Published Monthly THE EGOIST

No. 5.—VOL. V. MAY 1918. SIXPENCE.

Editor : HARRIET SHAW WEAVER Contributing Editor: Assistant Editor: T. S. ELIOT DORA MARSDEN CONTENTS

PAGE PAGE PHILOSOPHY : THE SCIENCE OF SIGNS. XVI— OUR PHILO­ THE ANGLO-FRENCH SOCIETY AND M. DAVRAY. By Ezra SOPHY OF THE "REAL." By D. Marsden . . 65 Pound 73 HYMN TO VIRGINITY. By John Rodker . . .69 TOWARDS A THEATRE OF PEACE. By Huntly Carter . . 72 OBSERVATIONS. By T. S. Aptéryx . . . .69 A CELEBRATION. By William Carlos Williams . . .73 "PSITTACUS Eois IMITATRIX ALES AB INDIS." By THE FRENCH WORD IN MODERN PROSE. X— JEAN GIRAU­ Sacheverell Sitwell 70 DOUX. By Madame Ciolkowska . . . .74 PASSING PARIS. By M. C 71 SHORT NOTICES ...... 75

XVI. OUR PHILOSOPHY OF THE "REAL"

By D. MARSDEN

(3) It is in tacit appreciation of these disagreements I among the doctors as to the exact bearings of reality (1) WE have defined philosophy as the science of that the unsophisticated man—engrossingl y concerned signs, and the rôle of the philosopher as the guardian as he is with what is real—is mainly very disinclined of that intricately interrelated classification-structure to put the question: What is reality? And when into which signs have spontaneously grown. Close he does it is rather in that spirit of scepticism concern­ and sustained scrutiny of this structure has proved ing the validity of any answer which one must itself capable of yielding a summary of the kinds of suppose constituted Pilate's excuse for not pausing procedure by which it can be maintained in health, for a reply when on a famous occasion he posed a and likewise of those by which it becomes infected sister question: What is truth? Yet these same with its peculiar disease—confusion, and in insisting terms real and true—which embody the kernel of on the more drastic application of these recognizable the meaning of reality and truth—have been coined rules of well-being the philosopher slowly but in­ by wayfaring men for practical use, and not even evitably grows into an apprehension of his own par­ the bluntest "common" sense would readily become ticular task as an ever more and more delicate work reconciled to their loss. Men hold to them because of redefinition. By the nature of the demands they have a steadily recurring everyday use for them : peculiar to it philosophy is self-determined as the from which fact it is necessary to infer that as far neatening of the edges of definitions: particularly as their essential meaning is concerned that meaning of those which relate to the ultimate elements of our is a simple and obvious one. experience. By making every such term keep strictly (4) This latter observation it is of great importance within the limits assigned to it, philosophy begins to to the philosopher to keep in mind when he sets see its way clear to put into operation—even in himself the task of framing a definition of real. It respect of our most ultimate concerns—those prin­ behoves him to remember that the explanation of ciples of exhaustive and mutually exclusive sub­ the meaning of real must be of a nature sufficiently division which maintain the system of signs in that obvious to account for the fact that untutored non- condition of soundness and integrity in which each specialist intelligence should have conceived it and sign holds a definite relation to all other signs, and showed its faith in it by establishing it among the yet is so clearly outlined in itself that its use involves most familiar group of our conceptions at the very no tangling and straining of the symbolic material time that we all profess our inability to explain and which is woven together with it. expound it. (2) The term reality itself instances the kind of (5) In shaping our own conception of the real, condition under which a philosophy cognizant of its therefore, we have adopted for our guidance these own true utility could have value. There is no tenets. In the first place, any account to be satisfy­ term in respect of which attempts at definition more ing must be simple. Any explanation highly meta­ markedly rip, jag, distort and warp the connected physical—in the popularly accepted meaning of that symbolic material. The strain set up by the attempt term—we allow ourselves to assume in advance to to muster for it ambiguity-free synonyms—which be wrong. In the second place, we hold that our in definition is what we endeavour to do—makes it task will be adequately carried through if we can plain how far we are from certainty as to what explain what is meant by real. That is to say. we synonymity in this connexion actually is. shall, notwithstanding the age-long controversy bound 66 THE EGOIST May 1918 up with it, take for granted the position that the organic) are composed of the movements enacted in the substance sole facts to be taken account of in distinguishing of the one organism which experiences them. Knowledge, reality from the real are grammatical convenience on therefore, of either group of items will resolve itself into know­ the one hand, and on the other conveniences of ledge of the powers of movement of the knowing organism. emphasis : which latter ends are subserved by the And as, in accordance with our definition of what constitutes abstraction of a single quality from the total complex the peculiarly modified activity or experience of knowing, the of experience in which the quality finds its existence, human organism is the only vital form which possesses the In order to heighten the emphasis which it is desired physical mechanism which knowing involves, should be laid on any one quality it is common for the remainder of the experience for purposes of the pursuit of knowledge will resolve itself into the speaking to be temporarily ignored. This is the study of the powers of movement of the human fashion in which we conceive all abstract qualities mechanism. to be formed, and in accordance with our conception (7) Briefly, our exposition of the known phenomenon we hold that the onus of proving reality to differ was this : Any object is known when we have expe­ from the real on any deeper grounds must be laid rience of it under two orders of existence. The one upon those who adopt an opposing position. order is that of conception, or thought, whose distin­ (6) Our third guiding principle is one so obvious guishing characteristic is that it can be created and that were it not that its obviousness ordinarily serves re-created at the bare instance of the symbol. The not only to justify the omission of its enumeration, other is that order fuller and richer in its expenditure but the omission also of its observance, it might be of organic movement which on this very account is allowed to pass without saying. In the circumstances, much less volatile and much more stubborn to create, however, it seems advisable to enumerate it. It is demanding conditions much more elaborate in the this: the exposition of reality must not be an un­ way of releasing cue. We can say that the items related outwork of the rest of our logic. It must of the first, or conceptual, order are such as can be show itself coherent with the containing logic of the started into being by the very minimum in the way universe in which it occupies an involved niche. It of instigating movement. For the purposes of their is with this demand in mind that we shall recapitulate creation, demand is made for nothing whatever, here the main points of that logic of ultimate things for instance, in the way of preliminary excitement which formed the burden of our previous chapter. of the senses via their termini on the organic periphery. It is as follows : The forms of the second order, on the other hand, normally require precisely this terminal sense-excite­ The widest subdivision of the totality of experience upon ment, and in order to obtain just the specific cues which symbols have laid their knowledge-creating mark is that necessary to instigate it the organism usually needs of the external world. So wide-sweeping is this subdivision that to embark on a course of externalized movement the only item required to render it coextensive with the universe varying according to circumstances from the simplest is the organic body which experiences (i.e. feels) both. There­ to the most elaborate. This more elaborate mode of fore for every given case, the external world plus its related creating sense-forms by excitations of the peripheral organic body equals the universe. organs is incomparably the older of the two. The The characteristic which can be attributed indiscriminately far simpler mode of creating forms by the internally to every item of experience constituting both these divisions produced instigating symbol is a very recent develop­ obviously is none other than that of being experienced : or ment : a novelty. It is precisely the effect of its being felt : by the organism. The latter feels, severally and operation in conjunction with the older order which in bulk, all which belongs to the world and all which belongs to has yielded us the phenomenon of the known. itself. Thia fact in both cases equally is precisely what is meant (8) Power to create and apply symbols being, by existence. Outside the range of the organism's feeling there therefore, the very essence of the meaning of the exists nothing. The felt effects of any given organism exhaust known, if—as seems almost conclusive—Man is the and constitute the universe of that organism. sole organism to possess this power, then knowledge We are hereupon met with the question : Into