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diff --git a/34408.txt b/34408.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b306d5f --- /dev/null +++ b/34408.txt @@ -0,0 +1,18384 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Library of the World's Best Literature, +Ancient and Modern, Vol. 13, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern, Vol. 13 + +Author: Various + +Editor: Charles Dudley Warner + +Release Date: November 23, 2010 [EBook #34408] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WORLD'S BEST LITERATURE, VOL 13 *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + [Illustration: _THE GOTHIC BIBLE OF ULFILAS._ + + Codex Argenteus. Library of Upsala. + + Socrates, a Greek ecclesiastic of the fifth century, and + several other Byzantine writers, inform us, that Ulfilas, + belonging to a family of Cappadocia, having been carried away + captive by the Goths, when they invaded that country in A.D. + 366, was subsequently elevated to the episcopal dignity in + his new country, which had been converted to Christianity; + that he was sent as a legate to the Emperor Valens, at + Constantinople, in the year 377, to ask for a province of the + empire, as a refuge for the Goths from the Huns, by whom they + had been conquered; that Ulfilas obtained permission for them + to settle in Moesia, on the right bank of the Danube; and + that, in order to confirm them in the Christian faith, he + translated the Old and New Testaments into the Gothic + language, and invented for that purpose an especial alphabet; + which, from this circumstance, has been named the alphabet of + Ulfilas, or the alphabet of the Goths of Moesia. This + translation of the Bible is the oldest existing literary + monument in the Germanic languages. The principal manuscript + is the Codex Argenteus, written in silver characters on a + purple ground. The accompanying facsimile is from the Gospel + according to St. Mark, chapter VII., beginning in the 3d + verse at the words "Jews eat not," and ending in the 7th + verse at "In vain do they worship me, teaching...."] + + + + + LIBRARY OF THE + WORLD'S BEST LITERATURE + ANCIENT AND MODERN + + + CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER + + EDITOR + + + HAMILTON WRIGHT MABIE LUCIA GILBERT RUNKLE + GEORGE HENRY WARNER + + ASSOCIATE EDITORS + + + Connoisseur Edition + + VOL. XIII. + + + NEW YORK + THE INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY + + + + + Connoisseur Edition + + LIMITED TO FIVE HUNDRED COPIES IN HALF RUSSIA + + _No_. .......... + + + Copyright, 1896, by + R. S. PEALE AND J. A. HILL + _All rights reserved_ + + + + + THE ADVISORY COUNCIL + + + CRAWFORD H. TOY, A. M., LL. D., + Professor of Hebrew, HARVARD UNIVERSITY, Cambridge, Mass. + + THOMAS R. LOUNSBURY, LL. D., L. H. D., + Professor of English in the Sheffield Scientific School of + YALE UNIVERSITY, New Haven, Conn. + + WILLIAM M. SLOANE, PH. D., L. H. D., + Professor of History and Political Science, + PRINCETON UNIVERSITY, Princeton, N. J. + + BRANDER MATTHEWS, A. M., LL. B., + Professor of Literature, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, New York City. + + JAMES B. ANGELL, LL. D., + President of the UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN, Ann Arbor, Mich. + + WILLARD FISKE, A. M., PH. D., + Late Professor of the Germanic and Scandinavian Languages + and Literatures, CORNELL UNIVERSITY, Ithaca, N. Y. + + EDWARD S. HOLDEN, A. M., LL. D., + Director of the Lick Observatory, and Astronomer, + UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, Berkeley, Cal. + + ALCEE FORTIER, LIT. D., + Professor of the Romance Languages, + TULANE UNIVERSITY, New Orleans, La. + + WILLIAM P. TRENT, M. A., + Dean of the Department of Arts and Sciences, and Professor of + English and History, UNIVERSITY OF THE SOUTH, Sewanee, Tenn. + + PAUL SHOREY, PH. D., + Professor of Greek and Latin Literature, + UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO, Chicago, Ill. + + WILLIAM T. HARRIS, LL. D., + United States Commissioner of Education, + BUREAU OF EDUCATION, Washington, D. C. + + MAURICE FRANCIS EGAN, A. M., LL. D., + Professor of Literature in the + CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA, Washington, D. C. + + + + + TABLE OF CONTENTS + + VOL. XIII + + + LIVED PAGE + TORU DUTT 1856-1877 5075 + Jogadhya Uma + Our Casuarina-Tree + + JOHN S. DWIGHT 1813-1893 5084 + Music as a Means of Culture + + GEORG MORITZ EBERS 1837- 5091 + The Arrival at Babylon ('An Egyptian Princess') + + JOSE ECHEGARAY 1832- 5101 + From 'Madman or Saint?' + From 'The Great Galeoto' + + THE EDDAS 5113 + BY WILLIAM H. CARPENTER + Thor's Adventures on his Journey to the Land of the + Giants ('Snorra Edda') + The Lay of Thrym ('Elder Edda') + Of the Lamentation of Gudrun over Sigurd Dead: First + Lay of Gudrun + Waking of Brunhilde on the Hindfell by Sigurd (Morris's + 'Story of Sigurd the Voelsung') + + ALFRED EDERSHEIM 1825-1889 5145 + The Washing of Hands ('The Life and Times of Jesus + the Messiah') + + MARIA EDGEWORTH 1767-1849 5151 + Sir Condy's Wake ('Castle Rackrent') + Sir Murtagh Rackrent and His Lady (same) + + ANNE CHARLOTTE LEFFLER EDGREN 1849-1893 5162 + Open Sesame + A Ball in High Life ('A Rescuing Angel') + + JONATHAN EDWARDS 1703-1758 5175 + BY EGBERT C. SMYTH + From Narrative of His Religious History + "Written on a Blank Leaf in 1723" + The Idea of Nothing ('Of Being') + The Notion of Action and Agency Entertained by Mr. Chubb + and Others ('Inquiry into the Freedom of the Will') + Excellency of Christ + Essence of True Virtue ('The Nature of True Virtue') + + GEORGES EEKHOUD 1854- 5189 + Ex-Voto + Kors Davie + + EDWARD EGGLESTON 1837- 5215 + Roger Williams, the Prophet of Religious Freedom ('The + Beginners of a Nation') + + EGYPTIAN LITERATURE 5225 + BY FRANCIS LLEWELLYN GRIFFITH AND KATE BRADBURY GRIFFITH + The Shipwrecked Sailor + Story of Sanehat + The Doomed Prince + Story of the Two Brothers + Story of Setna + Stela of Piankhy + Inscription of Una + Songs of Laborers + Love Songs: Love-Sickness; The Lucky Doorkeeper; + Love's Doubts; The Unsuccessful Bird-Catcher + Hymn to Usertesen III. + Hymn to the Aten + Hymns to Amen Ra + Songs to the Harp + From an Epitaph + From a Dialogue Between a Man and His Soul + 'The Negative Confession' + Teaching of Amenemhat + The Prisse Papyrus: Instruction of Ptahhetep + From the 'Maxims of Any' + Instruction of Dauf + Contrasted Lots of Scribe and Fellah + Reproaches to a Dissipated Student + + JOSEPH VON EICHENDORFF 1788-1857 5345 + From 'Out of the Life of a Good-for-Nothing' + Separation + Lorelei + + GEORGE ELIOT 1819-1880 5359 + BY CHARLES WALDSTEIN + The Final Rescue ('The Mill on the Floss') + Village Worthies ('Silas Marner') + The Hall Farm ('Adam Bede') + Mrs. Poyser "Has Her Say Out" (same) + The Prisoners ('Romola') + "Oh, May I Join the Choir Invisible" + + RALPH WALDO EMERSON 1803-1882 5421 + BY RICHARD GARNETT + The Times + Friendship + Nature + Compensation + Love + Circles + Self-Reliance + History + Each and All + The Rhodora + The Humble-Bee + The Problem + Days + Musketaquid + From the 'Threnody' + Concord Hymn + Ode Sung in the Town Hall, Concord, July 4, 1857 + + + + + FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS + + VOLUME XIII + + + PAGE + Gothic Bible of Ulfilas Colored Plate Frontispiece + Georg Ebers (Portrait) 5091 + "Babylonian Marriage Market" (Photogravure) 5098 + Egyptian Hieroglyphic Writing (Outline Fac-Simile) 5226 + "The Sphynx" (Photogravure) 5260 + "Egyptian Funeral Feast" (Photogravure) 5290 + "Uncial Greek Writing" (Fac-Simile) 5338 + George Eliot (Portrait) 5359 + Ralph Waldo Emerson (Portrait) 5421 + "Concord Battle Monument" (Photogravure) 5466 + + + VIGNETTE PORTRAITS + + John S. Dwight Jonathan Edwards + Maria Edgeworth Edward Eggleston + + + + +TORU DUTT + +(1856-1877) + + +In 1874 there appeared in the Bengal Magazine an essay upon Leconte +de Lisle, which showed not only an unusual knowledge of French +literature, but also decided literary qualities. The essayist was Toru +Dutt, a Hindu girl of eighteen, daughter of Govin Chunder Dutt, for +many years a justice of the peace at Calcutta. The family belonged to +the high-caste cultivated Hindus, and Toru's education was conducted +on broad lines. Her work frequently discloses charming pictures of the +home life that filled the old garden house at Calcutta. Here it is +easy to see the studious child poring over French, German, and English +lexicons, reading every book she could lay hold of, hearing from her +mother's lips those old legends of her race which had been woven into +the poetry of native bards long before the civilization of modern +Europe existed. In her thirteenth year Toru and her younger sister +were sent to study for a few months in France, and thence to attend +lectures at Cambridge and to travel in England. A memory of this visit +appears in Toru's little poem, 'Near Hastings,' which shows the +impressionable nature of the Indian girl, so sensitive to the romance +of an alien race, and so appreciative of her friendly welcome to +English soil. + +After four years' travel in Europe the Dutts returned to India to +resume their student life, and Toru began to learn Sanskrit. She +showed great aptitude for the French language and a strong liking for +the French character, and she made a special study of French romantic +poetry. Her essays on Leconte de Lisle and Josephin Soulary, and a +series of English translations of poetry, were the fruit of her labor. +The translations, including specimens from Beranger, Theophile +Gautier, Francois Coppee, Sully-Prud'homme, and other popular writers, +were collected in 1876 under the title 'A Sheaf Gleaned in French +Fields.' A few copies found their way into Europe, and both French and +English reviewers recognized the value of the harvest of this +clear-sighted gleaner. One critic called these poems, in which Toru so +faithfully reproduced the spirit of one alien tongue in the forms of +another, transmutations rather than translations. + +But marvelous as is the mastery shown over the subtleties of thought +and the difficulties of translation, the achievement remains that of +acquirement rather than of inspiration. But Toru's English renditions +of the native Indian legends, called 'Ancient Ballads of Hindustan,' +give a sense of great original power. Selected from much completed +work left unpublished at her too early death, these poems are +revelations of the Eastern religious thought, which loves to clothe +itself in such forms of mystical beauty as haunt the memory and charm +the fancy. But in these translations it is touched by the spirit of +the new faith which Toru had adopted. The poems remain, however, +essentially Indian. The glimpses of lovely landscape, the shining +temples, the greening gloom of the jungle, the pink flush of the +dreamy atmosphere, are all of the East, as is the philosophic calm +that breathes through the verses. The most beautiful of the ballads is +perhaps that of 'Savitri,' the king's daughter who by love wins back +her husband after he has passed the gates of death. Another, +'Sindher,' re-tells the old story of that king whose great power is +unavailing to avert the penalty which follows the breaking of the +Vedic law, even though it was broken in ignorance. Still another, +'Prehlad,' reveals that insight into things spiritual which +characterizes the true seer or "called of God." Two charming legends, +'Jogadhya Uma,' and 'Buttoo,' full of the pastoral simplicity of the +early Aryan life, and a few miscellaneous poems, complete this volume +upon which Toru's fame will rest. + +A posthumous novel written in French makes up the sum of her +contribution to letters. 'Le Journal de Mlle. D'Arvers' was found +completed among her posthumous papers. It is a romance of modern +French life, whose motive is the love of two brothers for the same +girl. The tragic element dominates the story, and the author has +managed the details with extraordinary ease without sacrificing either +dignity or dramatic effect. The story was edited by Mademoiselle +Bader, a correspondent of Toru, and her sole acquaintance among +European authors. In 1878, the year after the poet's death, appeared a +second edition of 'A Sheaf Gleaned in French Fields' containing +forty-three additional poems, with a brief biographical sketch written +by her father. The many translators of the 'Sakoontala' and of other +Indian dramas show how difficult it is for the Western mind to express +the indefinable spirituality of temper that fills ancient Hindu +poetry. This remarkable quality Toru wove unconsciously into her +English verse, making it seem not exotic but complementary, an echo of +that far-off age when the genius of the two races was one. + + + +JOGADHYA UMA + + + "Shell bracelets, ho! Shell bracelets, ho! + Fair maids and matrons, come and buy!" + Along the road, in morning's glow, + The peddler raised his wonted cry. + The road ran straight, a red, red line, + To Khigoram, for cream renowned, + Through pasture meadows where the kine, + In knee-deep grass, stood magic bound + And half awake, involved in mist + That floated in dun coils profound, + Till by the sudden sunbeams kist, + Rich rainbow hues broke all around. + + "Shell bracelets, ho! Shell bracelets, ho!" + The roadside trees still dripped with dew + And hung their blossoms like a show. + Who heard the cry? 'Twas but a few; + A ragged herd-boy, here and there, + With his long stick and naked feet; + A plowman wending to his care, + The field from which he hopes the wheat; + An early traveler, hurrying fast + To the next town; an urchin slow + Bound for the school; these heard and passed, + Unheeding all,--"Shell bracelets, ho!" + + Pellucid spread a lake-like tank + Beside the road now lonelier still; + High on three sides arose the bank + Which fruit-trees shadowed at their will; + Upon the fourth side was the ghat, + With its broad stairs of marble white, + And at the entrance arch there sat, + Full face against the morning light, + A fair young woman with large eyes, + And dark hair falling to her zone; + She heard the peddler's cry arise, + And eager seemed his ware to own. + + "Shell bracelets, ho! See, maiden; see! + The rich enamel, sunbeam-kist! + Happy, oh happy, shalt thou be, + Let them but clasp that slender wrist; + These bracelets are a mighty charm; + They keep a lover ever true, + And widowhood avert, and harm. + Buy them, and thou shalt never rue. + Just try them on!"--She stretched her hand. + "Oh, what a nice and lovely fit! + No fairer hand in all the land, + And lo! the bracelet matches it." + + Dazzled, the peddler on her gazed, + Till came the shadow of a fear, + While she the bracelet-arm upraised + Against the sun to view more clear. + Oh, she was lovely! but her look + Had something of a high command + That filled with awe. Aside she shook + Intruding curls, by breezes fanned, + And blown across her brows and face, + And asked the price; which when she heard + She nodded, and with quiet grace + For payment to her home referred. + + "And where, O maiden, is thy house? + But no,--that wrist-ring has a tongue; + No maiden art thou, but a spouse, + Happy, and rich, and fair, and young." + "Far otherwise; my lord is poor, + And him at home thou shalt not find; + Ask for my father; at the door + Knock loudly; he is deaf, but kind. + Seest thou that lofty gilded spire, + Above these tufts of foliage green? + That is our place; its point of fire + Will guide thee o'er the tract between." + + "That is the temple spire."--"Yes, there + We live; my father is the priest; + The manse is near, a building fair, + But lowly to the temple's east. + When thou hast knocked, and seen him, say, + His daughter, at Dhamaser Ghat, + Shell bracelets bought from thee to-day, + And he must pay so much for that. + Be sure, he will not let thee pass + Without the value, and a meal. + If he demur, or cry alas! + No money hath he,--then reveal; + + "Within the small box, marked with streaks + Of bright vermilion, by the shrine, + The key whereof has lain for weeks + Untouched, he'll find some coin,--'tis mine. + That will enable him to pay + The bracelet's price. Now fare thee well!" + She spoke; the peddler went away, + Charmed with her voice as by some spell; + While she, left lonely there, prepared + To plunge into the water pure, + And like a rose, her beauty bared, + From all observance quite secure. + + Not weak she seemed, nor delicate; + Strong was each limb of flexile grace, + And full the bust; the mien elate, + Like hers, the goddess of the chase + On Latmos hill,--and oh the face + Framed in its cloud of floating hair! + No painter's hand might hope to trace + The beauty and the glory there! + Well might the peddler look with awe, + For though her eyes were soft, a ray + Lit them at times, which kings who saw + Would never dare to disobey. + + Onward through groves the peddler sped, + Till full in front, the sunlit spire + Arose before him. Paths which led + To gardens trim, in gay attire, + Lay all around. And lo! the manse, + Humble but neat, with open door! + He paused, and blessed the lucky chance + That brought his bark to such a shore. + Huge straw-ricks, log huts full of grain, + Sleek cattle, flowers, a tinkling bell, + Spoke in a language sweet and plain, + "Here smiling Peace and Plenty dwell." + + Unconsciously he raised his cry, + "Shell-bracelets, ho!" And at his voice + Looked out the priest, with eager eye, + And made his heart at once rejoice. + "Ho, _Sankha_ peddler! Pass not by, + But step thou in, and share the food + Just offered on our altar high, + If thou art in a hungry mood. + Welcome are all to this repast! + The rich and poor, the high and low! + Come, wash thy feet, and break thy fast; + Then on thy journey strengthened go." + + "Oh, thanks, good priest! Observance due + And greetings! May thy name be blest! + I came on business, but I knew, + Here might be had both food and rest + Without a charge; for all the poor + Ten miles around thy sacred shrine + Know that thou keepest open door, + And praise that generous hand of thine. + But let my errand first be told: + For bracelets sold to thine this day, + So much thou owest me in gold; + Hast thou the ready cash to pay? + + "The bracelets were enameled,--so + The price is high."--"How! Sold to mine? + Who bought them, I should like to know?" + "Thy daughter, with the large black eyne, + Now bathing at the marble ghat." + Loud laughed the priest at this reply, + "I shall not put up, friend, with that; + No daughter in the world have I; + An only son is all my stay; + Some minx has played a trick, no doubt: + But cheer up, let thy heart be gay, + Be sure that I shall find her out." + + "Nay, nay, good father! such a face + Could not deceive, I must aver; + At all events, she knows thy place, + 'And if my father should demur + To pay thee,'--thus she said,--'or cry + He has no money, tell him straight + The box vermilion-streaked to try, + That's near the shrined'"--"Well, wait, friend, wait!" + The priest said, thoughtful; and he ran + And with the open box came back:-- + "Here is the price exact, my man,-- + No surplus over, and no lack. + + "How strange! how strange! Oh, blest art thou + To have beheld her, touched her hand, + Before whom Vishnu's self must bow, + And Brahma and his heavenly band! + Here have I worshiped her for years, + And never seen the vision bright; + Vigils and fasts and secret tears + Have almost quenched my outward sight; + And yet that dazzling form and face + I have not seen, and thou, dear friend, + To thee, unsought-for, comes the grace: + What may its purport be, and end? + + "How strange! How strange! Oh, happy thou! + And couldst thou ask no other boon + Than thy poor bracelet's price? That brow + Resplendent as the autumn moon + Must have bewildered thee, I trow, + And made thee lose thy senses all." + A dim light on the peddler now + Began to dawn; and he let fall + His bracelet-basket in his haste, + And backward ran, the way he came: + What meant the vision fair and chaste; + Whose eyes were they,--those eyes of flame? + + Swift ran the peddler as a hind; + The old priest followed on his trace; + They reached the ghat, but could not find + The lady of the noble face. + The birds were silent in the wood; + The lotus flowers exhaled a smell, + Faint, over all the solitude; + A heron as a sentinel + Stood by the bank. They called,--in vain; + No answer came from hill or fell; + The landscape lay in slumber's chain; + E'en Echo slept within her shell. + + Broad sunshine, yet a hush profound! + They turned with saddened hearts to go; + Then from afar there came a sound + Of silver bells;--the priest said low, + "O Mother, Mother, deign to hear, + The worship-hour has rung; we wait + In meek humility and fear. + Must we return home desolate? + Oh come, as late thou cam'st unsought, + Or was it but some idle dream? + Give us some sign, if it was not; + A word, a breath, or passing gleam." + + Sudden from out the water sprung + A rounded arm, on which they saw + As high the lotus buds among + It rose, the bracelet white, with awe. + Then a wide ripple tost and swung + The blossoms on that liquid plain, + And lo! the arm so fair and young + Sank in the waters down again. + They bowed before the mystic Power, + And as they home returned in thought, + Each took from thence a lotus flower + In memory of the day and spot. + + Years, centuries, have passed away, + And still before the temple shrine + Descendants of the peddler pay + Shell-bracelets of the old design + As annual tribute. Much they own + In lands and gold,--but they confess + From that eventful day alone + Dawned on their industry, success. + Absurd may be the tale I tell, + Ill-suited to the marching times; + I loved the lips from which it fell, + So let it stand among my rhymes. + + + +OUR CASUARINA-TREE + + + Like a huge python, winding round and round + The rugged trunk, indented deep with scars + Up to its very summit near the stars, + A creeper climbs, in whose embraces bound + No other tree could live. But gallantly + The giant wears the scarf, and flowers are hung + In crimson clusters all the boughs among, + Whereon all day are gathered bird and bee; + And oft at night the garden overflows + With one sweet song that seems to have no close, + Sung darkling from our tree, while men repose. + + Unknown, yet well known to the eye of faith! + Ah, I have heard that wail far, far away + In distant lands, by many a sheltered bay, + When slumbered in his cave the water wraith, + And the waves gently kissed the classic shore + Of France or Italy, beneath the moon, + When earth lay tranced in a dreamless swoon; + And every time the music rose, before + Mine inner vision rose a form sublime, + Thy form, O tree! as in my happy prime + I saw thee in my own loved native clime. + + But not because of its magnificence + Dear is the Casuarina to my soul: + Beneath it we have played: though years may roll, + O sweet companions, loved with love intense, + For your sakes shall the tree be ever dear! + Blent with your images, it shall arise + In memory, till the hot tears blind mine eyes. + What is that dirge-like murmur that I hear + Like the sea breaking on a shingle beach? + It is the tree's lament, an eerie speech, + That haply to the Unknown Land may reach. + + When first my casement is wide open thrown + At dawn, my eyes delighted on it rest; + Sometimes,--and most in winter,--on its crest + A gray baboon sits statue-like alone, + Watching the sunrise; while on lower boughs + His puny offspring leap about and play; + And far and near kokilas hail the day; + And to their pastures wend our sleepy cows; + And in the shadow, on the broad tank cast + By that hoar tree, so beautiful and vast, + The water-lilies spring, like snow enmassed. + + + + +JOHN S. DWIGHT + +(1813-1893) + + +John Sullivan Dwight was born in Boston, Massachusetts, May 13th, +1813. After graduation at Harvard in 1832, he studied at the Divinity +School, and for two years was pastor of a Unitarian church in +Northampton, Massachusetts. He then became interested in founding the +famous Brook Farm community, which furnished Hawthorne with the +background for 'The Blithedale Romance'; and he is mentioned in the +preface to this book with Ripley, Dana, Channing, Parker, etc. This +was a "community" scheme, undertaken by joint ownership in a farm in +West Roxbury near Boston; associated with the names of Hawthorne, +Emerson, George William Curtis, and C.A. Dana,--a scheme which Emerson +called "a perpetual picnic, a French Revolution in small, an age of +reason in a patty-pan." This community existed seven years, and to +quote again from Emerson,--"In Brook Farm was this peculiarity, that +there was no head. In every family is the father; in every factory a +foreman; in a shop a master; in a boat the skipper; but in this Farm +no authority; each was master or mistress of their actions; happy, +hapless anarchists." + +Here Mr. Dwight edited The Harbinger, a periodical published by that +community; taught languages and music, besides doing his share of the +manual labor. In 1848 he returned to Boston and engaged in literature +and musical criticism; and in 1852 he established Dwight's Journal of +Music, which he edited for thirty years. Many of his best essays +appeared in the Atlantic Monthly, and he contributed to various +periodicals. + +He was one of the pioneers of scholarly, intelligent, original, and +literary musical criticism in America, and he possessed fine general +attainments and a distinct style. It is because of his clear +perception of the indispensableness of the arts--and especially of the +art of music--to life, and because of his clear statement of their +vital relationship, that his work belongs to literature. + + + +MUSIC AS A MEANS OF CULTURE + +From the Atlantic Monthly, 1870, by permission of Houghton, Mifflin +and Company + + +We as a democratic people, a great mixed people of all races, +overrunning a vast continent, need music even more than others. We +need some ever-present, ever-welcome influence that shall insensibly +tone down our self-asserting and aggressive manners, round off the +sharp, offensive angularity of character, subdue and harmonize the +free and ceaseless conflict of opinions, warm out the genial +individual humanity of each and every unit of society, lest he become +a mere member of a party, or a sharer of business or fashion. This +rampant liberty will rush to its own ruin, unless there shall be found +some gentler, harmonizing, humanizing culture, such as may pervade +whole masses with a fine enthusiasm, a sweet sense of reverence for +something far above us, beautiful and pure; awakening some ideality in +every soul, and often lifting us out of the hard hopeless prose of +daily life. We need this beautiful corrective of our crudities. Our +radicalism will pull itself up by the roots, if it do not cultivate +the instinct of reverence. The first impulse of freedom is +centrifugal,--to fly off the handle,--unless it be restrained by a no +less free impassioned love of order. We need to be so enamored of the +divine idea of unity, that that alone--the enriching of that--shall be +the real motive for assertion of our individuality. What shall so +temper and tone down our "fierce democracy"? It must be something +better, lovelier, more congenial to human nature than mere stern +prohibition, cold Puritanic "Thou shalt _not_!" What can so quickly +magnetize a people into this harmonic mood as music? Have we not seen +it, felt it? + +The hard-working, jaded millions need expansion, need the +rejuvenating, the ennobling experience of joy. Their toil, their +church, their creed perhaps, their party livery, and very vote, are +narrowing; they need to taste, to breathe a larger, freer life. Has it +not come to thousands, while they have listened to or joined their +voices in some thrilling chorus that made the heavens seem to open and +come down? The governments of the Old World do much to make the people +cheerful and contented; here it is all _laissez-faire_, each for +himself, in an ever keener strife of competition. We must look very +much to music to do this good work for us; we are open to that +appeal; we can forget ourselves in that; we blend in joyous fellowship +when we can sing together; perhaps quite as much so when we can listen +together to a noble orchestra of instruments interpreting the highest +inspirations of a master. The higher and purer the character and kind +of music, the more of real genius there is in it, the deeper will this +influence be. + +Judge of what can be done, by what already, within our own experience, +has been done and daily is done. Think what the children in our +schools are getting, through the little that they learn of vocal +music,--elasticity of spirit, joy in harmonious co-operation, in the +blending of each happy life in others; a rhythmical instinct of order +and of measure in all movement; a quickening of ear and sense, whereby +they will grow up susceptible to music, as well as with some use of +their own voices, so that they may take part in it; for from these +spacious nurseries (loveliest flower gardens, apple orchards in full +bloom, say, on their annual _fete_ days) shall our future choirs and +oratorio choruses be replenished with good sound material.... + +We esteem ourselves the freest people on this planet; yet perhaps we +have as little real freedom as any other, for we are the slaves of our +own feverish enterprise, and of a barren theory of discipline, which +would fain make us virtuous to a fault through abstinence from very +life. We are afraid to give ourselves up to the free and happy +instincts of our nature. All that is not pursuit of advancement in +some good, conventional, approved way of business, or politics, or +fashion, or intellectual reputation, or professed religion, we count +waste. We lack _geniality_; nor do we as a people understand the +meaning of the word. We ought to learn it practically of our Germans. +It comes of the same root with the word _genius_. Genius is the +spontaneous principle; it is free and happy in its work; it is artist +and not drudge; its whole activity is reconciliation of the heartiest +pleasure with the purest loyalty to conscience, with the most holy, +universal, and disinterested ends. Genius, as Beethoven gloriously +illustrates in his Choral Symphony (indeed, in all his symphonies), +finds the keynote and solution of the problem of the highest state in +"Joy," taking his text from Schiller's Hymn. Now, all may not be +geniuses in the sense that we call Shakespeare, Mozart, Raphael, men +of genius. But all should be partakers of this spontaneous, free, and +happy method of genius; all should live childlike, genial lives, and +not wear all the time the consequential livery of their unrelaxing +business, nor the badge of party and profession, in every line and +feature of their faces. This genial, childlike faculty of social +enjoyment, this happy art of life, is just what our countrymen may +learn from the social "Liedertafel" and the summer singing-festivals +of which the Germans are so fond. There is no element of national +character which we so much need; and there is no class of citizens +whom we should be more glad to adopt and own than those who set us +such examples. So far as it is a matter of culture, it is through art +chiefly that the desiderated genial era must be ushered in. The +Germans have the sentiment of art, the feeling of the beautiful in +art, and consequently in nature, more developed than we have. Above +all, music offers itself as the most available, most popular, most +influential of the fine arts,--music, which is the art and language of +the feelings, the sentiments, the spiritual instincts of the soul; and +so becomes a universal language, tending to unite and blend and +harmonize all who may come within its sphere. + +Such civilizing, educating power has music for society at large. Now, +in the finer sense of culture, such as we look for in more private and +select "society," as it is called, music in the salon, in the small +chamber concert, where congenial spirits are assembled in its +name--good music of course--does it not create a finer sphere of +social sympathy and courtesy? Does it not better mold the tone and +manners from within than any imitative "fashion" from without? What +society, upon the whole, is quite so sweet, so satisfactory, so +refined, as the best musical society, if only Mozart, Mendelssohn, +Franz, Chopin, set the tone! The finer the kind of music heard or made +together, the better the society. This bond of union only reaches the +few; coarser, meaner, more prosaic natures are not drawn to it. Wealth +and fashion may not dictate who shall be of it. Here congenial spirits +meet in a way at once free, happy, and instructive, meet with an +object which insures "society"; whereas so-called society, as such, is +often aimless, vague, modifying and fatiguing, for the want of any +subject-matter. Here one gets ideas of beauty which are not mere +arbitrary fashions, ugly often to the eye of taste. Here you may +escape vulgarity by a way not vulgar in itself, like that of fashion, +which makes wealth and family and means of dress its passports. Here +you can be as exclusive as you please, by the soul's light, not +wronging any one; here learn gentle manners, and the quiet ease and +courtesy with which cultivated people move, without in the same +process learning insincerity. + +Of course the same remarks apply to similar sincere reunions in the +name of any other art, or of poetry. But music is the most social of +them all, even if each listener find nothing set down to his part (or +even hers!) but _tacet_. + +We have fancied ourselves entertaining a musical house together, but +we must leave it with no time to make report or picture out the scene. +Now, could we only enter the chamber, the inner sanctum, the private +inner life of a thoroughly musical person, one who is wont to _live_ +in music! Could we know him in his solitude! (You can only know him in +yourself, unless he be a poet and creator in his art, and bequeath +himself in that form in his works for any who know how to read.) If +the best of all society is musical society, we go further and say: The +sweetest of all solitude is when one is alone with music. One gets the +best of music, the sincerest part, when he is alone. Our +poet-philosopher has told us to secure solitude at any cost; there's +nothing which we can so ill afford to do without. It is a great vice +of our society, that it provides for and disposes to so little +solitude, ignoring the fact that there is more loneliness in company +than out of it. Now, to a musical person, in the mood of it, in the +sweet hours by himself, comes music as the nearest friend, nearer and +dearer than ever before; and he soon finds that he never was in such +good company. I doubt if symphony of Beethoven, opera of Mozart, +Passion Music of Bach, was ever so enjoyed or felt in grandest public +rendering, as one may feel it while he recalls its outline by himself +at his piano (even if he be a slow and bungling reader and may get it +out by piecemeal). I doubt if such an one can carry home from the +performance, in presence of the applauding crowd, nearly so much as he +may take to it from such inward, private preparation. + +Are you alone? What spirits can you summon up to fill the vacancy, and +people it with life and love and beauty! Take down the volume of +sonatas, the arrangement of the great Symphony, the recorded reveries +of Chopin, the songs of Schubert, Schumann, Franz, or even the +chorals, with the harmony of Bach, in which the four parts blend their +several individual melodies together in such loving service of the +whole, that the plain people's tune becomes a germ unfolding into +endless wealth and beauty of meaning; and you have the very essence +of all prayer, and praise, and gratitude, as if you were a worshiper +in the ideal church. Nothing like music, then, to banish the benumbing +ghost of ennui. It lends secret sympathy, relief, expression, to all +one's moods, loves, longings, sorrows; comes nearer to the soul or to +the secret wound than any friend or healing sunshine from without. It +nourishes and feeds the hidden springs of hope and love and faith; +renews the old conviction of life's springtime,--that the world is +ruled by love, that God is good, that