登陆注册
4619900000042

第42章

All the greatness of the man comes out decisively here. It is unexampled, I think, that calm creative perspicacity of Shakspeare. The thing he looks at reveals not this or that face of it, but its inmost heart, and generic secret: it dissolves itself as in light before him, so that he discerns the perfect structure of it. Creative, we said: poetic creation, what is this too but _seeing_ the thing sufficiently? The _word_ that will describe the thing, follows of itself from such clear intense sight of the thing. And is not Shakspeare's _morality_, his valor, candor, tolerance, truthfulness; his whole victorious strength and greatness, which can triumph over such obstructions, visible there too? Great as the world. No _twisted_, poor convex-concave mirror, reflecting all objects with its own convexities and concavities; a perfectly _level_ mirror;--that is to say withal, if we will understand it, a man justly related to all things and men, a good man. It is truly a lordly spectacle how this great soul takes in all kinds of men and objects, a Falstaff, an Othello, a Juliet, a Coriolanus; sets them all forth to us in their round completeness; loving, just, the equal brother of all. _Novum Organum_, and all the intellect you will find in Bacon, is of a quite secondary order; earthy, material, poor in comparison with this. Among modern men, one finds, in strictness, almost nothing of the same rank. Goethe alone, since the days of Shakspeare, reminds me of it. Of him too you say that he _saw_ the object;you may say what he himself says of Shakspeare: "His characters are like watches with dial-plates of transparent crystal; they show you the hour like others, and the inward mechanism also is all visible."The seeing eye! It is this that discloses the inner harmony of things;what Nature meant, what musical idea Nature has wrapped up in these often rough embodiments. Something she did mean. To the seeing eye that something were discernible. Are they base, miserable things? You can laugh over them, you can weep over them; you can in some way or other genially relate yourself to them;--you can, at lowest, hold your peace about them, turn away your own and others' face from them, till the hour come for practically exterminating and extinguishing them! At bottom, it is the Poet's first gift, as it is all men's, that he have intellect enough. He will be a Poet if he have: a Poet in word; or failing that, perhaps still better, a Poet in act. Whether he write at all; and if so, whether in prose or in verse, will depend on accidents: who knows on what extremely trivial accidents,--perhaps on his having had a singing-master, on his being taught to sing in his boyhood! But the faculty which enables him to discern the inner heart of things, and the harmony that dwells there (for whatsoever exists has a harmony in the heart of it, or it would not hold together and exist), is not the result of habits or accidents, but the gift of Nature herself; the primary outfit for a Heroic Man in what sort soever. To the Poet, as to every other, we say first of all, _See_. If you cannot do that, it is of no use to keep stringing rhymes together, jingling sensibilities against each other, and _name_ yourself a Poet;there is no hope for you. If you can, there is, in prose or verse, in action or speculation, all manner of hope. The crabbed old Schoolmaster used to ask, when they brought him a new pupil, "But are ye sure he's _not a dunce_?" Why, really one might ask the same thing, in regard to every man proposed for whatsoever function; and consider it as the one inquiry needful: Are ye sure he's not a dunce? There is, in this world, no other entirely fatal person.

For, in fact, I say the degree of vision that dwells in a man is a correct measure of the man. If called to define Shakspeare's faculty, I should say superiority of Intellect, and think I had included all under that. What indeed are faculties? We talk of faculties as if they were distinct, things separable; as if a man had intellect, imagination, fancy, &c., as he has hands, feet and arms. That is a capital error. Then again, we hear of a man's "intellectual nature," and of his "moral nature," as if these again were divisible, and existed apart. Necessities of language do perhaps prescribe such forms of utterance; we must speak, I am aware, in that way, if we are to speak at all. But words ought not to harden into things for us. It seems to me, our apprehension of this matter is, for most part, radically falsified thereby. We ought to know withal, and to keep forever in mind, that these divisions are at bottom but _names_; that man's spiritual nature, the vital Force which dwells in him, is essentially one and indivisible; that what we call imagination, fancy, understanding, and so forth, are but different figures of the same Power of Insight, all indissolubly connected with each other, physiognomically related; that if we knew one of them, we might know all of them. Morality itself, what we call the moral quality of a man, what is this but another _side_ of the one vital Force whereby he is and works? All that a man does is physiognomical of him. You may see how a man would fight, by the way in which he sings;his courage, or want of courage, is visible in the word he utters, in the opinion he has formed, no less than in the stroke he strikes. He is _one_;and preaches the same Self abroad in all these ways.

同类推荐
  • 圣箭堂述古

    圣箭堂述古

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 太上导引三光宝真妙经

    太上导引三光宝真妙经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 难三

    难三

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 五分比丘尼戒本

    五分比丘尼戒本

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 庐山莲宗宝鉴

    庐山莲宗宝鉴

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 重生校园:恶魔校草,太腹黑

    重生校园:恶魔校草,太腹黑

    第一世,她本是嚣张跋扈的高傲千金,却被亲人陷害,失去了所有,背负了所有的骂名最后走投无路只得一死。殊不知死后重生,重生一次后再重生!苏晚昕:这次我不会再相信别人了,老公?我可以不要,钱不可以不要!某男主:你再说一次嗯?苏晚昕:钱..钱可以不要,老公一定要...!某男主:爷爷说想抱孙子了。苏晚昕:…拜拜了您咧!少爷,少夫人又又又逃婚啦!!千金逆袭路艰险,恶魔前夫莫挡道。
  • 苏丝黄的世界

