The worship of genius and the distinctive character or essence of Christianity

Front matter

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THE

WORSHIP OF GENIUS,

Contents

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L THE WORSHIP OF GENIUS. A Letter to

Gustayus Schwab . . . . I

Preface

To many who take up this work for the first time its title may appear to want unity, or be even wholly incomprehensible. A few words on the origin of the article may therefore vindicate the connexion and force of the prefix which has been chosen.

Dr. Strauss, in his article on " The Transient and the Permanent in Christianity," which appeared in the Freikafen Journal, towards the end of the summer of 1838, had declared, that to our age of religious disorganization nothing was left but a worship of genius ; that is, a reverence for those great spirits who form epochs in the progress of the human race, and in whom, taken collectively, the godlike manifests itself to us most fully; he had even included Christianity under this worship of genius, by assigning to its founder the first place among those men of genius who have promoted human progress, In the spring of 1839 was celebrated the inauguration of the statue of Schiller at Stutgart ; and my friend Schwab, as an orator, expressed, in language worthy of the subject, the national feelings of veneration for the immortal poet. Little as had been the cause given for the suspicion, either by the originators of the festival, or by the speaker, this act of homage to the memory of the poet was regarded as an act of religious worship, as an idolatry of genius. These words of Strauss, and this homage to genius, entering my mind one day at the same time, suggested the idea of a letter on the worship of genius, which I therefore addressed to the friend who had spoken beside the statue of Schiller.

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The question was not now, whether he who first expressed in plain words the idea of a worship of genius, still remained firm in that opinion, or even considered it of importance ; for our concern was not with an individual, but with a principle. It is well known, that before the appearance of the article on " The Transient and the Permanent in Christianity," many intellectual persons of both sexes, either humble kindred or honoured chiefs of our high aristocracy of mind, knew and practised no other worship than that of genius ; and that this religion, notwithstanding, or, perhaps, owing to its Eetherial and unsubstantial character, will retain its followers, even if he who coined the name for them should desert it. His words found a response in many quarters, for the very reason, that they gave a more definite expression to an already existing state of feeling, of which it thus promoted the progress. The affair, however, afforded me a welcome opportunity of pursuing yet further one branch of my remarks on Strauss's Christology.*

I have added some Supplementary Remarks, forming an Appendix, upon those points which could not conveniently receive farther elucidation in the letter, f

C. ULLMANN.

Heidelberg, March, 28, 1840.

f Some portions of the Preface having reference only to Schwab and his contribution to the volume, as it appears in the German,* have been omitted.

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WORSHIP OF GENIUS.

[A LETTER TO GUSTAV. SCHWAB.]

How often, formerly, my dear friend, — when seated together after the labours of the day, with others of congenial spirit, in one of the most social rooms of that Tubingen institution, from which so much that is important, not in theology alone, has proceeded, — have we refreshed ourselves by the communication of whatever was stirring in heart and brain ! Even in later days, the happiness of intercourse with you has often been granted me ; and thus I have acquired the habit of living in intimate communion with you, and of imparting and discussing mentally even what we could not converse upon in person. But the inner language sometimes calls for outward expression ; and you will therefore permit me, since communication by word of mouth is for the present denied us, to address myself to you this once before the public. The subject, too, is one of general interest, while many points prompt me to refer myself to jbu in particular. My mind has been for some time occupied by that which gives the title to these pages ; which by a voice of much influence has been not merely proposed, but announced as already existing : the worship of genius. You know what has been said upon it by the celebrated author of the "Life of Jesus," in his article on

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"The Transient and the Permanent in Christianity," which has been separately printed, in connexion with the charming and characteristic description of our friend Kerner. " The only worship," he writes, — "we may lament or rejoice, but we cannot deny it, — the only worship left to the cultivated of this age from the religious disorganization of the last, is the worship of genius." Plainly, and without circumlocution, this worship is designated as a new Paganism or Catholicism, which has come over Protestant Germany ; since, as if one human manifestation of the Deity were not enough, men now require, after the Indian fashion, a succession of incarnations ; the solitary majesty of Jesus is thus once more encircled with a halo of saints, " only that these are certainly not exactly the saints of the church ; but, as in the private chapel of Alexander Severus, the statue of Orpheus stood beside those of Abraham and Christ, so the tendency of the present day is, to revere the Deity as manifested in all spirits which have exercised a vivifying and creative influence upon mankind."

