In his lecture on
"The Poetic Principle," in leading down to his definition of poetry,
Edgar Allan Poe has called attention to the three faculties, intellect,
feeling, and will, and shown that poetry, that the whole realm of aesthetics in
fact, is concerned primarily and solely with the second of these. Does it
appeal to a sense of beauty? This is his sole test of a poem or of any work of
art, the aim being neither to appeal to the intellect by satisfying the reason
or inculcating truth, nor to appeal to the will by satisfying the moral sense
or inculcating duty.
This standard has often
been criticized as narrow; yet it embodies a large and fundamental element of
truth. If, now, we study the races that go to make up our cosmopolitan American
life we shall find that the three which most distinctively represent the
faculties, intellect, feeling, and will, are respectively the Anglo-Saxon, the
Negro, and the Jewish. Whatever achievement has been made by the Anglo-Saxon
has been primarily in the domain of pure intellect. In religion, in business,
in invention, in pure scholarship, the same principle holds; and examples are
found in Jonathan Edwards, J. Pierpont Morgan, Thomas A. Edison, and in such
scholars as Royce and Kittredge of the Harvard of today. Similarly the
outstanding race in the history of the world for emphasis on the moral or
religious element of life has been the Jewish. Throughout the Old Testament the
heart of Israel cries out to Jehovah, and through the law given on Sinai, the
songs of the Psalmist, and the prophecies of Isaiah, the tradition of Israel
has thrilled and inspired the entire human race.
With reference now to
the Negro two things are observable. One is that any distinction so far won by
a member of the race in America has been almost always in some one of the arts;
and the other is that any influence so far exerted by the Negro on American
civilization has been primarily in the field of esthetics. A man of science
like Benjamin Banneker is the exception. To prove the point we may refer to a
long line of beautiful singers, to the fervid oratory of Douglass, to the
sensuous poetry of Dunbar, to the picturesque style of Du Bois, to the
impressionism of the paintings of Tanner, and to the elemental sculpture of
Meta Warrick Fuller. Even Booker Washington, most practical of Americans,
proves the point, the distinguishing qualities of his speeches being anecdote
and brilliant concrete illustration.
Everyone must have
observed the radical difference in the appearance of the homes of white people
and Negroes of the peasant class in the South. If the white man is not himself
cultivated, and if he has not been able to give to his children the advantages of
culture, his home is most likely to be a bare, blank abode with no pictures and
no flowers. Such is not the case with the Negro. He is determined to have a
picture, and if nothing better is obtainable he will paste a circus poster or a
flaring advertisement on the walls. The instinct for beauty insists upon an
outlet; and there are few homes of Negroes of the humbler class that will not
have a geranium on the windowsill or a rose-bush in the garden. If, too, we
look at the matter conversely, we shall find that those things which are most
picturesque make to the Negro the readiest appeal. Red is his favorite color,
simply because it is the most pronounced of all colors. Goethe's
"Faust" can hardly be said to be a play designed primarily for the
galleries. In general it might be supposed to rank with "Macbeth" or
"She Stoops to Conquer" or "Richelieu." One never sees it
fail, however, that in any Southern city "Faust" will fill the
gallery with the so-called lower class of Negro people, who would never dream
of going to see one of the other plays just mentioned; and the applause never
leaves one in doubt as to the reasons for Goethe's popularity. It is the
suggestiveness of the love scenes, the red costume of Mephistopheles, the
electrical effects, and the rain of fire, that give the thrill desired--all
pure melodrama of course. "Faust" is a good show as well as a good
play.
In some of our
communities Negroes are frequently known to "get happy" in church.
Now a sermon on the rule of faith or the plan of salvation is never known to
awaken such ecstacy. This rather accompanies a vivid portrayal of the beauties
of heaven, with its walls of jasper, the angels with palms in their hands, and
(summum bonum!) the feast of milk and honey. And just here is the dilemma faced
by the occupants of a great many pulpits in Negro churches. Do the Negroes want
scholarly training? Very frequently the cultured preacher will be inclined to
answer in the negative. Do they want rant and shouting? Such a standard fails
at once to satisfy the ever-increasing intelligence of the audience itself. The
trouble is that the educated Negro minister too often leaves out of account the
basic psychology of his audience. That preacher who will ultimately be the most
successful with the Negro congregation will be the one who to scholarship and
culture can join brilliant imagination and fervid rhetorical expression. When
all of these qualities are brought together in their finest proportion the
effect is irresistible. Some distinguished white preachers, who to their deep
spirituality have joined lively rhetorical expression, have never failed to
succeed with a Negro audience as well as with an Anglo-Saxon one. Noteworthy
examples within recent years have been Dr. P. S. Henson and Dr. R. S. MacArthur.
Gathering up the
threads of our discussion so far, we find that there is constant striving on
the part of the Negro for beautiful or striking effect, that those things which
are most picturesque make the readiest appeal to his nature, and that in the sphere
of religion he receives with most appreciation those discourses which are most
imaginative in quality. In short, so far as the last point is concerned, it is
not too much to assert that the Negro is thrilled, not so much by the moral as
by the artistic and pictorial elements in religion.
But there is something
deeper than the sensuousness of beauty that makes for the possibilities of the
Negro in the realm of the arts, and that is the soul of the race. The wail of
the old melodies and the plaintive quality that is ever present in the Negro
voice are but the reflection of a background of tragedy. No race can rise to
the greatest heights of art until it has yearned and suffered. The Russians are
a case in point. Such has been their background in oppression and striving that
their literature and art today are marked by an unmistakable note of power. The
same future beckons to the American Negro. There is something very elemental
about the heart of the race, something that finds its origin in the African forest,
in the sighing of the night-wind, and in the falling of the stars. There is
something grim and stern about it all too, something that speaks of the lash,
of the child torn from its mother's bosom, of the dead body riddled with
bullets and swinging all night from a limb by the roadside.
What does all this mean
but that the Negro is a thorough-going romanticist? The philosophy, the
satires, the conventionalities of the age of reason mean little to him; but the
freedom, the picturesqueness, the moodiness of Wordsworth's day mean much. In
his wild, weird melodies we follow once more the wanderings of the Ancient
Mariner. In the fervid picture of the New Jerusalem we see the same emphasis on
the concrete as in "To a Skylark" or the "Ode to the West Wind;"
and under the spell of the Negro voice at its best we once more revel in the
sensuousness of "The Eve of St. Agnes."
All of this of course
does not mean that the Negro cannot rise to distinction in any sphere other
than the arts, any more than it means that the Anglo-Saxon has not produced
great painting and music. It does mean, however, that every race has its
peculiar genius, and that, so far as we are at present able to judge, the
Negro, with all of his manual labor, is destined to reach his greatest heights
in the field of the artistic. But the impulse needs to be watched. Romanticism
very soon becomes unhealthy. The Negro has great gifts of voice and ear and
soul; but so far much of his talent has not soared above the vaudeville stage.
This is due mostly largely of course to economic instability. It is the call of
patriotism, however, that America should realize that the Negro has peculiar
gifts which need all possible cultivation, and which will one day add to the
glory of the country. Already his music is recognized as the most distinctive
that the United States has yet produced. The possibilities of the race in
literature and oratory, in sculpture and painting, are illimitable.