christianity — except as afiecting every other
theistical theory ; that is, as ultimately involving the con-
sideration of the i^ermission of such a state of things as
required the Divine intervention; in other words, as in-
volving the problem of "the origin of evil." I told him
that that was an abyss which I, for one, had many years
ago explored as far as I intended, and was glad to have
groped out with my torch still unextinguished ; but that,
however deep, it left the arguments against Atheism unim-
paired, and being in itself utterly unfathomable, could jus-
tify no rejection of those arguments; — unless we are at
liberty to argue against what we can comprehend from
400 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
what we cannot. To this he did not reply ; and in truth
it was high time to light our candles and go to bed.
Ever yours.
K. E. H. G.
LETTER XCI.
TO A FRIEND WHO HAD BECOME A DEIST.
1852.
My dear Friend,
For, in spite of your doubts, I shall not cease so to ad-
dress you. You say that as you are no longer a Christian,
— more's the pity, say I, — you suppose I cannot think
anything worthy of the name of " friendship " can sincerely
subsist between us ; that persons whose sympathies must
be so imperfect, whose intercourse, restrained and frigid,
while it lasts, must, after a brief interval, be so sadly
broken, and broken for ever, can hardly be friends.
I, on the other hand, shall maintain, in spite of it, that
if you haA'e lost all sympathy Avith me, I have lost none
for you ; — and that even as a brother who has an infidel
brother, or a father Avho has an infidel son, would prove
himself a strange Christian brother or father by renounc-
ing brother or son, so a Christian friend would prove him-
self a very odd Christian and a very odd friend, who
should abjure one who has been his friend because he is
no longer a Christian. On the contrary, as a Christian
father will feel and show a double solicitude and tender-
ness towards his erring child, so must a friend discover
not a diminished, but a quickened anxiety for the welfare
of an erring friend.
The aspect of his love will be indeed changed, and
sorrow will mingle with it — but, believe me, my friend,
it will be love still.
TO A DEIST. 401
Strange doctrine this of yours ! It is as though I were
told that a man, fearing a friend had lost his way in a
midnight passage of the mountains, might, with a quiet
conscience, at once give up all hope of seeing him again,
and instead of setting out with light and guides to seek
him, coolly sit down in the chimney corner, saying, " Well
— no doubt the poor soul is gone to the devil — but it
can't be helped ! "
I have not so learned Christianity; nor was this the
exami')le of Him who came " to seek and to save that
which was lost ; " who, for that purpose, left safe in the
heavenly fold the ninety and nine that were in no danger,
and sought in the wilderness the poor wanderers Avhose
l^erils quickened, not rej^elled, his sympathies. If He was
called, though He was " without sin," the " friend of pub-
licans and sinners," I shall not hesitate, who am but a
sinner myself, (albeit, I hope, a Christian,) still to call by
the name of "friend" one who is a sinner even as I.
The text you quote so tauntingly, (forgive me for say-
ing so, — but it is tauntingly,) " What felloAvship hath
Christ with Belial — or what part hath he tliat believeth
with an infidel," is nothing to the purj)ose. Tliat text is
intended to forbid the voluntary formation of close and
ensnaring intimacies with those who are estranged from
the Christian life in either sentiment or character. No
doubt a Christian father Avould not choose to have an
unbelieving son, if he could help it; and in the same
manner, neither would a Christian man choose liis special
intimates among those who are alienated from his Master.
But a parent cannot repudiate his ^^^I'cntal relation be-
cause his son becomes an " unbeliever ; " and neither can
a friend repudiate a friend. When friendship has been
formed previous to the existence of any such disturbing
causes, the bond cannot be rudely broken.
34*
402 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
You would have done well to look into other passages.
The New Testament prescribes, with that remarkable
freedom from fanaticism, Avliich, if its writers were fanatics,
is a very singular characteristic, the terms of intercourse
with an unbelieving husband, w^ife, or child, and by parity
of reason, with an unbelieving "friend;" and what coun-
tenance is there for your taunt ? Nay, with the unbe-
lieving world in general, Christianity not only permits the
ordinary transactions of life, but enjoins, in all such trans-
actions, that uniform courtesy, kindness, and benevolence
which, in fact, involve all the offices of friendship, and
must of necessity often lead to it.
So far from the Christian being forbidden to come into
contact with the "unbelieving" world, he is told the
express contrary ; to forbid this would be to tell " him to
go out of the world." It is only to a " brother that walks
disorderly " that he is commanded to act thus ; with him
"not even to eat," — neither to give or exchange hospi-
tality. Now — alas that I should say so! you are no
longer " a Christian brother," — but I insist on it that you
shall still be a " friend." So you must suffer me to ad-
dress you in the old style, and if it Avill at all accommodate
your scruples, I will call you one that is "without," and
certify to the fact that you are not a Christian. If this
will not satisfy you, and I must needs proceed according
to the rule Avith which you upbraid me, that of treating
our offending brother as " a heathen man and a publican ;"
still you will be pleased to recollect that it is after re-
peated admonition that that is to be done, — and I have
by no means " admonished " you enough yet.
" Pray do it," I imagine you saying, " without the ad-
monition." No — I shall not; I shall persist in bearing
with your offences, not only the "seven times," but the
" seventy times seven," before I finally release you.
TO A DEIST 403
So that, in fine, you see I am a "burr,"* and-^liall
" stick."
You let out the secret, I suspect, of your perverse
scruples as to the possibility of our continued friendly
intercqjarse. I say perverse, for there is seldom any
scruj^le with gentlemen in your position — when you say
that you hope, if we are to keep up our former corres-
pondence, I am not going to trouble you with that " in-
tolerable" subject, — the "evidences of Christianity!"
This, and perhaps a little disposition to taunt me with the
supjDOsed bigoted exclusiveness of the Christian rule, must
account for your unusual scruples.
As to the evidences of Christianity, never fear ; I am so
far from intending to trouble you with them, that I am
about to show you how you may annihilate Christianity
altogether; not by directly attackiyig \\> — that, I regard,
as proved by long experience to be useless — but by es-
tablishing a better system ! As Leslie entitled his little
tract " A short method with the Deists," so, if you choose
to adopt the course I shall point out, you may call it, " A
short way Avitli Christians," and I shall engage it will be
effectual.
You will say, perhaps, that it is necessary, first, to de-
stroy Christianity before you can introduce a better sys-
tem. Ah! my friend, do not wait for that. Christianity
is so long a dying, that you Deists will all die before you
have a chance of establishing your own system. You may
say of the Gospel, as the desj^airing husband of his litigious
wife : " I am tired of getting the better before she is tired
of losing the victory." Take no heed to it, but proceed at
once, as if it were non-existent, to show the world "a
more excellent way ; " that dazzled world will then say of
Deism, as comj)ared with Christianity, what Paul says of
404 THE GREY SON LETTERS.
Christianity as compared with Judaism: "It hath no
glory," being eclii^sed by a " glory that excelleth."
But I must first, in another letter or two, lay before you
briefly some of the reaso9is on which I would advise you
to raise the siege of Christianity. I know that ihe at-
tacking party often has some advantage over those who
act on the defensive, but not always ; and from the length
and tediousness of this war, and various other reasons
which I shall detail to you, I do not augur well for your
success. A defensive war is not always so bad, — es-
pecially if the besieged occuj^y a Gibraltar, and the be-
siegers wooden fortresses and a fluctuating element ;
above all, if it comes to red-hot shot into the bargain.
There is something invigorating, I grant, in assault; but
none in knocking one's head against stone walls. Now,
without implying anything (that I may not ofiend you,)
as to the truth of Christianity, I think it may be shown
that the assault in this case is of that description.
Yours faithfully,
E. E. H. G.
P. S. — You will perhaps think all the latter part of
this letter mere badinage. I assure you I am most serious.
Though I am convinced of the truth of Christianity, yet
if it be false, I am as deeply anxious that it should be
proved so, as you can be. I am persuaded (though I
might be puzzled to give a reason for it in that case) that
nothing but good can come out of Truth ; and therefore,
if she still be at the "bottom of the Avell," let me have the
advantage of your (or of any man's) wheel and axle to get
the jade out.
I am also deeply convinced that (f Christianity be false,
the best method for proving it so is that I shall hereafter
point out.
TO A DEIST. 405
LETTER XCII.
TO THE SAME.
1&52.
My dear Friend,
I am led to regard the assault on Christianity as hope-
less — because I see that it has been continued for so
many generations in vain; and esj)ecially that its ene-
mies have had, for more than a century, every opportunity
of doing their worst, — that is, of saying their worst, and
'have achieved nothing.
Nor can I, on the calmest survey, perceive on what
grounds you can promise yourself a chance of success.
You cannot say, as in other cases, " This religion sprang
up in an unhistoric age, and among barbarous people." On
the contrary, it entered the world amidst the light of lite-
rature and civilization, and immediately began to prop-
agate itself amongst the nations most renowned for both,
as well as elsewhere. Christ appeared to the world, as he
appeared to the aj^ostle on his way to Damascus, with a
" light from heaven " at " noonday."
You cannot say, as in other cases, "This religion is
received only by a particular race or nation, and cannot
travel out of it ; it is local, and like other similar religions,
will die when political changes or military conquest shall
try it." On the contrary, it has been adoi3ted by the most
diverse races, by the most different nations, by Greeks,
Romans, English, French, Germans, — by Barbarian and
Civilized alike; by peoj^le distinguished by every con-
ceivable variety of culture, laws, manners, climate ; and it
has been retained in spite of political and military rev-
olutions of the most confounding nature ; revolutions
which have shivered into atoms a score of other religions.
406 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
It dwells in every zone — under every forai of polity —
its habitat would seem the bosom of humanity.
You cannot say that " it has been adopted only by vulgar
intellects, and without investigation." On the contrary,
genius of the highest order among the most lettered and
civilized of the nations, has, in ten thousand instances,
calmly, after the fullest scrutiny, and w^ith the deepest
knowledge of the laws of evidence, declared the proofs of
its truth unassailable. The books that the literature of a
dozen nations has contributed to its defence would alone
make an immense library !
You cannot say that " its enemies have had no liberty of
l^leading on the other side." On the contrary, from the
earliest times downwards, and especially during the last
century and a half, antagonists have appeared in all the
most polished Christian nations, with the fullest liberty of
employing every weapon, whether of ridicule or of argu-
ment, against Christianity ; they have written thousands of
books, not one in a hundred of which is remembered twenty
years after its publication, and have constructed half a dozen
theories, — reciprocally contradictory, it must be admitted,
— of accounting in a natural w^ay for the origination of this
troublesome religion. Some of the writers of such books,
— as Gibbon and Voltaire, for example, — have on other
grounds been of enormous popularity, and yet the position
of Christianity remains much the same !
You cannot say " its enemies " have not a thousand times
paraded the " discrepancies and contradictions " which you
affirm exist in the Bible : for this they have been doing ever
since the time of Porphyry and Celsus till now ; — yet,
mortifying to relate ! without getting one in ten thousand
to suppose that such discrepancies at all shake the histori-
cal authority of the Scriptures.
You cannot say that " The Book has not given you every
TO A DEIST. 407
advantage y " for never was there one which more irritates
the pride and prejudices of mankind ; which presents greater
obstacles to its reception, morally and intellectually ; — so
that it is amongst the most unaccountable things to ??2e, not
that it should be rejected by some, but that it should be
accepted by any. " It is, I grant," said an old Deist, " a
very strange thing that Christianity should be embraced;
for Zdo not perceive in myself any inclination to receive
the New Testament." There spake, not Deism only, but
HUMAN NATURE.
You cannot say, that like other religions, " Christianity
panders to man's passions or vices, or promises him a sen-
sual paradise." On the contrary, its morality is not easy^
its heaven by no means attractive, and its hell — very disa-
greeable !
Similarly, you cannot say that intellectually, — especially
for the last sceptical century or two, — it has not made your
task, if it were feasible at all, as easy as possible ; for the
wonders of the Old and New Testament, if not true^ are the
very wildest of fables and romances ; — they equal — so
some of you say — those of ^sop, of the Iliad, the " Ara-
bian Nights," Ovid's " Metamorphoses." How mortifying,
my friend, that you should have any difficulty in exploding
such monstrous follies ! What if your greatest philosophers
had in vain striven for twenty — nay, eighteen hundred
years to show the world that Ovid's " Metamorphoses "
were not to be received as literal facts ! Now it ought to
be as easy, if your theory be true, to convince people that
Shadrach, Meschech, and Abednego never came safe out of
the fiery furnace, and that the " swine " never ran off with
the " devils," or rather the " devils " never ran off with the
" swine ! " One of two things must be conceded ; either
the pressure of historical proof, — the marks of nature and
sincerity in the New Testament must be irresistible, thus
408 THE GEEYSON LETTERS.
to prevent your success with those who, with you, reject
all similar things in other cases as mere fables ; or else, if
these things he fables, as you assert, — the folly of these
capricious folks, — enlightened on all else, dark as midnight
here, — must be indomitable, and your attempts to en-
lighten them must be hopeless !
It is vain to say, " Oh ! but there are millions of men
who believe millions of other extravagant fables." It is
true ; but I must once more remind you that the way to
measure the difficulty of disabusing Christians^ (and I fancy
it will be a long time before your friends even attempt to
disabuse anybody except Christians ; they leave Hindoos
very quietly to themselves,) is to imagine a number of races
and nations, as different in origin, culture, and language,
and as distant in space, as those which have adopted Chris-
tianity, all enamoured of the Vedas, say, — devoutly believ-
ing them — ready to die for them — writing endless books
to prove all their fables true ; men, among all these people,
like Locke, Butler, Pascal, swearing, in the very focus of
light and civilization, that the Vedas are all proved true,
and accomplished sceptics among their very compatriots
assailing them in vain ! Now w^hen you do find such a
case, I should say what I say of your assaults on Christian-
ity, — " You may as well leave the Vedas alone ; " which,
by the way, I dare say the Deist loill do at any rate ; for,
it seems, mankind may believe anything in the world, for
any pains he will take to enlighten them, — except Chris-
tianity !
I have just been reading a beautiful book now in course
of pubhcation, which has suggested some reflections showing
still more strongly (as I conceive) the hopelessness of your
enterprise. But I must reserve them for another sheet
Yours truly,
E. E. II. G.
TO A DEIST. 409
LETTER XCIII.
TO THE SAME.
1852.
My dear Friend,
The book to which I referred in my last is Conybeare
and Howson's beautiful work on the " Life and Epistles of
Paul."
The A23ostle Paul wrote, perhaps, nearly as mnch as
would fill a volume of the " Traveller's Library," at least,
if it were printed in a little larger type : or, to put the
matter otlierwise, his compositions would make no less than
three or four columns of the " Times' Debates ! " — surely
a voluminous author.
Yet he has had more thought, time, toil, and ingenuity,
expended on him, — in the investigation of his history, and
of the times in which he is supposed to have lived, — in the
correction of his text, — in the criticism of his style, — in
the illustration of his beauties — in the elucidation of his
difficulties — than Plato, Aristotle, and Bacon, Homer,
Virgil, Milton, and Shakspeare, all put together, volumin-
ous and zealous as criticism on each of these authors has
been.
Now, I know just what you will say: "that when an
author has so much written upon him and about him, it is
an argument rather of his worthlessness than of his worth ;
that, if his meaning were quite plain, and his merits unam-
biguous, he might dispense with commentators." Very
good ; but then be pleased to observe the consequence ; it
will follow that St. Paul being the very worst, the writers
just mentioned must be the next worst of the tribe ; for
perhaps after him — though all at a distance immeasurable
— the great writers I have named have most attracted the
attention and stimulated the zeal of critics. And, furtlier,
35
410 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
in bar of any such brief solution of the paradox, it may be
said that though the most worthless of writers may need
most commentary, somehow they do not get it ; mankind
go a shorter way to work with them, by quietly suffering
them to sink to the bottom. It will be long before Black-
more will enlist a Warburton or Malone in his service, or
a Muggleton find a commentator in a Locke ! Least of all
do men of widely different countries and races thus expend
their energies, and, Avorse still, their money, in everlast-
ingly translating and elucidating dull common-j^lace or ob-
scure nonsense.
Now, here is St. Paul in more languages than all the best
classic authors put together ; and scores of writers in all
the more cultivated modern tongues, — that is, among all
the most civilized nations, — have been i3oring over the
Apostle, and commenting upon him, Avithout end. The
tractates and treatises on separate texts, — on single chaj:)-
ters, — on single epistles, — on parts of them, — on the
whole collectively ; — the commentaries on his life, charac-
ter, and history, and on the churches he is supposedXo have
founded : these writings, I say, gathered from all the lan-
guages of Europe, would constitute an immense library !
An immense library spun out of a few tracts, which would
have hardly made as much as a single play of Shaksj^eare
or one of the longer of Plato's Dialogues ! tracts which,
however, exist in twenty times as many languages as any
production of these authors can be found in. \Yhatever
may have been the case w^ith his Corinthian converts, the
Apostle may certainly nov^ say of all mankind — "that he
speaks with more tongues than they all!"
Such a contrast between his scanty authorship, and his
prodigious and enduring popularity — popularity whicli tlie
most gigantic and aspiring genius may Aveli look at with
despairing envy — is certainly a curious i^henomenon.
TO A DEIST. 411
These reflections have been forced upon me by Cony-
beare and Howson's splendid vohimes. Two portly quar-
tos ! While every other author is shrinking into duodeci-
mos, Paul can still afford to come out in quarto, illustra-
ted by all that the printer's and engraver's arts can do for
him — accompanied by a large apparatus of maps and plates
and plans, and with profuse impressions of gems and coins
^and statues, and medals, and inscriptions. One author, I
see, has expended a whole volume — think of that ! — on
the single episode of Paul's last voyage to Rome, — Avhile
the press teems with ever new works of critics and com-
mentators on this curious tract- writer.
Now, on the supposition, wdiich, for your sake, I of
course take for granted, that the Apostle Paul was as little
under the influence of preternatural inspiration as any other
man, all this portentous absurdity of mankind is at least
very perplexing and unaccountable. " Not at all," I ima-
gine I hear you say. " It proves only the infinite folly of
man, and the slowness and difticulty with which Truth gains
admission to his mind." Very true ; if your theory be
right, it proves that, sure enough ; but, as I think, some-
thing more; even something like the impossibility of your
disabusing the world by any direct means ; for if, at this
time of day, in the most enlightened nations of Europe, —
at an infinite remove, in point of race, customs, laws, edu-
cation, from every thing that can create sympathy with
the Jewish fanatic^ — in the midst of learning, knowledge,
art, and science, you find men, and among them many of
the most acute and comprehensive intellects, the most capa-
ble of judging of evidence, still spell-bound by this des-
perate delusion, how can you hope that it will be ever
dissipated ?
You will hardly say, I think, that it is only just now that
the pretensions of Paul have been disputed.
412 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
If you do, I beg to remind you that Herbert and Boling-
broke, and Chubb, and Tindal, and Collins, and a host of
Deists, derided and proscribed both Paul and his readers,
for a whole century together ; and what was done in our own
country was also doing in Holland, Germany, and France.
Nothing can be more contemptible, in the estimate of a'
number of Deists in all these countries for a century past,!
than the " besotted admiration " of the writings of Paul
and of Paul himself. Yet the tide of love and veneration'
still flows on ; readers and writers go on poring over his
alleged "impertinences and extravagances," just as if
the great Deistical oracles had never spoken. Indeed, they
might as well never have spoken, for no one, (unless it be
one in a generation or so, very curious in the history of
opinion,) ever deigns to look into them. If Bolingbroke,
who declares St. Paul "a vain -glorious boaster," guilty of
" great hyj^ocrisy and dissimulation," " obscure and unin-
telligible," and where not so, " profane, absurd, and trifling,"
could rise from the dead, how would he be mortified to
find how little he had afiected the conclusions of the world !
How vexed to think that while his own volumes are
covered with dust and cobwebs, St. Paul speaks some scores
of languages more than when Bolingbroke " sj^at " on his
" Jewish gaberdine," and that a few thousand more volumes
have been admiringly written about him than existed
then!
You recollect, no doubt, the amusing dream of GeoflE*rey
Crayon in the Library at Westminster Abbey ; — how he
fancied the books beginning to talk, and one little squab
quarto, long buried and forgotten, after rustling its leaves
and looking big, asking in a husky voice whether one "Will
Shakspeare — a vulgar fellow and vagabond deerstealer,
who enjoyed an unaccountable reputation in his time, was
still remembered ? " He presumes he " soon sank into ob-
TO A DEIST. 413
llvion." Lord Bolingbroke might represent that little fat
forgotten quarto : but even the popularity of Shakspeare
faintly shadoAvs that enjoyed by the Jewish tent-maker.
" Well," perhaps you will say, " and what of all this ?
1 suppose you will next infer that an author whose * opera
omnia ' are a few little tracts, — and those too (as many
say) so worthless, so crammed with extravagance, nonsense,
and obscurities, — must have been inspired^ because he has,
in spite of all this, exerted such a prolonged and intense
influence on the world." By no means, I mention the fact,
indeed, as very curious and inexplicable ; but I have no in-
tention of travelling beyond your hypothesis in the aj^-
plication of it. On the supposition that Paul was not in-
spired, one of two things is, I think, abundantly plain;
either he must have been so prodigiously clever that men
will never escape the toils in which he has caught them ;
or they are such fools that you cannot hope to deliver them.
On the latter alternative, you may declaim as much as you
will against the infinite folly of man ; but then, I think,
the corollary is the extreme difiiculty, not to say impossi-
bility, of your ever directly counter-working this delusion !
Praj' make much of it ; let it even be a melancholy solace
to the Deist, — Avho, after so long a time and so much
labor, has done so little in that enterj^rise to which he has
committed himself He has in truth much " need of j^a-
tience ; " he must Avait in all probability for many weary
ages before this curious insanity of mankind will become
extinct.
The Deist should at least, carefully abstain from insisting
that the Apostle Paul has nothing or little in him, — be-
cause that only makes matters worse ; the delusion is all
the greater and the more hopeless of cure ; he ought
rather to insist that the Apostle's grandeur and sublimity
of character and sentiment, — his eloquence and genius,
35*
414 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
his magnanimity and virtue, his benevolence and his
pathos, — were inconceivably great, and thus it is that lie
has inveigled the world into its sui^erstitious homage. On
second thoughts, however, it is dangerous to give the
Deist advice on this point ; for it is attended with difficul-
ties. It is a delicate topic looked at in any light; for //'
Paul was such a man, however it may aj^pear to account
for the besotted reverence for the AjDostle felt by the world,
it greatly aggravates every difficulty when we come to con-
sider how a man thus admirably endowed came to be either
so knavish, or so cracked ; so knavish if he i:)ropagated,
without believing, that false system of doctrines by which
he has deluded men ; so cracked, if he jn-opagated because
he believed it! If, on the other hand, he be the profane,
absurd, and trivial writer Bolingbroke makes him out, it
proves that mankind in general — amongst them multitudes
even of the highest genius — must be such fools in having
been befooled by such a fool, that you cannot hope they
will ever be wiser ! I know what you will say : " Millions
upon millions of men have believed other false systems of
religion." I grant it ; but what you have got to show is some
such thing as this; millions upon millions of men, of the
most diverse races and ages, and amongst them men of the
acutest intellect and the most liberal culture, — English,
Scotch, French, Germans, Dutch, — including men like
Bacon, Newton, Locke, Butler, Leibnitz, — madly bent on
believing, expounding, embracing, and if necessary dying
for, some such books as the Vedas or the Koran ! Take
my advice, — leave Christianity alone, and steer on a dif-
ferent tack.
