diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'old/7mrs110.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | old/7mrs110.txt | 5869 |
1 files changed, 5869 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/old/7mrs110.txt b/old/7mrs110.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ca2a2e3 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/7mrs110.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5869 @@ +The Project Gutenberg Etext of Marius the Epicurean, Vol. I, by Walter Pater +#7 in our series by Walter Pater + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the laws for your country before redistributing these files!!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. + +Please do not remove this. + +This should be the first thing seen when anyone opens the book. +Do not change or edit it without written permission. The words +are carefully chosen to provide users with the information they +need about what they can legally do with the texts. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These Etexts Are Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below, including for donations. + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a 501(c)(3) +organization with EIN [Employee Identification Number] 64-6221541 + + + +Title: Marius the Epicurean, Volume One + +Author: Walter Horatio Pater + +Release Date: May, 2003 [Etext #4057] +[Yes, we are about one year ahead of schedule] +[The actual date this file first posted = 10/25/01] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +The Project Gutenberg Etext of Marius the Epicurean, Vol. I, by Walter Pater +************This file should be named 7mrs110.txt or 7mrs110.zip************ + +Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, 7mrs111.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 7mrs110a.txt + +Scanned and proofed by Alfred J. Drake (www.ajdrake.com) + +Project Gutenberg Etexts are usually created from multiple editions, +all of which are in the Public Domain in the United States, unless a +copyright notice is included. Therefore, we usually do NOT keep any +of these books in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +We are now trying to release all our books one year in advance +of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing. +Please be encouraged to send us error messages even years after +the official publication date. + +Please note neither this listing nor its contents are final til +midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement. +The official release date of all Project Gutenberg Etexts is at +Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month. A +preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment +and editing by those who wish to do so. + +Most people start at our sites at: +http://gutenberg.net +http://promo.net/pg + + +Those of you who want to download any Etext before announcement +can surf to them as follows, and just download by date; this is +also a good way to get them instantly upon announcement, as the +indexes our cataloguers produce obviously take a while after an +announcement goes out in the Project Gutenberg Newsletter. + +http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext03 +or +ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext03 + +Or /etext02, 01, 00, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90 + +Just search by the first five letters of the filename you want, +as it appears in our Newsletters. + + +Information about Project Gutenberg (one page) + +We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work. The +time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours +to get any etext selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright +searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc. This +projected audience is one hundred million readers. If our value +per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2 +million dollars per hour this year as we release fifty new Etext +files per month, or 500 more Etexts in 2000 for a total of 3000+ +If they reach just 1-2% of the world's population then the total +should reach over 300 billion Etexts given away by year's end. + +The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away One Trillion Etext +Files by December 31, 2001. [10,000 x 100,000,000 = 1 Trillion] +This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers, +which is only about 4% of the present number of computer users. + +At our revised rates of production, we will reach only one-third +of that goal by the end of 2001, or about 4,000 Etexts unless we +manage to get some real funding. + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been created +to secure a future for Project Gutenberg into the next millennium. + +We need your donations more than ever! + +As of July 12, 2001 contributions are only being solicited from people in: +Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, +Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, +Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North +Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina*, South Dakota, +Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, +Wisconsin, and Wyoming. + +*In Progress + +We have filed in about 45 states now, but these are the only ones +that have responded. + +As the requirements for other states are met, +additions to this list will be made and fund raising +will begin in the additional states. Please feel +free to ask to check the status of your state. + +In answer to various questions we have received on this: + +We are constantly working on finishing the paperwork +to legally request donations in all 50 states. If +your state is not listed and you would like to know +if we have added it since the list you have, just ask. + +While we cannot solicit donations from people in +states where we are not yet registered, we know +of no prohibition against accepting donations +from donors in these states who approach us with +an offer to donate. + + +International donations are accepted, +but we don't know ANYTHING about how +to make them tax-deductible, or +even if they CAN be made deductible, +and don't have the staff to handle it +even if there are ways. + +All donations should be made to: + +Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +PMB 113 +1739 University Ave. +Oxford, MS 38655-4109 + + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a 501(c)(3) +organization with EIN [Employee Identification Number] 64-6221541, +and has been approved as a 501(c)(3) organization by the US Internal +Revenue Service (IRS). Donations are tax-deductible to the maximum +extent permitted by law. As the requirements for other states are met, +additions to this list will be made and fund raising will begin in the +additional states. + +We need your donations more than ever! + +You can get up to date donation information at: + +http://www.gutenberg.net/donation.html + + +*** + +If you can't reach Project Gutenberg, +you can always email directly to: + +Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com> + +hart@pobox.com forwards to hart@prairienet.org and archive.org +if your mail bounces from archive.org, I will still see it, if +it bounces from prairienet.org, better resend later on. . . . + +Prof. Hart will answer or forward your message. + +We would prefer to send you information by email. + + +*** + + +Example command-line FTP session: + +ftp ftp.ibiblio.org +login: anonymous +password: your@login +cd pub/docs/books/gutenberg +cd etext90 through etext99 or etext00 through etext02, etc. +dir [to see files] +get or mget [to get files. . .set bin for zip files] +GET GUTINDEX.?? [to get a year's listing of books, e.g., GUTINDEX.99] +GET GUTINDEX.ALL [to get a listing of ALL books] + + +**The Legal Small Print** + + +(Three Pages) + +***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS**START*** +Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers. +They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with +your copy of this etext, even if you got it for free from +someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our +fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement +disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how +you may distribute copies of this etext if you want to. + +*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS ETEXT +By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm +etext, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept +this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive +a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this etext by +sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person +you got it from. If you received this etext on a physical +medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request. + +ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM ETEXTS +This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etexts, +is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor Michael S. Hart +through the Project Gutenberg Association (the "Project"). +Among other things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright +on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and +distribute it in the United States without permission and +without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth +below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this etext +under the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark. + +Please do not use the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark to market +any commercial products without permission. + +To create these etexts, the Project expends considerable +efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain +works. Despite these efforts, the Project's etexts and any +medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other +things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other +intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged +disk or other etext medium, a computer virus, or computer +codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment. + +LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES +But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below, +[1] Michael Hart and the Foundation (and any other party you may +receive this etext from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext) disclaims +all liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including +legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR +UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT, +INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE +OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE +POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. + +If you discover a Defect in this etext within 90 days of +receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any) +you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that +time to the person you received it from. If you received it +on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and +such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement +copy. If you received it electronically, such person may +choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to +receive it electronically. + +THIS ETEXT IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS +TO THE ETEXT OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT +LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A +PARTICULAR PURPOSE. + +Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or +the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the +above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you +may have other legal rights. + +INDEMNITY +You will indemnify and hold Michael Hart, the Foundation, +and its trustees and agents, and any volunteers associated +with the production and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm +texts harmless, from all liability, cost and expense, including +legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of the +following that you do or cause: [1] distribution of this etext, +[2] alteration, modification, or addition to the etext, +or [3] any Defect. + +DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm" +You may distribute copies of this etext electronically, or by +disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this +"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg, +or: + +[1] Only give exact copies of it. Among other things, this + requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the + etext or this "small print!" statement. You may however, + if you wish, distribute this etext in machine readable + binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form, + including any form resulting from conversion by word + processing or hypertext software, but only so long as + *EITHER*: + + [*] The etext, when displayed, is clearly readable, and + does *not* contain characters other than those + intended by the author of the work, although tilde + (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may + be used to convey punctuation intended by the + author, and additional characters may be used to + indicate hypertext links; OR + + [*] The etext may be readily converted by the reader at + no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent + form by the program that displays the etext (as is + the case, for instance, with most word processors); + OR + + [*] You provide, or agree to also provide on request at + no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the + etext in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC + or other equivalent proprietary form). + +[2] Honor the etext refund and replacement provisions of this + "Small Print!" statement. + +[3] Pay a trademark license fee to the Foundation of 20% of the + gross profits you derive calculated using the method you + already use to calculate your applicable taxes. If you + don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are + payable to "Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation" + the 60 days following each date you prepare (or were + legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent + periodic) tax return. Please contact us beforehand to + let us know your plans and to work out the details. + +WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO? +Project Gutenberg is dedicated to increasing the number of +public domain and licensed works that can be freely distributed +in machine readable form. + +The Project gratefully accepts contributions of money, time, +public domain materials, or royalty free copyright licenses. +Money should be paid to the: +"Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or +software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at: +hart@pobox.com + +[Portions of this header are copyright (C) 2001 by Michael S. Hart +and may be reprinted only when these Etexts are free of all fees.] +[Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be used in any sales +of Project Gutenberg Etexts or other materials be they hardware or +software or any other related product without express permission.] + +*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.10/04/01*END* + + + + + +Scanned and proofed by Alfred J. Drake (www.ajdrake.com) + + + + + +MARIUS THE EPICUREAN, VOLUME ONE +WALTER HORATIO PATER + +London: 1910. (The Library Edition.) + + +NOTES BY THE E-TEXT EDITOR: + +Notes: The 1910 Library Edition employs footnotes, a +style inconvenient in an electronic edition. I have therefore +placed an asterisk immediately after each of Pater's footnotes +and a + sign after my own notes, and have listed each chapter's +notes at that chapter's end. + +Pagination and Paragraphing: To avoid an unwieldy electronic copy, +I have transferred original pagination to brackets. A bracketed +numeral such as [22] indicates that the material immediately +following the number marks the beginning of the relevant page. I +have preserved paragraph structure except for first-line indentation. + +Hyphenation: I have not preserved original hyphenation since an +e-text does not require line-end or page-end hyphenation. + +Greek typeface: For this full-text edition, I have transliterated +Pater's Greek quotations. If there is a need for the original Greek, it +can be viewed at my site, http://www.ajdrake.com/etexts, a Victorianist +archive that contains the complete works of Walter Pater and many other +nineteenth-century texts, mostly in first editions. + + + + + +MARIUS THE EPICUREAN, VOLUME ONE +WALTER PATER + + Cheimerinos oneiros, hote mekistai hai vyktes.+ + + +"A winter's dream, when nights are longest." + Lucian, The Dream, Vol. 3. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + PART THE FIRST + + 1. "The Religion of Numa": 3-12 + 2. White-Nights: 13-26 + 3. Change of Air: 27-42 + 4. The Tree of Knowledge: 43-54 + 5. The Golden Book: 55-91 + 6. Euphuism: 92-110 + 7. A Pagan End: 111-120 + + PART THE SECOND + + 8. Animula Vagula: 123-143 + 9. New Cyrenaicism: 144-157 + 10. On the Way: 158-171 + 11. "The Most Religious City in the World": 172-187 + 12. "The Divinity that Doth Hedge a King": 188-211 + 13. The "Mistress and Mother" of Palaces: 212-229 + 14. Manly Amusement: 230-243 + + + +MARIUS THE EPICUREAN, VOLUME ONE + +PART THE FIRST + + +CHAPTER I: "THE RELIGION OF NUMA" + +[3] As, in the triumph of Christianity, the old religion lingered +latest in the country, and died out at last as but paganism--the +religion of the villagers, before the advance of the Christian +Church; so, in an earlier century, it was in places remote from town- +life that the older and purer forms of paganism itself had survived +the longest. While, in Rome, new religions had arisen with +bewildering complexity around the dying old one, the earlier and +simpler patriarchal religion, "the religion of Numa," as people loved +to fancy, lingered on with little change amid the pastoral life, out +of the habits and sentiment of which so much of it had grown. +Glimpses of such a survival we may catch below the merely artificial +attitudes of Latin pastoral poetry; in Tibullus especially, who has +preserved for us many poetic details of old Roman religious usage. + + At mihi contingat patrios celebrare Penates, + Reddereque antiquo menstrua thura Lari: + +[4] --he prays, with unaffected seriousness. Something liturgical, +with repetitions of a consecrated form of words, is traceable in one +of his elegies, as part of the order of a birthday sacrifice. The +hearth, from a spark of which, as one form of old legend related, the +child Romulus had been miraculously born, was still indeed an altar; +and the worthiest sacrifice to the gods the perfect physical sanity +of the young men and women, which the scrupulous ways of that +religion of the hearth had tended to maintain. A religion of usages +and sentiment rather than of facts and belief, and attached to very +definite things and places--the oak of immemorial age, the rock on +the heath fashioned by weather as if by some dim human art, the +shadowy grove of ilex, passing into which one exclaimed +involuntarily, in consecrated phrase, Deity is in this Place! Numen +Inest!--it was in natural harmony with the temper of a quiet people +amid the spectacle of rural life, like that simpler faith between man +and man, which Tibullus expressly connects with the period when, with +an inexpensive worship, the old wooden gods had been still pressed +for room in their homely little shrines. + +And about the time when the dying Antoninus Pius ordered his golden +image of Fortune to be carried into the chamber of his successor (now +about to test the truth of the old Platonic contention, that the +world would at last find itself [5] happy, could it detach some +reluctant philosophic student from the more desirable life of +celestial contemplation, and compel him to rule it), there was a boy +living in an old country-house, half farm, half villa, who, for +himself, recruited that body of antique traditions by a spontaneous +force of religious veneration such as had originally called them into +being. More than a century and a half had past since Tibullus had +written; but the restoration of religious usages, and their retention +where they still survived, was meantime come to be the fashion +through the influence of imperial example; and what had been in the +main a matter of family pride with his father, was sustained by a +native instinct of devotion in the young Marius. A sense of +conscious powers external to ourselves, pleased or displeased by the +right or wrong conduct of every circumstance of daily life--that +conscience, of which the old Roman religion was a formal, habitual +recognition, was become in him a powerful current of feeling and +observance. The old-fashioned, partly puritanic awe, the power of +which Wordsworth noted and valued so highly in a northern peasantry, +had its counterpart in the feeling of the Roman lad, as he passed the +spot, "touched of heaven," where the lightning had struck dead an +aged labourer in the field: an upright stone, still with mouldering +garlands about it, marked the place. He brought to that system of +symbolic [6] usages, and they in turn developed in him further, a +great seriousness--an impressibility to the sacredness of time, of +life and its events, and the circumstances of family fellowship; of +such gifts to men as fire, water, the earth, from labour on which +they live, really understood by him as gifts--a sense of religious +responsibility in the reception of them. It was a religion for the +most part of fear, of multitudinous scruples, of a year-long burden +of forms; yet rarely (on clear summer mornings, for instance) the +thought of those heavenly powers afforded a welcome channel for the +almost stifling sense of health and delight in him, and relieved it +as gratitude to the gods. + +The day of the "little" or private Ambarvalia was come, to be +celebrated by a single family for the welfare of all belonging to it, +as the great college of the Arval Brothers officiated at Rome in the +interest of the whole state. At the appointed time all work ceases; +the instruments of labour lie untouched, hung with wreaths of +flowers, while masters and servants together go in solemn procession +along the dry paths of vineyard and cornfield, conducting the victims +whose blood is presently to be shed for the purification from all +natural or supernatural taint of the lands they have "gone about." +The old Latin words of the liturgy, to be said as the procession +moved on its way, though their precise meaning was long [7] since +become unintelligible, were recited from an ancient illuminated roll, +kept in the painted chest in the hall, together with the family +records. Early on that day the girls of the farm had been busy in +the great portico, filling large baskets with flowers plucked short +from branches of apple and cherry, then in spacious bloom, to strew +before the quaint images of the gods--Ceres and Bacchus and the yet +more mysterious Dea Dia--as they passed through the fields, carried +in their little houses on the shoulders of white-clad youths, who +were understood to proceed to this office in perfect temperance, as +pure in soul and body as the air they breathed in the firm weather of +that early summer-time. The clean lustral water and the full +incense-box were carried after them. The altars were gay with +garlands of wool and the more sumptuous sort of blossom and green +herbs to be thrown into the sacrificial fire, fresh-gathered this +morning from a particular plot in the old garden, set apart for the +purpose. Just then the young leaves were almost as fragrant as +flowers, and the scent of the bean-fields mingled pleasantly with the +cloud of incense. But for the monotonous intonation of the liturgy +by the priests, clad in their strange, stiff, antique vestments, and +bearing ears of green corn upon their heads, secured by flowing bands +of white, the procession moved in absolute stillness, all persons, +even the children, abstaining from [8] speech after the utterance of +the pontifical formula, Favete linguis!--Silence! Propitious +Silence!--lest any words save those proper to the occasion should +hinder the religious efficacy of the rite. + +With the lad Marius, who, as the head of his house, took a leading +part in the ceremonies of the day, there was a devout effort to +complete this impressive outward silence by that inward tacitness of +mind, esteemed so important by religious Romans in the performance of +these sacred functions. To him the sustained stillness without +seemed really but to be waiting upon that interior, mental condition +of preparation or expectancy, for which he was just then intently +striving. The persons about him, certainly, had never been +challenged by those prayers and ceremonies to any ponderings on the +divine nature: they conceived them rather to be the appointed means +of setting such troublesome movements at rest. By them, "the +religion of Numa," so staid, ideal and comely, the object of so much +jealous conservatism, though of direct service as lending sanction to +a sort of high scrupulosity, especially in the chief points of +domestic conduct, was mainly prized as being, through its hereditary +character, something like a personal distinction--as contributing, +among the other accessories of an ancient house, to the production of +that aristocratic atmosphere which separated them from newly-made +people. But [9] in the young Marius, the very absence from those +venerable usages of all definite history and dogmatic interpretation, +had already awakened much speculative activity; and to-day, starting +from the actual details of the divine service, some very lively +surmises, though scarcely distinct enough to be thoughts, were moving +backwards and forwards in his mind, as the stirring wind had done all +day among the trees, and were like the passing of some mysterious +influence over all the elements of his nature and experience. One +thing only distracted him--a certain pity at the bottom of his heart, +and almost on his lips, for the sacrificial victims and their looks +of terror, rising almost to disgust at the central act of the +sacrifice itself, a piece of everyday butcher's work, such as we +decorously hide out of sight; though some then present certainly +displayed a frank curiosity in the spectacle thus permitted them on a +religious pretext. The old sculptors of the great procession on the +frieze of the Parthenon at Athens, have delineated the placid heads +of the victims led in it to sacrifice, with a perfect feeling for +animals in forcible contrast with any indifference as to their +sufferings. It was this contrast that distracted Marius now in the +blessing of his fields, and qualified his devout absorption upon the +scrupulous fulfilment of all the details of the ceremonial, as the +procession approached the altars. + +[10] The names of that great populace of "little gods," dear to the +Roman home, which the pontiffs had placed on the sacred list of the +Indigitamenta, to be invoked, because they can help, on special +occasions, were not forgotten in the long litany--Vatican who causes +the infant to utter his first cry, Fabulinus who prompts his first +word, Cuba who keeps him quiet in his cot, Domiduca especially, for +whom Marius had through life a particular memory and devotion, the +goddess who watches over one's safe coming home. The urns of the +dead in the family chapel received their due service. They also were +now become something divine, a goodly company of friendly and +protecting spirits, encamped about the place of their former abode-- +above all others, the father, dead ten years before, of whom, +remembering but a tall, grave figure above him in early childhood, +Marius habitually thought as a genius a little cold and severe. + + Candidus insuetum miratur limen Olympi, + Sub pedibusque videt nubes et sidera.-- + +Perhaps!--but certainly needs his altar here below, and garlands to- +day upon his urn. But the dead genii were satisfied with little--a +few violets, a cake dipped in wine, or a morsel of honeycomb. Daily, +from the time when his childish footsteps were still uncertain, had +Marius taken them their portion of the family meal, at the second +course, amidst the silence [11] of the company. They loved those who +brought them their sustenance; but, deprived of these services, would +be heard wandering through the house, crying sorrowfully in the +stillness of the night. + +And those simple gifts, like other objects as trivial--bread, oil, +wine, milk--had regained for him, by their use in such religious +service, that poetic and as it were moral significance, which surely +belongs to all the means of daily life, could we but break through +the veil of our familiarity with things by no means vulgar in +themselves. A hymn followed, while the whole assembly stood with +veiled faces. The fire rose up readily from the altars, in clean, +bright flame--a favourable omen, making it a duty to render the mirth +of the evening complete. Old wine was poured out freely for the +servants at supper in the great kitchen, where they had worked in the +imperfect light through the long evenings of winter. The young +Marius himself took but a very sober part in the noisy feasting. A +devout, regretful after-taste of what had been really beautiful in +the ritual he had accomplished took him early away, that he might the +better recall in reverie all the circumstances of the celebration of +the day. As he sank into a sleep, pleasant with all the influences +of long hours in the open air, he seemed still to be moving in +procession through the fields, with a kind of pleasurable awe. That +feeling was still upon him as he [12] awoke amid the beating of +violent rain on the shutters, in the first storm of the season. The +thunder which startled him from sleep seemed to make the solitude of +his chamber almost painfully complete, as if the nearness of those +angry clouds shut him up in a close place alone in the world. Then +he thought of the sort of protection which that day's ceremonies +assured. To procure an agreement with the gods--Pacem deorum +exposcere: that was the meaning of what they had all day been busy +upon. In a faith, sincere but half-suspicious, he would fain have +those Powers at least not against him. His own nearer household gods +were all around his bed. The spell of his religion as a part of the +very essence of home, its intimacy, its dignity and security, was +forcible at that moment; only, it seemed to involve certain heavy +demands upon him. + + + +CHAPTER II: WHITE-NIGHTS + +[13] To an instinctive seriousness, the material abode in which the +childhood of Marius was passed had largely added. Nothing, you felt, +as you first caught sight of that coy, retired place,--surely nothing +could happen there, without its full accompaniment of thought or +reverie. White-nights! so you might interpret its old Latin name.* +"The red rose came first," says a quaint German mystic, speaking of +"the mystery of so-called white things," as being "ever an after- +thought--the doubles, or seconds, of real things, and themselves but +half-real, half-material--the white queen, the white witch, the white +mass, which, as the black mass is a travesty of the true mass turned +to evil by horrible old witches, is celebrated by young candidates +for the priesthood with an unconsecrated host, by way of rehearsal." +So, white-nights, I suppose, after something like the same analogy, +should be [14] nights not of quite blank forgetfulness, but passed in +continuous dreaming, only half veiled by sleep. Certainly the place +was, in such case, true to its fanciful name in this, that you might +very well conceive, in face of it, that dreaming even in the daytime +might come to much there. + +The young Marius represented an ancient family whose estate had come +down to him much curtailed through the extravagance of a certain +Marcellus two generations before, a favourite in his day of the +fashionable world at Rome, where he had at least spent his substance +with a correctness of taste Marius might seem to have inherited from +him; as he was believed also to resemble him in a singularly pleasant +smile, consistent however, in the younger face, with some degree of +sombre expression when the mind within was but slightly moved. + +As the means of life decreased, the farm had crept nearer and nearer +to the dwelling-house, about which there was therefore a trace of +workday negligence or homeliness, not without its picturesque charm +for some, for the young master himself among them. The more +observant passer-by would note, curious as to the inmates, a certain +amount of dainty care amid that neglect, as if it came in part, +perhaps, from a reluctance to disturb old associations. It was +significant of the national character, that a sort of elegant +gentleman farming, as we say, had been much affected by some of the +most cultivated [15] Romans. But it became something more than an +elegant diversion, something of a serious business, with the +household of Marius; and his actual interest in the cultivation of +the earth and the care of flocks had brought him, at least, +intimately near to those elementary conditions of life, a reverence +for which, the great Roman poet, as he has shown by his own half- +mystic pre-occupation with them, held to be the ground of primitive +Roman religion, as of primitive morals. But then, farm-life in +Italy, including the culture of the olive and the vine, has a grace +of its own, and might well contribute to the production of an ideal +dignity of character, like that of nature itself in this gifted +region. Vulgarity seemed impossible. The place, though +impoverished, was still deservedly dear, full of venerable memories, +and with a living sweetness of its own for to-day. + +To hold by such ceremonial traditions had been a part of the +struggling family pride of the lad's father, to which the example of +the head of the state, old Antoninus Pius--an example to be still +further enforced by his successor--had given a fresh though perhaps +somewhat artificial popularity. It had been consistent with many +another homely and old-fashioned trait in him, not to undervalue the +charm of exclusiveness and immemorial authority, which membership in +a local priestly college, hereditary in his house, conferred upon +him. To set a real value on [16] these things was but one element in +that pious concern for his home and all that belonged to it, which, +as Marius afterwards discovered, had been a strong motive with his +father. The ancient hymn--Fana Novella!--was still sung by his +people, as the new moon grew bright in the west, and even their wild +custom of leaping through heaps of blazing straw on a certain night +in summer was not discouraged. The privilege of augury itself, +according to tradition, had at one time belonged to his race; and if +you can imagine how, once in a way, an impressible boy might have an +inkling, an inward mystic intimation, of the meaning and consequences +of all that, what was implied in it becoming explicit for him, you +conceive aright the mind of Marius, in whose house the auspices were +still carefully consulted before every undertaking of moment. + +The devotion of the father then had handed on loyally--and that is +all many not unimportant persons ever find to do--a certain tradition +of life, which came to mean much for the young Marius. The feeling +with which he thought of his dead father was almost exclusively that +of awe; though crossed at times by a not unpleasant sense of liberty, +as he could but confess to himself, pondering, in the actual absence +of so weighty and continual a restraint, upon the arbitrary power +which Roman religion and Roman law gave to the parent over the son. +[17] On the part of his mother, on the other hand, entertaining the +husband's memory, there was a sustained freshness of regret, together +with the recognition, as Marius fancied, of some costly self- +sacrifice to be credited to the dead. The life of the widow, languid +and shadowy enough but for the poignancy of that regret, was like one +long service to the departed soul; its many annual observances +centering about the funeral urn--a tiny, delicately carved marble +house, still white and fair, in the family-chapel, wreathed always +with the richest flowers from the garden. To the dead, in fact, was +conceded in such places a somewhat closer neighbourhood to the old +homes they were thought still to protect, than is usual with us, or +was usual in Rome itself--a closeness which the living welcomed, so +diverse are the ways of our human sentiment, and in which the more +wealthy, at least in the country, might indulge themselves. All this +Marius followed with a devout interest, sincerely touched and awed by +his mother's sorrow. After the deification of the emperors, we are +told, it was considered impious so much as to use any coarse +expression in the presence of their images. To Marius the whole of +life seemed full of sacred presences, demanding of him a similar +collectedness. The severe and archaic religion of the villa, as he +conceived it, begot in him a sort of devout circumspection lest he +should fall short at any point of the demand upon him of anything +[18] in which deity was concerned. He must satisfy with a kind of +sacred equity, he must be very cautious lest he be found wanting to, +the claims of others, in their joys and calamities--the happiness +which deity sanctioned, or the blows in which it made itself felt. +And from habit, this feeling of a responsibility towards the world of +men and things, towards a claim for due sentiment concerning them on +his side, came to be a part of his nature not to be put off. It kept +him serious and dignified amid the Epicurean speculations which in +after years much engrossed him, and when he had learned to think of +all religions as indifferent, serious amid many fopperies and through +many languid days, and made him anticipate all his life long as a +thing towards which he must carefully train himself, some great +occasion of self-devotion, such as really came, that should +consecrate his life, and, it might be, its memory with others, as the +early Christian looked forward to martyrdom at the end of his course, +as a seal of worth upon it. + +The traveller, descending from the slopes of Luna, even as he got his +first view of the Port-of-Venus, would pause by the way, to read the +face, as it were, of so beautiful a dwelling-place, lying away from +the white road, at the point where it began to decline somewhat +steeply to the marsh-land below. The building of pale red and yellow +marble, mellowed by age, which he saw beyond the gates, was indeed +but the exquisite [19] fragment of a once large and sumptuous villa. +Two centuries of the play of the sea-wind were in the velvet of the +mosses which lay along its inaccessible ledges and angles. Here and +there the marble plates had slipped from their places, where the +delicate weeds had forced their way. The graceful wildness which +prevailed in garden and farm gave place to a singular nicety about +the actual habitation, and a still more scrupulous sweetness and +order reigned within. The old Roman architects seem to have well +understood the decorative value of the floor--the real economy there +was, in the production of rich interior effect, of a somewhat lavish +expenditure upon the surface they trod on. The pavement of the hall +had lost something of its evenness; but, though a little rough to the +foot, polished and cared for like a piece of silver, looked, as +mosaic-work is apt to do, its best in old age. Most noticeable among +the ancestral masks, each in its little cedarn chest below the +cornice, was that of the wasteful but elegant Marcellus, with the +quaint resemblance in its yellow waxen features to Marius, just then +so full of animation and country colour. A chamber, curved +ingeniously into oval form, which he had added to the mansion, still +contained his collection of works of art; above all, that head of +Medusa, for which the villa was famous. The spoilers of one of the +old Greek towns on the coast had flung away or lost the [20] thing, +as it seemed, in some rapid flight across the river below, from the +sands of which it was drawn up in a fisherman's net, with the fine +golden laminae still clinging here and there to the bronze. It was +Marcellus also who had contrived the prospect-tower of two storeys +with the white pigeon-house above, so characteristic of the place. +The little glazed windows in the uppermost chamber framed each its +dainty landscape--the pallid crags of Carrara, like wildly twisted +snow-drifts above the purple heath; the distant harbour with its +freight of white marble going to sea; the lighthouse temple of Venus +Speciosa on its dark headland, amid the long-drawn curves of white +breakers. Even on summer nights the air there had always a motion in +it, and drove the scent of the new-mown hay along all the passages of +the house. + +Something pensive, spell-bound, and but half real, something +cloistral or monastic, as we should say, united to this exquisite +order, made the whole place seem to Marius, as it were, sacellum, the +peculiar sanctuary, of his mother, who, still in real widowhood, +provided the deceased Marius the elder with that secondary sort of +life which we can give to the dead, in our intensely realised memory +of them--the "subjective immortality," to use a modern phrase, for +which many a Roman epitaph cries out plaintively to widow or sister +or daughter, still in the land of the living. Certainly, if any [21] +such considerations regarding them do reach the shadowy people, he +enjoyed that secondary existence, that warm place still left, in +thought at least, beside the living, the desire for which is +actually, in various forms, so great a motive with most of us. And +Marius the younger, even thus early, came to think of women's tears, +of women's hands to lay one to rest, in death as in the sleep of +childhood, as a sort of natural want. The soft lines of the white +hands and face, set among the many folds of the veil and stole of the +Roman widow, busy upon her needlework, or with music sometimes, +defined themselves for him as the typical expression of maternity. +Helping her with her white and purple wools, and caring for her +musical instruments, he won, as if from the handling of such things, +an urbane and feminine refinement, qualifying duly his country-grown +habits--the sense of a certain delicate blandness, which he relished, +above all, on returning to the "chapel" of his mother, after long +days of open-air exercise, in winter or stormy summer. For poetic +souls in old Italy felt, hardly less strongly than the English, the +pleasures of winter, of the hearth, with the very dead warm in its +generous heat, keeping the young myrtles in flower, though the hail +is beating hard without. One important principle, of fruit +afterwards in his Roman life, that relish for the country fixed +deeply in him; in the winters especially, when the sufferings of [22] +the animal world became so palpable even to the least observant. It +fixed in him a sympathy for all creatures, for the almost human +troubles and sicknesses of the flocks, for instance. It was a +feeling which had in it something of religious veneration for life as +such--for that mysterious essence which man is powerless to create in +even