A Commonplace Book of Thoughts, Memories, and Fancies Part 9

In another place he says,-

"Talent lying in the understanding is often inherited; genius, being the action of reason and imagination, rarely or never."

There seems confusion here, for genius lies not in the amount of intellect-it is a quality of the intellect apart from quant.i.ty. And the distinction between talent and genius is definite. Talent combines and uses; genius combines and creates.

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Of Sara Coleridge, Mr. Kenyon said very truly and beautifully, "that like her father she had the controversial _intellect_ without the controversial _spirit_."

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81.

We all remember the famous _bon mot_ of Talleyrand. When seated between Madame de Stael and Madame Recamier, and pouring forth gallantry, first at the feet of one, then of the other, Madame de Stael suddenly asked him if she and Madame Recamier fell into the river, which of the two he would save first? "Madame," replied Talleyrand, "je crois que vous savez nager!" Now we will match this pretty _bon mot_ with one far prettier, and founded on it. Prince S., whom I knew formerly, was one day loitering on the banks of the Isar, in the English garden at Munich, by the side of the beautiful Madame de V., then the object of his devoted admiration. For a while he had been speaking to her of his mother, for whom, _vaurien_ as he was, he had ever shown the strongest filial love and respect. Afterwards, as they wandered on, he began to pour forth his soul to the lady of his love with all the eloquence of pa.s.sion. Suddenly she turned and said to him, "If your mother and myself were both to fall into this river, whom would you save first?" "My mother!" he instantly replied; and then, looking at her expressively, immediately added, "To save _you_ first would be as if I were to save _myself_ first!"

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82.

If we were not always bringing ourselves into comparison with others, we should know them better.

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83.

There are ways of governing every mind which lies within the circle described by our own; the only question is, whether the means required be such as we _can_ use? and if so, whether we shall think it right to do so?

You think I do not know you, or that I mistake you utterly, because I am actuated by the impulses of my own nature, rather than by my perception of the impulses of yours? It is not so.

If we would retain our own consistency, without which there is no moral strength, we must stand firm upon our own moral life.

"Be true unto thyself; And it shall follow as the night to day, Thou canst not then be false to any man."

But to be true to others as well as ourselves, is not merely to allow to them the same independence, but to sympathise with it. Unhappily here lies the chief difficulty. There are brains so large that they unconsciously swamp all individualities which come in contact or too near, and brains so small that they cannot take in the conception of any other individuality as a whole, only in part or parts. As in Religion, where there is a strong, sincere, definite faith, there is generally more or less intolerance; so in character, where there is strong individuality, self-a.s.surance, and defined principles of action, there is usually something hard and intolerant of the individuality of others.

In some characters we meet with, toleration is a principle of the reason, and intolerance a quality of the mind, and then the whole being strikes a discord.

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84.

If we can still love those who have made us suffer, we love them all the more. It is as if the principle, that conflict is a necessary law of progress, were applicable even to love. For there is no love like that which has roused up the intensest feelings of our nature,-revealed us to ourselves, like lightning suddenly disclosing an abyss,-yet has survived all the storm and tumult of such pa.s.sionate discord and all the terror of such a revelation.

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85.

F has much, much to learn! Through power, through pa.s.sion, through feeling we do much, but only through observation, reflection, and sympathy we learn much; hence it is that minds highly gifted often remain immature. Artist minds especially, so long as they live only or chiefly for their art, their faculties bent on creating or representing, remain immature on one side-the reasoning and reflecting side of the character.

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86.

Said a Frenchman of his adversary, "Il se croit superieur a moi de toute la hauteur de sa betise!" There is a mingled felicity, politeness, and acrimony, in this phrase quite untranslatable.

87.

It is a pity that we have no words to express the French distinction between _rever_ and _reva.s.ser_. The one implies meditation on a definite subject: the other the abandonment of the mind to vague discussion, aimless thoughts.

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88.

It seems to me that the conversation of the first converser in the world would _tire_ me, _pall_ on me at last, where I am not sure of the sincerity. Talk without truth is the hollow bra.s.s; talk without love is like the tinkling cymbal, and where it does not tinkle it gingles, and where it does not gingle, it jars.

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89.

There are few things more striking, more interesting to a thoughtful mind, than to trace through all the poetry, literature, and art of the Middle Ages that broad ever-present distinction between the practical and the contemplative life. This was, no doubt, suggested and kept in view by the one grand division of the whole social community into those who were devoted to the religious profession (an immense proportion of both s.e.xes) and those who were not. All through Dante, all through the productions of mediaeval art, we find this pervading idea; and we must understand it well and keep it in mind, or we shall never be able to apprehend the entire beauty and meaning of certain religious groups in sculpture and painting, and the significance of the characters introduced. Thus, in subjects from the Old Testament, Leah always represents the practical, Rachel, the contemplative life. In the New Testament, Martha and Mary figure in the same allegorical sense; and among the saints we always find St. Catharine and St. Clara patronising the religious and contemplative life, while St. Barbara and St. Ursula preside over the military or secular existence. It was a part, and a very important part, of that beautiful and expressive symbolism through which art in all its forms spoke to the popular mind.

For myself, I have the strongest admiration for the _practical_, but the strongest sympathy with the _contemplative_ life. I bow to Leah and to Martha, but my love is for Rachel and for Mary.

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90.

Bettina does not describe nature, she informs it, with her own life: she seems to live in the elements, to exist in the fire, the air, the water, like a sylph, a gnome, an elf; she does not contemplate nature, she _is_ nature; she is like the bird in the air, the fish in the sea, the squirrel in the wood. It is one thing to describe nature, and quite another unconsciously so to inform nature with a portion of our own life.

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91.

Joanna Baillie had a great admiration of Macaulay's Roman Ballads.

"But," said some one, "do you really account them as poetry?" She replied, "They _are_ poetry if the sounds of the trumpet be music!"

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