Yours truly,
K. E. H. G.
TO A DEIST. 415
LETTER XCIV.
to the same.
My dear Friexd,
Before I proceed to my promised counsels, let me offer
a remark or two on your recent letter. You say, as if it
afforded you hope, that, after all, the gi'eat mass of Chris-
tians know but little of the " Evidences of Christianity,"
and are incapable of entering into them. I must show you
that this affords, and can afford, you no hope of success ;
rather the contrary, considering that what they are thus
content to believe with, it seems, so little knowledge of
the v^liy^ goes, as I have remarked, des^Dcrately against the
grain of human nature !
But further; what you insist on does not affect the fact that
many of the most comprehensive minds have deliberately
examined the " Evidences," and their authority naturally
weighs with men in general who have not ; indeed these
men are as impregnably intrenched in their reasons for be-
lief, as they would be if they were as learned as Paley or
Lardner himself. They may not be always able to analyze
their convictions — their logic may want a voice — but if
they could speak their feelings, each would say something
like this : " You taunt me with jdelding much to authority —
well, to some extent I must, by your own argument, do so
in relation either to you or those who opj^ose you ? And
why should I defer to you rather than your ojiponents ? —
To one or other, by your own showing, I must defer. You
tell me that I am unable to enter into the Historic Evi-
dences for Christianity with any success, or with any pre-
tensions to give an independent oj^inion on the subject. I
confess it, and for the same reasons I am unable to pro-
nounce on the validity of your arguments against it; just
410 ■»>' TUE GEEYSON LETTERS.
as I am also unabie to pronounce on any one of those me-
tajDhysical riddles which are involved in the systems which
you present to me for my choice — your half-dozen theories
of Deism; as, for example, whether it be true, as some say,
that I am immortal, or, as others sny, that I am not;
whether there be a Providence that takes cognizance of all
my actions, or no such thing. On a score of such questions
tny natural light does not enable me to pronounce so as to
justify me in wrangling with you about them. On all such
points, I am just as impotent to form an indei^endent
opinion as on the evidences of Christianity — though I
have some shrewd guesses about the contradictions among
your theories. I am a plain man ; I have no more time or
ability to enter into these subtleties, than into the deep crit-
ical questions which you say are involved in the investi-
gation of the Truth of the Gospel. I confess that one of
my chief arguments, though not the only one, is drawn
from authority ; from what they say who have, as I believe,
gone thoroughly into all these matters ; and I am puzzled
to know why I should rather believe you when you tell me
that the Gosj^el is false than them when they tell me it is
true. I cannot conceive that the original authors of Chris-
tianity had any motives to deceive the world, and as little
why these defenders of it should deceive me. As to hnowl-
edge and character^ I cannot, for the life of me, say that
Bolingbroke is worthier of my attention than Butler ; Tom
Paine than Paley; Yoltaire than Pascal; Hobbes than
Locke. But pray don't suppose that Authority is my only
or chief reason for belief. No, I believe because I cannot hel}^
it : as I read the Gospels and the Epistles, in spite of many
things nature does not like, I can't Jieljy belicAdng them
true. They are so stamped with honesty and guileless
simplicity — with such an inimitable air of truth, that if
they lie, Nature herself has lied, and deceived I must be.
TO A DEIST. 417
As I read Paul, as I see his candor, his pathos, liis mag-
nanimity, his noble charity, his loving, burning, earnest
Avords, I cannot but believe what he says. Nor is that
all ; — I feel that the doctrines are so beyond human inven-
tion, and so nnlikely to be invented, if not beyond it —
the morality so pure and elevated — the appeals to my
spiritual consciousness so jirofound, — that I cannot belicA^e
the Gospel false. Nor is that all — myriads of ns will cry,
and it is the most resistless argument of all, " You may
talk on for ever, but we have seen, have felt^ the transform-
ing power of Christianity — * We speak that Ave do know,
and testify that Ave haA^e seen.' "
For the reasons detailed in the last few letters, I, for one,
fully belicA^e that the assault on Christianity Avill be lost
time. What I think you ought to do, I Avill now slioAV you.
As to Christianity, leave it alone, to do its Avorst or its best.
Yours truly,
E. E. II. G.
LETTER XCV.
TO THE SAME.
My DEAR Feiend,
And now, leaving Christianity to its own dcA^ices, let ns
consider the system of religious truth Avhich you say com-
mends itself to your reason at present ; I Avill, then, give
you my promised hints for securing its currency in the
Avorld.
You tell me that you are no longer satisfied that Chris-
tianity is a preternatural and authoritati\^e revelation ; —
rather, that you suspect the contrary, though yon frankly
own dissatisfaction with the theories hitherto struck out, to
account, by ordinary causes for its origin, characteristics,
418 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
and success. You say, at the same time, that you are
deeply impressed with the value and importance of " Reli-
gion," as the " highest style of man ; " more than ever con-
vinced of the great truths of " Natural Religion " (as it is
called), and that they ought to exercise a deep practical in-
fluence over the life ; that of such truths you account these
the chief: — the existence of a Supreme Being, Infinite in
all perfections; the necessity and duty of every rational
creature's knowing, loving, obeying, and worshipping Him ;
the immediate access of every soul of man, without any
" figment of mediation," at all times to Him ; the certainty
of His forgiveness of any and of all offences against either
Himself, the supreme Lawgiver, or any of our fellow-sub-
jects, on confession and repentance, and, when possible,
restitution ; and the probability (in your opinion, certainty)
of a future life, to give these truths effect. In brief, you
tell me that these truths, — not to be received simply into
the understanding as a mere creed, but to be practical over
the whole life of man, as habitual principles of action, —
constitute the sum of any rational religious system. Now
this system is, in effect, (as you confess,) identical with that of
Lord Herbert, — given to the world two centuries and more
ago. You seem also to think, Avitli him, that these principles
are the undoubted dictates of man's religious nature — "in
nate" in Lord Herbert's vocabulary, intuitional in yours; and
if not uttered prior to all instruction, yet universally devel-
oped, as the mind itself developes, under the action of the
ordinary stimulants of the religious faculty, and needing no
special Divine intervention either to elicit them or to give
them authority ; that these principles, the various religious
systems which have prevailed in the world, have more or
less distinctly recognized, and have contributed to extricate
more or less successfully. You further think that Chris-
tianity was the most effectual attempt, till then made, at
TO A DEIST. 419
tlie coinplete extrication of these truths ; that it may liave
been a " necessary stage " in the transition from the more
imperfect forms of reUgion, but that now it is necessary no
longer ; that the beautiful structure of a " rational " religion,
being happily complete, the scaffolding may be thrown
down ! This seems, in brief, to be your view.
And so, I suppose, the Uttle flower-pot of the Gospel, and
all the other little flower j^ots of other religions, in which
the oak-seedling Avas planted, being but crockery ware,
have yielded to the expansive power of the Divine vegeta-
tion, have been shivered to pieces, and may now be thrown
away ; that as the " law " is said by the " imaginative "
Paul to be a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, so Chris-
tianity was a schoolmaster to bring us to Lord Herbert ! —
though how it should need Lord Herbert, or anybody else,
to teach any man truths which every man intuitively knows,
passes my comprehension ; or, if any such teacher is needed,
whether may we not need a better ?
How many questions might I ask, naturally suggested by
such a theory ! I miglit ask you how" it came to pass that
truths, which you say are the natural dictates of the human
mind, came to be so slowly extricated, and to be even now,
by the majority of mankind, so obscurely apprehended ; I
might ask you how so many of them came to be, and still
are, so constantly disputed, doubted, denied, perverted ; I
might ask how it was that the infinitely different and gro-
tesque systems of religion w^hich have prevailed in the w'orld,
heing themselves the product of mail's religious nature^ have
exhibited, instead of a bright reflection and image of these
" intuitional truths," the grossest caricature of them. I
miglit ask you how it is that those " historical " and " tra-
ditional " religions, to which you so conveniently attribute
man's tardy recognition of these truths, could ever have
originated on such a theory as yours ; since the said reli-
420 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
gions, pernicious as they may be, are nothing external to
man ; they are, his own work ; he has created — he has
wrought them ; though, on your theory, the glorious intui-
tions of which you speak, and which, amid the infinite load
of lies and fables, are native still to the human heart, must
have stared him in the face the while ! I might ask you
how it is, that even in the best of these fabrications, — as
the religion of Moses and the religion of Christ, — man has
exhibited so great a knack of corrupting rather than of im-
j)roving them, so that Judaism became buried in Rabbinism,
and Christianity in Popery. I might ask you how it is that,
when these truths were presented to him, he has not been
able even to conserve them, but has deliberately stifled them
in a mass of ridiculous fables and superstitions, for which he
is not only willing to vouch, but to die ? I might ask you
how it was that the abuses of " historical religion " began,
— that those pernicious customs and practices were sanc-
tioned, by the intervention of which you account for the
dimming of man's internal light ? — how he came to origi-
nate them ? If, as some of your wise men of Gotham say,
man began upon all fours, as the very lowest savage, and
gradually improved himself into a very gross idolater, — I
might ask, in that case, how his internal light could well
have been dhmned^ and how I am to reconcile the fact with
the universal possession of your intuitional truths which
need no revelation ? or whether, if we had seen the abori-
ginal savage moping and mowing, and adoring his new-
created Deity in the form of a bright stone or a cockle shell
— we could imagine him to be illuminated with your in-
ternal light ? I might ask, if he was so illuminated, how it
was that his spiritual faculty did not prevent him from thus
playing the fool ? — though, perhaps it may be said that the
unutterable debasement in which he was created, — how
the Divme benevolence is to be acquitted is quite another
TO A DEIST. 421
question, — fairly put his "intuitions" to flight, as indeed
such a night of tempest as that in which he is supposed to
have been born raiglit well have extinguished even a brighter
flame than that of his little flickering lamp! If this theory
be rejected, (as I think you will not accept it,) then I might
ask how it was that man's originally bright mtuitionai can-
dle came to burn dim and to want snuffing? How it was
that coming fresh from his Creator's hand and just fitted uj)
with his spiritual apparatus, he did not, however slowly, de-
velope in the order of his faculties, but brutishly turned a
deaf ear to them, and fell, — and still falls, under the do-
minion of lie and fable ; — that the first act of this perverse
dolt should be to kneel down to stocks and stones ; — that
he should be, in such infinite ways, and for such weary ages,
such a fool and madman ? And lastly, I might surely ask
how it is that when " in these last days," the Truth which
is so perfectly " congruous," is at length extricated, per-
verse man is so reluctant to receive it that, since Lord Her-
bert's days, those who have acquiesced in his theory may
be reckoned by units, and those who have doubted or re-
jected it in favor of historical religions, or none, by millions ;
or how it is that amongst those who have, with him and
you, rejected Christianity, scarcely half a dozen together
receive this system, — which is so perfectly " congruous to
man's nature," — but dispute about it eternally ; about the
existence of God Hmiself ; about His unity and personality;
His nature and perfections ; about the relations of man to
Him ; about man's responsibility, desthiies, immortality :
I might ask .... but there is no end to the questions that
might be asked ; and as I fear there would be little chance
of getting an answer, I will ask none of them.
To content yourself with affirming that you intuitively
know all the truths you make the sum of your theology,
that they aro all self-emdoit^ would be, in the face of the
36
422 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
entire religious history of man — oftlie inconceivably tardy
process by which your little system has been developed, —
the infinitesimal part of mankind that has yet been brought
to acquiesce in it, — the infinite disputes about its parts
among the few who do, — something perfectly preposterous.
I conceive, therefore, you cannot be too grateful to me for
waiving all the above questions.
Neither will it sufiice to tell me that some questions of
similar nature can be addressed to me resj^ecting Chris-
tianity; I answer, Not so. You may say, That too lias
been tardily embraced, — has been disputed about, — has
been corrupted. I answer. Yes ; and naturally, for it pro-
ceeds upon just the contrary liypothesis to yours ; it assumes
that man was incapable of adequately extricating religious
truth — that he was " wandering from the way," and needed
to be set right ; that he was corrupt, and required to be
reformed ; that he " loved darkness rather than light," and
therefore recoiled from the light. All this is natural on
the hypothesis of Christianity. But the questions I ask of
you are unanswerable on yours."
You must not, therefore, be surprised when you speak so
confidently of your religious system, that men should ask
you many such troublesome questions as I have indicated.
But from me fear nothing. I will act on the compact I
have made with you, and shall not trouble you with con-
troversy. Neither shall I even taunt you with the incon-
ceivable difl^cidty with which man seems to be got to
embrace any such system as yours. I shall charitably sup-
pose that some mysterious obstacles have hitherto stood in
the way of man's " natural reception " of perfectly " natural
truth" when propounded to liim; — though I confess it
seems to me, on your theory, as wonderful as that a hun-
gry man should refuse bread, or a thirsty man water. How-
ever, I vhU suppose, for your benefit and that of the world,
TO A DEIST. 423
that now, fit least, the truth has been fully developed, and
that it is destined to go on, as you say, " conquering and to
conquer." The next thing is to ask, how it shall be made
triumphant ? My notions of what will need be done I
will give you in another letter or two.
Yours faithfully,
E. E. n. G.
LETTER XCVI.
TO THE SAME.
1852.
My dear Friend,
You cannot but see, I think, the immense advantaire
which the dominant religions of the earth, as Mahom-
etanism, Hindooism, Christianity, have enjoyed from the
230ssession of " Books," — the Koran, the Vedas, the Bible,
— in which their doctrines are not only solemnly and
permanently recorded, but embodied in forms more or
less fitted to impress the fancy and excite emotion. The
first suggestion, therefore, which I would offer to you and
your co-religionists is just to compile a " Bible " of your
own ; a book that shall exactly mirror, neither more nor
less, the religious truth which, as some of you say, is in-
tuitively known to each man, and which the rest of you
admit is, at all events, instantly recognized on j^resentation
to the mind. If the former theory be true, you may think
you ought to be exempted from any such task, as a work
of supererogation. That conclusion, however, would be
rash and unwise ; since we see, in fact, the use of external
instruments in the disengagement even of our most
elementary cognitions; and certainly in all cases, tlie
value of such aid in making Truth more vivid, — in giving
424 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
it the empire of association and imagination, — is obvious
enough. This we see illustrated in the history of systems
of religious err or ^ as you deem them ; and of religious
truths as I deem Christianity ; these systems retain their
hold in a very great measure from the possession of Sacred
Books ; and you, if you do not wish to work at a disad-
vantage, will also condescend to compile your Bible.
And I need hardly say that if the objections of your
confraternity be well founded ; — if our Bible be charac-
terized by the exceeding want of symmetry, and just
develoj^ment, and system which you attribute to it ; if it
be so egregiously disfigured by mutilated truth, positive
error, foolish and lying legends, puerile and superstitious
matter, — you will have a prodigious advantage over it;
you may even learn from its A^ery errors. What accuracy
of statement, what elevation of sentiment, what ethical
purity, what philosophic justness, may we not expect in
your new Organum of Keligious Truth !
You will say, perha])s, "But the difficulty will be to
obtain unanirnity amongst us. We are not less divided, —
and on far more imi^ortant points, — than the Christians
themselves."
If I were not aware of it, I should certainly with un-
feigned wonder receive the news, and even deny its pos-
sibility, considering that your theory i)roclaims religious
truth to be but the reflection and echo of the intuitions of
universal humanity! But as I do know it, — as I know,
from intimate acquaintance with the whole series of your
jnincipal writers, — some of whom say that man is im-
mortal — some that he is not; some that if he be so, there
is no sufficient proof of it ; some that there is a special
Providence — some that there is none; some that Avorship
is required, some that it is not; some that prayer is a duty,
and some that it is even an absurdity ; some that actions
TO A DEIST. 425
are prohibited which others believe innocent ; some that
universal annihilation awaits man at death and some,
universal happiness; — as I say I do know all this, I shall
express no surprise; nor shall I taunt you with it, for bo
the taunt ever so just, it can afford you no help, — which
I am so anxious to proffer — to do so. Nor has it, in
truth, any bearing on the present topic ; inasmuch as such
diversity does not diminish the necessity of the method it
will be your wisdom to adopt. You must surely have
some — be they many or few, — who sympathize suffi-
ciently with your views of what are "the* universal intu-
itions of humanity," to enable them to act in unison ; or
are you, indeed, my dear friend, in solitary possession of
the only exact transcript of our " universal intuitions ? -'
But even if this were the case there would be no help for
it ; even then you must go forth, — a knight-errant of
spiritual chivalry, — alone; but take a few with you, if
you can.
Only remember, that whether you can or not, your
system, if you really wish to supplant Christianity, and
establish another and better system in its place, must be
exhibited in dazzling light beside the New Testament, and
compel mankind to feel how great the superiority !
And by the way, I would just hint, that though perliaps
not absolutely necessary to the Deist's " Bible," it would
be eminently desirable (if possible) to give some conjec-
tures, not perhaps more certain, but at least more plau-
sible, than your writers have generally given, as to the
origin and original condition of man ; — such as shall
quite throw into the shade, by comparison, the Scripture
account of man's primeval rectitude, temptation, and fall.
Men feel an intense interest in this problem from the
present evil condition of the world ; and I assure you they
don't like the "primeval savage" theory at all. That
30*
426 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
man came from Lis gracious Creator's own hand in tlie
guise of something much worse tlian an Australasian or
Hottentot; crawled, grubbed, gibbered, and jabbered for
nobody knows how long, till by slow degrees he improved
himself into an ordinary savage, kindled a fire, boiled his
acorns, consecrated a sacred monkey for his God, and
found that he could utter other sounds than " Yah Yah,"
— this theory, I say, gives such a rej^ellent view, not only
of your aboriginal man, — but of the God that so fashioned
him, and expressly ybr such a most miserable destiny, tliat
mankind will never away with it; no, not even if it Avere
shown, (thougli both si^eculation and fact confute it,) that
utter saA'ages could develope themselves into civilized crea-
tures without external teaching! Most desirable is it to
renounce this theory, and give a more plausible account of
man's original condition (as a key to his present) than
Deism has hitherto given. If you could also settle that
little matter, (unhappily so questioned among you,) of
"man's immortality," it would be as well. But this by
the way ; and I proceed to other and more necessary
chaiacteristics of your Bible.
You should, at all events, establish such a compre-
hensive, perspicuous, just system of religious and ethical
truth, — of the "intuitions of universal humanity," — and
so arranged and expressed, as at once to eclij^se that of the
New Testament; — which, if your representations of the
New Testament be true, initst^ as I say, be the easiest of
all tasks. But further; considering the influence of fancy,
association, and the very forms of expression in giving
vividness and power to man's conceptions of Truth, I
think your Bible should exhibit it in forms at least as at-
tractive as those of the New Testament; adapted alike to
the highest and the lowest intellects, and capable of ready
transfusion into all laniiuao-es.
TO A DEIST. 427
Again; considering the notorious influence which a
certain vivid embodiment of a Moral Ideal., exhibited in
dramatic action, has exerted, I think it would be well that
you should also exhibit such an ideal; — such a delin-
eation as wauld at once arrest and fascinate the gaze of
humanity more j^erfectly than the One Only Portrait
which so many have hitherto pronounced inimitable and
divine. I admit, indeed, that in consequence of the tra-
ditional veneration which the world already entertains for
that picture, your ideal may for a while labor under some
disadvantage ; but surely, as so. many of your writers have
insisted that there are manifold and manifest blemishes in
the earlier one, and have even thought that, after all, it is
by no means a perfect, indeed a very defective, repre-
sentation of absolute virtue and moral loveliness, you can,
by rectifymg the errors and presenting a still more fault-
less picture, counterpoise this adventitious advantage, I
am so charmed with the idea, that I am quite impatient
to see the thing done !
It Avill be a foolish modesty of you, — cultivated and
able men as you are, — to \vhom all literature is open, and
with such a model to improve upon, to decline this task; —
nay, it will be ridiculous, considering what Galilean Jews,
in your estimation grossly ignorant, have done unaided;
and more than once — nay, four several times. To be
beaten by the^ii — think of the shame of it ! 1 cannot for
a moment imagine that you will have the slightest diffi-
culty in the matter, — if your theory of the origin of the
Gospel he true!
There is one thing, however, I would earnestly caution
you against; do not let your imaginative forms be so
exquisite as to make mankind take them, as they have
done tlie "inythical or fictitious element" in the New
Testament (your theory supposes it is legendary or licti-
428 THE GREYSON" LETTERS.
tious,) for genuine history; do not, I warn yon, so tran-
scend Homer and Shakspeare (for even their creations
were never in danger of being so misinterpreted,) as to
make i>eoi)le fancy your fable, fact ; or else, not only will
you fail of your object, but will have added unexpectedly
another to the many historical religions. On remarking
to our friend S , the other day, that this would be a
necessary result of any such fatal mistake, lie said, laughing,
that he thought there was not much fear of it, and that
my caution was superfluous. " Still," said I, " since the
thing has been done (inte^itionally or not) according to
the theory of these reformers, it seems but wise and kind
to put them on their guard. It would be mortifying to
haA'e the world deluded a second time."
These charms of the imaginative element I think it the
more important to insist uj^on, because, as you are aware.
Deism has been hitherto at such cruel disadvantage, from
the absence of them. Such dreary, pithless, marrowless,
old speculators as the elder Deists have seldom been seen ;
to look through their systems of " natural religion " is like
looking at a hortus siccus y' through the dry crackling
leaves no vital succulent- juices circulate. On the other
hand, the semblance of " spiritual sentiment and unction "
which characterizes the modern Deistical school is such
shiftless, hopeless plagiarism from the Bible, that it all
reads like imitation. Their books are like a Chinese
pagoda stuck over with crosses and saints stolen from a
Christian cathedral.
You can hardly imagine — I find it very difiicult to do
so myself — what an effect even a j^oem like Milton's
"Paradise Lost," or a book like Bunyan's "Pilgrim's
Progi-ess," if conceived and executed on Deistical prin-
ciples, would have, though felt to be only works of imag-
ination May we not hoj^e for such things at least?
TO A DEIST. 429
Will you be beaten not only by "fishermen," but by
"tinkers?"
Under what advantages, on the whole, would you
construct your system! universally a2:)pealing to nothing
less than "intuitions!" philosophically just in method, —
adorned by all the lights and beauties of imagination, and
relieved from all the errors and absurdities which crowd
the New Testament! You would have no adventitious
authority, indeed, but then that is precisely what you do
not want, and renounce; it would be Truth herself —
merely suitably arrayed. Who could fail to be enamoured
with her charms ?
As Mahomet reminded his followers that the style alone
of the Koran was enough to 23rove it divine — so the suh-
stance of your Koran would be a yet more conclusive
argument; — not insj^ired, indeed, in the vulgar sense —
but at once recognized, according to your theory, to be the
full, fair reflection, the clear echo of the " universal intui-
tions of humanity."
