Multatuli's Psyche

Multatuli's PsycheAuthor(s): Peter KingSource: The Modern Language Review, Vol. 53, No. 1 (Jan., 1958), pp. 59-74Published by: Modern Humanities Research AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3718126 .

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MULTATULI'S PSYCHE

Multatuli admits even in Max Havelaer, his flattering self-portrait, that he was 'een vat vol tegenstrydigheid', and there is already evidence of this disharmony in his earliest writing. In Losse Bladen uit het dagboek van een oud man there are two distinct types of idealist whose only apparent connexion is that they are both described under this title.

In the first part of this work, the ideal is 'het schoone, geluk', the motto of this

story of a fourteen-year-old boy, August, who believes that 'het hoogste geluk moet noodwendig zijn datgene te genieten wat het schoonste, het heiligste is'.1 So

apparently Multatuli's motto does not mean that happiness is the ideal, but that to achieve the (Platonic) ideal is to find the greatest happiness. August finally attains to his perfect happiness when he gives his life in an attempt to save a younger brother from drowning.

In Jongelingsdromen, subtitle of the second part of Losse Bladen written two to three years later, a young man 'zwanger met denkbeelden' reasons that great men are not great because circumstances make them so, but because they are aware of their ability to answer the challenge that any circumstances may produce. It is this awareness that is the mark of genius. 'Napoleon was groot toen hij met het hoofd in de hand nadacht, en het lot van Europa vaststelde, voor nog iemand voorzien kon dat hij op Europa eenigen invloed zoude kunnen uitoefenen. Hij is

groot om dat denkbeeld.... Ik zit met het hoofd in de hand en peins... .'2And as he muses, his imagination leaps from the certainty of his great destiny to visions of himself as the saviour of a nation. His burning awareness that he is greater than other men justifies his seeking an altogether higher purpose in life than theirs. 'Het zelfbewustzijn is daar. Het doel en de omstandigheden ontbreken. Wanneer mijn gevoel mij niet bedriegt moet ik scheppen, doel en omstandigheid tevens.'

Since realism and perfectionism are not mutally exclusive, there need be nothing incompatible between the ideal of het schoone, geluk in practice and as a vision, between a good deed however unspectacular and an ambition which, however noble, remains only a dream. But Multatuli's just pride in a noble ambition becomes arrogance when, in Jongelingsdromen, he believes that the nobility of his ideal justifies his becoming the master of his own destiny. There is a subtle change of emphasis in passing from August's 'voor iets wat ik lief had willen sterven. Ik

geloof dat er geen grooter geluk denkbaar is!' to 'is het niet een schoon doel... een

gelukkig volk te scheppen 23 Yet there was no transition from one to the other in Multatuli, for like August he was 'een van die wezens, die alles voor anderen, voor zichzelven niets zijn' and at the same time 'als kind wilde...heer van kinderen zijn'. Nor can we dismiss the incongruity between August and Jongelings- dromen by accepting only the latter as autobiographical,4 or by presuming that the

August-ideal died, like August himself, at the age of fourteen, for the Oud Man

1 Multatuli, Volledige Werken (Amsterdam, 1951- ), vIII, 83. 2 V.W. viii, 371. 3 Jongelingsdromen, V.W. vIII, 373. My italics. 4 In view of what he wrote to Tine two years later: ' 2 jaar geleden had ik plannen, geweld

dadige, misschien onuitvoerbare plannen waarvan het hoofd mij duizelt.' V.W. vIII, 509.



60 Multatuli's Psyche himself envies this 'maartelaar zijner idealen' his perfect deed; 'hij had den besten wensch gedaan; - hij had de schoonste belooning ontvangen!'

The ideal of individual and universal happiness confronted Multatuli with the paradox that 'whosoever will be chiefest, shall be servant of all'. It is here that the conflict which emerges from his later work has its origin. For while the nobility of his purpose corresponded with Christ's, his self-will to achieve that purpose rebelled against accepting this paradox. The close affinity and bitter antagonism between Multatuli and the figure of Christ is indicative of the profound confusion ('want hoogmoed is hogen moed '1) which causes Multatuli's spiritual disharmony.

It is this confusion which produces an effect of paradox and chaos in his writings. It is as if the composer, having announced the two subjects of his theme in Losse Bladen, was no longer able to develop them as he wished in the later variations, Max Havelaar, Minnebrieven and Woutertje Pieterse. He discovers, in fact, that in his perfectionist theme the dual subjects August and Napoleon cause violent disharmony whenever they occur simultaneously.

It is probable that, at the time of writing Jongelingsdromen, Multatuli saw the East Indies as the 'situation' and leadership there as the 'aim' which would conform to his 'idea' of greatness. A year after Max Havelaar appeared, Fancy, pointing to the map of the East Indies, addresses Multatuli: 'Verlos har... dat is de roeping die ik u opdraag.'2 Yet in September of the following year, 1862, he wrote to Tini: 'Ik wil het goede. Daartoe is noodig magt. Indie was myn punt van uitgang doch blyft onderdeel. (De heele wereld is vol domme slechtheid.) De naam Insulinde representeert voortaan myn algemeen streven, als Nazareth het Christus- idee.'3 A few months later he writes to Mimi Hamminck Schepel that he must proclaim the glad tidings of freedom in the state, in people's morals, their hearts and homes, to oust the old false laws.4 This apparent change of front is sometimes considered to be due to his failure to evoke in Max Havelaar the response he had looked for. He was misunderstood of course, not just by those who praised only his literary talents, but also by the vast majority who failed to see that his vision embraced very much more than Insulinde, more even than the eradication of the falsity of the social, moral and political structure in his own country. Even if Multatuli's resignation, which caused him to write Max Havelaar, is not accepted as evidence that Insulinde did not offer sufficient scope for his ambitions, we surely have it in Max Havelaar itself, where his vociferous appeal for the emancipation of the natives does not quite square with one's final impression that the book is really a political and social satire.5

A few days after finishing Max Havelaar, Multatuli wrote to his wife: 'ik moet in drie maanden de held van den dag wezen. Als ik in drie maanden niet beroemd ben, schryf ik niet meer.' Yet he went on writing long after there was any chance of his being acclaimed a hero, not because his writing did make him famous, but because fame, and even reinstatement to a position of authority or a seat in the Lower Chamber, could never satisfy his messianic hunger. His insatiable ambition could only find adequate, albeit momentary, fulfilment in the act of putting his

1 Idee 446. 2 Minnebrieven, V.W. ii, 155. 3 Multatuli, Brieven (Amsterdam, 1912), vi, 56. See also V.W. II, 179. 4 Brieven, vi, p. 85. 5 D. H. Lawrence's comments in his introduction to Siebenhaar's translation of Max

Havelaar (New York and London, 1927) provide a shrewd assessment of the book as such. His statement that hate was Multatuli's driving force is, in the light of his later work, less acceptable.



thoughts into words. In fact the emphasis he lays on the word denkbeeld in the passage quoted earlier from Losse Bladen has surely a bearing on the importance of Fancy and the title Ideen in his later works.

