1 84 



The Review of Reviews, 



February 20, 1906. 



HAS CHASTITY CEASED TO BE A VIRTUE? 



Yes, Replies .Maurice Maeterlinck. 



To the Fortnightly Review for January the Belgian 

 mystic, M. Maeterlinck, contributes a characteristic 

 and most suggestive essay entitled, " Of Our Anxious 

 Morality." Is it a discussion of the most momentous 

 of all themes, the question as to whether ethics will 

 survive if Christianity should disappear. 



CHRISTIANITY AM) ( BASOTTY. 



M. Maeterlinck starts from the assumption that 

 mankind is gradually forsaking the religion in which 

 it has lived for nearl) twentj centuries, and is taking 

 to itself no new faith. What will happen to mor- 

 ality? Mr. Morley, it will be remembered, touched 

 upon this subject in his work on Diderot, and an- 

 swered it on one point at least ver) much like M. 

 Maeterlinck. Rationalism preserves man) virtues, 

 but chastity finds no place in its canon. M. Maeter- 

 linck roundly asserts and approves oi the dethrone- 

 ment of chastity. He says : — 



Already we have thrown on" a number of constraints 

 which were assuredly hurtful, but which at leasl kept up 



activity of our inner life. We are no longer cnat 

 since we have recognised thai the work ol the flesh, em 

 for twenty centuries, IS natural and lawful. 



Of course, if b\ chaste he means celibate, M. 

 Maeterlinck's statement is obvious. But conjugal 

 love has not been cursed for twenty centuries. The 

 work of the flesh condemned bj Christianity has 

 been incontinence, and this, it is true. Christianity 

 has never regarded as natural and lawful. But it 

 would seem the new morality is going to change all 

 that. This notable assertion oi M. Maeterlinck's 

 occurs towards the close of a long and subtle argu- 

 ment against the assumption that common sense or 

 good sense, or in other words, enlightened self-in- 

 terest, will suffice as a guide tor mankind when con- 

 science and the religions have been dethroned. 



MORALITY NOT DEPENDENT ON RELIGION— 



M. Maeterlinck dismisses the fears of those who 

 dread lest the practice of a lofty and noble morality 

 will perish in an environment that obeys other laws. 

 He says : — 



Those who assure us that the old moral ideal must dis- 

 appear because the relisdons are disappearing are strangely 

 mistaken. It was not the religions that formed this ideal, 

 but the ideal that gave birth to the religions. Now that 

 these last have weakened or disappeared, their sources 

 survive and seek another channel. When all is said, with 

 the exception of certain factitious and parasitic virtues 

 which we naturally abandon at the turn of the majority 

 of religions, there is nothing as yet to be changed in our 

 old Aryan ideal of justice, conscientiousness, courage, 

 kindness and honour. We have only to draw nearer to" it, 

 to clasp it more closely, to realise it more effectively ; 

 and, before going beyond it. we have still a long and noble 

 road to travel beneath the stars. 



—NOR UPON A FUTURE LIFE. 



He is equally confident that virtue in this life 



stands in no need of support drawn from beyond the 



tomb. He says : — 



If to-morrow a religion were revealed to us proving, 

 scientifically and with absolute certainty, that every act 



of goodness, of self-sacrifice, of heroism, of inward nobility, 

 would bring us immediately after our death an indubitable 

 and unimaginable reward, I doubt whether the proportion 

 of good and evil, of virtues and vices amid which we ii\e 

 would undergo an appreciable change. Would you have a 

 convincing example? In the Middle Ages there were 

 moments when faith was absolute and obtruded itself with 

 a certainty that corresponds exactly with our scientific 

 certainties. The rewards promised for well-doing, the 

 punishments threatening evil were, in the thoughts of the 

 men of that time, as tangible, so to speak, as would be 

 those of the revelation of which I spoke above. Neverthe- 

 less. «<• do not see that the level ot goodness was raised. 

 A few saints sacrificed themselves for their brothers, car- 

 ried certain virtues, picked from among the more eon- 

 Mo. to the pitch of heroism; hut the bulk of men 

 continued to deceive one another, to lie, to fornicate, to 

 steal, to be guilty of envy, to commit murder. The average 

 Of the vices was no lower than tliat of to-day. On the 

 contrary, life was incomparably harsher, more cruel and 

 more unjust. liecause the low-water mark of the general 

 intelligence was less high. 



THi; ESSENCE AND Sol ROE OF MORALITY/. 



Ik maintains that "what constitutes the. essence 

 of moraltiy is the sincere and strong wish to form 

 within ourselv< s a powerful idea of justice and love 

 which always rises above that formed by the clearest 

 and most generous portions of our intelligence." Its 

 source must be sought, he tells us, not in precepts 

 or religions, but in 



imagination and the mystic summit of our reason. Do and 

 Baj whal wi we have never been, we are not yet, a 



Bori "i purelj Logical animal. There is in us, above the 



»r1 a our reason, a whole region which 



answers s ething different, which is preparing lor the 

 surprises of the future, which is awaiting the events ot 

 the unknown. This part of our intelligence, which 1 will 

 call imagination or mystic reason, in tunes when, so to 

 ... \\e knew nothing of the laws of nature, came before 

 OSe, went ahead of our imperfect attainments, and made 

 us live, morally, socially and sentimentally, on a level 

 very much superior to that ot those attainments. The 

 fairest discoveries, in biology, in chemistry, in medicine. 

 in physics, almost all had their starting-point in an 

 hypothesis supplied by imagination or mystic reason, an 

 hypothesis which the experiments of srood sense have con- 

 firmed, but which the latter, given to narrow methods, 

 would never have foreseen. 



As it is in science so it must be in ethics. 



THE MORALITY OF THE FTJTCTRE. 



M. Maeterlinck adjures the rationalist and ma- 

 terialist to recognise the need for sparing 



all that hitherto formed the heroic, cloud-topped, inde- 

 fatigable adventurous energy of our conscience. Leave us 

 a few tancy virtues. Allow a little space for our fraternal 

 sentiments. It is very possible that these virtues and 

 these sentiments, which are not strictly indispensable to 

 the just man of to-day. are the roots of all that will 

 blossom when man shall have accomplished the hardest 

 stage of " the struggle for life." Also, we must keep a 

 few sumptuary virtues in reserve, in order to replace those 

 which we abandon as useless, for our conscience has need 

 of exercise and nourishment. Already we have throyvn off 

 a number of constraints which were assuredly hurtful, 

 but which at least kept up the activity of our inner life. 

 . . . Our ideal no longer asks to create saints, virgins, 

 martyrs: but, even though it take another road, the 

 spiritual road that animated the latter must remain intact, 

 and is still necessary- to the man who wishes to go further 

 than simple justice. It 4s beyond that simple justice that 

 the morality begins of those who hope in the future. It 

 is in this perhaps fairy-like, but not chimerical part of our 

 conscience that we must acclimatise ourselves and take 

 pleasure. It is still reasonable to persuade ourselves that 

 in so doing we are not dupes. 



A history of the obituary notices of the Christian 

 religion, beginning with the Crucifixion, would be an 

 instructive and chastening study for the most recent 

 obituarists. 



