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diff --git a/old/13468-h/13468-h.htm b/old/13468-h/13468-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..80a2e40 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13468-h/13468-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,8523 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="us-ascii"?> + +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" > + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <meta content="pg2html (binary v0.17)" name="linkgenerator" /> + <title> + The New Jerusalem, by G. K. Chesterton + </title> + <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> + body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify} + P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .75em; margin-bottom: .75em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + hr { width: 50%; text-align: center;} + .foot { margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 5%; text-align: justify; font-size: 80%; font-style: italic;} + blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .mynote {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;} + .toc { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;} + .toc2 { margin-left: 20%;} + .xx-small {font-size: 60%;} + .x-small {font-size: 75%;} + .small {font-size: 85%;} + .large {font-size: 115%;} + .x-large {font-size: 130%;} + .indent5 { margin-left: 5%;} + .indent10 { margin-left: 10%;} + .indent15 { margin-left: 15%;} + .indent20 { margin-left: 20%;} + .indent25 { margin-left: 25%;} + .indent30 { margin-left: 30%;} + .indent35 { margin-left: 35%;} + .indent40 { margin-left: 40%;} + div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; } + div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; } + .figleft {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;} + .figright {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;} + .pagenum {position: absolute; right: 1%; font-size: 0.6em; + font-variant: normal; font-style: normal; + text-align: right; background-color: #FFFACD; + border: 1px solid; padding: 0.3em;text-indent: 0em;} + .side { float: left; font-size: 75%; width: 15%; padding-left: 0.8em; + border-left: dashed thin; text-align: left; + text-indent: 0; font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; + font-weight: bold; color: black; background: #eeeeee; border: solid 1px;} + .head { float: left; font-size: 90%; width: 98%; padding-left: 0.8em; + border-left: dashed thin; text-align: center; + text-indent: 0; font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; + font-weight: bold; color: black; background: #eeeeee; border: solid 1px;} + p.pfirst, p.noindent {text-indent: 0} + span.dropcap { float: left; margin: 0 0.1em 0 0; line-height: 0.8 } + pre { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;} +</style> + </head> + <body> +<pre> +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The New Jerusalem, by G. K. Chesterton + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The New Jerusalem + +Author: G. K. Chesterton + +Release Date: September 15, 2004 [eBook #13468] +Last Updated: September 3, 2018 + + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE NEW JERUSALEM*** + + +E-text prepared by Joe Moretti + + + + +</pre> + + <div style="height: 8em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h1> + THE NEW JERUSALEM + </h1> + <h2> + By G. K. Chesterton + </h2> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2H_PREF" id="link2H_PREF"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + PREFACE + </h2> + <p> + This book is only an uncomfortably large note-book; and it has the + disadvantages, whether or no it has the advantages, of notes that were + taken on the spot. Owing to the unexpected distraction of other duties, + the notes were published in a newspaper as they were made on the spot; and + are now reproduced in a book as they were published in the newspaper. The + only exception refers to the last chapter on Zionism; and even there the + book only reverts to the original note-book. A difference of opinion, + which divided the writer of the book from the politics of the newspaper, + prevented the complete publication of that chapter in that place. I + recognise that any expurgated form of it would have falsified the + proportions of my attempt to do justice in a very difficult problem; but + on re-reading even my own attempt in extenso, I am far from satisfied that + the proper proportions are kept. I wrote these first impressions in + Palestine, where everybody recognises the Jew as something quite distinct + from the Englishman or the European; and where his unpopularity even moved + me in the direction of his defence. But I admit it was something of a + shock to return to a conventional atmosphere, in which that unpopularity + is still actually denied or described as mere persecution. It was more of + a shock to realise that this most obscurantist of all types of + obscurantism is still sometimes regarded as a sort of liberalism. To talk + of the Jews always as the oppressed and never as the oppressors is simply + absurd; it is as if men pleaded for reasonable help for exiled French + aristocrats or ruined Irish landlords, and forgot that the French and + Irish peasants had any wrongs at all. Moreover, the Jews in the West do + not seem so much concerned to ask, as I have done however tentatively + here, whether a larger and less local colonial development might really + transfer the bulk of Israel to a more independent basis, as simply to + demand that Jews shall continue to control other nations as well as their + own. It might be worth while for England to take risks to settle the + Jewish problem; but not to take risks merely to unsettle the Arab problem, + and leave the Jewish problem unsolved. + </p> + <p> + For the rest, there must under the circumstances be only too many + mistakes; the historical conjectures, for they can be no more, are founded + on authorities sufficiently recognised for me to be permitted to trust + them; but I have never pretended to the knowledge necessary to check them. + I am aware that there are many disputed points; as for instance the + connection of Gerard, the fiery Templar, with the English town of + Bideford. I am also aware that some are sensitive about the spelling of + words; and the very proof-readers will sometimes revolt and turn Mahomet + into Mohammed. Upon this point, however, I am unrepentant; for I never + could see the point of altering a form with historic and even heroic fame + in our own language, for the sake of reproducing by an arrangement of our + letters something that is really written in quite different letters, and + probably pronounced with quite a different accent. In speaking of the + great prophet I am therefore resolved to call him Mahomet; and am + prepared, on further provocation, to call him Mahound. + </p> + <h3> + G. K. C. + </h3> + <hr /> + <p> + <b>CONTENTS</b> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_PREF"> PREFACE </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0001"> CHAPTER I. — THE WAY OF THE CITIES </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0002"> CHAPTER II. — THE WAY OF THE DESERT </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0003"> CHAPTER III. — THE GATES OF THE CITY </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0004"> CHAPTER IV. — THE PHILOSOPHY OF + SIGHT-SEEING </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0005"> CHAPTER V. — THE STREETS OF THE CITY </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0006"> CHAPTER VI. — THE GROUPS OF THE CITY </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0007"> CHAPTER VII. — THE SHADOW OF THE PROBLEM + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0008"> CHAPTER VIII. — THE OTHER SIDE OF THE + DESERT </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0009"> CHAPTER IX. — THE BATTLE WITH THE DRAGON + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0010"> CHAPTER X. — THE ENDLESS EMPIRE </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0011"> CHAPTER XI. — THE MEANING OF THE CRUSADE + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0012"> CHAPTER XII. — THE FALL OF CHIVALRY </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0013"> CHAPTER XIII. — THE PROBLEM OF ZIONISM </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_CONC"> CONCLUSION </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER I. — THE WAY OF THE CITIES + </h2> + <p> + It was in the season of Christmas that I came out of my little garden in + that "field of the beeches" between the Chilterns and the Thames, and + began to walk backwards through history to the place from which Christmas + came. For it is often necessary to walk backwards, as a man on the wrong + road goes back to a sign-post to find the right road. The modern man is + more like a traveller who has forgotten the name of his destination, and + has to go back whence he came, even to find out where he is going. That + the world has lost its way few will now deny; and it did seem to me that I + found at last a sort of sign-post, of a singular and significant shape, + and saw for a moment in my mind the true map of the modern wanderings; but + whether I shall be able to say anything of what I saw, this story must + show. + </p> + <p> + I had said farewell to all my friends, or all those with my own limited + number of legs; and nothing living remained but a dog and a donkey. The + reader will learn with surprise that my first feeling of fellowship went + out to the dog; I am well aware that I lay open my guard to a lunge of + wit. The dog is rather like a donkey, or a small caricature of one, with a + large black head and long black ears; but in the mood of the moment there + was rather a moral contrast than a pictorial parallel. For the dog did + indeed seem to stand for home and everything I was leaving behind me, with + reluctance, especially that season of the year. For one thing, he is named + after Mr. Winkle, the Christmas guest of Mr. Wardle; and there is indeed + something Dickensian in his union of domesticity with exuberance. He + jumped about me, barking like a small battery, under the impression that I + was going for a walk; but I could not, alas, take him with me on a stroll + to Palestine. Incidentally, he would have been out of place; for dogs have + not their due honour in the East; and this seemed to sharpen my sense of + my own domestic sentinel as a sort of symbol of the West. On the other + hand, the East is full of donkeys, often very dignified donkeys; and when + I turned my attention to the other grotesque quadruped, with an even + larger head and even longer ears, he seemed to take on a deep shade of + oriental mystery. I know not why these two absurd creatures tangled + themselves up so much in my train of thought, like dragons in an + illuminated text; or ramped like gargoyles on either side of the gateway + of my adventure. But in truth they were in some sense symbols of the West + and the East after all. The dog's very lawlessness is but an extravagance + of loyalty; he will go mad with joy three times on the same day, at going + out for a walk down the same road. The modern world is full of fantastic + forms of animal worship; a religion generally accompanied with human + sacrifice. Yet we hear strangely little of the real merits of animals; and + one of them surely is this innocence of all boredom; perhaps such + simplicity is the absence of sin. I have some sense myself of the sacred + duty of surprise; and the need of seeing the old road as a new road. But I + cannot claim that whenever I go out for a walk with my family and friends, + I rush in front of them volleying vociferous shouts of happiness; or even + leap up round them attempting to lick their faces. It is in this power of + beginning again with energy upon familiar and homely things that the dog + is really the eternal type of the Western civilisation. And the donkey is + really as different as is the Eastern civilisation. His very anarchy is a + sort of secrecy; his very revolt is a secret. He does not leap up because + he wishes to share my walk, but to follow his own way, as lonely as the + wild ass of Scripture. My own beast of burden supports the authority of + Scripture by being a very wild ass. I have given him the name of Trotsky, + because he seldom trots, but either scampers or stands still. He scampers + all over the field when it is necessary to catch him, and stands still + when it is really urgent to drive him. He also breaks fences, eats + vegetables, and fulfills other functions; between delays and destructions + he could ruin a really poor man in a day. I wish this fact were more often + remembered, in judging whether really poor men have really been cruel to + donkeys. But I assure the reader that I am not cruel to my donkey; the + cruelty is all the other way. He kicks the people who try to catch him; + and again I am haunted by a dim human parallel. For it seems to me that + many of us, in just detestation of the dirty trick of cruelty to animals, + have really a great deal of patience with animals; more patience, I fear, + than many of us have with human beings. Suppose I had to go out and catch + my secretary in a field every morning; and suppose my secretary always + kicked me by way of beginning the day's work; I wonder whether that day's + work would resume its normal course as if nothing had happened. Nothing + graver than these grotesque images and groping speculations would come + into my conscious mind just then, though at the back of it there was an + indescribable sense of regret and parting. All through my wanderings the + dog remained in my memory as a Dickensian and domestic emblem of England; + and if it is difficult to take a donkey seriously, it ought to be easiest, + at least, for a man who is going to Jerusalem. + </p> + <p> + There was a cloud of Christmas weather on the great grey beech-woods and + the silver cross of the cross-roads. For the four roads that meet in the + market-place of my little town make one of the largest and simplest of + such outlines on the map of England; and the shape as it shines on that + wooded chart always affects me in a singular fashion. The sight of the + cross-roads is in a true sense the sign of the cross. For it is the sign + of a truly Christian thing; that sharp combination of liberty and + limitation which we call choice. A man is entirely free to choose between + right and left, or between right and wrong. As I looked for the last time + at the pale roads under the load of cloud, I knew that our civilisation + had indeed come to the cross-roads. As the paths grew fainter, fading + under the gathering shadow, I felt rather as if it had lost its way in a + forest. + </p> + <p> + It was at the time when people were talking about some menace of the end + of the world, not apocalyptic but astronomical; and the cloud that covered + the little town of Beaconsfield might have fitted in with such a fancy. It + faded, however, as I left the place further behind; and in London the + weather, though wet, was comparatively clear. It was almost as if + Beaconsfield had a domestic day of judgment, and an end of the world all + to itself. In a sense Beaconsfield has four ends of the world, for its + four corners are named "ends" after the four nearest towns. But I was + concerned only with the one called London End; and the very name of it was + like a vision of some vain thing at once ultimate and infinite. The very + title of London End sounds like the other end of nowhere, or (what is + worse) of everywhere. It suggests a sort of derisive riddle; where does + London End? As I came up through the vast vague suburbs, it was this sense + of London as a shapeless and endless muddle that chiefly filled my mind. I + seemed still to carry the cloud with me; and when I looked up, I almost + expected to see the chimney-pots as tangled as the trees. + </p> + <p> + And in truth if there was now no material fog, there was any amount of + mental and moral fog. The whole industrial world symbolised by London had + reached a curious complication and confusion, not easy to parallel in + human history. It is not a question of controversies, but rather of + cross-purposes. As I went by Charing Cross my eye caught a poster about + Labour politics, with something about the threat of Direct Action and a + demand for Nationalisation. And quite apart from the merits of the case, + it struck me that after all the direct action is very indirect, and the + thing demanded is many steps away from the thing desired. It is all part + of a sort of tangle, in which terms and things cut across each other. The + employers talk about "private enterprise," as if there were anything + private about modern enterprise. Its combines are as big as many + commonwealths; and things advertised in large letters on the sky cannot + plead the shy privileges of privacy. Meanwhile the Labour men talk about + the need to "nationalise" the mines or the land, as if it were not the + great difficulty in a plutocracy to nationalise the Government, or even to + nationalise the nation. The Capitalists praise competition while they + create monopoly; the Socialists urge a strike to turn workmen into + soldiers and state officials; which is logically a strike against strikes. + I merely mention it as an example of the bewildering inconsistency, and + for no controversial purpose. My own sympathies are with the Socialists; + in so far that there is something to be said for Socialism, and nothing to + be said for Capitalism. But the point is that when there is something to + be said for one thing, it is now commonly said in support of the opposite + thing. Never since the mob called out, "Less bread! More taxes!" in the + nonsense story, has there been so truly nonsensical a situation as that in + which the strikers demand Government control and the Government denounces + its own control as anarchy. The mob howls before the palace gates, + "Hateful tyrant, we demand that you assume more despotic powers"; and the + tyrant thunders from the balcony, "Vile rebels, do you dare to suggest + that my powers should be extended?" There seems to be a little + misunderstanding somewhere. + </p> + <p> + In truth everything I saw told me that there was a large misunderstanding + everywhere; a misunderstanding amounting to a mess. And as this was the + last impression that London left on me, so it was the impression I carried + with me about the whole modern problem of Western civilisation, as a + riddle to be read or a knot to be untied. To untie it it is necessary to + get hold of the right end of it, and especially the other end of it. We + must begin at the beginning; we must return to our first origins in + history, as we must return to our first principles in philosophy. We must + consider how we came to be doing what we do, and even saying what we say. + As it is, the very terms we use are either meaningless or something more + than meaningless, inconsistent even with themselves. This applies, for + instance, to the talk of both sides in that Labour controversy, which I + merely took in passing, because it was the current controversy in London + when I left. The Capitalists say Bolshevism as one might say Boojum. It is + merely a mystical and imaginative word suggesting horror. But it might + mean many things; including some just and rational things. On the other + hand, there could never be any meaning at all in the phrase "the + dictatorship of the proletariat." It is like saying, "the omnipotence of + omnibus-conductors." It is fairly obvious that if an omnibus-conductor + were omnipotent, he would probably prefer to conduct something else + besides an omnibus. Whatever its exponents mean, it is clearly something + different from what they say; and even this verbal inconsistency, this + mere welter of words, is a sign of the common confusion of thought. It is + this sort of thing that made London seem like a limbo of lost words, and + possibly of lost wits. And it is here we find the value of what I have + called walking backwards through history. + </p> + <p> + It is one of the rare merits of modern mechanical travel that it enables + us to compare widely different cities in rapid succession. The stages of + my own progress were the chief cities of separate countries; and though + more is lost in missing the countries, something is gained in so sharply + contrasting the capitals. And again it was one of the advantages of my own + progress that it was a progress backwards; that it happened, as I have + said, to retrace the course of history to older and older things; to Paris + and to Rome and to Egypt, and almost, as it were, to Eden. And finally it + is one of the advantages of such a return that it did really begin to + clarify the confusion of names and notions in modern society. I first + became conscious of this when I went out of the Gare de Lyon and walked + along a row of cafes, until I saw again a distant column crowned with a + dancing figure; the freedom that danced over the fall of the Bastille. + Here at least, I thought, is an origin and a standard, such as I missed in + the mere muddle of industrial opportunism. The modern industrial world is + not in the least democratic; but it is supposed to be democratic, or + supposed to be trying to be democratic. The ninth century, the time of the + Norse invasions, was not saintly in the sense of being filled with saints; + it was filled with pirates and petty tyrants, and the first feudal + anarchy. But sanctity was the only ideal those barbarians had, when they + had any at all. And democracy is the only ideal the industrial millions + have, when they have any at all. Sanctity was the light of the Dark Ages, + or if you will the dream of the Dark Ages. And democracy is the dream of + the dark age of industrialism; if it be very much of a dream. It is this + which prophets promise to achieve, and politicians pretend to achieve, and + poets sometimes desire to achieve, and sometimes only desire to desire. In + a word, an equal citizenship is quite the reverse of the reality in the + modern world; but it is still the ideal in the modern world. At any rate + it has no other ideal. If the figure that has alighted on the column in + the Place de la Bastille be indeed the spirit of liberty, it must see a + million growths in a modern city to make it wish to fly back again into + heaven. But our secular society would not know what goddess to put on the + pillar in its place. + </p> + <p> + As I looked at that sculptured goddess on that classical column, my mind + went back another historic stage, and I asked myself where this classic + and republican ideal came from, and the answer was equally clear. The + place from which it had come was the place to which I was going; Rome. And + it was not until I had reached Rome that I adequately realised the next + great reality that simplified the whole story, and even this particular + part of the story. I know nothing more abruptly arresting than that sudden + steepness, as of streets scaling the sky, where stands, now cased in tile + and brick and stone, that small rock that rose and overshadowed the whole + earth; the Capitol. Here in the grey dawn of our history sat the strong + Republic that set her foot upon the necks of kings; and it was from here + assuredly that the spirit of the Republic flew like an eagle to alight on + that far-off pillar in the country of the Gauls. For it ought to be + remembered (and it is too often forgotten) that if Paris inherited what + may be called the authority of Rome, it is equally true that Rome + anticipated all that is sometimes called the anarchy of Paris. The + expansion of the Roman Empire was accompanied by a sort of permanent Roman + Revolution, fully as furious as the French Revolution. So long as the + Roman system was really strong, it was full of riots and mobs and + democratic divisions; and any number of Bastilles fell as the temple of + the victories rose. But though I had but a hurried glance at such things, + there were among them some that further aided the solution of the problem. + I saw the larger achievements of the later Romans; and the lesson that was + still lacking was plainly there. I saw the Coliseum, a monument of that + love of looking on at athletic sports, which is noted as a sign of + decadence in the Roman Empire and of energy in the British Empire. I saw + the Baths of Caracalla, witnessing to a cult of cleanliness, adduced also + to prove the luxury of Ancient Romans and the simplicity of Anglo-Saxons. + All it really proves either way is a love of washing on a large scale; + which might merely indicate that Caracalla, like other Emperors, was a + lunatic. But indeed what such things do indicate, if only indirectly, is + something which is here much more important. They indicate not only a + sincerity in the public spirit, but a certain smoothness in the public + services. In a word, while there were many revolutions, there were no + strikes. The citizens were often rebels; but there were men who were not + rebels, because they were not citizens. The ancient world forced a number + of people to do the work of the world first, before it allowed more + privileged people to fight about the government of the world. The truth is + trite enough, of course; it is in the single word Slavery, which is not + the name of a crime like Simony, but rather of a scheme like Socialism. + Sometimes very like Socialism. + </p> + <p> + Only standing idly on one of those grassy mounds under one of those broken + arches, I suddenly saw the Labour problem of London, as I could not see it + in London. I do not mean that I saw which side was right, or what solution + was reliable, or any partisan points or repartees, or any practical + details about practical difficulties. I mean that I saw what it was; the + thing itself and the whole thing. The Labour problem of to-day stood up + quite simply, like a peak at which a man looks back and sees single and + solid, though when he was walking over it it was a wilderness of rocks. + The Labour problem is the attempt to have the democracy of Paris without + the slavery of Rome. Between the Roman Republic and the French Republic + something had happened. Whatever else it was, it was the abandonment of + the ancient and fundamental human habit of slavery; the numbering of men + for necessary labour as the normal foundation of society, even a society + in which citizens were free and equal. When the idea of equal citizenship + returned to the world, it found that world changed by a much more + mysterious version of equality. So that London, handing on the lamp from + Paris as well as Rome, is faced with a new problem touching the old + practice of getting the work of the world done somehow. We have now to + assume not only that all citizens are equal, but that all men are + citizens. Capitalism attempted it by combining political equality with + economic inequality; it assumed the rich could always hire the poor. But + Capitalism seems to me to have collapsed; to be not only a discredited + ethic but a bankrupt business. Whether we shall return to pagan slavery, + or to small property, or by guilds or otherwise get to work in a new way, + is not the question here. The question here was the one I asked myself + standing on that green mound beside the yellow river; and the answer to it + lay ahead of me, along the road that ran towards the rising sun. + </p> + <p> + What made the difference? What was it that had happened between the rise + of the Roman Republic and the rise of the French Republic? Why did the + equal citizens of the first take it for granted that there would be + slaves? Why did the equal citizens of the second take it for granted that + there would not be slaves? How had this immemorial institution disappeared + in the interval, so that nobody even dreamed of it or suggested it? How + was it that when equality returned, it was no longer the equality of + citizens, and had to be the equality of men? The answer is that this + equality of men is in more senses than one a mystery. It is a mystery + which I pondered as I stood in the corridor of the train going south from + Rome. It was at daybreak, and (as it happened) before any one else had + risen, that I looked out of the long row of windows across a great + landscape grey with olives and still dark against the dawn. The dawn + itself looked rather like a row of wonderful windows; a line of low + casements unshuttered and shining under the eaves of cloud. There was a + curious clarity about the sunrise; as if its sun might be made of glass + rather than gold. It was the first time I had seen so closely and covering + such a landscape the grey convolutions and hoary foliage of the olive; and + all those twisted trees went by like a dance of dragons in a dream. The + rocking railway-train and the vanishing railway-line seemed to be going + due east, as if disappearing into the sun; and save for the noise of the + train there was no sound in all that grey and silver solitude; not even + the sound of a bird. Yet the plantations were mostly marked out in private + plots and bore every trace of the care of private owners. It is seldom, I + confess, that I so catch the world asleep, nor do I know why my answer + should have come to me thus when I was myself only half-awake. It is + common in such a case to see some new signal or landmark; but in my + experience it is rather the things already grown familiar that suddenly + grow strange and significant. A million olives must have flashed by before + I saw the first olive; the first, so to speak, which really waved the + olive branch. For I remembered at last to what land I was going; and I + knew the name of the magic which had made all those peasants out of pagan + slaves, and has presented to the modern world a new problem of labour and + liberty. It was as if I already saw against the clouds of daybreak that + mountain which takes its title from the olive: and standing half visible + upon it, a figure at which I did not look. <i>Ex oriente lux</i>; and I + knew what dawn had broken over the ruins of Rome. + </p> + <p> + I have taken but this one text or label, out of a hundred such, the matter + of labour and liberty; and thought it worth while to trace it from one + blatant and bewildering yellow poster in the London streets to its high + places in history. But it is only one example of the way in which a + thousand things grouped themselves and fell into perspective as I passed + farther and farther from them, and drew near the central origins of + civilisation. I do not say that I saw the solution; but I saw the problem. + In the litter of journalism and the chatter of politics, it is too much of + a puzzle even to be a problem. For instance, a friend of mine described + his book, <i>The Path to Rome</i>, as a journey through all Europe that + the Faith had saved; and I might very well describe my own journey as one + through all Europe that the War has saved. The trail of the actual + fighting, of course, was awfully apparent everywhere; the plantations of + pale crosses seemed to crop up on every side like growing things; and the + first French villages through which I passed had heard in the distance, + day and night, the guns of the long battle-line, like the breaking of an + endless exterior sea of night upon the very borderland of the world. I + felt it most as we passed the noble towers of Amiens, so near the + high-water mark of the high tide of barbarism, in that night of terror + just before the turning of the tide. For the truth which thus grew clearer + with travel is rightly represented by the metaphor of the artillery, as + the thunder and surf of a sea beyond the world. Whatever else the war was, + it was like the resistance of something as solid as land, and sometimes as + patient and inert as land, against something as unstable as water, as weak + as water; but also as <i>strong</i> as water, as strong as water is in a + cataract or a flood. It was the resistance of form to formlessness; that + version or vision of it seemed to clarify itself more and more as I went + on. It was the defence of that same ancient enclosure in which stood the + broken columns of the Roman forum and the column in the Paris square, and + of all other such enclosures down to the domestic enclosures of my own dog + and donkey. All had the same design, the marking out of a square for the + experiment of liberty; of the old civic liberty or the later universal + liberty. I knew, to take the domestic metaphor, that the watchdog of the + West had again proved too strong for the wild dogs of the Orient. For the + foes of such creative limits are chaos and old night, whether they are the + Northern barbarism that pitted tribal pride and brutal drill against the + civic ideal of Paris, or the Eastern barbarism that brought brigands out + of the wilds of Asia to sit on the throne of Byzantium. And as in the + other case, what I saw was something simpler and larger than all the + disputed details about the war and the peace. A man may think it + extraordinary, as I do, that the natural dissolution of the artificial + German Empire into smaller states should have actually been prevented by + its enemies, when it was already accepted in despair by its friends. For + we are now trying hard to hold the Prussian system together, having + hammered hard for four mortal years to burst it asunder. Or he may think + exactly the opposite; it makes no difference to the larger fact I have in + mind. A man may think it simply topsy-turvy, as I do, that we should clear + the Turks out of Turkey, but leave them in Constantinople. For that is + driving the barbarians from their own rude tillage and pasturage, and + giving up to them our own European and Christian city; it is as if the + Romans annexed Parthia but surrendered Rome. But he may think exactly the + opposite; and the larger and simpler truth will still be there. It was + that the weeds and wild things had been everywhere breaking into our + boundaries, climbing over the northern wall or crawling through the + eastern gate, so that the city would soon have been swallowed in the + jungle. And whether the lines had been redrawn logically or loosely, or + particular things cleared with consistency or caprice, a line has been + drawn somewhere and a clearance has been made somehow. The ancient plan of + our city has been saved; a city at least capable of containing citizens. I + felt this in the chance relics of the war itself; I felt it twenty times + more in those older relics which even the war had never touched at all; I + felt the change as much in the changeless East as in the ever-changing + West. I felt it when I crossed another great square in Paris to look at a + certain statue, which I had last seen hung with crape and such garlands as + we give the dead; but on whose plain pedestal nothing now is left but the + single word "Strasbourg." I felt it when I saw words merely scribbled with + a pencil on a wall in a poor street in Brindisi; <i>Italia vittoriosa</i>. + But I felt it as much or even more in things infinitely more ancient and + remote; in those monuments like mountains that still seem to look down + upon all modern things. For these things were more than a trophy that had + been raised, they were a palladium that had been rescued. These were the + things that had again been saved from chaos, as they were saved at Salamis + and Lepanto; and I knew what had saved them or at least in what formation + they had been saved. I knew that these scattered splendours of antiquity + would hardly have descended to us at all, to be endangered or delivered, + if all that pagan world had not crystallised into Christendom. + </p> + <p> + Crossing seas as smooth as pavements inlaid with turquoise and lapis + lazuli, and relieved with marble mountains as clear and famous as marble + statues, it was easy to feel all that had been pure and radiant even in + the long evening of paganism; but that did not make me forget what strong + stars had comforted the inevitable night. The historical moral was the + same whether these marble outlines were merely "the isles" seen afar off + like sunset clouds by the Hebrew prophets, or were felt indeed as Hellas, + the great archipelago of arts and arms praised by the Greek poets; the + historic heritage of both descended only to the Greek Fathers. In those + wild times and places, the thing that preserved both was the only thing + that would have permanently preserved either. It was but part of the same + story when we passed the hoary hills that held the primeval culture of + Crete, and remembered that it may well have been the first home of the + Philistines. It mattered the less by now whether the pagans were best + represented by Poseidon the deity or by Dagon the demon. It mattered the + less what gods had blessed the Greeks in their youth and liberty; for I + knew what god had blessed them in their despair. I knew by what sign they + had survived the long slavery under Ottoman orientalism; and upon what + name they had called in the darkness, when there was no light but the + horned moon of Mahound. If the glory of Greece has survived in some sense, + I knew why it had ever survived in any sense. Nor did this feeling of our + fixed formation fail me when I came to the very gates of Asia and of + Africa; when there rose out of the same blue seas the great harbour of + Alexandria; where had shone the Pharos like the star of Hellas, and where + men had heard from the lips of Hypatia the last words of Plato. I know the + Christians tore Hypatia in pieces; but they did not tear Plato in pieces. + The wild men that rode behind Omar the Arab would have thought nothing of + tearing every page of Plato in pieces. For it is the nature of all this + outer nomadic anarchy that it is capable sooner or later of tearing + anything and everything in pieces; it has no instinct of preservation or + of the permanent needs of men. Where it has passed the ruins remain ruins + and are not renewed; where it has been resisted and rolled back, the links + of our long history are never lost. As I went forward the vision of our + own civilisation, in the form in which it finally found unity, grew + clearer and clearer; nor did I ever know it more certainly than when I had + left it behind. + </p> + <p> + For the vision was that of a shape appearing and reappearing among + shapeless things; and it was a shape I knew. The imagination was forced to + rise into altitudes infinitely ancient and dizzy with distance, as if into + the cold colours of primeval dawns, or into the upper strata and dead + spaces of a daylight older than the sun and moon. But the character of + that central clearance still became clearer and clearer. And my memory + turned again homewards; and I thought it was like the vision of a man + flying from Northolt, over that little market-place beside my own door; + who can see nothing below him but a waste as of grey forests, and the pale + pattern of a cross. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER II. — THE WAY OF THE DESERT + </h2> + <p> + It may truly be said, touching the type of culture at least, that Egypt + has an Egyptian lower class, a French middle class and an English + governing class. Anyhow it is true that the civilisations are stratified + in this formation, or superimposed in this order. It is the first + impression produced by the darkness and density of the bazaars, the line + of the lighted cafes and the blaze of the big hotels. But it contains a + much deeper truth in all three cases, and especially in the case of the + French influence. It is indeed one of the first examples of what I mean by + the divisions of the West becoming clearer in the ancient centres of the + East. It is often said that we can only appreciate the work of England in + a place like India. In so far as this is true, it is quite equally true + that we can only appreciate the work of France in a place like Egypt. But + this work is of a peculiar and even paradoxical kind. It is too practical + to be prominent, and so universal that it is unnoticed. + </p> + <p> + The French view of the Rights of Man is called visionary; but in practice + it is very solid and even prosaic. The French have a unique and successful + trick by which French things are not accepted as French. They are accepted + as human. However many foreigners played football, they would still + consider football an English thing. But they do not consider fencing a + French thing, though all the terms of it are still French. If a Frenchman + were to label his hostelry an inn or a public house (probably written + publicouse) we should think him a victim of rather advanced Anglomania. + But when an Englishman calls it an hotel, we feel no special dread of him + either as a dangerous foreigner or a dangerous lunatic. We need not + recognise less readily the value of this because our own distinction is + different; especially as our own distinction is being more distinguished. + The spirit of the English is adventure; and it is the essence of adventure + that the adventurer does remain different from the strange tribes or + strange cities, which he studies because of their strangeness. He does not + become like them, as did some of the Germans, or persuade them to become + like him, as do most of the French. But whether we like or dislike this + French capacity, or merely appreciate it properly in its place, there can + be no doubt about the cause of that capacity. The cause is in the spirit + that is so often regarded as wildly Utopian and unreal. The cause is in + the abstract creed of equality and citizenship; in the possession of a + political philosophy that appeals to all men. In truth men have never + looked low enough for the success of the French Revolution. They have + assumed that it claims to be a sort of divine and distant thing, and + therefore have not noticed it in the nearest and most materialistic + things. They have watched its wavering in the senate and never seen it + walking in the streets; though it can be seen in the streets of Cairo as + in the streets of Paris. + </p> + <p> + In Cairo a man thinks it English to go into a tea-shop; but he does not + think it French to go into a cafe. And the people who go to the tea-shop, + the English officers and officials, are stamped as English and also + stamped as official. They are generally genial, they are generally + generous, but they have the detachment of a governing group and even a + garrison. They cannot be mistaken for human beings. The people going to a + cafe are simply human beings going to it because it is a human place. They + have forgotten how much is French and how much Egyptian in their + civilisation; they simply think of it as civilisation. Now this character + of the older French culture must be grasped because it is the clue to many + things in the mystery of the modern East. I call it an old culture because + as a matter of fact it runs back to the Roman culture. In this respect the + Gauls really continue the work of the Romans, in making something official + which comes at last to be regarded as ordinary. And the great fundamental + fact which is incessantly forgotten and ought to be incessantly + remembered, about these cities and provinces of the near East, is that + they were once as Roman as Gaul. + </p> + <p> + There is a frivolous and fanciful debate I have often had with a friend, + about whether it is better to find one's way or to lose it, to remember + the road or to forget it. I am so constituted as to be capable of losing + my way in my own village and almost in my own house. And I am prepared to + maintain the privilege to be a poetic one. In truth I am prepared to + maintain that both attitudes are valuable, and should exist side by side. + And so my friend and I walk side by side along the ways of the world, he + being full of a rich and humane sentiment, because he remembers passing + that way a few hundred times since his childhood; while to me existence is + a perpetual fairy-tale, because I have forgotten all about it. The + lamp-post which moves him to a tear of reminiscence wrings from me a cry + of astonishment; and the wall which to him is as historic as a pyramid is + to me as arresting and revolutionary as a barricade. Now in this, I am + glad to say, my temperament is very English; and the difference is very + typical of the two functions of the English and the French. But in + practical politics the French have a certain advantage in knowing where + they are, and knowing it is where they have been before. It is in the + Roman Empire. + </p> + <p> + The position of the English in Egypt or even in Palestine is something of + a paradox. The real English claim is never heard in England and never + uttered by Englishmen. We do indeed hear a number of false English claims, + and other English claims that are rather irrelevant than false. We hear + pompous and hypocritical suggestions, full of that which so often + accompanies the sin of pride, the weakness of provinciality. We hear + suggestions that the English alone can establish anywhere a reign of law, + justice, mercy, purity and all the rest of it. We also hear franker and + fairer suggestions that the English have after all (as indeed they have) + embarked on a spirited and stirring adventure; and that there has been a + real romance in the extending of the British Empire in strange lands. But + the real case for these semi-eastern occupations is not that of extending + the British Empire in strange lands. Rather it is restoring the Roman + Empire in familiar lands. It is not merely breaking out of Europe in the + search for something non-European. It would be much truer to call it + putting Europe together again after it had been broken. It may almost be + said of the Britons, considered as the most western of Europeans, that + they have so completely forgotten their own history that they have + forgotten even their own rights. At any rate they have forgotten the + claims that could reasonably be made for them, but which they never think + of making for themselves. They have not the faintest notion, for instance, + of why hundreds of years ago an English saint was taken from Egypt, or why + an English king was fighting in Palestine. They merely have a vague idea + that George of Cappadocia was naturalised much in the same way as George + of Hanover. They almost certainly suppose that Coeur de Lion in his + wanderings happened to meet the King of Egypt, as Captain Cook might + happen to meet the King of the Cannibal Islands. To understand the past + connection of England with the near East, it is necessary to understand + something that lies behind Europe and even behind the Roman Empire; + something that can only be conveyed by the name of the Mediterranean. When + people talk, for instance, as if the Crusades were nothing more than an + aggressive raid against Islam, they seem to forget in the strangest way + that Islam itself was only an aggressive raid against the old and ordered + civilisation in these parts. I do not say it in mere hostility to the + religion of Mahomet; as will be apparent later, I am fully conscious of + many values and virtues in it; but certainly it was Islam that was the + invasion and Christendom that was the thing invaded. An Arabian gentleman + found riding on the road to Paris or hammering on the gates of Vienna can + hardly complain that we have sought him out in his simple tent in the + desert. The conqueror of Sicily and Spain cannot reasonably express + surprise at being an object of morbid curiosity to the people of Italy and + France. In the city of Cairo the stranger feels many of the Moslem merits, + but he certainly feels the militaristic character of the Moslem glories. + The crown of the city is the citadel, built by the great Saladin but of + the spoils of ancient Egyptian architecture; and that fact is in its turn + very symbolical. The man was a great conqueror, but he certainly behaved + like an invader; he spoiled the Egyptians. He broke the old temples and + tombs and built his own out of fragments. Nor is this the only respect in + which the citadel of Cairo is set high like a sign in heaven. The sign is + also significant because from this superb height the traveller first + beholds the desert, out of which the great conquest came. + </p> + <p> + Every one has heard the great story of the Greeks who cried aloud in + triumph when they saw the sea afar off; but it is a stranger experience to + see the earth afar off. And few of us, strictly speaking, have ever seen + the earth at all. In cultivated countries it is always clad, as it were, + in green garments. The first sight of the desert is like the sight of a + naked giant in the distance. The image is all the more natural because of + the particular formation which it takes, at least as it borders upon the + fields of Egypt, and as it is seen from the high places of Cairo. Those + who have seen the desert only in pictures generally think of it as + entirely flat. But this edge of it at least stands up on the horizon, as a + line of wrinkled and hollow hills like the scalps of bald men; or worse, + of bald women. For it is impossible not to think of such repulsive images, + in spite of real sublimity of the call to the imagination. There is + something curiously hostile and inhuman about the first appearance of the + motionless surges of that dry and dreadful sea. Afterwards, if the + traveller has happened to linger here and there in the outposts of the + desert, has seen the British camp at Kantara or the graceful French garden + town of Ismalia, he comes to take the desert as a background, and + sometimes a beautiful background; a mirror of mighty reflections and + changing colours almost as strange as the colours of the sea. But when it + is first seen abutting, and as it were, advancing, upon the fields and + gardens of humanity, then it looks indeed like an enemy, or a long line of + enemies; like a line of tawny wild beasts thus halted with their heads + lifted. It is the feeling that such vain and sterile sand can yet make + itself into something like a mountain range; and the traveller remembers + all the tragedies of the desert, when he lifts up his eyes to those + accursed hills, from whence no help can come. + </p> + <p> + But this is only a first glimpse from a city set among green fields; and + is concerned rather with what the desert has been in its relation to men + than with what the desert is in itself. When the mind has grown used to + its monotony, a curious change takes place which I have never seen noted + or explained by the students of mental science. It may sound strange to + say that monotony of its nature becomes novelty. But if any one will try + the common experiment of saying some ordinary word such as "moon" or "man" + about fifty times, he will find that the expression has become + extraordinary by sheer repetition. A man has become a strange animal with + a name as queer as that of the gnu; and the moon something monstrous like + the moon-calf. Something of this magic of monotony is effected by the + monotony of deserts; and the traveller feels as if he had entered into a + secret, and was looking at everything from another side. Something of this + simplification appears, I think, in the religions of the desert, + especially in the religion of Islam. It explains something of the + super-human hopes that fill the desert prophets concerning the future; it + explains something also about their barbarous indifference to the past. + </p> + <p> + We think of the desert and its stones as old; but in one sense they are + unnaturally new. They are unused, and perhaps unusable. They might be the + raw material of a world; only they are so raw as to be rejected. It is not + easy to define this quality of something primitive, something not mature + enough to be fruitful. Indeed there is a hard simplicity about many + Eastern things that is as much crude as archaic. A palm-tree is very like + a tree drawn by a child—or by a very futurist artist. Even a pyramid + is like a mathematical figure drawn by a schoolmaster teaching children; + and its very impressiveness is that of an ultimate Platonic abstraction. + There is something curiously simple about the shape in which these + colossal crystals of the ancient sands have been cast. It is only when we + have felt something of this element, not only of simplicity, but of + crudity, and even in a sense of novelty, that we can begin to understand + both the immensity and the insufficiency of that power that came out of + the desert, the great religion of Mahomet. + </p> + <p> + In the red circle of the desert, in the dark and secret place, the prophet + discovers the obvious things. I do not say it merely as a sneer, for + obvious things are very easily forgotten; and indeed every high + civilisation decays by forgetting obvious things. But it is true that in + such a solitude men tend to take very simple ideas as if they were + entirely new ideas. There is a love of concentration which comes from the + lack of comparison. The lonely man looking at the lonely palm-tree does + see the elementary truths about the palm-tree; and the elementary truths + are very essential. Thus he does see that though the palm-tree may be a + very simple design, it was not he who designed it. It may look like a tree + drawn by a child, but he is not the child who could draw it. He has not + command of that magic slate on which the pictures can come to life, or of + that magic green chalk of which the green lines can grow. He sees at once + that a power is at work in whose presence he and the palm-tree are alike + little children. In other words, he is intelligent enough to believe in + God; and the Moslem, the man of the desert, is intelligent enough to + believe in God. But his belief is lacking in that humane complexity that + comes from comparison. The man looking at the palm-tree does realise the + simple fact that God made it; while the man looking at the lamp-post in a + large modern city can be persuaded by a hundred sophistical + circumlocutions that he made it himself. But the man in the desert cannot + compare the palm-tree with the lamp-post, or even with all the other trees + which may be better worth looking at than the lamp-post. Hence his + religion, though true as far as it goes, has not the variety and vitality + of the churches that were designed by men walking in the woods and + orchards. I speak here of the Moslem type of religion and not of the + oriental type of ornament, which is much older than the Moslem type of + religion. But even the oriental type of ornament, admirable as it often + is, is to the ornament of a gothic cathedral what a fossil forest is to a + forest full of birds. In short, the man of the desert tends to simplify + too much, and to take his first truth for the last truth. And as it is + with religion so it is with morality. He who believes in the existence of + God believes in the equality of man. And it has been one of the merits of + the Moslem faith that it felt men as men, and was not incapable of + welcoming men of many different races. But here again it was so hard and + crude that its very equality was like a desert rather than a field. Its + very humanity was inhuman. + </p> + <p> + But though this human sentiment is rather rudimentary it is very real. + When a man in the desert meets another man, he is really a man; the + proverbial two-legged fowl without feathers. He is an absolute and + elementary shape, like the palm-tree or the pyramid. The discoverer does + not pause to consider through what gradations he may have been evolved + from a camel. When the man is a mere dot in the distance, the other man + does not shout at him and ask whether he had a university education, or + whether he is quite sure he is purely Teutonic and not Celtic or Iberian. + A man is a man; and a man is a very important thing. One thing redeems the + Moslem morality which can be set over against a mountain of crimes; a + considerable deposit of common sense. And the first fact of common sense + is the common bond of men. There is indeed in the Moslem character also a + deep and most dangerous potentiality of fanaticism of the menace of which + something may be said later. Fanaticism sounds like the flat contrary of + common sense; yet curiously enough they are both sides of the same thing. + The fanatic of the desert is dangerous precisely because he does take his + faith as a fact, and not even as a truth in our more transcendental sense. + When he does take up a mystical idea he takes it as he takes the man or + the palm-tree; that is, quite literally. When he does distinguish somebody + not as a man but as a Moslem, then he divides the Moslem from the + non-Moslem exactly as he divides the man from the camel. But even then he + recognises the equality of men in the sense of the equality of Moslems. He + does not, for instance, complicate his conscience with any sham science + about races. In this he has something like an intellectual advantage over + the Jew, who is generally so much his intellectual superior; and even in + some ways his spiritual superior. The Jew has far more moral imagination + and sympathy with the subtler ideals of the soul. For instance, it is said + that many Jews disbelieve in a future life; but if they did believe in a + future life, it would be something more worthy of the genius of Isaiah and + Spinoza. The Moslem Paradise is a very Earthly Paradise. But with all + their fine apprehensions, the Jews suffer from one heavy calamity; that of + being a Chosen Race. It is the vice of any patriotism or religion + depending on race that the individual is himself the thing to be + worshipped; the individual is his own ideal, and even his own idol. This + fancy was fatal to the Germans; it is fatal to the Anglo-Saxons, whenever + any of them forswear the glorious name of Englishmen and Americans to fall + into that forlorn description. This is not so when the nation is felt as a + noble abstraction, of which the individual is proud in the abstract. A + Frenchman is proud of France, and therefore may think himself unworthy of + France. But a German is proud of being a German; and he cannot be too + unworthy to be a German when he is a German. In short, mere family pride + flatters every member of the family; it produced the arrogance of the + Germans, and it is capable of producing a much subtler kind of arrogance + in the Jews. From this particular sort of self-deception the more savage + man of the desert is free. If he is not considering somebody as a Moslem, + he will consider him as a man. At the price of something like barbarism, + he has at least been saved from ethnology. + </p> + <p> + But here again the obvious is a limit as well as a light to him. It does + not permit, for instance, anything fine or subtle in the sentiment of sex. + Islam asserts admirably the equality of men; but it is the equality of + males. No one can deny that a noble dignity is possible even to the + poorest, who has seen the Arabs coming in from the desert to the cities of + Palestine or Egypt. No one can deny that men whose rags are dropping off + their backs can bear themselves in a way befitting kings or prophets in + the great stories of Scripture. No one can be surprised that so many fine + artists have delighted to draw such models on the spot, and to make + realistic studies for illustrations to the Old and New Testaments. On the + road to Cairo one may see twenty groups exactly like that of the Holy + Family in the pictures of the Flight into Egypt; with only one difference. + The man is riding on the ass. + </p> + <p> + In the East it is the male who is dignified and even ceremonial. Possibly + that is why he wears skirts. I pointed out long ago that petticoats, which + some regard as a garb of humiliation for women are really regarded as the + only garb of magnificence for men, when they wish to be something more + than men. They are worn by kings, by priests, and by judges. The male + Moslem, especially in his own family, is the king and the priest and the + judge. I do not mean merely that he is the master, as many would say of + the male in many Western societies, especially simple and self-governing + societies. I mean something more; I mean that he has not only the kingdom + and the power but the glory, and even as it were the glamour. I mean he + has not only the rough leadership that we often give to the man, but the + special sort of social beauty and stateliness that we generally expect + only of the woman. What we mean when we say that an ambitious man wants to + have a fine woman at the head of the dinner-table, that the Moslem world + really means when it expects to see a fine man at the head of the house. + Even in the street he is the peacock, coloured much more splendidly than + the peahen. Even when clad in comparatively sober and partly European + costume, as outside the cafes of Cairo and the great cities, he exhibits + this indefinable character not merely of dignity but of pomp. It can be + traced even in the tarbouch, the minimum of Turkish attire worn by all the + commercial classes; the thing more commonly called in England a fez. The + fez is not a sort of smoking cap. It is a tower of scarlet often tall + enough to be the head-dress of a priest. And it is a hat one cannot take + off to a lady. + </p> + <p> + This fact is familiar enough in talk about Moslem and oriental life + generally; but I only repeat it in order to refer it back to the same + simplification which is the advantage and disadvantage of the philosophy + of the desert. Chivalry is not an obvious idea. It is not as plain as a + pike-staff or as a palm-tree. It is a delicate balance between the sexes + which gives the rarest and most poetic kind of pleasure to those who can + strike it. But it is not self-evident to a savage merely because he is + also a sane man. It often seems to him as much a part of his own coarse + common sense that all the fame and fun should go to the sex that is + stronger and less tied, as that all the authority should go to the parents + rather than the children. Pity for weakness he can understand; and the + Moslem is quite capable of giving royal alms to a cripple or an orphan. + But reverence for weakness is to him simply meaningless. It is a mystical + idea that is to him no more than a mystery. But the same is true touching + what may be called the lighter side of the more civilised sentiment. This + hard and literal view of life gives no place for that slight element of a + magnanimous sort of play-acting, which has run through all our tales of + true lovers in the West. Wherever there is chivalry there is courtesy; and + wherever there is courtesy there is comedy. There is no comedy in the + desert. + </p> + <p> + Another quite logical and consistent element, in the very logical and + consistent creed we call Mahometanism, is the element that we call + Vandalism. Since such few and obvious things alone are vital, and since a + half-artistic half-antiquarian affection is not one of these things, and + cannot be called obvious, it is largely left out. It is very difficult to + say in a few well-chosen words exactly what is now the use of the + Pyramids. Therefore Saladin, the great Saracen warrior, simply stripped + the Pyramids to build a military fortress on the heights of Cairo. It is a + little difficult to define exactly what is a man's duty to the Sphinx; and + therefore the Mamelukes used it entirely as a target. There was little in + them of that double feeling, full of pathos and irony, which divided the + hearts of the primitive Christians in presence of the great pagan + literature and art. This is not concerned with brutal outbreaks of revenge + which may be found on both sides, or with chivalrous caprices of + toleration, which may also be found on both sides; it is concerned with + the inmost mentality of the two religions, which must be understood in + order to do justice to either. The Moslem mind never tended to that + mystical mode of "loving yet leaving" with which Augustine cried aloud + upon the ancient beauty, or Dante said farewell to Virgil when he left him + in the limbo of the pagans. The Moslem traditions, unlike the medieval + legends, do not suggest the image of a knight who kissed Venus before he + killed her. We see in all the Christian ages this combination which is not + a compromise, but rather a complexity made by two contrary enthusiasms; as + when the Dark Ages copied out the pagan poems while denying the pagan + legends; or when the popes of the Renascence imitated the Greek temples + while denying the Greek gods. This high inconsistency is inconsistent with + Islam. Islam, as I have said, takes everything literally, and does not + know how to play with anything. And the cause of the contrast is the + historical cause of which we must be conscious in all studies of this + kind. The Christian Church had from a very early date the idea of + reconstructing a whole civilisation, and even a complex civilisation. It + was the attempt to make a new balance, which differed from the old balance + of the stoics of Rome; but which could not afford to lose its balance any + more than they. It differed because the old system was one of many + religions under one government, while the new was one of many governments + under one religion. But the idea of variety in unity remained though it + was in a sense reversed. A historical instinct made the men of the new + Europe try hard to find a place for everything in the system, however much + might be denied to the individual. Christians might lose everything, but + Christendom, if possible, must not lose anything. The very nature of + Islam, even at its best, was quite different from this. Nobody supposed, + even subconsciously, that Mahomet meant to restore ancient Babylon as + medievalism vaguely sought to restore ancient Rome. Nobody thought that + the builders of the Mosque of Omar had looked at the Pyramids as the + builders of St. Peter's might have looked at the Parthenon. Islam began at + the beginning; it was content with the idea that it had a great truth; as + indeed it had a colossal truth. It was so huge a truth that it was hard to + see it was a half-truth. + </p> + <p> + Islam was a movement; that is why it has ceased to move. For a movement + can only be a mood. It may be a very necessary movement arising from a + very noble mood, but sooner or later it must find its level in a larger + philosophy, and be balanced against other things. Islam was a reaction + towards simplicity; it was a violent simplification, which