GERORGE MEREDITH.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 158, 28 March 1908, Page 12

GERORGE MEREDITH.

This thoughtful 'article is from tho "Manchester Guardian" of February 12 last "uf'Somofother nimiversane-s of recent years flavo awakened more resoi'arit echoes through ■ the tEuglish-spcaking. world,. 110110/ 'assuredly,has 'surpassed '111 significance for' all tfha n. . fionoui -the English 'speech 'itud' its' I ' ••'-2ft? 8 ' i which, "commemorates the -birth 117 ay ' of George 'Moredith With Co tint Tolstoy, who Will reich the same "age next August, ho stands now almost ■ .'Europe'.ifor tho 'literary. generation i V ,pilt forth its-first 'shy or defiant turts in the early fifties, and in 'the early 1 s, f, ,TOn name noto I" ;Mr..-Swinburne,M from 'the vantage-; ground of less -advanced 'noviciate, write, ,of„. him, as "0110 -of. the three or' four poets hbw ilive"—tho others were doubtless lennyson, Browning and 'Arnold— '''■!> '&<. 'or imperfect,- "is "alwhys ,: BS Hoble 111 design as it is faultless in re--81 at. " ' ,as ,ron a far wider f.lmo, and has intervened more 'dneotly as !i clior and reformer in.tho practical actiucominumtv., ho hns enjoyed even in hiß'tfirn counti-y the honours of a prophet, .. .. arid o.vpfenenied, at -the. cost of no "v'ery s^.ri- : I i elcfry of -Mr.: , --. -Moredith has hold his; naVrower-. audience tangiblo -as :theso.,'- His -cult-has' . \ '•sdke'd ■ the. 'stimiilus;rof : oit]ibr or vjj-.:,. iJiartyHom.: If for years he cried in the wil-' • : not .in the fanatic .tones that: the "multitudo flock to hear, 'and if "anail_ dhy,. ; as Some think, was what he 'preached, : he T-efrmnfed from ohforoing it by the aid of the ltiimnous Undress for which the recluse ;; ■ ■■■■ 01. i asnayh Polyana , renounced the rigdiire of our Civil garb Yet his Wri tings have been ; V fo r a gonerSilaoh 'iimdhg the most cal afld intellectual 'mil denote; of tho timo, a force lilt oneo -omancitiatrftg -and'cbn'sblidatin!'': ' tyPP'ng superstitions, political aVid other, :.'Opywith : 'the;\"solemn,/siieer" or tho decadent, but with tho/'slim, feast- .-.. . ! ing./smile"., of, that -Sovrano Gomic (Spirit *hidi is only, the concentrated "and 'subhmetod essence of life itself His woi'L, witli all Jts abounding vertitrlity of noto, is srnguiarly on? ln.-purport, and, taking, it in largo 1 .: ~ masses, love! in;,-accomplishment-;/and it" has 1 : '>V:S-A'.'f?ffffl , ea.: r as yet-little, hf it: A ill, A h-pm* tho hands of time It seems to share tho ntaJity ,which .it. so penerfully expresses and 1 -- Oommnmoatos. ■ 1 -- ;»- .fate has .-hero , been notably dif'achievements,' in them.j,. , solves. iardly -Surpassed in the w Mo;hiheteenth. bpiitiiry v lie'far bi'ck-; his ldeais; pr-ftfoundly salutary as thfiy wotp fol-- 111s s'ccietv, wore; 'tot> ."deeply, iml ':.-. ;th'd : ,bids-of -'lcftStl arid : tenipprai; , ;. conditions to provo valid, 'arid' . tire ■uhfcoinpromiiiLWg logrc \vith which ~he pursued tn°m to their last 6onsequences only • . JStd bare With .increasing clearness : their iriberent flaws Tolstdv's liter work has thus qi, more,lind more remote relation ' - ; t? '"s time, and Europo reads with mburiifiil pity tho latest pronouncement of hoi mbst celebrated man of letters Tho sway of Mr Meredith, on the other hand, over tho mind .... of-Erigla'riil, riot- merely hasTnbt glased,but is steadily, if slowly, gaming both 111 grip and , aiid if any, "decadoiico" is perccptiblo -in-,. ma >lator .wilting, it -is -the Shake-' spoarean decadonco 6f thoughts too crowded ? and oxpreission too highly charged. His pro- 1 found sanity -of temper remains untouched by ahy suggestion, of senility','and, what' is ■i ;?i •more, tho'central fire of passion which made : : him always sane in the manner of the cleareyed poets, and not in tho manner of the waryoyed plnlistmo, does not burn low Ho •:-.' '; :: : . pa ß riever,- indeed," inadp many concessions to v / f ll6 -- P' a ' n ."philistmo" or other, arid has rirely betrayed rithbr than art ironic 'con-, piousness of his opinions. Yet" his philoso- , , phy of life is: capable of beirig sulriinarised ill ■ terms, which might oasily jass for ,an iiriagin- ..- ative. - version of,. the. plain., man's favourite . .inaiims. . Tho . plain man likeS to strike, a ihrewd bargain ( with competing alt-erliatives, .. . to ifiako tho best of both worlds, arid com- ■ . fcromiso . reasonably between the claims bi 5 : : body and soul, of work and pleasure, of actuality and -romance.. .I'Aidl if;lwdi substituto for. shrewd bargain and reasonable compro- . inlse. tho divining insight 'which.' discovers the lurking, affinities aiid . infccrdependencies of ■ ... appa'rently. opposito things• and. thfeir equal kharo .in the.ideal, synthesis of liuirian life) we get-a: very fair clue to tho cbncfep- : tiotis bf Mr.: Meredith's arid in proSe. Mart grows out of arid has his roo+s ,111 EArtlii which: mtist Isiistain him, however high ho soar; '.'blood, ■ brain and Spirit" \ evolved in that order,,. Compose him, aiid ire - equally needful. .Exaggerated deference to ': ' one or other of these is tho frequent foible of tho personages .upori Worn Mr! Meredith tunis tho caustic illumination; bf the Coinic _■ Bpirit; fathers, for ihstancoj like the elder • Fovarol, with their futile systems for the prematuro discipline of "blood;" or the .. "rose-pink" idealist; wh'ow pretty pictures • of our wind-and-woather-beatcn but always "ascending" souls provoke tho alternative . "dirty drab", of your Realists—"really • your castigations for riot having embraced philosophy. As she grows, in the flesh when aisoreotly tendod; Nature; ,'is uniriipeachable, flowor-liko, yet not too dccor'atii'el.f a. flbwof ; ■ you kibst have her with the stoift", thd tliofiis, tho roots, and tho fat bedding of roses;" A ; union of potent seiises with firid spirit ; oonvorsoly, his ideal and favbUrite men Arid women—ft Beauchamp or a AVhitford. They : ore athletes • and loWfli jflay jqyoiW service^