the feeblest degree. One by one, at the desire of his mother, +the lad broke down his cherished traps and springes for the hungry +wild birds on the salt marsh. A white bird, she told him once, +looking at him gravely, a bird which he must carry in his bosom +across a crowded public place--his own soul was like that! Would it +reach the hands of his good genius on the opposite side, unruffled +and unsoiled? And as his mother became to him the very type of +maternity in things, its unfailing pity and protectiveness, and +maternity itself the central type of all love;--so, that beautiful +dwelling-place lent the reality of concrete outline to a peculiar +ideal of home, which throughout the rest of his life he seemed, amid +many distractions of spirit, to be ever seeking to regain. + +And a certain vague fear of evil, constitutional in him, enhanced +still further this sentiment of home as a place of tried security. +His religion, that old Italian religion, in contrast with the really +light-hearted religion of Greece, had its deep undercurrent of gloom, +its sad, haunting imageries, not exclusively confined to the walls +[23] of Etruscan tombs. The function of the conscience, not always +as the prompter of gratitude for benefits received, but oftenest as +his accuser before those angry heavenly masters, had a large part in +it; and the sense of some unexplored evil, ever dogging his +footsteps, made him oddly suspicious of particular places and +persons. Though his liking for animals was so strong, yet one fierce +day in early summer, as he walked along a narrow road, he had seen +the snakes breeding, and ever afterwards avoided that place and its +ugly associations, for there was something in the incident which made +food distasteful and his sleep uneasy for many days afterwards. The +memory of it however had almost passed away, when at the corner of a +street in Pisa, he came upon an African showman exhibiting a great +serpent: once more, as the reptile writhed, the former painful +impression revived: it was like a peep into the lower side of the +real world, and again for many days took all sweetness from food and +sleep. He wondered at himself indeed, trying to puzzle out the +secret of that repugnance, having no particular dread of a snake's +bite, like one of his companions, who had put his hand into the mouth +of an old garden-god and roused there a sluggish viper. A kind of +pity even mingled with his aversion, and he could hardly have killed +or injured the animals, which seemed already to suffer by the very +circumstance of their life, being what they [24] were. It was +something like a fear of the supernatural, or perhaps rather a moral +feeling, for the face of a great serpent, with no grace of fur or +feathers, so different from quadruped or bird, has a sort of humanity +of aspect in its spotted and clouded nakedness. There was a +humanity, dusty and sordid and as if far gone in corruption, in the +sluggish coil, as it awoke suddenly into one metallic spring of pure +enmity against him. Long afterwards, when it happened that at Rome +he saw, a second time, a showman with his serpents, he remembered the +night which had then followed, thinking, in Saint Augustine's vein, +on the real greatness of those little troubles of children, of which +older people make light; but with a sudden gratitude also, as he +reflected how richly possessed his life had actually been by +beautiful aspects and imageries, seeing how greatly what was +repugnant to the eye disturbed his peace. + +Thus the boyhood of Marius passed; on the whole, more given to +contemplation than to action. Less prosperous in fortune than at an +earlier day there had been reason to expect, and animating his +solitude, as he read eagerly and intelligently, with the traditions +of the past, already he lived much in the realm of the imagination, +and became betimes, as he was to continue all through life, something +of an idealist, constructing the world for himself in great measure +from within, by the exercise [25] of meditative power. A vein of +subjective philosophy, with the individual for its standard of all +things, there would be always in his intellectual scheme of the world +and of conduct, with a certain incapacity wholly to accept other +men's valuations. And the generation of this peculiar element in his +temper he could trace up to the days when his life had been so like +the reading of a romance to him. Had the Romans a word for +unworldly? The beautiful word umbratilis perhaps comes nearest to +it; and, with that precise sense, might describe the spirit in which +he prepared himself for the sacerdotal function hereditary in his +family--the sort of mystic enjoyment he had in the abstinence, the +strenuous self-control and ascesis, which such preparation involved. +Like the young Ion in the beautiful opening of the play of Euripides, +who every morning sweeps the temple floor with such a fund of +cheerfulness in his service, he was apt to be happy in sacred places, +with a susceptibility to their peculiar influences which he never +outgrew; so that often in after-times, quite unexpectedly, this +feeling would revive in him with undiminished freshness. That first, +early, boyish ideal of priesthood, the sense of dedication, survived +through all the distractions of the world, and when all thought of +such vocation had finally passed from him, as a ministry, in spirit +at least, towards a sort of hieratic beauty and order in the conduct +of life. + +[26] And now what relieved in part this over-tension of soul was the +lad's pleasure in the country and the open air; above all, the ramble +to the coast, over the marsh with its dwarf roses and wild lavender, +and delightful signs, one after another--the abandoned boat, the +ruined flood-gates, the flock of wild birds--that one was approaching +the sea; the long summer-day of idleness among its vague scents and +sounds. And it was characteristic of him that he relished especially +the grave, subdued, northern notes in all that--the charm of the +French or English notes, as we might term them--in the luxuriant +Italian landscape. + +NOTES + +13. *Ad Vigilias Albas. + + + +CHAPTER III: CHANGE OF AIR + +Dilexi decorem domus tuae. + +[27] THAT almost morbid religious idealism, and his healthful love of +the country, were both alike developed by the circumstances of a +journey, which happened about this time, when Marius was taken to a +certain temple of Aesculapius, among the hills of Etruria, as was +then usual in such cases, for the cure of some boyish sickness. The +religion of Aesculapius, though borrowed from Greece, had been +naturalised in Rome in the old republican times; but had reached +under the Antonines the height of its popularity throughout the Roman +world. That was an age of valetudinarians, in many instances of +imaginary ones; but below its various crazes concerning health and +disease, largely multiplied a few years after the time of which I am +speaking by the miseries of a great pestilence, lay a valuable, +because partly practicable, belief that all the maladies of the soul +might be reached through the subtle gateways of the body. + +[28] Salus, salvation, for the Romans, had come to mean bodily +sanity. The religion of the god of bodily health, Salvator, as they +called him absolutely, had a chance just then of becoming the one +religion; that mild and philanthropic son of Apollo surviving, or +absorbing, all other pagan godhead. The apparatus of the medical +art, the salutary mineral or herb, diet or abstinence, and all the +varieties of the bath, came to have a kind of sacramental character, +so deep was the feeling, in more serious minds, of a moral or +spiritual profit in physical health, beyond the obvious bodily +advantages one had of it; the body becoming truly, in that case, but +a quiet handmaid of the soul. The priesthood or "family" of +Aesculapius, a vast college, believed to be in possession of certain +precious medical secrets, came nearest perhaps, of all the +institutions of the pagan world, to the Christian priesthood; the +temples of the god, rich in some instances with the accumulated +thank-offerings of centuries of a tasteful devotion, being really +also a kind of hospitals for the sick, administered in a full +conviction of the religiousness, the refined and sacred happiness, of +a life spent in the relieving of pain. + +Elements of a really experimental and progressive knowledge there +were doubtless amid this devout enthusiasm, bent so faithfully on the +reception of health as a direct gift from God; but for the most part +his care was held to take [29] effect through a machinery easily +capable of misuse for purposes of religious fraud. Through dreams, +above all, inspired by Aesculapius himself, information as to the +cause and cure of a malady was supposed to come to the sufferer, in a +belief based on the truth that dreams do sometimes, for those who +watch them carefully, give many hints concerning the conditions of +the body--those latent weak points at which disease or death may most +easily break into it. In the time of Marcus Aurelius these medical +dreams had become more than ever a fashionable caprice. Aristeides, +the "Orator," a man of undoubted intellectual power, has devoted six +discourses to their interpretation; the really scientific Galen has +recorded how beneficently they had intervened in his own case, at +certain turning-points of life; and a belief in them was one of the +frailties of the wise emperor himself. Partly for the sake of these +dreams, living ministers of the god, more likely to come to one in +his actual dwelling-place than elsewhere, it was almost a necessity +that the patient should sleep one or more nights within the precincts +of a temple consecrated to his service, during which time he must +observe certain rules prescribed by the priests. + +For this purpose, after devoutly saluting the Lares, as was customary +before starting on a journey, Marius set forth one summer morning on +his way to the famous temple which lay [30] among the hills beyond +the valley of the Arnus. It was his greatest adventure hitherto; and +he had much pleasure in all its details, in spite of his +feverishness. Starting early, under the guidance of an old serving- +man who drove the mules, with his wife who took all that was needful +for their refreshment on the way and for the offering at the shrine, +they went, under the genial heat, halting now and then to pluck +certain flowers seen for the first time on these high places, +upwards, through a long day of sunshine, while cliffs and woods sank +gradually below their path. The evening came as they passed along a +steep white road with many windings among the pines, and it was night +when they reached the temple, the lights of which shone out upon them +pausing before the gates of the sacred enclosure, while Marius became +alive to a singular purity in the air. A rippling of water about the +place was the only thing audible, as they waited till two priestly +figures, speaking Greek to one another, admitted them into a large, +white-walled and clearly lighted guest-chamber, in which, while he +partook of a simple but wholesomely prepared supper, Marius still +seemed to feel pleasantly the height they had attained to among the +hills. + +The agreeable sense of all this was spoiled by one thing only, his +old fear of serpents; for it was under the form of a serpent that +Aesculapius [31] had come to Rome, and the last definite thought of +his weary head before he fell asleep had been a dread either that the +god might appear, as he was said sometimes to do, under this hideous +aspect, or perhaps one of those great sallow-hued snakes themselves, +kept in the sacred place, as he had also heard was usual. + +And after an hour's feverish dreaming he awoke--with a cry, it would +seem, for some one had entered the room bearing a light. The +footsteps of the youthful figure which approached and sat by his +bedside were certainly real. Ever afterwards, when the thought arose +in his mind of some unhoped-for but entire relief from distress, like +blue sky in a storm at sea, would come back the memory of that +gracious countenance which, amid all the kindness of its gaze, had +yet a certain air of predominance over him, so that he seemed now for +the first time to have found the master of his spirit. It would have +been sweet to be the servant of him who now sat beside him speaking. + +He caught a lesson from what was then said, still somewhat beyond his +years, a lesson in the skilled cultivation of life, of experience, of +opportunity, which seemed to be the aim of the young priest's +recommendations. The sum of them, through various forgotten +intervals of argument, as might really have happened in a [32] dream, +was the precept, repeated many times under slightly varied aspects, +of a diligent promotion of the capacity of the eye, inasmuch as in +the eye would lie for him the determining influence of life: he was +of the number of those who, in the words of a poet who came long +after, must be "made perfect by the love of visible beauty." The +discourse was conceived from the point of view of a theory Marius +found afterwards in Plato's Phaedrus, which supposes men's spirits +susceptible to certain influences, diffused, after the manner of +streams or currents, by fair things or persons visibly present--green +fields, for instance, or children's faces--into the air around them, +acting, in the case of some peculiar natures, like potent material +essences, and conforming the seer to themselves as with some cunning +physical necessity. This theory,* in itself so fantastic, had +however determined in a range of methodical suggestions, altogether +quaint here and there from their circumstantial minuteness. And +throughout, the possibility of some vision, as of a new city coming +down "like a bride out of heaven," a vision still indeed, it might +seem, a long way off, but to be granted perhaps one day to the eyes +thus trained, was presented as the motive of this laboriously +practical direction. + +"If thou wouldst have all about thee like the colours of some fresh +picture, in a clear [33] light," so the discourse recommenced after a +pause, "be temperate in thy religious notions, in love, in wine, in +all things, and of a peaceful heart with thy fellows." To keep the +eye clear by a sort of exquisite personal alacrity and cleanliness, +extending even to his dwelling-place; to discriminate, ever more and +more fastidiously, select form and colour in things from what was +less select; to meditate much on beautiful visible objects, on +objects, more especially, connected with the period of youth--on +children at play in the morning, the trees in early spring, on young +animals, on the fashions and amusements of young men; to keep ever by +him if it were but a single choice flower, a graceful animal or sea- +shell, as a token and representative of the whole kingdom of such +things; to avoid jealously, in his way through the world, everything +repugnant to sight; and, should any circumstance tempt him to a +general converse in the range of such objects, to disentangle himself +from that circumstance at any cost of place, money, or opportunity; +such were in brief outline the duties recognised, the rights +demanded, in this new formula of life. And it was delivered with +conviction; as if the speaker verily saw into the recesses of the +mental and physical being of the listener, while his own expression +of perfect temperance had in it a fascinating power--the merely +negative element of purity, the mere freedom from taint or flaw, in +exercise [34] as a positive influence. Long afterwards, when Marius +read the Charmides--that other dialogue of Plato, into which he seems +to have expressed the very genius of old Greek temperance--the image +of this speaker came back vividly before him, to take the chief part +in the conversation. + +It was as a weighty sanction of such temperance, in almost visible +symbolism (an outward imagery identifying itself with unseen +moralities) that the memory of that night's double experience, the +dream of the great sallow snake and the utterance of the young +priest, always returned to him, and the contrast therein involved +made him revolt with unfaltering instinct from the bare thought of an +excess in sleep, or diet, or even in matters of taste, still more +from any excess of a coarser kind. + +When he awoke again, still in the exceeding freshness he had felt on +his arrival, and now in full sunlight, it was as if his sickness had +really departed with the terror of the night: a confusion had passed +from the brain, a painful dryness from his hands. Simply to be alive +and there was a delight; and as he bathed in the fresh water set +ready for his use, the air of the room about him seemed like pure +gold, the very shadows rich with colour. Summoned at length by one +of the white-robed brethren, he went out to walk in the temple +garden. At a distance, on either side, his guide pointed out to him +the Houses of Birth and Death, erected for the reception [35] +respectively of women about to become mothers, and of persons about +to die; neither of those incidents being allowed to defile, as was +thought, the actual precincts of the shrine. His visitor of the +previous night he saw nowhere again. But among the official +ministers of the place there was one, already marked as of great +celebrity, whom Marius saw often in later days at Rome, the physician +Galen, now about thirty years old. He was standing, the hood partly +drawn over his face, beside the holy well, as Marius and his guide +approached it. + +This famous well or conduit, primary cause of the temple and its +surrounding institutions, was supplied by the water of a spring +flowing directly out of the rocky foundations of the shrine. From +the rim of its basin rose a circle of trim columns to support a +cupola of singular lightness and grace, itself full of reflected +light from the rippling surface, through which might be traced the +wavy figure-work of the marble lining below as the stream of water +rushed in. Legend told of a visit of Aesculapius to this place, +earlier and happier than his first coming to Rome: an inscription +around the cupola recorded it in letters of gold. "Being come unto +this place the son of God loved it exceedingly:"--Huc profectus +filius Dei maxime amavit hunc locum;--and it was then that that most +intimately human of the gods had given men the well, with all its +salutary properties. The [36] element itself when received into the +mouth, in consequence of its entire freedom from adhering organic +matter, was more like a draught of wonderfully pure air than water; +and after tasting, Marius was told many mysterious circumstances +concerning it, by one and another of the bystanders:--he who drank +often thereof might well think he had tasted of the Homeric lotus, so +great became his desire to remain always on that spot: carried to +other places, it was almost indefinitely conservative of its fine +qualities: nay! a few drops of it would amend other water; and it +flowed not only with unvarying abundance but with a volume so oddly +rhythmical that the well stood always full to the brim, whatever +quantity might be drawn from it, seeming to answer with strange +alacrity of service to human needs, like a true creature and pupil of +the philanthropic god. Certainly the little crowd around seemed to +find singular refreshment in gazing on it. The whole place appeared +sensibly influenced by the amiable and healthful spirit of the thing. +All the objects of the country were there at their freshest. In the +great park-like enclosure for the maintenance of the sacred animals +offered by the convalescent, grass and trees were allowed to grow +with a kind of graceful wildness; otherwise, all was wonderfully +nice. And that freshness seemed to have something moral in its +influence, as if it acted upon the body and the merely bodily [37] +powers of apprehension, through the intelligence; and to the end of +his visit Marius saw no more serpents. + +A lad was just then drawing water for ritual uses, and Marius +followed him as he returned from the well, more and more impressed by +the religiousness of all he saw, on his way through a long cloister +or corridor, the walls well-nigh hidden under votive inscriptions +recording favours from the son of Apollo, and with a distant +fragrance of incense in the air, explained when he turned aside +through an open doorway into the temple itself. His heart bounded as +the refined and dainty magnificence of the place came upon him +suddenly, in the flood of early sunshine, with the ceremonial lights +burning here and there, and withal a singular expression of sacred +order, a surprising cleanliness and simplicity. Certain priests, men +whose countenances bore a deep impression of cultivated mind, each +with his little group of assistants, were gliding round silently to +perform their morning salutation to the god, raising the closed thumb +and finger of the right hand with a kiss in the air, as they came and +went on their sacred business, bearing their frankincense and lustral +water. Around the walls, at such a level that the worshippers might +read, as in a book, the story of the god and his sons, the +brotherhood of the Asclepiadae, ran a series of imageries, in low +relief, their delicate light and shade being [38] heightened, here +and there, with gold. Fullest of inspired and sacred expression, as +if in this place the chisel of the artist had indeed dealt not with +marble but with the very breath of feeling and thought, was the scene +in which the earliest generation of the sons of Aesculapius were +transformed into healing dreams; for "grown now too glorious to abide +longer among men, by the aid of their sire they put away their mortal +bodies, and came into another country, yet not indeed into Elysium +nor into the Islands of the Blest. But being made like to the +immortal gods, they began to pass about through the world, changed +thus far from their first form that they appear eternally young, as +many persons have seen them in many places--ministers and heralds of +their father, passing to and fro over the earth, like gliding stars. +Which thing is, indeed, the most wonderful concerning them!" And in +this scene, as throughout the series, with all its crowded +personages, Marius noted on the carved faces the same peculiar union +of unction, almost of hilarity, with a certain self-possession and +reserve, which was conspicuous in the living ministrants around him. + +In the central space, upon a pillar or pedestal, hung, ex voto, with +the richest personal ornaments, stood the image of Aesculapius +himself, surrounded by choice flowering plants. It presented the +type, still with something of the [39] severity of the earlier art of +Greece about it, not of an aged and crafty physician, but of a youth, +earnest and strong of aspect, carrying an ampulla or bottle in one +hand, and in the other a traveller's staff, a pilgrim among his +pilgrim worshippers; and one of the ministers explained to Marius +this pilgrim guise.--One chief source of the master's knowledge of +healing had been observation of the remedies resorted to by animals +labouring under disease or pain--what leaf or berry the lizard or +dormouse lay upon its wounded fellow; to which purpose for long years +he had led the life of a wanderer, in wild places. The boy took his +place as the last comer, a little way behind the group of worshippers +who stood in front of the image. There, with uplifted face, the +palms of his two hands raised and open before him, and taught by the +priest, he said his collect of thanksgiving and prayer (Aristeides +has recorded it at the end of his Asclepiadae) to the Inspired +Dreams:-- + +"O ye children of Apollo! who in time past have stilled the waves of +sorrow for many people, lighting up a lamp of safety before those who +travel by sea and land, be pleased, in your great condescension, +though ye be equal in glory with your elder brethren the Dioscuri, +and your lot in immortal youth be as theirs, to accept this prayer, +which in sleep and vision ye have inspired. Order it aright, I pray +you, according to your loving-kindness to men. Preserve me [40] from +sickness; and endue my body with such a measure of health as may +suffice it for the obeying of the spirit, that I may pass my days +unhindered and in quietness." + +On the last morning of his visit Marius entered the shrine again, and +just before his departure the priest, who had been his special +director during his stay at the place, lifting a cunningly contrived +panel, which formed the back of one of the carved seats, bade him +look through. What he saw was like the vision of a new world, by the +opening of some unsuspected window in a familiar dwelling-place. He +looked out upon a long-drawn valley of singularly cheerful aspect, +hidden, by the peculiar conformation of the locality, from all points +of observation but this. In a green meadow at the foot of the steep +olive-clad rocks below, the novices were taking their exercise. The +softly sloping sides of the vale lay alike in full sunlight; and its +distant opening was closed by a beautifully formed mountain, from +which the last wreaths of morning mist were rising under the heat. +It might have seemed the very presentment of a land of hope, its +hollows brimful of a shadow of blue flowers; and lo! on the one level +space of the horizon, in a long dark line, were towers and a dome: +and that was Pisa.--Or Rome, was it? asked Marius, ready to believe +the utmost, in his excitement. + +All this served, as he understood afterwards [41] in retrospect, at +once to strengthen and to purify a certain vein of character in him. +Developing the ideal, pre-existent there, of a religious beauty, +associated for the future with the exquisite splendour of the temple +of Aesculapius, as it dawned upon him on that morning of his first +visit--it developed that ideal in connexion with a vivid sense of the +value of mental and bodily sanity. And this recognition of the +beauty, even for the aesthetic sense, of mere bodily health, now +acquired, operated afterwards as an influence morally salutary, +counteracting the less desirable or hazardous tendencies of some +phases of thought, through which he was to pass. + +He came home brown with health to find the health of his mother +failing; and about her death, which occurred not long afterwards, +there was a circumstance which rested with him as the cruellest touch +of all, in an event which for a time seemed to have taken the light +out of the sunshine. She died away from home, but sent for him at +the last, with a painful effort on her part, but to his great +gratitude, pondering, as he always believed, that he might chance +otherwise to look back all his life long upon a single fault with +something like remorse, and find the burden a great one. For it +happened that, through some sudden, incomprehensible petulance there +had been an angry childish gesture, and a slighting word, at the very +moment of her departure, actually for the last time. Remembering +this [42] he would ever afterwards pray to be saved from offences +against his own affections; the thought of that marred parting having +peculiar bitterness for one, who set so much store, both by principle +and habit, on the sentiment of home. + +NOTES + +32. *[Transliteration:] E aporroe tou kallous. +Translation: +"Emanation from a thing of beauty." + + + +CHAPTER IV: THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE + + O mare! O littus! verum secretumque Mouseion,+ + quam multa invenitis, quam multa dictatis! + Pliny's Letters. + +[43] IT would hardly have been possible to feel more seriously than +did Marius in those grave years of his early life. But the death of +his mother turned seriousness of feeling into a matter of the +intelligence: it made him a questioner; and, by bringing into full +evidence to him the force of his affections and the probable +importance of their place in his future, developed in him generally +the more human and earthly elements of character. A singularly +virile consciousness of the realities of life pronounced itself in +him; still however as in the main a poetic apprehension, though +united already with something of personal ambition and the instinct +of self-assertion. There were days when he could suspect, though it +was a suspicion he was careful at first to put from him, that that +early, much [44] cherished religion of the villa might come to count +with him as but one form of poetic beauty, or of the ideal, in +things; as but one voice, in a world where there were many voices it +would be a moral weakness not to listen to. And yet this voice, +through its forcible pre-occupation of his childish conscience, still +seemed to make a claim of a quite exclusive character, defining +itself as essentially one of but two possible leaders of his spirit, +the other proposing to him unlimited self-expansion in a world of +various sunshine. The contrast was so pronounced as to make the +easy, light-hearted, unsuspecting exercise of himself, among the +temptations of the new phase of life which had now begun, seem +nothing less than a rival religion, a rival religious service. The +temptations, the various sunshine, were those of the old town of +Pisa, where Marius was now a tall schoolboy. Pisa was a place lying +just far enough from home to make his rare visits to it in childhood +seem like adventures, such as had never failed to supply new and +refreshing impulses to the imagination. The partly decayed pensive +town, which still had its commerce by sea, and its fashion at the +bathing-season, had lent, at one time the vivid memory of its fair +streets of marble, at another the solemn outline of the dark hills of +Luna on its background, at another the living glances of its men and +women, to the thickly gathering crowd [45] of impressions, out of +which his notion of the world was then forming. And while he learned +that the object, the experience, as it will be known to memory, is +really from first to last the chief point for consideration in the +conduct of life, these things were feeding also the idealism +constitutional with him--his innate and habitual longing for a world +altogether fairer than that he saw. The child could find his way in +thought along those streets of the old town, expecting duly the +shrines at their corners, and their recurrent intervals of garden- +courts, or side-views of distant sea. The great temple of the place, +as he could remember it, on turning back once for a last look from an +angle of his homeward road, counting its tall gray columns between +the blue of the bay and the blue fields of blossoming flax beyond; +the harbour and its lights; the foreign ships lying there; the +sailors' chapel of Venus, and her gilded image, hung with votive +gifts; the seamen themselves, their women and children, who had a +whole peculiar colour-world of their own--the boy's superficial +delight in the broad light and shadow of all that was mingled with +the sense of power, of unknown distance, of the danger of storm and +possible death. + +To this place, then, Marius came down now from White-nights, to live +in the house of his guardian or tutor, that he might attend the +school of a famous rhetorician, and learn, among [46] other things, +Greek. The school, one of many imitations of Plato's Academy in the +old Athenian garden, lay in a quiet suburb of Pisa, and had its grove +of cypresses, its porticoes, a house for the master, its chapel and +images. For the memory of Marius in after-days, a clear morning +sunlight seemed to lie perpetually on that severe picture in old gray +and green. The lad went to this school daily betimes, in state at +first, with a young slave to carry the books, and certainly with no +reluctance, for the sight of his fellow-scholars, and their petulant +activity, coming upon the sadder sentimental moods of his childhood, +awoke at once that instinct of emulation which is but the other side +of sympathy; and he was not aware, of course, how completely the +difference of his previous training had made him, even in his most +enthusiastic participation in the ways of that little world, still +essentially but a spectator. While all their heart was in their +limited boyish race, and its transitory prizes, he was already +entertaining himself, very pleasurably meditative, with the tiny +drama in action before him, as but the mimic, preliminary exercise +for a larger contest, and already with an implicit epicureanism. +Watching all the gallant effects of their small rivalries--a scene in +the main of fresh delightful sunshine--he entered at once into the +sensations of a rivalry beyond them, into the passion of men, and had +already recognised a certain [47] appetite for fame, for distinction +among his fellows, as his dominant motive to be. + +The fame he conceived for himself at this time was, as the reader +will have anticipated, of the intellectual order, that of a poet +perhaps. And as, in that gray monastic tranquillity of the villa, +inward voices from the reality of unseen things had come abundantly; +so here, with the sounds and aspects of the shore, and amid the +urbanities, the graceful follies, of a bathing-place, it was the +reality, the tyrannous reality, of things visible that was borne in +upon him. The real world around--a present humanity not less comely, +it might seem, than that of the old heroic days--endowing everything +it touched upon, however remotely, down to its little passing tricks +of fashion even, with a kind of fleeting beauty, exercised over him +just then a great fascination. + +That sense had come upon him in all its power one exceptionally fine +summer, the summer when, at a somewhat earlier age than was usual, he +had formally assumed the dress of manhood, going into the Forum for +that purpose, accompanied by his friends in festal array. At night, +after the full measure of those cloudless days, he would feel well- +nigh wearied out, as if with a long succession of pictures and music. +As he wandered through the gay streets or on the sea-shore, the real +world seemed indeed boundless, and himself almost absolutely free in +it, with a boundless [48] appetite for experience, for adventure, +whether physical or of the spirit. His entire rearing hitherto had +lent itself to an imaginative exaltation of the past; but now the +spectacle actually afforded to his untired and freely open senses, +suggested the reflection that the present had, it might be, really +advanced beyond the past, and he was ready to boast in the very fact +that it was modern. If, in a voluntary archaism, the polite world of +that day went back to a choicer generation, as it fancied, for the +purpose of a fastidious self-correction, in matters of art, of +literature, and even, as we have seen, of religion, at least it +improved, by a shade or two of more scrupulous finish, on the old +pattern; and the new era, like the Neu-zeit of the German enthusiasts +at the beginning of our own century, might perhaps be discerned, +awaiting one just a single step onward--the perfected new manner, in +the consummation of time, alike as regards the things of the +imagination and the actual conduct of life. Only, while the pursuit +of an ideal like this demanded entire liberty of heart and brain, +that old, staid, conservative religion of his childhood certainly had +its being in a world of somewhat narrow restrictions. But then, the +one was absolutely real, with nothing less than the reality of seeing +and hearing--the other, how vague, shadowy, problematical! Could its +so limited probabilities be worth taking into account in any +practical question as to the rejecting or receiving [49] of what was +indeed so real, and, on the face of it, so desirable? + +And, dating from the time of his first coming to school, a great +friendship had grown up for him, in that life of so few attachments-- +the pure and disinterested friendship of schoolmates. He had seen +Flavian for the first time the day on which he had come to Pisa, at +the moment when his mind was full of wistful thoughts regarding the +new life to begin for him to-morrow, and he gazed curiously at the +crowd of bustling scholars as they came from their classes. There +was something in Flavian a shade disdainful, as he stood isolated +from the others for a moment, explained in part by his stature and +the distinction of the low, broad forehead; though there was +pleasantness also for the newcomer in the roving blue eyes which +seemed somehow to take a fuller hold upon things around than is usual +with boys. Marius knew that those proud glances made kindly note of +him for a moment, and felt something like friendship at first sight. +There was a tone of reserve or gravity there, amid perfectly +disciplined health, which, to his fancy, seemed to carry forward the +expression of the austere sky and the clear song of the blackbird on +that gray March evening. Flavian indeed was a creature who changed +much with the changes of the passing light and shade about him, and +was brilliant enough under the early sunshine in [50] school next +morning. Of all that little world of more or less gifted youth, +surely the centre was this lad of servile birth. Prince of the +school, he had gained an easy dominion over the old Greek master by +the fascination of his parts, and over his fellow-scholars by the +figure he bore. He wore already the manly dress; and standing there +in class, as he displayed his wonderful quickness in reckoning, or +his taste in declaiming Homer, he was like a carved figure in motion, +thought Marius, but with that indescribable gleam upon it which the +words of Homer actually suggested, as perceptible on the visible +forms of the gods--hoia theous epenenothen aien eontas.+ + +A story hung by him, a story which his comrades acutely connected +with his habitual air of somewhat peevish pride. Two points were +held to be clear amid its general vagueness--a rich stranger paid his +schooling, and he was himself very poor, though there was an +attractive piquancy in the poverty of Flavian which in a scholar of +another figure might have been despised. Over Marius too his +dominion was entire. Three years older than he, Flavian was +appointed to help the younger boy in his studies, and Marius thus +became virtually his servant in many things, taking his humours with +a sort of grateful pride in being noticed at all, and, thinking over +all this afterwards, found that the [51] fascination experienced by +him had been a sentimental one, dependent on the concession to +himself of an intimacy, a certain tolerance of his company, granted +to none beside. + +That was in the earliest days; and then, as their intimacy grew, the +genius, the intellectual power of Flavian began its sway over him. +The brilliant youth who loved dress, and dainty food, and flowers, +and seemed to have a natural alliance with, and claim upon, +everything else which was physically select and bright, cultivated +also that foppery of words, of choice diction which was common among +the elite spirits of that day; and Marius, early an expert and +elegant penman, transcribed his verses (the euphuism of which, amid a +genuine original power, was then so delightful to him) in beautiful +ink, receiving in return the profit of Flavian's really great +intellectual capacities, developed and accomplished under the +ambitious desire to make his way effectively in life. Among other +things he introduced him to the writings of a sprightly wit, then +very busy with the pen, one Lucian--writings seeming to overflow with +that intellectual light turned upon dim places, which, at least in +seasons of mental fair weather, can make people laugh where they have +been wont, perhaps, to pray. And, surely, the sunlight which filled +those well-remembered early mornings in school, had had more than the +usual measure of gold in it! [52] Marius, at least, would lie awake +before the time, thinking with delight of the long coming hours of +hard work in the presence of Flavian, as other boys dream of a +holiday. + +It was almost by accident at last, so wayward and capricious was he, +that reserve gave way, and Flavian told the story of his father--a +freedman, presented late in life, and almost against his will, with +the liberty so fondly desired in youth, but on condition of the +sacrifice of part of his peculium--the slave's diminutive hoard-- +amassed by many a self-denial, in an existence necessarily hard. The +rich man, interested in the promise of the fair child born on his +estate, had sent him to school. The meanness and dejection, +nevertheless, of that unoccupied old age defined the leading memory +of Flavian, revived sometimes, after this first confidence, with a +burst of angry tears amid the sunshine. But nature had had her +economy in nursing the strength of that one natural affection; for, +save his half-selfish care for Marius, it was the single, really +generous part, the one piety, in the lad's character. In him Marius +saw the spirit of unbelief, achieved as if at one step. The much- +admired freedman's son, as with the privilege of a natural +aristocracy, believed only in himself, in the brilliant, and mainly +sensuous gifts, he had, or meant to acquire. + +And then, he had certainly yielded himself, [53] though still with +untouched health, in a world where manhood comes early, to the +seductions of that luxurious town, and Marius wondered sometimes, in +the freer revelation of himself by conversation, at the extent of his +early corruption. How often, afterwards, did evil things present +themselves in malign association with the memory of that beautiful +head, and with a kind of borrowed sanction and charm in its natural +grace! To Marius, at a later time, he counted for as it were an +epitome of the whole pagan world, the depth of its corruption, and +its perfection of form. And still, in his mobility, his animation, +in his eager capacity for various life, he was so real an object, +after that visionary idealism of the villa. His voice, his glance, +were like the breaking in of the solid world upon one, amid the +flimsy fictions of a dream. A shadow, handling all things as +shadows, had felt a sudden real and poignant heat in them. + +Meantime, under his guidance, Marius was learning quickly and +abundantly, because with a good will. There was that in the actual +effectiveness of his figure which stimulated the younger lad to make +the most of opportunity; and he had experience already that education +largely increased one's capacity for enjoyment. He was acquiring +what it is the chief function of all higher education to impart, the +art, namely, of so relieving the ideal or poetic traits, [54] the +elements of distinction, in our everyday life--of so exclusively +living in them--that the unadorned remainder of it, the mere drift or +debris of our days, comes to be as though it were not. And the +consciousness of this aim came with the reading of one particular +book, then fresh in the world, with which he fell in about this time- +-a book which awakened the poetic or romantic capacity as perhaps +some other book might have done, but was peculiar in giving it a +direction emphatically sensuous. It made him, in that visionary +reception of every-day life, the seer, more especially, of a +revelation in colour and form. If our modern education, in its +better efforts, really conveys to any of us that kind of idealising +power, it does so (though dealing mainly, as its professed +instruments, with the most select and ideal remains of ancient +literature) oftenest by truant reading; and thus it happened also, +long ago, with Marius and his friend. + +NOTES + +43. +Transliteration: Mouseion. The word means "seat of the muses." +Translation: "O sea! O shore! my own Helicon, / How many things have +you uncovered to me, how many things suggested!" Pliny, Letters, +Book I, ix, to Minicius Fundanus. + +50. +Transliteration: hoia theous epenenothen aien eontas. Translation: +"such as the gods are endowed with." Homer, Odyssey, 8.365. + + + +CHAPTER V: THE GOLDEN BOOK + +[55] THE two lads were lounging together over a book, half-buried in +a heap of dry corn, in an old granary--the quiet corner to which they +had climbed out of the way of their noisier companions on one of +their blandest holiday afternoons. They looked round: the western +sun smote through the broad chinks of the shutters. How like a +picture! and it was precisely the scene described in what they were +reading, with just that added poetic touch in the book which made it +delightful and select, and, in the actual place, the ray of sunlight +transforming the rough grain among the cool brown shadows into heaps +of gold. What they were intent on was, indeed, the book of books, +the "golden" book of that day, a gift to Flavian, as was shown by the +purple writing on the handsome yellow wrapper, following the title +Flaviane!