The Complete Works of Brann, the Iconoclast — Volume 01Brann, William Cowper
General
The Complete Works of Brann, the Iconoclast — Volume 01
Brann, William Cowper
Brann, William Cowper, 1855-1898; Essays; Reformers
The technical terms of every profession and
subdivision of science come trippingly to his tongue. But
even the dictionary is not large enough for him, and he
extends it this way and that, his daring neology creating
consternation among the critic flies and other ephemera.
He wrote as he thought, hence his style could not be other
than natural. That of Aytoun was formed in the schools,
principally modeled by masters--made to fit a procrustean
bed--and was, therefore, eminently artificial. If we apply the
term "unnatural" to the matter instead of the manner of
Carlyle and Tennyson, then away with genius, for
intellectual originality is tabooed!--no man is privileged to
think his own thoughts. That is the law nowadays nowhere
except in the sanctum of the Gal-Dal News, where Col.
Jenkins takes the editorial eyas and teaches it to soar ln
exact imitation of himself.
Whether by the "Spasmodic" method or otherwise, Carlyle
dragged more true orients out of the depths than did any of
his contemporaries; and that is saying much, for "there
were giants in those days," and they were neither few nor
far between. The intellectual glory of the first half of the
present century was scarce eclipsed by the Elizabethan
era. It was in very truth "a feast of reason and a flow of
soul." Goethe and "Jean Paul" were putting the finishing
touches to their work while Carlyle, then a young man, was
striving to interpret these so strange appearances to the
English-speaking world, to hammer some small appreciation
of German literature into the autotheistic British head. Tom
Moore, sweetest of mere singers, and Lord Byron, prince of
poets, were but five and seven years respectively his
seniors. He saw the beginning and the end of their literary
labors, as of those of Macaulay and Mill, Darwin, Disraeli
and Dickens. Much of his best work was done ere the
death of Walter Scott, and he might have played as a
school boy with the ill-fated Shelley. He had just begun his
long life-labor when Longfellow and Tennyson, Hugo and
Wagner came upon the scene, and together they wrought
wisely and well in that mighty seed-field which is the world!
What a galaxy of intellectual gods!--now all gone, returned
home to High Olympus--the weird land left to the Alfred
Austins, the William Dean Howells and the Ian McLarens!
Gone, but not forgotten; yet the world will in time forget--
even the amaranthine flowers must fade. Of them all we
see but one star that blazes the brighter as the years run
on, and that one long mistaken for a mere erratic comet--
sans substance, or unformed nebulae hanging like a
splotch of semi-luminous vapor in a great void. Year by
year the voice of Carlyle rings clearer and clearer from the
"Eternal Silence." And as we listen with rapt
attention to the music of the spheres becoming
audible, intelligible to our dull ear--the Waterloo and Lisbon
earthquakes, the Revolutions and the Warring Religions, all
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account