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The Solitudes of Nature and Of

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The Solitudes of Nature and Of THE GENIUS OF SOLITUDE. WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR. THE POETRY OF THE ORIENT. A Critical and Historical Introduction to Sanscrl!, Arabic, and Persian PoetTy. Illustrated by several hundreds of characteristic Specimen.. One volume. 16mo. Third Edition. Price,,, 1.75. A CRITICAL HISTORY OF THE DOCTRINE OF A FU· TU RE LIFE. With a Complete Bibliography of the Subject. This elaborate history of the opinions of the human race concerning the fate of the soul presents every portion of the great subjett with popular clearness. with thofoughness, and with impartiality. It fonns a royal octavo volume of nine hundred and fourteen pages. It includes an ACCOUNT OF THE LITERATURE OP THE SUBJECT, by EZRA ABBOT, which embraces a description of over five thou· sand and three bundred distinct works, carefully arranged in chronnlogical order, and furnished with an Alphabetical Index. Fourth Edition, Revised and Im­ proved. Price,,,+So. THE ~OLITUDES OF NATURE AND OF MAN-, OR, The Lonel£ness· of Human Life. WILLIAM ROUNSEVILLE ALGER. Hast du Begriff von Oed' und Einsamkeit ? GORTHS. BOSTON: ROBERTS BROTHERS. 1867. YL4& r \ I(;'-/~ ~~ EnLered according to Act of Congress, in the year ]866, by W. R. ALGER, in tho Clerk's Office of the District Lourt of the District of Massachusetts. THIRD RDITION. UNIVBRSITY PRRSS: WELCH, BIGELOW, & CO., CAMBRIDGE. TO JAMES MARTIN E AU, WHOSE GENEROUS HEART BRINGS HIM INTO iH'MPATHY WITH TilE MULTITUDE OF MEN FROM WIlOM illS LOFTY MIND WOULD ISOLATE HIM, THESE PAGES-ARE DEDICATED WITH REVERENCE AND GRATITUDE. PREFACE. -- THOSE who have the key for interpreting the signs of genuine thought and emotion will perceive that this book has sprung sincerely from the inmost life of the writer. His ambition has been to make it the Book of Solitude, whose readers may learn from it how at the same time to win the benefits and shun the evils of being alone. The subject - the conditions and in­ fluences of solitude in its various forms - is so largely concerned with disturbed feelings that it is difficult, in treating it, to keep free from everything unhealthy, ex­ cessive, or eccentric. In view of this, great pains have been taken to avoid every morbi<i _extravagance, and stay close by the standards of sanity, truth, and cheer­ fulness. For an· author ought not to dishearten, but to inspire his readers; not to exhale around them an infecting atmosphere of hates, griefs, and despairs, but to warm and strengthen them with his health, valor, and contentment. We grow old to trust and joy, and they become vapid. Doubt and sadness keep their fresh force, we are always young to them. They should, therefore, never be disseminated. In treating themes pertaining to the deepest emotions, the temptations to satire and to sentimentality are both strong; but for the exertion of a sound influence those temptations should be resisted. Faith, direct sincerity, undiseased tender­ ness, and the authority of well-mastered experience, are the best qualities in a teacher. In dealing with the affairs of the heart, every form of unfeelingness is an offence. It is by drawing out VIii PREFACE. and satisfying, not by freezing or searing, the affec­ tions, that true happiness and peace are to be won. The warm effusion of Christianity is better adapted to human nature than the dry chill of Stoicism. Every man obscurely feels, though scarcely any man distinctly understands, the intimacy and vastness of his connections with his race. It is true that the real world of the soul is an invisible place, removed from the rush and chatter of crowds, and that the most important portion of life is the secret and solitary portion. Yet the most influen­ tial element even of this secluded world and this hidden life, is the element which consists of the ideas and feel­ ings we habitually cherish in relation to our fellow-beings. The philosophy of solitude has been well discussed­ bating an occasional romantic vein with morbid tinges­ by Zimmermann, whose work permanently identifies his name with the subject. I had not read that celebrated treatise until after the completion of my own, and am in­ debted to it for nothing beyond the citations explicitly made from it in the revision of these pages. Zimmer­ mann's personal experience of solitude, and long breoding over it, contributed much to the value of his work; which is comprehensive in survey, rich in learning, penetrative in thought, vivid in sentiment, and eloquent in diction. On the other hand it is too diffuse in style, too expanded in form. It was translated into the chief languages of Europe and had a vast sale. The English translation, so widely scattered half a century ago, comprised only about a third