COMPASSION FOR THE LOWER ANIMALS. One day more will see me rid of this same scene whereat I wince, 221 In his sustained argumentation, he nearly exhausts the ways of looking at death, with a view to comfort, thusWhy repine? There's ever some one lives although ourselves be dead! Or again, an appeal to his courage to face the reality whatever it may prove to be— Why should I want courage here? Is it fancy I but cherish, when I take upon my lips Phrase the solemn Tuscan fashioned, and declare the soul's eclipse Certain am I-from this life I pass into a better, there Where that lady lives of whom enamoured was my soul "-where this Other lady, my companion dear and true, she also is? BENEVOLENCE AS COMPASSION. Compassion for human suffering generally, is a mixture of tender emotion with active sympathy. The woes of mankind are often far beyond the power of redress, and poetry, by its usual arts, attempts to alleviate the pain of contemplating them. Pathos of this class may refer to the sufferings of mankind in general. But more usually our compassion is to be evoked towards some individual, imaginary or real, living or dead. Thus the errors and misfortunes of Burns are the theme of two poems by Wordsworth, suggested by a visit to his tomb; and Mrs. Browning, writing on Cowper's Grave,' expresses our sorrow for the mental disease that clouded his life. In both cases, the sadness is partly increased and partly relieved by bringing into view other elements of the respective lives, while the interest is greatly deepened by their poetic gifts. On the other hand, Hood, in The Bridge of Sighs,' endeavours to draw forth our compassion towards a life wrecked and lost, with no interest beyond this, and hence needing more to redeem it from its natural horrors. The Lower Animals share in the lot of suffering, and their case has been sometimes made the subject of pathetic rendering. The Hound of Ulysses, already referred to, makes one of the touching incidents of the Odyssey; no more being attempted than to indicate the remembrance of his master after twenty years. The following stanza of Burns, with reference to a stormy winter night, expresses this pity for animals :Ilk happing bird, wee, helpless thing, That, in the merry months o' spring, Delighted me to hear thee sing, What comes o' thee? Whare wilt thou cower thy chittering wing, The luxury of pity is here indulged without too close a view of the sufferings implied; the compassion turns on helplessness, aided by the pleasure derived from the lively summer song. The connexion with man suggested in this example is still further increased in the case of the tamed or domesticated animals. We may agree with Cowper's denunciation of the man Who needlessly sets foot upon a worm; but it is barely possible to stir up keen compassion for organisms so different from our own. Shakespeare's assertion that the poor beetle that we tread upon In corporal sufferance finds a pang as great As when a giant dies is much too exaggerated to bring out a tender response.* Pope's dying pheasant in 'Windsor Forest' is meant to be pathetic. The poet understands the efficacy of its beauties * One of the most touching passages in ancient poetry is that contained in Ovid's Metamorphoses (Book XV.), where the poet, in describing the tenets of the Pythagoreans, dwells upon their feeling of the sacredness of animal life. After adverting to the deserved punishment of the wild beast for his ravages and spoliation, he exclaims, What have ye done to be so treated, ye gentle sheep, made to provide for men, ye that bear nectar in the full teat, that give us your wool for covering, and are more helpful in life than in death? What has the ox done, a guileless, innocent beast, made to endure toil?' 'Unmindful he, and not worthy to be repaid with crops, who could kill the tiller of his fields, as soon as the weight of the crooked plough was removed; who struck with the axe that neck worn with labour, which had so often renewed the hard field and given so many harvests!" (116-126). † See! from the brake the whirring pheasant springs, And mounts exulting on triumphant wings: Short is his joy; he feels the fiery wound, Flutters in blood, and panting beats the ground. Ah! what avail his glossy, varying dyes, His purple crest, and scarlet circled e es, The vivid green his shining plumes unfold, His painted wings, and breast that flames with gold? MODES OF RECONCILING US TO DEATH. 