The passionate longing to do good, both as an August and as a Napoleon, found its complete expression where both erotic and spiritual urges could be released. For in the physical love of a woman the ideal could be realized in practice (August), and in his idealization of the woman on the one hand and her worship of him as the hero on the other, his vision of perfection and his dreams of greatness were actually experienced in the feelings of his heart. 'Jesus begon met visschers, ik vang met meisjes aan! '1 Here is once more evidence of the confusion between the attainable and unattainable ideal, voiced for the first time in Jongelingsdromen, where he seeks to compensate for the loss of a very different ('zal ik zeggen: verhevener?') purpose in life by his verheven-schijnende aim. 'Ik heb het laatste gekozen, uit zwakheid, uit ijdelheid, misschien uit wraakzucht !' When the actual fulfilment of his ideal in Caroline Versteeg was denied him, he did not in fact choose the imaginary ideal, for there was no alternative.

Not until he meets his young niece Sietske Abrahamsz can he actually love and possess the dream in the embodiment of his imagination, his Fancy.2

The correspondence between Max, Tine and Fancy in Minnebrieven is undoubtedly based on fact, as a comparison with Multatuli's actual letters to Tine concerning Sietske at this time clearly show. This has led to the assumption that Fancy and Sietske are one. But Fancy is not the idealization of Sietske somewhat as AELV) Odos is Perk's idealization of Mathilde Thomas ;3 her relationship to Multatuli has more in common with Mei's and Baldar's to Gorter. As a boy, Douwes Dekker had been in love with an idea. Not unnaturally he confused the experience of being in love with Caroline, Sietske, Mimi and the others, with the sudden substantiation of that idea: 'Als ik je zag, was je me altyd een verschyning... nooit een meisje, nooit een vrouw. Je was me een fancy!'4

But the emotional satisfaction of physical proximity to the abstract ideal soon turned to disillusionment when he discovered that reality did not measure up to that dream. Far from resolving the conflict between the August-ideal-in-practice and the Napoleon-ideal-in-dream, Multatuli's love affairs only heightened his awareness of the disparity between idea and reality. But although, as we have seen, the cause of the conflict was his arrogant preference of the despotic dream to the selfless deed, he only recognized it as a clash between what could be and what was. And because he could not or would not accept his own limitations, he made himself the victim of a paradox whereby the dreamer sought to achieve mastery of reality by mastering facts, and the realist repudiated the incalculables inherent in reality as flights of fancy.

The way in which Multatuli's relationship with women brought about an emotional crisis in which 'dien strijd tussen vurige begeerte naar waarheid (exact,

1 Multatuli quoted by Marie Anderson in Uit Multatuli's leven (Amsterdam, 1901), p. 50. 2 Sietske Abrahamsz wrote later: 'Eens mij alleen treffende verklaarde hij me in een soort

extase, Keizer te willen worden, en dat daarheen zijn politieke plannen leidden.... Geen zoons of dochters erfden den troon, maar de zusterskinderen, en door Multatuli werd ik uitverkoren als kroonprinses van Insulinde.' See J. and A. Romein, Erflaters van onze beschaving (Amster- dam, 1940), iv, 95.

3 For a contrary interpretation, see A. Morri6n's essay in Over Multatuli (Amsterdam, 1950), pp. 48-9.

4 Letter to Mimi, Brieven, vI, 105. See also Brieven, vi, 118.

61 PETER KING



Multatuli's Psyche

maths., logs.) en ziekelijke aandoenlijkheid voor fantastische indrukken'l was temporarily resolved, is symbolically represented in Minnebrieven. The sensitive young man of thought and dream in Losse Bladen is suddenly confronted with the physical reality of sensual emotion. Douwes Dekker the man struggles with Multatuli the poet and he emerges temporarily victorious from the conflict, with a poetic philosophy rooted in reality because he is no longer sceptical towards the imponderables. After escaping actuality in flights of fancy he learns that his sensitive imagination must be trained to find the truth in his mundane environment. 'De loop der indrukken is zoo: 1. fantaisie. 2. teleurstelling. 3. dieper inzigt. 4. hooge fantaisie. 5. poesie in: waarheid. 6. tevredenheid.'2

Multatuli's poetic psyche, so volatile, erratic, impulsive, quixotic, could only take wing on his imagination, which was too often crushed by his wretched material circumstances or conditioned by his ambition for personal power and fame or banished by his scepticism. So it is not surprising that his sensitiveness should find relief from prosaic reality in passionate flirtations with female admirers, whose youth, elusiveness, spontaneity and passionateness mirror his own psyche.3 'Denk altyd als ik amourettes heb, of zoo lets, dan heb ik verve...'t is my de stof waaraan zich de vlam hecht.'4

It is typical of his subjectivity in interpreting his vocation5 that he should have sincerely believed that a triangular intimacy between him, his wife and an amourette was quite feasible. And Minnebrieven, which traces the processes of his creative thought in terms of the triple relationship which inspired it, reveals the mind that could contain such unorthodox notions. For Max, Fancy and Tine form not a triangle but a trinity, as truly interrelated as Multatuli's own mind, body and spirit. Max, the creator, Fancy, his Psyche, and Tine, the Psyche incarnate in women, are the three interdependent aspects of the one Poetry, 'etherial and transcendent, yet incapable to sustain her existence without sensuous incarnation'.

Though it seems likely that Multatuli's confusion between his sensitiveness and his sensuality resulted in a corresponding confusion between his Psyche and the several embodiments of it in his younger life (specifically Sietske in Minnebrieven), his introduction to this work indicates that even if his confusedness resulted in an idealization of Tine as the perfect mediator between him and the spirit of his ideal, he really believed in that idealization.

'Ja, ja, er is iets schoons in die tweeslachtigheid van de liefde! Stof en ziel !... ... Welnu, zie eens hoe heerlyk symmetrisch de lieve natuur alles gemaakt heeft. ... Liefde is drang tot geven en ontvangen... tot bevruchten en baren. Wat ik weet

... o, 't is bitter weinig, kan ik dat helpen ?... wat ik weet, begryp, gevoel, droom... zie, dat alles geef ik haar !'

'Aan uw vrouw !' 'Wel neen, aan Fancy... dat is myn vrouw!' 'Ik begryp er niets van.' 'Juist. Weinigen begrypen wat liefde is. Ik geef haar myn ziel, onverdeeld, zonder de

minste terughouding. Ik plant myn denkbeelden in haar gemoed, en als dan 't ogenblik der voldragenheid gekomen is, dan legt ze my het reuzenkind in de armen....

... Schoner, krachtiger, edeler, geheel volwassen, vind ik dan de denkbeelden terug, die ik toevertrouwde aan de vruchtbaren bodem van haar hart.

1 Multatuli's notes on Minnebrieven, not intended for publication. V.W. II, 178. 2 V.W. ii, 172. 3 Cf. De Gruyter, Het leven en de werken van Eduard Douwes Dekker (Multatuli) (Amsterdam,

1920), I, 136. 4 Brieven, iv, 92. 5 See Brieven, vi, 51.