what more and all that pertains to and arises from knowledge simple and ambiguity-free terms can we render the term feeling is limited to Man alone. It will be the labour of itself? We commit ourselves to the opinion that what are the succeeding argument to show that reality, like called feelings could be synonymously rendered as so many knowledge, is also an exclusively human experience forms of movements and tensions of the experiencing organic with its roots bedded in the selfsame source. Very substance. Therefore: any universe (or ego) is the sum of the definitely, therefore, when we set out in search of movements and tensions of a given organism, and it is this knowledge of reality are we directed towards a scrutiny total which finds itself divided and exhausted into two groups: of those vital powers which have to be regarded as those of the organism-body and those of the external world. exclusively human. The finding of the principle of division which yields these (9) We should to some extent be able to instruct two exhaustive groups necessitates a very careful picking of ourselves as to what these uniquely human powers one's way among terms. As a result of it, however, we arrive are by referring to those definitions of Man which in our opinion at a conclusion which can be stated thus: The have already been propounded by those who have one feeling which is common to all the items of the external made it their business to "place" the human species world can be described as that of being endowed with a location among other vital organisms. It is, however, to be external to the limits of the organic-body which feels it. We noted that these definitions have been framed not need, therefore, to explain what sort of significance the term to express all that is uniquely human in the power external may possess consonantly with the asserted character of Man, but only just so much of this as is sufficient of the universe as a whole. We conceive this significance after unmistakably to differentiate Man from all other this fashion : Certain of the movements of the experiencing organic forms along the line of some particular branch organic substance must be impressed with a particular form of of observation. It has been sufficient that the tension which has the effect of making the movements thus definition should differentiate ; it has not been impressed yield the sensation of being projected beyond the required that it should exhaust the total of difference. area of the organism-body. It is this sensation which goes by Accordingly, just as the special interest of one observer the name of externality. has differed from that of another so has his definition The group of movements thus infected is very large, and it tended to differ. is the sum of these which makes up the contents of the external (10) Fundamentally, however, all definitions of world of any given organism. The remaining organic move­ Man tend to reduce to two types : the type which ments comprise the specifically intra-organic world viewed under seeks and finds Man's differentiation in externalized the aspect of sensation. It is to be noted and emphasized, differences of organic structure; and the type which however, that the contents of both worlds (ex-organic and intra­ finds his uniqueness in that human power whose May 1918 THE EGOIST 67

physical seat is inner, and whose expression accord­ into operation the more extended powers of move­ ingly tends to be more occult. We mean the power ment which our freed limbs place at our disposal, called mental. On the one hand we get such a bring about the existence of forms of that more definition as the naturalist's: "Man is the (mam- amplified order of organic movement which includes miferous) animal which possesses two hands." On excitation of the peripheral sense-organs, and of the the other hand, we get the typical definition of the same type as the forms antecedently created by the logician: "Man is the animal which reasons": that simple enactment of the symbol which, as label, does is to say: the animal which possesses a mind. duty for the forms of both orders. We have to (11) Let us look closely at these apparently diverg­ regard the symbolically-created form as the form- ing definitions. What we seek is a common feature type created by the very minimum of organic move­ under which both may be subsumed. In the light ment ; while the real has to be regarded as this organic of our own interpretation of the genesis of mind, we motor-minimum's antithetical relation. Forms grow find it to be this. Both powers represent a vast progressively more "real" in direct proportion to augmentation (involving control) of organic mobility. the wealth of pertinent movement expended on their This increased mobile power has, however, found creation, and as only arbitrary limits can be set itself an outlet along two diverging physical channels. upon this expenditure, the world of real things A single form of power, vastly augmented, has ought to show in connexion with single forms degrees bifurcated, and according to its particular physical of reality corresponding to the wealth of movement form of egress has taken on sharply differentiated lavished on them. This is, in fact, exactly what we dual functions. One, in the increased mobility find. The "same" things do not remain the same expressed in the hand, has evolved itself into the under the lavish expenditure of effort represented by manipulative, manufacturing, constructure interfer­ chemical and physical "experiment" as under the ing power which has transformed the items of the comparatively meagre expenditure represented by external world. The other, in the increased mobility the movements of the unaided sensory apparatus. and control of the muscles of the throat and head, (13) But, however far real things develop along has evolved itself into that power to create and this path of progressively extending movement, the apply symbols which collectively we know as the fact which constitutes their realness remains un­ power of mind, and to which has to be referred all changed. Always, it is the expression of the relation­ those mental products which constitute the human ship which they—as the creations of extended schemes innovations of the conceptual, or thought, world. of movement involving the excitation of the peripheral (We have already indicated to what an important sense-organs—bear to related schemes created by extent symbolization is indebted in our opinion to the symbols which serve as common labels for both the altered balance of the entire human structure. orders. It is the expression of what we can create Inasmuch as this last factor is responsible for the by "doing" in the extended sense which (basically) heightened power of sensory muscular clutch, it is necessitates the employment of the hands contrasted responsible for that sense of heightened saliency with the expression of what we can create by "doing" which is so strongly in evidence throughout our in the most rarefied medium possible, i.e. by means entire human sensory experience. It is this highly of those movements of head and throat, which in salient character of experience which is, we hold, enunciating words create the forms and visions of necessary for the furnishing of the symbolic power's thought. To the latter form of "action" we are basis in imitation. And imitation is, we hold, sym- accustomed indeed to deny the name of action. bolization's "kicking-off" place. The extent to Owing to its drastically limited bearing we are which the freeing of the fore limbs and the develop­ content to call it merely assertion (audible or silent), ment of hands must be due to the same factor is allowing ourselves to make all the while the implica­ even more plainly obvious. For a consideration of tion that the latter is something which is in anti­ the first aspect of this subject, the reader can be thesis to action. The antithesis, however, is merely referred to an earlier study on "The Power of the that of a motor-minimum to any form of activity Will," EGOIST, February issue.) progressing beyond the bounds of that minimum. The rubicon is definitely passed when the extended movement involves employment of the hands. Thus the factor which was partner to the creation of reality II establishes the criterion to which all crucial tests (12) Now the characteristic feature of our philo­ must have recourse when any doubt arises anent a sophy of the real is that we conceive the latter as thing's reality. finding its significance precisely in this bifurcation (14) It may appear that to say a thing is real of the augmenting mobile human power. It is the when we find that we can produce by extended latter's twin-manifestation as a power of manual (manual) action what in thought-form we asserted construction on the one hand and a power of sym­ we could, is to reduce the philosophy of reality to a bolization on the other that gives birth to the order level of commonplace at which it ceases to be un­ of real existence. The real is something born of worthy to be classed with the profundities of philo­ these two powers, acting in the capacity of antithetical sophy. Such judgment, however, we believe to be relations. As far as an explanation of reality goes, wrong, and it is, in our opinion, because it has pre­ neither of these powers acting independently is vailed that no progress has been made towards any competent to furnish a solution. Though the one ultimate understanding of the real. The reason, of unique power may suffice for the needs of the defini­ course, why a sceptical glance can be expected to tion of the naturalist, and the other unique power fall on this simple explanation is clear. The terms for those of the logician (of sorts), for all who seek to do and to say are the most commonplace in our to expound reality (for all philosophers that is) the vocabulary. We refer to them in the most casual two powers must be construed in the light of a dually and matter-of-fact manner. No atmosphere of fresh­ functioning unity. The latter have to accustom ness or novelty clings to them. Yet it is these two themselves to look on real as a purely relative term, powers which represent all that is unique and in­ and just as other relative terms derive their meaning novating in the human species. It is they which solely from the completing term to which they create the profound differences of procedure which relate: just as, for instance, the term parent explains exist between those of Man and those of every other itself solely in terms of offspring; the term right in type of organic life, and a first step towards bringing about an understanding of the real must be a correct­ reference to that of left and the like: just so must ing of the easy acceptance and slurring over of these real be explained in terms of the hypothetical and revolutionizing ^novelties. the symbolic. A thing is real when we, by putting 68 THE EGOIST May 1918