--it said, + + Flaviane! lege Felicitur! + Flaviane! Vivas! Fioreas! + Flaviane! Vivas! Gaudeas! + +[56] It was perfumed with oil of sandal-wood, and decorated with +carved and gilt ivory bosses at the ends of the roller. + +And the inside was something not less dainty and fine, full of the +archaisms and curious felicities in which that generation delighted, +quaint terms and images picked fresh from the early dramatists, the +lifelike phrases of some lost poet preserved by an old grammarian, +racy morsels of the vernacular and studied prettinesses:--all alike, +mere playthings for the genuine power and natural eloquence of the +erudite artist, unsuppressed by his erudition, which, however, made +some people angry, chiefly less well "got-up" people, and especially +those who were untidy from indolence. + +No! it was certainly not that old-fashioned, unconscious ease of the +early literature, which could never come again; which, after all, had +had more in common with the "infinite patience" of Apuleius than with +the hack-work readiness of his detractors, who might so well have +been "self-conscious" of going slip-shod. And at least his success +was unmistakable as to the precise literary effect he had intended, +including a certain tincture of "neology" in expression--nonnihil +interdum elocutione novella parum signatum--in the language of +Cornelius Fronto, the contemporary prince of rhetoricians. What +words he had found for conveying, with a single touch, the sense of +textures, colours, [57] incidents! "Like jewellers' work! Like a +myrrhine vase!"--admirers said of his writing. "The golden fibre in +the hair, the gold thread-work in the gown marked her as the +mistress"--aurum in comis et in tunicis, ibi inflexum hic intextum, +matronam profecto confitebatur--he writes, with his "curious +felicity," of one of his heroines. Aurum intextum: gold fibre:-- +well! there was something of that kind in his own work. And then, in +an age when people, from the emperor Aurelius downwards, prided +themselves unwisely on writing in Greek, he had written for Latin +people in their own tongue; though still, in truth, with all the care +of a learned language. Not less happily inventive were the incidents +recorded--story within story--stories with the sudden, unlooked-for +changes of dreams. He had his humorous touches also. And what went +to the ordinary boyish taste, in those somewhat peculiar readers, +what would have charmed boys more purely boyish, was the adventure:-- +the bear loose in the house at night, the wolves storming the farms +in winter, the exploits of the robbers, their charming caves, the +delightful thrill one had at the question--"Don't you know that these +roads are infested by robbers?" + +The scene of the romance was laid in Thessaly, the original land of +witchcraft, and took one up and down its mountains, and into its old +weird towns, haunts of magic and [58] incantation, where all the more +genuine appliances of the black art, left behind her by Medea when +she fled through that country, were still in use. In the city of +Hypata, indeed, nothing seemed to be its true self--"You might think +that through the murmuring of some cadaverous spell, all things had +been changed into forms not their own; that there was humanity in the +hardness of the stones you stumbled on; that the birds you heard +singing were feathered men; that the trees around the walls drew +their leaves from a like source. The statues seemed about to move, +the walls to speak, the dumb cattle to break out in prophecy; nay! +the very sky and the sunbeams, as if they might suddenly cry out." +Witches are there who can draw down the moon, or at least the lunar +virus--that white fluid she sheds, to be found, so rarely, "on high, +heathy places: which is a poison. A touch of it will drive men mad." + +And in one very remote village lives the sorceress Pamphile, who +turns her neighbours into various animals. What true humour in the +scene where, after mounting the rickety stairs, Lucius, peeping +curiously through a chink in the door, is a spectator of the +transformation of the old witch herself into a bird, that she may +take flight to the object of her affections--into an owl! "First she +stripped off every rag she had. Then opening a certain chest she +took from it many small boxes, and removing the lid [59] of one of +them, rubbed herself over for a long time, from head to foot, with an +ointment it contained, and after much low muttering to her lamp, +began to jerk at last and shake her limbs. And as her limbs moved to +and fro, out burst the soft feathers: stout wings came forth to view: +the nose grew hard and hooked: her nails were crooked into claws; and +Pamphile was an owl. She uttered a queasy screech; and, leaping +little by little from the ground, making trial of herself, fled +presently, on full wing, out of doors." + +By clumsy imitation of this process, Lucius, the hero of the romance, +transforms himself, not as he had intended into a showy winged +creature, but into the animal which has given name to the book; for +throughout it there runs a vein of racy, homely satire on the love of +magic then prevalent, curiosity concerning which had led Lucius to +meddle with the old woman's appliances. "Be you my Venus," he says +to the pretty maid-servant who has introduced him to the view of +Pamphile, "and let me stand by you a winged Cupid!" and, freely +applying the magic ointment, sees himself transformed, "not into a +bird, but into an ass!" + +Well! the proper remedy for his distress is a supper of roses, could +such be found, and many are his quaintly picturesque attempts to come +by them at that adverse season; as he contrives to do at last, when, +the grotesque procession of Isis [60] passing by with a bear and +other strange animals in its train, the ass following along with the +rest suddenly crunches the chaplet of roses carried in the High- +priest's hand. + +Meantime, however, he must wait for the spring, with more than the +outside of an ass; "though I was not so much a fool, nor so truly an +ass," he tells us, when he happens to be left alone with a daintily +spread table, "as to neglect this most delicious fare, and feed upon +coarse hay." For, in truth, all through the book, there is an +unmistakably real feeling for asses, with bold touches like Swift's, +and a genuine animal breadth. Lucius was the original ass, who +peeping slily from the window of his hiding-place forgot all about +the big shade he cast just above him, and gave occasion to the joke +or proverb about "the peeping ass and his shadow." + +But the marvellous, delight in which is one of the really serious +elements in most boys, passed at times, those young readers still +feeling its fascination, into what French writers call the macabre-- +that species of almost insane pre-occupation with the materialities +of our mouldering flesh, that luxury of disgust in gazing on +corruption, which was connected, in this writer at least, with not a +little obvious coarseness. It was a strange notion of the gross lust +of the actual world, that Marius took from some of these episodes. +"I am told," they read, "that [61] when foreigners are interred, the +old witches are in the habit of out-racing the funeral procession, to +ravage the corpse"--in order to obtain certain cuttings and remnants +from it, with which to injure the living--"especially if the witch +has happened to cast her eye upon some goodly young man." And the +scene of the night-watching of a dead body lest the witches should +come to tear off the flesh with their teeth, is worthy of Theophile +Gautier. + +But set as one of the episodes in the main narrative, a true gem amid +its mockeries, its coarse though genuine humanity, its burlesque +horrors, came the tale of Cupid and Psyche, full of brilliant, life- +like situations, speciosa locis, and abounding in lovely visible +imagery (one seemed to see and handle the golden hair, the fresh +flowers, the precious works of art in it!) yet full also of a gentle +idealism, so that you might take it, if you chose, for an allegory. +With a concentration of all his finer literary gifts, Apuleius had +gathered into it the floating star-matter of many a delightful old +story.-- + +The Story of Cupid and Psyche. + +In a certain city lived a king and queen who had three daughters +exceeding fair. But the beauty of the elder sisters, though pleasant +to behold, yet passed not the measure of human praise, while such was +the loveliness of the [62] youngest that men's speech was too poor to +commend it worthily and could express it not at all. Many of the +citizens and of strangers, whom the fame of this excellent vision had +gathered thither, confounded by that matchless beauty, could but kiss +the finger-tips of their right hands at sight of her, as in adoration +to the goddess Venus herself. And soon a rumour passed through the +country that she whom the blue deep had borne, forbearing her divine +dignity, was even then moving among men, or that by some fresh +germination from the stars, not the sea now, but the earth, had put +forth a new Venus, endued with the flower of virginity. + +This belief, with the fame of the maiden's loveliness, went daily +further into distant lands, so that many people were drawn together +to behold that glorious model of the age. Men sailed no longer to +Paphos, to Cnidus or Cythera, to the presence of the goddess Venus: +her sacred rites were neglected, her images stood uncrowned, the cold +ashes were left to disfigure her forsaken altars. It was to a maiden +that men's prayers were offered, to a human countenance they looked, +in propitiating so great a godhead: when the girl went forth in the +morning they strewed flowers on her way, and the victims proper to +that unseen goddess were presented as she passed along. This +conveyance of divine worship to a mortal kindled meantime the anger +of the true Venus. "Lo! now, the ancient [63] parent of nature," she +cried, "the fountain of all elements! Behold me, Venus, benign +mother of the world, sharing my honours with a mortal maiden, while +my name, built up in heaven, is profaned by the mean things of +earth! Shall a perishable woman bear my image about with her? In +vain did the shepherd of Ida prefer me! Yet shall she have little +joy, whosoever she be, of her usurped and unlawful loveliness!" +Thereupon she called to her that winged, bold boy, of evil ways, who +wanders armed by night through men's houses, spoiling their +marriages; and stirring yet more by her speech his inborn wantonness, +she led him to the city, and showed him Psyche as she walked. + +"I pray thee," she said, "give thy mother a full revenge. Let this +maid become the slave of an unworthy love." Then, embracing him +closely, she departed to the shore and took her throne upon the crest +of the wave. And lo! at her unuttered will, her ocean-servants are +in waiting: the daughters of Nereus are there singing their song, and +Portunus, and Salacia, and the tiny charioteer of the dolphin, with a +host of Tritons leaping through the billows. And one blows softly +through his sounding sea-shell, another spreads a silken web against +the sun, a third presents the mirror to the eyes of his mistress, +while the others swim side by side below, drawing her chariot. Such +was the escort of Venus as she went upon the sea. + +[64] Psyche meantime, aware of her loveliness, had no fruit thereof. +All people regarded and admired, but none sought her in marriage. It +was but as on the finished work of the craftsman that they gazed upon +that divine likeness. Her sisters, less fair than she, were happily +wedded. She, even as a widow, sitting at home, wept over her +desolation, hating in her heart the beauty in which all men were +pleased. + +And the king, supposing the gods were angry, inquired of the oracle +of Apollo, and Apollo answered him thus: "Let the damsel be placed on +the top of a certain mountain, adorned as for the bed of marriage and +of death. Look not for a son-in-law of mortal birth; but for that +evil serpent-thing, by reason of whom even the gods tremble and the +shadows of Styx are afraid." + +So the king returned home and made known the oracle to his wife. For +many days she lamented, but at last the fulfilment of the divine +precept is urgent upon her, and the company make ready to conduct the +maiden to her deadly bridal. And now the nuptial torch gathers dark +smoke and ashes: the pleasant sound of the pipe is changed into a +cry: the marriage hymn concludes in a sorrowful wailing: below her +yellow wedding-veil the bride shook away her tears; insomuch that the +whole city was afflicted together at the ill-luck of the stricken +house. + +But the mandate of the god impelled the hapless Psyche to her fate, +and, these solemnities [65] being ended, the funeral of the living +soul goes forth, all the people following. Psyche, bitterly weeping, +assists not at her marriage but at her own obsequies, and while the +parents hesitate to accomplish a thing so unholy the daughter cries +to them: "Wherefore torment your luckless age by long weeping? This +was the prize of my extraordinary beauty! When all people celebrated +us with divine honours, and in one voice named the New Venus, it was +then ye should have wept for me as one dead. Now at last I +understand that that one name of Venus has been my ruin. Lead me and +set me upon the appointed place. I am in haste to submit to that +well-omened marriage, to behold that goodly spouse. Why delay the +coming of him who was born for the destruction of the whole world?" + +She was silent, and with firm step went on the way. And they +proceeded to the appointed place on a steep mountain, and left there +the maiden alone, and took their way homewards dejectedly. The +wretched parents, in their close-shut house, yielded themselves to +perpetual night; while to Psyche, fearful and trembling and weeping +sore upon the mountain-top, comes the gentle Zephyrus. He lifts her +mildly, and, with vesture afloat on either side, bears her by his own +soft breathing over the windings of the hills, and sets her lightly +among the flowers in the bosom of a valley below. + +Psyche, in those delicate grassy places, lying [66] sweetly on her +dewy bed, rested from the agitation of her soul and arose in peace. +And lo! a grove of mighty trees, with a fount of water, clear as +glass, in the midst; and hard by the water, a dwelling-place, built +not by human hands but by some divine cunning. One recognised, even +at the entering, the delightful hostelry of a god. Golden pillars +sustained the roof, arched most curiously in cedar-wood and ivory. +The walls were hidden under wrought silver:--all tame and woodland +creatures leaping forward to the visitor's gaze. Wonderful indeed +was the craftsman, divine or half-divine, who by the subtlety of his +art had breathed so wild a soul into the silver! The very pavement +was distinct with pictures in goodly stones. In the glow of its +precious metal the house is its own daylight, having no need of the +sun. Well might it seem a place fashioned for the conversation of +gods with men! + +Psyche, drawn forward by the delight of it, came near, and, her +courage growing, stood within the doorway. One by one, she admired +the beautiful things she saw; and, most wonderful of all! no lock, no +chain, nor living guardian protected that great treasure house. But +as she gazed there came a voice--a voice, as it were unclothed of +bodily vesture--"Mistress!" it said, "all these things are thine. +Lie down, and relieve thy weariness, and rise again for the bath when +thou wilt. We thy servants, whose [67] voice thou hearest, will be +beforehand with our service, and a royal feast shall be ready." + +And Psyche understood that some divine care was providing, and, +refreshed with sleep and the Bath, sat down to the feast. Still she +saw no one: only she heard words falling here and there, and had +voices alone to serve her. And the feast being ended, one entered +the chamber and sang to her unseen, while another struck the chords +of a harp, invisible with him who played on it. Afterwards the sound +of a company singing together came to her, but still so that none +were present to sight; yet it appeared that a great multitude of +singers was there. + +And the hour of evening inviting her, she climbed into the bed; and +as the night was far advanced, behold a sound of a certain clemency +approaches her. Then, fearing for her maidenhood in so great +solitude, she trembled, and more than any evil she knew dreaded that +she knew not. And now the husband, that unknown husband, drew near, +and ascended the couch, and made her his wife; and lo! before the +rise of dawn he had departed hastily. And the attendant voices +ministered to the needs of the newly married. And so it happened +with her for a long season. And as nature has willed, this new +thing, by continual use, became a delight to her: the sound of the +voice grew to be her solace in that condition of loneliness and +uncertainty. + +[68] One night the bridegroom spoke thus to his beloved, "O Psyche, +most pleasant bride! Fortune is grown stern with us, and threatens +thee with mortal peril. Thy sisters, troubled at the report of thy +death and seeking some trace of thee, will come to the mountain's +top. But if by chance their cries reach thee, answer not, neither +look forth at all, lest thou bring sorrow upon me and destruction +upon thyself." Then Psyche promised that she would do according to +his will. But the bridegroom was fled away again with the night. +And all that day she spent in tears, repeating that she was now dead +indeed, shut up in that golden prison, powerless to console her +sisters sorrowing after her, or to see their faces; and so went to +rest weeping. + +And after a while came the bridegroom again, and lay down beside her, +and embracing her as she wept, complained, "Was this thy promise, my +Psyche? What have I to hope from thee? Even in the arms of thy +husband thou ceasest not from pain. Do now as thou wilt. Indulge +thine own desire, though it seeks what will ruin thee. Yet wilt thou +remember my warning, repentant too late." Then, protesting that she +is like to die, she obtains from him that he suffer her to see her +sisters, and present to them moreover what gifts she would of golden +ornaments; but therewith he ofttimes advised her never at any time, +yielding to pernicious counsel, to enquire concerning his bodily +form, lest she fall, [69] through unholy curiosity, from so great a +height of fortune, nor feel ever his embrace again. "I would die a +hundred times," she said, cheerful at last, "rather than be deprived +of thy most sweet usage. I love thee as my own soul, beyond +comparison even with Love himself. Only bid thy servant Zephyrus +bring hither my sisters, as he brought me. My honeycomb! My +husband! Thy Psyche's breath of life!" So he promised; and after +the embraces of the night, ere the light appeared, vanished from the +hands of his bride. + +And the sisters, coming to the place where Psyche was abandoned, wept +loudly among the rocks, and called upon her by name, so that the +sound came down to her, and running out of the palace distraught, she +cried, "Wherefore afflict your souls with lamentation? I whom you +mourn am here." Then, summoning Zephyrus, she reminded him of her +husband's bidding; and he bare them down with a gentle blast. "Enter +now," she said, "into my house, and relieve your sorrow in the +company of Psyche your sister." + +And Psyche displayed to them all the treasures of the golden house, +and its great family of ministering voices, nursing in them the +malice which was already at their hearts. And at last one of them +asks curiously who the lord of that celestial array may be, and what +manner of man her husband? And Psyche [70] answered dissemblingly, +"A young man, handsome and mannerly, with a goodly beard. For the +most part he hunts upon the mountains." And lest the secret should +slip from her in the way of further speech, loading her sisters with +gold and gems, she commanded Zephyrus to bear them away. + +And they returned home, on fire with envy. "See now the injustice of +fortune!" cried one. "We, the elder children, are given like +servants to be the wives of strangers, while the youngest is +possessed of so great riches, who scarcely knows how to use them. +You saw, Sister! what a hoard of wealth lies in the house; what +glittering gowns; what splendour of precious gems, besides all that +gold trodden under foot. If she indeed hath, as she said, a +bridegroom so goodly, then no one in all the world is happier. And +it may be that this husband, being of divine nature, will make her +too a goddess. Nay! so in truth it is. It was even thus she bore +herself. Already she looks aloft and breathes divinity, who, though +but a woman, has voices for her handmaidens, and can command the +winds." "Think," answered the other, "how arrogantly she dealt with +us, grudging us these trifling gifts out of all that store, and when +our company became a burden, causing us to be hissed and driven away +from her through the air! But I am no woman if she keep her hold on +this great fortune; and if the insult done us has touched [71] thee +too, take we counsel together. Meanwhile let us hold our peace, and +know naught of her, alive or dead. For they are not truly happy of +whose happiness other folk are unaware." + +And the bridegroom, whom still she knows not, warns her thus a second +time, as he talks with her by night: "Seest thou what peril besets +thee? Those cunning wolves have made ready for thee their snares, of +which the sum is that they persuade thee to search into the fashion +of my countenance, the seeing of which, as I have told thee often, +will be the seeing of it no more for ever. But do thou neither +listen nor make answer to aught regarding thy husband. Besides, we +have sown also the seed of our race. Even now this bosom grows with +a child to be born to us, a child, if thou but keep our secret, of +divine quality; if thou profane it, subject to death." And Psyche +was glad at the tidings, rejoicing in that solace of a divine seed, +and in the glory of that pledge of love to be, and the dignity of the +name of mother. Anxiously she notes the increase of the days, the +waning months. And again, as he tarries briefly beside her, the +bridegroom repeats his warning: + +"Even now the sword is drawn with which thy sisters seek thy life. +Have pity on thyself, sweet wife, and upon our child, and see not +those evil women again." But the sisters make their way into the +palace once more, crying to her in [72] wily tones, "O Psyche! and +thou too wilt be a mother! How great will be the joy at home! Happy +indeed shall we be to have the nursing of the golden child. Truly if +he be answerable to the beauty of his parents, it will be a birth of +Cupid himself." + +So, little by little, they stole upon the heart of their sister. +She, meanwhile, bids the lyre to sound for their delight, and the +playing is heard: she bids the pipes to move, the quire to sing, and +the music and the singing come invisibly, soothing the mind of the +listener with sweetest modulation. Yet not even thereby was their +malice put to sleep: once more they seek to know what manner of +husband she has, and whence that seed. And Psyche, simple over-much, +forgetful of her first story, answers, "My husband comes from a far +country, trading for great sums. He is already of middle age, with +whitening locks." And therewith she dismisses them again. + +And returning home upon the soft breath of Zephyrus one cried to the +other, "What shall be said of so ugly a lie? He who was a young man +with goodly beard is now in middle life. It must be that she told a +false tale: else is she in very truth ignorant what manner of man he +is. Howsoever it be, let us destroy her quickly. For if she indeed +knows not, be sure that her bridegroom is one of the gods: it is a +god she bears in her womb. And let [73] that be far from us! If she +be called mother of a god, then will life be more than I can bear." + +So, full of rage against her, they returned to Psyche, and said to +her craftily, "Thou livest in an ignorant bliss, all incurious of thy +real danger. It is a deadly serpent, as we certainly know, that +comes to sleep at thy side. Remember the words of the oracle, which +declared thee destined to a cruel beast. There are those who have +seen it at nightfall, coming back from its feeding. In no long time, +they say, it will end its blandishments. It but waits for the babe +to be formed in thee, that it may devour thee by so much the richer. +If indeed the solitude of this musical place, or it may be the +loathsome commerce of a hidden love, delight thee, we at least in +sisterly piety have done our part." And at last the unhappy Psyche, +simple and frail of soul, carried away by the terror of their words, +losing memory of her husband's precepts and her own promise, brought +upon herself a great calamity. Trembling and turning pale, she +answers them, "And they who tell those things, it may be, speak the +truth. For in very deed never have I seen the face of my husband, +nor know I at all what manner of man he is. Always he frights me +diligently from the sight of him, threatening some great evil should +I too curiously look upon his face. Do ye, if ye can help your +sister in her great peril, stand by her now." + +[74] Her sisters answered her, "The way of safety we have well +considered, and will teach thee. Take a sharp knife, and hide it in +that part of the couch where thou art wont to lie: take also a lamp +filled with oil, and set it Privily behind the curtain. And when he +shall have drawn up his coils into the accustomed place, and thou +hearest him breathe in sleep, slip then from his side and discover +the lamp, and, knife in hand, put forth thy strength, and strike off +the serpent's head." And so they departed in haste. + +And Psyche left alone (alone but for the furies which beset her) is +tossed up and down in her distress, like a wave of the sea; and +though her will is firm, yet, in the moment of putting hand to the +deed, she falters, and is torn asunder by various apprehension of the +great calamity upon her. She hastens and anon delays, now full of +distrust, and now of angry courage: under one bodily form she loathes +the monster and loves the bridegroom. But twilight ushers in the +night; and at length in haste she makes ready for the terrible deed. +Darkness came, and the bridegroom; and he first, after some faint +essay of love, falls into a deep sleep. + +And she, erewhile of no strength, the hard purpose of destiny +assisting her, is confirmed in force. With lamp plucked forth, knife +in hand, she put by her sex; and lo! as the secrets of the bed became +manifest, the sweetest and most gentle of all creatures, Love +himself, reclined [75] there, in his own proper loveliness! At sight +of him the very flame of the lamp kindled more gladly! But Psyche +was afraid at the vision, and, faint of soul, trembled back upon her +knees, and would have hidden the steel in her own bosom. But the +knife slipped from her hand; and now, undone, yet ofttimes looking +upon the beauty of that divine countenance, she lives again. She +sees the locks of that golden head, pleasant with the unction of the +gods, shed down in graceful entanglement behind and before, about the +ruddy cheeks and white throat. The pinions of the winged god, yet +fresh with the dew, are spotless upon his shoulders, the delicate +plumage wavering over them as they lie at rest. Smooth he was, and, +touched with light, worthy of Venus his mother. At the foot of the +couch lay his bow and arrows, the instruments of his power, +propitious to men. + +And Psyche, gazing hungrily thereon, draws an arrow from the quiver, +and trying the point upon her thumb, tremulous still, drave in the +barb, so that a drop of blood came forth. Thus fell she, by her own +act, and unaware, into the love of Love. Falling upon the +bridegroom, with indrawn breath, in a hurry of kisses from eager and +open lips, she shuddered as she thought how brief that sleep might +be. And it chanced that a drop of burning oil fell from the lamp +upon the god's shoulder. Ah! maladroit minister of love, thus to +wound him from whom [76] all fire comes; though 'twas a lover, I +trow, first devised thee, to have the fruit of his desire even in the +darkness! At the touch of the fire the god started up, and beholding +the overthrow of her faith, quietly took flight from her embraces. + +And Psyche, as he rose upon the wing, laid hold on him with her two +hands, hanging upon him in his passage through the air, till she +sinks to the earth through weariness. And as she lay there, the +divine lover, tarrying still, lighted upon a cypress tree which grew +near, and, from the top of it, spake thus to her, in great emotion. +"Foolish one! unmindful of the command of Venus, my mother, who had +devoted thee to one of base degree, I fled to thee in his stead. Now +know I that this was vainly done. Into mine own flesh pierced mine +arrow, and I made thee my wife, only that I might seem a monster +beside thee--that thou shouldst seek to wound the head wherein lay +the eyes so full of love to thee! Again and again, I thought to put +thee on thy guard concerning these things, and warned thee in loving- +kindness. Now I would but punish thee by my flight hence." And +therewith he winged his way into the deep sky. + +Psyche, prostrate upon the earth, and following far as sight might +reach the flight of the bridegroom, wept and lamented; and when the +breadth of space had parted him wholly from her, cast herself down +from the bank of a river [77] which was nigh. But the stream, +turning gentle in honour of the god, put her forth again unhurt upon +its margin. And as it happened, Pan, the rustic god, was sitting +just then by the waterside, embracing, in the body of a reed, the +goddess Canna; teaching her to respond to him in all varieties of +slender sound. Hard by, his flock of goats browsed at will. And the +shaggy god called her, wounded and outworn, kindly to him and said, +"I am but a rustic herdsman, pretty maiden, yet wise, by favour of my +great age and long experience; and if I guess truly by those +faltering steps, by thy sorrowful eyes and continual sighing, thou +labourest with excess of love. Listen then to me, and seek not death +again, in the stream or otherwise. Put aside thy woe, and turn thy +prayers to Cupid. He is in truth a delicate youth: win him by the +delicacy of thy service." + +So the shepherd-god spoke, and Psyche, answering nothing, but with a +reverence to his serviceable deity, went on her way. And while she, +in her search after Cupid, wandered through many lands, he was lying +in the chamber of his mother, heart-sick. And the white bird which +floats over the waves plunged in haste into the sea, and approaching +Venus, as she bathed, made known to her that her son lies afflicted +with some grievous hurt, doubtful of life. And Venus cried, angrily, +"My son, then, has a mistress! And it is Psyche, who witched away +[78] my beauty and was the rival of my godhead, whom he loves!" + +Therewith she issued from the sea, and returning to her golden +chamber, found there the lad, sick, as she had heard, and cried from +the doorway, "Well done, truly! to trample thy mother's precepts +under foot, to spare my enemy that cross of an unworthy love; nay, +unite her to thyself, child as thou art, that I might have a +daughter-in-law who hates me! I will make thee repent of thy sport, +and the savour of thy marriage bitter. There is one who shall +chasten this body of thine, put out thy torch and unstring thy bow. +Not till she has plucked forth that hair, into which so oft these +hands have smoothed the golden light, and sheared away thy wings, +shall I feel the injury done me avenged." And with this she hastened +in anger from the doors. + +And Ceres and Juno met her, and sought to know the meaning of her +troubled countenance. "Ye come in season," she cried; "I pray you, +find for me Psyche. It must needs be that ye have heard the disgrace +of my house." And they, ignorant of what was done, would have +soothed her anger, saying, "What fault, Mistress, hath thy son +committed, that thou wouldst destroy the girl he loves? Knowest thou +not that he is now of age? Because he wears his years so lightly +must he seem to thee ever but a child? Wilt thou for ever thus pry +into the [79] pastimes of thy son, always accusing his wantonness, +and blaming in him those delicate wiles which are all thine own?" +Thus, in secret fear of the boy's bow, did they seek to please him +with their gracious patronage. But Venus, angry at their light +taking of her wrongs, turned her back upon them, and with hasty steps +made her way once more to the sea. + +Meanwhile Psyche, tost in soul, wandering hither and thither, rested +not night or day in the pursuit of her husband, desiring, if she +might not sooth his anger by the endearments of a wife, at the least +to propitiate him with the prayers of a handmaid. And seeing a +certain temple on the top of a high mountain, she said, "Who knows +whether yonder place be not the abode of my lord?" Thither, +therefore, she turned her steps, hastening now the more because +desire and hope pressed her on, weary as she was with the labours of +the way, and so, painfully measuring out the highest ridges of the +mountain, drew near to the sacred couches. She sees ears of wheat, +in heaps or twisted into chaplets; ears of barley also, with sickles +and all the instruments of harvest, lying there in disorder, thrown +at random from the hands of the labourers in the great heat. These +she curiously sets apart, one by one, duly ordering them; for she +said within herself, "I may not neglect the shrines, nor the holy +service, of any god there be, but must rather [80] win by +supplication the kindly mercy of them all." + +And Ceres found her bending sadly upon her task, and cried aloud, +"Alas, Psyche! Venus, in the furiousness of her anger, tracks thy +footsteps through the world, seeking for thee to pay her the utmost +penalty; and thou, thinking of anything rather than thine own safety, +hast taken on thee the care of what belongs to me!" Then Psyche fell +down at her feet, and sweeping the floor with her hair, washing the +footsteps of the goddess in her tears, besought her mercy, with many +prayers:--"By the gladdening rites of harvest, by the lighted lamps +and mystic marches of the Marriage and mysterious Invention of thy +daughter Proserpine, and by all beside that the holy place of Attica +veils in silence, minister, I pray thee, to the sorrowful heart of +Psyche! Suffer me to hide myself but for a few days among the heaps +of corn, till time have softened the anger of the goddess, and my +strength, out-worn in my long travail, be recovered by a little +rest." + +But Ceres answered her, "Truly thy tears move me, and I would fain +help thee; only I dare not incur the ill-will of my kinswoman. +Depart hence as quickly as may be." And Psyche, repelled against +hope, afflicted now with twofold sorrow, making her way back again, +beheld among the half-lighted woods of the valley below a sanctuary +builded with cunning [81] art. And that she might lose no way of +hope, howsoever doubtful, she drew near to the sacred doors. She +sees there gifts of price, and garments fixed upon the door-posts and +to the branches of the trees, wrought with letters of gold which told +the name of the goddess to whom they were dedicated, with +thanksgiving for that she had done. So, with bent knee and hands +laid about the glowing altar, she prayed saying, "Sister and spouse +of Jupiter! be thou to these my desperate fortune's Juno the +Auspicious! I know that thou dost willingly help those in travail +with child; deliver me from the peril that is upon me." And as she +prayed thus, Juno in the majesty of her godhead, was straightway +present, and answered, "Would that I might incline favourably to +thee; but against the will of Venus, whom I have ever loved as a +daughter, I may not, for very shame, grant thy prayer." + +And Psyche, dismayed by this new shipwreck of her hope, communed thus +with herself, "Whither, from the midst of the snares that beset me, +shall I take my way once more? In what dark solitude shall I hide me +from the all-seeing eye of Venus? What if I put on at length a man's +courage, and yielding myself unto her as my mistress, soften by a +humility not yet too late the fierceness of her purpose? Who knows +but that I may find him also whom my soul seeketh after, in the abode +of his mother?" + +[82] And Venus, renouncing all earthly aid in her search, prepared to +return to heaven. She ordered the chariot to be made ready, wrought +for her by Vulcan as a marriage-gift, with a cunning of hand which +had left his work so much the richer by the weight of gold it lost +under his tool. From the multitude which housed about the bed- +chamber of their mistress, white doves came forth, and with joyful +motions bent their painted necks beneath the yoke. Behind it, with +playful riot, the sparrows sped onward, and other birds sweet of +song, making known by their soft notes the approach of the goddess. +Eagle and cruel hawk alarmed not the quireful family of Venus. And +the clouds broke away, as the uttermost ether opened to receive her, +daughter and goddess, with great joy. + +And Venus passed straightway to the house of Jupiter to beg from him +the service of Mercury, the god of speech. And Jupiter refused not +her prayer. And Venus and Mercury descended from heaven together; +and as they went, the former said to the latter, "Thou knowest, my +brother of Arcady, that never at any time have I done anything +without thy help; for how long time, moreover, I have sought a +certain maiden in vain. And now naught remains but that, by thy +heraldry, I proclaim a reward for whomsoever shall find her. Do thou +my bidding quickly." And therewith [83] she conveyed to him a little +scrip, in the which was written the name of Psyche, with other +things; and so returned home. + +And Mercury failed not in his office; but departing into all lands, +proclaimed that whosoever delivered up to Venus the fugitive girl, +should receive from herself seven kisses--one thereof full of the +inmost honey of her throat. With that the doubt of Psyche was ended. +And now, as she came near to the doors of Venus, one of the +household, whose name was Use-and-Wont, ran out to her, crying, "Hast +thou learned, Wicked Maid! now at last! that thou hast a mistress?" +And seizing her roughly by the hair, drew her into the presence of +Venus. And when Venus saw her, she cried out, saying, "Thou hast +deigned then to make thy salutations to thy mother-in-law. Now will +I in turn treat thee as becometh a dutiful daughter-in-law!" + +And she took barley and millet and poppy-seed, every kind of grain +and seed, and mixed them together, and laughed, and said to her: +"Methinks so plain a maiden can earn lovers only by industrious +ministry: now will I also make trial of thy service. Sort me this +heap of seed, the one kind from the others, grain by grain; and get +thy task done before the evening." And Psyche, stunned by the +cruelty of her bidding, was silent, and moved not her hand to the +inextricable heap. And there came [84] forth a little ant, which had +understanding of the difficulty of her task, and took pity upon the +consort of the god of Love; and he ran deftly hither and thither, and +called together the whole army of his fellows. "Have pity," he +cried, "nimble scholars of the Earth, Mother of all things!