62



PETER KING 63

...Z6 geeft de vrouw terug met oneindigen woeker, wat de man die haar liefhad, zaaide in haar ziel. En als er dan geleden wordt, veel geleden... mensen die z6 liefhebben, moeten lyden... begrypt gy dit?

...Als er zulke diepe wonden worden geslagen door de...noodzakelykheid...dan treedt de vrouw op, en toont u den oogst van haar huwelyk."

The ambiguity in the word vrouw, wife or woman, runs through the whole of this

passage. The poet himself says: 'Ik beken, dat ik in de war ben... Tine of Fancy ....' But in the letters themselves that follow, the reconciliation between the poet's fantasy and the world as his intellect finds it is brought about by Tine. She shares with him mundane reality, the pettiness of the masses and the physical privations that drag him down from his lofty aspirations. She is constant when Fancy is fickle. She can heal2 him with her unshakable faith in him, when he is assailed by the misery of what is and cannot find the Truth which would redeem it. Only in her can the man and the poet be reconciled, and out of that reconciliation his art is born.3

Gorter, like Multatuli, symbolized the conflicts experienced by the poet in

attempting to reconcile absolute perfection with the actuality of the world. The confusion and paradox in thought in Minnebrieven has the same frenzied spontaneity as the confused impressions of the second canto in Mei. Soon after embarking on Minnebrieven, Multatuli wrote to Tine; 'talent is 't niet, het is ziel!' and 'ik heb een styl die ikzelf niet ken. Je zult zien, muziek en onueer.'4 Gorter attempts to reconcile his sensitiveness (Mei) to an abstract ideal (Baldar). But there can be no union between the two, out of which pure poetry could be born, and the poet sadly buries Mei, the symbol of his ephemeral nature poetry. Where Gorter was deserted

by his will-o'-the-wisp creature Mei who went off in search of the soul of poetry, it was Multatuli, a thinker rather than a poet, who himself abandoned Fancy in his quest for intellectual mastery. Gorter's triangular relationship between the

poet, the senses and the soul remained unresolved, while, in Multatuli, the incom-

patible relationship between the would-be intellectual realist and the poet of both

feeling and intuition (Mei and Baldar) is resolved when Fancy triumphs over the

sceptic. In reading this very personal account of Multatuli's struggle with his youthful

romanticism, we are reminded of Keats's preface to Endymion: 'The imagination of a boy is healthy, and the mature imagination of a man is healthy; but there is a space of life between, in which the soul is in ferment, the character undecided, the way of life uncertain, the ambition thick-sighted.'

Ferment and uncertainty there is indeed in Multatuli's convolutions in the toils of his reasoning and desire,5 but the common criticism that the composition of Minnebrieven is even more chaotic than that of Max Havelaar is unjust. Though more obscure because esoteric, it has only one theme, which could not be said of Max Havelaar, and that theme is steadily developed throughout, reaches a natural climax and finally resolves itself.

1 V.W. II, 14-16, passim. 2 See the note to the passage quoted above, V.W. ii, 172. 3 Multatu]i's analogy is imperfect, and necessarily so, for any attempt to extend it to explain

the poet's role as the procreator of his art would lead to the grotesque image of woman as the midwife to the child of the poet and his Psyche!

4 Brieven, v, 69, 72. Italics are mine. 5 Nearly six years previously Multatuli had written: 'er is geen harmonie tusschen verstand

en begeerte, ik wil het onmogelijke dwingen en vermoei mij daarmedee.' V. W. viII, 553.



Multatuli's Psyche

Utterly disillusioned to find that his Fancy is as pedestrian in her limitations as his own despised environment, Max breaks with her. But he cannot obliterate her from his mind, so he attempts to idealize this actuality without sacrificing his notions of truth. If she cannot conform to his expectations, he can at least school her in what his experience has taught him about what is and what is not. Know- ledge is supreme and must assert itself even over the incalculable. But this sort of knowledge is also devoid of all love, whereas Fancy required Max's knowledge of the heart as well as of the mind. This he cannot offer, for 'lager dan haat acht ik liefhebben zonder verstand!'

Max's first doubts about the authenticity of anything so incalculable as Fancy, and his decision to put from his mind all fancies that cannot be sub- stantiated by facts, are symbolized both by his diminishing correspondence with Fancy, while his own letters become longer and more and more concerned with trivial complaints, and Fancy's news, when she does write, that her living conditions are becoming increasingly cramped. Her last letter but one to the would-be realist appeals to him to save her from being taken to an institution.

Max does not reply to this letter. He is too engrossed now in himself, in using his scepticism as the ultimate power of knowledge and hence of good. He can rely on his talent when there is no inspiration. These are bitter letters, a concatenation of complaints about the administration, the church, the public and his own privations, rising to an ecstasy of suffering in the Kruissprook. In the fulminating satire of this vision in blank verse there is the elemental feeling that made poetry of Anna Bijns's and Vondel's lampoons. Multatuli is again the poet, but as the passion spends itself, inspiration leaves him-' Myn hart is leeg, o God !... Ik ben vermoeid.'

Only aware of the reality that caused this suffering, Multatuli continues writing from sheer necessity. While Tine shares his suffering by concealing her own anxiety from him, and sends increasingly urgent appeals to Fancy to save her husband, he returns to the Brief aan de Kiezers. This, as we should expect, is the nadir of the whole work, and it comprises little more than statements to prove the truth of his case in terms of facts and figures. It takes him to the extreme limits of what the absolute realist in him can achieve. And at this point he finds himself at an impasse. He is aware, however much he may try to obliterate the fact, that his will to greatness expressed in Jongelingsdromen arises from his feelings. The incompatibility underlying Minnebrieven between what his heart dictates and what his head recognizes results in a vicious circle; for what his heart dictates would not need to be communicated to the masses if they had a soul, but they have none, so his writing is never understood.1 His letter to the electorate can be entirely soulless so long as it concerns itself only with facts, but these facts were given for a reason. It is here that Multatuli's motive, his will to reform, brings poetic soul back into his

writing. The man whom the electorate should appoint must be some one 'die

ondervinding heeft, moed, en dit vooral, een man, die een hart bezit!' The unstable equilibrium between the man and the poet had been utterly

disrupted by the coincidence of three circumstances which inflicted physical restrictions on his creative freedom. His hopes of reconciling his dreams to the world of fact were stillborn when he realized that Fancy was after all only a flight from the mundane reality of Sietske's commonplace affairs. His dream-ideals were

1 Cf. V.W. ii, 87, 119.

64



not re-echoed by the world, which received his message in silence or littered his desk with the banalities of Kappelmannen and dominees. Finally, as if to confirm his misgivings about Fancy's unromantic domain, the very house in which his soul battled with the world was being rebuilt. Ironically, the noise and disturbance caused by such prosaic creatures as masons and decorators was not just symbolic of the confusion in his mind, it was all too real and actually contributed to it.

