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 THE VORTEX OF POWER
INTELLECTUALS AND
POLITICS IN INDONESIA’S
POST-AUTHORITARIAN ERA

AIRLANGGA PRIBADI KUSMAN

The Vortex of Power
 Airlangga Pribadi Kusman

The Vortex of Power

Intellectuals and Politics in Indonesia’s
Post-Authoritarian Era
Airlangga Pribadi Kusman
Department of Politics
Airlangga University
Surabaya, Indonesia

ISBN 978-981-13-0154-4    ISBN 978-981-13-0155-1 (eBook)

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0155-1

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018942506

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2019

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
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 Preface

The post-authoritarian period provides the socio-economic and political

context within which good governance and democratic institutional-
building have taken place in Indonesia. As strategic actors in governance
processes, intellectuals have significant roles in such institutional-building.
The book will uncover the socio-political role of intellectuals in East Java
Province, especially Surabaya, by utilising a political economy and political
sociology analysis. The contribution of intellectuals to local governance
processes and democratic politics in East Java is achieved not only through
their roles as knowledge producers and disseminators but through their
actions as participants in the struggle over power and wealth, as members
of electoral campaign teams, local government advisers as well as propa-
gandists. East Java intellectuals eased into taking up these roles because
there had been no space for creating social bases for progressive forces in
civil society under New Order authoritarianism. Hence, there was a strong
tendency for East Java intellectuals to have been domesticated or co-opted
into the structures of state corporatism. After the fall of Soeharto and
subsequent democratisation, predatory forces previously incubated under
the New Order have not been sustained through coercion only but also by
hegemonic strategies carried out by an intellectual apparatchik, including
academicians, journalists and NGO activists. Because democratic institu-
tions have been dominated by politico-business alliances in national as well
as in local political arenas, the practice of governance tends to be dictated
by predatory interests, serving neither the cause of the free market nor of
empowering ordinary people. The book shows that intellectuals play a role
beyond producing or disseminating ideas. In fact, various kinds of intel-

v
vi PREFACE

lectuals have become directly involved in practices that ensure the muta-
tion of the good governance agenda associated with decentralisation and
democratisation into yet another instrument of predatory rule, including
at the local level.

Surabaya, Indonesia Airlangga Pribadi Kusman

 Acknowledgement

This work was completed only with the support of many individuals.
Foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisors
Professor Vedi Hadiz and Associate Professor Shahar Hameiri for their
continuous support for my work and their patience and immense knowl-
edge. Their guidance helped me during all the time of research and in the
writing of this book. I also would like to express my gratitude to the Asia
Research Centre professors and staff. Over the years I learnt a lot about
academic perspectives from Prof. Kevin Hewison, Prof. David T. Hill, Dr.
Jane Hutchison, Dr. Carol Warren, Prof. James Warren, Dr. Jeffrey
Wilson, Dr. Ian Wilson and Dr. Jacqui Baker. I would like to express my
gratitude as well to Tamara Dent, Sia Kozlowski and Inga Scarpello for
their guidance in dealing with administrative processes in the university.
I have benefited greatly from discussions with and suggestions from my
fellow students at the ARC, especially the late Darmiyanti Muchtar, Dr.
Charan Bal, Dr. Fabio Scarpello, Charlotte Minh Ha Pham, Dr. Dirk
Steenbergen, Nicole Andres, Roderick G. Orlina, Nurul Aini, Melissa
Johnston, Shaomin Xu, Faris Al Fadhat, Sait Abdullah, Irwansyah, Abdil
Mughis, Lukman-nul Hakim, Diswandi, Hikmawan Saefullah, Chu Minh
Thao, Vitti Valenzuella and Agung Wardhana, with whom I shared an
office for many years.
Of course, I remain forever indebted to the people of Surabaya and East
Java for allowing me to explore the social relations between intellectuals
and local power. I would like to express my appreciation to local political
elites, businessmen, academicians, NGO activists, journalists, researchers
and bureaucrats for welcoming me and providing precious data and infor-

vii
viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

mation for my book. Among them are interviewees who requested their
names not to be mentioned as well as some prominent actors whose iden-
tity I have concealed for their own well-being. I would also like to express
my gratitude to my colleagues in Airlangga University, especially Prof.
Soetandyo Wignjosoebroto, Prof. Tjuk Kasturi Sukiadi, Basis I. Susilo, Dr.
Vincentio Dugis, Dr. Rachmah Ida, Dr. Dwi Windyastuti, Dr. Dede
Oetomo, Dr. Daniel Sparingga, Priyatmoko Dirdjosuseno, Prof. Dr.
Ramlan Surbakti, Prof. Dr. Kacung Maridjan, Dr. Budi Prasetyo, Wisnu
Pramutanto, Haryadi, Dr. Kris Nugroho, Soetrisno, Dr. Siti Aminah, Hari
Fitrianto, Fahrul Muzaqqi, Dr. Herlambang Perdana Wiratraman, Joeni
Arianto Koerniawan, Joko Susanto and Novri Susan. This work was also
accomplished with the support of my beloved friends especially Dimas
Oky Nugroho, Rosdiansyah, Dr. Sony Karsono, Dr. Robbie Peters, Natalia
Laskowska, Dr. Ali White, Andri Arianto, Deddy Prihambudi, Iwan Nur
Hidayat, Yohan Wahyu MSi, Nasrul Amri Latief, K.H. Muhammad
Dhiyauddin Kuswandhi, Muhammad Faishal A., Toga Sidauruk, Ridho
Saiful Ashadi, Dr. Yudi Latif, Indah Nataprawira, Eva Kusuma Sundari,
Lina Puryanti, Yudhi Rachman, Achmad Room Fitrianto, Josiah Giuvani,
Dames Alexander Sinaga, Tio Evita Novriani and Nadia Lee.
I also acknowledge the generous support of the Indonesian Ministry of
Education, which provided a graduate scholarship for three years along
with Murdoch University, which gave me an additional year of scholarship
until I submitted my dissertation.
Last but not certainly least, my deepest appreciation goes to my fam-
ily—my father (Soenaryo Kusman), my mother (Noor Anna), my sister
(Airlanda Umaranty) and my beloved wife (Aprilia Yahya) for their relent-
less support and encouragement over the years. I dedicate this work to my
daughter Amartya Latifa Airlangga, who patiently waited for her father for
four years with love and understanding, and my little baby Humaira Yara
Radmila Airlangga. I am of course solely responsible for the analysis and
conclusions of this study.
 Contents

1 Introduction   1
The Book’s Argument   3
Methodological Confessions   7
The Book’s Structure   9
Bibliography  12

2 Intellectuals and the Politics of Good Governance:

Theoretical Considerations  15
Introduction  15
Intellectuals and Power Struggles  17
Intellectuals and Governance: Theoretical Approaches  22
The Neo-institutional Approach  22
The Neo-Foucauldian Critique: Knowledge and Power  31
The Neo-Gramscian Critique: A New Imperialist Logic?  34
The Embedded Social Conflict Approach  38
Intellectuals and Power Struggles in Comparative Perspective  41
Intellectuals and Power in the United Kingdom
and the United States  41
Intellectuals and Power Struggles in Latin America  45
Intellectuals and Social Struggle in Southeast Asia  46
Conclusion  48
Bibliography  50

ix
x Contents

3 Historical Context of the Relationship Between East

Javanese Intellectuals and the Political Elite  57
Introduction  57
A Brief Overview on the State and Intellectuals’ Relationship  58
The Early Period of New Order (1966–72)  60
The Political Economy Constellation from the Transition
Period into the New Order Era  61
Hegemony and Repression in Early Period of the New Order  63
The Heyday of the New Order (1972–88)  72
The Political Economy Constellation During the Heyday
of the New Order Era  73
The Hegemony and Coercion Strategy During the Heyday
of the New Order  75
The Late Soeharto Era  83
Intellectuals and Social Struggle in the Late Soeharto Era  84
Conclusion  93
Bibliography  99

4 The Windfall of Post-authoritarian 105

Introduction 105
The Political-Economic Constellation of Early Indonesian
Post-authoritarianism 106
Intellectuals and Social Struggle in the Post-authoritarian Era 107
The Role of Consultant in the Political Field 114
Conclusion 122
Bibliography 124

5 Building a New Political Structure in Post-­authoritarian

East Java: The New Role of Intellectuals 127
Introduction 127
Academics, Power and Networks 129
The Political Economy Context of Local Elections 135
Money Politics in East Java Local Elections 136
Elections and Political Co-optation 143
Academics, Fraudulent Strategy and Utilisation of the Neo-
institutional Discourse 150
Conclusion 157
Bibliography 162
 Contents 
   xi

6 Intellectuals in the Rebuilding of Political Power in Post-­

authoritarian Indonesia 165
Introduction 165
The Role of Intellectuals: Producing Consent Without Coercion 167
Appropriating Social Assistance to Consolidate Local Power 174
Local Development and Material Incentives 179
Conclusion 183
Bibliography 189

7 Intellectuals and the Disorganised Social Movements

in East Java: The Lapindo Mudflow Case 193
Introduction 193
The Chronology of the Lapindo Case and State Policies 195
Geologist Split 197
Financial Settlement and Solution 200
Intellectuals in the Lapindo Struggle 205
Pagar Rekontrak 210
GKLL (the Lapindo Mudflow Victims’ Coalition) 211
Geppress (the Movement for Supporting Presidential
Regulation No. 14/2007) 214
The Pro-Lapindo Intellectuals 217
The Limit of Civil Society 224
Conclusion 226
Bibliography 234

