Havelock Ellis Collection - Affirmations

This is a new edition of "Affirmations," originally published in 1915 by Houghton Mifflin, of New York. Part of Adeptio's "The Best of Havelock Ellis Collection," from the "Unforgettable Classic Series," this is not a facsimile reprint. Obvious typographical errors have been carefully corrected and the entire text has been reset and redesigned by Adeptio Editions to enhance readability, while respecting the original edition. "The final value of any book is not in the beliefs which it may give us or take away from us, but in its power to reveal to us our own selves. If I can stimulate any one in the search for his own affirmations, he and I may well rest content. Only with the help of such affirmations can we find a staff to comfort us through the valley of life." This paragraph from the preface to "Affirmations" is an epitome of the entire work. It sums up the philosophy of Havelock Ellis-individualism, in the highest sense of the word. "Affirmations" was first published in 1898, and it is now reprinted, without any changes-except for another remarkable preface. Like Bernard Shaw, Havelock Ellis often gives us the meat of his work in a preface. Mr. Ellis admits that he has deliberately failed to bring his book up-to-date. "We are concerned here," he says, "with an attempt to pierce to the core of numerous vital questions, using certain intensely vital instruments to aid us in that task. What became of those instruments at last happens not to matter at all. Dates have their interest. But what are biographical dictionaries for?" The book consists of five studies-of Nietzsche, Zola, Huysmans, Casanova, and St. Francis of Assisi. Discussing each of these men in his usual brilliant manner, Havelock Ellis gives us five passionate sermons on individualism. But these sermons are most unsermon-like. They are merely outpourings of the author's ideas, as suggested by five great individualists. There is nothing preachy or sweetly sentimental about the studies. They are frank, unconventional, penetrating essays-rich in eloquence and spiritual vigor. In Nietzsche, Mr. Ellis finds that "love of life which accepts reality without too much theorizing about it." Nietzsche, we are told, shunned Plato, for Plato was "the coward who fled from the real unto the unreal." Nietzsche believed in pain, because it throws us back on our own naked personalities, face to face with reality. Mr. Ellis describes Nietzsche's ideal man: "the brave, laconic, self-contained man; not lusting after self-expression, hating fanticism, shunning notoriety and knowing how to smile." From Nietzsche, then, Mr. Ellis draws these affirmations: Be hard, be self-reliant, be unafraid, and be original. And so Mr. Ellis takes up the others-Casanova, Zola, Huysmans, and St. Francis. From each of them he draws substantially the same affirmations as Nietzsche inspired. But in each someone feature is predominant. In Casanova, it is the fearlessness and fullness of life; in Zola it is the reality and thoroughness of life; in Huysmans it is the beauty of life as perceived through the senses; and, finally, in St. Francis of Assisi it is the hardihood and joyful suffering of life. His concluding words are: "Our feet cling to the earth, and it is well that we should be able to grip it closely and nakedly. But the earth beneath us is not all nature; there are instincts which lead elsewhere, and it is part of the art of living to use naturally all those instincts. And for us, as for him who wrote "De Imitatione Christi" there are still two wings whereby we may raise ourselves above the earth, simplicity and purity." (Columbia Daily Spectator, Volume LIX, Number 30, 1 November 1915.) Among some of Havelock's great books, Affirmations is also considered one of his masterpieces and helped establish his reputation throughout the world.