--have +pity upon the wife of Love, and hasten to help her in her perilous +effort." Then, one upon the other, the hosts of the insect people +hurried together; and they sorted asunder the whole heap of seed, +separating every grain after its kind, and so departed quickly out of +sight. + +And at nightfall Venus returned, and seeing that task finished with +so wonderful diligence, she cried, "The work is not thine, thou +naughty maid, but his in whose eyes thou hast found favour." And +calling her again in the morning, "See now the grove," she said, +"beyond yonder torrent. Certain sheep feed there, whose fleeces +shine with gold. Fetch me straightway a lock of that precious stuff, +having gotten it as thou mayst." + +And Psyche went forth willingly, not to obey the command of Venus, +but even to seek a rest from her labour in the depths of the river. +But from the river, the green reed, lowly mother of music, spake to +her: "O Psyche! pollute not these waters by self-destruction, nor +approach that terrible flock; for, as the heat groweth, they wax +fierce. Lie down under yon plane-tree, till the [85] quiet of the +river's breath have soothed them. Thereafter thou mayst shake down +the fleecy gold from the trees of the grove, for it holdeth by the +leaves." + +And Psyche, instructed thus by the simple reed, in the humanity of +its heart, filled her bosom with the soft golden stuff, and returned +to Venus. But the goddess smiled bitterly, and said to her, "Well +know I who was the author of this thing also. I will make further +trial of thy discretion, and the boldness of thy heart. Seest thou +the utmost peak of yonder steep mountain? The dark stream which +flows down thence waters the Stygian fields, and swells the flood of +Cocytus. Bring me now, in this little urn, a draught from its +innermost source." And therewith she put into her hands a vessel of +wrought crystal. + +And Psyche set forth in haste on her way to the mountain, looking +there at last to find the end of her hapless life. But when she came +to the region which borders on the cliff that was showed to her, she +understood the deadly nature of her task. From a great rock, steep +and slippery, a horrible river of water poured forth, falling +straightway by a channel exceeding narrow into the unseen gulf below. +And lo! creeping from the rocks on either hand, angry serpents, with +their long necks and sleepless eyes. The very waters found a voice +and bade her depart, in smothered cries of, Depart hence! and [86] +What doest thou here? Look around thee! and Destruction is upon +thee! And then sense left her, in the immensity of her peril, as one +changed to stone. + +Yet not even then did the distress of this innocent soul escape the +steady eye of a gentle providence. For the bird of Jupiter spread +his wings and took flight to her, and asked her, "Didst thou think, +simple one, even thou! that thou couldst steal one drop of that +relentless stream, the holy river of Styx, terrible even to the gods? +But give me thine urn." And the bird took the urn, and filled it at +the source, and returned to her quickly from among the teeth of the +serpents, bringing with him of the waters, all unwilling--nay! +warning him to depart away and not molest them. + +And she, receiving the urn with great joy, ran back quickly that she +might deliver it to Venus, and yet again satisfied not the angry +goddess. "My child!" she said, "in this one thing further must thou +serve me. Take now this tiny casket, and get thee down even unto +hell, and deliver it to Proserpine. Tell her that Venus would have +of her beauty so much at least as may suffice for but one day's use, +that beauty she possessed erewhile being foreworn and spoiled, +through her tendance upon the sick-bed of her son; and be not slow in +returning." + +And Psyche perceived there the last ebbing of her fortune--that she +was now thrust openly [87] upon death, who must go down, of her own +motion, to Hades and the Shades. And straightway she climbed to the +top of an exceeding high tower, thinking within herself, "I will cast +myself down thence: so shall I descend most quickly into the kingdom +of the dead." And the tower again, broke forth into speech: +"Wretched Maid! Wretched Maid! Wilt thou destroy thyself? If the +breath quit thy body, then wilt thou indeed go down into Hades, but +by no means return hither. Listen to me. Among the pathless wilds +not far from this place lies a certain mountain, and therein one of +hell's vent-holes. Through the breach a rough way lies open, +following which thou wilt come, by straight course, to the castle of +Orcus. And thou must not go empty-handed. Take in each hand a +morsel of barley-bread, soaked in hydromel; and in thy mouth two +pieces of money. And when thou shalt be now well onward in the way +of death, then wilt thou overtake a lame ass laden with wood, and a +lame driver, who will pray thee reach him certain cords to fasten the +burden which is falling from the ass: but be thou cautious to pass on +in silence. And soon as thou comest to the river of the dead, +Charon, in that crazy bark he hath, will put thee over upon the +further side. There is greed even among the dead: and thou shalt +deliver to him, for the ferrying, one of those two pieces of money, +in such wise that he take [88] it with his hand from between thy +lips. And as thou passest over the stream, a dead old man, rising on +the water, will put up to thee his mouldering hands, and pray thee +draw him into the ferry-boat. But beware thou yield not to unlawful +pity. + +"When thou shalt be come over, and art upon the causeway, certain +aged women, spinning, will cry to thee to lend thy hand to their +work; and beware again that thou take no part therein; for this also +is the snare of Venus, whereby she would cause thee to cast away one +at least of those cakes thou bearest in thy hands. And think not +that a slight matter; for the loss of either one of them will be to +thee the losing of the light of day. For a watch-dog exceeding +fierce lies ever before the threshold of that lonely house of +Proserpine. Close his mouth with one of thy cakes; so shalt thou +pass by him, and enter straightway into the presence of Proserpine +herself. Then do thou deliver thy message, and taking what she shall +give thee, return back again; offering to the watch-dog the other +cake, and to the ferryman that other piece of money thou hast in thy +mouth. After this manner mayst thou return again beneath the stars. +But withal, I charge thee, think not to look into, nor open, the +casket thou bearest, with that treasure of the beauty of the divine +countenance hidden therein." + +So spake the stones of the tower; and Psyche [89] delayed not, but +proceeding diligently after the manner enjoined, entered into the +house of Proserpine, at whose feet she sat down humbly, and would +neither the delicate couch nor that divine food the goddess offered +her, but did straightway the business of Venus. And Proserpine +filled the casket secretly and shut the lid, and delivered it to +Psyche, who fled therewith from Hades with new strength. But coming +back into the light of day, even as she hasted now to the ending of +her service, she was seized by a rash curiosity. "Lo! now," she said +within herself, "my simpleness! who bearing in my hands the divine +loveliness, heed not to touch myself with a particle at least +therefrom, that I may please the more, by the favour of it, my fair +one, my beloved." Even as she spoke, she lifted the lid; and behold! +within, neither beauty, nor anything beside, save sleep only, the +sleep of the dead, which took hold upon her, filling all her members +with its drowsy vapour, so that she lay down in the way and moved +not, as in the slumber of death. + +And Cupid being healed of his wound, because he would endure no +longer the absence of her he loved, gliding through the narrow window +of the chamber wherein he was holden, his pinions being now repaired +by a little rest, fled forth swiftly upon them, and coming to the +place where Psyche was, shook that sleep away from her, and set him +in his prison again, awaking her with the [90] innocent point of his +arrow. "Lo! thine old error again," he said, "which had like once +more to have destroyed thee! But do thou now what is lacking of the +command of my mother: the rest shall be my care." With these words, +the lover rose upon the air; and being consumed inwardly with the +greatness of his love, penetrated with vehement wing into the highest +place of heaven, to lay his cause before the father of the gods. And +the father of gods took his hand in his, and kissed his face and said +to him, "At no time, my son, hast thou regarded me with due honour. +Often hast thou vexed my bosom, wherein lies the disposition of the +stars, with those busy darts of thine. Nevertheless, because thou +hast grown up between these mine hands, I will accomplish thy +desire." And straightway he bade Mercury call the gods together; +and, the council-chamber being filled, sitting upon a high throne, +"Ye gods," he said, "all ye whose names are in the white book of the +Muses, ye know yonder lad. It seems good to me that his youthful +heats should by some means be restrained. And that all occasion may +be taken from him, I would even confine him in the bonds of marriage. +He has chosen and embraced a mortal maiden. Let him have fruit of +his love, and possess her for ever." + +Thereupon he bade Mercury produce Psyche in heaven; and holding out +to her his ambrosial cup, "Take it," he said, "and live for ever; +[91] nor shall Cupid ever depart from thee." And the gods sat down +together to the marriage-feast. + +On the first couch lay the bridegroom, and Psyche in his bosom. His +rustic serving-boy bare the wine to Jupiter; and Bacchus to the rest. +The Seasons crimsoned all things with their roses. Apollo sang to +the lyre, while a little Pan prattled on his reeds, and Venus danced +very sweetly to the soft music. Thus, with due rites, did Psyche +pass into the power of Cupid; and from them was born the daughter +whom men call Voluptas. + + + +CHAPTER VI: EUPHUISM + +[92] So the famous story composed itself in the memory of Marius, +with an expression changed in some ways from the original and on the +whole graver. The petulant, boyish Cupid of Apuleius was become more +like that "Lord, of terrible aspect," who stood at Dante's bedside +and wept, or had at least grown to the manly earnestness of the Eros +of Praxiteles. Set in relief amid the coarser matter of the book, +this episode of Cupid and Psyche served to combine many lines of +meditation, already familiar to Marius, into the ideal of a perfect +imaginative love, centered upon a type of beauty entirely flawless +and clean--an ideal which never wholly faded from his thoughts, +though he valued it at various times in different degrees. The human +body in its beauty, as the highest potency of all the beauty of +material objects, seemed to him just then to be matter no longer, +but, having taken celestial fire, to assert itself as indeed the +true, though visible, [93] soul or spirit in things. In contrast +with that ideal, in all the pure brilliancy, and as it were in the +happy light, of youth and morning and the springtide, men's actual +loves, with which at many points the book brings one into close +contact, might appear to him, like the general tenor of their lives, +to be somewhat mean and sordid. The hiddenness of perfect things: a +shrinking mysticism, a sentiment of diffidence like that expressed in +Psyche's so tremulous hope concerning the child to be born of the +husband she had never yet seen--"in the face of this little child, at +the least, shall I apprehend thine"--in hoc saltem parvulo cognoscam +faciem tuam: the fatality which seems to haunt any signal+ beauty, +whether moral or physical, as if it were in itself something illicit +and isolating: the suspicion and hatred it so often excites in the +vulgar:--these were some of the impressions, forming, as they do, a +constant tradition of somewhat cynical pagan experience, from Medusa +and Helen downwards, which the old story enforced on him. A book, +like a person, has its fortunes with one; is lucky or unlucky in the +precise moment of its falling in our way, and often by some happy +accident counts with us for something more than its independent +value. The Metamorphoses of Apuleius, coming to Marius just then, +figured for him as indeed The Golden Book: he felt a sort of personal +gratitude to its writer, and saw in it doubtless [94] far more than +was really there for any other reader. It occupied always a peculiar +place in his remembrance, never quite losing its power in frequent +return to it for the revival of that first glowing impression. + +Its effect upon the elder youth was a more practical one: it +stimulated the literary ambition, already so strong a motive with +him, by a signal example of success, and made him more than ever an +ardent, indefatigable student of words, of the means or instrument of +the literary art. The secrets of utterance, of expression itself, of +that through which alone any intellectual or spiritual power within +one can actually take effect upon others, to over-awe or charm them +to one's side, presented themselves to this ambitious lad in +immediate connexion with that desire for predominance, for the +satisfaction of which another might have relied on the acquisition +and display of brilliant military qualities. In him, a fine +instinctive sentiment of the exact value and power of words was +connate with the eager longing for sway over his fellows. He saw +himself already a gallant and effective leader, innovating or +conservative as occasion might require, in the rehabilitation of the +mother-tongue, then fallen so tarnished and languid; yet the sole +object, as he mused within himself, of the only sort of patriotic +feeling proper, or possible, for one born of slaves. The popular +speech was gradually departing from the form [95] and rule of literary +language, a language always and increasingly artificial. While the +learned dialect was yearly becoming more and more barbarously +pedantic, the colloquial idiom, on the other hand, offered a thousand +chance-tost gems of racy or picturesque expression, rejected or at +least ungathered by what claimed to be classical Latin. The time was +coming when neither the pedants nor the people would really +understand Cicero; though there were some indeed, like this new +writer, Apuleius, who, departing from the custom of writing in Greek, +which had been a fashionable affectation among the sprightlier wits +since the days of Hadrian, had written in the vernacular. + +The literary programme which Flavian had already designed for himself +would be a work, then, partly conservative or reactionary, in its +dealing with the instrument of the literary art; partly popular and +revolutionary, asserting, so to term them, the rights of the +proletariate of speech. More than fifty years before, the younger +Pliny, himself an effective witness for the delicate power of the +Latin tongue, had said,--"I am one of those who admire the ancients, +yet I do not, like some others, underrate certain instances of genius +which our own times afford. For it is not true that nature, as if +weary and effete, no longer produces what is admirable." And he, +Flavian, would prove himself the true master of the opportunity thus +indicated. In [96] his eagerness for a not too distant fame, he +dreamed over all that, as the young Caesar may have dreamed of +campaigns. Others might brutalise or neglect the native speech, that +true "open field" for charm and sway over men. He would make of it a +serious study, weighing the precise power of every phrase and word, +as though it were precious metal, disentangling the later +associations and going back to the original and native sense of +each,--restoring to full significance all its wealth of latent +figurative expression, reviving or replacing its outworn or tarnished +images. Latin literature and the Latin tongue were dying of routine +and languor; and what was necessary, first of all, was to re- +establish the natural and direct relationship between thought and +expression, between the sensation and the term, and restore to words +their primitive power. + +For words, after all, words manipulated with all his delicate force, +were to be the apparatus of a war for himself. To be forcibly +impressed, in the first place; and in the next, to find the means of +making visible to others that which was vividly apparent, delightful, +of lively interest to himself, to the exclusion of all that was but +middling, tame, or only half-true even to him--this scrupulousness of +literary art actually awoke in Flavian, for the first time, a sort of +chivalrous conscience. What care for style! what patience of +execution! what research for the significant [97] tones of ancient +idiom--sonantia verba et antiqua! What stately and regular word- +building--gravis et decora constructio! He felt the whole meaning of +the sceptical Pliny's somewhat melancholy advice to one of his +friends, that he should seek in literature deliverance from +mortality--ut studiis se literarum a mortalitate vindicet. And there +was everything in the nature and the training of Marius to make him a +full participator in the hopes of such a new literary school, with +Flavian for its leader. In the refinements of that curious spirit, +in its horror of profanities, its fastidious sense of a correctness +in external form, there was something which ministered to the old +ritual interest, still surviving in him; as if here indeed were +involved a kind of sacred service to the mother-tongue. + +Here, then, was the theory of Euphuism, as manifested in every age in +which the literary conscience has been awakened to forgotten duties +towards language, towards the instrument of expression: in fact it +does but modify a little the principles of all effective expression +at all times. 'Tis art's function to conceal itself: ars est celare +artem:--is a saying, which, exaggerated by inexact quotation, has +perhaps been oftenest and most confidently quoted by those who have +had little literary or other art to conceal; and from the very +beginning of professional literature, the "labour of the file"--a +labour in the case of Plato, for instance, or Virgil, like [98] that +of the oldest of goldsmiths as described by Apuleius, enriching the +work by far more than the weight of precious metal it removed--has +always had its function. Sometimes, doubtless, as in later examples +of it, this Roman Euphuism, determined at any cost to attain beauty +in writing--es kallos graphein+--might lapse into its characteristic +fopperies or mannerisms, into the "defects of its qualities," in +truth, not wholly unpleasing perhaps, or at least excusable, when +looked at as but the toys (so Cicero calls them), the strictly +congenial and appropriate toys, of an assiduously cultivated age, +which could not help being polite, critical, self-conscious. The +mere love of novelty also had, of course, its part there: as with the +Euphuism of the Elizabethan age, and of the modern French +romanticists, its neologies were the ground of one of the favourite +charges against it; though indeed, as regards these tricks of taste +also, there is nothing new, but a quaint family likeness rather, +between the Euphuists of successive ages. Here, as elsewhere, the +power of "fashion," as it is called, is but one minor form, slight +enough, it may be, yet distinctly symptomatic, of that deeper +yearning of human nature towards ideal perfection, which is a +continuous force in it; and since in this direction too human nature +is limited, such fashions must necessarily reproduce themselves. +Among other resemblances to later growths of Euphuism, its archaisms +on the one hand, and [99] its neologies on the other, the Euphuism +of the days of Marcus Aurelius had, in the composition of verse, its +fancy for the refrain. It was a snatch from a popular chorus, +something he had heard sounding all over the town of Pisa one April +night, one of the first bland and summer-like nights of the year, +that Flavian had chosen for the refrain of a poem he was then +pondering--the Pervigilium Veneris--the vigil, or "nocturn," of +Venus. + +Certain elderly counsellors, filling what may be thought a constant +part in the little tragi-comedy which literature and its votaries are +playing in all ages, would ask, suspecting some affectation or +unreality in that minute culture of form:--Cannot those who have a +thing to say, say it directly? Why not be simple and broad, like the +old writers of Greece? And this challenge had at least the effect of +setting his thoughts at work on the intellectual situation as it lay +between the children of the present and those earliest masters. +Certainly, the most wonderful, the unique, point, about the Greek +genius, in literature as in everything else, was the entire absence +of imitation in its productions. How had the burden of precedent, +laid upon every artist, increased since then! It was all around +one:--that smoothly built world of old classical taste, an +accomplished fact, with overwhelming authority on every detail of the +conduct of one's [100] work. With no fardel on its own back, yet so +imperious towards those who came labouring after it, Hellas, in its +early freshness, looked as distant from him even then as it does from +ourselves. There might seem to be no place left for novelty or +originality,--place only for a patient, an infinite, faultlessness. +On this question too Flavian passed through a world of curious art- +casuistries, of self-tormenting, at the threshold of his work. Was +poetic beauty a thing ever one and the same, a type absolute; or, +changing always with the soul of time itself, did it depend upon the +taste, the peculiar trick of apprehension, the fashion, as we say, of +each successive age? Might one recover that old, earlier sense of +it, that earlier manner, in a masterly effort to recall all the +complexities of the life, moral and intellectual, of the earlier age +to which it had belonged? Had there been really bad ages in art or +literature? Were all ages, even those earliest, adventurous, +matutinal days, in themselves equally poetical or unpoetical; and +poetry, the literary beauty, the poetic ideal, always but a borrowed +light upon men's actual life? + +Homer had said-- + + Hoi d' hote de limenos polybentheos entos hikonto, + Histia men steilanto, thesan d' en nei melaine... + Ek de kai autoi bainon epi phegmini thalasses.+ + +And how poetic the simple incident seemed, told just thus! Homer was +always telling [101] things after this manner. And one might think +there had been no effort in it: that here was but the almost +mechanical transcript of a time, naturally, intrinsically, poetic, a +time in which one could hardly have spoken at all without ideal +effect, or, the sailors pulled down their boat without making a +picture in "the great style," against a sky charged with marvels. +Must not the mere prose of an age, itself thus ideal, have counted +for more than half of Homer's poetry? Or might the closer student +discover even here, even in Homer, the really mediatorial function of +the poet, as between the reader and the actual matter of his +experience; the poet waiting, so to speak, in an age which had felt +itself trite and commonplace enough, on his opportunity for the touch +of "golden alchemy," or at least for the pleasantly lighted side of +things themselves? Might not another, in one's own prosaic and used- +up time, so uneventful as it had been through the long reign of these +quiet Antonines, in like manner, discover his ideal, by a due waiting +upon it? Would not a future generation, looking back upon this, +under the power of the enchanted-distance fallacy, find it ideal to +view, in contrast with its own languor--the languor that for some +reason (concerning which Augustine will one day have his view) seemed +to haunt men always? Had Homer, even, appeared unreal and affected +in his poetic flight, to some of the people of his own age, [l02] as +seemed to happen with every new literature in turn? In any case, the +intellectual conditions of early Greece had been--how different from +these! And a true literary tact would accept that difference in +forming the primary conception of the literary function at a later +time. Perhaps the utmost one could get by conscious effort, in the +way of a reaction or return to the conditions of an earlier and +fresher age, would be but novitas, artificial artlessness, naivete; +and this quality too might have its measure of euphuistic charm, +direct and sensible enough, though it must count, in comparison with +that genuine early Greek newness at the beginning, not as the +freshness of the open fields, but only of a bunch of field-flowers in +a heated room. + +There was, meantime, all this:--on one side, the old pagan culture, +for us but a fragment, for him an accomplished yet present fact, +still a living, united, organic whole, in the entirety of its art, +its thought, its religions, its sagacious forms of polity, that so +weighty authority it exercised on every point, being in reality only +the measure of its charm for every one: on the other side, the actual +world in all its eager self-assertion, with Flavian himself, in his +boundless animation, there, at the centre of the situation. From the +natural defects, from the pettiness, of his euphuism, his assiduous +cultivation of manner, he was saved by the consciousness that he had +a matter to present, very real, [103] at least to him. That +preoccupation of the dilettante with what might seem mere details of +form, after all, did but serve the purpose of bringing to the +surface, sincerely and in their integrity, certain strong personal +intuitions, a certain vision or apprehension of things as really +being, with important results, thus, rather than thus,--intuitions +which the artistic or literary faculty was called upon to follow, +with the exactness of wax or clay, clothing the model within. +Flavian too, with his fine clear mastery of the practically +effective, had early laid hold of the principle, as axiomatic in +literature: that to know when one's self is interested, is the first +condition of interesting other people. It was a principle, the +forcible apprehension of which made him jealous and fastidious in the +selection of his intellectual food; often listless while others read +or gazed diligently; never pretending to be moved out of mere +complaisance to people's emotions: it served to foster in him a very +scrupulous literary sincerity with himself. And it was this +uncompromising demand for a matter, in all art, derived immediately +from lively personal intuition, this constant appeal to individual +judgment, which saved his euphuism, even at its weakest, from lapsing +into mere artifice. + +Was the magnificent exordium of Lucretius, addressed to the goddess +Venus, the work of [104] his earlier manhood, and designed +originally to open an argument less persistently sombre than that +protest against the whole pagan heaven which actually follows it? It +is certainly the most typical expression of a mood, still incident to +the young poet, as a thing peculiar to his youth, when he feels the +sentimental current setting forcibly along his veins, and so much as +a matter of purely physical excitement, that he can hardly +distinguish it from the animation of external nature, the upswelling +of the seed in the earth, and of the sap through the trees. Flavian, +to whom, again, as to his later euphuistic kinsmen, old mythology +seemed as full of untried, unexpressed motives and interest as human +life itself, had long been occupied with a kind of mystic hymn to the +vernal principle of life in things; a composition shaping itself, +little by little, out of a thousand dim perceptions, into singularly +definite form (definite and firm as fine-art in metal, thought +Marius) for which, as I said, he had caught his "refrain," from the +lips of the young men, singing because they could not help it, in the +streets of Pisa. And as oftenest happens also, with natures of +genuinely poetic quality, those piecemeal beginnings came suddenly to +harmonious completeness among the fortunate incidents, the physical +heat and light, of one singularly happy day. + +It was one of the first hot days of March--"the sacred day"--on +which, from Pisa, as from [105] many another harbour on the +Mediterranean, the Ship of Isis went to sea, and every one walked +down to the shore-side to witness the freighting of the vessel, its +launching and final abandonment among the waves, as an object really +devoted to the Great Goddess, that new rival, or "double," of ancient +Venus, and like her a favourite patroness of sailors. On the evening +next before, all the world had been abroad to view the illumination +of the river; the stately lines of building being wreathed with +hundreds of many-coloured lamps. The young men had poured forth +their chorus-- + + Cras amet qui nunquam amavit, + Quique amavit cras amet-- + +as they bore their torches through the yielding crowd, or rowed their +lanterned boats up and down the stream, till far into the night, when +heavy rain-drops had driven the last lingerers home. Morning broke, +however, smiling and serene; and the long procession started betimes. +The river, curving slightly, with the smoothly paved streets on +either side, between its low marble parapet and the fair dwelling- +houses, formed the main highway of the city; and the pageant, +accompanied throughout by innumerable lanterns and wax tapers, took +its course up one of these streets, crossing the water by a bridge +up-stream, and down the other, to the haven, every possible standing- +place, out of doors [106] and within, being crowded with sight-seers, +of whom Marius was one of the most eager, deeply interested in +finding the spectacle much as Apuleius had described it in his famous +book. + +At the head of the procession, the master of ceremonies, quietly +waving back the assistants, made way for a number of women, +scattering perfumes. They were succeeded by a company of musicians, +piping and twanging, on instruments the strangest Marius had ever +beheld, the notes of a hymn, narrating the first origin of this +votive rite to a choir of youths, who marched behind them singing it. +The tire-women and other personal attendants of the great goddess +came next, bearing the instruments of their ministry, and various +articles from the sacred wardrobe, wrought of the most precious +material; some of them with long ivory combs, plying their hands in +wild yet graceful concert of movement as they went, in devout mimicry +of the toilet. Placed in their rear were the mirror-bearers of the +goddess, carrying large mirrors of beaten brass or silver, turned in +such a way as to reflect to the great body of worshippers who +followed, the face of the mysterious image, as it moved on its way, +and their faces to it, as though they were in fact advancing to meet +the heavenly visitor. They comprehended a multitude of both sexes +and of all ages, already initiated into the divine secret, clad in +fair linen, the females veiled, the males with shining [107] +tonsures, and every one carrying a sistrum--the richer sort of +silver, a few very dainty persons of fine gold--rattling the reeds, +with a noise like the jargon of innumerable birds and insects +awakened from torpor and abroad in the spring sun. Then, borne upon +a kind of platform, came the goddess herself, undulating above the +heads of the multitude as the bearers walked, in mystic robe +embroidered with the moon and stars, bordered gracefully with a +fringe of real fruit and flowers, and with a glittering crown upon +the head. The train of the procession consisted of the priests in +long white vestments, close from head to foot, distributed into +various groups, each bearing, exposed aloft, one of the sacred +symbols of Isis--the corn-fan, the golden asp, the ivory hand of +equity, and among them the votive ship itself, carved and gilt, and +adorned bravely with flags flying. Last of all walked the high +priest; the people kneeling as he passed to kiss his hand, in which +were those well-remembered roses. + +Marius followed with the rest to the harbour, where the mystic ship, +lowered from the shoulders of the priests, was loaded with as much as +it could carry of the rich spices and other costly gifts, offered in +great profusion by the worshippers, and thus, launched at last upon +the water, left the shore, crossing the harbour-bar in the wake of a +much stouter vessel than itself with a crew of white-robed mariners, +whose [108] function it was, at the appointed moment, finally to +desert it on the open sea. + +The remainder of the day was spent by most in parties on the water. +Flavian and Marius sailed further than they had ever done before to a +wild spot on the bay, the traditional site of a little Greek colony, +which, having had its eager, stirring life at the time when Etruria +was still a power in Italy, had perished in the age of the civil +wars. In the absolute transparency of the air on this gracious day, +an infinitude of detail from sea and shore reached the eye with +sparkling clearness, as the two lads sped rapidly over the waves-- +Flavian at work suddenly, from time to time, with his tablets. They +reached land at last. The coral fishers had spread their nets on the +sands, with a tumble-down of quaint, many-hued treasures, below a +little shrine of Venus, fluttering and gay with the scarves and +napkins and gilded shells which these people had offered to the +image. Flavian and Marius sat down under the shadow of a mass of +gray rock or ruin, where the sea-gate of the Greek town had been, and +talked of life in those old Greek colonies. Of this place, all that +remained, besides those rude stones, was--a handful of silver coins, +each with a head of pure and archaic beauty, though a little cruel +perhaps, supposed to represent the Siren Ligeia, whose tomb was +formerly shown here--only these, and an ancient song, the very strain +which Flavian [109] had recovered in those last months. They were +records which spoke, certainly, of the charm of life within those +walls. How strong must have been the tide of men's existence in that +little republican town, so small that this circle of gray stones, of +service now only by the moisture they gathered for the blue-flowering +gentians among them, had been the line of its rampart! An epitome of +all that was liveliest, most animated and adventurous, in the old +Greek people of which it was an offshoot, it had enhanced the effect +of these gifts by concentration within narrow limits. The band of +"devoted youth,"--hiera neotes.+--of the younger brothers, devoted to the +gods and whatever luck the gods might afford, because there was no +room for them at home--went forth, bearing the sacred flame from the +mother hearth; itself a flame, of power to consume the whole material +of existence in clear light and heat, with no smouldering residue. +The life of those vanished townsmen, so brilliant and revolutionary, +applying so abundantly the personal qualities which alone just then +Marius seemed to value, associated itself with the actual figure of +his companion, standing there before him, his face enthusiastic with +the sudden thought of all that; and struck him vividly as precisely +the fitting opportunity for a nature like his, so hungry for control, +for ascendency over men. + +Marius noticed also, however, as high spirits [110] flagged at last, +on the way home through the heavy dew of the evening, more than +physical fatigue in Flavian, who seemed to find no refreshment in the +coolness. There had been something feverish, perhaps, and like the +beginning of sickness, about his almost forced gaiety, in this sudden +spasm of spring; and by the evening of the next day he was lying with +a burning spot on his forehead, stricken, as was thought from the +first, by the terrible new disease. + +NOTES + +93. +Corrected from the Macmillan edition misprint "singal." + +98. +Transliteration: es kallos graphein. Translation: "To write +beautifully." + +100. +Iliad 1.432-33, 437. Transliteration: + + Hoi d' hote de limenos polybentheos entos hikonto, + Histia men steilanto, thesan d' en nei melaine... + Ek de kai autoi bainon epi phegmini thalasses. + +Etext editor's translation: + + When they had safely made deep harbor + They took in the sail, laid it in their black ship... + And went ashore just past the breakers. + +109. +Transliteration: hiera neotes. Pater translates the phrase, +"devoted youth." + + + +CHAPTER VII: A PAGAN END + +[111] FOR the fantastical colleague of the philosophic emperor +Marcus Aurelius, returning in triumph from the East, had brought in +his train, among the enemies of Rome, one by no means a captive. +People actually sickened at a sudden touch of the unsuspected foe, as +they watched in dense crowds the pathetic or grotesque imagery of +failure or success in the triumphal procession. And, as usual, the +plague brought with it a power to develop all pre-existent germs of +superstition. It was by dishonour done to Apollo himself, said +popular rumour--to Apollo, the old titular divinity of pestilence, +that the poisonous thing had come abroad. Pent up in a golden coffer +consecrated to the god, it had escaped in the sacrilegious plundering +of his temple at Seleucia by the soldiers of Lucius Verus, after a +traitorous surprise of that town and a cruel massacre. Certainly +there was something which baffled all imaginable precautions and all +medical science, in the suddenness [112] with which the disease broke +out simultaneously, here and there, among both soldiers and citizens, +even in places far remote from the main line of its march in the rear +of the victorious army. It seemed to have invaded the whole empire, +and some have even thought that, in a mitigated form, it permanently +remained there. In Rome itself many thousands perished; and old +authorities tell of farmsteads, whole towns, and even entire +neighbourhoods, which from that time continued without inhabitants +and lapsed into wildness or ruin. + +Flavian lay at the open window of his lodging, with a fiery pang in +the brain, fancying no covering thin or light enough to be applied to +his body. His head being relieved after a while, there was distress +at the chest. It was but the fatal course of the strange new +sickness, under many disguises; travelling from the brain to the +feet, like a material resident, weakening one after another of the +organic centres; often, when it did not kill, depositing various +degrees of lifelong infirmity in this member or that; and after such +descent, returning upwards again, now as a mortal coldness, leaving +the entrenchments of the fortress of life overturned, one by one, +behind it. + +Flavian lay there, with the enemy at his breast now in a painful +cough, but relieved from that burning fever in the head, amid the +rich-scented flowers--rare Paestum roses, and the like [113] -- +procured by Marius for his solace, in a fancied convalescence; and +would, at intervals, return to labour at his verses, with a great +eagerness to complete and transcribe the work, while Marius sat and +wrote at his dictation, one of the latest but not the poorest +specimens of genuine Latin poetry. + +It was in fact a kind of nuptial hymn, which, taking its start from +the thought of nature as the universal mother, celebrated the +preliminary pairing and mating together of all fresh things, in the +hot and genial spring-time--the immemorial nuptials of the soul of +spring itself and the brown earth; and was full of a delighted, +mystic sense of what passed between them in that fantastic marriage. +That mystic burden was relieved, at intervals, by the familiar +playfulness of the Latin verse-writer in dealing with mythology, +which, though coming at so late a day, had still a wonderful +freshness in its old age.--"Amor has put his weapons by and will keep +holiday. He was bidden go without apparel, that none might be +wounded by his bow and arrows. But take care! In truth he is none +the less armed than usual, though he be all unclad." + +In the expression of all this Flavian seemed, while making it his +chief aim to retain the opulent, many-syllabled vocabulary of the +Latin genius, at some points even to have advanced beyond it, in +anticipation of wholly new laws of [114] taste as regards sound, a +new range of sound itself. The peculiar resultant note, associating +itself with certain other experiences of his, was to Marius like the +foretaste of an entirely novel world of poetic beauty to come. +Flavian had caught, indeed, something of the rhyming cadence, the +sonorous organ-music of the medieval Latin, and therewithal something +of its unction and mysticity of spirit. There was in his work, along +with the last splendour of the classical language, a touch, almost +prophetic, of that transformed life it was to have in the rhyming +middle age, just about to dawn. The impression thus forced upon +Marius connected itself with a feeling, the exact inverse of that, +known to every one, which seems to say, You have been just here, just +thus, before!--a feeling, in his case, not reminiscent but prescient +of the future, which passed over him afterwards many times, as he +came across certain places and people. It was as if he detected +there the process of actual change to a wholly undreamed-of and +renewed condition of human body and soul: as if he saw the heavy yet +decrepit old Roman architecture about him, rebuilding on an +intrinsically better pattern. Could it have been actually on a new +musical instrument that Flavian had first heard the novel accents of +his verse? And still Marius noticed there, amid all its richness of +expression and imagery, that firmness of outline he had always +relished so much in the composition of [115] Flavian. Yes! a +firmness like that of some master of noble metal-work, manipulating +tenacious bronze or gold. Even now that haunting refrain, with its +impromptu variations, from the throats of those strong young men, +came floating through the window. + + Cras amet qui nunquam amavit, + Quique amavit cras amet! + +--repeated Flavian, tremulously, dictating yet one stanza more. + +What he was losing, his freehold of a soul and body so fortunately +endowed, the mere liberty of life above-ground, "those sunny mornings +in the cornfields by the sea," as he recollected them one day, when +the window was thrown open upon the early freshness--his sense of all +this, was from the first singularly near and distinct, yet rather as +of something he was but debarred the use of for a time than finally +bidding farewell to. That was while he was still with no very grave +misgivings as to the issue of his sickness, and felt the sources of +life still springing essentially unadulterate within him. From time +to time, indeed, Marius, labouring eagerly at the poem from his +dictation, was haunted by a feeling of the triviality of such work +just then. The recurrent sense of some obscure danger beyond the +mere danger of death, vaguer than that and by so much the more +terrible, like the menace of some shadowy [116] adversary in the dark +with whose mode of attack they had no acquaintance, disturbed him now +and again through those hours of excited attention to his manuscript, +and to the purely physical wants of Flavian. Still, during these +three days there was much hope and cheerfulness, and even jesting. +Half-consciously Marius tried to prolong one or another relieving +circumstance of the day, the preparations for rest and morning +refreshment, for instance; sadly making the most of the little luxury +of this or that, with something of the feigned cheer of the mother +who sets her last morsels before her famished child as for a feast, +but really that he "may eat it and die." + +On the afternoon of the seventh day he allowed Marius finally to put +aside the unfinished manuscript. For the enemy, leaving the chest +quiet at length though much exhausted, had made itself felt with full +power again in a painful vomiting, which seemed to shake his body +asunder, with great consequent prostration. From that time the +distress increased rapidly downwards. Omnia tum vero vitai claustra +lababant;+ and soon the cold was mounting with sure pace from the +dead feet to the head. + +And now Marius began more than to suspect what the issue must be, and +henceforward could but watch with a sort of agonised fascination the +rapid but systematic work of the destroyer, [117] faintly relieving a +little the mere accidents of the sharper forms of suffering. Flavian +himself appeared, in full consciousness at last--in clear-sighted, +deliberate estimate of the actual crisis--to be doing battle with his +adversary. His mind surveyed, with great distinctness, the various +suggested modes of relief. He must without fail get better, he would +fancy, might he be removed to a certain place on the hills where as a +child he had once recovered from sickness, but found that he could +scarcely raise his head from the pillow without giddiness. As if now +surely foreseeing the end, he would set himself, with an eager +effort, and with that eager and angry look, which is noted as one of +the premonitions of death in this disease, to fashion out, without +formal dictation, still a few more broken verses of his unfinished +work, in hard-set determination, defiant of pain, to arrest this or +that little drop at least from the river of sensuous imagery rushing +so quickly past him. + +But at length delirium--symptom that the work of the plague was done, +and the last resort of life yielding to the enemy--broke the coherent +order of words and thoughts; and Marius, intent on the coming agony, +found his best hope in the increasing dimness of the patient's mind. +In intervals of clearer consciousness the visible signs of cold, of +sorrow and desolation, were very painful. No longer battling with +the disease, he seemed as it were to place himself [118] at the +disposal of the victorious foe, dying passively, like some dumb +creature, in hopeless acquiescence at last. That old, half-pleading +petulance, unamiable, yet, as it might seem, only needing conditions +of life a little happier than they had actually been, to become +refinement of affection, a delicate grace in its demand on the +sympathy of others, had changed in those moments of full intelligence +to a clinging and tremulous gentleness, as he lay--"on the very +threshold of death"--with a sharply contracted hand in the hand of +Marius, to his almost surprised joy, winning him now to an absolutely +self-forgetful devotion. There was a new sort of pleading in the +misty eyes, just because they took such unsteady note of him, which +made Marius feel as if guilty; anticipating thus a form of self- +reproach with which even the tenderest ministrant may be sometimes +surprised, when, at death, affectionate labour suddenly ceasing +leaves room for the suspicion of some failure of love perhaps, at one +or another minute point in it. Marius almost longed to take his +share in the suffering, that he might understand so the better how to +relieve it. + +It seemed that the light of the lamp distressed the patient, and +Marius extinguished it. The thunder which had sounded all day among +the hills, with a heat not unwelcome to Flavian, had given way at +nightfall to steady rain; and [119] in the darkness Marius lay down +beside him, faintly shivering now in the sudden cold, to lend him his +own warmth, undeterred by the fear of contagion which had kept other +people from passing near the house. At length about day-break he +perceived that the last effort had come with a revival of mental +clearness, as Marius understood by the contact, light as it was, in +recognition of him there. "Is it a comfort," he whispered then, "that +I shall often come and weep over you?"