8 Conclusion 237
Bibliography 243

Bibliography 245

Index 265
 CHAPTER 1

Introduction

The post-authoritarian period in Indonesia provides the historical backdrop

into the socio-economic and political context that lays the foundation for
initiatives into good governance and the building of domestic institutions.
Indonesian intellectuals are considered to be strategic assets in Indonesia’s
endeavour towards realising the implementation of good governance and
the creation of an egalitarian form of democratic institution within the state.
The term ‘intellectuals’ refers to members within the Indonesian demo-
graphic that contributes to the country’s efforts in establishing good gover-
nance, comprises academics who contribute to the production of scientific
knowledge; experts, consultants and technocrats who produce policy advice
and political recommendations; social and political practitioners such as
journalists and NGO activists, whose positions are based on their capacity to
create public discourse in civil society arenas; and artists, writers and colum-
nists commonly called ‘public intellectuals’, who are engaged in debates
about the moral principles that govern society. All these categories some-
times overlap. These members are people of high social standing and/or
have substantial influence within society in which they are able to influence
or sway public opinions to their desired effect (Gu and Goldman 2004: 6).
The good governance concept illustrated within the contents of this
book starts from the preposition that during this moment in time,
Indonesia as a state is evolving, moving past ‘government’ to ‘governance’
which displays evidence of coalescence among various actors due to the
state’s lack of influence to maintain a monopoly over resources needed to

© The Author(s) 2019 1

A. P. Kusman, The Vortex of Power,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0155-1_1
2 A. P. KUSMAN

govern (Pierre and Stoker 2000). It also suggests that technocratic policy-­
making is designed to specifically connect the state, civil society and busi-
nesses with the aim of addressing core development issues (Nelson and
Zadek 2000: 5; Santiso 2001: 5). Furthermore, the systematic establish-
ment of good governance within Indonesia is meant to produce a state
that is impartial, transparent and upholds both the rights of individual
persons and rights of the collective within the state (Bevir 2009).
In contemporary political system of East Java, there is clear involve-
ment of intellectuals who have contributed to the dynamics of politics
within East Java and its capital city. The contribution mentioned ranges
from one end of the spectrum to another, which in this case means that
the intellectuals in question are either fuelling the spark to enhance and
further the development of good governance and democratic institution-­
building within East Java or are on the opposite side of the spectrum by
legitimising and/or acting as apologists for the predatory politico-­business
alliances that have infiltrated the new reformed government. This work
shows the role and position of intellectuals who have been situated in the
political economy context in East Java’s post-authoritarianism era, which
is identified by the power capacity of dominant social forces in order to
occupy the political institution and grab public resources for their own
social interests. On the other hand, the absence of social bases among
liberal reformists and social democratic forces, which their original aim
was to influence the governance areas, by the end of the day, becomes the
prominent obstacle for intellectuals to enhance their contribution for cre-
ating the aim of governance agenda that are participatory, transparent and
accountable state-society relationship.
Although the gradual increase of literature concerning good gover-
nance and democratic institution-building is prevalent, none addresses the
role that intellectuals play in the actual execution of good governance and
democratic institution-building. This book seeks to address the lack of
said material by analysing the social, economic and political paradigm that
exists in the province of East Java and its capital city of Surabaya.
The political climate of East Java is characterised by strong relationships
between political figures and business elites—relations that have had a det-
rimental effect towards the establishment of good governance and demo-
cratic institutions. To countermand this fact, the role of the intellectual in
contemporary Indonesia has become more substantial now more than
ever. Analysing roles taken by local intellectuals shows that they influence
the dynamics of how governance is implemented in East Java and in its
 INTRODUCTION 3

capital city and, furthermore with creating strategic alliances with persons
of political importance, provide new insight into the development of such
institutions and the ways in which they operate.
Intellectuals are considered as contributors to science and knowledge,
in relevance to the subject matter of establishing good governance and
democratic institutions (Clark 2000; Levine 2011). This book endeavours
to display a more dynamic role that intellectuals take part in—it is to show
that their roles are not limited to only educational or social platforms but
also on their substantial presence within the conventions of politics in East
Java as well as its capital city of Surabaya.

The Book’s Argument

This book argues that intellectuals and experts have played an increasingly
direct and practical role in the exercise of governance at the local level of
politics in contemporary Indonesia. In understanding this development,
the authoritarian period and its legacy cannot be ignored. During the
Soeharto administration (1965–98), there was clear intent from the
administration to suppress intellectual activities on a large scale in society,
for instance, the disallowance towards freedom of press and limiting stu-
dent assemblies in universities, thereby effectively subjugating intellectual
life while at the same time incorporating many intellectuals into the
administration as junior partners.
Intellectual practices from Soeharto era have been modified and refitted
to suit the needs of a revamped predatory agenda used by the cronies or
‘successors’ of the Soeharto administration, culminating in the formation
of an alliance. Predatory agenda refers to the activities of political, bureau-
crat and business figures who have hijacked public institutions to advance
their political and economic agendas; more specifically, these activities
include but are not limited to accumulation on the basis of access or con-
trol over public institutions and resources (Hadiz 2010: 12).
While the post-Soeharto era has produced new institutions of democ-
racy and market regulation under the discourse of good governance, mali-
cious entities within the new reformed government have adapted to
operating within the new administration. They have abused their influ-
ences within government institutions to gain control. These institutions,
which range from national to regional levels, ensure that governance pro-
cesses support their own interests, thus serving neither the creation of
liberal markets nor empowering people’s participation. In other words,
4 A. P. KUSMAN

Indonesian local elites sought to consolidate their power and protect their
wealth by selectively utilising the good governance agenda as a political
strategy, without compromising the status quo and without disrupting
local state resources (Choi and Fukuoka 2014: 85). In achieving this, such
entities have deployed intellectuals as strategic agents, whose authority is
based upon the intellectuals’ understanding of knowledge, to promote
these interests within a newly democratised environment. In the most
basic sense, such intellectuals help to provide legitimacy for policies and
actions that amount to little more than primitive accumulation.
In fact, experts and intellectuals have become an integral part of domi-
nant predatory entities, involving political and business elites, at the local
level. The capacity of these entities to absorb intellectuals into their alli-
ances through the use of material rewards and access to public resources
has largely distorted the democratic voice in East Java’s intellectuals.
Reformists and progressive intellectuals are hard-pressed into finding
social bases to advance more substantive reformist agendas, as shown in
the case of contemporary East Java.
This work critiques three common academic approaches that are used
to analyse the role of intellectuals in development and governance prac-
tices—the Neo-institutionalist approach, the Neo-Foucauldian approach
and the Neo-Gramscian approach. None of these three approaches con-
siders the possibility that neo-liberal agendas of institutional reform—
which include the proliferation of good governance practices pertaining to
decentralisation—may be utilised by entrenched local elites to protect
their own political and economic interests or to accumulate economic
resources. Consequently, these perspectives can only inadequately deal
with the question of how intellectuals may play a part in the appropriation
of good governance agenda by many local elites, even if they are supposed
to embody the sort of objective, scientific, technocratic knowledge privi-
leged by the very same agenda (Hadiz 2004: 698–99; Hout 2009: 41–42).
It is necessary to specify that the Neo-institutionalism discussed in this
book primarily refers to the ‘the new economic institutionalism’. This is
not to be mistaken from historical institutionalism based on the works of
political sociologists Evans and Skocpol in the 1980s. The type of Neo-­
institutionalism approach that this book is concerned with has deeply
influenced the neo-liberal agenda promoted by international development
agencies such as experts, policy think tanks and sections of the mass media.
The new economic institutionalism focuses on how institutional frame-
works, norms, rules and regulations affect human behaviour and societal
 INTRODUCTION 5

development. It does so by largely adhering to neo-liberal principles pre-

mised on the rationality of free market, even though it also constitutes a
limited critique of neo-liberal thought (Hadiz 2010: 14).1
The Neo-institutionalist approach presents technocratic intellectuals as
experts who support development programmes by providing technical
assistance and the appropriate tools for policy-making processes. From
this perspective, the challenge of the development programme is to make
reforms a matter of technocratic design, in order to meet an objective
‘good’ as defined by the requisites of liberal markets, and to prioritise this
over the demands of rent-seeking and predatory elites (Levine 2011;
Robison 2006: 5).
Local intellectuals, such as technocrats, academics and social activists,
are thus identified as contributors towards developing positive democratic
and governance institution-building due to their knowledge and expertise
(Bevir 2006; Craig and Porter 2006; Talal 2004; Putnam 2000; Diamond
1999; UNDP 1993: 21; World Bank 1992). This book shows instead that
the predatory alliances that developed during the New Order authoritar-
ian era remained strong during the post-authoritarian era and forged new
close relationships with the national- and local-level intellectual apparatus,
in order to maintain their social interests. It will also be demonstrated that
the roles of intellectuals in local political and governance practices had
tendencies to serve these predatory interests, rather than advancing gover-
nance reforms.
The Neo-Foucauldian approach sees good governance as a dominant
and knowledge-based platform for creating an international ‘regime of
truth’.2 This approach explores how the idea of good governance and civil
society participation has been constructed as the outcome of technical
intellectual intervention. From this perspective, the role of intellectuals
should be specific rather than general, as an instrument to produce and
reproduce a particular form of discipline that is used for society to absorb
and condition its perception towards principles of neo-liberal agendas (Li
et al. 2011; Zanotti 2005; Abrahamsen 2000; Escobar 1995). Based on an
analysis of Indonesia’s recent historical power struggles in both the
national and local context, it will be shown that the power of neo-liberal
governance discourse has been blocked by dominant national-local preda-
tory entities, within which local intellectuals have served as organic intel-
lectuals. The role of intellectuals is therefore not confined to being
knowledge producers that enable governance but to also facilitate local
predatory elites, by using their educational credentials as experts to legiti-
mise rent-seeking activity.
6 A. P. KUSMAN