Was it Multatuli's awareness of his utter impotence that finally broke his proud determination to accept only the judgements of his intellect? Or was it simply the nervous exhaustion of opposing his will to realize a vision with his will to demolish all imponderables as falsehoods ? Whatever the explanation, his impasse threw him into a feverish vortex of confused impressions of his sufferings. It is as if he returns in a delirious state to the passion of the Kruissprook. But now his mind has lost all control and influence over his soul, and his impressions run riot.

This catharsis leaves him restored to a true balance of mind in which he can see clearly how he had been misled by the emotional disturbance caused by his falling in love with Sietske, the harassing effect of personal criticism and the lack of peace in a house under reconstruction. He retraces the course of his recent conflict, but now he interprets his experiences in the light of his conviction as a boy that Fancy, in the form of a bystander, blessed him with the will to do good and promised him the power later to achieve the victory. 'Met al mijn hekel aan mysticisme, erken ik dat mijn heel leven gestaan heeft onder den indruk van dat kleine voorval.'l No longer does he despise Fancy's apparent limitations, for now he realizes that she came back to him in the form of one of the builders frustrating his intellectual digression. She was not only in Sietske Abrahamsz but in all people who needed help, however uninspiring their circumstances.

It is the humility implicit in his first awareness that he cannot will his own destiny that will be the power by which he can ultimately do good. Fancy is speaking-'Steeds hebt gy gewild, maar tot nog toe waart ge zwak. Gy hadt allerlei fouten, die me bedroefden.... Die my bedroefden juist in u, want ge waart bestemd voor lets beters, dan 't willen alleen. Gy moet kunnen! Kunnen... dat is: zd willen ddt ge kunt!' Multatuli refers to his 'allerlei fouten' in a note: '... vooral traagheid om door inspanning veel te weten; begrypen is makkelijk als men maar weet.' If we take this to mean knowledge, then the thesis that Minnebrieven ends in a victory for the poet over the sceptic is untenable. But weten, with the same semantic origin as wisdom, here surely means 'to know with understanding .2

There is a nobler quality in wisdom than in knowledge, for it is knowledge of the mind and soul together; and it is more humble, for it accepts in faith things which the soul experiences and the intellect cannot master. It is born of love, the love that inspired het schoone, geluk, the love that Multatuli feels as he continues his narrative in Minnebrieven: 'En haar gelaat toonde my, hoe men moet willen om te kunnen. Maar weer kwam 't me voor, dat ik haar meer had gezien... onlangs nog .. en ik voelde smart, omdat ze me gedurig afweerde.'

Four years after writing Minnebrieven, Multatuli wrote these comments on the phases in this conflict: 'Waar de fantaisie kristal meende te zien vond ze schimmel

1 V. W. II, 178. The incident was the well-known occasion on which he rescued a Jewish boy's cap from a canal in Amsterdam.

2 In the note that follows this one (V. W. II, 179) the word occurs in a summary that might be given an almost biblical paraphrase: To seek truth through wisdom and understanding is to find the joy of righteousness (waarheid, d.i. weten, d.i. begrypen, d.i. genot, d.i. deugd).

5 M.L.R. LIII

65 PETER KING



Mlultatuli's Psyche en vuil. Maar na wat oefening in waarnemen bleek er vaak dat er juist kristallen waren in dat vuil en dat de schimmel een prachtig woud was van bloemboomen.' 'De grilligheid der fantaisie teekent vry precies de slingering, het dobberen tussen hoog en laag. [Later blijkt er dat niets laag is, maar hier is nog strijd].' 'Voortgang om door een (vermeend) neerbuigen schimmel mooi te vinden. Later blykt dat ze schoon is en dat ik pedant was door te meenen dat myn weten hoger stond dan fancy.'l 'Tine hield zich goed, maar hoopte dat mijn indrukken van anderen aard [fancy] mogten terugkeren want zy begreep altijd beter dan ik dat ik nooit slagen zou langs anderen weg.' 'Hier neemt de fantaisie revanche van de klagt op pag. 22 [where Max rebuffed Fancy for not coming up to his notions of self-ordained perfection]. Daar meende ik hooger te staan dan mijn gevoel. Hier wordt me herinnerd dat ik de kracht niet had op de hoogte van m'n gevoel te blijven.' 'Ik zag in, dat ik omhoog moest zien, en niet naar beneden. De kleine beschouwingen vlugtten heen (Statistiek... etc., etc.) om weer plaats te maken voor hooger. Hier spring ik door de weergekomen Fancy van de breikous op 't heetal.'

Now that Multatuli's perspective is readjusted to find the universe in everyday life, he can smile at the true triviality of his critics. But the power that came of Multatuli's suffering was, I believe, not, as C. G. N. de Vooys states,2 the power of self-control to restrain his soaring ambition, but the actual power by which he could achieve that ambition, both in his behaviour as a man towards other people and in his attitude as a poet to the world of reality. Momentarily at least, there is no disparity between 'de maat mijner kracht en de maat van m'n wil', for the spirit (de wil) has broken the bonds of physical limitations (de maat mijner kracht) in the sufferings of the Kruissprook. The crucifixion of the ego in the Napoleonic dream has brought Multatuli the fulfilment of August's self-sacrifice.

Ik heb het... ik weet het... ik voel het !... Myn hart is niet meer leeg !... Zy zond me ....

O God, ik begryp alles! Eerst de wil ... nu de kracht... en in 't eind de overwinning !. .. Tine... ik zal overwinnen! Ik beloof u, dat ik overwinnen zal! Wees gerust...

And four years later he wrote: 'Dat geloof ik nu nog. En ik hoop er me aan te houden maar telkens komen er vreesselyke kruissproken tussenbeide.'3 It would be no easy victory. The trivial realities still hemmed him in, threatening to over- whelm his power to rise above them and so precipitate another crisis.

In a letter written to Mimi on 27 July 1863, Multatuli attempts what he admits to be the difficult task of analysing his ideals. As a child his ambitious imagination had balked at nothing, he wrote. He reacted to complaints about the rain with the

thought 'All right, let us make dry weather'. As he grew up, he very reluctantly abandoned his dreams to master the utterly impossible, but he was left with an uncontrollable urge to master even what was only remotely achievable, so much so that all the evil he encountered left him with a sense of guilt for doing nothing to remedy it. From his childhood he had interpreted 'He bore the sin of the world' as 'tollit dolores mundi'. He does not complain of his burden of other men's grief, but

only of his impotence to bring relief. He must have power if he is to do good. This is the meaning of his ambition and his self-imposed vocation. And he sincerely believes that his ambition is noble. 'Ik wil waarachtig de som verhoogen van

1 ' Myn weten'-i.e. 'knowledge'.