to Artemis/ and, in her season, to Aphror dite, thoir brain is "a station for tho flight . of soul.'! His superb women owe thoir peculiar magnetism to tho same, or oven richer, moro Shakespearean, union of tho faculties .of soul , and sense. Tho .impetuous genius of Diana seems ill-onough adapted to fetich anyone, oven her lover, ..the right rolatiori of tho . different elomonts of love. . Yet this is-,-just'what her presence, or tho thought of her,;taught ;to .Redworth ;• . : .' "Sho gave him comprehension of. the meaning of lovo; a word in many mouths, not often explained. "With her, wound in his idea of hor, ho perceived it .to signify a now start in 'our. I .existence, a finer shoot 'of tlio tree stoutly planted in tho good gross earth; the serise's'runniug their livri sap, and, tho minck companioned and tho shunts inado one by the whole-natured conjunction. In sooth,- a happy prospect for the sons and daughters of Earth, divinely indicating moro than pinoss, tho speeding of us, compact of what wo are, between tho ascetio rocks and tho the, creati'ori of nobler : races,nbw, very dimly imagined." . . .. Such,passages, pdnotratcd at .oiice with ;ideal .vision,- and - with ' fearless perception of facts/ go . far ;, to/ explain the perennial /freshness of Mr.' Meredith's greater books! They take us at so many points,, wavlay and arrest us in so many moods, whether wo fluctuate and altornato or temper and compromise, disclosing 'to lis an : a : few. pregnant phrases' more' than we dreamed of in thb things we avoided and. iin the things wo chose, and avenues, equally -.undreamed .of, botween them; < -In*publio -affairs Mr. Meredith's influence has>told'in»tho same way. Ho has passed for a revolutionary, and no man m our day has given more magnificent voice to tho revolutionary spirit than he in tho poom addressed, m -December. ,1870, to the , great neighbour iialioh— i-.'.-v. ■ V- - ' •'

ShVthatTdiTin'dy: 'stt'6bk'tW..d&iii ■ From living man,—- 1 and in tho great prose talo of tho uprising of ..-Italy; - - -Yet no.: one;: either, has expressed "wjth .'.mdrer^Qdampelllng, ; pfdwiraf.-'-tho" majesty, 'of, unaltorablo law, beforo .which mero anarchy,■like tho'Satan, of his famous sonnet; sinks ■abashed; The permanent .glbrics of Eartlj ; f and of-Slap are 'for. ; hirii :the very stuff -of Uifd,' - ah'd • -jf * despqn'dont l iotes : ever escape him,Mt is from tno sonso that theso aro im:'perilled *; by. Uhe;-stride:. bf; ';inatonal pfogresi,• seem tbiiyoicmly to'make a. livelihood'and "i4ax riot for the "race when.fiill the trough." :.Yet ho is,nbrip ! the less "the, strong finger .of Progress!- with "ail accent tho. more assured becatiso Kb. litis ! fiiced it;'with,'ip. blear an.apprehension'both '"6f v :the 'ihevitabloperils and::', of - the C safe--%uards within our reach; It our culture, is m\danger, it is vbccauso .it. is built on, 1 too Sarrow. a and.-lapj3li«l;, toa exclusively "to tho science of ail,intellectual- epicureanism.' the .task Of this tough Age; not/inVy.oiir beairi.S to bask; veteran whom England horoiurs to-day is "JKnsj/a's.''-has: been .truly.: said; , the most deim : as well ■ as' the;. oldest, of; .contemporary; stands iii tho £ari; as lid lias always sto'&cl,: the wisde'in of. Hie seer, still armiiip the hfia'rt "of. yoiitt' careless of /current. ■leths,' biit ; a' for :tlie '.pl'imary faith's which i them - all, . arid spising. fto'thirig. biit. ".the j cbwafd iii ...us." which : disturbs .our allegiance tb tlieiri aiid our. .truth-.'to ourselves.— . .