The Neo-Gramscian approach sees intellectuals playing a prominent

role in upholding neo-liberalism as hegemonic knowledge in society. It
considers intellectuals to be deeply embedded in the struggle between the
bourgeoisie and the working class. For Neo-Gramscian scholars, intellec-
tuals, NGO activists and academics promoting ‘good governance’ are not
only producers of knowledge who support neo-liberal governance, they
are also organically connected to the interests of the transnational capital-
ist class. At the same time, the left-wing intellectuals are connected with
the working class and are affiliated with grassroots movements. The hege-
monic battle between intellectuals who are connected with the bourgeoi-
sie and those connected with the working class is considered to take place
across a plethora of arenas throughout civil society (Petras 2007). This
approach asserts that intellectuals and national-local elites have become
the loyal apparatus of global capitalist interests, which in turn aim to
exploit natural resources and society in the interests of global capital
expansion (Robinson 2003, 2008; Peet 2007; Weller and Singleton 2006;
Carrol and Carson 2006; Plehwe et al. 2006; Demmers et al. 2005;
Harvey 2003, 2005; Petras and Veltmeyer 2001; Kiely 1998; Strange
1996; Overbeek and Van Der Pijl 1993).
In contrast to such assertions, the interests of transnational capitalists
have been inhibited and blocked by existing social power structures that
enable politico-business alliances to expropriate public resources and local
budgets for their own interests. The old predatory networks incubated by
the Soeharto administration at the national and local levels have not been
settled; rather, they have been sustained, reorganising their power by cre-
ating new alliances. Such alliances have an intrinsic interest to oppose
technocratic governance solutions advanced by international development
organisations and their domestic allies by these rent-seeking activities.
Paradoxically, the hijacking of the same technocratic governance solutions
simultaneously enables such activities. In the case of local intellectuals, it is
shown that they play important roles in the aforementioned process of
hijacking and legitimising their outcomes in society.
In order to understand the role that intellectuals have tended to play
within dominant political entities, it is important to consider the collective
interests within civil society, state and intellectuals’ roles within this. In
making this argument, this book builds upon Gramsci’s understanding of
intellectuals as the social stratum that articulates and organises, as well as
provides social legitimacy, for the interests of every social group. For the
dominant class, intellectuals act as a primary agent of legitimation for the
 INTRODUCTION 7

existing social and political order, helping to produce consent in civil soci-
ety. In contrast, the task of dominated class of intellectuals is to try to chal-
lenge the hegemonic project of the dominant class and advance a
counter-hegemonic project in order to articulate the political interests of
their own class (Gramsci et al. 1971; Schwarzmantel 2015).
Based on this framework, this book suggests that the roles of intellectu-
als in local governance are determined by their position in historically spe-
cific social struggles, and by their roles and functions in the attempt to
advance the social alliances and to safeguard their interests both in political
and economic matters to which they are attached to. From this viewpoint,
it is not possible to understand the struggle for good governance, the
building of democratic institutions and political participation, without
considering the roles of intellectuals in such struggles and alliances and
vice versa.

Methodological Confessions
An embedded social conflict approach is used herein to dissect the roles,
functions and positions of intellectuals in East Java’s post-authoritarian
governance processes. This approach explains that the process of develop-
ment can be understood as part of the social struggle between different
interests and social entities shaped by the overarching structure of power,
inherited from the Soeharto administration and reshaped according to the
exigencies of the money politics-fuelled democracy that succeeded it.
Therefore, this approach suggests that institutional efforts promoted by
technocrats are difficult to implement in the context of a structure of
power that still reflects the dominance of predatory social interests
(Robison 2010: 26). Indonesia’s intellectuals work within particular
power relationships and cannot act in isolation from struggles for power
and wealth in Indonesian society. It is these power struggles that shape
how the ideas about governance are translated into practice. It is con-
tended that intellectuals’ contributions to policy-making processes in East
Java are situated within power relationships that rely on maintaining forms
of governance very different from the democratic, transparent and
accountable forms being recommended (Robison 2010: ii).
To explore these issues, a critical inquiry-oriented methodology is use-
ful. Its core assumptions are: firstly, ideas are mediated by power relations
in society; secondly, certain groups in society are dominant over others
and exert with coercive and ideological force on subordinate groups;
8 A. P. KUSMAN

thirdly, what is presented as social fact is not separated from the interests
of social groups; fourthly, knowledge is not neutral, for it is connected to
competing social interests (Gray 2014: 27). By utilising a critical inquiry-­
based research, this study aims to achieve a multi-layered and complex
understanding of the local power struggles and good governance practices
which have occurred in post-authoritarian Surabaya and East Java. In par-
ticular, this research will supplement the established macro-historical
approach with the approach of micro-politics, which is concerned with
specific manifestations of broad social processes within local proximities of
power.
Interviewing various people of interest in East Java is obviously impor-
tant to uncover the connections between intellectuals and the various
social forces competing for local power, as well as intellectuals’ contribu-
tion to the maintenance of social and political alliances. Semi-structured
interviews were used. This method was favoured because of its flexibility
and fluid structure, in order to extract the most out of the interviewees in
question. The pattern of semi-structured interviews is organised around
an interview guide, which contains topics, themes or areas to be covered
during the course of interviews.
The present research deployed interview guides that varied according
to the social position of the interviewee—thus, the questions asked of
government bureaucrats would differ from those asked of an academic or
journalist. These questions pertained to matters ranging from personal
experiences and witness accounts of important events to more higher-­
minded issues like the objectives of democratic governance.
This book also analyses official documents and local intellectual publi-
cations to help unravel the roles, positions and affiliations of intellectuals
within local power dynamics. Finally, data obtained through various
sources were triangulated in order to validate findings. The triangulation
involves the use of different sources of data/information from different
times and social situations as well as types of peoples, to find out varying
points of views on specific issues and establish valid outcomes (Bryman
2003; Guion 2002).
This book uses initials rather than full names for some of its interview-
ees, but it states their position or roles and their involvement in some
governance practices. The reason is to protect certain individuals’ standing
before the public audience given their involvement in some of the activi-
ties described. This book also uses initials to refer to various sources in
order to protect the safety of the individuals mentioned.
 INTRODUCTION 9

The Book’s Structure

Following this introductory chapter, Chap. 2 explores and critiques the
Neo-institutionalist, Neo-Foucauldian and Neo-Gramscian approaches to
understanding good governance and the roles of intellectuals as knowl-
edge creators. Based on the political economy approach proposed by
Richard Robison and Vedi Hadiz (2004), Chap. 2 claims that the roles of
local intellectuals in governance practices depend largely on the social and
political context in which they are embedded.
Chapter 3 discusses the historical context of the relationships between
national-local intellectuals and politico-business elites during the Soeharto
administration. This chapter will show that the New Order strategies tar-
geted towards intellectuals fostered strong dependence by intellectuals on
the state apparatus and isolated them from other social entities. By elabo-
rating the historical context of the relationship between intellectuals and
dominant forces in Indonesia, this chapter shows the genesis of intellectu-
als’ absorption into predatory power entities in East Java in the post-­
authoritarian era.
Chapter 4 describes about the roles and positions of intellectuals in
national arena and their relationship with the East Java political circles in
times after Soeharto stepped down up to the contemporary post-­
authoritarianism era. As we are aware that people categorised as intellectu-
als consist of academics or technocrats, activists, NGO activists, journalists
and political consultants, the fall of Soeharto together with his political
system has liberated the intellectual group from merely the scientific cas-
tration phenomenon into the hope to democratic and governance reforms.
However the oligarchy capacity in social alliances to reorganise their power
and dominate the socio-political fields has limited the opportunity of intel-
lectuals to overcome their duty as the bearer of good governance agendas.
Furthermore, this chapter briefly explains the contribution of intellectuals
to legitimise the manoeuvre of dominant politico-business social forces to
hijack the governance based on their knowledge authority in their capacity
as the knowledge producer of governance agendas as well as their exper-
tise in the political marketing and democracy.
Chapter 5 questions how local networks in Surabaya and East Java oper-
ate, which connect intellectuals and political elites and are activated to
defend entrenched dominant social interests in the democratic era. It dis-
cusses the roles of Surabaya’s political consultants—drawn from academia
and the intelligentsia more generally—in the manipulation of the d ­ emocratic
10 A. P. KUSMAN

process. To provide a broader context, the chapter also compares electoral

practices in Surabaya and East Java with other electoral instances on a
national level, with a focus on the roles played by the intelligentsia therein.
As we shall see, intellectuals have been directly involved in money politics
and electoral fraud, as well as using academic knowledge to legitimise the
position of the elites in the public sphere. The chapter also explains why
many academics in East Java, especially in Surabaya and particularly in the
social sciences, have been drawn into these predatory political activities.
Chapter 6 examines the roles and contributions of intellectuals in the
actual implementation of ‘good governance’ agendas in East Java and
Surabaya in the post-authoritarian era. Intellectuals have acted to legiti-
mise ‘good governance’ programmes by laying claims to scientific knowl-
edge and impartiality. In reality, however, these programmes have tended
to reinforce the social position of dominant local politico-business inter-
ests and predatory local elites, who in turn have used public resources to
sustain their power and economic interests.
Chapter 7 examines whether East Java’s intellectuals also play a role in
grassroots political participation and whether they contribute to articulat-
ing the aspirations of marginalised communities in policy-making pro-
cesses. East Java’s intellectuals do play a significant role in helping to
articulate grassroots agendas and influence public opinions. However, this
is not enough to dislodge dominant social forces occupying the political
arenas and civil society, who shape political and governance processes to
serve their interests. The overriding effect can be used as an example of
how, in post-authoritarian era East Java, democratic institution-building
does not automatically facilitate the collaboration of intellectuals with the
community, to advance the interests and aspirations of marginalised
people.
Chapter 8 is the conclusion that summarises the book’s findings. This
book aims to provide five key contributions. Firstly, it contributes to an
understanding of how Indonesian intellectuals utilise the idea of good
governance and democratic institution-building for their own political
and economic interests. It provides insights into how the collaboration
between intellectuals and local politico-business elites actually shapes good
governance and democratic institution-building as part of completions
over power and resources.
Secondly, it shows that the good governance practices and democratic
institution-building have helped to validate a power structure that
­continues to obstruct broad-based political participation in Indonesia. It
 INTRODUCTION 11

also shows how intellectuals have played their roles in legitimising this
process in East Java and Surabaya.
Thirdly, this book contributes to an understanding of how and why
ideas of good governance, democratic institution-building and political
participation, as promoted by international development organisations,
are adopted, adapted or resisted by local political and economic elites.
More specifically, it delves into the contribution of local intellectuals in
resolving the contradictions between technocratic ideas and governance
practices in the interest of local elites.
Fourthly, this book contributes to the broader literature on the social
role of intellectuals. It provides insights into how the social role of intel-
lectuals is not only defined by their capacity to produce and circulate
knowledge but also by their particular position in concrete social and
political struggle.
Finally, this work contributes to the understanding of how the relation-
ships between intellectuals, business and political elites and NGOs in local
political and economic practices in Indonesia intersect with national-level
contests over power and resources.

