MR. CARPENTER'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY.* Or the unprofessional and, in a sense,
unacademic thinkers most in vogue amongst the ingenuous youth of Socialist leanings during the last thirty years, there are probably few who have exerted more influence than Mr. Edward Carpenter, the author of Towards Democracy, who has recently published his autobiography. It is an interesting
• My Days and Dreams: being dtdoidagraphicat Notts. By Edward Carpenter. With Portraits and Illustrations. London: All and Unwin. Ve. bd. neLl
book in many ways, since one seldom meets with a prophet who is so contented with his lot, who is, on the whole, so cheerfully convinced that his " dreams of life (the wildest and most unlikely) hate from time to time been realized," or who faces the shattering of his ideals with such an imperturbable disregard of the signs of the times. Mr. Carpenter is not merely a prophet who has been recognized in his own country. His principal works have been translated into German, Russian, Italian, French, Dutch, Bulgarian, Spanish, and Japanese, and have brought him into touch with a number of correspondents of Anarchist, anti-Militarist, anti-Governmental, Cosmopolitan, and Internationalist views. Thus the Russian novelist, M. Najfvin, has written to him for some years, chiefly about Cosmic Consciousness and Sandals. Tolstoi was so pleased with Mr. Carpenter's attacks on Modern Science in his Civilization : its Cause and Cure that he had the chapter printed in Russian, with a preface by himself. It is true, however, that Tolstoi did not see eye to eye with Mr. Carpenter, his point of view being that, as Science was a serious enemy to Religion, anything which bombarded and crippled Science would help to free Religion. " This was not my point of view. I do not regard Science—or rather Intellectualism—as the foe of Religion, but more as a stage which has to be passed through on the way to a higher order of perception or consciousness—which might possibly be termed Religion—only the word religion is too vague to be very applicable here." Still, this misunderstanding was a neg- ligible incident. Mr. Carpenter's exposure of the supposed Laws of Nature has been entirely vindicated. " The airy fairy laws of the Science of the last century " have all gone into the melting-pot, though no one (exceptpossibly Mr. Carpenter, who had been brought up on mathematics and physical science and knows what he is writing about) " seems to bo aware of the fact, or at least sums it up or tackles its meaning or result." In other directions also the outlook is most reassuring :—
"Another airy castle which is obviously fading away before our eyes is that of the Laws' of Morality. The whole structure of civiliza- tion-morality is being rapidly undermined. The moral aspects of Property, Commerce, Class-relations, Sex-relations, Marriage, Patriotism, and so forth, are shifting like dissolving views. Nietzsche has scorched up the old Christian altruism ; Bernard Shaw has burned the Deealogue. let (in this country and according to our custom) we jog along and pretend not to see what is happening. No body of people faces out the situation, or attempts to foretell its future. The Ethical society professes to substitute Ethics for Religion, as a basis of social life ; yet never once has it informed us what it means by Ethical The Law courts go mumbling on over ancient measures of right and wrong which the man in the street has long ago discarded. Much less has any group attempted to foreshadow the now Morality, and concatenate it on to the gnat root-fact of existence. In my Defence of Criminals • a Criticism of Morality,' I gave an outline and an indication of what was happening, and of the way out into the future ; but that paper, as far as I know, has never been seriously discussed."