turned out to + be an over-simplification. Stevenson has somewhere one of his perfectly + picked phrases for an empty-minded man; that he has not one thought to rub + against another while he waits for a train. The Moslem had one thought, + and that a most vital one; the greatness of God which levels all men. But + the Moslem had not one thought to rub against another, because he really + had not another. It is the friction of two spiritual things, of tradition + and invention, or of substance and symbol, from which the mind takes fire. + The creeds condemned as complex have something like the secret of sex; + they can breed thoughts. + </p> + <p> + An idealistic intellectual remarked recently that there were a great many + things in the creed for which he had no use. He might just as well have + said that there were a great many things in the <i>Encyclopedia Britannica</i> + for which he had no use. It would probably have occurred to him that the + work in question was meant for humanity and not for him. But even in the + case of the <i>Encyclopedia</i>, it will often be found a stimulating + exercise to read two articles on two widely different subjects and note + where they touch. In fact there is really a great deal to be said for the + man in <i>Pickwick</i> who read first about China and then about + metaphysics and combined his information. But however this may be in the + famous case of Chinese metaphysics, it is this which is chiefly lacking in + Arabian metaphysics. They suffer, as I have said of the palm-tree in the + desert, from a lack of the vitality that comes from complexity, and of the + complexity that comes from comparison. They suffer from having been in a + single movement in a single direction; from having begun as a mood and + ended rather as a mode, that is a mere custom or fashion. But any modern + Christian thus criticising the Moslem movement will do well to criticise + himself and his world at the same time. For in truth most modern things + are mere movements in the same sense as the Moslem movement. They are at + best fashions, in which one thing is exaggerated because it has been + neglected. They are at worst mere monomanias, in which everything is + neglected that one thing may be exaggerated. Good or bad, they are alike + movements which in their nature can only move for a certain distance and + then stop. Feminism, for instance, is in its nature a movement, and one + that must stop somewhere. But the Suffragettes no more established a + philosophy of the sexes by their feminism than the Arabs did by their + anti-feminism. A woman can find her home on the hustings even less than in + the harem; but such movements do not really attempt to find a final home + for anybody or anything. Bolshevism is a movement; and in my opinion a + very natural and just movement considered as a revolt against the crude + cruelty of Capitalism. But when we find the Bolshevists making a rule that + the drama "must encourage the proletarian spirit," it is obvious that + those who say so are not only maniacs but, what is more to the point here, + are monomaniacs. Imagine having to apply that principle, let us say, to + "Charley's Aunt." None of these things seek to establish a complete + philosophy such as Aquinas founded on Aristotle. The only two modern men + who attempted it were Comte and Herbert Spencer. Spencer, I think, was too + small a man to do it at all; and Comte was a great enough man to show how + difficult it is to do it in modern times. None of these movements can do + anything but move; they have not discovered where to rest. + </p> + <p> + And this fact brings us back to the man of the desert, who moves and does + not rest; but who has many superiorities to the restless races of the + industrial city. Men who have been in the Manchester movement in 1860 and + the Fabian movement in 1880 cannot sneer at a religious mood that lasted + for eight hundred years. And those who tolerate the degraded homelessness + of the slums cannot despise the much more dignified homelessness of the + desert. Nevertheless, the thing is a homelessness and not a home; and + there runs through it all the note of the nomad. The Moslem takes + literally, as he takes everything, the truth that here we have no abiding + city. He can see no meaning in the mysticism of materialism, the + sacramental idea that a French poet expressed so nobly, when he said that + our earthly city is the body of the city of God. He has no true notion of + building a house, or in our Western sense of recognising the kindred + points of heaven and home. Even the exception to this rule is an exception + at once terrible and touching. There is one house that the Moslem does + build like a house and even a home, often with walls and roof and door; as + square as a cottage, as solid as a fort. And that is his grave. A Moslem + cemetery is literally like a little village. It is a village, as the + saying goes, that one would not care to walk through at night. There is + something singularly creepy about so strange a street of houses, each with + a door that might be opened by a dead man. But in a less fanciful sense, + there is about it something profoundly pathetic and human. Here indeed is + the sailor home from sea, in the only port he will consent to call his + home; here at last the nomad confesses the common need of men. But even + about this there broods the presence of the desert and its dry bones of + reason. He will accept nothing between a tent and a tomb. + </p> + <p> + The philosophy of the desert can only begin over again. It cannot grow; it + cannot have what Protestants call progress and Catholics call development. + There is death and hell in the desert when it does begin over again. There + is always the possibility that a new prophet will rediscover the old + truth; will find again written on the red sands the secret of the obvious. + But it will always be the same secret, for which thousands of these simple + and serious and splendidly valiant men will die. The highest message of + Mahomet is a piece of divine tautology. The very cry that God is God is a + repetition of words, like the repetitions of wide sands and rolling skies. + The very phrase is like an everlasting echo, that can never cease to say + the same sacred word; and when I saw afterwards the mightiest and most + magnificent of all the mosques of that land, I found that its inscriptions + had the same character of a deliberate and defiant sameness. The ancient + Arabic alphabet and script is itself at once so elegant and so exact that + it can be used as a fixed ornament, like the egg and dart pattern or the + Greek key. It is as if we could make a heraldry of handwriting, or cover a + wall-paper with signatures. But the literary style is as recurrent as the + decorative style; perhaps that is why it can be used as a decorative + style. Phrases are repeated again and again like ornamental stars or + flowers. Many modern people, for example, imagine that the Athanasian + Creed is full of vain repetitions; but that is because people are too lazy + to listen to it, or not lucid enough to understand it. The same terms are + used throughout, as they are in a proposition of Euclid. But the steps are + all as differentiated and progressive as in a proposition of Euclid. But + in the inscriptions of the Mosque whole sentences seem to occur, not like + the steps of an argument, but rather like the chorus of a song. This is + the impression everywhere produced by this spirit of the sandy wastes; + this is the voice of the desert, though the muezzin cries from the high + turrets of the city. Indeed one is driven to repeating oneself about the + repetition, so overpowering is the impression of the tall horizons of + those tremendous plains, brooding upon the soul with all the solemn weight + of the self-evident. + </p> + <p> + There is indeed another aspect of the desert, yet more ancient and + momentous, of which I may speak; but here I only deal with its effect on + this great religion of simplicity. For it is through the atmosphere of + that religion that a man makes his way, as so many pilgrims have done, to + the goal of this pilgrimage. Also this particular aspect remained the more + sharply in my memory because of the suddenness with which I escaped from + it. I had not expected the contrast; and it may have coloured all my after + experiences. I descended from the desert train at Ludd, which had all the + look of a large camp in the desert; appropriately enough perhaps, for it + is the traditional birthplace of the soldier St. George. At the moment, + however, there was nothing rousing or romantic about its appearance. It + was perhaps unusually dreary; for heavy rain had fallen; and the water + stood about in what it is easier to call large puddles than anything so + poetic as small pools. A motor car sent by friends had halted beside the + platform; I got into it with a not unusual vagueness about where I was + going; and it wound its way up miry paths to a more rolling stretch of + country with patches of cactus here and there. And then with a curious + abruptness I became conscious that the whole huge desert had vanished, and + I was in a new land. The dark red plains had rolled away like an enormous + nightmare; and I found myself in a fresh and exceedingly pleasant dream. + </p> + <p> + I know it will seem fanciful; but for a moment I really felt as if I had + come home; or rather to that home behind home for which we are all + homesick. The lost memory of it is the life at once of faith and of + fairy-tale. Groves glowing with oranges rose behind hedges of grotesque + cactus or prickly pear; which really looked like green dragons guarding + the golden apples of the Hesperides. On each side of the road were such + flowers as I had never seen before under the sun; for indeed they seemed + to have the sun in them rather than the sun on them. Clusters and crowds + of crimson anemones were of a red not to be symbolised in blood or wine; + but rather in the red glass that glows in the window dedicated to a + martyr. Only in a wild Eastern tale could one picture a pilgrim or + traveller finding such a garden in the desert; and I thought of the oldest + tale of all and the garden from which we came. But there was something in + it yet more subtle; which there must be in the impression of any earthly + paradise. It is vital to such a dream that things familiar should be mixed + with things fantastic; as when an actual dream is filled with the faces of + old friends. Sparrows, which seem to be the same all over the world, were + darting hither and thither among the flowers; and I had the fancy that + they were the souls of the town-sparrows of London and the smoky cities, + and now gone wherever the good sparrows go. And a little way up the road + before me, on the hill between the cactus hedges, I saw a grey donkey + trotting; and I could almost have sworn that it was the donkey I had left + at home. + </p> + <p> + He was trotting on ahead of me, and the outline of his erect and elfish + ears was dark against the sky. He was evidently going somewhere with great + determination; and I thought I knew to what appropriate place he was + going, and that it was my fate to follow him like a moving omen. I lost + sight of him later, for I had to complete the journey by train; but the + train followed the same direction, which was up steeper and steeper hills. + I began to realise more clearly where I was; and to know that the garden + in the desert that had bloomed so suddenly about me had borne for many + desert wanderers the name of the promised land. As the rocks rose higher + and higher on every side, and hung over us like terrible and tangible + clouds, I saw in the dim grass of the slopes below them something I had + never seen before. It was a rainbow fallen upon the earth, with no part of + it against the sky, but only the grasses and the flowers shining through + its fine shades of fiery colour. I thought this also was like an omen; and + in such a mood of idle mysticism there fell on me another accident which I + was content to count for a third. For when the train stopped at last in + the rain, and there was no other vehicle for the last lap of the journey, + a very courteous officer, an army surgeon, gave me a seat in an ambulance + wagon; and it was under the shield of the red cross that I entered + Jerusalem. + </p> + <p> + For suddenly, between a post of the wagon and a wrack of rainy cloud I saw + it, uplifted and withdrawn under all the arching heavens of its history, + alone with its benediction and its blasphemy, the city that is set upon a + hill, and cannot be hid. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER III. — THE GATES OF THE CITY + </h2> + <p> + The men I met coming from Jerusalem reported all sorts of contradictory + impressions; and yet my own impression contradicted them all. Their + impressions were doubtless as true as mine; but I describe my own because + it is true, and because I think it points to a neglected truth about the + real Jerusalem. I need not say I did not expect the real Jerusalem to be + the New Jerusalem; a city of charity and peace, any more than a city of + chrysolite and pearl. I might more reasonably have expected an austere and + ascetic place, oppressed with the weight of its destiny, with no inns + except monasteries, and these sealed with the terrible silence of the + Trappists; an awful city where men speak by signs in the street. I did not + need the numberless jokes about Jerusalem to-day, to warn me against + expecting this; anyhow I did not expect it, and certainly I did not find + it. But neither did I find what I was much more inclined to expect; + something at the other extreme. Many reports had led me to look for a + truly cosmopolitan town, that is a truly conquered town. I looked for a + place like Cairo, containing indeed old and interesting things, but open + on every side to new and vulgar things; full of the touts who seem only + created for the tourists and the tourists who seem only created for the + touts. There may be more of this in the place than pleases those who would + idealise it. But I fancy there is much less of it than is commonly + supposed in the reaction from such an ideal. It does not, like Cairo, + offer the exciting experience of twenty guides fighting for one traveller; + of young Turks drinking American cocktails as a protest against Christian + wine. The town is quite inconvenient enough to make it a decent place for + pilgrims. Or a stranger might have imagined a place even less Western than + Cairo, one of those villages of Palestine described in dusty old books of + Biblical research. He might remember drawings like diagrams representing a + well or a wine-press, rather a dry well, so to speak, and a wine-press + very difficult to associate with wine. These hard colourless outlines + never did justice to the colour of the East, but even to give it the + colour of the East would not do justice to Jerusalem. If I had anticipated + the Bagdad of all our dreams, a maze of bazaars glowing with gorgeous + wares, I should have been wrong again. There is quite enough of this vivid + and varied colour in Jerusalem, but it is not the first fact that arrests + the attention, and certainly not the first that arrested mine. I give my + own first impression as a fact, for what it is worth and exactly as it + came. I did not expect it, and it was some time before I even understood + it. As soon as I was walking inside the walls of Jerusalem, I had an + overwhelming impression that I was walking in the town of Rye, where it + looks across the flat sea-meadows towards Winchelsea. + </p> + <p> + As I tried to explain this eccentric sentiment to myself, I was conscious + of another which at once completed and contradicted it. It was not only + like a memory of Rye, it was mixed with a memory of the Mount St. Michael, + which stands among the sands of Normandy on the other side of the narrow + seas. The first part of the sensation is that the traveller, as he walks + the stony streets between the walls, feels that he is inside a fortress. + But it is the paradox of such a place that, while he feels in a sense that + he is in a prison, he also feels that he is on a precipice. The sense of + being uplifted, and set on a high place, comes to him through the smallest + cranny, or most accidental crack in rock or stone; it comes to him + especially through those long narrow windows in the walls of the old + fortifications; those slits in the stone through which the medieval + archers used their bows and the medieval artists used their eyes, with + even greater success. Those green glimpses of fields far below or of flats + far away, which delight us and yet make us dizzy (by being both near and + far) when seen through the windows of Memling, can often be seen from the + walls of Jerusalem. Then I remembered that in the same strips of medieval + landscape could be seen always, here and there, a steep hill crowned with + a city of towers. And I knew I had the mystical and double pleasure of + seeing such a hill and standing on it. A city that is set upon a hill + cannot be hid; but it is more strange when the hill cannot anywhere be + hid, even from the citizen in the city. + </p> + <p> + Then indeed I knew that what I saw was Jerusalem of the Crusaders; or at + least Jerusalem of the Crusades. It was a medieval town, with walls and + gates and a citadel, and built upon a hill to be defended by bowmen. The + greater part of the actual walls now standing were built by Moslems late + in the Middle Ages; but they are almost exactly like the walls that were + being built by the Christians at or before that time. The Crusader Edward, + afterwards Edward the First, reared such battlements far away among the + rainy hills of Wales. I do not know what elements were originally Gothic + or what originally Saracenic. The Crusaders and the Saracens constantly + copied each other while they combated each other; indeed it is a fact + always to be found in such combats. It is one of the arguments against war + that are really human, and therefore are never used by humanitarians. The + curse of war is that it does lead to more international imitation; while + in peace and freedom men can afford to have national variety. But some + things in this country were certainly copied from the Christian invaders, + and even if they are not Christian they are in many ways strangely + European. The wall and gates which now stand, whatever stood before them + and whatever comes after them, carry a memory of those men from the West + who came here upon that wild adventure, who climbed this rock and clung to + it so perilously from the victory of Godfrey to the victory of Saladin; + and that is why this momentary Eastern exile reminded me so strangely of + the hill of Rye and of home. + </p> + <p> + I do not forget, of course, that all these visible walls and towers are + but the battlements and pinnacles of a buried city, or of many buried + cities. I do not forget that such buildings have foundations that are to + us almost like fossils; the gigantic fossils of some other geological + epoch. Something may be said later of those lost empires whose very + masterpieces are to us like petrified monsters. From this height, after + long histories unrecorded, fell the forgotten idol of the Jebusites, on + that day when David's javelin-men scaled the citadel and carried through + it, in darkness behind his coloured curtains, the god whose image had + never been made by man. Here was waged that endless war between the graven + gods of the plain and the invisible god of the mountain; from here the + hosts carrying the sacred fish of the Philistines were driven back to the + sea from which their worship came. Those who worshipped on this hill had + come out of bondage in Egypt and went into bondage in Babylon; small as + was their country, there passed before them almost the whole pageant of + the old pagan world. All its strange shapes and strong almost cruel + colours remain in the records of their prophets; whose lightest phrase + seems heavier than the pyramids of Egypt; and whose very words are like + winged bulls walking. All this historic or pre-historic interest may be + touched on in its turn; but I am not dealing here with the historic + secrets unearthed by the study of the place, but with the historic + associations aroused by the sight of it. The traveller is in the position + of that famous fantastic who tied his horse to a wayside cross in the + snow, and afterward saw it dangling from the church-spire of what had been + a buried city. But here the cross does not stand as it does on the top of + a spire; but as it does on the top of an Egyptian obelisk in Rome,— + where the priests have put a cross on the top of the heathen monument; for + fear it should walk. I entirely sympathise with their sentiment; and I + shall try to suggest later why I think that symbol the logical culmination + of heathen as well as Christian things. The traveller in the traveller's + tale looked up at last and saw, from the streets far below, the spire and + cross dominating a Gothic city. If I looked up in a vision and saw it + dominating a Babylonian city, that blocked the heavens with monstrous + palaces and temples, I should still think it natural that it should + dominate. But the point here is that what I saw above ground was rather + the Gothic town than the Babylonian; and that it reminded me, if not + specially of the cross, at least of the soldiers who took the cross. + </p> + <p> + Nor do I forget the long centuries that have passed over the place since + these medieval walls were built, any more than the far more interesting + centuries that passed before they were built. But any one taking exception + to the description on that ground may well realise, on consideration, that + it is an exception that proves the rule. There is something very negative + about Turkish rule; and the best and worst of it is in the word neglect. + Everything that lived under the vague empire of Constantinople remained in + a state of suspended animation like something frozen rather than decayed, + like something sleeping rather than dead. It was a sort of Arabian spell, + like that which turned princes and princesses into marble statues in the + <i>Arabian Nights</i>. All that part of the history of the place is a kind + of sleep; and that of a sleeper who hardly knows if he has slept an hour + or a hundred years. When I first found myself in the Jaffa Gate of + Jerusalem, my eye happened to fall on something that might be seen + anywhere, but which seemed somehow to have a curious significance there. + Most people are conscious of some common object which still strikes them + as uncommon; as if it were the first fantastic sketch in the sketch-book + of nature. I myself can never overcome the sense of something almost + unearthly about grass growing upon human buildings. There is in it a wild + and even horrible fancy, as if houses could grow hair. When I saw that + green hair on the huge stone blocks of the citadel, though I had seen the + same thing on any number of ruins, it came to me like an omen or a vision, + a curious vision at once of chaos and of sleep. It is said that the grass + will not grow where the Turk sets his foot; but it is the other side of + the same truth to say that it would grow anywhere but where it ought to + grow. And though in this case it was but an accident and a symbol, it was + a very true symbol. We talk of the green banner of the Turk having been + planted on this or that citadel; and certainly it was so planted with + splendid valour and sensational victory. But this is the green banner that + he plants on all his high cities in the end. + </p> + <p> + Therefore my immediate impression of the walls and gates was not + contradicted by my consciousness of what came before and what came after + that medieval period. It remained primarily a thing of walls and gates; a + thing which the modern world does not perhaps understand so well as the + medieval world. There is involved in it all that idea of definition which + those who do not like it are fond of describing as dogma. A wall is like + rule; and the gates are like the exceptions that prove the rule. The man + making it has to decide where his rule will run and where his exception + shall stand. He cannot have a city that is all gates any more than a house + that is all windows; nor is it possible to have a law that consists + entirely of liberties. The ancient races and religions that contended for + this city agreed with each other in this, when they differed about + everything else. It was true of practically all of them that when they + built a city they built a citadel. That is, whatever strange thing they + may have made, they regarded it as something to be defined and to be + defended. + </p> + <p> + And from this standpoint the holy city was a happy city; it had no + suburbs. That is to say, there are all sorts of buildings outside the + wall; but they are outside the wall. Everybody is conscious of being + inside or outside a boundary; but it is the whole character of the true + suburbs which grow round our great industrial towns that they grow, as it + were, unconsciously and blindly, like grass that covers up a boundary line + traced on the earth. This indefinite expansion is controlled neither by + the soul of the city from within, nor by the resistance of the lands round + about. It destroys at once the dignity of a town and the freedom of a + countryside. The citizens are too new and numerous for citizenship; yet + they never learn what there is to be learned of the ancient traditions of + agriculture. The first sight of the sharp outline of Jerusalem is like a + memory of the older types of limitation and liberty. Happy is the city + that has a wall; and happier still if it is a precipice. + </p> + <p> + Again, Jerusalem might be called a city of staircases. Many streets are + steep and most actually cut into steps. It is, I believe, an element in + the controversy about the cave at Bethlehem traditionally connected with + the Nativity that the sceptics doubt whether any beasts of burden could + have entered a stable that has to be reached by such steps. And indeed to + any one in a modern city like London or Liverpool it may well appear odd, + like a cab-horse climbing a ladder. But as a matter of fact, if the asses + and goats of Jerusalem could not go up and downstairs, they could not go + anywhere. However this may be, I mention the matter here merely as adding + another touch to that angular profile which is the impression involved + here. Strangely enough, there is something that leads up to this + impression even in the labyrinth of mountains through which the road winds + its way to the city. The hills round Jerusalem are themselves often hewn + out in terraces, like a huge stairway. This is mostly for the practical + and indeed profitable purpose of vineyards; and serves for a reminder that + this ancient seat of civilisation has not lost the tradition of the mercy + and the glory of the vine. But in outline such a mountain looks much like + the mountain of Purgatory that Dante saw in his vision, lifted in + terraces, like titanic steps up to God. And indeed this shape also is + symbolic; as symbolic as the pointed profile of the Holy City. For a creed + is like a ladder, while an evolution is only like a slope. A spiritual and + social evolution is generally a pretty slippery slope; a miry slope where + it is very easy to slide down again. + </p> + <p> + Such is something like the sharp and even abrupt impression produced by + this mountain city; and especially by its wall with gates like a house + with windows. A gate, like a window, is primarily a picture-frame. The + pictures that are found within the frame are indeed very various and + sometimes very alien. Within this frame-work are indeed to be found things + entirely Asiatic, or entirely Moslem, or even entirely nomadic. But + Jerusalem itself is not nomadic. Nothing could be less like a mere camp of + tents pitched by Arabs. Nothing could be less like the mere chaos of + colour in a temporary and tawdry bazaar. The Arabs are there and the + colours are there, and they make a glorious picture; but the picture is in + a Gothic frame, and is seen so to speak through a Gothic window. And the + meaning of all this is the meaning of all windows, and especially of + Gothic windows. It is that even light itself is most divine within limits; + and that even the shining one is most shining, when he takes upon himself + a shape. + </p> + <p> + Such a system of walls and gates, like many other things thought rude and + primitive, is really very rationalistic. It turns the town, as it were, + into a plan of itself, and even into a guide to itself. This is especially + true, as may be suggested in a moment, regarding the direction of the + roads leading out of it. But anyhow, a man must decide which way he will + leave the city; he cannot merely drift out of the city as he drifts out of + the modern cities through a litter of slums. And there is no better way to + get a preliminary plan of the city than to follow the wall and fix the + gates in the memory. Suppose, for instance, that a man begins in the south + with the Zion Gate, which bears the ancient name of Jerusalem. This, to + begin with, will sharpen the medieval and even the Western impression + first because it is here that he has the strongest sentiment of threading + the narrow passages of a great castle; but also because the very name of + the gate was given to this south-western hill by Godfrey and Tancred + during the period of the Latin kingdom. I believe it is one of the + problems of the scholars why the Latin conquerors called this hill the + Zion Hill, when the other is obviously the sacred hill. Jerusalem is + traditionally divided into four hills, but for practical purposes into + two; the lower eastern hill where stood the Temple, and now stands the + great Mosque, and the western where is the citadel and the Zion Gate to + the south of it. I know nothing of such questions; and I attach no + importance to the notion that has crossed my own mind, and which I only + mention in passing, for I have no doubt there are a hundred objections to + it. But it is known that Zion or Sion was the old name of the place before + it was stormed by David; and even afterwards the Jebusites remained on + this western hill, and some compromise seems to have been made with them. + Is it conceivable, I wonder, that even in the twelfth century there + lingered some local memory of what had once been a way of distinguishing + Sion of the Jebusites from Salem of the Jews? The Zion Gate, however, is + only a starting-point here; if we go south-eastward from it we descend a + steep and rocky path, from which can be caught the first and finest vision + of what stands on the other hill to the east. The great Mosque of Omar + stands up like a peacock, lustrous with mosaics that are like plumes of + blue and green. + </p> + <p> + Scholars, I may say here, object to calling it the Mosque of Omar; on the + petty and pedantic ground that it is not a mosque and was not built by + Omar. But it is my fixed intention to call it the Mosque of Omar, and with + ever renewed pertinacity to continue calling it the Mosque of Omar. I + possess a special permit from the Grand Mufti to call it the Mosque of + Omar. He is the head of the whole Moslem religion, and if he does not + know, who does? He told me, in the beautiful French which matches his + beautiful manners, that it really is not so ridiculous after all to call + the place the Mosque of Omar, since the great Caliph desired and even + designed such a building, though he did not build it. I suppose it is + rather as if Solomon's Temple had been called David's Temple. Omar was a + great man and the Mosque was a great work, and the two were telescoped + together by the excellent common sense of vulgar tradition. There could + not be a better example of that great truth for all travellers; that + popular tradition is never so right as when it is wrong; and that pedantry + is never so wrong as when it is right. And as for the other objection, + that the Dome of the Rock (to give it its other name) is not actually used + as a Mosque, I answer that Westminster Abbey is not used as an Abbey. But + modern Englishmen would be much surprised if I were to refer to it as + Westminster Church; to say nothing of the many modern Englishmen for whom + it would be more suitable to call it Westminster Museum. And for whatever + purposes the Moslems may actually use their great and glorious sanctuary, + at least they have not allowed it to become the private house of a + particular rich man. And that is what we have suffered to happen, if not + to Westminster Abbey, at least to Welbeck Abbey. + </p> + <p> + The Mosque of Omar (I repeat firmly) stands on the great eastern plateau + in place of the Temple; and the wall that runs round to it on the south + side of the city contains only the Dung Gate, on which the fancy need not + linger. All along outside this wall the ground falls away into the + southern valley; and upon the dreary and stony steep opposite is the place + called Acaldama. Wall and valley turn together round the corner of the + great temple platform, and confronting the eastern wall, across the + ravine, is the mighty wall of the Mount of Olives. On this side there are + several gates now blocked up, of which the most famous, the Golden Gate, + carries in its very uselessness a testimony to the fallen warriors of the + cross. For there is a strange Moslem legend that through this gate, so + solemnly sealed up, shall ride the Christian King who shall again rule in + Jerusalem. In the middle of the square enclosure rises the great dark Dome + of the Rock; and standing near it, a man may see for the first time in the + distance, another dome. It lies away to the west, but a little to the + north; and it is surmounted, not by a crescent but a cross. Many heroes + and holy kings have desired to see this thing, and have not seen it. + </p> + <p> + It is very characteristic of the city, with its medieval medley and huddle + of houses, that a man may first see the Church of the Holy Sepulchre which + is in the west, by going as far as possible to the east. All the sights + are glimpses; and things far can be visible and things near invisible. The + traveller comes on the Moslem dome round a corner; and he finds the + Christian dome, as it were, behind his own back. But if he goes on round + the wall to the north-east corner of the Court of the Temple, he will find + the next entrance; the Gate of St. Stephen. On the slope outside, by a + strange and suitable coincidence, the loose stones which lie on every side + of the mountain city seemed to be heaped higher; and across the valley on + the skirts of the Mount of Olives is the great grey olive of Gethsemane. + </p> + <p> + On the northern side the valley turns to an artificial trench, for the + ground here is higher; and the next or northern gate bears the name of + Herod; though it might well bear the name either of Godfrey or Saladin. + For just outside it stands a pine-tree, and beside it a rude bulk of + stone; where stood these great captains in turn, before they took + Jerusalem. Then the wall runs on till it comes to the great Damascus Gate, + graven I know not why with great roses in a style wholly heraldic and + occidental, and in no way likely to remind us of the rich roses of + Damascus; though their name has passed into our own English tongue and + tradition, along with another word for the delicate decoration of the + sword. But at the first glance, at any rate, it is hard to believe that + the roses on the walls are not the Western roses of York or Lancaster, or + that the swords which guarded them were not the straight swords of England + or of France. Doubtless a deeper and more solemn memory ought to return + immediately to the mind where that gate looks down the great highway; as + if one could see, hung over it in the sky for ever, the cloud concealing + the sunburst that broods upon the road to Damascus. But I am here only + confessing the facts or fancies of my first impression; and again the + fancy that came to me first was not of any such alien or awful things. I + did not think of damask or damascene or the great Arabian city or even the + conversion of St. Paul. I thought of my own little house in + Buckinghamshire, and how the edge of the country town where it stands is + called Aylesbury End, merely because it is the corner nearest to + Aylesbury. That is what I mean by saying that these ancient customs are + more rational and even utilitarian than the fashions of modernity. When a + street in a new suburb is called Pretoria Avenue, the clerk living there + does not set out from his villa with the cheerful hope of finding the road + lead him to Pretoria. But the man leaving Aylesbury End does know it would + lead him to Aylesbury; and the man going out at the Damascus Gate did know + it would lead him to Damascus. And the same is true of the next and last + of the old entrances, the Jaffa Gate in the east; but when I saw that I + saw something else as well. + </p> + <p> + I have heard that there is a low doorway at the entrance to a famous + shrine which is called the Gate of Humility; but indeed in this sense all + gates are gates of humility, and especially gates of this kind. Any one + who has ever looked at a landscape under an archway will know what I mean, + when I say that it sharpens a pleasure with a strange sentiment of + privilege. It adds to the grace of distance something that makes it not + only a grace but a gift. Such are the visions of remote places that appear + in the low gateways of a Gothic town; as if each gateway led into a + separate world; and almost as if each dome of sky were a different + chamber. But he who walks round the walls of this city in this spirit will + come suddenly upon an exception which will surprise him like an + earthquake. It looks indeed rather like something done by an earthquake; + an earthquake with a half-witted sense of humour. Immediately at the side + of one of these humble and human gateways there is a great gap in the + wall, with a wide road running through it. There is something of unreason + in the sight which affects the eye as well as the reason. It recalls some + crazy tale about the great works of the Wise Men of Gotham. It suggests + the old joke about the man who made a small hole for the kitten as well as + a large hole for the cat. Everybody has read about it by this time; but + the immediate impression of it is not merely an effect of reading or even + of reasoning. It looks lop-sided; like something done by a one-eyed giant. + But it was done by the last prince of the great Prussian imperial system, + in what was probably the proudest moment in all his life of pride. + </p> + <p> + What is true has a way of sounding trite; and what is trite has a way of + sounding false. We shall now probably weary the world with calling the + Germans barbaric, just as we very recently wearied the world with calling + them cultured and progressive and scientific. But the thing is true though + we say it a thousand times. And any one who wishes to understand the sense + in which it is true has only to contemplate that fantasy and fallacy in + stone; a gate with an open road beside it. The quality I mean, however, is + not merely in that particular contrast; as of a front door standing by + itself in an open field. It is also in the origin, the occasion and the + whole story of the thing. There is above all this supreme stamp of the + barbarian; the sacrifice of the permanent to the temporary. When the walls + of the Holy City were overthrown for the glory of the German Emperor, it + was hardly even for that everlasting glory which has been the vision and + the temptation of great men. It was for the glory of a single day. It was + something rather in the nature of a holiday than anything that could be + even in the most vainglorious sense a heritage. It did not in the ordinary + sense make a monument, or even a trophy. It destroyed a monument to make a + procession. We might almost say that it destroyed a trophy to make a + triumph. There is the true barbaric touch in this oblivion of what + Jerusalem would look like a century after, or a year after, or even the + day after. It is this which distinguishes the savage tribe on the march + after a victory from the civilised army establishing a government, even if + it be a tyranny. Hence the very effect of it, like the effect of the whole + Prussian adventure in history, remains something negative and even + nihilistic. The Christians made the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the + Moslems made the Mosque of Omar; but this is what the most scientific + culture made at the end of the great century of science. It made an + enormous hole. The only positive contribution of the nineteenth century to + the spot is an unnaturally ugly clock, at the top of an ornamental tower, + or a tower that was meant to be ornamental. It was erected, I believe, to + commemorate the reign of Abdul Hamid; and it seems perfectly adapted to + its purpose, like one of Sir William Watson's sonnets on the same subject. + But this object only adds a touch of triviality to the much more + tremendous negative effect of the gap by the gate. That remains a parable + as well as a puzzle, under all the changing skies of day and night; with + the shadows that gather tinder the narrow Gate of Humility; and beside it, + blank as daybreak and abrupt as an abyss, the broad road that has led + already to destruction. + </p> + <p> + The gap remains like a gash, a sort of wound in the walls; but it only + strengthens by contrast the general sense of their continuity. Save this + one angle where the nineteenth century has entered, the vague impression + of the thirteenth or fourteenth century rather deepens than dies away. It + is supported more than many would suppose even by the figures that appear + in the gateways or pass in procession under the walls. The brown + Franciscans and the white Dominicans would alone give some colour to a + memory of the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem; and there are other examples and + effects which are less easily imagined in the West. Thus as I look down + the street, I see coming out from under an archway a woman wearing a high + white head-dress very like those we have all seen in a hundred pictures of + tournaments or hunting parties, or the Canterbury Pilgrimage or the Court + of Louis XI. She is as white as a woman of the North; and it is not, I + think, entirely fanciful to trace a certain freedom and dignity in her + movement, which is quite different at least from the shuffling walk of the + shrouded Moslem women. She is a woman of Bethlehem, where a tradition, it + is said, still claims as a heroic heritage the blood of the Latin knights + of the cross. This is, of course, but one aspect of the city; but it is + one which may be early noted, yet one which is generally neglected. As I + have said, I had expected many things of Jerusalem, but I had not expected + this. I had expected to be disappointed with it as a place utterly + profaned and fallen below its mission. I had expected to be awed by it; + indeed I had expected to be frightened of it, as a place dedicated and + even doomed by its mission. But I had never fancied that it would be + possible to be fond of it; as one might be fond of a little walled town + among the orchards of Normandy or the hop-fields of Kent. + </p> + <p> + And just then there happened a coincidence that was also something like a + catastrophe. I was idly watching, as it moved down the narrow street to + one of the dark doorways, the head-dress, like a tower of white drapery, + belonging to the Christian woman from the place where Christ was born. + After she had disappeared into the darkness of the porch I continued to + look vaguely at the porch, and thought how easily it might have been a + small Gothic gate in some old corner of Rouen, or even Canterbury. In + twenty such places in the town one may see the details that appeal to the + same associations, so different and so distant. One may see that angular + dogtooth ornament that makes the round Norman gateways look like the + gaping mouths of sharks. One may see the pointed niches in the walls, + shaped like windows and serving somewhat the purpose of brackets, on which + were to stand sacred images possibly removed by the Moslems. One may come + upon a small court planted with ornamental trees with some monument in the + centre, which makes the precise impression of something in a small French + town. There are no Gothic spires, but there are numberless Gothic doors + and windows; and he who first strikes the place at this angle, as it were, + may well feel the Northern element as native and the Eastern element as + intrusive. While I was thinking all these things, something happened which + in that place was almost a portent. + </p> + <p> + It was very cold; and there were curious colours in the sky. There had + been chilly rains from time to time; and the whole air seemed to have + taken on something sharper than a chill. It was as if a door had been + opened in the northern corner of the heavens; letting in something that + changed all the face of the earth. Great grey clouds with haloes of lurid + pearl and pale-green were coming up from the plains or the sea and + spreading over the towers of the city. In the middle of the moving mass of + grey vapours was a splash of paler vapour; a wan white cloud whose white + seemed somehow more ominous than gloom. It went over the high citadel like + a white wild goose flying; and a few white feathers fell. + </p> + <p> + It was the snow; and it snowed day and night until that Eastern city was + sealed up like a village in Norway or Northern Scotland. It rose in the + streets till men might almost have been drowned in it like a sea of solid + foam. And the people of the place told me there had been no such thing + seen in it in all recent records, or perhaps in the records of all its + four thousand years. + </p> + <p> + All this came later; but for me at the moment, looking at the scene in so + dreamy a fashion, it seemed merely like a dramatic conclusion to my dream. + It was but an accident confirming what was but an aspect. But it confirmed + it with a strange and almost supernatural completeness. The white light + out of the window in the north lay on all the roofs and turrets of the + mountain town; for there is an aspect in which snow looks less like frozen + water than like solidified light. As the snow accumulated there + accumulated also everywhere those fantastic effects of frost which seem to + fit in with the fantastic qualities of medieval architecture; and which + make an icicle seem like the mere extension of a gargoyle. It was the + atmosphere that has led so many romancers to make medieval Paris a mere + black and white study of night and snow. Something had redrawn in silver + all things from the rude ornament on the old gateways to the wrinkles on + the ancient hills of Moab. Fields of white still spotted with green swept + down into the valleys between us and the hills; and high above them the + Holy City lifted her head into the thunder-clouded heavens, wearing a + white head-dress like a daughter of the Crusaders. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER IV. — THE PHILOSOPHY OF SIGHT-SEEING + </h2> + <p> + Various cultivated critics told me that I should find Jerusalem + disappointing; and I fear it will disappoint them that I am not + disappointed. Of the city as a city I shall try to say something + elsewhere; but the things which these critics have especially in mind are + at once more general and more internal. They concern something tawdry, + squalid or superstitious about the shrines and those who use them. Now the + mistake of critics is not that they criticise the world; it is that they + never criticise themselves. They compare the alien with the ideal; but + they do not at the same time compare themselves with the ideal; rather + they identify themselves with the ideal. I have met a tourist who had seen + the great Pyramid, and who told me that the Pyramid looked small. Believe + me, the tourist looked much smaller. There is indeed another type of + traveller, who is not at all small in the moral mental sense, who will + confess such disappointments quite honestly, as a piece of realism about + his own sensations. In that case he generally suffers from the defect of + most realists; that of not being realistic enough. He does not really + think out his own impressions thoroughly; or he would generally find they + are not so disappointing after all. A humorous soldier told me that he + came from Derbyshire, and that he did not think much of the Pyramid + because it was not so tall as the Peak. I pointed out to him that he was + really offering the tallest possible tribute to a work of man in comparing + it to a mountain; even if he thought it was a rather small mountain. I + suggested that it was a rather large tombstone. I appealed to those with + whom I debated in that district, as to whether they would not be faintly + surprised to find such a monument during their quiet rambles in a country + churchyard. I asked whether each one of them, if he had such a tombstone + in the family, would not feel it natural, if hardly necessary, to point it + out; and that with a certain pride. The same principle of the higher + realism applies to those who are disappointed with the sight of the + Sphinx. The Sphinx really exceeds expectations because it escapes + expectations. Monuments commonly look impressive when they are high and + often when they are distant. The Sphinx is really unexpected, because it + is found suddenly in a hollow, and unnaturally near. Its face is turned + away; and the effect is as creepy as coming into a room apparently empty, + and finding somebody as still as the furniture. Or it is as if one found a + lion couchant in that hole in the sand; as indeed the buried part of the + monster is in the form of a couchant lion. If it was a real lion it would + hardly be less arresting merely because it was near; nor could the first + emotion of the traveller be adequately described as disappointment. In + such cases there is generally some profit in looking at the monument a + second time, or even at our own sensations a second time. So I reasoned, + striving with wild critics in the wilderness; but the only part of the + debate which is relevant here can be expressed in the statement that I do + think the Pyramid big, for the deep and simple reason that it is bigger + than I am. I delicately suggested to those who were disappointed in the + Sphinx that it was just possible that the Sphinx was disappointed in them. + The Sphinx has seen Julius Caesar; it has very probably seen St. Francis, + when he brought his flaming charity to Egypt; it has certainly looked, in + the first high days of the revolutionary victories, on the face of the + young Napoleon. Is it not barely possible, I hinted to my friends and + fellow-tourists, that after these experiences, it might be a little + depressed at the sight of you and me? But as I say, I only reintroduce my + remarks in connection with a greater matter than these dead things of the + desert; in connection with a tomb to which even the Pyramids are but + titanic lumber, and a presence greater than the Sphinx, since it is not + only a riddle but an answer. + </p> + <p> + Before I go on to deeper defences of any such cult or culture, I wish + first to note a sort of test for the first impressions of an ordinary + tourist like myself, to whom much that is really full of an archaic + strength may seem merely stiff, or much that really deals with a deep + devotional psychology may seem merely distorted. In short I would put + myself in the position of the educated Englishman who does quite honestly + receive a mere impression of idolatry. Incidentally, I may remark, it is + the educated Englishman who is the idolater. It is he who only reverences + the place, and does not reverence the reverence for the place. It is he + who is supremely concerned about whether a mere object is old or new, or + whether a mere ornament is gold or gilt. In other words, it is he who + values the visible things rather than the invisible; for no sane man can + doubt that invisible things are vivid to the priests and pilgrims of these + shrines. + </p> + <p> + In the midst of emotions that have moved the whole world out of its + course, girt about with crowds who will die or do murder for a definition, + the educated English gentleman in his blindness bows down to wood and + stone. For the only thing wrong about that admirable man is that he is + blind about himself. + </p> + <p> + No man will really attempt to describe his feelings, when he first stood + at the gateway of the grave of Christ. The only record relevant here is + that I did not feel the reaction, not to say repulsion, that many seem to + have felt about its formal surroundings. + </p> + <p> + Either I was particularly fortunate or others are particularly fastidious. + The guide who showed me the Sepulchre was not particularly noisy or + profane or palpably mercenary; he was rather more than less sympathetic + than the same sort of man who might have shown me Westminster Abbey or + Stratford-on-Avon. He was a small, solemn, owlish old man, a Roman + Catholic in religion; but so far from deserving the charge of not knowing + the Bible, he deserved rather a gentle remonstrance against his assumption + that nobody else knew it. If there was anything to smile at, in + associations so sacred, it was the elaborate simplicity with which he told + the first facts of the Gospel story, as if he were evangelising a savage. + Anyhow, he did not talk like a cheap-jack at a stall; but rather like a + teacher in an infant school. He made it very clear that Jesus Christ was + crucified in case any one should suppose he was beheaded; and often + stopped in his narrative to repeat that the hero of these events was Jesus + Christ, lest we should fancy it was Nebuchadnezzar or the Duke of + Wellington. I do not in the least mind being amused at this; but I have no + reason whatever for doubting that he may have been a better man than I. I + gave him what I should have given a similar guide in my own country; I + parted from him as politely as from one of my own countrymen. I also, of + course, gave money, as is the custom, to the various monastic custodians + of the shrines; but I see nothing surprising about that. I am not quite so + ignorant as not to know that without the monastic brotherhoods, supported + by such charity, there would not by this time be anything to see in + Jerusalem at all. There was only one class of men whose consistent concern + was to watch these things, from the age of heathens and heresies to the + age of Turks and tourists; and I am certainly not going to sneer at them + for doing no practical work, and then refuse to pay them for the practical + work they do. For the rest, even the architectural defacement is + overstated, the church was burned down and rebuilt in a bad and modern + period; but the older parts, especially the Crusaders' porch, are as grand + as the men who made them. The incongruities there are, are those of local + colour. In connection, by the way, with what I said about beasts of + burden, I mounted a series of steep staircases to the roof of the convent + beside the Holy Sepulchre. When I got to the top I found myself in the + placid presence of two camels. It would be curious to meet two cows on the + roof of a village church. Nevertheless it is the only moral of the chapter + interpolated here, that we can meet things quite as curious in our own + country. + </p> + <p> + When the critic says that Jerusalem is disappointing he generally means + that the popular worship there is weak and degraded, and especially that + the religious art is gaudy and grotesque. In so far as there is any kind + of truth in this, it is still true that the critic seldom sees the whole + truth. What is wrong with the critic is that he does not criticise + himself. He does not honestly compare what is weak, in this particular + world of ideas, with what is weak in his own world of ideas. I will take + an example from my own experience, and in a manner at my own expense. If I + have a native heath it is certainly Kensington High Street, off which + stands the house of my childhood. I grew up in that thorough-fare which + Mr. Max Beerbohm, with his usual easy exactitude of phrase, has described + as "dapper, with a leaning to the fine arts." Dapper was never perhaps a + descriptive term for myself; but it is quite true that I owe a certain + taste for the arts to the sort of people among whom I was brought up. It + is also true that such a taste, in various forms and degrees, was fairly + common in the world which may be symbolised as Kensington High Street. And + whether or no it is a tribute, it is certainly a truth that most people + with an artistic turn in Kensington High Street would have been very much + shocked, in their sense of propriety, if they had seen the popular shrines + of Jerusalem; the sham gold, the garish colours, the fantastic tales and + the feverish tumult. But what I want such people to do, and what they + never do, is to turn this truth round. I want them to imagine, not a + Kensington aesthete walking down David Street to the Holy Sepulchre, but a + Greek monk or a Russian pilgrim walking down Kensington High Street to + Kensington Gardens. I will not insist here on all the hundred plagues of + plutocracy that would really surprise such a Christian peasant; especially + that curse of an irreligious society (unknown in religious societies, + Moslem as well as Christian) the detestable denial of all dignity to the + poor. I am not speaking now of moral but of artistic things; of the + concrete arts and crafts used in popular worship. Well, my imaginary + pilgrim would walk past Kensington Gardens till his sight was blasted by a + prodigy. He would either fall on his knees as before a shrine, or cover + his face as from a sacrilege. He would have seen the Albert Memorial. + There is nothing so conspicuous in Jerusalem. There is nothing so gilded + and gaudy in Jerusalem. Above all, there is nothing in Jerusalem that is + on so large a scale and at the same time in so gay and glittering a style. + My simple Eastern Christian would almost certainly be driven to cry aloud, + "To what superhuman God was this enormous temple erected? I hope it is + Christ; but I fear it is Antichrist." Such, he would think, might well be + the great and golden image of the Prince of the World, set up in this + great open space to receive the heathen prayers and heathen sacrifices of + a lost humanity. I fancy he would feel a desire to be at home again amid + the humble shrines of Zion. I really cannot imagine <i>what</i> he would + feel, if he were told that the gilded idol was neither a god nor a demon, + but a petty German prince who had some slight influence in turning us into + the tools of Prussia. + </p> + <p> + Now I myself, I cheerfully admit, feel that enormity in Kensington Gardens + as something quite natural. I feel it so because I have been brought up, + so to speak, under its shadow; and stared at the graven images of Raphael + and Shakespeare almost before I knew their names; and long before I saw + anything funny in their figures being carved, on a smaller scale, under + the feet of Prince Albert. I even took a certain childish pleasure in the + gilding of the canopy and spire, as if in the golden palace of what was, + to Peter Pan and all children, something of a fairy garden. So do the + Christians of Jerusalem take pleasure, and possibly a childish pleasure, + in the gilding of a better palace, besides a nobler garden, ornamented + with a somewhat worthier aim. But the point is that the people of + Kensington, whatever they might think about the Holy Sepulchre, do not + think anything at all about the Albert Memorial. They are quite + unconscious of how strange a thing it is; and that simply because they are + used to it. The religious groups in Jerusalem are also accustomed to their + coloured background; and they are surely none the worse if they still feel + rather more of the meaning of the colours. It may be said that they retain + their childish illusion about <i>their</i> Albert Memorial. I confess I + cannot manage to regard Palestine as a place where a special curse was + laid on those who can become like little children. And I never could + understand why such critics who agree that the kingdom of heaven is for + children, should forbid it to be the only sort of kingdom that children + would really like; a kingdom with real crowns of gold or even of tinsel. + But that is another question, which I shall discuss in another place; the + point is for the moment that such people would be quite as much surprised + at the place of tinsel in our lives as we are at its place in theirs. If + we are critical of the petty things they do to glorify great things, they + would find quite as much to criticise (as in Kensington Gardens) in the + great things we do to glorify petty things. And if we wonder at the way in + which they seem to gild the lily, they would wonder quite as much at the + way we gild the weed. + </p> + <p> + There are countless other examples of course of this principle of + self-criticism, as the necessary condition of all criticism. It applies + quite as much, for instance, to the other great complaint which my + Kensington friend would make after the complaint about paltry ornament; + the complaint about what is commonly called backsheesh. Here again there + is really something to complain of; though much of the fault is not due to + Jerusalem, but rather to London and New York. The worst superstition of + Jerusalem, like the worst profligacy of Paris, is a thing so much invented + for Anglo-Saxons that it might be called an Anglo-Saxon institution. But + here again the critic could only really judge fairly if he realised with + what abuses at home he ought really to compare this particular abuse + abroad. He ought to imagine, for example, the feelings of a religious + Russian peasant if he really understood all the highly-coloured + advertisements covering High Street Kensington Station. It is really not + so repulsive to see the poor asking for money as to see the rich asking + for more money. And advertisement is the rich asking for more money. A man + would be annoyed if he found himself in a mob of millionaires, all holding + out their silk hats for a penny; or all shouting with one voice, "Give me + money." Yet advertisement does really assault the eye very much as such a + shout would assault the ear. "Budge's Boots are the Best" simply means + "Give me money"; "Use Seraphic Soap" simply means "Give me money." It is a + complete mistake to suppose that common people make our towns commonplace, + with unsightly things like advertisements. Most of those whose wares are + thus placarded everywhere are very wealthy gentlemen with coronets and + country seats, men who are probably very particular about the artistic + adornment of their own homes. They disfigure their towns in order to + decorate their houses. To see such men crowding and clamouring for more + wealth would really be a more unworthy sight than a scramble of poor + guides; yet this is what would be conveyed by all the glare of gaudy + advertisement to anybody who saw and understood it for the first time. Yet + for us who are familiar with it all that gaudy advertisement fades into a + background, just as the gaudy oriental patterns fade into a background for + those oriental priests and pilgrims. Just as the innocent Kensington + gentleman is wholly unaware that his black top hat is relieved against a + background, or encircled as by a halo, of a yellow hoarding about mustard, + so is the poor guide sometimes unaware that his small doings are dark + against the fainter and more fading gold in which are traced only the + humbler haloes of the Twelve Apostles. + </p> + <p> + But all these misunderstandings are merely convenient illustrations and + introductions, leading up to the great fact of the main misunderstanding. + It is a misunderstanding of the whole history and philosophy of the + position; that is the whole of the story and the whole moral of the story. + The critic of the Christianity of Jerusalem emphatically manages to miss + the point. The lesson he ought to learn from it is one which the Western + and modern man needs most, and does not even know that he needs. It is the + lesson of constancy. These people may decorate their temples with gold or + with tinsel; but their tinsel has lasted longer than our gold. They may + build things as costly and ugly as the Albert Memorial; but the thing + remains a memorial, a thing of immortal memory. They do not build it for a + passing fashion and then forget it, or try hard to forget it. They may + paint a picture of a saint as gaudy as any advertisement of a soap; but + one saint does not drive out another saint as one soap drives out another + soap. They do not forget their recent idolatries, as the educated English + are now trying to forget their very recent idolatry of everything German. + These Christian bodies have been in Jerusalem for at least fifteen hundred + years. Save for a few years after the time of Constantine and a few years + after the First Crusade, they have been practically persecuted all the + time. At least they have been under heathen masters whose attitude towards + Christendom was hatred and whose type of government was despotism. No man + living in the West can form the faintest conception of what it must have + been to live in the very heart of the East through the long and seemingly + everlasting epoch of Moslem power. A man in Jerusalem was in the centre of + the Turkish Empire as a man in Rome was in the centre of the Roman Empire. + The imperial power of Islam stretched away to the sunrise and the sunset; + westward to the mountains of Spain and eastward towards the wall of China. + It must have seemed as if the whole earth belonged to Mahomet to those who + in this rocky city renewed their hopeless witness to Christ. What we have + to ask ourselves is not whether we happen in all respects to agree with + them, but whether we in the same condition should even have the courage to + agree with ourselves. It is not a question of how much of their religion + is superstition, but of how much of our religion is convention; how much + is custom and how much a compromise even with custom; how much a thing + made facile by the security of our own society or the success of our own + state. These are powerful supports; and the enlightened Englishman, from a + cathedral town or a suburban chapel, walks these wild Eastern places with + a certain sense of assurance and stability. Even after centuries of + Turkish supremacy, such a man feels, he would not have descended to such a + credulity. He would not be fighting for the Holy Fire or wrangling with + beggars in the Holy Sepulchre. He would not be hanging fantastic lamps on + a pillar peculiar to the Armenians, or peering into the gilded cage that + contains the brown Madonna of the Copts. He would not be the dupe of such + degenerate fables; God forbid. He would not be grovelling at such + grotesque shrines; no indeed. He would be many hundred yards away, + decorously bowing towards a more distant city; where, above the only + formal and official open place in Jerusalem, the mighty mosaics of the + Mosque of Omar proclaim across the valleys the victory and the glory of + Mahomet. + </p> + <p> + That is the real lesson that the enlightened traveller should learn; the + lesson about himself. That is the test that should really be put to those + who say that the Christianity of Jerusalem is degraded. After a thousand + years of Turkish tyranny, the religion of a London fashionable preacher + would not be degraded. It would be destroyed. It would not be there at + all, to be jeered at by every prosperous tourist out of a <i>train de luxe</i>. + It is worth while to pause upon the point; for nothing has been so wholly + missed in our modern religious ideals as the ideal of tenacity. Fashion is + called progress. Every new fashion is called a new faith. Every faith is a + faith which offers everything except faithfulness. It was never so + necessary to insist that most of the really vital and valuable ideas in + the world, including Christianity, would never have survived at all if + they had not survived their own death, even in the sense of dying daily. + The ideal was out of date almost from the first day; that is why it is + eternal; for whatever is dated is doomed. As for our own society, if it + proceeds at its present rate of progress and improvement, no trace or + memory of it will be left at all. Some think that this would be an + improvement in itself. We have come to live morally, as the Japs live + literally, in houses of paper. But they are pavilions made of the morning + papers, which have to be burned on the appearance of the evening editions. + Well, a thousand years hence the Japs may be ruling in Jerusalem; the + modern Japs who no longer live in paper houses, but in sweated factories + and slums. They and the Chinese (that much more dignified and democratic + people) seem to be about the only people of importance who have not yet + ruled Jerusalem. But though we may think the Christian chapels as thin as + Japanese tea-houses, they will still be Christian; though we may think the + sacred lamps as cheap as Chinese lanterns, they will still be burning + before a crucified creator of the world. + </p> + <p> + But besides this need of making strange cults the test not of themselves + but ourselves, the sights of Jerusalem also illustrate the other + suggestion about the philosophy of sight-seeing. It is true, as I have + suggested, that after all the Sphinx is larger than I am; and on the same + principle the painted saints are saintlier than I am, and the patient + pilgrims more constant than I am. But it is also true, as in the lesser + matter before mentioned, that even those who think the Sphinx small + generally do not notice the small things about it. They do not even + discover what is interesting about their own disappointment. And similarly + even those who are truly irritated by the unfamiliar fashions of worship + in a place like Jerusalem, do not know how to discover what is interesting + in the very existence of what is irritating. For instance, they talk of + Byzantine decay or barbaric delusion, and they generally go away with an + impression that the ritual and symbolism is something dating from the Dark + Ages. But if they would really note the details of their surroundings, or + even of their sensations, they would observe a rather curious fact about + such ornament of such places as the Church of the Holy Sepulchre as may + really be counted unworthy of them. They would realise that what they + would most instinctively reject as superstitious does not date from what + they would regard as the ages of superstition. There really are bad + pictures but they are not barbaric pictures; they are florid pictures in + the last faded realism of the Renascence. There really is stiff and + ungainly decoration, but it is not the harsh or ascetic decoration of a + Spanish cloister; it is much more like the pompous yet frivolous + decorations of a Parisian hotel. In short, in so far as the shrine has + really been defaced it has not been defaced by the Dark Ages, but rather + if anything by the Age of Reason. It is the enlightened eighteenth + century, which regarded itself as the very noonday of natural culture and + common sense, that has really though indirectly laid its disfiguring + finger on the dark but dignified Byzantine temple. I do not particularly + mind it myself; for in such great matters I do not think taste is the + test. But if taste is to be made the test, there is matter for momentary + reflection in this fact; for it is another example of the weakness of what + may be called fashion. Voltaire, I believe, erected a sort of temple to + God in his own garden; and we may be sure that it was in the most + exquisite taste of the time. Nothing would have surprised him more than to + learn that, fifty years after the success of the French Revolution, almost + every freethinker of any artistic taste would think his temple far less + artistically admirable than the nearest gargoyle on Notre Dame. Thus it is + progress that must be blamed for most of these things: and we ought not to + turn away in contempt from something antiquated, but rather recognise with + respect and even alarm a sort of permanent man-trap in the idea of being + modern. So that the moral of this matter is the same as that of the other; + that these things should raise in us, not merely the question of whether + we like them, but of whether there is anything very infallible or + imperishable about what we like. At least the essentials of these things + endure; and if they seem to have remained fixed as effigies, at least they + have not faded like fashion-plates. + </p> + <p> + It has seemed worth while to insert here this note on the philosophy of + sight-seeing, however dilatory or disproportionate it may seem. For I am + particularly and positively convinced that unless these things can somehow + or other be seen in the right historical perspective and philosophical + proportion, they are not worth seeing at all. And let me say in conclusion + that I can not only respect the sincerity, but understand the sentiments, + of a man who says they are not worth seeing at all. Sight-seeing is a far + more difficult and disputable matter than many seem to suppose; and a man + refusing it altogether might be a man of sense and even a man of + imagination. It was the great Wordsworth who refused to revisit Yarrow; it + was only the small Wordsworth who revisited it after all. I remember the + first great sight in my own entrance to the Near East, when I looked by + accident out of the train going to Cairo, and saw far away across the + luminous flats a faint triangular shape; the Pyramids. I could understand + a man who had seen it turning his back and retracing his whole journey to + his own country and his own home, saying, "I will go no further; for I + have seen afar off the last houses of the kings." I can understand a man + who had only seen in the distance Jerusalem sitting on the hill going no + further and keeping that vision for ever. It would, of course, be said + that it was absurd to come at all, and to see so little. To which I answer + that in that sense it is absurd to come at all. It is no more fantastic to + turn back for such a fancy than it was to come for a similar fancy. A man + cannot eat the Pyramids; he cannot buy or sell the Holy City; there can be + no practical aspect either of his coming or going. If he has not come for + a poetic mood he has come for nothing; if he has come for such a mood, he + is not a fool to obey that mood. The way to be really a fool is to try to + be practical about unpractical things. It is to try to collect clouds or + preserve moonshine like money. Now there is much to be said for the view + that to search for a mood is in its nature moonshine. It may be said that + this is especially true in the crowded and commonplace conditions in which + most sight-seeing has to be done. It may be said that thirty tourists + going together to see a tombstone is really as ridiculous as thirty poets + going together to write poems about the nightingale. There would be + something rather depressing about a crowd of travellers, walking over hill + and dale after the celebrated cloud of Wordsworth; especially if the crowd + is like the cloud, and moveth all together if it move at all. A vast mob + assembled on Salisbury Plain to listen to Shelley's skylark would probably + (after an hour or two) consider it a rather subdued sort of skylarking. It + may be argued that it is just as illogical to hope to fix beforehand the + elusive effects of the works of man as of the works of nature. It may be + called a contradiction in terms to expect the unexpected. It may be + counted mere madness to anticipate astonishment, or go in search of a + surprise. To all of which there is only one answer; that such anticipation + is absurd, and such realisation will be disappointing, that images will + seem to be idols and idols will seem to be dolls, unless there be some + rudiment of such a habit of mind as I have tried to suggest in this + chapter. No great works will seem great, and no wonders of the world will + seem wonderful, unless the angle from which they are seen is that of + historical humility. + </p> + <p> + One more word may be added of a more practical sort. The place where the + most passionate convictions on this planet are concentrated is not one + where it will always be wise, even from a political standpoint, to air our + plutocratic patronage and our sceptical superiority. Strange scenes have + already been enacted round that fane where the Holy Fire bursts forth to + declare that Christ is risen; and whether or no we think the thing holy + there is no doubt about it being fiery. Whether or no the superior person + is right to expect the unexpected, it is possible that something may be + revealed to him that he really does not expect. And whatever he may think + about the philosophy of sight-seeing, it is not unlikely that he may see + some sights. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER V. — THE STREETS OF THE CITY + </h2> + <p> + When Jerusalem had been half buried in snow for two or three days, I + remarked to a friend that I was prepared henceforward to justify all the + Christmas cards. The cards that spangle Bethlehem with frost are generally + regarded by the learned merely as vulgar lies. At best they are regarded + as popular fictions, like that which made the shepherds in the Nativity + Play talk a broad dialect of Somerset. In the deepest sense of course this + democratic tradition is truer than most history. But even in the cruder + and more concrete sense the tradition about the December snow is not quite + so false as is suggested. It is not a mere local illusion for Englishmen + to picture the Holy Child in a snowstorm, as it would be for the Londoners + to picture him in a London fog. There can be snow in Jerusalem, and there + might be snow in Bethlehem; and when we penetrate to the idea behind the + image, we find it is not only possible but probable. In Palestine, at + least in these mountainous parts of Palestine, men have the same general + sentiment about the seasons as in the West or the North. Snow is a rarity, + but winter is a reality. Whether we regard it as the divine purpose of a + mystery or the human purpose of a myth, the purpose of putting such a + feast in winter would be just the same in Bethlehem as it would be in + Balham. Any one thinking of the Holy Child as born in December would mean + by it exactly what we mean by it; that Christ is not merely a summer sun + of the prosperous but a winter fire for the unfortunate. + </p> + <p> + In other words, the semi-tropical nature of the place, like its vulgarity + and desecration, can be, and are, enormously exaggerated. But it is always + hard to correct the exaggeration without exaggerating the correction. It + would be absurd seriously to deny that Jerusalem is an Eastern town; but + we may say it was Westernised without being modernised. Anyhow, it was + medievalised before it was modernised. And in the same way it would be + absurd to deny that Jerusalem is a Southern town, in the sense of being + normally out of the way of snowstorms, but the truth can be suggested by + saying that it has always known the quality of snow, but not the quantity. + And the quantity of snow that fell on this occasion would have been + something striking and even sensational in Sussex or Kent. And yet another + way of putting the proportions of the thing would be to say that Jerusalem + has been besieged more often and by more different kinds of people than + any town upon the globe; that it has been besieged by Jews and Assyrians, + Egyptians and Babylonians, Greeks and Romans, Persians and Saracens, + Frenchmen and Englishmen; but perhaps never before in all its agony of + ages has it ever really been besieged by winter. In this case it was not + only snowed on, it was snowed up. + </p> + <p> + For some days the city was really in a state of siege. If the snow had + held for a sufficient number of days it might have been in a state of + famine. The railway failed between Jerusalem and the nearest station. The + roads were impassable between Jerusalem and the nearest village, or even + the nearest suburb. In some places the snow drifted deep enough to bury a + man, and in some places, alas, it did actually bury little children; poor + little Arabs whose bodies were stiff where they had fallen. Many mules + were overwhelmed as if by floods, and countless trees struck down as if by + lightning. Even when the snow began at last to melt it only threatened to + turn the besieged fortress into a sort of island. A river that men could + not ford flowed between Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives. Even a man + walking about the ordinary streets could easily step up to his knees or up + to his waist. Snow stood about like a new system of natural barricades + reared in some new type of revolution. I have already remarked that what + struck me most about the city was the city wall; but now a new white wall + stood all round the city; and one that neither friend nor foe could pass. + </p> + <p> + But a state of siege, whatever its inconveniences, is exceedingly + convenient for a critic and observer of the town. It concentrated all that + impression of being something compact and what, with less tragic attendant + circumstances, one might call cosy. It fixed the whole picture in a frame + even more absolute than the city wall; and it turned the eyes of all + spectators inwards. Above all, by its very abnormality it accentuated the + normal divisions and differences of the place; and made it more possible + to distinguish and describe them like <i>dramatis personae</i>. The parts + they played in the crisis of the snow were very like the parts they played + in the general crisis of the state. And the very cut and colour of the + figures, turban and tarbouch, khaki and burnous and gabardine, seemed to + stand out more sharply against that blank background of white. + </p> + <p> + The first fact of course was a fact of contrast. When I said that the city + struck me in its historic aspect as being at least as much a memory of the + Crusaders as of the Saracens, I did not of course mean to deny the + incidental contrasts between this Southern civilisation and the + civilisation of Europe, especially northern Europe. The immediate + difference was obvious enough when the gold and the gaudy vegetation of so + comparatively Asiatic a city were struck by this strange blast out of the + North. It was a queer spectacle to see a great green palm bowed down under + a white load of snow; and it was a stranger and sadder spectacle to see + the people accustomed to live under such palm-trees bowed down under such + unearthly storms. Yet the very manner in which they bore it is perhaps the + first fact to be noted among all the facts that make up the puzzling + problem of Jerusalem. Odd as it may sound you can see that the true + Orientals are not familiar with snow by the very fact that they accept it. + They accept it as we should accept being swallowed by an earthquake; + because we do not know the answer to an earthquake. The men from the + desert do not know the answer to the snow, it seems to them unanswerable. + But Christians fight with snow in a double sense; they fight with snow as + they fight with snowballs. A Moslem left to himself would no more play + with a snowball than make a toy of a thunderbolt. And this is really a + type of the true problem that was raised by the very presence of the + English soldier in the street, even if he was only shovelling away the + snow. + </p> + <p> + It would be far from a bad thing, I fancy, if the rights and wrongs of + these Bible countries could occasionally be translated into Bible + language. And I suggest this here, not in the least because it is a + religious language, but merely because it is a simple language. It may be + a good thing, and in many ways it certainly is a good thing, that the + races native to the Near East, to Egypt or Arabia, should come in contact + with Western culture; but it will be unfortunate if this only means coming + in contact with Western pedantry and even Western hypocrisy. As it is + there is only too much danger that the local complaints against the + government may be exactly like the official explanations of the + government; that is, mere strings of long words with very little meaning + involved. In short, if people are to learn to talk English it will be a + refreshing finishing touch to their culture if they learn to talk plain + English. Of this it would be hard to find a better working model than what + may be called scriptural English. It would be a very good thing for + everybody concerned if any really unjust or unpopular official were + described only in terms taken from the denunciations of Jezebel and Herod. + It would especially be a good thing for the official. If it were true it + would be appropriate, and if it were untrue it would be absurd. When + people are really oppressed, their condition can generally be described in + very plain terms connected with very plain things; with bread, with land, + with taxes and children and churches. If imperialists and capitalists do + thus oppress them, as they most certainly often do, then the condition of + those more powerful persons can also be described in few and simple words; + such as crime and sin and death and hell. But when complaints are made, as + they are sometimes in Palestine and still more in Egypt, in the elaborate + and long-winded style of a leading article, the sympathetic European is + apt to remember how very little confidence he has ever felt in his own + leading articles. If an Arab comes to me and says, "The stranger from + across the sea has taxed me, and taken the corn-sheaves from the field of + my fathers," I do really feel that he towers over me and my perishing + industrial civilisation with a terrible appeal to eternal things. I feel + he is a figure more enduring than a statue, like the figure of Naboth or + of Nathan. But when that simple son of the desert opens his mouth and + says, "The self-determination of proletarian class-conscious solidarity as + it functions for international reconstruction," and so on, why then I must + confess to the weakness of feeling my sympathies instantly and strangely + chilled. I merely feel inclined to tell him that I can talk that sort of + pidgin English better than he can. If he modelled himself on the great + rebels and revolutionists of the Bible, it would at least be a + considerable improvement in his literary style. But as a matter of fact + something much more solid is involved than literary style. There is a + logic and justice in the distinction, even in the world of ideas. That + most people with much more education than the Arab, and therefore much + less excuse than the Arab, entirely ignore that distinction, is merely a + result of their ignoring ideas, and being satisfied with long words. They + like democracy because it is a long word; that is the only thing they do + like about it. + </p> + <p> + People are entitled to self-government; that is, to such government as is + self-made. They are not necessarily entitled to a special and elaborate + machinery that somebody else has made. It is their right to make it for + themselves, but it is also their duty to think of it for themselves. + Self-government of a simple kind has existed in numberless simple + societies, and I shall always think it a horrible responsibility to + interfere with it. But representative government, or theoretically + representative government, of an exceedingly complicated kind, may exist + in certain complicated societies without their being bound to transfer it + to others, or even to admire it for themselves. At any rate, for good or + evil, they have invented it themselves. And there is a moral distinction, + which is perfectly rational and democratic, between such inventions and + the self-evident rights which no man can claim to have invented. If the + Arab says to me, "I don't care a curse for Europe; I demand bread," the + reproach is to me both true and terrible. But if he says, "I don't care a + curse for Europe; I demand French cookery, Italian confectionery, English + audit ale," and so on, I think he is rather an unreasonable Arab. After + all, we invented these things; in <i>auctore auctoritas</i>. + </p> + <p> + And of this problem there is a sort of working model in the presence of + the snow in Palestine, especially in the light of the old proverb about + the impossibility of snow in Egypt. Palestine is wilder, less wealthy and + modernised, more religious and therefore more realistic. The issue between + the things only a European can do, and the things no European has the + right to do, is much sharper and clearer than the confusions of verbosity. + On the one hand the things the English can do are more real things, like + clearing away the snow; for the very reason that the English are not here, + so to speak, building on a French pavement but on the bare rocks of the + Eastern wilds, the contact with Islam and Israel is more simple and + direct. And on the other side the discontents and revolts are more real. + So far from intending to suggest that the Egyptians have no complaints, I + am very far from meaning that they have no wrongs. But curiously enough + the wrongs seem to me more real than the complaints. The real case against + our Egyptian adventure was stated long ago by Randolph Churchill, when he + denounced "a bondholder's war"; it is in the whole business of collecting + debts due to cosmopolitan finance. But a stranger in Egypt hears little + denunciation of cosmopolitan finance, and a great deal of drivel in the + way of cosmopolitan idealism. When the Palestinians say that usurers + menace their land they mean the land they dig; an old actuality and not a + new abstraction. Their revolt may be right or wrong, but it is real; and + what applies to their revolt applies to their religion. There may well be + doubts about whether Egypt is a nation, but there is no doubt that + Jerusalem is a city, and the nations have come to its light. + </p> + <p> + The problem of the snow proved indeed the text for a tale touching the + practical politics of the city. The English soldiers cleared the snow + away; the Arabs sat down satisfied or stoical with the snow blocking their + own doors or loading their own roofs. But the Jews, as the story went, + were at length persuaded to clear away the snow in front of them, and then + demanded a handsome salary for having recovered the use of their own front + doors. The story is not quite fair; and yet it is not so unfair as it + seems. Any rational Anti-Semite will agree that such tales, even when they + are true, do not always signify an avaricious tradition in Semitism, but + sometimes the healthier and more human suggestion of Bolshevism. The Jews + do demand high wages, but it is not always because they are in the old + sense money-grabbers, but rather in the new sense money-grabbers (as an + enemy would put it) men sincerely and bitterly convinced of their right to + the surplus of capitalism. There is the same problem in the Jewish + colonies in the country districts; in the Jewish explanation of the + employment of Arab and Syrian labour. The Jews argue that this occurs, not + because they wish to remain idle capitalists, but because they insist on + being properly paid proletarians. With all this I shall deal, however, + when I treat of the Jewish problem itself. The point for the moment is + that the episode of the snow did in a superficial way suggest the parts + played by the three parties and the tales told about them. To begin with, + it is right to say that the English do a great many things, as they clear + away the snow, simply because nobody else would do them. They did save the + oriental inhabitants from some of the worst consequences of the calamity. + Probably they sometimes save the inhabitants from something which the + inhabitants do not regard as a calamity. It is the danger of all such + foreign efficiency that it often saves men who do not want to be saved. + But they do in many cases do things from which Moslems profit, but which + Moslems by themselves would not propose, let alone perform. And this has a + general significance even in our first survey, for it suggests a truth + easy to abuse, but I think impossible to ignore. I mean that there is + something non-political about Moslem morality. Perverse as it may appear, + I suspect that most of their political movements result from their + non-political morality. They become politicians because they know they are + not political; and feel their simple and more or less healthy life is at a + disadvantage, in face of the political supremacy of the English and the + political subtlety of the Jews. + </p> + <p> + For instance, the tradition of Turkish rule is simply a joke. All the + stories about it are jokes, and often very good jokes. My own favourite + incident is that which is still commemorated in the English cathedral by + an enormous hole in the floor. The Turks dug up the pavement looking for + concealed English artillery; because they had been told that the bishop + had given his blessing to two canons. The bishop had indeed recently + appointed two canons to the service of the Church, but he had not secreted + them under the floor of the chancel. There was another agreeable incident + when the Turkish authorities, by an impulsive movement of religious + toleration, sent for a Greek priest to bury Greek soldiers, and told him + to take his choice in a heap of corpses of all creeds and colours. But at + once the most curious and the most common touch of comedy is the perpetual + social introduction to solid and smiling citizens who have been nearly + hanged by the Turks. The fortunate gentleman seems still to be regarding + his escape with a broad grin. If you were introduced to a polite Frenchman + who had come straight from the guillotine, or to an affable American who + had only just vacated the electrical chair, you would feel a faint + curiosity about the whole story. If a friend introduced somebody, saying, + "My friend Robinson; his sentence has been commuted to penal servitude," + or "My Uncle William, just come from Dartmoor Prison," your mind and + perhaps your lips would faintly form the syllables "What for?" But + evidently, under Turkish rule, being hanged was like being knocked down by + a cab; it might happen to anybody. This is a parenthesis, since I am only + dealing here with the superficial experience of the streets, especially in + the snow. But it will be well to safeguard it by saying that this + unpolitical carelessness and comprehensiveness of the indiscriminate Turk + had its tragic as well as its comic side. It was by no means everybody + that escaped hanging; and there was a tree growing outside the Jaffa Gate + at which men might still shudder as they pass it in the sunlight. It was + what a modern revolutionary poet has called bitterly the Tree of Man's + Making; and what a medieval revolutionary poet called the fruit tree in + the orchard of the king. It was the gibbet; and lives have dropped from it + like leaves from a tree in autumn. Yet even on the sterner side, we can + trace the truth about the Moslem fatalism which seems so alien to + political actuality. There was a popular legend or proverb that this + terrible tree was in some way bound up with the power of the Turk, and + perhaps the Moslem over a great part of the earth. There is nothing more + strange about that Moslem fatalism than a certain gloomy magnanimity which + can invoke omens and oracles against itself. It is astonishing how often + the Turks seem to have accepted a legend or prophecy about their own + ultimate failure. De Quincey mentions one of them in the blow that half + broke the Palladium of Byzantium. It is said that the Moslems themselves + predict the entry of a Christian king of Jerusalem through the Golden + Gate. Perhaps that is why they have blocked up the fatal gate; but in any + case they dealt in that fashion with the fatal tree. They elaborately + bound and riveted it with iron, as if accepting the popular prophecy which + declared that so long as it stood the Turkish Empire would stand. It was + as if the wicked man of Scripture had daily watered a green bay-tree, to + make sure that it should flourish. + </p> + <p> + In the last chapter I have attempted to suggest a background of the + battlemented walls with the low gates and narrow windows which seem to + relieve the liveliest of the coloured groups against the neutral tints of + the North, and how this was intensified when the neutral tints were + touched with the positive hue of snow. In the same merely impressionist + spirit I would here attempt to sketch some of the externals of the actors + in such a scene, though it is hard to do justice to such a picture even in + the superficial matter of the picturesque. Indeed it is hard to be + sufficiently superficial; for in the East nearly every external is a + symbol. The greater part of it is the gorgeous rag-heap of Arabian + humanity, and even about that one could lecture on almost every coloured + rag. We hear much of the gaudy colours of the East; but the most striking + thing about them is that they are delicate colours. It is rare to see a + red that is merely like a pillar-box, or a blue that is Reckitt's blue; + the red is sure to have the enrichment of tawny wine or blood oranges, and + the blue of peacocks or the sea. In short these people are artistic in the + sense that used to be called aesthetic; and it is a nameless instinct that + preserves these nameless tints. Like all such instincts, it can be blunted + by a bullying rationalism; like all such children, these people do not + know why they prefer the better, and can therefore be persuaded by + sophists that they prefer the worst. But there are other elements emerging + from the coloured crowd, which are more significant, and therefore more + stubborn. A stranger entirely ignorant of that world would feel something + like a chill to the blood when he first saw the black figures of the + veiled Moslem women, sinister figures without faces. It is as if in that + world every woman were a widow. When he realised that these were not the + masked mutes at a very grisly funeral, but merely ladies literally obeying + a convention of wearing veils in public, he would probably have a reaction + of laughter. He would be disposed to say flippantly that it must be, a + dull life, not only for the women but the men; and that a man might well + want five wives if he had to marry them before he could even look at them. + But he will be wise not to be satisfied with such flippancy, for the + complete veiling of the Moslem women of Jerusalem, though not a finer + thing than the freedom of the Christian woman of Bethlehem, is almost + certainly a finer thing than the more coquettish compromise of the other + Moslem women of Cairo. It simply means that the Moslem religion is here + more sincerely observed; and this in turn is part of something that a + sympathetic person will soon feel in Jerusalem, if he has come from these + more commercial cities of the East; a spiritual tone decidedly more + delicate and dignified, like the clear air about the mountain city. + Whatever the human vices involved, it is not altogether for nothing that + this is the holy town of three great religions. When all is said, he will + feel that there are some tricks that could not be played, some trades that + could not be plied, some shops that could not be opened, within a stone's + throw of the Sepulchre. This indefinable seriousness has its own fantasies + of fanaticism or formalism; but if these are vices they are not + vulgarities. There is no stronger example of this than the real Jews of + Jerusalem, especially those from the ghettoes of eastern Europe. They can + be immediately picked out by the peculiar wisps of hair worn on each side + of the face, like something between curls and whiskers. Sometimes they + look strangely effeminate, like some rococo burlesque of the ringlets of + an Early Victorian woman. Sometimes they look considerably more like the + horns of a devil; and one need not be an Anti-Semite to say that the face + is often made to match. But though they may be ugly, or even horrible, + they are not vulgar like the Jews at Brighton; they trail behind them too + many primeval traditions and laborious loyalties, along with their grand + though often greasy robes of bronze or purple velvet. They often wear on + their heads that odd turban of fur worn by the Rabbis in the pictures of + Rembrandt. And indeed that great name is not irrelevant; for the whole + truth at the back of Zionism is in the difference between the picture of a + Jew by Rembrandt and a picture of a Jew by Sargent. For Rembrandt the + Rabbi was, in a special and double sense, a distinguished figure. He was + something distinct from the world of the artist, who drew a Rabbi as he + would a Brahmin. But Sargent had to treat his sitters as solid citizens of + England or America; and consequently his pictures are direct provocations + to a pogrom. But the light that Rembrandt loved falls not irreverently on + the strange hairy haloes that can still be seen on the shaven heads of the + Jews of Jerusalem. And I should be sorry for any pogrom that brought down + any of their grey wisps or whiskers in sorrow to the grave. + </p> + <p> + The whole scene indeed, seriousness apart, might be regarded as a fantasia + for barbers; for the different ways of dressing the hair would alone serve + as symbols of different races and religions. Thus the Greek priests of the + Orthodox Church, bearded and robed in black with black towers upon their + heads, have for some strange reason their hair bound up behind like a + woman's. In any case they have in their pomp a touch of the bearded bulls + of Assyrian sculpture; and this strange fashion of curling if not oiling + the Assyrian bull gives the newcomer an indescribable and illogical + impression of the unnatural sublimity of archaic art. In the Apocalypse + somewhere there is an inspiringly unintelligible allusion to men coming on + the earth, whose hair is like the hair of women and their teeth like the + teeth of lions. I have never been bitten by an Orthodox clergyman, and + cannot say whether his teeth are at all leonine; though I have seen seven + of them together enjoying their lunch at an hotel with decorum and + dispatch. But the twisting of the hair in the womanish fashion does for us + touch that note of the abnormal which the mystic meant to convey in his + poetry, and which others feel rather as a recoil into humour. The best and + last touch to this topsy-turvydom was given when a lady, observing one of + these reverend gentlemen who for some reason did not carry this curious + coiffure, exclaimed, in a tone of heartrending surprise and distress, "Oh, + he's bobbed his hair!" + </p> + <p> + Here again of course even a superficial glance at the pageant of the + street should not be content with its comedy. There is an intellectual + interest in the external pomp and air of placid power in these ordinary + Orthodox parish priests; especially if we compare them with the + comparatively prosaic and jog-trot good nature of the Roman monks, called + in this country the Latins. Mingling in the same crowd with these + black-robed pontiffs can be seen shaven men in brown habits who seem in + comparison to be both busy and obscure. These are the sons of St. Francis, + who came to the East with a grand simplicity and thought to finish the + Crusades with a smile. The spectator will be wise to accept this first + contrast that strikes the eye with an impartial intellectual interest; it + has nothing to do with personal character, of course, and many Greek + priests are as simple in their tastes as they are charming in their + manners; while any Roman priests can find as much ritual as they may + happen to want in other aspects of their own religion. But it is broadly + true that Roman and Greek Catholicism are contrasted in this way in this + country; and the contrast is the flat contrary to all our customary + associations in the West. In the East it is Roman Catholicism that stands + for much that we associate with Protestantism. It is Roman Catholicism + that is by comparison plain and practical and scornful of superstition and + concerned for social work. It is Greek Catholicism that is stiff with gold + and gorgeous with ceremonial, with its hold on ancient history and its + inheritance of imperial tradition. In the cant of our own society, we may + say it is the Roman who rationalises and the Greek who Romanises. It is + the Roman Catholic who is impatient with Russian and Greek childishness, + and perpetually appealing for common sense. It is the Greek who defends + such childishness as childlike faith and would rebuke such common sense as + common scepticism. I do not speak of the theological tenets or even the + deeper emotions involved, but only, as I have said, of contrasts visible + even in the street. And the whole difference is sufficiently suggested in + two phrases I heard within a few days. A distinguished Anglo-Catholic, who + has himself much sympathy with the Greek Orthodox traditions, said to me, + "After all, the Romans were the first Puritans." And I heard that a + Franciscan, being told that this Englishman and perhaps the English + generally were disposed to make an alliance with the Greek Church, had + only said by way of comment, "And a good thing too, the Greeks might do + something at last." + </p> + <p> + Anyhow the first impression is that the Greek is more gorgeous in black + than the Roman in colours. But the Greek of course can also appear in + colours, especially in those eternal forms of frozen yet fiery colours + which we call jewels. I have seen the Greek Patriarch, that magnificent + old gentleman, walking down the street like an emperor in the <i>Arabian + Nights</i>, hung all over with historic jewels as thick as beads or + buttons, with a gigantic cross of solid emeralds that might have been + given him by the green genii of the sea, if any of the genii are + Christians. These things are toys, but I am entirely in favour of toys; + and rubies and emeralds are almost as intoxicating as that sort of + lustrous coloured paper they put inside Christmas crackers. This beauty + has been best achieved in the North in the glory of coloured glass; and I + have seen great Gothic windows in which one could really believe that the + robes of martyrs were giant rubies or the starry sky a single enormous + sapphire. But the colours of the West are transparent, the colours of the + East opaque. I have spoken of the <i>Arabian Nights</i>, and there is + really a touch of them even in the Christian churches, perhaps increased + with a tradition of early Christian secrecy. There are glimpses of + gorgeously tiled walls, of blue curtains and green doors and golden inner + chambers, that are just like the entrance to an Eastern tale. The Orthodox + are at least more oriental in the sense of being more ornamental; more + flat and decorative. The Romans are more Western, I might even say more + modern, in the sense of having more realism even in their ritualism. The + Greek cross is a cross; the Roman cross is a crucifix. + </p> + <p> + But these are deeper matters; I am only trying to suggest a sort of + silhouette of the crowd like the similar silhouette of the city, a profile + or outline of the heads and hats, like the profile of the towers and + spires. The tower that makes the Greek priest look like a walking + catafalque is by no means alone among the horns thus fantastically + exalted. There is the peaked hood of the Armenian priest, for instance; + the stately survival of that strange Monophysite heresy which perpetuated + itself in pomp and pride mainly through the sublime accident of the + Crusades. That black cone also rises above the crowd with something of the + immemorial majesty of a pyramid; and rightly so, for it is typical of the + prehistoric poetry by which these places live that some say it is a + surviving memory of Ararat and the Ark. + </p> + <p> + Again the high white headgear of the Bethlehem women, or to speak more + strictly of the Bethlehem wives, has already been noted in another + connection; but it is well to remark it again among the colours of the + crowd, because this at least has a significance essential to all criticism + of such a crowd. Most travellers from the West regard such an Eastern city + far too much as a Moslem city, like the lady whom Mr. Maurice Baring met + who travelled all over Russia, and thought all the churches were mosques. + But in truth it is very hard to generalise about Jerusalem, precisely + because it contains everything, and its contrasts are real contrasts. And + anybody who doubts that its Christianity is Christian, a thing fighting + for our own culture and morals on the borders of Asia, need only consider + the concrete fact of these women of Bethlehem and their costume. There is + no need to sneer in any unsympathetic fashion at all the domestic + institutions of Islam; the sexes are never quite so stupid as some + feminists represent; and I dare say a woman often has her own way in a + harem as well as in a household. But the broad difference does remain. And + if there be one thing, I think, that can safely be said about all Asia and + all oriental tribes, it is this; that if a married woman wears any + distinctive mark, it is always meant to prevent her from receiving the + admiration or even the notice of strange men. Often it is only made to + disguise her; sometimes it is made to disfigure her. It may be the masking + of the face as among the Moslems; it may be the shaving of the head as + among the Jews; it may, I believe, be the blackening of the teeth and + other queer expedients among the people of the Far East. But is never + meant to make her look magnificent in public; and the Bethlehem wife is + made to look magnificent in public. She not only shows all the beauty of + her face; and she is often very beautiful. She also wears a towering + erection which is as unmistakably meant to give her consequence as the + triple tiara of the Pope. A woman wearing such a crown, and wearing it + without a veil, does stand, and can only conceivably stand, for what we + call the Western view of women, but should rather call the Christian view + of women. This is the sort of dignity which must of necessity come from + some vague memory of chivalry. The woman may or may not be, as the legend + says, a lineal descendant of a Crusader. But whether or no she is his + daughter, she is certainly his heiress. + </p> + <p> + She may be put last among the local figures I have here described, for the + special reason that her case has this rather deeper significance. For it + is not possible to remain content with the fact that the crowd offers such + varied shapes and colours to the eye, when it also offers much deeper + divisions and even dilemmas to the intelligence. The black dress of the + Moslem woman and the white dress of the Christian woman are in sober truth + as different as black and white. They stand for real principles in a real + opposition; and the black and white will not easily disappear in the dull + grey of our own compromises. The one tradition will defend what it regards + as modesty, and the other what it regards as dignity, with passions far + deeper than most of our paltry political appetites. Nor do I see how we + can deny such a right of defence, even in the case we consider the less + enlightened. It is made all the more difficult by the fact that those who + consider themselves the pioneers of enlightenment generally also consider + themselves the protectors of native races and aboriginal rights. Whatever + view we take of the Moslem Arab, we must at least admit that the greater + includes the less. It is manifestly absurd to say we have no right to + interfere in his country, but have a right to interfere in his home. + </p> + <p> + It is the intense interest of Jerusalem that there can thus be two + universes in the same street. Indeed there are ten rather than two; and it + is a proverb that the fight is not only between Christian and Moslem, but + between Christian and Christian. At this moment, it must be admitted, it + is almost entirely a fight of Christian and Moslem allied against Jew. But + of that I shall have to speak later; the point for the moment is that the + varied colours of the streets are a true symbol of the varied colours of + the souls. It is perhaps the only modern place where the war waged between + ideas has such a visible and vivid heraldry. + </p> + <p> + And that fact alone may well leave the spectator with one final + reflection; for it is a matter in which the modern world may well have to + learn something from the motley rabble of this remote Eastern town. + </p> + <p> + It may be an odd thing to suggest that a crowd in Bond Street or + Piccadilly should model itself on this masquerade of religions. It would + be facile and fascinating to turn it into a satire or an extravaganza. + Every good and innocent mind would be gratified with the image of a bowler + hat in the precise proportions of the Dome of St. Paul's, and surmounted + with a little ball and cross, symbolising the loyalty of some Anglican to + his mother church. It might even be pleasing to see the street dominated + with a more graceful top-hat modelled on the Eiffel Tower, and signifying + the wearer's faith in scientific enterprise, or perhaps in its frequent + concomitant of political corruption. These would be fair Western parallels + to the head-dresses of Jerusalem; modelled on Mount Ararat or Solomon's + Temple, and some may insinuate that we are not very likely ever to meet + them in the Strand. A man wearing whiskers is not even compelled to plead + some sort of excuse or authority for wearing whiskers, as the Jew can for + wearing ringlets; and though the Anglican clergyman may indeed be very + loyal to his mother church, there might be considerable hesitation if his + mother bade him bind his hair. Nevertheless a more historical view of the + London and Jerusalem crowds will show as far from impossible to + domesticate such symbols; that some day a lady's jewels might mean + something like the sacred jewels of the Patriarch, or a lady's furs mean + something like the furred turban of the Rabbi. History indeed will show us + that we are not so much superior to them as inferior to ourselves. + </p> + <p> + When the Crusaders came to Palestine, and came riding up that road from + Jaffa where the orange plantations glow on either side, they came with + motives which may have been mixed and are certainly disputed. There may + have been different theories among the Crusaders; there are certainly + different theories among the critics of the Crusaders. Many sought God, + some gold, some perhaps black magic. But whatever else they were in search + of, they were not in search of the picturesque. They were not drawn from a + drab civilisation by that mere thirst for colour that draws so many modern + artists to the bazaars of the East. In those days there were colours in + the West as well as in the East; and a glow in the sunset as well as in + the sunrise. Many of the men who rode up that road were dressed to match + the most glorious orange garden and to rival the most magnificent oriental + king. King Richard cannot have been considered dowdy, even by comparison, + when he rode on that high red saddle graven with golden lions, with his + great scarlet hat and his vest of silver crescents. That squire of the + comparatively unobtrusive household of Joinville, who was clad in scarlet + striped with yellow, must surely have been capable (if I may be allowed + the expression) of knocking them in the most magnificent Asiatic bazaar. + Nor were these external symbols less significant, but rather more + significant than the corresponding symbols of the Eastern civilisation. It + is true that heraldry began beautifully as an art and afterwards + degenerated into a science. But even in being a science it had to possess + a significance; and the Western colours were often allegorical where the + Eastern were only accidental. To a certain extent this more philosophical + ornament was doubtless imitated; and I have remarked elsewhere on the + highly heraldic lions which even the Saracens carved over the gate of St. + Stephen. But it is the extraordinary and even exasperating fact that it + was not imitated as the most meaningless sort of modern vulgarity is + imitated. King Richard's great red hat embroidered with beasts and birds + has not overshadowed the earth so much as the billycock, which no one has + yet thought of embroidering with any such natural and universal imagery. + The cockney tourist is not only more likely to set out with the intention + of knocking them, but he has actually knocked them; and Orientals are + imitating the tweeds of the tourist more than they imitated the stripes of + the squire. It is a curious and perhaps melancholy truth that the world is + imitating our worst, our weariness and our dingy decline, when it did not + imitate our best and the high moment of our morning. + </p> + <p> + Perhaps it is only when civilisation becomes a disease that it becomes an + infection. Possibly it is only when it becomes a very virulent disease + that it becomes an epidemic. Possibly again that is the meaning both of + cosmopolitanism and imperialism. Anyhow the tribes sitting by Afric's + sunny fountains did not take up the song when Francis of Assisi stood on + the very mountain of the Middle Ages, singing the Canticle of the Sun. + When Michael Angelo carved a statue in snow, Eskimos did not copy him, + despite their large natural quarries or resources. Laplanders never made a + model of the Elgin Marbles, with a frieze of reindeers instead of horses; + nor did Hottentots try to paint Mumbo Jumbo as Raphael had painted + Madonnas. But many a savage king has worn a top-hat, and the barbarian has + sometimes been so debased as to add to it a pair of trousers. Explosive + bullets and the brutal factory system numbers of advanced natives are + anxious to possess. And it was this reflection, arising out of the mere + pleasure of the eye in the parti-coloured crowd before me, that brought + back my mind to the chief problem and peril of our position in Palestine, + on which I touched earlier in this chapter; the peril which is largely at + the back both of the just and of the unjust objections to Zionism. It is + the fear that the West, in its modern mercantile mood, will send not its + best but its worst. The artisan way of putting it, from the point of view + of the Arab, is that it will mean not so much the English merchant as the + Jewish money-lender. I shall write elsewhere of better types of Jew and + the truths they really represent; but the Jewish money-lender is in a + curious and complex sense the representative of this unfortunate paradox. + He is not only unpopular both in the East and West, but he is unpopular in + the West for being Eastern and in the East for being Western. He is + accused in Europe of Asiatic crookedness and secrecy, and in Asia of + European vulgarity and bounce. I have said <i>a propos</i> of the Arab + that the dignity of the oriental is in his long robe; the merely + mercantile Jew is the oriental who has lost his long robe, which leads to + a dangerous liveliness in the legs. He bustles and hustles too much; and + in Palestine some of the unpopularity even of the better sort of Jew is + simply due to his restlessness. But there remains a fear that it will not + be a question of the better sort of Jew, or of the better sort of British + influence. The same ignominious inversion which reproduces everywhere the + factory chimney without the church tower, which spreads a cockney commerce + but not a Christian culture, has given many men a vague feeling that the + influence of modern civilisation will surround these ragged but coloured + groups with something as dreary and discoloured, as unnatural and as + desolate as the unfamiliar snow in which they were shivering as I watched + them. There seemed a sort of sinister omen in this strange visitation that + the north had sent them; in the fact that when the north wind blew at + last, it had only scattered on them this silver dust of death. + </p> + <p> + It may be that this more melancholy mood was intensified by that pale + landscape and those impassable ways. I do not dislike snow; on the + contrary I delight in it; and if it had drifted as deep in my own country + against my own door I should have thought it the triumph of Christmas, and + a thing as comic as my own dog and donkey. But the people in the coloured + rags did dislike it; and the effects of it were not comic but tragic. The + news that came in seemed in that little lonely town like the news of a + great war, or even of a great defeat. Men fell to regarding it, as they + have fallen too much to regarding the war, merely as an unmixed misery, + and here the misery was really unmixed. As the snow began to melt corpses + were found in it, homes were hopelessly buried, and even the gradual + clearing of the roads only brought him stories of the lonely hamlets lost + in the hills. It seemed as if a breath of the aimless destruction that + wanders in the world had drifted across us; and no task remained for men + but the weary rebuilding of ruins and the numbering of the dead. + </p> + <p> + Only as I went out of the Jaffa Gate, a man told me that the tree of the + hundred deaths, that was the type of the eternal Caliphate of the + Crescent, was cast down and lying broken in the snow. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER VI. — THE GROUPS OF THE CITY + </h2> + <p> + Palestine is a striped country; that is the first effect of landscape on + the eye. It runs in great parallel lines wavering into vast hills and + valleys, but preserving the parallel pattern; as if drawn boldly but + accurately with gigantic chalks of green and grey and red and yellow. The + natural explanation or (to speak less foolishly) the natural process of + this is simple enough. The stripes are the strata of the rock, only they + are stripped by the great rains, so that everything has to grow on ledges, + repeating yet again that terraced character to be seen in the vineyards + and the staircase streets of the town. But though the cause is in a sense + in the ruinous strength of the rain, the hues are not the dreary hues of + ruin. What earth there is is commonly a red clay richer than that of + Devon; a red clay of which it would be easy to believe that the giant + limbs of the first man were made. What grass there is is not only an + enamel of emerald, but is literally crowded with those crimson anemones + which might well have called forth the great saying touching Solomon in + all his glory. And even what rock there is is coloured with a thousand + secondary and tertiary tints, as are the walls and streets of the Holy + City which is built from the quarries of these hills. For the old stones + of the old Jerusalem are as precious as the precious stones of the New + Jerusalem; and at certain moments of morning or of sunset, every pebble + might be a pearl. + </p> + <p> + And all these coloured strata rise so high and roll so far that they might + be skies rather than slopes. It is as if we looked up at a frozen sunset; + or a daybreak fixed for ever with its fleeting bars of cloud. And indeed + the fancy is not without a symbolic suggestiveness. This is the land of + eternal things; but we tend too much to forget that recurrent things are + eternal things. We tend to forget that subtle tones and delicate hues, + whether in the hills or the heavens, were to the primitive poets and sages + as visible as they are to us; and the strong and simple words in which + they describe them do not prove that they did not realise them. When + Wordsworth speaks of "the clouds that gather round the setting sun," we + assume that he has seen every shadow of colour and every curve of form; + but when the Hebrew poet says "He hath made the clouds his chariot"; we do + not always realise that he was full of indescribable emotions aroused by + indescribable sights. We vaguely assume that the very sky was plainer in + primitive times. We feel as if there had been a fashion in sunsets; or as + if dawn was always grey in the Stone Age or brown in the Bronze Age. + </p> + <p> + But there is another parable written in those long lines of many-coloured + clay and stone. Palestine is in every sense a stratified country. It is + not only true in the natural sense, as here where the clay has fallen away + and left visible the very ribs of the hills. It is true in the quarries + where men dig, in the dead cities where they excavate, and even in the + living cities where they still fight and pray. The sorrow of all Palestine + is that its divisions in culture, politics and theology are like its + divisions in geology. The dividing line is horizontal instead of vertical. + The frontier does not run between states but between stratified layers. + The Jew did not appear beside the Canaanite but on top of the Canaanite; + the Greek not beside the Jew but on top of the Jew; the Moslem not beside + the Christian but on top of the Christian. It is not merely a house + divided against itself, but one divided across itself. It is a house in + which the first floor is fighting the second floor, in which the basement + is oppressed from above and attics are besieged from below. There is a + great deal of gunpowder in the cellars; and people are by no means + comfortable even on the roof. In days of what some call Bolshevism, it may + be said that most states are houses in which the kitchen has declared war + on the drawing-room. But this will give no notion of the toppling pagoda + of political and religious and racial differences, of which the name is + Palestine. To explain that it is necessary to give the traveller's first + impressions more particularly in their order, and before I return to this + view of the society as stratified, I must state the problem more + practically as it presents itself while the society still seems + fragmentary. + </p> + <p> + We are always told that the Turk kept the peace between the Christian + sects. It would be nearer the nerve of vital truth to say that he made the + war between the Christian sects. But it would be nearer still to say that + the war is something not made by Turks but made up by infidels. The + tourist visiting the churches is often incredulous about the tall tales + told about them; but he is completely credulous about the tallest of all + the tales, the tale that is told against them. He believes in a frantic + fraticidal war perpetually waged by Christian against Christian in + Jerusalem. It freshens the free sense of adventure to wander through those + crooked and cavernous streets, expecting every minute to see the Armenian + Patriarch trying to stick a knife into the Greek Patriarch; just as it + would add to the romance of London to linger about Lambeth and Westminster + in the hope of seeing the Archbishop of Canterbury locked in a deadly + grapple with the President of the Wesleyan Conference. And if we return to + our homes at evening without having actually seen these things with the + eye of flesh, the vision has none the less shone on our path, and led us + round many corners with alertness and with hope. But in bald fact religion + does not involve perpetual war in the East, any more than patriotism + involves perpetual war in the West. What it does involve in both cases is + a defensive attitude; a vigilance on the frontiers. There is no war; but + there is an armed peace. + </p> + <p> + I have already explained the sense in which I say that the Moslems are + unhistoric or even anti-historic. Perhaps it would be near the truth to + say that they are prehistoric. They attach themselves to the tremendous + truisms which men might have realised before they had any political + experience at all; which might have been scratched with primitive knives + of flint upon primitive pots of clay. Being simple and sincere, they do + not escape the need for legends; I might almost say that, being honest, + they do not escape the need for lies. But their mood is not historic, they + do not wish to grapple with the past; they do not love its complexities; + nor do they understand the enthusiasm for its details and even its doubts. + Now in all this the Moslems of a place like Jerusalem are the very + opposite of the Christians of Jerusalem. The Christianity of Jerusalem is + highly historic, and cannot be understood without historical imagination. + And this is not the strong point perhaps of those among us who generally + record their impressions of the place. As the educated Englishman does not + know the history of England, it would be unreasonable to expect him to + know the history of Moab or of Mesopotamia. He receives the impression, in + visiting the shrines of Jerusalem, of a number of small sects squabbling + about small things. In short, he has before him a tangle of trivialities, + which include the Roman Empire in the West and in the East, the Catholic + Church in its two great divisions, the Jewish race, the memories of Greece + and Egypt, and the whole Mahometan world in Asia and Africa. It may be + that he regards these as small things; but I should be glad if he would + cast his eye over human history, and tell me what are the large things. + The truth is that the things that meet to-day in Jerusalem are by far the + greatest things that the world has yet seen. If they are not important + nothing on this earth is important, and certainly not the impressions of + those who happen to be bored by them. But to understand them it is + necessary to have something which is much commoner in Jerusalem than in + Oxford or Boston; that sort of living history which we call tradition. + </p> + <p> + For instance, the critic generally begins by dismissing these conflicts + with the statement that they are all about small points of theology. I do + not admit that theological points are small points. Theology is only + thought applied to religion; and those who prefer a thoughtless religion + need not be so very disdainful of others with a more rationalistic taste. + The old joke that the Greek sects only differed about a single letter is + about the lamest and most illogical joke in the world. An atheist and a + theist only differ by a single letter; yet theologians are so subtle as to + distinguish definitely between the two. But though I do not in any case + allow that it is idle to be concerned about theology, as a matter of + actual fact these quarrels are not chiefly concerned about theology. They + are concerned about history. They are concerned with the things about + which the only human sort of history is concerned; great memories of great + men, great battles for great ideas, the love of brave people for beautiful + places, and the faith by which the dead are alive. It is quite true that + with this historic sense men inherit heavy responsibilities and revenges, + fury and sorrow and shame. It is also true that without it men die, and + nobody even digs their graves. + </p> + <p> + The truth is that these quarrels are rather about patriotism than about + religion, in the sense of theology. That is, they are just such heroic + passions about the past as we call in the West by the name of nationalism; + but they are conditioned by the extraordinarily complicated position of + the nations, or what corresponds to the nations. We of the West, if we + wish to understand it, must imagine ourselves as left with all our local + loves and family memories unchanged, but the places affected by them + intermingled and tumbled about by some almost inconceivable convulsion. We + must imagine cities and landscapes to have turned on some unseen pivots, + or been shifted about by some unseen machinery, so that our nearest was + furthest and our remotest enemy our neighbour. We must imagine monuments + on the wrong sites, and the antiquities of one county emptied out on top + of another. And we must imagine through all this the thin but tough + threads of tradition everywhere tangled and yet everywhere unbroken. We + must picture