    苏丝黄的世界

    Susie wong(苏丝黄)这个笔名和1960年那部美国烂片没有关系。它只是一时心血来潮时的随口一说,和这个专栏的诞生一样匆忙草率。当时,我醉心于让自己的名字填满整个报纸,从第一版到最后一版。而且最后一版编辑们是那么纵容和善良,不仅忍受我的涂鸦,而且在我的再三恳求下,尽可能地在生活上教我腐化堕落。
  • 告诉木瓜我爱她

    告诉木瓜我爱她

    【Lucky.四叶草】【百叶葵°家族】简木希,样貌和脑子成反比,凭着狗屎运逆天的考进了A大,亮瞎了众人的眼,大家齐日:“原来硬币也是可以竖着站立的——”自此,A大的文学系终于摆脱了恐龙屋的奇名。安大少,A大有名的“歪才”,要说,在大家的意识里,脑子好使的人一般都是恐龙或青蛙,外貌优质的人,一般都是不学无术。这安大少偏偏要逆天而行,脑子灵光也就算了,偏偏还就长了一张倾倒众生的脸。这让本就阳盛阴衰的A大的男生能不羡慕嫉妒恨吗?可是,我们大神级的安大少也有吃瘪的一天?看到被木瓜脑子天使面孔的简木希牵着鼻子走的安大少,众同学笑了:“呵,原来这就是简木希坑爹考进A大的原因。拐走妖孽,拯救众生……”简介无能,还望给安大少个面子,看看正文吧!
  • 全能召唤师:废柴小小姐

    全能召唤师:废柴小小姐

    成亲当日,各路叱咤风云的英雄豪杰汇聚,来却不为祝福,只为抢新娘。他精通占卜星相、五行八卦等异术,羽扇轻摇,邪气入骨:“昨日夜观天象,惊得北斗南移,紫微星暗淡,大凶之兆,掐指一算方得知,你命里缺我不行。”他以医术闻名于世,白衣翩然:“救人救了这么多年,我想试着救一次心,终生大事,我才应是你心之所向。”他为复仇而生,冷漠孤高:“我这一生争名夺利都是为国、为家、为子民,从未为过自己,这次我想为自己争一争,跟我走,我许你一世安好。”“你们够了。”他终于忍无可忍,红衣黑发,美到妖孽:“要么滚,要么死,妄想带走我妻子。”她与他十指紧扣,望着抢婚的众人,美艳绝伦的一笑:“抢婚,在这个世界很流行吗?”
  • 汝河笔记

    汝河笔记

    不久,李大君在村里办了一个阅览室,订了十来份报纸,又订了十来种杂志。他带回的书,很多都发黄了,是他多年前读过的书。来阅览室人并不多,来了,也就看几眼便走。李大君每天都坐在那里,有时看一本书,有时什么也不看,安静得像入定的老僧。村里人还发现,李大君还保持着小时候的一个习惯,喜欢在月光下散步,嘴里自言自语。李天宇的儿子读高中了,和爷爷最有话头,有时候还会争得脸红脖子粗。李天宇问,“你和爷爷都说点什么呀?”儿子说,“我们讨论国家大事,你不懂的。”李天宇哼了一声,说,“都活到这个年龄了,还在操心不着边际的事,真是榆木脑袋。”
  • 山区最后一班列车

    山区最后一班列车

    不是梦想,不是岁月,只为自己的那份执着,守护自己的家乡,为了最后的回忆。
  • 妃常难追:妖孽王爷悠着点

    妃常难追:妖孽王爷悠着点

    她本即墨王朝的嫡公主,却因天生废柴,累母被贬,姓氏被褫,幽居冷宫备受欺凌。她是“幻影”组织唯一的白金级杀手,却在退出前夕惨遭背叛,中枪坠崖。当她成了她,又会在这个世界掀起怎样的波澜?炼丹炼器,修灵驭兽,一不小心被一枚吃货缠上,居然还招惹了一个妖孽未婚夫……那啥,其实人家才十三,还小啦……【情节虚构,请勿模仿】
  • 明珠缘

    明珠缘

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 首席的无赖契约(结局)

    首席的无赖契约(结局)

    他对她说:如果你的脾气可以改一改,再倒贴点钱的话,说不定这辈子还能嫁出去。她说:就算我这辈子都嫁不出去,我都不会嫁给你这种男人。”他说:我还真怕你哭着喊着要嫁给我。”她说:做为男人,还是应该有点修养的好,一点修养都没有的话,恐怕这辈子都会娶不到老婆!他说:就算这辈子我都娶不到老婆,我都不会娶你这样的女人做老婆。”老爸滥赌成性,欠下巨额高利贷她回到家里,不料,家被洗劫一空,高利贷扬言,还不清欠款,拿人抵押`奶奶病危,唯一遗憾,未能见到未来的孙媳。只是此时,谈了三年的女友,却离他而去!他决定巨额寻找一女假装自己未婚妻,无奈夜深人稀,医院里全是老弱病残妇女,正百无计策,他遇到了她……
  • 海贼之四海为家

    海贼之四海为家

    可怜悲催的江一川被炸得尸骨无存,但当睁开眼,发现自己又穿越了,这次是从三次元的末世地球穿越到了二次元的海贼王世界,江一川突然觉得自己真是2!带着深深的遗憾,江一川决定重新开始,于是化名为丹·杰乐思,要在海贼王世界里叱咤风云,纵横四海!嗯,先定一个小目标:升到60级,赚够60亿!当海贼?滚,不做贼!当海军?滚,不为奴!当义军?滚,不当灰!想怎样?额,不知道!(欲想了解悲催男江一川,请看前传《穿越之末世挽歌》)