Chapter XLIV: Section III: Literature the Definition of Man

Who is he; and what is the value of this literature of which he is one of the princes? At bottom, like every literature, it is a definition of man; and to judge it, we must compare it with man. We can do so now; we have just studied a mind, Thackeray himself; we have considered his faculties, their connections, results, their different degrees; we have before our eyes a model of human nature. We have a right to judge of the copy by the model, and to control the definition which his novels lay down by the definition which his character furnishes.

The two definitions are contrary, and his portrait is a criticism on his talent. We have seen that in him the same faculties produce the beautiful and the ugly, force and weakness, success and failure; that moral reflection, after having provided him with every satirical power, debases him in art; that, after having spread over his contemporary novels a tone of vulgarity and falseness, it raises his historical novel to the level of the finest productions; that the same constitution of mind teaches him the sarcastic and violent, as well as the modulated and simple style, the bitterness and harshness of hate with the effusion and delicacy of love. The evil and the good, the beautiful and the ugly, the repulsive and the agreeable, are in him then but remoter effects, of slight importance, born of changing circumstances, acquired and fortuitous qualities, not essential and primitive, different forms which different streams present in the same current. So it is with other men. Doubtless moral qualities are of the first rank; they are the motive power of civilization, and constitute the nobleness of the individual; society exists by them alone, and by them alone man is great. But if they are the finest fruit of the human plant, they are not its root; they give us our value, but do not constitute our elements. Neither the vices nor the virtues of man are his nature; to praise or to blame him is not to know him; approbation or disapprobation does not define him; the names of good or bad tell us nothing of what he is. Put the robber Cartouche in an Italian court of the fifteenth century: he would be a great statesman. Transport this nobleman, stingy and narrow-minded, into a shop; he will be an exemplary tradesman. This public man, of inflexible probity, is in his drawing-room an intolerable coxcomb. This father of a family, so humane, is an idiotic politician. Change a virtue in its circumstances, and it becomes a vice; change a vice in its circumstances, and it becomes a virtue. Regard the same quality from two sides: on one it is a fault, on the other a merit. The essential man is found concealed far below these moral badges; they only point out the useful or noxious effect of our inner constitution; they do not reveal our inner constitution. They are safety or advertising lights attached to our names, to warn the passer-by to avoid or approach us; they are not the explanatory chart of our being. Our true essence consists in the causes of our good or bad qualities, and these causes are discovered in the temperament, the species and degree of imagination, the amount and velocity of attention, the magnitude and direction of primitive passions. A character is a force, like gravity, or steam, capable, as it may happen, of pernicious or profitable effects, and which must be defined otherwise than by the amount of the weight it can lift or the havoc it can cause. It is therefore to ignore man, to reduce him, as Thackeray and English literature generally do, to an aggregate of virtues and vices; it is to lose sight in him of all but the exterior and social side; it is to neglect the inner and natural element. We will find the same fault in English criticism, always moral, never psychological, bent on exactly measuring the degree of human honesty, ignorant of the mechanism of our sentiments and faculties; we will find the same fault in English religion, which is but an emotion or a discipline; in their philosophy, destitute of metaphysics; and if we ascend to the source, according to the rule which derives vices from virtues, and virtues from vices, we will see all these weaknesses derived from their native energy, their practical education, and that kind of severe and religious poetic instinct which has in time past made them Protestant and Puritan.

[Footnote 264: "Vanity Fair." Unless the original octavo edition is mentioned, the translator has always used the collected edition of Thackeray's works in small octavo, 1855-1868, 14 vols.]

[Footnote 265: "Vanity Fair," ch. XIX.]

[Footnote 266: "Vanity Fair," ch. IX.]

[Footnote 267: Thackeray, in his "Book of Snobs," says: "Their usual English expression of intense gloom and subdued agony."]

[Footnote 268: "The Edinburgh Review."]

[Footnote 269: See the character of Amelia in "Vanity Fair," and of Colonel Newcome in the "Newcomes."]

[Footnote 270: "The Book of Snobs," ch. XVI; On Literary Snobs.]

[Footnote 271: Stendhal says: "L'esprit et le génie perdent vingt-cinq pour cent de leur valeur en abordant en Angleterre."]

[Footnote 272: These remarks are only to be found in the octavo edition of "Pendennis."--Tr.]

[Footnote 273: "The History of Samuel Titmarsh and the Great Hoggarty Diamond," ch. XI.]

[Footnote 274: Ibid. ch. IX.]

[Footnote 275: "The Book of Snobs," ch. I., The Snob playfully dealt with.]

[Footnote 276: "Pendennis," ch. LIV.]

[Footnote 277: Ibid. ch. LII.]

[Footnote 278: Ibid. ch. LIII.]

[Footnote 279: Ibid. ch. V.]

[Footnote 280: "Pendennis," ch. XXI. This passage is only found in the octavo edition.--Tr.]

[Footnote 281: Ibid. ch. XXI.]

[Footnote 282: Ibid. ch. XXI. These words are only found in the octavo edition.--Tr.]

[Footnote 283: Ibid. ch. LI.]

[Footnote 284: See, for example, in the "Great Hoggarty Diamond," the death of the little child. The "Book of Snobs" ends thus: "Fun is good. Truth is still better, and Love best of all."]

[Footnote 285: "The Book of Snobs," last chapter.]

[Footnote 286: "Vanity Fair," ch. XLVIII. This passage is only found in the original octavo edition.--Tr.]

[Footnote 287: "Vanity Fair," ch. XLIX.]

[Footnote 288: "Pendennis," ch. LX.]

[Footnote 289: "The Book of Snobs," ch. VIII; Great City Snobs.]

[Footnote 290: "The Book of Snobs," ch. XXVI; On Some Country Snobs.]

[Footnote 291: "Vanity Fair," ch. IV.]

[Footnote 292: Ibid. ch. XI.]

[Footnote 293: "Vanity Fair," ch. XXX.]

[Footnote 294: "The History of Henry Esmond," bk. I. ch. I.]

[Footnote 295: Ibid. bk. I. ch. VII.]

[Footnote 296: Ibid. bk. II. ch. I.]

[Footnote 297: "The History of Henry Esmond," bk. III. ch. II.]

[Footnote 298: "The History of Henry Esmond," bk. III. ch. XIII.]

CHAPTER THIRD

CRITICISM AND HISTORY--MACAULAY