beauty is a divine end of life, +and not a snare and an illusion. It floods out of sight the unsightly, +muddy grounds of life's petty, anxious, doubting moments, and makes +immortality a present fact, lived in and realized. It locks the door +against the outer world of discords, contradictions, importunities, +beneath the notice of a soul so richly occupied: lets "Fate knock at +the door" (as Beethoven said in explanation of his symphony),--Fate +and the pursuing Furies,--and even welcomes them, and turns them into +gracious goddesses,--Eumenides! Music, in this way, is a marvelous +elixir to keep off old age. Youth returns in solitary hours with +Beethoven and Mozart. Touching the chords of the 'Moonlight Sonata,' +the old man is once more a lover; with the _andante_ of the 'Pastoral +Symphony' he loiters by the shady brookside, hand in hand with his +fresh heart's first angel. You are past the sentimental age, yet you +can weep alone in music,--not weep exactly, but find outlet more +expressive and more worthy of your manly faith. + +A great grief comes, an inconsolable bereavement, a humiliating, +paralyzing reverse, a blow of Fate, giving the lie to your best plans +and bringing your best powers into discredit with yourself; then you +are best prepared and best entitled to receive the secret visitations +of these tuneful goddesses and muses. + + "Who never ate his bread in tears, + He knows you not, ye heavenly powers!" + +So sings the German poet. It is the want of inward, deep experience, +it is innocence of sorrow and of trial, more than the lack of any +special cultivation of musical taste and knowledge, that debars many +people--naturally most young people, and all who are what we call +shallow natures--from the feeling and enjoyment of many of the truest, +deepest, and most heavenly of all the works of music. Take the Passion +Music of Bach, for instance; if you can sit down alone at your piano +and decipher strains and pieces of it when you _need_ such music, you +shall find that in its quiet quaintness, its sincerity and tenderness, +its abstinence from all striving for effect, it speaks to you and +entwines itself about your heart, like the sweetest, deepest verses in +the Bible; when "the soul muses till the fire burns." + +Such a panacea is this art for loneliness. But sometimes too it may +intensify the sense of loneliness, only for more heavenly relief at +last. Think of the deep composer, of lonely, sad Beethoven, wreaking +his pain upon expression in those impatient chords and modulations, +putting his sorrows into sonatas, and wringing triumph always out of +all! Look at him as he was then,--morose, they say, and lonely and +tormented; look where he is now, as the whole world knows him, feels +him, seeks him for its joy and inspiration--and who can doubt of +immortality? + +Now, in such private solace, in such solitary joys, is there not +culture? Can one rise from such communings with the good spirits of +the tone-world and go out, without new peace, new faith, new hope, and +good-will in his soul? He goes forth in the spirit of reconciliation +and of patience, however much he may hate the wrong he sees about him, +or however little he accept authorities and creeds that make war on +his freedom. The man who has tasted such life, and courted it till he +has become acclimated in it, whether he be of this party or that, or +none at all; whether he be believer or "heretic," conservative or +radical, follower of Christ by name or "Free Religionist,"--belongs to +the harmonic and anointed body-guard of peace, fraternity, good-will; +his instincts have all caught the rhythm of that holy march; the good +genius leads, he has but to follow cheerfully and humbly. For somehow +the minutest fibres, the infinitesimal atoms of his being, have got +magnetized as it were into a loyal, positive direction towards the +pole-star of unity; he has grown attuned to a believing, loving mood, +just as the body of a violin, the walls of a music hall, by much +music-making become gradually seasoned into smooth vibration. + + + + +[Illustration: GEORG EBERS.] + +GEORG MORITZ EBERS + +(1837-) + + +Georg Ebers, distinguished as an Egyptian archaeologist and as a +historical novelist, was born in Berlin in 1837. At ten years of age +he was sent to school in Keilhau, where under the direction of Froebel +he was taught the delights of nature and the pleasure of study. His +university career at Goettingen was interrupted by a long and serious +illness. During his convalescence he pursued with avidity his study of +Egyptian archaeology, and with neither dictionary nor grammar to help +him in the mastery of hieroglyphics, he acquired to some degree this +ancient language. Later, under the learned Lepsius, he became a +thorough and brilliant scholar in the science which is his specialty. +It was at this epoch that he wrote 'An Egyptian Princess,' for the +purpose of realizing to himself a period which he was studying. +Thirteen years later his second work, 'Uarda' was published. When +restored to health, he launched himself with enthusiasm on the life of +a university professor. He taught for a time at Jena, and in 1870 +removed to Leipsic. He has made several journeys into Egypt, sharing +his experiences with the public. + +'The Egyptian Princess' is Ebers's most representative romance. It is +perhaps the subtle quality of popularity, rather than exceptional +merit, which has insured its success. The scene of the story is laid +at the time when Egypt drew its last free breath, unconscious that at +the very height of its intellectual vigor its national life was to be +cut off; the time when Amasis held the throne of the Pharaohs, and +Cambyses was king of Persia. 'Uarda' gives a picture of Egypt under +one of the Rameses. 'Homo Sum,' a tale of the desert anchorites in the +fourth century, is filled with the spirit of the early Christians. In +the story of 'Die Schwestern' (The Sisters) Ebers takes the reader to +Memphis, the temple of Serapis, and the palace of the Ptolemies. The +ethical element enters largely into the novel 'Der Kaiser' (The +Emperor), of Christianity in the time of Hadrian. + +In the 'Frau Buergermeisterin' (The Burgomaster's Wife), Ebers leaves +behind him the world of antiquity, and deals with the heroic struggle +against the Spanish rule made in 1547 by the city of Leyden. 'Gred,' a +long and quiet novel, most carefully executed, is a minute picture of +middle-class Nuernberg, some centuries ago. 'Ein Wort' (A Word: Only a +Word) also stands apart from the historical romances. It is a +psychological and ethical story, working out the development of +inconspicuous character. Both in 'Serapis' and 'The Bride of the +Nile,' the victory of Christianity over heathenism is celebrated. Not +less interesting than his fiction is his book of travels called 'Durch +Gosen zum Sinai' (Through Goshen to Sinai). In 1889, on account of his +health, Ebers resigned his professorship. He now passes his winters in +Munich, where his life is that of a scholar and a writer. + + + +THE ARRIVAL AT BABYLON + +From 'An Egyptian Princess' + + +Seven weeks later, a long line of chariots and riders of every +description wound along the great highway that led from the west to +Babylon, the gigantic city which could be seen from a long distance. + +Nitetis, the Egyptian princess, sat in a gilt four-wheeled chariot, +called a "Harmamaxa." The cushions were covered with gold brocade; the +roof was supported by wooden columns; its sides could be closed by +means of curtains. + +Her companions, the Persian nobles, the dethroned King of Lydia and +his son, rode by the side of her chariot. Fifty carriages and six +hundred sumpter-horses followed, and a regiment of Persian soldiers on +splendid horses preceded the procession. + +The road lay along the Euphrates, through luxuriant fields of wheat, +barley, and sesame, which yielded two or even three hundredfold. +Slender date-palms, with heavy clusters of fruit, stood in the fields, +which were intersected in all directions by canals and conduits. +Although it was winter, the sun shone warm and clear in the cloudless +sky. The mighty river was crowded with barges and boats, which brought +the produce of the Armenian highlands to the Mesopotamian plain, and +forwarded to Babylon the greater part of the wares which were brought +to Thapsacus from Greece. + +Engines, pumps, and water-wheels poured refreshing moisture on the +fields and plantations along the banks, which were dotted with +numerous villages. Everything indicated that the capital of a +civilized and well-governed country was close at hand. + +The carriage and suite of Nitetis stopped before a long building of +brick covered with bitumen, by the side of which grew numerous +plane-trees. Croesus was helped from his horse, approached the +carriage of the Egyptian princess, and cried to her:--"We have reached +the last station-house. The high tower that stands out against the +horizon is the famous tower of Bel, like your Pyramids one of the +greatest achievements of mortal hands. Before the sun sets we shall +reach the brazen gates of Babylon. Permit me to help you from the +carriage, and to send your women to you into the house. To-day you +must dress yourself according to the custom of Persian queens, so that +you may be pleasant in the eyes of Cambyses. In a few hours you will +stand before your husband. How pale you are! See that your women +skillfully paint joyous excitement on your cheeks. The first +impression is often decisive, and this is the case with your future +husband, more than with any one else. If, as I do not doubt, you +please him at first sight, you have won his heart forever. If you +displease him, he will, in accordance with his rough habits, scarcely +deign to look on you again with kindness. Courage, my daughter. Above +all things, remember what I have taught you." + +Nitetis wiped away a tear, and returned:--"How shall I thank you for +all your kindness, Croesus, my second father, my protector and +adviser! Oh, do not ever desert me! When the path of my poor life +passes through sorrow and grief, remain my guide and protector, as you +have been during this long journey over dangerous mountain passes. +Thank you, my father, thank you a thousand times." + +With these words, the girl put her beautiful arms round the old man's +neck and kissed him like an affectionate daughter. + +When she entered the court of the gloomy house, a man came towards +her, followed by a train of Asiatic serving-women. The leader, the +chief eunuch, one of the most important Persian court officials, was +tall and stout. There was a sweet smile on his beardless face; +valuable rings hung from his ears; his arms and legs, his neck, his +long womanish garments, were covered with gold ornaments, and his +stiff artificial curls were surrounded by a purple fillet, and sent +forth a pungent odor. Boges, for this was the eunuch's name, bowed +respectfully to the Egyptian and said, holding his fleshy hand covered +with rings before his mouth:--"Cambyses, the ruler of the world, sends +me to meet you, O queen, that I may refresh your heart with the dew of +his greetings. He further sends to you through me, his poorest slave, +the garments of Persian women, that you may approach the gate of the +Achaemenidae in Median dress, as beseems the wife of the greatest of +rulers. These women your servants await your commands. They will +transform you from an Egyptian emerald into a Persian diamond." Boges +drew back, and with a condescending movement of his hand allowed the +host of the inn to present the princess with a most tastefully +arranged basket of fruit. + +Nitetis thanked both men with friendly words, entered the house, and +tearfully put off the robes of her home; the thick plait, the mark of +an Egyptian princess, was unfastened, and strange hands clad her in +Median fashion. + +Meanwhile her companions commanded a meal to be prepared. Nimble +servants fetched chairs, tables, and golden utensils from the wagon; +the cooks bustled about, and were so ready and eager to help each +other that soon, as if by magic, a splendidly laid table where nothing +was wanting, down to the very flowers, awaited the hungry travelers. + +The same luxury had been displayed during the whole journey, for the +sumpter-horses that followed the royal travelers carried every +imaginable convenience, from gold-woven water-proof tents down to +silver footstools, and the carts that accompanied them bore bakers, +cooks, cup-bearers, carvers, men to prepare ointment, wreath-winders, +and hair-dressers. + +Well-appointed inns were established at regular intervals along the +high-road. Here the horses that had fallen on the way were replaced by +fresh ones, shady trees offered a pleasant shelter from the heat of +the sun, and on the mountains the fires of the inns protected the +traveler from cold and snow. + +The Persian inns, which resembled our post-houses, were first +established by Cyrus the Great, who sought to shorten the enormous +distances between the different parts of his realm by means of +well-kept roads. He had also organized a regular postal service. At +every station the riders with their knapsacks found substitutes on +fresh horses ready for instant departure, who, after receiving the +letters which were to be forwarded, galloped off post-haste, and when +they reached the next inn threw their knapsacks to other riders who +stood in readiness. These couriers were called Angares, and were +considered the swiftest horsemen in the world. + +When the company, who had been joined by Boges the eunuch, rose from +table, the door of the inn opened. A long-drawn sigh of admiration +was heard, for Nitetis stood before the Persians in the splendid +Median court dress, proudly exultant in the consciousness of her +beauty, and yet suffused with blushes at her friends' astonishment. + +The servants involuntarily prostrated themselves in the Asiatic +manner, but the noble Achaemenidae bowed low and reverently. It was as +if the princess had laid aside all shyness with the simple dress of +her home, and assumed the pride and dignity of a queen with the silken +garments, heavy with gold and jewels, of a Persian princess. + +The deep respect which had just been shown her seemed to please her. +With a condescending movement of her hand she thanked her admiring +friends; then she turned to the chief eunuch and said to him kindly +but proudly:--"You have done your duty. I am not dissatisfied with the +robes and the slaves you have provided for me. I shall duly praise +your care to my husband. Meanwhile, receive this golden chain as a +sign of my gratitude." + +The powerful overseer of the king's wives kissed her hand and silently +accepted the gift. None of his charges had yet treated him with such +pride. All the wives whom Cambyses had owned till now were Asiatics, +and as they were acquainted with the full power of the chief eunuch, +they were accustomed to do all they could to win his favor by means of +flattery and submission. + +Boges again bowed low to Nitetis; but without paying any further +attention to him, she turned to Croesus and said in a low tone:--"I +cannot thank you, my gracious friend, with word or gift for what you +have done for me; it will be owing to you alone if my life at this +court becomes, if not happy, at least peaceful." Then she continued in +a louder voice, audible to her traveling companions:--"Take this ring, +which has not left my hand since our departure from Egypt. Its value +is small, its significance great. Pythagoras, the noblest of all the +Greeks, gave it to my mother when he came to Egypt to listen to the +wise teachings of our priests. She gave it to me when I left home. +There is a seven engraved on this simple turquoise. This number, which +is indivisible, represents the health of body and soul, for nothing is +less divisible than health. If but a small portion of the body +suffers, the whole body is ill; if one evil thought nestles in our +heart, the harmony of the soul is disturbed. Whenever you look at +this seven, let it remind you that I wish you perfect enjoyment of +bodily health, and the continuance of that benignity which makes you +the most virtuous and therefore the most healthy of men. No thanks, my +father, for I should remain in your debt though I should restore to +Croesus the wealth of Croesus. Gyges, take this Lydian lyre of ivory, +and when its strings give forth music, remember the giver. To you, +Zopyrus, I give this chain, for I have noticed that you are the most +faithful friend of your friends, and we Egyptians put bonds and ropes +into the fair hands of our goddess of love and friendship, beautiful +Hathor, as a symbol of her binding qualities. To you, Darius, the +friend of Egyptian lore and the starry firmament, I give for a +keepsake this golden ring, on which you will find the Zodiac engraved +by a skillful hand. Bartja, my dear brother-in-law, you shall receive +the most precious treasure I possess. Take this amulet of blue stone. +My sister Tachot put it round my neck when for the last time I pressed +a kiss upon her lips before we fell asleep. She told me this talisman +would bring sweet happiness in love to him who wore it. She wept as +she spoke, Bartja. I do not know what she was thinking of, but I hope +I am carrying out her wish when I lay this treasure in your hand. +Think that Tachot is giving it to you through me her sister, and think +sometimes of the garden of Sais." + +She had spoken in Greek till then. Now she turned to the servants, who +were waiting at a respectful distance, and said in broken +Persian:--"You too must accept my thanks. You shall receive a thousand +gold staters. Boges," she added, turning to the eunuch, "I command you +to see that the sum is distributed not later than the day after +to-morrow! Lead me to my carriage, Croesus!" + +The old man hastened to comply with her request. While he conducted +Nitetis to the carriage, she pressed his arm against her breast and +whispered, "Are you satisfied with me, my father?" + +"I tell you, maiden," returned the old man, "you will be the first at +this court after the king's mother, for true regal pride is on your +brow, and you possess the art of doing great things with small means. +Believe me, a trifling gift, chosen as you can choose, will cause +greater pleasure to a nobleman than a heap of gold flung down before +him. The Persians are accustomed to bestow and to receive costly +gifts. They know how to enrich one another. You will teach them to +make each other happy. How beautiful you are! Is that right, or do you +desire higher cushions? But what is that! Do you not see clouds of +dust rolling hither from the town? That must be Cambyses, who is +coming to meet you. Keep yourself upright, girl. Above all, try to +bear your husband's glance and return it. Few can bear the fire of his +eye. If you succeed in meeting it without fear or embarrassment, you +have conquered. Courage, courage, my daughter! May Aphrodite adorn you +with her loveliest charms! To horse, my friends! I think the King is +coming to meet us." + +Nitetis sat very erect in the golden carriage, and pressed her hands +on her heart. The cloud of dust came nearer and nearer. Now bright +sunbeams were reflected in the weapons of the approaching host, and +darted from the cloud of dust like lightning from a stormy sky. Now +the cloud divided, and figures could be distinguished; now the +approaching procession vanished behind the thick bushes at a turn of +the road; and now, not a hundred feet away, the galloping riders were +seen distinctly as they approached nearer and nearer. + +The whole procession seemed to consist of a gay crowd of horses, men, +purple, gold, silver, and jewels. More than two hundred riders, all on +snow-white Nisaean steeds, whose bridles and caparisons glittered with +gold bells and buckles, feathers, tassels, and embroidery, were +followed by a man who was often carried away by the powerful +coal-black horse on which he rode, but who generally proved to the +unmanageable, foaming animal that he was strong enough to tame its +wildness. The rider, whose knees pressed the horse so that the animal +trembled and panted, wore a garment with a scarlet and white pattern, +which was embroidered with silver eagles and falcons. His trousers +were of purple, his boots of yellow leather. He wore a golden belt +round his waist, in which was a short dagger-like sword, whose hilt +and sheath were incrusted with jewels. The rest of his dress resembled +Bartja's. His tiara also was surrounded by the blue-and-white fillet +of the Achaemenidae. Thick jet-black hair streamed from it. A thick +beard of the same color covered the whole lower portion of his hale, +rigid face. His eyes were even darker than his hair and beard, and +glittered with a fire that burned instead of warming. A deep red scar, +caused by the sword of a Massagetian warrior, marked the lofty brow, +large aquiline nose, and thin lips of the rider. His whole bearing +bore the stamp of great power and immoderate pride. + +Nitetis could not turn her eyes from his form. She had never seen any +one like him. She thought she saw the essence of all manliness in the +intensely proud face. It seemed to her as if the whole world, but +especially she herself, had been created to serve this man. She feared +him, and yet her humble woman's heart longed to cling to this strong +man as the vine clings to the elm. She did not know whether the father +of all evil, terrible Seth, or the giver of all light, great Ra, was +to be imagined in this form. + +As light and shade alternate when the heavens are clouded at noon, so +did deep red and ashy pallor appear on her face. She forgot the +precepts of her fatherly friend; and yet when Cambyses forced his wild +snorting steed to stand still by the side of her carriage, she gazed +breathlessly into the flashing eyes of the man, for she knew that he +was the King, though no one had told her. + +The stern face of the ruler of half the world softened more and more, +the longer she, urged by a strange impulse, endured his piercing +glance. At last he waved his hand in welcome and rode towards her +companions, who had dismounted, and who either prostrated themselves +in the dust before the King, or stood bowing low, in accordance with +Persian custom, hiding their hands in the sleeves of their garments. + +Now he himself sprang from his horse. At the same time all his +followers swung themselves out of the saddle. The carpet-bearers in +his train spread, quick as thought, a heavy purple carpet on the road, +so that the King's foot should not touch the dust. A few seconds +later, Cambyses greeted his friends and relations with a kiss. + +Then he shook Croesus's hand, and ordered him to mount again and +accompany him to Nitetis as interpreter. + +The highest dignitaries hastened up and helped the King to mount. He +gave the signal, and the whole procession moved on. Croesus rode +beside Cambyses by the golden carriage. + +"She is beautiful, and pleasing to my heart," cried the Persian to his +Lydian friend. "Now translate to me faithfully what she says in answer +to my questions, for I understand only Persian, Babylonian, and +Median." + + [Illustration: _BABYLONIAN MARRIAGE MARKET._ + + Photogravure from a Painting by Edwin Long, R.A. + + "Once a year in each village the maidens of age to marry were + collected all together into one place, while the men stood + round them in a circle. Then a herald called up the damsels + one by one and offered them for sale. He began with the most + beautiful; when she was sold for no small sum, he offered for + sale the one who came next to her in beauty. All of them were + sold to be wives. The richest of the Babylonians who wished + to wed, bid against each other for the loveliest maidens, + while the humbler wife-seekers who were indifferent about + beauty took the more homely damsels with a marriage + portion.... The marriage portions were furnished by the money + paid for the beautiful damsels, and thus the fairer maidens + portioned out the uglier. + + No one was allowed to give his daughter in marriage to the + man of his choice, nor might any one carry away the damsel + whom he had purchased without finding bail really and truly + to make her his wife. If, however, it turned out that they + did not agree, the money might be paid back."--_Herodotus_, + Book I. Sec. 196.] + +Nitetis had understood his words. Inexpressible joy filled her heart, +and before Croesus could answer the King she said in a low tone, in +broken Persian, "How shall I thank the gods, who let me find favor in +your eyes? I am not ignorant of the language of my lord, for this +noble old man has instructed me in the Persian language during our +long journey. Pardon me if I can answer in broken words only. My time +for instruction was short, and my understanding is only that of a poor +ignorant maiden." + +The usually stern King smiled. His vanity was flattered by Nitetis's +eagerness to gain his approbation, and this diligence in a woman +seemed as strange as it was praiseworthy to the Persian, who was used +to see women grow up in ignorance and idleness, thinking of nothing +but dress and intrigue. + +He therefore answered with evident satisfaction, "I am glad that I can +speak to you without an interpreter. Continue to try to learn the +beautiful language of my fathers. My companion Croesus shall remain +your teacher in the future." + +"Your command fills me with joy," said the old man, "for I could not +desire a more grateful or more eager pupil than the daughter of +Amasis." + +"She confirms the ancient fame of Egyptian wisdom," returned the King; +"and I think that she will soon understand and accept with all her +soul the teachings of the magi, who will instruct her in our +religion." + +Nitetis looked down. The dreaded moment was approaching. She was +henceforth to serve strange gods in place of the Egyptian deities. + +Cambyses did not observe her emotion, and continued:--"My mother +Cassandane shall initiate you in your duties as my wife. I will +conduct you to her myself to-morrow. I repeat what you accidentally +overheard: you please me. Look to it that you keep my favor. We will +try to make you like our country; and because I am your friend I +advise you to treat Boges, whom I sent to meet you, graciously, for +you will have to obey him in many things, as he is the superintendent +of the harem." + +"He may be the head of the women's house," returned Nitetis. "But it +seems to me that no mortal but you has a right to command your wife. +Give but a sign and I will obey, but consider that I am a princess, +and come from a land where weak woman shares the rights of strong men; +that the same pride fills my breast which shines in your eyes, my +beloved! I will gladly obey you the great man, my husband and ruler; +but it is as impossible for me to sue for the favor of the unmanliest +of men, a bought servant, as it is for me to obey his commands." + +Cambyses's astonishment and satisfaction increased. He had never heard +any woman save his mother speak like this, and the subtle way in which +Nitetis unconsciously recognized and exalted his power over her whole +existence satisfied his self-complacency. The proud man liked her +pride. He nodded approvingly and said, "You are right. I will have a +special house prepared for you. I alone will command you. The pleasant +house in the hanging gardens shall be prepared for you to-day." + +"I thank you a thousand times!" cried Nitetis. "If you but knew how +you delight me by your gift! Your brother Bartja told me much of the +hanging gardens, and none of the splendors of your great realm pleased +us as much as the love of the king who built the green mountain." + +"To-morrow you will be able to enter your new dwelling. Tell me how +you and the Egyptians liked my envoys?" + +"How can you ask! Who could become acquainted with noble Croesus +without loving him? Who could help admiring the excellent qualities of +the young heroes, your friends? They have become dear to our house, +especially your beautiful brother Bartja, who won all hearts. The +Egyptians are averse to strangers, but whenever Bartja appeared among +them a murmur of admiration arose from the gaping throng." + +At these words the King's face grew dark. He gave his horse a heavy +blow, so that it reared, turned its head, galloped in front of his +retinue, and in a few minutes reached the walls of Babylon.... + +The walls seemed perfectly impregnable, for they were two hundred +cubits high, and their breadth was so great that two carriages could +easily pass each other. Two hundred and fifty high towers surmounted +and fortified this huge rampart. A greater number of these citadels +would have been necessary if Babylon had not been protected on one +side by impenetrable marshes. The enormous city lay on both sides of +the Euphrates. It was more than nine miles in circumference, and the +walls protected buildings which surpassed even the pyramids and the +temples of Thebes and Memphis in size.... + +Nitetis looked with astonishment at this huge gate; with joyful +emotion she gazed at the long wide street, which was festively decked +in her honor. + + + + +JOSE ECHEGARAY + +(1832-) + +[Illustration: Jose Echegaray] + + +The period of political disorder and disturbance which followed the +revolution of 1868 in Spain was also a period of disorder and decline +for the Spanish stage. The drama--throwing off the fetters of French +classicism that paralyzed inspiration at the beginning of the +century--had revived for a time. But after its rejuvenescence of the +glories of the Golden Age of Spanish literature, uniting a new beauty +of form with truth to nature in the Classic-Romantic School, it sank +into a debasement hitherto unknown. Meretricious sentiment, dullness, +or buffoonery, chiefly of foreign production, occupied the scene +before adorned by the imagination, the wisdom, and the wit, of a +Zorilla, a Tamayo, a Ventura de la Vega. + +It was at this period of dramatic decadence that Echegaray appeared to +revive once more the romantic traditions of the Spanish stage, +peopling it again with noble and heroic figures,--in whom, however, +the chivalric spirit of the Middle Ages is at times strangely joined +to the casuistic modern conscience. The explanation of this is perhaps +to be found in part in the mental constitution of the dramatist, in +whom the analytic and the imaginative faculties are united in marked +degree, and who had acquired a distinguished reputation as a civil +engineer long before he entered the lists as an aspirant for dramatic +honors. Born in Madrid in 1832, his earlier years were passed in +Murcia, where he took his degree of bachelor of arts, applying himself +afterward with notable success to the study of the exact sciences. +Returning to Madrid, after enlarging his knowledge of his profession +of civil engineer by practical study in various provinces of Spain, he +was appointed a professor in the School of Engineers, where he taught +theoretical and applied mathematics, finding time however for the +production of important scientific works, and for the study of +political economy and general literature. On the breaking out of the +revolution of 1868 he joined actively in the movement, taking office +under the new government as Director of Public Works, and holding a +ministerial portfolio. He took office a second time in 1872, and later +filled the post of Minister of Finance, which he resigned on the +proclamation of the Republic. Retiring from public life, he went to +Paris; and while there wrote, being then a little past forty, his +first dramatic work, 'The Check-Book,' a domestic drama in one act, +which was represented anonymously in Madrid two years later, when the +author for the third time held a ministerial portfolio. + +'The Check-Book' was followed in rapid succession by a series of +productions whose titles, 'La Esposa del Vengador' (The Avenger's +Bride), 'La Ultima Noche' (The Last Night), 'En el Puno de la Espada' +(In the Hilt of the Sword), 'Como Empieza y Como Acaba' (How it Begins +and How it Ends), sufficiently indicate their character. They are of +unequal merit, but all show dramatic power of a high order. But on the +representation in 1877 of 'Locura o Santidad?' (Madman or Saint?), the +fame of the statesman and the scientist was completely and finally +eclipsed by that of the dramatist, in whom the press and public of +Madrid unanimously recognized a new and vital force in the Spanish +drama. In this tragedy the keynote of Echegaray's philosophy is +clearly struck. Moral perfection, unfaltering obedience to the right, +is the end and aim of man; and the catastrophe is brought about by the +inability of the hero to make those nearest to him accept this ideal +of life. "Then virtue is but a lie," he cries, when the conviction of +his moral isolation is forced upon him; "and you, all of you whom I +have most loved in this world, perceiving what I regarded as divinity +in you, are only miserable egoists, incapable of sacrifice, a prey to +greed and the mere playthings of passion! Then you are all of you but +clay; you resolve yourselves to dust and let the wind of the tempest +carry you off! ... Beings shaped without conscience or free-will are +simply atoms that meet to-day and separate to-morrow. Such is +matter--then let it go!" + +But the punishment of sin, in Echegaray's moral code, is visited upon +the innocent equally with the guilty; and the guilty are never allowed +to escape the retributive consequences of their wrong-doing. The +pessimistic coloring of the picture would be at times unendurably +oppressive, were it not relieved and lightened by the moral dignity of +the hero. Echegaray's pessimism is, so to say, altruistic, never +egoistic; and the compensating sense of righteousness vindicated +rarely fails to explain, if not to justify, his darkest scenes. + +Judged by the canons of art, Echegaray's dramatic productions will be +found to have many imperfections. But their defects are the defects of +genius, not of mediocrity, and spring generally from an excess of +imagination, not from poverty of invention or faulty insight. The plot +is often overweighted with an accumulation of incidents, and the +means employed to bring about the desired end are often lacking in +verisimilitude. Synthetic rather than analytic in his methods, and a +master in producing contrasts, Echegaray captivates the imagination by +arts which the cooler judgment not seldom condemns. His characters too +are not always inhabitants of the real world, and not infrequently act +contrary to the laws which govern it. The secondary characters are too +often carelessly drawn, sometimes being mere shadowy outlines, while +an altogether disproportionate part of the development of the plot is +intrusted to them. + +On the other hand, in the world of the passions Echegaray treads with +secure step. Its labyrinthine windings, its depths and its heights, +are all familiar to him. Here every accent uttered is the accent of +truth; every act is prompted by unerring instinct. Nothing is false; +nothing is trivial; nothing is strained. The elemental forces of +nature seem to be at work, and the catastrophe results as inevitably +from their action as if decreed by fate. + +The genius of Echegaray, which in its irregular grandeur and its +ethical tendency has been not inaptly likened by a Spanish critic to +that of Victor Hugo, rarely descends from the tragic heights on which +it achieved its first and its greatest triumphs; but that its range +has been limited by choice, not nature, is abundantly proved in the +best of his lighter productions, 'Un Critico Incipiente' (An Embryo +Critic). Of his achievement in tragedy the culminating point was +reached--after a second series of noteworthy productions, among them +'Lo Que no Puede Decirse' (What Cannot be Told), 'Mar Sin Orillas' (A +Shoreless Sea), and 'En el Seno de la Muerte' (In the Bosom of +Death)--in 'El Gran Galeoto' (The Great Galeoto), represented in 1881 +before an audience which hailed its author as a "prodigy of genius," a +second Shakespeare. Other notable works followed,--'Conflicto entre +Dos Deberes' (Conflict between Two Duties), 'Vida Alegre y Muerte +Triste' (A Merry Life and a Sad Death), 'Lo Sublime en lo Vulgar' (The +Sublime in the Commonplace); but 'El Gran Galeoto' has remained thus +far its author's supreme dramatic achievement. In its title is +personified the evil speaking which not always with evil intent, +sometimes even with the best motives, slays, with a venom surer than +that of the adder's tongue, the reputation which it attacks; turning +innocence itself by its contaminating power into guilt. + + + +FROM 'MADMAN OR SAINT?' + + [Don Lorenzo, a man of wealth and position living in Madrid, + has discovered that he is the son, not as he and all the + world had supposed, of the lady whose wealth and name he has + inherited, but of his nurse Juana, who dies after she has + revealed to him the secret of his birth. In consequence he + resolves publicly to renounce his name and his possessions, + although by doing so he will prevent the marriage of his + daughter Inez to Edward, the son of the Duchess of Almonte. + The mother will consent to Don Lorenzo's renunciation of his + possessions but not of his name, as this would throw a stigma + on Inez's origin. He refuses to listen either to the + reasoning or to the entreaties of his wife, the duchess, + Edward, and Dr. Tomas. Finally they are persuaded that he is + mad, and Dr. Tomas calls in a specialist to examine him. The + specialist, with two keepers, arrives at the house at the + same time with the notary, whom Don Lorenzo has sent for to + make before him a formal act of renunciation of his name and + possessions.] + + + Don Lorenzo _enters and stands listening to_ Inez + +Don Lorenzo [_aside_]--"Die," she said! + +_Edward_--You to die! No, Inez, not that; do not say that. + +_Inez_--And why not? If I do not die of grief--if happiness could ever +visit me again--I should die of remorse. + +_Lorenzo_ [_aside_]--"Of remorse!" She! "If happiness could ever visit +her again!" What new fatality floats in the air and hangs +threateningly above my head? Remorse! I have surprised another word in +passing! I traverse rooms and halls, and I go from one place to +another, urged by intolerable anguish, and I hear words that I do not +understand, and I meet glances that I do not understand, and tears +greet me here and smiles there, and no one opposes me, and every one +avoids me or watches me. [_Aloud._] What is this? What is this? + +_Inez_ [_hurrying to him and throwing herself into his arms_]--Father! + +_Lorenzo_--Inez! How pale you are! Why are your lips drawn as if with +pain? Why do you feign smiles that end in sighs!