Yours truly,
R. E. H. G.
P. S. — If you could also get a few of your poetical
friends to give us a trifle or two of Deistical " Hymnology,"
it might be as well. You see how varied and pathetic are
the devotional strains to which the Psalter of the Hebrew
Poet-King has given rise. How is it that your whole
Deistical literature is so utterly powerless over the imagina-
tion and the heart? I long to see a new "Psalter" from
some poetic Tindal or Collins.
430 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
LETTER XCVII.
to the same.
My dear Friend,
I deem it, next, of much moment, if you would deistically
evangelize the world, that you should find some method of
orp^anizing yourselves into social unities ; this is absolutely
necessary if you would accomplish any object in common,
or, in such a chilly climate as yours, keep your sympathies
for one another from freezing. The world, at present, does
not believe in your capacity to fasten on social human na-
ture, or to give effect to your hopes of diffusing the bless-
ings of a " rational i:)iety." Deism is looked on as a nega-
tive, not a positive thing, — an explosive and destructive, not
a centripetal or an organizing force. It is precisely here
that in all its forms it has hitherto so ignominiously failed ;
nevertheless till its advocates cease to live in such dreary
isolation as scattered units, — till it can bind together its
human atoms, and give them compact shape and coherence,
— till it can breathe into men a spark of enthusiasm, and
inflame and intensify emotion by inspiring a common sym-
pathy in common objects, it will never be a thing of influ-
ence at all ; how much less an instrument of regenerating
the world !
A few trifling and partial achievements, here and there,
of the destructive kind, — the cutting off now and then a
straggler who has strayed from the camp of "historical
religions " — that is all it must expect to accomplish, till it
reheves itself from the old and just reproach of being in-
capable of insj^iring common sympathies and prompting to
united action.
How happy the change if you succeed in organizing your
deistical friends ! Soon shall we see numerous " Churches,"
TO A DEIST. 431
■ — I beg pardon, "Temples" I mean, — rising in our land ;
crowded to hear the new and true evayyiXiov, by wliicli the
old fashioned Gospel is to be supplanted and eclipsed ! No
doubt they will be in a plain yet majestic style of architec-
ture, — befitting the mingled grandeur and simplicity of the
new institute ; adorned with everything in their structure
and style which can minister to austere beauty. As to the
funds, — who can hesitate to believe they will be easily sup-
plied by that lavish benevolence which a system so pure
and glorious cannot fail to excite ?
It w^ere a scandal to doubt it. If even the poorest and
meanest superstition of the ancient or the modern world ;
if Christianity, in its most corrupt forms as well as in its
purest, can induce their votaries, according to their means,
and " beyond them," to cover the "world with the structures
and the apparatus of religious worship, w^hat may we not
hope from that more perfect theory of religion with wdiich
you and your compeers are about to bless the nations ? A
beginning should, I think, be made without delay. Let
some edifice, caj^able of holding at least three or four score
(that, for a time, may be quite enough,) be built as a model
"Fane" of your true deistical worship.
I am perfectly aware, of course, of the arguments by
which such an attempt at organization may be met. But I
cannot admit that, if the great achievements you hope for
are ever to be realized, those objections are to be listened
to. You must move, if you would be successful ; and re-
member for your encouragement, that scarcely more than a
hundred Christians met in a certain "upper room" at
Jerusalem some 1800 years ago !
It may be said (and I concede the force of the argument)
that it is impossible to make a formidable organization out
of a few score of people, appearing, sporadically, in the
course of a century or so. I cannot deny the mournful
432 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
tr.uth of the statement ; but since you mnst make a begin-
ning, you must not lay any stress on this fact. You must
use the elements you have, such as they are, — many or few.
The tardy growth, or rather stunted 7io growth of Deism,
the paucity of the proselytes it has been capable of making
during three centuries, tem2:)ts Christians to taunt it as a
thing of nought. Ought you not to infer, with your views
of its self-recommending excellence, that its want of success
s^irings from the absence of that positive effort and positive
machinery, for the necessity of which I plead ? If you
doubt, that when exhibited and enforced as it ought to be,
it would commend itself to the human heart, — slowly,
perhaps, but surely, — you not only give sorry proof of
your faith in the doctrine of " Progress," but will e\en lead
people to suspect that your truth is not so " congruous " to
the human soul after all ; and that the doleful representa-
tions of Christians as to the "depravity of human nature,"
are too well founded.
Yours truly,
K. E. II. G.
LETTER XCVIII.
TO THE SAME.
1852.
My dear Friend,
Many other suggestions I could offer, but I will content
myself with one more. Could you not manage, then, to
get uj^, among your Deistical friends, a little missionary
" steam," and make a trip or two to the heathen ? It does
seem strange to all Christendom that the infinite forms of
error and pollution, in which the nations are Avallovring,
should always have been viewed by your Deistical friends
with such profound apathy ; that not the slightest eflbrt
TO A DEIST. 433
should liave been made on your part to diffuse among mis-
erable Polytlieists the only pure system ; that you should
have had no sacred ambition to become reformers and ben-
efactors of the world ! If it be said, " We have enough to
do to convert Christians " — that is true ; more than enough,
I should say ; but then, you perceive, Christians wont be
converted ; and so, having preached the truth to these
obstinate folks, faithfully, but without effect, you, like the
Apostle Paul in relation to the Jews, are absolved from
further effort, and should " turn to the Gentiles." Why
should they be deprived of the benefit of the univer-
sal religion you have to preach, because these Jew-like
Christians will not hear it ? If it be said, though I fancy
yoit will not say, — " The heathen are very well, — Hindoos
and Caffres, — with their idols and absurdities, let them
alone," — the same argument surely will do for Christicms^
let them alone ; if a Polynesian, is well off with his gross su-
perstitions, surely a Christian must be better off, — at least
as well. Why so anxious to subvert Christianity ? On
this account, therefore, as well as for the other reasons I
have mentioned, leave it alone.
If you -say, " Why, the fact is, the mission of Deism is
simply destructive ; burning down, not building houses, is
our vocation — and that is easiest done in the next street ;
— why should we go to other lands when we can fling our
torches into our neighbors' doors and windows ? " — this,
if true, is surrendering the Avhole question. It is confirm-
ing the world in its impression that your system Avas never
destined to be a ''''poioer " in the world ; while, as I have
shown you in previous letters, even your destructive efforts
somehow do not succeed ; the incendiary match is always
going out — the Deistical gunpowder is always damp.
Can it be imagined that you will have much difliculty in
obtaining funds for a moderate Missionary experiment,
37
434 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
considering the importance of the object ? Many, I know,
are disposed to think it. Prove them in the wrong. It is
true one sometimes hears the philanthropic Deist making
hglit of any such vulgar modes of manifesting spiritual ac-
tivity. " That activity is not to be measured," it is sublimely
said, " by any such base estimate. Let the vulgar lay stress
on Bible and Missionary societies, and the other caarse
machinery of an ordinary Christian philanthrophy, if they
will, and parade in Reports, and Platform rhodomontade,
the money which they have wheedled out of the pockets
of the peojile ; but a pure lover of ' spiritual truth ' will
appraise at the true value such odious modes of promoting
its diffusion." This is ail very fine, but it will not avail you ;
odious as may be the machinery of Christian zeal — vile as
may be the talk about " money," and the appeals for it, —
still, as long as it is true that the things in question cannot
be done icithout money, (as nothing indeed can be done
without cost, and the said money is but a part of it, ) —
money must be had, and you must be content to remain in-
significant if you cannot obtain it.
In the next place," vulgar" as money may be, it is, and is gen-
erally taken to be, a tolerably just index of the sincerity and
strong convictions of those who give it : of the sacrifices they
are willing to make for any object, if they cannot make them
in the form of personal effort. Men are generally sui:)posed,
(I imagine not erroneously,) to love their money as well as
most things ; their hankering for that which represents
the value of all things besides, is at least as strong as that
for any of the things it represents. And so, when it is freely
given, men Avill continue to think that the love of that for
which it is given is very sincere, and the sense of its value
very strong ; and when it is ?iO(f given, or given grudgingly,
men will take it as a proof— a very vulgar one, it may be,
but still a 2^^^oof — ^^v^X those Avho thus grudge it do not
TO A DEIST. 435
care about the things they profess to adimre and love, and
are not solicitous that they should be victorious in the
world.
Now, if Christians can under the prompting of their lov:i
system — low as compared with yours — voluntarily expend
year by year, so much of their gains on the propagation of
tlie Gospel to the uttermost ends of the earth, it can be no
difficult thing for you, and those who think with you, to
subscribe a few thousands at least for the commencement of
a similar hopeful experiment. Surely the system in wliich
are so deeply involved the fortunes of humanity is worth
thus much! If not, it must be accounted one of tliose
machines Avhich are admirable in model, but which will not
loork.
And here I would humbly suggest, that a method might
perhaps be devised of bringing into the enterprise a number
of those who do not quite agree, or are even very far from
agreeing, with you. You know Christians are often j^raised
for uniting in a common cause by merging their minor dii-
ferences (would to God they did it more frequently !) ; now
how easily could many of your friends do the like ; some of
whom deem all the differences of all the religions of the
world Qiiinor differences, and hold that the " absolute relig-
ion " is latent in them all ! What differences might they
not consider minor who think Hindooism and Mahometanism
tolerable ! And Avhat a delightful exhibition of charity
would it be to find Mr. D declaring that, as Christians
all agreed in subscribing to the Bible Society, though they
were not quite unanimous in the interpretation of the Bible,
so he was willing to support the great " Parent Deism- Pro-
pagation Society," and cheerfully waive his opinions on the
trivial points of a future life, and the immortality of the
soul, in which he did not coincide with his " brethren " !
Mr, T , humblv hoiiino- that he should never allow his
436 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
heart to be divided from his co-religionists by such a dubious
thing as the doctrine of man's resj^onsibility, of which he
had strong doubts ! Mr. W , nobly giving to the winds
his peculiar sentiments on the subject of a special Provi-
dence ; and Mr. P , in a similar strain, saying that, though
he thinks all men will be saved at last, yet, conscious of the
noble projects of his benevolent friends for the amelioration
of the human race, he will cheerfully contribute his annual
guinea as a homage to the spirit of Deistical philanthropy !
" Behold, how good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell
together in unity ! "
Nay, — I am by no means sure, if you cordially set to
work on such a magnanimous project, — carefully and hon-
estly excluding the Bible, — that you might not easily get
a portion of your funds from Christians themselves. They
are so j^rovokingly convinced of their power and of your
impotence, that I verily beheve they would absolutely
rejoice in what they would regard as a valuable negative
experiment^ and would be quite willing to give you the
money, if you will but find the system and the men ! I am
myself so far a sharer in their confidence, or imj^udence,
whichever you may please to consider it, that if you will
but make the experiment, (promising to steer clear of all
that is characteristic of Cliristianity, and confining your-
selves to such a system as that of Lord Herbert,) I ^^'ill, if
you can but get the men, promise you my annual guinea for
at least ten years to come.
Now if, while thus partly waging the war at your enemies'
cost, you cannot find men to undertake a nice, snug, little
experiment of this kind, — w^hen — when, my dear friend,
may we expect you to regenerate the world ?
Let me remind you that there are still many islands in
the Pacific quite at the service of the "Deism-Propagation
Society." Or what say you to the African tribes ? Plenty
TO A DEIST. 437
of them still living in a complete state of Troglodytish sim-
plicity ; as St. Clair says, " not many notions to eradicate ;"
all in a fair condition to receive the new doctrines ! Only
think of the trimnph of having to say that the group of the
" Taboo " islands, recently inhabited by a set of idolatrous
cannibals, or that the tribe of " Quashee Caffres," in a sim-
ilar condition, had been converted to a pure Deism, their
language analyzed and reduced to alphabetical notation, a
grammar and dictionary constructed, and the great Herbei't's
writings translated, by the indefatigable and self-denying
labors of the agents of the '' Herbert Society ! " Who
knows what further efforts this might lead to, if you did
not become weary in Avell-doing ? At all events, you are
quite welcome to my subscription.
Finally, if the Deism you have embraced is ever to be
worth anything, it must cease to talk so much ; it must
cease to be contented with merely writing books ; it must
act. You will tell me perhaps that Christians, too, talk
more than they act ; God knows the taunt is well deserved.
Still Christianity, — the inferior system, — does something
at all events ; surely the higher and the better ought to do
more. If you tell me, that you cannot agree sufficiently —
or that those who do agree are too few, and will ever be
too few to undertake the work — or that you are unwilling
to do anything, — or that men will not listen to you — will
not be converted, — it is tantamount to a confession either
that your system is not, practically, the system for this
world — or that it is not the truth, — or that it is not truth
worth a sacrifice ; or all these together. In any case, it
condemns you to the continued insignificance in which you
have as yet lingered on in the world. Confute these sur-
mises, my dear friend ; and that you may do so, once more
I say — " Devise liberal things."
Such are a fcAV of the hints which I would venture to
37*
438 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
give you — not for the resuscitation of Deism, (for it has
never been fairly awake yet,) but just to give it a chance
of becoming so. To these hints I really think you would
do well to take heed, as to a " light shining in a dark " —
a very dark — *' place."
You see I have kept my word as to not " boring " you
with the old tale of the " Evidences of Christianity." So
far from that, I have shown you how to demolish Chris-
tianity altogether. All, I am persuaded, that you have to
do, is to publish a book which shall ])lainly transcend the
Bible ; organize a system of worship which shall command
the sympathies and secure the co-operation of men, and
successfully com2:)ete with Christianity in its attacks on
Paganism
Yours truh^,
II. E. II. G.
LETTER XCIX.
TO C. MASON, ESQ.
1853.
My deah Friend,
You have heard, as every one else, of Dr. Ilassall's dis-
coveries with his great microscope. Who will not wish
that he may go on and prosper, in thus unearthing human
iniquity from its subtle retreats in infinitesnnal atoms, where
it thought to lie perdu as securely as in its own invisible
thought? lie has certainly shown that the solar micro-
scope takes no heed to the maxim, " J96 non appareiitihus
et non existentibiis eadem. est ratio." "There is nothing
liidden," by adroit' fnanipulation and cunning intermixture,
that " shall not be made known," and the lying labels and
quackish advertisements shall " be jjut to silence " by this
incorruptible witness.
DR. HASSALLS MICROSCOPE. 439
I am told that several " Houses " have threatened this
" i^eeping Tom " with a i^rosecution for disintegrating their
abominations, and revealing in precise proportions the per-
centage of villainy in their adulteration. The only answer,
it is said, which he condescends to make is, an invitation
to come and have a look, gratis^ at their own handiwork
through his microscoj^e ! It is also said that none of them
Avill accept his challenge ! Wisely, no doubt, for they have
the advantage even of Dr. Ilassall ; they know beforehand ;
they have anticii^ated all that he can tell them ! Mrs. Ma-
cleuchar (in dialogue with the wrathful " Antiquary,") put
on her spectacles to discover what she well knew was not
to be found, and exclaimed in well-feigned astonishment, —
" Saw onie body the like o' that ? " These ingenious artists
need no solar microscope to tell them what is to be found,
though we may well indulge in the old lady's exclamation
when ice have found it, " Saw onie body the like o' that ? "
This microscope shows the intimate structure and organ-
ization of the most carefully manijxdated composites.
Though the component j^articles may have been subdivided
into the most attenuated forms, or equally strewed through
the most deceptive medium, the structure of the foreign
intruder, whether laminated, fibrous, or Avhat not, stands
unmasked among the heterogeneous particles with which
it claims relationship, and confesses its roguery under the
glare of this stupendous eye. The minutest j^article of
sand, by the side of the minutest particle of sugar, is as
plainly distinguished as if each were as big as a mountain ;
tlie atom proclaims itself silex, and is seen to be as unlike
the speck of saccharine crystal it would fiiin be thought, as
a square is unlike a circle. Success to the microscope, say
I, and to the exorcist who wields it ; I know not when I
have heard of a scientific a^jplication which has so much
amused me.
440 THE GREYSON LEFITRS.
It lias come in good time too ; for to such an extent had
fraud 2:one that there seemed some chance of our soon
CD
finding the last trace of pei)per, coffee, and sugar disappear-
ing from the simulated compounds called by these lying
names ; at least, these articles would soon have been ad-
ministered only in homceopathic doses.
At one of Dr. HassalFs discoveries, by the way, (of
which I am reminded by those last words,) you must have
been much amused. lie declares that he does not find the
genuine "Homoeopathic Cocoa" differing at all from the
other adulterated specimens of the same article, except by
its having less cocoa in it ! But surely the defence is easy ;
its venders would say that tliey were acting in accordance
with the maxims of Hahnemann, and giving their j^atient
customers homoccpathic doses I
Even drugs, it seems, are not safe from these odious
adulterators, and the jihysician hardly knows whether he
may not be giving poison, otherwise than seciuidum artem.
Must Ave not allow then that here, at least, the homceo-
pathist has the best of it ? for avIio would think to adul-
terate the millionth of a grain of Belladonna? Yet I
know not : let not the homoeopathist be too sure ; for hu-
man cupidity, 1 fear, would adulterate even the decillionth
of a grain, if the decillionth of a farthing per cent, is to be
got by it. " Well," it may be said, " any how in such a
case it cannot much matter;" but that is mere allopathic
ignorance. The homoeopathist would doubtless be in agony
to think that the trecillionth of his grain of aconite might
possibly be defrauded of a decilhonth of that fraction. At
all events, none will deny that the patient had a right to
his fair and full " trecillionth," — if he could but be ever
sure that he had cfot it !
There is one improvement still required on Dr. Hassall's
instrument. One would hke to see a " moral solar micro-
DR. IIASS ALL'S MICROSCOPE. 441
scope," tliat would lay bare, in similar manner, all the " for-
eign ingredients " — the adalterate mixtures — which enter
into the composition of spurious virtue. How amusing tlie
Report of " Analyses " into these would read ! How should
Ave find, on examination, a hundred pound donation to
Hospital, by Alderman , prompted by only two
per cent, of charity combined with ninety-eight per cento
of vanity and ostentation ; a fine specimen, apparently, of
devotion, turning out, on being closely insi^ecterl, little else
than chips of rites and ceremonies, and the sawdust of for-
mality, wich scarcely one per cent, of genuine devotion in
it: a parcel of zeal — of the true vermilion dye to all ap-
pearance — plainly consisting, when subjected to a high
power, of the vulgar blood-red counterfeit of hatred and
intolerance : a huge mass of unctuous religious talk utterly
destitute of a single j^article of sincerity, the article being
entirely composed of rancid " cant,'' scented with essence
of hypocrisy : an eloquent discourse of the Rev. Mr. Blar-
ney, discerned to have but five per cent, of genuine emo-
tion in it, — the tears and pathos, warranted real, being
nothing but old " theatrical properties : " the decorous sor-
rows of an undertaker seen at a glance, and witli scarcely
a higher power than that of common spectacles, to be noth-
ing but downright hilarity painted black ; the deep dejec-
tion of an heir to a large estate, discerned to be similarly
constituted : the tears of a whole party in a mournhig coach
found to exhibit the merest tincture of genuine grief for
the deceased ; what other emotion there was being the re-
sult of disappointed expectations.
Such are some of the analyses one might exi>ect to see
if we liad but this wonder-working instrument — amoral
solar microscope ; but perhaps it is as well for us all that
there is none.
Yours,
R. E. II. G.
442 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
LETTER C.
to alfked west, esq.
My dear Feiej^'d,
You have often heard me mention my friend John Ful-
ler, — Avho supposed himself to be a lineal descendant of
old Thomas Fuller, and felt a little innocent pride in so
thinking ; the only pride I ever saw in him. He is dead
— and has carried with him out of the world as much true
worth, 1 believe, as ever existed in any one heart in it.
He was a genuine Christian if ever there was one. As
to the species^indeed^ I rather think he would have been him-
self puzzled to say. " Was he Episcopalian — Presbyterian
■ — Calvinist — Arminian ? " I hear half a thousand zealots
say. I hardly know ; but I am sure he was a Christian,
for he exhibited in great perfection all the principal " para-
doxes " of sentiment imd conduct which Bacon represents
as characteristic of one. He exercised an absolute faith
" in the merits of Christ for his salvation," and yet was as
much impelled to do " good works " as if he thought he
could be saved only by his own. " He belicAed Christ
could have no need of anything he could do, and yet made
account that he relieved Christ in ail his acts of charity ; "
" he knew he could do nothing of himself, and yet labored
to work out his own salvation." "He prayed and labored
for that which he was confident God meant to give^ He
was full of gentleness, patience, charity ; and felt an es|)e-
cial pleasure in doing a kindness to those who had wronged
him, and in giving a benefaction to a Christian who did
not wear the outward costume he altogether approved.
Now, if all that does not make a Christian, I know not
what docs. He had his " Sibboleth," or liis " Shibboleth,"
I dare say, — for who is without it to some extent? — but
TRUE CATHOLICISM. 443
he never could prevail on himself to regard a peculiarity
of articulation as a different language ; or to see why, if
men may speak widely different dialects and yet may all
be Englishmen, Christians may not talk in very different
dialects, too, without ceasing to be Christians ^ yea, though
sometimes the pronunciation be so uncouth, that one may
almost doubt whether they be not " barbarians."
He is stark naught, says the Papist, in spite of all this
fiiith and charity, if he did not believe in the infallibility of
the Pope and the seven sacraments ! Pardon me, Mr. Ro-
manist, you know about as much about the matter as the
Biahmin in Marmontel's tale, who, when the young Eng-
lish officer has saved his daughter's life at the hazard of his
own, exclaims — "Is it possible that so excellent a ])erson
should not believe in Yishnoo and his Seven Transmigra-
tions ? "
John Fuller did not deny that minor differences of doc-
trine, or even diversities of ritual, were things of some
moment ; he thought that every Christian was bound to
satisfy his conscience respecting such things, and adhere to
those opinions which he thought really nearest the truth ;
but while he acted on his own conscientious convictions and
preferences, he could not allow the essence of Christianity
to consist in trifles, and never hesitated, where lie did see
that essence embodied in character, to embrace it with the
full sympathies of a Christian. "Many errors," he would
say, " will quietly drop away with the progress of truth
itself, and many moVe with the progress of charity. Others
of little moment (strange as it seems to say so) I hardly
wish ever should drop ; for if men were brought to a perfect
unanimity, where would be the scope for the exercise of
mutual charity ? There is as much — nay, a greater diffi-
culty iq. vanquishing antipathies of religious sentiment^ even
444 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
when differences are of little moment, than almost any-
other."
I have said that John had his preferences and his opinions
on minor matters ; but never so as to interfere with his
love of intercommunion among Christians, of whatever
type. But ho did not think it competent to him to break
down altogether the sacred enclosure, or diminish by a
hair's breadth the Avide interval which still subsists between
the most imperfect Christian, if really one, and him who is
no Christian at all; and thus, though he was the most
catholic, he was also the most rigid of men. Unhappy
result of his consistency! He was thought lax by his
brethren and bigoted by the world ! But it never troubled
John. He could hear with edification a sermon from one
of those he called " his great preachers," whether preached
in the Cathedral or in a Conventicle, and threw in his
modest mite into almost any treasury consecrated to Chris-
tian enterprise and philanthropy ; sometimes — how am I
ashamed to say it ! — with a peculiar gusto, if his modest
tribute was in aid of associations which a little differed from
those he most preferred !