(15) To this end we need an illustration striking unknown which practically would constitute an enough to indicate something of the degree and quality invitation to the organism's own destruction. And, of the innovation they effect. The only adequate as probably the manual power was the first of the parallel which presents itself to our minds is that two to mature in the order of time, the hand represent­ of the introduction into the biological world of the ing no striking innovation in itself, but only the principle of sexual differentiation. Between these cumulation of an advancing series of minute develop­ two innovations, separated from each other by count­ ments in the fore limbs, no doubt the drastic discipline less ages of time, there is a remarkable degree of of consequences automatically weeded out such similarity. Barring that single outstanding difference organisms as, possessing hands, did not at the same which is constituted by the fact that in the case of time possess some agency capable of laying a bridle sex specialization of function is worked out in upon their temerities. The effect must have been separate organisms, whereas in the distinguishingly to speed up the perfecting of the mechanism of the human innovations both functions are vested in the thought-world. For not only could the latter check one organism, the points of likeness between these the enterprise of the hands. That was not the two landmarks of evolutionary progress are impres­ prime essential, since the most effectual check in sively striking. The bifurcation of the hitherto this respect would be to have no hands. The thought- single order of sensed-existence into the two orders world could certainly restrain the hands, but at the of thought-existence and real-existence matches same time, and more important, it proved itself precisely that emergence of dual agencies, opposite capable of opening out a medium in which all this but related, which supervened upon the organic manual recklessness could work itself off under the world in the principle of propagation of organic assurance of a complete unanimity in regard to species by the joint action of male and female, Both consequences. It met, therefore, two demands: that innovations again seek, by differentiation and speciali­ of restraint and that of enterprise: the latter, how­ zation of function, to speed up the rate of develop­ ever, happily transferred from hand to head: from ment in their respective products: the real on the externalized action to internalized action. Under one hand and the individual member of an organic this protecting medium, every daring new combination species on the other. Both create their antithetically of activities could take form and mature in a world related differences out of powers which basically are of existence apart, and only after it had fructified homogeneous and one. In both cases the destined there and shown its nature and tendency, was it end: the swifter development of their joint creations: cautiously dowered upon the uncompromising energies is attained by securing for desire a longer rein for of the hand. Comparatively speaking, in the world play. And in order that this enlarged scope of of fancy all things were safe. "Between our acts desire shall take on fresh meaning in the possibility and the thoughts of our acts there is a mighty gulf of actual achievement both establish in their respec­ fixed," as one of our writers has put it—with the tive spheres a new element of choice. By these means feeling preface, "God be thanked!" in both cases all those upward-striving and self- (18) Under such an interpretation as the foregoing defining tendencies, too weak and immature to estab­ there begins to appear less mystery in connexion with lish themselves definitely in either of the parent the simultaneous emergence of these parent agencies bodies can, as the outcome of the latters' possibility of the real—hands and mind, and no mystery what­ of choice, seize upon forms possessing the desired ever as to why the symbolic creation should in the characteristics in more pronounced form. In the sequel have preceded the manual. The former, as case of sex, even before the era of definite choice popular speech has already indicated, is literally fully dawned, when fertilization took effect by a conception, and the safety of human activities depends chance propinquity, propagation was delivered from upon the concept obtaining precedence in their the monotonous repetition of like from like; and it generation. Only by maintaining this order in stood at least a sporting chance that it would find human affairs can man save himself from destruction in its chance partner a reinforcement of what was at his own hands. Whenever manual activity gets best in itself and a weakening of what was feeblest. out of hand and constructs in advance of adequate (16) We are not, however, concerned here with thought, the same threat of extinction begins to the question of the extent and rapidity with which menace him as must have menaced transitional man sexual differentiation has influenced the propagation before mind fully established itself as an invariable of life-forms for their betterment. It is sufficient concomitant of the possession of hands. Nowhere merely to indicate how close a parallel exists, and do we find a stronger apprehension of this fact how economically the innovating forces of life spend than in primitive man whose awed submission to themselves. There are such vast changes in the "spiritual" agencies creates amazement in an age effects, yet such minute changes in the means adopted which, swinging to the other extreme, has discounted to obtain them. "Progress through differentiation totally the authority of the symbol, and has stripped and specialization" is the formula which explains itself naked of its old religions before it has taken the advent of the real as the joint offspring of the the precaution to see a new one shaped. In primitive manual and symbolic powers, just as it is that which times, the inhibitory forces of thought imposed explains the advent of individual members of organic themselves upon action in a strength so great as to species through the joint agencies of male and female. cause the inhibitory influence to recoil back upon (17) To return to the real. At the first glance it thought itself, and almost to petrify even that volatile appears nothing short of miraculous that two powers essence. This for primitive man constituted his so adapted to the supplementation of each other as religion's practical side. But in modern times, this the symbolic and manual powers are should emerge primitive tendency has been replaced by its opposite. simultaneously. More closely considered, however, Since the authority of the older religious forms began it becomes clear that the two are related not only to be undermined by the advent of a wider knowledge, by what they can effect in the novel creation of the the authority of the symbolic in general has expe­ real. It becomes apparent that the symbolic power rienced steady deterioration, until finally no body must originally have been yoked with the manual of philosophic principles exists possessing force in the capacity of the latter's check and safeguard. enough to inhibit any course of action, provided the We might indicate the nature of the relationship by latter be strong enough to enforce itself in the imme­ saying that it is unsafe for an organism to possess diate present. Upon ,this condition of affairs our hands until it possesses also the mind which can present state is the sufficiently pointed commentary. restrain them. The widely extended powers of the In the first place, we find an almost purely manu­ hand, its capacity for interference with the organism's facturing age ushered into existence in which construc­ environment, invite to an enterprise of action in the tive ingenuity travels by its own unbridled momen- May 1918 THE EGOIST 69 turn, fabricating a multiplicity of creations which are an hourly distraction, at the same time that it destroys OBSERVATIONS a beauty whose lack creates an hourly