SUNDAY READING

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 144669, 1 May 1915, Page 6

SUNDAY READING

Notes of a sermon preached by the JREV. A. B. CHAPPELL, M.A., in, the Whiteley Memorial Church. THE DOUBLE LIFE. (Monthly sermon on ‘Hiio Gospel according to the Novelists;” .Stevenson’s "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.”) f Text; "Tho flesh lustoth against the spirit, and' the spirit against tho flesh; for those are contrary tho one to the other.”—Galatians, v., 17. An attempt to expound or discuss “The Gospel according to the Novelists” is apt to go astray at the very beginning. Has tho novelist any right to preach? Does not his art as a teller of stories suffer when Ho holds in vjow tho teaching of a definite moral? With some that has happened. The style of the novelist has become didactic, and the talc has limped. But there arc some others, whose place upon the sunlit heights .of literature is assured, who have written “novels with a purpose' 1 without making more prraehnicnts of their stories. Charles Dickons succeeded hero, in more than one ofjtis classic novels. Mark Twain’s "King Leopold's Soliloquy” loses nothing of vigour or pungency because it, is deliberately produced, to arouse a hatred of Congo atrocities and help, a beneficent fund. Robert Louis Stevenson's case is that of a man who could r.eldem if ever write without touching the serious mat tors of the soul. Ho was a religious Scot. Accordingly, in an effortless way as a rule, he mingles elements ol the awesome, the infinite, the eternal, with his literary genius. Ho was much more than “Tusilala” —the teller of tales. Spiritual and abiding verities are matters of impressive moment to hint. He peers into tho recesses of tho spirit. Take the case of his description ot the attempted suicide of Herrick in "Ebb Tide.” No conventional ingredients are there; instead, he admits ns to the depths of tiie struggling man’s experiences iu.a way that is at mice rnoro true and terrible. Such a handling of the sours experiences was natural to Stevenson, and his stories are consequently much more than the fabric ol their plots and the, brilliance of their imaginative development. He confesses that "fable” always attracted him, and behind much of his work there lies a secondary meaning. In tho case of “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” wo are left in no doubt as to what its writer meant by it. It was not intended merely to raise goo.sellt.sh. It is far from being mere ghoulish ghastliness. Speaking of this hook, Stevenson declared; "Tho idea has always boon borne in upon mo that man has not one hut several conscious centres. I daresay many of the public don’t see the allegory. 1 would set no limits to the stupidity of the public.” In his "Chapter on Dreams” he tells how this ghastly talc—that even bravo men have been compelled to put down, dreading to continue its reading in solitude through the night—originated. "I had long boon trying to write a story on tins subject, to find a body, a vehicle, for that strong sense of man’s double being widen must at times rnme in upon ami overwhelm the mind of every thinking creature. . . . For two days I went about racking my brains for a plot of any sort; and on the second night 1 dreamed, the scene til the window and a scene afterward split in two, in which Hyde, pursued for some crime, took the powder and underwent the change in the presence of his pursuers. All tho rest was made awake. . . . Tho moaning of tho tale is therefore mine. Ail that was given me hy my ‘brownies’ was tho matter of some three scenes and the central idea of a. voluntary change becoming involuntary.” On the author’s own showing this story carried

A SOLEMN AND INTENSE MEANING. >ho story itself, which made it* writer famous on both sides of the world, is one of a gruesome, pitiable double life, led by a reputable city medical man. At will, and by methods of his own invention, ho assumes the appearance of a’ repulsively vile criminal, addicted to abominable vices; eventually, without his wish, oven in tragic rebellion against it, he lapses into the brutal personality and is ruined by it. There is a foreshadowing of this theme in ‘Mnrkheim,” a. brief but equally tragic tale; and in “The Master of llallantrac,” as tho degeneration of the tale’s chief character is portrayed, Stevenson has touched tho same leading idea. This book begins with a mystery about a door, the only opening of a dingy two-storeyed building near tho entry of a sinister by-street. Utterson hoars this story from his friend Euilold. Tho latter, at three o’clock one morning, had seen a little man, stumping along, collide with a child and trample over her body like a juggernaut, leaving her screaming on tho ground. Caught and brought back, thus man, horribly repulsive in appearance. had been compelled to give a hundred pounds to the family of tho child, who was more frightened than injured. His captors had accompanied him to that very door, whore ho had let himself in with a key and returned with some gold and a cheque signed with tho name of a popular medical man. The loathsome man’s name was Edward Hyde; the name on.the cheque was that of Dr. Jekyll. Utfersou, who has in his possession Jckyll’s will, recalls the fact that it is made out in favour of Hyde, in a somewhat unusual fashion. The mysterious connection of the two men, so different, puzzles and attracts Dtterson, and provides tho main interest of tho tale. Tho horrible truth is that these two are one. Jekyll, following a lino of' research, discovers a mixture whoso taking liberates tho baser part of him; ho alters bodily, and in his diminished and repulsive shape is

CAPABLE OF THE VILEST DEEDS.