Notes
1. Some scholars have identified several kinds of new institutionalist theory.
Firstly, there is normative institutionalism. This approach tries to explain
how the norms of institutions determine and shape individual behaviour.
Secondly, there is rational choice or neo-economic institutionalism. This
approach assumes that behaviour is a function of rules and incentives. From
such a perspective, institutions are systems of rules and inducements to
behaviour in which individuals attempt to maximise their own utilities.
Hence, the relevance of institutions is to find the equilibrium point between
the selfish interests of different actors. Thirdly, there is historical institution-
alism. This approach tries to establish the historical roots of policy choices.
The contention is that the way to find out the logic of institutions is to track
its footsteps to uncover the initial decisions that creates policies from the
beginning. Fourthly, there is empirical institutionalism, which argues that
the system of government is fundamental in determining the way in which
policies and decisions are being made by governments. For instance, some
proponents of this approach suggest that the difference between presidential
and parliamentary systems will influence policy-making processes and the
decisions chosen by political elites. Among these, new economic institution-
alism could be considered the backbone of good governance development
12 A. P. KUSMAN

agendas promoted by both international donors and domestic technocratic

intellectuals. The ideas of new economic institutionalism that try to balance
the personal interests of strategic actors are directly connected to the logic
of neo-liberalism that emphasises rational market exchanges within social
spaces (Guy Peters 1999; Hadiz 2010).
2. This term derives originally from Foucault’s conception of the gap between
truth and error (Foucault 1997: 145, 164). He adds that ‘truth isn’t outside
power, or deprived of power’, but is actually ‘produced by virtue of multiple
constraints’ that evoke ‘regulated effects of power’. Thus, ‘each society has
its regime of truth’, and by this expression Foucault means no less than five
things: (i) ‘the types of discourse [society] harbours and causes to function
as true’; (ii) ‘the mechanisms and instances which enable one to distinguish
true from false statements’ and (iii) ‘the way in which each is sanctioned’;
(iv) ‘the techniques and procedures which are valorised for obtaining truth’;
(v) ‘the status of those who are charged with saying what counts as true’
(Foucault 2003: 112, 13). ‘Truth’ is therefore ‘a system of ordered proce-
dures for the production, regulation, distribution, circulation and function-
ing of statements’, which is linked ‘by a circular relation to systems of power
which produce it and sustain it, and to effects of power which it induces and
which redirect it’. Foucault emphasises the need to transform our ‘political,
economic, institutional regime of the production of truth’ (where truth
seeks to emulate the form of scientific discourse), in order to constitute a
new ‘politics of truth’ (Foucault 2003: 113–114, 14).

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 CHAPTER 2

Intellectuals and the Politics of Good

Governance: Theoretical Considerations

Introduction
Good governance and the social and political roles of intellectuals can be
understood through three approaches: the Neo-institutional, Neo-­
Gramscian and Neo-Foucauldian. The Neo-institutional approach is the
one that has produced the good governance discourse. It has been domi-
nant in both academic literature and literature produced by technocratic
intellectuals in international funding agencies. It has also garnered the
attention of many civil society organisations and social movement activ-
ists in developing countries. The other two perspectives, taking their
inspiration from Marxist and Foucauldian intellectual traditions, respec-
tively, are generally related to critiques of internationally funded good
governance agendas. Each of these perspectives, however, has its own
understanding of the role of technocratic intellectuals in the promotion
of neo-­liberalisation processes.
None of these approaches, however, accounts for the possibility that
neo-liberal agendas of institutional reform, which include the proliferation
of decentralisation discourses, could be utilised by entrenched local elites
to protect or even advance their own political and economic interests. As
a consequence, they can only inadequately explain how intellectuals can
play a part in the usurpation of the good governance agenda by many local
elites, even though they are supposed to embody the sort of objective,
scientific and technocratic knowledge privileged by the very same agenda
(Hadiz 2004: 698–99).

© The Author(s) 2019 15

A. P. Kusman, The Vortex of Power,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0155-1_2
16 A. P. KUSMAN

It is important to explore this question because of the greater salience

of local contestations over power and wealth that have accompanied
democratisation and decentralisation in Indonesia. From this viewpoint,
the present book goes beyond the findings of such authors as Hadiz
(2010) and Robison and Hadiz (2004). These views raise multiple ques-
tions concerning the topic that are henceforth introduced in this chapter,
it talks about the dynamics of contestation over power and resources at the
local level and their ability to absorb a range of seemingly contradictory
interests, including those based on expert knowledge. This work offers an
approach which observes the position and roles of intellectuals as social
actors deeply embedded in power struggles between social forces in a spe-
cific social context. Therefore, the contribution of intellectuals towards
the production of knowledge within political and governance processes,
rather than providing solutions that stand above social and political con-
flicts, is determined by their connections with particular social forces
in local social and political struggle.
It is argued that intellectuals and experts have played an increasingly
direct and practical role in governance practices at the local level of politics
in Indonesia, which has come to be more contentious since the implemen-
tation of policies that dictates decentralisation. The genesis of this collabo-
ration between intellectuals and local predatory power alliances in the
post-Soeharto administration is akin to the processes occurring during the
New Order era. Since there was no space for the creation of social bases
for liberal and progressive forces in civil society during the Soeharto
administration, most East Javanese intellectuals were co-opted or even
absorbed into the New Order’s state corporatism. The New Order’s co-­
optation and deep intervention in civil society arenas such as the mass
media and universities not only produced the political subordination of
intellectuals but also created social alliances based on the common inter-
ests of politico-business elites and prominent intellectuals.
Undeniably, some foreign intellectuals and technocrats were also
involved in the political democratic transition through international devel-
opment agencies. They built co-operation with domestic reformist intel-
lectuals and technocrats who had an optimistic perspective about the
capacity of Indonesia to shape societal development based on rational
choice and Neo-institutionalist agendas. The optimism about the potency
of Indonesian reform processes in accomplishing market reform can be
seen in the 2003 World Bank-led Consultative Group on Indonesia (CGI)
report that shows the triumph of Indonesia’s decentralisation and reform
 INTELLECTUALS AND THE POLITICS OF GOOD GOVERNANCE… 17

initiatives after the end of the Soeharto administration. While there was
some scepticism concerning the lack of experience of local elected govern-
ment officials, international technocrats still believed that technical assis-
tance could enforce the principles of transparency, participation and
accountability (USAID 2000; CGI 2003).
Unfortunately, this optimistic view overlooked the coalition of power
that was embedded within the Indonesian political economy since the
Soeharto administration. The possibility of social reform based on the new
economic-institutionalism approach has been hampered by the absence of
organised liberal social groups that could enforce an economic and politi-
cal reform agenda from the grass roots (Hadiz 2010).
Following the emergence of electoral democracy in the Indonesian post-
authoritarian era, the capacities of predatory forces, incubated under the
New Order, were not only sustained by their occupation within political
society but also deployed stratagems that would enhance their legitimacy in
the hopes of establishing hegemonic compliance. Post-authoritarian elites
appear to have accepted the institutions of liberal democracy and market
regulation, associated with the good governance discourse. However, since
politico-business alliances continue to dominate democratic governance
institutions in both the national and local political levels, the logic of these
institutionalisation processes has tended to follow the interests of predatory
power—neither serving the creation of markets nor bolstering people’s
participation. Due to the absorption of intellectuals into local predatory
alliances, they have participated in the distortion of good governance agen-
das into practices that sustain predatory politics at the local level.