thirst. In simple default of knowledge of anything more worth MR. FORD MADOX HUEFFEE, in his while upon which its ingenuity might be spent, it Henry James, remarks upon journalese, thereupon proceeds to the fabrication of effects which that flail of the Anglo-Saxon race, that from being merely non-vital become definitely anti- infinite corruptor of the Anglo-Saxon mind, that vital. Finally, without warning or preamble, we destined and ultimate cause of the downfall of Anglo- open our eyes upon a human world shattering and Saxon empires, since the race that cannot either in bleeding itself to death in order to give purpose to allegories or in direct speech think clearly is doomed the destructive instruments of its own creation. to fall before nations who can, and Japan is ever on And modern philosophy has produced nothing of the threshold with the tendrils twining round its sufficient force or conviction to check by a single well-ropes scruple this giddy, power of the hand. Uninstructed I am not sure of the imminent ascendancy of Japan, human instinct has been left to fend blindly for a busy commercial country, and the degeneracy of itself, and has succeeded in providing its purposeless one civilization does not seem to be inevitably creations with a purpose after the event, by rousing accompanied by the rise of another; but Mr. Hueffer's into new life an abandoned ape-like rage and greed warning is certainly just, and could perhaps be stated which, to be honest, most men find exceedingly alien in more general terms. What we want is to disturb to themselves. However, in the very nature of and alarm the public: to upset its reliance upon things, to attempt to carry on its intricate existence Shakespeare, Nelson, Wellington, and Sir Isaac without an adequate philosophy must always for Newton; to point out that at any moment the the human species be a very temporary aberration. relation of a modern Englishman to Shakespeare In long ages of time, disasters of a similar kind may may be discovered to be that of a modern Greek to many times have threatened the species, but the AEschylus. To point out that every generation, every consequences are too harsh for them to have con­ turn of time when the work of four or five men who tinued long, since for the most heedless of such as count has reached middle age, is a crisis. Also escaped the weight of the punishment must have that the intelligence of a nation must go on developing, served to correct the balance. Whence we get the or it will deteriorate; and that every writer who birth of the sense that what men may do must in­ does not help to develop the language is to the evitably be dictated in the long run by a sense of extent to which he is read a positive agent of deteriora­ direction worked out in thought. The restraint laid tion. That the forces of deterioration are a large upon the works of the hand will be dictated not crawling mass, and the forces of development half a wholly by the sense of immediate penalties, but by dozen men. And (here as well as anywhere else) that a sense of destiny which mind has been able to come the Intelligence of modern Europe is considerably by in that universal sweep of experience which the due to Montaigne, and that through most of the etherially fine substance of the symbol renders possible. nineteenth century the mind of France has always (19) It is the power to generate, with impunity, been a little ahead of the mind of England, if the in the thought-world acts which, involving the whole English mind has not actually degenerated. The body, would be the height of recklessness that has Englishman, completely untrained in critical judg­ enabled the symbol to commandeer the whole range ment, looks complacently back over the nineteenth of experience—beneficial and hostile. Emboldened century as an accumulation of Great Writers. by this sense of immunity, man has dared to plunge England puts her Great Writers away securely in a every type of action and thing into this fine impress- Safe Deposit Vault, and curls to sleep like Fafner. taking symbolic material for its re-creation at will. There they go rotten; for if our predecessors cannot All the assets of his past experience he has thus been teach us to write better than themselves, they will able to liquidate and make current in the present. surely teach us to write worse; because we have never learned to criticize Keats, Shelley, and Words­ (This chapter to be continued) worth (poets of assured though modest merit), Keats, Shelley, and Wordsworth punish us from their graves HYMN TO VIRGINITY with the annual scourge of the Georgian Anthology. We must insist upon the importance of intelligent THE VIRGIN SINGS criticism. I do not mean Sainte-Beuve, for the work Lo! we treasured our wine of that great curious restless brain is rather a part of till it went sour. history than of literature, the history of manners, The State stored it for us memoirs, boudoir whispers; or the political-ethical- in the churches' vaults. religious writing of Brunetière or the highly superior When we went for it Extension Lectures of M. Faguet; I mean the it gave us colic, ceaseless employment of criticism by men who are INVOCATION engaged in creative work. It is essential that each It has gone sour— generation should reappraise everything for itself. it has given us colic, Who, for instance, has a first-hand opinion of Shake­ spoilt our complexions, speare ? Yet I have no doubt that much could be learned by a serious study of that semi-mythical eaten away our hearts. figure. Therefore love is dead in us. * * * * Can we longer believe in I have seen the forces of death with Mr. Chesterton the goodness of man at their head upon a white horse. Mr. Pound, Mr. and the sons of men? Joyce, and Mr. Lewis write living English; one does Yet stay! not realize the awfulness of death until one meets maybe one skin with the living language, M. de Bosseliere "writes a ripening more slowly living French; and we can now probably also count will have marvellous body, as a living writer Miss Marianne Moore.* be as luminous as new suns, (There is some rubbish and a quite reasonable more maddening than wind. amount of good stuff in Others, but Miss Moore is * * * * particularly interesting. Mr. Pound, reviewing the "Vinegar, vinegar, will no one' buy vinegar?" * In Others, an Anthology. Edited by Alfred Kreymborg. JOHN RODKER Alfred A. Knopf, New York. $1.25 net. 70 THE EGOIST May 1918 book in the March Little Review, couples Miss Moore Viélé-Griffin are the weakest in the book. Mr. with Miss Mina Loy, and points out the type of verse Rudmose-Brown explains their philosophy and ideals; of these two writers, inheritors, perhaps unconsciously, which in the case of men like Merrill and Griffin is of Laforgue : " logopœia . . . a dance of the intelli­ not very exciting. We do not want to be told that gence among words and ideas and modifications of Griffin's work is a hymn to life, nor do we need to hear words and ideas." Miss Loy's "Effectual Marriage" that Mallarmé is alembicated and precious. There is is extremely good, and suggestive of de Bosschère an interesting letter of Merrill's on page 102, con­ (whom Miss Loy has probably not read). taining the sentence: "What we must fight with all our might and power of hatred is the religious and When Miovanni thought alone in the dark patriotic spirit." The essay on Verlaine does not add Gina supposed that peeping she might see much. But there are two charming essays on the A round light shining where his mind was poets of the eighteenth century (Delille, Bertin, She never opened the door Parny) and the School of Lyons (Maurice de Scève) Fearing that this might blind her and there are some sensible remarks in the introduc­ Or even tion (as on the "bourgeois spirit" of Diderot). That she should see Nothing at all. Altogether, it is not a bad book. But Miss Loy has not here presented such a bulk Mr. Boyd deals with a select number of Irish of work as Miss Moore, and it is impossible to tell figures, not all strictly literary. He does not quite whether there is a positive œuvre or only a few convince us of the importance of Lord Dunsany or of successes. "Human Cylinders" is not so good; she John Eglinton, but he makes interesting two notables needs the support of the image, even if only as the of provincial life, Standish O'Grady and Edward instant point of departure; in this poem she becomes Dowden; paralegomena of Irish history, not studies abstract, and the word separates from the thing. in European literature. Decidedly the best thing in Miss Moore is utterly intellectual, but not abstract; the book is the long study of Bernard Shaw, " Irish the word never parts from the feeling; her ideas, Protestant," which brings to light a good deal of imageless, remain quite personal. Even in Laforgue evidence for Shaw's unpopularity in France. " On there are unassimilated fragments of metaphysics the subject of sex Shaw is frankly and medievally and, on the other hand, of sentiment floating about; intolerant . . . towards this sex question his attitude I will not assert that Miss Moore is as interesting in remains in its primitive simplicity, cutting him off herself as Laforgue, but the fusion of thought and from all sympathy with the whole tendency of modern feeling is perhaps more complete. She has an life." " While it would be too much to assert that admirable sense of form: Shaw's work is literature . . ."