The first experiences of this change ,are exhilarating; hut when, on taking a second dose of tho decoction, Hydo becomes Jokyll again, tho better nature revolts at tho licentious deeds of the baser-. Tho residence of Dr. Jokyll backs upon the dingy dwelling with tho mysterious door; there is the doctor's laboratory, containing tho cabinet into which he shuts himself at intervals. lie persists in his occasional assumption of the character of Hyde, and before long commits a foul aud brutal murder. Compelled to evade tho police, hq determines to relinquish his double life; but ho has gone too far. Tho change into the criminal, at first so.voluntary, becomes involuntary; he retires one night ns Jckyll, and awakes ns Hyde. To make matters worse, the mixture of tho powders, which already needed to be made much stronger to accomplish .his return to Jekyll’s life, presents unexpected difficulties iu tho persistent impurity of. one of them. Cunning but frenzied attempts to secure this in a pure state from suppliers fail, .and Jekyll, still in the. shape of Hyde .although eager to be, restored,-despairs of relief. The .actual state of affairs Is

committed to documents for Utterson’s reading when Jckyll lias either died or disappeared; and so, without knowledge of the fearful truth, but with suspicions of foul play, Utterson breaks into the cabinet where Jekyll has hidden, only to find that Hyde has committed suicide and Jekyll has vanished. The reading of the documents Jekyll has penned admits Utterson (and the reader of the book) to the heart of the tragedy. It is a tragedy of a double life, and Stevenson meant it to carry a solemn meaning for ail men. As' John Addington Symonds said, in writing to the novelist, "Host of us nro on the brink of educating a .Mr. Hyde at some epoch of our being.” Heidey declares that Stevenson himself exemplified, the motif of the story; and, without agreeing with Hen Joys det’ailed application of his idea, one can see in Stevenson a development from adventurer to man of prayer; his case was, if the view is to bo made at all autobiographical, a reversal of Dr. Jekyli’ii. The truth is that in most, if not all natures, there are

INHARMONIOUS ELEMENTS. There is a tug front beneath and a beckoning from above, and our moral education is successful only as we starve tbe Hyde nature and develope the worthier self.

To have made Jekyll secure at last would have spoiled the novelist’s work. In the victory of evil and the consequent ruin of a reputable life, Stevenson deliberately portrayed a solemn certainty where the lower tendencies are played with. Evil gets thus a growing hold, until the power to become bettor dwindles, and there is a culminating tragedy and disclosure. Happily, life for us need not end there. In Stevenson’s story, wo may inquire, could there have been another ending? Symonds, who admired Stevenson beyond hounds, complained (in a letter to him): “The suicide end of Dr. Jekyll is ton ecrnmonplnre. Dr. Jekyll ought to have given Mr. Hyde up to justice. This would hat e vindicated the souse of human dignity which is so horribly outraged in your hook.” But could that have been? Is such an ending artistically possible? It is doubtful. For the world Jekyll had become non-existent; how, then, could he have handed Hyde over? As it is. Jekyll suffers more than he could have done had ho taken earlier such a step. But, quite in keeping with StovenV?' s 'h® l ' o iR the possibility ‘of Joky!! s confessing his plight and making Utterson, who persistently pleaded tor this, his confidant and l helper. Pity and aid would have been instantly forthcoming. Jekyll’s sore Strait needed such help. His victory would doubtless have come that way. Stevenson pointedly suggests this ; it is Jekyll’s retnsal to trust Utterson that intensifies tho tragedy. There lies ’the

PRACTICAL HELPFULNESS of the story. .. Its solemn warning touemng the giving of license to the lower nature is given with startling and ghastly vigour; that is of value to us all. But-the picture it. gives of an eagerly affectionate and influential friend held suieidally at arm’s length has in it both warning and hope. Is the Hyde ’nature being educated in us? Arc tve, when away from restraints of home, and reputable company, guilty of deeds and pursuits that wo should Iks ashamed to acknowledge to mir pure home-friends? Does the lower nature threaten to dominate us? J'or our life’s sake we must get help, help from tho groat Friend and Lover of our .Sou’s. "There goes John Newton,’’ cried the old saint, as Borrow tells the familiar incident of his seeing a man being taken away to be hanged, "but lor tho grace of God!’’ Tho grace of God! It is Stevenson’s own phrase. To Herrick, who has acknowledged his utter disbelief in God, he makes Attwater say that it is only by tho grace of God that wo live at all, —"the grace of your Maker and Redeemer, Flo who died for you. He who upholds you. He whom you daily crucify afresh.' . . ,

Nothing hut God’s grace! AVo walk upon it; wo breathe it; wo live and die by it; it makes tho nails and axles of tho universe!” Stevenson, who every hour for years seemed likely to die. yet worked heroically on, might well declare his creed so.

God’s grace, as favour and power, the help of a real am! near Friend, is available to us. Ho waits to help. He pleads with us to make Him our confidant, and helper. Is your lower nature assertive? Is it increasing its hold? Seek Him, tender and mighty; confide in Him; trust Him. His aid will make you what you long to he, and give the spirit victory over the lusting flesh.