VII The Tannkaiiser Type 193 



left no monument of learning in literature is that he 

 was a Tannhauser, — a type that constantly repeats 

 itself among Teutons, — and a very thorough Teuton 

 was he. The spirit that held his mind in thrall 

 was no one goddess of no one mountain, but the 

 Erdgeist Goethe knew of — that Erdgeist who has 

 countless thousands of faery palaces in this world, 

 and Heaven alone knows how many more elsewhere. 

 To-day it is not the Erdgeist that charms men's 

 minds ; it is the human being that enthralls. Let 

 the human being be never so feeble, flabby, hideous, 

 or poor in spirit, it stands higher in popular esteem — 

 more interesting than a rushing river or a noble 

 mountain, or even than the great and deep sea itself. 

 Most people nowadays see in the human being, 

 however poor, the specimen — nay, even in the 

 very unperfectness of that specimen — something 

 greater than the tremendous beauty and majesty 

 of non-human nature, and hold the human being a 

 thing ever nearer to God and dearer to Him. George 

 Kingsley did not see things thus, and, very humbly, 

 I think his view was the right one ; but I despair of 

 ever making those who are under the thrall of the 

 human being understand and sympathise with one 

 who was under the thrall of the Erdgeist. This 

 again brings us back to the inter-relationship between 

 George Kingsley and his big brother Charles. That 

 inter-relationship was a very strong one. Really they 

 were two forms of one being ; had they been but 

 one man, that man would have had a noble vision 



O 