2 Geschiedenis van de Letterkunde der Nederlanden ('s Hertogenbosch, 1939- ), vii, 299. 3 V.W. II, 179. Cf. idee 446.

66



't algemeen genot, en dat is naar myn begrip: deugd.' Whether he is interpreting his vocation aright is another matter, but it is quite certain that he cannot act upon it if he succumbs to doubts. The first requirement for success is faith in himself, and thereafter other people's faith in him and his in them. Moreover, to doubt his vocation would be to fail those few who had put their trust in him. He had always felt that fellowship, self-sacrifice and love could and must compensate for his lack of material power.

His reference here to the Man of Sorrows and to 'gehechtheid, zelfopoffering en liefde', following closely the line of thought in the story of August, his mention, in the introduction to Minnebrieven, of the anguish which the poet must suffer in begetting his creations in an imperfect world, his identification of himself with the Passion in the Kruissprook, all this surely suggests that Multatuli saw a virtue in suffering; that in his choice of pseudonym he also implied that he had to suffer as the 'martelaar zijner idealen'.

In the autobiographicall tale of Woutertje Pieterse, Multatuli is able to analyse his romantic-realist duality because, as the story develops, he is able to look more and more dispassionately at his earlier experiences. It is important in this respect to bear in mind that this 'schets van den stryd tussen laag en hoog, tussen zielenadel en ploertery' was written in three periods, the first before Minnebrieven, the second between 1864 and 1865 and the last, after a long break, from 1873 up to the end of his literary career in 1877.

In one respect at least, Woutertje Pieterse excels the preceding works-Multatuli's happy choice of such a youthful hero removes the ego from his writing. Arrogance and self-pity fall away and the good humour and gentler satire of the story leave us favourably disposed both to the writer and to the quixotic Wouter who wins our sympathy for the writer's psyche.

All the types familiar to us in his earlier works reappear, but now they are actors in a comedy, not a tragedy. The 'fatsoenlyke' Droogstoppels and Kappelmannen were the fathers of the Hallemannetjes, who robbed poor Wouter of his share in the bull's-eyes and called him a sponger. And they are even more recognizable in Pennewip and the assortment of class-conscious and bigoted women who formed Juffrouw Pieterse's circle, and who re-echoed Multatuli's enemies in calling Wouter a murderer, thief, seducer and incendiary because of his Roverslied, which 'alleen voortkwam uit de zucht om op eenmaal 't hoogste te grypen, het verste te bereiken, de eerste te zyn, in 't wedperk dat z'n kinderlyke fantasie hem had ingeleid'. This flight of fancy was punished by his removal to a dark room even more cramped, smelly and dirty than his normal surroundings.2 Yet in the midst of his uncongenial and unsympathetic environment, Wouter had his Tine in the person of Leentje, who cared for him and tried to understand him. Fancy came to Wouter (at the mill- stream) as she came to Multatuli (in his recollections of what happened at a canal when he was ten years old). Wouter then found Femke, a sensitive child with a simple background, like Multatuli's Sietske.3

1 In view of Multatuli's comment in 1879 that to interpret this story as his biography is 'bespottelyk van ongerymdheid', the term autobiographical here must be qualified to mean that Wouter is the symbolic representation of Multatuli's thoughts (though there are episodes which are also literal extracts from his life). This of course applies in a greater or less degree to the Oud Man and Max.

2 Cf. Ideen 404, 405. 3 'Na 't zien van zoo'n tuin voel ik eerst regt hoe prozaisch myn dagelyksch bleekveldje is.'

Sietske Abrahamsz to Multatuli, Brieven, v, 43. 5-2

67 PETER KING



Multatuli's Psyche The Old Man, like Napoleon, sat with his head in his hands and pondered, and an

insatiable ambition was born of his dreams. A small boy, Wouter, 'zat met beide ellebogen op de tafel en liet daarop het hoofd rusten'. His dream, in Ideen 407-11, was probably written before Minnebrieven and can be read as a prelude to it. Queen A-00 is the alpha and omega, the Creator of truth and beauty in the infinite and eternal realms of the mind. But the mind can only be interpreted to the world in the finite terms of thought. The poet likewise has his true home in the infinite, for he is a creator and the son of the queen of creation, but he must serve his time on earth, accepting the disciplines of mortal reality that he may earn immortality as 'prins van den geeste'.

Fancy is sent by the queen of creation to comfort the poet in his exile and to allay his fear that fate is against him, but at the same time to warn him that he must not fritter away his gifts in wistful day-dreams. If the poet is to use his mind in order to find truth and beauty, he must turn his thoughts to truth and beauty in the world. So long as he abuses his mind to dream up his own creations of beauty in his imagination, he will not perceive with his mind the truth that only the poet can find in the world. For this reason, the poet, Wouter, Prince Upsilon or Multatuli cannot find his sister Princess Omikron, his psyche (for Omikron was a butterfly before she was a constellation), the symbol of the soul of truth and beauty.1 When, with Fancy's help, Wouter at last sees Omikron, he longs to embrace her, to express the harmony the poet has discovered between the abstract and the material in a physical union between an incarnate psyche and the poet. Then no mundane discipline would be too much for him.

Fancy leaves Wouter with the promise to do what she can about his request to be allowed to embrace Omikron, and she does not return until Minnebrieven.2

There is another episode in this part of Wouter's history which suggests a symbolic portrayal of Multatuli's psyche just before writing Minnebrieven. This is the account of how Wouter met Fancy at the point where he had first read Glorioso, the romantic novel he had acquired by selling his New Testament.

As he drops straws into a mill-stream, he dreams that he is one of the straws going to rescue the chaste Amalia, another straw caught in the weeds. His make-believe is rudely cut short when a duck swallows his straw. Full of frustration and self- reproach, re-echoed by the two saw-mills [Where is Wouter who should rescue me ?] Wouter throws a stone at the symbol of mundane reality and, like the poet's antagonists, 'de eend koos de beste party, en vertrok, na Wouter te hebben uitge- scholden zo goed hy kon'.

Wouter's imagination now dwells on the mills which had voiced the reproach for his failure to save Amalia (Insulinde?), and his thoughts whirl and flutter like the sails of the two mills. As their movement synchronizes before his eyes, the voice of reproach changes to the sounds fan and si, and as the sounds merge, the aspect of the two mills also merges into a vision of winged youth,3 Fancy,

1 For whereas Upsilon had been material and animate objects before becoming a man, his sister had previously been a moonbeam and a scent. The fact that she had, however briefly, to be a butterfly, though 'uw moeder vond die conditie niet geschikt voor 'n meisje', suggests that Multatuli was conscious of using allegory here.

2 If, that is, I am right in assuming that this was written before June 1861. Wouter, at any rate, does not see Fancy again until she reappears in the form of Femke in Idee 512.

3 'Morgenstond, 1. de vroege ochtenduren; 2. (fig.) eerste begin van een nieuw tijdperk, jeugd.' Van Dale, Nieuw Groot Woordenboek der Nederlandse Taal.

68



who bears him away above earthly cares and restores to him his faith in his mission.