In short, he was much in the condition of a certain Cana-
dian convert of whom I once heard the following^ droll
story. He had a dream, he said, one night, that he was
translated to heaven, which to his imagination seemed very
much like a " large church or meeting-house ; " (I devoutly
trust he was mistaken in that.) He said he thought Jesus
Christ questioned each one before him as to his ecclesias-
tical position. One said he was an Ei^iscopalian. " Then,"
said Christ, " you can go and sit down in that pew — there
all the Episcopalians are gathered together." Another
said he was a Baptist ; he was in like manner told to repair
to another pew. A third said he was a Presbyterian, and
BEARDS. 445
a third pew was assigned to him ; and so of the rest. At
last it came to the turn of the poor savage to be catechized ;
and not being sufficiently iqy to the nice divisions of ecclesi-
astical and doctrinal theology, he was afraid that there would
be no " pew " found for him. Trembling, he replied when
asked what he was — "I am a — Christian, and love the
Lord Jesus Christ with all my heart." " Oh, then," said
the benignant querist, " you may walk all about heaven,
and go hither and thither just as it pleases you." I am
afraid that Canadian was a very sly fellow !
Yours truly,
R. E. H. G.
LETTER CI.
TO C. MASON", ESQ.
Glen Shirkag, Aug. 1854.
My dear Friend,
You will be glad to hear that I have safely reached my
old haunt, and have located myself in the family of my
worthy farmer, who, as well as his wife, two sons, and three
daughters, — to say nothing of the dogs, — are extremely
anxious to show me every civility. The weather is splendid
— if it does but last. This is one of those brio-ht dazzlino:
August mornings of which we have, perhaps, three or four
in the course of our English summer; — just enough to
enable us to comprehend the sarcasm of the Persian ambas-
sador, who, when asked whether it was really true that the
Persians worshipped the sun, said, " Yes, and so would the
English if they ever saw him ! "
I was in some doubt the first morning whether I should
be able to get my morning cold bath, — to me an essential
of life. But I am accommodating — being indifferent
38
446 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
whether I baptize by " sprinkling,'* " affusion " or " immer-
sion," though I prefer the last. On the present occasion,
I was accommodated with a washing-tub, and a huge water-
pot (without the " rose "), full of water. My host was
about to pour its contents into the tub. But seeing the
thing so handy, and as it was a growing morning, I asked
for the " rose ; " and becoming at once plant and gardener,
stood in the tub, and lifting the water-j^ot over my head,
shoicer-hathed it to my great satisfaction, and I hope with
some benefit to my stature. I infer it may be so from the
difficulty I afterwards felt in shaving, which could surely
only have been from my beard having grown rapidly. I
state the fact with the impartiality of a philosopher, without
deciding whether it was due to the watering-pot or a bad
razor ; pray choose your hypothesis.
By the way, talking of shaving, what a prodigious num-
ber of fantastical beardlets I have seeninmy recent journey!
The other day, on stepping into a railway carriage, I found
the opposite seats occupied by three hirsute gentlemen,
who, if they had not been so young, would have looked quite
venerable, and filled me with the like awe which seized
the Gauls when they spied the long-bearded senators in the
Roman Capitol. I really begin to fear that the abominable
appendage is about to be restored among us. I met a
youngster the other day whose beard was just in the worst
possible " stage of development ; " that is, he had got a
minikin tuft on his chin and a thin crop on his upper lip
which simply had the effect of making him look execrably
dirty. He held with me a learned argument for the reten-
tion of the excrementitious capillaries. Though not old
enough to have a beard, he was old enough to be an
Atheist, which he owned with that sweet complacency with
which so many sucking philosophers of our day, after read-
ing Comte or the " Vestiges," do the like. He professed
BEARDS. 447
to have a reverence for his beard as a gift of Nature, and
to think it a sort of profanity to throw it aside. By the
way, I dare say, if the beard controversy goes on much
longer, we shall have an orthodox and heterodox beard-
party, as much attached, and with as much reason, to their
respective doctrines, as the Big-endians and Little-endians
of Lilliput. — But to return to my youngster. He inno-
cently asked, %oliy we should shave away what ''''Nature had
given us." " Why," said I, " suppose Nature has made a
mistake in giving us such a thing ? Is it not wise to rectify
it ? " " Made a mistake ! " said he. " Yes," said I ;
" nothing more easy according to your hypothesis, for you
confess to Atheism ; why may not the beard be an error of
Nature? If unintelligent ' laws of development,' or uncon-
scious necessity or blind chance has made the world and
beards, I see no reason why you should suppose everytliing
for the best : and as you have intelligence, at least think
so," I continued, smiling, " and the universe has none^ you
and all of us ought to be allowed to reform, alter, and
amend at pleasure." It was not easy to see how to defend
the orthodoxy of wearing beards as a gift of Nature on such
a theory.
On another occasion, a youth contended that as God had
given us beards, He must have intended they should be
worn ; and that it was a sort of impiety to get rid of them.
But this proved too much; for I asked whether he let his
nails and beard grow like Nebuchadnezzar, or as far as
nature chose to let them ? " No," he said, " clij) the beard
you may, — but that is different from shaving ! " "A subtle
distinction," said I; "it is a question of limits, I fear,
which none can determine. Are we at liberty to clip within
two inches ? — one inch ? — the tenth of an inch ? — the
millionth of an inch ? For if so, is not shaving close clip-
ping, as clipping indeed is nothing but a sort of slovenly
448 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
shaving ? Or is there some orthodox limit to which the
beard may grow, sacred at once from both scissors or
razor ? "
What can be i\iQ final cause of the beard ? Some physi-
ologists say that it is to help carry off any spare particles
of the system — any " superfluities of naughtiness " — and
so serves, with other excretions, to keep up the equilibrium
between nutrition and consumption. But, according to
this, a glutton's beard ought to grow faster than that of
other folks. Be pleased to ask the aldermen of London
whether they shave twice a day : also whether this is the
reason why artisans need not shave more than once a week ?
But, above all, inquire diligently of those who wear a beard,
what special gratification they have in so doing, that we
may have a proper induction as to the filial cause of this
singular appendage, which has ever been to me as great a
mystery as a monkey's tail.
Yours ever faithfully,
K. E. H. G.
P. S. I fell in the other day with one of these patient
e/bWike anglers, (up to his knees, by the way, in the
stream,) who had been at his sport for some hours and
caught nothing. I told him I thought it must be miserably
dull work. He contended, (I suppose he was bound to
make the best of present circumstances,) that the fewer the
fish the greater the sport, as more skill was required, and
so on. I almost angered him by asking whether, as it was
thus a problem of limits, it would not be the greatest sport
of all to angle for a single gudgeon turned loose in the
Atlantic ?
THE LIGHTER THE HEAVIER. 4,4.9
LETTER CII.
to a gentleman who would be a christian yet re-
jected all the peculiar facts and doctrines of
" historical " christianity.
My dear Sir,
You talk of the cumbrous character of the " Christian
evidences," — and especially of the "pithless" i:>hilological,
critical, and chronological discussions of " historic " difficul-
ties.
To this, I think, I might retort by saying that I find few
people so prone as some who have adopted a latitudinarian
theology, — except those indeed, who have rejected Chris-
tianity even in name, — to dwell on these same difficulties ;
not for the purpose of attaining satisfaction about them, but
to puzzle and perplex those who are convinced of the sub-
stantive truth of Christianity, and are content to leave all
such minor problems unsolved till they can obtain further
evidence. I am seldom long in company with certain men
without finding them busy with the " discrepancies " in our
Saviour's " genealogy," or the geological difficulties in the
first chapter of Genesis ; or anxious to know whether it was
going out of Jericho or into it that our Lord healed the
blind man, or whether two w^ere healed or only one. Li
short, I find no persons so ready to reduce the evidences of
Chritianity to " pithless " discussions, as those who receive
a minimum of Christianity ; nor any who so often ask satis-
faction of their difficulties as those w-ho hope it may never
be found !
But with you, I shall not think it worth while thus to
retort. I shall carry the war into your own quarters. I
shall, without hesitation, affirm that it is theologians of your
38*
450 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
stamp who, of all men, are most open to the charge of
binding " critical" mill-stones about peoj^le's necks, and that
it is equally api^licable to your theology as a product^ and
to the desperate processes by which your alchemists of
criticism distil it from the Scriptures. You tell me that
you receive, in some sense, Christianity as a divinely orig-
inated system ; and yet you reject all that is miraculous and
supernatural in its professed /ac^5, as also all that has seemed
to the generality of the readers of the New Testament for
eighteen centuries, to be undeniably characteristic of its
doctrines. All this you regard either as the product of the
l^rejudice and "stand-point" (a convenient thing is that
" stand-point ") of those who historically transmitted Chris-
tianity to us ; or else, as seemingly on the page of Scripture,
indeed, but, in truth, not there. By the resources of a
clever exegesis, and a free use of the critical sponge, it may
be expelled altogether. In short, it is all the error of inter-
pretation !
Whichever of these two theories be adopted, I assure you,
I find your argument against a " critical theology " irresis-
tible, and the New Testament transformed into the most
burdensome book in the world. And if I coidd be got to
the "point of view" necessary to adopt either, I should
infallibly go further, out of sheer inability to deal with so
intractable a phenomenon as your Christianity ! If I adopt
\h\Q^ first theory, and suppose that the "facts and doctrines"
which seem so plainly written in the New Testament, and
which are generally admitted to be there, are yet all mis-
take, gross ignorance, prejudice, delusion, on the part of
the writers, — I know no one reason in the world why I
should regard, with any remaining veneration, men who, at
every turn, were so full of egregious blunders on the most
vital points. If, for example, they meant to maintain the
literal reality of their miraculous narratives, and supernat-
THE LIGHTER THE HEAVIER. 451
urally derived doctrines ; if they meant to assert the Pre-
existence, raucli more the Divinity of Christ, — the dogma
of atonement by his death, — the divine inspiration and
authority of their communications, and other kindred doc-
trines, — and yet these were fanatical dehisions, and are to
be wholly rejected, I see no sufficient reason why I should
regard with even common respect such com2:)rehensive blun-
derers ; or what is the residuum, after all, which such large
excisions have left for my reception ; or lahy that residuum,
which itself differs indefinitely with different interpreters
among you — should be regarded with any more rever-
ence than the rest. If you say, " because it can be other-
wise proved true," — by all means hold it for true then ;
but it surely cannot be regarded as any the tnore true for
being inculcated by those who do not give it its authority,
and who in other things have so egregiously blundered and
gone astray! You ought to hold it for true, not at all
because Apostles have written, but in spite of their having
written ! that is, in spite of the presumptions Avhich their
countless and absurd errors would naturally create against
it ; and on account of other evidence so strong, that even
their extravagances cannot prejudice it! On this theory, I
say, your theology is simply a " critical burden," which
" neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear ;" and I
will add, nor will our children ; and the only consequence
of its fair application on my own part, would be that I should
summarily rid myself of such troublesome incumbrances as
the Apostles altogether !
If, on the other hand, it be said that the doctrines which
to ninety-nine out of every hundred readers of the New
Testament seem to be there, are not there, and that a skil-
ful and bold criticism can expel them fi'om the page, then I
can only say that I find your " critical burdens " at least
equally intolerable. I have sometimes tried to interpret the
452 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
^ew Testament in your fashion ; — but I find in every chap-
ter, in ahnost every verse, the natural sense so rebelhng
asrainst the critical rack and thumbscrew, such a constant
outcry from the tortured language against the violence done
to it, that, on my honor, compassion itself cannot stand it.
Not only is a non-natural sense, not only is forced construc-
tion perpetually necessary, but I am obliged to use the
sponge itself so often and so ruthlessly, — nay, to shovel
away so many entire chapters bodily, — that I feel that if
the writers meant only what your system involves, by all
that language I have twisted, and tortured, and j)ared, and
cut away, and thrown aside, they were so astoundingly ig-
norant of the ordinary use of human language, that A\'hat-
ever else they might be, " Hevealers " they were not ; that
so far from having the gift of tongues, they could not speak
Avith one ; and that they must certainly have believed one
dogma of the Romish Church, — that the mysteries of
religion are most worthily expressed in a language which
the worshippers cannot understand! If your system be
indeed Cnristianity, the very construction of the books
which contain it is an ignominious failure.
To arrive at such a Christianity, by thus dealing with the
only documents which do or can tell us a syllable about it,
implies, as I say, an immeasurably heavier burden of criti-
cism than any of those dry controversies on the " Evidences "
with which you twit me.
To me it seems clear as the day, that if such a system as
yours he that of the New Testament, — its writers never
can, in any sense, have come from God, to tell it to us. If
God, in the Scripture, has made known religious truth by
human agency, the least we can suppose is that He employ-
ed men who could use human language so as to convey, to
the majority at least of candid readers, what they really
meant* and if what you call the current, but mistaken,
THE LIGHTER THE HEAVIER. 453
Christianity, he that meaning, there can be no doubt He
has done so ; for the style of Scripture, as it is in general
wonderfully clear and simple, so it has conveyed this mean-
ing to the immense majority of readers in every age. The
miraculous and supernatural " facts," and the " doctrines "
of the " current theology " have been generally supposed,
by learning and ignorance alike, to be naturally conveyed
by the language of the N"ew Testament. Plentifully, I
admit, have interpreters differed, as regards modes of Church
government, and as regards many minor doctrines ; as re-
gards also the philosophy of doctrines, which are not minor ;
but I repeat, in the immense majority of cases, the facts and
doctrines you especially dislike have been supposed to be
what the Apostles designed to convey to us. If they did
not, the Scripture has failed of its object ; they who wrote
it have hopelessly misled, not enlightened, the world; and I
should hold this as a conclusive indication that they did not
come from God.
To receive therefore any such system as that you de-
fend, necessitates a much more "intolerable" criticism
than any I find employed by " current Christianity."
When I have applied it, and comj^are the results with
the documents from which I have so laboriously extracted
it, I cannot bring myself to believe that those who penned
the documents can have been half as capable of expressing
their meaning as nine-tenths of mankind in general ; while
it is little less than blasphemy to imagine that men who
have so stupidly misled the world can have been emjjloyed
to communicate a system of divine "Revelation," — which,
after all, Avas to reveal to the world the contrary of its
true import !
No; — the "burden" of such an hypotliesis is indeed
" intolerable." I could be more easily reconciled to Deism,
however unsatisfactory and disputable its meagre doc-
454 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
trines, than while holding little more, bind about my neck
such a yoke as that of a " Revelation " which can only be
understood by suj^posing its authors did not understand
the modes of common speech, by their misuse of which
they have actually cajoled the great bulk of their honest
and faithful readers, in every age and country, to infer the
contrary of what they meant in all then- most momentous
utterances !
You frankly confessed, in our recent interview, that
those who adopt your critical principles have ever been
few ; and that, few as you are, you occupied every con-
ceivable point between bare Deism and the " current
orthodoxy," — a result which must naturally be expected
from the impossibility of fixing the limit within which
different minds will apply your " cumbrous " apparatus of
criticism.
Forgive me, for saying that, for similar reasons, " few "
you will always be. The generality of people will never
endure your intolerable processes of criticism, whether
you call its products rationalistic^ — on the supposition
that the Apostles sincerely delivered a system, nine-tenths
of which is to be rejected as fanatical nonsense; or
exegetical^ — on the supposition that they did not say
what nearly everybody is irresistibly led to believe they
meant to say ! The generality of readers Avill recoil from
the horrible ordeal of logical and critical torture to which
you would subject them; they will go on further than
you, or take the "current Christianity." — This last, not
stereotyped^ indeed, will still embrace, under some or other
modifications, the "supernatural narratives" of the New
Testament, and these doctrines at least, — the Pre-exist-
ence of Christ, the union of two natures in Him, and the
atonement for sin by His death. These things are so
entwined with the very texture of the New Testament,
ON THE "DISCREPANCIES." 455
that, like the supernatural in its history, they cannot be
rubbed out without making huge holes in it. I do not say,
for I do not think, that men Avill all agree in the reception
of any one theory of the pliilosopliy of these doctrines ;
for, as to this, Scripture itself is silent. But the doctrines
themselves, I feel convinced, cannot be evaded by any one
who honestly asks "What is Christianity?" and when
they cease to be received, it will only be by a cost of
criticism which will render readers of the New Testament
bankrujDts in faith altogether.
Yours truly,
E. E. H. G.
LETTER CIII.
TO A TOIJNG FEIEND DISPOSED TO MAKE THE "DISCREP-
ANCIES " IN SCKIPTUKE A REASON FOR RENOUNCING
CHRISTIANITY.
1853.
My dear young Friend,
You tell me you cannot reconcile all the discrepancies
which maybe detected in minute portions of the Scripture
history, and that you therefore feel compelled to give up
the truth of Christianity !
What a " therefore " is that ! I pity your logic. Pardon
me, but between the premises and the conclusion there is
no connection in the world. It is much as if you said,
you cannot demonstrate the compatibility of all the phe-
nomena of the universe with the divine benevolence, —
and therefore., you must become an Atheist; nay, it is
really as absurd as if you were to say that you cannot
reconcile all the discrepancies of English historians, and
therefore give up the History of England: for discrep-
456 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
ancies in a history may be numerous and real, and yet
every important fact of it be true.
"You cannot reconcile," you say, "all the discrep-
ancies;" and I may retort, "Who asked you?" Cer-
tainly, I should not; for I cannot reconcile all those
discrepancies either. But as to giving up Christianity as
divine — or the New Testament, as the "Word of God on
that account, — I should as soon think, as some one said,
in a somewhat similar case, " of burning down London to
get rid of the bugs."
"What are you to do?" you ask; "what can you do?"
Why, so far from your being compelled to do Avhat you
meditate, — there are, as the late Sir Robert Peel used to
say, no less than " three courses " open to you, any one of
which would be infinitely more logical than the renun-
ciation of Christianity.
I. Even if you were to affirm, — what perhaps you Avill
affirm, — not only that you cannot reconcile all these
discrepancies, but that they are, and mil for ever be,
irreconcilable ; that they are mistakes of the writers, just
because "inspiration" did not plenarily protect them
against infirmities of intellect, any more than it did against
all errors of conduct ; still you would not be justified in
such a conclusion, as you seem to think inevitable. And
I say that this is proved even by the conduct of the hulh
of those who chiefly insist on this view of the discre])-
ancies, — who make the most of them, who often per-
versely pet them ; for even these do not therefore affirm
that the entire evidence on behalf of Christianity as a
thing of Divine origin, is naught ; they still affirm that the
substantial truth of its facts is incontrovertible ; and that
the office of " criticism " is, at best, only to eliminate the
minute portions in which "irreconcilable discrepancy " is
to be traced. I know, indeed, that some of these " elim-.
ON THE "DISCREPANCIES." 457
inators " proceed in this task at a rare rate, and " elim-
inate " nearly the whole book ; " turn the house," as the
saying is, " out of the windows ; " but many, notwith-
standing, do apply the theory within perfectly insignificant
and innocuous limits. Now I say not that this is the best
method of dealing with such matters ; — I think either the
second or the third (which I shall presently touch) is
better. Still if, as is very 2:>ossible, those who hold this
theory apply the jDrinciple honestly, and only to the
minute and trivial portions of the New Testament History
in which alone anything approaching " irreconcilable con-
tradiction " can, with a shadow of reason, be pretended, —
the result is much the same as if the whole book were
accepted as divine. So little is rejected, that it does not
appreciably affect the sum of w^hat is retained. To ask
the difference is of as little significance as to ask Avhether
somebody is richer than you, who has a thousand pounds,
when you have the same sum all but a thousandth part of
a farthing !
I know, indeed, there are those who parade and exag-
gerate these diflS^culties for the very purpose of finding
excuses for the conclusion you seem in danger of arriving
tat. They have accordingly always magnified and mul-
tiplied them ; but the bulk of those who insist on them in
our day do not insist on them as at all affecting the claim
of Christianity to be divinely originated, and they there-
fore ^rowe that it is at least possible to hold this theory
and yet not give up Christianity. Nor can you in justice
do so, unless you have first confuted the immensely varied
and convergent proofs of its truth, and the substantial
credibihty of its documents; — any more than, in the
parallel case, you can set aside the history of England or
Greece because you have found variations and contra-
dictions in the recital of j)articular facts !
39
458 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
But you will, perhaps, say, "Does not this impose upon
me the task of eliminating what is false ? And does it not
comj^el me to reject the idea of plenary inspiration?"
R-ecollect what I have said; — I do 7iot affirm that this
first way is the hest possible way of confronting the difficul-
ties which you say perplex you ; I am only contending that
it is consistent and intelligible, though Z prefer another; —
of which presently. But as to the above questions, I must
answer, on this first theory, in the affirmative. You must,
no doubt, diligently and carefully eliminate the fragments
of error which you deem such ; you must winnow the
wheat. " Am I capable of such an exercise of intellect ? "
you will say. I have nothing to do Avith that ; but this I
will say, 1. That it makes not the substantive truth of the
New Testament less true, nor justifies you in rejecting the
whole, because you think a ten thousandth j^art doubtful ;
and 2. That if you reject only what you call " demonstrably
contradictory^'' I am convinced your task will be light
enough, and that the balance which will weigh the difier-
ence between your New Testament and mine will be a
very delicate one ! Further, your task, even on this theory,
will in fact involve no other difficulty than you submit to
in dealing with any book of authentic history, — minute
portions of which you reject as erroneous ; no other diffi-
culty than a judge or juryman is compelled to confront,
who, in taking the sum of evidence, rejects in a similar
manner what is contradictory or irreconcilable ^vith the
main fiacts substantiated, while he yet cleaves to his con-
clusion notwithstanding. Now I say this is more consistent
and intelligible than the course you propose, which really is
much as if a judge were to say, "Gentlemen, there are
some minute facts which seem irreconcilable, and therefore
I have nothing to say to you ;" or as if the jury were to say,
" Till these facts are fully reconciled we can give no verdict."
ON THE "DISCREPANCIES." 459
N'or can it be proved tliat, on such a theory of inspira-
tion as that noAV implied, God would have done anything,
(however improbable a priori^ out of analogy with His
i:)rocedure in other cases ; as God has j^laced us in an anal-
ogous difficulty in other cases, so, for aught you know. He
may in this. To discriminate — to judge with candor — to
hold fist what is j^roven in spite of difficulties — may be
required of us as part of that exercise of a docile faith, of
an unprejudiced reason, which throughout our whole pro-
bation He has provided for us here. Indeed, on any theory
of inspiration, He has practically involved us in much the
same difficulty : for even on the theory of the plenary
insj^iration of Scripture, He has Himself left on the sacred
page the traces of appciTent discrepancies that perj^lex and
baffle us. Now on the theory that He occasionally allowed
human infirmity to introduce error and mistake. He would
only have subjected us to much the same discipline.
