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Literary Character of Men of Genius by Isaac Disraeli

I >> Isaac Disraeli >> Literary Character of Men of Genius




[Footnote B: Harris, with systematic ingenuity against James I., after
abusing this tract as a wretched performance, though himself probably had
written a meaner one--quotes the curious information the king gives of the
enormous abuse to which the practice of smoking was carried, expressing
his astonishment at it. Yet, that James may not escape bitter censure, he
abuses the king for levying a heavy tax on it to prevent this ruinous
consumption, and his silly policy in discouraging such a branch of our
revenues, and an article so valuable to our plantations, &c. As if James
I. could possibly incur censure for the discoveries of two centuries
after, of the nature of this plant! James saw great families ruined by the
epidemic madness, and sacrificed the revenues which his crown might derive
from it, to assist its suppression. This was patriotism in the monarch.]

It was a prompt honesty of intention to benefit his people, which seems to
have been the urgent motive that induced this monarch to become an author,
more than any literary ambition; for he writes on no prepared or permanent
topic, and even published anonymously, and as he once wrote "post-haste,"
what he composed or designed for practical and immediate use; and even in
that admirable treatise on the duties of a sovereign, which he addressed
to Prince Henry, a great portion is directed to the exigencies of the
times, the parties, and the circumstances of his own court. Of the works
now more particularly noticed, their interest has ceased with the
melancholy follies which at length have passed away; although the
philosophical inquirer will not choose to drop this chapter in the history
of mankind. But one fact in favour of our royal author is testified by the
honest Fuller and the cynical Osborne. On the king's arrival in England,
having discovered the numerous impostures and illusions which he had often
referred to as authorities, he grew suspicious of the whole system
of "Daemonologie," and at length recanted it entirely. With the same
conscientious zeal James had written the book, the king condemned it; and
the sovereign separated himself from the author, in the cause of truth;
but the clergy and the parliament persisted in making the imaginary crime
felony by the statute, and it is only a recent act of parliament which has
forbidden the appearance of the possessed and the spae-wife.

But this apology for having written these treatises need not rest on this
fact, however honourably it appeals to our candour. Let us place it on
higher ground, and tell those who asperse this monarch for his credulity
and intellectual weakness, that they themselves, had they lived in the
reign of James I., had probably written on the same topics, and felt as
uneasy at the rumour of a witch being a resident in their neighbourhood!

* * * * *

POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS OF THE AGE.


This and the succeeding age were the times of omens and meteors,
prognostics and providences--of "day-fatality," or the superstition of
fortunate and unfortunate days, and the combined powers of astrology and
magic. It was only at the close of the century of James I. that Bayle
wrote a treatise on comets, to prove that they had no influence in the
cabinets of princes; this was, however, done with all the precaution
imaginable. The greatest minds were then sinking under such popular
superstitions: and whoever has read much of the private history of
this age will have smiled at their ludicrous terrors and bewildered
reasonings. The most ordinary events were attributed to an interposition
of Providence. In the unpublished memoirs of that learned antiquary, Sir
Symouds D'Ewes, such frequently occur. When a comet appeared, and D'Ewes,
for exercise at college, had been ringing the great bell, and entangled
himself in the rope, which had nearly strangled him, he resolves not to
ring while the comet is in the heavens. When a fire happened at the Six
Clerks' Office, of whom his father was one, he inquires into the most
prominent sins of the six clerks: these were the love of the world, and
doing business on Sundays: and it seems they thought so themselves; for
after the fire the office-door was fast closed on the Sabbath. When the
Thames had an unusual ebb and flow, it was observed, that it had never
happened in their recollection, but just before the rising of the Earl of
Essex in Elizabeth's reign,--and Sir Symonds became uneasy at the
political aspect of affairs.

All the historians of these times are very particular in marking the
bearded beams of blazing stars; and the first public event that occurs is
always connected with the radiant course. Arthur Wilson describes one
which preceded the death of the simple queen of James I. It was generally
imagined that "this great light in the heaven was sent as a flambeaux to
her funeral;" but the historian discovers, while "this blaze was burning,
the fire of war broke out in Bohemia." It was found difficult to decide
between the two opinions; and Rushworth, who wrote long afterwards,
carefully chronicles both.