--How lovely in her +sorrow! And I am to blame for all! + +_Inez_--No, father. + +_Lorenzo_--How cruel I am! Ah! you think it, although you do not say +it. + +_Edward_--Inez is an angel. Rebellious thoughts can find no place in +her heart; but who that sees her can fail to think it and to say it? + +_Lorenzo_--No one; you are right. + +_Edward_ [_with energy_]--If I am right, then you are wrong. + +_Lorenzo_--I am right also. There is something more pallid than the +pallid brow of a lovesick maiden; there is something sadder than the +sad tears that fall from her beautiful eyes; something more bitter +than the smile that contracts her lips; something more tragic than the +death of her beloved. + +_Edward_ [_with scornful vehemence_]--And what is that pallor, what +are those tears, and what the tragedies you speak of? + +_Lorenzo_--Insensate! [_Seizing him by the arm._] The pallor of crime, +the tears of remorse, the consciousness of our own vileness. + +_Edward_--And it would be vile, and criminal, and a source of remorse, +to make Inez happy? + +_Lorenzo_ [_despairingly_]--It ought not to be so--but it would! +[_Pause._] And this it is that tortures me. This is the thought that +is driving me mad! + +_Inez_--No, father, do not say that! Follow the path you have marked +out for yourself, without thought of me. What does it matter whether I +live or die? + +_Lorenzo_--Inez! + +_Inez_--But do not vacillate--and above all, let no one see that you +vacillate; let your speech be clear and convincing as it is now; let +not anger blind you. Be calm, be calm, father; I implore it of you in +the name of God. + +_Lorenzo_--What do you mean by those words? I do not understand you. + +_Inez_--Do I rightly know myself what I mean? There--I am going. I do +not wish to pain you. + +_Edward_ [_to Lorenzo_]--Ah, if you would but listen to your heart; if +you would but silence the cavilings of your conscience. + +_Inez_ [_to Edward_]--Leave him in peace--come with me; do not anger +him, or you will make him hate you. + +_Lorenzo_--Poor girl! She too struggles, but she too will conquer! +[_With an outburst of pride._] She will show that she is indeed my +daughter! + + [_Inez and Edward go up the stage; passing the study door, + Inez sees the keepers and gives a start of horror._] + +_Inez_--What sinister vision affrights my gaze!--No, father, do not +enter there. + +_Edward_--Come, come, my Inez! + +_Inez_ [_to her father_]--No, no, I entreat you! + +_Lorenzo_ [_approaching her_]--Inez! + +_Inez_--Those men there--look! + + [_Inez stretches out her hand toward the study; Don Lorenzo + stands and follows her gaze. At this moment the keepers, + hearing her cry, show themselves between the curtains._] + +_Edward_ [_leading Inez away_]--At last! + + * * * * * + +_Lorenzo_--Now I am more tranquil! The wound is mortal! I feel it here +in my heart! I thank thee, merciful God! + + Dr. Tomas _and_ Dr. Bermudez _enter and stop to observe_ Don + Lorenzo. + +_Dr. Tomas_--There he is--sitting in the arm-chair. + +_Dr. Bermudez_--Unfortunate man! + +_Lorenzo_ [_rising, aside_]--Ah, miserable being! Still cherishing +impossible hopes. Impossible? And what if they honestly believe that +I-- [_Despairingly_] Ah! If they loved me they would not believe it. +[_Pause._] Did I not hear Inez--the child of my heart--speak of +remorse? Why should she speak of remorse? [_Aloud, with increasing +agitation._] They are all wretches! They would almost be glad that I +should die. But no: I will not die until I have fulfilled my duty as +an honorable man; until I have put the climax to my madness. + +_Dr. Tomas_ [_laying his hand on Don Lorenzo's shoulder_]--Lorenzo-- + +_Lorenzo_ [_turning, recognizes him and draws back angrily_]--He! + +_Dr. Tomas_--Let me present to you Dr. Bermudez, one of my best +friends. [_Pause. Don Lorenzo regards both strangely._] + +_Dr. Bermudez_ [_to Dr. Tomas, in a low voice_]--See the effort he +makes to control himself; he is vaguely conscious of his +condition--there is not a doubt left on my mind. + +_Lorenzo_--One of your best friends--one of your best friends-- + +_Dr. Bermudez_ [_aside to Dr. Tomas_]--The idea is escaping him, and +he is striving to retain it. + +_Lorenzo_ [_ironically_]--If he is one of your best friends, then your +loyalty is a guarantee for his. + +_Dr. Bermudez_ [_aside, to Dr. Tomas_]--At last he has found the word. +But notice how unnatural is the tone of his voice. [_Aloud._] I have +come to be a witness, according to what Dr. Tomas tells me, of a very +noble action. + +_Lorenzo_--And of an act of base treachery also. + +_Dr. Tomas_--Lorenzo! + +_Dr. Bermudez_ [_aside, to Dr. Tomas_]--Let him go on talking. + +_Lorenzo_--And of an exemplary punishment. + +_Dr. Bermudez_ [_aside to Dr. Tomas_]--A serious case, my friend, a +serious case. + +_Lorenzo_ [_to Dr. Tomas_]--Call everybody: those of the household and +strangers alike. Let them assemble here, and here await my orders, +while I go to fulfill my duty yonder. What are you waiting for? + +_Dr. Bermudez_ [_aside, to Dr. Tomas_]--Let him have his way; call +them. + + [_Dr. Tomas rings a bell; a servant enters, to whom he speaks + in a low voice and who then goes out._] + +_Lorenzo_--It is the final trial; I could almost feel pity for the +traitors. Ah! I am sustained by the certainty of my triumph. Be still, +my heart. There they are--there they are. I do not wish to see them. +To treat me thus who loved them so dearly!--I do not wish, and yet my +eyes turn toward them--seeking them--seeking them! + + * * * * * + +_Lorenzo_--Inez! It cannot be! She! no, no. It cannot be! My child! + + [_Hurries towards her with outstretched arms. Inez runs to + him._] + +_Inez_--Father! + + [_Dr. Bermudez hastens to interpose, and separates them + forcibly._] + +_Dr. Bermudez_--Come, come, Don Lorenzo; you might hurt your daughter +seriously. + +_Lorenzo_ [_seizing him by the arm and shaking him +violently_]--Wretch! Who are you to part me from my child? + +_Dr. Tomas_--Lorenzo! + +_Edward_--Don Lorenzo! + +_Angela_--My God! + + [_The women group themselves instinctively together, Inez in + her mother's arms, the duchess beside them. Dr. Tomas and + Edward hasten to free Bermudez from Don Lorenzo's grasp_.] + +_Lorenzo_ [_aside, controlling himself_]--So! The imbeciles think it +is another access of madness! Ha, ha, ha! [_Laughing with suppressed +laughter. All watch him._] + +_Dr. Bermudez_ [_aside to Dr. Tomas_]--It is quite clear. + +_Angela_ [_aside_]--Oh, my poor Lorenzo! + +_Inez_ [_aside_]--My poor father! + +_Lorenzo_ [_aside_]--Now you shall see how my madness will end. Before +I leave this house, with what pleasure will I turn that doctor out of +it. Courage! The coming struggle inspires me with new strength. What! +Is a man to be declared mad because he is resolved to do his duty? Ah, +it cannot be! Humanity is neither so blind nor so base as that. +Enough! I must be calm. Treachery has begun its work; then let the +punishment begin too. [_Aloud._] The hour has come for me to perform a +sacred duty, though a most painful one. It would be useless to ask you +to witness formalities which the law requires, but which you would +only find irksome. The representative of the law awaits me in yonder +room; and in obedience to another and a higher law, I am going now to +renounce a fortune which is not mine, and a name which neither I nor +my family can conscientiously bear longer. After this is done I will +return here, and with my wife, and--and my daughter--and let no one +seek to dissuade me from my purpose, for it would be in vain--I will +leave this house which has been for me in the past the abode of love +and happiness, but which is to-day the abode of treachery and +baseness. Gentlemen [_to Dr. Tomas and Dr. Bermudez_], lead the way; I +beg you to do so. + + [_All slowly enter the study. On the threshold Lorenzo casts + a last look at Inez._] + + Translation made for 'A Library of the World's Best Literature,' + by Mary J. Serrano + + + + +FROM 'THE GREAT GALEOTO' + + [In the scenes which are here cited the poison of slander + begins to work. Don Severo, uttering the anonymous gossip of + the world, has implanted in the mind of his middle-aged + brother Don Julian the first suspicion of the honor of his + young wife Teodora and the loyalty of his adopted son Ernest. + Teodora, who has been warned by Mercedes, Don Severo's wife, + overhears the accusing words of her brother-in-law, who is + talking with her husband in an inner apartment; and + horror-struck, is about to fly from the room.] + + +_Julian_ [_inside_]--Let me go! + +_Mercedes_ [_inside_]--No, for Heaven's sake! + +_Julian_--It is they. I will go! + +_Teodora_ [_to Ernest_]--Go! go! + +_Severo_ [_to Ernest_]--You shall give me satisfaction for this! + +_Ernest_--I will not refuse it. + + _Enter_ Julian, _pale and disordered; wounded and seemingly + in a dying condition, supported by_ Mercedes. Don Severo + _stations himself at the right_, Teodora _and_ Ernest _remain + in the background_. + +_Julian_--Together! Where are they going?--Stop them! They shun my +presence! Traitors! + + [_He makes a movement as if to rush toward them, but his + strength fails him and he totters_.] + +_Severo_ [_hurrying to his assistance_]--No, no. + +_Julian_--They deceived me--they lied to me! Wretches! [_While he is +speaking, Mercedes and Severo lead him to the arm-chair on the +right._] There--look at them--she and Ernest! Why are they together? + +_Teodora and Ernest_ [_separating_]--No! + +_Julian_--Why do they not come to me? Teodora! + +_Teodora_ [_stretching out her arms, but without advancing_]--My +Julian! + +_Julian_--Here, on my heart! [_Teodora runs to Julian and throws +herself into his arms. He presses her convulsively to his breast. +Pause._] You see!--You see! [_To his brother._] I know that she +deceives me! I press her in my arms--I might kill her if I would--and +she would deserve it--but I look at her--_I look at her_--and I +cannot! + +_Teodora_--Julian! + +_Julian_--And he? [_Pointing to Ernest._] + +_Ernest_--Sir!-- + +_Julian_--And I loved him! Be silent and come hither. [_Ernest +advances._] You see she is still mine. [_Presses her closer._] + +_Teodora_--Yours--yours! + +_Julian_--Do not act a part! Do not lie to me! + +_Mercedes_--For God's sake! [_Trying to calm him._] + +_Severo_--Julian! + +_Julian_ [_to both_]--Peace. Be silent. [_To Teodora._] I divined your +secret. I know that you love him. [_Teodora and Ernest try to protest, +but he will not let them._] Madrid knows it too--all Madrid! + +_Ernest_--No, father. + +_Teodora_--No. + +_Julian_--They would still deny it! When it is patent to all! When I +feel it in every fibre of my being, for the fever that consumes me has +illuminated my mind with its flame! + +_Ernest_--All these fancied wrongs are the offspring of a fevered +imagination, of delirium! Hear me, sir-- + +_Julian_--You will lie to me again! + +_Ernest_--She is innocent! [_Pointing to Teodora._] + +_Julian_--I do not believe you. + +_Ernest_--By my father's memory I swear it! + +_Julian_--You profane his name and his memory by the oath. + +_Ernest_--By my mother's last kiss-- + +_Julian_--It is no longer on your brow. + +_Ernest_--By all you hold most sacred, father, I swear it, I swear it! + +_Julian_--Let there be no oaths, no deceitful words, no protests. + +_Ernest_--Well, then, what do you wish? + +_Teodora_--What do you wish? + +_Julian_--Deeds! + +_Ernest_--What does he desire, Teodora? What would he have us do? + +_Teodora_--I do not know. What can we do, what can we do, Ernest? + +_Julian_ [_watching them with instinctive distrust_]--Ah, would you +deceive me to my very face? You are laying your plans together, +wretches! Do I not see it? + +_Ernest_--These are the imaginings of fever. + +_Julian_--Fever, yes! The fire of fever has consumed the bandage with +which you both blindfolded me, and at last I see clearly! And now why +do you gaze on each other? why, traitors? Why do your eyes shine, +Ernest? Speak. Their brightness is not the brightness of tears. Come +nearer--nearer still. + + [_Draws Ernest to him, bends his head, and so forces him to + his knees. Don Julian thus remains between Teodora, who + stands at his side, and Ernest, who kneels at his feet. Don + Julian passes his hand over Ernest's eyes._] + +_Julian_--I was right--It is not with tears! They are dry! + +_Ernest_--Pardon!--Pardon! + +_Julian_--You ask my pardon? Then you confess your guilt. + +_Ernest_--No! + +_Julian_--Yes! + +_Ernest_--It is not that! + +_Julian_--Then look into each other's eyes before me. + +_Severo_--Julian! + +_Mercedes_--Sir! + +_Julian_ [_to Teodora and Ernest_]--You are afraid, then? You do not +love each other like brother and sister, then? If you do, prove it! +Let your souls rise to your eyes and in my presence mingle their +reflection there, that so I may see, watching them closely, if that +brightness is the brightness of light or of fire. You too, Teodora--I +will have it so. Come--both; nearer still! + + [_Forces Teodora to kneel before him, draws their faces + together, and compels them to look at each other._] + +_Teodora_ [_freeing herself by a violent effort_]--Oh no! + +_Ernest_ [_also tries to release himself, but Julian holds him in his +grasp_]--I cannot! + +_Julian_--You love each other! You love each other! I see it clearly! +[_To Ernest._] Your life! + +_Ernest_--Yes. + +_Julian_--Your blood! + +_Ernest_--All! + +_Julian_ [_keeping him on his knees_]--Remain there. + +_Teodora_--Julian! [_Restraining him._] + +_Julian_--Ah, you defend him, you defend him. + +_Teodora_--Not for his sake. + +_Severo_--In Heaven's name-- + +_Julian_ [_to Severo_]--Silence! Bad friend! bad son! [_Holding him at +his feet._] + +_Ernest_--Father! + +_Julian_--Disloyal! Treacherous! + +_Ernest_--No, father. + +_Julian_--Thus do I brand you as a traitor on the cheek--now with my +hand, soon with my sword! [_With a supreme effort he raises himself +and strikes Ernest on the face._] + +_Ernest_ [_rises to his feet with a terrible cry and retreats, +covering his face with his hands_]--Ah! + +_Severo_--Justice! [_Stretching out his hand toward Ernest._] + +_Teodora_--My God! [_Hides her face with her hands and falls into a +chair._] + +_Mercedes_ [_to Ernest, exculpating Julian_]--It was delirium! + + [_These four exclamations in rapid succession. A moment of + stupor; Julian still standing and regarding Ernest, Mercedes + and Severo trying to calm him._] + +_Julian_--It was not delirium, it was chastisement, by Heaven! What! +Did you think your treachery would go unpunished, ingrate! + +_Mercedes_--Let us go, let us go! + +_Severo_--Come, Julian. + +_Julian_--Yes, I am going. + + [_Walks with difficulty toward his room, supported by Severo + and Mercedes, stopping from time to time to look back at + Ernest and Teodora._] + +_Mercedes_--Quick, Severo! + +_Julian_--Look at them, the traitors! It was justice! Was it not +justice? So I believe. + +_Severo_--For God's sake, Julian! For my sake! + +_Julian_--You, you alone, of all the world, have loved me truly. +[_Embraces him_.] + +_Severo_--Yes, I alone! + +_Julian_ [_stops near the door and looks at them again_]--She weeps +for him--and does not follow me. She does not even look at me; she +does not see that I am dying--yes, dying! + +_Severo_--Julian! + +_Julian_--Wait, wait! [_Pauses on the threshold._] Dishonor for +dishonor!--Farewell, Ernest! [_Exeunt Julian, Severo, and Mercedes._] + + Translation made for 'A Library of the World's Best Literature,' + by Mary J. Serrano + + + + +THE EDDAS + +(ICELANDIC; NINTH TO THIRTEENTH CENTURIES) + +BY WILLIAM H. CARPENTER + + +The fanciful but still commonly believed meaning of the word "Edda," +which even many of the dictionaries explain as "great-grandmother," +does not, after all, inaptly describe by suggestion the general +character of the work to which it is given. The picture of an ancient +dame at the fireside, telling tales and legendary lore of times whose +memory has all but disappeared, is a by no means inappropriate +personification, even if it has no other foundation. In point of fact, +'Edda' as the title of a literary work has nothing whatsoever to do +with a great-grandmother, but means "the art of poetry," "poetics"; +and only by an extension of its original use does it belong to all +that is now included under it. + +There are in reality two 'Eddas,' which are in a certain sense +connected in subject-material, but yet in more ways than one are +wholly distinct. As originally applied, the name now used collectively +unquestionably belonged to the one, variously called, to distinguish +it from the other, the 'Younger Edda,' on account of the relative age +of its origin; the 'Prose Edda,' since in its greater part it is +written in prose; and the 'Snorra Edda,' the Edda of Snorri, from the +author of the work in its original form. In contradistinction to this, +the other is called the 'Elder Edda,' the 'Poetical Edda,' and from +the name of its once assumed author, the 'Saemundar Edda,' the Edda of +Saemund. + +Legitimately and by priority of usage, the name 'Edda' belongs to the +first-named work alone. In the form in which it has ultimately come +down to us, this is the compilation of many hands at widely different +times; but in its most important and fundamental parts it was +undoubtedly either written by the Icelander Snorri himself, or under +his immediate supervision. + +Snorri Sturluson, its author, both from the part he played in national +politics in his day and from his literary legacy to the present, is +altogether the most remarkable man in the history of Iceland. He was +born in 1179, his father, Sturla Thordarson, being one of the most +powerful chieftains of the island. As was the custom of the time, he +was sent from home to be fostered, remaining away until his +foster-father's death, or until he was nineteen years old; his own +father in the meantime having died as well. He entered upon active +life with but little more than his own ambition to further him; but +through his brother's influence he made the following year a brilliant +marriage, and thus laid the foundation of his power, which thereafter +steadily grew. In 1215 Snorri was elected "Speaker of the Law" for the +Commonwealth. At the expiration of his term of service in the summer +of 1218 he went to Norway, where he was received with extraordinary +hospitality both by King Hakon, who made him his liegeman, and by the +King's father-in-law, Earl Skuli. On the authority of some of the +sagas, he is said to have promised the latter at this time to use his +influence to bring Iceland under the dominion of Norway. Two years +later he returned to Iceland, taking back with him as a present from +the King a ship and many other valuable gifts. In 1222 he was again +made "Speaker of the Law," which post he now held continuously for +nine years. + +Iceland, as the Commonwealth neared its end, was torn apart by the +jealous feuds of the chieftains. A long series of complications had +aroused a bitter hostility to Snorri among his own relatives. In 1229, +he found it necessary to ride to the Althing at the head of eight +hundred men. The matter did not then come to an open rupture, but in +1239 it finally resulted in a regular battle, in which Snorri's +faction was worsted. To avoid consequences he immediately after fled +to Norway. Unwisely, he here gave his adherence to Earl Skuli, now at +odds with the King, and thereby incurred the active displeasure of the +latter; who, evidently fearing the use of Snorri's power against him, +forbade him by letter to return to Iceland. The command was +disregarded, however, and he presently was back again in his native +land. In 1240 Skuli was slain, and shortly afterward King Hakon seems +to have resolved upon Snorri's death. Using Arni, a son-in-law of the +Icelander, as a willing messenger, he sent a letter to Gissur, another +son-in-law, between whom and his father-in-law an active feud was on +foot, demanding that he send the latter a prisoner to Norway, or if +that were impossible, to kill him. Gissur accordingly, with seventy +men at his back, came to Snorri's farmstead Reykjaholt on the night of +the 22d of September, 1241, when the old chieftain was mercilessly +slain in the cellar, where he had taken refuge, by an unknown member +of the band. + +In spite of his political life, Snorri found opportunity for abundant +literary work. The 'Icelandic Annals' say that he "compiled the 'Edda' +and many other books of historical learning, and Icelandic sagas." Of +these, however, only two have come down to us: his 'Edda' and the +sagas of the Norse kings, known since the seventeenth century as the +'Heimskringla,' the best piece of independent prose literature, and +in its bearing the most important series of sagas, of all the number +that are left to attest the phenomenal literary activity of the +Icelanders. + +Snorri's 'Edda'--both as he, the foremost poet of his day, originally +conceived it, and with its subsequent additions--is a handbook for +poets, an _Ars poetica_, as its name itself signifies. That it served +its purpose as a recognized authority is discoverable from the +references to it in later Icelandic poets, where "rules of Edda," +"laws of Edda," "Eddic art," and "Edda" are of frequent occurrence, as +indicating an ideal of poetical expression striven for by some and +deprecated by others. As Snorri wrote it, the 'Edda' was an admirably +arranged work in three parts: the 'Gylfaginning,' a compendium of the +old mythology, the knowledge of which in Snorri's day was fast dying +out; the 'Skaldskaparmal,' a dictionary of poetical expressions, many +of which, contained in ancient poems, were no longer intelligible; and +the 'Hattatal,' a poem or rather series of poems, exemplifying in its +own construction the use and kinds of metre. As it has come down to +us, it has been greatly added to and altered. A long preface filled +with the learning of the Middle Ages now introduces the whole; the +introductions and conclusions of the parts of the work have been +extended; several old poems have been included; a Skaldatal, or list +of skalds, has been added, as have also several grammatical and +rhetorical tracts,--some of which are of real historical value. + +With regard to matter and manner, the parts of Snorri's 'Edda' are as +follows:--The 'Gylfaginning' (the Delusion of Gylfi) is a series of +tales told in answer to the questions of Gylfi, a legendary Swedish +king, who comes in disguise to the gods in Asgard to learn the secret +of their power. By way of illustration it quotes, among other poetical +citations, verses from several of the lays of the 'Elder Edda.' The +'Skaldskaparmal' (Poetical Diction) is also in great part in the form +of questions and answers. It contains under separate heads the +periphrases, appellatives, and synonyms used in ancient verse, which +are often explained by long tales; and like the preceding part, it +also is illustrated by numerous poetical quotations here, particularly +from the skalds. The 'Hattatal' (Metres), finally, consists of three +poems: the first an encomium on the Norwegian king Hakon, and the +others on Earl Skuli. It exemplifies in not fewer than one hundred and +two strophes the use of as many kinds of metre, many of them being +accompanied by a prose commentary of greater or less length. + +That Snorri really wrote the work as here described seems to be +undoubted, although there is no trace of it as a whole until after his +death. At what period of his career it arose, can however merely be +conjectured. We only know with certainty the date of the 'Hattatal'; +that may not unlikely have been the nucleus of the whole, which falls +undoubtedly between 1221 and 1223, shortly after the return from the +first visit to Norway. The oldest manuscript of the 'Snorra +Edda,'--now in the University Library at Upsala, Sweden,--which was +written before 1300, assigns the work to him by name; and the +'Icelandic Annals,' as has already been stated, under the year of his +death corroborate the statement of his authorship of "the Edda"--that +is, of course, of this particular 'Edda,' for there can be no thought +of the other. + +Snorri's poetical work outside of the 'Edda' is represented only by +fugitive verses. An encomium that he wrote on the wife of Earl Hakon +has been lost. As a poet, Snorri undoubtedly stands upon a lower plane +than that which he occupies as a historian. He wrote at a time when +poetry was in its decline in Iceland; and neither in the 'Hattatal' +nor in his other verse, except in form and phraseology, of which he +had a wonderful control, does he rise to the level of a host of +earlier skalds. It is his critical knowledge of the old poetry of +Norway and Iceland that makes his 'Edda' of such unique value, and +particularly as no small part of the material accessible to him has +since been irrevocably lost. Snorri's 'Edda,' in its very conception, +is a wonderful book to have arisen at the time in which it was +written, and in no other part of the Germanic North in the thirteenth +century had such a thing been possible. It is not only, however, as a +commentary on old Norse poetry that it is remarkable. Its importance +as a compendium of the ancient Northern mythology is as great,--one +whose loss nothing could supplant. As a whole, it is of incalculable +value to the entire Germanic race for the light that it sheds upon its +early intellectual life, its ethics, and its religion. + +The history of the 'Elder Edda' does not go back of the middle of the +seventeenth century. In 1643 the Icelandic bishop Brynjolf Sveinsson +sent as a present to Frederick III. of Denmark several old Icelandic +vellums, among which was the manuscript, dating, according to the most +general assignment, from not earlier than 1350; since called the +'Codex Regius' of the 'Edda.' Not a word is known about its previous +history. As to when it came into the hands of the bishop, or where it +was discovered, he has given us no clew whatsoever. He had +nevertheless not only a name ready for it, but a distinct theory of +its authorship, for he wrote on the back of a copy that he had made, +"Edda Saemundi Multiscii" (the Edda of Saemund the Wise). + +Both Bishop Brynjolf's title for the work and his assumption as to the +name of its author--for both are apparently his--are open to +criticism. The name 'Edda' belongs, as we have seen, to Snorri's +book; to which it was given, if not by himself, certainly by one of +his immediate followers. It is not difficult, however, to explain its +new application. Snorri's 'Edda' cites, as has been mentioned, a +number of single strophes of ancient poems, many of which were now +found to be contained in Brynjolf's collection in a more or less +complete form. This latter was, accordingly, not unnaturally looked +upon as the source of the material of Snorri's work; and since its +subject-matter too was the old poetry, it was consequently an earlier +'Edda.' Subsequently the title was extended to include a number of +poems in the same manner found elsewhere; and 'Edda' has since been +irretrievably the title both of the old Norse lays and of the old +Norse _Ars poetica_, to which it more appropriately belongs. + +The attribution of the work to Saemund was even less justifiable. +Saemund Sigfusson was an Icelandic priest, who lived from 1056 to 1133. +As a young man he studied in Germany, France, and Italy, but came back +to Iceland about 1076. Afterward he settled down as priest and +chieftain, as was his father before him, on the paternal estate Oddi +in the south of Iceland, where he lived until his death. Among his +contemporaries and subsequently he was celebrated for his great +learning, the memory of which has even come down to the present day in +popular legend, where like learned men elsewhere he is made an adept +in the black art, and many widely spread tales of supernatural power +have clustered locally about his name. Saemund is the first writer +among the Icelanders of whom we have any information; and besides +poems, he is reputed to have written some of the best of the sagas and +other historical works. It is not unlikely that he did write parts of +the history of Iceland and Norway in Latin, but nothing has come down +to us that is with certainty to be attributed to him. There is however +no ancient reference whatsoever to Saemund as a poet, and it is but a +legend that connects him in any way with the Eddie lays. Internal +criticism readily yields the fact that they are not only of widely +different date of origin, but are so unlike in manner and in matter +that it is idle to suppose a single authorship at all. Nor is it +possible that Saemund, as Bishop Brynjolf may have supposed was the +case, even collected the lays contained in this 'Edda.' It is on the +contrary to be assumed that the collection, of which Brynjolf's +manuscript is but a copy, arose during the latter half of the twelfth +century, in the golden age of Icelandic literature; a time when +attention was most actively directed to the past, when many of the +sagas current hitherto only as oral tradition were given a permanent +form, and historical works of all sorts were written and compiled. + +The fact of the matter is, that here is a collection of old Norse +poems, the memory of whose real time and place of origin has +disappeared, and whose authorship is unknown. Earlier commentators +supposed them to be of extreme age, and carried them back to the very +childhood of the race. Modern criticism has dispelled the illusions of +any such antiquity. It has been proved, furthermore, that the oldest +of the poems does not go back of the year 850, and that the youngest +may have been written as late as 1200. As to their place of origin, +although all have come to us from Iceland, by far the greater number +of them apparently originated in Norway; several arose in the Norse +colonies in Greenland; and although the whole collection was made in +Iceland, where alone many of them had been remembered, but two are +undoubtedly of distinct Icelandic parentage. With regard to their +authorship, results are less direct. Folk-songs they are not in the +proper sense of the word, in that in their present shape they are the +work of individual poets, who made over in versified form material +already existing in oral tradition. Only a small part of the ancient +poetry that arose in this way has been preserved. From prose +interpolations which supply breaks in the continuity of the lays in +the 'Elder Edda' itself, as well as from isolated strophes of old +poems, else unknown, quoted in Snorri's 'Edda,' and from the citation +and use of such poetical material in sagas and histories,--we know for +a certainty that many other lays in the ancient manner once existed +that have now been for all time lost. + +Brynjolf's manuscript contains, whole or in part, as they are now +considered to exist, thirty-two poems. From other sources six poems +have since been added, presumably as ancient as the lays of the 'Codex +Regius,' so that the 'Elder Edda' is made up of thirty-eight poems, +not all of which, however, are even reasonably complete. In form they +are in alliterative verse, but three different metres being +represented, all the simplest and least artificial of the many kinds +used by the Norsemen. In content the lays fall under three heads: they +are mythic, in that they contain the myths of the old heathen religion +of the Norsemen; ethic, in that they embody their views of life and +rules of living; or they are heroic, in that they recount the deeds of +legendary heroes of the race. + +The mythic poems of the 'Edda,' taken together, give us a tolerably +complete picture of the Northern mythology in the Viking Age; although +some of them were not written until after the introduction of +Christianity, and are therefore open to the imputation of having been +to a greater or less extent affected by its teachings. The oldest +poems of the collection are mythical in character. In some of them a +particular god is the principal figure. Several of them, like the +'Vafthrudnismal,' the 'Grimnismal,' 'Baldrs Draumar,' and the +'Harbardsljod,' in this way are particularly devoted to Odin, whose +supremacy they show over all other beings, and whose part they +describe in the government of the universe; in others, like the +'Hymiskvida,' the 'Thrymskvida,' and the 'Alvismal,' Thor occupies the +prominent part in his strife with the giants; single ones have other +gods as their principal actors, like Skirnir, the messenger of Frey, +in the 'Skirnismal,' Loki, the god of destruction, in the 'Lokasenna,' +or Heimdall, the guardian of the rainbow bridge which stretched from +heaven to earth, in the 'Rigsthula.' A few of them are both mythic and +heroic at the same time, like the 'Lay of Voelund,' which tells of the +fearful revenge of the mythical smith upon the Swedish king; or the +'Song of Grotti,' the magical mill, which ground what was wished, +first peace and gold for its owner, King Frodi of Denmark, but later +so much salt on the ship of Mysing, who had conquered the king and +taken it away, that all together sunk into the sea, which henceforth +was salt. By far the greater of the mythic lays is the long but +fragmentary poem 'Voeluspa,' the 'Prophecy of the Sibyl,' which is +entitled to stand not only at the head of the Eddic songs but of all +old Germanic poetry, for the beauty and dignity of its style, its +admirable choice of language, and the whole inherent worth of its +material. Its purpose is to give a complete picture, although only in +its most essential features, of the whole heathen religion. It +contains in this way the entire history of the universe: the creation +of the world out of chaos; the origin of the giants, the dwarfs, of +gods, and of men; and ends with their destruction and ultimate +renewal. The Sibyl is represented at the beginning in an assemblage of +the whole human race, whom she bids be silent in order that she may be +heard. Many of the strophes, even in translation, retain much of their +inherent dignity and poetic picturesqueness:-- + + "There was in times of old + where Ymir dwelt, + nor land nor sea, + nor gelid waves; + earth existed not, + nor heaven above; + there was a chaotic chasm, + and verdure nowhere. + + "Before Bur's sons + raised up heaven's vault, + they who the noble + mid-earth shaped, + the sun shone from the south + on the structure's rocks; + then was the earth begrown + with green herbage. + + "The sun from the south, + the moon's companion, + her right hand cast + round the heavenly horses: + the sun knew not + where she had a dwelling: + the moon knew not + what power he possessed; + the stars knew not + where they had station." + +The gods thereupon gave the heavenly bodies names, and ordained the +times and seasons. This was the golden age of the young world, before +guilt and sin had come into it; a time of joy and beneficent activity. +A deed of violence proclaimed its approaching end, and out of the +slain giants' blood and bones the dwarfs were created. The gods then +made the first man and woman, for whom the Norns established laws and +allotted life and destiny. The use of gold was introduced, and with it +its attendant evils; the Valkyries come, and the first warfare occurs +in the world; the gods' stronghold is broken, and Odin hurls his spear +among the people. In rapid succession follow the pictures of the awful +ills that happen to gods and men, which finally end in Ragnaroek, the +twilight of the gods, and the conflagration of the universe. This +however is not the end. The Sibyl describes the reappearance of the +green earth from the ocean. The gods again come back, and a new golden +age begins of peace and happiness which shall endure forever. + +Scarcely inferior to the 'Voeluspa' for the importance of its material +is the ethical poem or rather collection of poems called the +'Havamal,' the 'Speech of the High One,'--that is, of Odin the supreme +god. The poem consists of sententious precepts and epigrammatic +sayings, which ultimately have been set together to form a connected, +though scarcely systematic, philosophy of life. The whole is naturally +attributed to Odin, the source of all wisdom, the father and giver of +all things. A part of the poem is the oldest of all the Eddic lays, +and the whole of it was at hand early in the tenth century. Although +many of its maxims show a primitive state of society, as a whole they +are the experience of a people more advanced in culture than we are +apt to fancy the Norsemen of the Viking Age, who could nevertheless +philosophize at home as sturdily as they fought abroad. The morality +of the 'Havamal' is not always our morality, but many of its maxims +are eternally true. Its keynote, again and again repeated, is the +perishability of all earthly possessions, and the endurance alone of +fairly won fame:-- + + "Cattle die, + kindred die, + we ourselves also die; + but the fair fame + never dies + of him who has earned it." + +The heroic poems of the 'Elder Edda' recount as if belonging to +a single legendary cycle what originally belonged to two; the one +of Northern origin, the other the common property of the whole +Germanic race. They are the Helgi poems on the one hand, and the +Voelsung poems on the other. Together they tell the "Story of the +North," and come nearest to forming its greatest epic; it is the +same story which Wagner has set to music as immortal in his 'Ring +of the Nibelung,'--although the principal source of his material is +the prose 'Voelsunga Saga' and not the 'Edda,'--and which in a form +much later than the Icelandic versions is also told in the German +'Nibelungenlied.' + +The Helgi poems are only loosely connected with the story of Sigurd +the Voelsung, and originally, but without doubt long before they were +committed to writing, had no connection with it at all. As they now +stand at the head of the heroic lays they are made to tell the deeds +of early members of the Voelsung race; namely, of Helgi Hjoervard's son, +and Helgi Hundingsbane, who is said to have been named after him. The +latter the 'Edda' makes the son of Sigmund the Voelsung, and +consequently an elder brother of Sigurd, the hero of the subsequent +cycle of poems. To these last they are joined by a prose piece ending +with a description of Sigurd's parentage and birth, and his own +personality, which the poems themselves do not give at length. + +The remaining poems, fifteen in all, tell the old Germanic story of +Sigurd, the Siegfried of the Nibelungenlied, in the most ancient form +in which it has come down to us. As contained in the 'Edda' it is a +picture of great deeds, painted in powerful strokes which gain in +force by the absence of carefully elaborated detail. In various ways +it is unfortunate that the lays composing the cycle are not more +closely consecutive; a difficulty that was felt by the earliest +editors of the manuscript, who endeavored to bring the poems and +fragments of poems then extant into some sort of connection, by the +interpolation of prose passages of various lengths wherever it was +considered necessary to the intelligibility of the story. As it is +however there is even yet, and cannot help but be, on account of the +differences in age, authorship, and place of origin of the lays, an +inherent lack of correlation. Many of the poems overlap, and parts of +the action are told several times and in varying form. + +The Sigurd poems belong to a time prior to the introduction of +Christianity, as is incontestably proved by the genuine heathen spirit +that throughout pervades them. Their action is in the early days, when +the gods walked upon earth and mixed themselves in human affairs. The +real theme of the epic which the lays form is the mythical golden +hoard, and with it the fated ring of the Nibelung, owned originally by +the dwarf Andvari, from whom it is wrung by the gods in their +extremity. Andvari curses it to its possessors, and it is cursed again +by the gods who are forced to deliver it up to Hreidmar as blood-money +for his son, whom Loki had slain. Fafnir and Regin, the brothers of +the slain Ottur, demand of their father their share of the blood-fine, +and when this is refused, Hreidmar is killed while asleep, and Regin +is driven away by Fafnir, who then in the guise of a dragon lies upon +the golden hoard to guard it. Egged on by Regin, Sigurd slays Fafnir, +and Regin also when he learns that he intends treachery. + +Sigurd gives the ring of Andvari, taken from the hoard, to the +Valkyrie Brynhild, as a pledge of betrothal; and when in the likeness +of Gunnar the Nibelung,--having by wiles forgotten his former +vows,--he rides to her through the fire, the ring is given back to him +by Brynhild, who does not recognize him. The fatal ring is now given +by Sigurd to his wife, Gudrun the Nibelung, who in a moment of anger +shows it to Brynhild and taunts her with a recital of his history. +Brynhild cannot bear to see the happiness of Gudrun, and does not rest +until Sigurd is slain; and in slaying him, Guthorm, the youngest of +the Nibelungs, is killed, struck down by the sword of the dying +Sigurd. Brynhild, who will not outlive Sigurd, perishes on her own +sword. Gudrun is subsequently, against her will, wedded to Atli the +Hun. Gunnar and Hoegni, her brothers, the two remaining Nibelungs, are +invited to visit Atli, when they are straightway fallen upon, their +followers are killed, and they are bound. They are asked to give up +the golden hoard, whose hiding-place was known to them alone; but +Gunnar first demands the death of his brother Hoegni, and then +triumphantly tells Atli that the treasure is forever hidden in the +Rhine,--where, he only knows. He is cast into a serpent pit, and dies. +Atli's sons and Gudrun's are slain by their mother, changed by the +madness of grief at the slaughter of her brothers into an avenging +Fury, and Atli himself and his men are burned in the hall. Carried +then by the sea, into which she has hurled herself, Gudrun comes to +the land of King Jonakr, who makes her his wife. Swanhild, the +daughter of Sigurd and Gudrun, had been married to King Joermunrek, but +coming under unjust suspicion, is trodden to death by horses; and +Gudrun dies of a broken heart, with a prayer to Sigurd upon her lips. +Last of all, the sons of Gudrun and Jonakr, who, incited by their +mother, had been sent out to avenge their sister, are stoned to death; +and the curse only ceases to work when there is nothing more left for +it to wreak itself upon. + +It is a story of great deeds, whose motives are the bitter passions of +that early time before the culture of Christianity had softened the +hearts of men. The psychological truthfulness of its characters, +however, in spite of their distance from to-day, is none the less +unmistakable; and we watch the action with bated breath, as they are +hurried on by a fate as relentless and inevitable as any that ever +pursued an Oedipus. They are not the indistinct and shadowy forms +which in many early literatures seem to grope out toward us from the +mists of the past, whose clinging heaviness the present is unable +wholly to dispel, but are human men and women who live and act; and +the principal characters, particularly, in this way become the +realities of history, instead of what they actually are, the creations +of legend and myth. + +Many of the poems of the 'Edda' have been several times translated +into English. Notable renderings are those by Dean Herbert, and by +William Morris in the translation of the 'Voelsunga Saga,' by Magnusson +and Morris. The only metrical version of all the lays is that of +Benjamin Thorpe (London, 1866). A literal translation of the entire +extant old poetry of the North is contained in Vigfusson's monumental +work, the 'Corpus Poeticum Boreale.' The 'Snorra Edda' has been +translated by G.W. Dasent (Stockholm, 1842); by I.A. Blackwell in +'Northern Antiquities' (London, 1847); and by R. B. Anderson (Chicago, +1880). + +[Illustration: Signature of Wm. H. Carpenter] + + + +FROM THE 'SNORRA EDDA' + +THOR'S ADVENTURES ON HIS JOURNEY TO THE LAND OF THE GIANTS + +From 'Northern Antiquities': Bohn's Library (London), 1878 + + +One day the god Thor set out, in his car drawn by two he-goats, and +accompanied by Loki, on a journey. Night coming on, they put up at a +peasant's cottage, when Thor killed his goats, and after flaying them +put them in the kettle. When the flesh was sodden, he sat down with, +his fellow-traveler to supper, and invited the peasant and his family +to partake of the repast. The peasant's son was named Thjalfi, and +his daughter Roeska. Thor bade them throw all the bones into the goats' +skins, which were spread out near the fireplace; but young Thjalfi +broke one of the shank-bones with his knife, to come at the marrow. +Thor having passed the night in the cottage, rose at the dawn of day; +and when he was dressed took his mallet Mjoelnir, and lifting it up, +consecrated the goats' skins, which he had no sooner done than the two +goats reassumed their wonted form, only that one of them now limped in +one of its hind legs. Thor, perceiving this, said that the peasant or +one of his family had handled the shank-bone of this goat too roughly, +for he saw clearly that it was broken. It may readily be imagined how +frightened the peasant was, when he saw Thor knit his brows, and grasp +the handle of his mallet with such force that the joints of his +fingers became white from the exertion. Fearing to be struck down by +the very looks of the god, the peasant and his family made joint suit +for pardon, offering whatever they possessed as an atonement for the +offense committed. Thor, seeing their fear, desisted from his wrath +and became more placable, and finally contented himself by requiring +the peasant's children, Thjalfi and Roeska, who became his +bond-servants, and have followed him ever since. + +Leaving his goats with the peasant, Thor proceeded eastward on the +road to Joetunheim, until he came to the shores of a vast and deep sea, +which having passed over, he penetrated into a strange country along +with his companions, Loki, Thjalfi, and Roeska. They had not gone far +before they saw before them an immense forest, through which they +wandered all day. Thjalfi was of all men the swiftest of foot. He bore +Thor's wallet, but the forest was a bad place for finding anything +eatable to stow in it. When it became dark, they searched on all sides +for a place where they might pass the night, and at last came to a +very large hall, with an entrance that took up the whole breadth of +one of the ends of the building. Here they chose them a place to sleep +in; but towards midnight were alarmed by an earthquake, which shook +the whole edifice. Thor, rising up, called on his companions to seek +with him a place of safety. On the right they found an adjoining +chamber, into which they entered; but while the others, trembling with +fear, crept into the furthest corner of this retreat, Thor remained at +the doorway with his mallet in his hand, prepared to defend himself +whatever might happen. A terrible groaning was heard during the +night, and at dawn of day Thor went out and observed lying near him a +man of enormous bulk, who slept and snored pretty loudly. Thor could +now account for the noise they had heard over night, and girding on +his Belt of Prowess, increased that divine strength which he now stood +in need of. The giant, awakening, rose up, and it is said that for +once in his life Thor was afraid to make use of his mallet, and +contented himself by simply asking the giant his name. + +"My name is Skrymir," said the other; "but I need not ask thy name, +for I know thou art the god Thor. But what hast thou done with my +glove?" And stretching out his hand Skrymir picked up his glove, which +Thor then perceived was what they had taken over night for a hall, the +chamber where they had sought refuge being the thumb. Skrymir then +asked whether they would have his fellowship, and Thor consenting, the +giant opened his wallet and began to eat his breakfast. Thor and his +companions having also taken their morning repast, though in another +place, Skrymir proposed that they should lay their provisions +together, which Thor also assented to. The giant then put all the meat +into one wallet, which he slung on his back and went before them, +taking tremendous strides, the whole day, and at dusk sought out for +them a place where they might pass the night, under a large oak-tree. +Skrymir then told them that he would lie down to sleep. "But take ye +the wallet," he added, "and prepare your supper." + +Skrymir soon fell asleep, and began to snore strongly, but incredible +though it may appear, it must nevertheless be told that when Thor came +to open the wallet he could not untie a single knot, nor render a +single string looser than it was before. Seeing that his labor was in +vain, Thor became wroth, and grasping his mallet with both hands while +he advanced a step forward, launched it at the giant's head. Skrymir, +awakening, merely asked whether a leaf had not fallen on his head, and +whether they had supped and were ready to go to sleep. Thor answered +that they were just going to sleep, and so saying, went and laid +himself down under another oak-tree. But sleep came not that night to +Thor, and when he remarked that Skrymir snored again so loud that the +forest re-echoed with the noise, he arose, and grasping his mallet +launched it with such force that it sunk into the giant's skull up to +the handle. Skrymir, awakening, cried out:-- + +"What's the matter? did an acorn fall on my head? How fares it with +thee, Thor?" + +But Thor went away hastily, saying that he had just then awoke, and +that as it was only midnight, there was still time for sleep. He +however resolved that if he had an opportunity of striking a third +blow, it should settle all matters between them. A little before +daybreak he perceived that Skrymir was again fast asleep, and again +grasping his mallet, dashed it with such violence that it forced its +way into the giant's cheek up to the handle. But Skrymir sat up, and +stroking his cheek, said:-- + +"Are there any birds perched on this tree? Methought when I awoke some +moss from the branches fell on my head. What! art thou awake, Thor? +Methinks it is time for us to get up and dress ourselves; but you have +not now a long way before you to the city called Utgard. I have heard +you whispering to one another that I am not a man of small dimensions; +but if you come into Utgard you will see there many men much taller +than myself. Wherefore I advise you, when you come there, not to make +too much of yourselves, for the followers of Utgard-Loki will not +brook the boasting of such mannikins as ye are. The best thing you +could do would probably be to turn back again; but if you persist in +going on, take the road that leads eastward, for mine now lies +northward to those rocks which you may see in the distance." + +Hereupon he threw his wallet over his shoulders and turned away from +them into the forest, and I could never hear that Thor wished to meet +with him a second time. + +Thor and his companions proceeded on their way, and towards noon +descried a city standing in the middle of a plain. It was so lofty +that they were obliged to bend their necks quite back on their +shoulders, ere they could see to the top of it. On arriving at the +walls they found the gateway closed, with a gate of bars strongly +locked and bolted. Thor, after trying in vain to open it, crept with +his companions through the bars, and thus succeeded in gaining +admission into the city. Seeing a large palace before them, with the +door wide open, they went in and found a number of men of prodigious +stature sitting on benches in the hall. Going further, they came +before the King, Utgard-Loki, whom they saluted with great respect. +Their salutations were however returned by a contemptuous look from +the King, who after regarding them for some time said with a scornful +smile:-- + +"It is tedious to ask for tidings of a long journey, yet if I do not +mistake me, that stripling there must be Aku-Thor. Perhaps," he added, +addressing himself to Thor, "thou mayest be taller than thou appearest +to be. But what are the feats that thou and thy fellows deem +yourselves skilled in? for no one is permitted to remain here who does +not in some feat or other excel all men." + +"The feat I know," replied Loki, "is to eat quicker than any one else; +and in this I am ready to give a proof against any one here who may +choose to compete with me." + +"That will indeed be a feat," said Utgard-Loki, "if thou performest +what thou promisest; and it shall be tried forthwith." + +He then ordered one of his men, who was sitting at the further end of +the bench, and whose name was Logi, to come forward and try his skill +with Loki. A trough filled with flesh-meat having been set on the hall +floor, Loki placed himself at one end and Logi at the other, and each +of them began to eat as fast as he could, until they met in the middle +of the trough. But it was soon found that Loki had only eaten the +flesh, whereas his adversary had devoured both flesh and bone, and the +trough to boot. All the company therefore adjudged that Loki was +vanquished. + +Utgard-Loki then asked what feat the young man who accompanied Thor +could perform. Thjalfi answered that he would run a race with any one +who might be matched against him. The King observed that skill in +running was something to boast of, but that if the youth would win the +match he must display great agility. He then arose and went with all +who were present to a plain where there was good ground for running +on, and calling a young man named Hugi, bade him run a match with +Thjalfi. In the first course, Hugi so much outstripped his competitor +that he turned back and met him, not far from the starting-place. + +"Thou must ply thy legs better, Thjalfi," said Utgard-Loki, "if thou +wilt win the match; though I must needs say that there never came a +man here swifter of foot than thou art." + +In the second course, Thjalfi was a full bow-shot from the goal when +Hugi arrived at it. + +"Most bravely dost thou run, Thjalfi," said Utgard-Loki, "though thou +wilt not, methinks, win the match. But the third course must decide." + +They accordingly ran a third time, but Hugi had already reached the +goal before Thjalfi had got half-way. All who were present then cried +out that there had been a sufficient trial of skill in this kind of +exercise. + +Utgard-Loki then asked Thor in what feats he would choose to give +proofs of that dexterity for which he was so famous. Thor replied that +he would begin a drinking match with any one. Utgard-Loki consented, +and entering the palace, bade his cup-bearer bring the large horn +which his followers were obliged to drink out of, when they had +trespassed in any way against established usage. The cup-bearer having +presented it to Thor, Utgard-Loki said:-- + +"Whoever is a good drinker will empty that horn at a single draught, +though some men make two of it; but the most puny drinker of all can +do it at three." + +Thor looked at the horn, which seemed of no extraordinary size, though +somewhat long; however, as he was very thirsty, he set it to his lips, +and without drawing breath, pulled as long and as deeply as he could, +that he might not be obliged to make a second draught of it; but when +he set the horn down and looked in, he could scarcely perceive that +the liquor was diminished. + +"'Tis well drunken," exclaimed Utgard-Loki, "though nothing much to +boast of; and I would not have believed, had it been told me, that +Asa-Thor could not take a greater draught; but thou no doubt meanest +to make amends at the second pull." + +Thor without answering went at it again with all his might; but when +he took the horn from his mouth it seemed to him as if he had drunk +rather less than before, although the horn could now be carried +without spilling. + +"How now! Thor," said Utgard-Loki: "Thou must not spare thyself more, +in performing a feat, than befits thy skill; but if thou meanest to +drain the horn at the third draught thou must pull deeply; and I must +needs say that thou wilt not be called so mighty a man here as thou +art among the AEsir, if thou showest no greater powers in other feats +than methinks will be shown in this." + +Thor, full of wrath, again set the horn to his lips and exerted +himself to the utmost to empty it entirely; but on looking in, found +that the liquor was only a little lower; upon which he resolved to +make no further attempt, but gave back the horn to the cup-bearer. + +"I now see plainly," said Utgard-Loki, "that thou art not quite so +stout as we thought thee; but wilt thou try any other feat?--though +methinks thou art not likely to bear any prize away with thee hence." + +"I will try another feat," replied Thor; "and I am sure such draughts +as I have been drinking would not have been reckoned small among the +AEsir; but what new trial hast thou to propose?" + +"We have a very trifling game here," answered Utgard-Loki, "in which +we exercise none but children. It consists in merely lifting my cat +from the ground; nor should I have dared to mention such a feat to +Asa-Thor, if I had not already observed that thou art by no means what +we took thee for." + +As he finished speaking, a large gray cat sprang on the hall floor. +Thor, advancing, put his hand under the cat's belly, and did his +utmost to raise him from the floor; but the cat, bending his back, +had--notwithstanding all Thor's efforts--only one of his feet lifted +up; seeing which, Thor made no further attempt. + +"This trial has turned out," said Utgard-Loki, "just as I imagined it +would; the cat is large, but Thor is little in comparison with our +men." + +"Little as ye call me," answered Thor, "let me see who amongst you +will come hither, now I am in wrath, and wrestle with me." + +"I see no one here," said Utgard-Loki, looking at the men sitting on +the benches, "who would not think it beneath him to wrestle with thee: +let somebody, however, call hither that old crone, my nurse Elli, and +let Thor wrestle with her if he will. She has thrown to the ground +many a man not less strong and mighty than this Thor is." + +A toothless old woman then entered the hall, and was told by +Utgard-Loki to take hold of Thor. The tale is shortly told. The more +Thor tightened his hold on the crone the firmer she stood. At length, +after a very violent struggle, Thor began to lose his footing, and was +finally brought down upon one knee. Utgard-Loki then told them to +desist, adding that Thor had now no occasion to ask any one else in +the hall to wrestle with him, and it was also getting late. He +therefore showed Thor and his companions to their seats, and they +passed the night there in good cheer. + +The next morning, at break of day, Thor and his companions dressed +themselves and prepared for their departure. Utgard-Loki then came +and ordered a table to be set for them, on which there was no lack of +either victuals or drink. After the repast Utgard-Loki led them to the +gate of the city, and on parting asked Thor how he thought his journey +had turned out, and whether he had met with any men stronger than +himself. Thor told him that he could not deny but that he had brought +great shame on himself. "And what grieves me most," he added, "is that +ye call me a man of little worth." + +"Nay," said Utgard-Loki, "it behoves me to tell thee the truth, now +thou art out of the city; which so long as I live and have my way thou +shalt never re-enter. And by my troth, had I known beforehand that +thou hadst so much strength in thee, and wouldst have brought me so +near to a great mishap, I would not have suffered thee to enter this +time. Know, then, that I have all along deceived thee by my illusions: +first in the forest, where I arrived before thee, and there thou wert +not able to untie the wallet, because I had bound it with iron wire, +in such a manner that thou couldst not discover how the knot ought to +be loosened. After this, thou gavest me three blows with thy mallet; +the first, though the least, would have ended my days had it fallen on +me, but I brought a rocky mountain before me which thou didst not +perceive, and in this mountain thou wilt find three glens, one of them +remarkably deep. These are the dints made by thy mallet. I have made +use of similar illusions in the contests ye have had with my +followers. In the first, Loki, like hunger itself, devoured all that +was set before him; but Logi was in reality nothing else than ardent +fire, and therefore consumed not only the meat but the trough which +held it. Hugi, with whom Thjalfi contended in running, was Thought; +and it was impossible for Thjalfi to keep pace with that. When thou in +thy turn didst try to empty the horn, thou didst perform, by my troth, +a deed so marvelous that had I not seen it myself I should never have +believed it. For one end of that horn reached the sea, which thou wast +not aware of, but when thou comest to the shore thou wilt perceive how +much the sea has sunk by thy draughts, which have caused what is now +called the ebb. Thou didst perform a feat no less wonderful by lifting +up the cat; and to tell thee the truth, when we saw that one of his +paws was off the floor, we were all of us terror-stricken; for what +thou tookest for a cat was in reality the great Midgard serpent that +encompasseth the whole earth, and he was then barely long enough to +inclose it between his head and tail, so high had thy hand raised him +up towards heaven. Thy wrestling with Elli was also a most astonishing +feat, for there was never yet a man, nor ever shall be, whom Old +Age--for such in fact was Elli--will not sooner or later lay low if he +abide her coming. But now, as we are going to part, let me tell thee +that it will be better for both of us if thou never come near me +again; for shouldst thou do so, I shall again defend myself by other +illusions, so that thou wilt never prevail against me." + +On hearing these words, Thor in a rage laid hold of his mallet and +would have launched it at him; but Utgard-Loki had disappeared, and +when Thor would have returned to the city to destroy it, he found +nothing around him but a verdant plain. Proceeding therefore on his +way, he returned without stopping to Thrudvang. + + Translation of I.A. Blackwell. + + + +THE LAY OF THRYM + +From the 'Elder Edda' + + + Wroth was Vingthor, + when he awoke, + and his hammer missed; + his beard he shook, + his forehead struck, + the son of earth + felt all around him; + + And first of all + these words he uttered:-- + "Hear now, Loki! + what I now say, + which no one knows + anywhere on earth, + nor in heaven above: + the As's hammer is stolen!" + + They went to the fair + Freyja's dwelling, + and he these words + first of all said:-- + "Wilt thou me, Freyja, + thy feather-garment lend, + that perchance my hammer + I may find?" + + + FREYJA + + "That I would give thee, + although of gold it were, + and trust it to thee, + though it were of silver." + + Flew then Loki-- + the plumage rattled-- + until he came beyond + the AEsir's dwellings, + and came within + the Joetun's land. + + On a mound sat Thrym, + the Thursar's lord; + for his greyhounds + plaiting gold bands, + and his horses' + manes smoothing. + + + THRYM + + "How goes it with the AEsir? + How goes it with the Alfar? + Why art thou come alone + to Joetunheim?" + + + LOKI + + "Ill it goes with the AEsir, + Ill it goes with the Alfar. + Hast thou Hlorridi's + hammer hidden?" + + + THRYM + + "I have Hlorridi's + hammer hidden + eight rasts + beneath the earth; + it shall no man + get again, + unless he bring me + Freyja to wife." + + Flew then Loki-- + the plumage rattled-- + until he came beyond + the Joetun's dwellings, + and came within + the AEsir's courts; + there he met Thor, + in the middle court, + who these words + first of all uttered:-- + + "Hast thou had success, + as well as labor? + Tell me from the air + the long tidings. + Oft of him who sits + are the tales defective, + and he who lies down + utters falsehood." + + + LOKI + + "I have had labor + and success: + Thrym has thy hammer, + the Thursar's lord. + It shall no man + get again, + unless he bring him + Freyja to wife." + + They went the fair + Freyja to find; + and he those words + first of all said:-- + "Bind thee, Freyja, + in bridal raiment: + we two must drive + to Joetunheim." + + Wroth then was Freyja, + and with anger chafed; + all in AEsir's hall + beneath her trembled; + in shivers flew the famed + Brisinga necklace: + "Know me to be + of women lewdest, + if with thee I drive + to Joetunheim." + + Straightway went the AEsir + all to council, + and the Asynjur + all to hold converse; + and deliberated + the mighty gods, + how they Hlorridi's + hammer might get back. + + Then said Heimdall, + of AEsir brightest-- + he well foresaw + like other Vanir-- + "Let us clothe Thor + with bridal raiment, + let him have the famed + Brisinga necklace. + + "Let by his side + keys jingle, + and woman's weeds + fall round his knees, + but on his breast + place precious stones, + and a neat coif + set on his head." + + Then said Thor, + the mighty As:-- + "Me the AEsir will + call womanish, + if I let myself be clad + in bridal raiment." + + Then spake Loki, + Laufey's son:-- + "Do thou, Thor! refrain + from such-like words; + forthwith the Joetuns will + Asgard inhabit, + unless thy hammer thou + gettest back." + + Then they clad Thor + in bridal raiment, + and with the noble + Brisinga necklace; + let by his side + keys jingle, + and woman's weeds + fall round his knees; + and on his breast + placed precious stones, + and a neat coif + set on his head. + + Then said Loki, + Laufey's son:-- + "I will with thee + as a servant go; + we two will drive + to Joetunheim." + + Straightway were the goats + homeward driven, + hurried to the traces; + they had fast to run. + The rocks were shivered, + the earth was in a blaze; + Odin's son drove + to Joetunheim. + + Then said Thrym, + the Thursar's lord:-- + "Rise up, Joetuns! + and the benches deck, + now they bring me + Freyja to wife, + Njoerd's daughter, + from Noatun. + + "Hither to our court let bring + gold-horned cows, + all-black oxen, + for the Joetuns' joy. + Treasures I have many, + necklaces many; + Freyja alone + seemed to me wanting." + + In the evening + they early came, + and for the Joetuns + beer was brought forth. + Thor alone an ox devoured, + salmons eight, + and all the sweetmeats + women should have. + Sif's consort drank + three salds of mead. + + Then said Thrym, + the Thursar's prince:-- + "Where hast thou seen brides + eat more voraciously? + I never saw brides + feed more amply, + nor a maiden + drink more mead." + + Sat the all-crafty + serving-maid close by, + who words fitting found + against the Joetun's speech:-- + "Freyja has nothing eaten + for eight nights, + so eager was she + for Joetunheim." + + Under her veil he stooped, + desirous to salute her, + but sprang back + along the hall:-- + "Why are so piercing + Freyja's looks? + Methinks that fire + burns from her eyes." + + Sat the all-crafty + serving-maid close by, + who words fitting found + against the Joetun's speech:-- + "Freyja for eight nights + has not slept, + so eager was she + for Joetunheim." + + In came the Joetun's + luckless sister; + for a bride-gift + she dared to ask:-- + "Give me from thy hands + the ruddy rings, + if thou wouldst gain + my love, + my love + and favor all." + + Then said Thrym, + the Thursar's lord:-- + "Bring the hammer in, + the bride to consecrate; + lay Mjoellnir + on the maiden's knee; + unite us each with other + by the hand of Voer." + + Laughed Hlorridi's + soul in his breast, + when the fierce-hearted + his hammer recognized. + He first slew Thrym, + the Thursar's lord, + and the Joetun's race + all crushed; + + He slew the Joetun's + aged sister, + her who a bride-gift + had demanded; + she a blow got + instead of skillings, + a hammer's stroke + for many rings. + So got Odin's son + his hammer back. + + Translation of Benjamin Thorpe in 'The Edda of Saemund the Learned' + + + +OF THE LAMENTATION OF GUDRUN OVER SIGURD DEAD + +FIRST LAY OF GUDRUN + + + Gudrun of old days + Drew near to dying, + As she sat in sorrow + Over Sigurd; + Yet she sighed not + Nor smote hand on hand, + Nor wailed she aught + As other women. + + Then went earls to her, + Full of all wisdom, + Fain help to deal + To her dreadful heart: + Hushed was Gudrun + Of wail, or greeting, + But with heavy woe + Was her heart a-breaking. + + Bright and fair + Sat the great earls' brides, + Gold-arrayed + Before Gudrun; + Each told the tale + Of her great trouble, + The bitterest bale + She erst abode. + + Then spake Giaflaug, + Giuki's sister:-- + "Lo, upon earth + I live most loveless, + Who of five mates + Must see the ending, + Of daughters twain + And three sisters, + Of brethren eight, + And abide behind lonely." + + Naught gat Gudrun + Of wail or greeting, + So heavy was she + For her dead husband; + So dreadful-hearted + For the King laid dead there. + + Then spake Herborg, + Queen of Hunland:-- + "Crueler tale + Have I to tell of, + Of my seven sons + Down in the Southlands, + And the eighth man, my mate, + Felled in the death-mead. + + "Father and mother, + And four brothers, + On the wide sea + The winds and death played with; + The billows beat + On the bulwark boards. + + "Alone must I sing o'er them, + Alone must I array them, + Alone must my hands deal with + Their departing; + And all this was + In one season's wearing, + And none was left + For love or solace. + + "Then was I bound + A prey of the battle, + When that same season + Wore to its ending; + As a tiring-may + Must I bind the shoon + Of the duke's high dame, + Every day at dawning. + + "From her jealous hate + Gat I heavy mocking; + Cruel lashes + She laid upon me; + Never met I + Better master + Or mistress worser + In all the wide world." + + Naught gat Gudrun + Of wail or greeting, + So heavy was she + For her dead husband; + So dreadful-hearted + For the King laid dead there. + + Then spake Gullrond, + Giuki's daughter:-- + "O foster-mother, + Wise as thou mayst be, + Naught canst thou better + The young wife's bale." + And she bade uncover + The dead King's