—such remarks are worth making. Of course the simplest thing to say I recall their magnificence, not now more magnificent is that Shaw's work lias nothing to do with literature, Than it is dim. It is difficult to recall the ornament either for good or evil. Speech, and precise manner of what one might * * * * Call the minor acquaintances twenty The chief moral to be drawn from these two books Years back; but I shall not forget him—that Gilgamesh among is that literary studies can be meritorious and read­ The hairy carnivora— that cat with the able, but that they must not be supposed to be Wedge-shaped, slate-grey marks on its forelegs and the resolute literary criticism. Coleridge occasionally wrote good tail, criticism; and Walter Pater, if he had had a better and a sort of Latin stateliness. I do not know what English style, and been more interested in what he Miss Moore has read, but being an American has wrote about, might have done something in the perhaps aided her to avoid the diet of nineteenth- same way. century English poetry. (Mr. Henry James and T. S. APTÉRYX Mr. Conrad were also foreigners.) I dare say Miss Moore has written much bad stuff in her time, but the poems in this anthology have the distinctive and "PSITTACUS EOIS IMITATRIX un-Anglo-Saxon character of an œuvre; it is not one ALES AB INDIS " or two fortunate hits but the whole body of work OVID that counts. THE Parrot's voice snaps out— * * * * No good to contradict— A writer of literary criticism may be doing one of What he says he'll say again : several things, or he may be doing them all; but he Dry facts, dry biscuits. certainly ought to know which he is doing, and not confuse them all under the name of criticism. Perhaps His voice, and vivid colours the essence of his work is bringing the art of the past Of his breast and wings to bear upon the present, making it relevant to the Are immemorably old ; actual generation through his own temperament, Old Dowagers dressed in crimped satin, which must itself interest us. Remy de Gourmont Boxed in their rooms, and Laurent Tailhade are good critics; their tempera­ Specimens beneath a glass ments are interesting, and they have a keen sense of Inviolate—and never changing, actuality and a conscientious sense of fact. A great Their memory of emotions dead; deal of critical writing is aimless appreciation which The ardour of their summers is pernicious in so far as it encourages people to the Sprayed like camphor lazy occupation of reading about w;orks of art instead On their silken parasols of forming their own opinions. Two books from Intissued in a cupboard. Dublin* are not altogether useless, though the greater part of both need not have been written. Reflective, but with never a new thought Professor Eudmose-Brown writes somewhat like a The parrot sways upon his ivory perch— professor who wants to write; we are told that one Then gravely turns a somersault of his qualifications is a personal acquaintance with Through rings nailed to the roof— the symbolists ; but his essays on Stuart Merrill and Much as the sun performs his antics * French Literary Studies. By Professor T. B. Rudmose- As he climbs the aerial bridge Brown, D.Litt. Appreciations and Depreciations. Irish Literary We only see Studies. By Ernest A. Boyd. Both published by The Talbot Through crystal prisms of a falling rain. Press, Ltd., Dublin, and T. Fisher Unwin. Both 3s. 6d. net. SACHEVERELL SITWELL May 1918 THE EGOIST 71

militarisés ronronnent plus tard, un peu avant cet instant PASSING PARIS matinal, déjà engourdi de chaleur, qu'un coup de canon, soudain, secoue. WITH a paraphrase of one of the world's seven Un deuxième coup de canon, un troisième, plus lointain. wonders in fiction (my friend M. Edmond Les échos magnifiques des palais rejettent le son vers la mer. Jaloux says there are nine), MM. Francis Penchée à la fenêtre de l'hôtel, je cherche l'avion ennemi: il de Miomandre and "Tommy Spark" continue a new est très haut, il franchit un étroit abîme bleu entre deux nuages. series (inaugurated by M. Bene Boylesve), published Une foule paisible, sans cris, s'accoude au marbre du pont ; des by M. Albin Michel, under the auspices of M. Henri de Vénitiennes minces étendent vers l'aéroplane leurs bras, d'où Régnier, of the Académie française, and "appealing les longues franges noires du châle pendent comme des algues. to readers expecting from a novel not only interest Elles se mêlent, pour le plaisir des yeux, aux matelots blancs. of a dramatic or passionate character, but also Il n'y a point de hâte, ni de frayeur, et pas d'autres cris que qualities of style and of artistic value giving it a le miaulement menaçant des sirèmes. Des canots automobiles place of superiority in current literature." M. de s'élancent rayant la mer. Miomandre and his partner have fulfilled this order to a perfection which has called forth the exclamation * * * * of "masterpiece" from at least one critic. The The constant creation of new organs of thought hyperbole should not discourage. La Saison des is illustrative of its vividness in contemporary France. Dupes is not a masterpiece, since there is no higher Hardly a week passes but a periodical of some kind term to apply to its forerunner, but it is an extremely comes into life. Le Populaire de Paris displays the skilful, ironic, and witty reflection of that form of names of Henri Barbusse and Maxim Gorky among cynicism practised by a class of society known in its leading contributors. La Journée claims to be Anglo-Saxon countries before the war as "smart," independent of partisanship. Les Marges is about in a degree proportioned to the capacities of a genera­ to be revived. A model of a review it was. tion which has quite unnecessarily armour-plated * * * * itself against sentimental suffering. Compared with Most instructive was the collection of pictures made the cynicism in Les Liaisons Dangereuses, the cynicism by the late Edgar Degas, and recently put on sale. in La Saison des Dupes is superficial, and the cha­ It comprised numerous Delacroix, several fine Ingres, racters in this latter book (where not only each one and the earliest and the latest Gauguins, with the is the other's, but his own, dupe) are minor devils ; intervening impressionists, Manet especially ; and they have not the stamp of the real thing. The "post-impressionists," Cezanne, Van Gogh, and letters in themselves, written by witty hands—some­ Gauguin's copy of the Olympia, which has preserved what wittily monotonous (for it is the same hand all a colour more luminous than the original. Degas through)—seem to mask an undercurrent of wit had also collected a number of drawings by his which is the authors' irony directed against the disciple Forain, which was a quaint thing to have presumed writers. But the continued reference to done. One of the Gauguins seemed to emphasize one topic dulls the appetite before the end is reached. the link between that master and god—Ingres, a The quotations heading each letter sow the seed for portrait of whom revealed the immense talents of epigrams and aphorisms which in their turn may a woman painter of his day, Mlle. Forestier, pupil become classical. (M. de Miomandre's partner in of David, appreciated, apparently, by Degas on a this feat satisfying generally conflicting tastes, those par with Berthe Morisot and Miss Cassatt. At the of the fastidious and those of the inquisitive reader, sale Gauguin, though admirably represented, both uses a pseudonym unworthy his talents.) in his Pont Aven and his Tahitian manner, did not fetch the prices he should have done. To him were * * * * preferred, after Ingres and Delacroix, Manet and What an exemplary writer Mme. Colette must be Cézanne. One of the most remarkable of Van Gogh's for it to be possible to continue to read her about feats, two sunflowers, figured in this diverse collec­ herself, her baby, her hairdresser, her thoughts, and tion, comprising à titre de curiosité, one of Gauguin's her sensations, the things she hears and the things first attempts with the palette, a humble little still- she sees! She is entirely self-centred, she is unable life, painted no doubt on a Sunday in his bank- to create a character, to imagine a scene, to consider clerk days, and not in the least foreshadowing the the world otherwise than as it comes into direct glories which were to ensue. contact with her daily experience. She is just a mirror reflecting sensitively a circumscribed range. * * * * Yet her last book, not a whit less "subjective" than The greatest modern French composer (in the sense her others, Les Heures Longues (Fayard, 4 fr.), by that Rodin was the greatest artist), Debussy, has just the quality of the craftsmanship entirely exonerates died. But, different from the sculptor,. there are and obscures the conceit it might otherwise suggest few anecdotes connected with the musician, who of the daily circumstance of writing down in cold lived the retired, unsocial life of a man hard-working blood (and publishing) such personalities. What and, in his late years, ailing. He was born at St. does she write for? For the sheer love of construct­ Germain in 1862; after studying at the Conservatoire ing perfect prose. What do we read her for? For he obtained the Prix de Rome for a work which the sheer relish of enjoying that prose. Take her on provoked discussion, L'Enfant Prodigue. He came Rome or Venice in war-time, a picture of a firmness of to the fore definitely with L' Après-midi d'un Faune. touch, an elasticity of outline, a clarity of expression Pelléas was given for the first time in 1902. truly unique : The only woman to have been awarded the Prix UN TAUBE SUR VENISE de Eome for musical composition, Mlle. Lui Boulanger, Juillet 1915. has also died. She was but little over twenty and 4 Juillet, six heures et demie du matin. Un soleil blanc full of the promise held out already by her elder d'orage, des nuées que la mer plate reflète en gris, en vert sister, Nadia Boulanger, composer and professor in d'huitre. Une journée de sirocco, puis une nuit sans étoiles harmony at the Conservatoire. M. C. ont laissé tièdes les dalles des chiavoni et les balcons de marbre. L'église du Rédempteur semble flotter, soulevée au-dessus de TO BE READY SHORTLY la mer comme un mirage. La nuit a paru longue. De sa vie nocturne d'avant la guerre, TARR Venise n'a gardé qu'un chuchotement, une respiration qu'on BY WYNDHAM LEWIS distingue en tendant l'oreille : coups de langue de la vague contre un pont, grincement d'une chaîne de barque, et, vers Price 6s. net. ; by post 6s. 4d. l'aube, le départ discret d'une seule gondole. Les vapiretti THE EGOIST, LTD. 72 THE EGOIST May 1918