I need not tell you, dear friend, — we, and all of our contemporaries who are alive to the impressions of the present, have often felt it, sometimes with sorrow, sometimes with hope, — that our age is employed in the solution of a great riddle ; it seeks for satisfaction in something new ; and has at least not yet found true expression, appealing to universal consciousness, for that which may again unite, and permanently inspire, the minds of men. What, then, if the words "Worship of Genius" contained the solution of the problem ? One is certainly, and with justice, prejudiced beforehand against a worship which is invented-, and such modes of worship have always, as with the Theo-philanthropists and the St. Simonians, shown themselves, precisely because invented, rootless and ephemeral. But the worship of genius, say its followers, needs not to be formed; it has already formed itself; it is the only one which the great religious ruin has left to the cultivated ; it is forced upon us by necessity, if we would not wholly close our minds

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to what is above us. Yes ; this worship, even if we are disposed to see in it, not the glowing dawn of a better age, but the mournful hues of the departed day, is already in existence among us • and you, my Stuttgart friends, I might continue, have celebrated its first great festival. Your homage to Schiller was the explicit national inauguration of this worship ; and thou, dear friend, obeying the universal impulse of the times, and thus, without, perhaps, distinctly wishing or intending it, sympathizing with the author of the Life of Jesus, didst stand as a worthy priest below the statue of the immortal poet to whom these first-fruits were offered. The people of every class bore then part, forming the first free congregation of the new chinch ; and ancient Suabia, the scene of so much that has been important to chmch and state, to science and poetry, has now become the cradle of this new faith. But how? Suabia, the better part of whose sons cling with such serious rational devotion to the faith received from their fathers ; that Suabia, known before all countries of Protestant Germany for her adherence to Christianity and the church. ; can she thus suddenly have embraced the worship of genius, so infinitely differing from all which she has hitherto held holy ? If we examine beyond appearances it can surely not be so. For had the question been asked of those present on the occasion, the great majority would certainly have protested against the idea of holding a festival of genius, with the design of making this service a substitute for then religion; and thou, my friend, wouldst have been the first to protest against such an interpretation — nay, thou didst so unasked ; for at the conclusion of thy beautiful speech, worthy alike of the Christian preacher and the poet, it is not to genius that the highest honour is ascribed, but to Him from whom genius proceeds. But what would have been the ground of such a protest ? Is it that what has been called the universally-received worship of genius, has in reality no truth and no significance ? Yet it hm a truth, which was at once the justification and the

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inspiration of that day's great national expression, in which doubtless innumerable individuals, who could not take part outwardly, did so in spirit ; but the same thing, when taken as a substitute for religion, is false and wrong ; and this is the imputation from which you would have defended yourselves, and indeed have indirectly done so. This I would fain make, by my present address to you, more clear to myself, and perhaps to others also ; hoping that where you do not agree with me, you will be stimulated to substitute something better in itself and better expressed.

The Worship of Genius, in the widest sense, we may define as that deep, enthusiastic homage, amounting to the highest veneration, which we pay to the most important and influential manifestations of the human mind, or to those individuals who, in whatever sphere of life, in the departments of art, of science, of politics, morals, or religion, have contributed in some new and extraordinary manner to its development ; — in a word, the greatest possible veneration for great men and their performances; a veneration which, when of the right kind, prompts appropriate manifestations of respect to such individuals, and stimulates him who entertains it to similar exertions, so far as his abilities permit. Reverence for great actions and great men, understood in this general sense, is, as I need not observe to you, my friend, nothing new. The nations of antiquity, especially the Greeks and Romans, were devoted to it ; and even in the Christian world it is not extinct. Every human being who is awake to a higher consciousness, — every nation which has a history, and lives therein, nourishes and cultivates this reverence ; the public monuments of all ages, which recal the memory of great men — Westminster Abbey — the Valhalla, to which we Germans are looking — are evident signs of its existence. The only novelty lies in the attempt to make this worship a substitute for the true religion, and a remedy for the evils occasioned by the decay of the latter. Yet even this is not wholly