The truth is, the greatest geniuses of the age of James I. were as deeply
concerned in these investigations as his Majesty. Had the great Verulam
emancipated himself from all the dreams of his age? He speaks indeed
cautiously of witchcraft, but does not deny its occult agency; and of
astrology he is rather for the improvement than the rejection. The bold
spirit of Rawleigh contended with the superstitions of the times; but how
feeble is the contest where we fear to strike! Even Rawleigh is prodigal
of his praise to James for the king's chapter on magic. The great mind of
Rawleigh perceived how much men are formed and changed by _education;_
but, were this principle admitted to its extent, the _stars_ would
lose their influence! In pleading for the free agency of man, he would
escape from the pernicious tendency of predestination, or the astral
influence, which yet he allows. To extricate himself from the dilemma,
he invents an analogical reasoning of a royal power of dispensing
with the laws in extreme cases; so that, though he does not deny "the
binding of the stars," he declares they are controllable by the will of
the Creator. In this manner, fettered by prevalent opinions, he satisfies
the superstitions of an astrological age, and the penetration of his own
genius. At a much later period Dr Henry More, a writer of genius,
confirmed the ghost and demon creed, by a number of facts, as marvellously
pleasant as any his own poetical fancy could have invented. Other great
authors have not less distinguished themselves. When has there appeared a
single genius who at once could free himself of the traditional prejudices
of his contemporaries--nay, of his own party? Genius, in its advancement
beyond the intelligence of its own age, is but progressive; it is
fancifully said to soar, but it only climbs. Yet the minds of some authors
of this age are often discovered to be superior to their work; because the
mind is impelled by its own inherent powers, but the work usually
originates in the age. James I, once acutely observed, how "the author may
be wise, but the work foolish."

Thus minds of a higher rank than our royal author had not yet cleared
themselves out of these clouds of popular prejudices. We now proceed to
more decisive results of the superior capacity of this much ill-used
monarch.

* * * * *

THE HABITS OF JAMES THE FIRST THOSE OF A MAN OF LETTERS.


The habits of life of this monarch were those of a man of letters. His
first studies were soothed by none of their enticements. If James loved
literature, it was for itself; for Buchanan did not tinge the rim of the
vase with honey; and the bitterness was tasted not only in the draught,
but also in the rod. In some princes, the harsh discipline James passed
through has raised a strong aversion against literature. The Dauphin, for
whose use was formed the well-known edition of the classics, looked on the
volumes with no eye of love. To free himself of his tutor, Huet, he
eagerly consented to an early marriage. "Now we shall see if Mr. Huet
shall any more keep me to ancient geography!" exclaimed the Dauphin,
rejoicing in the first act of despotism. This ingenuous sally, it is said,
too deeply affected that learned man for many years afterwards. Huet's
zealous gentleness (for how could Huet be too rigid?) wanted the art which
Buchanan disdained to practise. But, in the case of the prince of
Scotland, a constitutional timidity combining with an ardour for study,
and therefore a veneration for his tutor, produced a more remarkable
effect. Such was the terror which the remembrance of this illustrious but
inexorable republican left on the imagination of his royal pupil, that
even so late as when James was seated on the English throne, once the
appearance of his frowning tutor in a dream greatly agitated the king,
who in vain attempted to pacify him in this portentous vision. This
extraordinary fact may be found in a manuscript letter of that day.[A]

[Footnote A: The learned Mede wrote the present letter soon after another,
which had not been acknowledged, to his friend Sir M. Stuteville; and the
writer is uneasy lest the political secrets of the day might bring the
parties into trouble. It seems he was desirous that letter should be read
and then burnt.

"_March 31, 1622._

"I hope my letter miscarried not; if it did I am in a sweet pickle. I
desired to hear from you of the receipt and extinction of it. Though there
is no danger in my letters whilst report is so rife, yet when it is
forgotten they will not be so safe; but your danger is as great as mine--

"Mr. Downham was with we, now come from London. He told me that it was
three years ago since those verses were delivered to the king in a dream,
by his Master Buchanan, who seemed to _check him severely, as he used to
do_; and his Majesty, in his dream, seemed desirous to pacify him, but he,
_turning away with a frowning countenance_, would utter those verses,
which his Majesty, perfectly remembering, repeated the next day, and many
took notice of them. Now, by occasion of the late soreness in his arm, and
the doubtfulness what it would prove; especially having, by mischance,
fallen into the fire with that arm, the remembrance of the verses began to
trouble him."

