Modern Æstheticism [pp. 148-163]

MODERN ESTHETICISM.
. So in "Panthea" we read:
"Nay, let us walk from fire unto fire,
From passionate pain to deadlier delight;
I am too young to live without desire,
Too young art thou to waste this summer night
Asking those idle questions which of old
Man sought of seer and oracle and no reply was told.
For, sweet, to feel is better than to know,
And wisdom is a childless heritage.
One pulse of passion, youth's first fiery glow,
Are worth the hoarded proverbs of the sage.
Vex not thy soul with dead philosophy:
Have we not lips to kiss with, hearts to love, and eyes to see?"
Such selections as these will prepare us for many of the say ings of this modern school-" Any element of morals or im plied reference to a standard of good and evil in art is often a
sign of a certain incompleteness of vision." "Indeed, we should
never talk of a moral or an immoral poem. Poems are well
written or badly written, that is all. All good work aims at a
purely artistic effect." This, certainly, is aesthetic loyalty to a
fault, and a polite invitation for those to retire from the domain
of letters who allow the ethical to have any place whatever in
the expression of their thought. As far as the morale of this
modern movement is concerned, the key-note of it is distinctly
sounded,-the same note that was heard in the days of Charles
II. The presence of the ethical feature in English letters is
clearly marked, and especially in its earlier periods. All the antecedents of our literature are moral, and in so far as later literature has been different, it has been a departure from primitive
standards. It is in the light of this principle that we stoutly
protest against the application of the phrase "the English Renaissance" to this modern type of poetry. Its historical prototypes in euphuism and the metaphysical school were marked
exceptions to the la-w of English verse. The movement in
every aspect of it is a decadence, marked by a bold abuse of
language in the interests of error, well designed to catch the
ear of those with who I the word "renaissance" is quite sufficient
to atone for all evils. This new departure is un-Saxon throughout, and the memory of Caedmon, Spenser, Milton, and Wordsworth should be sufficient to rebuke it. Never in our literary
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