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第8章

man and superman-第8章

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expressed by Bunyan in the terms of a tinker's theology; is what
Nietzsche has expressed in terms of post…Darwinian;
post…Schopenhaurian philosophy; Wagner in terms of polytheistic
mythology; and Ibsen in terms of mid…XIX century Parisian
dramaturgy。 Nothing is new in these matters except their
novelties: for instance; it is a novelty to call Justification by
Faith 〃Wille;〃 and Justification by Works 〃Vorstellung。〃 The sole
use of the novelty is that you and I buy and read Schopenhaur's
treatise on Will and Representation when we should not dream of
buying a set of sermons on Faith versus Works。 At bottom the
controversy is the same; and the dramatic results are the same。
Bunyan makes no attempt to present his pilgrims as more sensible
or better conducted than Mr Worldly Wiseman。 Mr W。 W。's worst
enemies; as Mr Embezzler; Mr Never…go…to…Church…on…Sunday; Mr Bad
Form; Mr Murderer; Mr Burglar; Mr Co…respondent; Mr Blackmailer;
Mr Cad; Mr Drunkard; Mr Labor Agitator and so forth; can read the
Pilgrim's Progress without finding a word said against them;
whereas the respectable people who snub them and put them in
prison; such as Mr W。W。 himself and his young friend Civility;
Formalist and Hypocrisy; Wildhead; Inconsiderate; and Pragmatick
(who were clearly young university men of good family and high
feeding); that brisk lad Ignorance; Talkative; By…Ends of
Fairspeech and his mother…in…law Lady Feigning; and other
reputable gentlemen and citizens; catch it very severely。 Even
Little Faith; though he gets to heaven at last; is given to
understand that it served him right to be mobbed by the brothers
Faint Heart; Mistrust; and Guilt; all three recognized members of
respectable society and veritable pillars of the law。 The whole
allegory is a consistent attack on morality and respectability;
without a word that one can remember against vice and crime。
Exactly what is complained of in Nietzsche and Ibsen; is it not?
And also exactly what would be complained of in all the
literature which is great enough and old enough to have attained
canonical rank; officially or unofficially; were it not that
books are admitted to the canon by a compact which confesses
their greatness in consideration of abrogating their meaning; so
that the reverend rector can agree with the prophet Micah as to
his inspired style without being committed to any complicity in
Micah's furiously Radical opinions。 Why; even I; as I force
myself; pen in hand; into recognition and civility; find all the
force of my onslaught destroyed by a simple policy of
non…resistance。 In vain do I redouble the violence of the
language in which I proclaim my heterodoxies。 I rail at the
theistic credulity of Voltaire; the amoristic superstition of
Shelley; the revival of tribal soothsaying and idolatrous rites
which Huxley called Science and mistook for an advance on the
Pentateuch; no less than at the welter of ecclesiastical and
professional humbug which saves the face of the stupid system of
violence and robbery which we call Law and Industry。 Even
atheists reproach me with infidelity and anarchists with nihilism
because I cannot endure their moral tirades。 And yet; instead of
exclaiming 〃Send this inconceivable Satanist to the stake;〃 the
respectable newspapers pith me by announcing 〃another book by
this brilliant and thoughtful writer。〃 And the ordinary citizen;
knowing that an author who is well spoken of by a respectable
newspaper must be all right; reads me; as he reads Micah; with
undisturbed edification from his own point of view。 It is
narrated that in the eighteenseventies an old lady; a very devout
Methodist; moved from Colchester to a house in the neighborhood
of the City Road; in London; where; mistaking the Hall of Science
for a chapel; she sat at the feet of Charles Bradlaugh for many
years; entranced by his eloquence; without questioning his
orthodoxy or moulting a feather of her faith。 I fear I small be
defrauded of my just martyrdom in the same way。

However; I am digressing; as a man with a grievance always does。
And after all; the main thing in determining the artistic quality
of a book is not the opinions it propagates; but the fact that
the writer has opinions。 The old lady from Colchester was right
to sun her simple soul in the energetic radiance of Bradlaugh's
genuine beliefs and disbeliefs rather than in the chill of such
mere painting of light and heat as elocution and convention can
achieve。 My contempt for belles lettres; and for amateurs who
become the heroes of the fanciers of literary virtuosity; is not
founded on any illusion of mind as to the permanence of those
forms of thought (call them opinions) by which I strive to
communicate my bent to my fellows。 To younger men they are
already outmoded; for though they have no more lost their logic
than an eighteenth century pastel has lost its drawing or its
color; yet; like the pastel; they grow indefinably shabby; and
will grow shabbier until they cease to count at all; when my
books will either perish; or; if the world is still poor enough
to want them; will have to stand; with Bunyan's; by quite
amorphous qualities of temper and energy。 With this conviction I
cannot be a bellettrist。 No doubt I must recognize; as even the
Ancient Mariner did; that I must tell my story entertainingly if
I am to hold the wedding guest spellbound in spite of the siren
sounds of the loud bassoon。 But 〃for art's sake〃 alone I would
not face the toil of writing a single sentence。 I know that there
are men who; having nothing to say and nothing to write; are
nevertheless so in love with oratory and with literature that
they keep desperately repeating as much as they can understand of
what others have said or written aforetime。 I know that the
leisurely tricks which their want of conviction leaves them free
to play with the diluted and misapprehended message supply them
with a pleasant parlor game which they call style。 I can pity
their dotage and even sympathize with their fancy。 But a true
original style is never achieved for its own sake: a man may pay
from a shilling to a guinea; according to his means; to see;
hear; or read another man's act of genius; but he will not pay
with his whole life and soul to become a mere virtuoso in
literature; exhibiting an accomplishment which will not even make
money for him; like fiddle playing。 Effectiveness of assertion is
the Alpha and Omega of style。 He who has nothing to assert has no
style and can have none: he who has something to assert will go
as far in power of style as its momentousness and his conviction
will carry him。 Disprove his assertion after it is made; yet its
style remains。 Darwin has no more destroyed the style of Job nor
of Handel than Martin Luther destroyed the style of Giotto。 All
the assertions get disproved sooner or later; and so we find the
world full of a magnificent debris of artistic fossils; with the
matter…of…fact credibility gone clean out of them; but the form
still splendid。 And that is why the old masters play the deuce
with our mere susceptibles。 Your Royal Academician thinks he can
get the style of Giotto without Giotto's beliefs; and correct his
perspective into the bargain。 Your man of letters thinks he can
get Bunyan's or Shakespear's style without Bunyan's conviction or
Shakespear's apprehension; especially if he takes care not to
split his infinitives。 And so with your Doctors of Music; who;
with their collections of discords duly prepared and resolved or
retarded or anticipated in the manner of the great composers;
think they can learn the art of Palestrina from Cherubim's
treatise。 All this academic art is far worse than the trade in
sham antique furniture; for the man who sells me an oaken chest
which he swears was made in the XIII century; though as a matter
of fact he made it himself only yesterday; at least does not
pretend that there are any modern ideas in it; whereas your
academic copier of fossils offers them to you as the latest
outpouring of the human spirit; and; worst of all; kidnaps young
people as pupils and persuades them that his limitations are
rules; his observances dexterities; his timidities good taste;

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