the flora, the geography, instead of upon the patent THE ANGLO-FRENCH SOCIETY AND fact that these writers are natural dullards, and that they would have been equally dull if they had been M. DAVRAY born in Timbuctoo or upon the slopes of Mount Athos. By EZRA POUND There is a certain amount of active literature being written in English. I could show M. Davray a AS an American I perhaps intrude in the volume with precisely that dotted "i" that he craves. discussion of the above-mentioned society, Perhaps he will get round to the matter in time, but but a few words of mediation, even of up till now he has eschewed the better current work defence, may not be wholly out of place. I cannot with an almost curious care. I realize that nothing flatly contradict the recent EGOIST correspondent who is more difficult than to keep pace with a foreign complained that English literature was inadequately literature ; still, for all I can say one way or the represented upon its committee. English literature other, any foreigner who runs about with the Gosse- is very poorly represented, but on the other hand the Colvin-Newbolt contingent will be under suspicion of concerts of French music given under the society's not wanting to make any discoveries. He will be, like auspices are a very valuable contribution to the "Littré," le dictionnaire bien pensant. And the musical life of this city. Having heard the Ravel tradition of the Mercure has not always been that of "Septuor" this afternoon, and hoping to hear the producing only la littérature officielle; nor do I Debussy memorial concert a fortnight hence, I can believe that M. Davray intends to institute or per­ only express my gratitude to the society for beginning manently to maintain any such bias, at least I hope as happily in music as they may, for all I know to not; for the Mercure is the enlightened organ of the contrary, have begun ineptly in literature. They French opinion, one would hate to be thrown back are particularly happy in their violinist, M. Defauw. upon the Claudel-fake-bigotry crowd and, for that In regard to the letter concerning the Mercure matter, any periodical given up to dilettantisme or critic, an honorary secretary of the Society, I am religiosity is bound in its very nature to oppose repeatedly being told that "the Mercure is dead." international communication. These pseudo-theatric It is undeniable that the loss of Remy de Gourmont revivals can only subsist by flattering some local is a very serious matter for the Mercure, and the sentiment, and they wither in the keener air of difficulties of continuing to publish the Mercure must communication. France is driven to kiss-in-the-ring be immense; but even so, a certain amount of Catholicism for picturesqueness and out of merest creative work has managed to appear in the magazine romanticism, having mostly destroyed her sole other during the last two or three years. The number for receptacle of tradition during the Terror and in April 16 is decidedly more alive than numerous ensuing republics; given any sort of heraldric orna­ recent numbers. ments, quarterings, "nobles," etc., a nation is not M. Davray is engaged on war work, and has, I driven to digging up dead forms of religiosity. Forty believe, very little time for reporting on English years, sixty years ago, America had an outburst of publications in general. Indeed, a complete silence Elks, Knights Templars and what not : same old on his part would be wholly pardonable and explicable. desire for orders and hierarchies, same old lust for That he should break this silence to inform Paris of emblems, titles, and badges. ("Et 'le pape est the appearance of such outrageous rubbish as Gosse's boche,' dit M. Croquant.") despicable Life of Swinburne or of Colvin's maunder - No country can make an ass of itself over Dowie ings about Keats, is an error, an error due, no doubt, and Lourdes simultaneously ; it cannot have Mrs. to M. Davray's .amiability. But the excess of this Eddie and the Bishop of London both at once ; it quality, the feeling that he must be loyal to friends cannot have a. catholico-Bourbon craze and Sir of long standing, is not a grace for which he can Arthur Yapp plus Y.M.C.A. and gum-shoes at one expect sympathy from any one under—oh well, let same intellectual tea-party ; or even split the same us say any one under fifty. pair of ears between a Tagore and a Rev. Wm. On the other hand, when in the mid-April number Sunday. These strawberry festivals are strictly he gets round to the dull soggy "Georgians" (1916-17) local. he says very much what THE EGOIST critic has said In so far as the Mercure has stood for French on the subject, he says it a little more gently as befits clarity, and for an honest agnostic inquiry into all a milder nature, but the dullness of subject is not things, one is bound to support it against any other concealed by this paragraph : French periodical set up to boom French fuzziness, "Sons agréables et harmonieux, mais il manque ici l'âme and to propagate fads and cults of the moment. d'un musicien. Tous ces écrivains sont des virtuoses, ce ne sont If M. Davray will but leave his septuagenarians pas de grands artistes. On a tout dit d'ailleurs. ..." (whether by age or by temperament septuagenarian), "Je vous comprends; ces jeunes gens sont maîtres dans l'art if he will seek a bit further I do not think he will d'écrire avant d'avoir vécu. Aussi cherchent-ils des sentiments have to blame either Mr. Joyce, Mr. Lewis, or even pour les accommoder à leur vocabulaire et non des mots pour Mr. Eliot " on the climate." His "d'écrire avant exprimer leur passion et leurs idées. Pourtant, même au point d'avoir vécu" and "sentiments pour les accommoder de vue de la langue, votre poésie n'est riche en tons que dans à leur vocabulaire" and "non des mots pour exprimer une certaine gamme; il y en a d'autres qu'elle n'a jamais leur passion" are phrases so apt that we cannot touchés. Elle a exprimé, par exemple, toutes les délicatesses, permit them to be lost in a general disparagement of tout le mystère, toutes les variations du clair de lune, mais work done under great difficulty. il y a une notation qu'on n'y trouve pas : c'est que sur urf clocher l'astre des nuits est " comme un point sur i." Ce qui prouve que, même en ayant à sa disposition la langue poétique TOWARDS A THEATRE OF PEACE la plus souple et la plus variée, on n'épuise jamais toutes les By HUNTLY CARTER images, toutes les sensations." — " Ces poèmes, — reprit mon compagnon en feuilletant le volume, — sont sans force. Ils ont du charme, de la joliesse, de la grandeur point. On y sent plus IF there is a worse thing than the war it is the de bonté que d'amour, plus de pitié que de douleur, plus d'intérêt neglect of art in the theatre. But I do not que de communion spirituelle." — " Admettons alors que ce think the neglect will continue. My own soient des tableaux peints avec un pinceau d'une finesse incom­ impression is that the present moment, black as it parable. . . ." — " Du préraphaélitisme. ..." appears, is a favourable one for making a start at a preliminary reorganization of the new theatre. As Peut-on s'attendre à autre chose ? though in confirmation of this impression there comes M. Davray then proceeds to blame it on the climate, from Florence Mr. Gordon Craig's new and precious May 1918 THE EGOIST 73