corpse. + + She swept the sheet + Away from Sigurd, + And turned his cheek + Toward his wife's knees:-- + "Look on thy loved one, + Lay lips to his lips, + E'en as thou wert clinging + To thy King alive yet!" + + Once looked Gudrun-- + One look only, + And saw her lord's locks + Lying all bloody, + The great man's eyes + Glazed and deadly, + And his heart's bulwark + Broken by sword-edge. + + Back then sank Gudrun, + Back on the bolster; + Loosed was her head-array, + Red did her cheeks grow, + And the rain-drops ran + Down over her knees. + + Then wept Gudrun, + Giuki's daughter, + So that the tears flowed + Through the pillow; + As the geese withal + That were in the home-field, + The fair fowls the may owned, + Fell a-screaming. + + Then spake Gullrond, + Giuki's daughter:-- + "Surely knew I + No love like your love + Among all men, + On the mold abiding; + Naught wouldst thou joy in + Without or within doors, + O my sister, + Save beside Sigurd." + + Then spake Gudrun, + Giuki's daughter:-- + "Such was my Sigurd + Among the sons of Giuki, + As is the king leek + O'er the low grass waxing, + Or a bright stone + Strung on band, + Or a pearl of price + On a prince's brow. + + "Once was I counted + By the king's warriors + Higher than any + Of Herjan's mays; + Now am I as little + As the leaf may be, + Amid wind-swept wood, + Now when dead, he lieth. + + "I miss from my seat, + I miss from my bed, + My darling of sweet speech. + Wrought the sons of Giuki, + Wrought the sons of Giuki, + This sore sorrow; + Yea, for their sister + Most sore sorrow. + + "So may your lands + Lie waste on all sides, + As ye have broken + Your bounden oaths! + Ne'er shalt thou, Gunnar, + The gold have joy of; + The dear-bought rings + Shall drag thee to death, + Whereon thou swarest + Oath unto Sigurd. + + "Ah, in the days bygone, + Great mirth in the home-field, + When my Sigurd + Set saddle on Grani, + And they went their ways + For the wooing of Brynhild! + An ill day, an ill woman, + And most ill hap!" + + Then spake Brynhild, + Budli's daughter:-- + "May the woman lack + Both love and children, + Who gained greeting + For thee, O Gudrun! + Who gave thee this morning + Many words!" + + Then spake Gullrond, + Giuki's daughter:-- + "Hold peace of such words, + Thou hated of all folk! + The bane of brave men + Hast thou been ever; + All waves of ill + Wash over thy mind; + To seven great kings + Hast thou been a sore sorrow, + And the death of good-will + To wives and women." + + Then spake Brynhild, + Budli's daughter:-- + "None but Atli + Brought bale upon us; + My very brother, + Born of Budli. + + "When we saw in the hall + Of the Hunnish people + The gold a-gleaming + On the kingly Giukings; + I have paid for that faring + Oft and fully, + And for the sight + That then I saw." + + By a pillar she stood + And strained its wood to her; + From the eyes of Brynhild, + Budli's daughter, + Flashed out fire, + And she snorted forth venom, + As the sore wounds she gazed on + Of the dead-slain Sigurd. + + William Morris in 'The Story of the Voelsungs and Niblungs': + translated by Magnusson and Morris, London, 1870 + + + +THE WAKING OF BRUNHILDE ON THE HINDFELL BY SIGURD + +From 'The Story of Sigurd the Voelsung,' by William Morris + + + He looketh, and loveth her sore, and he longeth her spirit to move, + And awaken her heart to the world, that she may behold him and love. + And he toucheth her breast and her hands, and he loveth her passing + sore; + And he saith, "Awake! I am Sigurd;" but she moveth never the more. + + Then he looked on his bare bright blade, and he said, "Thou--what + wilt thou do? + For indeed as I came by the war-garth thy voice of desire I knew." + Bright burnt the pale blue edges, for the sunrise drew anear, + And the rims of the Shield-burg glittered, and the east was + exceeding clear: + So the eager edges he setteth to the Dwarf-wrought battle-coat + Where the hammered ring-knit collar constraineth the woman's throat; + But the sharp Wrath biteth and rendeth, and before it fail the + rings, + And, lo, the gleam of the linen, and the light of golden things; + Then he driveth the blue steel onward, and through the skirt, and + out, + Till naught but the rippling linen is wrapping her about; + Then he deems her breath comes quicker and her breast begins to + heave, + So he turns about the War-Flame and rends down either sleeve, + Till her arms lie white in her raiment, and a river of sun-bright + hair + Flows free o'er bosom and shoulder and floods the desert bare. + + Then a flush cometh over her visage and a sigh upheaveth her breast, + And her eyelids quiver and open, and she wakeneth into rest; + Wide-eyed on the dawning she gazeth, too glad to change or smile, + And but little moveth her body, nor speaketh she yet for a while; + And yet kneels Sigurd moveless, her wakening speech to heed, + While soft the waves of the daylight o'er the starless heavens + speed, + And the gleaming rims of the Shield-burg yet bright and brighter + grow, + And the thin moon hangeth her horns dead-white in the golden glow. + Then she turned and gazed on Sigurd, and her eyes met the Voelsung's + eyes, + And mighty and measureless now did the tide of his love arise. + For their longing had met and mingled, and he knew of her heart that + she loved, + As she spake unto nothing but him, and her lips with the + speech-flood moved:-- + + "Oh, what is the thing so mighty that my weary sleep hath torn, + And rent the fallow bondage, and the wan woe over-worn?" + + He said, "The hand of Sigurd and the Sword of Sigmund's son, + And the heart that the Voelsungs fashioned, this deed for thee have + done." + + But she said, "Where then is Odin that laid me here alow? + Long lasteth the grief of the world, and man-folk's tangled woe!" + + "He dwelleth above," said Sigurd, "but I on the earth abide, + And I came from the Glittering Heath the waves of thy fire to ride." + + But therewith the sun rose upward and lightened all the earth, + And the light flashed up to the heavens from the rims of the + glorious girth;... + + Then they turned and were knit together; and oft and o'er again + They craved, and kissed rejoicing, and their hearts were full and + fain. + + + + +ALFRED EDERSHEIM + +(1825-1889) + + +Among writers on Biblical topics Dr. Alfred Edersheim occupies a +unique place. Bred in the Jewish faith, he brought to his writings the +traditions of his ancestry. The history of the Children of Israel was +a reality to him, who had known the Talmud and the Old Testament +through the lessons of his boyhood, and had been taught to reverence +the Hebrew sacred rites handed down through the ages. All the +intangible, unconscious religious influences of his youth entered into +the work of his manhood. And although this converted Rabbi wrote as a +Christian, yet the Bible stories were colored and vivified for him by +his Jewish sympathies. Thus his work had the especial value of a +double point of view. + +Born in Vienna in 1825 of German parents, he studied at the university +of his native city and in Berlin, finishing his theological education +in Edinburgh. He became a minister of the Free Church of Scotland in +1849, passing over to the Church of England in 1875. In 1881 he +received from Oxford an honorary A.M., and was for a time lecturer on +the Septuagint at the university. He died in Mentone, France, on March +16th, 1889. + +The earlier writings of Dr. Edersheim consist almost entirely of +translations from the German, and of Jewish stories written for +educational purposes. Of his later works the most important are--'The +Bible History,' his largest work, in seven volumes; 'The Temple, its +Ministers and Services as they were at the Time of Christ'; 'Sketches +of Jewish Social Life in the Days of Christ'; and a 'History of the +Jewish Nation after the Destruction of Jerusalem under Titus.' From +the evangelical point of view, his 'Life and Times of Jesus the +Messiah' is of final authority, brilliantly exemplifying his peculiar +fitness to be the interpreter of Jewish life and thought at the period +of the rise of Christianity. He presents not only the story of the +Christ of the Gospels, but draws a picture of the whole political and +social life of the Jews, and of their intellectual and religious +condition--a picture which his Rabbinical learning and his race +sympathies make authentic. He wrote English with unaffected +directness, embodying in the simplest forms the results of his wide +scholarship. His books have a very wide and constant sale. + + + +THE WASHING OF HANDS + +From 'The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah' + + +The externalism of all these practices [ceremonial practices of the +Hebrews] will best appear from the following account which the Talmud +gives of "a feast." As the guests enter, they sit down on chairs, and +water is brought to them, with which they wash one hand. Into this the +cup is taken, when each speaks the blessing over the wine partaken of +before dinner. Presently they all lie down at table. Water is again +brought them, with which they now wash both hands, preparatory to the +meal, when the blessing is spoken over the bread, and then over the +cup, by the chief person at the feast, or else by one selected by way +of distinction. The company respond by _Amen_, always supposing the +benediction to have been spoken by an Israelite, not a heathen, slave, +nor law-breaker. Nor was it lawful to say it with an unlettered man, +although it might be said with a Cuthaean (heretic, or Samaritan,) who +was learned. After dinner the crumbs, if any, are carefully +gathered--hands are again washed, and he who first had done so leads +in the prayer of thanksgiving. The formula in which he is to call on +the rest to join him by repeating the prayers after him is prescribed, +and differs according to the number of those present. The blessing and +the thanksgiving are allowed to be said not only in Hebrew, but in any +other language. + +In regard to the position of the guests, we know that the uppermost +seats were occupied by the Rabbis. The Talmud formulates it in this +manner: That the worthiest lies down first, on his left side, with his +feet hanging down. If there are two "cushions" (divans), the next +worthiest lies at his feet; if there are three cushions, the third +worthiest lies above the first (at his left), so that the chief person +is in the middle. The water before eating is first handed to the +worthiest, and so in regard to the washing after meat. But if a very +large number are present, you begin after dinner with the least worthy +till you come to the last five, when the worthiest in the company +washes his hands, and the other four after him. The guests being thus +arranged, the head of the house, or the chief person at table, speaks +the blessing and then cuts the bread. By some it was not deemed +etiquette to begin till after he who had said the prayer had done so, +but this does not seem to have been the rule among the Palestinian +Jews. Then, generally, the bread was dipped into salt or something +salted, etiquette demanding that where there were two they should wait +one for the other, but not where there were three or more. + +This is not the place to furnish what may be termed a list of _menus_ +at Jewish tables. In earlier times the meal was no doubt very simple. +It became otherwise when intercourse with Rome, Greece, and the East +made the people familiar with foreign luxury, while commerce supplied +its requirements. Indeed, it would scarcely be possible to enumerate +the various articles which seem to have been imported from different, +and even distant, countries. + +To begin with: The wine was mixed with water, and indeed, some thought +that the benediction should not be pronounced till the water had been +added to the wine. According to one statement two parts, according to +another three parts, of water were to be added to the wine. Various +vintages are mentioned: among them a red wine of Saron, and a black +wine. Spiced wine was made with honey and pepper. Another mixture, +chiefly used for invalids, consisted of old wine, water, and balsam; +yet another was "wine of myrrh"; we also read of a wine in which +capers had been soaked. To these we should add wine spiced either with +pepper or with absinthe, and what is described as vinegar, a cooling +drink made either of grapes that had not ripened, or of the lees. +Besides these, palm wine was also in use. Of foreign drinks, we read +of wine from Ammon and from the province Asia, the latter a kind of +"must" boiled down. Wine in ice came from Lebanon; a certain kind of +vinegar from Idumaea; beer from Media and Babylon; barley wine +(_zythos_) from Egypt. Finally, we ought to mention Palestinian apple +cider, and the juice of other fruits. If we adopt the rendering of +some, even liqueurs were known and used. + +Long as this catalogue is, that of the various articles of food, +whether native or imported, would occupy a much larger space. Suffice +it that as regarded the various kinds of grain, meat, fish, and +fruits, either in their natural state or preserved, it embraced almost +everything known to the ancient world. At feasts there was an +introductory course, consisting of appetizing salted meat, or of some +light dish. This was followed by the dinner itself, which finished +with dessert (_aphikomon_ or _terugima_), consisting of pickled +olives, radishes and lettuce, and fruits, among which even preserved +ginger from India is mentioned. The most diverse and even strange +statements are made as to the healthiness, or the reverse, of certain +articles of diet, especially vegetables. Fish was a favorite dish, and +never wanting at a Sabbath meal. It was a saying that both salt and +water should be taken at every meal, if health was to be preserved. +Condiments, such as mustard or pepper, were to be sparingly used. Very +different were the meals of the poor. Locusts--fried in flour or +honey, or preserved--required, according to the Talmud, no blessing; +since the animal was really among the curses of the land. Eggs were a +common article of food, and sold in the shops. Then there was a milk +dish, into which people dipped their bread. Others who were better off +had a soup made of vegetables, especially onions, and meat; while the +very poor would satisfy the cravings of hunger with bread and cheese, +or bread and fruit, or some vegetables, such as cucumbers, lentils, +beans, peas, or onions. + +At meals the rules of etiquette were strictly observed, especially as +regarded the sages. Indeed, there are added to the Talmud two +tractates, one describing the general etiquette, the other that of +"sages," of which the title may be translated as 'The Way of the +World' (_Derech Erez_), being a sort of code of good manners. +According to some, it was not good breeding to speak while eating. The +learned and most honored occupied not only the chief places, but were +sometimes distinguished by a double portion. According to Jewish +etiquette, a guest should conform in everything to his host, even +though it were unpleasant. Although hospitality was the greatest and +most prized social virtue, which, to use a rabbinic expression, might +make every home a sanctuary and every table an altar, an unbidden +guest, or a guest who brought another guest, was proverbially an +unwelcome apparition. Sometimes, by way of self-righteousness, the +poor were brought in, and the best part of the meal ostentatiously +given to them. At ordinary entertainments, people were to help +themselves. It was not considered good manners to drink as soon as you +were asked, but you ought to hold the cup for a little in your hand. +But it would be the height of rudeness either to wipe the plates, to +scrape together the bread, as though you had not had enough to eat, or +to drop it, to the inconvenience of your neighbor. If a piece were +taken out of a dish, it must of course not be put back; still less +must you offer from your cup or plate to your neighbor. From the +almost religious value attaching to bread, we scarcely wonder that +these rules were laid down: not to steady a cup or plate upon bread, +nor to throw away bread, and that after dinner the bread was to be +carefully swept together. Otherwise, it was thought, demons would sit +upon it. 'The Way of the World' for sages lays down these as the marks +of a rabbi: that he does not eat standing; that he does not lick his +fingers; that he sits down only beside his equals--in fact, many +regarded it as wrong to eat with the unlearned; that he begins cutting +the bread where it is best baked, nor ever breaks off a bit with his +hand; and that when drinking, he turns away his face from the company. +Another saying was, that the sage was known by four things: at his +cups, in money matters, when angry, and in his jokes. After dinner, +the formalities concerning hand-washing and prayer, already described, +were gone through, and then frequently aromatic spices burnt, over +which a special benediction was pronounced. We have only to add that +on Sabbaths it was deemed a religious duty to have three meals, and to +procure the best that money could obtain, even though one were to save +and fast for it all the week. Lastly, it was regarded as a special +obligation and honor to entertain sages. + +We have no difficulty now in understanding what passed at the table of +the Pharisee. When the water for purification was presented to him, +Jesus would either refuse it, or if, as seems more likely at a morning +meal, each guest repaired by himself for the prescribed purification, +he would omit to do so, and sit down to meat without this formality. +No one who knows the stress which Pharisaism laid on this rite would +argue that Jesus might have conformed to the practice. Indeed, the +controversy was long and bitter between the Schools of Shammai and +Hillel, on such a point as whether the hands were to be washed +_before_ the cup was filled with wine, or _after_ that, and where the +towel was to be deposited. With such things the most serious ritual +inferences were connected on both sides. A religion which spent its +energy on such trivialities must have lowered the moral tone. All the +more that Jesus insisted so earnestly, as the substance of his +teaching, on that corruption of our nature which Judaism ignored and +on that spiritual purification which was needful for the reception of +his doctrine,--would he publicly and openly set aside ordinances of +man which diverted thoughts of purity into questions of the most +childish character. On the other hand, we can also understand what +bitter thoughts must have filled the mind of the Pharisee whose guest +Jesus was, when he observed his neglect of the cherished rite. It was +an insult to himself, a defiance of Jewish law, a revolt against the +most cherished traditions of the synagogue. Remembering that a +Pharisee ought not to sit down to a meal with such, he might feel that +he should not have asked Jesus to his table. + + + + +MARIA EDGEWORTH + +(1767-1849) + +[Illustration: MARIA EDGEWORTH] + + +The famous author of Irish novels and didactic tales was the daughter +of Richard Lovell Edgeworth and his first wife Anna Ehrs, and was born +at Black Bourton, Oxfordshire, January 1st, 1767. When she was twelve +years old the family settled on the estate at Edgeworth's-town, County +Longford, Ireland, which was her home during the remainder of her long +life. It was a singularly happy family circle, of which Maria was the +centre. Her father married four times, and had twenty-two children, on +whom he exercised his peculiar educational ideas. He devoted himself +most particularly to Maria's training, and made her his most +confidential companion. Several of her works were written in +conjunction with her father, and over almost all he exercised a +supervision which doubtless hindered the free expression of her +genius. Her first publication, 'Letters to Literary Ladies,' on the +education of women, appeared in 1795. This was followed by educational +and juvenile works illustrating the theories of Mr. Edgeworth: 'The +Parent's Assistant,' 'Practical Education' (a joint production), +supplemented later by 'Early Lessons'; 'Rosamond,' 'Harry and Lucy,' +and a sequel to the 'Parent's Assistant.' In 1800 appeared 'Castle +Rackrent,' the first of her novels of Irish life, and her best known +work; soon followed by 'Belinda,' and the well-known 'Essay on Irish +Bulls,' by her father and herself. Miss Edgeworth's reputation was now +established, and on a visit to Paris at this time she received much +attention. Here occurred the one recorded romance of her life, the +proposal of marriage from Count Edelcrantz, a Swedish gentleman. On +her return she wrote 'Leonora.' In 1804 she published 'Popular Tales'; +in 1809 the first series of 'Fashionable Tales.' These tales include +'Almeria' and 'The Absentee,' considered by many critics her +masterpiece. 'Patronage' was begun years before as 'The Freeman +Family.' In 1817 she published 'Harrington' and 'Ormond,' which rank +among her best works. In the same year her father died, leaving to her +the completion of his 'Memoirs,' which appeared in 1820. Her last +novel, 'Helen,' published in 1834, shows no diminution of her charm +and grace. With occasional visits to Paris and London, and a memorable +trip to Scotland in 1823, when she was entertained at Abbotsford, she +lived serene and happy at Edgeworth's-town until her sudden death, May +21st 1849. + +Miss Edgeworth was extremely small, not beautiful; but a brilliant +talker and a great favorite in the exclusive society to which she +everywhere had access. Her greatest success was in the new field +opened in her Irish stories, full of racy, rollicking Irish humor, and +valuable pictures of bygone conditions, for the genial peasant of her +pages is now rarely found. Not the least we owe her is the influence +which her national tales had on Sir Walter Scott, who declared that +her success led him to do the same for his own country in the Waverley +Novels. Miss Edgeworth's style is easy and animated. Her tales show +her extraordinary power of observation, her good sense, and remarkable +skill in dialogue, though they are biased by the didactic purpose +which permeates all her writings. As Madame de Stael remarked, she was +"lost in dreary utility." And doubtless this is why she just missed +greatness, and has been consigned to the ranks of "standard" authors +who are respectfully alluded to but seldom read. The lack of +tenderness and imagination was perhaps the result of her unusual +self-control, shown in her custom of writing in the family +sitting-room, and so concentrating her mind on her work that she was +deaf to all that went on about her. Surely some of the creative power +of her mind must have been lost in that strenuous effort. Her noble +character, as well as her talents, won for her the friendship of many +distinguished people of her day. With Scott she was intimate, Byron +found her charming, and Macaulay was an enthusiastic admirer. In her +recently edited letters are found many interesting and valuable +accounts of the people she met in the course of her long life. + +Miss Edgeworth's life has been written by Helen Zimmern and Grace A. +Oliver; her 'Life and Letters,' edited by Augustus J. C. Hare, +appeared in 1895. 'Pen Portraits of Literary Women,' by Helen Gray +Cone and Jeannette L. Gilder, contains a sketch of her. + + + +SIR CONDY'S WAKE + +From 'Castle Rackrent' + + +When they were made sensible that Sir Condy was going to leave Castle +Rackrent for good and all, they set up a whillaluh that could be heard +to the farthest end of the street; and one fine boy he was, that my +master had given an apple to that morning, cried the loudest; but they +all were the same sorry, for Sir Condy was greatly beloved among the +childher, for letting them go a-nutting in the demesne without saying +a word to them, though my lady objected to them. The people in the +town, who were the most of them standing at their doors, hearing the +childher cry, would know the reason of it; and when the report was +made known the people one and all gathered in great anger against my +son Jason, and terror at the notion of his coming to be landlord over +them, and they cried, "No Jason! no Jason! Sir Condy! Sir Condy! Sir +Condy Rackrent forever!" and the mob grew so great and so loud I was +frightened, and made my way back to the house to warn my son to make +his escape or hide himself, for fear of the consequences. Jason would +not believe me till they came all round the house and to the windows +with great shouts; then he grew quite pale, and asked Sir Condy what +had he best do? "I'll tell you what you'd best do," said Sir Condy, +who was laughing to see his fright: "finish your glass first; then +let's go to the window and show ourselves, and I'll tell 'em, or you +shall if you please, that I'm going to the lodge for change of air for +my health, and by my own desire, for the rest of my days." "Do so," +said Jason who never meant it should have been so, but could not +refuse him the lodge at this unseasonable time. Accordingly Sir Condy +threw up the sash and explained matters, and thanked all his friends, +and bid 'em look in at the punch-bowl, and observe that Jason and he +had been sitting over it very good friends; so the mob was content, +and he sent 'em out some whisky to drink his health, and that was the +last time his Honor's health was ever drunk at Castle Rackrent. + +The very next day, being too proud, as he said to me, to stay an hour +longer in a house that did not belong to him, he sets off to the +lodge, and I along with him not many hours after. And there was great +bemoaning through all O'Shaughlin's Town, which I stayed to witness, +and gave my poor master a full account of when I got to the lodge. He +was very low and in his bed when I got there, and complained of a +great pain about his heart; but I guessed it was only trouble, and all +the business, let alone vexation, he had gone through of late; and +knowing the nature of him from a boy, I took my pipe, and while +smoking it by the chimney, began telling him how he was beloved and +regretted in the county, and it did him a deal of good to hear it. +"Your Honor has a great many friends yet, that you don't know of, rich +and poor in the country," says I; "for as I was coming along the road, +I met two gentlemen in their own carriages, who asked after you, +knowing me, and wanted to know where you was, and all about you, and +even how old I was: think of that!" Then he wakened out of his doze, +and began questioning me who the gentlemen were. And the next morning +it came into my head to go, unknown to anybody, with my master's +compliments, round to many of the gentlemen's houses where he and my +lady used to visit, and people that I knew were his great friends, and +would go to Cork to serve him any day in the year, and I made bold to +try to borrow a trifle of cash from them. They all treated me very +civil for the most part, and asked a great many questions very kind +about my lady and Sir Condy and all the family, and were greatly +surprised to learn from me Castle Rackrent was sold, and my master at +the lodge for health; and they all pitied him greatly, and he had +their good wishes, if that would do, but money was a thing they +unfortunately had not any of them at this time to spare. I had my +journey for my pains, and I, not used to walking, nor supple as +formerly, was greatly tired, but had the satisfaction of telling my +master, when I got to the lodge, all the civil things said by high and +low. + +"Thady," says he, "all you've been telling me brings a strange thought +into my head: I've a notion I shall not be long for this world anyhow, +and I've a great fancy to see my own funeral afore I die." I was +greatly shocked at the first speaking, to hear him speak so light +about his funeral, and he to all appearances in good health, but +recollecting myself answered:--"To be sure it would be as fine a sight +as one could see, I dared to say, and one I should be proud to +witness; and I did not doubt his Honor's would be as great a funeral +as ever Sir Patrick O'Shaughlin's was, and such a one as that had +never been known in the county before or since." But I never thought +he was in earnest about seeing his own funeral himself, till the next +day he returns to it again. "Thady," says he, "as far as the wake +goes, sure I might without any great trouble have the satisfaction of +seeing a bit of my own funeral." "Well, since your Honor's Honor's so +bent upon it," says I, not willing to cross him, and he in trouble, +"we must see what we can do." So he fell into a sort of a sham +disorder, which was easy done, as he kept his bed and no one to see +him; and I got my shister, who was an old woman very handy about the +sick, and very skillful, to come up to the lodge to nurse him; and we +gave out, she knowing no better, that he was just at his latter end, +and it answered beyond anything; and there was a great throng of +people, men, women, and children, and there being only two rooms at +the lodge, except what was locked up full of Jason's furniture and +things, the house was soon as full and fuller than it could hold, and +the heat and smoke and noise wonderful great; and standing among them +that were near the bed, but not thinking at all of the dead, I was +startled by the sound of my master's voice from under the greatcoats +that had been thrown all at top, and I went close up, no one noticing. +"Thady," says he, "I've had enough of this; I'm smothering, and can't +hear a word of all they're saying of the deceased." "God bless you, +and lie still and quiet," says I, "a bit longer; for my shister's +afraid of ghosts and would die on the spot with fright, was she to see +you come to life all on a sudden this way without the least +preparation." So he lays him still, though well-nigh stifled, and I +made all haste to tell the secret of the joke, whispering to one and +t'other, and there was a great surprise, but not so great as we had +laid out it would. "And aren't we to have the pipes and tobacco, after +coming so far to-night?" said some; but they were all well enough +pleased when his Honor got up to drink with them, and sent for more +spirits from a shebean-house, where they very civilly let him have it +upon credit. So the night passed off very merrily, but to my mind Sir +Condy was rather upon the sad order in the midst of it all, not +finding there had been such a great talk about himself after his death +as he had always expected to hear. + + + +SIR MURTAGH RACKRENT AND HIS LADY + +From 'Castle Rackrent' + + +Now it was that the world was to see what was _in_ Sir Patrick. On +coming into the estate he gave the finest entertainment ever was heard +of in the country; not a man could stand after supper but Sir Patrick +himself, who could sit out the best man in Ireland, let alone the +three kingdoms itself. He had his house, from one year's end to +another, as full of company as ever it could hold, and fuller; for +rather than be left out of the parties at Castle Rackrent, many +gentlemen, and those men of the first consequence and landed estates +in the country,--such as the O'Neils of Ballynagrotty, and the +Moneygawls of Mount Juliet's Town, and O'Shannons of New Town +Tullyhog,--made it their choice often and often, when there was no +moon to be had for love nor money, in long winter nights, to sleep in +the chicken-house, which Sir Patrick had fitted up for the purpose of +accommodating his friends and the public in general, who honored him +with their company unexpectedly at Castle Rackrent; and this went on I +can't tell you how long: the whole country rang with his praises--long +life to him! I'm sure I love to look upon his picture, now opposite to +me; though I never saw him, he must have been a portly gentleman--his +neck something short, and remarkable for the largest pimple on his +nose, which by his particular desire is still extant in his picture, +said to be a striking likeness though taken when young. He is said +also to be the inventor of raspberry whisky; which is very likely, as +nobody has ever appeared to dispute it with him, and as there still +exists a broken punch-bowl at Castle Rackrent in the garret, with an +inscription to that effect--a great curiosity. A few days before his +death he was very merry; it being his Honor's birthday, he called my +grandfather in, God bless him! to drink the company's health, and +filled a bumper himself, but could not carry it to his head on account +of the great shake in his hand; on this he cast his joke, +saying:--"What would my poor father say to me if he was to pop out of +the grave and see me now? I remember when I was a little boy, the +first bumper of claret he gave me after dinner, how he praised me for +carrying it so steady to my mouth. Here's my thanks to him--a bumper +toast." Then he fell to singing the favorite song he learned from his +father for the last time, poor gentleman; he sung it that night as +loud and as hearty as ever, with a chorus:-- + + "He that goes to bed, and goes to bed sober, + Falls as the leaves do, + Falls as the leaves do, and dies in October; + But he that goes to bed, and goes to bed mellow, + Lives as he ought to do. + Lives as he ought to do, and dies an honest fellow." + +Sir Patrick died that night: just as the company rose to drink his +health with three cheers, he fell down in a sort of fit, and was +carried off; they sat it out, and were surprised, on inquiry in the +morning, to find that it was all over with poor Sir Patrick. Never did +any gentleman live and die more beloved in the country by rich and +poor. His funeral was such a one as was never known before or since in +the county! All the gentlemen in the three counties were at it; far +and near, how they flocked! My great-grandfather said that to see all +the women even in their red cloaks, you would have taken them for the +army drawn out. Then such a fine whillaluh! you might have heard it to +the farthest end of the county, and happy the man who could get but a +sight of the hearse! But who'd have thought it? just as all was going +on right, through his own town they were passing, when the body was +seized for debt: a rescue was apprehended from the mob, but the heir, +who attended the funeral, was against that for fear of consequences, +seeing that those villains who came to serve acted under the disguise +of the law; so, to be sure, the law must take its course, and little +gain had the creditors for their pains. First and foremost, they had +the curses of the country; and Sir Murtagh Rackrent, the new heir, in +the next place, on account of this affront to the body, refused to pay +a shilling of the debts, in which he was countenanced by all the best +gentlemen of property, and others of his acquaintance. Sir Murtagh +alleging in all companies, that he all along meant to pay his father's +debts of honor, but the moment the law was taken of him there was an +end of honor to be sure. It was whispered (but none but the enemies of +the family believed it) that this was all a sham seizure to get quit +of the debts, which he had bound himself to pay in honor. + +It's a long time ago, there's no saying how it was, but this for +certain: the new man did not take at all after the old gentleman; the +cellars were never filled after his death, and no open house or +anything as it used to be; the tenants even were sent away without +their whisky. I was ashamed myself, and knew not what to say for the +honor of the family; but I made the best of a bad case, and laid it +all at my lady's door, for I did not like her anyhow, nor anybody +else; she was of the family of the Skinflints, and a widow; it was a +strange match for Sir Murtagh; the people in the country thought he +demeaned himself greatly, but I said nothing: I knew how it was; Sir +Murtagh was a great lawyer, and looked to the great Skinflint estate; +there however he overshot himself; for though one of the co-heiresses, +he was never the better for her, for she outlived him many's the long +day--he could not see that, to be sure, when he married her. I must +say for her, she made him the best of wives, being a very notable +stirring woman, and looking close to everything. But I always +suspected she had Scotch blood in her veins; anything else I could +have looked over in her from a regard