Eppur si muove. Mr. Carpenter's books, Civilization and The Art of Creation—which develop the idea of the progress of consciousness from that of the animal or primitive man through the self-consciousness of the civilized or intellectual man to the mass consciousness or cosmic consciousness of the coming man—have been well received, and their contributions to the cause of humanity, like that of Dr. Richard Bucke, have been none the less genuine for failing to elicit " serious recog- nition or response from the accredited authorities, philosophers, psycho- logists, and so forth." But that is always the way. " The world goes on—the real expanding vital forces being always beneath the surface are hidden, as in a bud, while the accepted forms and conclusions are little more than a vari-coloured husk, waiting to be thrown off." And though they may be only " gradually thrown away," Mr. Carpenter is hopeful of the future :— " Relating itself closely and logically with the idea (1) of the three stages of Consciousness is that (2) of the Berkeleyan view of matter— the idea that matter in itself is an illusion, being only a film between soul and soul : called matter when the film is opaque to the perceiving soul, but called mind when the latter sees through to the intelligence behind it. And these stages again relate logically to the idea (3) of the Universal or Omnipresent Self. The Art of Creation was written to give expression to these three ideas and the natural deductions from them. The doctrine of the Universal Self is obviously funda- mental ; and it is clear that once taken hold of and adopted it must inevitably revolutionize all our views of Morality—since current morality is founded on the separation of self from sell ; and must revolutionize too all our views cf Science. Such matters as the Transmutation of Chemical Elements, the variation of biological Species, the unity of Health, the unity of Disease, our views of Political Economy and Psychology ; Production for Use instead of for Profit, Communism, Telepathy ; the relation between Psychology and Physiology, and so forth, must take on quite a new complexion when the idea which lies at the root of them is seized. This idea must enable us to understand the continuity of Man with the Protozoa, the relation of the physiological centres, on the one hand to the individual Man and on the other to the Race from which he springs, the meaning of Reincarnation, and the physical conditions of its occurrence. It must have eminently practical applications ; as in the bringing of the Races of the world together, the gradual evolution of a Non-governmental form of Society, the Communalization of Land and Capital, the freeing of Woman to equality with Man, the extension of the monogamic Marriage into some kind of group-alliance, the restoration and full recognition of the heroic friendships of Greek and primitive times ; and again in tho sturdy Simplification and debarrasament of daily life by the removal of those things which stand between us and Nature, between ourselves and our fellows—by plain living, friendship with the Animals, open-air habits, fruited= food, and such degree of Nudity as we can reasonably attain to. These mental and social changes and movements and many others which are all around us waiting for recognition, will clearly, when they ripen, constitute a revolution in human life deeper and more far-reaching than any which we know of belonging to historical times. Even any one of them, worked out practically, would be fatal to most of our existing institutions. Together they would form a revolution so great that to call it a mere extension or outgrowth of Civilization would be quite inadequate. Rather we must look upon them as the preparation for a stage entirely different from and beyond Civilization. To tackle these things in advance, to prepare for them, study them, understand them is clearly absolutely necessary. It is a duty which—however burked or ignored for a time—will soon be forced upon us by the march of events. And it is a duty which cannot effectively be fulfilled piece- meal, but only by regarding all these separate movements of the human mind, and of society, as part and parcel of one great underlying move- ment—one great new disclosure of the human SouL" Mr. Carpenter's personal contribution towards the ideal of reasonable Nudity is rather disappointing. Facing the page from which we have just quoted there is a photograph, " Self in Porch, 1905," representing the author in a Homburg hat, white shirt, collar and tie, tweed coat and knickerbockers, stockings and sandals. (Let us remark in paren- thesis that sandals are only endurable with bare feet. With stockings they are a sheer monstrosity.) The only article of raiment he has discarded is his waistcoat, and that is replaced by a scarf. Mr. Car- penter is a very good-looking man. The portrait facing p. 304 reveals in profile quite a strong likeness to George Meredith, but is even less unconventional in attire than the porch, or shall we say / the Stoic por- trait. There are also three other portraits taken at the ages of thirteen, thirty-one, and forty-three—all fully dressed. This, if we are not mistaken, constitutes a record in autobiographies of prophets published in their lifetime. One wonders whether Diogenes or Socrates would have been so liberal, if the camera had been available in their time.
But if one should regard this trait as a weakness, it should never be forgotten that Mr. Carpenter had much to struggle against in his lifelong efforts towards self-simplification. Even Mr. Bernard Shaw, though he has burned the Decalogue, has never conquered his fondness for being phctographed. Then Mr. Carpenter was born at Brighton, and for the first twenty years of his life lived there for the most part in " a would-be fashionable world" which he hated. Again, he came to his first consciousness of the world
" in the middle of that strange period of human evolution, the Vic- torian Age, which in some respects, one now thinks, marked the lowest ebb of modern civilized society : a period in which not only commer- cialism in public life, but cant in religion, pure materialism in science, futility in social conventions, the worship of stocks and shares, the starving of the human heart, the denial of the human body and its needs, the huddling concealment of the body in clothes, the impure hush' on matters of sex, class-division, contempt of manual labour, and the cruel barring of women from every natural and useful expression of their lives, were carried to an extremity of folly difficult for us now to realize."
At home he never felt really at home ; at Brighton College he can only recall one occasion on which a master exercised any directly helpful influence. Then he went to a boating College, where he consorted with Philistines, came out Tenth Wrangler in the Mathematical Tripes, was elected to a Fellowship, and took Orders. He was for a while curate to F. D. Maurice, in whose school of theology he bad been brought up, but soon felt very uncomfortable. The companionship of W. K. Clifford and other heretics added to his disquietude, and the impact of Whitman—whom he ranks above Plato, Wordsworth, Shelley, and even Shakespeare—brought about a spiritual conversion, completed by a visit to Italy, where the study of Greek sculpture added to and corrobo- rated the effect of Whitman's poetry. So he relinquished his Orders and his Fellowship, became an Extension Lecturer, and made acquaint- ance with the manufacturing centres and oommercial society of the North of England. From 1880 onward he has lived almost entirely among the masses, and has been largely engaged in manual labour- market-gardening, sandal-making, &o. Literature, which had appealed to him in the first instance as a pastime, now became an instrument in helping on the cause of humanity. But in the reply to the address presented to him by his admirers on his seventieth birthday he disclaims the credit of being a disinterested reformer. He declares that in all his activities he has done the thing " primarily and simply because of the joy I had in doing it, and to please myself."