publication. The Marionette is a Lilliputian affair paid the penalty. Some of us know what the penalty just pocket-size, yet it contains as much gay matter— is. To-day, owing to dramatic expression being gay as the mind of the creator behind it—as The placed almost entirely in the hands of deputies, the Mask, and is an eighth of the price. Sixpence buys Theatre has become essential to this expression. So it. Moreover, it crosses the highly submarined seas that it follows that where there is no vision of the once a month bearing in its bright-coloured embrace Theatre, Drama perishes. If Ibsen's vision of the a supplementary sheet. It is The Mask reduced Theatre had been as true as that of Mr. Gordon Craig almost to the irreducible. The Marionette is the it is conceivable that the Theatre would by now be Unmask. The new Florentine continues the best one of the mightiest temples of initiation on earth. traditions of The Mask. It is fresh, joyous, witty, And the theme of the complete metamorphosis ever provocative, and stimulating. It is frankly out for taking place in liberty-seeking mortals to which he propaganda as The Mask was, and maintains that gave dramatic eminence would be established in our Mr. Gordon Craig's transforming idea will be in the midst, ready to be readapted to the need of the long run of more substantial service to humanity moment. than all the other eminent theatrical ideas put We all know what that need is. It is the need together. As most of us know, by this time, the of lasting peace, when the war ends, if we are to get idea in its pre-war form was concerned with the on with the business of resurrection on earth. This Theatre and its visible objects and agents (of repre­ means that to-day we have arrived at the great sentation and interpretation) defined in terms of truth of liberty in reality in another way. The war Drama expressed by Art, and with Drama and its has shown us a pathway to liberty that lies across invisible objects and agents, sensibility, sound, and a desolate region bristling with the destructive movement, conceived of in terms of a theatre resting restraints of fatal ideals of human government. We on Art. In other words, the idea was for restoring believe it can be cleared for ever by human beings the Theatre as a shapely, highly unified, and supremely recognizing and throwing off the tyrannical limita­ purposeful instrument of dramatic expression, thus tions cf warlike desire. In peace resides the spirit securing to it, as The Mask monthly leaflet reminds of liberty that is renewing our finest aspirations. us, "the existence of a vitality which was to reveal And it is with the truth of the spirit that Drama will itself in a beautiful and definite form based upon an renew itself and set human marionettes unfolding in ancient and noble tradition." What more ancient a theatre presided over by art. There are plainly and noble tradition is there than Drama as the master signs that a theatre of peace is coming. It will come initiator? Was it not born with the silent prayer, in due course, and in every town and city throughout nowadays called dumb-show, of early man when he a peace-desiring world, to give an immense stimulus danced in ecstasy in response to the call of the sun, to Mr. Craig's pre-war ideas of unity, measure, and and thus initiated his fellow-men into the mystery purpose. And when it does come may I be there of his soul? This, the complete surrender to Truth to see. Perhaps I shall have an opportunity to crowned by Beauty, I take it, was Mr. Craig's domi­ discuss in detail the organization of this theatre. nant idea. But in applying the idea its leading- Some of the details appeared to me during a period exponents did not go as far as the original programme of indescribable excitement in a military concentration promised. Perhaps there was not time before the camp. war began. In any case, in interpreting vitality, unity, and purpose they failed to go beyond a vision of aesthetic to a vision of Drama. Their activities A CELEBRATION took definite shape during immediate pre-war years in a concentration on the application of certain A MIDDLE-NORTHERN March, now as principles of art to theatrical expression, and in this always— way a strong emphasis was laid entirely on the gusts from the south broken against cold virtues of representation and interpretation, whilst winds— the really vital thing to be expressed by the theatre but from under, as if a slow hand lifted a tide, passed unnoticed. The fact is the approach to a it moves—not into April—into a second March, great eternal truth was not made. It was not made the old skin of wind-clear scales dropping as Ibsen, for one, made it. upon the mould : this is the shadow projects the tree Ibsen arrived at the great eternal truth of liberty upward causing the sun to shine in his sphere. in reality in one way. He saw a pathway to liberty that lay across a region bristling with the destructive So we will put on our pink felt hat—new last year! restraints of social lies and hypocrisies. He believed —newer this by virtue of brown eyes turning back it could be cleared by human beings recognizing and the seasons—and let us walk to the orchid-house, throwing off all outer and artificial limitations. see the flowers will take the prize to-morrow Women, for example, must throw off certain domestic at the Palace. restraints and refuse to accommodate themselves to Stop here, these are our oleanders. the whims and habits of the typical husband. But When they are in bloom— he did not say whether it would be cleared, no doubt You would waste words. because he saw so plainly the desperate tenacity with It is clearer to me than if the pink which human beings cling to the wrong view of life. were on the branch. It would be a searching in Still it was the spirit of liberty that he—like all great a coloured cloud to reveal that which now, huskless, poets—read into the aspirations of mankind. And shows the very reason for their being. it was with the truth of the spirit that he set his figures unfolding—unfolding in such a way that as And these the orange-trees, in blossom—no need the lie fell off them they entered for the first time to tell with this weight of perfume in the air. open-eyed into the kingdom of liberty. Moreover, If it were not so dark in this shed one could better he proposed that all who watched this precious see the white. process should assist in the profound act of initiation. It is that very perfume Further, he decided that the initiation should take has drawn the darkness down among the leaves. place in the Theatre. But unluckily the Theatre Do I speak clearly enough? gave him no help. On the contrary, it was cold and It is this darkness reveals that which darkness alone indifferent to his purpose, even threatening to kill it. loosens and sets spinning on waxen wings— The reason was that Ibsen, who had a profound sense not the touch of a finger-tip, not the motion of Drama, had no vision of the Theatre. He entered of a sigh. A too heavy sweetness proves the Theatre for the sake of convenience, and he its own caretaker. 74 THE EGOIST May 1918

And here are the orchids! perhaps, a link with Sterne. Certain passages remind Never having seen me of M. Marcel Proust (the childhood reminiscences such gaiety I will read these flowers for you: notably), others of Jules Renard (though M. Giraudoux This is an odd January, died—in Villon's time. is never caustic), others again of Francis Jammes. Snow, this is and this the stain of a violet He has not yet the vue d'ensemble of these two last, grew in that place the spring that foresaw its own the same sustained construction, but a suppleness, doom. an elegance, and a femininity over and above them. Where Jammes is sentimental, Giraudoux brings the And this, a certain July from Iceland : cool-headed, fine-edged sensibility of the man-of- a young woman of that place the-world besides that cosmopolitanism peculiar also breathed it toward the south. It took root there. to M. Marcel Proust and rare among the contem­ The colour ran true but the plant is small. porary, globe-trotters though they may be. But these somewhat tentative parallels are brought into This falling spray of snowflakes is relief by the desire to place M. Giraudoux, whose a handful of dead Februarys personality remains withal marked and homogeneous. prayed into flower by Rafael Arevalo Martinez M. Giraudoux's originality consists chiefly in this: of Guatemala. he is wholly occupied with the reaction of experience Here's that old friend who upon the mind. The experience is the element, the went by my side so many years : this full, fragile thought is the achievement. And as the mind works head of veined lavender. Oh that April outside time or locality so the past and the future that we first went with our stiff lusts melt into a uniform tense which you may, if you leaving the city behind, out to the green hill— like, call the present. Similarly the same poetic May, they said she was. A hand for all of us: atmosphere impregnates the settings, be they even this spray of blue butterflies tied to this stem. in the United States—of which country he is the only writer I know, except Miss Amy Lowell, to convey June is a yellow cup I'll not name; August a poetic impression—because it is the atmosphere the over-heavy one. And here are— of his own mind. russet and shiny, all but March. And March? A statement, a description, or an exposition never Ah, March— occurs in M. Giraudoux's prose ; he furnishes no Flowers are a tiresome pastime. information. You do not tell yourself as you walk One has a wish to shake them from their pots down a street that you are walking down a street; root and stem, for the sun to gnaw. you do not tell yourself when you are ailing, "I am ailing"; or when you are in love, "I am in love"; Walk out again into the cold and saunter home but the fact of walking down the street, the fact to the fire. This day has blossomed long enough. of being ill, tue circumstance of being in love deter­ mine a sequence of thoughts in connexion with these I have wiped out the red night and lit a blaze facts and circumstances, but which are not these instead which will at least warm our hands facts, etc., and it is these thoughts that M. Giraudoux and stir up the talk. pictures in the terms of these thoughts without any I think we have kept fair time. attempt to make them more explicit. At least, so Time is a green orchid. I understand, for he is not always absolutely decipher­ WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS able. The patching and cross-patching of the mind's dynamic workings obscure the main thread, and a hold is not easy on their immaterialized