THINGS AND THOUGHTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2650, 28 December 1904, Page 77

THINGS AND THOUGHTS.

By John Christix.

WOMAN. Spenser, Dennyson, Meredith, and Leslie were discussing, as evergreen young men will, the evergreen subject of woman. "What I should like,'' said Spenser, "is a genuinely honest, outspoken characterisation of woman by a genuinely outspoken, able woman, uninfluenced in that connection by spurious sentiment, mere social convention, or the standards wjjich men have set up in respect to what they think women are or should be. Were the thing done with true dramatic insight, unswerving sympathy with the vital and prevailing truth of Nature, and downright directness of expression, we should have a literary masterpiece which would last forever, and be a source of perpetual entertainment aid edification to the world." "Poor boy !" observed Dennyson ; "how he yearns for a slice of the moon !" "In any case," added Meredith, "vu:.t do we want with descriptions and 1 rtrainatisations, when we have the real thing jn woman herself." "Had God cqnsidered that view of thematter sufficing," interjected Leslie, "lie would hardly have created Shakespeare, unless, indeed, he did so for the mere joy of making so glorious a being. But be this as it may, Nature is good; and just because she is "so, it is good to have her in art as veil 'as in herself." "Of course," resumed Spenser, "I^aresay that if everything with respect to women were, co-ordinated' from all the fields of human expression, we should have a cyclopediac compilation or collection, from which one might draw or construct a philosophy of- woman, And what a collection ! A mighty maze, but not without a plan. Biit that is not what I am aiming at ;■ I vvant an artistic recreation or reproduction which would ' give us everything that is Tital, salient, prevailing, and pervasive in woman's nature." "Still hankering for the impossible," blurted Dennyson. "I agree with Spenser on one point,'' said Meredith ; "that is, to the extent of preferring a dramatic creation to a collection of what has ,been thought, said, and written, painted, sculptured, or musically expressed in respect to woman ; though even an attempt in this line 'would be mightily interesting. It would have to include all Shakespeare's female characters ; cvl that is said or shown in respect to woman in the Hebrew Scriptures — those rich, mines of primary reality ; the women in Greek literature, from the nurse of Eumaeus to Antigone, that divinest rose of womanhood ; the realistic sketches in poets like Horace and Juvenal, who drew from life, which cannot be said unreservedly of Chaucer or Babelais, who, in respect to woman, allowed themselves to traffic in the obscene travesties projected into medieval literature by the monkish mind or imagination. Moliere and Congreve, however, should be placed under contribution, because they, too, had their eyes on the object. All that is vitally pertinent would have to be drawn from, these and other sources, as it were, into one clear reservoir before we could come to a comvrehensive conclusion respecting woman, as she has— been understood and described by the master minds of the world." "It seems to me," said Dennyson, "that you fellows are But what do you think, Leslie?" "I think," replied that serious youth, ''that old Esdras was right when he said : 'Yea, many there be that have run out of their wits for women, and have become servants for their sakes. Many also have perished, have erred, and sinned for women.' " "Hardly to the point," rejoined Dennyson ; "though I suppose it is the kind of thing that would have to be worked 1 into the cyclopediac collection of Spenser and Meredith." "It certainly suggests," remarked Merediih, "how much might be done in the matter by means of mere quotations. Do you remember the lines of the chorus in 'Samson Agonistes,' after the interview between Dalila and Samson? It is aiot virtue, wisdom, valour, wit, Strength, comeliness of shape, or amplest merit, That woman's love can win, or long inherit; But what it is 'hard is to say, Harder to hit, "Which way soever man refer it. "Well," observed Dennyson, "I have the greatest admiration and reverence for Milton, that august and immortal man ; but this summary of the sex ..through the medium of Dalila is that of a Puritan or pedant, who describes a curiously complex and elusive character from the point of view of the mere moralist, whose morality in ilia matter is the product of convention, not of deep and far-reaching affinity with Nature. What has any woman to do