to the family. She was a strict +observer for self and servants of Lent, and all fast days, but not +holy days. One of the maids having fainted three time the last day of +Lent, to keep soul and body together we put a morsel of roast beef in +her mouth, which came from Sir Murtagh's dinner,--who never fasted, +not he; but somehow or other it unfortunately reached my lady's ears, +and the priest of the parish had a complaint made of it the next day, +and the poor girl was forced as soon as she could walk to do penance +for it, before she could get any peace or absolution, in the house or +out of it. However, my lady was very charitable in her own way. She +had a charity school for poor children, where they were taught to read +and write gratis, and where they were kept well to spinning gratis for +my lady in return; for she had always heaps of duty yarn from the +tenants, and got all her household linen out of the estate from first +to last; for after the spinning, the weavers on the estate took it in +hand for nothing, because of the looms my lady's interest could get +from the linen board to distribute gratis. Then there was a +bleach-yard near us, and the tenant dare refuse my lady nothing, for +fear of a law suit Sir Murtagh kept hanging over him about the +water-course. + +With these ways of managing, 'tis surprising how cheap my lady got +things done, and how proud she was of it. Her table, the same way, +kept for next to nothing,--duty fowls, and duty turkeys, and duty +geese came as fast as we could eat 'em, for my lady kept a sharp +lookout, and knew to a tub of butter everything the tenants had, all +round. They knew her way, and what with fear of driving for rent and +Sir Murtagh's lawsuits, they were kept in such good order, they never +thought of coming near Castle Rackrent without a present of something +or other--nothing too much or too little for my lady: eggs, honey, +butter, meal, fish, game, grouse, and herrings, fresh or salt, all +went for something. As for their young pigs, we had them, and the best +bacon and hams they could make up, with all young chickens in spring; +but they were a set of poor wretches, and we had nothing but +misfortunes with them, always breaking and running away. This, Sir +Murtagh and my lady said, was all their former landlord Sir Patrick's +fault, who let 'em all get the half-year's rent into arrear; there was +something in that, to be sure. But Sir Murtagh was as much the +contrary way; for let alone making English tenants of them, every +soul, he was always driving and driving and pounding and pounding, and +canting and canting and replevying and replevying, and he made a good +living of trespassing cattle; there was always some tenant's pig, or +horse, or cow, or calf, or goose trespassing, which was so great a +gain to Sir Murtagh that he did not like to hear me talk of repairing +fences. Then his heriots and duty work brought him in something; his +turf was cut, his potatoes set and dug, his hay brought home, and in +short, all the work about his house done for nothing; for in all our +leases there were strict clauses heavy with penalties, which Sir +Murtagh knew well how to enforce: so many days' duty work of man and +horse from every tenant he was to have, and had, every year; and when +a man vexed him, why, the finest day he could pitch on, when the +cratur was getting in his own harvest, or thatching his cabin, Sir +Murtagh made it a principle to call upon him and his horse; so he +taught 'em all, as he said, to know the law of landlord and tenant. + +As for law, I believe no man, dead or alive, ever loved it so well as +Sir Murtagh. He had once sixteen suits pending at a time, and I never +saw him so much himself; roads, lanes, bogs, wells, ponds, eel weirs, +orchards, trees, tithes, vagrants, gravel pits, sand pits, dung-hills, +and nuisances,--everything upon the face of the earth furnished him +good matter for a suit. He used to boast that he had a law suit for +every letter in the alphabet. How I used to wonder to see Sir Murtagh +in the midst of the papers in his office! Why, he could hardly turn +about for them. I made bold to shrug my shoulders once in his +presence, and thank my stars I was not born a gentleman to so much +toil and trouble; but Sir Murtagh took me up short with his old +proverb, "Learning is better than house or land." Out of forty-nine +suits which he had, he never lost one but seventeen; the rest he +gained with costs, double costs, treble costs sometimes; but even that +did not pay. He was a very learned man in the law, and had the +character of it; but how it was I can't tell, these suits that he +carried cost him a power of money: in the end he sold some hundreds a +year of the family estate: but he was a very learned man in the law, +and I know nothing of the matter, except having a great regard for the +family; and I could not help grieving when he sent me to post up +notices of the sale of the fee-simple of the lands and appurtenances +of Timoleague. "I know, honest Thady," says he to comfort me, "what +I'm about better than you do; I'm only selling to get the ready money +wanting to carry on my suit with spirit with the Nugents of +Carrickashaughlin." + +He was very sanguine about that suit with the Nugents of +Carrickashaughlin. He could have gained it, they say, for certain, had +it pleased Heaven to have spared him to us, and it would have been at +the least a plump two thousand a year in his way; but things were +ordered otherwise,--for the best, to be sure. He dug up a fairy mount +against my advice, and had no luck afterward. Though a learned man in +the law, he was a little too incredulous in other matters. I warned +him that I heard the very Banshee that my grandfather heard under Sir +Patrick's window a few days before his death. But Sir Murtagh thought +nothing of the Banshee, nor of his cough with a spitting of +blood,--brought on, I understand, by catching cold in attending the +courts, and overstraining his chest with making himself heard in one +of his favorite causes. He was a great speaker, with a powerful voice; +but his last speech was not in the courts at all. He and my lady, +though both of the same way of thinking in some things, and though she +was as good a wife and great economist as you could see, and he the +best of husbands as to looking into his affairs, and making money for +his family,--yet I don't know how it was, they had a great deal of +sparring and jarring between them. My lady had her privy purse, and +she had her weed ashes, and her sealing money upon the signing of all +the leases, with something to buy gloves besides; and besides, again, +often took money from the tenants, if offered properly, to speak for +them to Sir Murtagh about abatements and renewals. Now the weed ashes +and the glove money he allowed her clear perquisites; though once when +he saw her in a new gown saved out of the weed ashes, he told her to +my face (for he could say a sharp thing) that she should not put on +her weeds before her husband's death. But in a dispute about an +abatement, my lady would have the last word, and Sir Murtagh grew mad; +I was within hearing of the door, and now I wish I had made bold to +step in. He spoke so loud the whole kitchen was out on the stairs. All +on a sudden he stopped, and my lady too. Something has surely +happened, thought I--and so it was, for Sir Murtagh in his passion +broke a blood-vessel, and all the law in the land could do nothing in +that case. My lady sent for five physicians, but Sir Murtagh died, and +was buried. She had a fine jointure settled upon her, and took herself +away, to the great joy of the tenantry. I never said anything one way +or the other, while she was part of the family, but got up to see her +go at three o'clock in the morning. "It's a fine morning, honest +Thady," says she; "good-by to ye," and into the carriage she stepped, +without a word more, good or bad, or even half a crown; but I made my +bow, and stood to see her safe out of sight, for the sake of the +family. + + + + +ANNE CHARLOTTE LEFFLER EDGREN + +(1849-1892) + + +Anne Charlotte Leffler Edgren, afterwards Duchess of Cajanello, was +born in Stockholm, October 1st, 1849. She was the most prominent among +contemporary women writers of Sweden, and won for herself an eminent +position in the world of letters, not only for the truthfulness of her +delineation of life, but for the brilliancy of her style and her skill +in using her material. The circumstances of her early life were +comfortable and commonplace. She was the only daughter of a Swedish +rector, and from her mother, also the daughter of a clergyman, she +inherited her literary tendencies. From her parents and her three +devoted brothers she received every encouragement, but with wise +foresight they restrained her desire to publish her early writings; +and it was not until her talent was fully developed that her first +book, a collection of stories entitled 'Haendelsvis' (By Chance), +appeared in 1869, under the pseudonym of "Carlot." In 1872 she was +married to Gustav Edgren, secretary of the prefecture in Stockholm; +and though fitting and harmonious, this marriage was undoubtedly one +of convenience, brought about by the altered circumstances of her +life. + +In 1873 she published the drama 'Skadespelerskan' (The Actress), which +held the stage in Stockholm for an entire winter, and this was +followed by 'Pastorsadjunkten' (The Curate), 1876, and 'Elfvan' (The +Elf), 1880, the latter being even more than usually successful. Her +equipment as a dramatist was surprisingly slender, as until the time +of her engagement to Mr. Edgren she had never visited the theatre, and +necessarily was absolutely ignorant of the technique of the stage. +Nevertheless, her natural dramatic instincts supplied the defects of a +lack of training, and her plays met with almost universal success. The +theme of all her dramas, under various guises, is the same,--the +struggle of a woman's individuality with the conventional environment +of her life. Mrs. Edgren herself laments that she was born a woman, +when nature had so evidently intended her for a man. + +Her first work to be published under her own name was in 1882,--a +collection of tales entitled 'Ur Lifvet' (From Life), which were +received with especial applause. Her works were translated into +Danish, Russian, and German, and she now became widely known as one of +the most talented of Swedish writers. In 1883 appeared a second volume +of 'From Life'; and still later, in 1889, yet another under the same +title. These later stories betrayed a boldness of thought and +expression not before evinced, and placed the author in the ranks of +the radicals. The drama 'Sanna Kvinnor' (Ideal Women) appeared in +1883; 'Huru Man Goer Godt' (How We do Good) in 1885; and in 1888, in +collaboration with Sonya Kovalevsky, 'Kampen foer Lyckan' (The Struggle +for Happiness). + +In company with her brother, Professor Mittag-Leffler, she attended a +Mathematical Congress in Algiers, in the early part of the year 1888; +and upon the return journey through Italy she made the acquaintance of +Signor Pasquale del Pezzo, subsequently Duke of Cajanello, a +mathematician and friend of her brother, and professor in the +University of Naples. Mrs. Edgren was married to the Duke of Cajanello +in 1890, after the dissolution of her marriage with Mr. Edgren. After +this event she published a romance which attracted a great deal of +attention, called 'Kvinlighet och Erotik' (Womanliness and Erotics), +1890, and among others the drama 'Familjelycka' (Domestic Happiness), +and 'En Raeddende Engel' (A Rescuing Angel), with which last she +achieved her greatest dramatic success. Her last work was a biography +of her intimate friend Sonya Kovalevsky. While in the midst of her +literary labors, and in the fullness of her powers, she died suddenly +at Naples, October 21st, 1893. + +The subjects of her writings are the deepest questions of life. Her +special theme is the relation between men and women, and in her +studies of the question she has given to the world a series of types +of wonderful vividness and accuracy. The life that she knows best is +the social life of the upper classes; and in all her work, but +particularly in her dramas, she treats its problems with a masculine +vigor and strength. Realism sometimes overshadows poetry, but the +faithfulness of her work is beyond question. + + + +OPEN SESAME + + +"It was once upon a time"--so the fairy stories begin. + +At that particular time there was a government clerk, not precisely +young, and a little moth-eaten in appearance, who was on his way home +from the office the day after his wedding. + +On the wedding day itself he had also sat in the office and written +until three o'clock. After this he had gone out, and as usual eaten +his frugal midday meal at an unpretending restaurant in a narrow +street, and then had gone home to his upper chamber in an old house in +the Oesterlanggata, in order to get his somewhat worn dress coat, which +had done good and faithful service for twelve years. He had speculated +a good deal about buying a new coat for his wedding day, but had at +last arrived at the conclusion that, all in all, it would be a +superfluous luxury. + +The bride was a telegraph operator, somewhat weakly, and nervous from +labor and want, and of rather an unattractive exterior. The wedding +took place in all quietness at the house of the bride's old unmarried +aunt, who lived in Soeder. The bride had on a black-silk dress, and the +newly married pair drove home in a droschke. + +So the wedding day had passed, but now it was the day after. From ten +o'clock on he had sat in his office, just as on all other days. Now he +was on the way home--his own home! + +That was a strange feeling; indeed, it was such an overpowering +feeling that he stood still many times on the way and fell into a +brown study. + +A memory of childhood came into his mind. + +He saw himself as a little boy, sitting at his father's desk in the +little parsonage, reading fairy tales. How many times had he read, +again and again, his favorite story out of the Arabian Nights of 'Ali +Baba and the Forty Thieves!' How his heart had beaten in longing +suspense, when he stood with the hero of the story outside the closed +door of the mountain and called, first gently and a little anxiously, +afterwards loudly and boldly: "Sesame, Sesame! Open Sesame!" + +And when the mountain opened its door, what splendor! The poor room of +the parsonage was transformed into the rich treasure chamber of the +mountain, and round about on the walls gleamed the most splendid +jewels. There were, besides horses and carriages, beautifully rigged +ships, weapons, armor--all the best that a child's fantasy could +dream. His old father looked in astonishment at his youngest child, it +was so long since he himself had been a child, and all the others were +already grown up. He did not understand him, but asked him half +reprovingly what he was thinking about, that his eyes glistened so. + +Thus he also came to think about his youth, about his student years at +Upsala. He was a poet, a singer; he had the name of being greatly +gifted, and stood high in his comrades' estimation. What if any one +had told him at that time that he should end as a petty government +clerk, be married to a telegraph operator, and live in the +Repslagaregata in Soeder! Bah! Life had a thousand possibilities. The +future's perspective was illimitable. Nothing was impossible. No honor +was so great that he could not attain it; no woman so beautiful that +he could not win her. What did it signify that he was poor, that he +was only named Andersson, and that he was the eighth child of a poor +parson, who himself was peasant-born? Had not most of the nation's +gifted men sprung from the ranks of the people? Yes, his endowments, +they were the magic charm, the "Open Sesame!" which were to admit him +to all the splendors of life. + +As to how things, later on, had gone with him, he did not allow +himself to think. Either his endowments had not been as great as he +had believed, or the difficulties of living had stifled them, or +fortune had not been with him: enough, it had happened to him as to +Ali Baba's wicked brother Casim, who stood inside the mountain only to +find out to his horror that he had forgotten the magic charm, and in +the anguish of death beat about in his memory to recall it. That was a +cruel time--but it was not worth while now to think about it longer. + +Rapidly one thought followed upon another in his mind. Now he came to +think upon the crown princess, who had made a royal entrance into the +capital just at this time. He had received permission to accompany his +superiors and stand in the festal pavilion when she landed. That was a +glorious moment. The poet's gifts of his youth were not far from +awakening again in the exaltation of the moment; and had he still been +the young applauding poet of earlier days, instead of the neglected +government clerk, he would probably have written a festal poem and +sent it to the Post. + +For it was fine to be the Princess Victoria at that moment. It was one +of the occasions that life has not many of. To be nineteen years old, +newly married to a young husband, loved and loving, and to make a +ceremonious entry into one's future capital, which is in festal array +and lies fabulously beautiful in the autumn sun, to be greeted with +shouts of joy by countless masses of men, and to be so inexperienced +in life that one has no presentiment of the shadows which hide +themselves back of this bright picture--yes, that might indeed be an +unforgettable moment; one of those that only fall to the lot of few +mortals, so that they seem to belong more to the world of fable than +to reality! Had the magic charm, "Open Sesame!" conjured up anything +more beautiful? + +And yet! yet!--The government clerk had neared his home and stood in +front of his own door. No, the crown prince was surely not happier +when he led his bride into his rejoicing capital, than was he at this +moment. He had found again the long-lost magic charm. The little knob +there on the door--that was his "Open Sesame!" He needed only to press +upon it, when the mountain would again open its treasures to him--not +weapons and gleaming armor as in his childhood--not honors and homage +and social position as in his youth--no, something better than all +these. Something that forms the kernel itself of all human happiness, +upon the heights of life as well as in its most concealed +hiding-places--a heart that only beat for him, his own home, where +there was one who longed for him--a wife! Yes, a wife whom he loved, +not with the first passion of youth, but with the tenderness and +faithfulness of manhood. + +He stood outside his own door; he was tired and hungry, and his wife +waited for him at the midday meal; that was, to be sure, commonplace +and unimportant--and yet it was so wonderfully new and attractive. + +Gently, cautiously as a child who had been given a new plaything, he +pressed upon the little knob on the door--and then he stood still with +restrained breath and listened for the light quick step that +approached. + +It was just as though in his childhood he stood outside the mountain +and called, first gently and half in fear, and then loudly and with a +voice trembling with glad expectation, "Sesame, Sesame! Open Sesame!" + + Translated for 'A Library of the World's Best Literature' + by William H. Carpenter + + + +A BALL IN HIGH LIFE + +From 'A Rescuing Angel' + + +The counselor's wife sat down on the sofa with her hands folded in her +lap. Arla remained standing a little farther away, so that the green +lamp-shade left her face in shadow. + +"My little girl," began her mother in a mild voice, "do not feel hurt, +but I must make a few remarks on your behavior to-night. First of all, +you will have to hold yourself a little straighter when you dance. +This tendency to droop the head looks very badly. I noticed it +especially when you danced with Captain Lagerskioeld--and do you know, +it looked almost as if you were leaning your head against his +shoulder." + +Arla blushed; she did not know why, but this reproach hurt her deeply. + +"The dancing-teacher always said that to dance well one must lean +toward one's partner," she objected in a raised voice. + +"If that is so, it is better not to dance so well," answered her +mother seriously. "And another thing. I heard you ask Mr. Oern to +excuse you. And you danced the cotillon after all." + +"I suppose one has a right to dance with whom one pleases." + +"One never has a right to hurt others; and besides, you said to Mr. +Oern that you were tired out and not able to dance again. How could you +then immediately after--" + +"Captain Lagerskioeld leads so well," she said, lifting her head, and +her mother saw that her eyes were shining. "To dance with him is no +exertion." + +Her mother seemed inclined to say something, but hesitated. + +"Come a little nearer," she said. "Let me look at you." + +Arla came up, knelt down on a footstool, hid her face in her mother's +dress, and began to cry softly. + +"I shall have to tell you, then," said her mother, smoothing her hair. +"Poor child, don't give yourself up to these dreams. Captain +Lagerskioeld is the kind of a man that I should have preferred never to +have asked to our house. He is a man entirely without character and +principles--to be frank, a bad man." + +Arla raised her tear-stained face quickly. + +"I know that," she said almost triumphantly. "He told me so himself." + +Her mother was silent with astonishment, and Aria continued, rising, +"He has never had any parents nor any home, but has always been +surrounded with temptations. And," she went on in a lower voice, "he +has never found any one that he could really love, and it is only +through love that he can be rescued from the dark powers that have +ruled his life." + +She repeated almost word for word what he had said. He had expressed +himself in so commonplace a way, and she was so far from suspecting +what his confession really meant, that she would not have been able to +clothe them in her own words. She had only a vague impression that he +was unhappy and sinful--and that she should save him. Sinful was to +her a mere abstract idea: everybody was full of sin, and his sin was +very likely that he lived without God. He had perhaps never learned to +pray, and maybe he never went to church or took the communion. She +knew that there were men who never did. And then perhaps he had been +engaged to Cecilia, and had broken the engagement when he saw that he +did not really love her. + +"And all this he has told you already!" exclaimed her mother, when she +got over her first surprise. "Well then, I can also guess what he said +further. Do you want me to tell you? You are the first girl he has +really loved--you are to be his rescuing angel--" + +Arla made a faint exclamation. + +"You do not suppose I have been listening?" asked her mother. "I know +it without that; men like this always speak so when they want to win +an innocent girl. When I was young I had an admirer of this kind--that +is not an uncommon experience." + +Not uncommon! These words were not said to her only; other men had +said the same before this to other young girls! Oh! but not in the +same way, at any rate! thought Arla. As he had said them--with such a +look--such a voice--no, nobody else could ever have done that. + +"And you didn't understand that a man who can make a young girl a +declaration of love the first time he sees her must be superficial and +not to be trusted?" continued her mother. + +"Mamma does not know what love is," thought Aria. "She does not know +that it is born in a moment and lasts for life. She has of course +never loved papa; then they would not be so matter-of-fact now." + +"And what did you answer?" asked her mother. + +Arla turned away. "I answered nothing," she said in a low voice. + +The mother's troubled face grew a little brighter. + +"That was right," she said, patting her on the cheek. "Then you left +him at once." + +Arla was on the point of saying, "Not at once," but she could not make +this confession. Other questions would then follow, and she would be +obliged to describe what had happened. Describe a scene like this to +her mother, who did not know what love was! That was impossible! So +she said yes, but in so weak and troubled a voice that her mother at +once saw it was not true. This was not Arla's first untruth; on the +contrary, she had often been guilty of this fault when a child. She +was so shy and loving that she could not stand the smallest reproach, +and a severe look was enough to make her cry; consequently she was +always ready to deny as soon as she had made the slightest mistake. +But when her mother took her face between her hands and looked +straight into her eyes, she saw at once how matters stood, for the +eyes could hide nothing. And since Arla grew older she had fought so +much against this weakness that she had almost exaggerated her +truthfulness. She was now as quick to confess what might bring +displeasure on herself, as if she were afraid of giving temptation the +slightest room. + +The mother, who with deep joy had noticed her many little victories +over herself, was painfully impressed by this relapse. She could not +now treat Arla as she had done when she was a little girl. Instead of +this, she opened the Bible by one of the many book-marks, with a +somewhat trembling hand. + +"Although it is late, shall we not read a chapter together, as we +always do before we go to bed?" she asked, and looked up at her +daughter. + +Arla stepped back, and cast an almost frightened glance at the little +footstool where she had been sitting at her mother's knee every +evening since she was a little girl. All this seemed now so +strange--it was no longer herself, it was a little younger sister, who +used to sit there and confess to her mother all her dreams and all her +little sorrows. + +"I don't want to--I cannot read to-night." + +Her mother laid the book down again, gave her daughter a mild, sad +look and said, "Then remember, my child, that this was the consequence +of your first ball." + +Arla bent her head and left the room slowly. Her mother let her go; +she found it wisest to leave her to herself until her emotion had +somewhat worn itself out. Aria would not go into her own room; she +dreaded Gurli's chatter; she had to be alone to get control over her +thoughts. In the drawing-room she found her father. + +"Is mamma in her room?" he asked. + +"Yes." + +"Is she alone? Are the children asleep?" + +"Yes, mamma is alone." + +"Well! Good-night, my girl." He kissed her lips and went into the +bedroom. + +Arla opened a window in the drawing-room to let out the hot air, and +then began to walk up and down wrapped in a large shawl, enjoying the +clear cold winter moonlight, which played over the snow and hid itself +behind the trees in the park outside the window. There they were to +meet to-morrow! Oh, if only he had said now, at once! If only she +could slip out now in her thin gown, and he could wrap his cape around +her to keep her warm--she did not remember that the men of to-day did +not wear capes like Romeo--and if then they could have gone away +together--far, far away from this prosaic world, where nobody +understood that two hearts could meet and find each other from the +first moment. + +She was not left alone long; a door was opened, light steps came +tripping, and a white apparition in night-gown stood in the full light +of the moonbeam. + +"But Arla, are you never, never coming?" + +"Why, Gurli dear, why aren't you asleep long ago?" + +"Eh? do you think I can sleep before I have heard something about the +ball? Come in now; how cold it is here!" + +She was so cold that she shivered in her thin night-gown, but clung +nevertheless to her sister, who was standing by the window. + +"Go; you are catching cold." + +"I don't care," she said, chattering. "I am not going till you come." + +Arla was, as usual, obliged to give in to the younger sister's strong +will. She closed the window and they went into their room, where Gurli +crept into bed again and drew the cover up to her very chin. Arla +began to unfasten her dress and take the flowers out of her hair. + +"Well, I suppose you had a divine time," came a voice from the bed +behind chattering teeth. There was nothing to be seen out on the +floor. "Then you are much more of a schoolgirl than I. Is there +perhaps any man who has told you that he loves you? Is there?" + +"Oh, but Gurli, what nonsense," said Arla laughing outright. "Has +really one of Arvid's friends--" + +"Arvid's friends!" repeated Gurli with an expression of indescribable +contempt. "Do you think such little boys would dare? Ph! I would give +them a box on the ear,--that would be the quickest way of getting rid +of such little whipper-snappers. No indeed; it is a man, a real +_man_--a man that any girl would envy me." + +She was so pretty as she stood there in her white gown, with her +dancing eyes and thick hair standing like a dark cloud around her rosy +young face, that a light broke on Arla, and a suspicion of the truth +flashed through her mind. + +"It is not possible that you mean--of course you don't mean--him--that +you just spoke of--Captain Lagerskioeld?" + +"And what if it _were_ he!" cried Gurli, who in her triumph forgot to +keep her secret. Arla's usual modest self-possession left her +completely at this news. + +"Captain Lagerskioeld has told you that he loves you!" she cried with a +sharp and cutting voice, unlike her usual mild tone. "Oh, how wicked, +how wicked!" + +She hid her face in her hands and burst out crying. + +Gurli was frightened at her violent outbreak. She must have done +something awful, that Arla, who was always so quiet, should carry on +so. She crept close up to her sister, half ashamed and half +frightened, and whispered:--"He has only said it once. It was the day +before yesterday, and I ran away from him at once--I thought it was so +silly, and--" + +"Day before yesterday!" cried Arla and looked up with frightened, +wondering eyes. "Day before yesterday he told you that he loved you?" + +"Yes; if only you will not be so awfully put out, I will tell you all +about it. He used to come up to the coasting-hill a great deal lately, +and then we walked up and down in the park and talked, and when I +wanted to coast he helped me get a start, and drew my sleigh up-hill +again. At first I did not notice him much, but then I saw he was very +nice--he would look at me sometimes for a long, long time--and you +can't imagine how he does look at one! And then day before yesterday +he began by of Gurli but a pair of impatient dark eyes, under a +wilderness of brown hair. + +Arla was sitting at the toilet-table, her back to her sister. + +"Oh yes," she said. + +"I see on your card that you danced two dances with Captain +Lagerskioeld. I suppose he dances awfully well, eh?" + +"Do you know him?" asked Arla, and turned on the chair. + +"Oh yes, I do. Didn't he ask for me?" + +"Yes, now I remember. He said he had seen you with the children on the +coasting-hill. You must have been a little rude to him?" + +The whole head came out above the cover now. + +"Rude! how?" + +"He said something about your being so pert." + +"Pert? Oh, _what_ a fib you do tell!" cried Gurli, and sat up in bed +with a jump. + +"I don't usually tell stories," said Arla with wounded dignity, but +blushed at the same time. + +"Oh yes, you do now, I am sure you do. I don't believe you, if you +don't tell me word for word what he said. Who began talking of me? And +what did he say? And what did you say?" + +"You had better tell me why you are so much interested in him," said +Arla in the somewhat superior tone of the elder sister. + +"That is none of your business. I will tell you that I am no longer a +little girl, as you seem to think. And even though I am treated like a +child here at home, there are others who--who--" + +"Are you not a child?" said Arla. "You are not confirmed yet." + +"Oh, is that it? That 'confirmation' is only a ceremony, which I +submit to for mamma's sake. And don't imagine that it is confirmation +which makes women of us; no indeed, it is something else." + +"What then?" asked Arla, much surprised. + +"It is--it is--love," burst out Gurli, and hid her head under the +covers. + +"Love! But Gurli, how you do talk! What do you know about that? You, a +little schoolgirl!" + +"Don't say 'little schoolgirl'--that makes me furious," cried Gurli, +as she pushed the cover aside with both hands and jumped saying that +I had such pretty eyes--and then he said that such a happy little +sunbeam as I could light up his whole life, and that if he could not +meet me, he would not know what to do--" + +"Gurli!" cried Arla, and grasped her sister's arm violently. "Do you +love him?" + +Gurli let her eyes wander a little, and looked shy. + +"I think I do--I have read in the novels Arvid borrowed in +school--only don't tell mamma anything about it; but I have read that +when you are in love you always have such an awful palpitation of the +heart when _he_ comes--and when I merely catch sight of him far off on +the hill in Kommandoersgatan, I felt as if I should strangle." + +"Captain Lagerskioeld is a bad, bad man!" sobbed Arla, and rushed out +of the room, hiding her face in her hands. + +The counselor's wife was still up and was reading, while her husband +had gone to bed. A tall screen standing at the foot of the bed kept +the light away from the sleeper. The counselor had just had a talk +with his wife, which most likely would keep her awake for the greater +part of the night; but he had fallen asleep as soon as he had spoken +to the point. + +"You must forgive me that I cannot quite approve your way of +fulfilling your duties as hostess," he had said when he came in to +her. + +His wife crossed her hands on the table and looked up at him with a +mild and patient face. + +"You show your likes and dislikes too much," he continued, "and think +too little of the claims of social usage. For instance, to pay so much +attention to Mrs. Ekstroem and her daughters--" + +"It was because nobody else paid any attention to them." + +"But even so, my dear, a drawing-room is not a charity institution, I +take it. Etiquette goes before everything else. And then you were +almost rude to Admiral Hornfeldt's wife, who is one of the first women +in society." + +"Forgive me; but I cannot be cordial to a woman for whom I have no +respect." + +The counselor shrugged his shoulders with a gesture of great +impatience. + +"I wish you could learn to see how wrong it is to let yourself be +influenced by these moral views in society." + +His wife was silent; it was her usual way of ending a conversation +which she knew could lead to no result, since each kept his own +opinion after all. + +"Did you notice Arla?" asked the counselor. + +"Yes. Why?" + +"Did you not see that she made herself conspicuous by taking such an +interest in this outlived Lagerskioeld?" + +"I asked you not to invite Captain Lagerskioeld," said his wife mildly. + +"The trouble is not there," interrupted her husband; "but the trouble +is that your daughter is brought up to be a goose who understands +nothing. That is the result of your convent system. Girls so guarded +are always ready to fall into the arms of the first man who knows +somewhat how to impress them." + +This was the counselor's last remark before he fell asleep. It +awakened a feeling of great bitterness and hopelessness in his wife. +Her heart felt heavy at the thought of all the frivolity, all the +impurity into which her girls were to be thrown one after another. +When Arla, in whose earnestness and purity of character she had so +great a confidence, had shown herself so little proof against +temptation, what then would become of Gurli, who had such dangerous +tendencies? And the two little ones who were now sleeping soundly in +the nursery? + +"To what use is then all the striving and all the prayers?" she asked +herself. "What good then does it do to try to protect the children +from evil, if just this makes them more of a prey to temptation?" + +She laid her arms on the table and rested her forehead on her hands. +The awful question "What is the use of it? what is the use of it?" lay +heavy upon her. + +Then there came