[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.A greatGerman poet has well defined the distinction between discretion and the larger wisdom.In the lastthere is a certain rashness which the first disdains,--"The purblind see but the receding shore, Not that to which the bold wave wafts them o'er."Yet in this logic of the prudent and the worldly there is often a reasoning unanswerable of its kind.You must have a feeling,--a faith in whatever is self-sacrificing and divine, whether in religion or inart, in glory or in love; or Common-sense will reason you out of the sacrifice, and a syllogism willdebase the Divine to an article in the market.Every true critic in art, from Aristotle and Pliny, from Winkelman and Vasari to Reynolds and Fuseli,has sought to instruct the painter that Nature is not to be copied, but EXALTED; that the loftiestorder of art, selecting only the loftiest combinations, is the perpetual struggle of Humanity toapproach the gods.The great painter, as the great author, embodies what is POSSIBLE to MAN, itis true, but what is not COMMON to MANKIND.There is truth in Hamlet; in Macbeth, and hiswitches; in Desdemona; in Othello; in Prospero, and in Caliban; there is truth in the cartoons ofRaphael; there is truth in the Apollo, the Antinous, and the Laocoon.But you do not meet theoriginals of the words, the cartoons, or the marble, in Oxford Street or St.James's.All these, toreturn to Raphael, are the creatures of the idea in the artist's mind.This idea is not inborn, it hascome from an intense study.But that study has been of the ideal that can be raised from thepositive and the actual into grandeur and beauty.The commonest model becomes full of exquisitesuggestions to him who has formed this idea; a Venus of flesh and blood would be vulgarised by theimitation of him who has not.When asked where he got his models, Guido summoned a common porter from his calling, anddrew from a mean original a head of surpassing beauty.It resembled the porter, but idealised theporter to the hero.It was true, but it was not real.There are critics who will tell you that the Boor ofTeniers is more true to Nature than the Porter of Guido! The commonplace public scarcelyunderstand the idealising principle, even in art; for high art is an acquired taste.But to come to my comparison.Still less is the kindred principle comprehended in conduct.And theadvice of worldly prudence would as often deter from the risks of virtue as from the punishments ofvice; yet in conduct, as in art, there is an idea of the great and beautiful, by which men should exaltthe hackneyed and the trite of life.Now Glyndon felt the sober prudence of Mervale's reasonings;he recoiled from the probable picture placed before him, in his devotion to the one master-talent hepossessed, and the one master-passion that, rightly directed, might purify his whole being as astrong wind purifies the air.But though he could not bring himself to decide in the teeth of so rational a judgment, neither couldhe resolve at once to abandon the pursuit of Viola.Fearful of being influenced by Zanoni's counselsand his own heart, he had for the last two days shunned an interview with the young actress.Butafter a night following his last conversation with Zanoni, and that we have just recorded withMervale,--a night coloured by dreams so distinct as to seem prophetic, dreams that appeared so toshape his future according to the hints of Zanoni that he could have fancied Zanoni himself had sentthem from the house of sleep to haunt his pillow,--he resolved once more to seek Viola; and thoughwithout a definite or distinct object, he yielded himself up to the impulse of his heart.CHAPTER 2.X.O sollecito dubbio e fredda temaChe pensando l'accresci.Tasso, Canzone vi.(O anxious doubt and chilling fear that grows by thinking.)She was seated outside her door,--the young actress! The sea before her in that heavenly bayseemed literally to sleep in the arms of the shore; while, to the right, not far off, rose the dark andtangled crags to which the traveller of to-day is duly brought to gaze on the tomb of Virgil, orcompare with the cavern of Posilipo the archway of Highgate Hill.There were a few fishermanloitering by the cliffs, on which their nets were hung to dry; and at a distance the sound of somerustic pipe (more common at that day than at this), mingled now and then with the bells of the lazymules, broke the voluptuous silence,--the silence of declining noon on the shores of Naples; never,till you have enjoyed it, never, till you have felt its enervating but delicious charm, believe that youcan comprehend all the meaning of the Dolce far niente (The pleasure of doing nothing.); and whenthat luxury has been known, when you have breathed that atmosphere of fairy-land, then you will nolonger wonder why the heart ripens into fruit so sudden and so rich beneath the rosy skies and theglorious sunshine of the South.The eyes of the actress were fixed on the broad blue deep beyond.In the unwonted negligence ofher dress might be traced the abstraction of her mind.Her beautiful hair was gathered up loosely,and partially bandaged by a kerchief whose purple colour served to deepen the golden hue of hertresses [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]