with a collection of qualities, efforts, or achievements in any man, unless his manhood, in itself and by itself, appeals to her womanhood, as a thing that satisfies her on that primary and enduring ground? It is this correspondence which Nature insists on, and where it exists woman is true to the extent of self-sacrifice ; where it does not exist, Nature absolves her from the obligations of conventional conformity. To me, at anyrate, it seems that we err in ascribing mere lightness or heartlessness to a woman like Martha Blount when she exclaims in respect to Pope, 'Is he not dead yet?' or to a Fanny Brawne, when she says of Keats that 'the . sooner he and his works are forgotten the better.' Certain men have the misfortune to obtrude themselves upon certain women who are essentially out of affinity with them ; but when the woman deals harshly with the man from a man's point of view, it should be considered whether she is not all the while strictly loyal to the essential integrity of a being whose paramount purpose in the scheme of Nature is to be the mother of the child of the man whom she loves with her whole heart." "I think," remarked Leslie, "I could find even -in Byron lines much more truly descriptive of woman than Meredith's quotation from Milton. For instance, this passage in 'Sardanapalus' : The very first Of human life must spring from, woman's breast. Your first small "words are taught you from her lips.. Your first tears quenched by her, and your last sighs Too often breathed out in a woman's hearing. "Not bad as a sentimental summary,"' answered Dennyson ; "but for real .light on woman from Byron — that is, such real light as Byron has to give, though it may b^e only that of stage lighting, the flare of passion and gin in process of combustion, or the sinister gleam of a rakish humour — you must go to 'Beppo' and 'Don Juan.' These select sources would certainly Jaave to be drawn upon to ensure completeness in Spenser's collection." . i \ > "What about Burns?" asked Meredith. Surely he knew woman : The gxist of joy, the balm of woe, The soul o' life, the heaven belowj Is rapture-giving woman. This to me rings truer than anything in Milton or Byron." " " "Yes, doubtless ; especially of woman in the days of sweethearting^" observed Dennyson. "Burns, as an authority -on woman in that connection,' is, perhaps, supreme. Dnce, when I was discussing him with a lady who might have been another Sappho, she significantly summed up the whole argument with the ' eelamation : 'He was such a lover !' Was the saying' not, in a sense, a -flash that- disclosed" a large permanent track in the character of woman , herself? Generally speaking, does any woman ever really care for any man. — not herson, brother or father — unless she consciously or sub-consciously thinks of him as — at least potentially — a lover ?> - And does lovership not cover all sins in a wo- i man's estimation? But are we not becominjr too metaphysical? A college chum of mine once compressed his philosophy of women into a little fable which, if you like, I will endeavour to repeat for your edification. He called it : ORIGINS. When Eternity gave birth to God and Satan, her joy, in its sweetness, was akin to that of the traveller, who after a long and lonely sojourn in the desert, finds himself in a- land of pleasant pastures and hospitable homesteads. And the twin brethren were exceeding goodly to behold ; in power and beauty surpassing ail understanding, except that of their mighty mother. Yet, except for wonderfulness, they were in no way alike, the one with the other. God's happiness consisted in thinking, thinking. Happy had he thought on till he and all else had become one endless immeasurable thought, with naught but that thought anywhere throughout the sweet wide spaces of the univeras. And peradventure ihis might have come to pass but for the vainglory of his brother, who was in no wise minded to rejoice for ever in the mightiness of eternal peace ; but was fain/ in his weakness, which he misdeemed strength, to be up and doing, were it only to mar, what had been made, or undto'what had been done, v Howbeit Satan had it,, not in himself, to do or to make without pattern or example, but only as an imitator of that which must need 3 in the first place have come from the hand of his brother. Now, at all this God was much displeased. Yet could he not turn away for ever, and utterly pass beyond Satan's presence, or banish Satan to the uttermost iintoiiehed^borders of tlie universe. For he, God, was everywhere, andi so, too, was Satan. Such was the nature of Sa.tan, and such also the nature of God. So it came to pass that the spirit of the lesser brother worked subtdlely upon the spirit of the greater, till of the images in Godl's mind some were changed by God's hand to outwaid and visible things. t Great was the wonderfulnees, great also the beauty thereof. And so Sata.n found happiness; yet not because of the worth of God's landiwork, but because he had, by subtility, contrived to cause God to do that which was favourable to his own ends. In this- wise was it that sorrow and death and evil come mto the world; for thereupon Satan betook himself to evilly considering the works of his brother's hands. Naught could he make as of his own invention, yet right deft was he at'the finding of faults in his brother's handiwork and at snowing how, otherwise, it might have been more cunningly conceived or featly finished. So Satan became the father and first of them who were afterwards known amongst men as critics; a race numerous as the sands of the seashore, and much misgiven to disquietness. Once in a long while would he adventure upon a continuation or imitation of that which had been made by the hancli of God. In nowise were such things like unto the work of his brother for excellence ; but inasmuch as he, too, was born oi the same womb into immortality, that which he irade was, nevertheless, enduring also — after its kind. Then it came to pass that in the multitude of Ilia works God made man, in whom he took pleasure as exceeding in goodliness all else that tad come from his hands; whereupon a great and deep satisfaction settled into his soul, and filled also to overflowing the whole being of his creature. But to all this Satan was minded to put an endi, and he taunted God, saying that man, after all, was not of a stable strength or beauty, »

and that his glory was as the shadow of a olcmd that passes ere one hath time to mark its place. Now this griev-d God, and, as h' others will, he defied Satan to hurt or harm the vrot.'» of his hands. Thereupon Satan withdrew to a great Vr.liness, and pondered miicli' what he migLt fit to humble God, who, when he saw what was passing in Satan's mind, repented of having defied him. Nevertheless, Satan persevered' in his purpose, and after a long while he came ferlh from his place, leading by the hand his creature, woman, in whom, when his eyes first beheld her, man professed great gladness of heart. But God grieved exceedingly, and was sore troubled in the innermost depths of his spirit. Wherefor, since then, there has been no peace between God and Satan, and none in the world. "How blasphemous!" '"What a libel!"