At Clifton,though his thoughts began to turn more on poetic forms of composition,he was diligent in prose elaborations too,--doing Criticism,for one thing,as we incidentally observed.He wrote there,and sent forth in this autumn of 1839,his most important contribution to John Mill's Review,the article on _Carlyle_,which stands also in Mr.Hare's collection.[22]What its effect on the public was I knew not,and know not;but remember well,and may here be permitted to acknowledge,the deep silent joy,not of a weak or ignoble nature,which it gave to myself in my then mood and situation;as it well might.The first generous human recognition,expressed with heroic emphasis,and clear conviction visible amid its fiery exaggeration,that one's poor battle in this world is not quite a mad and futile,that it is perhaps a worthy and manful one,which will come to something yet:this fact is a memorable one in every history;and for me Sterling,often enough the stiff gainsayer in our private communings,was the doer of this.The thought burnt in me like a lamp,for several days;lighting up into a kind of heroic splendor the sad volcanic wrecks,abysses,and convulsions of said poor battle,and secretly I was very grateful to my daring friend,and am still,and ought to be.What the public might be thinking about him and his audacities,and me in consequence,or whether it thought at all,Inever learned,or much heeded to learn.
Sterling's gainsaying had given way on many points;but on others it continued stiff as ever,as may be seen in that article;indeed he fought Parthian-like in such cases,holding out his last position as doggedly as the first:and to some of my notions he seemed to grow in stubbornness of opposition,with the growing inevitability,and never would surrender.Especially that doctrine of the "greatness and fruitfulness of Silence,"remained afflictive and incomprehensible:
"Silence?"he would say:"Yes,truly;if they give you leave to proclaim silence by cannon-salvos!My Harpocrates-Stentor!"In like manner,"Intellect and Virtue,"how they are proportional,or are indeed one gift in us,the same great summary of gifts;and again,"Might and Right,"the identity of these two,if a man will understand this God's-Universe,and that only he who conforms to the law of it can in the long-run have any "might:"all this,at the first blush,often awakened Sterling's musketry upon me,and many volleys I have had to stand,--the thing not being decidable by that kind of weapon or strategy.
In such cases your one method was to leave our friend in peace.By small-arms practice no mortal could dislodge him:but if you were in the right,the silent hours would work continually for you;and Sterling,more certainly than any man,would and must at length swear fealty to the right,and passionately adopt it,burying all hostilities under foot.A more candid soul,once let the stormful velocities of it expend themselves,was nowhere to be met with.A son of light,if I have ever seen one;recognizing the truth,if truth there were;hurling overboard his vanities,petulances,big and small interests,in ready loyalty to truth:very beautiful;at once a loyal child,as I said,and a gifted man!--Here is a very pertinent passage from one of his Letters,which,though the name continues blank,Iwill insert:--
_To his Father_.
"_October 15th_,1839.--As to my 'over-estimate of ----,'your expressions rather puzzle me.I suppose there may be,at the outside,a hundred persons in England whose opinions on such a matter are worth as much as mine.If by 'the public'you and my Mother mean the other ninety-nine,I submit.I have no doubt that,on any matter not relating peculiarly to myself,the judgment of the ninety-nine most philosophical heads in the country,if unanimous,would be right,and mine,if opposed to them,wrong.But then I am at a loss to make out,How the decision of the very few really competent persons has been ascertained to be thus in contradiction to me?And on the other hand,I conceive myself,from my opportunities,knowledge and attention to the subject,to be alone quite entitled to outvote tens of thousands of gentlemen,however much my superiors as men of business,men of the world,or men of merely dry or merely frivolous literature.
"I do not remember ever before to have heard the saying,whether of Talleyrand or of any one else,That _all_the world is a wiser man than any man in the world.Had it been said even by the Devil,it would nevertheless be false.I have often indeed heard the saying,_On peut etre plus FIN qu'un autre,mais pas plus FIN que tous les autres_.But observe that '_fin_'means _cunning_,not _wise_.The difference between this assertion and the one you refer to is curious and worth examining.It is quite certain,there is always some one man in the world wiser than all the rest;as Socrates was declared by the oracle to be;and as,I suppose,Bacon was in his day,and perhaps Burke in his.There is also some one,whose opinion would be probably true,if opposed to that of all around him;and it is always indubitable that the wise men are the scores,and the unwise the millions.The millions indeed come round,in the course of a generation or two,to the opinions of the wise;but by that time a new race of wise men have again shot ahead of their contemporaries:so it has always been,and so,in the nature of things,it always must be.