--"Not unless I be aware, and +hear you weeping!" + +The sun shone out on the people going to work for a long hot day, and +Marius was standing by the dead, watching, with deliberate purpose to +fix in his memory every detail, that he might have this picture in +reserve, should any hour of forgetfulness hereafter come to him with +the temptation to feel completely happy again. A feeling of outrage, +of resentment against nature itself, mingled with an agony of pity, +as he noted on the now placid features a certain look of humility, +almost abject, like the expression of a smitten child or animal, as +of one, fallen at last, after bewildering struggle, wholly under the +power of a merciless adversary. From mere tenderness of soul he +would not forget one circumstance in all that; as a man might piously +stamp on his memory the death-scene of a brother wrongfully condemned +to die, against a time that may come. + +[120] The fear of the corpse, which surprised him in his effort to +watch by it through the darkness, was a hint of his own failing +strength, just in time. The first night after the washing of the +body, he bore stoutly enough the tax which affection seemed to +demand, throwing the incense from time to time on the little altar +placed beside the bier. It was the recurrence of the thing--that +unchanged outline below the coverlet, amid a silence in which the +faintest rustle seemed to speak--that finally overcame his +determination. Surely, here, in this alienation, this sense of +distance between them, which had come over him before though in minor +degree when the mind of Flavian had wandered in his sickness, was +another of the pains of death. Yet he was able to make all due +preparations, and go through the ceremonies, shortened a little +because of the infection, when, on a cloudless evening, the funeral +procession went forth; himself, the flames of the pyre having done +their work, carrying away the urn of the deceased, in the folds of +his toga, to its last resting-place in the cemetery beside the +highway, and so turning home to sleep in his own desolate lodging. + + Quis desiderio sit pudor aut modus + Tam cari capitis?--+ + +What thought of others' thoughts about one could there be with the +regret for "so dear a head" fresh at one's heart? + +NOTES + +116. +Lucretius, Book VI.1153. + +120. +Horace, Odes I.xxiv.1-2. + + + +PART THE SECOND + + +CHAPTER VIII: ANIMULA VAGULA + + + Animula, vagula, blandula + Hospes comesque corporis, + Quae nunc abibis in loca? + Pallidula, rigida, nudula. + + The Emperor Hadrian to his Soul + +[123] FLAVIAN was no more. The little marble chest with its dust and +tears lay cold among the faded flowers. For most people the actual +spectacle of death brings out into greater reality, at least for the +imagination, whatever confidence they may entertain of the soul's +survival in another life. To Marius, greatly agitated by that event, +the earthly end of Flavian came like a final revelation of nothing +less than the soul's extinction. Flavian had gone out as utterly as +the fire among those still beloved ashes. Even that wistful suspense +of judgment expressed by the dying Hadrian, regarding further stages +of being still possible for the soul in some dim journey hence, +seemed wholly untenable, and, with it, almost all that remained of +the religion of his childhood. Future extinction seemed just then +[124] to be what the unforced witness of his own nature pointed to. +On the other hand, there came a novel curiosity as to what the +various schools of ancient philosophy had had to say concerning that +strange, fluttering creature; and that curiosity impelled him to +certain severe studies, in which his earlier religious conscience +seemed still to survive, as a principle of hieratic scrupulousness or +integrity of thought, regarding this new service to intellectual +light. + +At this time, by his poetic and inward temper, he might have fallen a +prey to the enervating mysticism, then in wait for ardent souls in +many a melodramatic revival of old religion or theosophy. From all +this, fascinating as it might actually be to one side of his +character, he was kept by a genuine virility there, effective in him, +among other results, as a hatred of what was theatrical, and the +instinctive recognition that in vigorous intelligence, after all, +divinity was most likely to be found a resident. With this was +connected the feeling, increasing with his advance to manhood, of a +poetic beauty in mere clearness of thought, the actually aesthetic +charm of a cold austerity of mind; as if the kinship of that to the +clearness of physical light were something more than a figure of +speech. Of all those various religious fantasies, as so many forms +of enthusiasm, he could well appreciate the picturesque; that was +made easy by his natural Epicureanism, already prompting [125] him to +conceive of himself as but the passive spectator of the world around +him. But it was to the severer reasoning, of which such matters as +Epicurean theory are born, that, in effect, he now betook himself. +Instinctively suspicious of those mechanical arcana, those pretended +"secrets unveiled" of the professional mystic, which really bring +great and little souls to one level, for Marius the only possible +dilemma lay between that old, ancestral Roman religion, now become so +incredible to him and the honest action of his own untroubled, +unassisted intelligence. Even the Arcana Celestia of Platonism--what +the sons of Plato had had to say regarding the essential indifference +of pure soul to its bodily house and merely occasional dwelling- +place--seemed to him while his heart was there in the urn with the +material ashes of Flavian, or still lingering in memory over his last +agony, wholly inhuman or morose, as tending to alleviate his +resentment at nature's wrong. It was to the sentiment of the body, +and the affections it defined--the flesh, of whose force and colour +that wandering Platonic soul was but so frail a residue or abstract-- +he must cling. The various pathetic traits of the beloved, +suffering, perished body of Flavian, so deeply pondered, had made him +a materialist, but with something of the temper of a devotee. + +As a consequence it might have seemed at first that his care for +poetry had passed away, [126] to be replaced by the literature of +thought. His much-pondered manuscript verses were laid aside; and +what happened now to one, who was certainly to be something of a poet +from first to last, looked at the moment like a change from poetry to +prose. He came of age about this time, his own master though with +beardless face; and at eighteen, an age at which, then as now, many +youths of capacity, who fancied themselves poets, secluded themselves +from others chiefly in affectation and vague dreaming, he secluded +himself indeed from others, but in a severe intellectual meditation, +that salt of poetry, without which all the more serious charm is +lacking to the imaginative world. Still with something of the old +religious earnestness of his childhood, he set himself--Sich im +Denken zu orientiren--to determine his bearings, as by compass, in +the world of thought--to get that precise acquaintance with the +creative intelligence itself, its structure and capacities, its +relation to other parts of himself and to other things, without +which, certainly, no poetry can be masterly. Like a young man rich +in this world's goods coming of age, he must go into affairs, and +ascertain his outlook. There must be no disguises. An exact +estimate of realities, as towards himself, he must have--a delicately +measured gradation of certainty in things--from the distant, haunted +horizon of mere surmise or imagination, to the actual [127] feeling +of sorrow in his heart, as he reclined one morning, alone instead of +in pleasant company, to ponder the hard sayings of an imperfect old +Greek manuscript, unrolled beside him. His former gay companions, +meeting him in the streets of the old Italian town, and noting the +graver lines coming into the face of the sombre but enthusiastic +student of intellectual structure, who could hold his own so well in +the society of accomplished older men, were half afraid of him, +though proud to have him of their company. Why this reserve?--they +asked, concerning the orderly, self-possessed youth, whose speech and +carriage seemed so carefully measured, who was surely no poet like +the rapt, dishevelled Lupus. Was he secretly in love, perhaps, whose +toga was so daintily folded, and who was always as fresh as the +flowers he wore; or bent on his own line of ambition: or even on +riches? + +Marius, meantime, was reading freely, in early morning for the most +part, those writers chiefly who had made it their business to know +what might be thought concerning that strange, enigmatic, personal +essence, which had seemed to go out altogether, along with the +funeral fires. And the old Greek who more than any other was now +giving form to his thoughts was a very hard master. From Epicurus, +from the thunder and lightning of Lucretius--like thunder and +lightning some distance off, one might recline to enjoy, in a garden +of roses--he had gone back to [128] the writer who was in a certain +sense the teacher of both, Heraclitus of Ionia. His difficult book +"Concerning Nature" was even then rare, for people had long since +satisfied themselves by the quotation of certain brilliant, isolated, +oracles only, out of what was at best a taxing kind of lore. But the +difficulty of the early Greek prose did but spur the curiosity of +Marius; the writer, the superior clearness of whose intellectual view +had so sequestered him from other men, who had had so little joy of +that superiority, being avowedly exacting as to the amount of devout +attention he required from the student. "The many," he said, always +thus emphasising the difference between the many and the few, are +"like people heavy with wine," "led by children," "knowing not +whither they go;" and yet, "much learning doth not make wise;" and +again, "the ass, after all, would have his thistles rather than fine +gold." + +Heraclitus, indeed, had not under-rated the difficulty for "the many" +of the paradox with which his doctrine begins, and the due reception +of which must involve a denial of habitual impressions, as the +necessary first step in the way of truth. His philosophy had been +developed in conscious, outspoken opposition to the current mode of +thought, as a matter requiring some exceptional loyalty to pure +reason and its "dry light." Men are subject to an illusion, he +protests, regarding matters apparent to sense. [129] What the +uncorrected sense gives was a false impression of permanence or +fixity in things, which have really changed their nature in the very +moment in which we see and touch them. And the radical flaw in the +current mode of thinking would lie herein: that, reflecting this +false or uncorrected sensation, it attributes to the phenomena of +experience a durability which does not really belong to them. +Imaging forth from those fluid impressions a world of firmly out- +lined objects, it leads one to regard as a thing stark and dead what +is in reality full of animation, of vigour, of the fire of life--that +eternal process of nature, of which at a later time Goethe spoke as +the "Living Garment," whereby God is seen of us, ever in weaving at +the "Loom of Time." + +And the appeal which the old Greek thinker made was, in the first +instance, from confused to unconfused sensation; with a sort of +prophetic seriousness, a great claim and assumption, such as we may +understand, if we anticipate in this preliminary scepticism the +ulterior scope of his speculation, according to which the universal +movement of all natural things is but one particular stage, or +measure, of that ceaseless activity wherein the divine reason +consists. The one true being--that constant subject of all early +thought--it was his merit to have conceived, not as sterile and +stagnant inaction, but as a perpetual energy, from the restless +stream of which, [130] at certain points, some elements detach +themselves, and harden into non-entity and death, corresponding, as +outward objects, to man's inward condition of ignorance: that is, to +the slowness of his faculties. It is with this paradox of a subtle, +perpetual change in all visible things, that the high speculation of +Heraclitus begins. Hence the scorn he expresses for anything like a +careless, half-conscious, "use-and-wont" reception of our experience, +which took so strong a hold on men's memories! Hence those many +precepts towards a strenuous self-consciousness in all we think and +do, that loyalty to cool and candid reason, which makes strict +attentiveness of mind a kind of religious duty and service. + +The negative doctrine, then, that the objects of our ordinary +experience, fixed as they seem, are really in perpetual change, had +been, as originally conceived, but the preliminary step towards a +large positive system of almost religious philosophy. Then as now, +the illuminated philosophic mind might apprehend, in what seemed a +mass of lifeless matter, the movement of that universal life, in +which things, and men's impressions of them, were ever "coming to +be," alternately consumed and renewed. That continual change, to be +discovered by the attentive understanding where common opinion found +fixed objects, was but the indicator of a subtler but all-pervading +motion--the sleepless, ever-sustained, inexhaustible energy of the +divine [131] reason itself, proceeding always by its own rhythmical +logic, and lending to all mind and matter, in turn, what life they +had. In this "perpetual flux" of things and of souls, there was, as +Heraclitus conceived, a continuance, if not of their material or +spiritual elements, yet of orderly intelligible relationships, like +the harmony of musical notes, wrought out in and through the series +of their mutations--ordinances of the divine reason, maintained +throughout the changes of the phenomenal world; and this harmony in +their mutation and opposition, was, after all, a principle of sanity, +of reality, there. But it happened, that, of all this, the first, +merely sceptical or negative step, that easiest step on the +threshold, had alone remained in general memory; and the "doctrine of +motion" seemed to those who had felt its seduction to make all fixed +knowledge impossible. The swift passage of things, the still swifter +passage of those modes of our conscious being which seemed to reflect +them, might indeed be the burning of the divine fire: but what was +ascertained was that they did pass away like a devouring flame, or +like the race of water in the mid-stream--too swiftly for any real +knowledge of them to be attainable. Heracliteanism had grown to be +almost identical with the famous doctrine of the sophist Protagoras, +that the momentary, sensible apprehension of the individual was the +only standard of what is or is [132] not, and each one the measure of +all things to himself. The impressive name of Heraclitus had become +but an authority for a philosophy of the despair of knowledge. + +And as it had been with his original followers in Greece, so it +happened now with the later Roman disciple. He, too, paused at the +apprehension of that constant motion of things--the drift of flowers, +of little or great souls, of ambitious systems, in the stream around +him, the first source, the ultimate issue, of which, in regions out +of sight, must count with him as but a dim problem. The bold mental +flight of the old Greek master from the fleeting, competing objects +of experience to that one universal life, in which the whole sphere +of physical change might be reckoned as but a single pulsation, +remained by him as hypothesis only--the hypothesis he actually +preferred, as in itself most credible, however scantily realisable +even by the imagination--yet still as but one unverified hypothesis, +among many others, concerning the first principle of things. He +might reserve it as a fine, high, visionary consideration, very +remote upon the intellectual ladder, just at the point, indeed, where +that ladder seemed to pass into the clouds, but for which there was +certainly no time left just now by his eager interest in the real +objects so close to him, on the lowlier earthy steps nearest the +ground. And those childish days of reverie, [133] when he played at +priests, played in many another day-dream, working his way from the +actual present, as far as he might, with a delightful sense of escape +in replacing the outer world of other people by an inward world as +himself really cared to have it, had made him a kind of "idealist." +He was become aware of the possibility of a large dissidence between +an inward and somewhat exclusive world of vivid personal +apprehension, and the unimproved, unheightened reality of the life of +those about him. As a consequence, he was ready now to concede, +somewhat more easily than others, the first point of his new lesson, +that the individual is to himself the measure of all things, and to +rely on the exclusive certainty to himself of his own impressions. +To move afterwards in that outer world of other people, as though +taking it at their estimate, would be possible henceforth only as a +kind of irony. And as with the Vicaire Savoyard, after reflecting on +the variations of philosophy, "the first fruit he drew from that +reflection was the lesson of a limitation of his researches to what +immediately interested him; to rest peacefully in a profound +ignorance as to all beside; to disquiet himself only concerning those +things which it was of import for him to know." At least he would +entertain no theory of conduct which did not allow its due weight to +this primary element of incertitude or negation, in the conditions of +man's life. [134] Just here he joined company, retracing in his +individual mental pilgrimage the historic order of human thought, +with another wayfarer on the journey, another ancient Greek master, +the founder of the Cyrenaic philosophy, whose weighty traditional +utterances (for he had left no writing) served in turn to give +effective outline to the contemplations of Marius. There was +something in the doctrine itself congruous with the place wherein it +had its birth; and for a time Marius lived much, mentally, in the +brilliant Greek colony which had given a dubious name to the +philosophy of pleasure. It hung, for his fancy, between the +mountains and the sea, among richer than Italian gardens, on a +certain breezy table-land projecting from the African coast, some +hundreds of miles southward from Greece. There, in a delightful +climate, with something of transalpine temperance amid its luxury, +and withal in an inward atmosphere of temperance which did but +further enhance the brilliancy of human life, the school of Cyrene +had maintained itself as almost one with the family of its founder; +certainly as nothing coarse or unclean, and under the influence of +accomplished women. + +Aristippus of Cyrene too had left off in suspense of judgment as to +what might really lie behind--flammantia moenia mundi: the flaming +ramparts of the world. Those strange, bold, sceptical surmises, +which had haunted the minds [135] of the first Greek enquirers as +merely abstract doubt, which had been present to the mind of +Heraclitus as one element only in a system of abstract philosophy, +became with Aristippus a very subtly practical worldly-wisdom. The +difference between him and those obscure earlier thinkers is almost +like that between an ancient thinker generally, and a modern man of +the world: it was the difference between the mystic in his cell, or +the prophet in the desert, and the expert, cosmopolitan, +administrator of his dark sayings, translating the abstract thoughts +of the master into terms, first of all, of sentiment. It has been +sometimes seen, in the history of the human mind, that when thus +translated into terms of sentiment--of sentiment, as lying already +half-way towards practice--the abstract ideas of metaphysics for the +first time reveal their true significance. The metaphysical +principle, in itself, as it were, without hands or feet, becomes +impressive, fascinating, of effect, when translated into a precept as +to how it were best to feel and act; in other words, under its +sentimental or ethical equivalent. The leading idea of the great +master of Cyrene, his theory that things are but shadows, and that +we, even as they, never continue in one stay, might indeed have taken +effect as a languid, enervating, consumptive nihilism, as a precept +of "renunciation," which would touch and handle and busy itself with +nothing. But in the reception of [136] metaphysical formulae, all +depends, as regards their actual and ulterior result, on the pre- +existent qualities of that soil of human nature into which they fall- +-the company they find already present there, on their admission into +the house of thought; there being at least so much truth as this +involves in the theological maxim, that the reception of this or that +speculative conclusion is really a matter of will. The persuasion +that all is vanity, with this happily constituted Greek, who had been +a genuine disciple of Socrates and reflected, presumably, something +of his blitheness in the face of the world, his happy way of taking +all chances, generated neither frivolity nor sourness, but induced, +rather, an impression, just serious enough, of the call upon men's +attention of the crisis in which they find themselves. It became the +stimulus towards every kind of activity, and prompted a perpetual, +inextinguishable thirst after experience. + +With Marius, then, the influence of the philosopher of pleasure +depended on this, that in him an abstract doctrine, originally +somewhat acrid, had fallen upon a rich and genial nature, well fitted +to transform it into a theory of practice, of considerable +stimulative power towards a fair life. What Marius saw in him was +the spectacle of one of the happiest temperaments coming, so to +speak, to an understanding with the most depressing of theories; +accepting the [137] results of a metaphysical system which seemed to +concentrate into itself all the weakening trains of thought in +earlier Greek speculation, and making the best of it; turning its +hard, bare truths, with wonderful tact, into precepts of grace, and +delicate wisdom, and a delicate sense of honour. Given the hardest +terms, supposing our days are indeed but a shadow, even so, we may +well adorn and beautify, in scrupulous self-respect, our souls, and +whatever our souls touch upon--these wonderful bodies, these material +dwelling-places through which the shadows pass together for a while, +the very raiment we wear, our very pastimes and the intercourse of +society. The most discerning judges saw in him something like the +graceful "humanities" of the later Roman, and our modern "culture," +as it is termed; while Horace recalled his sayings as expressing best +his own consummate amenity in the reception of life. + +In this way, for Marius, under the guidance of that old master of +decorous living, those eternal doubts as to the criteria of truth +reduced themselves to a scepticism almost drily practical, a +scepticism which developed the opposition between things as they are +and our impressions and thoughts concerning them--the possibility, if +an outward world does really exist, of some faultiness in our +apprehension of it--the doctrine, in short, of what is termed "the +subjectivity of knowledge." That is a consideration, indeed, [138] +which lies as an element of weakness, like some admitted fault or +flaw, at the very foundation of every philosophical account of the +universe; which confronts all philosophies at their starting, but +with which none have really dealt conclusively, some perhaps not +quite sincerely; which those who are not philosophers dissipate by +"common," but unphilosophical, sense, or by religious faith. The +peculiar strength of Marius was, to have apprehended this weakness on +the threshold of human knowledge, in the whole range of its +consequences. Our knowledge is limited to what we feel, he +reflected: we need no proof that we feel. But can we be sure that +things are at all like our feelings? Mere peculiarities in the +instruments of our cognition, like the little knots and waves on the +surface of a mirror, may distort the matter they seem but to +represent. Of other people we cannot truly know even the feelings, +nor how far they would indicate the same modifications, each one of a +personality really unique, in using the same terms as ourselves; that +"common experience," which is sometimes proposed as a satisfactory +basis of certainty, being after all only a fixity of language. But +our own impressions!--The light and heat of that blue veil over our +heads, the heavens spread out, perhaps not like a curtain over +anything!--How reassuring, after so long a debate about the rival +criteria of truth, to fall back upon direct sensation, to limit one's +[139] aspirations after knowledge to that! In an age still +materially so brilliant, so expert in the artistic handling of +material things, with sensible capacities still in undiminished +vigour, with the whole world of classic art and poetry outspread +before it, and where there was more than eye or ear could well take +in--how natural the determination to rely exclusively upon the +phenomena of the senses, which certainly never deceive us about +themselves, about which alone we can never deceive ourselves! + +And so the abstract apprehension that the little point of this +present moment alone really is, between a past which has just ceased +to be and a future which may never come, became practical with +Marius, under the form of a resolve, as far as possible, to exclude +regret and desire, and yield himself to the improvement of the +present with an absolutely disengaged mind. America is here and now- +-here, or nowhere: as Wilhelm Meister finds out one day, just not too +late, after so long looking vaguely across the ocean for the +opportunity of the development of his capacities. It was as if, +recognising in perpetual motion the law of nature, Marius identified +his own way of life cordially with it, "throwing himself into the +stream," so to speak. He too must maintain a harmony with that soul +of motion in things, by constantly renewed mobility of character. + +Omnis Aristippum decuit color et status et res.-- + +[140] Thus Horace had summed up that perfect manner in the reception +of life attained by his old Cyrenaic master; and the first practical +consequence of the metaphysic which lay behind that perfect manner, +had been a strict limitation, almost the renunciation, of +metaphysical enquiry itself. Metaphysic--that art, as it has so +often proved, in the words of Michelet, de s'egarer avec methode, of +bewildering oneself methodically:--one must spend little time upon +that! In the school of Cyrene, great as was its mental incisiveness, +logical and physical speculation, theoretic interests generally, had +been valued only so far as they served to give a groundwork, an +intellectual justification, to that exclusive concern with practical +ethics which was a note of the Cyrenaic philosophy. How earnest and +enthusiastic, how true to itself, under how many varieties of +character, had been the effort of the Greeks after Theory--Theoria-- +that vision of a wholly reasonable world, which, according to the +greatest of them, literally makes man like God: how loyally they had +still persisted in the quest after that, in spite of how many +disappointments! In the Gospel of Saint John, perhaps, some of them +might have found the kind of vision they were seeking for; but not in +"doubtful disputations" concerning "being" and "not being," knowledge +and appearance. Men's minds, even young men's minds, at that late +day, might well seem oppressed by the weariness of systems which +[141] had so far outrun positive knowledge; and in the mind of +Marius, as in that old school of Cyrene, this sense of ennui, +combined with appetites so youthfully vigorous, brought about +reaction, a sort of suicide (instances of the like have been seen +since) by which a great metaphysical acumen was devoted to the +function of proving metaphysical speculation impossible, or useless. +Abstract theory was to be valued only just so far as it might serve +to clear the tablet of the mind from suppositions no more than half +realisable, or wholly visionary, leaving it in flawless evenness of +surface to the impressions of an experience, concrete and direct. + +To be absolutely virgin towards such experience, by ridding ourselves +of such abstractions as are but the ghosts of bygone impressions--to +be rid of the notions we have made for ourselves, and that so often +only misrepresent the experience of which they profess to be the +representation--idola, idols, false appearances, as Bacon calls them +later--to neutralise the distorting influence of metaphysical system +by an all-accomplished metaphysic skill: it is this bold, hard, sober +recognition, under a very "dry light," of its own proper aim, in +union with a habit of feeling which on the practical side may perhaps +open a wide doorway to human weakness, that gives to the Cyrenaic +doctrine, to reproductions of this doctrine in the time of Marius or +in our own, their gravity and importance. It was a [142] school to +which the young man might come, eager for truth, expecting much from +philosophy, in no ignoble curiosity, aspiring after nothing less than +an "initiation." He would be sent back, sooner or later, to +experience, to the world of concrete impressions, to things as they +may be seen, heard, felt by him; but with a wonderful machinery of +observation, and free from the tyranny of mere theories. + +So, in intervals of repose, after the agitation which followed the +death of Flavian, the thoughts of Marius ran, while he felt himself +as if returned to the fine, clear, peaceful light of that pleasant +school of healthfully sensuous wisdom, in the brilliant old Greek +colony, on its fresh upland by the sea. Not pleasure, but a general +completeness of life, was the practical ideal to which this anti- +metaphysical metaphysic really pointed. And towards such a full or +complete life, a life of various yet select sensation, the most +direct and effective auxiliary must be, in a word, Insight. Liberty +of soul, freedom from all partial and misrepresentative doctrine +which does but relieve one element in our experience at the cost of +another, freedom from all embarrassment alike of regret for the past +and of calculation on the future: this would be but preliminary to +the real business of education--insight, insight through culture, +into all that the present moment holds in trust for us, as we stand +so briefly in its presence. From that maxim of [143] Life as the end +of life, followed, as a practical consequence, the desirableness of +refining all the instruments of inward and outward intuition, of +developing all their capacities, of testing and exercising one's self +in them, till one's whole nature became one complex medium of +reception, towards the vision--the "beatific vision," if we really +cared to make it such--of our actual experience in the world. Not +the conveyance of an abstract body of truths or principles, would be +the aim of the right education of one's self, or of another, but the +conveyance of an art--an art in some degree peculiar to each +individual character; with the modifications, that is, due to its +special constitution, and the peculiar circumstances of its growth, +inasmuch as no one of us is "like another, all in all." + + + +CHAPTER IX: NEW CYRENAICISM + +[144] SUCH were the practical conclusions drawn for himself by +Marius, when somewhat later he had outgrown the mastery of others, +from the principle that "all is vanity." If he could but count upon +the present, if a life brief at best could not certainly be shown to +conduct one anywhere beyond itself, if men's highest curiosity was +indeed so persistently baffled--then, with the Cyrenaics of all ages, +he would at least fill up the measure of that present with vivid +sensations, and such intellectual apprehensions, as, in strength and +directness and their immediately realised values at the bar of an +actual experience, are most like sensations. So some have spoken in +every age; for, like all theories which really express a strong +natural tendency of the human mind or even one of its characteristic +modes of weakness, this vein of reflection is a constant tradition in +philosophy. Every age of European thought has had its Cyrenaics or +Epicureans, under many disguises: even under the hood of the monk. + +[145] But--Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die!--is a +proposal, the real import of which differs immensely, according to +the natural taste, and the acquired judgment, of the guests who sit +at the table. It may express nothing better than the instinct of +Dante's Ciacco, the accomplished glutton, in the mud of the Inferno;+ +or, since on no hypothesis does man "live by bread alone," may come +to be identical with--"My meat is to do what is just and kind;" while +the soul, which can make no sincere claim to have apprehended +anything beyond the veil of immediate experience, yet never loses a +sense of happiness in conforming to the highest moral ideal it can +clearly define for itself; and actually, though but with so faint +hope, does the "Father's business." + +In that age of Marcus Aurelius, so completely disabused of the +metaphysical ambition to pass beyond "the flaming ramparts of the +world," but, on the other hand, possessed of so vast an accumulation +of intellectual treasure, with so wide a view before it over all +varieties of what is powerful or attractive in man and his works, the +thoughts of Marius did but follow the line taken by the majority of +educated persons, though to a different issue. Pitched to a really +high and serious key, the precept--Be perfect in regard to what is +here and now: the precept of "culture," as it is called, or of a +complete education--might at least save him from the vulgarity and +heaviness [146] of a generation, certainly of no general fineness of +temper, though with a material well-being abundant enough. Conceded +that what is secure in our existence is but the sharp apex of the +present moment between two hypothetical eternities, and all that is +real in our experience but a series of fleeting impressions:--so +Marius continued the sceptical argument he had condensed, as the +matter to hold by, from his various philosophical reading:--given, +that we are never to get beyond the walls of the closely shut cell of +one's own personality; that the ideas we are somehow impelled to form +of an outer world, and of other minds akin to our own, are, it may +be, but a day-dream, and the thought of any world beyond, a day-dream +perhaps idler still: then, he, at least, in whom those fleeting +impressions--faces, voices, material sunshine--were very real and +imperious, might well set himself to the consideration, how such +actual moments as they passed might be made to yield their utmost, by +the most dexterous training of capacity. Amid abstract metaphysical +doubts, as to what might lie one step only beyond that experience, +reinforcing the deep original materialism or earthliness of human +nature itself, bound so intimately to the sensuous world, let him at +least make the most of what was "here and now." In the actual +dimness of ways from means to ends--ends in themselves desirable, yet +for the most part distant and for him, certainly, below the [147] +visible horizon--he would at all events be sure that the means, to +use the well-worn terminology, should have something of finality or +perfection about them, and themselves partake, in a measure, of the +more excellent nature of ends--that the means should justify the end. + +With this view he would demand culture, paideia,+ as the Cyrenaics +said, or, in other words, a wide, a complete, education--an education +partly negative, as ascertaining the true limits of man's capacities, +but for the most part positive, and directed especially to the +expansion and refinement of the power of reception; of those powers, +above all, which are immediately relative to fleeting phenomena, the +powers of emotion and sense. In such an education, an "aesthetic" +education, as it might now be termed, and certainly occupied very +largely with those aspects of things which affect us pleasurably +through sensation, art, of course, including all the finer sorts of +literature, would have a great part to play. The study of music, in +that wider Platonic sense, according to which, music comprehends all +those matters over which the Muses of Greek mythology preside, would +conduct one to an exquisite appreciation of all the finer traits of +nature and of man. Nay! the products of the imagination must +themselves be held to present the most perfect forms of life--spirit +and matter alike under their purest and most perfect conditions--the +most strictly appropriate [148] objects of that impassioned +contemplation, which, in the world of intellectual discipline, as in +the highest forms of morality and religion, must be held to be the +essential function of the "perfect." Such manner of life might come +even to seem a kind of religion--an inward, visionary, mystic piety, +or religion, by virtue of its effort to live days "lovely and +pleasant" in themselves, here and now, and with an all-sufficiency of +well-being in the immediate sense of the object contemplated, +independently of any faith, or hope that might be entertained as to +their ulterior tendency. In this way, the true aesthetic culture +would be realisable as a new form of the contemplative life, founding +its claim on the intrinsic "blessedness" of "vision"--the vision of +perfect men and things. One's human nature, indeed, would fain +reckon on an assured and endless future, pleasing itself with the +dream of a final home, to be attained at some still remote date, yet +with a conscious, delightful home-coming at last, as depicted in many +an old poetic Elysium. On the other hand, the world of perfected +sensation, intelligence, emotion, is so close to us, and so +attractive, that the most visionary of spirits must needs represent +the world unseen in colours, and under a form really borrowed from +it. Let me be sure then--might he not plausibly say?--that I miss no +detail of this life of realised consciousness in the present! Here +at least is a vision, a theory, [149] theoria,+ which reposes on no +basis of unverified hypothesis, which makes no call upon a future +after all somewhat problematic; as it would be unaffected by any +discovery of an Empedocles (improving on the old story of Prometheus) +as to what had really been the origin, and course of development, of +man's actually attained faculties and that seemingly divine particle +of reason or spirit in him. Such a doctrine, at more leisurable +moments, would of course have its precepts to deliver on the +embellishment, generally, of what is near at hand, on the adornment +of life, till, in a not impracticable rule of conduct, one's +existence, from day to day, came to be like a well-executed piece of +music; that "perpetual motion" in things (so Marius figured the +matter to himself, under the old Greek imageries) according itself to +a kind of cadence or harmony. + +It was intelligible that this "aesthetic" philosophy might find +itself (theoretically, at least, and by way of a curious question in +casuistry, legitimate from its own point of view) weighing the claims +of that eager, concentrated, impassioned realisation of experience, +against those of the received morality. Conceiving its own function +in a somewhat desperate temper, and becoming, as every high-strung +form of sentiment, as the religious sentiment itself, may become, +somewhat antinomian, when, in its effort towards the order of +experiences it prefers, it is confronted with the traditional and +popular [150] morality, at points where that morality may look very +like a convention, or a mere stage-property of the world, it would be +found, from time to time, breaking beyond the limits of the actual +moral order; perhaps not without some pleasurable excitement in so +bold a venture. + +With the possibility of some such hazard as this, in thought or even +in practice--that it might be, though refining, or tonic even, in the +case of those strong and in health, yet, as Pascal says of the kindly +and temperate wisdom of Montaigne, "pernicious for those who have any +natural tendency to impiety or vice," the line of reflection traced +out above, was fairly chargeable.