a soft knock at her door; it was opened a little, and +a timid voice whispered, "Is mamma alone? May I come in?" + +A ray of happiness came into the mother's face. + +"Come in, my child," she whispered, and stretched out her hands toward +her. "Papa sleeps so soundly, you need not be afraid of waking him." + +Arla came in on tiptoe, dressed in white gown and dressing-sack and +with her hair loose. There were red spots on her cheeks, and her eyes +were swollen from crying. She knelt down gently beside her mother, hid +her face in her mother's dress, and whispered in a voice trembling +with suppressed tears, "Will you read to me now, mamma?" + + Translated for 'A Library of the World's Best Literature' + by Olga Flinch + + + + +JONATHAN EDWARDS + +(1703-1758) + +BY EGBERT C. SMYTH + +[Illustration: JONATHAN EDWARDS] + + +Probably for most persons the influence of Edwards will longest +survive through his wonderful personality. "From the days of Plato," +says a writer in the Westminster Review, "there has been no life of +more simple and imposing grandeur." There are four memoirs. The +earliest is from Samuel Hopkins, D.D., a pupil and intimate friend. It +"has the quaint charm of Walton's Lives." The second, by Sereno +Edwards Dwight, D. D., is much more complete. He first brought to +light the remarkable early papers on topics in physics, natural +history, and philosophy. Dr. Samuel Miller's, in Sparks's 'Library of +American Biography,' is mainly a brief compend. The latest Life is by +Professor Alexander V. E. Allen, D. D. It endeavors to show "what he +[Edwards] thought, and how he came to think as he did," and is an +interesting and important contribution to a critical study of his +works. There is still need of an adequate biography, which can only be +written in connection with a thorough study of the manuscripts. A more +full and critical edition of Edwards's writings is also much to be +desired. + +Edwards's first publication (1731) was a sermon preached in Boston on +'God Glorified in Man's Dependence.' The conditions under which it was +produced afford striking contrasts to those attendant upon +Schleiermacher's epoch-making 'Reden ueber Religion'; but the same note +of absolute dependence upon God is struck by each with masterly power. +A yet more characteristic and deeply spiritual utterance was given in +the next published discourse, entitled 'A Divine and Supernatural +Light Immediately Imparted to the Soul by the Spirit of God, Shown to +be both a Scriptural and Rational Doctrine' (1734). These two sermons +are of primary significance for a right understanding of their +author's teaching. All is of God; faith is sensibleness of what is +real in the work of redemption; this reality is divinely and +transcendently excellent; this quality of it is revealed to the soul +by the Holy Spirit, and becomes the spring of all holiness. "The +central idea of his system," says Henry B. Smith, "is that of +spiritual life (holy love) as the gift of divine grace." All of +Edwards's other writings may be arranged in relation to this +principle,--as introductory, explicative, or defensive. + +When the sermon on the 'Reality of Spiritual Light' was delivered, the +movement had begun which, as afterwards extended from Northampton to +many communities in New England and beyond, is known as "The Great +Awakening." The preaching of Edwards was a prominent instrumentality +in its origination, and he became its most effective promoter and +champion, and no less its watchful observer and critic. Among the +published (1738) sermons which it occasioned should be specially +mentioned those on 'Justification by Faith Alone,' 'The Justice of God +in the Damnation of Sinners,' 'The Excellency of Jesus Christ,' 'The +Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God, applied to that +uncommon operation that has lately appeared on the minds of many of +the people of New England: with a particular consideration of the +extraordinary circumstances with which this work is attended' (1741). +The same year (1741) appeared the sermon on 'Sinners in the Hands of +an Angry God.' Some five years previous, moved by the notice taken in +London by Dr. Watts and Dr. Guise of the religious revival in +Northampton and several other towns, and by a special request from +Rev. Dr. Colman of Boston, Edwards prepared a careful 'Narrative,' +which, with a preface by the English clergymen just named, was +published in London in 1737, and the year following in Boston. The +sermon on the 'Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the True Spirit of +God' was followed by the treatise entitled 'Some Thoughts Concerning +the Present Revival of Religion, and the way in which it ought to be +acknowledged and promoted' (1742); and four years later, by the +elaborate work on 'Religious Affections.' The latter sums up all that +Edwards had learned, through his participation in the movement whose +beginnings and early stages are described in the 'Narrative,' and by +his long-continued and most earnest endeavor to determine the true +hopes of the spiritual life which had enlisted and well-nigh absorbed +all the powers of his mind and soul. It is a religious classic of the +highest order, yet, like the 'De Imitatione Christi,' suited only to +those who can read it with independent insight. They who can thus use +it will find it inexhaustible in its strenuous discipline and +spiritual richness, light, and sweetness. Its chief defect lies in its +failure to discover and unfold the true relation between the natural +and the spiritual, and to recognize the stages of Christian growth, +the genuineness and value of what is still "imperfect Christianity." + +The "revival," with the endeavor to discover and apply the tests of a +true Christian life, brought into prominence as a practical issue the +old question of the proper requirements for church membership. The +common practice failed to emphasize the necessity of spiritual +regeneration and conversion, as upheld by Edwards and his followers. +The controversy became acute at Northampton, and combined with other +issues, resulted in his dismissal from his pastorate. His meek yet +lofty bearing during this season of partisan strife and bitter +animosity has commanded general admiration. Before he closed the +contest he published two works which, in the Congregational churches, +settled the question at issue in accordance with his principles--viz., +'An Humble Inquiry into the Rules of the Word of God concerning the +Qualifications requisite to a Complete Standing and Full Communion in +the Visible Christian Church,' and 'Misrepresentations Corrected and +Truth Vindicated in a Reply to the Rev. Solomon Williams's Book,' etc. + +The reply to Williams was written and published after Edwards's +removal to Stockbridge. The period of his residence there (1751-1758, +January) was far from tranquil. His conscientious resistance to +schemes of pecuniary profit in the management of the Indian Mission +there, brought upon him bitter opposition. For six months he was +severely ill. In the French and Indian war a frontier town like +Stockbridge was peculiarly exposed to alarm and danger. Yet at this +time Edwards prepared the treatises on the 'Freedom of the Will,' the +'Ultimate End of Creation,' the 'Nature of Virtue,' and 'Original +Sin.' The first was published in 1754, the others after his death +(1758), as were many of his sermons, the 'History of Redemption,' and +extracts from his note-book ('Miscellaneous Observations,' +'Miscellaneous Remarks'). Early in 1758, having accepted the +presidency of the College of New Jersey, he removed to Princeton, +where he died March 22d. + +That with enfeebled health, and under the conditions of his life at +Stockbridge, he should have prepared such works as those just +enumerated, is a striking evidence of his intellectual discipline and +power. It would probably have been impossible even for him, but for +the practice he had observed from youth of committing his thoughts to +writing, and their concentration on the subjects handled in these +treatises. A careful study of his manuscript notes would probably be +of service for new and critical editions, and would seem to be +especially appropriate, since only the work on the 'Freedom of the +Will' was published by its author. + +It is impossible in the space of this sketch to analyze these +elaborate treatises, or to attempt a critical estimate of their value. +Foregoing this endeavor, I will simply add a few suggestions +occasioned principally by some recent studies, either of the +originals or copies of unpublished manuscripts. + +Edwards's published works consist of compositions prepared with +reference to some immediate practical aim. When called to Princeton he +hesitated to accept, lest he should be interrupted in the preparation +of "a body of divinity in an entire new method, being thrown into the +form of a history." It was on his "mind and heart," "long ago begun," +"a great work." The beginnings of it are preserved in the 'History of +Redemption' posthumously published, but this was written as early as +1739, as a series of sermons, and without thought of publication. The +volume of miscellanies, also published after his death, are extracts +from his note-book, arranged by the editor. Nowhere has Edwards +himself given a systematic exposition of his conception of +Christianity. The incompleteness of even the fullest edition of his +works increases the liability of misconstruction. It would not be +suspected, for instance, to what extent his mind dealt with the +conception of God as triune, or with the Incarnation. + +His published works show on their face his relation to the religious +questions uppermost in men's minds during his lifetime. "He that would +know," writes Mr. Bancroft, "the workings of the New England mind in +the middle of the last century and the throbbings of its heart, must +give his days and nights to the study of Jonathan Edwards." And +Professor Allen justly adds, "He that would understand ... the +significance of later New England thought, must make Edwards the first +object of his study." Besides these high claims to attention, one more +may be made. The greatness of Edwards's character implies a contact of +his mind with permanent and the highest truth--a profound knowledge +and consciousness of God. Human and therefore imperfect, colored by +inherited prepossessions, and run into some perishable molds, his +thought is pervaded by a spiritual insight which has an original and +undying worth. It is not unlikely that the future will assign him a +higher rank than the past. + +In one of the earliest, if not the first of his private philosophical +papers, the essay entitled 'Of Being,' may be found the key to his +fundamental conceptions. An exposition of his system, wrought out from +this point of view, will show that he has a secure and eminent +position among those who have contributed to that spiritual +apprehension of nature and man, of matter and mind, of the universe +and God, which has ever marked the thinking and influence of the +finest spirits and highest teachers of our race. + +Edwards was born October 5th, 1703, in East Windsor, Connecticut. He +was the son of Rev. Timothy and Esther Stoddard Edwards; was graduated +at Yale College in 1720; studied theology at New Haven; from August +1722 to March 1723 preached in New York; from 1724 to 1726 was a +tutor at Yale; on the 15th of February, 1727, was ordained at +Northampton, Massachusetts; in 1750 was dismissed from the church +there, and in 1751 removed to Stockbridge, Massachusetts. He was +called to Princeton in 1757, and died there March 22d, 1758. + +[Illustration: Signature of Egbert C. Smyth.] + + + +FROM NARRATIVE OF HIS RELIGIOUS HISTORY + + +From about that time I began to have a new kind of apprehensions and +ideas of Christ, and the work of redemption, and the glorious way of +salvation by him. An inward sweet sense of these things at times came +into my heart, and my soul was led away in pleasant views and +contemplations of them. And my mind was greatly engaged to spend my +time in reading and meditating on Christ, on the beauty and excellency +of his person, and the lovely way of salvation by free grace in +him.... + +Not long after I first began to experience these things, I gave an +account to my father of some things that had passed in my mind. I was +pretty much affected by the discourse we had together; and when the +discourse was ended I walked abroad alone, in a solitary place in my +father's pasture, for contemplation. And as I was walking there and +looking upon the sky and clouds, there came into my mind so sweet a +sense of the glorious majesty and grace of God as I know not how to +express. I seemed to see them both in a sweet conjunction; majesty and +meekness joined together: it was a sweet, and gentle, and holy +majesty; and also a majestic meekness; an awful sweetness; a high, and +great, and holy gentleness. + +After this my sense of divine things gradually increased, and became +more and more lively, and had more of that inward sweetness. The +appearance of everything was altered; there seemed to be, as it were, +a calm, sweet cast, or appearance of divine glory, in almost +everything. God's excellency, his wisdom, his purity and love, seemed +to appear in everything; in the sun, moon, and stars, in the clouds +and blue sky, in the grass, flowers, trees, in the water and all +nature; which used greatly to fix my mind. I often used to sit and +view the moon for a long time, and in the day spent much time in +viewing the clouds and sky, to behold the sweet glory of God in these +things; in the meantime singing forth, with a low voice, my +contemplations of the Creator and Redeemer. And scarce anything among +all the works of nature was so sweet to me as thunder and lightning; +formerly nothing had been so terrible to me. Before, I used to be +uncommonly terrified with thunder, and to be struck with terror when I +saw a thunder-storm rising; but now, on the contrary, it rejoiced me. +I felt God, if I may so speak, at the first appearance of a +thunder-storm; and used to take the opportunity at such times to fix +myself in order to view the clouds and see the lightnings play and +hear the majestic and awful voice of God's thunder, which oftentimes +was exceedingly entertaining, leading me to sweet contemplations of my +great and glorious God. While thus engaged it always seemed natural +for me to sing or chant forth my meditations, or to speak my thoughts +in soliloquies with a singing voice. + +My sense of divine things seemed gradually to increase, till I went to +preach at New York, which was about a year and a half after they +began; and while I was there I felt them very sensibly, in a much +higher degree than I had done before. My longings after God and +holiness were much increased. . . . + +Holiness, as I then wrote down some of my contemplations on it, +appeared to me to be of a sweet, pleasant, charming, serene, calm +nature, which brought an inexpressible purity, brightness, +peacefulness, and ravishment to the soul. In other words, that it made +the soul like a field or garden of God, with all manner of pleasant +flowers; enjoying a sweet calm and the gently vivifying beams of the +sun. The soul of a true Christian, as I then wrote my meditations, +appeared like such a little white flower as we see in the spring of +the year; low and humble on the ground, opening its bosom to receive +the pleasant beams of the sun's glory; rejoicing as it were in a calm +rapture; diffusing around a sweet fragrancy; standing peacefully and +lovingly in the midst of other flowers round about; all in like manner +opening their bosoms, to drink in the light of the sun. There was no +part of creature-holiness, that I had so great a sense of its +loveliness, as humility, brokenness of heart, and poverty of spirit; +and there was nothing that I so earnestly longed for. My heart panted +after this--to lie low before God, as in the dust; that I might be +nothing, and that God might be All; that I might become as a little +child. + + + RESOLUTIONS + + "Resolved, Never to do any manner of thing, whether in soul + or body, less or more, but what tends to the glory of God; + nor be nor suffer it, if I can possibly avoid it." + + "Resolved, To live with all my might while I do live." + + "Resolved, When I think of any theorem in divinity to be + solved, immediately to do what I can towards solving it, if + circumstances do not hinder." + + "Resolved, To endeavor to my utmost to deny whatever is not + most agreeable to a good and universally sweet and + benevolent, quiet, peaceable, contented and easy, + compassionate and generous, humble and meek, submissive and + obliging, diligent and industrious, charitable and even, + patient, moderate, forgiving and sincere temper; and to do at + all times what such a temper would lead me to; and to examine + strictly, at the end of every week, whether I have so done." + + "On the supposition that there was never to be but one + individual in the world, at any one time, who was properly a + complete Christian, in all respects of a right stamp, having + Christianity always shining in its true lustre, and appearing + excellent and lovely, from whatever part and under whatever + character viewed: Resolved, To act just as I would do, if I + strive with all my might to be that one, who should live in + my time." + + "I observe that old men seldom have any advantage of new + discoveries, because they are beside the way of thinking to + which they have been so long used: Resolved, If ever I live + to years, that I will be impartial to hear the reasons of all + pretended discoveries, and receive them if rational, how long + soever I have been used to another way of thinking. My time + is so short that I have not time to perfect, myself in all + studies: Wherefore resolved, to omit and put off all but the + most important and needful studies." + + + +WRITTEN ON A BLANK LEAF IN 1723 + + +They say there is a young lady [in New Haven] who is beloved of that +Great Being who made and rules the world, and that there are certain +seasons in which this Great Being, in some way or other invisible, +comes to her and fills her mind with exceeding sweet delight, and that +she hardly cares for anything except to meditate on him--that she +expects after a while to be received up where he is, to be raised up +out of the world and caught up into heaven; being assured that he +loves her too well to let her remain at a distance from him always. +There she is to dwell with him, and to be ravished with his love and +delight forever. Therefore, if you present all the world before her, +with the richest of its treasures, she disregards it and cares not for +it, and is unmindful of any pain or affliction. She has a strange +sweetness in her mind, and singular purity in her affections; is most +just and conscientious in all her conduct; and you could not persuade +her to do anything wrong or sinful, if you would give her all the +world, lest she should offend this Great Being. She is of a wonderful +sweetness, calmness, and universal benevolence of mind; especially +after this great God has manifested himself to her mind. She will +sometimes go about from place to place, singing sweetly; and seems to +be always full of joy and pleasure; and no one knows for what. She +loves to be alone, walking in the fields and groves, and seems to have +some one invisible always conversing with her. + + + +THE IDEA OF NOTHING + +From 'Of Being' + + +A state of absolute nothing is a state of absolute contradiction. +Absolute nothing is the aggregate of all the absurd contradictions in +the world; a state wherein there is neither body nor spirit, nor +space, neither empty space nor full space, neither little nor great, +narrow nor broad, neither infinitely great space nor finite space, nor +a mathematical point, neither up nor down, neither north nor south (I +do not mean as it is with respect to the body of the earth or some +other great body, but no contrary point nor positions or directions), +no such thing as either here or there, this way or that way, or only +one way. When we go about to form an idea of perfect nothing we must +shut out all these things; we must shut out of our minds both space +that has something in it, and space that has nothing in it. We must +not allow ourselves to think of the least part of space, never so +small. Nor must we suffer our thoughts to take sanctuary in a +mathematical point. When we go to expel body out of our thoughts, we +must cease not to leave empty space in the room of it; and when we go +to expel emptiness from our thoughts, we must not think to squeeze it +out by anything close, hard, and solid, but we must think of the same +that the sleeping rocks dream of; and not till then shall we get a +complete idea of nothing. + + + +THE NOTION OF ACTION AND AGENCY ENTERTAINED BY MR. CHUBB AND OTHERS + +From the 'Inquiry into the Freedom of the Will,' Part iv., Sec. 2 + + +So that according to their notion of the act, considered with regard +to its consequences, these following things are all essential to it: +viz., That it should be necessary, and not necessary; that it should +be from a cause, and no cause; that it should be the fruit of choice +and design, and not the fruit of choice and design; that it should be +the beginning of motion or exertion, and yet consequent on previous +exertion; that it should be before it is; that it should spring +immediately out of indifference and equilibrium, and yet be the effect +of preponderation; that it should be self-originated, and also have +its original from something else; that it is what the mind causes +itself, of its own will, and can produce or prevent according to its +choice or pleasure, and yet what the mind has no power to prevent, +precluding all previous choice in the affair. + +So that an act, according to their metaphysical notion of it, is +something of which there is no idea.... If some learned philosopher +who had been abroad, in giving an account of the curious observations +he had made in his travels, should say he had been in Tierra del +Fuego, and there had seen an animal, which he calls by a certain name, +that begat and brought forth itself, and yet had a sire and dam +distinct from itself; that it had an appetite and was hungry, before +it had a being; that his master, who led him and governed him at his +pleasure, was always governed by him and driven by him where he +pleased; that when he moved he always took a step before the first +step; that he went with his head first, and yet always went tail +foremost; and this though he had neither head nor tail: it would be no +impudence at all to tell such a traveler, though a learned man, that +he himself had no idea of such an animal as he gave an account of, and +never had, nor ever would have. + + + +EXCELLENCY OF CHRIST + + +When we behold a beautiful body, a lovely proportion and beautiful +harmony of features, delightful airs of countenance and voice, and +sweet motions and gestures, we are charmed with it, not under the +notion of a corporeal but a mental beauty. For if there could be a +statue that should have exactly the same, that could be made to have +the same sounds and the same motions precisely, we should not be so +delighted with it, we should not fall entirely in love with the image, +if we knew certainly that it had no perception or understanding. The +reason is, we are apt to look upon this agreeableness, those airs, to +be emanations of perfections of the mind, and immediate effects of +internal purity and sweetness. Especially it is so when we love the +person for the airs of voice, countenance, and gesture, which have +much greater power upon us than barely colors and proportion of +dimensions. And it is certainly because there is an analogy between +such a countenance and such airs and those excellencies of the +mind,--a sort of I know not what in them that is agreeable, and does +consent with such mental perfections; so that we cannot think of such +habitudes of mind without having an idea of them at the same time. Nor +can it be only from custom; for the same dispositions and actings of +mind naturally beget such kind of airs of countenance and gesture, +otherwise they never would have come into custom. I speak not here of +the ceremonies of conversation and behavior, but of those simple and +natural motions and airs. So it appears, because the same habitudes +and actings of mind do beget [airs and movements] in general the same +amongst all nations, in all ages. + +And there is really likewise an analogy or consent between the beauty +of the skies, trees, fields, flowers, etc., and spiritual +excellencies, though the agreement be more hid, and require a more +discerning, feeling mind to perceive it than the other. Those have +their airs, too, as well as the body and countenance of man, which +have a strange kind of agreement with such mental beauties. This makes +it natural in such frames of mind to think of them and fancy ourselves +in the midst of them. Thus there seem to be love and complacency in +flowers and bespangled meadows; this makes lovers so much delight in +them. So there is a rejoicing in the green trees and fields, and +majesty in thunder beyond all other noises whatever. + +Now, we have shown that the Son of God created the world for this very +end, to communicate himself in an image of his own excellency. He +communicates himself, properly, only to spirits; and they only are +capable of being proper images of his excellency, for they only are +properly _beings_, as we have shown. Yet he communicates a sort of a +shadow, a glimpse, of his excellencies to bodies, which, as we have +shown, are but the shadows of beings, and not real beings. He who by +his immediate influence gives being every moment, and by his spirit +actuates the world, because he inclines to communicate himself and his +excellencies, doth doubtless communicate his excellency to bodies, as +far as there is any consent or analogy. And the beauty of face and +sweet airs in men are not always the effect of the corresponding +excellencies of mind; yet the beauties of nature are really emanations +or shadows of the excellencies of the Son of God. + +So that when we are delighted with flowery meadows and gentle breezes +of wind, we may consider that we see only the emanations of the sweet +benevolence of Jesus Christ. When we behold the fragrant rose and +lily, we see this love and purity. So the green trees, and fields, and +singing of birds are the emanations of his infinite joy and benignity. +The easiness and naturalness of trees and vines are shadows of his +beauty and loveliness. The crystal rivers and murmuring streams are +the footsteps of his favor, grace, and beauty. When we behold the +light and brightness of the sun, the golden edges of an evening cloud, +or the beauteous bow, we behold the adumbrations of his glory and +goodness; and in the blue sky, of his mildness and gentleness. There +are also many things wherein we may behold his awful majesty: in the +sun in his strength, in comets, in thunder, in the hovering +thunder-clouds, in ragged rocks and the brows of mountains. That +beauteous light with which the world is filled in a clear day is a +lively shadow of his spotless holiness, and happiness, and delight, +in communicating himself; and doubtless this is a reason that Christ +is so often compared to those things and called by their names,--as, +the Sun of Righteousness, the Morning Star, the Rose of Sharon, the +Lily of the Valley, the apple-tree amongst the trees of the wood, a +bundle of myrrh, a roe, or a young hart. By this we may discover the +beauty of many of those metaphors and similes which to an +unphilosophical person do seem so uncouth. + +In like manner, when we behold the beauty of man's body in its +perfection we still see like emanations of Christ's divine +perfections; although they do not always flow from the mental +excellencies of the person that has them. But we see far the most +proper image of the beauty of Christ when we see beauty in the human +soul. + +Corol. I. From hence it is evident that man is in a fallen state; and +that he has naturally scarcely anything of those sweet graces which +are an image of those which are in Christ. For no doubt, seeing that +other creatures have an image of them according to their capacity, so +all the rational and intelligent part of the world once had according +to theirs. + +Corol. II. There will be a future state wherein man will have them +according to his capacity. How great a happiness will it be in Heaven +for the saints to enjoy the society of each other, since one may see +so much of the loveliness of Christ in those things which are only +shadows of beings. With what joy are philosophers filled in beholding +the aspectable world. How sweet will it be to behold the proper image +and communications of Christ's excellency in intelligent beings, +having so much of the beauty of Christ upon them as Christians shall +have in heaven. What beautiful and fragrant flowers will those be, +reflecting all the sweetnesses of the Son of God! How will Christ +delight to walk in this garden among those beds of spices, to feed in +the gardens, and to gather lilies! + + + +THE ESSENCE OF TRUE VIRTUE + +From 'The Nature of True Virtue,' Chapters i, ii + + +True virtue most essentially consists in benevolence to being in +general. Or perhaps, to speak more accurately, it is that consent, +propensity, and union of heart to being in general, which is +immediately exercised in a general good-will.... + +A benevolent propensity of heart to being in general, and a temper or +disposition to love God supremely, are in effect the same thing.... +However, every particular exercise of love to a creature may not +_sensibly_ arise from any exercise of love to God, or an explicit +consideration of any similitude, conformity, union or relation to God, +in the creature beloved. + +The most proper evidence of love to a created being arising from that +temper of mind wherein consists a supreme propensity of heart to God, +seems to be the agreeableness of the kind and degree of our love to +God's end in our creation, and in the creation of all things, and the +coincidence of the exercises of our love, in their manner, order, and +measure, with the manner in which God himself exercises love to the +creature in the creation and government of the world, and the way in +which God, as the first cause and supreme disposer of all things, has +respect to the creature's happiness in subordination to himself as his +own supreme end. For the true virtue of created beings is doubtless +their highest excellency and their true goodness.... But the true +goodness of a thing must be its agreeableness to its end, or its +fitness to answer the design for which it was made. Therefore they are +good moral agents whose temper of mind or propensity of heart is +agreeable to the end for which God made moral agents.... + +A truly virtuous mind ... above all things seeks the glory of God.... +This consists in the expression of God's perfections in their proper +effects,--the manifestation of God's glory to created understandings; +the communication of the infinite fullness of God to the creature; the +creature's highest esteem of God, love to and joy in him; and in the +proper exercises and expressions of these. And so far as virtuous mind +exercises true virtue in benevolence to created beings, it chiefly +seeks the good of the creature; consisting in its knowledge or view of +God's glory and beauty, its union with God, uniformity and love to +him, and joy in him. And that disposition of heart, that consent, +union, or propensity of mind to being in general which appears chiefly +in such exercises, is virtue, truly so called; or in other words, true +grace and real holiness. And no other disposition or affection but +this is of the nature of virtue. + + + + +GERORGES EEKHOUD + +(1854-) + + +"La Jeune Belgique" is more than a school; it is a literary movement, +which began about the year 1880. The aim of this group of writers is +to found a national literature, which uses the French language and +technique for the expression of the Flemish or Walloon spirit, and the +peculiar sentiment and individuality of the Belgian race which has +developed between the more powerful nations of France and Germany. In +the words of William Sharp:-- + + "To one who has closely studied the whole movement in its + intimate and extra-national bearings, as well as in its + individual manifestations and aberrations, its particular and + collective achievement in the several literary _genres_, + there is no question as to the radical distinction between + Belgic and French literature. Whether there be a great future + for the first, is almost entirely dependent on the concurrent + political condition of Belgium. If Germany were to + appropriate the country, it is almost certain that only the + Flemish spirit would retain its independent vitality, and + even that probably only for a generation or two. But if + Belgium were absorbed by France, Brussels would almost + immediately become as insignificant a literary centre as is + Lyons or Bordeaux, or be, at most, not more independent of + Paris than is Marseilles. Literary Belgium would be a memory, + within a year of the hoisting of the French tricolor from the + Scheldt to the Liege. Meanwhile, the whole energy of 'Young + Belgium' is consciously or unconsciously concentrated in the + effort to withstand Paris." + +Among the leading spirits of "La Jeune Belgique" are Maurice +Maeterlinck, Georges Eekhoud, Camille Lemonnier, Georges Rodenbach, +J.K. Huysmans, Auguste Jenart, Eugene Demolder, and a number of +others, who have distinguished themselves in fiction and poetry. Their +works are generally inspired by the uncompromising sense of the +reality of ordinary life, which would sometimes be repulsive if it +were not for their brilliant style and psychological undercurrent. + +This school of literature is somewhat analogous to that of the Flemish +painting. Nature is always an important accessory to the development +of the action; and therefore the landscapes and the _genre_ pictures +are given with a rapid and sure touch and in a vivid and high key,--so +high that at times the colors are almost crude. The reader of these +Belgian writers often feels, in consequence, that he is looking at a +series of paintings which are being explained by a narrator. + +Of all these writers, Georges Eekhoud, whom Mr. Sharp calls "the +Maupassant of the Low Countries," is the one who has made the greatest +effort to model his work upon the style of the contemporary French +authors. He was born in Antwerp, May 27th 1854. His literary career +was begun as an editor of the Precursor, in Antwerp, but he soon +became associated with L'Etoile Beige as literary editor. In 1877 he +published his first volume, entitled 'Myrtes et Cypres.' This was +succeeded by a second book of poetry, 'Zigzags Poetiques et +Pittoresques,' which appeared in 1879. Among the most admired of these +poems are 'La Mare aux Sangues,' 'Nina,' 'Raymonne,' and the strong +'La Guigne.' + +French critics say that his diction lacks polish, but that he has +strength, color, and a talent for description. His novels are--'Kees +Doorik' (1884), 'Les Kermesses' (1884), 'Les Milices de +Saint-Frangois' (1886), 'Les Nouvelles Kermesses' (1887), and 'La +Nouvelle Carthage' (1888). The latter is considered his most brilliant +novel, and won for him the quinquennial prize of 5,000 francs given +for French literature in Belgium. It is a vivid picture of Antwerp, +with vigorous and highly colored descriptions of its middle-class +citizens, enriched by centuries of continued prosperity. In general, +Eekhoud is naturalistic, and intent only on painting life as he sees +and feels it. His other books include--'Cycle Patibulaire' (1892); 'Au +Siecle de Shakespeare,' a valuable book on the English literature of +the Elizabethan period (1893); and 'Mes Communions' (1895). + + + +EX-VOTO + +From 'The Massacre of the Innocents, and Other Tales by Belgian +Writers': copyright 1895, by Stone & Kimball + + +The country I know and love best does not exist for the tourist, and +neither guide nor doctor ever dreams of recommending it. This +reassures me, for I love my country selfishly, exclusively. The land +is ancient, flat, the home of fogs. With the exception of the Polder +_schorres_, the district fertilized by the overflowing of the river, +few districts are cultivated. A single canal from the Scheldt +irrigates its fields and plains, and occasional railways connect its +unfrequented towns. + +The politician execrates it, the merchant despises it, it intimidates +and baffles legions of bad painters. + +Poets of the boudoir! virtuosi! This flat country will always elude +your descriptions! For you, landscape painters, there is no +inspiration to be gained here. O chosen land, neither thou nor thy +secret can be seen at a glance! The degenerate folk who pass through +this country feel nothing of its healthy, intoxicating charm, or are +only wearied in the midst of this gray peaceful nature, unrelieved by +hill or torrent; and still less sympathy have they with the country +louts who stare at them with placid bovine eyes. + +The people remain robust, uncouth, obstinate, and ignorant. No music +stirs me like the Flemish from their lips. They mouth it, drawl it, +linger lovingly over the guttural syllables, while the harsh +consonants fall heavily as their fists. They move slowly, swingingly, +bent-shouldered and heavy-jawed; like bulls, they are at once fierce +and taciturn. Never shall I meet more comely, firm-bosomed lassies, +never see eyes more appealing, than those of this dear land of mine. +Under their blue _kiel_ the brawny lads swagger well content; though +when in drink, if dispute arises, rivalry may drive them into fatal +conflicts. The _tierendar_ ends many a quarrel without further ado; +and as the combatants cut and hack, their faces preserve that dogged +smile of the old Germans who fought in the Roman arenas. During the +kermesses they over-eat themselves, they get drunk, dance with a kind +of _gauche_ solemnity, embrace their sweethearts without much +ceremony, and when the dance is over, gratify themselves with all +manner of excesses. + +One and all, they are slow to give themselves away; but once gained, +their affection is unalterable. + +Those who depict them thick-set, laughter-loving, misshapen boors, do +not know this race. The Campine peasantry recall rather the brown +shepherd folk of Jordaens than the pot-house scenes by Teniers, a +great man who slandered his Perck rustics. + +They preserve the faith of past centuries, undertake pilgrim-ages, +respect their _pastoor_, believe in the Devil, in the wizard, in the +evil eye, that _jettatura_ of the North. So much the better. These +yokels fascinate me. I prefer their poetic traditions, the legends +drawled out by an old _pachteresse_ in the evening hours, to the +liveliest tale of Voltaire, and their clan-narrowness and religious +fanaticism stir me more than the patriotic declamations and the +insipid civic rhodomontade of the journalist. Splendid and glorious +rebels, these Vendeans of ours; may philosophy and civilization long +forget them. When the day of equality, dreamed of by geometric minds, +comes, they will disappear also, my superb brutes; hunted down, +crushed by invasion, but to the end unyielding to Positivist +influences. My brothers, utilitarianism will do away with you, you and +your rude remote country! + +Meanwhile, I who have your hot rebel blood coursing in my veins, I who +shall not survive you, am fain to steep my spirit in yours, to be at +one with you in all that is rude and savage in you, to stupefy myself +at great casks of brown ale at the fairs, with you to raise up my +voice when the clouds of incense rise like smoke above your sacred +processions, to seat myself in silence beside your smoky hearths or to +wander alone across the desolate sand-dunes at the hour when the frogs +croak, and when the distraught shepherd, become an incendiary and a +lost man, grazes his flock of fire across the heaths.... + +At the beginning of the June of 1865, I had just reached my eleventh +birthday and made my first communion with the Freres de la Misericorde +at M----. One morning I was called into the parlor; there I found the +father superior and my uncle, who told me that he would take me to +Antwerp to see my father. At the idea of this unexpected holiday and +the prospect of embracing my kind parent, who had been a widower for +five years and to whom I was now everything, I did not notice my +uncle's serious looks nor the pitying glances of the monk. + +We set off. The train did not go fast enough for my liking. However, +we arrived at last. To ring the door-bell of the simple little house; +to embrace Yana the servant; to submit to the caresses of good +Lion, a splendid brown spaniel, to race up-stairs with him four +steps at a time, to bound into the familiar bedroom, then two +words:--"Father!