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new. A worship of genius, even in this sense, has no doubt been silently practised by not a few in modern times. For to how many of our western neighbours has Napoleon really become a god ; and to how many Germans remains no higher object of enthusiasm and devotion than Go the ! Indeed, something of the sort has been before expressed, though in a different spirit and connexion. I would here recal to your recollection only one of the first writers of our nation. Jean Paul, in his article entitled "Wishes for a Monument to Luther," not only says, "Yes ; would Germany only build national capitals, and construct and consecrate therein something more sublime than a Westminster Abbey — since there rank and riches take the same station as worth — namely, a rotunda of the mighty dead ; whither could the youth make a nobler pilgrimage than to these holy graves ? — -where could he catch so well the living fire which should preserve him through the cold world? " —but he adds, still more significantly, in actual anticipation of the worship of genius, "If one religion and one doctrine after another, which elevates man to spirit, yields to the attacks of time, build at least temples to men, wherein the spiritually great may remind us of the greatest, and admiration , of prayer. But though such things have been thus practised in fact, and expressed definitely and confidently in words, though they have been thus philosophically examined, and with such especial reference to the founder of Christianity himself,— it has never before been declared, as now, that the worship of genius is the only form of devotion remaining, or truly applicable to our age.

We are thus led to treat of the worship of genius in a twofold sense — according to its general meaning, as it has been always more or less practised, and according to the special interpretation which some now seek to put upon it. And with reference to this distinction, my judgment, which I hope you will approve, is in general terms as follows : — The worship of genius has its truth and its justice as opposed to something lower, but is untrue and unjust as opposed to

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something higher ; it is beautiful and praiseworthy as a natural enthusiasm, for the highest manifestations of the human intellect ; but reprehensible and destructive as a substitute for the worship of God, and for the true living Christian faith.

There is, indeed, a tendency, and a very prevalent one, in contradistinction to which we may well desire nothing so much as a very general worship of genius. A poet needs only to be reminded with one word of that "resistance of the soul-less world/ 5 which hitherto the best and greatest have had to endure • and he will assuredly hail, as glorious, the time when a deep, joyful, intelligent reverence, not merely of talents and accomplishments, but of that far higher attribute, creative genius, shall be universal. You, yourself, in your speech, designated utility as the idol of the world, to which all powers pay tribute and all talents do homage. And when we add to this, pleasure — either wholly sensual, or, if of an intellectual character^ diluted as far as possible with sense — we have the supreme deities of the age, compared with whom, genius appears a divine existence, and its worship as something infinitely sublime. That service of the appetites, coarser or more refined, which lives only for the moment, — that gross egotism which exists only in the narrow circle of self, or in the little-enlarged self of the most immediate connexions, — that utilitarian spirit, the mental mildew of our time, which computes the progress of the world only according to the number of spinning and silk-machines, of steamboats and railroads, — even that more refined voluptuousness, which loads talent, when cultivated into accomplishment, with gold and honours, because it flatters the senses, and shortens the otherwise vacant, halting moments ; all these would be at once elevated to a sort of religion, to something above themselves, if the worship of genius dawned upon them. Men would divine that there is somewhat higher in the world than can be eaten or measured, counted and calculated, enjoyed by the eye or ear without deeper thought or feeling ; the mysterious

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something, which bursts forth from unknown depths, and reveals itself where it will — spirit; they would, after having learnt to acknowledge and adrnire the mysterious origin and operations of the human mind, be more easily brought to recognise a supreme creative power, of whom human thinkers and inventors present only a feeble image ; and to raise their eyes to the spiritual sun, of whom men of genius are but single rays of variously obscured brightness. Contrasted with this materialism, however refined, there is something really refreshing and elevating to hear how, in a kindred city of the north, the greatest sculptor of our day has been welcomed by the enthusiastic love of a whole people, as triumphantly as the most beloved prince : even considered by itself, it is a sublime manifestation. "We there see that the divinely-ennobled kings of the intellectual kingdom find their claims allowed ; and we can but rejoice at such homage paid to geuius, as a noble proof of the higher spiritual capacities of our contemporaries.

As opposed, also, to heartless ingratitude, the worship of genius is something beautiful and desirable. For there are certainly many whose minds are capable of recognising genius, but who pay no homage to it in then hearts. They view the activity of those spirits which labour for the true and beautiful as an amusing sport, as brilliant fireworks displayed before them and for them, without any feelings of peculiar attachment or interest for the performers being excited in their minds. Intellectual productions are to them as flowers whose perfume refreshes them for a while ; but the idea never strikes them, that these are the gifts of a living hand. They rejoice in the work, and it never occurs to them to thank, honour, and love the author. And yet to do so is not only possible, but it is a duty. Genius, not only in its productions, but in its spiritual identity — in the central point of its individual existence, deserves an honest, heartfelt homage ; certainly not in the sense of those whose almost unquestioning admiration would make genius, with whatever moral faults and weaks

