believing as i do that james thomson is, since shelley, the most brilliant genius who has wielded a pen in the service of freethought, i take a natural pride and pleasure in rescuing the following articles from burial in the great mausoleum of the periodical press. there will doubtless be a diversity of opinion as to their value. one critic, for instance, has called “the story of a famous old jewish firm” a witless squib; but, on the other hand, the late professor clifford considered it a piece of exquisite mordant satire worthy of swift. such differences are inevitable from the very nature of the subject. satire, more than any other form of composition, rouses antipathy where it does not command applause; and the greater the satire, the more intense are the feelings it excites.
but which side, it may be inquired, is likely to be the best judge? surely the friendly one. sympathy is requisite to insight, as carlyle says; while hostility blinds us to a thousand virtues and beauties. i am aware that many will take objection to the employment of satire at all, whether good or bad, on religious topics; but this seems to me preposterous, and i should readily answer it, if thomson had not done so himself in the most vigorous and triumphant manner.
nearly all the pieces in this volume appeared originally in the national reformer or the secularist. i have attempted no arrangement of them, not even a chronological one; the compositor has shuffled them at his own sweet will. all i have done, besides collecting them and carefully reading the proofs, is to indicate in each case the year of first publication; and i think the reader will approve this plan as both modest and sensible.
i am much mistaken if this volume does not become a well-prized treasure to many freethinkers; that it will ever be valued by the general public i dare not hope. yet the number of its admirers will increase with the growth of a healthy scepticism. it will not fall like a bombshell among ordinary readers, who serenely ignore the most terrible mental explosives, and render them comparatively innocuous by mere force of neglect; but it will startle and stimulate some minds, and in time its influence will extend to many more.
what value thomson placed on these pieces it is difficult to decide. “working off the talent,” he once remarked when i mentioned them. but the fact remains that he allowed one or two of them to be reprinted as pamphlets before any of his poems were collected in a volume. he naturally cared more for his poems than for his prose. what poet ever did the contrary? but even for these he cared little, except “the city of dreadful night” and a few others, which expressed his profoundest convictions.
there were several articles in his “essays and phantasies” that proved thomson to be a born satirist as well as a born poet; notably “proposals for the speedy extinction of evil and misery,” a tremendous display of sustained irony, to my mind unsurpassed even by swift at his greatest, and with a poetic grandeur quite beyond him. the contents of this volume show marks of the same strong hand. there is never, perhaps, so continuous an exertion of power; but there is more versatility, more freedom, and often more abandon. i fancy, too, there is more rapidity and suppleness, and i am sure there is more mirth.
thomson’s satire was always bitterest, or at any rate most trenchant, when it dealt with religion, which he considered a disease of the mind, engendered by folly and fostered by ignorance and vanity. he saw that spiritual superstition not only diverts men from truth, but induces a slavish stupidity of mind, and prepares the way for every form of political and social injustice. he was an atheist first and a republican afterwards. he derided the idea of making a true republic of a population besotted with religion, paralysed by creeds cringing to the agents of their servitude, and clinging to the chains that enthral them.
a few words only as to thomson’s life. outwardly it was singularly uneventful, although inwardly it was intense and exciting. he was bom at port glasgow, on the 23rd of november, 1834; and he died in london, on the 1st of june 1882. his father was a merchant captain, and his mother a zealous irvingite. left parentless in his infancy, he was educated at the caledonian orphan asylum. for some years he served as a schoolmaster in the army, during which time he contracted an intimate friendship with mr. bradlaugh, with whom he subsequently worked and lived in london. soon after leaving mr. bradlaugh he devoted himself to journalism, to which he brought a well-practised pen; contributing to the national reformer, the secularist, the liberal, cope’s tobacco plant, and other periodicals. shortly before his death he gained access to the weekly dispatch and the fortnightly review. his poems and essays were mostly written before he tried to live by his pen. four volumes of these have been published by reeves and turner, under the generous editorship of mr. bertram dobell, who has prefixed a memoir to the last, entitled “a voice from the nile and other poems.” besides the five volumes of thomson’s writings now before the public, there are many essays and articles and a few poems still uncollected, some of them of high value; and many poems in manuscript, unknown to all but a few privileged friends. mr. dobell hopes to publish them all in time. thomson’s poetical reputation is, however, already established. the best judges give him the highest praise. my own judgment assigns him the next place to robert browning. of course it is no blasphemy to dispute my estimate; but what prospect is there of reversing the common verdict of george eliot, george meredith, swinburne, and rossetti?
mr. dobell refers to the charm of thomson’s manner in social intercourse. his personal appearance told in his favor. he was of the medium height, well-built, and active. he possessed that striking characteristic sometimes found in mixed races—black hair and beard, and grey-blue eyes. the eyes were fine and wonderfully expressive. they were full of shifting light, soft grey in some moods and deep blue in others. they contained depth within depth; and when he was moved by strong passion they widened and flashed with magnetic power. when not suffering from depression he was the life of the company. he was the most brilliant talker i ever met, and at home in all societies; a fine companion in a day’s walk, and a shining figure at the festive table or in the social drawing-room. but you enjoyed his conversation most when you sat with him alone, taking occasional draughts of our national beverage, and constantly burning “the divine weed.”
thomson’s sympathy with radical and revolutionary causes is not much noticed by mr. dobell, but it was very strong. he was secretary for some time to the polish committee in london, and his glorious lines on “a polish insurgent” which i for one can never read without tears, proves that he might have written the noble songs that george eliot hoped he would compose. he sympathised with all self-sacrifice, all lofty aspiration, and in particular with all suffering. this last emotion was often betrayed by a look rather than expressed in words. i vividly remember being with him once on a popular holiday at the alexandra palace. we were seated on the grass, watching the shifting groups of happy forms, and exchanging appreciative or satirical remarks. suddenly i observed my companion’s gaze fixed on a youth who limped by with a pleasant smile on his face, but too obviously beyond hope of ever sharing in the full enjoyment of life. thomson’s eyes followed him until he passed out of sight, and the next moment our eyes met. i shall never forget the gentle sadness of that look, its beautiful sympathy that transcended speech, and made all words poor.
thomson’s life was a long tragedy. he inherited from his father a fatal curse, and in his youth he lost the beautiful girl to whom he was engaged. she was the object of his passionate adoration, and allusions to her often occur in his poems. her image mingled with all the sombre panoramas of love and death and grief that passed before the eyes of his imagination. yet i do not agree with mr. dobell in regarding this bereavement as the cause of his life-long misery. she was, i hold, merely the peg on which he hung his raiment of sorrow; without her, another object might have served the same purpose. he carried within him his proper curse, constitutional melancholia. from long and careful observation i formed this conclusion, and it explains thomson’s life and philosophy. i would not dogmatise, however; for the profundities and subtleties of the human heart baffle all calculation. certitude is now impossible. the seal of eternal silence is set on thomson’s lips—“after life’s fitful fever he sleeps well.” he is buried at highgate, and his darling lies, i suspect, in an unknown grave. death has at last united them, but their love survives in the glory of immortal song.
