Cobwebs of Thought | Page 8

Carlyle, who also described, as "a
sawdust kind of talk," John Stuart Mill's expression of belief and
interest in reforming and raising the whole social mass of toiling
millions.
Bracing and stimulating, as is Carlyle's strong, stern doctrine of
independence, of work, and of adherence to Truth for its own sake, we
feel the loss his character sustained, through the contempt that grew
upon him for the greater part of humanity. The Nemesis of contempt
was shown in his inability at last to see even in individuals, the greatest
things. Physical force came to be admired by him for itself. From
hero-worship, he passed "to strong rulers, and saviours of society."
The worth of the individual, withered and changed, and Carlyle's hopes
rested finally on strength alone, just as George Eliot's thoughts centred
on the influence human beings exercised on each other, and there is
extraordinary beauty in this idea. How striking is her conception of the
good we all receive from even the simplest lives, if they have been true
lives. "The growing good of the world is partly dependent upon
unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they
might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a
hidden life and rest in unvisited tombs." But some who read her books
feel an underlying tone of sadness--a melancholy whisper as of a
finality, an inevitable end to all future development, even of the
greatest personalities. Many other writers have believed that men live
in the world's memory only by what they have done in the world, but
George Eliot is definite that this memory is all, that personality has no
other chance of surviving. Her hopes rested on being:
"The sweet presence of a good diffused, And in diffusion ever more
intense, So shall I join the Choir Invisible Whose music is the gladness
of the world."
Both George Eliot and Carlyle over accentuated one the race, the other
the individual.
Mazzini's place in thought was exactly between the two.

He believed in God and Collective Humanity. Humanity in God. He
said: "We cannot relate ourselves to the Divine, but through collective
humanity. Mr. Carlyle comprehends only the individual; the true sense
of the unity of the race escapes him. He sympathises with men, but it is
with the separate life of each man, and not their collective life."[3]
Collective labour, according to an educational plan, designed by
Providence, was, Mazzini believed, the only possible development of
Humanity.
He could never have trusted in any good and effective development
from Humanity alone.
Nationality, he reverenced, and widened the idea, until it embraced the
whole world. He said it was the mission, the special vocation of all who
felt the mutual responsibility of men. But nationality of Italy meant to
Carlyle, only "the glory of having produced Dante and Columbus," and
he cared for them not for the national thought they interpreted, but as
gigantic men. Mazzini cared for "the progressive history of mankind,"
Carlyle for "the Biography of great men."
Carlyle's sadness "unending sadness," came, Mazzini thought from
looking at human life only from the individual point of view. And a
poem by Browning, "Cleon" would have afforded him another example
of "the disenchantment and discouragement of life," from
individualism.
Browning was as great an individualist as Carlyle; he stood as far apart
from belief in Collective Humanity, and Democracy as Carlyle did,
though in Italy, he felt the thrill of its nationality, as Carlyle did not.
But Mazzini might have said also truly of Browning, that, with the
exception of Italy, "he sympathised with the separate life of each man
and not with their collective life." The sadness Mazzini attributed to
Carlyle's strong individualistic point of view, ought logically then to
have been the heritage of Browning also. If Mazzini's explanation was
the true one, it is another proof of the difficulty of tabulating humanity,
or of making a science of human nature. For the Individualist Browning,
far from being remarkable for sadness, was the greatest of optimists
amongst English poets. He had a far wider range of sympathies, than
Carlyle, for failure attracted him, as much as victory, the Conquered
equally with the Conqueror, indeed every shade of character interested
him. Perhaps he expresses through "Cleon" some of his own strongest

feelings, his insistence on the worth of individuality, his craving for
deeper joy, fuller life than this world gives, and his horror of the
destruction of personality. Cleon, the Greek Artist, is indeed "the other
side" to the poetic altruism of "The Pilgrims" and "The Choir
Invisible." Never was the yearning for Personal Continuance more
vividly and more humanly presented. The Greek Artist, without any
knowledge of, or belief in Immortality, hungers after it. Browning
represents him