As to your second inference, — that you must, at all
events, give uj) the plenary inspiration — the absolute infol-
lible truth of every syllable of Scripture, — I acknowledge
that what you prove to be error cannot be inspired ; only
be sure that it is so j^i'oved. That will necessitate your
giving u]) those minute portions to which you can say de-
monstrated error or paljjable contradiction attaches.
Now can you believe, perha2>s you will say, that God has
commissioned men to declare religious truth to the world —
has inspired the«i with the knowledge of it, — has wrought
mh'acles and uttered j^roj^hecy to authenticate it, and yet
has left the very messengers to be sometimes misled by
ignorance ? to misstate fact ? to blunder in the very deUv-
ery of their message ?
Now, (mind once again) I do not deny this difficulty,
and, in consequence, prefer another method of dealing with
the matter, as I shall presently show you ; but still, I say,
4 GO THE GREY SON LETTEKS.
that even such a supposition is perfectly intelligible and
consistent, compared with the alternative you propose to
yourself — the summary rejection of Christianity !
For, after all, if we admit this theory, does it leave you
in greater difficulty than Theism leaves you ? Does not
the constitution of the world jDresent you with analogous
facts? While millions of j^henomena attest the divine
goodness, do you not every now and then stumble on some
which look the other way ? Is the plague or the rattle-
snake quite intelligible ? Do you not, when you meet
with such unaccountable phenomena, say, " They are dif-
ficulties indeed — things quite inexplicable, but they must
not be allowed to override the deductions which the im-
mense majority out of every million of facts will justify?"
Do you not say, " I believe there must be good reasons for
these ugly things, though I do not know what they are ? "
You may perhaps rejoin, "Yes, but after all, a cobra or
rattlesnake is God's direct work, and therefore I believe
there must be good reasons for it, though I am ignorant of
them." I answer, "Very well; and may you not say the
same of what is inexplicable in what God permits ? Would
it be any more wonderful if God should permit human ig-
norance and infirmity to introduce some trivial errors into
His word (mind, I say not it is so) than that His power
and wisdom should do what you can in no way comprehend
in His works ? "
But if you vnll have a precisely analogous case, I can
give it you in the moral government of God. There God,
every day and everywhere, permits the remaining follies
of the wise and the remaining infirmities of the virtuous
to chequer the results of their beneficent action on the
world ; to mingle much error with their truth, some evil
with their good. And can you prove that it 7nay not have
been to some extent thus, even in the construction of ^
ON THE " DESCREPANCIES." 461
divine revelation ? Would not sucli a course be at least
in analogy " with the constitution and course of nature ? "
If He permitted, though we know not why, His fair crea-
tion to be invaded with evil, and " the enemy by night to
sow tares among the wheat ; " would it be inconceivable,
if, in like manner. He should have suffered minute errors
to enter into the texture of the Bible ?
KecoUect, however, what I have said; I do not think
this method so eligible as the second of the three courses,
or as the third ; — but this I say — it is perfectly intelligi-
ble and consistent comj^ared with the coarse application of
your Gordian shears.
" What then, is your second theory ? " you will say.
But you must wait till to-morrow. I have Avell filled my
sheet, and I hate crossing. I conclude by begging you to
believe me,
Your loving friend,
LETTER CIV.
TO Tilli: SAME.
E. E. H. G.
My dear Yofth,
As to my second theory of dealing with the " discre-
l^ancies," it is a very simple one, and not less admirable, —
namely, to let them alone ; — to postiDone them till further
light is thrown upon them ; not to anticipate the true
theory of them ; to refrain from j^i'onouncing them either
absolutely insoluble or otherwise.
And the general evidence for the Bible is such as to jus-
tify this abstinence from dogmatism. We can afford to
wait. A Christian may say with justice — "When I can
solve these difficulties, I am glad ; when I cannot, I am
willing to suspend my judgment ; they do not, they never
39*
462 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
can (whatever be the solution), shake the substantive credi-
bility of the great facts and main statements of the scrij^tural
documents ; adequate evidence against these must be an
earthquake which shall subvert the very foundations of the
faith, and leave the whole fabric a wreck, not a flash of criti-
cal lightning, which grazes, or S23linters, or even dislodges a
stone or two in some remote turret or ornamental pinnacle.
I can loait — I can afford to wait — no one hurries me; —
why should I be so incontinent of my opinion as to pro-
nounce before I am sure that I have all the i^ossible data ?
Whether the discrepancies are ultimately to be disposed
of by supposing something less than indefectible inspira-
tion for every particle of canonical Scrij^ture, or by finding
that they yield, as so many others have already done^ to
mere accurate recensions of the text, or more severe colla-
tion of the Scripture with itself or with profane writere, or
unexpected recoveries of fragments of ancient history, I
leave for awhile ; for, either way, the things which must
thus be left are but " dust in the balance ;" subtracted or
added, they will not appreciably affect the result ; and so,
whether zealous Stephen really confounded the sej^ulchre
which Jacob bought of the fother of Shechem with that
which Abraham bought of Ephron the Hittite, or not, I
shall magnanimously leave to future inquiries, and sleep
none the worse for it !
I am fully aware that the infidel deems it infinitely im-
portant that such weighty points should be instantly set-
tled ; and indeed, from the eagerness with which he intro-
duces, and the j^ertinacity with which he discusses them,
one can hardly helj) fancying that he^ and not Christianity,
is the party principally interested in the issue ; and in very
truth, it is so ; for it is of immense importance to him that
Christianity should seem fiilse ; of little importance to
Christianity that such discrepancies should be reconciled.
ON THE " DESCREPANCIES." 4G3
But there is still a third course, in my judgment still
better than the second^ and the one to which I myself most
incline ; it is that of combining, with that abstinence fi'om
all dogmatic decision which the second course requires, a
reverential remembrance of the many instances in which
discrepancies, once vehemently insisted on, have yielded
to further investigation. Hence, a suspicion, at all events
founded on induction, that if we will but wait with a little
patience, that patience will be rewarded with a satisfactory
solution. Just so we act when we meet with phenomena
which seem to shock our notions of the divine benevolence,
in the department of physical inquiry ; we do not foolishly
imagine that every difficulty we meet with that we cannot
solve is absolutely insoluble, but we wait with confidence
for further lis^ht.
" But is not this an act of unreasoning faith ? " you will
perhaps say. — No, an act of reason y for it is founded on
experience of the past. I see that many difficulties Avhich
half a century ago were as clamorously proclaimed to be
" palpable contradictions " to all history and all probability
as those which still j^erplex us, have been removed. What
right then, have I to assume that the same will net happen,
if I have but patience, with the remainder ? What right
have I to suppose that the dogmatism which has been proved
so hasty in past times, and in other cases^ is never to be
proved so any more? Ought I not, on a fair induction^
(not merely on au a priori conclusion that indefectible truth
must belong to all Scripture,) to wait not only with patience,
but with hope ? And I can wait, not merely because so
many difficulties have yielded, but because I see so plainly
that man has more than a trifle yet to learn; that antiquities,
history, ethnology, philosophy, "chronology, geology, and
half a dozen other sciences, are by no means exhausted ;
and that then- progress will, together with the study of the
464 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
sacred books themselves, tend more and more to throw light
on these subjects.
All this of course is just simply saying that I am not en-
titled to assume a discrepancy to be absolutely msoluhle, so
long as I see that others which were thought so, proclaimed
so, and rejoiced in as such by infidels half a century ago,
are now allowed to be so no longer.
We may w^ell believe the truth of what Butler says of
the word of God, in his celebrated work : " It is not at all
incredible that a book which has been so long in the pos-
session of mankind should contain many truths as yet undis-
covered, for all the same phenomena and the same faculties
of investigation from which such great discoveries in natural
knowledge have been made in the present and past age,
were equally in the possession of mankind several thousand
years before ;" and for a similar reason we may equally well
believe that increasing light will be thrown on the difficulties
which meet us, and meet us no less in the investigation of
the Works than in the study of the Word of God.
Both the works and the Word of God are indeed inex-
haustible both in beauties and in mysteries ; fraught with
every element designed to educate the whole man — and
amongst the rest, with a few " hard sayings " for a diligent
reason to investigate, and a few, harder still, for a docile
faith to receive without fully comj)rehending at all.
However, my dear youth, ponder, I beg you, my words,
and see whether cmy one of the three alternatives I have
laid before you is not more rational (as I believe it is) than
the rash alternative you talk so lightly about.
You will observe that these remarks apply only to — what
I understand you to be troubled with — the apparent " dis-
crepancies" which you find in Scripture. If you mean
much more than this; — if, when you pretend to see no
discrepancy, you choose to refuse credence to a fact because
ON THE " DESCREPANCIES." 465
it is " mysterious," or transcends your comprehension, why,
there is, of course, no end to that sort of objection ; and
you might as well doubt whether there is such a thing as
the union of body and soul; — for that is as much above
your comprehension as anything in Scripture ; in short, your
creed will be speedily reduced to — zero.
If you urge that the first theory of the " discrepancies "
requires to be cautiously applied, — that it will be apt to
yield different results in different hands, — that it seems a
somewhat slippery place for a foothold, I grant it ; but you
will observe that I do not think it is the most philosophical
or modest of the three. Still I am sure that it (and still
more the others) is modesty, sense, philosophy itself, com-
pared with that Curtius-like leap into the gulf of infidelity
which you propose to take !
Sure I am that if a man apply even the^jr^^ theory, with
honest and rigorous candor, restricting it to the petty
details in which the paraded " discrepancies " are found, he
will reject only infinitesimal quantities; while millions have
acquiesced in the second and third with perfect tranquillity
to their faith, ^ay — Christians in general tnust have done
so ; since no one pretends to be able to reconcile all these
discrepancies.
And thus if you think that they are ever likely to be of
any weight as against Christianity, let facts confute you.
Not only, as I have said, do the majority even of those who
most vehemently contend for the presence of minute error
in the Scriptures, tell you that they do not therefore dream
of its being necessary to abandon Christianity itself, and
that you are consequently wrong in your conclusion; but
the incessant repetition from age to age of the very same
class of difficulties does not make the smallest ai^preciable
impression on the Christian world at large ! If, therefore,
the hope of Infidehty be founded on such " discrepancies,"
4G6 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
never, surely, was hope more delusive. As I was recently
obliged to remind a young contemporary of yours, (who
2:>leads for undisguised Deism,) experience has fully proved
that nothing can be expected from the perpetual parade of
these " discrepancies." Somehow each generation of Infi-
dels imagines it is saying something new and to the purpose
when it urges them. They have been tried, over and over
again ; and against the vast fabric of Christian evidence,
and the general conviction of its truth, they produce no
more effect than firing pop-guns against granite. In fact,
we find the mass of the people will not heed them. Take,
for example, that " discrepancy " on which you lay so much
stress in your last. Why, it has been reproduced in every
age. It was insisted on by Celsus ; by Porj^hyry, by Col-
lins ; by Bolingbroke ; it was again iterated by Voltaire ;
it duly reappears in Strauss ; in short, in almost every infidel
writer : but it is of no avail whatever against the impres-
sion produced by the general evidence. The case is much
as in every difiicult trial in a court of justice ; there is sure
to be some point — often several — which no man can make
anything of, which nobody can clear up ; everybody wants
satisfaction thereon, and no one can give it ; meantime every-
body is convinced by the general stream and convergency
of the evidence; and with the exception of a crotchety
" Infidel " here and there, the prisoner is acquitted or hanged
with the all but unanimous verdict of the community.
Yours very truly,
E. E. H. G.
"TRANSMUTATION" AND " DEVELOPHENT." 467
LETTER CV.
TO ALFRED WEST, ESQ.
1853.
My dear West,
I have had a talk with your young relative, and you may
set your mind at rest on one point. He is no Atheist nor
Pantheist. He is a great admirer, indeed, of the theory of
the "Vestiges;" but then, much as you and I recoil from
the theory there propounded, (as everybody else will in a
dozen years,) that theory does not necessarily involve Ath-
eism — which its author, in fact, expressly disavows. He
has been often charged, it is true, with holding views /ayor-
ahle to Atheism ; and it must be confessed, that the first
editions of his work were greatly calculated to justify the
notion ; yet we f annot, and ought not, to doubt, unless he
be a very hypocrite of hypocrites, that he means what he
says in the successive eclaircissements which he has given
to the world of his doctrines , when he tells us, therefore,
that he believes in an intelligent and conscious Personality
who has "developed" the universe out of the fire-mist.
For my own part, after this, I must believe him a Theist ;
though as to the " fire mist," I rather think it is all " moon-
shine " of the author's fancy.
Nor indeed, as has been well remarked by several writers,
can any such theory really affect the question of Theism
at all ; if, indeed, such rare " transformations " and " trans-
mutions," and " developments " of organized beings, as it
supposes, (were there but any proof of them,) ought not
rather to enhance the proofs of divine power and intelli-
gence. Surely such transmutations not less require power
and intelligence than the received hypothesis of successive
creations ; for even if the elements of the material universe,
if matter itself, — be supposed eternal, it can never be
468 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
proved that the properties and laws in virtue of which it has
been " developed " into such wondrous results inherently
belong to it ; or that if some properties did delong to it, a
chance-medley combination or blindly necessary application
of them would make such a symmetrical and harmonious
universe.
All the usual arguments for Theism, therefore, remain
unaffected by any such hypothesis ; the indications of order,
of design, — the inferences from effect to cause, which,
let hyper-metaphysical brains do w^hat they will to invali-
date, men in general, a million out of every million and one,
loill cling to and repose in, — are just what they were ;
they are no more affected by any such hypothesis as
that of the " Vestiges," how^ever irrational and fantastical
it may be on other grounds, than is the argument for the
intelligent fabrication of our bodies by the fact that w^e all
had fathers^ or for that of a butterfly by the fact that it
came out of a chrysalis ! The mere number, subtlety, and
duration of the phenomena of " transmutation " make no
difference in this argument, so long as the several ^:><:^r^5 of
the series, one and all, are marked by the same character-
istics of " design ; " rather, the inference is (as already said)
but strengthened and multiplied at each remove. If A, B,
and C be all stamped by their respective signatures of de-
sign, it were strange to suppose that that inference is invali-
dated because C came from B and B from A. Let the
indigree of these phenomena be long or short, the argu-
ments from Theism remain just w^here they w^ere.
Not, of course, that I think the theory on that account
harmless; a muddle-headed youth, no doubt, may easily
abuse it to Atheism ; for if he can but relegate the phe-
nomena in question to a sufliciently remote antiquity —
reduce the universe to a very fine " fire-mist," and interpose
a sufiicient number of changes and "transformations"
" TRANSMUTATION " AND " DEVELOPMENT." 469
between the present complexity of the universe and the
first touch, next-to-nothing (!), which set all agoing^ and
lie is apt to think, not, as he ought, that the wisdom and
power which evolved all things from such an infinitesimal
germ and pre-arranged the evolution and march of all these
stupendous "developments" are the more worthy of ad-
miration ; but that he has got rid of the necessity of a
Deity altogether, for that truly a Deity must have had next
to nothing to do.
I have no fear, however, that this theory ever will or can
make Atheists ; for if it be but understood, that is impos-
sible.
In pomt of philosophy, it is worthless ; because it is a
perfectly gratuitous^ fantastical departure, under the mask
of philosophizing, from all the cardinal doctrines of Baconian
induction.
It is a species of very bad poetry ; the imagination is
allowed absolute license, and we are taught to believe
things, not because it is proved they are, but because we
don't know but what 2^ossibly they may have been ! Thus
we are told, for example, that though instances of the
" transmutation " of species cannot be produced, — though
all the fillets throughout the entire range of authentic history
are against it, — though we never see any indications of
monkeys turning into men, or fishes into birds, (though I
will not say that we have not sometimes the initial process
by which young philosophs promise to "develop" into
l^uppies,) — yet that such things may have been fifty millions
of years ago ; that the whole term and sphere of our obser-
vation are too limited to allow of such spectacles, but that
we do not know what twenty or a hundred millions of years
might do ! What sort of jDhilosophy is it which tells us
that we may infer something, because we do not know that,
in fifty millions of years or so, something of which we have
40
470 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
not the slightest proof that it ever dici occur, might not
occur ! How would Bacon have felt abashed and insulted,
if he had been told that these his professed disciples, who
are ever pleading and profaning his name, would argue that
we are to consider such and such conclusions probable, not
because we know what is or has been, but precisely because
we do not know that it may not have been ! It is to dream,
not to philosophize, — to talk in this way. It is just as if a
man challenged us to believe that not only is Jupiter inhab-
ited, but that it is inhabited by animals with three heads and
fifteen hands, inasmuch as none can say that it may not
be ; nay, because we do 7iot know that it is 7iot ! Surely
any rational creature would reply, " Until you know that it
is, do not venture on any hypothesis on the subject. Do
not make your very ignorance — this ' you do 7iot know ' —
the basis of pretended knowledge." I believe that, in spite
of the boasted advance of science in our day, there never
has been a period in w^hich more rash hypotheses have been
broached; or more at which Bacon would have stood
aghast, to hear his name pleaded for them ! But your
young friend is an ardent admirer of the hypothesis of " de-
velopment ; " and I must tell you in another letter, if I can
get time to scribble it to-morrow, the heads of our conver-
sation.
Yours ever,
R. E. 11. G
LETTER CVI.
TO THE SA31E.
1852.
My dear "West,
I promised to let you know of my conversation with your
young friend, who, after reading the " Vestiges," has so
violent ^penchant for a simious ancestry.
TRANSMUTATION OF "SPECIES" THEORY. 471
I found it difficult, I promise you, to treat the subject
■with sufficient gravity. " Why," said he, with a half-deiiaiit
air, in reply to a little banter, " why should I not believe
that at a remote period I might have had a monkey for my
ancestor ? "
I told him gravely, " That perhaps it might be difficult to
say why he should not think so."
" But now, seriously," said he, " why may not a man have
had such an origin ? "
" Nay," said I, " I think the question is, not why a man
may not have had such an origin, but why we are to be-
lieve he had ? If any man has a particular predilection for
a monkey-ancestry, — as you seem to have at present, — why,
as a matter of taste merely, I have no objection in the world.
I never quarrel about pedigrees — they are always ticklish
subjects for discussion. If I went to see the good Welsh-
man Avhose genealogical roll had, half way up it, the mod-
est notice, 'About this time Adam was born,' and then went
on, nobody knows how far beyond such a poor modern date,
I should hardly have contested the point with him, but
should have let him revel in his j^re-adamite aps^ as I do
you in your pre-adamite apes^ to the utmost bent of his
pride of lineage. You merely go a few millions of genera-
tions further back — to your great 7rd7nro<s, the monhey^ and
your more venerable 7rpo7ra7r7ro9, the tadpole. Pray please
yourself, if it is to be a matter of taste ; but if you insist
upon it, that it is reasonable for you to affirm such an origin
and that I^ too, am a member of your family, I beg to ask v-hy
you say so ? You must not tell me that you know no rea-
son why man may not have been thus gloriously descended ;
you must tell me why you think he was. You acknowl-
edge, do you not, that we noio see nothing, — that authentic
history records nothing, — of those transmutations of species
of which you talk so glibly ? On the contrary, the lines
472 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
of demarcation, so far as we can judge, are strictly kept
be'tween species and sj)ecies ; and the one has no more
tendency to pass into the other, than ' grapes to grow on
thorns ' or ' figs on thistles.' What right have you to as-
sume, — nay, even to conjecture, — that the peculiar fruit
called ' man ' has grown on your tadpole-tree.
" Nay," said he, half laughing at this way of representing
the matter, and yet half angry too, — " though I grant that
ice see no such transformations now, how do Ave know what
time, — thirty, or forty, or a hundred millions of years "
" Pray take your time," said I, smiling, " ad libitxim / —
it is all at your disj^osal ; you can suppose as long periods
as you 2:)lease; I am quite willing to say I cannot.^ contra-
dict you."
"Well, then, say in a million million hilllon of ages," he
went on, rather warmly. " How do we know, in that time,
what might not have taken place ? "
I could not forbear laughing outright. "My dear fel-
low," said I, " it is, I fancy, of no use to ask what may not
have happened in a period of time which you do not know,
under the ojDcration of causes of which you know nothing.
Only, if you ask me to receive, as in the remotest degree a
iwohahle conclusion, your notion of the transmutation of
species, be pleased to give me your reasons. If you dream
— dream ; if you philosophize — philosophize. But j^ray
don't call this style of inference Baconian ' induction.' You
will certainly make the great philosopher cry out against
you from his * Novum Organum ' there, on the shelves be-
hind you. You have evidently never read a line of him,
or to no purj^ose. ' Is it from me^ young gentleman,' he
will say, ' that you pretend to have learned to talk in this
fashion ? Did I ever teach you to assign as a reason for
believing in a fact, or in the faintest prohahility of a fact,
that you do not know something ; — that you do not know
TRANSMUTATION OF "SPECIES" THEOPwY. 473
what might not have been done in a time you do not know,
by causes which, equally, you do oiot know?!- Come, tell
me your true reasons for saying, or guessing, or believing
anything in the matter ; for this sort of ' reasoning ' really
will not do even among plain i^eople like myself, — much
less among philosophers."
" Well," said he, " the theory of ' development,' fully car-
ried out, requires it."
" Aye," said I ; " but what requires your indcjSnite gra-
tuitous application of the theory of development ? Why
are we to extend it to phenomena of which we can only
say, — Who can tell what unhnoion j^rocesses, certain ini-
hnown causes may have operated through unknown j^eriods
of time ? "
" Why," he replied, " you surely do not deny that the
theory of " develoj^ment ' of the material Avorld out of prior
states, and those out of still j^rior ones, is made out pretty
Well ; at leasts as regards the successive geological strata
which compose the earth's crust ? "
" Aye," said I ; " now you are coming to something.
Yes ; I believe as much as you do in such j^henomena of
'development.' But see how much more logically and
equitably 7'act in the argument than you."
"How so?"
" Ask ??ie," said I, " why I believe in the gradual develop-
ment of the geological formations."
" I ask you," said he.
" It is not tlien," said I, " that I do 7iot know what un-
known agencies, oj)erating during unknown millions of
years, may have done ; my conclusion is not something for
which I can bring forward no facts ; but because the facts
on which I found the opinion are patent and obvious.
Physical causes, well known, and in operation now, —
though I pretend not to know the varying intensities with
40*
474 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
wliich they may, perchance, have operated at remote pe-
riods, — are slowly producing shnilar results before our
eyes ; the stages of the phenomena in the past may be dis-
tinctly traced : the geologist tells me of his conclusions, and
also of the grounds of them, so far as his science is a science
of induction; and, what is more, my eyes, and not my
fancy, corroborate his observations. These observations
show that there have been successive conditions of the
earth's crust ; that in the latter strata there are fossil re-
mains of organic life; that the still visible phenomena —
the still legible hieroglyphics of their life and its condi-
tions — attest a beautiful adaptation of the earth at various
periods to its tenants, and a gradual preparation for the
appearance of man. Thus much observation tells me ; but
what has all that to do with the proofs of 'fire-mist' trans-
formed into 'solid matter,' or tadpoles transmuted by
various stages into rational bij)eds ? "
I had a little further conversation with him on a fantas-
tical notion he has formed, that there have been no " cat-
astrophal changes," as he calls them, in the development
of, at least, the "inorganic" world. That development,
founding on inferences from some modern writers, he has
decreed must have proceeded according to a law of " con-
tinuous change." I wrote him a short letter on the sub-
ject, a copy of which I will send you to-morrow.