These interpretations are intended rather to illustrate the autobiographical nature of Woutertje Pieterse in relation to Minnebrieven than to imply a conscious use of symbol or allegory. And if these interpretations themselves seem fanciful, let us not forget that sprook or sprookje is Multatuli's name for his most poetic, that is intuitively true writing, even though the sceptic (or humorist) in him generally presents it as imaginative fiction. Indeed, the whole of Woutertje Pieterse is a sprookje; it begins, in Idee 362, under the last lines of the previous idee:

Wat poezie, myn God, gy die in poezie alleen bestaat.... Wat poezie, myn God, opdat ik niet verga van walging over zoveel walgelyks 6m my. Lieve Fancy, wilt ge my een sprookje v66rzeggen?1

And in a note to Idee 363 Multatuli writes that the reader would be wrong to assume that 'de Wouter-geschiedenis nuchtere waarheid behelsde, naar den zin van onzen Droogstoppel. Ook die soort van waarheid is er in, doch zelden. De strekking is waar in hoger betekenis.'

The most telling commentary on this autobiographical significance of Multatuli's tales is given by himself in Waarheid in Legende, his title for Idee 517, written, of course, after Minnebrieven. Here, in the guise of a dispassionate analysis of Faust's hunger for knowledge and his desire for Gretchen, Multatuli reveals his own inner conflict by linking Faust and Gretchen with Wouter and Femke.

The waarheid in the legende of Woutertje Pieterse, as cf Faust and Adam, is that mankind is conscious of two primary urges, the thirst for knowledge and sexual desire. 'Als de man de vrouw niet had liefgehad, zou 't paradys-gebod niet over- treden zyn. De hoogdravende wensen van Faust kwamen neer op 'n nogal platte liefdesgeschiedenis. Wouter verwarde zyn hemelse Fancy met de ordinaire Femke.'2 These urges, the longing to approach and to master the unknown, intellectually and emotionally, are essential to life, which requires a driving force to keep it in being. It follows that they must remain unsatisfied; hence man's constant awareness of a conflict. 'Dat wist Mephisto. Dat voelde de dichter van Genesis. En dat weet ik,3 die getracht heb de bitterheid te schetsen van Wouters gemoed, hy die geen bybels mocht verkopen op d'ouwebrug [Multatuli's scepticism], hy die z'n beentjes niet mocht uitstrekken als er een "bakersoudje" aan 't voeteind lag [trivialities oppressive to the poet], en niet eens permissie kon krygen om een behoorlyke rovery op te zetten in Italie' [romanticism incompatible with reality]. 'Faust begon met dorst naar kennis, hy werd afgeleid door behoefte aan beminnen, en als noodzakelyk aanvulsel werd, zyns ondanks, z'n gemoed neergeworpen in de bloedige arena van een triviaal leven, dat was de stryd.' Adam's struggle through the inhospitable realities of life outside the paradise garden began when the governing force of existence itself answered his desire for knowledge with 'Gy wilt weten? Ziedaar Eva, ziedaar Gretchen, ziedaar Fancy, Femke, of lets dergelyks... ziedaar de liefde.' Multatuli maintains that 'edele weetlust een voortbrengsel is van denzelfde bodem waarop edele liefde groeit. Doordringen, ontdekken, bezitten, besturen en veredelen, ziedaar de taak en de begeerte van minnaar en natuuronder-

1 Cf. also the end of Idee 1046. 2 Cf. Wouter's thoughts about Femke ('Zou zy 't wezen .. Omikron? dacht hy') leading on to

Multatuli's essay on truth, of which Waarheid in Legende forms part. 3 Italics are mine.

69 PETER KING



Multatuli's Psyche zoeker.' And in conclusion: 'Het leven is 'n raadsel, zegt men. Juist. Maar als het raadsel opgelost ware, zou 't geen raadsel, en alzo het leven geen leven meer zyn. Het zou niet zyn.'

Despite the obvious similarity between the themes of Minnebrieven and Waarheid in Legende, the very titles are indications of the difference in treatment, the one

entirely emotional and the other philosophical. Moreover, whereas in Minnebrieven the issue lay between the antipoles of absolute intellectual mastery and unrestrained

gratification of the feelings, in Waarheid in Legende there is no conflict between the minnaar and the natuuronderzoeker; on the contrary, they are united in their common struggle with the whole enigma that is life.

This is such a simple explanation of Multatuli's own dilemma that it seems

strange that he did not find it earlier. And it is convincing because, in terms that

apply to human nature itself, it accounts for the fact that his youthful quixotic ambition became entangled with his sensual desires when they were later aroused to an equal or even greater pitch. There is even something inconsistent in the

accusing finger that is pointed at Multatuli by many who would be honest enough to acknowledge that they had something of Faust or Adam in their natures.

Yet if Waarheid in Legende is evidence of Multatuli's power to resolve the conflict between heart and intellect, what of De Tiende Geschiedenis van Gezag which, according to Fancy, he could write when he discovered that power? Throughout the latter part of Minnebrieven, this tenth tale of authority is increasingly identified with the revelation of a mystery, it becomes the symbol of the complete answer to Multatuli's dilemma, and when this key to the mystery is withheld from us, we are presumably meant to approach his future works with an air of expectancy.

The story of Woutertje Pieterse was in Multatuli's mind at that time. He had already started it as a novel, Fancy, but he certainly worked over this section after writing Minnebrieven and intercalated fresh ideen, presumably his own reflections on the story (or incidents in it) rather than actual episodes of the story itself.1 So that even if he was not conscious of treating this story as De Tiende Geschiedenis van Gezag at the outset, we might expect evidence of what he meant by this in Wouter's spiritual development which so obviously traces his own.

When Multatuli resumes the history of Woutertje Pieterse in 1873, after eight years of domestic troubles in which Wouter seems to have been entirely forgotten, he has already written Millioenenstudien, a work which reveals a geniality surpassing even the mildest parts of Max Havelaar or Woutertje Pieterse. In 1873 Multatuli was fifty-three, and settled at last in a home of his own in Germany, with his second wife as his companion rather than his mistress and with a measure of financial security. He has suffered much, but he now has the peace of mind to look back objectively at the turbulence of his earlier life.

Very early in the continuation of Wouter's history we become aware of the startling fact that Wouter is no longer the hero. He is still the protagonist, but a stronger personality with more heroic qualities now sets the tone-Dr Holsma. As the well-read father of three precocious children (whose education Wouter envies not a little) and the affectionate uncle both of the bleaching-girl Femke and

1 E.g. Idee 400, which I take to be a later addition since the metaphor used there of removing small stones as well as large ones in the path of human happiness is much more in keeping with Multatuli's attitude at the end of Minnebrieven than at the beginning of it. But there can be no certainty at all about this, as my concluding quotations from one of Multatuli's early letters show.