tenuity. THE FRENCH WORD IN MODERN PROSE Superficially viewed he would be classed as an extremely "artistic" writer, but in his case the X. JEAN GIRAUDOUX : Provinciales ; L'Ecole epithet must not be read for polite weak praise, a use to which it is too often put. He helps the critic des Indifférents ; Lectures pour une ombre in that passage in L'Ecole des Indifférents ("Jacques l'Egoïste") where he prays God he will never write Il vivait en général. That phrase contains Jean verse, write out what he thinks in lines, roll out his Giraudoux. It occurs in the firmest of the life; and where it seems to him that he leaves the three books which have sufficed to bring him lettered ones behind him, and that he no longer admiration and celebrity: L'Ecole des Indifférents. judges them according to the criterions they have The la st of this trinity, Lectures pour une ombre invented. "What they call intelligence, that vivacity (a war-book: M. Giraudoux is one of literature's to talk or to act which would make the perfect most genuine war-heroes), was submitted to the pedagogue, with his superficial ironies, his emphasized Goncourt committee for the 1917 prize and, though silences, his ill-tempered enthusiasms, is coin, he it held most of the chances, by some mysterious thinks, which can only be current among the mediocre. conjury and to general disgust the award gave M. He compares their struggles to apply the fitting term Giraudoux's work the "slip." For Jean Giraudoux with the player's futile attempts to bring the ball is of those rare ones who, relished by some, are into the cup. As soon, he writes, as these short­ esteemed by all, his work being of a quality which sighted ones risk themselves into life, wearing their cannot be denied it. Sympathy is not here conditional interminable boots, you find them inferior and to appreciation although it be its corollary generally. awkward. None has the cut of the soldier or of M. Edmond Jaloux, the author of Le Reste est the workman ; none has even so much as an account­ Silence, who couples a versatile erudition in the ant's keenness for life. He finds them uncertain literatures of the imagination, past and present, with about their tastes, grouped into little pigeon-holes a magnificent enthusiasm, fancies a comparison labelled with large exclamation signs of joy or distress. between Giraudoux and Shakespeare. A relationship And their slightest gesture claims to discover the with Heine is also apparent to him. (This involves hidden reason for the world or the keystone of a fellowship with Laforgue.) The reasons must be Heaven. left to M. Jaloux's own transcription when he deigns M. Giraudoux confesses to possessing no such to favour us with them. I should fear to betray curiosities, no such ambitions. To him each being, them by an unfaithful and too personal rendering. each thing, is as dependent upon its colour as upon At the close of this little study they may suggest its skeleton. He discerns enormous affinities sweep­ themselves automatically. Another finds in his ing across the world, marking it here and there with whimsicality, in his man-of-the-world cosmopolitanism their light. They connect and match the big with May 1918 THE EGOIST 75 the diminutive. "To me," he writes, "the leaves seem stuck in a palm-tree as parsimoniously as the feathers in an ostrich; a lady's initialled handkerchief SHORT NOTICES is like wreckage from a ship whose name has been nearly washed out." ON HEAVEN, AND OTHER POEMS. By Ford Madox Hueffer. His manner is youthful, dilatory, hedonistic. We John Lane. 3s. 6d. net. know perfectly we have to deal with a man young, The fact that On Heaven is obtainable in a book should not though not raw. "Don Manuel le Paresseux" escape mention; we can now throw away the number of (L'Ecole des Indifférents), for instance, reminds one Poetry for July 1914. The rest of the book will not much " add of harlequinades, for this work has the fleetingness, to the author's reputation." the expressiveness, the elliptical swiftness and the airiness of dumb-show. The youthfulness is due, also, to the weight given to the slightest events— DUNCH. By Susan Miles. B. H. Blackwell, Oxford. 2s. 6d. the weight they assume in our thoughts and not net. , their relative weight in reality: "La nuit où mon Dunch really deserves the quite favourable reviews which it amie me prit la main va s'achever." And in the has had from the majority of the side-whiskered weeklies. Miss importance of every fancy: "Hier, dans la salle (or Mrs.) Miles is a genre writer, i.e. the subject has contributed à manger, au moment de massacrer tous les passagers as much as the writer, and she knows her subject well. Her et son mari." subject is Cranford size and shape, but the world has changed. Her presentation of the village is more a reaction than pure The effect is achieved with the strict and constant observation, but a vigorous and entertaining reaction. There application of elimination, albeit at times the style are possibilities of a larger size satire than Minnie Rolls and the is a little minute. There are no blanks. The text curates and imbeciles in such lines as these which I have not is as full as a tightly corked receptacle can be of air. seen quoted by the reviewers : Occasionally it is a little close-packed (Provinciales, his first book; L'Ecole is freer) ; the metaphor at I want to sing the psalms very loud indeed . . . times strained and in excess. I want to tell the brethren A typical extract : What Jesus has done for me. Toujours des blessés. Heureux encore quand ils ne nous And I want to tell it out among the heathen. regardent pas, entêtés, sans vouloir nous répondre. Heureux I want to be a minister in the Church of Christ Jesus. aussi quand ils ne nous appellent pas, comme celui-là, par notre I want to baptize His babies, nom, car notre nom, ce soir, est plus sensible et plus douloureux And teach His little ones. . . . encore que notre cœur. Space forbids quotation from the exquisite Allé­ EXILES OF THE SNOW, AND OTHER POEMS. By Launcelot Hogben. A. C. Fifield. 2s. net. gories in Provinciales with the transatlantic voyage —incomparable. The dedication "to my comrades of the Stepney Herald From the magnificent frieze, Les Cinq Soirs et les League" does not arouse confidence, the form is reminiscent Cinq Réveils de la Marne, in Lectures pour une ombre, and the content mostly meditative ; but there is a simple which I should like to quote entirely, and from which sincerity which strikes out a good line here and there ("When the following must do : I am old and quite worn out") and which would stand the author in good stead if he would read the right things and work hard. . . . deux vieux mendiants, auxquels nous demandons des allumettes et qui, rouges de confusion et de joie, font pour la première fois, avec maladresse, le geste de donner. THE SAYINGS OF THE CHILDREN. Written down by their mother, Pamela Glenconner. B. H. Blackwell, Oxford. 3s. 6d. And this, more especially : net. "Vous avez eu des blessés?" The Times says: "With little graphic touches and light "Oui." suggestions of the children's unconscious humour she gives these "Et des tués?" sayings something of their first freshness, and here and there "Oui." opens a dizzy glimpse into the shining fairy world of the childish Elles n'osent pas nous demander le nombre exact. Elles mind." To this account there is nothing to add, except, why sentent en elles augmenter peu à peu le chiffre de ceux qu'elles did the Times devote only one column to this book ? sacrifient ; il y en a peut-être eu dix, quinze, vingt, mon Dieu peut-être trente. PER AMICA SILENTIA Lunae. By W. B. Yeats. Macmillan " Cinq cents," dit Bergeot. and Co. 4s. 6d. net. Elles sont atterrées. Bergeot dit qu'il exagère peut-être et Notice later. maintenant leur pensée malhabile, peu à peu, de ces cinq cents morts sauve un par un quelques survivants, dix, quinze, OUR CONTEMPORARIES puis vingt. C'est un peu comme si leur revenaient ceux-là M. Claudel's work reminds one of the religious origin of the justement qu'elle avaient acceptés comme morts. Ah ! si drama.— The Nation. seulement il pouvait s'en sauver trente. At a moment like this we should try to think clearly.— The And how I want to quote at length from "De ma Times. Fenêtre" (in Provinciales), a tapestry of soliloquies The chief pillars of Shakespeare's fame are not his English like this: historical plays.— The Times. La mort est si ancienne qu'on lui parle latin. John Milton was a great poet.— The Times. C'est l'heure où le drap ne fait plus partie de votre corps, (Mr. Gellert's) verse is often what the Australian critics have et se soulève, douillet, avec de petits courants d'air ; c'est a habit of calling " luminous "—but phosphorescent would l'heure où le regard se pose sur les consoles, où l'on voudrait perhaps be a better epithet.— The Times. embrasser quelqu'un qui ne vous embrasserait pas ; c'est l'heure des heures menues que notre hâte ne divise plus en secondes, et où la pendule bat, pour son plaisir, à la mesure de notre Peasant Pottery Shop cœur. This is Giraudoux the intimiste, but there is a 41 Devonshire Street, Theobald's Road, W.C. Giraudoux of wider horizon, the Giraudoux who attri­ (Close to Southampton Row) butes new values to values, who has discovered new laws in perspective, a new reason for literature in Interesting British and Continental prose. : Peasant Pottery on sale : MURIEL CIOLKOWSKA Brightly coloured plaited felt Rugs 76 THE EGOIST May 1918

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