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nesses, the object of unqualified veneration, and thus introduce an idolatry of great men, which would encroach on the claims of a better worship ; but, regarding even the very highest manifestations of the human intellect (which furnish at once proofs of a divine superintendence, and vital energy for the noblest developments of humanity) as personal attainments, we should take the possessor more closely to our hearts, and embrace him with sympathising human love as an individual of our own species, who by labours and struggles has triumphantly glorified his nature. And, for the most part, what we call genius is a hazardous gift to the possessor. Genius wears, indeed, a blythe and careless aspect ; but — the internal and external history of men of genius proves it, and the very poet to whom you have raised a monument is the most convincing example of the fact — it is scarcely ever unfolded inwardly and outwardly without severe struggles and sufferings. Those who "wander in the torrid climes of fame" must shed many bitter sweat-drops; and almost every one who, in any one department, has reached the summit of human development, has, in some other way, done penance for his superabundant powers, and paid, with heavy interest, the debt which he owed to finite humanity. For these mental labours, then, — for these struggles and sufferings, without which the highest qualities of our nature cannot be developed, — men of true genius, who elevate the existence of our race, have a right to our gratitude, to our personal gratitude, such as we feel for a benefactor. This affectionate homage is assuredly far more moral— aye, if you will, far more pious — than the proud, cold objectiveness, which forgets the artist in the work, and is but another name for heartlessness or overweening egotism. Very differently from those who honour not genius, least they should trench upon their own honours — who love it not because they love themselves too well — have the most excellent persons ever thought and felt ; genius has been to them the object of personal reverence and love, and the scenes of its life or acts have

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been held by them as sacred. Very differently did you also express yourself, when you designated the statue of the great poet, to whom a personal homage was thereby intended, as "an object of pilgrimage for the love and reverence of nations." In this sense, you too, my friend, must approve the worship of genius, and wish it more and more widely diffused among the unsympathising multitude, and in the bosoms of the proud and self-absorbed.

In the last place, my Mend, will you not agree with me if I say that the worship of genius is right, as opposed to a certain pious scrupulosity and dogmatic narrowness of views ? I know that this is a delicate point, on which opinions at once divide. But we must not therefore pass it over. A sharp, searching contest has been here carried on, especially in our latter days. One party says, genius, unique in its species, and marked by the very rarity of its appearance as something extraordinary, is not to be measured by the common moral standard ; it has, as in its productions, so in its life, which is the basis of those productions, its own laws and privileges ; from its creations we can require only beauty, life, and harmony; the demands of faith and morality transplant the question to another sphere, and can only confuse the judgment. The others answer, there are no exceptional laws for the greatest, more than for the ordinary members of humanity; the eternal truths of faith, and the irrefragable ordinances of morality are, like the laws of natural life, valid for all ; and then authority is as unqualified over genius, as over the meanest individual who bears the image of his Maker; — nay, the endowment of genius, so far from justifying a violation of these eternal ordinances, imposes upon superior talents a stronger obligation to serve more gladly the Highest, and to give in all things honour to the Name which is above every name. Even the works of genius cannot be excepted from these laws ; they are worthy of their origin, only when they mirror to us the godlike, — when they are steeped in the b 3

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spirit of piety and morality; and inasmuch as Christianity involves in itself the perfection of piety and moral life, in the spirit of Christianity nothing is beautiful but what is good; — but what, in the Christian world, is Christian. These two opposite principles have been so far carried out, and applied to the actual relations of life, that the first has given birth to an immoral laxity in men of genius, or those who deem themselves such, towards their beloved self; a frivolous idolatry of genius, and a hel-esprit libertinism : from the latter has proceeded a narrow moral rigour, perhaps often a well-meant, but bigoted intolerance towards all manifestations of intellect, undistinguished by any definite badge of party or opinion. The earnestness and strict morality of our nation will prevent it, as a body, from falling into the former error ; while its intellectual freshness and activity, the liberal, though deep and serious character of its piety, must preserve it from the second. Nor is either of us, my dear friend, likely to be seduced into the exaggerations or distortions of either tendency, whether the aspect assumed by them be specious or threatening ; but nothing shall hinder us from paying avowed and honest respect to acknowledged truth. Thus, if the question be simply : Is genius, as such, exempt from the obligations of faith and morality ? — I am certain that you will agree with me in giving a decided negative. The man of genius is subject, like all others, to the eternal laws of humanity in all his proceedings ; his honour, his peculiar office, consist not in transgressing these laws, but in showing them forth, making them clear to the apprehension of others, and strengthening their influence on the present and the future race ; in aiding to promote "the triumph of true beauty in the universe," of that beauty, which, willed by God, is indissolubly connected with truth and goodness; the triumph of the holy and the eternal. Were we to pronounce otherwise, it could only be on the supposition that men of genius form a peculiar species in the human family, and are exceptional, from then birth, in moral and religious

