SD1561. William Allingham to Editor of The Leader
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 18, 361–362.
[Colerine, Ireland]
[late March 1852] [1]
“I shall say what I think—had Shelley lived, he would have finally ranged himself with the Christians; his very instinct for helping the weaker side (if numbers make strength), his very ‘hate of hate,’ which at first mistranslated itself into delirious Queen Mab notes and the like, would have got clearer-sighted by exercise.”—Browning on Shelley.
Sir,
I request permission to say a few words in your Open Council upon the above-quoted passage, which seems to me objectionable for inaccurate expression and unwarrantable speculation.
In the first place, what does “range himself with the Christians” mean? A little farther on, Mr. Browning calls Shelley “a man of religious mind,” whose very denials were “interpenetrated with a mood of reverence and adoration,” and finds him “everywhere taking for granted some of the capital dogmas of Christianity;” whence it is plain that to be of the same spirit as Christ is not what Mr. Browning means by “ranging with the Christians.” Are we, then, to consider full acceptance of the “historical basement,” mentioned in the same breath, to be the essential distinction,—embracing, of course, everything from Genesis to Revelations (the Apocrypha included, or excluded, according to circumstances), and from the Three Persons to the One Person at the other extremity of the universe—plummet of the pit dependent from celestial triangle? In Shelley’s native, and in his adopted country, this formula, variously modified, is (“if numbers make strength”) out of comparison the strongest of creeds. In total of adherents, too, the Cross outnumbers even the Crescent. But Mr. Browning cannot be supposed to think it likely that Shelley, or any one else, looking over a statistical account of the religious denominations of the world, and finding Pagans set down at 482,000,000, and Christians at 175,500,000, should therefore feel a yearning to add his personal unit to the latter body: indeed, the Jews, numbering but 2,500,000, would, with one capable of being so influenced, have the indisputable preference. In what sense, then, is it said that “Shelley would have ranged himself with the Christians—the weaker side (if numbers mean strength)”? It must mean that he would have accepted “the historical basement,” and at the same time preserved the Christian spirit which he already possessed; and that there are very few who unite in themselves the two conditions. This latter proposition is very true; but whether it makes, or ought to make, much in favour of Christianity as a creed, might be questioned.
Much could be said on the feeble and entangled tissue of the essay quoted from, in all that part which treats conjointly of Shelley and Christianity; but the book is suppressed, and I am glad of excuse to avoid more censuring of one whom I truly respect and love: not, however, omitting to declare his opinion that “Shelley, had he lived, would have ranged himself with the Christians” (whether under the influence of a dream, an Aurora Borealis, or some slower process of conversion), to be altogether unwarranted, nay, contradicted by the evidences of the case—Shelley’s character and writings, and the reports and judgments of his intimates.
To these remarks I shall only add an extract, possessing both general and particular applicability, from a letter written by Shelley at Lerici,* June 29, 1822, but nine days before the evanishment of that noble spirit from our world:—
“Let us see the truth, whatever that may be. The destiny of man can scarcely be so degraded, that he was born only to die; and if such should be the case, delusions, especially the gross and preposterous ones of the existing religion, can scarcely be supposed to exalt it. If every man said what he thought, it could not subsist a day.”
I remain truly yours,
W. [2]
*Letters from Abroad. Edited by Mrs. Shelley. No. 66.
Text: The Leader, 3 April 1852, p. 324.
1. Written after the publication of RB’s “Introductory Essay“ (for the Shelley letters) and shortly before appearing in The Leader.
2. Identified as Allingham by Ronald E. Freeman in his dissertation “William Allingham: The Irish Years, 1824–1863” (Urbana, Illinois, 1957), pp. 383–385.
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