登陆注册
15705500000046

第46章 THE SEPARATIST AND SACRED THINGS(2)

I have tried to convey my sympathy and admiration for Eastern art and its admirers,and if I have not conveyed them I must give it up and go on to more general considerations.I therefore proceed to say--with the utmost respect,that it is Cheek,a rarefied and etherealised form of Cheek,for this school to speak in this way about the mother that bore them,the great civilisation of the West.The West also has its magic landscapes,only through our incurable materialism they look like landscapes as well as like magic.The West also has its symbolic figures,only they look like men as well as symbols.It will be answered (and most justly)that Oriental art ought to be free to follow its own instinct and tradition;that its artists are concerned to suggest one thing and our artists another;that both should be admired in their difference.Profoundly true;but what is the difference?It is certainly not as the Orientalisers assert,that we must go to the Far East for a sympathetic and transcendental interpretation of Nature.We have paid a long enough toll of mystics and even of madmen to be quit of that disability.

Yet there is a difference,and it is just what I suggested.The Eastern mysticism is an ecstasy of unity;the Christian mysticism is an ecstasy of creation,that is of separation and mutual surprise.The latter says,like St.Francis,"My brother fire and my sister water ";the former says,"Myself fire and myself water."Whether you call the Eastern attitude an extension of oneself into everything or a contraction of oneself into nothing is a matter of metaphysical definition.The effect is the same,an effect which lives and throbs throughout all the exquisite arts of the East.This effect is the Sing called rhythm,a pulsation of pattern,or of ritual,or of colours,or of cosmic theory,but always suggesting the unification of the individual with the world.

But there is quite another kind of sympathy the sympathy with a thing because it is different.No one will say that Rembrandt did not sympathise with an old woman;but no one will say that Rembrandt painted like an old woman.No one will say that Reynolds did not appreciate children;but no one will say he did it childishly.The supreme instance of this divine division is sex,and that explains (what I could never understand in my youth)why Christendom called the soul the bride of God.

For real love is an intense realisation of the "separateness"of all our souls.The most heroic and human love-poetry of the world is never mere passion;precisely because mere passion really is a melting back into Nature,a meeting of the waters.And water is plunging and powerful;but it is only powerful downhill.The high and human love-poetry is all about division rather than identity;and in the great love-poems even the man as he embraces the woman sees her,in the same instant,afar off;a virgin and a stranger.

For the first injustice,of which we have spoken,still recurs;and if we grant that the East has a right to its difference,it is not realised in what we differ.That nursery tale from nowhere about St.George and the Dragon really expresses best the relation between the West and the East.

There were many other differences,calculated to arrest even the superficial eye,between a saint and a dragon.But the essential difference was simply this:that the Dragon did want to eat St.George;whereas St.George would have felt a strong distaste for eating the Dragon.In most of the stories he killed the Dragon.In many of the stories he not only spared,but baptised it.But in neither case did the Christian have any appetite for cold dragon.The Dragon,however,really has an appetite for cold Christian--and especially for cold Christianity.

This blind intention to absorb,to change the shape of everything and digest it in the darkness of a dragon's stomach;this is what is really meant by the Pantheism and Cosmic Unity of the East.The Cosmos as such is cannibal;as old Time ate his children.The Eastern saints were saints because they wanted to be swallowed up.The Western saint,like St.

George,was sainted by the Western Church precisely because he refused to be swallowed.The same process of thought that has prevented nationalities disappearing in Christendom has prevented the complete appearance of Pantheism.All Christian men instinctively resist the idea of being absorbed into an Empire;an Austrian,a Spanish,a British,or a Turkish Empire.But there is one empire,much larger and much more tyrannical,which free men will resist with even stronger passion.The free man violently resists being absorbed into the empire which is called the Universe.He demands Home Rule for his nationality,but still more Home Rule for his home.Most of all he demands Home Rule for himself.He claims the right to be saved,in spite of Moslem fatalism.He claims the right to be damned in spite of theosophical optimism.He refuses to be the Cosmos;because he refuses to forget it.

