E-text prepared by Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier,
and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
()
London
MACMILLAN AND CO.
1873
All rights reserved
'I entirely agree with you as to the ill tendency of the affecteddoubts of some philosophers and the fantastical conceits of others.I am even so far gone of late in this way of thinking, that I havequitted several of the sublime notions I had got in their schoolsfor vulgar opinions. And I give it you on my word, that since thisrevolt from metaphysical notions to the plain dictates of natureand common sense, I find my understanding strangely enlightened, sothat I can now easily comprehend a great many things which beforewere all mystery and riddle.'—Berkeley's Hylas and Philonous.
The book was all but finished, and only the Preface remained, over whichI was hesitating, apprehensive equally of putting into it too much andtoo little, when one of the most frequent 'companions of my solitude'came to my aid, shewing me, in fragments, a preface already nearlywritten, and needing only a little piecing to become forthwithpresentable. Here it is.
'In these sick days, in a world such as ours, richer than usual inTruths grown obsolete, what can the fool think but that it is all a Denof Lies wherein whoso will not speak and act Lies must stand idle anddespair?' Whereby it happens that for the artist who would fain ministermedicinally to the relief of folly, 'the publishing of a Work of Art,'designed, like this, to redeem Truth from premature obsolescence,'becomes almost a necessity.' For, albeit, 'in the heart of the speakerthere ought to be some kind of gospel tidings burning until it beuttered, so that otherwise it were better for him that he altogetherheld his peace,' still, than to have fire burning within, and not to put[Pg vi]it forth, not many worse things are readily imaginable.
'Has the word Duty no meaning? Is what we call Duty no divine messengerand guide, but a false, earthly fantasm, made up of Desire and Fear?' Inthat' Logic-mill of thine' hast thou 'an earthly mechanism for theGodlike itself, and for grinding out Virtue from the husks of Pleasure?I tell thee, Nay! Otherwise, not on Morality, but on Cookery, let usbuild our stronghold. There, brandishing our frying-pan as censer, letus offer up sweet incense to the Devil, and live at ease on the fatthings he has provided for his elect,' seeing that 'with stupidity andsound digestion, man may front much.'
Or, 'is there no God? or, at best, an absentee God, sitting idle eversince the first Sabbath, at the outside of His universe, and seeing itgo?' Know that for man's well-being, whatever else be needed, 'Faith isone thing needful.' Mark, 'how, with it, Martyrs, otherwise weak, cancheerfully endure the shame and the cross; how, without it, worldlingspuke up their sick existence, by suicide, in the midst of luxury.' Ofhow much else, 'for a pure moral nature, is not the loss of ReligiousBelief the loss?' 'All wounds, the crush of long-continued Destitution,the stab of false Friendship and of false Love, all wounds in the sogenial heart w