Everywhere the _formed_ world is the only
habitable one. The naked formlessness of Puritanism is not the thing I
praise in the Puritans; it is the thing I pity,--praising only the spirit
which had rendered that inevitable! All substances clothe themselves in
forms: but there are suitable true forms, and then there are untrue
unsuitable. As the briefest definition, one might say, Forms which _grow_
round a substance, if we rightly understand that, will correspond to the
real nature and purport of it, will be true, good; forms which are
consciously _put_ round a substance, bad. I invite you to reflect on this.
It distinguishes true from false in Ceremonial Form, earnest solemnity from
empty pageant, in all human things.
There must be a veracity, a natural spontaneity in forms. In the commonest
meeting of men, a person making, what we call, "set speeches," is not he an
offence? In the mere drawing-room, whatsoever courtesies you see to be
grimaces, prompted by no spontaneous reality within, are a thing you wish
to get away from.
Pages:
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392
393
394
395
396
397
398
399
400