70



of the princess Erika, he is the model of enlightenment, wisdom and love. But the real reason why he commands the further development of the story is that he is as much the symbol of Multatuli himself as Wouter is. In him we see Multatuli's affection for kleine Max and Nonni unspoilt by the domestic anxieties of his earlier life. Holsma had the wisdom to evaluate Femke and Erika at their true worth, and even to endorse Erika's wish to enter the workaday world in Femke's place, and this wisdom Multatuli acquired in Minnebrieven. Holsma's good-humoured acceptance of Wouter's right to his own convictions in the matter of saying grace at meals corresponds to Multatuli's sympathetic treatment of Pater Janssen, the model philanthropist who teaches Wouter the right way to use the gifts sent him by Fancy in the person of the bleaching-princess Erika.

Dr Holsma's practical greatness, his wisdom and love (charitas as against Wouter's eros), is the power that places him above the really trivial things in the world, narrow-mindedness, snobbery, hypocrisy and the like. His instruction to Wouter, 'doe je naastbyliggende plicht! Dit is nu de riddelyke taak, die ik je opdraag', reminds us of Fancy's command 'doe Uw plicht!' at the end of Minne- brieven, and Femke's unromantic 'Maak dat je binnen drie maanden de eerste bent op je school' when Wouter had appealed for a chance to show his devotion to her.

The whole of idee 1186, juxtaposing as it does the immature and the mature Multatuli in the persons of Wouter and Holsma, who here sends the boy out into the world with his blessing and philosophy of life, has the finality of the key to a problem. Where Minnebrieven speaks of the first intuition of a harmonious attitude to life and Waarheid in Legende gives a rationalized explanation of it, Multatuli in Holsma, 'heel ongoddelyk, maar goedig, verstandig en waar', now shows that he has actually adopted this attitude. All through this section we are reminded of Minnebrieven and Multatuli's commentary in his notes; there is even a parallel between the disturbances suffered by Holsma from the noise of the smithy next door and Multatuli's loss of peace of mind because of builders overhead.

Yet though Multatuli has experienced the power of wisdom and insight that brings victory for the poet over the sceptic, he has not overcome the necessity of 'stryd in een triviaal leven'. As if to express this bitter awareness, Wouter goes straight from Dr Holsma into the firm of Ouwetyd and Kopperlith, and the majority of the rest of his story is as monotonous and uninspired as the genteel small-talk of the business world.' Poetry is confined to the brief episodes away from the oppressive atmosphere of the office and the inane snobbery of the Kopperlith family. In the squalor of the Jewish quarter Wouter discovers a rugged nobleness, and Vrouw Claus and Pater Jannsen, for all their worldly poverty, have a wealth of goodness in their hearts.

Multatuli leaves Wouter firmly resolved to shape not the destiny of whole continents, but his own life in the world as it is and must be, accepting the privations of the world's imperfection in order to learn by a deeper understanding what he can do day by day to increase the sum total of happiness. The story of Wouter is

1 'Het schynt wel, dat Holsma inzag hoe Wouter v66r alles moest kennismaken met het allerlaagste, om allengs op te klimmen tot de Poezie der Werkelykheid die zoveel hoger staat dan liefelyk-bontgekleurde - maar kinderachtige, onvoedzame en dus verderfelyke- dromery! Hoe dit zy, evenals hyzelf, dalen we voor enigen tyd naar lagere sferen. Het hoofdkwartier van de Mensheid is nu eenmaal gelykvloers. Vandaar gaan wy altyd uit, daarheen keren wy altyd terug.' V.W. vii, 281. And Wouter, typically, tries the bell for the upper floors of the house before being directed to the office in the basement!

71 PETER KING



Multatuli's Psyche

unfinished, and this is not without significance. In Idee 1080, Multatuli alludes to his intentions in writing this story. He refers to his programme for Ideen, given in his brochure on Over Vryen Arbeid, where he writes: 'Ik zal in dat schryven trachten naar waarheid. Dat is myn program. Dat is myn enig program.'l He goes on to say in Idee 1080 that the reader can judge in the light of this programme 'of ik al of niet over dien kleinen jongen sprekende - in m'n Ideeen tracht te geven wat ik belooft heb? En dit is - altyd met terugzicht op 30! - voorlopig alleen de vraag'. And finally he expresses the hope 'van nu af de Geschiedenis van Woutertje wat meer aaneengeschakeld te vervolgen....Mocht ik voor dien tyd komen te overlyden - o, gaarne! - dan zal ik toch zorgen dat de lezer wete wat ik had willen leveren.' We know from Multatuli's announcement in the fourth and suc- cessive parts of the first volume of Ideen that at that time (1862) he intended finishing Woutertje Pieterse,2 so we are confronted with the question whether what he 'had willen leveren' is in fact contained in the remainder of the story (or anything else written after Idee 1080) or whether he found himself unable to carry out his promise.

The thirtieth Idee, to which he refers in 1080, throws some further light on this question. Here he asks: 'wat is er omgegaan in de ziel des kunstenaars, van den held, van den wysgeer, om dat ideaal te scheppen, om tot die daad te besluiten, om die gedachten voort te brengen, en ze vorm te geven als denkbeeld? Dat is: ik vraag hoe de ziel bevrucht werd? ... Welnu, de geschiedenis ener grote conceptie roept me altyd den tekst toe: met smart zult ge kinderen baren!' The artist of Minnebrieven, the hero of the story of August and the philosopher of Jongelings- dromen, and all three in Wouter, they all have to suffer in the process of achieving an ideal. But why is the suffering necessary? What is the connexion between poetry, deed or thought and the pain without which they cannot be born? In Waarheid in Legende Multatuli gives the answer-Necessity-and he gives the same answer in Idee 32: 'De noodzakelykheid is God. Meer weet ik van God niet te zeggen. En 't spyt me.'

Woutertje Pieterse, then, does provide what Multatuli had promised in intro- ducing Ideen, his conception of Truth. But this conception is ultimately as inconclusive as Woutertje Pieterse itself, as inconclusive as his whole life. A few months before his death he seems to have tried once again to reconcile the necessity of suffering with the urge to do good, but the problem remains unresolved in these Onafgewerkte Blaadjes.

The problem of explaining human experience is as old as Genesis itself, as Multa- tuli himself acknowledges. But he cannot or will not accept the explanation which the writer of Genesis sought to give. And his inability to give a rational explanation of the paradox of suffering as a necessity only added to his own suffering whether it was the base self-pity of the egoist or the nobler grief of the sincere inquirer engulfed in perplexity. 'Ik kan niet vliegen o Heer, en gy, gy, gy draagt

1 V.W. ii, 261. 2 'De vroeger aangekondigde roman: FANCY, begint in 363. 't Zal me benieuwen of ik

ditmaal loisir hebben zal dat ding af te vertellen. 't Lag daar sinds maanden, maar ik zie in, die lieve Fancy dikwyls verkeerd verstaan te hebben, en moet dus veel veranderen, ja alles omwerken. Na m'n ondervinding van 't laaste jaar [the year of Minnebrieven] erken ik schuldig geweest te zyn aan to grote goedmoedigheid in 't oordelen. Ik zal my beteren.' Though the use of 'goedmoedigheid' here seems to imply a volte-face, it could and, I believe, does refer to the discovery in Minnebrieven of the suffering that must accompany the creator's externalization of truth. See below.