a new map made out of the broken fragments of the old map; + and yet with every one remembering the old map and ignoring the new. In + short we must try to imagine, or rather we must try to hope, that our own + memories would be as long and our own loyalties as steady as the memories + and loyalties of the little crowd in Jerusalem; and hope, or pray, that we + could only be as rigid, as rabid and as bigoted as are these benighted + people. Then perhaps we might preserve all our distinctions of truth and + falsehood in a chaos of time and space. + </p> + <p> + We have to conceive that the Tomb of Napoleon is in the middle of + Stratford-on-Avon, and that the Nelson Column is erected on the field of + Bannockburn; that Westminster Abbey has taken wings and flown away to the + most romantic situation on the Rhine, and that the wooden "Victory" is + stranded, like the Ark on Ararat, on the top of the Hill of Tara; that the + pilgrims to the shrine of Lourdes have to look for it in the Island of + Runnymede, and that the only existing German statue of Bismarck is to be + found in the Pantheon at Paris. This intolerable topsy-turvydom is no + exaggeration of the way in which stories cut across each other and sites + are imposed on each other in the historic chaos of the Holy City. Now we + in the West are very lucky in having our nations normally distributed into + their native lands; so that good patriots can talk about themselves + without perpetually annoying their neighbours. Some of the pacifists tell + us that national frontiers and divisions are evil because they exasperate + us to war. It would be far truer to say that national frontiers and + divisions keep us at peace. It would be far truer to say that we can + always love each other so long as we do not see each other. But the people + of Jerusalem are doomed to have difference without division. They are + driven to set pillar against pillar in the same temple, while we can set + city against city across the plains of the world. While for us a church + rises from its foundations as naturally as a flower springs from a + flower-bed, they have to bless the soil and curse the stones that stand on + it. While the land we love is solid under our feet to the earth's centre, + they have to see all they love and hate lying in strata like alternate + night and day, as incompatible and as inseparable. Their entanglements are + tragic, but they are not trumpery or accidental. Everything has a meaning; + they are loyal to great names as men are loyal to great nations; they have + differences about which they feel bound to dispute to the death; but in + their death they are not divided. + </p> + <p> + Jerusalem is a small town of big things; and the average modern city is a + big town full of small things. All the most important and interesting + powers in history are here gathered within the area of a quiet village; + and if they are not always friends, at least they are necessarily + neighbours. This is a point of intellectual interest, and even intensity, + that is far too little realised. It is a matter of modern complaint that + in a place like Jerusalem the Christian groups do not always regard each + other with Christian feelings. It is said that they fight each other; but + at least they meet each other. In a great industrial city like London or + Liverpool, how often do they even meet each other? In a large town men + live in small cliques, which are much narrower than classes; but in this + small town they live at least by large contacts, even if they are + conflicts. Nor is it really true, in the daily humours of human life, that + they are only conflicts. I have heard an eminent English clergyman from + Cambridge bargaining for a brass lamp with a Syrian of the Greek Church, + and asking the advice of a Franciscan friar who was standing smiling in + the same shop. I have met the same representative of the Church of + England, at a luncheon party with the wildest Zionist Jews, and with the + Grand Mufti, the head of the Moslem religion. Suppose the same Englishman + had been, as he might well have been, an eloquent and popular vicar in + Chelsea or Hampstead. How often would he have met a Franciscan or a + Zionist? Not once in a year. How often would he have met a Moslem or a + Greek Syrian? Not once in a lifetime. Even if he were a bigot, he would be + bound in Jerusalem to become a more interesting kind of bigot. Even if his + opinions were narrow, his experiences would be wide. He is not, as a fact, + a bigot, nor, as a fact, are the other people bigots, but at the worst + they could not be unconscious bigots. They could not live in such + uncorrected complacency as is possible to a larger social set in a larger + social system. They could not be quite so ignorant as a broad-minded + person in a big suburb. Indeed there is something fine and distinguished + about the very delicacy, and even irony, of their diplomatic relations. + There is something of chivalry in the courtesy of their armed truce, and + it is a great school of manners that includes such differences in morals. + </p> + <p> + This is an aspect of the interest of Jerusalem which can easily be + neglected and is not easy to describe. The normal life there is intensely + exciting, not because the factions fight, but rather because they do not + fight. Of the abnormal crisis when they did fight, and the abnormal + motives that made them fight, I shall have something to say later on. But + it was true for a great part of the time that what was picturesque and + thrilling was not the war but the peace. The sensation of being in this + little town is rather like that of being at a great international + congress. It is like that moving and glittering social satire, in which + diplomatists can join in a waltz who may soon be joining in a war. For the + religious and political parties have yet another point in common with + separate nations; that even within this narrow space the complicated curve + of their frontiers is really more or less fixed, and certainly not + particularly fluctuating. Persecution is impossible and conversion is not + at all common. The very able Anglo-Catholic leader, to whom I have already + referred, uttered to me a paradox that was a very practical truth. He said + he felt exasperated with the Christian sects, not for their fanaticism but + for their lack of fanaticism. He meant their lack of any fervour and even + of any hope, of converting each other to their respective religions. An + Armenian may be quite as proud of the Armenian Church as a Frenchman of + the French nation, yet he may no more expect to make a Moslem an Armenian + than the Frenchman expects to make an Englishman a Frenchman. If, as we + are told, the quarrels could be condemned as merely theological, this + would certainly be the very reverse of logical. But as I say, we get much + nearer to them by calling them national; and the leaders of the great + religions feel much more like the ambassadors of great nations. And, as I + have also said, that ambassadorial atmosphere can be best expressed on the + word irony, sometimes a rather tragic irony. At any tea-party or talk in + the street, between the rival leaders, there is a natural tendency to that + sort of wit which consists in veiled allusion to a very open secret. Each + mail feels that there are heavy forces behind a small point, as the weight + of the fencer is behind the point of the rapier. And the point can be yet + more pointed because the politics of the city, when I was there, included + several men with a taste and talent for such polished intercourse; + including especially two men whose experience and culture would have been + remarkable in any community in the world; the American Consul and the + Military Governor of Jerusalem. + </p> + <p> + If in cataloguing the strata of the society we take first the topmost + layer of Western officialism, we might indeed find it not inconvenient to + take these two men as representing the chief realities about it. Dr. + Glazebrook, the representative of the United States, has the less to do + with the internal issues of the country; but his mere presence and history + is so strangely picturesque that he might be put among the first reasons + for finding the city interesting. He is an old man now, for he actually + began life as a soldier in the Southern and Secessionist army, and still + keeps alive in every detail, not merely the virtues but the very gestures + of the old Southern and Secessionist aristocrat. + </p> + <p> + He afterward became a clergyman of the Episcopalian Church, and served as + a chaplain in the Spanish-American war, then, at an age when most men have + long retired from the most peaceful occupations, he was sent out by + President Wilson to the permanent battlefield of Palestine. The brilliant + services he performed there, in the protection of British and American + subjects, are here chiefly interesting as throwing a backward light on the + unearthly topsy-turvydom of Turkish rule. There appears in his experiences + something in such rule which we are perhaps apt to forget in a vision of + stately Eastern princes and gallant Eastern warriors, something more + tyrannical even than the dull pigheadedness of Prussianism. I mean the + most atrocious of all tortures, which is called caprice. It is the thing + we feel in the Arabian tales, when no man knows whether the Sultan is good + or bad, and he gives the same Vizier a thousand pounds or a thousand + lashes. I have heard Dr. Glazebrook describe a whole day of hideous + hesitation, in which fugitives for whom he pleaded were allowed four times + to embark and four times were brought back again to their prison. There is + something there dizzy as well as dark, a whirlpool in the very heart of + Asia; and something wilder than our own worst oppressions in the peril of + those men who looked up and saw above all the power of Asiatic arms, their + hopes hanging on a rocking mind like that of a maniac. The tyrant let them + go at last, avowedly out of a simple sentiment for the white hair of the + consul, and the strange respect that many Moslems feel for the minister of + any religion. Once at least the trembling rock of barbaric rule nearly + fell on him and killed him. By a sudden movement of lawlessness the + Turkish military authorities sent to him, demanding the English documents + left in his custody. He refused to give them up; and he knew what he was + doing. In standing firm he was not even standing like Nurse Cavell against + organised Prussia under the full criticism of organised Europe. He was + rather standing in a den of brigands, most of whom had never heard of the + international rules they violated. Finally by another freak of + friendliness they left him and his papers alone; but the old man had to + wait many days in doubt, not knowing what they would do, since they did + not know themselves. I do not know what were his thoughts, or whether they + were far from Palestine and all possibilities that tyranny might return + and reign for ever. But I have sometimes fancied that, in that ghastly + silence, he may have heard again only the guns of Lee and the last battle + in the Wilderness. + </p> + <p> + If the mention of the American Consul refers back to the oppression of the + past, the mention of the Military Governor brings back all the problems of + the present. Here I only sketch these groups as I first found them in the + present; and it must be remembered that my present is already past. All + this was before the latest change from military to civil government, but + the mere name of Colonel Storrs raises a question which is rather + misunderstood in relation to that change itself. Many of our journalists, + especially at the time of the last and worst of the riots, wrote as if it + would be a change from some sort of stiff militarism to a liberal policy + akin to parliamentarism. I think this a fallacy, and a fallacy not + uncommon in journalism, which is professedly very much up to date, and + actually very much behind the times. As a fact it is nearly four years + behind the times, for it is thinking in terms of the old small and rigidly + professional army. Colonel Storrs is the very last man to be called + militaristic in the narrow sense; he is a particularly liberal and + enlightened type of the sort of English gentleman who readily served his + country in war, but who is rather particularly fitted to serve her in + politics or literature. Of course many purely professional soldiers have + liberal and artistic tastes; as General Shea, one of the organisers of + Palestinian victory, has a fine taste in poetry, or Colonel Popham, then + deputy Governor of Jerusalem, an admirable taste in painting. But while it + is sometimes forgotten that many soldiers are men, it is now still more + strange to forget that most men are soldiers. I fancy there are now few + things more representative than the British Army; certainly it is much + more representative than the British Parliament. The men I knew, and whom + I remember with so much gratitude, working under General Bols at the seat + of government on the Mount of Olives, were certainly not narrowed by any + military professionalism, and had if anything the mark of quite different + professions. One was a very shrewd and humorous lawyer employed on legal + problems about enemy property, another was a young schoolmaster, with keen + and clear ideas, or rather ideals, about education for all the races in + Palestine. These men did not cease to be themselves because they were all + dressed in khaki; and if Colonel Storrs recurs first to the memory, it is + not because he had become a colonel in the trade of soldiering, but + because he is the sort of man who could talk equally about all these other + trades and twenty more. Incidentally, and by way of example, he can talk + about them in about ten languages. There is a story, which whether or no + it be true is very typical, that one of the Zionist leaders made a + patriotic speech in Hebrew, and broke off short in his recollection of + this partially revived national tongue; whereupon the Governor of + Jerusalem finished his Hebrew speech for him—whether to exactly the + same effect or not it would be impertinent to inquire. He is a man rather + recalling the eighteenth century aristocrat, with his love of wit and + classical learning; one of that small group of the governing class that + contains his uncle, Harry Cust, and was warmed with the generous culture + of George Wyndham. It was a purely mechanical distinction between the + military and civil government that would lend to such figures the + stiffness of a drumhead court martial. And even those who differed with + him accused him in practice, not of militarist lack of sympathy with any + of those he ruled, but rather with too imaginative a sympathy with some of + them. To know these things, however slightly, and then read the English + newspapers afterwards is often amusing enough; but I have only mentioned + the matter because there is a real danger in so crude a differentiation. + It would be a bad thing if a system military in form but representative in + fact gave place to a system representative in form but financial in fact. + That is what the Arabs and many of the English fear; and with the mention + of that fear we come to the next stratum after the official. It must be + remembered that I am not at this stage judging these groups, but merely + very rapidly sketching them, like figures and costumes in the street. + </p> + <p> + The group standing nearest to the official is that of the Zionists; who + are supposed to have a place at least in our official policy. Among these + also I am happy to have friends; and I may venture to call the official + head of the Zionists an old friend in a matter quite remote from Zionism. + Dr. Eder, the President of the Zionist Commission, is a man for whom I + conceived a respect long ago when he protested, as a professional + physician, against the subjection of the poor to medical interference to + the destruction of all moral independence. He criticised with great effect + the proposal of legislators to kidnap anybody else's child whom they chose + to suspect of a feeblemindedness they were themselves too feeble-minded to + define. It was defended, very characteristically, by a combination of + precedent and progress; and we were told that it only extended the + principle of the lunacy laws. That is to say, it only extended the + principle of the lunacy laws to people whom no sane man would call + lunatics. It is as if they were to alter the terms of a quarantine law + from "lepers" to "light-haired persons"; and then say blandly that the + principle was the same. The humour and human sympathy of a Jewish doctor + was very welcome to us when we were accused of being Anti-Semites, and we + afterwards asked Dr. Eder for his own views on the Jewish problem. We + found he was then a very strong Zionist; and this was long before he had + the faintest chance of figuring as a leader of Zionism. And this accident + is important; for it stamps the sincerity of the small group of original + Zionists, who were in favour of this nationalist ideal when all the + international Jewish millionaires were against it. To my mind the most + serious point now against it is that the millionaires are for it. But it + is enough to note here the reality of the ideal in men like Dr. Eder and + Dr. Weizmann, and doubtless many others. The only defect that need be + noted, as a mere detail of portraiture, is a certain excessive vigilance + and jealousy and pertinacity in the wrong place, which sometimes makes the + genuine Zionists unpopular with the English, who themselves suffer + unpopularity for supporting them. For though I am called an Anti-Semite, + there were really periods of official impatience when I was almost the + only Pro-Semite in the company. I went about pointing out what was really + to be said for Zionism, to people who were represented by the Arabs as the + mere slaves of the Zionists. + </p> + <p> + This group of Arab Anti-Semites may be taken next, but very briefly; for + the problem itself belongs to a later page; and the one thing to be said + of it here is very simple. I never expected it, and even now I do not + fully understand it. But it is the fact that the native Moslems are more + Anti-Semitic than the native Christians. Both are more or less so; and + have formed a sort of alliance out of the fact. The banner carried by the + mob bore the Arabic inscription "Moslems and Christians are brothers." It + is as if the little wedge of Zionism had closed up the cracks of the + Crusades. + </p> + <p> + Of the Christian crowds in that partnership, and the Christian creeds they + are proud to inherit, I have already suggested something; it is only as + well to note that I have put them out of their strict order in the + stratification of history. It is too often forgotten that in these + countries the Christian culture is older than the Moslem culture. I for + one regret that the old Pax Romana was broken up by the Arabs; and hold + that in the long run there was more life in that Byzantine decline than in + that Semitic revival. And I will add what I cannot here develop or defend; + that in the long run it is best that the Pax Romana should return; and + that the suzerainty of those lands at least will have to be Christian, and + neither Moslem nor Jewish. To defend it is to defend a philosophy; but I + do hold that there is in that philosophy, for all the talk of its + persecutions in the past, a possibility of comprehension and many-sided + sympathy which is not in the narrow intensity either of the Moslem or the + Jew. Christianity is really the right angle of that triangle, and the + other two are very acute angles. + </p> + <p> + But in the meetings that led up to the riots it is the more Moslem part of + the mixed crowds that I chiefly remember; which touches the same truth + that the Christians are the more potentially tolerant. But many of the + Moslem leaders are as dignified and human as many of the Zionist leaders; + the Grand Mufti is a man I cannot imagine as either insulting anybody, or + being conceivably the object of insult. The Moslem Mayor of Jerusalem was + another such figure, belonging also I believe to one of the Arab + aristocratic houses (the Grand Mufti is a descendant of Mahomet) and I + shall not forget his first appearance at the first of the riotous meetings + in which I found myself. I will give it as the first of two final + impressions with which I will end this chapter, I fear on a note of almost + anarchic noise, the unearthly beating and braying of the Eastern gongs and + horns of two fierce desert faiths against each other. + </p> + <p> + I first saw from the balcony of the hotel the crowd of riotors come + rolling up the street. In front of them went two fantastic figures turning + like teetotums in an endless dance and twirling two crooked and naked + scimitars, as the Irish were supposed to twirl shillelaghs. I thought it a + delightful way of opening a political meeting; and I wished we could do it + at home at the General Election. I wish that instead of the wearisome + business of Mr. Bonar Law taking the chair, and Mr. Lloyd George + addressing the meeting, Mr. Law and Mr. Lloyd George would only hop and + caper in front of a procession, spinning round and round till they were + dizzy, and waving and crossing a pair of umbrellas in a thousand invisible + patterns. But this political announcement or advertisement, though more + intelligent than our own, had, as I could readily believe, another side to + it. I was told that it was often a prelude to ordinary festivals, such as + weddings; and no doubt it remains from some ancient ritual dance of a + religious character. But I could imagine that it might sometimes seem to a + more rational taste to have too religious a character. I could imagine + that those dancing men might indeed be dancing dervishes, with their heads + going round in a more irrational sense than their bodies. I could imagine + that at some moments it might suck the soul into what I have called in + metaphor the whirlpool of Asia, or the whirlwind of a world whipped like a + top with a raging monotony; the cyclone of eternity. That is not the sort + of rhythm nor the sort of religion by which I myself should hope to save + the soul; but it is intensely interesting to the mind and even the eye, + and I went downstairs and wedged myself into the thick and thronging + press. It surged through the gap by the gate, where men climbed lamp-posts + and roared out speeches, and more especially recited national poems in + rich resounding voices; a really moving effect, at least for one who could + not understand a word that was said. Feeling had already gone as far as + knocking Jews' hats off and other popular sports, but not as yet on any + universal and systematic scale; I saw a few of the antiquated Jews with + wrinkles and ringlets, peering about here and there; some said as spies or + representatives of the Zionists, to take away the Anti-Semitic colour from + the meeting. But I think this unlikely; especially as it would have been + pretty hard to take it away. It is more likely, I think, that the archaic + Jews were really not unamused and perhaps not unsympathetic spectators; + for the Zionist problem is complicated by a real quarrel in the Ghetto + about Zionism. The old religious Jews do not welcome the new nationalist + Jews; it would sometimes be hardly an exaggeration to say that one party + stands for the religion without the nation, and the other for the nation + without the religion. Just as the old agricultural Arabs hate the Zionists + as the instruments of new Western business grab and sharp practice; so the + old peddling and pedantic but intensely pious Jews hate the Zionists as + the instruments of new Western atheism of free thought. Only I fear that + when the storm breaks, such distinctions are swept away. + </p> + <p> + The storm was certainly rising. Outside the Jaffa Gate the road runs up + steeply and is split in two by the wedge of a high building, looking as + narrow as a tower and projecting like the prow of a ship. There is + something almost theatrical about its position and stage properties, its + one high-curtained window and balcony, with a sort of pole or flag-staff; + for the place is official or rather municipal. Round it swelled the crowd, + with its songs and poems and passionate rhetoric in a kind of crescendo, + and then suddenly the curtain of the window rose like the curtain of the + theatre, and we saw on that high balcony the red fez and the tall figure + of the Mahometan Mayor of Jerusalem. + </p> + <p> + I did not understand his Arabic observations; but I know when a man is + calming a mob, and the mob did become calmer. It was as if a storm swelled + in the night and gradually died away in a grey morning; but there are + perpetual mutterings of that storm. My point for the moment is that the + exasperations come chiefly from the two extremes of the two great Semitic + traditions of monotheism; and certainly not primarily from those poor + Eastern Christians of whose fanaticism we have been taught to make fun. + From time to time there are gleams of the extremities of Eastern + fanaticism which are almost ghastly to Western feeling. They seem to crack + the polish of the dignified leaders of the Arab aristocracy and the + Zionist school of culture, and reveal a volcanic substance of which only + oriental creeds have been made. One day a wild Jewish proclamation is + passed from hand to hand, denouncing disloyal Jews who refuse the teaching + Hebrew; telling doctors to let them die and hospitals to let them rot, + ringing with the old unmistakable and awful accent that bade men dash + their children against the stones. Another day the city would be placarded + with posters printed in Damascus, telling the Jews who looked to Palestine + for a national home that they should find it a national cemetery. And when + these cries clash it is like the clash of those two crooked Eastern + swords, that crossed and recrossed and revolved like blazing wheels, in + the vanguard of the marching mob. + </p> + <p> + I felt the fullest pressure of the problem when I first walked round the + whole of the Haram enclosure, the courts of the old Temple, where the high + muezzin towers now stand at every corner, and heard the clear voices of + the call to prayer. The sky was laden with a storm that became the + snowstorm; and it was the time at which the old Jews beat their hands and + mourn over what are believed to be the last stones of the Temple. There + was a movement in my own mind that was attuned to these things, and + impressed by the strait limits and steep sides of that platform of the + mountains; for the sense of crisis is not only in the intensity of the + ideals, but in the very conditions of the reality, the reality with which + this chapter began. And the burden of it is the burden of Palestine; the + narrowness of the boundaries and the stratification of the rock. A voice + not of my reason but rather sounding heavily in my heart, seemed to be + repeating sentences like pessimistic proverbs. There is no place for the + Temple of Solomon but on the ruins of the Mosque of Omar. There is no + place for the nation of the Jews but in the country of the Arabs. And + these whispers came to me first not as intellectual conclusions upon the + conditions of the case, of which I should have much more to say and to + hope; but rather as hints of something immediate and menacing and yet + mysterious. I felt almost a momentary impulse to flee from the place, like + one who has received an omen. For two voices had met in my ears; and + within the same narrow space and in the same dark hour, electric and yet + eclipsed with cloud, I had heard Islam crying from the turret and Israel + wailing at the wall. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0007" id="link2HCH0007"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER VII. — THE SHADOW OF THE PROBLEM + </h2> + <p> + A traveller sees the hundred branches of a tree long before he is near + enough to see its single and simple root; he generally sees the scattered + or sprawling suburbs of a town long before he has looked upon the temple + or the market-place. So far I have given impressions of the most motley + things merely as they came, in chronological and not in logical order; the + first flying vision of Islam as a sort of sea, with something both of the + equality and the emptiness and the grandeur of its purple seas of sand; + the first sharp silhouette of Jerusalem, like Mount St. Michael, lifting + above that merely Moslem flood a crag still crowned with the towers of the + Crusaders; the mere kaleidoscope of the streets, with little more than a + hint of the heraldic meaning of the colours; a merely personal impression + of a few of the leading figures whom I happened to meet first, and only + the faintest suggestion of the groups for which they stood. So far I have + not even tidied up my own first impressions of the place; far less + advanced a plan for tidying up the place itself. + </p> + <p> + In any case, to begin with, it is easy to be in far too much of a hurry + about tidying up. This has already been noted in the more obvious case, of + all that religious art that bewildered the tourist with its churches full + of flat and gilded ikons. Many a man has had the sensation of something as + full as a picture gallery and as futile as a lumber-room, merely by not + happening to know what is really of value, or especially in what way it is + really valued. An Armenian or a Syrian might write a report on his visit + to England, saying that our national and especially our naval heroes were + neglected, and left to the lowest dregs of the rabble; since the portraits + of Benbow and Nelson, when exhibited to the public, were painted on wood + by the crudest and most incompetent artists. He would not perhaps fully + appreciate the fine shade of social status and utility implied in a + public-house sign. He might not realise that the sign of Nelson could be + hung on high everywhere, because the reputation of Nelson was high + everywhere, not because it was low anywhere; that his bad portrait was + really a proof of his good name. Yet the too rapid reformer may easily + miss even the simple and superficial parallel between the wooden pictures + of admirals and the wooden pictures of angels. Still less will he + appreciate the intense spiritual atmosphere, that makes the real + difference between an ikon and an inn-sign, and makes the inns of England, + noble and national as they are, relatively the homes of Christian charity + but hardly a Christian faith. He can hardly bring himself to believe that + Syrians can be as fond of religion as Englishmen of beer. + </p> + <p> + Nobody can do justice to these cults who has not some sympathy with the + power of a mystical idea to transmute the meanest and most trivial objects + with a kind of magic. It is easy to talk of superstitiously attaching + importance to sticks and stones, but the whole poetry of life consists of + attaching importance to sticks and stones; and not only to those tall + sticks we call the trees or those large stones we call the mountains. + Anything that gives to the sticks of our own furniture, or the stones of + our own backyard, even a reflected or indirect divinity is good for the + dignity of life; and this is often achieved by the dedication of similar + and special things. At least we should desire to see the profane things + transfigured by the sacred, rather than the sacred disenchanted by the + profane; and it was a prophet walking on the walls of this mountain city, + who said that in his vision all the bowls should be as the bowls before + the altar, and on every pot in Jerusalem should be written Holy unto the + Lord. + </p> + <p> + Anyhow, this intensity about trifles is not always understood. Several + quite sympathetic Englishmen told me merely as a funny story (and God + forbid that I should deny that it is funny) the fact of the Armenians or + some such people having been allowed to suspend a string of lamps from a + Greek pillar by means of a nail, and their subsequent alarm when their + nail was washed by the owners of the pillar; a sort of symbol that their + nail had finally fallen into the hands of the enemy. It strikes us as odd + that a nail should be so valuable or so vivid to the imagination. And yet, + to men so close to Calvary, even nails are not entirely commonplace. + </p> + <p> + All this, regarding a decent delay and respect for religion or even for + superstition, is obvious and has already been observed. But before leaving + it, we may note that the same argument cuts the other way; I mean that we + should not insolently impose our own ideas of what is picturesque any more + than our own ideas of what is practical. The aesthete is sometimes more of + a vandal than the vandal. The proposed reconstructions of Jerusalem have + been on the whole reasonable and sympathetic; but there is always a danger + from the activities, I might almost say the antics, of a sort of antiquary + who is more hasty than an anarchist. If the people of such places revolt + against their own limitations, we must have a reasonable respect for their + revolt, and we must not be impatient even with their impatience. + </p> + <p> + It is their town; they have to live in it, and not we. As they are the + only judges of whether their antiquities are really authorities, so they + are the only judges of whether their novelties are really necessities. As + I pointed out more than once to many of my friends in Jerusalem, we should + be very much annoyed if artistic visitors from Asia took similar liberties + in London. It would be bad enough if they proposed to conduct excavations + in Pimlico or Paddington, without much reference to the people who lived + there; but it would be worse if they began to relieve them of the mere + utilitarianism of Chelsea Bridge or Paddington Station. Suppose an + eloquent Abyssinian Christian were to hold up his hand and stop the + motor-omnibuses from going down Fleet Street on the ground that the + thoroughfare was sacred to the simpler locomotion of Dr. Johnson. We + should be pleased at the African's appreciation of Johnson; but our + pleasure would not be unmixed. Suppose when you or I are in the act of + stepping into a taxi-cab, an excitable Coptic Christian were to leap from + behind a lamp-post, and implore us to save the grand old growler or the + cab called the gondola of London. I admit and enjoy the poetry of the + hansom; I admit and enjoy the personality of the true cabman of the old + four-wheeler, upon whose massive manhood descended something of the + tremendous tradition of Tony Weller. But I am not so certain as I should + like to be, that I should at that moment enjoy the personality of the + Copt. For these reasons it seems really desirable, or at least defensible, + to defer any premature reconstruction of disputed things, and to begin + this book as a mere note-book or sketch-book of things as they are, or at + any rate as they appear. It was in this irregular order, and in this + illogical disproportion, that things did in fact appear to me, and it was + some time before I saw any real generalisation that would reduce my + impressions to order. I saw that the groups disagreed, and to some extent + why they disagreed, long before I could seriously consider anything on + which they would be likely to agree. I have therefore confined the first + section of this book to a mere series of such impressions, and left to the + last section a study of the problem and an attempt at the solution. + Between these two I have inserted a sort of sketch of what seemed to me + the determining historical events that make the problem what it is. Of + these I will only say for the moment that, whether by a coincidence or for + some deeper cause, I feel it myself to be a case of first thoughts being + best; and that some further study of history served rather to solidify + what had seemed merely a sort of vision. I might almost say that I fell in + love with Jerusalem at first sight; and the final impression, right or + wrong, served only to fix the fugitive fancy which had seen, in the snow + on the city, the white crown of a woman of Bethlehem. + </p> + <p> + But there is another cause for my being content for the moment, with this + mere chaos of contrasts. There is a very real reason for emphasising those + contrasts, and for shunning the temptation to shut our eyes to them even + considered as contrasts. It is necessary to insist that the contrasts are + not easy to turn into combinations; that the red robes of Rome and the + green scarves of Islam will not very easily fade into a dingy russet; that + the gold of Byzantium and the brass of Babylon will require a hot furnace + to melt them into any kind of amalgam. The reason for this is akin to what + has already been said about Jerusalem as a knot of realities. It is + especially a knot of popular realities. Although it is so small a place, + or rather because it is so small a place, it is a domain and a dominion + for the masses. Democracy is never quite democratic except when it is + quite direct; and it is never quite direct except when it is quite small. + So soon as a mob has grown large enough to have delegates it has grown + large enough to have despots; indeed the despots are often much the more + representative of the two. Now in a place so small as Jerusalem, what we + call the rank and file really counts. And it is generally true, in + religions especially, that the real enthusiasm or even fanaticism is to be + found in the rank and file. In all intense religions it is the poor who + are more religious and the rich who are more irreligious. It is certainly + so with the creeds and causes that come to a collision in Jerusalem. The + great Jewish population throughout the world did hail Mr. Balfour's + declaration with something almost of the tribal triumph they might have + shown when the Persian conqueror broke the Babylonian bondage. It was + rather the plutocratic princes of Jewry who long hung back and hesitated + about Zionism. The mass of Mahometans really are ready to combine against + the Zionists as they might have combined against the Crusades. It is + rather the responsible Mahometan leaders who will naturally be found more + moderate and diplomatic. This popular spirit may take a good or a bad + form; and a mob may cry out many things, right and wrong. But a mob cries + out "No Popery"; it does not cry out "Not so much Popery," still less + "Only a moderate admixture of Popery." It shouts "Three cheers for + Gladstone," it does not shout "A gradual and evolutionary social tendency + towards some ideal similar to that of Gladstone." It would find it quite a + difficult thing to shout; and it would find exactly the same difficulty + with all the advanced formulae about nationalisation and + internationalisation and class-conscious solidarity. No rabble could roar + at the top of its voice the collectivist formula of "The nationalisation + of all the means of production, distribution, and exchange." The mob of + Jerusalem is no exception to the rule, but rather an extreme example of + it. The mob of Jerusalem has cried some remarkable things in its time; but + they were not pedantic and they were not evasive. There was a day when it + cried a single word; "Crucify." It was a thing to darken the sun and rend + the veil of the temple; but there was no doubt about what it meant. + </p> + <p> + This is an age of minorities; of minorities powerful and predominant, + partly through the power of wealth and partly through the idolatry of + education. Their powers appeared in every crisis of the Great War, when a + small group of pacifists and internationalists, a microscopic minority in + every country, were yet constantly figuring as diplomatists and + intermediaries and men on whose attitude great issues might depend. A man + like Mr. Macdonald, not a workman nor a formal or real representative of + workmen, was followed everywhere by the limelight; while the millions of + workmen who worked and fought were out of focus and therefore looked like + a fog. Just as such figures give a fictitious impression of unity between + the crowds fighting for different flags and frontiers, so there are + similar figures giving a fictitious unity to the crowds following + different creeds. There are already Moslems who are Modernists; there have + always been a ruling class of Jews who are Materialists. Perhaps it would + be true to say about much of the philosophical controversy in Europe, that + many Jews tend to be Materialists, but all tend to be Monists, though the + best in the sense of being Monotheists. The worst are in a much grosser + sense materialists, and have motives very different from the dry idealism + of men like Mr. Macdonald, which is probably sincere enough in its way. + But with whatever motives, these intermediaries everywhere bridge the + chasm between creeds as they do the chasm between countries. Everywhere + they exalt the minority that is indifferent over the majority that is + interested. Just as they would make an international congress out of the + traitors of all nations, so they would make an ecumenical council out of + the heretics of all religions. + </p> + <p> + Mild constitutionalists in our own country often discuss the possibility + of a method of protecting the minority. If they will find any possible + method of protecting the majority, they will have found something + practically unknown to the modern world. The majority is always at a + disadvantage; the majority is difficult to idealise, because it is + difficult to imagine. The minority is generally idealised, sometimes by + its servants, always by itself. But my sympathies are generally, I + confess, with the impotent and even invisible majority. And my sympathies, + when I go beyond the things I myself believe, are with all the poor Jews + who do believe in Judaism and all the Mahometans who do believe in + Mahometanism, not to mention so obscure a crowd as the Christians who do + believe in Christianity. I feel I have more morally and even + intellectually in common with these people, and even the religions of + these people, than with the supercilious negations that make up the most + part of what is called enlightenment. It is these masses whom we ought to + consider everywhere; but it is especially these masses whom we must + consider in Jerusalem. And the reason is in the reality I have described; + that the place is like a Greek city or a medieval parish; it is + sufficiently small and simple to be a democracy. This is not a university + town full of philosophies; it is a Zion of the hundred sieges raging with + religions; not a place where resolutions can be voted and amended, but a + place where men can be crowned and crucified. + </p> + <p> + There is one small thing neglected in all our talk about + self-determination; and that is determination. There is a great deal more + difference than there is between most motions and amendments between the + things for which a democracy will vote and the things on which a democracy + is determined. You can take a vote among Jews and Christians and Moslems + about whether lamp-posts should be painted green or portraits of + politicians painted at all, and even their solid unanimity may be solid + indifference. Most of what is called self-determination is like that; but + there is no self-determination about it. The people are not determined. + You cannot take a vote when the people are determined. You accept a vote, + or something very much more obvious than a vote. + </p> + <p> + Now it may be that in Jerusalem there is not one people but rather three + or four; but each is a real people, having its public opinion, its public + policy, its flag and almost, as I have said, its frontier. It is not a + question of persuading weak and wavering voters, at a vague parliamentary + election, to vote on the other side for a change, to choose afresh between + two middle-class gentlemen, who look exactly alike and only differ on a + question about which nobody knows or cares anything. It is a question of + contrasts that will almost certainly remain contrasts, except under the + flood of some spiritual conversion which cannot be foreseen and certainly + cannot be enforced. We cannot enrol these people under our religion, + because we have not got one. We can enrol them under our government, and + if we are obliged to do that, the obvious essential is that like Roman + rule before Christianity, or the English rule in India it should profess + to be impartial if only by being irreligious. That is why I willingly set + down for the moment only the first impressions of a stranger in a strange + country. It is because our first safety is in seeing that it is a strange + country; and our present preliminary peril that we may fall into the habit + of thinking it a familiar country. It does no harm to put the facts in a + fashion that seems disconnected; for the first fact of all is that they + are disconnected. And the first danger of all is that we may allow some + international nonsense or newspaper cant to imply that they are connected + when they are not. It does no harm, at any rate to start with, to state + the differences as irreconcilable. For the first and most unfamiliar fact + the English have to learn in this strange land is that differences can be + irreconcilable. And again the chief danger is that they may be persuaded + that the wordy compromises of Western politics can reconcile them; that + such abysses can be filled up with rubbish, or such chasms bridged with + cobwebs. For we have created in England a sort of compromise which may up + to a certain point be workable in England; though there are signs that + even in England that point is approaching or is past. But in any case we + could only do with that compromise as we could do without conscription; + because an accident had made us insular and even provincial. So in India + where we have treated the peoples as different from ourselves and from + each other we have at least partly succeeded. So in Ireland, where we have + tried to make them agree with us and each other, we have made one + never-ending nightmare. + </p> + <p> + We can no more subject the world to the English compromise than to the + English climate; and both are things of incalculable cloud and twilight. + We have grown used to a habit of calling things by the wrong names and + supporting them by the wrong arguments; and even doing the right thing for + the wrong cause. We have party governments which consist of people who + pretend to agree when they really disagree. We have party debates which + consist of people who pretend to disagree when they really agree. We have + whole parties named after things they no longer support, or things they + would never dream of proposing. We have a mass of meaningless + parliamentary ceremonials that are no longer even symbolic; the rule by + which a parliamentarian possesses a constituency but not a surname; or the + rule by which he becomes a minister in order to cease to be a member. All + this would seem the most superstitious and idolatrous mummery to the + simple worshippers in the shrines of Jerusalem. You may think what they + say fantastic, or what they mean fanatical, but they do not say one thing + and mean another. The Greek may or may not have a right to say he is + Orthodox, but he means that he is Orthodox; in a very different sense from + that in which a man supporting a new Home Rule Bill means that he is + Unionist. A Moslem would stop the sale of strong drink because he is a + Moslem. But he is not quite so muddleheaded as to profess to stop it + because he is a Liberal, and a particular supporter of the party of + liberty. Even in England indeed it will generally be found that there is + something more clear and rational about the terms of theology than those + of politics and popular science. A man has at least a more logical notion + of what he means when he calls himself an Anglo-Catholic than when he + calls himself an Anglo-Saxon. But the old Jew with the drooping ringlets, + shuffling in and out of the little black booths of Jerusalem, would not + condescend to say he is a child of anything like the Anglo-Saxon race. He + does not say he is a child of the Aramaico-Semitic race. He says he is a + child of the Chosen Race, brought with thunder and with miracles and with + mighty battles out of the land of Egypt and out of the house of bondage. + In other words, he says something that means something, and something that + he really means. One of the white Dominicans or brown Franciscans, from + the great monasteries of the Holy City, may or may not be right in + maintaining that a Papacy is necessary to the unity of Christendom. But he + does not pass his life in proving that the Papacy is not a Papacy, as many + of our liberal constitutionalists pass it in proving that the Monarchy is + not a Monarchy. The Greek priests spend an hour on what seems to the + sceptic mere meaningless formalities of the preparation of the Mass. But + they would not spend a minute if they were themselves sceptics and thought + them meaningless formalities, as most modern people do think of the + formalities about Black Rod or the Bar of the House. They would be far + less ritualistic than we are, if they cared as little for the Mass as we + do for the Mace. Hence it is necessary for us to realise that these rude + and simple worshippers, of all the different forms of worship, really + would be bewildered by the ritual dances and elaborate ceremonial antics + of John Bull, as by the superstitious forms and almost supernatural + incantations of most of what we call plain English. + </p> + <p> + Now I take it we retain enough realism and common sense not to wish to + transfer these complicated conventions and compromises to a land of such + ruthless logic and such rending divisions. We may hope to reproduce our + laws, we do not want to reproduce our legal fictions. We do not want to + insist on everybody referring to Mr. Peter or Mr. Paul, as the honourable + member for Waddy Walleh; because a retiring Parliamentarian has to become + Steward of the Chiltern Hundreds, we shall not insist on a retiring + Palestinian official becoming Steward of the Moabitic Hundreds. But yet in + much more subtle and more dangerous ways we are making that very mistake. + We are transferring the fictions and even the hypocrisies of our own + insular institutions from a place where they can be tolerated to a place + where they will be torn in pieces. I have confined myself hitherto to + descriptions and not to criticisms, to stating the elements of the problem + rather than attempting as yet to solve it; because I think the danger is + rather that we shall underrate the difficulties than overdo the + description; that we shall too easily deny the problem rather than that we + shall too severely criticise the solution. But I would conclude this + chapter with one practical criticism which seems to me to follow directly + from all that is said here of our legal fictions and local anomalies. One + thing at least has been done by our own Government, which is entirely + according to the ritual or routine of our own Parliament. It is a + parliament of Pooh Bah, where anybody may be Lord High Everything Else. It + is a parliament of Alice in Wonderland, where the name of a thing is + different from what it is called, and even from what its name is called. + It is death and destruction to send out these fictions into a foreign + daylight, where they will be seen as things and not theories. And knowing + all this, I cannot conceive the reason, or even the meaning, of sending + out Sir Herbert Samuel as the British representative in Palestine. + </p> + <p> + I have heard it supported as an interesting experiment in Zionism. I have + heard it denounced as a craven concession to Zionism. I think it is quite + obviously a flat and violent contradiction to Zionism. Zionism, as I have + always understood it, and indeed as I have always defended it, consists in + maintaining that it would be better for all parties if Israel had the + dignity and distinctive responsibility of a separate nation; and that this + should be effected, if possible, or so far as possible, by giving the Jews + a national home, preferably in Palestine. But where is Sir Herbert + Samuel's national home? If it is in Palestine he cannot go there as a + representative of England. If it is in England, he is so far a living + proof that a Jew does not need a national home in Palestine. If there is + any point in the Zionist argument at all, you have chosen precisely the + wrong man and sent him to precisely the wrong country. You have asserted + not the independence but the dependence of Israel, and yet you have + ratified the worst insinuations about the dependence of Christendom. In + reason you could not more strongly state that Palestine does not belong to + the Jews, than by sending a Jew to claim it for the English. And yet in + practice, of course, all the Anti-Semites will say he is claiming it for + the Jews. You combine all possible disadvantages of all possible courses + of action; you run all the risks of the hard Zionist adventure, while + actually denying the high Zionist ideal. You make a Jew admit he is not a + Jew but an Englishman; even while you allow all his enemies to revile him + because he is not an Englishman but a Jew. + </p> + <p> + Now this sort of confusion or compromise is as local as a London fog. A + London fog is tolerable in London, indeed I think it is very enjoyable in + London. There is a beauty in that brown twilight as well as in the clear + skies of the Orient and the South. But it is simply horribly dangerous for + a Londoner to carry his cloud of fog about with him, in the crystalline + air about the crags of Zion, or under the terrible stars of the desert. + There men see differences with almost unnatural clearness, and call things + by savagely simple names. We in England may consider all sorts of aspects + of a man like Sir Herbert Samuel; we may consider him as a Liberal, or a + friend of the Fabian Socialists, or a cadet of one of the great financial + houses, or a Member of Parliament who is supposed to represent certain + miners in Yorkshire, or in twenty other more or less impersonal ways. But + the people in Palestine will see only one aspect, and it will be a very + personal aspect indeed. For the enthusiastic Moslems he will simply be a + Jew; for the enthusiastic Zionists he will not really be a Zionist. For + them he will always be the type of Jew who would be willing to remain in + London, and who is ready to represent Westminster. Meanwhile, for the + masses of Moslems and Christians, he will only be the aggravation in + practice of the very thing of which he is the denial in theory. He will + not mean that Palestine is not surrendered to the Jews, but only that + England is. Now I have nothing as yet to do with the truth of that + suggestion; I merely give it as an example of the violent and unexpected + reactions we shall produce if we thrust our own unrealities amid the + red-hot realities of the Near East; it is like pushing a snow man into a + furnace. I have no objection to a snow man as a part of our own Christmas + festivities; indeed, as has already been suggested, I think such + festivities a great glory of English life. But I have seen the snow + melting in the steep places about Jerusalem; and I know what a cataract it + could feed. + </p> + <p> + As I considered these things a deepening disquiet possessed me, and my + thoughts were far away from where I stood. After all, the English did not + indulge in this doubling of parts and muddling of mistaken identity in + their real and unique success in India. They may have been wrong or right + but they were realistic about Moslems and Hindoos; they did not say + Moslems were Hindoos, or send a highly intelligent Hindoo from Oxford to + rule Moslems as an Englishman. They may not have cared for things like the + ideal of Zionism; but they understood the common sense of Zionism, the + desirability of distinguishing between entirely different things. But I + remembered that of late their tact had often failed them even in their + chief success in India; and that every hour brought worse and wilder news + of their failure in Ireland. I remembered that in the Early Victorian + time, against the advice only of the wisest and subtlest of the Early + Victorians, we had tied ourselves to the triumphant progress of industrial + capitalism; and that progress had now come to a crisis and what might well + be a crash. And now, on the top of all, our fine patriotic tradition of + foreign policy seemed to be doing these irrational and random things. A + sort of fear took hold of me; and it was not for the Holy Land that I + feared. + </p> + <p> + A cold wave went over me, like that unreasonable change and chill with + which a man far from home fancies his house has been burned down, or that + those dear to him are dead. For one horrible moment at least I wondered if + we had come to the end of compromise and comfortable nonsense, and if at + last the successful stupidity of England would topple over like the + successful wickedness of Prussia; because God is not mocked by the denial + of reason any more than the denial of justice. And I fancied the very + crowds of Jerusalem retorted on me words spoken to them long ago; that a + great voice crying of old along the Via Dolorosa was rolled back on me + like thunder from the mountains; and that all those alien faces are turned + against us to-day, bidding us weep not for them, who have faith and + clarity and a purpose, but weep for ourselves and for our children. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0008" id="link2HCH0008"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER VIII. — THE OTHER SIDE OF THE DESERT + </h2> + <p> + There was a story in Jerusalem so true or so well told that I can see the + actors in it like figures in coloured costumes on a lighted stage. It + occurred during the last days of Turkish occupation, while the English + advance was still halted before Gaza, and heroically enduring the slow + death of desert warfare. There were German and Austrian elements present + in the garrison with the Turks, though the three allies seem to have held + strangely aloof from each other. In the Austrian group there was an + Austrian lady, "who had some dignity or other," like Lord Lundy's + grandmother. She was very beautiful, very fashionable, somewhat frivolous, + but with fits of Catholic devotion. She had some very valuable Christian + virtues, such as indiscriminate charity for the poor and indiscriminate + loathing for the Prussians. She was a nurse; she was also a nuisance. One + day she was driving just outside the Jaffa Gate, when she saw one of those + figures which make the Holy City seem like the eternal crisis of an epic. + Such a man will enter the gate in the most ghastly rags as if he were + going to be crowned king in the city; with his head lifted as if he saw + apocalyptic stars in heaven, and a gesture at which the towers might fall. + This man was ragged beyond all that moving rag-heap; he was as gaunt as a + gallows tree, and the thing he was uttering with arms held up to heaven + was evidently a curse. The lady sent an inquiry by her German servant, + whom also I can see in a vision, with his face of wood and his air of + still trailing all the heraldic trappings of the Holy Roman Empire. This + ambassador soon returned in state and said, "Your Serene High Sublimity + (or whatever it is), he says he is cursing the English." Her pity and + patriotism were alike moved; and she again sent the plenipotentiary to + discover why he cursed the English, or what tale of wrong or ruin at + English hands lay behind the large gestures of his despair. A second time + the wooden intermediary returned and said, "Your Ecstatic Excellency (or + whatever be the correct form), he says he is cursing the English because + they don't come." + </p> + <p> + There are a great many morals to this story, besides the general truth to + which it testifies; that the Turkish rule was not popular even with + Moslems, and that the German war was not particularly popular even with + Turks. When all deductions are made for the patriot as a partisan, and his + way of picking up only what pleases him, it remains true that the English + attack was very widely regarded rather as a rescue than an aggression. And + what complaint there was really was, in many cases, a complaint that the + rescue did not come with a rush; that the English forces had to fall back + when they had actually entered Gaza, and could not for long afterwards + continue their advance on Jerusalem. This kind of criticism of military + operations is always, of course, worthless. In journalists it is generally + worthless without being even harmless. There were some in London whose + pessimistic wailing was less excusable than that of the poor Arab in + Jerusalem; who cursed the English with the addition of being English + themselves, who did it, not as he did, before one foreigner, but before + all foreign opinion; and who advertised their failure in a sort of rags + less reputable than his. No one can judge of a point like the capture and + loss of Gaza, unless he knows a huge mass of technical and local detail + that can only be known to the staff on the spot; it is not a question of + lack of water but of exactly how little water; not of the arrival of + reinforcements but of exactly how much reinforcement; not of whether time + presses, but of exactly how much time there is. Nobody can know these + things who is editing a newspaper at the other end of the world; and these + are the things which, for the soldier on the spot, make all the difference + between jumping over a paling and jumping over a precipice. Even the + latter, as the philosophic relativist will eagerly point out, is only a + matter of degree. But this is a parenthesis; for the purpose with which I + mentioned the anecdote is something different. It is the text of another + and somewhat more elusive truth; some appreciation of which is necessary + to a sympathy with the more profound problems of Palestine. And it might + be expressed thus; it is a proverb that the Eastern methods seem to us + slow; that the Arabs trail along on labouring camels while the Europeans + flash by on motors or mono-planes. But there is another and stranger sense + in which we do seem to them slow, and they do seem to themselves to have a + secret of swiftness. There is a sense in which we here touch the limits of + a land of lightning; across which, as in a dream, the motor-car can be + seen crawling like a snail. + </p> + <p> + I have said that there is another side to the desert; though there is + something queer in talking of another side to something so bare and big + and oppressively obvious. But there is another side besides the big and + bare truths, like giant bones, that the Moslem has found there; there is, + so to speak, an obverse of the obvious. And to suggest what I mean I must + go back again to the desert and the days I spent there, being carted from + camp to camp and giving what were courteously described as lectures. All I + can say is that if those were lectures, I cannot imagine why everybody is + not a lecturer. Perhaps the secret is already out; and multitudes of men + in evening dress are already dotted about the desert, wandering in search + of an audience. Anyhow in my own wanderings I found myself in the high + narrow house of the Base Commandant at Kantara, the only house in the + whole circle of the horizon; and from the wooden balustrade and verandah, + running round the top of it, could be seen nine miles of tents. Sydney + Smith said that the bulbous domes of the Brighton Pavilion looked as if + St. Paul's Cathedral had come down there and littered; and that grey vista + of countless cones looked rather as if the Great Pyramid had multiplied + itself on the prolific scale of the herring. Nor was even such a foolish + fancy without its serious side; for though these pyramids would pass, the + plan of them was also among the mightiest of the works of man; and the + king in every pyramid was alive. For this was the great camp that was the + pivot of the greatest campaign; and from that balcony I had looked on + something all the more historic because it may never be seen again. As the + dusk fell and the moon brightened above that great ghostly city of canvas, + I had fallen into talk with three or four of the officers at the base; + grizzled and hard-headed men talking with all the curious and almost + colourless common sense of the soldier. All that they said was objective; + one felt that everything they mentioned was really a thing and not merely + a thought; a thing like a post or a palm-tree. I think there is something + in this of a sympathy between the English and the Moslems, which may have + helped us in India and elsewhere. For they mentioned many Moslem proverbs + and traditions, lightly enough but not contemptuously, and in particular + another of the proverbial prophecies about the term of Turkish power. They + said there was an old saying that the Turk would never depart until the + Nile flowed through Palestine; and this at least was evidently a proverb + of pride and security, like many such; as who should say until the sea is + dry or the sun rises in the west. And one of them smiled and made a small + gesture as of attention. And in the silence of that moonlit scene we heard + the clanking of a pump. The water from the Nile had been brought in pipes + across the desert. + </p> + <p> + And I thought that the symbol was a sound one, apart from all vanities; + for this is indeed the special sort of thing that Christendom can do, and + that Islam by itself would hardly care to do. I heard more afterwards of + that water, which was eventually carried up the hills to Jerusalem, when I + myself followed it thither; and all I heard bore testimony to this truth + so far as it goes; the sense among the natives themselves of something + magic in our machinery, and that in the main a white magic; the sense of + all the more solid sort of social service that belongs rather to the West + than to the East. When the fountain first flowed in the Holy City in the + mountains, and Father Waggett blessed it for the use of men, it is said + that an old Arab standing by said, in the plain and powerful phraseology + of his people: "The Turks were here for five hundred years, and they never + gave us a cup of cold water." + </p> + <p> + I put first this minimum of truth about the validity of Western work + because the same conversation swerved slowly, as it were, to the Eastern + side. These same men, who talked of all things as if they were chairs and + tables, began to talk quite calmly of things more amazing than + table-turning. They were as wonderful as if the water had come there like + the wind, without any pipes or pumps; or if Father Waggett had merely + struck the rock like Moses. They spoke of a solitary soldier at the end of + a single telephone wire across the wastes, hearing of something that had + that moment happened hundreds of miles away, and then coming upon a casual + Bedouin who knew it already. They spoke of the whole tribes moving and on + the march, upon news that could only come a little later by the swiftest + wires of the white man. They offered no explanation of these things; they + simply knew they were there, like the palm-trees and the moon. They did + not say it was "telepathy"; they lived much too close to realities for + that. That word, which will instantly leap to the lips of too many of my + readers, strikes me as merely an evidence of two of our great modern + improvements; the love of long words and the loss of common sense. It may + have been telepathy, whatever that is; but a man must be almost stunned + with stupidity if he is satisfied to say telepathy as if he were saying + telegraphy. If everybody is satisfied about how it is done, why does not + everybody do it? Why does not a cultivated clergyman in Cornwall make a + casual remark to an old friend of his at the University of Aberdeen? Why + does not a harassed commercial traveller in Barcelona settle a question by + merely thinking about his business partner in Berlin? The common sense of + it is, of course, that the name makes no sort of difference; the mystery + is why some people can do it and others cannot; and why it seems to be + easy in one place and impossible in another. In other words it comes back + to that very mystery which of all mysteries the modern world thinks most + superstitious and senseless; the mystery of locality. It works back at + last to the hardest of all the hard sayings of supernaturalism; that there + is such a thing as holy or unholy ground, as divinely or diabolically + inspired people; that there may be such things as sacred sites or even + sacred stones; in short that the airy nothing of spiritual essence, evil + or good, can have quite literally a local habitation and a name. + </p> + <p> + It may be said in passing that this <i>genius loci</i> is here very much + the presiding genius. It is true that everywhere to-day a parade of the + theory of pantheism goes with a considerable practice of particularism; + and that people everywhere are beginning to wish they were somewhere. And + even where it is not true of men, it seems to be true of the mysterious + forces which men are once more studying. The words we now address to the + unseen powers may be vague and universal, but the words they are said to + address to us are parochial and even private. While the Higher Thought + Centre would widen worship everywhere to a temple not made with hands, the + Psychical Research Society is conducting practical experiments round a + haunted house. Men may become cosmopolitans, but ghosts remain patriots. + Men may or may not expect an act of healing to take place at a holy well, + but nobody expects it ten miles from the well; and even the sceptic who + comes to expose the ghost-haunted churchyard has to haunt the churchyard + like a ghost. There may be something faintly amusing about the idea of + demi-gods with door-knockers and dinner tables, and demons, one may almost + say, keeping the home fires burning. But the driving force of this dark + mystery of locality is all the more indisputable because it drives against + most modern theories and associations. The truth is that, upon a more + transcendental consideration, we do not know what place is any more than + we know what time is. We do not know of the unknown powers that they + cannot concentrate in space as in time, or find in a spot something that + corresponds to a crisis. And if this be felt everywhere, it is necessarily + and abnormally felt in those alleged holy places and sacred spots. It is + felt supremely in all those lands of the Near East which lie about the + holy hill of Zion. + </p> + <p> + In these lands an impression grows steadily on the mind much too large for + most of the recent religious or scientific definitions. The bogus heraldry + of Haeckel is as obviously insufficient as any quaint old chronicle + tracing the genealogies of English kings through the chiefs of Troy to the + children of Noah. There is no difference, except that the tale of the Dark + Ages can never be proved, while the travesty of the Darwinian theory can + sometimes be disproved. But I should diminish my meaning if I suggested it + as a mere score in the Victorian game of Scripture versus Science. Some + much larger mystery veils the origins of man than most partisans on either + side have realised; and in these strange primeval plains the traveller + does realise it. It was never so well expressed as by one of the most + promising of those whose literary possibilities were gloriously broken off + by the great war; Lieutenant Warre-Cornish who left a strange and striking + fragment, about a man who came to these lands with a mystical idea of + forcing himself back against the stream of time into the very fountain of + creation. This is a parenthesis; but before resuming the more immediate + matter of the supernormal tricks of the tribes of the East, it is well to + recognise this very real if much more general historic impression about + the particular lands in which they lived. I have called it a historic + impression; but it might more truly be called a prehistoric impression. It + is best expressed in symbol by saying that the legendary site of the + Garden of Eden is in Mesopotamia. It is equally well expressed in concrete + experience by saying that, when I was in these parts, a learned man told + me that the primitive form of wheat had just, for the first time, been + discovered in Palestine. + </p> + <p> + The feeling that fills the traveller may be faintly suggested thus; that + here, in this legendary land between Asia and Europe, may well have + happened whatever did happen; that through this Eastern gate, if any, + entered whatever made and changed the world. Whatever else this narrow + strip of land may seem like, it does really seem, to the spirit and almost + to the senses, like the bridge that may have borne across archaic abysses + the burden and the mystery of man. Here have been civilisations as old as + any barbarism; to all appearance perhaps older than any barbarism. Here is + the camel; the enormous unnatural friend of man; the prehistoric pet. He + is never known to have been wild, and might make a man fancy that all wild + animals had once been tame. As I said elsewhere, all might be a runaway + menagerie; the whale a cow that went swimming and never came back, the + tiger a large cat that took the prize (and the prize-giver) and escaped to + the jungle. This is not (I venture to think) true; but it is true as + Pithecanthropus and Primitive Man and all the other random guesses from + dubious bits of bone and stone. And the truth is some third thing, too + tremendous to be remembered by men. Whatever it was, perhaps the camel saw + it; but from the expression on the face of that old family servant, I feel + sure that he will never tell. + </p> + <p> + I have called this the other side of the desert; and in another sense it + is literally the other side. It is the other shore of that shifting and + arid sea. Looking at it from the West and considering mainly the case of + the Moslem, we feel the desert is but a barren border-land of Christendom; + but seen from the other side it is the barrier between us and a heathendom + far more mysterious and even monstrous than anything Moslem can be. Indeed + it is necessary to realise this more vividly in order to feel the virtue + of the Moslem movement. It belonged to the desert, but in one sense it was + rather a clearance in the cloud that rests upon the desert; a rift of pale + but clean light in volumes of vapour rolled on it like smoke from the + strange lands beyond. It conceived a fixed hatred of idolatry, partly + because its face was turned towards the multitudinous idolatries of the + lands of sunrise; and as I looked Eastward I seemed to be conscious of the + beginnings of that other world; and saw, like a forest of arms or a dream + full of faces, the gods of Asia on their thousand thrones. + </p> + <p> + It is not a mere romance that calls it a land of magic, or even of black + magic. Those who carry that atmosphere to us are not the romanticists but + the realists. Every one can feel it in the work of Mr. Rudyard Kipling; + and when I once remarked on his repulsive little masterpiece called "The + Mark of the Beast," to a rather cynical Anglo-Indian officer, he observed + moodily, "It's a beastly story. But those devils really can do jolly queer + things." It is but to take a commonplace example out of countless more + notable ones to mention the many witnesses to the mango trick. Here again + we have from time to time to weep over the weak-mindedness that hurriedly + dismisses it as the practice of hypnotism. It is as if people were asked + to explain how one unarmed Indian had killed three hundred men, and they + said it was only the practice of human sacrifice. Nothing that we know as + hypnotism will enable a man to alter the eyes in the heads of a huge crowd + of total strangers; wide awake in broad daylight; and if it is hypnotism, + it is something so appallingly magnified as to need a new magic to explain + the explanation; certainly something that explains it better than a Greek + word for sleep. But the impression of these special instances is but one + example of a more universal impression of the Asiatic atmosphere; and that + atmosphere itself is only an example of something vaster still for which I + am trying to find words. Asia stands for something which the world in the + West as well as the East is more and more feeling as a presence, and even + a pressure. It might be called the spiritual world let loose; or a sort of + psychical anarchy; a jungle of mango plants. And it is pressing upon the + West also to-day because of the breaking down of certain materialistic + barriers that have hitherto held it back. In plain words the attitude of + science is not only modified; it is now entirely reversed. I do not say it + with mere pleasure; in some ways I prefer our materialism to their + spiritualism. But for good or evil the scientists are now destroying their + own scientific world. + </p> + <p> + The agnostics have been driven back on agnosticism; and are already + recovering from the shock. They find themselves in a really unknown world + under really unknown gods; a world which is more mystical, or at least + more mysterious. For in the Victorian age the agnostics were not really + agnostics. They might be better described as reverent materialists; or at + any rate monists. They had at least at the back of their minds a clear and + consistent concept of their rather clockwork cosmos; that is why they + could not admit the smallest speck of the supernatural into their + clockwork. But to-day it is very hard for a scientific man to say where + the supernatural ends or the natural begins, or what name should be given + to either. The word agnostic has ceased to be a polite word for atheist. + It has become a real word for a very real state of mind, conscious of many + possibilities beyond that of the atheist, and not excluding that of the + polytheist. It is no longer a question of defining or denying a simple + central power, but of balancing the brain in a bewilderment of new powers + which seem to overlap and might even conflict. Nature herself has become + unnatural. The wind is blowing from the other side of the desert, not now + with noble truism "There is no God but God," but rather with that other + motto out of the deeper anarchy of Asia, drawn out by Mr. Kipling, in the + shape of a native proverb, in the very story already mentioned; "Your gods + and my gods, do you or I know which is the stronger?" There was a mystical + story I read somewhere in my boyhood, of which the only image that remains + is that of a rose-bush growing mysteriously in the middle of a room. + Taking this image for the sake of argument, we can easily fancy a man + half-conscious and convinced that he is delirious, or still partly in a + dream, because he sees such a magic bush growing irrationally in the + middle of his bedroom. All the walls and furniture are familiar and solid, + the table, the clock, the telephone, the looking glass or what not; there + is nothing unnatural but this one hovering hallucination or optical + delusion of green and red. Now that was very much the view taken of the + Rose of Sharon, the mystical rose of the sacred tradition of Palestine, by + any educated man about 1850, when the rationalism of the eighteenth + century was supposed to have found full support in the science of the + nineteenth. He had a sentiment about a rose: he was still glad it had + fragrance or atmosphere; though he remembered with a slight discomfort + that it had thorns. But what bothered him about it was that it was + impossible. And what made him think it impossible was it was inconsistent + with everything else. It was one solitary and monstrous exception to the + sort of rule that ought to have no exceptions. Science did not convince + him that there were few miracles, but that there were no miracles; and why + should there be miracles only in Palestine and only for one short period? + It was a single and senseless contradiction to an otherwise complete + cosmos. For the furniture fitted in bit by bit and better and better; and + the bedroom seemed to grow more and more solid. The man recognised the + portrait of himself over the mantelpiece or the medicine bottles on the + table, like the dying lover in Browning. In other words, science so far + had steadily solidified things; Newton had measured the walls and ceiling + and made a calculus of their three dimensions. Darwin was already + arranging the animals in rank as neatly as a row of chairs, or Faraday the + chemical elements as clearly as a row of medicine bottles. From the middle + of the eighteenth century to the middle of the nineteenth, science was not + only making discoveries, but all the discoveries were in one direction. + Science is still making discoveries; but they are in the opposite + direction. + </p> + <p> + For things are rather different when the man in the bed next looks at the + bedroom. Not only is the rose-bush still very obvious; but the other + things are looking very odd. The perspective seems to have gone crooked; + the walls seem to vary in measurement till the man thinks he is going mad. + The wall-paper has a new pattern, of strange spirals instead of round + dots. The table seems to have moved by itself across the room and thrown + the medicine bottles out of the window. The telephone has vanished from + the wall; the mirror does not reflect what is in front of it. The portrait + of himself over the mantelpiece has a face that is not his own. + </p> + <p> + That is something like a vision of the vital change in the whole trend of + natural philosophy in the last twenty or thirty years. It matters little + whether we regard it as the deepening or the destruction of the scientific + universe. It matters little whether we say that grander abysses have + opened in it, or merely that the bottom has fallen out of it. It is quite + self-evident that scientific men are at war with wilder and more + unfathomable fancies than the facts of the age of Huxley. I attempt no + controversy about any of the particular cases: it is the cumulative effect + of all of them that makes the impression one of common sense. It is really + true that the perspective and dimensions of the man's bedroom have + altered; the disciples of Einstein will tell him that straight lines are + curved and perhaps measure more one way than the other; if that is not a + nightmare, what is? It is really true that the clock has altered, for time + has turned into the fourth dimension or something entirely different; and + the telephone may fairly be said to have faded from view in favour of the + invisible telepath. It is true that the pattern of the paper has changed, + for the very pattern of the world has changed; we are told that it is not + made of atoms like the dots but of electrons like the spirals. Scientific + men of the first rank have seen a table move by itself, and walk upstairs + by itself. It does not matter here whether it was done by the spirits; it + is enough that few still pretend that is entirely done by the + spiritualists. I am not dealing with doctrines but with doubts; with the + mere fact that all these things have grown deeper and more bewildering. + Some people really are throwing their medicine bottles out of the window; + and some of them at least are working purely psychological cures of a sort + that would once have been called miraculous healing. I do not say we know + how far this could go; it is my whole point that we do not know, that we + are in contact with numbers of new things of which we know uncommonly + little. But the vital point is, not that science deals with what we do not + know, but that science is destroying what we thought we did know. Nearly + all the latest discoveries have been destructive, not of the old dogmas of + religion, but rather of the recent dogmas of science. The conservation of + energy could not itself be entirely conserved. The atom was smashed to + atoms. And dancing to the tune of Professor Einstein, even the law of + gravity is behaving with lamentable levity. + </p> + <p> + And when the man looks at the portrait of himself he really does not see + himself. He sees his Other Self, which some say is the opposite of his + ordinary self; his Subconscious Self or his Subliminal Self, said to rage + and rule in his dreams, or a suppressed self which hates him though it is + hidden from him; or the Alter Ego of a Dual Personality. It is not to my + present purpose to discuss the merit of these speculations, or whether + they be medicinal or morbid. My purpose is served in pointing out the + plain historical fact; that if you had talked to a Utilitarian and + Rationalist of Bentham's time, who told men to follow "enlightened + self-interest," he would have been considerably bewildered if you had + replied brightly and briskly, "And to which self do you refer; the + sub-conscious, the conscious, the latently criminal or suppressed, or + others that we fortunately have in stock?" When the man looks at his own + portrait in his own bedroom, it does really melt into the face of a + stranger or flicker into the face of a fiend. When he looks at the bedroom + itself, in short, it becomes clearer and clearer that it is exactly this + comfortable and solid part of the vision that is altering and breaking up. + It is the walls and furniture that are only a dream or memory. And when he + looks again at the incongruous rose-bush, he seems to smell as well as + see; and he stretches forth his hand, and his finger bleeds upon a thorn. + </p> + <p> + It will not be altogether surprising if the story ends with the man + recovering full consciousness, and finding he has been convalescing in a + hammock in a rose-garden. It is not so very unreasonable when you come to + think of it; or at least when you come to think of the whole of it. He was + not wrong in thinking the whole must be a consistent whole, and that one + part seemed inconsistent with the other. He was only wrong about which + part was wrong through being inconsistent with the other. Now the whole of + the rationalistic doubt about the Palestinian legends, from its rise in + the early eighteenth century out of the last movements of the Renascence, + was founded on the fixity of facts. Miracles were monstrosities because + they were against natural law, which was necessarily immutable law. The + prodigies of the Old Testament or the mighty works of the New were + extravagances because they were exceptions; and they were exceptions + because there was a rule, and that an immutable rule. In short, there was + no rose-tree growing out of the carpet of a trim and tidy bedroom; because + rose-trees do not grow out of carpets in trim and tidy bedrooms. So far it + seemed reasonable enough. But it left out one possibility; that a man can + dream about a room as well as a rose; and that a man can doubt about a + rule as well as an exception. + </p> + <p> + As soon as the men of science began to doubt the rules of the game, the + game was up. They could no longer rule out all the old marvels as + impossible, in face of the new marvels which they had to admit as + possible. They were themselves dealing now with a number of unknown + quantities; what is the power of mind over matter; when is matter an + illusion of mind; what is identity, what is individuality, is there a + limit to logic in the last extremes of mathematics? They knew by a hundred + hints that their non-miraculous world was no longer watertight; that + floods were coming in from somewhere in which they were already out of + their depth, and down among very fantastical deep-sea fishes. They could + hardly feel certain even about the fish that swallowed Jonah, when they + had no test except the very true one that there are more fish in the sea + than ever came out of it. Logically they would find it quite as hard to + draw the line at the miraculous draught of fishes. I do not mean that + they, or even I, need here depend on those particular stories; I mean that + the difficulty now is to draw a line, and a new line, after the + obliteration of an old and much more obvious line. Any one can draw it for + himself, as a matter of mere taste in probability; but we have not made a + philosophy until we can draw it for others. And the modern men of science + cannot draw it for others. Men could easily mark the contrast between the + force of gravity and the fable of the Ascension. They cannot all be made + to see any such contrast between the levitation that is now discussed as a + possibility and the ascension which is still derided as a miracle. I do + not even say that there is not a great difference between them; I say that + science is now plunged too deep in new doubts and possibilities to have + authority to define the difference. I say the more it knows of what seems + to have happened, or what is said to have happened, in many modern + drawing-rooms, the less it knows what did or did not happen on that lofty + and legendary hill, where a spire rises over Jerusalem and can be seen + beyond Jordan. + </p> + <p> + But with that part of the Palestinian story which is told in the New + Testament I am not directly concerned till the next chapter; and the + matter here is a more general one. The truth is that through a thousand + channels something has returned to the modern mind. It is not + Christianity. On the contrary, it would be truer to say that it is + paganism. In reality it is in a very special sense paganism; because it is + polytheism. The word will startle many people, but not the people who know + the modern world best. When I told a distinguished psychologist at Oxford + that I differed from his view of the universe, he answered, "Why universe? + Why should it not be a multiverse?" The essence of polytheism is the + worship of gods who are not God; that is, who are not necessarily the + author and the authority of all things. Men are feeling more and more that + there are many spiritual forces in the universe, and the wisest men feel + that some are to be trusted more than others. There will be a tendency, I + think, to take a favourite force, or in other words a familiar spirit. Mr. + H. G. Wells, who is, if anybody is, a genius among moderns and a modern + among geniuses, really did this very thing; he selected a god who was + really more like a daemon. He called his book <i>God, the Invisible King</i>; + but the curious point was that he specially insisted that his God differed + from other people's God in the very fact that he was not a king. He was + very particular in explaining that his deity did not rule in any almighty + or infinite sense; but merely influenced, like any wandering spirit. Nor + was he particularly invisible, if there can be said to be any degrees in + invisibility. Mr. Wells's Invisible God was really like Mr. Wells's + Invisible Man. You almost felt he might appear at any moment, at any rate + to his one devoted worshipper; and that, as if in old Greece, a glad cry + might ring through the woods of Essex, the voice of Mr. Wells crying, "We + have seen, he hath seen us, a visible God." I do not mean this + disrespectfully, but on the contrary very sympathetically; I think it + worthy of so great a man to appreciate and answer the general sense of a + richer and more adventurous spiritual world around us. It is a great + emancipation from the leaden materialism which weighed on men of + imagination forty years ago. But my point for the moment is that the mode + of the emancipation was pagan or even polytheistic, in the real + philosophical sense that it was the selection of a single spirit, out of + many there might be in the spiritual world. The point is that while Mr. + Wells worships his god (who is not his creator or even necessarily his + overlord) there is nothing to prevent Mr. William Archer, also + emancipated, from adoring another god in another temple; or Mr. Arnold + Bennett, should he similarly liberate his mind, from bowing down to a + third god in a third temple. My imagination rather fails me, I confess, in + evoking the image and symbolism of Mr. Bennett's or Mr. Archer's + idolatries; and if I had to choose between the three, I should probably be + found as an acolyte in the shrine of Mr. Wells. But, anyhow, the trend of + all this is to polytheism, rather as it existed in the old civilisation of + paganism. + </p> + <p> + There is the same modern mark in Spiritualism. Spiritualism also has the + trend of polytheism, if it be in a form more akin to ancestor-worship. But + whether it be the invocation of ghosts or of gods, the mark of it is that + it invokes something less than the divine; nor am I at all quarrelling + with it on that account. I am merely describing the drift of the day; and + it seems clear that it is towards the summoning of spirits to our aid + whatever their position in the unknown world, and without any clear + doctrinal plan of that world. The most probable result would seem to be a + multitude of psychic cults, personal and impersonal, from the vaguest + reverence for the powers of nature to the most concrete appeal to crystals + or mascots. When I say that the agnostics have discovered agnosticism, and + have now recovered from the shock, I do not mean merely to sneer at the + identity of the word agnosticism with the word ignorance. On the contrary, + I think ignorance the greater thing; for ignorance can be creative. And + the thing it can create, and soon probably will create, is one of the lost + arts of the world; a mythology. + </p> + <p> + In a word, the modern world will probably end exactly where the Bible + begins. In that inevitable setting of spirit against spirit, or god + against god, we shall soon be in a position to do more justice not only to + the New Testament, but to the Old Testament. Our descendants may very + possibly do the very thing we scoff at the old Jews for doing; grope for + and cling to their own deity as one rising above rivals who seem to be + equally real. They also may feel him not primarily as the sole or even the + supreme but only as the best; and have to abide the miracles of ages to + prove that he is also the mightiest. For them also he may at first be felt + as their own, before he is extended to others; he also, from the collision + with colossal idolatries and towering spiritual tyrannies, may emerge only + as a God of Battles and a Lord of Hosts. Here between the dark wastes and + the clouded mountain was fought out what must seem even to the indifferent + a wrestle of giants driving the world out of its course; Jehovah of the + mountains casting down Baal of the desert and Dagon of the sea. Here + wandered and endured that strange and terrible and tenacious people who + held high above all their virtues and their vices one indestructible idea; + that they were but the tools in that tremendous hand. Here was the first + triumph of those who, in some sense beyond our understanding, had rightly + chosen among the powers invisible, and found their choice a great god + above all gods. So the future may suffer not from the loss but the + multiplicity of faith; and its fate be far more like the cloudy and + mythological war in the desert than like the dry radiance of theism or + monism. I have said nothing here of my own faith, or of that name on + which, I am well persuaded, the world will be most wise to call. But I do + believe that the tradition founded in that far tribal battle, in that far + Eastern land, did indeed justify itself by leading up to a lasting truth; + and that it will once again be justified of all its children. What has + survived through an age of atheism as the most indestructible would + survive through an age of polytheism as the most indispensable. If among + many gods it could not presently be proved to be the strongest, some would + still know it was the best. Its central presence would endure through + times of cloud and confusion, in which it was judged only as a myth among + myths or a man among men. Even the old heathen test of humanity and the + apparition of the body, touching which I have quoted the verse about the + pagan polytheist as sung by the neo-pagan poet, is a test which that + incarnate mystery will abide the best. And however much or little our + spiritual inquirers may lift the veil from their invisible kings, they + will not find a vision more vivid than a man walking unveiled upon the + mountains, seen of men and seeing; a visible god. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0009" id="link2HCH0009"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER IX. — THE BATTLE WITH THE DRAGON + </h2> + <p> + Lydda or Ludd has already been noted as the legendary birthplace of St. + George, and as the camp on the edge of the desert from which, as it + happened, I caught the first glimpse of the coloured fields of Palestine + that looked like the fields of Paradise. Being an encampment of soldiers, + it seems an appropriate place for St. George; and indeed it may be said + that all that red and empty land has resounded with his name like a shield + of copper or of bronze. The name was not even confined to the cries of the + Christians; a curious imaginative hospitality in the Moslem mind, a + certain innocent and imitative enthusiasm, made the Moslems also + half-accept a sort of Christian mythology, and make an abstract hero of + St. George. It is said that Coeur de Lion on these very sands first + invoked the soldier saint to bless the English battle-line, and blazon his + cross on the English banners. But the name occurs not only in the stories + of the victory of Richard, but in the enemy stories that led up to the + great victory of Saladin. In that obscure and violent quarrel which let + loose the disaster of Hattin, when the Grand Master of the Templars, + Gerard the Englishman from Bideford in Devon, drove with demented heroism + his few lances against a host, there fell among those radiant fanatics one + Christian warrior, who had made with his single sword such a circle of the + slain, that the victorious Moslems treated even his dead body as something + supernatural; and bore it away with them with honour, saying it was the + body of St. George. + </p> + <p> + But if the purpose of the camp be appropriate to the story of St. George, + the position of the camp might be considered appropriate to the more + fantastic story of St. George and the Dragon. The symbolic struggle + between man and monster might very well take place somewhere where the + green culture of the fields meets the red desolation of the desert. As a + matter of fact, I dare say, legend locates the duel itself somewhere else, + but I am only making use of the legend as a legend, or even as a + convenient figure of speech. I would only use it here to make a kind of + picture which may clarify a kind of paradox, very vital to our present + attitude towards all Palestinian traditions, including those that are more + sacred even than St. George. This paradox has already been touched on in + the last chapter about polytheistic spirits or superstitions such as + surrounded the Old Testament, but it is yet more true of the criticisms + and apologetics surrounding the New Testament. And the paradox is this; + that we never find our own religion so right as when we find we are wrong + about it. I mean that we are finally convinced not by the sort of evidence + we are looking for, but by the sort of evidence we are not looking for. We + are convinced when we come on a ratification that is almost as abrupt as a + refutation. That is the point about the wireless telegraphy or wordless + telepathy of the Bedouins. A supernatural trick in a dingy tribe wandering + in dry places is not the sort of supernaturalism we should expect to find; + it is only the sort that we do find. These rocks of the desert, like the + bones of a buried giant, do not seem to stick out where they ought to, but + they stick out, and we fall over them. + </p> + <p> + Whatever we think of St. George, most people would see a mere fairy-tale + in St. George and the Dragon. I dare say they are right; and I only use it + here as a figure for the sake of argument. But suppose, for the sake of + argument, that a man has come to the conclusion that there probably was + such a person as St. George, in spite of all the nonsense about dragons + and the chimera with wings and claws that has somehow interwreathed itself + with his image. Perhaps he is a little biased by patriotism or other + ethical aims; and thinks the saint a good social ideal. Perhaps he knows + that early Christianity, so far from being a religion of pacifists, was + largely a religion of soldiers. Anyhow he thinks St. George himself a + quite sufficiently solid and historical figure; and has little doubt that + records or traces can be found of him. Now the point is this; suppose that + man goes to the land of the legendary combat; and finds comparatively few + or faint traces of the personality of St. George. But suppose he <i>does</i> + find, on that very field of combat, the bones of a gigantic monster unlike + every other creature except the legendary dragon. Or suppose he only finds + ancient Eastern sculptures and hieroglyphics representing maidens, being + sacrificed to such a monster, and making it quite clear that even within + historic times one of those sacrificed was a princess. It is surely clear + that he will be considerably impressed by this confirmation, not of the + part he did believe, but actually of the part he did not believe. He has + not found what he expected but he has found what he wanted, and much more + than he wanted. He has not found a single detail directly in support of + St. George. But he had found a very considerable support of St. George and + the Dragon. + </p> + <p> + It is needless to inform the reader, I trust, that I do not think this + particular case in the least likely; or that I am only using it for the + sake of lucidity. Even as it stands, it would not necessarily make a man + believe the traditional story, but it would make him guess that it was + some sort of tradition of some sort of truth; that there was something in + it, and much more in it than even he himself had imagined. And the point + of it would be precisely that his reason had not anticipated the extent of + his revelation. He has proved the improbable, not the probable thing. + Reason had already taught him the reasonable part; but facts had taught + him the fantastic part. He will certainly conclude that the whole story is + very much more valid than anybody has supposed. Now as I have already + said, it is not in the least likely that this will happen touching this + particular tale of Palestine. But this is precisely what really has + happened touching the most sacred and tremendous of all the tales of + Palestine. This is precisely what has happened touching that central + figure, round which the monster and the champion are alike only ornamental + symbols; and by the right of whose tragedy even St. George's Cross does + not belong to St. George. It is not likely to be true of the desert duel + between George and the Dragon; but it is already true of the desert duel + between Jesus and the Devil. St. George is but a servant and the Dragon is + but a symbol, but it is precisely about the central reality, the mystery + of Christ and His mastery of the powers of darkness, that this very + paradox has proved itself a fact. + </p> + <p> + Going down from Jerusalem to Jericho I was more than once moved by a + flippant and possibly profane memory of the swine that rushed down a steep + place into the sea. I do not insist on the personal parallel; for whatever + my points of resemblance to a pig I am not a flying pig, a pig with wings + of speed and precipitancy; and if I am possessed of a devil, it is not the + blue devil of suicide. But the phrase came back into my mind because going + down to the Dead Sea does really involve rushing down a steep place. + Indeed it gives a strange impression that the whole of Palestine is one + single steep place. It is as if all other countries lay flat under the + sky, but this one country had been tilted sideways. This gigantic gesture + of geography or geology, this sweep as of a universal landslide, is the + sort of thing that is never conveyed by any maps or books or even + pictures. All the pictures of Palestine I have seen are descriptive + details, groups of costume or corners of architecture, at most views of + famous places; they cannot give the bottomless vision of this long + descent. We went in a little rocking Ford car down steep and jagged roads + among ribbed and columned cliffs; but the roads below soon failed us + altogether; and the car had to tumble like a tank over rocky banks and + into empty river-beds, long before it came to the sinister and discoloured + landscapes of the Dead Sea. And the distance looks far enough on the map, + and seems long enough in the motor journey, to make a man feel he has come + to another part of the world; yet so much is it all a single fall of land + that even when he gets out beyond Jordan in the wild country of the + Shereef he can still look back and see, small and faint as if in the + clouds, the spire of the Russian church (I fancy) upon the hill of the + Ascension. And though the story of the swine is attached in truth to + another place, I was still haunted with its fanciful appropriateness to + this one, because of the very steepness of this larger slope and the + mystery of that larger sea. I even had the fancy that one might fish for + them and find them in such a sea, turned into monsters; sea-swine or + four-legged fishes, swollen and with evil eyes, grown over with sea-grass + for bristles; the ghosts of Gadara. + </p> + <p> + And then it came back to me, as a curiosity and almost a coincidence, that + the same strange story had actually been selected as the text for the + central controversy of the Victorian Age between Christianity and + criticism. The two champions were two of the greatest men of the + nineteenth century; Huxley representing scientific scepticism and + Gladstone scriptural orthodoxy. The scriptural champion was universally + regarded as standing for the past, if not for the dead past; and the + scientific champion as standing for the future, if not the final judgment + of the world. And yet the future has been entirely different to anything + that anybody expected; and the final judgment may yet reverse all the + conceptions of their contemporaries and even of themselves. The + philosophical position now is in a very curious way the contrary of the + position then. Gladstone had the worst of the argument, and has been + proved right. Huxley had the best of the argument, and has been proved + wrong. At any rate he has been ultimately proved wrong about the way the + world was going, and the probable position of the next generation. What he + thought indisputable is disputed; and what he thought dead is rather too + much alive. + </p> + <p> + Huxley was not only a man of genius in logic and rhetoric; he was a man of + a very manly and generous morality. Morally he deserves much more sympathy + than many of the mystics who have supplanted him. But they have supplanted + him. In the more mental fashions of the day, most of what he thought would + stand has fallen, and most of what he thought would fall is standing yet. + In the Gadarene controversy with Gladstone, he announced it as his purpose + to purge the Christian ideal, which he thought self-evidently sublime, of + the Christian demonology, which he thought self-evidently ridiculous. And + yet if we take any typical man of the next generation, we shall very + probably find Huxley's sublime thing scoffed at, and Huxley's ridiculous + thing taken seriously. I imagine a very typical child of the age + succeeding Huxley's may be found in Mr. George Moore. He has one of the + most critical, appreciative and atmospheric talents of the age. He has + lived in most of the sets of the age, and through most of the fashions of + the age. He has held, at one time or another, most of the opinions of the + age. Above all, he has not only thought for himself, but done it with + peculiar pomp and pride; he would consider himself the freest of all + freethinkers. Let us take him as a type and a test of what has really + happened to Huxley's analysis of the gold and the dross. Huxley quoted as + the indestructible ideal the noble passage in Micah, beginning "He hath + shewed thee, O man, that which is good"; and asked scornfully whether + anybody was ever likely to suggest that justice was worthless or that + mercy was unlovable, and whether anything would diminish the distance + between ourselves and the ideals that we reverence. And yet already, + perhaps, Mr. George Moore was anticipating Nietzsche, sailing near, as he + said, "the sunken rocks about the cave of Zarathustra." He said, if I + remember right, that Cromwell should be admired for his injustice. He + implied that Christ should be condemned, not because he destroyed the + swine, but because he delivered the sick. In short he found justice quite + worthless and mercy quite unlovable; and as for humility and the distance + between himself and his ideals, he seemed rather to suggest (at this time + at least) that his somewhat varying ideals were only interesting because + they had belonged to himself. Some of this, it is true, was only in the <i>Confessions + of a Young Man</i>; but it is the whole point here that they were then the + confessions of a young man, and that Huxley's in comparison were the + confessions of an old man. The trend of the new time, in very varying + degrees, was tending to undermine, not merely the Christian demonology, + not merely the Christian theology, not merely the Christian religion, but + definitely the Christian ethical ideal, which had seemed to the great + agnostic as secure as the stars. + </p> + <p> + But while the world was mocking the morality he had assumed, it was + bringing back the mysticism he had mocked. The next phase of Mr. George + Moore himself, whom I have taken as a type of the time, was the serious + and sympathetic consideration of Irish mysticism, as embodied in Mr. W. B. + Yeats. I have myself heard Mr. Yeats, about that time, tell a story, to + illustrate how concrete and even comic is the reality of the supernatural, + saying that he knew a farmer whom the fairies had dragged out of bed and + beaten. Now suppose Mr. Yeats had told Mr. Moore, then moving in this + glamorous atmosphere, another story of the same sort. Suppose he had said + that the farmer's pigs had fallen under the displeasure of some magician + of the sort he celebrates, who had conjured bad fairies into the + quadrupeds, so that they went in a wild dance down to the village pond. + Would Mr. Moore have thought that story any more incredible than the + other? Would he have thought it worse than a thousand other things that a + modern mystic may lawfully believe? Would he have risen to his feet and + told Mr. Yeats that all was over between them? Not a bit of it. He would + at least have listened with a serious, nay, a solemn face. He would think + it a grim little grotesque of rustic diablerie, a quaint tale of goblins, + neither less nor more improbable than hundreds of psychic fantasies or + farces for which there is really a good deal of evidence. He would be + ready to entertain the idea if he found it anywhere except in the New + Testament. As for the more vulgar and universal fashions that have + followed after the Celtic movement, they have left such trifles far + behind. And they have been directed not by imaginative artists like Mr. + Yeats or even Mr. Moore, but by solid scientific students like Sir William + Crookes and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I find it easier to imagine an evil + spirit agitating the legs of a pig than a good spirit agitating the legs + of a table. But I will not here enter into the argument, since I am only + trying to describe the atmosphere. Whatever has happened in more recent + years, what Huxley expected has certainly not happened. There has been a + revolt against Christian morality, and where there has not been a return + of Christian mysticism, it has been a return of the mysticism without the + Christianity. Mysticism itself has returned, with all its moons and + twilights, its talismans and spells. Mysticism itself has returned, and + brought with it seven devils worse than itself. + </p> + <p> + But the scientific coincidence is even more strict and close. It affects + not only the general question of miracles, but the particular question of + possession. This is the very last element in the Christian story that + would ever have been selected by the enlightened Christian apologist. + Gladstone would defend it, but he would not go out of his way to dwell on + it. It is an excellent working model of what I mean by finding an + unexpected support, and finding it in an unexpected quarter. It is not + theological but psychological study that has brought us back into this + dark underworld of the soul, where even identity seems to dissolve or + divide, and men are not even themselves. I do not say that psychologists + admit the discovery of demoniacs; and if they did they would doubtless + call them something else, such as demono-maniacs. But they admit things + which seem almost as near to a new supernaturalism, and things quite as + incredible to the old rationalism. Dual personality is not so very far + from diabolic possession. And if the dogma of subconsciousness allows of + agnosticism, the agnosticism cuts both ways. A man cannot say there is a + part of him of which he is quite unconscious, and only conscious that it + is not in contact with the unknown. He cannot say there is a sealed + chamber or cellar under his house, of which he knows nothing whatever; but + that he is quite certain that it cannot have an underground passage + leading anywhere else in the world. He cannot say he knows nothing + whatever about its size or shape or appearance, except that it certainly + does not contain a relic of the finger-joint of St. Catherine of + Alexandria, or that it certainly is not haunted by the ghost of King Herod + Agrippa. If there is any sort of legend or tradition or plausible + probability which says that it is, he cannot call a thing impossible where + he is not only ignorant but even unconscious. It comes back therefore to + the same reality, that the old compact cosmos depended on a compact + consciousness. If we are dealing with unknown quantities, we cannot deny + their connection with other unknown quantities. If I have a self of which + I can say nothing, how can I even say that it is my own self? How can I + even say that I always had it, or that it did not come from somewhere + else? It is clear that we are in very deep waters, whether or no we have + rushed down a steep place to fall into them. + </p> + <p> + It will be noted that what we really lack here is not the supernatural but + only the healthy supernatural. It is not the miracle, but only the miracle + of healing. I warmly sympathise with those who think most of this rather + morbid, and nearer the diabolic than the divine, but to call a thing + diabolic is hardly an argument against the existence of diabolism. It is + still more clearly the case when we go outside the sphere of science into + its penumbra in literature and conversation. There is a mass of fiction + and fashionable talk of which it may truly be said, that what we miss in + it is not demons but the power to cast them out. It combines the occult + with the obscene; the sensuality of materialism with the insanity of + spiritualism. In the story of Gadara we have left out nothing except the + Redeemer, we have kept the devils and the swine. + </p> + <p> + In other words, we have not found St. George; but we have found the + Dragon. We have found in the desert, as I have said, the bones of the + monster we did not believe in, more plainly than the footprints of the + hero we did. We have found them not because we expected to find them, for + our progressive minds look to the promise of something much brighter and + even better; not because we wanted to find them, for our modern mood, as + well as our human nature, is entirely in favour of more amiable and + reassuring things; not because we thought it even possible to find them, + for we really thought it impossible so far as we ever thought of it at + all. We have found them because they are <i>there</i>; and we are bound to + come on them even by falling over them. It is Huxley's method that has + upset Huxley's conclusion. As I have said, that conclusion itself is + completely reversed. What he thought indisputable is disputed; and what he + thought impossible is possible. Instead of Christian morals surviving in + the form of humanitarian morals, Christian demonology has survived in the + form of heathen demonology. But it has not survived by scholarly + traditionalism in the style of Gladstone, but rather by obstinate + objective curiosity according to the advice of Huxley. We in the West have + "followed our reason as far as it would go," and our reason has led us to + things that nearly all the rationalists would have thought wildly + irrational. Science was supposed to bully us into being rationalists; but + it is now supposed to be bullying us into being irrationalists. The + science of Einstein might rather be called following our unreason as far + as it will go, seeing whether the brain will crack under the conception + that space is curved, or that parallel straight lines always meet. And the + science of Freud would make it essentially impossible to say how far our + reason or unreason does go, or where it stops. For if a man is ignorant of + his other self, how can he possibly know that the other self is ignorant? + He can no longer say with pride that at least he knows that he knows + nothing. That is exactly what he does not know. The floor has fallen out + of his mind and the abyss below may contain subconscious certainties as + well as subconscious doubts. He is too ignorant even to ignore; and he + must confess himself an agnostic about whether he is an agnostic. + </p> + <p> + That is the coil or tangle, at least, which the dragon has reached even in + the scientific regions of the West. I only describe the tangle; I do not + delight in it. Like most people with a taste for Catholic tradition, I am + too much of a rationalist for that; for Catholics are almost the only + people now defending reason. But I am not talking of the true relations of + reason and mystery, but of the historical fact that mystery has invaded + the peculiar realms of reason; especially the European realms of the motor + and the telephone. When we have a man like Mr. William Archer, lecturing + mystically on dreams and psychoanalysis, and saying it is clear that God + did not make man a reasonable creature, those acquainted with the + traditions and distinguished record of that dry and capable Scot will + consider the fact a prodigy. I confess it never occurred to me that Mr. + Archer was of such stuff as dreams are made of; and if he is becoming a + mystic in his old age (I use the phrase in a mystical and merely relative + sense) we may take it that the occult oriental flood is rising fast, and + reaching places that are not only high but dry. But the change is much + more apparent to a man who has chanced to stray into those orient hills + where those occult streams have always risen, and especially in this land + that lies between Asia, where the occult is almost the obvious, and + Europe, where it is always returning with a fresher and younger vigour. + The truth becomes strangely luminous in this wilderness between two + worlds, where the rocks stand out stark like the very bones of the Dragon. + </p> + <p> + As I went down that sloping wall or shoulder of the world from the Holy + City on the mountain to the buried Cities of the Plain, I seemed to see + more and more clearly all this Western evolution of Eastern mystery, and + how on this one high place, as on a pivot, the whole purpose of mankind + had swerved. I took up again the train of thought which I had trailed + through the desert, as described in the last chapter, about the gods of + Asia and of the ancient dispensation, and I found it led me along these + hills to a sort of vista or vision of the new dispensation and of + Christendom. Considered objectively, and from the outside, the story is + something such as has already been loosely outlined; the emergence in this + immemorial and mysterious land of what was undoubtedly, when thus + considered, one tribe among many tribes worshipping one god among many + gods, but it is quite as much an evident external fact that the god has + become God. Still stated objectively, the story is that the tribe having + this religion produced a new prophet, claiming to be more than a prophet. + The old religion killed the new prophet; but the new prophet killed the + old religion. He died to destroy it, and it died in destroying him. Now it + may be reaffirmed equally realistically that there was nothing normal + about the case or its consequences. The things that took part in that + tragedy have never been the same since, and have never been like anything + else in the world. The Church is not like other religions; its very crimes + were unique. The Jews are not like other races; they remain as unique to + everybody else as they are to themselves. The Roman Empire did not pass + like other empires; it did not perish like Babylon and Assyria. It went + through a most extraordinary remorse amounting to madness and + resuscitation into sanity, which is equally strange in history whether it + seems as ghastly as a galvanised corpse or as glorious as a god risen from + the dead. The very land and city are not like other lands and cities. The + concentration and conflict in Jerusalem to-day, whether we regard them as + a reconquest by Christendom or a conspiracy of Jews or a part of the + lingering quarrel with Moslems, are alike the effect of forces gathered + and loosened in that one mysterious moment in the history of the city. + They equally proclaim the paradox of its insignificance and its + importance. + </p> + <p> + But above all the prophet was not and is not like other prophets; and the + proof of it is to be found not primarily among those who believe in him, + but among those who do not. He is not dead, even where he is denied. What + is the use of a modern man saying that Christ is only a thing like Atys or + Mithras, when the next moment he is reproaching Christianity for not + following Christ? He does not suddenly lose his temper and talk about our + most unmithraic conduct, as he does (very justly as a rule) about our most + unchristian conduct. We do not find a group of ardent young agnostics, in + the middle of a great war, tried as traitors for their extravagant + interpretation of remarks attributed to Atys. It is improbable that + Tolstoy wrote a book to prove that all modern ills could be cured by + literal obedience to all the orders of Adonis. We do not find wild + Bolshevists calling themselves Mithraic Socialists as many of them call + themselves Christian Socialists. Leaving orthodoxy and even sanity + entirely on one side, the very heresies and insanities of our time prove + that after nearly two thousand years the issue is still living and the + name is quite literally one to conjure with. Let the critics try to + conjure with any of the other names. In the real centres of modern inquiry + and mental activity, they will not move even a mystic with the name of + Mithras as they will move a materialist with the name of Jesus. There are + men who deny God and accept Christ. + </p> + <p> + But this lingering yet living power in the legend, even for those to whom + it is little more than a legend, has another relevancy to the particular + point here. Jesus of Nazareth, merely humanly considered, has thus become + a hero of humanitarianism. Even the eighteenth-century deists in denying + his divinity generally took pains to exalt his humanity. Of the + nineteenth-century revolutionists it is really an understatement to say + that they exalted him as a man; for indeed they rather exalted him as a + superman. That is to say, many of them represented him as a man preaching + a decisively superior and ever strange morality, not only in advance of + his age but practically in advance of our age. They made of his mystical + counsels of perfection a sort of Socialism or Pacifism or Communism, which + they themselves still see rather as something that ought to be or that + will be; the extreme limit of universal love. I am not discussing here + whether they are right or not; I say they have in fact found in the same + figure a type of humanitarianism and the care for human happiness. Every + one knows the striking and sometimes staggering utterances that do really + support and illustrate this side of the teaching. Modern idealists are + naturally moved by such things as the intensely poetic paradox about the + lilies of the field; which for them has a joy in life and living things + like that of Shelley or Whitman, combined with a return to simplicity + beyond that of Tolstoy or Thoreau. Indeed I rather wonder that those, + whose merely historic or humanistic view of the case would allow of such + criticism without incongruity, have not made some study of the purely + poetical or oratorical structure of such passages. Certainly there are few + finer examples of the swift architecture of style than that single + fragment about the flowers; the almost idle opening of a chance reference + to a wild flower, the sudden unfolding of the small purple blossom into + pavilions and palaces and the great name of the national history; and then + with a turn of the hand like a gesture of scorn, the change to the grass + that to-day is and to-morrow is cast into the oven. Then follows, as so + often in the Gospels, the "how much more" which is like a celestial flight + of stairs, a ladder of imaginative logic. Indeed this <i>a fortiori</i>, + and this power of thinking on three levels, is (I may remark incidentally) + a thing very much needed in modern discussion. Many minds apparently + cannot stretch to three dimensions, or to thinking that a cube can go + beyond a surface as a surface goes beyond a line; for instance, that the + citizen is infinitely above all ranks, and yet the soul is infinitely + above the citizen. But we are only concerned at the moment with the sides + of this many-sided mystery which happen to be really in sympathy with the + modern mood. Judged even by our modern tests of emancipated art or ideal + economics, it is admitted that Christ understood all that is rather + crudely embodied in Socialism or the Simple Life. I purposely insist first + on this optimistic, I might almost say this pantheistic or even this pagan + aspect of the Christian Gospels. For it is only when we understand that + Christ, considered merely as a prophet, can be and is a popular leader in + the love of natural things, that we can feel that tremendous and tragic + energy of his testimony to an ugly reality, the existence of unnatural + things. Instead of taking a text as I have done, take a whole Gospel and + read it steadily and honestly and straight through at a sitting, and you + will certainly have one impression, whether of a myth or of a man. It is + that the exorcist towers above the poet and even the prophet; that the + story between Cana and Calvary is one long war with demons. He understood + better than a hundred poets the beauty of the flowers of the battle-field; + but he came out to battle. And if most of his words mean anything they do + mean that there is at our very feet, like a chasm concealed among the + flowers, an unfathomable evil. + </p> + <p> + In short, I would here only hint delicately that perhaps the mind which + admittedly knew much of what we think we know about ethics and economics, + knew a little more than we are beginning to know about psychology and + psychic phenomena. I remember reading, not without amusement, a severe and + trenchant article in the <i>Hibbert Journal</i>, in which Christ's + admission of demonology was alone thought enough to dispose of his + divinity. The one sentence of the article, which I cherish in my memory + through all the changing years, ran thus: "If he was God, he knew there + was no such thing as diabolical possession." It did not seem to strike the + <i>Hibbert</i> critic that this line of criticism raises the question, not + of whether Christ is God, but of whether the critic in the <i>Hibbert + Journal</i> is God. About that mystery as about the other I am for the + moment agnostic; but I should have thought that the meditations of + Omniscience on the problem of evil might be allowed, even by an agnostic, + to be a little difficult to discover. Of Christ in the Gospels and in + modern life I will merely for the moment say this; that if he was God, as + the critic put it, it seems possible that he knew the next discovery in + science, as well as the last, not to mention (what is more common in + rationalistic culture) the last but three. And what will be the next + discovery in psychological science nobody can imagine; and we can only say + that if it reveals demons and their name is Legion, we can hardly be much + surprised now. But at any rate the days are over of Omniscience like that + of the <i>Hibbert</i> critic, who knows exactly what he would know if he + were God Almighty. What is pain? What is evil? What did they mean by + devils? What do we mean by madness? The rising generation, when asked by a + venerable Victorian critic and catechist, "What does God know?" will + hardly think it unreasonably flippant to answer, "God knows." + </p> + <p> + There was something already suggested about the steep scenery through + which I went as I thought about these things; a sense of silent + catastrophe and fundamental cleavage in the deep division of the cliffs + and crags. They were all the more profoundly moving, because my sense of + them was almost as subconscious as the subconsciousness about which I was + reflecting. I had fallen again into the old habit of forgetting where I + was going, and seeing things with one eye off, in a blind abstraction. I + awoke from a sort of trance of absentmindedness in a landscape that might + well awaken anybody. It might awaken a man sleeping; but he would think he + was still in a nightmare. It might wake the dead, but they would probably + think they were in hell. Halfway down the slope the hills had taken on a + certain pallor which had about it something primitive, as if the colours + were not yet created. There was only a kind of cold and wan blue in the + level skies which contrasted with wild sky-line. Perhaps we are accustomed + to the contrary condition of the clouds moving and mutable and the hills + solid and serene; but anyhow there seemed something of the making of a new + world about the quiet of the skies and the cold convulsion of the + landscape. But if it was between chaos and creation, it was creation by + God or at least by the gods, something with an aim in its anarchy. It was + very different in the final stage of the descent, where my mind woke up + from its meditations. One can only say that the whole landscape was like a + leper. It was of a wasting white and silver and grey, with mere dots of + decadent vegetation like the green spots of a plague. In shape it not only + rose into horns and crests like waves or clouds, but I believe it actually + alters like waves or clouds, visibly but with a loathsome slowness. The + swamp is alive. And I found again a certain advantage in forgetfulness; + for I saw all this incredible country before I even remembered its name, + or the ancient tradition about its nature. Then even the green + plague-spots failed, and everything seemed to fall away into a universal + blank under the staring sun, as I came, in the great spaces of the circle + of a lifeless sea, into the silence of Sodom and Gomorrah. + </p> + <p> + For these are the foundations of a fallen world, and a sea below the seas + on which men sail. Seas move like clouds and fishes float like birds above + the level of the sunken land. And it is here that tradition has laid the + tragedy of the mighty perversion of the imagination of man; the monstrous + birth and death of abominable things. I say such things in no mood of + spiritual pride; such things are hideous not because they are distant but + because they are near to us; in all our brains, certainly in mine, were + buried things as bad as any buried under that bitter sea, and if He did + not come to do battle with them, even in the darkness of the brain of man, + I know not why He came. Certainly it was not only to talk about flowers or + to talk about Socialism. The more truly we can see life as a fairy-tale, + the more clearly the tale resolves itself into war with the Dragon who is + wasting fairyland. I will not enter on the theology behind the symbol; but + I am sure it was of this that all the symbols were symbolic. I remember + distinguished men among the liberal theologians, who found it more + difficult to believe in one devil than in many. They admitted in the New + Testament an attestation to evil spirits, but not to a general enemy of + mankind. As some are said to want the drama of Hamlet without the Prince + of Denmark, they would have the drama of Hell without the Prince of + Darkness. I say nothing of these things, save that the language of the + Gospel seems to me to go much more singly to a single issue. The voice + that is heard there has such authority as speaks to an army; and the + highest note of it is victory rather than peace. When the apostles were + first sent forth with their faces to the four corners of the earth, and + turned again to acclaim their master, he did not say in that hour of + triumph, "All are aspects of one harmonious whole" or "The universe + evolves through progress to perfection" or "All things find their end in + Nirvana" or "The dewdrop slips into the shining sea." He looked up and + said, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven." + </p> + <p> + Then I looked up and saw in the long jagged lines of road and rock and + cleft something of the swiftness of such a thunderbolt. What I saw seemed + not so much a scene as an act; as when abruptly Michael barred the passage + of the Lord of Pride. Below me all the empire of evil was splashed and + scattered upon the plain, like a wine-cup shattered into a star. Sodom lay + like Satan, flat upon the floor of the world. And far away and aloft, + faint with height and distance, small but still visible, stood up the + spire of the Ascension like the sword of the Archangel, lifted in salute + after a stroke. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0010" id="link2HCH0010"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER X. — THE ENDLESS EMPIRE + </h2> + <p> + One of the adventures of travel consists, not so much in finding that + popular sayings are false, as that they mean more than they say. We cannot + appreciate the full force of the phrase until we have seen the fact. We + make a picture of the things we do not know out of the things we know; and + suppose the traveller's tale to mean no more abroad than it would at home. + If a man acquainted only with English churches is told about certain + French churches that they are much frequented, he makes an English + picture. He imagines a definite dense crowd of people in their best + clothes going all together at eleven o'clock, and all coming back together + to lunch. He does not picture the peculiar impression he would gain on the + spot; of chance people going in and out of the church all day, sometimes + for quite short periods, as if it were a sort of sacred inn. Or suppose a + man knowing only English beer-shops hears for the first time of a German + beer-garden, he probably does not imagine the slow ritual of the place. He + does not know that unless the drinker positively slams down the top of his + beer-mug with a resounding noise and a decisive gesture, beer will go on + flowing into it as from a natural fountain; the drinking of beer being + regarded as the normal state of man, and the cessation of it a decisive + and even dramatic departure. I do not give this example in contempt; + heaven forbid. I have had so much to say of the inhuman side of + Prussianised Germany that I am glad to be able to pay a passing tribute to + those more generous German traditions which we hope may revive and make + Germany once more a part of Christendom. I merely give it as an instance + of the way in which things we have all heard of, like church-going or + beer-drinking, in foreign lands, mean much more, and something much more + special, than we should infer from our own land. Now this is true of a + phrase we have all heard of deserted cities or temples in the Near East: + "The Bedouins camp in the ruins." When I have read a hundred times that + Arabs camp in some deserted town or temple near the Nile or the Euphrates, + I always thought of gipsies near some place like Stonehenge. They would + make their own rude shelter near the stones, perhaps sheltering behind + them to light a fire; and for the rest, generations of gipsies might camp + there without making much difference. The thing I saw more than once in + Egypt and Palestine was much more curious. It was as if the gipsies set to + work to refurnish Stonehenge and make it a commodious residence. It was as + if they spread a sort of giant umbrella over the circle of stones, and + elaborately hung curtains between them, so as to turn the old Druid temple + into a sort of patchwork pavilion. In one sense there is much more + vandalism, and in another sense much more practicality; but it is a + practicality that always stops short of the true creative independence of + going off and building a house of their own. That is the attitude of the + Arab; and it runs through all his history. Noble as is his masterpiece of + the Mosque of Omar, there is something about it of that patchwork + pavilion. It was based on Christian work, it was built with fragments, it + was content with things that fastidious architects call fictions or even + shams. + </p> + <p> + I frequently saw old ruined houses of which there only remained two walls + of stone, to which the nomads had added two walls of canvas making an + exact cube in form with the most startling incongruity in colour. He needs + the form and he does not mind the incongruity, nor does he mind the fact + that somebody else has done the solid part and he has only done the + ramshackle part. You can say that he is nobly superior to jealousy, or + that he is without artistic ambition, or that he is too much of a nomad to + mind living half in somebody else's house and half in his own. The real + quality is probably too subtle for any simple praise or blame; we can only + say that there is in the wandering Moslem a curious kind of limited common + sense; which might even be called a short-sighted common sense. But + however we define it, that is what can really be traced through Arab + conquests and Arab culture in all its ingenuity and insufficiency. That is + the note of these nomads in all the things in which they have succeeded + and failed. In that sense they are constructive and in that sense + unconstructive; in that sense artistic and in that sense inartistic; in + that sense practical and in that sense unpractical; in that sense cunning + and in that sense innocent. The curtains they would hang round Stonehenge + might be of beautifully selected colours. The banners they waved from + Stonehenge might be defended with glorious courage and enthusiasm. The + prayers they recited in Stonehenge might be essentially worthy of human + dignity, and certainly a great improvement on its older associations of + human sacrifice. All this is true of Islam and the idolatries and + negations are often replaced. But they would not have built Stonehenge; + they would scarcely, so to speak, have troubled to lift a stone of + Stonehenge. They would not have built Stonehenge; how much less Salisbury + or Glastonbury or Lincoln. + </p> + <p> + That is the element about the Arab influence which makes it, after its + ages of supremacy and in a sense of success, remain in a subtle manner + superficial. When a man first sees the Eastern deserts, he sees this + influence as I first described it, very present and powerful, almost + omnipresent and omnipotent. But I fancy that to me and to others it is + partly striking only because it is strange. Islam is so different to + Christendom that to see it at all is at first like entering a new world. + But, in my own case at any rate, as the strange colours became more + customary, and especially as I saw more of the established seats of + history, the cities and the framework of the different states, I became + conscious of something else. It was something underneath, undestroyed and + even in a sense unaltered. It was something neither Moslem nor modern; not + merely oriental and yet very different from the new occidental nations + from which I came. For a long time I could not put a name to this + historical atmosphere. Then one day, standing in one of the Greek + churches, one of those houses of gold full of hard highly coloured + pictures, I fancied it came to me. It was the Empire. And certainly not + the raid of Asiatic bandits we call the Turkish Empire. The thing which + had caught my eye in that coloured interior was the carving of a + two-headed eagle in such a position as to make it almost as symbolic as a + cross. Every one has heard, of course, of the situation which this might + well suggest, the suggestion that the Russian Church was far too much of + an Established Church and the White Czar encroached upon the White Christ. + But as a fact the eagle I saw was not borrowed from the Russian Empire; it + would be truer to say that the Empire was borrowed from the eagle. The + double eagle is the ancient emblem of the double empire of Rome and of + Byzantium; the one head looking to the west and the other to the east, as + if it spread its wings from the sunrise to the sunset. Unless I am + mistaken, it was only associated with Russia as late as Peter the Great, + though it had been the badge of Austria as the representative of the Holy + Roman Empire. And what I felt brooding over that shrine and that landscape + was something older not only than Turkey or Russia but than Austria + itself. I began to understand a sort of evening light that lies over + Palestine and Syria; a sense of smooth ruts of custom such as are said to + give a dignity to the civilisation of China. I even understood a sort of + sleepiness about the splendid and handsome Orthodox priests moving fully + robed about the streets. They were not aristocrats but officials; still + moving with the mighty routine of some far-off official system. In so far + as the eagle was an emblem not of such imperial peace but of distant + imperial wars, it was of wars that we in the West have hardly heard of; it + was the emblem of official ovations. + </p> + <p> + When Heracleius rode homewards from the rout of Ispahan With the captives + dragged behind him and the eagles in the van. + </p> + <p> + That is the rigid reality that still underlay the light mastery of the + Arab rider; that is what a man sees, in the patchwork pavilion, when he + grows used to the coloured canvas and looks at the walls of stone. This + also was far too great a thing for facile praise or blame, a vast + bureaucracy busy and yet intensely dignified, the most civilised thing + ruling many other civilisations. It was an endless end of the world; for + ever repeating its rich finality. And I myself was still walking in that + long evening of the earth; and Caesar my lord was at Byzantium. + </p> + <p> + But it is necessary to remember next that this empire was not always at + its evening. Byzantium was not always Byzantine. Nor was the seat of that + power always in the city of Constantine, which was primarily a mere + outpost of the city of Caesar. We must remember Rome as well as Byzantium; + as indeed nobody would remember Byzantium if it were not for Rome. The + more I saw of a hundred little things the more my mind revolved round that + original idea which may be called the Mediterranean; and the fact that it + became two empires, but remained one civilisation, just as it has become + two churches, but remained one religion. + </p> + <p> + In this little world there is a story attached to every word; and never + more than when it is the wrong word. For instance, we may say that in + certain cases the word Roman actually means Greek. The Greek Patriarch is + sometimes called the Roman Patriarch; while the real Roman Patriarch, who + actually comes from Rome, is only called the Latin Patriarch, as if he + came from any little town in Latium. The truth behind this confusion is + the truth about five hundred very vital years, which are concealed even + from cultivated Englishmen by two vague falsehoods; the notion that the + Roman Empire was merely decadent and the notion that the Middle Ages were + merely dark. As a fact, even the Dark Ages were not merely dark. And even + the Byzantine Empire was not merely Byzantine. It seems a little unfair + that we should take the very title of decay from that Christian city, for + surely it was yet more stiff and sterile when it had become a Moslem city. + I am not so exacting as to ask any one to popularise such a word as + "Constantinopolitan." But it would surely be a better word for stiffness + and sterility to call it Stamboulish. But for the Moslems and other men of + the Near East what counted about Byzantium was that it still inherited the + huge weight of the name of Rome. Rome had come east and reared against + them this Roman city, and though and priest or soldier who came out of it + might be speaking as a Greek, he was ruling as a Roman. Its critics in + these days of criticism may regard it as a corrupt civilisation. But its + enemies in the day of battle only regarded it as civilisation. Saladin, + the greatest of the Saracens, did not call Greek bishops degenerate + dreamers or dingy outcasts, he called them, with a sounder historical + instinct, "The monks of the imperial race." The survival of the word + merely means that even when the imperial city fell behind them, they did + not surrender their claim to defy all Asia in the name of the Christian + Emperor. That is but one example out of twenty, but that is why in this + distant place to this day the Greeks who are separated from the see of + Rome sometimes bear the strange name of "The Romans." + </p> + <p> + Now that civilisation is our civilisation, and we never had any other. We + have not inherited a Teutonic culture any more than a Druid culture; not + half so much. The people who say that parliaments or pictures or gardens + or roads or universities were made by the Teutonic race from the north can + be disposed of by the simple question: why did not the Teutonic race make + them in the north? Why was not the Parthenon originally built in the + neighbourhood of Potsdam, or did ten Hansa towns compete to be the + birthplace of Homer? Perhaps they do by this time; but their local + illusion is no longer largely shared. Anyhow it seems strange that the + roads of the Romans should be due to the inspiration of the Teutons; and + that parliaments should begin in Spain because they came from Germany. If + I looked about in these parts for a local emblem like that of the eagle, I + might very well find it in the lion. The lion is common enough, of course, + in Christian art both hagiological and heraldic. Besides the cavern of + Bethlehem of which I shall speak presently, is the cavern of St. Jerome, + where he lived with that real or legendary lion who was drawn by the + delicate humour of Carpaccio and a hundred other religious painters. That + it should appear in Christian art is natural; that it should appear in + Moslem art is much more singular, seeing that Moslems are in theory + forbidden so to carve images of living things. Some say the Persian + Moslems are less particular; but whatever the explanation, two lions of + highly heraldic appearance are carved over that Saracen gate which + Christians call the gate of St. Stephen; and the best judges seem to agree + that, like so much of the Saracenic shell of Zion, they were partly at + least copied from the shields and crests of the Crusaders. + </p> + <p> + And the lions graven over the gate of St. Stephen might well be the text + for a whole book on the subject. For if they indicate, however indirectly, + the presence of the Latins of the twelfth century, they also indicate the + earlier sources from which the Latin life had itself been drawn. The two + lions are pacing, passant as the heralds would say, in two opposite + directions almost as if prowling to and fro. And this also might well be + symbolic as well as heraldic. For if the Crusaders brought the lion + southward in spite of the conventional fancy of Moslem decoration, it was + only because the Romans had previously brought the lion northward to the + cold seas and the savage forests. The image of the lion came from north to + south, only because the idea of the lion had long ago come from south to + north. The Christian had a symbolic lion he had never seen, and the Moslem + had a real lion that he refused to draw. For we could deduce from the case + of this single creature the fact that all our civilisation came from the + Mediterranean, and the folly of pretending that it came from the North + Sea. Those two heraldic shapes over the gate may be borrowed from the + Norman or Angevin shield now quartered in the Royal Arms of England. They + may have been copied, directly or indirectly, from that great Angevin King + of England whose title credited him with the heart of a lion. They may + have in some far-off fashion the same ancestry as the boast or jest of our + own comic papers when they talk about the British Lion. But why are there + lions, though of French or feudal origin, on the flag of England? There + might as well be camels or crocodiles, for all the apparent connection + with England or with France. Why was an English king described as having + the heart of a lion, any more than of a tiger? Why do your patriotic + cartoons threaten the world with the wrath of the British Lion; it is + really as strange as if they warned it against stimulating the rage of the + British rhinoceros. Why did not the French and English princes find in the + wild boars, that were the objects of their hunting, the subjects of their + heraldry? If the Normans were really the Northmen, the sea-wolves of + Scandinavian piracy, why did they not display three wolves on their + shields? Why has not John Bull been content with the English bull, or the + English bull-dog? + </p> + <p> + The answer might be put somewhat defiantly by saying that the very name of + John Bull is foreign. The surname comes through France from Rome; and the + Christian name comes through Rome from Palestine. If there had really been + any justification for the Teutonic generalisation, we should expect the + surname to be "ox" and not "bull"; and we should expect the hero standing + as godfather to be Odin or Siegfried, and not the prophet who lived on + locusts in the wilderness of Palestine or the mystic who mused with his + burning eyes on the blue seas around Patmos. If our national hero is John + Bull and not Olaf the Ox, it is ultimately because that blue sea has run + like a blue thread through all the tapestries of our traditions; or in + other words because our culture, like that of France or Flanders, came + originally from the Mediterranean. And if this is true of our use of the + word "bull," it is obviously even truer of our use of the word "lion." The + later emblem is enough to show that the culture came, not only from the + Mediterranean, but from the southern as well as the northern side of the + Mediterranean. In other words, the Roman Empire ran all round the great + inland sea; the very name of which meant, not merely the sea in the middle + of the land, but more especially the sea in the middle of all the lands + that mattered most to civilisation. One of these, and the one that in the + long run has mattered most of all, was Palestine. + </p> + <p> + In this lies the deepest difference between a man like Richard the Lion + Heart and any of the countless modern English soldiers in Palestine who + have been quite as lion-hearted as he. His superiority was not moral but + intellectual; it consisted in knowing where he was and why he was there. + It arose from the fact that in his time there remained a sort of memory of + the Roman Empire, which some would have re-established as a Holy Roman + Empire. Christendom was still almost one commonwealth; and it seemed to + Richard quite natural to go from one edge of it that happened to be called + England to the opposite edge of it that happened to be called Palestine. + We may think him right or wrong in the particular quarrel, we may think + him innocent or unscrupulous in his incidental methods; but there is next + to no doubt whatever that he did regard himself not merely as conquering + but as re-conquering a realm. He was not like a man attacking total + strangers on a hitherto undiscovered island. He was not opening up a new + country, or giving his name to a new continent, and he could boast none of + those ideals of imperial innovation which inspire the more enlightened + pioneers, who exterminate tribes or extinguish republics for the sake of a + gold-mine or an oil-field. Some day, if our modern educational system is + further expanded and enforced, the whole of the past of Palestine may be + entirely forgotten; and a traveller in happier days may have all the + fresher sentiments of one stepping on a new and nameless soil. + Disregarding any dim and lingering legends among the natives, he may then + have the honour of calling Sinai by the name of Mount Higgins, or marking + on a new map the site of Bethlehem with the name of Brownsville. But King + Richard, adventurous as he was, could not experience the full freshness of + this sort of adventure. He was not riding into Asia thus romantically and + at random; indeed he was not riding into Asia at all. He was riding into + Europa Irredenta. + </p> + <p> + But that is to anticipate what happened later and must be considered + later. I am primarily speaking of the Empire as a pagan and political + matter; and it is easy to see what was the meaning of the Crusade on the + merely pagan and political side. In one sentence, it meant that Rome had + to recover what Byzantium could not keep. But something further had + happened as affecting Rome than anything that could be understood by a man + standing as I have imagined myself standing, in the official area of + Byzantium. When I have said that the Byzantian civilisation seemed still + to be reigning, I meant a curious impression that, in these Eastern + provinces, though the Empire had been more defeated it has been less + disturbed. There is a greater clarity in that ancient air; and fewer + clouds of real revolution and novelty have come between them and their + ancient sun. This may seem an enigma and a paradox; seeing that here a + foreign religion has successfully fought and ruled. But indeed the enigma + is also the explanation. In the East the continuity of culture has only + been interrupted by negative things that Islam has done. In the West it + has been interrupted by positive things that Christendom itself has done. + In the West the past of Christendom has its perspective blocked up by its + own creations; in the East it is a true perspective of interminable + corridors, with round Byzantine arches and proud Byzantine pillars. That, + I incline to fancy, is the real difference that a man come from the west + of Europe feels in the east of Europe, it is a gap or a void. It is the + absence of the grotesque energy of Gothic, the absence of the experiments + of parliament and popular representation, the absence of medieval + chivalry, the absence of modern nationality. In the East the civilisation + lived on, or if you will, lingered on; in the West it died and was reborn. + But for a long time, it should be remembered, it must have seemed to the + East merely that it died. The realms of Rome had disappeared in clouds of + barbaric war, while the realms of Byzantium were still golden and gorgeous + in the sun. The men of the East did not realise that their splendour was + stiffening and growing sterile, and even the early successes of Islam may + not have revealed to them that their rule was not only stiff but brittle. + It was something else that was destined to reveal it. The Crusades meant + many things; but in this matter they meant one thing, which was like a + word carried to them on the great west wind. And the word was like that in + an old Irish song: "The west is awake." They heard in the distance the + cries of unknown crowds and felt the earth shaking with the march of mobs; + and behind them came the trampling of horses and the noise of harness and + of horns of war; new kings calling out commands and hosts of young men + full of hope crying out in the old Roman tongue "Id Deus vult," Rome was + risen from the dead. + </p> + <p> + Almost any traveller could select out of the countless things that he has + looked at the few things that he has seen. I mean the things that come to + him with a curious clearness; so that he actually sees them to be what he + knows them to be. I might almost say that he can believe in them although + he has seen them. There can be no rule about this realisation; it seems to + come in the most random fashion; and the man to whom it comes can only + speak for himself without any attempt at a critical comparison with + others. In this sense I may say that the Church of the Nativity at + Bethlehem contains something impossible to describe, yet driving me beyond + expression to a desperate attempt at description. The church is entered + through a door so small that it it might fairly be called a hole, in which + many have seen, and I think truly, a symbol of some idea of humility. It + is also said that the wall was pierced in this way to prevent the + appearance of a camel during divine service, but even that explanation + would only repeat the same suggestion through the parable of the needle's + eye. Personally I should guess that, in so far as the purpose was + practical, it was meant to keep out much more dangerous animals than + camels, as, for instance, Turks. For the whole church has clearly been + turned into a fortress, windows are bricked up and walls thickened in some + or all of its thousand years of religious war. In the blank spaces above + the little doorway hung in old times that strange mosaic of the Magi which + once saved the holy place from destruction, in the strange interlude + between the decline of Rome and the rise of Mahomet. For when the Persians + who had destroyed Jerusalem rode out in triumph to the village of + Bethlehem, they looked up and saw above the door a picture in coloured + stone, a picture of themselves. They were following a strange star and + worshipping an unknown child. For a Christian artist, following some + ancient Eastern tradition containing an eternal truth, had drawn the three + wise men with the long robes and high head-dresses of Persia. The + worshippers of the sun had come westward for the worship of the star. But + whether that part of the church were bare and bald as it is now or + coloured with the gold and purple images of the Persians, the inside of + the church would always be by comparison abruptly dark. As familiarity + turns the darkness to twilight, and the twilight to a grey daylight, the + first impression is that of two rows of towering pillars. They are of a + dark red stone having much of the appearance of a dark red marble; and + they are crowned with the acanthus in the manner of the Corinthian school. + They were carved and set up at the command of Constantine; and beyond + them, at the other end of the church beside the attar, is the dark + stairway that descends under the canopies of rock to the stable where + Christ was born. + </p> + <p> + Of all the things I have seen the most convincing, and as it were + crushing, were these red columns of Constantine. In explanation of the + sentiment there are a thousand things that want saying and cannot be said. + Never have I felt so vividly the great fact of our history; that the + Christian religion is like a huge bridge across a boundless sea, which + alone connects us with the men who made the world, and yet have utterly + vanished from the world. To put it curtly and very crudely on this point + alone it was possible to sympathise with a Roman and not merely to admire + him. All his pagan remains are but sublime fossils; for we can never know + the life that was in them. We know that here and there was a temple to + Venus or there an altar to Vesta; but who knows or pretends to know what + he really felt about Venus or Vesta? Was a Vestal Virgin like a Christian + Virgin, or something profoundly different? Was he quite serious about + Venus, like a diabolist, or merely frivolous about Venus, like a + Christian? If the spirit was different from ours we cannot hope to + understand it, and if the spirit was like ours, the spirit was expressed + in images that no longer express it. But it is here that he and I meet; + and salute the same images in the end. + </p> + <p> + In any case I can never recapture in words the waves of sympathy with + strange things that went through me in that twilight of the tall pillars, + like giants robed in purple, standing still and looking down into that + dark hole in the ground. Here halted that imperial civilisation, when it + had marched in triumph through the whole world; here in the evening of its + days it came trailing in all its panoply in the pathway of the three + kings. For it came following not only a falling but a fallen star and one + that dived before them into a birthplace darker than a grave. And the lord + of the laurels, clad in his sombre crimson, looked down into that + darkness, and then looked up, and saw that all the stars in his own sky + were dead. They were deities no longer but only a brilliant dust, + scattered down the vain void of Lucretius. The stars were as stale as they + were strong; they would never die for they had never lived; they were + cursed with an incurable immortality that was but the extension of + mortality; they were chained in the chains of causation and unchangeable + as the dead. There are not many men in the modern world who do not know + that mood, though it was not discovered by the moderns; it was the final + and seemingly fixed mood of nearly all the ancients. Only above the black + hole of Bethlehem they had seen a star wandering like a lost spark; and it + had done what the eternal suns and planets could not do. It had + disappeared. + </p> + <p> + There are some who resent the presence of such purple beside the plain + stable of the Nativity. But it seems strange that they always rebuke it as + if it were a blind vulgarity like the red plush of a parvenu; a mere + insensibility to a mere incongruity. For in fact the insensibility is in + the critics and not the artists. It is an insensibility not to an + accidental incongruity but to an artistic contrast. Indeed it is an + insensibility of a somewhat tiresome kind, which can often be noticed in + those sceptics who make a science of folk-lore. The mark of them is that + they fail to see the importance of finding the upshot or climax of a tale, + even when it is a fairy-tale. Since the old devotional doctors and + designers were never tired of insisting on the sufferings of the holy poor + to the point of squalor, and simultaneously insisting on the sumptuousness + of the subject kings to the point of swagger, it would really seem not + entirely improbable that they may have been conscious of the contrast + themselves. I confess this is an insensibility, not to say stupidity, in + the sceptics and simplifiers, which I find very fatiguing. I do not mind a + man not believing a story, but I confess I am bored stiff (if I may be + allowed the expression) by a man who can tell a story without seeing the + point of the story, considered as a story or even considered as a lie. And + a man who sees the rags and the royal purple as a clumsy inconsistency is + merely missing the meaning of a deliberate design. He is like a man who + should hear the story of King Cophetua and the beggar maid and say + doubtfully that it was hard to recognise it as really <i>a mariage de + convenance</i>; a phrase which (I may remark in parenthesis but not + without passion) is not the French for "a marriage of convenience," any + more than <i>hors d'oeuvre</i> is the French for "out of work"; but may be + more rightly rendered in English as "a suitable match." But nobody thought + the match of the king and the beggar maid conventionally a suitable match; + and nobody would ever have thought the story worth telling if it had been. + It is like saying that Diogenes, remaining in his tub after the offer of + Alexander, must have been unaware of the opportunities of Greek + architecture; or like saying that Nebuchadnezzar eating grass is clearly + inconsistent with court etiquette, or not to be found in any fashionable + cookery book. I do not mind the learned sceptic saying it is a legend or a + lie; but I weep for him when he cannot see the gist of it, I might even + say the joke of it. I do not object to his rejecting the story as a tall + story; but I find it deplorable when he cannot see the point or end or + upshot of the tall story, the very pinnacle or spire of that sublime + tower. + </p> + <p> + This dull type of doubt clouds the consideration of many sacred things as + it does that of the shrine of Bethlehem. It is applied to the divine + reality of Bethlehem itself, as when sceptics still sneer at the + littleness, the localism, the provincial particularity and obscurity of + that divine origin; as if Christians could be confounded and silenced by a + contrast which Christians in ten thousand hymns, songs and sermons have + incessantly shouted and proclaimed. In this capital case, of course, the + same principle holds. A man may think the tale is incredible; but it would + never have been told at all if it had not been incongruous. But this + particular case of the lesser contrast, that between the imperial pomp and + the rustic poverty of the carpenter and the shepherds, is alone enough to + illustrate the strange artistic fallacy involved. If it be the point that + an emperor came to worship a carpenter, it is as artistically necessary to + make the emperor imperial as to make the carpenter humble; if we wish to + make plain to plain people that before this shrine kings are no better + than shepherds, it is as necessary that the kings should have crowns as + that the shepherds should have crooks. And if modern intellectuals do not + know it, it is because nobody has really been mad enough even to try to + make modern intellectualism popular. Now this conception of pomp as a + popular thing, this conception of a concession to common human nature in + colour and symbol, has a considerable bearing on many misunderstandings + about the original enthusiasm that spread from the cave of Bethlehem over + the whole Roman Empire. It is a curious fact that the moderns have mostly + rebuked historic Christianity, not for being narrow, but for being broad. + They have rebuked it because it did prove itself the desire of all + nations, because it did satisfy the cravings of many creeds, because it + did prove itself to idolaters as something as magic as their idols, or did + prove itself to patriots something as lovable as their native land. In + many other matters indeed, besides this popular art, we may find examples + of the same illogical prejudice. Nothing betrays more curiously the bias + of historians against the Christian faith than the fact that they blame in + Christians the very human indulgences that they have praised in heathens. + The same arts and allegories, the same phraseologies and philosophies, + which appear first as proofs of heathen health turn up later as proofs of + Christian corruption. It was noble of pagans to be pagan, but it was + unpardonable of Christians to be paganised. They never tire of telling us + of the glory that was Greece, the grandeur that was Rome, but the Church + was infamous because it satisfied the Greek intellect and wielded the + Roman power. + </p> + <p> + Now on the first example of the attempt of theology to meet the claims of + philosophy I will not here dwell at length. I will only remark in passing + that it is an utter fallacy to suggest, as for instance Mr. Wells suggests + in his fascinating <i>Outline of History</i>, that the subtleties of + theology were a mere falling away from the simplicities of religion. + Religion may be better simple for those who find it simple; but there are + bound to be many who in any case find it subtle, among those who think + about it and especially those who doubt about it. To take an example, + there is no saying which the humanitarians of a broad religion more + commonly offer as a model of simplicity than that most mystical + affirmation "God is Love." And there is no theological quarrel of the + Councils of the Church which they, especially Mr. Wells, more commonly + deride as bitter and barren than that at the Council of Nicea about the + Co-eternity of the Divine Son. Yet the subtle statement is simply a + metaphysical explanation of the simple statement; and it would be quite + possible even to make it a popular explanation, by saying that God could + not love when there was nothing to be loved. Now the Church Councils were + originally very popular, not to say riotous assemblies. So far from being + undemocratic, they were rather too democratic; the real case against them + was that they passed by uproarious votes, and not without violence, things + that had ultimately to be considered more calmly by experts. But it may + reasonably be suggested, I think, that the concentration of the Greek + intellect on these things did gradually pass from a popular to a more + professional or official thing; and that the traces of it have finally + tended to fade from the official religion of the East. It was far + otherwise with the more poetical and therefore more practical religion of + the West. It was far otherwise with that direct appeal to pathos and + affection in the highly coloured picture of the Shepherd and the King. In + the West the world not only prolonged its life but recovered its youth. + That is the meaning of the movement I have described as the awakening of + the West and the resurrection of Rome. And the whole point of that + movement, as I propose to suggest, was that it was a popular movement. It + had returned with exactly that strange and simple energy that belongs to + the story of Bethlehem. Not in vain had Constantine come clad in purple to + look down into that dark cave at his feet; nor did the star mislead him + when it seemed to end in the entrails of the earth. The men who followed + him passed on, as it were, through the low and vaulted tunnel of the Dark + Ages; but they had found the way, and the only way, out of that world of + death, and their journey ended in the land of the living. They came out + into a world more wonderful than the eyes of men have looked on before or + after; they heard the hammers of hundreds of happy craftsmen working for + once according to their own will, and saw St. Francis walking with his + halo a cloud of birds. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0011" id="link2HCH0011"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XI. — THE MEANING OF THE CRUSADE + </h2> + <p> + There are three examples of Western work on the great eastern slope of the + Mount of Olives; and they form a sort of triangle illustrating the truth + about the different influences of the West on the East. At the foot of the + hill is the garden kept by the Franciscans on the alleged site of + Gethsemane, and containing the hoary olive that is supposed to be the + terrible tree of the agony of Christ. Given the great age and slow growth + of the olives, the tradition is not so unreasonable as some may suppose. + But whether or not it is historically right, it is not artistically wrong. + The instinct, if it was only an instinct, that made men fix upon this + strange growth of grey and twisted wood, was a true imaginative instinct. + One of the strange qualities of this strange Southern tree is its almost + startling hardness; accidentally to strike the branch of an olive is like + striking rock. With its stony surface, stunted stature, and strange holes + and hollows, it is often more like a grotto than a tree. Hence it does not + seem so unnatural that it should be treated as a holy grotto; or that this + strange vegetation should claim to stand for ever like a sculptured + monument. Even the shimmering or shivering silver foliage of the living + olive might well have a legend like that of the aspen; as if it had grown + grey with fear from the apocalyptic paradox of a divine vision of death. A + child from one of the villages said to me, in broken English, that it was + the place where God said his prayers. I for one could not ask for a finer + or more defiant statement of all that separates the Christian from the + Moslem or the Jew; <i>credo quia impossibile</i>. + </p> + <p> + Around this terrible spot the Franciscans have done something which will + strike many good and thoughtful people as quite fantastically inadequate; + and which strikes me as fantastically but precisely right. They have laid + out the garden simply as a garden, in a way that is completely natural + because it is completely artificial. They have made flower-beds in the + shape of stars and moons, and coloured them with flowers like those in the + backyard of a cottage. The combination of these bright patterns in the + sunshine with the awful shadow in the centre is certainly an incongruity + in the sense of a contrast. But it is a poetical contrast, like that of + birds building in a temple or flowers growing on a tomb. The best way of + suggesting what I for one feel about it would be something like this; + suppose we imagine a company of children, such as those whom Christ + blessed in Jerusalem, afterwards put permanently in charge of a field full + of his sorrow; it is probable that, if they could do anything with it, + they would do something like this. They might cut it up into quaint shapes + and dot it with red daisies or yellow marigolds. I really do not know that + there is anything better that grown up people could do, since anything + that the greatest of them could do must be, must look quite as small. + "Shall I, the gnat that dances in Thy ray, dare to be reverent?" The + Franciscans have not dared to be reverent; they have only dared to be + cheerful. It may be too awful an adventure of the imagination to imagine + Christ in that garden. But there is not the smallest difficulty about + imagining St. Francis there; and that is something to say of an + institution which is eight hundred years old. + </p> + <p> + Immediately above this little garden, overshadowing and almost overhanging + it, is a gorgeous gilded building with golden domes and minarets + glittering in the sun, and filling a splendid situation with almost + shameless splendour; the Russian church built over the upper part of the + garden, belonging to the Orthodox-Greeks. Here again many Western + travellers will be troubled; and will think that golden building much too + like a fairy palace in a pantomime. But here again I shall differ from + them, though perhaps less strongly. It may be that the pleasure is + childish rather than childlike; but I can imagine a child clapping his + hands at the mere sight of those great domes like bubbles of gold against + the blue sky. It is a little like Aladdin's Palace, but it has a place in + art as Aladdin has a place in literature; especially since it is oriental + literature. Those wise missionaries in China who were not afraid to depict + the Twelve Apostles in the costume of Chinamen might have built such a + church in a land of glittering mosques. And as it is said that the Russian + has in him something of the child and something of the oriental, such a + style may be quite sincere, and have even a certain simplicity in its + splendour. It is genuine of its kind; it was built for those who like it; + and those who do not like it can look at something else. This sort of + thing may be called tawdry, but it is not what I call meretricious. What I + call really meretricious can be found yet higher on the hill; towering to + the sky and dominating all the valleys. + </p> + <p> + The nature of the difference, I think, is worth noting. The German + Hospice, which served as a sort of palace for the German Emperor, is a + very big building with a very high tower, planned I believe with great + efficiency, solidity and comfort, and fitted with a thousand things that + mark its modernity compared with the things around, with the quaint garden + of the Franciscans or the fantastic temple of the Russians. It is what I + can only describe as a handsome building; rather as the more vulgar of the + Victorian wits used to talk about a fine woman. By calling it a handsome + building I mean that from the top of its dizzy tower to the bottom of its + deepest foundations there is not one line or one tint of beauty. This + negative fact, however, would be nothing; it might be honestly ugly and + utilitarian like a factory or a prison; but it is not. It is as + pretentious as the gilded dome below it; and it is pretentious in a wicked + way where the other is pretentious in a good and innocent way. What annoys + me about it is that it was not built by children, or even by savages, but + by professors; and the professors could profess the art and could not + practise it. The architects knew everything about a Romanesque building + except how to build it. We feel that they accumulated on that spot all the + learning and organisation and information and wealth of the world, to do + this one particular thing; and then did it wrong. They did it wrong, not + through superstition, not through fanatical exaggeration, not through + provincial ignorance, but through pure, profound, internal, intellectual + incompetence; that intellectual incompetence which so often goes with + intellectual pride. I will mention only one matter out of a hundred. All + the columns in the Kaiser's Chapel are in one way very suitable to their + place; every one of them has a swelled head. The column itself is slender + but the capital is not only big but bulging; and it has the air of bulging + <i>downwards</i>, as if pressing heavily on something too slender to + support it. This is false, not to any of the particular schools of + architecture about which professors can read in libraries, but to the + inmost instinctive idea of architecture itself. A Norman capital can be + heavy because the Norman column is thick, and the whole thing expresses an + elephantine massiveness and repose. And a Gothic column can be slender, + because its strength is energy; and is expressed in its line, which shoots + upwards like the life of a tree, like the jet of a fountain or even like + the rush of a rocket. But a slender thing beneath, obviously oppressed by + a bloated thing above, suggests weakness by one of those miraculous + mistakes that are as precisely wrong as masterpieces are precisely right. + And to all this is added the intolerable intuition; that the Russians and + the Franciscans, even if we credit them with fantastic ignorance, are at + least looking up at the sky; and we know how the learned Germans would + look down upon them, from their monstrous tower upon the hill. + </p> + <p> + And this is as true of the moral as of the artistic elements in the modern + Jerusalem. To show that I am not unjustly partisan, I will say frankly + that I see little to complain of in that common subject of complaint; the + mosaic portrait of the Emperor on the ceiling of the chapel. It is but one + among many figures; and it is not an unknown practice to include a figure + of the founder in such church decorations. The real example of that + startling moral stupidity which marked the barbaric imperialism can be + found in another figure of which, curiously enough, considerably less + notice seems to have been taken. It is the more remarkable because it is + but an artistic shadow of the actual fact; and merely records in outline + and relief the temporary masquerade in which the man walked about in broad + daylight. I mean the really astounding trick of dressing himself up as a + Crusader. That was, under the circumstances, far more ludicrous and + lunatic a proceeding than if he had filled the whole ceiling with cherub + heads with his own features, or festooned all the walls with one + ornamental pattern of his moustaches. + </p> + <p> + The German Emperor came to Jerusalem under the escort of the Turks, as the + ally of the Turks, and solely because of the victory and supremacy of the + Turks. In other words, he came to Jerusalem solely because the Crusaders + had lost Jerusalem; he came there solely because the Crusaders had been + routed, ruined, butchered before and after the disaster of Hattin: because + the Cross had gone down in blood before the Crescent, under which alone he + could ride in with safety. Under those circumstances to dress up as a + Crusader, as if for a fancy dress ball, was a mixture of madness and + vulgarity which literally stops the breath. There is no need whatever to + blame him for being in alliance with the Turks; hundreds of people have + been in alliance with the Turks; the English especially have been far too + much in alliance with them. But if any one wants to appreciate the true + difference, distinct from all the cant of newspaper nationality, between + the English and the Germans (who were classed together by the same + newspapers a little time before the war) let him take this single incident + as a test. Lord Palmerston, for instance, was a firm friend of the Turks. + Imagine Lord Palmerston appearing in chain mail and the shield of a Red + Cross Knight. + </p> + <p> + It is obvious enough that Palmerston would have said that he cared no more + for the Crusade than for the Siege of Troy; that his diplomacy was + directed by practical patriotic considerations of the moment; and that he + regarded the religious wars of the twelfth century as a rubbish heap of + remote superstitions. In this he would be quite wrong, but quite + intelligible and quite sincere; an English aristocrat of the nineteenth + century inheriting from the English aristocrats of the eighteenth century; + whose views were simply those of Voltaire. And these things are something + of an allegory. For the Voltairian version of the Crusades is still by far + the most reasonable of all merely hostile views of the Crusades. If they + were not a creative movement of religion, then they were simply a + destructive movement of superstition; and whether we agree with Voltaire + in calling it superstition or with Villehardouin in calling it religion, + at least both these very clear-headed Frenchmen would agree that the + motive did exist and did explain the facts. But just as there is a clumsy + German building with statues that at once patronise and parody the + Crusaders, so there is a clumsy German theory that at once patronises and + minimises the Crusades. According to this theory the essential truth about + a Crusade was that it was not a Crusade. It was something that the + professors, in the old days before the war, used to call a Teutonic + Folk-Wandering. Godfrey and St. Louis were not, as Villehardouin would + say, fighting for the truth; they were not even, as Voltaire would say, + fighting for what they thought was the truth; this was only what they + thought they thought, and they were really thinking of something entirely + different. They were not moved either by piety or priestcraft, but by a + new and unexpected nomadism. They were not inspired either by faith or + fanaticism, but by an unusually aimless taste for foreign travel. This + theory that the war of the two great religions could be explained by + "Wanderlust" was current about twenty years ago among the historical + professors of Germany, and with many of their other views, was often + accepted by the historical professors of England. It was swallowed by an + earthquake, along with other rubbish, in the year 1914. + </p> + <p> + Since then, so far as I know, the only person who has been patient enough + to dig it up again is Mr. Ezra Pound. He is well known as an American + poet; and he is, I believe, a man of great talent and information. His + attempt to recover the old Teutonic theory of the Folk-Wandering of Peter + the Hermit was expressed, however, in prose; in an article in the <i>New + Age</i>. I have no reason to doubt that he was to be counted among the + most loyal of our allies; but he is evidently one of those who, quite + without being Pro-German, still manage to be German. The Teutonic theory + was very Teutonic; like the German Hospice on the hill it was put together + with great care and knowledge and it is rotten from top to bottom. I do + not understand, for that matter, why that alliance which we enjoy with Mr. + Pound should not be treated in the same way as the other historical event; + or why the war should not be an example of the Wanderlust. Surely the + American Army in France must have drifted eastward merely through the same + vague nomadic need as the Christian Army in Palestine. Surely Pershing as + well as Peter the Hermit was merely a rather restless gentleman who found + his health improved by frequent change of scene. The Americans said, and + perhaps thought, that they were fighting for democracy; and the Crusaders + said, and perhaps thought, that they were fighting for Christianity. But + as we know what the Crusaders meant better than they did themselves, I + cannot quite understand why we do not enjoy the same valuable omniscience + about the Americans. Indeed I do not see why we should not enjoy it (for + it would be very enjoyable) about any individual American. Surely it was + this vague vagabond spirit that moved Mr. Pound, not only to come to + England, but in a fashion to come to Fleet Street. A dim tribal tendency, + vast and invisible as the wind, carried him and his article like an autumn + leaf to alight on the <i>New Age</i> doorstep. Or a blind aboriginal + impulse, wholly without rational motive, led him one day to put on his + hat, and go out with his article in an envelope and put it in a + pillar-box. It is vain to correct by cold logic the power of such + primitive appetites; nature herself was behind the seemingly random + thoughtlessness of the deed. And now that it is irrevocably done, he can + look back on it and trace the large lines of an awful law of averages; + wherein it is ruled by a ruthless necessity that a certain number of such + Americans should write a certain number of such articles, as the leaves + fall or the flowers return. + </p> + <p> + In plain words, this sort of theory is a blasphemy against the + intellectual dignity of man. It is a blunder as well as a blasphemy; for + it goes miles out of its way to find a bestial explanation when there is + obviously a human explanation. It is as if a man told me that a dim + survival of the instincts of a quadruped was the reason of my sitting on a + chair with four legs. I answer that I do it because I foresee that there + may be grave disadvantages in sitting on a chair with one leg. Or it is as + if I were told that I liked to swim in the sea, solely because some early + forms of amphibian life came out of the sea on to the shore. I answer that + I know why I swim in the sea; and it is because the divine gift of reason + tells me that it would be unsatisfactory to swim on the land. In short + this sort of vague evolutionary theorising simply amounts to finding an + unconvincing explanation of something that needs no explanation. And the + case is really quite as simple with great political and religious + movements by which man has from time to time changed the world in this or + that respect in which he happened to think it would be the better for a + change. The Crusade was a religious movement, but it was also a perfectly + rational movement; one might almost say a rationalist movement. I could + quite understand Mr. Pound saying that such a campaign for a creed was + immoral; and indeed it often has been, and now perhaps generally is, quite + horribly immoral. But when he implies that it is irrational he has + selected exactly the thing which it is not. + </p> + <p> + It is not enlightenment, on the contrary it is ignorance and insularity, + which causes most of us to miss this fact. But it certainly is the fact + that religious war is in itself much more rational than patriotic war. I + for one have often defended and even encouraged patriotic war, and should + always be ready to defend and encourage patriotic passion. But it cannot + be denied that there is more of mere passion, of mere preference and + prejudice, in short of mere personal accident, in fighting another nation + than in fighting another faith. The Crusader is in every sense more + rational than the modern conscript or professional soldier. He is more + rational in his object, which is the intelligent and intelligible object + of conversion; where the modern militarist has an object much more + confused by momentary vanity and one-sided satisfaction. The Crusader + wished to make Jerusalem a Christian town; but the Englishman does not + wish to make Berlin an English town. He has only a healthy hatred of it as + a Prussian town. The Moslem wished to make the Christian a Moslem; but + even the Prussian did not wish to make the Frenchman a Prussian. He only + wished to make the Frenchman admire a Prussian; and not only were the + means he adopted somewhat ill-considered for this purpose, but the purpose + itself is looser and more irrational. The object of all war is peace; but + the object of religious war is mental as well as material peace; it is + agreement. In short religious war aims ultimately at equality, where + national war aims relatively at superiority. Conversion is the one sort of + conquest in which the conquered must rejoice. + </p> + <p> + In that sense alone it is foolish for us in the West to sneer at those who + kill men when a foot is set in a holy place, when we ourselves kill + hundreds of thousands when a foot is put across a frontier. It is absurd + for us to despise those who shed blood for a relic when we have shed + rivers of blood for a rag. But above all the Crusade, or, for that matter, + the Jehad, is by far the most philosophical sort of fighting, not only in + its conception of ending the difference, but in its mere act of + recognising the difference, as the deepest kind of difference. It is to + reverse all reason to suggest that a man's politics matter and his + religion does not matter. It is to say he is affected by the town he lives + in, but not by the world he lives in. It is to say that he is altered when + he is a fellow-citizen walking under new lamp-posts, but not altered when + he is another creature walking under strange stars. It is exactly as if we + were to say that two people ought to live in the same house, but it need + not be in the same town. It is exactly as if we said that so long as the + address included York it did not matter whether it was New York; or that + so long as a man is in Essex we do not care whether he is in England. + </p> + <p> + Christendom would have been entirely justified in the abstract in being + alarmed or suspicious at the mere rise of a great power that was not + Christian. Nobody nowadays would think it odd to express regret at the + rise of a power because it was Militarist or Socialist or even + Protectionist. But it is far more natural to be conscious of a difference, + not about the order of battle but the battle of life; not about our + definable enjoyment of possessions, but about our much more doubtful + possession of enjoyment; not about the fiscal divisions between us and + foreigners but about the spiritual divisions even between us and friends. + These are the things that differ profoundly with differing views of the + ultimate nature of the universe. For the things of our country are often + distant; but the things of our cosmos are always near; we can shut our + doors upon the wheeled traffic of our native town; but in our own inmost + chamber we hear the sound that never ceases; that wheel which Dante and a + popular proverb have dared to christen as the love that makes the world go + round. For this is the great paradox of life; that there are not only + wheels within wheels, but the larger wheels within the smaller. When a + whole community rests on one conception of life and death and the origin + of things, it is quite entitled to watch the rise of another community + founded on another conception as the rise of something certain to be + different and likely to be hostile. Indeed, as I have pointed out touching + certain political theories, we already admit this truth in its small and + questionable examples. We only deny the large and obvious examples. + </p> + <p> + Christendom might quite reasonably have been alarmed if it had not been + attacked. But as a matter of history it had been attacked. The Crusader + would have been quite justified in suspecting the Moslem even if the + Moslem had merely been a new stranger; but as a matter of history he was + already an old enemy. The critic of the Crusade talks as if it had sought + out some inoffensive tribe or temple in the interior of Thibet, which was + never discovered until it was invaded. They seem entirely to forget that + long before the Crusaders had dreamed of riding to Jerusalem, the Moslems + had almost ridden into Paris. They seem to forget that if the Crusaders + nearly conquered Palestine, it was but a return upon the Moslems who had + nearly conquered Europe. There was no need for them to argue by an appeal + to reason, as I have argued above, that a religious division must make a + difference; it had already made a difference. The difference stared them + in the face in the startling transformation of Roman Barbary and of Roman + Spain. In short it was something which must happen in theory and which did + happen in practice; all expectation suggested that it would be so and all + experience said it was so. Having thought it out theoretically and + experienced it practically, they proceeded to deal with it equally + practically. The first division involved every principle of the science of + thought; and the last developments followed out every principle of the + science of war. The Crusade was the counter-attack. It was the defensive + army taking the offensive in its turn, and driving back the enemy to his + base. And it is this process, reasonable from its first axiom to its last + act, that Mr. Pound actually selects as a sort of automatic wandering of + an animal. But a man so intelligent would not have made a mistake so + extraordinary but for another error which it is here very essential to + consider. To suggest that men engaged, rightly or wrongly, in so logical a + military and political operation were only migrating like birds or + swarming like bees is as ridiculous as to say that the Prohibition + campaign in America was only an animal reversion towards lapping as the + dog lappeth, or Rowland Hill's introduction of postage stamps an animal + taste for licking as the cat licks. Why should we provide other people + with a remote reason for their own actions, when they themselves are ready + to tell us the reason, and it is a perfectly reasonable reason? + </p> + <p> + I have compared this pompous imposture of scientific history to the + pompous and clumsy building of the scientific Germans on the Mount of + Olives, because it substitutes in the same way a modern stupidity for the + medieval simplicity. But just as the German Hospice after all stands on a + fine site, and might have been a fine building, so there is after all + another truth, somewhat analogous, which the German historians of the + Folk-Wanderings might possibly have meant, as distinct from all that they + have actually said. There is indeed one respect in which the case of the + Crusade does differ very much from modern political cases like prohibition + or the penny post. I do not refer to such incidental peculiarities as the + fact that Prohibition could only have succeeded through the enormous power + of modern plutocracy, or that even the convenience of the postage goes + along with an extreme coercion by the police. It is a somewhat deeper + difference that I mean; and it may possibly be what these critics mean. + But the difference is not in the evolutionary, but rather the + revolutionary spirit. + </p> + <p> + The First Crusade was not a racial migration; it was something much more + intellectual and dignified; a riot. In order to understand this religious + war we must class it, not so much with the wars of history as with the + revolutions of history. As I shall try to show briefly on a later page, it + not only had all the peculiar good and the peculiar evil of things like + the French Revolution or the Russian Revolution, but it was a more purely + popular revolution than either of them. The truly modern mind will of + course regard the contention that it was popular as tantamount to a + confession that it was animal. In these days when papers and speeches are + full of words like democracy and self-determination, anything really + resembling the movement of a mass of angry men is regarded as no better + than a stampede of bulls or a scurry of rats. The new sociologists call it + the herd instinct, just as the old reactionaries called it the many-headed + beast. But both agree in implying that it is hardly worth while to count + how many head there are of such cattle. In face of such fashionable + comparisons it will seem comparatively mild to talk of migration as it + occurs among birds or insects. Nevertheless we may venture to state with + some confidence that both the sociologists and the reactionaries are + wrong. It does not follow that human beings become less than human because + their ideas appeal to more and more of humanity. Nor can we deduce that + men are mindless solely from the fact that they are all of one mind. In + plain fact the virtues of a mob cannot be found in a herd of bulls or a + pack of wolves, any more than the crimes of a mob can be committed by a + flock of sheep or a shoal of herrings. Birds have never been known to + besiege and capture an empty cage of an aviary, on a point of principle, + merely because it had kept a few other birds in captivity, as