Yours,
E. E. H. G.
TKANSMUTATION OF "SPECIES" THEORY. 475
LETTER CVII.
TO THE SAME.
1852.
My dear Fbiend,
I know not that your young acquaintance could j^oint
to any one passage of his favorite writers to justify, totidon
verbis^ his theory of " no catastrophes ; " but he can cer-
tainly point to many which justify his inference that they
ought to hold it.
He affirmed that whatever became of the theory of " con-
tinuous development," as apj^lied to the organic world, he
must beHeve it as aj^plied to the inorganic. The letter in
reply ran thus : —
" Even as aj^plied to the inorganic world, — see in what
gratuitous conclusions and flagrant contradictions your
theory involves you. Gratuitous and contradictory I have
already shown the theory cf development of ' species ' to be,
if we are at all to trust that on Avhich alone we can frame
any philosophy, — I mean ' induction.' All present facts
— and all past, so far as history tells us anything — are
against it ; and all you can say for it, is — that you do not
know what may take place in fifty million of years or so.
" But I am anxious to show you that your crude notion
of ' continuous development,' whether apj^lied to the trans-
mutation of sjDecies, — to the evolution of organisms, — or
restricted to the processes of inorganic and inanimate na-
ture, is also ' gratuitous ' in philosoj^hy, and contradictory
to fact. You say you cannot bring yourself to believe that
the * catastrophal^ as you call it, has ever characterized the
evolutions by which the world has become what it is ; that
there has ever been anything abrupt, sudden, discontinuous,
in these metamorj^hoses ; but that all has been achieved by
infinitesimal changes, and by a law operating with incon-
476 THE GKEYSON LETTERS.
ceivable slowness, in siicli a way as to elude all observation,
except change be measured by centuries, — or, for the mat-
ter of that, by thousands of years, — as our units of compu-
tation; that as you now find the sea on some shores
encroaching on the land, and on others the land gaining
from the sea, at the rate of inches in an age, so you think it
has always been so ; — and that all ' geological formations '
have been effected in the same manner by a law of con-
tinuous change. — A 2yriori^ this may or may not be. If
you give it merely as conjecture, I have nothing further to
say to it. ' A dream for a dream,' another man may say.
If you give it as philosophy^ — I beg to say that it is j^er-
fectly gratuitous ; for, as before, what can you hnoio about
such matters ? What can you hnoio as to whether or not
the present rate or law of change has continued in the uni-
verse from ei^ochs which date millions of millions of years
back? If you rejoin that in the case of inorganic forma-
tions, at all events, you can say what cannot be said in that
of the 'transmutation of sj^ecies,' — that such facts as come
under your inspection do not contradict such a notion, but
rather confirm it, — that all the chamxes vou nova see are
of this slow and ' continuous ' character, — I remind you,
first, (and shall j^resently show,) that, slow as may be ter-
restrial changes in general, facts do not accord with your
presumed law of ' absolute continuity.' But, secondly, sup-
posing they did — what right have you to infer from your
observations, infinitesimal in extent and ephemeral in dura-
tion, that you can know the law of change to have been
the same through an extent of millions of ages, and as ex-
emplified in the history of unnumbered worlds ? Is it not
to fall into that very error Avhich, in spite of all Bacon's
warnings, has so often beset the philosoi^her, — that of
making the measure of his experience tlie measure of all
things ; of fancying that things have always been as he has
TRANSMUTATION OF "SPECIES" THEORY. 477
seen them, — and that an order of things he has never seen,
can never have existed? — a notion excusable only in a
child, though as often entertained by the sage. In a ques-
tion like this, the ' uniformities of antecedents and conse-
quents ' which ice can observe, go for as little as those
still more limited ' uniformities ' which often mislead the
child. Observe, I am not saying that your notion may not
be true ; — I am too cautious, apart from superhuman illu-
mination, (to which I make no pretensions,) to philoso-
phize on such a subject at all. The matter is beyond me.
" If you say that thQ facts from which alone you deduce
your inference show that, if you generalize at all, you must
suppose that the organic changes have, as regards rate^
always proceeded on the same law of continuity, — I answer,
that even if present facts were as you falsely represent
them, altogether as you*state them, still who asks you to
generalize for a past eternity, or millions of years ago?
Deduce your present law, if you like, and, if deduced Jz/s^Zy
from the facts, you have a right to hold that it is now the
great law, and will be till you see it changed ; I say, till
you see it changed ; for, as we know nothing of the matter
except for the present, you really have no more right to
indulge in absolute assertions with regard to the unlimited
future than with regard to the unlimited past. Act in this
case as you do in relation to other laws. You see, for ex-
ample, that men now exist, and are born, and die, according
to an established ' law ; ' you say, that this is a present law,
and you say true ; but you do not therefore infer that it
was always so, — that man is an ' eternal series,' or even
that he is of very remote introduction into the universe.
Do the same in relation to the facts from the observation
of which you profess to deduce the supposed imj)ossibility
of ' catastrophal changes ' in the evolutions of the universe.
478 THE GREYSON LETTERS
It is not to philosophize, but to let imagination run riot, to
argue as you argue.
" But I insist that your theory is also contradictory to
fact. You say, you deduce the supposed law from the law
of contemporaneous changes observed around you. I have
shown the fallacious character of the conclusion, even if
you had truly represented present facts. But you have
not ; the facts we still observe are quite enough to demolish
your law of rigorous ' continuous ' change. Do you ask
how ? Why, do you not see that there are even in our
ej)hemeral history, even in the jog-trot of our present regu-
lar long-established system, changes of such varying magni-
tude as to be utterly inconsistent with your law of contin-
uous change, and quite ' catastrophal ' enough to show that,
at remote j^eriods of our earth's history, ' catastrophes '
much more stupendous may have occurred ? Has not the
earth's crust been often broken ? Have not cities and
towns been swallowed up by earthquakes in a day, in an
hour ? ' Catastrophal ' enough, I am sure, they must have
been to those who were involved in them. 'Ah ! ' you will
say, 'these " catastrophes " are too trivial to be considered
as infractions of the general law — they are wfiniteshnal
in relation to the entire changes going on on the surface
of our planet.' Very well; and would not concussions
which shook to j^ieces whole continents be mfinitesimal in
reference to the changes going on in the solar system ?
And would not the very extinction of our planet and of a
dozen more be an infinitesimal change in relation to the
whole universe ? You forget that a law of rigorous ' con-
tinuity' knows nothing of any abrupt breaks relatively
large or small, — nothing of proceeding per saltum. You
confound a 'law of continuity ' with something totally differ-
ent. You merely mean that no ' catastrophe ' which you
TRANSMUTATION OF "SPECIES" THEORY. 479
account ' great ' has occurred — the measure being taken
from your own experience ; so that here again, Hke so many
other philosophers in other directions, you make ' man the
measure of all things.' If your law of continuity is not vio-
lated, provided the ratio of any change to the sum total of
the phenomena unchanged be very small, then it is possible
that the most ' catastrophal ' change shall never involve
what is discontinuous ; for anything, however large, may
be regarded as infinitesimal in relation to another thing, if
that other be allowed to be infinitely larger. Thus a * catas-
trophe ' which might demolish the whole solar system would
be justifiably regarded as infinitesimal in relation to the
sphere wdiose radius is the distance of the fixed stars. If
you apply your ' law of continuity ' rigorously, you must
admit that the ' catastrophes ' which even the present state
of things exhibits are incompatible with it. N'ot only so,
but I think it would be more plausible to argue, that as
such things as vast earthquakes and extensive volcanic
eruptions have occurred even in the comparatively stable
and quiet condition of our world, similar events, in all
probability, have occurred to a much vaster extent in re-
mote periods of the past, and may again occur in remote
periods of the future.
" There is this additional absurdity about the thing, —
that your supposed ' law of continuity,' if it is not to be
considered as broken by an earthquake, may be susceptible
of any conceivable discrete variation, not according only to
the ratio of the changing phenomena as compared with the
unchanged^ but according to the capacities of the observer !
A gentleman who knew only Sicily, would think the ' law
of continuity ' and the perfect freedom from ' catastrophes '
oddly enough illustrated, as he saw Catania sinking into
the flood, and Herculaneum and Pompeii buried under
lava; while a travelled cosmopolite, who had seen in twenty
480 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
places the traces of similar desolating changes, but had also
perceived that the general law of geologic change was very
slow, could serenely expatiate on the law of ' continuous
change ; ' and if he and his whole planet were shot into the
air, a worthy inhabitant of the sun, Avho saw the faint spark
go out, would have the same pleasant reason to insist on
the freedom from ' catastrophes ; ' while an inhabitant of
Sirius would hear of the explosion of the sun and all its
planets with the like imperturbable composure, as in no
wise more than an infinitesimal infraction of the order of
the universe and the ' continuity ' of its changes.
*' In truth, as I have said, any changes j^er saltura are
sufficient to overthrow the fantastical a priori theory, that,
in the organic evolution of the universe, change has always
been so gradual as to be inconsistent with the supposition
of events you vaguely denominate ' catastrophal.' ' Catas-
trophe ' is a relative terra. The fall of a cottage is catas-
trophe enough to those who dwell in it ; the destruction
of a world is not, if compared with the universe.
" Do I then contend for vast i3re-adamite catastrophes ?
By the light of philosophy — not at all ; nor against them ;
I simply know nothing about them. Nor do you ; and to
pretend that we do know anything, and may pronounce on
some airy, childish predilection for an imaginary law of
'continuous development,' is as really to disregard the
dictates of all Baconian induction as Aristotle did, Avhen he
contended that the orbits of the planets must be circular,
because a circle is the most perfect of figures. When will
men cease thus to vault to conclusions ? Certainly philoso-
phers often proceed i^er saltum^ whether physical changes
ever do or not ; — not per scalas et gradatim — according
to Bacon's method. To contend that things which took
place, perhaps, millions of ages ago must have taken place
in this or that way only, because our philosopher has taken
PRIMA PIIILOSOPHIA. 481
it into his foolish pate to patronize some abstract principle,
is as audacious a violation of all Bacon's rules as can well
be conceived.
"As to what you say, that it is inconceivable to you that
the Creator should ever have proceeded per saltum^ excuse
rae for saying it is absolutely childish nonsense. It is to
avow that mere prejudice and preconception shall stand for
proof of the way in which God must have dealt with the
tremendous problems involved in the evolution of the uni-
verse. You really have no proof whatever that God may
not have alternately employed both 'catastrophes' and
' continuous changes ' at different epochs and in different
parts of His dominions. The philosopher has nothing in
the world to say against it, but that ' it would be quite
shocking to him ' to think so. Serious consequence ! Surely
if the Deity had anticipated that such ' infractions ' would
have been attended with such a ' catastrophe ' as a philoso-
pher's having his prejudices ' shocked,' He would have
taken care to act only on the principle of a ' strict law of
continuity,' and spared that thrice-sacred thing — an idolum
trihus.''''
Such was the letter. Write to him soon yourself . . , .
Yours ever,
R. E. H, (i.
LETTER CVTII.
TO HIS NEPHEW T G , STUDENT IN THE UNIVER-
SITY OF EDINBURGH,
18.31.
My dear Tom,
The "Prima Philosophia, — the Philosophy of First
Principles ! " — well, it all sounds very grand, and I have
no doubt it will be well for j^ou to study it, as you pro-
41
482 THE GllEYSON LETTERS.
pose, provided it be but in the right spirit and to the right
end ; that is, just to sliow you what are tlie limitations of
tlie human faculties, and then the necessity of acquiescing
in the fundamental beliefs which those faculties impose on
us, without further querulous comj^laints that you cannot
get the impossible demonstrations or chimerical certitude
of some so-called transcendental " science." But if you
expect, what so many philosoi^hers who revolve these
problems j^erpetually demand, and fancy, in sj^ite of so
many failures of the wise, that they will at last attain, —
a scientific rationale of truths which constitute reason, but
cannot be proved by it ; or again, which are taught us by
quite another faculty than reason, and are as incommen-
surable with it as a triangle with a sound or an odor, you
will be disappointed. When you have got to any such
ultimate facts, wdiether communicated by some different
princi2:)le of our nature from reason, — as for instance,
sense or emotion, — or cognate with reason, as being the
fundamental condition of its exercise, though anterior to
reasoning, you must rest contented with them, and not go
on, still bemoaning your benighted condition, because you
cannot demonstrate the absolute identity of " Knowing "
and " Being " — or bridge over the chasm between the me
and the oiot me^ to use the affected language of a most
pedantic philosophy — or understand the essence of either
matter or mind, or the mode of their union — or are com-
pelled to accept, without at all logically unravelling, the
relations of our consciousness to an external world; in
short, because you cannot see further into a millstone than
other 2:>eople. If you Avill thus accept the ultimate ficts
of our nature, Avhether taught you by sense or reason, or
any other ultimate constituent thereof, the study of the
"Prima Philosophia" will do you good, by letting you see
what are the limits of your possible knowledge, and in-
PRIMA PHILOSOPHIA. 483
ducing an unquestioning rcj^ose in them. Yon will learn,
as Locke says, " the length of your line," though there are
many " depths of the ocean," you cannot fathom by it. If
you pursue this science further, if you Avill try to give the
rationale, of principles which transcend reason, or are
incommensurable with it, as being of a totally different
nature from it, or are the very foundation of reason itself;
— if you will insist on reason's being its own foundation^
— constructing Xho, point dPappui on which itself rests, or
by an infinite regression demonstrating, instead of accept-
ing, the principles from which it starts, the " Prima Phi-
losophia" will but leave you in darkness, — as it has done
so many thousands more ; mistify, not enlighten you, and
completely muddle you at last as a just punishment for
seeking to be wise above the possibilities of your nature.
To attempt to reason out principles, which are either
transcendental to reason or incommensurable with it, is as
vain as the attemj^t to weigh the imponderable — to see
the invisible — to square the circle — to make the eye
judge of music or the ear discriminate colors. "Ne
sutor" may be justly addressed by the senses and the
j^assions and the emotions to the reason, when it attempts,
as it so often does, tyrannously to bring them under its
own jurisdiction in points where Nature has left them free.
The only question with a wise man will be, " Are such and
such the ultimate principles of my nature, and of human
nature in general; if so, I will accept them and trust
them ; for whether they be trustworthy or not, I cannot
help it ; I cannot go further ; they constitute the laws of
my being, and I must philosophize on them, if I philos-
ophize at all, for I have nothing else whereon to found a
philosophy."
There are two golden maxims of the old Stagyrite,
which he is fond of repeating in more or less distinct forms,
484 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
and which comprise, in- brief, all that can be said on the
subject. One is, that the Reason must ultimately repose
on principles which cannot be demonstrated ; the other is
more general, and includes it ; namely, that the intuitions
and faculties of our nature, whether they tell us right or
wrong, are all Ave have to trust to, and therefore must be
accepted as the groundwork of all jiossible philosophy.
_Zj^ wrong they cannot possibly be set right, and must go
for what they are worth ; since to fomid a ^^hilosophy on
faculties Ave have not^ or on other than we have, is plainly
impossible. The main difficulties in this matter, originate
in the tyranny of Reason, Avliich would fain, because it is
the regent fixculty of our nature, make itself despotic over
all ; ^vj into things as completely out of its own sphere,
as logic is beyond that of the senses ; pronounce on the
validity of eiddence other than its own, and judge of fxcts
which in the nature of thincjs cannot be referred to its
tribunal.
I have often thought that if Reason had not accustomed
itself to talk just as it pleased, and monopolized the
tongue as its peculiar organ; if the other constituents of
our nature could have their unrestricted use of it, Ave
should often hear a loud outcry against the usurping
faculty. Sense and j^assion, emotion and apj^etite, Avould
exclaim against the tendency of Reason to obtrude un-
laAvfully into their domain, under i^retence of seeking
superior evidence of any facts to Avhich they deposed.
No doubt these Avorthy folks — the mob of the body cor-
porate — Avould often use the tongue unAvisely, as Reason
itself often does ; and sometimes speak just as if they had
no connection Avith reason in the Avorld. Like frank,
blundering, Irishmen, they Avould, I conceive, utter a good
deal of crude sense, mixed Avith much nonsense, and Avitli
the most sovereign ' contempt doubtless for those logical
PRIMA PIIILO SOPHIA. • 485
forms for tlie want of which it is evident my lord Reason
chiefly contemns them.
"What is it? " says Reason, earnestly gazing at a piece
of chalk. " Is it anything out of me, or is it in me ? Is it
part of the me or the oiot me? Objective or merely sub-
jective? "
Now methinks Sense would say, if it had the command
of the tongue, — " What a puzzle friend Reason seems to
be in ! Hallo ! there ; hav'n't I told you a thousand times
that it is out of you — that it is part of your not me^ as
you call it in your incomprehensible jargon; — it's chalky
man, chalky and nothing else."
" Sense," Reason w^ould reply, "how often have I told
you that you are not competent to decide ."
" And how often am I to tell you that I alone mn
competent to decide this matter, and that it is because
you will thrust your reverend head into what does not
concern it, instead of receiving my testimony, that all
your perplexity arises ? "
Sense may speak too absolutely, but in what he says I
think there is a good deal of " sense " and " reason " too.
But Reason would eye him with an " austere smile of re-
gard." " How shall I believe you," he would say, " when
you have so often deceived me ? How can I trust you ?
No — none of you shall deceive ??2e." Perhaps Passion
would rejily in a j^assion, "Why, what a wrong-headed,
suspicious, unreasonable, pragmatical old fool you are ! —
Why should you think we deceive you, at least in a mat-
ter wherein we have no interest to do so ? You deceive
us at least as often as we do you, and get us into no end
of awkward scrapes by your false logic. Faith ! it were
well for you, if you were equally cautious when we can
and do deceive you. Not deceive you, quotha ! We find
it easy enough, I reckon, wlien you want to be deceived ;
486 THE GllEYSON LETTERS.
aye — we have deceived you a thousand times, in spite of
all your fine philosophy and love of the pure truth. I
know nobody more easily deceived than you." And then
perhaps impudently winking at Appetite, he might ask,
where Reason was at twelve o'clock last night ? Whether
he was not completely extinguished, and under the table,
babbling no end of incoherent nonsense.
Keason, so scrupulous about the " pure truth " when he
has got his speculative cap on, would hardly think it worth
while to pursue this practical topic further, or vaunt his
determination never to be deceived with the remembrance
of such an ignominious escapade before his eyes. But he
assumes a lofty air, and says —
" Peace, neighbor Passion. You are too loud and boist-
erous; you disturb my meditations. This question of a
'phenomenal' or 'real' world is entirely an affair of mine."
" There," Sense cries, " there you are again. It is noth-
ing of the kind ; it is an affair of mine ; but you will have
everything brought to your standard and measured by
your bushel. If not, you are cheated, forsooth, and we
are a set of knaves. It is impossible to live in peace and
quietness with you ! "
" Aye, aye," Appetite chimes in, " you are continually
spoiling all wholesome digestion with your fantastical fidg-
ets and sleepless speculation. It is impossible to hiccup
Avithout your asking whether it is a ' real ' or an ' ideal '
hiccup ; I can't eat a mincepie or swallow an oyster with-
out your asking whether it is the ' one ' or the ' not one '
that is going down my own throat."
But it is all in vain — for spite of all, Reason will again
fall into his brown study, over his lump of chalk. " I can't
bridge the gulf over — I can't grasp it," he mutters ; "is
it the ' one ' or the ' not one f ' "
In vain Sense expostulates with him ; tells him that it is
PRIMA PHILOSOPHIA. 487
not his province. In vain Sense says, "I don't meddle
with your ' syllogisms ' and ' intuitions ; ' do n't you meddle
with the intuitions of Sense." — But ten to one Sense, and
Aj^i^etite, and Passion, join in a malicious conspiracy to
revenge themselves on the overcautious governor. Only
Avait till supper time, and they will probably enlighten his
High Mightiness as to which is the " me " and the " not
me," and as to whether or not he is so very anxious never
to be deceived ! Nay, it may even happen that, in an hour
or so, friend Reason, after trolling out a song to the con-
fusion of all philosophy, and Avashing with a bumper his
metaphysical cobwebs out of his brains, will be found fairly
on his back, wondering for his life, whether it is the '' he "
or the " not he " that lies sprawling there — or whether it
is not a " j^hilosopher beside himself ! "
ISTot a soul in all " Mansoul " would be more respected
than Keason, if he would but confine himself to his j^roper
2)rovince ; if he would not resolve to j^ry into everything ;
if he would but content himself with reo-nlatino; his ser-
vants instead of attempting to do their work ; to see that
they do not run riot or waste his substance, or idle away
their time ; if he would not pretend to be able to perform
their duty better than they can. Instead of that, he lets
them do pretty much as they like where he can and ought
to control them, and meantime runs about, susj^ecting
everybody and pretending that no one but himself is to be
trusted, even on points on which he cannot judge, and on
which he must trust to testimony. All his puzzle is, be-
cause he toill try, as the saying is, to get a quart pot into a
pint pot — to see if "Reason " cannot be "Sense;" and he
might as well try to smell a rose Avith his ears, as decide
AAdiether the " not me," as he calls it, is anything else than
Sense tells him it is.
" A fine thing, truly," Sense may well cry, " that a man
488 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
should assume such airs, who does not know chalk when
he sees it — does not know whether it is out of him or in
him — whether it is part of the ' him ' or the ' not him.' "
I fancy Reason being so laughed at, would be aj^t to be
mistaken for Passion.
I confess it makes me angry to hear Reason so often in-
sisting on the deceptions and illusions practised by those
poor, faithful drudges, the senses, — when I consider that
his worship is deceived, and deceives himself just as often,
or much oftener ; and above all, when I consider that for
half their time, they are all " in the same condemnation,"
and deceived alike ; that is, every night ! I seldom wake
without feeling inclined to say to this suspicious, truth-
loving gentleman, "Pray, your worship, would you have
me think all that nonsense which you nightly amuse or
terrify me w^ith, and which at the time you take to be all
perfectly sensible, for gospel ? Tales of dead men talking,
and fishes flying, and men changed into cats, — and syllo-
gisms constructed in defiance of all your boasted logic ? —
If all this is a j^art of your one., I think the not me of honest
old Sense is just as trustworthy." To this taunt Reason
never made me any rational answer.
By the way, I have been amused when I have sometimes
seen the averments of most logical Skepticism that no g\'\-
dence could ever induce its well-j^oised judgment to believe
in a " miracle," when it has but to lay its head on its pil-
low, and in half an hour it will believe in a thousand
without any evidence at all ; thinks it is talking quite ra-
tionally with a dog, or believes that it is itself transfonned
into a winged monkey.