--Not, however, with "hedonism" and +its supposed consequences. The blood, the heart, of Marius were +still pure. He knew that his carefully considered theory of practice +braced him, with the effect of a moral principle duly recurring to +mind every morning, towards the work of a student, for which he might +seem intended. Yet there were some among his acquaintance who jumped +to the conclusion that, with the "Epicurean stye," he was making +pleasure--pleasure, as they so poorly conceived it--the sole motive +of life; and they precluded any exacter estimate of the situation by +covering it with a high-sounding general term, through the vagueness +of which they were enabled to see the severe and laborious youth in +the vulgar company of Lais. Words like "hedonism"-- [151] terms of +large and vague comprehension--above all when used for a purpose +avowedly controversial, have ever been the worst examples of what are +called "question-begging terms;" and in that late age in which Marius +lived, amid the dust of so many centuries of philosophical debate, +the air was full of them. Yet those who used that reproachful Greek +term for the philosophy of pleasure, were hardly more likely than the +old Greeks themselves (on whom regarding this very subject of the +theory of pleasure, their masters in the art of thinking had so +emphatically to impress the necessity of "making distinctions") to +come to any very delicately correct ethical conclusions by a +reasoning, which began with a general term, comprehensive enough to +cover pleasures so different in quality, in their causes and effects, +as the pleasures of wine and love, of art and science, of religious +enthusiasm and political enterprise, and of that taste or curiosity +which satisfied itself with long days of serious study. Yet, in +truth, each of those pleasurable modes of activity, may, in its turn, +fairly become the ideal of the "hedonistic" doctrine. Really, to the +phase of reflection through which Marius was then passing, the charge +of "hedonism," whatever its true weight might be, was not properly +applicable at all. Not pleasure, but fulness of life, and "insight" +as conducting to that fulness--energy, variety, and choice of +experience, including [152] noble pain and sorrow even, loves such +as those in the exquisite old story of Apuleius, sincere and +strenuous forms of the moral life, such as Seneca and Epictetus-- +whatever form of human life, in short, might be heroic, impassioned, +ideal: from these the "new Cyrenaicism" of Marius took its criterion +of values. It was a theory, indeed, which might properly be regarded +as in great degree coincident with the main principle of the Stoics +themselves, and an older version of the precept "Whatsoever thy hand +findeth to do, do it with thy might"--a doctrine so widely acceptable +among the nobler spirits of that time. And, as with that, its +mistaken tendency would lie in the direction of a kind of idolatry of +mere life, or natural gift, or strength--l'idolatrie des talents. + +To understand the various forms of ancient art and thought, the +various forms of actual human feeling (the only new thing, in a world +almost too opulent in what was old) to satisfy, with a kind of +scrupulous equity, the claims of these concrete and actual objects on +his sympathy, his intelligence, his senses--to "pluck out the heart +of their mystery," and in turn become the interpreter of them to +others: this had now defined itself for Marius as a very narrowly +practical design: it determined his choice of a vocation to live by. +It was the era of the rhetoricians, or sophists, as they were +sometimes called; of men who came in some instances to [153] great +fame and fortune, by way of a literary cultivation of "science." +That science, it has been often said, must have been wholly an affair +of words. But in a world, confessedly so opulent in what was old, +the work, even of genius, must necessarily consist very much in +criticism; and, in the case of the more excellent specimens of his +class, the rhetorician was, after all, the eloquent and effective +interpreter, for the delighted ears of others, of what understanding +himself had come by, in years of travel and study, of the beautiful +house of art and thought which was the inheritance of the age. The +emperor Marcus Aurelius, to whose service Marius had now been called, +was himself, more or less openly, a "lecturer." That late world, +amid many curiously vivid modern traits, had this spectacle, so +familiar to ourselves, of the public lecturer or essayist; in some +cases adding to his other gifts that of the Christian preacher, who +knows how to touch people's sensibilities on behalf of the suffering. +To follow in the way of these successes, was the natural instinct of +youthful ambition; and it was with no vulgar egotism that Marius, at +the age of nineteen, determined, like many another young man of +parts, to enter as a student of rhetoric at Rome. + +Though the manner of his work was changed formally from poetry to +prose, he remained, and must always be, of the poetic temper: by +which, I mean, among other things, that quite [154] independently of +the general habit of that pensive age he lived much, and as it were +by system, in reminiscence. Amid his eager grasping at the +sensation, the consciousness, of the present, he had come to see +that, after all, the main point of economy in the conduct of the +present, was the question:--How will it look to me, at what shall I +value it, this day next year?--that in any given day or month one's +main concern was its impression for the memory. A strange trick +memory sometimes played him; for, with no natural gradation, what was +of last month, or of yesterday, of to-day even, would seem as far +off, as entirely detached from him, as things of ten years ago. +Detached from him, yet very real, there lay certain spaces of his +life, in delicate perspective, under a favourable light; and, +somehow, all the less fortunate detail and circumstance had parted +from them. Such hours were oftenest those in which he had been +helped by work of others to the pleasurable apprehension of art, of +nature, or of life. "Not what I do, but what I am, under the power +of this vision"--he would say to himself--"is what were indeed +pleasing to the gods!" + +And yet, with a kind of inconsistency in one who had taken for his +philosophic ideal the monochronos hedone+ of Aristippus--the pleasure of +the ideal present, of the mystic now--there would come, together with +that precipitate sinking of things into the past, a desire, after +all, [155] to retain "what was so transitive." Could he but arrest, +for others also, certain clauses of experience, as the imaginative +memory presented them to himself! In those grand, hot summers, he +would have imprisoned the very perfume of the flowers. To create, to +live, perhaps, a little while beyond the allotted hours, if it were +but in a fragment of perfect expression:--it was thus his longing +defined itself for something to hold by amid the "perpetual flux." +With men of his vocation, people were apt to say, words were things. +Well! with him, words should be indeed things,--the word, the phrase, +valuable in exact proportion to the transparency with which it +conveyed to others the apprehension, the emotion, the mood, so +vividly real within himself. Verbaque provisam rem non invita +sequentur:+ Virile apprehension of the true nature of things, of the +true nature of one's own impression, first of all!--words would +follow that naturally, a true understanding of one's self being ever +the first condition of genuine style. Language delicate and +measured, the delicate Attic phrase, for instance, in which the +eminent Aristeides could speak, was then a power to which people's +hearts, and sometimes even their purses, readily responded. And +there were many points, as Marius thought, on which the heart of that +age greatly needed to be touched. He hardly knew how strong that old +religious sense of responsibility, the conscience, as we call it, +[156] still was within him--a body of inward impressions, as real as +those so highly valued outward ones--to offend against which, brought +with it a strange feeling of disloyalty, as to a person. And the +determination, adhered to with no misgiving, to add nothing, not so +much as a transient sigh, to the great total of men's unhappiness, in +his way through the world:--that too was something to rest on, in the +drift of mere "appearances." + +All this would involve a life of industry, of industrious study, only +possible through healthy rule, keeping clear the eye alike of body +and soul. For the male element, the logical conscience asserted +itself now, with opening manhood--asserted itself, even in his +literary style, by a certain firmness of outline, that touch of the +worker in metal, amid its richness. Already he blamed instinctively +alike in his work and in himself, as youth so seldom does, all that +had not passed a long and liberal process of erasure. The happy +phrase or sentence was really modelled upon a cleanly finished +structure of scrupulous thought. The suggestive force of the one +master of his development, who had battled so hard with imaginative +prose; the utterance, the golden utterance, of the other, so content +with its living power of persuasion that he had never written at +all,--in the commixture of these two qualities he set up his literary +ideal, and this rare blending of grace with an intellectual [157] +rigour or astringency, was the secret of a singular expressiveness in +it. + +He acquired at this time a certain bookish air, the somewhat sombre +habitude of the avowed scholar, which though it never interfered with +the perfect tone, "fresh and serenely disposed," of the Roman +gentleman, yet qualified it as by an interesting oblique trait, and +frightened away some of his equals in age and rank. The sober +discretion of his thoughts, his sustained habit of meditation, the +sense of those negative conclusions enabling him to concentrate +himself, with an absorption so entire, upon what is immediately here +and now, gave him a peculiar manner of intellectual confidence, as of +one who had indeed been initiated into a great secret.--Though with +an air so disengaged, he seemed to be living so intently in the +visible world! And now, in revolt against that pre-occupation with +other persons, which had so often perturbed his spirit, his wistful +speculations as to what the real, the greater, experience might be, +determined in him, not as the longing for love--to be with Cynthia, +or Aspasia--but as a thirst for existence in exquisite places. The +veil that was to be lifted for him lay over the works of the old +masters of art, in places where nature also had used her mastery. +And it was just at this moment that a summons to Rome reached him. + +NOTES + +145. +Canto VI. + +147. +Transliteration: paideia. Definition "rearing, education." + +149. +Transliteration: theoria. Definition "a looking at . . . +observing . . . contemplation." + +154. +Transliteration: monochronos hedone. Pater's definition "the +pleasure of the ideal present, of the mystic now." The definition is +fitting; the unusual adjective monokhronos means, literally, "single +or unitary time." + +155. +Horace, Ars Poetica 311. +Etext editor's translation: "The +subject once foreknown, the words will follow easily." + + + +CHAPTER X: ON THE WAY + + Mirum est ut animus agitatione motuque corporis excitetur. + Pliny's Letters. + +[158] MANY points in that train of thought, its harder and more +energetic practical details especially, at first surmised but vaguely +in the intervals of his visits to the tomb of Flavian, attained the +coherence of formal principle amid the stirring incidents of the +journey, which took him, still in all the buoyancy of his nineteen +years and greatly expectant, to Rome. That summons had come from one +of the former friends of his father in the capital, who had kept +himself acquainted with the lad's progress, and, assured of his +parts, his courtly ways, above all of his beautiful penmanship, now +offered him a place, virtually that of an amanuensis, near the person +of the philosophic emperor. The old town-house of his family on the +Caelian hill, so long neglected, might well require his personal +care; and Marius, relieved a little by his preparations for +travelling from a certain over-tension [159] of spirit in which he +had lived of late, was presently on his way, to await introduction to +Aurelius, on his expected return home, after a first success, +illusive enough as it was soon to appear, against the invaders from +beyond the Danube. + +The opening stage of his journey, through the firm, golden weather, +for which he had lingered three days beyond the appointed time of +starting--days brown with the first rains of autumn--brought him, by +the byways among the lower slopes of the Apennines of Luna, to the +town of Luca, a station on the Cassian Way; travelling so far mainly +on foot, while the baggage followed under the care of his attendants. +He wore a broad felt hat, in fashion not unlike a more modern +pilgrim's, the neat head projecting from the collar of his gray +paenula, or travelling mantle, sewed closely together over the +breast, but with its two sides folded up upon the shoulders, to leave +the arms free in walking, and was altogether so trim and fresh, that, +as he climbed the hill from Pisa, by the long steep lane through the +olive-yards, and turned to gaze where he could just discern the +cypresses of the old school garden, like two black lines down the +yellow walls, a little child took possession of his hand, and, +looking up at him with entire confidence, paced on bravely at his +side, for the mere pleasure of his company, to the spot where the +road declined again [160] into the valley beyond. From this point, +leaving the servants behind, he surrendered himself, a willing +subject, as he walked, to the impressions of the road, and was almost +surprised, both at the suddenness with which evening came on, and the +distance from his old home at which it found him. + +And at the little town of Luca, he felt that indescribable sense of a +welcoming in the mere outward appearance of things, which seems to +mark out certain places for the special purpose of evening rest, and +gives them always a peculiar amiability in retrospect. Under the +deepening twilight, the rough-tiled roofs seem to huddle together +side by side, like one continuous shelter over the whole township, +spread low and broad above the snug sleeping-rooms within; and the +place one sees for the first time, and must tarry in but for a night, +breathes the very spirit of home. The cottagers lingered at their +doors for a few minutes as the shadows grew larger, and went to rest +early; though there was still a glow along the road through the shorn +corn-fields, and the birds were still awake about the crumbling gray +heights of an old temple. So quiet and air-swept was the place, you +could hardly tell where the country left off in it, and the field- +paths became its streets. Next morning he must needs change the +manner of his journey. The light baggage-wagon returned, and he +proceeded now more quickly, travelling [161] a stage or two by post, +along the Cassian Way, where the figures and incidents of the great +high-road seemed already to tell of the capital, the one centre to +which all were hastening, or had lately bidden adieu. That Way lay +through the heart of the old, mysterious and visionary country of +Etruria; and what he knew of its strange religion of the dead, +reinforced by the actual sight of the funeral houses scattered so +plentifully among the dwelling-places of the living, revived in him +for a while, in all its strength, his old instinctive yearning +towards those inhabitants of the shadowy land he had known in life. +It seemed to him that he could half divine how time passed in those +painted houses on the hillsides, among the gold and silver ornaments, +the wrought armour and vestments, the drowsy and dead attendants; and +the close consciousness of that vast population gave him no fear, but +rather a sense of companionship, as he climbed the hills on foot +behind the horses, through the genial afternoon. + +The road, next day, passed below a town not less primitive, it might +seem, than its rocky perch--white rocks, that had long been +glistening before him in the distance. Down the dewy paths the +people were descending from it, to keep a holiday, high and low alike +in rough, white-linen smocks. A homely old play was just begun in an +open-air theatre, with seats hollowed out of the turf-grown slope. +Marius [162] caught the terrified expression of a child in its +mother's arms, as it turned from the yawning mouth of a great mask, +for refuge in her bosom. The way mounted, and descended again, down +the steep street of another place, all resounding with the noise of +metal under the hammer; for every house had its brazier's workshop, +the bright objects of brass and copper gleaming, like lights in a +cave, out of their dark roofs and corners. Around the anvils the +children were watching the work, or ran to fetch water to the +hissing, red-hot metal; and Marius too watched, as he took his hasty +mid-day refreshment, a mess of chestnut-meal and cheese, while the +swelling surface of a great copper water-vessel grew flowered all +over with tiny petals under the skilful strokes. Towards dusk, a +frantic woman at the roadside, stood and cried out the words of some +philter, or malison, in verse, with weird motion of her hands, as the +travellers passed, like a wild picture drawn from Virgil. + +But all along, accompanying the superficial grace of these incidents +of the way, Marius noted, more and more as he drew nearer to Rome, +marks of the great plague. Under Hadrian and his successors, there +had been many enactments to improve the condition of the slave. The +ergastula+ were abolished. But no system of free labour had as yet +succeeded. A whole mendicant population, artfully exaggerating every +symptom and circumstance of misery, still hung [163] around, or +sheltered themselves within, the vast walls of their old, half-ruined +task-houses. And for the most part they had been variously stricken +by the pestilence. For once, the heroic level had been reached in +rags, squints, scars--every caricature of the human type--ravaged +beyond what could have been thought possible if it were to survive at +all. Meantime, the farms were less carefully tended than of old: +here and there they were lapsing into their natural wildness: some +villas also were partly fallen into ruin. The picturesque, romantic +Italy of a later time--the Italy of Claude and Salvator Rosa--was +already forming, for the delight of the modern romantic traveller. + +And again Marius was aware of a real change in things, on crossing +the Tiber, as if some magic effect lay in that; though here, in +truth, the Tiber was but a modest enough stream of turbid water. +Nature, under the richer sky, seemed readier and more affluent, and +man fitter to the conditions around him: even in people hard at work +there appeared to be a less burdensome sense of the mere business of +life. How dreamily the women were passing up through the broad light +and shadow of the steep streets with the great water-pots resting on +their heads, like women of Caryae, set free from slavery in old Greek +temples. With what a fresh, primeval poetry was daily existence here +impressed--all the details of the threshing-floor and the vineyard; +[164] the common farm-life even; the great bakers' fires aglow upon +the road in the evening. In the presence of all this Marius felt for +a moment like those old, early, unconscious poets, who created the +famous Greek myths of Dionysus, and the Great Mother, out of the +imagery of the wine-press and the ploughshare. And still the motion +of the journey was bringing his thoughts to systematic form. He +seemed to have grown to the fulness of intellectual manhood, on his +way hither. The formative and literary stimulus, so to call it, of +peaceful exercise which he had always observed in himself, doing its +utmost now, the form and the matter of thought alike detached +themselves clearly and with readiness from the healthfully excited +brain.--"It is wonderful," says Pliny, "how the mind is stirred to +activity by brisk bodily exercise." The presentable aspects of +inmost thought and feeling became evident to him: the structure of +all he meant, its order and outline, defined itself: his general +sense of a fitness and beauty in words became effective in daintily +pliant sentences, with all sorts of felicitous linking of figure to +abstraction. It seemed just then as if the desire of the artist in +him--that old longing to produce--might be satisfied by the exact and +literal transcript of what was then passing around him, in simple +prose, arresting the desirable moment as it passed, and prolonging +its life a little.--To live in the concrete! To be sure, at least, +of [165] one's hold upon that!--Again, his philosophic scheme was but +the reflection of the data of sense, and chiefly of sight, a +reduction to the abstract, of the brilliant road he travelled on, +through the sunshine. + +But on the seventh evening there came a reaction in the cheerful flow +of our traveller's thoughts, a reaction with which mere bodily +fatigue, asserting itself at last over his curiosity, had much to do; +and he fell into a mood, known to all passably sentimental wayfarers, +as night deepens again and again over their path, in which all +journeying, from the known to the unknown, comes suddenly to figure +as a mere foolish truancy--like a child's running away from home-- +with the feeling that one had best return at once, even through the +darkness. He had chosen to climb on foot, at his leisure, the long +windings by which the road ascended to the place where that day's +stage was to end, and found himself alone in the twilight, far behind +the rest of his travelling-companions. Would the last zigzag, round +and round those dark masses, half natural rock, half artificial +substructure, ever bring him within the circuit of the walls above? +It was now that a startling incident turned those misgivings almost +into actual fear. From the steep slope a heavy mass of stone was +detached, after some whisperings among the trees above his head, and +rushing down through the stillness fell to pieces in a [166] cloud of +dust across the road just behind him, so that he felt the touch upon +his heel. That was sufficient, just then, to rouse out of its +hiding-place his old vague fear of evil--of one's "enemies"--a +distress, so much a matter of constitution with him, that at times it +would seem that the best pleasures of life could but be snatched, as +it were hastily, in one moment's forgetfulness of its dark, besetting +influence. A sudden suspicion of hatred against him, of the nearness +of "enemies," seemed all at once to alter the visible form of things, +as with the child's hero, when he found the footprint on the sand of +his peaceful, dreamy island. His elaborate philosophy had not put +beneath his feet the terror of mere bodily evil; much less of +"inexorable fate, and the noise of greedy Acheron." + +The resting-place to which he presently came, in the keen, wholesome +air of the market-place of the little hill-town, was a pleasant +contrast to that last effort of his journey. The room in which he +sat down to supper, unlike the ordinary Roman inns at that day, was +trim and sweet. The firelight danced cheerfully upon the polished, +three-wicked lucernae burning cleanly with the best oil, upon the +white-washed walls, and the bunches of scarlet carnations set in +glass goblets. The white wine of the place put before him, of the +true colour and flavour of the grape, and with a ring of delicate +foam as it mounted in the cup, had a reviving edge or freshness he +had [167] found in no other wine. These things had relieved a little +the melancholy of the hour before; and it was just then that he heard +the voice of one, newly arrived at the inn, making his way to the +upper floor--a youthful voice, with a reassuring clearness of note, +which completed his cure. + +He seemed to hear that voice again in dreams, uttering his name: +then, awake in the full morning light and gazing from the window, saw +the guest of the night before, a very honourable-looking youth, in +the rich habit of a military knight, standing beside his horse, and +already making preparations to depart. It happened that Marius, too, +was to take that day's journey on horseback. Riding presently from +the inn, he overtook Cornelius--of the Twelfth Legion--advancing +carefully down the steep street; and before they had issued from the +gates of Urbs-vetus, the two young men had broken into talk together. +They were passing along the street of the goldsmiths; and Cornelius +must needs enter one of the workshops for the repair of some button +or link of his knightly trappings. Standing in the doorway, Marius +watched the work, as he had watched the brazier's business a few days +before, wondering most at the simplicity of its processes, a +simplicity, however, on which only genius in that craft could have +lighted.--By what unguessed-at stroke of hand, for instance, had the +grains of precious metal associated themselves [168] with so +daintily regular a roughness, over the surface of the little casket +yonder? And the conversation which followed, hence arising, left the +two travellers with sufficient interest in each other to insure an +easy companionship for the remainder of their journey. In time to +come, Marius was to depend very much on the preferences, the personal +judgments, of the comrade who now laid his hand so brotherly on his +shoulder, as they left the workshop. + +Itineris matutini gratiam capimus,+--observes one of our scholarly +travellers; and their road that day lay through a country, well- +fitted, by the peculiarity of its landscape, to ripen a first +acquaintance into intimacy; its superficial ugliness throwing the +wayfarers back upon each other's entertainment in a real exchange of +ideas, the tension of which, however, it would relieve, ever and +anon, by the unexpected assertion of something singularly attractive. +The immediate aspect of the land was, indeed, in spite of abundant +olive and ilex, unpleasing enough. A river of clay seemed, "in some +old night of time," to have burst up over valley and hill, and +hardened there into fantastic shelves and slides and angles of +cadaverous rock, up and down among the contorted vegetation; the +hoary roots and trunks seeming to confess some weird kinship with +them. But that was long ago; and these pallid hillsides needed only +the declining sun, touching the rock with purple, and throwing deeper +shadow into [169] the immemorial foliage, to put on a peculiar, +because a very grave and austere, kind of beauty; while the graceful +outlines common to volcanic hills asserted themselves in the broader +prospect. And, for sentimental Marius, all this was associated, by +some perhaps fantastic affinity, with a peculiar trait of severity, +beyond his guesses as to the secret of it, which mingled with the +blitheness of his new companion. Concurring, indeed, with the +condition of a Roman soldier, it was certainly something far more +than the expression of military hardness, or ascesis; and what was +earnest, or even austere, in the landscape they had traversed +together, seemed to have been waiting for the passage of this figure +to interpret or inform it. Again, as in his early days with Flavian, +a vivid personal presence broke through the dreamy idealism, which +had almost come to doubt of other men's reality: reassuringly, +indeed, yet not without some sense of a constraining tyranny over him +from without. + +For Cornelius, returning from the campaign, to take up his quarters +on the Palatine, in the imperial guard, seemed to carry about with +him, in that privileged world of comely usage to which he belonged, +the atmosphere of some still more jealously exclusive circle. They +halted on the morrow at noon, not at an inn, but at the house of one +of the young soldier's friends, whom they found absent, indeed, in +consequence of the [170] plague in those parts, so that after a mid- +day rest only, they proceeded again on their journey. The great room +of the villa, to which they were admitted, had lain long untouched; +and the dust rose, as they entered, into the slanting bars of +sunlight, that fell through the half-closed shutters. It was here, +to while away the time, that Cornelius bethought himself of +displaying to his new friend the various articles and ornaments of +his knightly array--the breastplate, the sandals and cuirass, lacing +them on, one by one, with the assistance of Marius, and finally the +great golden bracelet on the right arm, conferred on him by his +general for an act of valour. And as he gleamed there, amid that odd +interchange of light and shade, with the staff of a silken standard +firm in his hand, Marius felt as if he were face to face, for the +first time, with some new knighthood or chivalry, just then coming +into the world. + +It was soon after they left this place, journeying now by carriage, +that Rome was seen at last, with much excitement on the part of our +travellers; Cornelius, and some others of whom the party then +consisted, agreeing, chiefly for the sake of Marius, to hasten +forward, that it might be reached by daylight, with a cheerful noise +of rapid wheels as they passed over the flagstones. But the highest +light upon the mausoleum of Hadrian was quite gone out, and it was +dark, before they reached the Flaminian Gate. The [171] abundant +sound of water was the one thing that impressed Marius, as they +passed down a long street, with many open spaces on either hand: +Cornelius to his military quarters, and Marius to the old dwelling- +place of his fathers. + +NOTES + +162. +E-text editor's note: ergastula were the Roman agrarian +equivalent of prison-workhouses. + +168. +Apuleius, The Golden Ass, I.17. + + + +CHAPTER XI: "THE MOST RELIGIOUS CITY IN THE WORLD" + +[172] MARIUS awoke early and passed curiously from room to room, +noting for more careful inspection by and by the rolls of +manuscripts. Even greater than his curiosity in gazing for the first +time on this ancient possession, was his eagerness to look out upon +Rome itself, as he pushed back curtain and shutter, and stepped forth +in the fresh morning upon one of the many balconies, with an oft- +repeated dream realised at last. He was certainly fortunate in the +time of his coming to Rome. That old pagan world, of which Rome +was the flower, had reached its perfection in the things of poetry +and art--a perfection which indicated only too surely the eve of +decline. As in some vast intellectual museum, all its manifold +products were intact and in their places, and with custodians also +still extant, duly qualified to appreciate and explain them. And at +no period of history had the material Rome itself been better worth +seeing--lying there not less consummate than that world of [173] +pagan intellect which it represented in every phase of its darkness +and light. The various work of many ages fell here harmoniously +together, as yet untouched save by time, adding the final grace of a +rich softness to its complex expression. Much which spoke of ages +earlier than Nero, the great re-builder, lingered on, antique, +quaint, immeasurably venerable, like the relics of the medieval city +in the Paris of Lewis the Fourteenth: the work of Nero's own time had +come to have that sort of old world and picturesque interest which +the work of Lewis has for ourselves; while without stretching a +parallel too far we might perhaps liken the architectural finesses of +the archaic Hadrian to the more excellent products of our own Gothic +revival. The temple of Antoninus and Faustina was still fresh in all +the majesty of its closely arrayed columns of cipollino; but, on the +whole, little had been added under the late and present emperors, and +during fifty years of public quiet, a sober brown and gray had grown +apace on things. The gilding on the roof of many a temple had lost +its garishness: cornice and capital of polished marble shone out with +all the crisp freshness of real flowers, amid the already mouldering +travertine and brickwork, though the birds had built freely among +them. What Marius then saw was in many respects, after all deduction +of difference, more like the modern Rome than the enumeration of +particular losses [174] might lead us to suppose; the Renaissance, +in its most ambitious mood and with amplest resources, having resumed +the ancient classical tradition there, with no break or obstruction, +as it had happened, in any very considerable work of the middle age. +Immediately before him, on the square, steep height, where the +earliest little old Rome had huddled itself together, arose the +palace of the Caesars. Half-veiling the vast substruction of rough, +brown stone--line upon line of successive ages of builders--the trim, +old-fashioned garden walks, under their closely-woven walls of dark +glossy foliage, test of long and careful cultivation, wound +gradually, among choice trees, statues and fountains, distinct and +sparkling in the full morning sunlight, to the richly tinted mass of +pavilions and corridors above, centering in the lofty, white-marble +dwelling-place of Apollo himself. + +How often had Marius looked forward to that first, free wandering +through Rome, to which he now went forth with a heat in the town +sunshine (like a mist of fine gold-dust spread through the air) to +the height of his desire, making the dun coolness of the narrow +streets welcome enough at intervals. He almost feared, descending +the stair hastily, lest some unforeseen accident should snatch the +little cup of enjoyment from him ere he passed the door. In such +morning rambles in places new to him, [175] life had always seemed to +come at its fullest: it was then he could feel his youth, that youth +the days of which he had already begun to count jealously, in entire +possession. So the grave, pensive figure, a figure, be it said +nevertheless, fresher far than often came across it now, moved +through the old city towards the lodgings of Cornelius, certainly not +by the most direct course, however eager to rejoin the friend of +yesterday. + +Bent as keenly on seeing as if his first day in Rome were to be also +his last, the two friends descended along the Vicus Tuscus, with its +rows of incense-stalls, into the Via Nova, where the fashionable +people were busy shopping; and Marius saw with much amusement the +frizzled heads, then a la mode. A glimpse of the Marmorata, the +haven at the river-side, where specimens of all the precious marbles +of the world were lying amid great white blocks from the quarries of +Luna, took his thoughts for a moment to his distant home. They +visited the flower-market, lingering where the coronarii pressed on +them the newest species, and purchased zinias, now in blossom (like +painted flowers, thought Marius), to decorate the folds of their +togas. Loitering to the other side of the Forum, past the great +Galen's drug-shop, after a glance at the announcements of new poems +on sale attached to the doorpost of a famous bookseller, they entered +the curious [176] library of the Temple of Peace, then a favourite +resort of literary men, and read, fixed there for all to see, the +Diurnal or Gazette of the day, which announced, together with births +and deaths, prodigies and accidents, and much mere matter of +business, the date and manner of the philosophic emperor's joyful +return to his people; and, thereafter, with eminent names faintly +disguised, what would carry that day's news, in many copies, over the +provinces--a certain matter concerning the great lady, known to be +dear to him, whom he had left at home. It was a story, with the +development of which "society" had indeed for some time past edified +or amused itself, rallying sufficiently from the panic of a year ago, +not only to welcome back its ruler, but also to relish a chronique +scandaleuse; and thus, when soon after Marius saw the world's wonder, +he was already acquainted with the suspicions which have ever since +hung about her name. Twelve o'clock was come before they left the +Forum, waiting in a little crowd to hear the Accensus, according to +old custom, proclaim the hour of noonday, at the moment when, from +the steps of the Senate-house, the sun could be seen standing between +the Rostra and the Graecostasis. He exerted for this function a +strength of voice, which confirmed in Marius a judgment the modern +visitor may share with him, that Roman throats and Roman chests, +namely, must, in some peculiar way, be differently [177] constructed +from those of other people. Such judgment indeed he had formed in +part the evening before, noting, as a religious procession passed +him, how much noise a man and a boy could make, though not without a +great deal of real music, of which in truth the Romans were then as +ever passionately fond. + +Hence the two friends took their way through the Via Flaminia, almost +along the line of the modern Corso, already bordered with handsome +villas, turning presently to the left, into the Field-of-Mars, still +the playground of Rome. But the vast public edifices were grown to +be almost continuous over the grassy expanse, represented now only by +occasional open spaces of verdure and wild-flowers. In one of these +a crowd was standing, to watch a party of athletes stripped for +exercise. Marius had been surprised at the luxurious variety of the +litters borne through Rome, where no carriage horses were allowed; +and just then one far more sumptuous than the rest, with dainty +appointments of ivory and gold, was carried by, all the town pressing +with eagerness to get a glimpse of its most beautiful woman, as she +passed rapidly. Yes! there, was the wonder of the world--the empress +Faustina herself: Marius could distinguish, could distinguish +clearly, the well-known profile, between the floating purple +curtains. + +For indeed all Rome was ready to burst into gaiety again, as it +awaited with much real [178] affection, hopeful and animated, the +return of its emperor, for whose ovation various adornments were +preparing along the streets through which the imperial procession +would pass. He had left Rome just twelve months before, amid immense +gloom. The alarm of a barbarian insurrection along the whole line of +the Danube had happened at the moment when Rome was panic-stricken by +the great pestilence. + +In fifty years of peace, broken only by that conflict in the East +from which Lucius Verus, among other curiosities, brought back the +plague, war had come to seem a merely romantic, superannuated +incident of bygone history. And now it was almost upon Italian soil. +Terrible were the reports of the numbers and audacity of the +assailants. Aurelius, as yet untried in war, and understood by a few +only in the whole scope of a really great character, was known to the +majority of his subjects as but a careful administrator, though a +student of philosophy, perhaps, as we say, a dilettante. But he was +also the visible centre of government, towards whom the hearts of a +whole people turned, grateful for fifty years of public happiness-- +its good genius, its "Antonine"--whose fragile person might be +foreseen speedily giving way under the trials of military life, with +a disaster like that of the slaughter of the legions by Arminius. +Prophecies of the world's impending conflagration were easily +credited: "the secular fire" would descend from [179] heaven: +superstitious fear had even demanded the sacrifice of a human victim. + +Marcus Aurelius, always philosophically considerate of the humours of +other people, exercising also that devout appreciation of every +religious claim which was one of his characteristic habits, had +invoked, in aid of the commonwealth, not only all native gods, but +all foreign deities as well, however strange.--"Help! Help! in the +ocean space!" A multitude of foreign priests had been welcomed to +Rome, with their various peculiar religious rites. The sacrifices +made on this occasion were remembered for centuries; and the starving +poor, at least, found some satisfaction in the flesh of those herds +of "white bulls," which came into the city, day after day, to yield +the savour of their blood to the gods. + +In spite of all this, the legions had but followed their standards +despondently. But prestige, personal prestige, the name of +"Emperor," still had its magic power over the nations. The mere +approach of the Roman army made an impression on the barbarians. +Aurelius and his colleague had scarcely reached Aquileia when a +deputation arrived to ask for peace. And now the two imperial +"brothers" were returning home at leisure; were waiting, indeed, at a +villa outside the walls, till the capital had made ready to receive +them. But although Rome was thus in genial reaction, with much +relief, [180] and hopefulness against the winter, facing itself +industriously in damask of red and gold, those two enemies were still +unmistakably extant: the barbarian army of the Danube was but over- +awed for a season; and the plague, as we saw when Marius was on his +way to Rome, was not to depart till it had done a large part in the +formation of the melancholy picturesque of modern Italy--till it had +made, or prepared for the making of the Roman Campagna. The old, +unaffected, really pagan, peace or gaiety, of Antoninus Pius--that +genuine though unconscious humanist--was gone for ever. And again +and again, throughout this day of varied observation, Marius had been +reminded, above all else, that he was not merely in "the most +religious city of the world," as one had said, but that Rome was +become the romantic home of the wildest superstition. Such +superstition presented itself almost as religious mania in many an +incident of his long ramble,--incidents to which he gave his full +attention, though contending in some measure with a reluctance on the +part of his companion, the motive of which he did not understand till +long afterwards. Marius certainly did not allow this reluctance to +deter his own curiosity. Had he not come to Rome partly under poetic +vocation, to receive all those things, the very impress of life +itself, upon the visual, the imaginative, organ, as upon a mirror; to +reflect them; to transmute them [181] into golden words? He must +observe that strange medley of superstition, that centuries' growth, +layer upon layer, of the curiosities of religion (one faith jostling +another out of place) at least for its picturesque interest, and as +an indifferent outsider might, not too deeply concerned in the +question which, if any of them, was to be the survivor. + +Superficially, at least, the Roman religion, allying itself with much +diplomatic economy to possible rivals, was in possession, as a vast +and complex system of usage, intertwining itself with every detail of +public and private life, attractively enough for those who had but +"the historic temper," and a taste for the past, however much a +Lucian might depreciate it. Roman religion, as Marius knew, had, +indeed, been always something to be done, rather than something to be +thought, or believed, or loved; something to be done in minutely +detailed manner, at a particular time and place, correctness in which +had long been a matter of laborious learning with a whole school of +ritualists--as also, now and again, a matter of heroic sacrifice with +certain exceptionally devout souls, as when Caius Fabius Dorso, with +his life in his hand, succeeded in passing the sentinels of the +invading Gauls to perform a sacrifice on the Quirinal, and, thanks to +the divine protection, had returned in safety. So jealous was the +distinction between sacred and profane, that, in the matter [182] of +the "regarding of days," it had made more than half the year a +holiday. Aurelius had, indeed, ordained that there should be no more +than a hundred and thirty-five festival days in the year; but in +other respects he had followed in the steps of his predecessor, +Antoninus Pius--commended especially for his "religion," his +conspicuous devotion to its public ceremonies--and whose coins are +remarkable for their reference to the oldest and most hieratic types +of Roman mythology. Aurelius had succeeded in more than healing the +old feud between philosophy and religion, displaying himself, in +singular combination, as at once the most zealous of philosophers and +the most devout of polytheists, and lending himself, with an air of +conviction, to all the pageantries of public worship. To his pious +recognition of that one orderly spirit, which, according to the +doctrine of the Stoics, diffuses itself through the world, and +animates it--a recognition taking the form, with him, of a constant +effort towards inward likeness thereto, in the harmonious order of +his own soul--he had added a warm personal devotion towards the whole +multitude of the old national gods, and a great many new foreign ones +besides, by him, at least, not ignobly conceived. If the comparison +may be reverently made, there was something here of the method by +which the catholic church has added the cultus of the saints to its +worship of the one Divine Being. + +[183] And to the view of the majority, though the emperor, as the +personal centre of religion, entertained the hope of converting his +people to philosophic faith, and had even pronounced certain public +discourses for their instruction in it, that polytheistic devotion +was his most striking feature. Philosophers, indeed, had, for the +most part, thought with Seneca, "that a man need not lift his hands +to heaven, nor ask the sacristan's leave to put his mouth to the ear +of an image, that his prayers might be heard the better."