the mob + besieged and captured the almost empty Bastille, merely because it was the + fortress of a historic tyranny. And rats have never been known to die by + thousands merely in order to visit a particular trap in which a particular + rat had perished, as the poor peasants of the First Crusade died in + thousands for a far-off sight of the Sepulchre or a fragment of the true + cross. In this sense indeed the Crusade was not rationalistic, if the rat + is the only rationalist. But it will seem more truly rational to point out + that the inspiration of such a crowd is not in such instincts as we share + with the animals, but precisely in such ideas as the animals never (with + all their virtues) understand. + </p> + <p> + What is peculiar about the First Crusade is that it was in quite a new and + abnormal sense a popular movement. I might almost say it was the only + popular movement there ever was in the world. For it was not a thing which + the populace followed; it was actually a thing which the populace led. It + was not only essentially a revolution, but it was the only revolution I + know of in which the masses began by acting alone, and practically without + any support from any of the classes. When they had acted, the classes came + in; and it is perfectly true, and indeed only natural, that the masses + alone failed where the two together succeeded. But it was the uneducated + who educated the educated. The case of the Crusade is emphatically not a + case in which certain ideas were first suggested by a few philosophers, + and then preached by demagogues to the democracy. This was to a great + extent true of the French Revolution; it was probably yet more true of the + Russian Revolution; and we need not here pause upon the fine shade of + difference that Rousseau was right and Karl Marx was wrong. In the First + Crusade it was the ordinary man who was right or wrong. He came out in a + fury at the insult to his own little images or private prayers, as if he + had come out to fight with his own domestic poker or private + carving-knife. He was not armed with new weapons of wit and logic served + round from the arsenal of an academy. There was any amount of wit and + logic in the academies of the Middle Ages; but the typical leader of the + Crusade was not Abelard or Aquinas but Peter the Hermit, who can hardly be + called even a popular leader, but rather a popular flag. And it was his + army, or rather his enormous rabble, that first marched across the world + to die for the deliverance of Jerusalem. + </p> + <p> + Historians say that in that huge host of thousands there were only nine + knights. To any one who knows even a little of medieval war the fact seems + astounding. It is indeed a long exploded fallacy to regard medievalism as + identical with feudalism. There were countless democratic institutions, + such as the guilds; sometimes as many as twenty guilds in one small town. + But it is really true that the military organization of the Middle Ages + was almost entirely feudal; indeed we might rather say that feudalism was + the name of their military organisation. That so vast a military mass + should have attempted to move at all, with only nine of the natural + military leaders, seems to me a prodigy of popular initiative. It is as if + a parliament were elected at the next general election, in which only two + men could afford to read a daily newspaper. + </p> + <p> + This mob marched against the military discipline of the Moslems and was + massacred; or, might I so mystically express it, martyred. Many of the + great kings and knights who followed in their tracks did not so clearly + deserve any haloes for the simplicity and purity of their motives. The + canonisation of such a crowd might be impossible, and would certainly be + resisted in modern opinion; chiefly because they indulged their democratic + violence on the way by killing various usurers; a course which naturally + fills modern society with an anger verging on alarm. A perversity leads me + to weep rather more over the many slaughtered peasants than over the few + slaughtered usurers; but in any case the peasants certainly were not + slaughtered in vain. The common conscience of all classes, in a time when + all had a common creed, was aroused, and a new army followed of a very + different type of skill and training; led by most of the ablest captains + and by some of the most chivalrous gentlemen of the age. For curiously + enough, the host contained more than one cultured gentleman who was as + simple a Christian as any peasant, and as recklessly ready to be butchered + or tortured for the mere name of Christ. + </p> + <p> + It is a tag of the materialists that the truth about history rubs away the + romance of history. It is dear to the modern mind because it is + depressing; but it does not happen to be true. Nothing emerges more + clearly from a study that is truly realistic, than the curious fact that + romantic people were really romantic. It is rather the historical novels + that will lead a modern man vaguely to expect to find the leader of the + new knights, Godfrey de Bouillon, to have been merely a brutal baron. The + historical facts are all in favour of his having been much more like a + knight of the Round Table. In fact he was a far better man than most of + the knights of the Round Table, in whose characters the fabulist, knowing + that he was writing a fable, was tactful enough to introduce a larger + admixture of vice. Truth is not only stranger than fiction, but often + saintlier than fiction. For truth is real, while fiction is bound to be + realistic. Curiously enough Godfrey seems to have been heroic even in + those admirable accidents which are generally and perhaps rightly regarded + as the trappings of fiction. Thus he was of heroic stature, a handsome + red-bearded man of great personal strength and daring; and he was himself + the first man over the wall of Jerusalem, like any boy hero in a boy's + adventure story. But he was also, the realist will be surprised to hear, a + perfectly honest man, and a perfectly genuine practiser of the theoretical + magnanimity of knighthood. Everything about him suggests it; from his + first conversion from the imperial to the papal (and popular) cause, to + his great refusal of the kinghood of the city he had taken; "I will not + wear a crown of gold where my Master wore a crown of thorns." He was a + just ruler, and the laws he made were full of the plainest public spirit. + But even if we dismiss all that was written of him by Christian + chroniclers because they might be his friends (which would be a pathetic + and exaggerated compliment to the harmonious unity of Crusaders and of + Christians) he would still remain sufficiently assoiled and crowned with + the words of his enemies. For a Saracen chronicler wrote of him, with a + fine simplicity, that if all truth and honour had otherwise withered off + the earth, there would still remain enough of them so long as Duke Godfrey + was alive. + </p> + <p> + Allied with Godfrey were Tancred the Italian, Raymond of Toulouse with the + southern French and Robert of Normandy, the adventurous son of the + Conqueror, with the Normans and the English. But it would be an error, I + think, and one tending to make the whole subsequent story a thing not so + much misunderstood as unintelligible, to suppose that the whole crusading + movement had been suddenly and unnaturally stiffened with the highest + chivalric discipline. Unless I am much mistaken, a great mass of that army + was still very much of a mob. It is probable <i>a priori</i>, since the + great popular movement was still profoundly popular. It is supported by a + thousand things in the story of the campaign; the extraordinary + emotionalism that made throngs of men weep and wail together, the + importance of the demagogue, Peter the Hermit, in spite of his unmilitary + character, and the wide differences between the designs of the leaders and + the actions of the rank and file. It was a crowd of rude and simple men + that cast themselves on the sacred dust at the first sight of the little + mountain town which they had tramped for two thousand miles to see. + Tancred saw it first from the slope by the village of Bethlehem, which had + opened its gates willingly to his hundred Italian knights; for Bethlehem + then as now was an island of Christendom in the sea of Islam. Meanwhile + Godfrey came up the road from Jaffa, and crossing the mountain ridge, saw + also with his living eyes his vision of the world's desire. But the + poorest men about him probably felt the same as he; all ranks knelt + together in the dust, and the whole story is one wave of numberless and + nameless men. It was a mob that had risen like a man for the faith. It was + a mob that had truly been tortured like a man for the faith. It was + already transfigured by pain as well as passion. Those that know war in + those deserts through the summer months, even with modern supplies and + appliances and modern maps and calculations, know that it could only be + described as a hell full of heroes. What it must have been to those little + local serfs and peasants from the Northern villages, who had never dreamed + in nightmares of such landscapes or such a sun, who knew not how men lived + at all in such a furnace and could neither guess the alleviations nor get + them, is beyond the imagination of man. They arrived dying with thirst, + dropping with weariness, lamenting the loss of the dead that rotted along + their road; they arrived shrivelled to rags or already raving with fever + and they did what they had come to do. + </p> + <p> + Above all, it is clear that they had the vices as well as the virtues of a + mob. The shocking massacre in which they indulged in the sudden relaxation + of success is quite obviously a massacre by a mob. It is all the more + profoundly revolutionary because it must have been for the most part a + French mob. It was of the same order as the Massacre of September, and it + is but a part of the same truth that the First Crusade was as + revolutionary as the French Revolution. It was of the same order as the + Massacre of St. Bartholomew, which was also a piece of purely popular + fanaticism, directed against what was also regarded as an anti-national + aristocracy. It is practically self-evident that the Christian commanders + were opposed to it, and tried to stop it. Tancred promised their lives to + the Moslems in the mosque, but the mob clearly disregarded him. Raymond of + Toulouse himself saved those in the Tower of David, and managed to send + them safely with their property to Ascalon. But revolution with all its + evil as well as its good was loose and raging in the streets of the Holy + City. And in nothing do we see that spirit of revolution more clearly than + in the sight of all those peasants and serfs and vassals, in that one wild + moment in revolt, not only against the conquered lords of Islam, but even + against the conquering lords of Christendom. + </p> + <p> + The whole strain of the siege indeed had been one of high and even + horrible excitement. Those who tell us to-day about the psychology of the + crowd will agree that men who have so suffered and so succeeded are not + normal; that their brains are in a dreadful balance which may turn either + way. They entered the city at last in a mood in which they might all have + become monks; and instead they all became murderers. A brilliant general, + who played a decisive part in our own recent Palestinian campaign, told me + with a sort of grim humour that he hardly wondered at the story; for he + himself had entered Jerusalem in a sort of fury of disappointment; "We + went through such a hell to get there, and now it's spoilt for all of us." + Such is the heavy irony that hangs over our human nature, making it enter + the Holy City as if it were the Heavenly City, and more than any earthly + city can be. But the struggle which led to the scaling of Jerusalem in the + First Crusade was something much wilder and more incalculable than + anything that can be conceived in modern war. We can hardly wonder that + the crusading crowd saw the town in front of them as a sort of tower full + of demons, and the hills around them as an enchanted and accursed land. + For in one very real sense it really was so; for all the elements and + expedients were alike unknown qualities. All their enemies' methods were + secrets sprung upon them. All their own methods were new things made out + of nothing. They wondered alike what would be done on the other side and + what could be done on their own side; every movement against them was a + stab out of the darkness and every movement they made was a leap in the + dark. First, on the one side, we have Tancred trying to take the whole + fortified city by climbing up a single slender ladder, as if a man tried + to lasso the peak of a mountain. Then we have the flinging from the + turrets of a strange and frightful fiery rain, as if water itself had + caught fire. It was afterwards known as the Greek Fire and was probably + petroleum; but to those who had never seen (or felt) it before it may well + have seemed the flaming oil of witchcraft. Then Godfrey and the wiser of + the warriors set about to build wooden siege-towers and found they had + next to no wood to build them. There was scarcely anything in that rocky + waste but the dwarf trees of olive; a poetic fantasy woven about that war + in after ages described them as hindered even in their wood-cutting by the + demons of that weird place. And indeed the fancy had an essential truth, + for the very nature of the land fought against them; and each of those + dwarf trees, hard and hollow and twisted, may well have seemed like a + grinning goblin. It is said that they found timbers by accident in a + cavern; they tore down the beams from ruined houses; at last they got into + touch with some craftsmen from Genoa who went to work more successfully; + skinning the cattle, who had died in heaps, and covering the timbers. They + built three high towers on rollers, and men and beasts dragged them + heavily against the high towers of the city. The catapults of the city + answered them, the cataracts of devouring fire came down; the wooden + towers swayed and tottered, and two of them suddenly stuck motionless and + useless. And as the darkness fell a great flare must have told them that + the third and last was in flames. + </p> + <p> + All that night Godfrey was toiling to retrieve the disaster. He took down + the whole tower from where it stood and raised it again on the high ground + to the north of the city which is now marked by the pine tree that grows + outside Herod's gate. And all the time he toiled, it was said, sinister + sorcerers sat upon the battlements, working unknown marvels for the + undoing of the labour of man. If the great knight had a touch of such + symbolism on his own side, he might have seen in his own strife with the + solid timber something of the craft that had surrounded the birth of his + creed, and the sacred trade of the carpenter. And indeed the very pattern + of all carpentry is cruciform, and there is something more than an + accident in the allegory. The transverse position of the timber does + indeed involve many of those mathematical that are analogous to moral + truths and almost every structural shape has the shadow of the mystic + rood, as the three dimensions have a shadow of the Trinity. Here is the + true mystery of equality; since the longer beam might lengthen itself to + infinity, and never be nearer to the symbolic shape without the help of + the shorter. Here is that war and wedding between two contrary forces, + resisting and supporting each other; the meeting-place of contraries which + we, by a sort of pietistic pun, still call the crux of the question. Here + is our angular and defiant answer to the self-devouring circle of Asia. It + may be improbable, though it is far from impossible (for the age was + philosophical enough) that a man like Godfrey thus extended the mystical + to the metaphysical; but the writer of a real romance about him would be + well within his rights in making him see the symbolism of his own tower, a + tower rising above him through the clouds of night as if taking hold on + the heaven or showing its network of beams black against the daybreak; + scaling the skies and open to all the winds, a ladder and a labyrinth, + repeating till it was lost in the twilight the pattern of the sign of the + cross. + </p> + <p> + When dawn was come all those starving peasants may well have stood before + the high impregnable walls in the broad daylight of despair. Even their + nightmares during the night, of unearthly necromancers looking down at + them from the battlements and with signs and spells paralysing all their + potential toils, may well have been a sort of pessimistic consolation, + anticipating and accounting for failure. The Holy City had become for them + a fortress full of fiends, when Godfrey de Bouillon again set himself + sword in hand upon the wooden tower and gave the order once more to drag + it tottering towards the towers on either side of the postern gate. So + they crawled again across the fosse full of the slain, dragging their huge + house of timber behind them, and all the blast and din of war broke again + about their heads. A hail of bolts hammered such shields as covered them + for a canopy, stones and rocks fell on them and crushed them like flies in + the mire, and from the engines of the Greek Fire all the torrents of their + torment came down on them like red rivers of hell. For indeed the souls of + those peasants must have been sickened with something of the + topsy-turvydom felt by too many peasants of our own time under the + frightful flying batteries of scientific war; a blasphemy of inverted + battle in which hell itself has occupied heaven. Something of the vapours + vomited by such cruel chemistry may have mingled with the dust of battle, + and darkened such light as showed where shattering rocks were rending a + roof of shields, to men bowed and blinded as they are by such labour of + dragging and such a hailstorm of death. They may have heard through all + the racket of nameless noises the high minaret cries of Moslem triumph + rising shriller like a wind in shrill pipes, and known little else of what + was happening above or beyond them. It was most likely that they laboured + and strove in that lower darkness, not knowing that high over their heads, + and up above the cloud of battle, the tower of timber and the tower of + stone had touched and met in mid-heaven; and great Godfrey, alone and + alive, had leapt upon the wall of Jerusalem. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0012" id="link2HCH0012"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XII. — THE FALL OF CHIVALRY + </h2> + <p> + On the back of this book is the name of the New Jerusalem and on the first + page of it a phrase about the necessity of going back to the old even to + find the new, as a man retraces his steps to a sign-post. The common sense + of that process is indeed most mysteriously misunderstood. Any suggestion + that progress has at any time taken the wrong turning is always answered + by the argument that men idealise the past, and make a myth of the Age of + Gold. If my progressive guide has led me into a morass or a man-trap by + turning to the left by the red pillar-box, instead of to the right by the + blue palings of the inn called the Rising Sun, my progressive guide always + proceeds to soothe me by talking about the myth of an Age of Gold. He says + I am idealising the right turning. He says the blue palings are not so + blue as they are painted. He says they are only blue with distance. He + assures me there are spots on the sun, even on the rising sun. Sometimes + he tells me I am wrong in my fixed conviction that the blue was of solid + sapphires, or the sun of solid gold. In short he assures me I am wrong in + supposing that the right turning was right in every possible respect; as + if I had ever supposed anything of the sort. I want to go back to that + particular place, not because it was all my fancy paints it, or because it + was the best place my fancy can paint; but because it was a many thousand + times better place than the man-trap in which he and his like have landed + me. But above all I want to go back to it, not because I know it was the + right place but because I think it was the right turning. And the right + turning might possibly have led me to the right place; whereas the + progressive guide has quite certainly led me to the wrong one. + </p> + <p> + Now it is quite true that there is less general human testimony to the + notion of a New Jerusalem in the future than to the notion of a Golden Age + in the past. But neither of those ideas, whether or no they are illusions, + are any answer to the question of a plain man in the plain position of + this parable; a man who has to find some guidance in the past if he is to + get any good in the future. What he positively knows, in any case, is the + complete collapse of the present. Now that is the exact truth about the + thing so often rebuked as a romantic and unreal return of modern men to + medieval things. They suppose they have taken the wrong turning, because + they know they are in the wrong place. To know that, it is necessary not + to idealise the medieval world, but merely to realise the modern world. It + is not so much that they suppose the medieval world was above the average + as that they feel sure the modern world is below the average. They do not + start either with the idea that man is meant to live in a New Jerusalem of + pearl and sapphire in the future, or that a man was meant to live in a + picturesque and richly-painted tavern of the past; but with a strong + inward and personal persuasion that a man was not meant to live in a + man-trap. + </p> + <p> + For there is and will be more and more a turn of total change in all our + talk and writing about history. Everything in the past was praised if it + had led up to the present, and blamed if it would have led up to anything + else. In short everybody has been searching the past for the secret of our + success. Very soon everybody may be searching the past for the secret of + our failure. They may be talking in such terms as they use after a motor + smash or a bankruptcy; where was the blunder? They may be writing such + books as generals write after a military defeat; whose was the fault? The + failure will be assumed even in being explained. + </p> + <p> + For industrialism is no longer a vulgar success. On the contrary, it is + now too tragic even to be vulgar. Under the cloud of doom the modern city + has taken on something of the dignity of Babel or Babylon. Whether we call + it the nemesis of Capitalism or the nightmare of Bolshevism makes no + difference; the rich grumble as much as the poor; every one is + discontented, and none more than those who are chiefly discontented with + the discontent. About that discord we are in perfect harmony; about that + disease we all think alike, whatever we think of the diagnosis or the + cure. By whatever process in the past we might have come to the right + place, practical facts in the present and future will prove more and more + that we have come to the wrong place. And for many a premonition will grow + more and more of a probability; that we may or may not await another + century or another world to see the New Jerusalem rebuilt and shining on + our fields; but in the flesh we shall see Babylon fall. + </p> + <p> + But there is another way in which that metaphor of the forked road will + make the position plain. Medieval society was not the right place; it was + only the right turning. It was only the right road; or perhaps only the + beginning of the right road. The medieval age was very far from being the + age in which everything went right. It would be nearer the truth I mean to + call it the age in which everything went wrong. It was the moment when + things might have developed well, and did develop badly. Or rather, to be + yet more exact, it was the moment when they were developing well, and yet + they were driven to develop badly. This was the history of all the + medieval states and of none more than medieval Jerusalem; indeed there + were signs of some serious idea of making it the model medieval state. Of + this notion of Jerusalem as the New Jerusalem, of the Utopian aspect of + the adventure of the Latin Kingdom, something may be said in a moment. But + meanwhile there was a more important part played by Jerusalem, I think, in + all that great progress and reaction which has left us the problem of + modern Europe. And the suggestion of it is bound up with the former + suggestion, about the difference between the goal and the right road that + might have led to it. It is bound up with that quality of the civilisation + in question, that it was potential rather than perfect; and there is no + need to idealise it in order to regret it. This peculiar part played by + Jerusalem I mention merely as a suggestion; I might almost say a + suspicion. Anyhow, it is something of a guess; but I for one have found it + a guide. + </p> + <p> + Medievalism died, but it died young. It was at once energetic and + incomplete when it died, or very shortly before it died. This is not a + matter of sympathy or antipathy, but of appreciation of an interesting + historic comparison with other historic cases. When the Roman Empire + finally failed we cannot of course say that it had done all it was meant + to do, for that is dogmatism. We cannot even say it had done all that it + might have done, for that is guesswork. But we can say that it had done + certain definite things and was conscious of having done them; that it had + long and even literally rested on its laurels. But suppose that Rome had + fallen when she had only half defeated Carthage, or when she had only half + conquered Gaul, or even when the city was Christian but most of the + provinces still heathen. Then we should have said, not merely that Rome + had not done what she might have done, but that she had not done what she + was actually doing. And that is very much the truth in the matter of the + medieval civilisation. It was not merely that the medievals left undone + what they might have done, but they left undone what they were doing. This + potential promise is proved not only in their successes but in their + failures. It is shown, for instance, in the very defects of their art. All + the crafts of which Gothic architecture formed the frame-work were + developed, not only less than they should have been, but less than they + would have been. There is no sort of reason why their sculpture should not + have become as perfect as their architecture; there is no sort of reason + why their sense of form should not have been as finished as their sense of + colour. A statue like the St. George of Donatello would have stood more + appropriately under a Gothic than under a Classic arch. The niches were + already made for the statues. The same thing is true, of course, not only + about the state of the crafts but about the status of the craftsman. The + best proof that the system of the guilds had an undeveloped good in it is + that the most advanced modern men are now going back five hundred years to + get the good out of it. The best proof that a rich house was brought to + ruin is that our very pioneers are now digging in the ruins to find the + riches. That the new guildsmen add a great deal that never belonged to the + old guildsmen is not only a truth, but is part of the truth I maintain + here. The new guildsmen add what the old guildsmen would have added if + they had not died young. When we renew a frustrated thing we do not renew + the frustration. But if there are some things in the new that were not in + the old, there were certainly some things in the old that are not yet + visible in the new; such as individual humour in the handiwork. The point + here, however, is not merely that the worker worked well but that he was + working better; not merely that his mind was free but that it was growing + freer. All this popular power and humour was increasing everywhere, when + something touched it and it withered away. The frost had struck it in the + spring. + </p> + <p> + Some people complain that the working man of our own day does not show an + individual interest in his work. But it will be well to realise that they + would be much more annoyed with him if he did. The medieval workman took + so individual an interest in his work that he would call up devils + entirely on his own account, carving them in corners according to his own + taste and fancy. He would even reproduce the priests who were his patrons + and make them as ugly as devils; carving anti-clerical caricatures on the + very seats and stalls of the clerics. If a modern householder, on entering + his own bathroom, found that the plumber had twisted the taps into the + images of two horned and grinning fiends, he would be faintly surprised. + If the householder, on returning at evening to his house, found the + door-knocker distorted into a repulsive likeness of himself, his surprise + might even be tinged with disapproval. It may be just as well that + builders and bricklayers do not gratuitously attach gargoyles to our + smaller residential villas. But well or ill, it is certainly true that + this feature of a flexible popular fancy has never reappeared in any + school of architecture or any state of society since the medieval decline. + The great classical buildings of the Renascence were swept as bare of it + as any villa in Balham. But those who best appreciate this loss to popular + art will be the first to agree that at its best it retained a touch of the + barbaric as well as the popular. While we can admire these matters of the + grotesque, we can admit that their work was sometimes unintentionally as + well as intentionally grotesque. Some of the carving did remain so rude + that the angels were almost as ugly as the devils. But this is the very + point upon which I would here insist; the mystery of why men who were so + obviously only beginning should have so suddenly stopped. + </p> + <p> + Men with medieval sympathies are sometimes accused, absurdly enough, of + trying to prove that the medieval period was perfect. In truth the whole + case for it is that it was imperfect. It was imperfect as an unripe fruit + or a growing child is imperfect. Indeed it was imperfect in that very + particular fashion which most modern thinkers generally praise, more than + they ever praise maturity. It was something now much more popular than an + age of perfection; it was an age of progress. It was perhaps the one real + age of progress in all history. Men have seldom moved with such rapidity + and such unity from barbarism to civilisation as they did from the end of + the Dark Ages to the times of the universities and the parliaments, the + cathedrals and the guilds. Up to a certain point we may say that + everything, at whatever stage of improvement, was full of the promise of + improvement. Then something began to go wrong, almost equally rapidly, and + the glory of this great culture is not so much in what it did as in what + it might have done. It recalls one of these typical medieval speculations, + full of the very fantasy of free will, in which the schoolmen tried to + fancy the fate of every herb or animal if Adam had not eaten the apple. It + remains, in a cant historical phrase, one of the great might-have-beens of + history. + </p> + <p> + I have said that it died young; but perhaps it would be truer to say that + it suddenly grew old. Like Godfrey and many of its great champions in + Jerusalem, it was overtaken in the prime of life by a mysterious malady. + The more a man reads of history the less easy he will find it to explain + that secret and rapid decay of medieval civilisation from within. Only a + few generations separated the world that worshipped St. Francis from the + world that burned Joan of Arc. One would think there might be no more than + a date and a number between the white mystery of Louis the Ninth and the + black mystery of Louis the Eleventh. This is the very real historical + mystery; the more realistic is our study of medieval things, the more + puzzled we shall be about the peculiar creeping paralysis which affected + things so virile and so full of hope. There was a growth of moral + morbidity as well as social inefficiency, especially in the governing + classes; for even to the end the guildsmen and the peasants remained much + more vigorous. How it ended we all know; personally I should say that they + got the Reformation and deserved it. But it matters nothing to the truth + here whether the Reformation was a just revolt and revenge or an unjust + culmination and conquest. It is common ground to Catholics and Protestants + of intelligence that evils preceded and produced the schism; and that + evils were produced by it and have pursued it down to our own day. We know + it if only in the one example, that the schism begat the Thirty Years' + War, and the Thirty Years' War begat the Seven Years' War, and the Seven + Years' War begat the Great War, which has passed like a pestilence through + our own homes. After the schism Prussia could relapse into heathenry and + erect an ethical system external to the whole culture of Christendom. But + it can still be reasonably asked what begat the schism; and it can still + be reasonably answered; something that went wrong with medievalism. But + what was it that went wrong? + </p> + <p> + When I looked for the last time on the towers of Zion I had a fixed fancy + that I knew what it was. It is a thing that cannot be proved or disproved; + it must sound merely an ignorant guess. But I believe myself that it died + of disappointment. I believe the whole medieval society failed, because + the heart went out of it with the loss of Jerusalem. Let it be observed + that I do not say the loss of the war, or even the Crusade. For the war + against Islam was not lost. The Moslem was overthrown in the real + battle-field, which was Spain; he was menaced in Africa; his imperial + power was already stricken and beginning slowly to decline. I do not mean + the political calculations about a Mediterranean war. I do not even mean + the Papal conceptions about the Holy War. I mean the purely popular + picture of the Holy City. For while the aristocratic thing was a view, the + vulgar thing was a vision; something with which all stories stop, + something where the rainbow ends, something over the hills and far away. + In Spain they had been victorious; but their castle was not even a castle + in Spain. It was a castle east of the sun and west of the moon, and the + fairy prince could find it no more. Indeed that idle image out of the + nursery books fits it very exactly. For its mystery was and is in standing + in the middle, or as they said in the very centre of the earth. It is east + of the sun of Europe, which fills the world with a daylight of sanity, and + ripens real and growing things. It is west of the moon of Asia, mysterious + and archaic with its cold volcanoes, silver mirror for poets and a most + fatal magnet for lunatics. + </p> + <p> + Anyhow the fall of Jerusalem, and in that sense the failure of the + Crusades, had a widespread effect, as I should myself suggest, for the + reason I have myself suggested. Because it had been a popular movement, it + was a popular disappointment; and because it had been a popular movement, + its ideal was an image; a particular picture in the imagination. For poor + men are almost always particularists; and nobody has ever seen such a + thing as a mob of pantheists. I have seen in some of that lost literature + of the old guilds, which is now everywhere coming to light, a list of the + stage properties required for some village play, one of those popular + plays acted by the medieval trades unions, for which the guild of the + shipwrights would build Noah's Ark or the guild of the barbers provide + golden wigs for the haloes of the Twelve Apostles. The list of those crude + pieces of stage furniture had a curious colour of poetry about it, like + the impromptu apparatus of a nursery charade; a cloud, an idol with a + club, and notably among the rest, the walls and towers of Jerusalem. I can + imagine them patiently painted and gilded as a special feature, like the + two tubs of Mr. Vincent Crummles. But I can also imagine that towards the + end of the Middle Ages, the master of the revels might begin to look at + those towers of wood and pasteboard with a sort of pain, and perhaps put + them away in a corner, as a child will tire of a toy especially if it is + associated with a disappointment or a dismal misunderstanding. There is + noticeable in some of the later popular poems a disposition to sulk about + the Crusades. But though the popular feeling had been largely poetical, + the same thing did in its degree occur in the political realm that was + purely practical. The Moslem had been checked, but he had not been checked + enough. The whole story of what was called the Eastern Question, and + three-quarters of the wars of the modern world, were due to the fact that + he was not checked enough. + </p> + <p> + The only thing to do with unconquerable things is to conquer them. That + alone will cure them of invincibility; or what is worse, their own vision + of invincibility. That was the conviction of those of us who would not + accept what we considered a premature peace with Prussia. That is why we + would not listen either to the Tory Pro-Germanism of Lord Lansdowne or the + Socialist Pro-Germanism of Mr. Macdonald. If a lunatic believes in his + luck so fixedly as to feel sure be cannot be caught, he will not only + believe in it still, but believe in it more and more, until the actual + instant when he is caught. The longer the chase, the more certain he will + be of escaping; the more narrow the escapes, the more certain will be the + escape. And indeed if he does escape it will seem a miracle, and almost a + divine intervention, not only to the pursued but to the pursuers. The evil + thing will chiefly appear unconquerable to those who try to conquer it. It + will seem after all to have a secret of success; and those who failed + against it will hide in their hearts a secret of failure. It was that + secret of failure, I fancy, that slowly withered from within the high + hopes of the Middle Ages. Christianity and chivalry had measured their + force against Mahound, and Mahound had not fallen; the shadow of his + horned helmet, the crest of the Crescent, still lay across their sunnier + lands; the Horns of Hattin. The streams of life that flowed to guilds and + schools and orders of knighthood and brotherhoods of friars were strangely + changed and chilled. So, if the peace had left Prussianism secure even in + Prussia, I believe that all the liberal ideals of the Latins, and all the + liberties of the English, and the whole theory of a democratic experiment + in America, would have begun to die of a deep and even subconscious + despair. A vote, a jury, a newspaper, would not be as they are, things of + which it is hard to make the right use, or any use; they would be things + of which nobody would even try to make any use. A vote would actually look + like a vassal's cry of "haro," a jury would look like a joust; many would + no more read headlines than blazon heraldic coats. For these medieval + things look dead and dusty because of a defeat, which was none the less a + defeat because it was more than half a victory. + </p> + <p> + A curious cloud of confusion rests on the details of that defeat. The + Christian captains who acted in it were certainly men on a different moral + level from the good Duke Godfrey; their characters were by comparison + mixed and even mysterious. Perhaps the two determining personalities were + Raymond of Tripoli, a skilful soldier whom his enemies seemed to have + accused of being much too skilful a diplomatist; and Renaud of Chatillon, + a violent adventurer whom his enemies seem to have accused of being little + better than a bandit. And it is the irony of the incident that Raymond got + into trouble for making a dubious peace with the Saracens, while Renaud + got into trouble by making an equally dubious war on the Saracens. Renaud + exacted from Moslem travellers on a certain road what he regarded as a + sort of feudal toll or tax, and they regarded as a brigand ransom; and + when they did not pay he attacked them. This was regarded as a breach of + the truce; but probably it would have been easier to regard Renaud as + waging the war of a robber, if many had not regarded Raymond as having + made the truce of a traitor. Probably Raymond was not a traitor, since the + military advice he gave up to the very instant of catastrophe was entirely + loyal and sound, and worthy of so wise a veteran. And very likely Renaud + was not merely a robber, especially in his own eyes; and there seems to be + a much better case for him than many modern writers allow. But the very + fact of such charges being bandied among the factions shows a certain fall + from the first days under the headship of the house of Bouillon. No + slanderer ever suggested that Godfrey was a traitor; no enemy ever + asserted that Godfrey was only a thief. It is fairly clear that there had + been a degeneration; but most people hardly realise sufficiently that + there had been a very great thing from which to degenerate. + </p> + <p> + The first Crusades had really had some notion of Jerusalem as a New + Jerusalem. I mean they had really had a vision of the place being not only + a promised land but a Utopia or even an Earthly Paradise. The outstanding + fact and feature which is seldom seized is this: that the social + experiment in Palestine was rather in advance of the social experiments in + the rest of Christendom. Having to begin at the beginning, they really + began with what they considered the best ideas of their time; like any + group of Socialists founding an ideal Commonwealth in a modern colony. A + specialist on this period, Colonel Conder of the Palestine Exploration, + has written that the core of the Code was founded on the recommendations + of Godfrey himself in his "Letters of the Sepulchre"; and he observes + concerning it: "The basis of these laws was found in Justinian's code, and + they presented features as yet quite unknown in Europe, especially in + their careful provision of justice for the bourgeois and the peasant, and + for the trading communes whose fleets were so necessary to the king. Not + only were free men judged by juries of their equals, but the same applied + to those who were technically serfs and actually aborigines." The original + arrangements of the Native Court seem to me singularly liberal, even by + modern standards of the treatment of natives. That in many such medieval + codes citizens were still called serfs is no more final than the fact that + in many modern capitalist newspapers serfs are still called citizens. The + whole point about the villein was that he was a tenant at least as + permanent as a peasant. He "went with the land"; and there are a good many + hopeless tramps starving in streets, or sleeping in ditches, who might not + be sorry if they could go with a little land. It would not be very much + worse than homelessness and hunger to go with a good kitchen garden of + which you could always eat most of the beans and turnips; or to go with a + good cornfield of which you could take a considerable proportion of the + corn. There has been many a modern man would have been none the worse for + "going" about burdened with such a green island, or dragging the chains of + such a tangle of green living things. As a fact, of course, this system + throughout Christendom was already evolving rapidly into a pure peasant + proprietorship; and it will be long before industrialism evolves by itself + into anything so equal or so free. Above all, there appears notably that + universal mark of the medieval movement; the voluntary liberation of + slaves. But we may willingly allow that something of the earlier success + of all this was due to the personal qualities of the first knights fresh + from the West; and especially to the personal justice and moderation of + Godfrey and some of his immediate kindred. Godfrey died young; his + successors had mostly short periods of power, largely through the + prevalence of malaria and the absence of medicine. Royal marriages with + the more oriental tradition of the Armenian princes brought in new + elements of luxury and cynicism; and by the time of the disputed truce of + Raymond of Tripoli, the crown had descended to a man named Guy of Lusignan + who seems to have been regarded as a somewhat unsatisfactory character. He + had quarrelled with Raymond, who was ruler of Galilee, and a curious and + rather incomprehensible concession made by the latter, that the Saracens + should ride in arms but in peace round his land, led to alleged Moslem + insults to Nazareth, and the outbreak of the furious Templar, Gerard of + Bideford, of which mention has been made already. But the most serious + threat to them and their New Jerusalem was the emergence among the Moslems + of a man of military genius, and the fact that all that land lay now under + the shadow of the ambition and ardour of Saladin. + </p> + <p> + With the breach of the truce, or even the tale of it, the common danger of + Christians was apparent; and Raymond of Tripoli repaired to the royal + headquarters to consult with his late enemy the king; but he seems to have + been almost openly treated as a traitor. Gerard of Bideford, the fanatic + who was Grand Master of the Templars, forced the king's hand against the + advice of the wiser soldier, who had pointed out the peril of perishing of + thirst in the waterless wastes between them and the enemy. Into those + wastes they advanced, and they were already weary and unfit for warfare by + the time they came in sight of the strange hills that will be remembered + for ever under the name of the Horns of Hattin. On those hills, a few + hours later, the last knights of an army of which half had fallen gathered + in a final defiance and despair round the relic they carried in their + midst, a fragment of the True Cross. In that hour fell, as I have fancied, + more hopes than they themselves could number, and the glory departed from + the Middle Ages. There fell with them all that New Jerusalem which was the + symbol of a new world, all those great and growing promises and + possibilities of Christendom of which this vision was the centre, all that + "justice for the bourgeois and the peasant, and for the trading communes," + all the guilds that gained their charters by fighting for the Cross, all + the hopes of a happier transformation of the Roman Law wedded to charity + and to chivalry. There was the first slip and the great swerving of our + fate; and in that wilderness we lost all the things we should have loved, + and shall need so long a labour to find again. + </p> + <p> + Raymond of Tripoli had hewn his way through the enemy and ridden away to + Tyre. The king, with a few of the remaining nobles, including Renaud de + Chatillon, were brought before Saladin in his tent. There occurred a scene + strangely typical of the mingled strains in the creed or the culture that + triumphed on that day; the stately Eastern courtesy and hospitality; the + wild Eastern hatred and self-will. Saladin welcomed the king and + gracefully gave him a cup of sherbet, which he passed to Renaud. "It is + thou and not I who hast given him to drink," said the Saracen, preserving + the precise letter of the punctilio of hospitality. Then he suddenly flung + himself raving and reviling upon Renaud de Chatillon, and killed the + prisoner with his own hands. Outside, two hundred Hospitallers and + Templars were beheaded on the field of battle; by one account I have read + because Saladin disliked them, and by another because they were Christian + priests. + </p> + <p> + There is a strong bias against the Christians and in favour of the Moslems + and the Jews in most of the Victorian historical works, especially + historical novels. And most people of modern, or rather of very recent + times got all their notions of history from dipping into historical + novels. In those romances the Jew is always the oppressed where in reality + he was often the oppressor. In those romances the Arab is always credited + with oriental dignity and courtesy and never with oriental crookedness and + cruelty. The same injustice is introduced into history, which by means of + selection and omission can be made as fictitious as any fiction. Twenty + historians mention the way in which the maddened Christian mob murdered + the Moslems after the capture of Jerusalem, for one who mentions that the + Moslem commander commanded in cold blood the murder of some two hundred of + his most famous and valiant enemies after the victory of Hattin. The + former cannot be shown to have been the act of Tancred, while the latter + was quite certainly the act of Saladin. Yet Tancred is described as at + best a doubtful character, while Saladin is represented as a Bayard + without fear or blame. Both of them doubtless were ordinary faulty + fighting men, but they are not judged by an equal balance. It may seem a + paradox that there should be this prejudice in Western history in favour + of Eastern heroes. But the cause is clear enough; it is the remains of the + revolt among many Europeans against their own old religious organisation, + which naturally made them hunt through all ages for its crimes and its + victims. It was natural that Voltaire should sympathise more with a + Brahmin he had never seen than with a Jesuit with whom he was engaged in a + violent controversy; and should similarly feel more dislike of a Catholic + who was his enemy than of a Moslem who was the enemy of his enemy. In this + atmosphere of natural and even pardonable prejudice arose the habit of + contrasting the intolerance of the Crusaders with the toleration shown by + the Moslems. Now as there are two sides to everything, it would + undoubtedly be quite possible to tell the tale of the Crusades, correctly + enough in detail, and in such a way as entirely to justify the Moslems and + condemn the Crusaders. But any such real record of the Moslem case would + have very little to do with any questions of tolerance or intolerance, or + any modern ideas about religious liberty and equality. As the modern world + does not know what it means itself by religious liberty and equality, as + the moderns have not thought out any logical theory of toleration at all + (for their vague generalisations can always be upset by twenty tests from + Thugs to Christian Science) it would obviously be unreasonable to expect + the moderns to understand the much clearer philosophy of the Moslems. But + some rough suggestion of what was really involved may be found convenient + in this case. + </p> + <p> + Islam was not originally a movement directed against Christianity at all. + It did not face westwards, so to speak; it faced eastwards towards the + idolatries of Asia. But Mahomet believed that these idols could be fought + more successfully with a simpler kind of creed; one might almost say with + a simpler kind of Christianity. For he included many things which we in + the West commonly suppose not only to be peculiar to Christianity but to + be peculiar to Catholicism. Many things have been rejected by + Protestantism that are not rejected by Mahometanism. Thus the Moslems + believe in Purgatory, and they give at least a sort of dignity to the + Mother of Christ. About such things as these they have little of the + bitterness that rankles in the Jews and is said sometimes to become + hideously vitriolic. While I was in Palestine a distinguished Moslem said + to a Christian resident: "We also, as well as you, honour the Mother of + Christ. Never do we speak of her but we call her the Lady Miriam. I dare + not tell you what the Jews call her." + </p> + <p> + The real mistake of the Moslems is something much more modern in its + application than any particular or passing persecution of Christians as + such. It lay in the very fact that they did think they had a simpler and + saner sort of Christianity, as do many modern Christians. They thought it + could be made universal merely by being made uninteresting. Now a man + preaching what he thinks is a platitude is far more intolerant than a man + preaching what he admits is a paradox. It was exactly because it seemed + self-evident, to Moslems as to Bolshevists, that their simple creed was + suited to everybody, that they wished in that particular sweeping fashion + to impose it on everybody. It was because Islam was broad that Moslems + were narrow. And because it was not a hard religion it was a heavy rule. + Because it was without a self-correcting complexity, it allowed of those + simple and masculine but mostly rather dangerous appetites that show + themselves in a chieftain or a lord. As it had the simplest sort of + religion, monotheism, so it had the simplest sort of government, monarchy. + There was exactly the same direct spirit in its despotism as in its deism. + The Code, the Common Law, the give and take of charters and chivalric + vows, did not grow in that golden desert. The great sun was in the sky and + the great Saladin was in his tent, and he must be obeyed unless he were + assassinated. Those who complain of our creeds as elaborate often forget + that the elaborate Western creeds have produced the elaborate Western + constitutions; and that they are elaborate because they are emancipated. + And the real moral of the relations of the two great religions is + something much more subtle and sincere than any mere atrocity tales + against Turks. It is the same as the moral of the Christian refusal of a + Pagan Pantheon in which Christ should rank with Ammon and Apollo. Twice + the Christian Church refused what seemed like a handsome offer of a large + latitudinarian sort; once to include Christ as a god and once to include + him as a prophet; once by the admission of all idols and once by the + abandonment of all idols. Twice the Church took the risk and twice the + Church survived alone and succeeded alone, filling the world with her own + children; and leaving her rivals in a desert, where the idols were dead + and the iconoclasts were dying. + </p> + <p> + But all this history has been hidden by a prejudice more general than the + particular case of Saracens and Crusaders. The modern, or rather the + Victorian prejudice against Crusaders is positive and not relative; and it + would still desire to condemn Tancred if it could not acquit Saladin. + Indeed it is a prejudice not so much against Crusaders as against + Christians. It will not give to these heroes of religious war the fair + measure it gives to the heroes of ordinary patriotic and imperial war. + There never was a nobler hero than Nelson, or one more national or more + normal. Yet Nelson quite certainly did do what Tancred almost certainly + did not do; break his own word by giving up his own brave enemies to + execution. If the cause of Nelson in other times comes to be treated as + the creed of Tancred has often in recent times been treated, this incident + alone will be held sufficient to prove not only that Nelson was a liar and + a scoundrel, but that he did not love England at all, did not love Lady + Hamilton at all, that he sailed in English ships only to pocket the prize + money of French ships, and would as willingly have sailed in French ships + for the prize money of English ships. That is the sort of dull dust of + gold that has been shaken like the drifting dust of the desert over the + swords and the relics, the crosses and the clasped hands of the men who + marched to Jerusalem or died at Hattin. In these medieval pilgrims every + inconsistency is a hypocrisy; while in the more modern patriots even an + infamy is only an inconsistency. I have rounded off the story here with + the ruin at Hattin because the whole reaction against the pilgrimage had + its origin there; and because it was this at least that finally lost + Jerusalem. Elsewhere in Palestine, to say nothing of Africa and Spain, + splendid counter-strokes were still being delivered from the West, not the + least being the splendid rescue by Richard of England. But I still think + that with the mere name of that tiny town upon the hills the note of the + whole human revolution had been struck, was changed and was silent. All + the other names were only the names of Eastern towns; but that was nearer + to a man than his neighbours; a village inside his village, a house inside + his house. + </p> + <p> + There is a hill above Bethlehem of a strange shape, with a flat top which + makes it look oddly like an island, habitable though uninhabited, when all + Moab heaves about it and beyond it as with the curves and colours of a + sea. Its stability suggests in some strange fashion what may often be felt + in these lands with the longest record of culture; that there may be not + only a civilisation but even a chivalry older than history. Perhaps the + table-land with its round top has a romantic reminiscence of a round + table. Perhaps it is only a fantastic effect of evening, for it is felt + most when the low skies are swimming with the colours of sunset, and in + the shadows the shattered rocks about its base take on the shapes of + titanic paladins fighting and falling around it. I only know that the mere + shape of the hill and vista of the landscape suggested such visions and it + was only afterwards that I heard the local legend, which says it is here + that some of the Christian knights made their last stand after they lost + Jerusalem and which names this height The Mountain of the Latins. + </p> + <p> + They fell, and the ages rolled on them the rocks of scorn; they were + buried in jests and buffooneries. As the Renascence expanded into the + rationalism of recent centuries, nothing seemed so ridiculous as to + butcher and bleed in a distant desert not only for a tomb, but an empty + tomb. The last legend of them withered under the wit of Cervantes, though + he himself had fought in the last Crusade at Lepanto. They were kicked + about like dead donkeys by the cool vivacity of Voltaire; who went off, + very symbolically, to dance attendance on the new drill-sergeant of the + Prussians. They were dissected like strange beasts by the serene disgust + of Gibbon, more serene than the similar horror with which he regarded the + similar violence of the French Revolution. By our own time even the + flippancy has become a platitude. They have long been the butt of every + penny-a-liner who can talk of a helmet as a tin pot, of every caricaturist + on a comic paper who can draw a fat man falling off a bucking horse; of + every pushing professional politician who can talk about the superstitions + of the Middle Ages. Great men and small have agreed to contemn them; they + were renounced by their children and refuted by their biographers; they + were exposed, they were exploded, they were ridiculed and they were right. + </p> + <p> + They were proved wrong, and they were right. They were judged finally and + forgotten, and they were right. Centuries after their fall the full + experience and development of political discovery has shown beyond + question that they were right. For there is a very simple test of the + truth; that the very thing which was dismissed, as a dream of the ages of + faith, we have been forced to turn into a fact in the ages of fact. It is + now more certain than it ever was before that Europe must rescue some + lordship, or overlordship, of these old Roman provinces. Whether it is + wise for England alone to claim Palestine, whether it would be better if + the Entente could do so, I think a serious question. But in some form they + are reverting for the Roman Empire. Every opportunity has been given for + any other empire that could be its equal, and especially for the great + dream of a mission for Imperial Islam. If ever a human being had a run for + his money, it was the Sultan of the Moslems riding on his Arab steed. His + empire expanded over and beyond the great Greek empire of Byzantium; a + last charge of the chivalry of Poland barely stopped it at the very gates + of Vienna. He was free to unfold everything that was in him, and he + unfolded the death that was in him. He reigned and he could not rule; he + was successful and he did not succeed. His baffled and retreating enemies + left him standing, and he could not stand. He fell finally with that other + half-heathen power in the North, with which he had made an alliance + against the remains of Roman and Byzantine culture. He fell because + barbarism cannot stand; because even when it succeeds it rather falls on + its foes and crushes them. And after all these things, after all these + ages, with a wearier philosophy, with a heavier heart, we have been forced + to do again the very thing that the Crusaders were derided for doing. What + Western men failed to do for the faith, other Western men have been forced + to do even without the faith. The sons of Tancred are again in Tripoli. + The heirs of Raymond are again in Syria. And men from the Midlands or the + Northumbrian towns went again through a furnace of thirst and fever and + furious fighting, to gain the same water-courses and invest the same + cities as of old. They trod the hills of Galilee and the Horns of Hattin + threw no shadow on their souls; they crossed dark and disastrous fields + whose fame had been hidden from them, and avenged the fathers they had + forgotten. And the most cynical of modern diplomatists, making their + settlement by the most sceptical of modern philosophies, can find no + practical or even temporary solution for this sacred land, except to bring + it again under the crown of Coeur de Lion and the cross of St. George. + </p> + <p> + There came in through the crooked entry beside the great gap in the wall a + tall soldier, dismounting and walking and wearing only the dust-hued habit + of modern war. There went no trumpet before him, neither did he enter by + the Golden Gate; but the silence of the deserts was full of a phantom + acclamation, as when from far away a wind brings in a whisper the cheering + of many thousand men. For in that hour a long-lost cry found fulfilment, + and something counted irrational returned in the reason of things. And at + last even the wise understood, and at last even the learned were + enlightened on a need truly and indeed international, which a mob in a + darker age had known by the light of nature; something that could be + denied and delayed and evaded, but not escaped for ever. <i>Id Deus vult</i>. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0013" id="link2HCH0013"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XIII. — THE PROBLEM OF ZIONISM + </h2> + <p> + There is an attitude for which my friends and I were for a long period + rebuked and even reviled; and of which at the present period we are less + likely than ever to repent. It was always called Anti-Semitism; but it was + always much more true to call it Zionism. At any rate it was much nearer + to the nature of the thing to call it Zionism, whether or no it can find + its geographical concentration in Zion. The substance of this heresy was + exceedingly simple. It consisted entirely in saying that Jews are Jews; + and as a logical consequence that they are not Russians or Roumanians or + Italians or Frenchmen or Englishmen. During the war the newspapers + commonly referred to them as Russians; but the ritual wore so singularly + thin that I remember one newspaper paragraph saying that the Russians in + the East End complained of the food regulations, because their religion + forbade them to eat pork. My own brief contact with the Greek priests of + the Orthodox Church in Jerusalem did not permit me to discover any trace + of this detail of their discipline; and even the Russian pilgrims were + said to be equally negligent in the matter. The point for the moment, + however, is that if I was violently opposed to anything, it was not to + Jews, but to that sort of remark about Jews; or rather to the silly and + craven fear of making it a remark about Jews. But my friends and I had in + some general sense a policy in the matter; and it was in substance the + desire to give Jews the dignity and status of a separate nation. We + desired that in some fashion, and so far as possible, Jews should be + represented by Jews, should live in a society of Jews, should be judged by + Jews and ruled by Jews. I am an Anti-Semite if that is Anti-Semitism. It + would seem more rational to call it Semitism. + </p> + <p> + Of this attitude, I repeat, I am now less likely than ever to repent. I + have lived to see the thing that was dismissed as a fad discussed + everywhere as a fact; and one of the most menacing facts of the age. I + have lived to see people who accused me of Anti-Semitism become far more + Anti-Semitic than I am or ever was. I have heard people talking with real + injustice about the Jews, who once seemed to think it an injustice to talk + about them at all. But, above all, I have seen with my own eyes wild mobs + marching through a great city, raving not only against Jews, but against + the English for identifying themselves with the Jews. I have seen the + whole prestige of England brought into peril, merely by the trick of + talking about two nations as if they were one. I have seen an Englishman + arriving in Jerusalem with somebody he had been taught to regard as his + fellow countryman and political colleague, and received as if he had come + arm-in-arm with a flaming dragon. So do our frosty fictions fare when they + come under that burning sun. + </p> + <p> + Twice in my life, and twice lately, I have seen a piece of English + pedantry bring us within an inch of an enormous English peril. The first + was when all the Victorian historians and philosophers had told us that + our German cousin was a cousin german and even germane; something + naturally near and sympathetic. That also was an identification; that also + was an assimilation; that also was a union of hearts. For the second time + in a few short years, English politicians and journalists have discovered + the dreadful revenge of reality. To pretend that something is what it is + not is business that can easily be fashionable and sometimes popular. But + the thing we have agreed to regard as what it is not will always abruptly + punish and pulverise us, merely by being what it is. For years we were + told that the Germans were a sort of Englishman because they were Teutons; + but it was all the worse for us when we found out what Teutons really + were. For years we were told that Jews were a sort of Englishman because + they were British subjects. It is all the worse for us now we have to + regard them, not subjectively as subjects, but objectively as objects; as + objects of a fierce hatred among the Moslems and the Greeks. We are in the + absurd position of introducing to these people a new friend whom they + instantly recognise as an old enemy. It is an absurd position because it + is a false position; but it is merely the penalty of falsehood. + </p> + <p> + Whether this Eastern anger is reasonable or not may be discussed in a + moment; but what is utterly unreasonable is not the anger but the + astonishment; at least it is our astonishment at their astonishment. We + might believe ourselves in the view that a Jew is an Englishman; but there + was no reason why they should regard him as an Englishman, since they + already recognised him as a Jew. This is the whole present problem of the + Jew in Palestine; and it must be solved either by the logic of Zionism or + the logic of purely English supremacy and, impartiality; and not by what + seems to everybody in Palestine a monstrous muddle of the two. But of + course it is not only the peril in Palestine that has made the realisation + of the Jewish problem, which once suffered all the dangers of a fad, + suffer the opposite dangers of a fashion. The same journalists who + politely describe Jews as Russians are now very impolitely describing + certain Russians who are Jews. Many who had no particular objection to + Jews as Capitalists have a very great objection to them as Bolshevists. + Those who had an innocent unconsciousness of the nationality of Eckstein, + even when he called himself Eckstein, have managed to discover the + nationality of Braunstein, even, when he calls, himself Trotsky. And much + of this peril also might easily have been lessened, by the simple proposal + to call men and things by their own names. + </p> + <p> + I will confess, however, that I have no very full sympathy with the new + Anti-Semitism which is merely Anti-Socialism. There are good, honourable + and magnanimous Jews of every type and rank, there are many to whom I am + greatly attached among my own friends in my own rank; but if I have to + make a general choice on a general chance among different types of Jews, I + have much more sympathy with the Jew who is revolutionary than the Jew who + is plutocratic. In other words, I have much more sympathy for the + Israelite we are beginning to reject, than for the Israelite we have + already accepted. I have more respect for him when he leads some sort of + revolt, however narrow and anarchic, against the oppression of the poor, + than when he is safe at the head of a great money-lending business + oppressing the poor himself. It is not the poor aliens, but the rich + aliens I wish we had excluded. I myself wholly reject Bolshevism, not + because its actions are violent, but because its very thought is + materialistic and mean. And if this preference is true even of Bolshevism, + it is ten times truer of Zionism. It really seems to me rather hard that + the full storm of fury should have burst about the Jews, at the very + moment when some of them at least have felt the call of a far cleaner + ideal; and that when we have tolerated their tricks with our country, we + should turn on them precisely when they seek in sincerity for their own. + </p> + <p> + But in order to judge this Jewish possibility, we must understand more + fully the nature of the Jewish problem. We must consider it from the + start, because there are still many who do not know that there is a Jewish + problem. That problem has its proof, of course, in the history of the Jew, + and the fact that he came from the East. A Jew will sometimes complain of + the injustice of describing him as a man of the East; but in truth another + very real injustice may be involved in treating him as a man of the West. + Very often even the joke against the Jew is rather a joke against those + who have made the joke; that is, a joke against what they have made out of + the Jew. This is true especially, for instance, of many points of religion + and ritual. Thus we cannot help feeling, for instance, that there is + something a little grotesque about the Hebrew habit of putting on a + top-hat as an act of worship. It is vaguely mixed up with another line of + humour, about another class of Jew, who wears a large number of hats; and + who must not therefore be credited with an extreme or extravagant + religious zeal, leading him to pile up a pagoda of hats towards heaven. To + Western eyes, in Western conditions, there really is something inevitably + fantastic about this formality of the synagogue. But we ought to remember + that we have made the Western conditions which startle the Western eyes. + It seems odd to wear a modern top-hat as if it were a mitre or a biretta; + it seems quainter still when the hat is worn even for the momentary + purpose of saying grace before lunch. It seems quaintest of all when, at + some Jewish luncheon parties, a tray of hats is actually handed round, and + each guest helps himself to a hat as a sort of <i>hors d'oeuvre</i>. All + this could easily be turned into a joke; but we ought to realise that the + joke is against ourselves. It is not merely we who make fun of it, but we + who have made it funny. For, after all, nobody can pretend that this + particular type of head-dress is a part of that uncouth imagery "setting + painting and sculpture at defiance" which Renan remarked in the tradition + of Hebrew civilisation. Nobody can say that a top-hat was among the + strange symbolic utensils dedicated to the obscure service of the Ark; + nobody can suppose that a top-hat descended from heaven among the wings + and wheels of the flying visions of the Prophets. For this wild vision the + West is entirely responsible. Europe has created the Tower of Giotto; but + it has also created the topper. We of the West must bear the burden, as + best we may, both of the responsibility and of the hat. It is solely the + special type and shape of hat that makes the Hebrew ritual seem + ridiculous. Performed in the old original Hebrew fashion it is not + ridiculous, but rather if anything sublime. For the original fashion was + an oriental fashion; and the Jews are orientals; and the mark of all such + orientals is the wearing of long and loose draperies. To throw those loose + draperies over the head is decidedly a dignified and even poetic gesture. + One can imagine something like justice done to its majesty and mystery in + one of the great dark drawings of William Blake. It may be true, and + personally I think it is true, that the Hebrew covering of the head + signifies a certain stress on the fear of God, which is the beginning of + wisdom, while the Christian uncovering of the head suggests rather the + love of God that is the end of wisdom. But this has nothing to do with the + taste and dignity of the ceremony; and to do justice to these we must + treat the Jew as an oriental; we must even dress him as an oriental. + </p> + <p> + I have only taken this as one working example out of many that would point + to the same conclusion. A number of points upon which the unfortunate + alien is blamed would be much improved if he were, not less of an alien, + but rather more of an alien. They arise from his being too like us, and + too little like himself. It is obviously the case, for instance, touching + that vivid vulgarity in clothes, and especially the colours of clothes, + with which a certain sort of Jews brighten the landscape or seascape at + Margate or many holiday resorts. When we see a foreign gentleman on + Brighton Pier wearing yellow spats, a magenta waistcoat, and an emerald + green tie, we feel that he has somehow missed certain fine shades of + social sensibility and fitness. It might considerably surprise the company + on Brighton Pier, if he were to reply by solemnly unwinding his green + necktie from round his neck, and winding it round his head. Yet the reply + would be the right one; and would be equally logical and artistic. As soon + as the green tie had become a green turban, it might look as appropriate + and even attractive as the green turban of any pilgrim of Mecca or any + descendant of Mahomet, who walks with a stately air through the streets of + Jaffa or Jerusalem. The bright colours that make the Margate Jews hideous + are no brighter than those that make the Moslem crowd picturesque. They + are only worn in the wrong place, in the wrong way, and in conjunction + with a type and cut of clothing that is meant to be more sober and + restrained. Little can really be urged against him, in that respect, + except that his artistic instinct is rather for colour than form, + especially of the kind that we ourselves have labelled good form. + </p> + <p> + This is a mere symbol, but it is so suitable a symbol that I have often + offered it symbolically as a solution of the Jewish problem. I have felt + disposed to say: let all liberal legislation stand, let all literal and + legal civic equality stand; let a Jew occupy any political or social + position which he can gain in open competition; let us not listen for a + moment to any suggestions of reactionary restrictions or racial privilege. + Let a Jew be Lord Chief justice, if his exceptional veracity and + reliability have clearly marked him out for that post. Let a Jew be + Archbishop of Canterbury, if our national religion has attained to that + receptive breadth that would render such a transition unobjectionable and + even unconscious. But let there be one single-clause bill; one simple and + sweeping law about Jews, and no other. Be it enacted, by the King's Most + Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice of the Lords Spiritual and + Temporal and the Commons in Parliament assembled, that every Jew must be + dressed like an Arab. Let him sit on the Woolsack, but let him sit there + dressed as an Arab. Let him preach in St. Paul's Cathedral, but let him + preach there dressed as an Arab. It is not my point at present to dwell on + the pleasing if flippant fancy of how much this would transform the + political scene; of the dapper figure of Sir Herbert Samuel swathed as a + Bedouin, or Sir Alfred Mond gaining a yet greater grandeur from the + gorgeous and trailing robes of the East. If my image is quaint my + intention is quite serious; and the point of it is not personal to any + particular Jew. The point applies to any Jew, and to our own recovery of + healthier relations with him. The point is that we should know where we + are; and he would know where he is, which is in a foreign land. + </p> + <p> + This is but a parenthesis and a parable, but it brings us to the concrete + controversial matter which is the Jewish problem. Only a few years ago it + was regarded as a mark of a blood-thirsty disposition to admit that the + Jewish problem was a problem, or even that the Jew was a Jew. Through much + misunderstanding certain friends of mine and myself have persisted in + disregarding the silence thus imposed; but facts have fought for us more + effectively than words. By this time nobody is more conscious of the + Jewish problem than the most intelligent and idealistic of the Jews. The + folly of the fashion by which Jews often concealed their Jewish names, + must surely be manifest by this time even to those who concealed them. To + mention but one example of the way in which this fiction falsified the + relations of everybody and everything, it is enough to note that it + involved the Jews themselves in a quite new and quite needless + unpopularity in the first years of the war. A poor little Jewish tailor, + who called himself by a German name merely because he lived for a short + time in a German town, was instantly mobbed in Whitechapel for his share + in the invasion of Belgium. He was cross-examined about why he had damaged + the tower of Rheims; and talked to as if he had killed Nurse Cavell with + his own pair of shears. It was very unjust; quite as unjust as it would be + to ask Bethmann-Hollweg why he had stabbed Eglon or hewn Agag in pieces. + But it was partly at least the fault of the Jew himself, and of the whole + of that futile and unworthy policy which had led him to call himself + Bernstein when his name was Benjamin. + </p> + <p> + In such cases the Jews are accused of all sorts of faults they have not + got; but there are faults that they have got. Some of the charges against + them, as in the cases I have quoted concerning religious ritual and + artistic taste, are due merely to the false light in which they are + regarded. Other faults may also be due to the false position in which they + are placed. But the faults exist; and nothing was ever more dangerous to + everybody concerned than the recent fashion of denying or ignoring them. + It was done simply by the snobbish habit of suppressing the experience and + evidence of the majority of people, and especially of the majority of poor + people. It was done by confining the controversy to a small world of + wealth and refinement, remote from all the real facts involved. For the + rich are the most ignorant people on earth, and the best that can be said + for them, in cases like these, is that their ignorance often reaches the + point of innocence. + </p> + <p> + I will take a typical case, which sums up the whole of this absurd + fashion. There was a controversy in the columns of an important daily + paper, some time ago, on the subject of the character of Shylock in + Shakespeare. Actors and authors of distinction, including some of the most + brilliant of living Jews, argued the matter from the most varied points of + view. Some said that Shakespeare was prevented by the prejudices of his + time from having a complete sympathy with Shylock. Some said that + Shakespeare was only restrained by fear of the powers of his time from + expressing his complete sympathy with Shylock. Some wondered how or why + Shakespeare had got hold of such a queer story as that of the pound of + flesh, and what it could possibly have to do with so dignified and + intellectual a character as Shylock. In short, some wondered why a man of + genius should be so much of an Anti-Semite, and some stoutly declared that + he must have been a Pro-Semite. But all of them in a sense admitted that + they were puzzled as to what the play was about. The correspondence filled + column after column and went on for weeks. And from one end of that + correspondence to the other, no human being even so much as mentioned the + word "usury." It is exactly as if twenty clever critics were set down to + talk for a month about the play of Macbeth, and were all strictly + forbidden to mention the word "murder." + </p> + <p> + The play called <i>The Merchant of Venice</i> happens to be about usury, + and its story is a medieval satire on usury. It is the fashion to say that + it is a clumsy and grotesque story; but as a fact it is an exceedingly + good story. It is a perfect and pointed story for its purpose, which is to + convey the moral of the story. And the moral is that the logic of usury is + in its nature at war with life, and might logically end in breaking into + the bloody house of life. In other words, if a creditor can always claim a + man's tools or a man's home, he might quite as justly claim one of his + arms or legs. This principle was not only embodied in medieval satires but + in very sound medieval laws, which set a limit on the usurer who was + trying to take away a man's livelihood, as the usurer in the play is + trying to take away a man's life. And if anybody thinks that usury can + never go to lengths wicked enough to be worthy of so wild an image, then + that person either knows nothing about it or knows too much. He is either + one of the innocent rich who have never been the victims of money-lenders, + or else one of the more powerful and influential rich who are + money-lenders themselves. + </p> + <p> + All this, I say, is a fact that must be faced, but there is another side + to the case, and it is this that the genius of Shakespeare discovered. + What he did do, and what the medieval satirist did not do, was to attempt + to understand Shylock; in the true sense to sympathise with Shylock the + money-lender, as he sympathised with Macbeth the murderer. It was not to + deny that the man was an usurer, but to assert that the usurer was a man. + And the Elizabethan dramatist does make him a man, where the medieval + satirist made him a monster. Shakespeare not only makes him a man but a + perfectly sincere and self-respecting man. But the point is this: that he + is a sincere man who sincerely believes in usury. He is a self-respecting + man who does not despise himself for being a usurer. In one word, he + regards usury as normal. In that word is the whole problem of the popular + impression of the Jews. What Shakespeare suggested about the Jew in a + subtle and sympathetic way, millions of plain men everywhere would suggest + about him in a rough and ready way. Regarding the Jew in relation to his + ideas about interest, they think either that he is simply immoral; or that + if he is moral, then he has a different morality. There is a great deal + more to be said about how far this is true, and about what are its causes + and excuses if it is true. But it is an old story, surely, that the worst + of all cures is to deny the disease. + </p> + <p> + To recognise the reality of the Jewish problem is very vital for everybody + and especially vital for Jews. To pretend that there is no problem is to + precipitate the expression of a rational impatience, which unfortunately + can only express itself in the rather irrational form of Anti-Semitism. In + the controversies of Palestine and Syria, for instance, it is very common + to hear the answer that the Jew is no worse than the Armenian. The + Armenian also is said to be unpopular as a money-lender and a mercantile + upstart; yet the Armenian figures as a martyr for the Christian faith and + a victim of the Moslem fury. But this is one of those arguments which + really carry their own answer. It is like the sceptical saying that man is + only an animal, which of itself provokes the retort, "What an animal!" The + very similarity only emphasises the contrast. Is it seriously suggested + that we can substitute the Armenian for the Jew in the study of a + world-wide problem like that of the Jews? Could we talk of the competition + of Armenians among Welsh shop-keepers, or of the crowd of Armenians on + Brighton Parade? Can Armenian usury be a common topic of talk in a camp in + California and in a club in Piccadilly? Does Shakespeare show us a tragic + Armenian towering over the great Venice of the Renascence? Does Dickens + show us a realistic Armenian teaching in the thieves' kitchens of the + slums? When we meet Mr. Vernon Vavasour, that brilliant financier, do we + speculate on the probability of his really having an Armenian name to + match his Armenian nose? Is it true, in short, that all sorts of people, + from the peasants of Poland to the peasants of Portugal, can agree more or + less upon the special subject of Armenia? Obviously it is not in the least + true; obviously the Armenian question is only a local question of certain + Christians, who may be more avaricious than other Christians. But it is + the truth about the Jews. It is only half the truth, and one which by + itself would be very unjust to the Jews. But it is the truth, and we must + realise it as sharply and clearly as we can. The truth is that it is + rather strange that the Jews should be so anxious for international + agreements. For one of the few really international agreements is a + suspicion of the Jews. + </p> + <p> + A more practical comparison would be one between the Jews and gipsies; for + the latter at least cover several countries, and can be tested by the + impressions of very different districts. And in some preliminary respects + the comparison is really useful. Both races are in different ways + landless, and therefore in different ways lawless. For the fundamental + laws are land laws. In both cases a reasonable man will see reasons for + unpopularity, without wishing to indulge any task for persecution. In both + cases he will probably recognise the reality of a racial fault, while + admitting that it may be largely a racial misfortune. That is to say, the + drifting and detached condition may be largely the cause of Jewish usury + or gipsy pilfering; but it is not common sense to contradict the general + experience of gipsy pilfering or Jewish usury. The comparison helps us to + clear away some of the cloudy evasions by which modern men have tried to + escape from that experience. It is absurd to say that people are only + prejudiced against the money methods of the Jews because the medieval + church has left behind a hatred of their religion. We might as well say + that people only protect the chickens from the gipsies because the + medieval church undoubtedly condemned fortune-telling. It is unreasonable + for a Jew to complain that Shakespeare makes Shylock and not Antonio the + ruthless money-lender; or that Dickens makes Fagin and not Sikes the + receiver of stolen goods. It is as if a gipsy were to complain when a + novelist describes a child as stolen by the gipsies, and not by the curate + or the mothers' meeting. It is to complain of facts and probabilities. + There may be good gipsies; there may be good qualities which specially + belong to them as gipsies; many students of the strange race have, for + instance, praised a certain dignity and self-respect among the women of + the Romany. But no student ever praised them for an exaggerated respect + for private property, and the whole argument about gipsy theft can be + roughly repeated about Hebrew usury. Above all, there is one other respect + in which the comparison is even more to the point. It is the essential + fact of the whole business, that the Jews do not become national merely by + becoming a political part of any nation. We might as well say that the + gipsies had villas in Clapham, when their caravans stood on Clapham + Common. + </p> + <p> + But, of course, even this comparison between the two wandering peoples + fails in the presence of the greater problem. Here again even the attempt + at a parallel leaves the primary thing more unique. The gipsies do not + become municipal merely by passing through a number of parishes, and it + would seem equally obvious that a Jew need not become English merely by + passing through England on his way from Germany to America. But the gipsy + not only is not municipal, but he is not called municipal. His caravan is + not immediately painted outside with the number and name of 123 Laburnam + Road, Clapham. The municipal authorities generally notice the wheels + attached to the new cottage, and therefore do not fall into the error. The + gipsy may halt in a particular parish, but he is not as a rule immediately + made a parish councillor. The cases in which a travelling tinker has been + suddenly made the mayor of an important industrial town must be + comparatively rare. And if the poor vagabonds of the Romany blood are + bullied by mayors and magistrates, kicked off the land by landlords, + pursued by policemen and generally knocked about from pillar to post, + nobody raises an outcry that <i>they</i> are the victims of religious + persecution; nobody summons meetings in public halls, collects + subscriptions or sends petitions to parliament; nobody threatens anybody + else with the organised indignation of the gipsies all over the world. The + case of the Jew in the nation is very different from that of the tinker in + the town. The moral elements that can be appealed to are of a very + different style and scale. No gipsies are millionaires. + </p> + <p> + In short, the Jewish problem differs from anything like the gipsy problem + in two highly practical respects. First, the Jews already exercise + colossal cosmopolitan financial power. And second, the modern societies + they live in also grant them vital forms of national political power. Here + the vagrant is already as rich as a miser and the vagrant is actually made + a mayor. As will be seen shortly, there is a Jewish side of the story + which leads really to the same ending of the story; but the truth stated + here is quite independent of any sympathetic or unsympathetic view of the + race in question. It is a question of fact, which a sensible Jew can + afford to recognise, and which the most sensible Jews do very definitely + recognise. It is really irrational for anybody to pretend that the Jews + are only a curious sect of Englishmen, like the Plymouth Brothers or the + Seventh Day Baptists, in the face of such a simple fact as the family of + Rothschild. Nobody can pretend that such an English sect can establish + five brothers, or even cousins, in the five great capitals of Europe. + Nobody can pretend that the Seventh Day Baptists are the seven + grandchildren of one grandfather, scattered systematically among the + warring nations of the earth. Nobody thinks the Plymouth Brothers are + literally brothers, or that they are likely to be quite as powerful in + Paris or in Petrograd as in Plymouth. + </p> + <p> + The Jewish problem can be stated very simply after all. It is normal for + the nation to contain the family. With the Jews the family is generally + divided among the nations. This may not appear to matter to those who do + not believe in nations, those who really think there ought not to be any + nations. But I literally fail to understand anybody who does believe in + patriotism thinking that this state of affairs can be consistent with it. + It is in its nature intolerable, from a national standpoint, that a man + admittedly powerful in one nation should be bound to a man equally + powerful in another nation, by ties more private and personal even than + nationality. Even when the purpose is not any sort of treachery, the very + position is a sort of treason. Given the passionately patriotic peoples of + the west of Europe especially, the state of things cannot conceivably be + satisfactory to a patriot. But least of all can it conceivably be + satisfactory to a Jewish patriot; by which I do not mean a sham Englishman + or a sham Frenchman, but a man who is sincerely patriotic for the historic + and highly civilised nation of the Jews. + </p> + <p> + For what may be criticised here as Anti-Semitism is only the negative side + of Zionism. For the sake of convenience I have begun by stating it in + terms of the universal popular impression which some call a popular + prejudice. But such a truth of differentiation is equally true on both its + different sides. Suppose somebody proposes to mix up England and America, + under some absurd name like the Anglo-Saxon Empire. One man may say, "Why + should the jolly English inns and villages be swamped by these priggish + provincial Yankees?" Another may say, "Why should the real democracy of a + young country be tied to your snobbish old squirarchy?" But both these + views are only versions of the same view of a great American: "God never + made one people good enough to rule another." + </p> + <p> + The primary point about Zionism is that, whether it is right or wrong, it + does offer a real and reasonable answer both to Anti-Semitism and to the + charge of Anti-Semitism. The usual phrases about religious persecution and + racial hatred are not reasonable answers, or answers at all. These Jews do + not deny that they are Jews; they do not deny that Jews may be unpopular; + they do not deny that there may be other than superstitious reasons for + their unpopularity. They are not obliged to maintain that when a + Piccadilly dandy talks about being in the hands of the Jews he is moved by + the theological fanaticism that prevails in Piccadilly; or that when a + silly youth on Derby Day says he was done by a dirty Jew, he is merely + conforming to that Christian orthodoxy which is one of the strict + traditions of the Turf. They are not, like some other Jews, forced to pay + so extravagant a compliment to the Christian religion as to suppose it the + ruling motive of half the discontented talk in clubs and public-houses, of + nearly every business man who suspects a foreign financier, or nearly + every working man who grumbles against the local pawn-broker. Religious + mania, unfortunately, is not so common. The Zionists do not need to deny + any of these things; what they offer is not a denial but a diagnosis and a + remedy. Whether their diagnosis is correct, whether their remedy is + practicable, we will try to consider later, with something like a fair + summary of what is to be said on both sides. But their theory, on the face + of it, is perfectly reasonable. It is the theory that any abnormal + qualities in the Jews are due to the abnormal position of the Jews. They + are traders rather than producers because they have no land of their own + from which to produce, and they are cosmopolitans rather than patriots + because they have no country of their own for which to be patriotic. They + can no more become farmers while they are vagrant than they could have + built the Temple of Solomon while they were building the Pyramids of + Egypt. They can no more feel the full stream of nationalism while they + wander in the desert of nomadism than they could bathe in the waters of + Jordan while they were weeping by the waters of Babylon. For exile is the + worst kind of bondage. In insisting upon that at least the Zionists have + insisted upon a profound truth, with many applications to many other moral + issues. It is true that for any one whose heart is set on a particular + home or shrine, to be locked out is to be locked in. The narrowest + possible prison for him is the whole world. + </p> + <p> + It will be well to notice briefly, however, how the principle applies to + the two Anti-Semitic arguments already considered. The first is the charge + of usury and unproductive loans, the second the charge either of treason + or of unpatriotic detachment. The charge of usury is regarded, not + unreasonably, as only a specially dangerous development of the general + charge of uncreative commerce and the refusal of creative manual exercise; + the unproductive loan is only a minor form of the unproductive labour. It + is certainly true that the latter complaint is, if possible, commoner than + the former, especially in comparatively simple communities like those of + Palestine. A very honest Moslem Arab said to me, with a singular blend of + simplicity and humour, "A Jew does not work; but he grows rich. You never + see a Jew working; and yet they grow rich. What I want to know is, why do + we not all do the same? Why do we not also do this and become rich?" This + is, I need hardly say, an over-simplification. Jews often work hard at + some things, especially intellectual things. But the same experience which + tells us that we have known many industrious Jewish scholars, Jewish + lawyers, Jewish doctors, Jewish pianists, chess-players and so on, is an + experience which cuts both ways. The same experience, if carefully + consulted, will probably tell us that we have not known personally many + patient Jewish ploughmen, many laborious Jewish blacksmiths, many active + Jewish hedgers and ditchers, or even many energetic Jewish hunters and + fishermen. In short, the popular impression is tolerably true to life, as + popular impressions very often are; though it is not fashionable to say so + in these days of democracy and self-determination. Jews do not generally + work on the land, or in any of the handicrafts that are akin to the land; + but the Zionists reply that this is because it can never really be their + own land. That is Zionism, and that has really a practical place in the + past and future of Zion. + </p> + <p> + Patriotism is not merely dying for the nation. It is dying with the + nation. It is regarding the fatherland not merely as a real resting-place + like an inn, but as a final resting-place, like a house or even a grave. + Even the most Jingo of the Jews do not feel like this about their adopted + country; and I doubt if the most intelligent of the Jews would pretend + that they did. Even if we can bring ourselves to believe that Disraeli + lived for England, we cannot think that he would have died with her. If + England had sunk in the Atlantic he would not have sunk with her, but + easily floated over to America to stand for the Presidency. Even if we are + profoundly convinced that Mr. Beit or Mr. Eckstein had patriotic tears in + his eyes when he obtained a gold concession from Queen Victoria, we cannot + believe that in her absence he would have refused a similar concession + from the German Emperor. When the Jew in France or in England says he is a + good patriot he only means that he is a good citizen, and he would put it + more truly if he said he was a good exile. Sometimes indeed he is an + abominably bad citizen, and a most exasperating and execrable exile, but I + am not talking of that side of the case. I am assuming that a man like + Disraeli did really make a romance of England, that a man like Dernburg + did really make a romance of Germany, and it is still true that though it + was a romance, they would not have allowed it to be a tragedy. They would + have seen that the story had a happy ending, especially for themselves. + These Jews would not have died with any Christian nation. + </p> + <p> + But the Jews did die with Jerusalem. That is the first and last great + truth in Zionism. Jerusalem was destroyed and Jews were destroyed with it, + men who cared no longer to live because the city of their faith had + fallen. It may be questioned whether all the Zionists have all the sublime + insanity of the Zealots. But at least it is not nonsense to suggest that + the Zionists might feel like this about Zion. It is nonsense to suggest + that they would ever feel like this about Dublin or Moscow. And so far at + least the truth both in Semitism and Anti-Semitism is included in Zionism. + </p> + <p> + It is a commonplace that the infamous are more famous than the famous. + Byron noted, with his own misanthropic moral, that we think more of Nero + the monster who killed his mother than of Nero the noble Roman who + defeated Hannibal. The name of Julian more often suggests Julian the + Apostate than Julian the Saint; though the latter crowned his canonisation + with the sacred glory of being the patron saint of inn-keepers. But the + best example of this unjust historical habit is the most famous of all and + the most infamous of all. If there is one proper noun which has become a + common noun, if there is one name which has been generalised till it means + a thing, it is certainly the name of Judas. We should hesitate perhaps to + call it a Christian name, except in the more evasive form of Jude. And + even that, as the name of a more faithful apostle, is another illustration + of the same injustice; for, by comparison with the other, Jude the + faithful might almost be called Jude the obscure. The critic who said, + whether innocently or ironically, "What wicked men these early Christians + were!" was certainly more successful in innocence than in irony; for he + seems to have been innocent or ignorant of the whole idea of the Christian + communion. Judas Iscariot was one of the very earliest of all possible + early Christians. And the whole point about him was that his hand was in + the same dish; the traitor is always a friend, or he could never be a foe. + But the point for the moment is merely that the name is known everywhere + merely as the name of a traitor. The name of Judas nearly always means + Judas Iscariot; it hardly ever means Judas Maccabeus. And if you shout out + "Judas" to a politician in the thick of a political tumult, you will have + some difficulty in soothing him afterwards, with the assurance that you + had merely traced in him something of that splendid zeal and valour which + dragged down the tyranny of Antiochus, in the day of the great deliverance + of Israel. + </p> + <p> + Those two possible uses of the name of Judas would give us yet another + compact embodiment of the case for Zionism. Numberless international Jews + have gained the bad name of Judas, and some have certainly earned it. If + you have gained or earned the good name of Judas, it can quite fairly and + intelligently be affirmed that this was not the fault of the Jews, but of + the peculiar position of the Jews. A man can betray like Judas Iscariot in + another man's house; but a man cannot fight like Judas Maccabeus for + another man's temple. There is no more truly rousing revolutionary story + amid all the stories of mankind, there is no more perfect type of the + element of chivalry in rebellion, than that magnificent tale of the + Maccabee who stabbed from underneath the elephant of Antiochus and died + under the fall of that huge and living castle. But it would be + unreasonable to ask Mr. Montagu to stick a knife into the elephant on + which Lord Curzon, let us say, was riding in all the pomp of Asiatic + imperialism. For Mr. Montagu would not be liberating his own land; and + therefore he naturally prefers to interest himself either in operations in + silver or in somewhat slower and less efficient methods of liberation. In + short, whatever we may think of the financial or social services such as + were rendered to England in the affair of Marconi, or to France in the + affair of Panama, it must be admitted that these exhibit a humbler and + more humdrum type of civic duty, and do not remind us of the more reckless + virtues of the Maccabees or the Zealots. A man may be a good citizen of + anywhere, but he cannot be a national hero of nowhere; and for this + particular type of patriotic passion it is necessary to have a <i>patria</i>. + The Zionists therefore are maintaining a perfectly reasonable proposition, + both about the charge of usury and the charge of treason, if they claim + that both could be cured by the return to a national soil as promised in + Zionism. + </p> + <p> + Unfortunately they are not always reasonable about their own reasonable + proposition. Some of them have a most unlucky habit of ignoring, and + therefore implicitly denying, the very evil that they are wisely trying to + cure. I have already remarked this irritating innocence in the first of + the two questions; the criticism that sees everything in Shylock except + the point of him, or the point of his knife. How in the politics of + Palestine at this moment this first question is in every sense the primary + question. Palestine has hardly as yet a patriotism to be betrayed; but it + certainly has a peasantry to be oppressed, and especially to be oppressed + as so many peasantries have been with usury and forestalling. The Syrians + and Arabs and all the agricultural and pastoral populations of Palestine + are, rightly or wrongly, alarmed and angered at the advent of the Jews to + power; for the perfectly practical and simple reason of the reputation + which the Jews have all over the world. It is really ridiculous in people + so intelligent as the Jews, and especially so intelligent as the Zionists, + to ignore so enormous and elementary a fact as that reputation and its + natural results. It may or may not in this case be unjust; but in any case + it is not unnatural. It may be the result of persecution, but it is one + that has definitely resulted. It may be the consequence of a + misunderstanding; but it is a misunderstanding that must itself be + understood. Rightly or wrongly, certain people in Palestine fear the + coming of the Jews as they fear the coming of the locusts; they regard + them as parasites that feed on a community by a thousand methods of + financial intrigue and economic exploitation. I could understand the Jews + indignantly denying this, or eagerly disproving it, or best of all, + explaining what is true in it while exposing what is untrue. What is + strange, I might almost say weird, about the attitude of some quite + intelligent and sincere Zionists, is that they talk, write and apparently + think as if there were no such thing in the world. + </p> + <p> + I will give one curious example from one of the best and most brilliant of + the Zionists. Dr. Weizmann is a man of large mind and human sympathies; + and it is difficult to believe that any one with so fine a sense of + humanity can be entirely empty of anything like a sense of humour. Yet, in + the middle of a very temperate and magnanimous address on "Zionist + Policy," he can actually say a thing like this, "The Arabs need us with + our knowledge, and our experience and our money. If they do not have us + they will fall into the hands of others, they will fall among sharks." One + is tempted for the moment to doubt whether any one else in the world could + have said that, except the Jew with his strange mixture of brilliancy and + blindness, of subtlety and simplicity. It is much as if President Wilson + were to say, "Unless America deals with Mexico, it will be dealt with by + some modern commercial power, that has trust-magnates and hustling + millionaires." But would President Wilson say it? It is as if the German + Chancellor had said, "We must rush to the rescue of the poor Belgians, or + they may be put under some system with a rigid militarism and a bullying + bureaucracy." But would even a German Chancellor put it exactly like that? + Would anybody put it in the exact order of words and structure of sentence + in which Dr. Weizmann has put it? Would even the Turks say, "The Armenians + need us with our order and our discipline and our arms. If they do not + have us they will fall into the hands of others, they will perhaps be in + danger of massacres." I suspect that a Turk would see the joke, even if it + were as grim a joke as the massacres themselves. If the Zionists wish to + quiet the fears of the Arabs, surely the first thing to do is to discover + what the Arabs are afraid of. And very little investigation will reveal + the simple truth that they are very much afraid of sharks; and that in + their book of symbolic or heraldic zoology it is the Jew who is adorned + with the dorsal fin and the crescent of cruel teeth. This may be a + fairy-tale about a fabulous animal; but it is one which all sorts of races + believe, and certainly one which these races believe. + </p> + <p> + But the case is yet more curious than that. These simple tribes are + afraid, not only of the dorsal fin and dental arrangements which Dr. + Weizmann may say (with some justice) that he has not got; they are also + afraid of the other things which he says he has got. They may be in error, + at the first superficial glance, in mistaking a respectable professor for + a shark. But they can hardly be mistaken in attributing to the respectable + professor what he himself considers as his claims to respect. And as the + imagery about the shark may be too metaphorical or almost mythological, + there is not the smallest difficulty in stating in plain words what the + Arabs fear in the Jews. They fear, in exact terms, their knowledge and + their experience and their money. The Arabs fear exactly the three things + which he says they need. Only the Arabs would call it a knowledge of + financial trickery and an experience of political intrigue, and the power + given by hoards of money not only of their own but of other peoples. About + Dr. Weizmann and the true Zionists this is self-evidently unjust; but + about Jewish influence of the more visible and vulgar kind it has to be + proved to be unjust. Feeling as I do the force of the real case for + Zionism, I venture most earnestly to implore the Jews to disprove it, and + not to dismiss it. But above all I implore them not to be content with + assuring us again and again of their knowledge and their experience and + their money. That is what people dread like a pestilence or an earthquake; + their knowledge and their experience and their money. It is needless for + Dr. Weizmann to tell us that he does not desire to enter Palestine like a + Junker or drive thousands of Arabs forcibly out of the land; nobody + supposes that Dr. Weizmann looks like a Junker; and nobody among the + enemies of the Jews says that they have driven their foes in that fashion + since the wars with the Canaanites. But for the Jews to reassure us by + insisting on their own economic culture or commercial education is exactly + like the Junkers reassuring us by insisting on the unquestioned supremacy + of their Kaiser or the unquestioned obedience of their soldiers. Men bar + themselves in their houses, or even hide themselves in their cellars, when + such virtues are abroad in the land. + </p> + <p> + In short the fear of the Jews in Palestine, reasonable or unreasonable, is + a thing that must be answered by reason. It is idle for the unpopular + thing to answer with boasts, especially boasts of the very quality that + makes it unpopular. But I think it could be answered by reason, or at any + rate tested by reason; and the tests by consideration. The principle is + still as stated above; that the tests must not merely insist on the + virtues the Jews do show, but rather deal with the particular virtues + which they are generally accused of not showing. It is necessary to + understand this more thoroughly than it is generally understood, and + especially better than it is usually stated in the language of fashionable + controversy. For the question involves the whole success or failure of + Zionism. Many of the Zionists know it; but I rather doubt whether most of + the Anti-Zionists know that they know it. And some of the phrases of the + Zionists, such as those that I have noted, too often tend to produce the + impression that they ignore when they are not ignorant. They are not + ignorant; and they do not ignore in practice; even when an intellectual + habit makes them seem to ignore in theory. Nobody who has seen a Jewish + rural settlement, such as Rishon, can doubt that some Jews are sincerely + filled with the vision of sitting under their own vine and fig-tree, and + even with its accompanying lesson that it is first necessary to grow the + fig-tree and the vine. + </p> + <p> + The true test of Zionism may seem a topsy-turvy test. It will not succeed + by the number of successes, but rather by the number of failures, or what + the world (and certainly not least the Jewish world) has generally called + failures. It will be tested, not by whether Jews can climb to the top of + the ladder, but by whether Jews can remain at the bottom; not by whether + they have a hundred arts of becoming important, but by whether they have + any skill in the art of remaining insignificant. It is often noted that + the intelligent Israelite can rise to positions of power and trust outside + Israel, like Witte in Russia or Rufus Isaacs in England. It is generally + bad, I think, for their adopted country; but in any case it is no good for + the particular problem of their own country. Palestine cannot have a + population of Prime Ministers and Chief Justices; and if those they rule + and judge are not Jews, then we have not established a commonwealth but + only an oligarchy. It is said again that the ancient Jews turned their + enemies into hewers of wood and drawers of water. The modern Jews have to + turn themselves into hewers of wood and drawers of water. If they cannot + do that, they cannot turn themselves into citizens, but only into a kind + of alien bureaucrats, of all kinds the most perilous and the most + imperilled. Hence a Jewish state will not be a success when the Jews in it + are successful, or even when the Jews in it are statesmen. It will be a + success when the Jews in it are scavengers, when the Jews in it are + sweeps, when they are dockers and ditchers and porters and hodmen. When + the Zionist can point proudly to a Jewish navvy who has <i>not</i> risen + in the world, an under-gardener who is not now taking his ease as an + upper-gardener, a yokel who is still a yokel, or even a village idiot at + least sufficiently idiotic to remain in his village, then indeed the world + will come to blow the trumpets and lift up the heads of the everlasting + gates; for God will have turned the captivity of Zion. + </p> + <p> + Zionists of whose sincerity I am personally convinced, and of whose + intelligence anybody would be convinced, have told me that there really + is, in places like Rishon, something like a beginning of this spirit; the + love of the peasant for his land. One lady, even in expressing her + conviction of it, called it "this very un-Jewish characteristic." She was + perfectly well aware both of the need of it in the Jewish land, and the + lack of it in the Jewish race. In short she was well aware of the truth of + that seemingly topsy-turvy test I have suggested; that of whether men are + worthy to be drudges. When a humorous and humane Jew thus accepts the + test, and honestly expects the Jewish people to pass it, then I think the + claim is very serious indeed, and one not lightly to be set aside. I do + certainly think it a very serious responsibility under the circumstances + to set it altogether aside. It is our whole complaint against the Jew that + he does not till the soil or toil with the spade; it is very hard on him + to refuse him if he really says, "Give me a soil and I will till it; give + me a spade and I will use it." It is our whole reason for distrusting him + that he cannot really love any of the lands in which he wanders; it seems + rather indefensible to be deaf to him if he really says, "Give me a land + and I will love it." I would certainly give him a land or some instalment + of the land, (in what general sense I will try to suggest a little later) + so long as his conduct on it was watched and tested according to the + principles I have suggested. If he asks for the spade he must use the + spade, and not merely employ the spade, in the sense of hiring half a + hundred men to use spades. If he asks for the soil he must till the soil; + that is he must belong to the soil and not merely make the soil belong to + him. He must have the simplicity, and what many would call the stupidity + of the peasant. He must not only call a spade a spade, but regard it as a + spade and not as a speculation. By some true conversion the urban and + modern man must be not only on the soil, but of the soil, and free from + our urban trick of inventing the word dirt for the dust to which we shall + return. He must be washed in mud, that he may be clean. + </p> + <p> + How far this can really happen it is very hard for anybody, especially a + casual visitor, to discover in the present crisis. It is admitted that + there is much Arab and Syrian labour employed; and this in itself would + leave all the danger of the Jew as a mere capitalist. The Jews explain it, + however, by saying that the Arabs will work for a lower wage, and that + this is necessarily a great temptation to the struggling colonists. In + this they may be acting naturally as colonists, but it is none the less + clear that they are not yet acting literally as labourers. It may not be + their fault that they are not proving themselves to be peasants; but it is + none the less clear that this situation in itself does not prove them to + be peasants. So far as that is concerned, it still remains to be decided + finally whether a Jew will be an agricultural labourer, if he is a + decently paid agricultural labourer. On the other hand, the leaders of + these local experiments, if they have not yet shown the higher materialism + of peasants, most certainly do not show the lower materialism of + capitalists. There can be no doubt of the patriotic and even poetic spirit + in which many of them hope to make their ancient wilderness blossom like + the rose. They at least would still stand among the great prophets of + Israel, and none the less though they prophesied in vain. + </p> + <p> + I have tried to state fairly the case for Zionism, for the reason already + stated; that I think it intellectually unjust that any attempt of the Jews + to regularise their position should merely be rejected as one of their + irregularities. But I do not disguise the enormous difficulties of doing + it in the particular conditions Of Palestine. In fact the greatest of the + real difficulties of Zionism is that it has to take place in Zion. There + are other difficulties, however, which when they are not specially the + fault of Zionists are very much the fault of Jews. The worst is the + general impression of a business pressure from the more brutal and + businesslike type of Jew, which arouses very violent and very just + indignation. When I was in Jerusalem it was openly said that Jewish + financiers had complained of the low rate of interest at which loans were + made by the government to the peasantry, and even that the government had + yielded to them. If this were true it was a heavier reproach to the + government even than to the Jews. But the general truth is that such a + state of feeling seems to make the simple and solid patriotism of a + Palestinian Jewish nation practically impossible, and forces us to + consider some alternative or some compromise. The most sensible statement + of a compromise I heard among the Zionists was suggested to me by Dr. + Weizmann, who is a man not only highly intelligent but ardent and + sympathetic. And the phrase he used gives the key to my own rough + conception of a possible solution, though he himself would probably, not + accept that solution. + </p> + <p> + Dr. Weizmann suggested, if I understood him rightly, that he did not think + Palestine could be a single and simple national territory quite in the + sense of France; but he did not see why it should not be a commonwealth of + cantons after the manner of Switzerland. Some of these could be Jewish + cantons, others Arab cantons, and so on according to the type of + population. This is in itself more reasonable than much that is suggested + on the same side; but the point of it for my own purpose is more + particular. This idea, whether it correctly represents Dr. Weizmann's + meaning or no, clearly involves the abandonment of the solidarity of + Palestine, and tolerates the idea of groups of Jews being separated from + each other by populations of a different type. Now if once this notion be + considered admissible, it seems to me capable of considerable extension. + It seems possible that there might be not only Jewish cantons in Palestine + but Jewish cantons outside Palestine, Jewish colonies in suitable and + selected places in adjacent parts or in many other parts of the world. + They might be affiliated to some official centre in Palestine, or even in + Jerusalem, where there would naturally be at least some great religious + headquarters of the scattered race and religion. The nature of that + religious centre it must be for Jews to decide; but I think if I were a + Jew I would build the Temple without bothering about the site of the + Temple. That they should have the old site, of course, is not to be + thought of; it would raise a Holy War from Morocco to the marches of + China. But seeing that some of the greatest of the deeds of Israel were + done, and some of the most glorious of the songs of Israel sung, when + their only temple was a box carried about in the desert, I cannot think + that the mere moving of the situation of the place of sacrifice need even + mean so much to that historic tradition as it would to many others. That + the Jews should have some high place of dignity and ritual in Palestine, + such as a great building like the Mosque of Omar, is certainly right and + reasonable; for upon no theory can their historic connection be dismissed. + I think it is sophistry to say, as do some Anti-Semites, that the Jews + have no more right there than the Jebusites. If there are Jebusites they + are Jebusites without knowing it. I think it sufficiently answered in the + fine phrase of an English priest, in many ways more Anti-Semitic than I: + "The people that remembers has a right." The very worst of the Jews, as + well as the very best, do in some sense remember. They are hated and + persecuted and frightened into false names and double lives; but they + remember. They lie, they swindle, they betray, they oppress; but they + remember. The more we happen to hate such elements among the Hebrews the + more we admire the manly and magnificent elements among the more vague and + vagrant tribes of Palestine, the more we must admit that paradox. The + unheroic have the heroic memory; and the heroic people have no memory. + </p> + <p> + But whatever the Jewish nation might wish to do about a national shrine or + other supreme centre, the suggestion for the moment is that something like + a Jewish territorial scheme might really be attempted, if we permit the + Jews to be scattered no longer as individuals but as groups. It seems + possible that by some such extension of the definition of Zionism we might + ultimately overcome even the greatest difficulty of Zionism, the + difficulty of resettling a sufficient number of so large a race on so + small a land. For if the advantage of the ideal to the Jews is to gain the + promised land, the advantage to the Gentiles is to get rid of the Jewish + problem, and I do not see why we should obtain all their advantage and + none of our own. Therefore I would leave as few Jews as possible in other + established nations, and to these I would give a special position best + described as privilege; some sort of self-governing enclave with special + laws and exemptions; for instance, I would certainly excuse them from + conscription, which I think a gross injustice in their case. [Footnote: Of + course the privileged exile would also lose the rights of a native.] A Jew + might be treated as respectfully as a foreign ambassador, but a foreign + ambassador is a foreigner. Finally, I would give the same privileged + position to all Jews everywhere, as an alternative policy to Zionism, if + Zionism failed by the test I have named; the only true and the only + tolerable test; if the Jews had not so much failed as peasants as + succeeded as capitalists. + </p> + <p> + There is one word to be added; it will be noted that inevitably and even + against some of my own desires, the argument has returned to that + recurrent conclusion, which was found in the Roman Empire and the + Crusades. The European can do justice to the Jew; but it must be the + European who does it. Such a possibility as I have thrown out, and any + other possibility that any one can think of, becomes at once impossible + without some idea of a general suzerainty of Christendom over the lands of + the Moslem and the Jew. Personally, I think it would be better if it were + a general suzerainty of Christendom, rather than a particular supremacy of + England. And I feel this, not from a desire to restrain the English power, + but rather from a desire to defend it. I think there is not a little + danger to England in the diplomatic situation involved; but that is a + diplomatic question that it is neither within my power or duty to discuss + adequately. But if I think it would be wiser for France and England + together to hold Syria and Palestine together rather than separately, that + only completes and clinches the conclusion that has haunted me, with + almost uncanny recurrence, since I first saw Jerusalem sitting on the hill + like a turreted town in England or in France; and for one moment the dark + dome of it was again the Templum Domini, and the tower on it was the Tower + of Tancred. + </p> + <p> + Anyhow with the failure of Zionism would fall the last and best attempt at + a rationalistic theory of the Jew. We should be left facing a mystery + which no other rationalism has ever come so near to providing within + rational cause and cure. Whatever we do, we shall not return to that + insular innocence and comfortable unconsciousness of Christendom, in which + the Victorian agnostics could suppose that the Semitic problem was a brief + medieval insanity. In this as in greater things, even if we lost our faith + we could not recover our agnosticism. We can never recover agnosticism, + any more than any other kind of ignorance. We know that there is a Jewish + problem; we only hope that there is a Jewish solution. If there is not, + there is no other. We cannot believe again that the Jew is an Englishman + with certain theological theories, any more than we can believe again any + other part of the optimistic materialism whose temple is the Albert + Memorial. A scheme of guilds may be attempted and may be a failure; but + never again can we respect mere Capitalism for its success. An attack may + be made on political corruption, and it may be a failure; but never again + can we believe that our politics are not corrupt. And so Zionism may be + attempted and may be a failure; but never again can we ourselves be at + ease in Zion. Or rather, I should say, if the Jew cannot be at ease in + Zion we can never again persuade ourselves that he is at ease out of Zion. + We can only salute as it passes that restless and mysterious figure, + knowing at last that there must be in him something mystical as well as + mysterious; that whether in the sense of the sorrows of Christ or of the + sorrows of Cain, he must pass by, for he belongs to God. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2H_CONC" id="link2H_CONC"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CONCLUSION + </h2> + <p> + To have worn a large scallop shell in my hat in the streets of London + might have been deemed ostentatious, to say nothing of carrying a staff + like a long pole; and wearing sandals might have proclaimed rather that I + had not come from Jerusalem but from Letchworth, which some identify with + the New Jerusalem descending out of heaven from God. Lacking such + attributes, I passed through South England as one who might have come from + Ramsgate or from anywhere; and the only symbol left to me of my pilgrimage + was a cheap ring of metal coloured like copper and brass. For on it was + written in Greek characters the word "Jerusalem," and though it may be + less valuable than a brass nail, I do not think you can buy it in the + Strand. All those enormous and everlasting things, all those gates of + bronze and mosaics of purple and peacock colouring, all those chapels of + gold and columns of crimson marble, had all shrivelled up and dwindled + down to that one small thread of red metal round my finger. I could not + help having a feeling, like Aladdin, that if I rubbed the ring perhaps all + those towers would rise again. And there was a sort of feeling of truth in + the fancy after all. We talk of the changeless East; but in one sense the + impression of it is really rather changing, with its wandering tribes and + its shifting sands, in which the genii of the East might well build the + palace or the paradise of a day. As I saw the low and solid English + cottages rising around me amid damp delightful thickets under rainy skies, + I felt that in a deeper sense it is rather we who build for permanence or + at least for a sort of peace. It is something more than comfort; a + relative and reasonable contentment. And there came back on me like a + boomerang a rather indescribable thought which had circled round my head + through most of my journey; that Christendom is like a gigantic bronze + come out of the furnace of the Near East; that in Asia is only the fire + and in Europe the form. The nearest to what I mean was suggested in that + very striking book <i>Form and Colour</i>, by Mr. March Philips. When I + spoke of the idols of Asia, many moderns may well have murmured against + such a description of the ideals of Buddha or Mrs. Besant. To which I can + only reply that I do know a little about the ideals, and I think I prefer + the idols. I have far more sympathy with the enthusiasm for a nice green + or yellow idol, with nine arms and three heads, than with the philosophy + ultimately represented by the snake devouring his tail; the awful + sceptical argument in a circle by which everything begins and ends in the + mind. I would far rather be a fetish worshipper and have a little fun, + than be an oriental pessimist expected always to smile like an optimist. + Now it seems to me that the fighting Christian creed is the one thing that + has been in that mystical circle and broken out of it, and become + something real as well. It has gone westward by a sort of centrifugal + force, like a stone from a sling; and so made the revolving Eastern mind, + as the Franciscan said in Jerusalem, do something at last. + </p> + <p> + Anyhow, although I carried none of the trappings of a pilgrim I felt + strongly disposed to take the privileges of one. I wanted to be + entertained at the firesides of total strangers, in the medieval manner, + and to tell them interminable tales of my travels. I wanted to linger in + Dover, and try it on the citizens of that town. I nearly got out of the + train at several wayside stations, where I saw secluded cottages which + might be brightened by a little news from the Holy Land. For it seemed to + me that all my fellow-countrymen must be my friends; all these English + places had come much closer together after travels that seemed in + comparison as vast as the spaces between the stars. The hop-fields of Kent + seemed to me like outlying parts of my own kitchen garden; and London + itself to be really situated at London End. London was perhaps the largest + of the suburbs of Beaconsfield. By the time I came to Beaconsfield itself, + dusk was dropping over the beechwoods and the white cross-roads. The + distance seemed to grow deeper and richer with darkness as I went up the + long lanes towards my home; and in that distance, as I drew nearer, I + heard the barking of a dog. + </p> + <div style="height: 6em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> +<pre> + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE NEW JERUSALEM*** + + +******* This file should be named 13468-h.htm or 13468-h.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/4/6/13468 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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