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constitution. But for this we have not the smallest evidence. We have neither cause to regard them, in this sense, as peculiarly favoured individuals, exempt from the common necessity of struggle and development ; nor are we justified in considering genius as a force of gravity, dragging its possessors down to earth, or as an impetus inevitably urging them into the career of passion ; as anything, in short, which necessarily loosens the common ties of humanity. I cannot express the pain which I felt when I read, in the words of a young poet, not without abilities, and a friend of yours, the unqualified expression, "Poetry's signet is the brand of Cain;" for truly on the forehead of one marked out for poetry, or any other great intellectual task, shines somewhat very different from the brand of Cain. Thus men of genius, as such, stand neither above nor below the line of ordinary human responsibility in moral and religious matters. With them, as with other mortals, the measure of moral and religious capacities and susceptibility will be found to correspond to their intellectual power and they thus stand in the same relation as all others to God and His law. But this principle, in itself true and indubitable, must not be applied in an abstract, narrow, petty sense; and two considerations must always be borne in mind : — first, that we must not confound the work immediately committed to creative genius with the mediate results of its labours ; and next, that a distinction must be made between what may be called the spirit of a living, essentially Christian piety, and any definite code of faith and morals adapted to the necessities of the present time. Most certainly the Beautiful, considered in itself, cannot, in the remotest degree, form a contrast to the Good. When they are separated, it is attributable either to the imperfection of human nature, or to sin, or moral perversion of some kind ; but their origin is the same, for both are rooted in the Divine. God may as fitly be named essential beauty as essential good : love is beautiful in proportion as it is good and true : the idea of the Holy is

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involved in those of the True, the Good, the Beautiful. If this reasoning applies to Grod, the Archetype, it is equally true of the creation, which is the copy of his perfections. Moral perfection, by its vital energy and exact proportions, makes always the impression of beauty ; and the highest beauty will always bear the stamp of morality, and work upon those who receive it in the true spirit a moral, that is, an elevating, liberating, purifying effect. In this sense, the poet or artist who realises the ideal of his character, is ever at the same time a sage — the instructor of his people and of mankind, by cultivating that higher sense within them which is adapted to the perception of divine things ; he does this, however, not as a formal moral or religious pedagogue, in direct didactic wise, but as it were, unintentionally, through the pure worship of the beautiful, and by the life-giving inspiring influence, which, without effort on his own part, attends the labours of him who exercises this worship in a devoted spirit. For while his creations reflect the world of the beautiful and the sublime, which in their essence cannot be separated from the true and the good, he can hardly fail of exercising a corresponding influence on piety and morality. He prepares the minds of men for the reception of the Ideal, and thus for that of the Good and the True. Much, certainly, depends on our allowing every work of art to operate upon us a whole, and submitting ourselves to the spirit of genius in its entireness. By this entireness alone can the effect which it aims at be comprehended ; and details, which, considered separately, bear, perhaps, the semblance of immorality, may, as subservient members of a higher organization, attain a perfectly moral character. If the work of art — the tragedy, for example — is to be an image or reflection of the world — an idealized reflection it may be, but still a reflection of the actual world — then must evil, since it exists in reality, be presented also in the work of art. But the representation, while confined within the limits of the beautiful, will be as far from corrupting or polluting a work of

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human art, as the actual evil in the world can destroy or pollute that sublime work of art ; provided always, that in the artist and his work that spirit predominates, which knows how to assign to evil and immorality then proper place, and to pronounce thereon, not in reflections or edifying speeches, but by the development of the subject — the judgment of the eternal Nemesis. This, too, we have a right to demand from creative genius : if it present the world to view, it must present also its highest order, and its inviolable laws ; if it conduct us, like Dante, to the gulf of hell, it must afterwards lift us to the heights of paradise ; if it paint the surface or the dark abyss of evil, we must, at the same time, perceive and learn thereby that the Divine and the Good are the true existences, the only permanently victorious principles.