Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great - Volume 05: Little Journeys to the Homes of English AuthorsHubbard, Elbert
History
Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great - Volume 05: Little Journeys to the Homes of English Authors
Hubbard, Elbert
Authors, English -- Homes and haunts -- Great Britain; English literature -- History and criticism
Between this extreme repression and the license of the sensualist lies the
truth. But just where, is the great question; and the desire of one
person, who thinks he has discovered the norm, to compel all other men to
stop there, has led to war and strife untold. All law centers around this
point—what shall men be allowed to do? And so we find statutes to punish
"strolling play-actors," "players on fiddles," "disturbers of the public
conscience," "persons who dance wantonly," "blasphemers," etc. In England
there were, in the year Eighteen Hundred, sixty-seven offenses punishable
with death.
What expression is right and what is not is largely a matter of opinion.
Instrumental music has been to some a rock of offense, exciting the
spirit, through the sense of hearing, to wrong thoughts—through "the
lascivious pleasing of a lute." Others think dancing wicked, while a few
allow square dances, but condemn the waltz. Some sects allow pipe-organ
music, but draw the line at the violin; while others, still, employ a
whole orchestra in their religious service. Some there may be who regard
pictures as implements of idolatry, while the Hook-and-Eye Baptists look
upon buttons as immoral.
Strange evolutions are often witnessed within the life of one individual,
as to what is right and what wrong. For instance, Leo Tolstoy, that great
and good man, once a worldling, has now turned ascetic, a not unusual
evolution in the lives of the saints. Not caring for harmony as expressed
in color, form and sounds, Tolstoy is now quite willing to deprive all
others of these things which minister to their well-being. There is in
most souls a hunger for beauty, just as there is a physical hunger. Beauty
speaks to their spirits through the senses; but Tolstoy would have his
house barren to the verge of hardship, and he advocates that all other
houses should be likewise. My veneration for Count Tolstoy is profound,
but I mention him here simply to show the danger that lies in allowing any
man, even one of the best, to dictate to us what is right.
Most of the frightful cruelties inflicted on mankind during the past have
arisen out of a difference of opinion arising through a difference in
temperament. The question is as live today as it was two thousand years
ago—what expression is best? That is, what shall we do to be saved? And
concrete absurdity consists in saying we must all do the same thing.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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