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PETER KING 73

daarvan de schuld! Gy die my of hadt moeten in staat stellen tot het hoogste, of my de begeerte onthouden naar het hoogste." 'Ik zal zeggen als Luther: "Hier sta ik (alleen), God helpe my! " God beduidt hier myn ik, myn zyn, myne ziel, de idealen myner jeugd, myn gevoel, myn moed, myn genie ! 2 'Het geloof van en in anderen, dit nu was altyd myn kracht.'3 'Publiek, ik veracht u met grote innigheid.'4 'Ik begryp myzelf niet. O die vervloekte stryd tegen m'n eigen zachtheid.'5 'Weg met gemoedelyke taal, weg met zachtheid, rondborstigheid, duidelykheid, eenvoud, gevoel! '6

Like a littered battle-field, the whole extent of Multatuli's writing reminds us of the confusion and conflict that caused him so much suffering, and although the struggle abated as his confusion about the issues diminished, he never knew real peace for he could never come to terms with the supernatural, the hostile Nood- zakelykheid. And so he never wrote De Tiende Geschiedenis van Gezag, if, that is, this was to have been an explanation of the absolute law governing Truth. Under- standably the antagonism between the idealist and the sceptic in Multatuli has resulted in an aftermath of conflicting views about him. Yet when all has been said for or against this man of bewildering extremes, he surely commands respect for his fearless self-analysis and his singleness of purpose to discover the truth for himself, at whatever cost in personal suffering. His apparent failure may conceal a truer greatness than is ascribed to him by many of his critics who have perhaps not had his moral courage to inquire into the meaning of life, or have taken the line of least resistance by accepting a ready-made interpretation of it.

As the best judge of his character, the last word should come from Multatuli himself. The following is part of a very long letter written in October 1845 to Tine, then still engaged to him. Though written only two years after Jongelingsdromen,7 it reflects most clearly the spirit of August and Dr Holsma, with whom Multatuli began and ended his literary career, as if to bear out his own dictum, 'de roeping van den mens is mens te zyn'-'this above all-to thine own self be true .8

Er bestaat een gemeenschap tusschen het onzienlijke en onze ziel, waartusschen geen menschelijk oog een blik kan werpen. Biecht, volkomene biecht, hoe schoon ook, hoe Evangelisch, is een chimere.

...Ik twijfel en gis, daar waar anderen meenen te weten.

...als men mij vraagt: 'Waarom zijn wij geschapen, waarom hebben wij met moeijelijkheden te kampen?' dan antwoord ik....

'Ik weet het niet!' ... Ik neem aan, honderden vragen aan Johan of Herman te doen waarop zij vlug

zullen antwoorden, vragen, die ik ook op mijn 12e jaar meende te kunnen oplossen en waarop ik nu het antwoord schuldig moet blijven. Ik weet nu, dat ik minder weet dan ik toen meende te weten.

1 Brieven, iv, 149. 2 Brieven, iv, 12. 3 Brieven, iv, 115. 4 V.W. ii, 22. 5 Brieven, vi, 111. 6 V.W. I, 216. 7 To which he refers in the passage quoted earlier about his 'gewelddadige, misschien

onuitvoerbare plannen' and continuing: 'Thans heeft zich alles opgelost in de begeerte om stil gelukkig te wezen.' Max Havelaar put an end to that!

8 'Wouter moest zyn leven verdedigen tegen 't kleine....Maar tegelykertyd was hem opge- dragen het grote in 't oog te houden...rein te blyven by aanraking met vuil...buigend en bukkend niet te breken .. steeds gereed te staan tot krachtig opspringen als 'n gebogen veer... temidden van zoveel smetstof gezond te blyven... in 66n woord: stoeds zichzelf te zyn.' Idee 1209. And in the same year Multatuli wrote to Dr Bruinsma: 'Myn plan is Wouter al hooger en hooger te laten rondkyken, en overal dezelfde beroerdheid vindend moet hy inzien dat de ware hoogheid in hemzelf ligt.' A. Klaver, Harmonisch en Onharmonisch Levens (Zeist, 1921), 39.



74 Multatuli's Psyche ... Gij roemt mijne goedhartigheid. Let er eens op hoeveel daarvan op rekening van

ijdelheid gesteld moet worden. Het is waar, ik stel dikwijls het genoegen van anderen boven eigene vreugde, maar lieve, het is niet alles goud wat blinkt.

...Ik zal u die goedhartigheid zoo goed mogelijk uitleggen, daar ligt eerzucht in, trots, eigenliefde, verwaandheid en eene menigte van waarlijke ondeugden; dit is geene zedigheid. Er zijn stille en blinkende deugden. Iemand, die zijne pligten vervult, zonder dat daarop gewezen wordt, zonder dank, lof of voordeel staat verre boven dengenen, die door eenige hoedanigheden uitblinkt en daarmede misschien eenig nut sticht, maar aan den anderen kant veel nalaat wat v66r moest gaan. Ik heb aanleg een edel mensch te zijn, maar het zal lang duren eer ik een goed mensch ben. Ik heb kracht tot zelfopoffering, maar niet altijd, zelfs zelden tot eenvoudige plichts- betrachting. Ik zoude zooals de zeer menschkundige Lafontaine zegt, kracht en moed hebben een rots te verzetten, maar het dagelijksch verleggen van een veertje zoude mij te zwaar vallen. Het streelt de ijdelheid niet genoeg een kleinen pligt te vervullen!

...Ik ben dikwijls geprezen maar verdiende het zelden; meestal was verregaande eerzucht de bron waaruit dingen voortkwamen die men schoon vond. . .Ik herinner mij een kleine gebeurtenis.

Here follows his account of the incident of the Jewish boy's cap which was to have such important consequences in his later thoughts and work. The account ends:

Een oud man, dezelfde die het touw had gegeven, gaf mij de hand en zeide: 'Jonge- heer, het zal u goed gaan!' Mijn lieve Willem riep als of hij grootsch was: 'dat is mijn broer, Eduard!' en ik....

0, die vervloekte ijdelheid! ik gloeide van genot. .. .Alles zag op mij, alles noemde mij, alles prees mij! Die menschen zouden mij

op dat oogenblik gehoorzaamd hebben als ik - kleine jongen- hen iets gelast had. Ik nam de voorspelling van den ouden man aan als iets natuurlijks en ik liep dien dag op stelten des hoogmoeds voort, ieder aanziende alsof ik vragen wilde: 'groet gij mij niet, mij....'

Heb mij lief, Everdine, als gij kunt... maar acht mij niet te veel. Stel het vuurwerk, dat schittert, niet boven het lampje, dat licht geeft.

Multatuli, Max, Wouter was indeed "n Zonderling vryertje' PETER KNG

~~~~~~~~~PCAMBRIDGETER CAMBRIDGE



Date post:	30-Jan-2017
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Multatuli's Psyche

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