It appears that these verses were of a threatening nature, since, in a
melancholy fit, they were recalled to recollection after an interval of
three years; the verses are lost to us, with the letter which contained
them.]

James, even by the confession of his bitter satirist, Francis Osborne,
"dedicated rainy weather to his standish, and fair to his hounds." His
life had the uniformity of a student's; but the regulated life of a
learned monarch must have weighed down the gay and dissipated with the
deadliest monotony. Hence one of these courtiers declared that, if he were
to awake after a sleep of seven years' continuance, he would undertake to
enumerate the whole of his Majesty's occupations, and every dish that had
been placed on the table during the interval. But this courtier was not
aware that the monotony which the king occasioned him was not so much in
the king himself as in his own volatile spirit.

The table of James I. was a trial of wits, says a more learned courtier,
who often partook of these prolonged conversations: those genial and
convivial conferences were the recreations of the king, and the means
often of advancing those whose talents had then an opportunity of
discovering themselves. A life so constant in its pursuits was to have
been expected from the temper of him who, at the view of the Bodleian
library, exclaimed, "Were I not a king, I would be an university man; and
if it were so that I must be a prisoner, I would have no other prison than
this library, and be _chained together_ with all these goodly authors."[A]

[Footnote A: In this well-known exclamation of James I., a witty allusion
has been probably overlooked. The king had in his mind the then prevalent
custom of securing books by fastening them to the shelves by _chains_ long
enough to reach to the reading-desks under them.]

Study, indeed, became one of the businesses of life with our contemplative
monarch; and so zealous was James to form his future successor, that he
even seriously engaged in the education of both his sons. James I. offers
the singular spectacle of a father who was at once a preceptor and a
monarch: it was in this spirit the king composed his "Basilicon Doron; or,
His Majesty's Instructions to his dearest Son Henry the Prince," a work of
which something more than the intention is great; and he directed the
studies of the unfortunate Charles. That both these princes were no common
pupils may be fairly attributed to the king himself. Never did the
character of a young prince shoot out with nobler promises than Henry; an
enthusiast for literature and arms, that prince early showed a great and
commanding spirit. Charles was a man of fine taste: he had talents and
virtues, errors and misfortunes; but he was not without a spirit equal to
the days of his trial.

* * * * *

FACILITY AND COPIOUSNESS OF HIS COMPOSITION.


The mind of James I. had at all times the fulness of a student's,
delighting in the facility and copiousness of composition. The king wrote
in one week one hundred folio pages of a monitory address to the European
sovereigns; and, in as short a time, his apology, sent to the pope and
cardinals. These he delivered to the bishops, merely as notes for their
use; but they were declared to form of themselves a complete answer. "_Qua
felicitate_ they were done, let others judge; but _Qua celeritate_, I can
tell," says the courtly bishop who collected the king's works, and who is
here quoted, not for the compliment he would infer, but for the fact he
states. The week's labour of his majesty provoked from Cardinal Perron
about one thousand pages in folio, and replies and rejoinders from the
learned in Europe.[A]

[Footnote A: Mr. Lodge, in his "Illustrations of British History," praises
and abuses James I. for the very same treatises. Mr. Lodge, dropping the
sober character of the antiquary for the smarter one of the critic, tells
us, "James had the good fortune to gain the two points he principally
aimed at in the publication of these _dull treatises_--the reputation of
an acute disputant, and the honour of having Cardinal Bellarmin for an
antagonist." Did Mr. Lodge ever read these "dull treatises?" I declare I
never have; but I believe these treatises are not dull, from the inference
he draws from them: for how any writer can gain the reputation of "an
acute disputant" by writing "dull treatises," Mr. Lodge only can explain.
It is in this manner, and by unphilosophical critics, that the literary
reputation of James has been flourished down by modern pens. It was sure
game to attack James I.!]

* * * * *

HIS ELOQUENCE.