Such is a brief lucubration, my dear lad, on the " Prima
Philosophia," and like most on the same subject is nonsensi-
cal enough ; but if it at all more vividly imj^resses on you
the great lesson of giving to Reason only the things of
"ENCOMIUM ATHEISML" 489
Reason, and to Sense the things of Sense, — but above all,
to Faith the things of Faith ; and, in a word, to every con-
stituent of our nature, the ultimate f^icts of which it is
destined to certify us ; if it teaches the duty of resting in
these as ultimate facts, which must be accepted whether
we like it or not ; — the term and Hmit of all our philoso-
2)hy, because right or wrong, the only possible philosophy
must be restricted by them and constructed out of them :
if it shall prevent you from trying to make things incom-
mensurable coincide, — squaring the circle, — measuring a
curved surface by a straight rule, — trying the testimony of
Sense by Reason, or the intuitions of Reason by Sense, —
it may, I think, be as serviceable to you as many a more
l^rofound, and much darker, treatise on "x\bsolute Sci-
ence," and the relations of the one and the not me. Within
its proper province, no more suifer Reason to question
the information of Sense, than Sense to question the au-
thority of Reason ; and if Reason tells you that the
senses often deceive, tell Reason that it deceives just as
often, and deceives not only others but itself into the bar-
gain.
Your loving uncle,
E. E. n. G.
LETTER CIX.
TO THE SAME.
1851.
My dear Tom,
Courage ! If you choose to read a paper in your little
" Debating Society," of the kind you describe, for the ben-
efit of the three or four sucking Atheists you tell me it
contains, I am sure you may find plenty to say. If Erasmus
could write in " Praise of Folly," it may not be impo^ sible
490 THE GliEYSON LETTERS.
to pfinegyrizo Atheism — indeed it is a brancli of the very
same subject. There are plenty of topics for yonr irony,
and I do not care if I give you two or three brief hints.
For examj)le : — Atheists, I think, are unjustly accused
of liaving no '"''faith; " surely there is no class of men who
have so much. In the first plac-c : what transcendent fiiith
is required to receive any one of their hypotheses, all of
which seem so grotesque and ridiculous to the rest of the
world that not one out of a million can be got to believe
them, or even to believe that they believe them ! What
faith is required to believe that exquisite order is the pro-
duct of Chance ; or the exactly opposite hypothesis, that
unintelligent Necessity has imposed all-wise law ! What
faith to believe that men sprang from nothing — or have
been an eternal series ; or, if you dislike that, — that they
were " developed " out of monkeys, and all too without in-
telligence anywhere at all. It is easy for us unbelievers to
ridicule these things ; but who can estimate the faith neces-
sary to believe them ?
I consider that a still more transcendent exercise of faith
is implied in the very prosecution of the Atheist's enter-
prise. His efforts to convince men of his paradoxes — his
truly child-like exj^ectation of success, of a universal Athe-
istical millennium at last, — what a gigantic exercise of faith
is here ! All " induction " would go to prove the hopeless-
ness of his project, if any one fact vms ever estabhshed by
induction. Atheists appear, — one or two in an age or so, —
and when they do appear, the great bulk of mankind doubt
whether they ever have appeared ! The world is so little
disposed to listen to them — that it pretends to doubt
whether the Atheists are really what they affect to be;
nay, many doubt whether there can be, or ever was, such a
thing as an Atheist ; you must take your lantern and search
as diligently to find him as Diogenes his honest man. No
"ENCOMIUM ATHEISMI." 491
one affects to doubt whether there be such a thing as a
Theist — everybody knows there are millions of them ; but
as to the unlucky Atheist, his very existence, like that of
the Kraken, is a perpetual problem : and yet, faithful soul !
he does not doubt that all will at last become orthodox
Atheists. Seeing that it is so, what but a " Faith " beyond
that of the Syrophenician woman can inspire his hopes of
success ? Aj^art from that, and if he listened to Reason
only, he would argue that whether there be a God or not,
mankind have manifested such an all but uniform and
obstinate tendency to believe there is, that we may be as
sure as of any fact ever established by " induction " that he
unll always exhibit it ; that he will be always apt to extend
his inferences of design^ from the analogies of his own ac-
tions, to whatever is stamped with the same cliaTcicteristlcs
in the universe around him, rather than believe in the
Atheist's unintelligible " chance " or " necessity," or unin-
telligent and unintelligible anything else ! Any one, there-
fore, but an Atheist, " full of fliith," would give the thing
up as a bad job ; he would say, "It is hopeless to contend
against what I see is an incurable defect of my ' fortuitous '
or ' necessitated ' human idiot ; his ' cerebral development '
does not admit of the Teuth being established ; I shan't
Avaste my breath on the reprobate, nor ' cast my pearls be-
fore swine.' — Though there is no God, (that Zam privileged
to know very well,) yet I see that Chance or Necessity has
so bungled the matter, (as I might justly expect would be
the case,) tliat men will perversely believe in one ; right or
wrong in tlieir conclusion, (Z know them WTong,) yet such
is the constitution of their faculties that long experience
shows tliey must and will abide by it ; why should I make
the hopeless attempt to convert them ? " And surely for
the reason just assigned, if an Atheist were but as full of
" reason " as he is full of " faith," he ought cheerfully to
492 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
acquiesce in tins view, and say, " Could I expect it to be
otherwise ? or why not at least as well expect it so, as any
way ? If there be no intelligent Cause of all things, ought I
not rather to expect that men would think wrong on this sub-
ject than right ? — Why should I imagine that the blind
cause which has fashioned men, has constituted them rather
to see the great truth that there is no God than to be blind
to it ? Could I expect that Chance would not err, or that
blind Necessity should infallibly see its way ? Plague on
the universe ! It has so framed itself and man in it, that
man will rather believe that there is a Deity than the
contrary ! "
Now matters being thus hopeless, I say we might nat-
urally expect that an Atheist would quietly " put his candle
under his bushel," and oiot " let his light shine before men "
— regarding his " teaching " as vain, and his " faith " also
vain. Yet see the power of " Faith." Every age or so, you
get one solitary voice — sometimes perhaps two, " crying
in the wilderness," — a wilderness, truly, — and proclaiming
the advent of that better age when men will renounce all
their puerile ideas of Deity. Even under such desperate
circumstances, these faithful souls do not despair of tlie
universal conversion of the human race ! I j^rofess to you
I do not know anywhere such an instance of simple unrea-
soning belief. I am sure it may be said of such men — "Lo,
we have not found so great faith — no, not in Israel, nor
even among the Hottentots ! "
Another topic of panegyric is, I think, the great fecund-
ity of their theories. Atheists are too often represented as
just proj^ounding difficulties and leaving us in difficulties
still greater, while they will not readily commit themselves to
any positive theory of the universe. On the contrary, I am
disposed rather to wonder at the fertility of their hypotheses ;
for though, unluckily, very discordant, they are various
" ENCOMIUM ATHEISML" 493
enough in nil conscience. I am astounded at the ease with
whicli a universe can be constructed. If we may trust some
of these men, to originate a world is a mere bagatelle. Diffi-
cult ! Why, the Universe may have originated in any of a
dozen ways, excejyting only from Intelligent Power, or it may
never have originated at all ! The most exquisite and elabor-
ate appearances of design, and which stuj^id every-day people
think are most naturally accounted for in that humdrum
way, may be accounted for by anything rather than that.
What originality — what fertility of conception is here!
Some say that the universe sprang from a " fortuitous con-
course of eternal atoms," which having exhausted, in infin-
ite ages, infinite combinations, at last most opportunely
fell into the present form ; some, that it is the necessary
development of the "essential properties of eternal mat-
ter ; " one man tells ns that all " organic forms " and all
" organic life " are the result of the " plastic powers of
nature," whatever that may mean ; another says that man
is eternal ; — antecedent men and consequent babies — or
antecedent babies and consequent men forever ; though
whether babies first came from men, or men from babies,
must remain an " eternal " puzzle ; some say that neither is
true, but that man came from a monkey, millions of ages
ago, and a monkey from a tadpole millions of ages before
that, and a tadpole from — a particle of albumen and a
spark of electricity, — millions of ages before that ; and
these from a " fire-mist " — heaven knows, or rather does not
know, how many millions of ages before that, and that all
this may have been without any intelligence at all ! Some
say, with M. Comte, that all the appearances of " design "
are nothing in the world to surprise us, and do not at all
infer it ; they are nothing but the " conditions of being,"
without which things could not exist, and consequently
imply only that things are as they are^ for if they were 7iot
42
494 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
SO, tliey would not be — all which is surely as plain as the
nose on your iiice ; some say that birds got wings (nothing
easier) by the " appetency " to fly, and dogs stomachs by
the " aj3petency " to eat ; others, on the contrary, that dogs
got " appetency " to eat because the plastic powers had
given them stomachs, and birds the " appetency " to fly
because they had wings, — and which is first, " appetencies "
or " organs," " organs " or " appetencies," may be a doubt,
— but surely either will account for the phenomena ; some
say that the various orders of animated beings originated
in " prolific matter " running in " internal moulds " or
" matrices " (whatever that means); and if you ask why we
do not daily see new monsters, I suppose it must be said that
the said " matrices " were all long ago exhausted ; or, if
you ask why we do not at least see new individuals of ex-
isting species originated in this very obvious and natural
way by means of such a matrix, I suj^pose it must be said
that the original matrices are all broken to pieces ! Some
say that the true doctrine is very different, and that one
species has been developed out of another, and transmuted
into another by a necessary law ; that though no present
facts are in favor of such a theory, yet that is no reason why
you should not believe (and certainly as little reason why you
should) that such things may have happened fifty million
years ago ; and that you may even see a trifle or two of the
same kind, confirming this obvious hypothesis, if you only
live for thirty millions of years to come. Others there are
who tell us that the whole universe is an ideal thing; and
(• )nipressing the voluminous phenomenon into the one mind
that alone thinhs it into being, reduces everything to the
solitary *' ego," — of which pleasing theory there are at
least half a dozen, modifications. In these and manifold
other ways, has Atheism evinced its fertility of invention ;
and, instead of being upbraided for its barrenness and want
"ENCOMIUM ATHEISMI." 495
of originality, should rather be admired for the facility with
which it discovered (when poor common sense thouglit it
philosophy to assign an obvious and adequate cause of all
in Power and Intelligence) a dozen unthonght of methods
of doing the same thing, and proved by example as well as
precept that it can dispense with all intelligence, even its
own, in the manufacture of worlds !
But I consider the great triumph of Atheistical genius,
and the crowning glory of all its achievements, consists in
the ingenious logical securities, of various kinds, which it
has taken against the possibility of God's making Himself
hiiown; so that if there he a God, He, with all His omnip-
otence, cannot manifest Himself. " Xe plaisant Dieu que
voila!'^'' one may say with Pascal. First, it is shown that
He does not exist ; and then, if He does exist, that it is not
possible for him to prove to us that He does. What so
easy ? "I see," says the elder Atheist, *' so much confu-
sion and irregularity in the universe, that I cannot believe
that infinite intelligence and wisdom presides over it." " I
see," says a modern Atheist, "nothing in the universe but
the presence of uniform and necessary law ; — nothing arbi-
trary, and therefore no will, as M. Comte sublimely argues,
for will is essentially capricious y" — so that whatever comes
of it, you see the Atheist is safe. If he sees apparent con-
fusion^ it is a proof that there is no presiding Deity ; if he
sees law^ then, with M. Comte, it is a proof that there is no
originating will ! One says there is so much chance, that a
God is out of the question ; — another says that strict neces-
sity reigns over everything, and therefore excludes one. "I
see nothing," says another, " in all you call proofs of con-
trivance and design in the universe ; if there loere design,
it would leave such traces, but these are not its traces ;"
and for the same reasons he can argue in the same way, if
the apparent traces of design were a thousand fold as great
496 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
(if that be possible) as they are ; hence again the hapless
Deity cannot create such a world as can convince the Athe-
ist — cannot make Himself known. Once more ; — "If there
he an Infinite Being," says another, " a finite mind cannot
comprehend Him ; and if there be an infinite Spirit^ a mind
that receives its conceptions only through material symbols
can never come in contact with Him!" Thus God cannot
come out of His prison — for such it is — His prison of in-
finite and eternal essence ! Who but must admire the ways
in which Atheism can not only prove that there is no God,
but that if there be one — it comes to exactly the same thing,
for he can never certify us of His existence ?
Yours truly,
E. E. IIo G,
LETTER ex.
TO THE SAME.
KOY. 12, 1851
My DEAR Tom,
Your last letter would have been most amusing, had not
the subject been so painful. Your description of your young
fellow-student's j^aradoxes is very racy, and shows that you
have talents far too good to be thrown away on Atheism.
Never did I see a more grotesque monster in logic than the
fright of a theory you have portrayed. As Stillingfleet said
of another theory — " It is like the bird of Athens, all face
and feathers ! "
However, you may thank him for conceding that though
the argument for a God from " Design " is, in his sage judg-
ment, " worthless," the infinite j^robability from induction^
— from the facts of past experience, — is, that the generality
of mankind will never see it to be such ; so that the Athe-
ist's "occupation" is "gone," or his work must be ever
NOTICE OF SOME ATPIEISTICAL SOPHISMS. 497
doing, never done ! Thus Atheists, though doubtless con-
stituting, according to his estimate, the intellectual Ulte^ the
aristocracy of humanity, must continue to be what they
ever have been, a very minute fraction of the s^^ecies. I
shall not expatiate on the modesty of the suj^position, that
he, at the age of twenty, or thereabouts, has already climbed
up to that peerage of wisdom ; nor at the compliment which
he pays the vast majority of mankind whom he thus dooms
to be plebeian Theists. It is sufficient to have the consola-
tion of knowing that his cause is hopeless; that so far as
we yet know, or have any ground to surmise, — the Truth,
if he have it, cannot be established, and that our Philosophy
and Theology, being necessarily the result of the constitu-
tion of man (whether God or chance originated that con-
stitution,) will still contend for the dogma he denies; so
that if there be no God, God will still be acknowledged and
worshipped. Impotent indeed must he and the Atheists be,
since they cannot get rid of a — Nonentity !
But I could not help laughing outright at the magnani-
mous declaration, d la Hume, that though it be proved that
his "Truth" can never be established as long as human
nature remains what it is, — nay, though it were proved
that his " Truth " threatened the most pernicious and deso-
lating effects, — yet that " Truth " is " Truth," and he must
prize it above all things ! — that there is no " possession like
it " — that " Truth never in the end did anybody any harm"
— " that instinct tells him so !"
In his case, it must indeed be "Instinct," — for assuredly
it cannot be reason. Why, what a mere lump of cotton-
wool must this youth's brains be ! It is natural enough for
you or for me to indulge this presumption of the infinite
value of Truth ; but if notions of Truth and Error be sup-
posed the result of the imintelligent construction of our
7iature^ — that nature, moreover, being so constructed that
42*
498 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
the majority, it seems, will contimTe to cling to Error, and
not to Truth, — what possible reason can he have to suppose
Trutli to he such an invaluable possession ? Practically^ it
cannot be ; for it is monopolized, it appears, by half a dozen
Atheists in a corner ! According to his theory, nobody
constituted the laws of the understanding by which lie says
he receives "Truth;" and surely therefore it is an even
chance whether Truth or Error be the more valuable pos-
session of man, especially as only a few score can ever hope
to attain the former !
But every other absurdity dwindles beside his fantastical
argument that even if the argument from "Design" be
established to the full, it will not prove that God is — Infi-
nite ; and, therefore, is to go for little ! It will only prove,
he says, that God is capable of having " constructed such a
miiverse as this ! " That is, it will only l>ave proved that
He could foresee all the relations — devise all the expedients
— construct all the laws — necessary for the stable existence
of some few millions of millions of worlds! That He had
"power and wisdom" sufficient for this little business is
shown, — but the argument proves no more! Looking to
this petty world alone. He has been able to organize the
unspeakably diversified forms of animal and vegetable life,
• — an exhaustless variety of exquisite structures; He has
exactly calculated the relations of these to one another, and
to the tremendous physical laws with which they stand con-
nected; so exactly that though a very slight error might
have involved all in ruin, such error is excluded; — still —
still — the argument from design would 07ily prove, so our
aspiring young genius assures us, that the Deity is equal to
such trivial things as these; and that unless we can prove
his power and wisdom "absolutely infinite," it must all go
for nothing!
He must pardon me. I think that, practically^ nothing
NOTICE OF SOME ATHEISTICAL SOPHISMS. 499
in the world depends on such proof, in the estimate of
anybody who does not deserve to be strait-waistcoated
and shut up in Bedlam. For —
/ 1st. Supposing the argument (as this theory does)
from "Design" just and well founded " as far as it goes;"
that there is a God who is possessed of "Power and
Wisdom " to the extent in which He has displayed them
in His works, — which is indefinitely (to avoid our
Atheist's forbidden term, "infinitely") beyond our ade-
quate conception ; then, I maintain, that even if it were
^:)?'oy6(f, that these attributes, — as really beyond our ade-
quate conception as if they Avere infinite, — nevertheless
are not infinite; nothing, in the estimate of a rational
creature, would depend on it. Suppose, for example, the
Divine power and wisdom, capable, if you will, of being
expressed mathematically, by taking as a unit of i^ower
and Avisdom, Hercules and N'ewton combined; and that
the Divine power and wisdom are to this unit in the ratio
of 1000, raised to a poAver expressed by a decimal number
Avith as many ciphers as Avould reach from here to Saturn,
to 1, — Avould our relations to this tremendous Being be
in any conceivable Avay other than they are ? AYould He
not still be that Being " in Avliose hand our breath is, and
Avhose are all our Avays ? " Should we not, long before Ave
had reached a millionth part of the Avay toAvards a con-
ception of the meaning of that tremendous " decimal," find
all our faculties completely overwhelmed, and all traces of
distinction, except in mere Avords, betAveen "indefinite"
and " infinite," lost ? Should Ave not be compelled to say,
"This is not infinite, because I am told it has hounds —
but all idea of the hoio much has already A^anished be-
fore I have integrated the trecillionth of those limits?"
Woidd not such a God be entitled to our absolute rcA'-
erence, homage, Avorship, obedience, simply because, in fin-
500 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
ite or not, He would be wortliy of the uttermost all that
the fealty of such creatures as we are could express, even
though He were a million times less than I have suj^posed
Ilim ? Nay, if He were a million times less, should we
have faculties even to discern the difference ? Would He
not relatively to us be as absolutely incomprehensible as if
He icere infinite? But —
2dly. I remark, that since, for aught we know, a com-
prehension of all the relations of the constituents of an
actual universe like the present, may demand an exact
knowledge of all possible relations of every particle, how-
ever minute, to every other, and that through eternal
duration, this may involve the very infinitude which the
sophist disputes ; and, if so, the argument from " Design "
proves more than he imagines. It proves that the Divine
wisdom and knowledge at least may be, even in the
present manifestation of these attributes, not unlimited
merely, but infinite. But alas ! as before, long before we
had comjileted a millionth part of the computation, God
would have become practically infinite to us by our utter
incapacity of saying whether He was " infinitely " or " in-
definitely" endowed with knowledge and wisdom.
3dly. I must observe that even if God can create, or
ever has created, (if such a thing be possible, though I
confess it seems otherwise,) an infinite universe, so that if
we could but grasp it, there would lie before us an infinite
proof of an infinite God, our young logician, who thus
plays bo-peep with his "infinities," would be in just the
same condition as at j^i'esent ; for long before his concep-
tions had got half as far as the limits even of this visible
universe, they would be utterly confounded, and he would
be obliged to take the demanded proof for granted!
Whether the universe, thus looked at Avith his micro-
scopic eye, were infinite or not, would be still impossible
NOTICE OF SOME ATHEISTICAL SOPHISMS. 501
for liim to ascertain. If so, then, though the argument
from "Design " (in this case a just induction) would prove
God to he infinite, yet as the finite cannot comprehend
that infinite induction, the very proof would be incom-
prehensible to our Atheistical logician ; nay, he would be
compelled to say that he did not know he had got his
required proof even when he had it, and Avould be obliged
to stop short, as now, at what was " indefinite." That is,
our sophist would still have it to say that he could not
tell Avhether God was infinite or not !
4thly. Relatively to God, all our j)ossible conceptions
will be the same, whether God be " unlimited " or truly
" infinite ; " and that because, whether He be infinite or
not, the ratio of the Creator to us will be in efiect the same
as if He were infinite ; it will be so, if not from His abso-
lute greatness, yet from our relative littleness, and will be
expressed, if justly expressed at all, by the symbols by
which we denote our only possible conceptions of the
Infinite. The metaphysics of the Calculus may serve to
illustrate this matter. It teaches us that it is the ratio
between two quantities, not their absolute magnitude,
which determines their value, when we compare them;
and in this light, man becomes nothing^ — that is, may be
thrown aside as an "infinitesimal," long before we get to
the conception of such a Being as the Fabricator of the
Universe, — to say nothing of His being truly " infinite."
Relatively to such a Being, we are nothing, even if He be
not infinite ; and zero to unity must still exj^ress i)oor
little man's A^anishing sjmibol.
" Une parcelle de matiere magnetique," says Leibnitz,
when expounding his theory of infinitesimals, "qui passe
a travers du verre, n'est pas comparable avec un grain du
sable, ni ce grain avec le globe de la terrc, ni le globe avec
le firmament."
502 THE GllEYSON LETTERS.
Now wliat is tlie ratio of the " parcelle mfignetique " to
tlie entire universe? Such is man to Ilim who created
both; and. thus, as I have ah-eady said, our '•'• relations'''' to
Him are the same, whether He be Himself only unlimited
beyond our conceptions, or truly infinite, as you and I
believe Him to be. To iis^ the Being who created all
things, — conserves them, — can destroy them, — rules us,
— can annihilate us, — will judge us, — is God to us^
whether He be infinite or not.
5thly. If it be true that the argument from " Design "
must be " barren " unless it proves an infinite God, it fol-
lows that if God, though infinite, cannot create an infinite
imiverse, which to most intellects will not seem impos-
sible, (rather, the contrary will seem a contradiction,) then,
according to the ingenious reasoning of our Atheist, little
man would always have it in his power to say that it is
simply impossible that even Omnipotence, (let it struggle
as it will,) can ever evince itself by its works. The same
illustrious sophism would still frustrate the poor efibrts of
the Almighty; all His works, however His Omnipotence
may tax itself, — must be similarly "baiTcn." If a uni-
verse were created a million times as big, as beautiful, or
A'arious as that we behold ; or a third of a million times more
stu})endous than that, what then? "It is but limited
stili," the poor fiinte human i^article exclaims. — Tiiily, I
think man is ingenious in making capital out of his
poverty — his obscure notion of the "Infinite." It serves
him in excellent stead; he cannot comprehend the Infinite
— but, nevertheless, he can, by conjuring with the bare
word, overmaster and imprison the Infinite itself! Tlie
Infinite, so far from infinite, shrinks to nothing, and
cannot manifest itself! All that it does, however vast and
glorious, ]uust still \)q finite — and finite man can judge of
tliat^ and pronounce it altogether an insufiicient manifes-
NOTICES OF SOME ATIIiaSTICAL SOPHISMS. 503
tation of an Infinite Deity. So that here again, — as I
said in my last letter in reference to other Atheistical
arguments, — God is much to be pitied in conflict with the
superior astuteness of man ! I remarked, that if the indi-
cations of design in the universe do not prove a divine
artificer of it, the same may just as well be said of any
other marks of apparent wisdom in any other (and imag-
inably) greater works of God ; so that, as Paley justly
says, the Atheist must in effect afiirm that God cannot in
this way make His existence known at all. And now it
seems, by a similar refinement, even if it be granted that
the argument from d<?«ign he just as far as it goes, nothing
effectual is done unless it prove an Infinite God ; and as
there ca7i7iot be an infinite universe. His Omnipotence
cannot manifest Him at all. Truly, I think the Deity is
in evil case. Exist He may, but He cannot make His
existence known. Infinite He may be, but He cannot
manifest His infinitude. Omnijootent He may be, but
practically He is imjDotent.