Intellectuals and Power Struggles

Scholars have understood the role of intellectuals in vastly different ways.
According to the phenomenological view, intellectuals are people who
carry out the work of thinking while having the courage to speak truth to
power (Said 1994; Lasch 1997, 1965; Coser 1965). On the other hand,
the structuralist view emphasises social structures as the context within
which intellectuals carry out their activities and which shape the roles and
functions that they undertake (Bourdieu 1988; Gramsci et al. 1971;
Gouldner 1982, 1979; Eyerman 1994).
Karl Mannheim’s concept of ‘free-floating intellectuals’ is commonly
understood to mean the capacity of intellectuals to transcend their ­personal
motives and interests. In other words, their ability to detach themselves
18 A. P. KUSMAN

from their own social backgrounds makes it possible for intellectuals to

attain objective scientific knowledge. To be sure, he recognises that intel-
lectuals are entangled in social reality and that this inevitably would influ-
ence their understanding of it. Nevertheless, Mannheim believes that
intellectuals could transcend their social backgrounds gradually through a
process of socialisation within educational institutions—the most impor-
tant of which is the university—where different ideas and viewpoints are
encountered. Mannheim assumes that the increase in the number of intel-
lectuals drawn from various classes, and inducting them within environ-
ments that would encourage liberal thought like universities, would result
in a ‘higher’ level of understanding of total social reality (Mannheim 1992;
Mendel 2006: 27–32).
Mannheim also argued that intellectuals functioned as mediators, being
capable of grasping more of the ‘real world’ than others. Methodologically,
he claimed that natural science methods cannot be used for dealing with
cultural objects, insisting on a rigid distinction and separation between the
human (or social) sciences and the natural sciences. This implies dualism,
however, as Jorge Larrain explains, which ‘leads to epistemological ideal-
ism in the field of natural sciences and encourages relativism in the field of
social science’ (Larrain 1979: 103). This undermines Mannheim’s notion
of intellectuals as free-floating, given that his relativisation of thought con-
tradicts his understanding of thinkers as impartial and objective. Manheim
conceded the dangers of relativism, but asserted that these could be neu-
tralised through the pursuit of truth that was part of the process of perma-
nent development. However, he has been criticised for the failure of his
attempt to provide an overarching ‘metascientific’ thesis, eventually resort-
ing to an empiricist call for the ‘direct observation of the facts’, despite his
earlier insistence on the ‘perspectivism’ (inevitably partial and limited by
each individual’s perspective) nature of all truth (Craib 1977: 27).
Mannheim never fully answered his philosophical colleagues’ accusations
that his outlook was virtually tantamount to relativism, although he never
ceased to assert his rejection of relativism itself (Mannheim 1952 (1928),
1960 (1929), (1935)). Mannheim’s approach is based on an assumption
that the sphere of education is free from power interventions. He thus
tends to ignore the possibility that interventions by powerful interests into
educational institutions can determine the orientation of knowledge that
is internalised through them.
Pierre Bourdieu has presented a different view of intellectuals and soci-
ety. For him, intellectuals claim authority over knowledge based on their
possession of symbolic power with regard to areas within the scope of their
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 Or overrated thy designs.”

The last of the four orisons is written in a singularly calm and

healthful spirit, and contains this petition:—
“My Father: I now come to thee with a desire to thank
thee for the continuance of our love, the one for the other.
I feel that without thy love in me I should be alone here in
the flesh. I cannot express my gratitude for what thou hast
been and continuest to be to me. But thou knowest what
my feelings are. When nought on earth seemeth pleasant
to me, thou dost make thyself known to me, and teach that
which is needful for me, and dost cheer my travels on. I
know that thou hast not created me and placed me here
on earth, amidst its toils and troubles and the follies of
those around me, and told me to be like thyself when I see
so little of thee here to profit by; thou hast not done this,
and then left me here to myself, a poor, weak man,
scarcely able to earn my bread. No; thou art my Father
and I will love thee, for thou didst first love me, and lovest
me still. We will ever be parent and child. Wilt thou give
me strength to persevere in this great work of redemption.
Wilt thou show me the true means of accomplishing it.... I
thank thee for the knowledge that I have attained of thee
by thy sons who have been before me, and especially for
him who brought me so perfect a type of thy goodness
and love to men.... I know that thou wilt deal with me as I
deserve. I place myself therefore in thy hand, knowing that
thou wilt keep me from harm so long as I consent to live
under thy protecting care.”

Let these few scattered leaves, which a chance (as men say, but
which to us shall be holy) brought under our eye nearly at the same
moment, stand as an example of innumerable similar expressions
which no mortal witness has reported, and be a sign of the times.
Might they be suggestion to many a heart of yet higher secret
experiences which are ineffable! But we must not tie up the rosary
on which we have strung these few white beads, without adding a
pearl of great price from that book of prayer, the “Confessions of
Saint Augustine.”
“And being admonished to reflect upon myself, I entered
into the very inward parts of my soul, by thy conduct; and I
was able to do it, because now thou wert become my
helper. I entered and discerned with the eye of my soul
(such as it was), even beyond my soul and mind itself, the
Light unchangeable. Not this vulgar light which all flesh
may look upon, nor as it were a greater of the same kind,
as though the brightness of this should be manifold
greater and with its greatness take up all space. Not such
was this light, but other, yea, far other from all these.
Neither was it so above my understanding as oil swims
above water, or as the heaven is above the earth. But it is
above me, because it made me; and I am under it,
because I was made by it. He that knows truth or verity,
knows what that light is, and he that knows it, knows
eternity, and it is known by charity. O eternal Verity! and
true Charity! and dear Eternity! thou art my God, to thee
do I sigh day and night. Thee when I first knew, thou
liftedst me up that I might see, there was what I might see,
and that I was not yet such as to see. And thou didst beat
back my weak sight upon myself, shooting out beams
upon me after a vehement manner; and I even trembled
between love and horror, and I found myself to be far off,
and even in the very region of dissimilitude from thee.”

IV.

AGRICULTURE OF MASSACHUSETTS. [8]

In an afternoon in April, after a long walk, I traversed an orchard

where boys were grafting apple-trees, and found the Farmer in his
corn-field. He was holding the plough, and his son driving the oxen.
This man always impresses me with respect, he is so manly, so
sweet-tempered, so faithful, so disdainful of all appearances,—
excellent and reverable in his old weather-worn cap and blue frock
bedaubed with the soil of the field; so honest withal, that he always
needs to be watched lest he should cheat himself. I still remember
with some shame that in some dealing we had together a long time
ago, I found that he had been looking to my interest in the affair, and
I had been looking to my interest, and nobody had looked to his part.
As I drew near this brave laborer in the midst of his own acres, I
could not help feeling for him the highest respect. Here is the Cæsar,
the Alexander of the soil, conquering and to conquer, after how many
and many a hard-fought summer’s day and winter’s day; not like
Napoleon, hero of sixty battles only, but of six thousand, and out of
every one he has come victor; and here he stands, with Atlantic
strength and cheer, invincible still. These slight and useless city
limbs of ours will come to shame before this strong soldier, for his
have done his own work and ours too. What good this man has or
has had, he has earned. No rich father or father-in-law left him any
inheritance of land or money. He borrowed the money with which he
bought his farm, and has bred up a large family, given them a good
education, and improved his land in every way year by year, and this
without prejudice to himself the landlord, for here he is, a man every
inch of him, and reminds us of the hero of the Robin Hood ballad,—
“Much, the miller’s son,
There was no inch of his body
But it was worth a groom.”
Innocence and justice have written their names on his brow. Toil
has not broken his spirit. His laugh rings with the sweetness and
hilarity of a child; yet he is a man of a strongly intellectual taste, of
much reading, and of an erect good sense and independent spirit
which can neither brook usurpation nor falsehood in any shape. I
walked up and down the field, as he ploughed his furrow, and we
talked as we walked. Our conversation naturally turned on the
season and its new labors. He had been reading the Report of the
Agricultural Survey of the Commonwealth, and had found good
things in it; but it was easy to see that he felt toward the author much
as soldiers do towards the historiographer who follows the camp,
more good-nature than reverence for the gownsman.
The First Report, he said, is better than the last, as I observe the
first sermon of a minister is often his best, for every man has one
thing which he specially wishes to say, and that comes out at first.
But who is this book written for? Not for farmers; no pains are taken
to send it to them; it was by accident that this volume came into my
hands for a few days. And it is not for them. They could not afford to
follow such advice as is given here; they have sterner teachers; their
own business teaches them better. No; this was written for the
literary men. But in that case, the state should not be taxed to pay for
it. Let us see. The account of the maple sugar,—that is very good
and entertaining, and, I suppose, true. The story of the farmer’s
daughter, whom education had spoiled for everything useful on a
farm,—that is good too, and we have much that is like it in Thomas’s
Almanack. But why this recommendation of stone houses? They are
not so cheap, not so dry, and not so fit for us. Our roads are always
changing their direction, and after a man has built at great cost a
stone house, a new road is opened, and he finds himself a mile or
two from the highway. Then our people are not stationary, like those
of old countries, but always alert to better themselves, and will
remove from town to town as a new market opens or a better farm is
to be had, and do not wish to spend too much on their buildings.
The Commissioner advises the farmers to sell their cattle and their
hay in the fall, and buy again in the spring. But we farmers always
know what our interest dictates, and do accordingly. We have no
choice in this matter; our way is but too plain. Down below, where
manure is cheap and hay dear, they will sell their oxen in November;
but for me to sell my cattle and my produce in the fall, would be to
sell my farm, for I should have no manure to renew a crop in the
spring. And thus Necessity farms it; necessity finds out when to go to
Brighton, and when to feed in the stall, better than Mr. Colman can
tell us.
But especially observe what is said throughout these Reports of
the model farms and model farmers. One would think that Mr. D. and
Major S. were the pillars of the Commonwealth. The good
Commissioner takes off his hat when he approaches them, distrusts
the value of “his feeble praise,” and repeats his compliments as often
as their names are introduced. And yet, in my opinion, Mr. D., with all
his knowledge and present skill, would starve in two years on any
one of fifty poor farms in this neighborhood, on each of which now a
farmer manages to get a good living. Mr. D. inherited a farm, and
spends on it every year from other resources; otherwise his farm had
ruined him long since;—and as for the Major, he never got rich by his
skill in making land produce, but in making men produce. The truth
is, a farm will not make an honest man rich in money. I do not know
of a single instance in which a man has honestly got rich by farming
alone. It cannot be done. The way in which men who have farms
grow rich, is either by other resources, or by trade, or by getting their
labor for nothing, or by other methods of which I could tell you many
sad anecdotes. What does the Agricultural Surveyor know of all this?
What can he know? He is the victim of the “Reports” that are sent
him, of particular farms. He cannot go behind the estimates to know
how the contracts were made, and how the sales were effected. The
true men of skill, the poor farmers, who, by the sweat of their face,
without an inheritance and without offence to their conscience have
reared a family of valuable citizens and matrons to the state,
reduced a stubborn soil to a good farm,—although their buildings are
many of them shabby, are the only right subjects of this Report; yet
these make no figure in it. These should be holden up to imitation,
and their methods detailed; yet their houses are very uninviting and
inconspicuous to State Commissioners. So with these premiums to
farms, and premiums at cattle-shows. The class that I describe must
pay the premium which is awarded to the rich. Yet the premium
obviously ought to be given for the good management of a poor
farm.
In this strain the Farmer proceeded, adding many special
criticisms. He had a good opinion of the Surveyor, and acquitted him
of any blame in the matter, but was incorrigible in his skepticism
concerning the benefits conferred by legislatures on the agriculture
of Massachusetts. I believe that my friend is a little stiff and
inconvertible in his own opinions, and that there is another side to be
heard; but so much wisdom seemed to lie under all his statement
that it deserved a record.