同类推荐
  • 大萨遮尼干子受记经

    大萨遮尼干子受记经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • Indian Summer of a Forsyte

    Indian Summer of a Forsyte

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 道德真经全解

    道德真经全解

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 太极通书

    太极通书

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 来南录

    来南录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
热门推荐
  • 沐少:命运的宠儿,巧取豪夺

    沐少:命运的宠儿,巧取豪夺

    “沐傲洋告诉我为什么要这样对我”谢妍惶恐看着面前的男人“这就是代价!是你当初欠我的!!!”沐傲洋捏起谢妍的下巴……
  • 毛泽东教我们学交往

    毛泽东教我们学交往

    本书通过毛泽东人际交往的故事,阐明了人际交往的原则。书中记述了毛泽东的人际交往对象众多,身份、地位各异,但他信守一个“诚”字,以“诚信”为交往的首要原则。
  • 心愿杂货铺

    心愿杂货铺

    这世上,除了人,还有妖。我叫乔伊,天生可以看见常人所不能见之物。因此,我也被叫异类。我孤身一人,在京城开了一家杂货铺。来店里的客人,都会登名造册。而造册的笔墨,便是他们的灵魂。现在,店铺终于开张了,欢迎光临。
  • 错时逢君

    错时逢君

    “赵禹枫,你与我为敌你可知后果?”“后果?我还要顾虑什么后果没了她我生不如死,你是我的父亲我尊重您,可你为何要拿她下手?”“她?我们家族容不得这样的女人。她那双紫瞳和你的红瞳前世本就是冤家。我赵家绝不允许。”
  • 琂爸爸写儿歌

    琂爸爸写儿歌

    为女儿写一些儿歌,希望能伴随女儿在快乐中成长。所有儿歌都来源于个人生活,取自于生活,朗朗上口,无需懂得音律也能简单唱出来!希望大家喜欢!
  • 相思谋:妃常难娶

    相思谋:妃常难娶

    某日某王府张灯结彩,婚礼进行时,突然不知从哪冒出来一个小孩,对着新郎道:“爹爹,今天您的大婚之喜,娘亲让我来还一样东西。”说完提着手中的玉佩在新郎面前晃悠。此话一出,一府宾客哗然,然当大家看清这小孩与新郎如一个模子刻出来的面容时,顿时石化。此时某屋顶,一个绝色女子不耐烦的声音响起:“儿子,事情办完了我们走,别在那磨矶,耽误时间。”新郎一看屋顶上的女子,当下怒火攻心,扔下新娘就往女子所在的方向扑去,吼道:“女人,你给本王站住。”一场爱与被爱的追逐正式开始、、、、、、、
  • 异法临尘

    异法临尘

    乾坤四九,吾为一,天道演变,莫算尽。一个为了修仙得道的少年,无意中得到一个神秘的灵根,从此浪迹天涯...........没有啥说的,想看强者的跟我来!!
  • 中国古代三大女王

    中国古代三大女王

    王咏星编著的《中国古代三大女王就是这么霸气》讲述了:历来,至高无上的皇位都是男人的专用品。可是,吕雉、武则天、慈禧,这三个家喻户晓的名字,这三个富有传奇色彩的女人,却能把国家大事和男人们控制在股掌之间。她们究竟是怎样的女人?究竟是什么让这三个女人在男尊女卑的社会中屹立不倒?接下来,就让《中国古代三大女王就是这么霸气》带着大家一起揭开蒙在这三个神秘女人脸上的面纱!
  • 无限弑天者

    无限弑天者

    我将所有给了她,换回来却只是出卖:我只给了她一个承诺,她却用生命守候:为什么苍天如此戏耍我:当我一无所有的时候,我渴望着改变世界的力量,为了取得获取力量的机会,我甘愿献出我的灵魂。若我有一天拥有足够的力量,我会告诉背叛我的人什么是........绝望。被封印的血脉,天不可能容忍的存在,每一代血脉继承者倘若不死,都是让天地颤抖的皇者---------弑天者。经历世界:随即生成小战场-----三国世界-----英雄联盟-----新书:狂徒游戏上架了,跟新有点慢,哈哈.........
  • 独宠99次:黑帝的代嫁新娘

    独宠99次:黑帝的代嫁新娘

    阴错阳差,她失去了记忆,成为了周家的大小姐,在一纸契约之下成了他的新娘。他是几乎控制整个A国经济命脉的商业神话,别人只知他游戏花丛,阅女无数,却从不知他心里藏得最深的女人。“你不是爱着另外一个女人吗!干嘛还来找我?”周慕狠狠地一甩房门。许久,一向横冲直撞的男人第一次没有踹开她的房门。周慕却觉得自己的心里空落落的。下一秒,高大的男人从窗台上跳了进来,不等她反应就一把抱住了她,细碎地亲吻地她。“你是想我去XX幼女?”