223 of plumage in adding to our compassionate interest. Nevertheless, to call forth pity in such a case is hollowness and mockery, seeing that the bird's death struggle comes as a matter of human sport. PATRIOTIC COMPASSION. Patriotic devotion is often tragic and pathetic; but, when a matter of history, it cannot be made to conform to artistic ideals. Campbell's lament over the downfall of Poland is relieved chiefly by the celebration of her champions. So the fall of Greece is usually redeemed by the recital of her glories, as in Byron's Isles of Greece'. The same feeling is set forth by him from the sympathetic spectator's point of view, also on Greece, in Clime of the unforgotten brave'. The Pathos of Country is often exhibited through the emotions of exile: as with the Jews in Babylon. Goethe's Mignon song reproduces it, with characteristic touches of Italy's charms. Allan Ramsay's 'Lochaber no more,' touches all the chords of pathos in quitting one's native land to settle elsewhere. DEATH. There are various modes of reconciling us to Death. The term "Philosophy' is the summing up of one class of considerations. Religion is the greatest of all. The poetic handling of the Tender Emotions is a distinct form; and, although occasionally standing by itself, it is the frequent accompaniment of all the other modes, and is excluded from none, except the severely ethical view of retribution or recompense for conduct in this life. The ancients dilate powerfully upon philosophy, destiny and life-weariness. They also use the pathos of tenderness, or mixtures of that with philosophy. Emily Brontë reaches a stern consolation, with perhaps the minimum of consolatory philosophy, in 'The Old Stoic": Riches I hold in light esteem, And love I laugh to scorn; And lust of fame was but a dream, Yes, as my swift days near their goal, In life and death, a chainless soul, This, however, belongs rather to strength; though with pathetic leanings. The consciousness of having done our part in life, and of having fairly participated in its enjoyments, reconciles us to quitting the scene in the ripeness of our days. The affection of friends co-operates with this source of consolation. Funeral rites, mourning and memorials are at once a partial consolation to the living for the loss of friends, and a slight amelioration of the prospect of death. They are also regarded as one of the institutions for gratifying our sociable likings. The consoling figures of Sleep, Rest, Repose, end of Trouble, are found among men of all creeds. The comparison of life to the course of the day supplies, as expressions for its close, the shades of evening, the setting of our sun, the coming of the night. These allusions may be pathetic, but are not necessarily comforting. The following are some of the many poetic renderings:- That opes the palace of Eternity. Sinless, stirless rest― That change which never changes— And beauty immortal awakes from the tomb. Gone before To that unknown and silent shore; Some summer morning? Passing through nature to eternity. (Shakespeare.) A death-like sleep, A gentle wafting to immortal life. (Milton.) To live in hearts we leave behind Is not to die. (Campbell.) Keats, in the Nightingale Ode, has an ecstatic stanza on Death: Darkling I listen; and for many a time, I have been half in love with easeful Death, Now more than ever seems it rich to die. This errs on the side of extravagance. People cannot dis POPE'S DYING CHRISTIAN'. 225 pose of death so lightly as to be reconciled by a nightingale's note, even poetically heightened by the imagery of a beautiful Ode. The unsuitability of Pope's style to Pathos is shown in his Dying Christian'. A series of pointed epigrams is employed to contrast sharply the fading of the present life and the dawning of another; an impossible feat in reality, and scarcely congenial to our imagination. The more typical end of the Christian's life is ecstatic joy and hope, which is susceptible of being fully represented in that shape; without the bold and unworkable fiction of having a foot in each world. The idea of relief from trouble is strongly expressed by Longfellow in 'Evangeline': Still stands the forest primeval; but far away from its shadow, Daily the tides of life go ebbing and flowing beside them; Thousands of throbbing hearts, where theirs are at rest and for ever; Thousands of aching brains, where theirs no longer are busy ; Thousands of toiling hands, where theirs have ceased from their labours; Thousands of weary feet, where theirs have completed their journey. THE HORRIBLE IN EXCESS. This is the lurking danger in all the compositions of Pathos, and may be made the subject of a general review, though it has already received illustration under the special heads. It is not to one, but to many scenes in Greek Tragedy that we may apply the epithet heart-rending'. The poetic adornment is scarcely enough to retrieve the horrors; we must, at last, resort to the device for shaking off the incubus of a horrible dream,—wake up and find it all imaginary. With the Greeks, the delight in malignancy, otherwise named the fascination of suffering, was less modified by humane sympathies than with the moderns. Southey's Mary the Maid of the Inn' is unredeemed horror. By her lover's crimes she was driven to the state described in the first stanza : Who is yonder poor maniac, whose wildly-fix'd eyes She weeps not, yet often and deeply she sighs: |