V.

EUROPE AND EUROPEAN BOOKS. [9]

It was a brighter day than we have often known in our literary

calendar, when within a twelvemonth a single London advertisement
announced a new volume of poems by Wordsworth, poems by
Tennyson, and a play by Henry Taylor. Wordsworth’s nature or
character has had all the time it needed in order to make its mark
and supply the want of talent. We have learned how to read him. We
have ceased to expect that which he cannot give. He has the merit
of just moral perception, but not that of deft poetic execution. How
would Milton curl his lip at such slipshod newspaper style. Many of
his poems, as for example the Rylstone Doe, might be all
improvised. Nothing of Milton, nothing of Marvell, of Herbert, of
Dryden, could be. These are such verses as in a just state of culture
should be vers de société, such as every gentleman could write but
none would think of printing, or of claiming the poet’s laurel on their
merit. The Pindar, the Shakspeare, the Dante, whilst they have the
just and open soul, have also the eye to see the dimmest star that
glimmers in the Milky Way, the serratures of every leaf, the test-
objects of the microscope, and then the tongue to utter the same
things in words that engrave them on all the ears of mankind. The
poet demands all gifts, and not one or two only.
The poet, like the electric rod, must reach from a point nearer the
sky than all surrounding objects, down to the earth, and into the dark
wet soil, or neither is of use. The poet must not only converse with
pure thought, but he must demonstrate it almost to the senses. His
words must be pictures, his verses must be spheres and cubes, to
be seen and smelled and handled. His fable must be a good story,
and its meaning must hold as pure truth. In the debates on the
Copyright Bill, in the English Parliament, Mr. Sergeant Wakley, the
coroner, quoted Wordsworth’s poetry in derision, and asked the
roaring House of Commons what that meant, and whether a man
should have public reward for writing such stuff. Homer, Horace,
Milton and Chaucer would defy the coroner. Whilst they have
wisdom to the wise, he would see that to the external they have
external meaning. Coleridge excellently said of poetry, that poetry
must first be good sense; as a palace might well be magnificent, but
first it must be a house.
Wordsworth is open to ridicule of this kind. And yet Wordsworth,
though satisfied if he can suggest to a sympathetic mind his own
mood, and though setting a private and exaggerated value on his
compositions; though confounding his accidental with the universal
consciousness, and taking the public to task for not admiring his
poetry,—is really a master of the English language, and his poems
evince a power of diction that is no more rivalled by his
contemporaries than is his poetic insight. But the capital merit of
Wordsworth is that he has done more for the sanity of this
generation than any other writer. Early in life, at a crisis it is said in
his private affairs, he made his election between assuming and
defending some legal rights, with the chances of wealth and a
position in the world,—and the inward promptings of his heavenly
genius; he took his part; he accepted the call to be a poet, and sat
down, far from cities, with coarse clothing and plain fare to obey the
heavenly vision. The choice he had made in his will, manifested itself
in every line to be real. We have poets who write the poetry of
society, of the patrician and conventional Europe, as Scott and
Moore, and others who, like Byron or Bulwer, write the poetry of vice
and disease. But Wordsworth threw himself into his place, made no
reserves or stipulations; man and writer were not to be divided. He
sat at the foot of Helvellyn and on the margin of Windermere, and
took their lustrous mornings and their sublime midnights for his
theme, and not Marlow, nor Massinger, not Horace, nor Milton, nor
Dante. He once for all forsook the styles and standards and modes
of thinking of London and Paris, and the books read there, and the
aims pursued, and wrote Helvellyn and Windermere, and the dim
spirits which these haunts harbored. There was not the least attempt
to reconcile these with the spirit of fashion and selfishness, nor to
show, with great deference to the superior judgment of dukes and
earls, that although London was the home for men of great parts, yet
Westmoreland had these consolations for such as fate had
condemned to the country life,—but with a complete satisfaction he
pitied and rebuked their false lives, and celebrated his own with the
religion of a true priest. Hence the antagonism which was
immediately felt between his poetry and the spirit of the age, that
here not only criticism but conscience and will were parties; the spirit
of literature and the modes of living and the conventional theories of
the conduct of life were called in question on wholly new grounds,—
not from Platonism, not from Christianity, but from the lessons which
the country muse taught a stout pedestrian climbing a mountain and
following a river from its parent rill down to the sea. The Cannings
and Jeffreys of the capital, the Court Journals and Literary Gazettes
were not well pleased, and voted the poet a bore. But that which
rose in him so high as to the lips, rose in many others as high as to
the heart. What he said, they were prepared to hear and confirm.
The influence was in the air, and was wafted up and down into lone
and into populous places, resisting the popular taste, modifying
opinions which it did not change, and soon came to be felt in poetry,
in criticism, in plans of life, and at last in legislation. In this country it
very early found a stronghold, and its effect may be traced on all the
poetry both of England and America.
But, notwithstanding all Wordsworth’s grand merits, it was a great
pleasure to know that Alfred Tennyson’s two volumes were coming
out in the same ship; it was a great pleasure to receive them. The
elegance, the wit and subtlety of this writer, his rich fancy, his power
of language, his metrical skill, his independence of any living
masters, his peculiar topics, his taste for the costly and gorgeous,
discriminate the musky poet of gardens and conservatories, of parks
and palaces. Perhaps we felt the popular objection that he wants
rude truth; he is too fine. In these boudoirs of damask and alabaster,
one is farther off from stern nature and human life than in “Lalla
Rookh” and “The Loves of the Angels.” Amid swinging censers and
perfumed lamps, amidst velvet and glory we long for rain and frost.
Otto-of-roses is good, but wild air is better. A critical friend of ours
affirms that the vice which bereaved modern painters of their power,
is the ambition to begin where their fathers ended; to equal the
masters in their exquisite finish, instead of their religious purpose.
The painters are not willing to paint ill enough; they will not paint for
their times, agitated by the spirit which agitates their country; so
should their picture picture us and draw all men after them; but they
copy the technics of their predecessors, and paint for their
predecessors’ public. It seems as if the same vice had worked in
poetry. Tennyson’s compositions are not so much poems as studies
in poetry, or sketches after the styles of sundry old masters. He is
not the husband, who builds the homestead after his own necessity,
from foundation-stone to chimney-top and turret, but a tasteful
bachelor who collects quaint staircases and groined ceilings. We
have no right to such superfineness. We must not make our bread of
pure sugar. These delicacies and splendors are then legitimate when
they are the excess of substantial and necessary expenditure. The
best songs in English poetry are by that heavy, hard, pedantic poet,
Ben Jonson. Jonson is rude, and only on rare occasions gay.
Tennyson is always fine; but Jonson’s beauty is more grateful than
Tennyson’s. It is a natural manly grace of a robust workman. Ben’s
flowers are not in pots at a city florist’s, arranged on a flower-stand,
but he is a countryman at a harvest-home, attending his ox-cart from
the fields, loaded with potatoes and apples, with grapes and plums,
with nuts and berries, and stuck with boughs of hemlock and
sweetbriar, with ferns and pond lilies which the children have
gathered. But let us not quarrel with our benefactors. Perhaps
Tennyson is too quaint and elegant. What then? It is long since we
have had as good a lyrist; it will be long before we have his superior.
“Godiva” is a noble poem that will tell the legend a thousand years.
The poem of all the poetry of the present age for which we predict
the longest term, is “Abou ben Adhem,” of Leigh Hunt. Fortune will
still have her part in every victory, and it is strange that one of the
best poems should be written by a man who has hardly written any
other. And “Godiva” is a parable which belongs to the same gospel.
“Locksley Hall” and “The Two Voices” are meditative poems, which
were slowly written to be slowly read. “The Talking Oak,” though a
little hurt by its wit and ingenuity, is beautiful, and the most poetic of
the volume. “Ulysses” belongs to a high class of poetry, destined to
be the highest, and to be more cultivated in the next generation.
“Œnone” was a sketch of the same kind. One of the best specimens
we have of the class is Wordsworth’s “Laodamia,” of which no
special merit it can possess equals the total merit of having selected
such a subject in such a spirit.
Next to the poetry, the novels, which come to us in every ship from
England, have an importance increased by the immense extension
of their circulation through the new cheap press, which sends them
to so many willing thousands. We have heard it alleged with some
evidence that the prominence given to intellectual power in Bulwer’s
romances has proved a main stimulus to mental culture in thousands
of young men in England and America. The effect on manners
cannot be less sensible, and we can easily believe that the behavior
of the ball-room and of the hotel has not failed to draw some addition
of dignity and grace from the fair ideals with which the imagination of
a novelist has filled the heads of the most imitative class.
We are not very well versed in these books, yet we have read Mr.
Bulwer enough to see that the story is rapid and interesting; he has
really seen London society, and does not draw ignorant caricatures.
He is not a genius, but his novels are marked with great energy and
with a courage of experiment which in each instance had its degree
of success. The story of Zanoni was one of those world-fables which
is so agreeable to the human imagination that it is found in some
form in the language of every country, and is always reappearing in
literature. Many of the details of this novel preserve a poetic truth.
We read Zanoni with pleasure, because magic is natural. It is implied
in all superior culture that a complete man would need no auxiliaries
to his personal presence. The eye and the word are certainly far
subtler and stronger weapons than either money or knives. Whoever
looked on the hero would consent to his will, being certified that his
aims were universal, not selfish; and he would be obeyed as
naturally as the rain and the sunshine are. For this reason, children
delight in fairy tales. Nature is described in them as the servant of
man, which they feel ought to be true. But Zanoni pains us and the
author loses our respect, because he speedily betrays that he does
not see the true limitations of the charm; because the power with
which his hero is armed is a toy, inasmuch as the power does not
flow from its legitimate fountains in the mind, is a power for London;
a divine power converted into a burglar’s false key or a
highwayman’s pistol to rob and kill with.
But Mr. Bulwer’s recent stories have given us who do not read
novels, occasion to think of this department of literature, supposed to
be the natural fruit and expression of the age. We conceive that the
obvious division of modern romance is into two kinds: first, the
novels of costume or of circumstance, which is the old style, and
vastly the most numerous. In this class, the hero, without any
particular character, is in a very particular circumstance; he is greatly
in want of a fortune or of a wife, and usually of both, and the
business of the piece is to provide him suitably. This is the problem
to be solved in thousands of English romances, including the Porter
novels and the more splendid examples of the Edgeworth and Scott
romances.
It is curious how sleepy and foolish we are, that these tales will so
take us. Again and again we have been caught in that old foolish
trap. Had one noble thought opening the chambers of the intellect,
one sentiment from the heart of God been spoken by them, the
reader had been made a participator of their triumph; he too had
been an invited and eternal guest; but this reward granted them is
property, all-excluding property, a little cake baked for them to eat
and for none other, nay, a preference and cosseting which is rude
and insulting to all but the minion.
Except in the stories of Edgeworth and Scott, whose talent knew
how to give to the book a thousand adventitious graces, the novels
of costume are all one, and there is but one standard English novel,
like the one orthodox sermon, which with slight variation is repeated
every Sunday from so many pulpits.
But the other novel, of which “Wilhelm Meister” is the best
specimen, the novel of character, treats the reader with more
respect; the development of character being the problem, the reader
is made a partaker of the whole prosperity. Everything good in such
a story remains with the reader when the book is closed. A noble
book was “Wilhelm Meister.” It gave the hint of a cultivated society
which we found nowhere else. It was founded on power to do what
was necessary, each person finding it an indispensable qualification
of membership that he could do something useful, as in mechanics
or agriculture or other indispensable art; then a probity, a justice was
to be its element, symbolized by the insisting that each property
should be cleared of privilege, and should pay its full tax to the state.
Then a perception of beauty was the equally indispensable element
of the association, by which each was dignified and all were
dignified; then each was to obey his genius to the length of
abandonment. They watched each candidate vigilantly, without his
knowing that he was observed, and when he had given proof that he
was a faithful man, then all doors, all houses, all relations were open
to him; high behavior fraternized with high behavior, without question
of heraldry, and the only power recognized is the force of character.
The novels of Fashion, of D’Israeli, Mrs. Gore, Mr. Ward, belong to
the class of novels of costume, because the aim is purely external
success. Of the tales of fashionable life, by far the most agreeable
and the most efficient was Vivian Grey. Young men were and still are
the readers and victims. Byron ruled for a time, but Vivian, with no
tithe of Byron’s genius, rules longer. One can distinguish the Vivians
in all companies. They would quiz their father and mother and lover
and friend. They discuss sun and planets, liberty and fate, love and
death, over the soup. They never sleep, go nowhere, stay nowhere,
eat nothing, and know nobody, but are up to anything, though it were
the genesis of nature, or the last cataclysm,—Festus-like, Faust-like,
Jove-like, and could write an Iliad any rainy morning, if fame were
not such a bore. Men, women, though the greatest and fairest, are
stupid things; but a rifle, and a mild pleasant gunpowder, a spaniel,
and a cheroot, are themes for Olympus. I fear it was in part the
influence of such pictures on living society which made the style of
manners of which we have so many pictures, as, for example, in the
following account of the English fashionist. “His highest triumph is to
appear with the most wooden manners, as little polished as will
suffice to avoid castigation, nay, to contrive even his civilities so that
they may appear as near as may be to affronts; instead of a noble
high-bred ease, to have the courage to offend against every restraint
of decorum, to invert the relation in which our sex stand to women,
so that they appear the attacking, and he the passive or defensive
party.”
We must here check our gossip in mid volley and adjourn the rest
of our critical chapter to a more convenient season.