The war has proved a touchstone of character and philosophy, and it is interesting to see how Mr. Carpenter has emerged from the ordeal. Thirty-three years ago he wrote thus in England's Ideal :— " The feeling, indeed, seems to be spreading that England stands already on the verge of a dangerous precipice ; at any moment the door may open for her on a crisis more senous than any in her whole history. Rotten at heart, and penetrated with falsehood, her aris- tocracy emasculated of its manhood, her capitalist classes wrapped in selfishness, luxury and self-satisfied philanthropy, her Government offices—army, navy and the rest—effete, plethoric, gorged (in snake- like coma) with red tape, her Church sleeping profoundly—snoring aloud—her trading classes steeped in deception and money-greed, her labourers stupefied with overwork and beer, her poorest stupefied with despair, there is not a point which will boar examination, hardly a wheel in the whole machine which will not giro way under pressure. The first serious disturbance now, and the wheels will actually cease to go round ; the first great strain—European or Eastern war—and it seems not improbable that the governing classes of England will succumb disgracefully. Then—with an exhausting war upon us, our foreign supplies largely cut off, our own country (which might grow ample food for its vresent population) systematically laid waste and depopulated by landlord legislation, with hopeless commercial depres- sion, stagnation of trade, poverty, and growing furious anarchy—our position will be easier imagined than described."
This forecast was published in book form in 1887 and reprinted in successive issues, the last bearing date 1909, and from the references made in the present volume it is clear that Mr. Carpenter is not inclined to recant a word of what ho wrote. It Is true that in the reply to the address already quoted he pronounces the Prussian military clique guilty of having precipitated the fatal move, but he expressly declares that the inevitable results of our industrial system, " the insane commercial and capitalistic rivalry and the piling up of power in the hands of mere speculators and financiers, have now for years been leading up to this war, and In that sense, indeed, all the nations concerned are responsible for it—England no loss than others." The German Government is "now involved in a conflict which the more socialistic section of its population absolutely detests and for which its masses have little desire or enthusiasm." AB for Russia, he observes that "by supplying the Russian autocracy with an excuse for its lust of conquest (an excuse which is welcome, no doubt, as a means of discounting the revolutionary movement at home), this action of Germany is destined to lead to a disorganization of Russia similar to that which awaits herself." This was written nearly two years ago, but it evidently represents Mr. Car- penter's views to-day. Tho war is to him a world-madness, but he welcomes it with a sort of Olympian ecstasy as likely to bring about the emancipation of our manual workers and agricultural rustics from their " forced and servile toil " under the capitalist system ; the collapse of all our "jerry-built cheapjack " commercial system ; and the elimination of the cheap and aimless typos belonging to the mercantile and middle classes—to say nothing of our emasculated aristocracy. He confesses to amazement at the high spirits, courage, devotion, and the loyalty to each other of the combatants in each nation. " These things would be utterly unintelligible were it not for the fact that each people (and we need make no exception) thinks and believes in seine obscure way that the cause for which it is fighting is a noble and honourable ono." In short, the great Transformation which Mr Carpenter looks forward to involves great sacrifices—" thousands and millions of individuals must die in the mere effort to create a now collective order. Heroisms, exceeding those of the past, will be needed and will be supplied. We need not fear. We know the great heart of humanity."
As Mr. Peckaniff once observed: "Let us bs moral. Let us con- template existence." But the precept is hard to follow, and this mood of serene acquiescence in the self-sacrifice—to quote the words of another writer--of " those weary men on whose faithfulness to duty hangs our national existence ; who have gone down into hell that we may be free," cannot readily be attained by the plain person to whom the cult of the Cosmic Consciousness is only Jcllybyism writ large, and who holds with Burke that adulation is not of more service to the people than to Kings. Happily, this strange anarchical perversity has not killed tho poet in Mr. Carpenter. He can still write delight. fully of the Downs, with affection for his father and mother, and with engaging frankness of his associates and admirers. As a literary artist Mr. Carpenter is delightfuL As a professor of Omniscience he is a miracle of complacent ineptitude.
Previous page