--Marcus +Aurelius, "a master in Israel," knew all that well enough. Yet his +outward devotion was much more than a concession to popular +sentiment, or a mere result of that sense of fellow-citizenship with +others, which had made him again and again, under most difficult +circumstances, an excellent comrade. Those others, too!--amid all +their ignorances, what were they but instruments in the +administration of the Divine Reason, "from end to end sweetly and +strongly disposing all things"? Meantime "Philosophy" itself had +assumed much of what we conceive to be the religious character. It +had even cultivated the habit, the power, of "spiritual direction"; +the troubled soul making recourse in its hour of destitution, or amid +the distractions of the world, to this or that director--philosopho +suo--who could really best understand it. + +And it had been in vain that the old, grave [184] and discreet +religion of Rome had set itself, according to its proper genius, to +prevent or subdue all trouble and disturbance in men's souls. In +religion, as in other matters, plebeians, as such, had a taste for +movement, for revolution; and it had been ever in the most populous +quarters that religious changes began. To the apparatus of foreign +religion, above all, recourse had been made in times of public +disquietude or sudden terror; and in those great religious +celebrations, before his proceeding against the barbarians, Aurelius +had even restored the solemnities of Isis, prohibited in the capital +since the time of Augustus, making no secret of his worship of that +goddess, though her temple had been actually destroyed by authority +in the reign of Tiberius. Her singular and in many ways beautiful +ritual was now popular in Rome. And then--what the enthusiasm of the +swarming plebeian quarters had initiated, was sure to be adopted, +sooner or later, by women of fashion. A blending of all the +religions of the ancient world had been accomplished. The new gods +had arrived, had been welcomed, and found their places; though, +certainly, with no real security, in any adequate ideal of the divine +nature itself in the background of men's minds, that the presence of +the new-comer should be edifying, or even refining. High and low +addressed themselves to all deities alike without scruple; confusing +them together when they prayed, and in the old, [185] authorised, +threefold veneration of their visible images, by flowers, incense, +and ceremonial lights--those beautiful usages, which the church, in +her way through the world, ever making spoil of the world's goods for +the better uses of the human spirit, took up and sanctified in her +service. + +And certainly "the most religious city in the world" took no care to +veil its devotion, however fantastic. The humblest house had its +little chapel or shrine, its image and lamp; while almost every one +seemed to exercise some religious function and responsibility. +Colleges, composed for the most part of slaves and of the poor, +provided for the service of the Compitalian Lares--the gods who +presided, respectively, over the several quarters of the city. In +one street, Marius witnessed an incident of the festival of the +patron deity of that neighbourhood, the way being strewn with box, +the houses tricked out gaily in such poor finery as they possessed, +while the ancient idol was borne through it in procession, arrayed in +gaudy attire the worse for wear. Numerous religious clubs had their +stated anniversaries, on which the members issued with much ceremony +from their guild-hall, or schola, and traversed the thoroughfares of +Rome, preceded, like the confraternities of the present day, by their +sacred banners, to offer sacrifice before some famous image. Black +with the perpetual smoke of lamps and incense, oftenest old and [186] +ugly, perhaps on that account the more likely to listen to the +desires of the suffering--had not those sacred effigies sometimes +given sensible tokens that they were aware? The image of the Fortune +of Women--Fortuna Muliebris, in the Latin Way, had spoken (not once +only) and declared; Bene me, Matronae! vidistis riteque dedicastis! +The Apollo of Cumae had wept during three whole nights and days. The +images in the temple of Juno Sospita had been seen to sweat. Nay! +there was blood--divine blood--in the hearts of some of them: the +images in the Grove of Feronia had sweated blood! + +From one and all Cornelius had turned away: like the "atheist" of +whom Apuleius tells he had never once raised hand to lip in passing +image or sanctuary, and had parted from Marius finally when the +latter determined to enter the crowded doorway of a temple, on their +return into the Forum, below the Palatine hill, where the mothers +were pressing in, with a multitude of every sort of children, to +touch the lightning-struck image of the wolf-nurse of Romulus--so +tender to little ones!--just discernible in its dark shrine, amid a +blaze of lights. Marius gazed after his companion of the day, as he +mounted the steps to his lodging, singing to himself, as it seemed. +Marius failed precisely to catch the words. + +And, as the rich, fresh evening came on, there was heard all over +Rome, far above a whisper, [187] the whole town seeming hushed to +catch it distinctly, the lively, reckless call to "play," from the +sons and daughters of foolishness, to those in whom their life was +still green--Donec virenti canities abest!--Donec virenti canities +abest!+ Marius could hardly doubt how Cornelius would have taken the +call. And as for himself, slight as was the burden of positive moral +obligation with which he had entered Rome, it was to no wasteful and +vagrant affections, such as these, that his Epicureanism had +committed him. + +NOTES + +187. +Horace, Odes I.ix.17. Translation: "So long as youth is fresh +and age is far away." + + + +CHAPTER XII: THE DIVINITY THAT DOTH HEDGE A KING + + But ah! Maecenas is yclad in claye, + And great Augustus long ygoe is dead, + And all the worthies liggen wrapt in lead, + That matter made for poets on to playe.+ + +[188] MARCUS AURELIUS who, though he had little relish for them +himself, had ever been willing to humour the taste of his people for +magnificent spectacles, was received back to Rome with the lesser +honours of the Ovation, conceded by the Senate (so great was the +public sense of deliverance) with even more than the laxity which had +become its habit under imperial rule, for there had been no actual +bloodshed in the late achievement. Clad in the civic dress of the +chief Roman magistrate, and with a crown of myrtle upon his head, his +colleague similarly attired walking beside him, he passed up to the +Capitol on foot, though in solemn procession along the Sacred Way, to +offer sacrifice to the national gods. The victim, a goodly sheep, +whose image we may still see between the pig and the ox of the [189] +Suovetaurilia, filleted and stoled almost like some ancient canon of +the church, on a sculptured fragment in the Forum, was conducted by +the priests, clad in rich white vestments, and bearing their sacred +utensils of massive gold, immediately behind a company of flute- +players, led by the great choir-master, or conductor, of the day, +visibly tetchy or delighted, according as the instruments he ruled +with his tuning-rod, rose, more or less adequately amid the +difficulties of the way, to the dream of perfect music in the soul +within him. The vast crowd, including the soldiers of the triumphant +army, now restored to wives and children, all alike in holiday +whiteness, had left their houses early in the fine, dry morning, in a +real affection for "the father of his country," to await the +procession, the two princes having spent the preceding night outside +the walls, at the old Villa of the Republic. Marius, full of +curiosity, had taken his position with much care; and stood to see +the world's masters pass by, at an angle from which he could command +the view of a great part of the processional route, sprinkled with +fine yellow sand, and punctiliously guarded from profane footsteps. + +The coming of the pageant was announced by the clear sound of the +flutes, heard at length above the acclamations of the people--Salve +Imperator!--Dii te servent!--shouted in regular time, over the hills. +It was on the central [190] figure, of course, that the whole +attention of Marius was fixed from the moment when the procession +came in sight, preceded by the lictors with gilded fasces, the +imperial image-bearers, and the pages carrying lighted torches; a +band of knights, among whom was Cornelius in complete military, +array, following. Amply swathed about in the folds of a richly +worked toga, after a manner now long since become obsolete with +meaner persons, Marius beheld a man of about five-and-forty years of +age, with prominent eyes--eyes, which although demurely downcast +during this essentially religious ceremony, were by nature broadly +and benignantly observant. He was still, in the main, as we see him +in the busts which represent his gracious and courtly youth, when +Hadrian had playfully called him, not Verus, after the name of his +father, but Verissimus, for his candour of gaze, and the bland +capacity of the brow, which, below the brown hair, clustering thickly +as of old, shone out low, broad, and clear, and still without a trace +of the trouble of his lips. You saw the brow of one who, amid the +blindness or perplexity of the people about him, understood all +things clearly; the dilemma, to which his experience so far had +brought him, between Chance with meek resignation, and a Providence +with boundless possibilities and hope, being for him at least +distinctly defined. + +That outward serenity, which he valued so [191] highly as a point of +manner or expression not unworthy the care of a public minister-- +outward symbol, it might be thought, of the inward religious serenity +it had been his constant purpose to maintain--was increased to-day by +his sense of the gratitude of his people; that his life had been one +of such gifts and blessings as made his person seem in very deed +divine to them. Yet the cloud of some reserved internal sorrow, +passing from time to time into an expression of fatigue and effort, +of loneliness amid the shouting multitude, might have been detected +there by the more observant--as if the sagacious hint of one of his +officers, "The soldiers can't understand you, they don't know Greek," +were applicable always to his relationships with other people. The +nostrils and mouth seemed capable almost of peevishness; and Marius +noted in them, as in the hands, and in the spare body generally, what +was new to his experience--something of asceticism, as we say, of a +bodily gymnastic, by which, although it told pleasantly in the clear +blue humours of the eye, the flesh had scarcely been an equal gainer +with the spirit. It was hardly the expression of "the healthy mind +in the healthy body," but rather of a sacrifice of the body to the +soul, its needs and aspirations, that Marius seemed to divine in this +assiduous student of the Greek sages--a sacrifice, in truth, far +beyond the demands of their very saddest philosophy of life. + +[192] Dignify thyself with modesty and simplicity for thine +ornaments!--had been ever a maxim with this dainty and high-bred +Stoic, who still thought manners a true part of morals, according to +the old sense of the term, and who regrets now and again that he +cannot control his thoughts equally well with his countenance. That +outward composure was deepened during the solemnities of this day by +an air of pontifical abstraction; which, though very far from being +pride--nay, a sort of humility rather--yet gave, to himself, an air +of unapproachableness, and to his whole proceeding, in which every +minutest act was considered, the character of a ritual. Certainly, +there was no haughtiness, social, moral, or even philosophic, in +Aurelius, who had realised, under more trying conditions perhaps than +any one before, that no element of humanity could be alien from him. +Yet, as he walked to-day, the centre of ten thousand observers, with +eyes discreetly fixed on the ground, veiling his head at times and +muttering very rapidly the words of the "supplications," there was +something many spectators may have noted as a thing new in their +experience, for Aurelius, unlike his predecessors, took all this with +absolute seriousness. The doctrine of the sanctity of kings, that, +in the words of Tacitus, Princes are as Gods--Principes instar deorum +esse--seemed to have taken a novel, because a literal, sense. For +Aurelius, indeed, the old legend of his descent from Numa, from [193] +Numa who had talked with the gods, meant much. Attached in very +early years to the service of the altars, like many another noble +youth, he was "observed to perform all his sacerdotal functions with +a constancy and exactness unusual at that age; was soon a master of +the sacred music; and had all the forms and ceremonies by heart." +And now, as the emperor, who had not only a vague divinity about his +person, but was actually the chief religious functionary of the +state, recited from time to time the forms of invocation, he needed +not the help of the prompter, or ceremoniarius, who then approached, +to assist him by whispering the appointed words in his ear. It was +that pontifical abstraction which then impressed itself on Marius as +the leading outward characteristic of Aurelius; though to him alone, +perhaps, in that vast crowd of observers, it was no strange thing, +but a matter he had understood from of old. + +Some fanciful writers have assigned the origin of these triumphal +processions to the mythic pomps of Dionysus, after his conquests in +the East; the very word Triumph being, according to this supposition, +only Thriambos-the Dionysiac Hymn. And certainly the younger of the +two imperial "brothers," who, with the effect of a strong contrast, +walked beside Aurelius, and shared the honours of the day, might well +have reminded people of the delicate Greek god of flowers and wine. +This [194] new conqueror of the East was now about thirty-six years +old, but with his scrupulous care for all the advantages of his +person, and a soft curling beard powdered with gold, looked many +years younger. One result of the more genial element in the wisdom +of Aurelius had been that, amid most difficult circumstances, he had +known throughout life how to act in union with persons of character +very alien from his own; to be more than loyal to the colleague, the +younger brother in empire, he had too lightly taken to himself, five +years before, then an uncorrupt youth, "skilled in manly exercises +and fitted for war." When Aurelius thanks the gods that a brother +had fallen to his lot, whose character was a stimulus to the proper +care of his own, one sees that this could only have happened in the +way of an example, putting him on his guard against insidious faults. +But it is with sincere amiability that the imperial writer, who was +indeed little used to be ironical, adds that the lively respect and +affection of the junior had often "gladdened" him. To be able to +make his use of the flower, when the fruit perhaps was useless or +poisonous:--that was one of the practical successes of his +philosophy; and his people noted, with a blessing, "the concord of +the two Augusti." + +The younger, certainly, possessed in full measure that charm of a +constitutional freshness of aspect which may defy for a long time +extravagant or erring habits of life; a physiognomy, [195] healthy- +looking, cleanly, and firm, which seemed unassociable with any form +of self-torment, and made one think of the muzzle of some young hound +or roe, such as human beings invariably like to stroke--a +physiognomy, in effect, with all the goodliness of animalism of the +finer sort, though still wholly animal. The charm was that of the +blond head, the unshrinking gaze, the warm tints: neither more nor +less than one may see every English summer, in youth, manly enough, +and with the stuff which makes brave soldiers, in spite of the +natural kinship it seems to have with playthings and gay flowers. +But innate in Lucius Verus there was that more than womanly fondness +for fond things, which had made the atmosphere of the old city of +Antioch, heavy with centuries of voluptuousness, a poison to him: he +had come to love his delicacies best out of season, and would have +gilded the very flowers. But with a wonderful power of self- +obliteration, the elder brother at the capital had directed his +procedure successfully, and allowed him, become now also the husband +of his daughter Lucilla, the credit of a "Conquest," though Verus had +certainly not returned a conqueror over himself. He had returned, as +we know, with the plague in his company, along with many another +strange creature of his folly; and when the people saw him publicly +feeding his favourite horse Fleet with almonds and sweet grapes, +wearing the animal's image in gold, and [196] finally building it a +tomb, they felt, with some un-sentimental misgiving, that he might +revive the manners of Nero.--What if, in the chances of war, he +should survive the protecting genius of that elder brother? + +He was all himself to-day: and it was with much wistful curiosity +that Marius regarded him. For Lucius Verus was, indeed, but the +highly expressive type of a class,--the true son of his father, +adopted by Hadrian. Lucius Verus the elder, also, had had the like +strange capacity for misusing the adornments of life, with a masterly +grace; as if such misusing were, in truth, the quite adequate +occupation of an intelligence, powerful, but distorted by cynical +philosophy or some disappointment of the heart. It was almost a sort +of genius, of which there had been instances in the imperial purple: +it was to ascend the throne, a few years later, in the person of one, +now a hopeful little lad at home in the palace; and it had its +following, of course, among the wealthy youth at Rome, who +concentrated no inconsiderable force of shrewdness and tact upon +minute details of attire and manner, as upon the one thing needful. +Certainly, flowers were pleasant to the eye. Such things had even +their sober use, as making the outside of human life superficially +attractive, and thereby promoting the first steps towards friendship +and social amity. But what precise place could there be for Verus +and his peculiar charm, [197] in that Wisdom, that Order of divine +Reason "reaching from end to end, strongly and sweetly disposing all +things," from the vision of which Aurelius came down, so tolerant of +persons like him? Into such vision Marius too was certainly well- +fitted to enter, yet, noting the actual perfection of Lucius Verus +after his kind, his undeniable achievement of the select, in all +minor things, felt, though with some suspicion of himself, that he +entered into, and could understand, this other so dubious sort of +character also. There was a voice in the theory he had brought to +Rome with him which whispered "nothing is either great nor small;" as +there were times when he could have thought that, as the +"grammarian's" or the artist's ardour of soul may be satisfied by the +perfecting of the theory of a sentence, or the adjustment of two +colours, so his own life also might have been fulfilled by an +enthusiastic quest after perfection--say, in the flowering and +folding of a toga. + +The emperors had burned incense before the image of Jupiter, arrayed +in its most gorgeous apparel, amid sudden shouts from the people of +Salve Imperator! turned now from the living princes to the deity, as +they discerned his countenance through the great open doors. The +imperial brothers had deposited their crowns of myrtle on the richly +embroidered lapcloth of the god; and, with their chosen guests, sat +down to a public feast in the temple [198] itself. There followed +what was, after all, the great event of the day:--an appropriate +discourse, a discourse almost wholly de contemptu mundi, delivered in +the presence of the assembled Senate, by the emperor Aurelius, who +had thus, on certain rare occasions, condescended to instruct his +people, with the double authority of a chief pontiff and a laborious +student of philosophy. In those lesser honours of the ovation, there +had been no attendant slave behind the emperors, to make mock of +their effulgence as they went; and it was as if with the discretion +proper to a philosopher, and in fear of a jealous Nemesis, he had +determined himself to protest in time against the vanity of all +outward success. + +The Senate was assembled to hear the emperor's discourse in the vast +hall of the Curia Julia. A crowd of high-bred youths idled around, +or on the steps before the doors, with the marvellous toilets Marius +had noticed in the Via Nova; in attendance, as usual, to learn by +observation the minute points of senatorial procedure. Marius had +already some acquaintance with them, and passing on found himself +suddenly in the presence of what was still the most august assembly +the world had seen. Under Aurelius, ever full of veneration for this +ancient traditional guardian of public religion, the Senate had +recovered all its old dignity and independence. Among its members +many [199] hundreds in number, visibly the most distinguished of them +all, Marius noted the great sophists or rhetoricians of the day, in +all their magnificence. The antique character of their attire, and +the ancient mode of wearing it, still surviving with them, added to +the imposing character of their persons, while they sat, with their +staves of ivory in their hands, on their curule chairs--almost the +exact pattern of the chair still in use in the Roman church when a +Bishop pontificates at the divine offices--"tranquil and unmoved, +with a majesty that seemed divine," as Marius thought, like the old +Gaul of the Invasion. The rays of the early November sunset slanted +full upon the audience, and made it necessary for the officers of the +Court to draw the purple curtains over the windows, adding to the +solemnity of the scene. In the depth of those warm shadows, +surrounded by her ladies, the empress Faustina was seated to listen. +The beautiful Greek statue of Victory, which since the days of +Augustus had presided over the assemblies of the Senate, had been +brought into the hall, and placed near the chair of the emperor; who, +after rising to perform a brief sacrificial service in its honour, +bowing reverently to the assembled fathers left and right, took his +seat and began to speak. + +There was a certain melancholy grandeur in the very simplicity or +triteness of the theme: as it were the very quintessence of all the +old [200] Roman epitaphs, of all that was monumental in that city of +tombs, layer upon layer of dead things and people. As if in the very +fervour of disillusion, he seemed to be composing--Hosper epigraphas +chronon kai holon ethnon+--the sepulchral titles of ages and whole +peoples; nay! the very epitaph of the living Rome itself. The +grandeur of the ruins of Rome,--heroism in ruin: it was under the +influence of an imaginative anticipation of this, that he appeared to +be speaking. And though the impression of the actual greatness of +Rome on that day was but enhanced by the strain of contempt, falling +with an accent of pathetic conviction from the emperor himself, and +gaining from his pontifical pretensions the authority of a religious +intimation, yet the curious interest of the discourse lay in this, +that Marius, for one, as he listened, seemed to forsee a grass-grown +Forum, the broken ways of the Capitol, and the Palatine hill itself +in humble occupation. That impression connected itself with what he +had already noted of an actual change even then coming over Italian +scenery. Throughout, he could trace something of a humour into which +Stoicism at all times tends to fall, the tendency to cry, Abase +yourselves! There was here the almost inhuman impassibility of one +who had thought too closely on the paradoxical aspect of the love of +posthumous fame. With the ascetic pride which lurks under all +Platonism, [201] resultant from its opposition of the seen to the +unseen, as falsehood to truth--the imperial Stoic, like his true +descendant, the hermit of the middle age, was ready, in no friendly +humour, to mock, there in its narrow bed, the corpse which had made +so much of itself in life. Marius could but contrast all that with +his own Cyrenaic eagerness, just then, to taste and see and touch; +reflecting on the opposite issues deducible from the same text. "The +world, within me and without, flows away like a river," he had said; +"therefore let me make the most of what is here and now."--"The world +and the thinker upon it, are consumed like a flame," said Aurelius, +"therefore will I turn away my eyes from vanity: renounce: withdraw +myself alike from all affections." He seemed tacitly to claim as a +sort of personal dignity, that he was very familiarly versed in this +view of things, and could discern a death's-head everywhere. Now and +again Marius was reminded of the saying that "with the Stoics all +people are the vulgar save themselves;" and at times the orator +seemed to have forgotten his audience, and to be speaking only to +himself. + +"Art thou in love with men's praises, get thee into the very soul of +them, and see!--see what judges they be, even in those matters which +concern themselves. Wouldst thou have their praise after death, +bethink thee, that they who shall come hereafter, and with whom thou +[202] wouldst survive by thy great name, will be but as these, whom +here thou hast found so hard to live with. For of a truth, the soul +of him who is aflutter upon renown after death, presents not this +aright to itself, that of all whose memory he would have each one +will likewise very quickly depart, until memory herself be put out, +as she journeys on by means of such as are themselves on the wing but +for a while, and are extinguished in their turn.--Making so much of +those thou wilt never see! It is as if thou wouldst have had those +who were before thee discourse fair things concerning thee. + +"To him, indeed, whose wit hath been whetted by true doctrine, that +well-worn sentence of Homer sufficeth, to guard him against regret +and fear.-- + + Like the race of leaves + The race of man is:-- + + The wind in autumn strows + The earth with old leaves: then the spring + the woods with new endows.+ + +Leaves! little leaves!--thy children, thy flatterers, thine enemies! +Leaves in the wind, those who would devote thee to darkness, who +scorn or miscall thee here, even as they also whose great fame shall +outlast them. For all these, and the like of them, are born indeed +in the spring season--Earos epigignetai hore+: and soon a wind hath +scattered them, and thereafter the [203] wood peopleth itself again +with another generation of leaves. And what is common to all of them +is but the littleness of their lives: and yet wouldst thou love and +hate, as if these things should continue for ever. In a little while +thine eyes also will be closed, and he on whom thou perchance hast +leaned thyself be himself a burden upon another. + +"Bethink thee often of the swiftness with which the things that are, +or are even now coming to be, are swept past thee: that the very +substance of them is but the perpetual motion of water: that there is +almost nothing which continueth: of that bottomless depth of time, so +close at thy side. Folly! to be lifted up, or sorrowful, or anxious, +by reason of things like these! Think of infinite matter, and thy +portion--how tiny a particle, of it! of infinite time, and thine own +brief point there; of destiny, and the jot thou art in it; and yield +thyself readily to the wheel of Clotho, to spin of thee what web she +will. + +"As one casting a ball from his hand, the nature of things hath had +its aim with every man, not as to the ending only, but the first +beginning of his course, and passage thither. And hath the ball any +profit of its rising, or loss as it descendeth again, or in its fall? +or the bubble, as it groweth or breaketh on the air? or the flame of +the lamp, from the beginning to the end of its brief story? + +[204] "All but at this present that future is, in which nature, who +disposeth all things in order, will transform whatsoever thou now +seest, fashioning from its substance somewhat else, and therefrom +somewhat else in its turn, lest the world grow old. We are such +stuff as dreams are made of--disturbing dreams. Awake, then! and see +thy dream as it is, in comparison with that erewhile it seemed to +thee. + +"And for me, especially, it were well to mind those many mutations of +empire in time past; therein peeping also upon the future, which must +needs be of like species with what hath been, continuing ever within +the rhythm and number of things which really are; so that in forty +years one may note of man and of his ways little less than in a +thousand. Ah! from this higher place, look we down upon the ship- +wrecks and the calm! Consider, for example, how the world went, +under the emperor Vespasian. They are married and given in marriage, +they breed children; love hath its way with them; they heap up riches +for others or for themselves; they are murmuring at things as then +they are; they are seeking for great place; crafty, flattering, +suspicious, waiting upon the death of others:--festivals, business, +war, sickness, dissolution: and now their whole life is no longer +anywhere at all. Pass on to the reign of Trajan: all things continue +the same: and that life also is no longer anywhere at all. [205] Ah! +but look again, and consider, one after another, as it were the +sepulchral inscriptions of all peoples and times, according to one +pattern.--What multitudes, after their utmost striving--a little +afterwards! were dissolved again into their dust. + +"Think again of life as it was far off in the ancient world; as it +must be when we shall be gone; as it is now among the wild heathen. +How many have never heard your names and mine, or will soon forget +them! How soon may those who shout my name to-day begin to revile +it, because glory, and the memory of men, and all things beside, are +but vanity--a sand-heap under the senseless wind, the barking of +dogs, the quarrelling of children, weeping incontinently upon their +laughter. + +"This hasteth to be; that other to have been: of that which now +cometh to be, even now somewhat hath been extinguished. And wilt +thou make thy treasure of any one of these things? It were as if one +set his love upon the swallow, as it passeth out of sight through the +air! + +"Bethink thee often, in all contentions public and private, of those +whom men have remembered by reason of their anger and vehement +spirit--those famous rages, and the occasions of them--the great +fortunes, and misfortunes, of men's strife of old. What are they all +now, and the dust of their battles? Dust [206] and ashes indeed; a +fable, a mythus, or not so much as that. Yes! keep those before +thine eyes who took this or that, the like of which happeneth to +thee, so hardly; were so querulous, so agitated. And where again are +they? Wouldst thou have it not otherwise with thee? + +Consider how quickly all things vanish away--their bodily structure +into the general substance; the very memory of them into that great +gulf and abysm of past thoughts. Ah! 'tis on a tiny space of earth +thou art creeping through life--a pigmy soul carrying a dead body to +its grave. + +"Let death put thee upon the consideration both of thy body and thy +soul: what an atom of all matter hath been distributed to thee; what +a little particle of the universal mind. Turn thy body about, and +consider what thing it is, and that which old age, and lust, and the +languor of disease can make of it. Or come to its substantial and +causal qualities, its very type: contemplate that in itself, apart +from the accidents of matter, and then measure also the span of time +for which the nature of things, at the longest, will maintain that +special type. Nay! in the very principles and first constituents of +things corruption hath its part--so much dust, humour, stench, and +scraps of bone! Consider that thy marbles are but the earth's +callosities, thy gold and silver its faeces; this silken robe but a +worm's bedding, and thy [207] purple an unclean fish. Ah! and thy +life's breath is not otherwise, as it passeth out of matters like +these, into the like of them again. + +"For the one soul in things, taking matter like wax in the hands, +moulds and remoulds--how hastily!--beast, and plant, and the babe, in +turn: and that which dieth hath not slipped out of the order of +nature, but, remaining therein, hath also its changes there, +disparting into those elements of which nature herself, and thou too, +art compacted. She changes without murmuring. The oaken chest falls +to pieces with no more complaining than when the carpenter fitted it +together. If one told thee certainly that on the morrow thou +shouldst die, or at the furthest on the day after, it would be no +great matter to thee to die on the day after to-morrow, rather than +to-morrow. Strive to think it a thing no greater that thou wilt die- +-not to-morrow, but a year, or two years, or ten years from to-day. + +"I find that all things are now as they were in the days of our +buried ancestors--all things sordid in their elements, trite by long +usage, and yet ephemeral. How ridiculous, then, how like a +countryman in town, is he, who wonders at aught. Doth the sameness, +the repetition of the public shows, weary thee? Even so doth that +likeness of events in the spectacle of the world. And so must it be +with thee to the end. For the wheel of the world hath ever the same +[208] motion, upward and downward, from generation to generation. +When, when, shall time give place to eternity? + +"If there be things which trouble thee thou canst put them away, +inasmuch as they have their being but in thine own notion concerning +them. Consider what death is, and how, if one does but detach from +it the appearances, the notions, that hang about it, resting the eye +upon it as in itself it really is, it must be thought of but as an +effect of nature, and that man but a child whom an effect of nature +shall affright. Nay! not function and effect of nature, only; but a +thing profitable also to herself. + +"To cease from action--the ending of thine effort to think and do: +there is no evil in that. Turn thy thought to the ages of man's +life, boyhood, youth, maturity, old age: the change in every one of +these also is a dying, but evil nowhere. Thou climbedst into the +ship, thou hast made thy voyage and touched the shore. Go forth now! +Be it into some other life: the divine breath is everywhere, even +there. Be it into forgetfulness for ever; at least thou wilt rest +from the beating of sensible images upon thee, from the passions +which pluck thee this way and that like an unfeeling toy, from those +long marches of the intellect, from thy toilsome ministry to the +flesh. + +"Art thou yet more than dust and ashes and bare bone--a name only, or +not so much as [209] that, which, also, is but whispering and a +resonance, kept alive from mouth to mouth of dying abjects who have +hardly known themselves; how much less thee, dead so long ago! + +"When thou lookest upon a wise man, a lawyer, a captain of war, think +upon another gone. When thou seest thine own face in the glass, call +up there before thee one of thine ancestors--one of those old +Caesars. Lo! everywhere, thy double before thee! Thereon, let the +thought occur to thee: And where are they? anywhere at all, for ever? +And thou, thyself--how long? Art thou blind to that thou art--thy +matter, how temporal; and thy function, the nature of thy business? +Yet tarry, at least, till thou hast assimilated even these things to +thine own proper essence, as a quick fire turneth into heat and light +whatsoever be cast upon it. + +"As words once in use are antiquated to us, so is it with the names +that were once on all men's lips: Camillus, Volesus, Leonnatus: then, +in a little while, Scipio and Cato, and then Augustus, and then +Hadrian, and then Antoninus Pius. How many great physicians who +lifted wise brows at other men's sick-beds, have sickened and died! +Those wise Chaldeans, who foretold, as a great matter, another man's +last hour, have themselves been taken by surprise. Ay! and all those +others, in their pleasant places: those who doated on a Capreae like +[210] Tiberius, on their gardens, on the baths: Pythagoras and +Socrates, who reasoned so closely upon immortality: Alexander, who +used the lives of others as though his own should last for ever--he +and his mule-driver alike now!--one upon another. Well-nigh the +whole court of Antoninus is extinct. Panthea and Pergamus sit no +longer beside the sepulchre of their lord. The watchers over +Hadrian's dust have slipped from his sepulchre.