VI.

PAST AND PRESENT. [10]

Here is Carlyle’s new poem, his Iliad of English woes, to follow his
poem on France, entitled the History of the French Revolution. In its
first aspect it is a political tract, and since Burke, since Milton, we
have had nothing to compare with it. It grapples honestly with the
facts lying before all men, groups and disposes them with a master’s
mind, and, with a heart full of manly tenderness, offers his best
counsel to his brothers. Obviously it is the book of a powerful and
accomplished thinker, who has looked with naked eyes at the
dreadful political signs in England for the last few years, has
conversed much on these topics with such wise men of all ranks and
parties as are drawn to a scholar’s house, until such daily and nightly
meditation has grown into a great connection, if not a system of
thoughts; and the topic of English politics becomes the best vehicle
for the expression of his recent thinking, recommended to him by the
desire to give some timely counsels, and to strip the worst mischiefs
of their plausibility. It is a brave and just book, and not a semblance.
“No new truth,” say the critics on all sides. Is it so? Truth is very old,
but the merit of seers is not to invent but to dispose objects in their
right places, and he is the commander who is always in the mount,
whose eye not only sees details, but throws crowds of details into
their right arrangement and a larger and juster totality than any other.
The book makes great approaches to true contemporary history, a
very rare success, and firmly holds up to daylight the absurdities still
tolerated in the English and European system. It is such an appeal to
the conscience and honor of England as cannot be forgotten, or be
feigned to be forgotten. It has the merit which belongs to every
honest book, that it was self-examining before it was eloquent, and
so hits all other men, and, as the country people say of good
preaching, “comes bounce down into every pew.” Every reader shall
carry away something. The scholar shall read and write, the farmer
and mechanic shall toil, with new resolution, nor forget the book
when they resume their labor.
Though no theocrat, and more than most philosophers a believer
in political systems, Mr. Carlyle very fairly finds the calamity of the
times, not in bad bills of Parliament, nor the remedy in good bills, but
the vice in false and superficial aims of the people, and the remedy
in honesty and insight. Like every work of genius, its great value is in
telling such simple truths. As we recall the topics, we are struck with
the force given to the plain truths; the picture of the English nation all
sitting enchanted, the poor, enchanted so that they cannot work, the
rich, enchanted so that they cannot enjoy, and are rich in vain; the
exposure of the progress of fraud into all arts and social activities;
the proposition that the laborer must have a greater share in his
earnings; that the principle of permanence shall be admitted into all
contracts of mutual service; that the state shall provide at least
schoolmaster’s education for all the citizens; the exhortation to the
workman that he shall respect the work and not the wages; to the
scholar that he shall be there for light; to the idle, that no man shall
sit idle; the picture of Abbot Samson, the true governor, who “is not
there to expect reason and nobleness of others, he is there to give
them of his own reason and nobleness;” and the assumption
throughout the book, that a new chivalry and nobility, namely the
dynasty of labor, is replacing the old nobilities. These things strike us
with a force which reminds us of the morals of the Oriental or early
Greek masters, and of no modern book. Truly in these things is great
reward. It is not by sitting still at a grand distance and calling the
human race larvæ, that men are to be helped, nor by helping the
depraved after their own foolish fashion, but by doing unweariedly
the particular work we were born to do. Let no man think himself
absolved because he does a generous action and befriends the
poor, but let him see whether he so holds his property that a benefit
goes from it to all. A man’s diet should be what is simplest and
readiest to be had, because it is so private a good. His house should
be better, because that is for the use of hundreds, perhaps of
thousands, and is the property of the traveller. But his speech is a
perpetual and public instrument; let that always side with the race
and yield neither a lie nor a sneer. His manners,—let them be
hospitable and civilizing, so that no Phidias or Raphael shall have
taught anything better in canvas or stone; and his acts should be
representative of the human race, as one who makes them rich in
his having, and poor in his want.
It requires great courage in a man of letters to handle the
contemporary practical questions; not because he then has all men
for his rivals, but because of the infinite entanglements of the
problem, and the waste of strength in gathering unripe fruits. The
task is superhuman; and the poet knows well that a little time will do
more than the most puissant genius. Time stills the loud noise of
opinions, sinks the small, raises the great, so that the true emerges
without effort and in perfect harmony to all eyes; but the truth of the
present hour, except in particulars and single relations, is
unattainable. Each man can very well know his own part of duty, if he
will; but to bring out the truth for beauty, and as literature, surmounts
the powers of art. The most elaborate history of to-day will have the
oddest dislocated look in the next generation. The historian of to-day
is yet three ages off. The poet cannot descend into the turbid present
without injury to his rarest gifts. Hence that necessity of isolation
which genius has always felt. He must stand on his glass tripod, if he
would keep his electricity.
But when the political aspects are so calamitous that the
sympathies of the man overpower the habits of the poet, a higher
than literary inspiration may succor him. It is a costly proof of
character, that the most renowned scholar of England should take
his reputation in his hand and should descend into the ring; and he
has added to his love whatever honor his opinions may forfeit. To
atone for this departure from the vows of the scholar and his eternal
duties to this secular charity, we have at least this gain, that here is a
message which those to whom it was addressed cannot choose but
hear. Though they die, they must listen. It is plain that whether by
hope or by fear, or were it only by delight in this panorama of brilliant
images, all the great classes of English society must read, even
those whose existence it proscribes. Poor Queen Victoria,—poor Sir
Robert Peel, poor Primate and Bishops,—poor Dukes and Lords!
There is no help in place or pride or in looking another way; a grain
of wit is more penetrating than the lightning of the night-storm, which
no curtains or shutters will keep out. Here is a book which will be
read, no thanks to anybody but itself. What pains, what hopes, what
vows, shall come of the reading! Here is a book as full of treason as
an egg is full of meat, and every lordship and worship and high form
and ceremony of English conservatism tossed like a foot-ball into the
air, and kept in the air, with merciless kicks and rebounds, and yet
not a word is punishable by statute. The wit has eluded all official
zeal; and yet these dire jokes, these cunning thrusts, this flaming
sword of Cherubim waved high in air, illuminates the whole horizon,
and shows to the eyes of the universe every wound it inflicts. Worst
of all for the party attacked, it bereaves them beforehand of all
sympathy, by anticipating the plea of poetic and humane
conservatism, and impressing the reader with the conviction that the
satirist himself has the truest love for everything old and excellent in
English land and institutions, and a genuine respect for the basis of
truth in those whom he exposes.
We are at some loss how to state what strikes us as the fault of
this remarkable book, for the variety and excellence of the talent
displayed in it is pretty sure to leave all special criticism in the wrong.
And we may easily fail in expressing the general objection which we
feel. It appears to us as a certain disproportion in the picture, caused
by the obtrusion of the whims of the painter. In this work, as in his
former labors, Mr. Carlyle reminds us of a sick giant. His humors are
expressed with so much force of constitution that his fancies are
more attractive and more credible than the sanity of duller men. But
the habitual exaggeration of the tone wearies whilst it stimulates. It is
felt to be so much deduction from the universality of the picture. It is
not serene sunshine, but everything is seen in lurid storm-lights.
Every object attitudinizes, to the very mountains and stars almost,
under the refraction of this wonderful humorist; and instead of the