part of the matter in the four volumes of the original German, which the author had elaborately rewrit­ ten with great enlargements. Besides the important work of Zimmermann there are in the literary remains of emi­ nent men - among whom Petrarch, Montaigne, Cowper, and Schopenhauer deserve special mention -a multitude of essays, poems, and letters, on solitude. These I have carefully searched, and have endeavored to enrich my own disquisition by appropriately quoting from them their best things. I have not gathered these numerous quota­ tions in a pedantic spirit, for a show of learning, nor in a poetic spirit, for mere ornament, but in a didactic spirit, PREFACE. ix in the belief that the collection thus made of the solemn and weighty or beautiful and pathetic expressions of authoritative minds would be valuable. I cannot help believing that the best readers, so far from bringing against me the charge of superfluity in quotation, will be grateful for the use of these auxiliaries. It stands to reason that no man can handle a great moral theme from his single mind so well as he elm when aided by the contributions of the wise men who have handled it before. The form, divisions, and method of the present work have grown out of my own meditations. Its development in details has, of course, been modified as well by the inspiring suggest­ iveness of the writings of others on the same subject, as by the transplantation into it, with due credit, of many of the most nutritious thoughts and sanative sentiments met with in them. Contempt and scorn, unless directed by nobler emotions, are as pernicious as they are easy and vulgar. Pure forms of reverence and aspiration are more rarely felt as facts of experience, and are more difficult of attainment as attributes of character. But it is better to lift the eye than to curl the lip. "The aphorism of Lavater is good: Trust him little who smilingly praises all alike, him less who sneeringly censures all alike, him least who is coldly indifferent to "all alike. Did I not believe this book adapted to develop both a healthy dislike for what is bad in men, and a becoming admiration and love for what is good in them, I would fling it into the fire instead of committing it to the press. Is there anything else so odious as the passions of hatred and envy? What else is so desirable as the qualities of devoutness, wisdom, magnanimity, and peace? Unless the author is ignorant of his own heart he has written the following pages with the warmest pity for the victims of the ignoble traits of human life, and with a fervent desire to remove the causes of their sufferings. Unless he is deceived he has also been actuated by a religious veneration for great and good men, the heroic masters in virtue, and by a purpose to exalt them before the multitude as ideals which shall exert an influence to mould to their likeness those who I· x PREFACE. earnestly contemplate them. Great men heighten the consciousness of the human race; and it is our grateful duty to magnify him whose genius magnifies mankind. The roll of persons admiringly treated of in the following leaves composes a list of names fit to be kept in the cas­ ket of a king. The majority of men in every age are superficial in character and brittle in purpose, ar1d lead undedicated lives; swarming together in buzzing crowds in all haunts of amusement or places of low competition, caring little for anything but gossip and pastime, the titillation of the senses, and the gratification of conceit. To state the conditions and illustrate the attractions of a holier and grander happiness, - to hold up the examples of nobler characters and lives, lifted into something of loneliness by their gifts and achievements, - is, accordingly, always a timely service. All better lives are so much redeeming leaven kneaded into the lump of humanity. There are many dis?-ppointed and discontented men and women, exasperated with society, uneasy with seclu­ sion, galled by the bonds of the world when they feel its multitudinous emulation, unable to enjoy freedom and repose when they retreat into solitude. Sometimes this state is a consequence of poor health. Then the patient has more need of the physician than of the divine, the first desideratum being the restoration of the nervous system to its normal tone. Generally, however, there is equal occasion for moral counsel and medicinal direction. But when this experience is more purely a moral result, it is, in most cases, the product of a too magnified opin­ ion of self combined with a too acute feeling of that opinion. Exactingness is the bane, renunciation the antidote. Self-respect may be the sternest wisdom, but self-idolatry is infatuation. This is one of the many questions which must be analyzed in any adequate pre­ sentation of the causes of human loneliness.
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