--It were jesting to +stay longer. Did they sit there still, would the dead feel it? or +feeling it, be glad? or glad, hold those watchers for ever? The time +must come when they too shall be aged men and aged women, and +decease, and fail from their places; and what shift were there then +for imperial service? This too is but the breath of the tomb, and a +skinful of dead men's blood. + +"Think again of those inscriptions, which belong not to one soul +only, but to whole families: Eschatos tou idiou genous:+ He was the last +of his race. Nay! of the burial of whole cities: Helice, Pompeii: of +others, whose very burial place is unknown. + +"Thou hast been a citizen in this wide city. Count not for how long, +nor repine; since that which sends thee hence is no unrighteous +judge, no tyrant, but Nature, who brought thee hither; as when a +player leaves the stage at the bidding of the conductor who hired +him. Sayest thou, 'I have not played five acts'? True! but in [211] +human life, three acts only make sometimes an entire play. That is +the composer's business, not thine. Withdraw thyself with a good +will; for that too hath, perchance, a good will which dismisseth thee +from thy part." + +The discourse ended almost in darkness, the evening having set in +somewhat suddenly, with a heavy fall of snow. The torches, made +ready to do him a useless honour, were of real service now, as the +emperor was solemnly conducted home; one man rapidly catching light +from another--a long stream of moving lights across the white Forum, +up the great stairs, to the palace. And, in effect, that night +winter began, the hardest that had been known for a lifetime. The +wolves came from the mountains; and, led by the carrion scent, +devoured the dead bodies which had been hastily buried during the +plague, and, emboldened by their meal, crept, before the short day +was well past, over the walls of the farmyards of the Campagna. The +eagles were seen driving the flocks of smaller birds across the dusky +sky. Only, in the city itself the winter was all the brighter for +the contrast, among those who could pay for light and warmth. The +habit-makers made a great sale of the spoil of all such furry +creatures as had escaped wolves and eagles, for presents at the +Saturnalia; and at no time had the winter roses from Carthage seemed +more lustrously yellow and red. + +NOTES + +188. +Spenser, Shepheardes Calendar, October, 61-66. + +200. +Transliteration: Hosper epigraphas chronon kai holon ethnon. +Pater's Translation: "the sepulchral titles of ages and whole +peoples." + +202. +Homer, Iliad VI.146-48. + +202. +Transliteration: Earos epigignetai hore. Translation: "born in +springtime." Homer, Iliad VI.147. + +210. +Transliteration: Eschatos tou idiou genous. Translation: "He +was the last of his race." + + + +CHAPTER XIII: THE "MISTRESS AND MOTHER" OF PALACES + +AFTER that sharp, brief winter, the sun was already at work, +softening leaf and bud, as you might feel by a faint sweetness in the +air; but he did his work behind an evenly white sky, against which +the abode of the Caesars, its cypresses and bronze roofs, seemed like +a picture in beautiful but melancholy colour, as Marius climbed the +long flights of steps to be introduced to the emperor Aurelius. +Attired in the newest mode, his legs wound in dainty fasciae of white +leather, with the heavy gold ring of the ingenuus, and in his toga +of ceremony, he still retained all his country freshness of +complexion. The eyes of the "golden youth" of Rome were upon him as +the chosen friend of Cornelius, and the destined servant of the +emperor; but not jealously. In spite of, perhaps partly because of, +his habitual reserve of manner, he had become "the fashion," even +among those who felt instinctively the irony which lay beneath that +remarkable self-possession, as of one taking all things with a [213] +difference from other people, perceptible in voice, in expression, +and even in his dress. It was, in truth, the air of one who, +entering vividly into life, and relishing to the full the delicacies +of its intercourse, yet feels all the while, from the point of view +of an ideal philosophy, that he is but conceding reality to +suppositions, choosing of his own will to walk in a day-dream, of the +illusiveness of which he at least is aware. + +In the house of the chief chamberlain Marius waited for the due +moment of admission to the emperor's presence. He was admiring the +peculiar decoration of the walls, coloured like rich old red leather. +In the midst of one of them was depicted, under a trellis of fruit +you might have gathered, the figure of a woman knocking at a door +with wonderful reality of perspective. Then the summons came; and in +a few minutes, the etiquette of the imperial household being still a +simple matter, he had passed the curtains which divided the central +hall of the palace into three parts--three degrees of approach to the +sacred person--and was speaking to Aurelius himself; not in Greek, in +which the emperor oftenest conversed with the learned, but, more +familiarly, in Latin, adorned however, or disfigured, by many a Greek +phrase, as now and again French phrases have made the adornment of +fashionable English. It was with real kindliness that Marcus +Aurelius looked upon Marius, as [214] a youth of great attainments in +Greek letters and philosophy; and he liked also his serious +expression, being, as we know, a believer in the doctrine of +physiognomy--that, as he puts it, not love only, but every other +affection of man's soul, looks out very plainly from the window of +the eyes. + +The apartment in which Marius found himself was of ancient aspect, +and richly decorated with the favourite toys of two or three +generations of imperial collectors, now finally revised by the high +connoisseurship of the Stoic emperor himself, though destined not +much longer to remain together there. It is the repeated boast of +Aurelius that he had learned from old Antoninus Pius to maintain +authority without the constant use of guards, in a robe woven by the +handmaids of his own consort, with no processional lights or images, +and "that a prince may shrink himself almost into the figure of a +private gentleman." And yet, again as at his first sight of him, +Marius was struck by the profound religiousness of the surroundings +of the imperial presence. The effect might have been due in part to +the very simplicity, the discreet and scrupulous simplicity, of the +central figure in this splendid abode; but Marius could not forget +that he saw before him not only the head of the Roman religion, but +one who might actually have claimed something like divine worship, +had he cared to do so. Though the fantastic pretensions of Caligula +had brought some contempt [215] on that claim, which had become +almost a jest under the ungainly Claudius, yet, from Augustus +downwards, a vague divinity had seemed to surround the Caesars even +in this life; and the peculiar character of Aurelius, at once a +ceremonious polytheist never forgetful of his pontifical calling, and +a philosopher whose mystic speculation encircled him with a sort of +saintly halo, had restored to his person, without his intending it, +something of that divine prerogative, or prestige. Though he would +never allow the immediate dedication of altars to himself, yet the +image of his Genius--his spirituality or celestial counterpart--was +placed among those of the deified princes of the past; and his +family, including Faustina and the young Commodus, was spoken of as +the "holy" or "divine" house. Many a Roman courtier agreed with the +barbarian chief, who, after contemplating a predecessor of Aurelius, +withdrew from his presence with the exclamation:--"I have seen a god +to-day!" The very roof of his house, rising into a pediment or +gable, like that of the sanctuary of a god, the laurels on either +side its doorway, the chaplet of oak-leaves above, seemed to +designate the place for religious veneration. And notwithstanding +all this, the household of Aurelius was singularly modest, with none +of the wasteful expense of palaces after the fashion of Lewis the +Fourteenth; the palatial dignity being felt only in a peculiar sense +of order, the absence [216] of all that was casual, of vulgarity and +discomfort. A merely official residence of his predecessors, the +Palatine had become the favourite dwelling-place of Aurelius; its +many-coloured memories suiting, perhaps, his pensive character, and +the crude splendours of Nero and Hadrian being now subdued by time. +The window-less Roman abode must have had much of what to a modern +would be gloom. How did the children, one wonders, endure houses +with so little escape for the eye into the world outside? Aurelius, +who had altered little else, choosing to live there, in a genuine +homeliness, had shifted and made the most of the level lights, and +broken out a quite medieval window here and there, and the clear +daylight, fully appreciated by his youthful visitor, made pleasant +shadows among the objects of the imperial collection. Some of these, +indeed, by reason of their Greek simplicity and grace, themselves +shone out like spaces of a purer, early light, amid the splendours of +the Roman manufacture. + +Though he looked, thought Marius, like a man who did not sleep +enough, he was abounding and bright to-day, after one of those +pitiless headaches, which since boyhood had been the "thorn in his +side," challenging the pretensions of his philosophy to fortify one +in humble endurances. At the first moment, to Marius, remembering +the spectacle of the emperor in ceremony, it was almost bewildering +to be in [217] private conversation with him. There was much in the +philosophy of Aurelius--much consideration of mankind at large, of +great bodies, aggregates and generalities, after the Stoic manner-- +which, on a nature less rich than his, might have acted as an +inducement to care for people in inverse proportion to their nearness +to him. That has sometimes been the result of the Stoic +cosmopolitanism. Aurelius, however, determined to beautify by all +means, great or little, a doctrine which had in it some potential +sourness, had brought all the quickness of his intelligence, and long +years of observation, to bear on the conditions of social +intercourse. He had early determined "not to make business an excuse +to decline the offices of humanity--not to pretend to be too much +occupied with important affairs to concede what life with others may +hourly demand;" and with such success, that, in an age which made +much of the finer points of that intercourse, it was felt that the +mere honesty of his conversation was more pleasing than other men's +flattery. His agreeableness to his young visitor to-day was, in +truth, a blossom of the same wisdom which had made of Lucius Verus +really a brother--the wisdom of not being exigent with men, any more +than with fruit-trees (it is his own favourite figure) beyond their +nature. And there was another person, still nearer to him, regarding +whom this wisdom became a marvel, of equity--of charity. + +[218] The centre of a group of princely children, in the same +apartment with Aurelius, amid all the refined intimacies of a modern +home, sat the empress Faustina, warming her hands over a fire. With +her long fingers lighted up red by the glowing coals of the brazier +Marius looked close upon the most beautiful woman in the world, who +was also the great paradox of the age, among her boys and girls. As +has been truly said of the numerous representations of her in art, so +in life, she had the air of one curious, restless, to enter into +conversation with the first comer. She had certainly the power of +stimulating a very ambiguous sort of curiosity about herself. And +Marius found this enigmatic point in her expression, that even after +seeing her many times he could never precisely recall her features in +absence. The lad of six years, looking older, who stood beside her, +impatiently plucking a rose to pieces over the hearth, was, in +outward appearance, his father--the young Verissimus--over again; but +with a certain feminine length of feature, and with all his mother's +alertness, or license, of gaze. + +Yet rumour knocked at every door and window of the imperial house +regarding the adulterers who knocked at them, or quietly left their +lovers' garlands there. Was not that likeness of the husband, in the +boy beside her, really the effect of a shameful magic, in which the +blood of the murdered gladiator, his true father, had been an +ingredient? Were the tricks for [219] deceiving husbands which the +Roman poet describes, really hers, and her household an efficient +school of all the arts of furtive love? Or, was the husband too +aware, like every one beside? Were certain sudden deaths which +happened there, really the work of apoplexy, or the plague? + +The man whose ears, whose soul, those rumours were meant to +penetrate, was, however, faithful to his sanguine and optimist +philosophy, to his determination that the world should be to him +simply what the higher reason preferred to conceive it; and the +life's journey Aurelius had made so far, though involving much moral +and intellectual loneliness, had been ever in affectionate and +helpful contact with other wayfarers, very unlike himself. Since his +days of earliest childhood in the Lateran gardens, he seemed to +himself, blessing the gods for it after deliberate survey, to have +been always surrounded by kinsmen, friends, servants, of exceptional +virtue. From the great Stoic idea, that we are all fellow-citizens +of one city, he had derived a tenderer, a more equitable estimate +than was common among Stoics, of the eternal shortcomings of men and +women. Considerations that might tend to the sweetening of his +temper it was his daily care to store away, with a kind of +philosophic pride in the thought that no one took more good-naturedly +than he the "oversights" of his neighbours. For had not Plato taught +(it was not [220] paradox, but simple truth of experience) that if +people sin, it is because they know no better, and are "under the +necessity of their own ignorance"? Hard to himself, he seemed at +times, doubtless, to decline too softly upon unworthy persons. +Actually, he came thereby upon many a useful instrument. The empress +Faustina he would seem at least to have kept, by a constraining +affection, from becoming altogether what most people have believed +her, and won in her (we must take him at his word in the "Thoughts," +abundantly confirmed by letters, on both sides, in his correspondence +with Cornelius Fronto) a consolation, the more secure, perhaps, +because misknown of others. Was the secret of her actual +blamelessness, after all, with him who has at least screened her +name? At all events, the one thing quite certain about her, besides +her extraordinary beauty, is her sweetness to himself. + +No! The wise, who had made due observation on the trees of the +garden, would not expect to gather grapes of thorns or fig-trees: and +he was the vine, putting forth his genial fruit, by natural law, +again and again, after his kind, whatever use people might make of +it. Certainly, his actual presence never lost its power, and +Faustina was glad in it to-day, the birthday of one of her children, +a boy who stood at her knee holding in his fingers tenderly a tiny +silver trumpet, one of his birthday gifts.--"For my [221] part, +unless I conceive my hurt to be such, I have no hurt at all,"--boasts +the would-be apathetic emperor:--"and how I care to conceive of the +thing rests with me." Yet when his children fall sick or die, this +pretence breaks down, and he is broken-hearted: and one of the charms +of certain of his letters still extant, is his reference to those +childish sicknesses.--"On my return to Lorium," he writes, "I found +my little lady--domnulam meam--in a fever;" and again, in a letter to +one of the most serious of men, "You will be glad to hear that our +little one is better, and running about the room--parvolam nostram +melius valere et intra cubiculum discurrere." + +The young Commodus had departed from the chamber, anxious to witness +the exercises of certain gladiators, having a native taste for such +company, inherited, according to popular rumour, from his true +father--anxious also to escape from the too impressive company of the +gravest and sweetest specimen of old age Marius had ever seen, the +tutor of the imperial children, who had arrived to offer his birthday +congratulations, and now, very familiarly and affectionately, made a +part of the group, falling on the shoulders of the emperor, kissing +the empress Faustina on the face, the little ones on the face and +hands. Marcus Cornelius Fronto, the "Orator," favourite teacher of +the emperor's youth, afterwards his most trusted counsellor, and now +the undisputed occupant of the sophistic throne, whose equipage, +[222] elegantly mounted with silver, Marius had seen in the streets +of Rome, had certainly turned his many personal gifts to account with +a good fortune, remarkable even in that age, so indulgent to +professors or rhetoricians. The gratitude of the emperor Aurelius, +always generous to his teachers, arranging their very quarrels +sometimes, for they were not always fair to one another, had helped +him to a really great place in the world. But his sumptuous +appendages, including the villa and gardens of Maecenas, had been +borne with an air perfectly becoming, by the professor of a +philosophy which, even in its most accomplished and elegant phase, +presupposed a gentle contempt for such things. With an intimate +practical knowledge of manners, physiognomies, smiles, disguises, +flatteries, and courtly tricks of every kind--a whole accomplished +rhetoric of daily life--he applied them all to the promotion of +humanity, and especially of men's family affection. Through a long +life of now eighty years, he had been, as it were, surrounded by the +gracious and soothing air of his own eloquence--the fame, the echoes, +of it--like warbling birds, or murmuring bees. Setting forth in that +fine medium the best ideas of matured pagan philosophy, he had become +the favourite "director" of noble youth + +Yes! it was the one instance Marius, always eagerly on the look-out +for such, had yet seen of [223] a perfectly tolerable, perfectly +beautiful, old age--an old age in which there seemed, to one who +perhaps habitually over-valued the expression of youth, nothing to be +regretted, nothing really lost, in what years had taken away. The +wise old man, whose blue eyes and fair skin were so delicate, +uncontaminate and clear, would seem to have replaced carefully and +consciously each natural trait of youth, as it departed from him, by +an equivalent grace of culture; and had the blitheness, the placid +cheerfulness, as he had also the infirmity, the claim on stronger +people, of a delightful child. And yet he seemed to be but awaiting +his exit from life--that moment with which the Stoics were almost as +much preoccupied as the Christians, however differently--and set +Marius pondering on the contrast between a placidity like this, at +eighty years, and the sort of desperateness he was aware of in his +own manner of entertaining that thought. His infirmities +nevertheless had been painful and long-continued, with losses of +children, of pet grandchildren. What with the crowd, and the +wretched streets, it was a sign of affection which had cost him +something, for the old man to leave his own house at all that day; +and he was glad of the emperor's support, as he moved from place to +place among the children he protests so often to have loved as his +own. + +For a strange piece of literary good fortune, at the beginning of the +present century, has set [224] free the long-buried fragrance of this +famous friendship of the old world, from below a valueless later +manuscript, in a series of letters, wherein the two writers exchange, +for the most part their evening thoughts, especially at family +anniversaries, and with entire intimacy, on their children, on the +art of speech, on all the various subtleties of the "science of +images"--rhetorical images--above all, of course, on sleep and +matters of health. They are full of mutual admiration of each +other's eloquence, restless in absence till they see one another +again, noting, characteristically, their very dreams of each other, +expecting the day which will terminate the office, the business or +duty, which separates them--"as superstitious people watch for the +star, at the rising of which they may break their fast." To one of +the writers, to Aurelius, the correspondence was sincerely of value. +We see him once reading his letters with genuine delight on going to +rest. Fronto seeks to deter his pupil from writing in Greek.--Why +buy, at great cost, a foreign wine, inferior to that from one's own +vineyard? Aurelius, on the other hand, with an extraordinary innate +susceptibility to words--la parole pour la parole, as the French say- +-despairs, in presence of Fronto's rhetorical perfection. + +Like the modern visitor to the Capitoline and some other museums, +Fronto had been struck, pleasantly struck, by the family likeness +[225] among the Antonines; and it was part of his friendship to make +much of it, in the case of the children of Faustina. "Well! I have +seen the little ones," he writes to Aurelius, then, apparently, +absent from them: "I have seen the little ones--the pleasantest sight +of my life; for they are as like yourself as could possibly be. It +has well repaid me for my journey over that slippery road, and up +those steep rocks; for I beheld you, not simply face to face before +me, but, more generously, whichever way I turned, to my right and my +left. For the rest, I found them, Heaven be thanked! with healthy +cheeks and lusty voices. One was holding a slice of white bread, +like a king's son; the other a crust of brown bread, as becomes the +offspring of a philosopher. I pray the gods to have both the sower +and the seed in their keeping; to watch over this field wherein the +ears of corn are so kindly alike. Ah! I heard too their pretty +voices, so sweet that in the childish prattle of one and the other I +seemed somehow to be listening--yes! in that chirping of your pretty +chickens--to the limpid+ and harmonious notes of your own oratory. +Take care! you will find me growing independent, having those I could +love in your place:--love, on the surety of my eyes and ears." + +"Magistro meo salutem!" replies the Emperor, "I too have seen my +little ones in your sight of them; as, also, I saw yourself in +reading your [226] letter. It is that charming letter forces me to +write thus:" with reiterations of affection, that is, which are +continual in these letters, on both sides, and which may strike a +modern reader perhaps as fulsome; or, again, as having something in +common with the old Judaic unction of friendship. They were +certainly sincere. + +To one of those children Fronto had now brought the birthday gift of +the silver trumpet, upon which he ventured to blow softly now and +again, turning away with eyes delighted at the sound, when he thought +the old man was not listening. It was the well-worn, valetudinarian +subject of sleep, on which Fronto and Aurelius were talking together; +Aurelius always feeling it a burden, Fronto a thing of magic +capacities, so that he had written an encomium in its praise, and +often by ingenious arguments recommends his imperial pupil not to be +sparing of it. To-day, with his younger listeners in mind, he had a +story to tell about it:-- + +"They say that our father Jupiter, when he ordered the world at the +beginning, divided time into two parts exactly equal: the one part he +clothed with light, the other with darkness: he called them Day and +Night; and he assigned rest to the night and to day the work of life. +At that time Sleep was not yet born and men passed the whole of their +lives awake: only, the quiet of the night was ordained for them, +instead of sleep. But it came to pass, little by little, [227] being +that the minds of men are restless, that they carried on their +business alike by night as by day, and gave no part at all to repose. +And Jupiter, when he perceived that even in the night-time they +ceased not from trouble and disputation, and that even the courts of +law remained open (it was the pride of Aurelius, as Fronto knew, to +be assiduous in those courts till far into the night) resolved to +appoint one of his brothers to be the overseer of the night and have +authority over man's rest. But Neptune pleaded in excuse the gravity +of his constant charge of the seas, and Father Dis the difficulty of +keeping in subjection the spirits below; and Jupiter, having taken +counsel with the other gods, perceived that the practice of nightly +vigils was somewhat in favour. It was then, for the most part, that +Juno gave birth to her children: Minerva, the mistress of all art and +craft, loved the midnight lamp: Mars delighted in the darkness for +his plots and sallies; and the favour of Venus and Bacchus was with +those who roused by night. Then it was that Jupiter formed the +design of creating Sleep; and he added him to the number of the gods, +and gave him the charge over night and rest, putting into his hands +the keys of human eyes. With his own hands he mingled the juices +wherewith Sleep should soothe the hearts of mortals--herb of +Enjoyment and herb of Safety, gathered from a grove in Heaven; and, +from the meadows of [228] Acheron, the herb of Death; expressing from +it one single drop only, no bigger than a tear one might hide. 'With +this juice,' he said, 'pour slumber upon the eyelids of mortals. So +soon as it hath touched them they will lay themselves down +motionless, under thy power. But be not afraid: they shall revive, +and in a while stand up again upon their feet.' Thereafter, Jupiter +gave wings to Sleep, attached, not, like Mercury's, to his heels, but +to his shoulders, like the wings of Love. For he said, 'It becomes +thee not to approach men's eyes as with the noise of chariots, and +the rushing of a swift courser, but in placid and merciful flight, as +upon the wings of a swallow--nay! with not so much as the flutter of +the dove.' Besides all this, that he might be yet pleasanter to men, +he committed to him also a multitude of blissful dreams, according to +every man's desire. One watched his favourite actor; another +listened to the flute, or guided a charioteer in the race: in his +dream, the soldier was victorious, the general was borne in triumph, +the wanderer returned home. Yes!--and sometimes those dreams come +true! + +Just then Aurelius was summoned to make the birthday offerings to his +household gods. A heavy curtain of tapestry was drawn back; and +beyond it Marius gazed for a few moments into the Lararium, or +imperial chapel. A patrician youth, in white habit, was in waiting, +with a little chest in his hand containing incense for the [229] use +of the altar. On richly carved consoles, or side boards, around this +narrow chamber, were arranged the rich apparatus of worship and the +golden or gilded images, adorned to-day with fresh flowers, among +them that image of Fortune from the apartment of Antoninus Pius, and +such of the emperor's own teachers as were gone to their rest. A dim +fresco on the wall commemorated the ancient piety of Lucius Albinius, +who in flight from Rome on the morrow of a great disaster, overtaking +certain priests on foot with their sacred utensils, descended from +the wagon in which he rode and yielded it to the ministers of the +gods. As he ascended into the chapel the emperor paused, and with a +grave but friendly look at his young visitor, delivered a parting +sentence, audible to him alone: Imitation is the most acceptable-- +Make sure that those to whom you come nearest be the happier by your* + +It was the very spirit of the scene and the hour--the hour Marius had +spent in the imperial house. How temperate, how tranquillising! what +humanity! Yet, as he left the eminent company concerning whose ways +of life at home he had been so youthfully curious, and sought, after +his manner, to determine the main trait in all this, he had to +confess that it was a sentiment of mediocrity, though of a mediocrity +for once really golden. + +NOTES + +225. +"Limpid" is misprinted "Limped." + + + +CHAPTER XIV: MANLY AMUSEMENT + +DURING the Eastern war there came a moment when schism in the empire +had seemed possible through the defection of Lucius Verus; when to +Aurelius it had also seemed possible to confirm his allegiance by no +less a gift than his beautiful daughter Lucilla, the eldest of his +children--the domnula, probably, of those letters. The little lady, +grown now to strong and stately maidenhood, had been ever something +of the good genius, the better soul, to Lucius Verus, by the law of +contraries, her somewhat cold and apathetic modesty acting as +counterfoil to the young man's tigrish fervour. Conducted to +Ephesus, she had become his wife by form of civil marriage, the more +solemn wedding rites being deferred till their return to Rome. + +The ceremony of the Confarreation, or religious marriage, in which +bride and bridegroom partook together of a certain mystic bread, was +celebrated accordingly, with due pomp, early in the spring; Aurelius +himself [231] assisting, with much domestic feeling. A crowd of +fashionable people filled the space before the entrance to the +apartments of Lucius on the Palatine hill, richly decorated for the +occasion, commenting, not always quite delicately, on the various +details of the rite, which only a favoured few succeeded in actually +witnessing. "She comes!" Marius could hear them say, "escorted by +her young brothers: it is the young Commodus who carries the torch of +white-thornwood, the little basket of work-things, the toys for the +children:"--and then, after a watchful pause, "she is winding the +woollen thread round the doorposts. Ah! I see the marriage-cake: +the bridegroom presents the fire and water." Then, in a longer +pause, was heard the chorus, Thalassie! Thalassie! and for just a +few moments, in the strange light of many wax tapers at noonday, +Marius could see them both, side by side, while the bride was lifted +over the doorstep: Lucius Verus heated and handsome--the pale, +impassive Lucilla looking very long and slender, in her closely +folded yellow veil, and high nuptial crown. + +As Marius turned away, glad to escape from the pressure of the crowd, +he found himself face to face with Cornelius, an infrequent spectator +on occasions such as this. It was a relief to depart with him--so +fresh and quiet he looked, though in all his splendid equestrian +array in honour of the ceremony--from the garish heat [232] of the +marriage scene. The reserve which had puzzled Marius so much on his +first day in Rome, was but an instance of many, to him wholly +unaccountable, avoidances alike of things and persons, which must +certainly mean that an intimate companionship would cost him +something in the way of seemingly indifferent amusements. Some +inward standard Marius seemed to detect there (though wholly unable +to estimate its nature) of distinction, selection, refusal, amid the +various elements of the fervid and corrupt life across which they +were moving together:--some secret, constraining motive, ever on the +alert at eye and ear, which carried him through Rome as under a +charm, so that Marius could not but think of that figure of the white +bird in the market-place as undoubtedly made true of him. And Marius +was still full of admiration for this companion, who had known how to +make himself very pleasant to him. Here was the clear, cold +corrective, which the fever of his present life demanded. Without +it, he would have felt alternately suffocated and exhausted by an +existence, at once so gaudy and overdone, and yet so intolerably +empty; in which people, even at their best, seemed only to be +brooding, like the wise emperor himself, over a world's +disillusion. For with all the severity of Cornelius, there was such +a breeze of hopefulness--freshness and hopefulness, as of new +morning, about him. [233] For the most part, as I said, those +refusals, that reserve of his, seemed unaccountable. But there were +cases where the unknown monitor acted in a direction with which the +judgment, or instinct, of Marius himself wholly concurred; the +effective decision of Cornelius strengthening him further therein, as +by a kind of outwardly embodied conscience. And the entire drift of +his education determined him, on one point at least, to be wholly of +the same mind with this peculiar friend (they two, it might be, +together, against the world!) when, alone of a whole company of +brilliant youth, he had withdrawn from his appointed place in the +amphitheatre, at a grand public show, which after an interval of many +months, was presented there, in honour of the nuptials of Lucius +Verus and Lucilla. + +And it was still to the eye, through visible movement and aspect, +that the character, or genius of Cornelius made itself felt by +Marius; even as on that afternoon when he had girt on his armour, +among the expressive lights and shades of the dim old villa at the +roadside, and every object of his knightly array had seemed to be but +sign or symbol of some other thing far beyond it. For, consistently +with his really poetic temper, all influence reached Marius, even +more exclusively than he was aware, through the medium of sense. +From Flavian in that brief early summer of his existence, he had +derived a powerful impression of the [234] "perpetual flux": he had +caught there, as in cipher or symbol, or low whispers more effective +than any definite language, his own Cyrenaic philosophy, presented +thus, for the first time, in an image or person, with much +attractiveness, touched also, consequently, with a pathetic sense of +personal sorrow:--a concrete image, the abstract equivalent of which +he could recognise afterwards, when the agitating personal influence +had settled down for him, clearly enough, into a theory of practice. +But of what possible intellectual formula could this mystic Cornelius +be the sensible exponent; seeming, as he did, to live ever in close +relationship with, and recognition of, a mental view, a source of +discernment, a light upon his way, which had certainly not yet sprung +up for Marius? Meantime, the discretion of Cornelius, his energetic +clearness and purity, were a charm, rather physical than moral: his +exquisite correctness of spirit, at all events, accorded so perfectly +with the regular beauty of his person, as to seem to depend upon it. +And wholly different as was this later friendship, with its exigency, +its warnings, its restraints, from the feverish attachment to +Flavian, which had made him at times like an uneasy slave, still, +like that, it was a reconciliation to the world of sense, the visible +world. From the hopefulness of this gracious presence, all visible +things around him, even the commonest objects of everyday life--if +they but [235] stood together to warm their hands at the same fire-- +took for him a new poetry, a delicate fresh bloom, and interest. It +was as if his bodily eyes had been indeed mystically washed, renewed, +strengthened. + +And how eagerly, with what a light heart, would Flavian have taken +his place in the amphitheatre, among the youth of his own age! with +what an appetite for every detail of the entertainment, and its +various accessories:--the sunshine, filtered into soft gold by the +vela, with their serpentine patterning, spread over the more select +part of the company; the Vestal virgins, taking their privilege of +seats near the empress Faustina, who sat there in a maze of double- +coloured gems, changing, as she moved, like the waves of the sea; the +cool circle of shadow, in which the wonderful toilets of the +fashionable told so effectively around the blazing arena, covered +again and again during the many hours' show, with clean sand for the +absorption of certain great red patches there, by troops of white- +shirted boys, for whom the good-natured audience provided a scramble +of nuts and small coin, flung to them over a trellis-work of silver- +gilt and amber, precious gift of Nero, while a rain of flowers and +perfume fell over themselves, as they paused between the parts of +their long feast upon the spectacle of animal suffering. + +During his sojourn at Ephesus, Lucius Verus had readily become a +patron, patron or protege, [236] of the great goddess of Ephesus, the +goddess of hunters; and the show, celebrated by way of a compliment +to him to-day, was to present some incidents of her story, where she +figures almost as the genius of madness, in animals, or in the +humanity which comes in contact with them. The entertainment would +have an element of old Greek revival in it, welcome to the taste of a +learned and Hellenising society; and, as Lucius Verus was in some +sense a lover of animals, was to be a display of animals mainly. +There would be real wild and domestic creatures, all of rare species; +and a real slaughter. On so happy an occasion, it was hoped, the +elder emperor might even concede a point, and a living criminal fall +into the jaws of the wild beasts. And the spectacle was, certainly, +to end in the destruction, by one mighty shower of arrows, of a +hundred lions, "nobly" provided by Aurelius himself for the amusement +of his people.--Tam magnanimus fuit! + +The arena, decked and in order for the first scene, looked +delightfully fresh, re-inforcing on the spirits of the audience the +actual freshness of the morning, which at this season still brought +the dew. Along the subterranean ways that led up to it, the sound of +an advancing chorus was heard at last, chanting the words of a sacred +song, or hymn to Diana; for the spectacle of the amphitheatre was, +after all, a [237] religious occasion. To its grim acts of blood- +shedding a kind of sacrificial character still belonged in the view +of certain religious casuists, tending conveniently to soothe the +humane sensibilities of so pious an emperor as Aurelius, who, in his +fraternal complacency, had consented to preside over the shows. + +Artemis or Diana, as she may be understood in the actual development +of her worship, was, indeed, the symbolical expression of two allied +yet contrasted elements of human temper and experience--man's amity, +and also his enmity, towards the wild creatures, when they were +still, in a certain sense, his brothers. She is the complete, and +therefore highly complex, representative of a state, in which man was +still much occupied with animals, not as his flock, or as his +servants after the pastoral relationship of our later, orderly world, +but rather as his equals, on friendly terms or the reverse,--a state +full of primeval sympathies and antipathies, of rivalries and common +wants--while he watched, and could enter into, the humours of those +"younger brothers," with an intimacy, the "survivals" of which in a +later age seem often to have had a kind of madness about them. Diana +represents alike the bright and the dark side of such relationship. +But the humanities of that relationship were all forgotten to-day in +the excitement of a show, in which mere cruelty to animals, their +useless suffering and death, formed [238] the main point of interest. +People watched their destruction, batch after batch, in a not +particularly inventive fashion; though it was expected that the +animals themselves, as living creatures are apt to do when hard put +to it, would become inventive, and make up, by the fantastic +accidents of their agony, for the deficiencies of an age fallen +behind in this matter of manly amusement. It was as a Deity of +Slaughter--the Taurian goddess who demands the sacrifice of the +shipwrecked sailors thrown on her coasts--the cruel, moonstruck +huntress, who brings not only sudden death, but rabies, among the +wild creatures that Diana was to be presented, in the person of a +famous courtesan. The aim at an actual theatrical illusion, after +the first introductory scene, was frankly surrendered to the display +of the animals, artificially stimulated and maddened to attack each +other. And as Diana was also a special protectress of new-born +creatures, there would be a certain curious interest in the +dexterously contrived escape of the young from their mother's torn +bosoms; as many pregnant animals as possible being carefully selected +for the purpose. + +The time had been, and was to come again, when the pleasures of the +amphitheatre centered in a similar practical joking upon human +beings. What more ingenious diversion had stage manager ever +contrived than that incident, itself a practical epigram never to be +forgottten, [239] when a criminal, who, like slaves and animals, had +no rights, was compelled to present the part of Icarus; and, the +wings failing him in due course, had fallen into a pack of hungry +bears? For the long shows of the amphitheatre were, so to speak, the +novel-reading of that age--a current help provided for sluggish +imaginations, in regard, for instance, to grisly accidents, such as +might happen to one's self; but with every facility for comfortable +inspection. Scaevola might watch his own hand, consuming, crackling, +in the fire, in the person of a culprit, willing to redeem his life +by an act so delightful to the eyes, the very ears, of a curious +public. If the part of Marsyas was called for, there was a criminal +condemned to lose his skin. It might be almost edifying to study +minutely the expression of his face, while the assistants corded and +pegged him to the bench, cunningly; the servant of the law waiting +by, who, after one short cut with his knife, would slip the man's leg +from his skin, as neatly as if it were a stocking--a finesse in +providing the due amount of suffering for wrong-doers only brought to +its height in Nero's living bonfires. But then, by making his +suffering ridiculous, you enlist against the sufferer, some real, and +all would-be manliness, and do much to stifle any false sentiment of +compassion. The philosophic emperor, having no great taste for +sport, and asserting here a personal scruple, had greatly changed all +[240] that; had provided that nets should be spread under the dancers +on the tight-rope, and buttons for the swords of the gladiators. But +the gladiators were still there. Their bloody contests had, under +the form of a popular amusement, the efficacy of a human sacrifice; +as, indeed, the whole system of the public shows was understood to +possess a religious import. Just at this point, certainly, the +judgment of Lucretius on pagan religion is without reproach-- + + Tantum religio potuit suadere malorum. + +And Marius, weary and indignant, feeling isolated in the great +slaughter-house, could not but observe that, in his habitual +complaisance to Lucius Verus, who, with loud shouts of applause from +time to time, lounged beside him, Aurelius had sat impassibly through +all the hours Marius himself had remained there. For the most part +indeed, the emperor had actually averted his eyes from the show, +reading, or writing on matters of public business, but had seemed, +after all, indifferent. He was revolving, perhaps, that old Stoic +paradox of the Imperceptibility of pain; which might serve as an +excuse, should those savage popular humours ever again turn against +men and women. Marius remembered well his very attitude and +expression on this day, when, a few years later, certain things came +to pass in Gaul, under his full authority; and that attitude and +expression [241] defined already, even thus early in their so +friendly intercourse, and though he was still full of gratitude for +his interest, a permanent point of difference between the emperor and +himself--between himself, with all the convictions of his life taking +centre to-day in his merciful, angry heart, and Aurelius, as +representing all the light, all the apprehensive power there might be +in pagan intellect. There was something in a tolerance such as this, +in the bare fact that he could sit patiently through a scene like +this, which seemed to Marius to mark Aurelius as his inferior now and +for ever on the question of righteousness; to set them on opposite +sides, in some great conflict, of which that difference was but a +single presentment. Due, in whatever proportions, to the abstract +principles he had formulated for himself, or in spite of them, there +was the loyal conscience within him, deciding, judging himself and +every one else, with a wonderful sort of authority:--You ought, +methinks, to be something quite different from what you are; here! +and here! Surely Aurelius must be lacking in that decisive +conscience at first sight, of the intimations of which Marius could +entertain no doubt--which he looked for in others. He at least, the +humble follower of the bodily eye, was aware of a crisis in life, in +this brief, obscure existence, a fierce opposition of real good and +real evil around him, the issues of which he must by no [242] means +compromise or confuse; of the antagonisms of which the "wise" Marcus +Aurelius was unaware. + +That long chapter of the cruelty of the Roman public shows may, +perhaps, leave with the children of the modern world a feeling of +self-complacency. Yet it might seem well to ask ourselves--it is +always well to do so, when we read of the slave-trade, for instance, +or of great religious persecutions on this side or on that, or of +anything else which raises in us the question, "Is thy servant a dog, +that he should do this thing?"--not merely, what germs of feeling we +may entertain which, under fitting circumstances, would induce us to +the like; but, even more practically, what thoughts, what sort of +considerations, may be actually present to our minds such as might +have furnished us, living in another age, and in the midst of those +legal crimes, with plausible excuses for them: each age in turn, +perhaps, having its own peculiar point of blindness, with its +consequent peculiar sin--the touch-stone of an unfailing conscience +in the select few. + +Those cruel amusements were, certainly, the sin of blindness, of +deadness and stupidity, in the age of Marius; and his light had not +failed him regarding it. Yes! what was needed was the heart that +would make it impossible to witness all this; and the future would be +with the forces that could beget a heart like that. [243] His chosen +philosophy had said,--Trust the eye: Strive to be right always in +regard to the concrete experience: Beware of falsifying your impressions. +And its sanction had at least been effective here, in protesting--"This, +and this, is what you may not look upon!" Surely evil was a real thing, +and the wise man wanting in the sense of it, where, not to have been, +by instinctive election, on the right side, was to have failed in life. + +END OF VOL. I + + + +End of Project Gutenberg Etext of Marius the Epicurean Vol. I, by Walter Pater + |