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folly of reckless talk: it shows that the happiest men are those who know a little of many things and no one thing perfectly: Hearn tries to prove to the Japanese that the modern Englishman bases his whole code of life on this philosophy: his distrust of book-learning, his dislike of theories, his fortitude, his chivalry to women, his caution, his moderation, his sense of justice..." All European people regard the English as the most suspicious, the most reserved, the most unreceptive, the most unfriendly, the coldest-hearted, and the most domineering of all Western peoples. They speak highly of their qualities of energy, courage, honour, and justice, and acknowledge that the English character is especially well fitted for the struggle of life: it is the best social armour and panoply of war: it is not a lovable nor an amiable character: it is not even kindly. But it is grand, and its success has been the best proof of its value. great difference between English society and other societies is that the hardness of character is very much greater." But a study of the Havamal and of English society leads to thoughts on society in general and the warfare of man and man. "That is why thinkers, poets, philosophers in all ages have tried to find solitude, although the prizes of thought can only there be won. After all, whatever we may think about the cruelty and treachery of the social world, it does great things in the end. It quickens judgment, deepens intelligence, enforces the acquisition of selfcontrol, creates mental and moral strength, but it does not increase human happiness." "The truly wise man cannot be happy."

The

In an essay on "Beyond Man" he takes the opportunity of showing his contempt for Nietzsche: "undeveloped and ill-balanced thinking "is the phrase he adopts to sum up the Nietzschean philosophy.

His idea of the Beyond Man is something far nobler than Nietzsche's Superman. "Could a world exist," he asks, "in which the nature of all the inhabitants would be so moral that the mere idea of what is immoral could not exist ?" Look for a moment at ants. Their women have no sex: they are more than vestals: their soldiers are amazons: their males small and weak, suffered to become the bridegrooms of a night and then to die: this suppression of sex is not natural, but artificial: it is voluntary : by a systematic method of nourishment ants have found that they can suppress or develop sex as they please, It vanishes whenever unnecessary: when necessary, after a war or calamity, it is called into existence again. Ants have entirely got rid of the selfish impulse: even hunger and thirst allow of no selfish gratification. The entire life of the community is devoted to the common good and to mutual help and to the care of the young. They have no religion, no sense of duty: but their whole life is religion in the practical sense. They have a perfect community, in which no one thinks of property except as a state affair, no ambition, no jealousy, no selfishness. "Go to the ant, thou sluggard, consider her ways." The question that is raised is " Will man ever rise to something like the condition of ants ?"

There then follows a succession of essays that are peculiarly Japanese in arrangement: no English critic would ever think of grouping all the poetry about treespirits, all the poems about insects, birds, night, and so on in separate, self-contained lectures, but the result of this method is eminently satisfactory: Hearn lightly touches on and explains all the mythological legends like those of Itylus, Philomela, Procne, and Arachne, and shows how English poets have dwelt lovingly on nightingales, larks, swallows,

hamadryads, butterflies, dragon-flies, bees, grasshoppers, crickets, spiders, ants, May-flies, doves, cuckoos, larks, sea-gulls, hawks, and all the host of beautiful living things that fly and crawl about us. In this way he introduced scores of poems which he would otherwise not have been able to bring before the notice of his pupils, and these essays though long, well repay careful reading. His lectures close with a farewell address, in which he again implores the adolescent Japanese student, however busy he may be, to devote some portion of every day to the creation of literature. "Even if you should give only ten minutes a day, that will mean a great deal at the end of a year. I hope that if any of you really love literature you will remember my words and never think yourselves too busy to study a little, even though it may be only for ten or fifteen minutes a day."

It would be hard to over-estimate the enormous influence which such an inspiring teacher and idealistic interpreter exercised over the minds of those who heard him. To the growing English boy, with a leaning towards literature, I can think of no books which could be more useful, for Hearn not only shows us what to read, but what is far more difficult, how to set about reading: he gives us the incentive, and he attunes us to the right mood. To read great masters in the spirit of Hearn is to be uplifted to an astonishing degree he makes everything clear, he helps us to wrest the secret from out of the heart of even the most obscure: he removes completely the terror with which so many of us approach writers of the stamp of Berkeley and Locke; he makes us concentrate always on the ulterior meaning behind the mere music of poetry, and under his guidance we find a straight path to the heart of a writer and the soul of a people.

VI

SIR EDWARD COOK

N Literary Recreations Sir Edward Cook touches

IN

on a most important point in criticism when he states that one of the only reasons for a man daring to write a book about books is his desire or power of communicating to his readers the very sincere pleasure he has found in them himself. desire," he says, "is the sole reason for my undertaking so Herculean a task": his power is obvious from the first page of his book to the last.

"My

His first paper, on "The Art of Biography," teems with brilliant ideas. A good biographer must have, like Boswell, an instinct for what is interesting and characteristic, and know how to arrange, select, plan, and present. The rules to be observed are "Brevity and Relevance," to keep the man in the foreground, to make him stand out as a person from the background of event, action, and circumstance (which is why the best biographies are more often of men of letters than of men of action). A book which proclaims itself the Life and Times of Somebody is a hybrid, little likely to possess artistic merit as biography. The true biographer will similarly beware of Somebody and His Circle. His work is to be relevant to an individual.

Sir Edward Cook finds the conventional first chapter on Ancestry "as tiresome as the introduction to a Waverley novel." Researches into hereditary influences are too often a snare to the biographer;

he "tends to see significance in everything: characteristic carelessness if the hero drops his pipe: and characteristic carefulness if he picks it up again.” How much worse to trace back characteristics to ancestors! Another danger of irrelevance lurks in a Life and Letters. Again, the man who writes a biography full of irrelevant good things will have them picked out by others who will fit them into their proper places. He does but open a quarry. "He who writes with strict respect for the conditions of his art may carve a statue."

Next to Relevance come Selection and Arrangement it must be understood that not everything that is relevant can be included: it is, however, just as easy to err by leaving out as by putting in.

"To tell sacred' things aright requires the nicest tact, but to leave them altogether untold is to strip the biography of the things best worth telling. It is to turn the key on the heart of the subject."

Arrangement again calls for very great care. In the case of a full and varied life, the severely chronological method, consistently applied throughout, is almost certainly the worst. It becomes worse if letters, too, are given in mere chronological order. The object of the biographer is to produce an ordered impression, not the effect of a kaleidoscope. Again, he must be honest. Sir Edward Cook rightly finds fault with Dowden's Life of Shelley as savouring of a partiality passing the bounds of common sense. "The sugar-candied mood is as dangerous as the too candid."

A good subject is a sine qua non, but moral goodness is not in itself a sufficient recommendation. There are excellent biographies and autobiographies of rascals, and there are very dull books about saints. The

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