The eloquence of James is another feature in the literary character of
this monarch. Amid the sycophancy of the court of a learned sovereign some
truths will manifest themselves. Bishop Williams, in his funeral eulogy of
James I., has praised with warmth the eloquence of the departed monarch,
whom he intimately knew; and this was an acquisition of James's, so
manifest to all, that the bishop made eloquence essential to the dignity
of a monarch; observing, that "it was the want of it that made Moses, in a
manner, refuse all government, though offered by God."[A] He would
not have hazarded so peculiar an eulogium, had not the monarch been
distinguished by that talent.

[Footnote A: This funeral sermon, by laying such a stress on the
_eloquence_ of James I., it is said, occasioned the disgrace of the
zealous bishop; perhaps, also, by the arts of the new courtiers practising
on the feelings of the young monarch. It appears that Charles betrayed
frequent symptoms of impatience.

This allusion to the _stammering_ of Moses was most unlucky; for Charles
had this defect in his delivery, which he laboured all his life to
correct. In the first speech from the throne, he alludes to it: "Now,
because _I am unfit for much speaking_, I mean to bring up the fashion of
my predecessors, to have my lord-keeper speak for me in most things." And
he closed a speech to the Scottish parliament by saying, that "he does not
offer to endear himself by words, _which, indeed is not my way_." This,
however, proved to be one of those little circumstances which produce a
more important result than is suspected. By this substitution of a
lord-keeper instead of the sovereign, he failed in exciting the personal
affections of his parliament. Even the most gracious speech from the lips
of a lord-keeper is but formally delivered, and coldly received; and
Charles had not yet learned that there are no deputies for our feelings.]

Hume first observed of James I., that "the speaker of the House of Commons
is usually an eminent man; yet the harangue of his Majesty will always be
found much superior to that of the speaker in every parliament during this
reign." His numerous proclamations are evidently wrought by his own hand,
and display the pristine vigour of the state of our age of genius. That
the state-papers were usually composed by himself, a passage in the Life
of the Lord-keeper Williams testifies; and when Sir Edward Conway, who had
been bred a soldier, and was even illiterate, became a viscount, and a
royal secretary, by the appointment of Buckingham, the king, who in fact
wanted no secretary, would often be merry over his imperfect scrawls in
writing, and his hacking of sentences in reading, often breaking out in
laughter, exclaiming, "Stenny has provided me with a secretary who can
neither write nor read, and a groom of my bedchamber who cannot truss my
points,"--this latter person having but one hand! It is evident, since
Lord Conway, the most inefficient secretary ever king had--and I have
myself seen his scrawls--remained many years in office, that James I.
required no secretary, and transacted his affairs with his own mind and
hand. These habits of business and of study prove that James indulged much
less those of indolence, for which he is so gratuitously accused.

* * * * *

HIS WIT.


Amid all the ridicule and contempt in which the intellectual capacity of
James I. is involved, this college-pedant, who is imagined to have given
in to every species of false wit, and never to have reached beyond
quibbles, puns, conceits, and quolibets,--was in truth a great wit; quick
in retort, and happy in illustration; and often delivering opinions with a
sententious force. More wit and wisdom from his lips have descended to us
than from any other of our sovereigns. One of the malicious writers of his
secret history, Sir Anthony Weldon, not only informs us that he was witty,
but describes the manner: "He was very witty, and had as many witty jests
as any man living: at which he would not smile himself, but deliver them
in a grave and serious manner." Thus the king was not only witty, but a
dextrous wit: nor is he one of those who are recorded as having only said
one good thing in their lives; for his vein was not apt to dry.

His conversations, like those of most literary men, he loved to prolong at
table. We find them described by one who had partaken of them:

"The reading of some books before him was very frequent, while he was at
his repast; and otherwise he collected knowledge by variety of questions,
which he carved out to the capacity of different persons. Methought his
hunting humour was not off, while the learned stood about him at his
board; he was ever in chase after some disputable doubts, which he would
wind and turn about with the most stabbing objections that ever I heard;
and was as pleasant and fellow-like, in all these discourses, as with his
huntsman in the field. Those who were ripe and weighty in their answers
were ever designed for some place of credit or profit."[A]

[Footnote A: Hacket's curious "Life of the Lord-keeper Williams," p. 38,
Part 11.]