common earth and sky, we have a Martin’s Creation or Judgment
Day. A crisis has always arrived which requires a deus ex machinâ.
One can hardly credit, whilst under the spell of this magician, that the
world always had the same bankrupt look, to foregoing ages as to
us,—as of a failed world just re-collecting its old withered forces to
begin again and try to do a little business. It was perhaps
inseparable from the attempt to write a book of wit and imagination
on English politics, that a certain local emphasis and love of effect,
such as is the vice of preaching, should appear,—producing on the
reader a feeling of forlornness by the excess of value attributed to
circumstances. But the splendor of wit cannot outdazzle the calm
daylight, which always shows every individual man in balance with
his age, and able to work out his own salvation from all the follies of
that, and no such glaring contrasts or severalties in that or this. Each
age has its own follies, as its majority is made up of foolish young
people; its superstitions appear no superstitions to itself; and if you
should ask the contemporary, he would tell you, with pride or with
regret, (according as he was practical or poetic), that he had none.
But after a short time, down go its follies and weakness and the
memory of them; its virtues alone remain, and its limitation assumes
the poetic form of a beautiful superstition, as the dimness of our sight
clothes the objects in the horizon with mist and color. The revelation
of Reason is this of the unchangeableness of the fact of humanity
under all its subjective aspects; that to the cowering it always
cowers, to the daring it opens great avenues. The ancients are only
venerable to us because distance has destroyed what was trivial; as
the sun and stars affect us only grandly, because we cannot reach to
their smoke and surfaces and say, Is that all?
And yet the gravity of the times, the manifold and increasing
dangers of the English State, may easily excuse some over-coloring
of the picture; and we at this distance are not so far removed from
any of the specific evils, and are deeply participant in too many, not
to share the gloom and thank the love and courage of the counsellor.
This book is full of humanity, and nothing is more excellent in this as
in all Mr. Carlyle’s works, than the attitude of the writer. He has the
dignity of a man of letters, who knows what belongs to him, and
never deviates from his sphere; a continuer of the great line of
scholars, he sustains their office in the highest credit and honor. If
the good heaven have any good word to impart to this unworthy
generation, here is one scribe qualified and clothed for its occasion.
One excellence he has in an age of Mammon and of criticism, that
he never suffers the eye of his wonder to close. Let who will be the
dupe of trifles, he cannot keep his eye off from that gracious Infinite
which embosoms us.
As a literary artist he has great merits, beginning with the main
one that he never wrote one dull line. How well-read, how adroit,
what thousand arts in his one art of writing; with his expedient for
expressing those unproven opinions which he entertains but will not
endorse, by summoning one of his men of straw from the cell,—and
the respectable Sauerteig, or Teufelsdröckh, or Dryasdust, or
Picturesque Traveller, says what is put into his mouth, and
disappears. That morbid temperament has given his rhetoric a
somewhat bloated character; a luxury to many imaginative and
learned persons, like a showery south-wind with its sun-bursts and
rapid chasing of lights and glooms over the landscape, and yet its
offensiveness to multitudes of reluctant lovers makes us often wish
some concession were possible on the part of the humorist. Yet it
must not be forgotten that in all his fun of castanets, or playing of
tunes with a whip-lash like some renowned charioteers,—in all this
glad and needful venting of his redundant spirits, he does yet ever
and anon, as if catching the glance of one wise man in the crowd,
quit his tempestuous key, and lance at him in clear level tone the
very word, and then with new glee return to his game. He is like a
lover or an outlaw who wraps up his message in a serenade, which
is nonsense to the sentinel, but salvation to the ear for which it is
meant. He does not dodge the question, but gives sincerity where it
is due.
One word more respecting this remarkable style. We have in
literature few specimens of magnificence. Plato is the purple ancient,
and Bacon and Milton the moderns of the richest strains. Burke
sometimes reaches to that exuberant fulness, though deficient in
depth. Carlyle, in his strange, half-mad way, has entered the Field of
the Cloth of Gold, and shown a vigor and wealth of resource which
has no rival in the tourney-play of these times;—the indubitable
champion of England. Carlyle is the first domestication of the modern
system, with its infinity of details, into style. We have been civilizing
very fast, building London and Paris, and now planting New England
and India, New Holland and Oregon,—and it has not appeared in
literature; there has been no analogous expansion and
recomposition in books. Carlyle’s style is the first emergence of all
this wealth and labor with which the world has gone with child so
long. London and Europe, tunnelled, graded, corn-lawed, with trade-
nobility, and East and West Indies for dependencies; and America,
with the Rocky Hills in the horizon, have never before been
conquered in literature. This is the first invasion and conquest. How
like an air-balloon or bird of Jove does he seem to float over the
continent, and stooping here and there pounce on a fact as a symbol
which was never a symbol before. This is the first experiment, and
something of rudeness and haste must be pardoned to so great an
achievement. It will be done again and again, sharper, simpler; but
fortunate is he who did it first, though never so giant-like and
fabulous. This grandiose character pervades his wit and his
imagination. We have never had anything in literature so like
earthquakes as the laughter of Carlyle. He “shakes with his mountain
mirth.” It is like the laughter of the Genii in the horizon. These jokes
shake down Parliament-house and Windsor Castle, Temple and
Tower, and the future shall echo the dangerous peals. The other
particular of magnificence is in his rhymes. Carlyle is a poet who is
altogether too burly in his frame and habit to submit to the limits of
metre. Yet he is full of rhythm, not only in the perpetual melody of his
periods, but in the burdens, refrains, and grand returns of his sense
and music. Whatever thought or motto has once appeared to him
fraught with meaning, becomes an omen to him henceforward, and
is sure to return with deeper tones and weightier import, now as
threat, now as confirmation, in gigantic reverberation, as if the hills,
the horizon, and the next ages returned the sound.
 VII.

A LETTER. [11]

As we are very liable, in common with the letter-writing world, to

fall behindhand in our correspondence; and a little more liable
because in consequence of our editorial function we receive more
epistles than our individual share, we have thought that we might
clear our account by writing a quarterly catholic letter to all and
several who have honored us, in verse or prose, with their
confidence, and expressed a curiosity to know our opinion. We shall
be compelled to dispose very rapidly of quite miscellaneous topics.
And first, in regard to the writer who has given us his speculations
on Rail-roads and Air-roads, our correspondent shall have his own
way. To the railway, we must say,—like the courageous lord mayor at
his first hunting, when told the hare was coming,—“Let it come, in
Heaven’s name, I am not afraid on’t.” Very unlooked-for political and
social effects of the iron road are fast appearing. It will require an
expansion of the police of the old world. When a railroad train shoots
through Europe every day from Brussels to Vienna, from Vienna to
Constantinople, it cannot stop every twenty or thirty miles at a
German custom-house, for examination of property and passports.
But when our correspondent proceeds to flying-machines, we have
no longer the smallest taper-light of credible information and
experience left, and must speak on a priori grounds.
Shortly then, we think the population is not yet quite fit for them,
and therefore there will be none. Our friend suggests so many
inconveniences from piracy out of the high air to orchards and lone
houses, and also to other high fliers; and the total inadequacy of the
present system of defence, that we have not the heart to break the
sleep of the good public by the repetition of these details. When
children come into the library, we put the inkstand and the watch on
the high shelf until they be a little older; and Nature has set the sun
and moon in plain sight and use, but laid them on the high shelf