The finite may form an obscure notion of the Infinite,
but can never comprehend it. Man knows, in the course
of the necessary evolution of thought, that the Infinite must
be, but the Infinite itself he cannot know ; for that would
be a contradiction. Let but the Atheist, therefore, make
his admission of a Deity depend on the apprehension of it,
and nothing can be more happy than his position. If he
were Infinite, he may urge, then he could grasp the Infinite,
and would see that God was such ; if he had no inkling of
the infinite, then he could not be troubled with any diffi-
culty as to whether God was infinite or not, and would say,
perhaps, that he was satisfied to worship a Maker of " all
things." But now, being finite, and yet having an " ob-
scure notion " of the Infinite, he cannot tell whether any-
thing corresponds to it or not : and therefore he must ever
504 THE GRKYSON LETTERS.
be in a happy dubiety whether there be an Infinite God or
not, and less than proof of tliis will not satisfy his convenient
scrupulosity ! What a treasure, my dear boy, especially
in these days, is an obscure idea ! For by it, the ingenious
Atheist, let the argument from " Design " be ever so
strong, can always grumble, since it can never prove an
Infinite God ; — and as for an " unlimited " God. — why
that is far too paltry a conclusion to satisfy Jiwi.
The proper answer to all this metaphysical folly is that I
have already given, that if there be a Creator of all things,
our relations to Ilim are not altered by these refinements.
I wish I could add that there had never been any Theists
who make a needless parade of these same refinements ;
and who, in truth, are little better than the Atheists' meta-
physical decoy-ducks ; — who are so wedded to some pedan-
tic a priori method of proof that they would sooner be
Atheists, than Theists by any other road than their own ;
sooner let the greatest of all truths perish than establish it
by any arguments but such as are, in their esteem, meta-
physically ortJiodox. If they, as they contend, have an
immediate " intuition " of the " Infinite," and an immediate
co?isciousness of an Infinite Being who corresponds to it,
— let them, as Locke says, " enjoy the benefit" of their
own perspicacity. I am sure that the very obscurest in-
timations, the merest inklings of the Infinite which our
consciousness, may give us, are well worth attending to ;
but seeing that so many doubt Avhether there are any
articulate utterances conveyed by such whispers of our
consciousness ; many more, who believe they are but vague
presumptions, — auxiliary to other proofs, but proving little
apart from them ; and many more to whom any arguments
derived from such sources are incomprehensible : — seeing,
on the other hand, that the argument from " Design " is
that which most strikes and has ever most struck mankind ;
BRIEF ANSWERS TO THREE QUERIES. 505
and lastly, that if it be admitted np to the full extent of
the inferences which such a universe as this affords, our
relations to the Creator are the same, whether He or His
work can be proved by us to be infinite, or not, I confess I
have not patience to hear the fantastical depreciations of
this class of proofs, in which some Theists indulge ; merely
because they think they can get to the same truth by a
darker and more intricate passage ! Sure I am that their
declamation, equally pompous and obscure, on this point,
tends to nothing but to confirm Atheists in their absurdity.
In conclusion, my dear youth, I would recommend you
to warn W. F. that if he ever meet with any Being who
has the millionth of a billionth of the power and wisdom
which (supposing the argument from design, valid) the
Creator and Governor of this universe must be endowed
with, he will do well not to stand disi:)uting with him as to
the extent and limits of his prerogatives. That Being may
not have the patience to listen to his metaphysical imperti-
nence, which, happily for him, his Gracious Maker has !
The philosopher was wise who would not dispute with the
master of thirty legions ; your friend will be still wiser not
to dispute with Him, who, however "limited," is the
Master of so many worlds.
Believe me.
Ever yours faithfully,
E. E. n. G.
LETTER CXCXI.
TO THE SAME.
1852.
My dear Tom,
I have but little time to-day, to reply to your three
queries ; but a few words will suffice.
43
506 THE GREYSON LETTERS
Your remarks on the defects of Paley's Ethical Theory,
(which, I was glad to see, never imposed upon you,) are
perfectly just. The greatest objection of all, however, you
do not touch ; I mean, that the utilitarian hypothesis can
by no means account for the peculiar conceptions and terms,
universal as thought and language, wdiich imply the ideas
of duty — the " ought " and the " ought not." Let an
action be ever so generally, ever so universally useful^ it
could never carry us beyond the notion of the^:>n«c7e?i^, and
the conception of duty would still have to be accounted
for. It is perfectly and uniformly 2;)rudent for us not to
receive base coin, just as it is perfectly and uniformly pru-
dent not to 2)ay our debts in it ; but we should think that
a man deserved to be hanged, who applied only the term
" prudent " to both. It is j^rudent, indeed, to guard against
being cheated, and not to cheat ; but no soj^histry can
make us feel that prudence is cdl that is involved in both
cases : yet if the utilitarian theory be true, ought w^e not
so to reason ? It is always prudent to eat when we are
hungry, and cdso always prudent not to put our hands into
our neighbor's pockets ; but the moral distinction between
these two perfectly prudent things is palj^able enough, and
no ingenuity can obliterate it ; yet if Paley's theory be
true, I see not how we can get beyond the idea of prudence
in either case, or how the peculiar and superinduced idea
of duty could ever originate.
Nothing in my judgment will account for it, except the
supposition that w^e are endowed with a " moral sense," or
with what is equivalent to it ; that is, either w ith a single
faculty, the province and ]3i'ei'ogative of which, is to gene-
rate the peculiar class of ideas signified by obligation and
duty ; or else a combination of powers, the action and inter-
action of which, in the course of our development, as infalli-
bly leads to these notions, as if we had a separate faculty.
BRIEF ANSWERS TO THREE QUERIES. 507
In the one case, conscience would be a distinct endowment
— in the other, a resultant of many forces ; but in either
case leading to the formation of those peculiar moral con-
ceptions for the existence of which we wish to accomit, and
for which Paley's theory does not account.
And here I would remark, that the theory of " con-
science," w^iether it be simple or complex, is not inconsist-
ent with those varieties of moral judgment in men which,
you observe, form so plausible an objection to this theory ;
for it is not inconsistent with our experience that the most
undoubted faculties of our nature may exhibit wide devia-
tions from their normal condition, — great irregularities
and varieties of action in different individuals of the race ;
and these, within the limits observed, may be accounted
for by custom, association, mal-instruction. But generic
conceptions cannot be accounted for, without the distinct
faculties adapted to form tliem, Avhether the conceptions
themselves be right or wrong. Thus tlie eye may see well
or ill, clearly or dimly ; but to see at all^ — to have the
conceptions of light and color, — implies the distinct faculty
of vision. Similarly, while, on the theory of a moral sense,
or something equivalent to it, we can account for its divari-
cations from a normal state, we cannot, by Paley's theory,
account for the very origination of the fundamental con-
ceptions of right and wrong. It can never carry us beyond
the idea of prudent or imprudent. Hence, phenomena of
human nature, as indisputable and universal as any other,
seem to me, on that theory, still to require a solution.
As to your second query, how far our modern Atheists
are justified in pleading Bacon's occasional invectives
against inferences from " final causes," as fortifying their
doubts of the validity of the " Argument from Design," I
answer, that if they would only read Bacon with candor,
they would feel that they were not justified at all. Noth-
508 THE GREYSON LETTERS.
mg can be plainer than that he did not mean to affirm, uni-
versally, that "arguments from final causes" must be
sophistical ; but merely that as they often rcere so, and
philosophers had been, in every age, but too apt to pre-
judge the results of an enlarged induction by their narrow
a iwiori concei">tions of the purpose of this or that, it well
became men of science to be perpetually on their guard
against such a source of fallacy. But he who said that " he
would sooner believe all the fables of the Talmud than that
this universal frame was without a mind " could not be the
idiot which some of our modern Atheists would make him ;
nor intend to imj^ly that inferences from "final causes" are
universally precarious. They are so very often, no doubt ;
and this, in laying down the very canons of all philosophiz-
ing, was quite sufiicient reason for Bacon's jealousy and
caution. If a lioness were to say to a lion, " My dear, what
can be the reason that those curious bipeds without hair or
feathers, which we find such peculiarly delicate eating,
whenever we can get hold of them, come into the world
without the rougher integuments which our j^rey in gen-
eral exhibit ? " — the lion might j^erhaps rej^ly, " It is noth-
ing, love, but a kindly provision of Providence ; man is a
delicacy sj^ecially j^rovided for us nobler creatures; our
mouths are not filled with bristles or feathers in eating
him. This was the 'final cause' why these two legged
creautures have such smooth skins." This, it is true, would
only ju'ove that the lion was a bad j^hilosopher ; though it
is much after the same wise manner that many philosophers
have argued from " final causes." But nevertheless, it does
not follow that he would be an equally foolish philosopher
who argued that if the "final cause" of the telescope is to
perform a certain jiurjiose, the eye, with its infinitely more
subtle and accurate adaptations to the same purpose, had
a similar " final cause." In other words, the argument from
UiilEF ANSWERS TO THREE QUERIES. 509
" final causes " may, like most things in the world, be used
well or ill ; and it is against its frequent ill use that Bacon
would guard us.
As to your third query. You ask how it is that while it
must be admitted as a fact that men almost universally
concur in the behef of a God, and that, if Induction can be
trusted at all, they always will, there sliould, yet be such
differences as to the most cogent modes of j^roving this
most cardinal of all trutlis ? and whether there ouscht to be
such various estimates formed of the validity of the differ-
ent lines of Theistic argument, since those who squabble
with each other as to the logic of this or that argument, yet
agree in the conclusion ? — I answer, that it is in exact
analogy with the condition of human nature in general, and
there is no more matter of surprise here than anywhere
else. All i\\Q facts which determine human belief and con-
duct, are less disputable than the theories of them. Nearly
everybody believes in a material world ; but what endless
disj^utes arise the moment we take the question into the
field of metaphysics ! Almost everybody believes in the
great facts of ethics ; yet perhaps you will hardly find five
hundred who perfectly agree in any one of the many
theories of them. Man is called, and justly, by Aristotle,
" a j^olitical animal " ^wov TroXtrtKov, but you would be trou-
bled, I fancy, to prove by any one line of argument, or any
one class of phenomena, the truth of the assertion ; cer-
tainly you would be troubled to prove that he had some
" one i^olitical faculty " which led him to construct social
and political organizations. You would rather dwell uj^on
a variety of phenomena in his nature, (some of which might
appear more important to this man, and others to that,) as
justifying the conclusion ; you would say that his uniform
" political " tendency was the resultant of a great number
of forces, the separate directions and magnitudes of which
510 THE G KEY SON LETTERS
it might be difficult to calculate. Meantime, this fact of
man's constitution remains the same, and nobody disputes
or doubts it. It is, I fancy, much the same mth the
Theistic argument ; the fact of man's general concurrence
in the belief of Deity is unshaken ; and, if we may trust in-
duction at all, ever will be so. God has so constituted
human nature, that the general result of the djeveloiDment
and interaction of all his powers and faculties is to bear
w^itness to him ; though the elements which constitute that
result may be too various to be comprised in one connected
chain of argument, or sometimes too subtle to be stated in
the forms of syllogism ; sometimes such as rather to be felt
than seen ; sometimes in a measure dependent for their
cogency on the modifications of the individual mind, so
as to be differently aj^preciated by different persons. Thus,
we find the argument at one time, fi'om "design," at an-
other, from " intuition," chiefly insisted on ; this man thinks
the " phenomena of conscience " form the most conclusive
proof; this man rests on irresistible " sentiment," without
troubling the intellect at all. Nay, these elements may
severally appear at different times, of various degrees of
cogency to the very same mind. Hence the folly, by the
way, of one class of Theists depreciating the lines of argu-
ment which are preferred by others. Meanwhile, the great
fact, as you say, remains the same, however men may
quarrel as to its theory, and so human nature in every age
will have it, — " That there is a God."
I am glad you have derived so much pleasure as well as
instruction from Whately's " Logic ; " but let me tell you
that his " Rhetoric," especially the chapters on Composition,
are equally worth your study. In these days in which the
obscure, nay, the unintelligible, both in philosophy and
])oetry, seems to many young minds so ridiculously, so fan-
tastically seductive, resolve on keei)ing thought and ex-
BRIEF ANSWERS TO THREE QUERIES, 511
pression clear, and study all such writers as may set you
an example of suj^eriority, to all the nonsense talked about
" perfect perspicuity " being inconsistent with " depth."
The greatest thinkers and writers the world lias yet seen
liave not been obscure ; they may give some trouble some-
times, but their meaning for the most j^art is plain enough,
and with a little extra diligence even their difficult passa-
ges become so. But the j^resent rage for obscurity is a
transient absurdity, which the next age will utterly des2:)ise.
If anybody then wants the current German philosoj^hy, and
much of our own, he will, for the most part, have to fah
for it.
Yours truly,
R. E. H. G.
THE END.
NOTES.
Pago 16. Post prand aim. After lunclieon.
" 18. Piece de resistance. A round of beef.
" 2.'3. EupTj/ca. I have found It
" " Cuisine. A kitchen.
" 26. AntiqucB vestigia Jiammce. Remains of the ancient flame
or fire.
" " Arcanum. A secret.
" " fxT] cuyav. Not too much.
" " Ne nimis. Not too much.
" " Juste milieu. The true mean.
" 27. Nesutor\hc]. Let not the shoemaker [go beyond his
last].
" " Empressement. Dignity.
" " Chef d'oeuvre, A masterpiece.
" 28. Experimentum gustus. Trial of tasting.
" « Cuisine. (See 25.)
" 29. Entrees. First course of dishes.
" " Entremets. Side dishes.
" 33. Via dolorosa. Dolorous way.
" 42. Ad cetJiera latum. Borne to the sky.
" 50. VoUa. Behold!
" " La pliilosophie De V Injini^ — C'es/, dans ces petits mots
tout compris. The pliilosophy of the Infinite, — it is all
comprised in these few words.
" 54. De Senectute. Concernino^ old ajje.
" 55. De Amicitid. Concerning friendship.
(513)
514 NOTES.
P. GO. Gout. Relish.
" Gl. Experto crede. Believe one wlio has had experience.
*' 71. Enfant jJerdu. A lost child.
" 72. Volla. (See 50.)
" 74. Bouleversement. Confusion. An overturn.
" 78. Ad ahsurdum. To an absurdity.
" 91. Naive. Ingenuous.
" 9 7. Ccpriccio. A freak.
" 98. Idola ti'ibus. Idols of the tribe.
" " Novum Organum. A new method of sclentlfc investiga-
tion.
" 100. Secundum artem. Skilfully.
" 102. Ei To7s fie^vaKO/xevois eKacTTrfS rjjx4pas
^AXyuv (Twefiaive rriv K^(paKi]V irph tov irieiv,
Tou 'aKpaTov tijxwv ou5e els eirii/ev &u '
Nvu 8e irpSTcpSu ye tov ttoi/ov t)]V T)5ovr]V
UpoAafifiduoyrei vcrTepovfxeu raya^ov.
If it were the case that the head of him who gets drunk
every day ached before drinking, no one -would drink
the strong intoxicating wine. But obtaining the pleas-
ure, as Ave now do, before the pain, we derive no bene-
fit from our experience.
" lOG. Tofo ccelo. Heaven-wide.
" 112. Ohulus. A Greek coin of about the value of 3i cents.
" 115. Denouement. The unravelling or discovery of a plot.
*' 117. In jji'ofujidis. In deep trouble.
" 119. Les vieillards sont dangereux. Old men are troublesome.
" 136. Coup de main. A bold stroke.
" 146. Ultima Thule. The utmost stretch or boundary. TJnde
was the name given, in early history, to the northern-
most part of the habitable world.
'" 152. A fortiori. Much more.
" 154. Proho meliora. I approve the better.
" 156. Honi soit [&c]. Evil to him [who evil thinks].
" 168. Denouement. (See 115.)
" 1 70. Piece de resistance. (See 18.)
" 1 78. Aura. Breath of air.
p.
185.
li
190.
a
200.
i(
201.
(4
202.
u
203.
ii
208.
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209.
a
211.
u
214.
li
IL
a
222.
u
223.
((
225.
((
u
((
230.
a
241.
u
a
u
242.
a
247.
a
252.
u
253.
i(
255.
a
li
a
261.
li
2G9.
li
a
11
278.
11
280.
li
281.
li
287
NOTES. 515
P«r excellence. Eminently, or by Wiiy of eminence.
Experimentu-m Jiat in corpore v'di. Let the criminal suf-
fer the consequence of his crime.
Faux pas. A false step-
Sang froid. Indifference.
Badinage. Sport. Pleasantry.
Toto ccelo. (See 106.)
A p)riori. From cause to effect.
irpcoTou TpevSos. TIic fundamental error.
Ignis fatuus. A will o' wisp.
Meum. Mine.
Tiium. Thine.
MacJiina. An instrument.
Soi-disant. Pretended.
Pro re natd. For the particular case.
CalUda junctura. Skilful joinings.
Soi-disant. (See 223.)
Per se. By itself.
Quid pro quo. Value for value.
Brochure. A pamphlet.
Momenta. Elements.
A la mode. In the manner of.
Ex jjost facto. After the fact.
Quod aut ratione justce necessitatis aut intentione pia;
uiilitaiis caret. Which is not absolutely necessary or
has a religious use.
Quod sine utilitate et loquentis decitur et audientis. "Which
profits neither speaker nor hearer.
Kevov priixa. 'Prjiia apyov. An empty word. An idle word.
En masse. In a mass.
Instar omnium. An example for all.
Minimum. Smallest.
Je ne sais p)as. I do n't know.
Les gentilsliommes les plus polis dans tout le monde. The
most polite gentlemen in all the world.
Virtuoso. One skilled in the fine arts.
In jietto. In secret.
a u
li
289,
((
301,
((
((
a
u
a
302,
((
303,
u
30G,
OIG NOTES.
P. 288. Horesco ref evens. I shudder at the recollection.
Ahsit omen. May the sign fail.
289. Delectant domi, non impediunt /oris, pernoctant nohiscum,
peregrinanturj rusticantur. They delight us at home,
they do not hinder us abroad, they spend the night
■with us, they travel with us, they dweU with us in
retirement.
Impedimenta. Baggage.
VoiVa. (See 50.)
Quasi. As if, (used before English words to express
resemblance.)
Similia similibiis curantur. Like cures like.
Non causa pro causa. The false for the real reason
Viaticum. Provisions for a journey.
De non apparentihus et non existentibus eadem est ratio.
What does not appear is as if it did not exist.
" 307. Vixerunt fortes ante Agamemnona. Brave men lived
before Agamemnon.
" 311. Non causa pro causa. (See 302.)
" 312. Vis medicatrix. The healing power.
" 313. Natures minister. Minister of nature.
" 314. Similia similihus curantur. (See 301.)
" 316. Non tali auxilio. Not with such aid.
" 320. Furor mesmericus. Mesmeric enthusiasm.
" 323. Tud pace. By your favor.
" 325. En rapport. In communication.
" " Populus vult decipi et decipietur. The people wish to be
deceived and are deceived.
" 328. Quid nunc. A news-monger.
" " Proh pudor ! O shame !
" 330. Post mortem. After death.
" " Ante mortem. Before death.
" 331. Contre temp)S. An unlucky occurrence.
" 334. Hoec olim meminisse juvahit. These things it will please
us to remember hereafter.
" 337. Hcec olim meminisse juvahit. (See 334.)
" 339. De trop. Too much.
i(
(i ((
NOTES. 517
r. 339. Broclmre. (See 242.)
" " Melange. A miscellany.
" 341. Placebo. Conciliatory message — literally, I shall please.
" " Badinage. (See 202.)
" 344. Sang-froid. (See 201.)
347. Quis custodiet i2)Sos custodes? "Who will keep the keepers
themselves ?
348. Casus belli. Cause of war.
Cedant arma togce. Let arms yield to the toga, or the
military to the civil power.
349. Esprit de corps. The common spirit or disposition formed
by men in association.
Vidi — et victus vici. I saw — and defeated, conquered.
Crepusculum. Twilight.
At Se fi4\Ti(rTai x^/vxal iiavr^vovraL raura ovtcos exetj/. The
noblest minds presage that these things are so; i. e., have
a presentiment of immortality.
In foro conscieniice. At the bar of conscience.
Quasi. (See 301.)
Alfresco. In coolness.
Incunabula gentis nostrce. The cradle or origin of our
nation.
Quondam. Former.
En rapport. (See 325.)
Table d' hote. A common table for guests at a French
hotel.
" 388. On pilla, on se gorgea de butin ; tout le monde se crut
lieureux jusqu' a ce que le jour ayant paru, les deux,
villes connurent leur meprise. They pillaged, they
gorged themselves with plunder ; everybody was happy
until, when daylight appeared, the two cities found out
their mistake.
" 395. Roue. A debauchee.
" 396. Ergo. Therefore.
" 397. Cid de sac. an alley with no exit, i. e. a trap.
" 404. Badinage. (See 202.)
" 406. Habitat. Dwelling place.
44
((
351.
((
353,
u
353.
((
362,
((
364,
((
365.
((
371,
((
374,
u
385,
u
387,
018 NOTES.
Ojjcra omnia. Complete works.
Hortus siccus. A botanical collection of dried specimens.
Eya77eAtoj/. The gospel.
Perdu. Hidden.
De 11011 apparentihus et non existentibus eadem est ratio.
(See 306.)
Secundum artem. (See 100.)
Eclaircissements. Explanations.
Ad libitum. At pleasure.
Totidem verbis. In so many words.
Per saltum. By a leap.
Per solium. (See 478.)
Per scalas et gradatim. By steps and gradually.
Per saltum. (See 478.)
Idolum tribus. An idol of the tribe.
Rationale. Philosophical statement.
Point d' appui. Point of support. (A military phrase.)
Ego. I. Myself.
Le jilcbisant Dieu que voila. An agreeable God is such
an one.
A la. According to.
Elite. Nobility.
501. Une jmixelle de matiere magnetique, qui passe a travers
du verre, n'est pas comimrable avec un grain du sable^
ni ce grain avec le globe de la terre^ ni le globe avec le
firmament. A particle of magnetic matter which passes
through glass cannot be compared with sand, nor this
grain with the globe of the earth, nor the globe with
the firmanent.
p
.413.
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428.
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431.
u
438.
((
u
u
440.
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472.
a
475.
u
478.
u
480.
li
u
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481.
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482.
<4
483.
u
494.
u
495.
(i
497.
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