* * * * *

SPECIMENS OF HIS HUMOUR, AND OBSERVATIONS ON HUMAN LIFE.


The relics of witticisms and observations on human life, on state affairs,
in literature and history, are scattered among contemporary writers, and
some are even traditional; I regret that I have not preserved many which
occurred in the course of reading. It has happened, however, that a man of
genius has preserved for posterity some memorials of the wit, the
learning, and the sense of the monarch.[A]

[Footnote A: In the Harl. MSS. 7582, Art. 3, one entitled "Crumms fallen
from King James's Table; or his Table-Talk, taken by Sir Thomas Overbury.
The original being in his own handwriting." This MS. has been, perhaps,
imperfectly printed in "The Prince's Cabala, or Mysteries of State," 1715.
This Collection of Sir Thomas Overbury was shortened by his unhappy fate,
since he perished early in the reign.--Another Harl. MS. contains things
"as they were at sundrie times spoken by James I." I have drawn others
from the Harl. MSS. 6395. We have also printed, "Wittie Observations,
gathered in King James's Ordinary Discourse," 1643; "King James his
Apothegmes or Table-Talk as they were by him delivered occasionally, and
by the publisher, his quondam servant, carefully received, by B.A. gent.
4^to. in eight leaves, 1643." The collector was Ben'n. Agar, who had
gathered them in his youth; "Witty Apothegmes, delivered at several times
by King James, King Charles, the Marquis of Worcester," &c., 1658.

The collection of Apothegms formed by Lord Bacon offers many instances of
the king's wit and sense. See Lord Bacon's Apothegms new and old; they are
numbered to 275 in the edition 1819. Basil Montague, in his edition, has
separated what he distinguishes as the spurious ones.]

In giving some loose specimens of the wit and capacity of a man, if they
are too few, it may be imagined that they are so from their rarity;
and if too many, the page swells into a mere collection. But truth is not
over-nice to obtain her purpose, and even the common labours she inspires
are associated with her pleasures.

Early in life James I. had displayed the talent of apt allusion, and his
classical wit on the Spaniards, that "He expected no other favour from
them than the courtesy of Polyphemus to Ulysses--to be the last devoured,"
delighted Elizabeth, and has even entered into our history. Arthur
Wilson, at the close of his "Life of James I.," has preserved one of his
apothegms, while he censures him for not making timely use of it! "Let
that prince, who would beware of conspiracies, be rather jealous of such
whom his extraordinary favours have advanced, than of those whom his
displeasure have discontented. _These_ want means to execute their
pleasures, but _those_ have means at pleasure to execute their desires."
--Wilson himself ably develops this important state-observation, by
adding, that "Ambition to rule is more vehement than malice to revenge." A
pointed reflection, which rivals a maxim of Rochefoucault.

The king observed that, "Very wise men and very fools do little harm; it
is the mediocrity of wisdom that troubleth all the world."--He described,
by a lively image, the differences which rise in argument: "Men, in
arguing, are often carried by the force of words farther asunder than
their question was at first; like two ships going out of the same haven,
their landing is many times whole countries distant."

One of the great national grievances, as it appeared both to the
government and the people, in James's reign, was the perpetual growth of
the metropolis; and the nation, like an hypochondriac, was ludicrously
terrified that their head was too monstrous for their body, and drew
all the moisture of life from the remoter parts. It is amusing to
observe the endless and vain precautions employed to stop all new
buildings, and to force persons out of town to reside at their country
mansions. Proclamations warned and exhorted, but the very interference of
prohibition rendered the crowded town more delightful. One of its
attendant calamities was the prevalent one of that day, the plague; and
one of those state libels, which were early suppressed, or never printed,
entitled, "Balaam's Ass," has this passage: "In this deluge of new
buildings, we shall be all poisoned with breathing in one another's faces;
and your Majesty has most truly said, England will shortly be London, and
London, England." It was the popular wish, that country gentlemen should
reside more on their estates, and it was on this occasion the king made
that admirable allusion, which has been in our days repeated in the House
of Commons: "Gentlemen resident on their estates were like ships in port
--their value and magnitude were felt and acknowledged; but, when at
a distance, as their size seemed insignificant, so their worth and
importance were not duly estimated." The king abounded with similar
observations; for he drew from life more than even from books.

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