--George!"--to feel myself lifted up and pressed +against his heart; to be devoured with kisses, my lips seeking his in +the big fair beard: these actions followed one another rapidly; but +transient as they were, they are forever graven on my memory. What a +long time the dear man held me in his arms! He looked at me with +tender admiration, repeating, "What a big boy you have grown, my +Jurgen, my Krapouteki!" and he repeated a whole string of impossible +but adorable pet names he had invented for me, and among which he +interspersed caresses. It was still early in the morning. + +When I entered, followed by Lion, Yana, and finally by my uncle, the +least member of the four, my father was in his dressing-gown, but was +about to dress. + +He looked splendid to me. His color was fresh, but too flushed about +the cheek-bones, I was told afterwards; his eyes sparkled--sparkled +too much; his voice was a little hoarse, but sweet, caressing, despite +its grave tone,--a tone never to be forgotten by me. + +He was then forty-six. I see his tall figure rise before me now, with +his well-set limbs; and his kind face still smiles on me in my dreams. + +My uncle clasped his hand. + +"You see that I keep my word, Ferdinand. Here's the little scamp +himself!" + +"Thank you, Henry. Pardon the trouble I have caused you.... You will +laugh at me; but if you had not brought him, I should have gone to the +convent myself to-day.... I should have scorned the doctor's regime +and prescriptions.... You do not know, Georgie.... I have not been +very well.... Oh, a mere nothing; a small ailment, a neglected +cold.... A slight cold, was it not, Yana? ... I have lost it, as you +see.... Ah! my boy, what good it does me to see you! ... What fun we +shall have! We are going out into the country at once.... I have +prepared a surprise for you." + +I listened enchanted--oh the selfishness of childhood! The promise of +this expedition made me deaf to his cough--a dry, convulsive cough +which he tried to stifle by holding his silk handkerchief to his +mouth. Neither did I notice--or rather I did notice but attached no +importance to--the bottles of medicine and pill-boxes which stood on +the chimney-piece and on the bed-table. A bottle of syrup had just +been opened, and a drop remained in the silver spoon. Yana held a +prescription in her hand, which had been written that morning. A heavy +odor of opiates and other drugs filled the room. These details only +recurred to me afterwards. + +My uncle took leave. + +"Above all, no imprudence!" he said to my father. "You promise me? Be +back in town before the dew falls.... I will take George to school +again to-morrow morning." + +"Set your mind at rest; we will be wise!" replied my father, excited +and preoccupied, thinking only of his child. + +I believe that he was not sorry to find himself alone with me, and as +the prospect of returning to M----, evoked by the old officer, had +saddened me, he took me on his knee. + +"Courage! little one," he said. "It is not for long. I feel too lonely +since the death of your poor mother. I have told my family that in the +future I do not intend to be separated from you ... You have made your +first communion, ... you are big, ... you shall go back to school for +a week, just time to pack up and to settle in our new quarters.... +Come, there, I am betraying the secret ... Never mind, after all, I +may as well tell you everything now. I have bought a pretty little +house, almost a farmstead, three miles from here.... We are going to +live in the country, like peasants, to wear sabots and smocks. Hey? +That will make you grow.... What do you say to it?... We shall be +always together." + +I clapped my hands, and jumped round the room. + +"What joy! Always we two, is that it? Then we shall be always +together. Is it really true?" + +"Really true." + +We sealed this understanding in a long embrace. + +An hour later my father, Yana, and I stepped into a landau at the +door. + +It was one of those enervating equinoctial days when the warmth and +the intense quietness affect one almost to tears. The sun, in a +beautiful Flemish sky of pale, soft turquoise, had dispersed the +morning mist. + +"Look at him, sir," said Yana, pointing to me; "he is as happy as a +king!" + +"Now is the time to take in a plentiful supply of air," remarked my +father; "one only needs to open one's mouth!" + +I opened mine quite wide, as if I were yawning. + +What a difference, too, between this air and the air at school; even +that which one breathed out of doors in the cloistered court, shut in +by four forbidding high walls, sweating with damp and decaying with +mildew. + +Seated with my back to the coachman, my hands on my father's knee, I +uttered exclamations of surprise and besieged him with questions. He +sat back in the carriage, shielded from the wind by his big overcoat. +Yana sat beside him; Lion ran on in advance. + +Passing along the chief street of the suburb, we came out into the +open country. The tufts of young leaves gave a sweet freshness to the +hoary trunks of the great beech-trees which lined the road. In place +of the yellow withered grass in the meadows, there was a vivid +emerald carpet; splendid cows, with well-rounded flanks and dewlaps +reaching the ground, nibbled the tender shoots. The full rows of young +corn promised a plentiful harvest. Between a double hedge of +weeping-willows and alders ran silvery waters, swollen by the melting +of the late snows. When we passed a flower-garden the scent of lilac +filled the dreamy air. Gates with gilt knobs opened on avenues of elms +and oaks; sloping lawns led up to a castle, whose terrace was +ornamented with clipped and modeled orange-trees. The majestic passing +of a pair of big swans or the scurry of hare-brained ducks stirred the +stagnant pond, and left wakes amid the flags and water-lilies. + +Moss-grown farmsteads, flanked by barns with green shutters fixed to +the red bricks, draw-wells, chickens picking about on the +manure-heaps,--these were my chief delight. Sometimes a countryman's +cart with its white awning stood on one side for us to pass. + +We drove through Deurne, then through Wyneghem. + +For the third time a slender spire lifted its gray-slated point into +the opaline sky. + +"S'Gravenwezel tower!" exclaimed Yana. + +"S'Gravenwezel! But that is your village!" I cried. "Are we going to +live there?" + +The good creature smiled in the affirmative. + +Some few moments later, the driver, directed by Yana, stopped in front +of a lonely farm, a quarter of an hour away from the rest of the long, +straggling village. + +"This is my parents' home!" she said. + +I can still see the little one-storied farmhouse, with its overhanging +thatched roof, festooned with stone-crop, a white chalk cross on the +brickwork to protect it from lightning. At sound of the carriage, the +whole household ran to the door. There was Yana's father, a short, +thick-set sexagenarian, bent but still healthy-looking, his face +wrinkled like old parchment, with a stiff beard and bright eyes; the +mother, a buxom woman about ten years younger, very active despite her +stoutness; then a host of brothers and sisters, varying from +twenty-five to fifteen; the boys bold, dark, curly-headed, muscular, +square-set fellows; the girls fresh-looking, tanned by the sun, all +like Yana their elder sister, who, to my mind, was the most charming +_boerine annversoise_ that one could imagine, with her dark hair, her +big emerald-green eyes and sweeping lashes. In honor of S'Gravenwezel +kermesse,--sounds of which could already be heard in the distance, +--they said, but more in honor of our visit, the men wore their Sunday +trousers, and bright blue smocks coquettishly gathered at the neck. +The women had taken out their lace caps with big wings, the +head-dresses with silver pins, woolen dresses, and large silk +handkerchiefs which crossed over the breast and fell in a point +behind. The good people complimented my father on his appearance. +"That is Mynheer's son,--Jonkheer Jorss!" In a few moments I had made +friends with these simple cordial folk, and particularly with a fine +lad of nineteen--"onze Jan" (our Jean), said Yana--on the eve of +drawing lots for the conscription. + +When his sister laid the table,--for we were to stay to dinner +there,--he offered to show me the orchard, the garden, and the +stables. I accepted joyfully. I could no longer keep still. Jean, with +my hand in his, took me first to the cows. As they lay down, chained +up in their sheds, they lowed piteously. The dung-strewn bedding shone +with bronze and old-gold, and the far end of the stable resembled a +picture by Rembrandt--at least, it is thus that I recall to-day that +reddish-brown half-light. That I might be better able to admire the +animals, he roused them with a kick. They got up lazily, sulkily. He +told me their names and their good points. That big black one, with +the spot between her eyes, was Lotteke; this big glutton chewing the +early clover was called La Blanche. Jan persuaded me to pat them. They +rubbed their horns against the posts which divided them. The boy told +me that they were excellent milkers. I counted six in all. A strong +smell of milk filled the air, warm with all this breathing, heaving +animality. Jan promised to take me to work in the fields with him when +I came to live in the village. I should dig the ground and become a +real peasant, a _boer_ like himself. _Boer Jorss_, he called me, +laughing. But I took this prospect of country life quite seriously; I +admired the fine figure, the proud healthy bearing, of this young +peasant. I in my turn should grow like that, I thought. A career such +as his awaited me! That was better than wearing a frock-coat and a +black hat, than growing pale and fevered over books and copies, and +seeing nothing of beautiful nature except what can be found in a +suburb: weeds growing over waste places and patches of sky amid +spotted roofs! He took me also to the garden, an oblong inclosure +with well-kept paths, and planted with sunflowers, peonies, and +hollyhocks. The beds were edged with strawberry plants, the fruit just +ripening. The kind lad promised me the first that were gathered. + +We were called back to the house, while I was making the acquaintance +of Spits the watch-dog. The kermesse meal awaited us. At the express +request of my father, who threatened to eat nothing, the family, at +least the men, sat down with us. As to the women, they all pretended +to wait on us. My eyes wandered with delight around this room, so new +to me; the alcoves where the parents and older members of the family +slept, receded into the wall and were hidden by flowered curtains; the +wide chimney-piece was ornamented with a crucifix and plates imprinted +with historical subjects; a branch of consecrated box hung below; then +there were enormous spits and the imposing chimney-hook. + +Yana placed on the table a tureen of cabbage and bacon soup, the smell +of which would have aroused the appetite of the dead. + +We all made the sign of the cross, bowed our heads and clasped our +hands over the soup-basins, the savory smell from which rose towards +the smoky beam like the perfume of incense. For some seconds nothing +was audible save the lowing of the cows from the sheds, the buzzing of +flies on the window-panes, and the striking of S'Gravenwezel clock, +which rang out midday with the silvery, melancholy chimes of village +bells. + +What a delicious meal we had! My father thought of all the most +expressive adjectives in the patois to express the merits of the soup, +I sang the praises of the eggs which served as a golden frame to the +red-and-white slices of ham. A mountain of mealy potatoes disappeared +beneath our lively forks. I had a healthy country appetite! + +Yana, who was touched, declared that her master had not eaten so much +for a month. + +We were obliged to taste all the products of the farm: butter, milk, +cream cheese, early vegetables, and fruit. I laughed at Yana, who had +thought it necessary to bring provisions. She did not know the +parental hospitality! But I no longer made fun of her forethought when +she brought out the contents of the wonderful basket: two bottles of +old wine and a plum tart of her own making, which she placed +triumphantly in the middle of the table. They all drank to my father's +health, to mine, and to our happy stay in S'Gravenwezel. + +"It is settled, then, that in a week's time you shall come to my +house-warming, you hear, all of you!" said my father definitely.... +"And now, Djodgy, we must be going, for you are longing to see our +nest."... + +Jan came with us. He walked behind with his sister. Lion ran backwards +and forwards, showing his joy by his wild leaps and bounds, and +chasing the small animals which he raised among the rye. + +Poppies and cornflowers already lit up the changing ears of corn with +their bright color, and white or brown butterflies flitted above like +animated flowers. We had followed a path which ran across the +cornfields, behind Ambroes farm, to the left of the high road. Some +minutes later we skirted a little oak wood, and immediately behind it +my father pointed our home out to me. + +Simple cottage! you haunt me still, above all in springtime, when the +air is warm and soft as on that memorable day.... Your white walls +will ever be to me a sad though sweet and loving memory. + +The little house was simple and quiet as possible. There was one story +only, and it contained but four rooms. An out-house with hen-roost, +which would serve as a shed for the gardener, stood on one side. +Yana's brother had for the time being put into it a pretty white kid, +which bleated loudly at our approach; he ran to set it free. + +Fruit-trees covered the wall facing south. The inclosure, encircled by +a hedge of beech, was half orchard, half pleasure garden, and covered +an area of three thousand metres. In front of the house was a square +lawn, divided by a path from the gate to the front door. Leafy copses +of plantain, chestnuts, American oaks, and birches, offered delightful +retreats on either side of the house for reading or dreaming. As we +went round the grounds, my father explained with animation the +improvements which he projected. Here was to be a clump of +rhododendrons, here a bed of Orleans roses, there a grove of lilacs. +He consulted me with a feverish "Hey?" He was excited, unreserved; +rarely had I seen him in such high spirits. Since the death of my +mother his beautiful, sonorous, and contagious laugh had been heard no +more. + +Chattering thus, we came to a mound at the bottom of the garden, from +which we could see a corner of the village; the spire emerging from a +screen of limes, the crossed sails of a silent mill perched on a +grassy knoll, farms scattered among cornfields and meadows, until the +plain was lost in the horizon. + +"Look, George," he said, "this will be our world in future.... It +will be good for us both to live here; for if I need solace, you will +gain equally.... No more confinement, my dear little fellow; we are +rich enough to live in the country as philosophers.... And when I +am gone ... for one must provide for everything...." He stopped. +I remember that a broken-winded barrel organ ground out a polka +behind the screen of limes which shut off the village. + +My father had suddenly become serious, and the solemnity of his last +words moved me deeply. Then that distant melancholy air made me +shudder. When he had finished speaking, he coughed for a long time. + +We were seated on the slope, our backs to the house, facing the vast +plain, the silence of which was rendered more overwhelming by the +jarring notes of the barrel organ. + +"Father," I murmured, as if in prayer, "what do you mean?" + +In reply he drew me towards him, took my head in his hands and looked +at me long, his eyes lost in mine; then he embraced me, attempted to +smile, and said:-- + +"It is nothing. I am well, am I not? Why do my family worry me with +their advice? Indeed, they will frighten me with their long faces and +perpetual visits.... To-day at least I have escaped from them.... We +two are alone ... free! Soon it will be always so!" + +Despite this reanimation, an inexpressible agony wrung my heart, and I +made no effort to escape from this influence, which I felt to be due +to our deep sympathy. + +Regret was already mingled with my delight; and on this exquisite +afternoon there was that heart-rending sense of things which have been +and will never be again--never. + +I threw my arms round my father's neck, and made no other reply to his +last words. It required a mutual effort to break the silence; neither +of us made the effort. In the distance the organ continued to grind +out the tune as if it too were choked with sobs. + +Thus we remained for long, until the day waned. + +"Is it not time to go back, sir?" + +Yana's interruptions aroused us. Silently my father got up, and with +my hand still in his we passed through the graying country, where the +twilight already created fantastic shadows. At about a hundred yards +from the house he turned round, and made me look once more at the +little corner of earth, the hermitage which was to shelter us. + +"We will call it Mon Repos!" he said, and he moved on. + +Mon Repos! How he lingered over those three syllables. Even thus are +certain nocturnes of Chopin prolonged. + +When we reached Ambroes farm, we took affectionate farewell of Yana's +family. My father thanked them for their welcome, and reminded them of +his invitation. He gave Jan a few further instructions about the +garden; the lad stood cap in hand, his dark eyes expressive of vivid +sympathy. + +Yet another "au revoir"; then the carriage drove away, and we turned +our backs on the dear village. + +Was it still the kermesse organ which obsessed me, lingering above all +other sounds, growing fainter and fainter but never quite dying away? +And why did I ceaselessly repeat to myself, whatever the music, these +three unimportant syllables "Mon Repos"? + +The sun was setting when we reached the gates of the town. Country +masons, white and dusty, with tools over their shoulder and tins +hanging by their side, walked rapidly to the villages which we had +left behind. Happy workmen! They were wise to go back to the village, +and to leave the hideous slums of West Antwerp to their town comrades. + +A fresh breeze had risen which stirred the tops of the aspens. The +purple light on the horizon beyond the ramparts grew faint. During the +whole drive my father remained sunk in prostration; his hands, which I +stroked, were moist; now burning, now icy. He roused himself from this +painful torpor only to slip his hand through my hair, and to smile at +me as never friend has smiled since. + +Yana too looked sad now, and pretended that it was the dust which +caused her to wipe her eyes continually with her handkerchief. + +I was tired, overcome with so much open air, but I could not fall +asleep that night. I dreamed with open eyes of the events of the day, +of the farm, of good-natured Jan, of the happy meal, of the kid, of +the coming day when I should be "_boer Jorss_," as the kind fellow +said.... I was happy, but from time to time a fit of terrible coughing +from the next room stifled me, and then I recalled the scene in the +garden, our silence against the jarring sound of the organ, and later +these two words "Mon Repos." I did not close my eyes until the +morning. + +When I awoke, my uncle was already waiting for me. He was an old +officer and adhered to military time only. + +"We must be off!" he said in his gruff, harsh voice. "You must go back +to work, my lad." + +Must I go away again? Why this week's separation? What did my uncle's +authoritative tone mean in my father's house, in _our_ house? Why did +Yana look at him respectfully but sullenly? I did not guess the +horrible but absolute necessity for this intrusion; it exasperated me. + +What a bitter leave-taking! And that, too, for a week's separation +only. It was in vain that my uncle made fun of our tears. I clung to +my beloved father, and he had not the strength to repel me. The +impatient officer tore me at last from his embrace. + +"The train does not wait!" he grumbled. "Were there ever such +chicken-hearted people!" + +I was indignant. + +"No, not at parting from you," I said to my unsympathetic relation,... +"but from him!" + +"Djodgy! Djodgy!" my father tried to say in a tone of reproach. +"Forgive him, Henry.... Au revoir! In a week's time!... Be good ever." + +This time Yana no longer tried to hide her tears. Lion moved sadly +from one to another, and his human eyes appeared to say, "Stay with +him." + +But nothing would move my obdurate uncle. We drove away in the same +carriage which had taken us the day before to S'Gravenwezel. + +We waved to one another as long as the carriage was in the street. + +In a week I should see him again! + +In a week he was dead! + +But I have forgotten nothing. + +Thus it is, ever since then, that I love, I adore this Flemish country +as my heritage from him who loved it above all others; from him, the +sole human being who never wrought me any ill. These vast pale-blue +horizons, often veiled with mist or fog, gleam before me again as that +tearful smile which I caught for the last time upon his dear face. + + + +KORS DAVIE + +From 'The Massacre of the Innocents, and Other Tales by Belgian +Writers': copyrighted 1895, by Stone & Kimball + + +It was fair-time, yet Rika Let, the young dairymaid of _baes_ +Verhulst, was sad. She had worked so hard all August that this +morning, before mass, the _baezine_ had given her a bright florin and +spoken kindly to her:-- + +"Rika, it is fair-time for every one. Enjoy yourself, my girl. Here is +something to buy yourself a neckerchief at the fair, a bright-colored +one with fringe to cross over your breast."... + +Rika accepted her mistress's present. Alone in her garret above the +stable, she turned the shining coin over and over, but hesitated to +exchange it for some coveted trifle at Suske Derk's stall, down there +by the church. Great tears sprang to her eyes, eyes which were faintly +tinged with green. What sorrow filled the heart of this fair young +girl of eighteen summers? + +"Ah," she sighed, "if only one of the village lads would take me to +the fair and give me a gay kerchief! But who cares for poor Rika? Our +lads woo other girls, better born and richer than I am! _Baezine_ +Verhulst knew that, or she would not have given me money to buy a +thing which the poorest laborer, or even the humblest thresher, gives +gladly to his sweetheart to-day.... Who will dance this evening with +Rika Let at the Golden Swan?... No one.... No, _baezine_ Verhulst, it +is not a fete day for every one!" + +Tears rested on her fair lashes as the morning dew clings to the +bearded ears of corn. Mechanically she looked at herself in a piece of +glass which hung beneath a little Notre-Dame of Montaigu. She was not +plainer than many of her companions who were admired by the ardent and +happy lovers. Ugly--Rika! No indeed. Fair as the August cornfields of +the Verhulsts were her tresses. Her lips were red and full as ripe +cherries. If you feel aught of the charm of the young peasant girls of +our country, you would admire Rika. + +She dressed herself in her simple Sunday clothes; a little collar and +flat cap, both of dazzling whiteness; a skirt and bodice, unsoiled by +any speck of dust. + +The bell sounded for mass. + +Go and pray, Rika! Who can say? the good God mayhap will unseal the +eyes of the blind gallants of Viersel. + +She told her beads so earnestly, that a friend had to remind her when +the service was at an end. + +Outside the church a crowd of gay youths, with crossed arms and +flowers between their lips, watched the blushing procession of girls +who were to be their partners in the evening. Sympathetic glances were +exchanged, and with a smile or a simple movement of the head a meeting +was arranged, a promise confirmed, a consent given. Eager hearts +throbbed under the blue smocks, the many-colored kerchiefs; but no +glance sought to attract the bright eyes of the orphan girl, not one +of those young hearts beat in unison with hers. + +To reach the farm, Rika had to pass through the fair. Suske Derk had +displayed her wares. Rika did not even deign to look at them. The +mercer called to her:-- + +"Ha! my pretty devotee! Won't you even wear a scapulary?" + +At midday there was a great feast at the Verhulst farm in honor of the +fair. Masters, friends, and servants, all with big appetites, seated +themselves round a table laden with enormous dishes, brought in by the +farmer's wife and Rika. A savory smell filled the large room; the +steam dimmed the copper ornaments on the chimney-piece, the crucifix, +the candlesticks, the big plates, which were the pride of the cleanly +Rika. At first the guests, speechless, gravely and solemnly satisfied +their hunger. Then came the bumpers to wash down the viands, for mealy +Polder potatoes make one thirsty. As the tankards were re-filled, +tongues were loosed, and jokes piquant as the waters of the Scheldt +flew apace. + +Rika in her turn sat down to the table, but the sorrow at her heart +robbed her of appetite, and she ate little. The lively guests, +distressed by her silence, attributed it to arrogance, and turned +their attention elsewhere. Later they would rejoin their buxom +wenches, and think no more of the poor little soul tormented with the +desire for love. + +The more the day advanced, the less Rika thought of purchasing a fichu +at Suske Derk's stall; she would rather return the florin to her +mistress! Bugles and screeching fiddles could be heard from the Golden +Swan. + +_Houpsa!_ rich and poor hasten to the dance, some in shoes, others in +sabots. _Lourelourela!_ The quadrilles form. The couples hail their +vis-a-vis across the room. All is ready. They set off.... + +Rika alone is absent from the ball. Seated on the threshold of the +barn, the sound of the brass and wind instruments, the patter of feet, +the laughter and oaths, reach her ear. + +The low-roofed houses of the village fade slowly in the twilight. The +church steeple rises heavenward as the watchful finger of God; at its +base lies the Golden Swan; against the four red-curtained windows the +figures of the dancing couples are outlined black as imps. + +Rika could not tear herself away from this scene. Her heart, till now +pure as the veil of a first communicant, was filled with bitter +thoughts. + +Marvelous tales were told of Zanne Hokespokes. The little old woman +possessed some wonderful secrets; she could give rot to sheep, make +cows run dry, and poison nurses' milk. She could see the fate of those +who consulted her in cards and in coffee-grounds. She could recall the +fickle lover to the side of the deserted maiden. Perhaps she could +find a sweetheart for lonely Rika? + +Unholy thoughts rose with the oppressive mists of the evening. They +grew in the solitude, in the remoteness from others' joy. The ungainly +couples danced up and down, black as imps, against the four red +windows. The music grated and jarred; but for the last hour the +village steeple, which rose heavenward as the watchful finger of God, +had been lost in the darkness. + +Would it be well to take advantage of the absence of her master and +mistress and consult the fortune-teller? No one would meet her. All +the village was at the Golden Swan. + +Holy Virgin! how they are enjoying themselves! Among the whirling +couples Rika saw two figures intertwined, their faces so close that +their lips must meet! + +Yes, she would have recourse to the spells of the old woman +Hokespokes, whatever might happen. She had still the bright coin in +her pocket. This and the few coppers which she had saved would +suffice. + +The sorceress lived in a clay hut deep in the dark woods of Zoersel. +The peasants avoided these woods and passed through them in broad +daylight only, making the sign of the cross. At nightfall weird +melancholy sounds, which seemed to come from another world, murmured +in the tree-tops. It took an hour to reach the cottage from Viersel. +Rika calculated that she could be home before midnight. Her master and +mistress would not return earlier than that. She overcame her last +fears, and set out bravely towards the lonely heath. + +"In this bag, little one, are the ashes of the tooth of a corpse; the +tooth was picked up in the cemetery of Safftingen, the village that +was submerged by the Scheldt; therein is also a mushroom, called +'toadstool,' gathered at the foot of the tree on which Nol Bardaf the +cobbler was hanged. Next full moon, on a cloudless night, sprinkle the +magic powder at the foot of your bed, and prick the mushroom deeply +with a hairpin, uttering these words three times:--'I command thee, +charmed plant, to bring me the man who shall wound me as I wound +thee!' Then go to bed with the mushroom under your pillow, and wait in +perfect quiet without speaking. The beloved one will appear. Open your +eyes, but above all things neither speak nor move. You must even hold +your breath. If he leaves you, do not try to detain him. You will see +him again, and will then become his wife." + +Thus spoke Zanne Hokespokes. + +Rika followed the instructions of the sorceress. She waited several +days for the fine cloudless night, and when the full moon rose she did +as the witch had bidden her. + +"I command thee, charmed thing, to bring me the man who shall wound me +as I wound thee!" + +Once--twice--thrice. + +Rika, with wide-open eyes and strained ear, lay in bed eagerly +awaiting the promised vision. Shadow became substance in the garret, +which was bathed in the silvery-blue beams of the moon. The silence +was so overwhelming that Rika thought she heard the sound of the white +light as it fell on the bare floor. + +Now she regretted her traffic with a servant of the Devil, now she +rejoiced at the prospect of seeing _him_, the man who would love her; +but again she feared that he might not come. + +The yard door swung on its hinges. A hasty, heavy step crossed the +court without disturbing the watch-dog. _He_ opened the kitchen door. +_Clope! Clope!_ rapidly he climbed the ladder which led to the attic. +Terror seized Rika; she stifled a cry, as the trap-door opened. + +There he was in her room; a soldier, a young artilleryman. He passed +by her unnoticed in the white light of the moon. + +Ah! Rika loves him at first sight; it is he for whom she has waited. +He has a round face, curly auburn hair, a well-cut mouth, a slightly +aquiline nose, with dilating nostrils, a square chin, and broad +shoulders. A fine mustache covers his upper lip. He wears a +brigadier's braids on his sleeve, and spurs on his heels. What mad +race has he been running? His broad chest rises and falls, he gasps +for breath, and throws himself down on the only stool. Rika longs to +rush to him, to wipe the sweat from his brow. As if overpowered, he +loosens his tunic, unclasps his belt, and exposes his fine chest. +Somewhat rested, oblivious of Rika, he scrutinizes his uniform from +head to foot, and notices that one of the buttonholes of his +boot-strap is torn. He takes off the strap, and with a knife which he +draws from his pocket makes a fresh hole in the leather. Then he +readjusts the strap to the trouser. + +Rika observed all these movements. More and more she admired his +military bearing and the ease with which he moved. Animated by his +run, the soldier's face struck her as more expressive than the faces +of the other fellows of her acquaintance, even than the faces of the +scornful Odo and Freek, the Verhulsts' two sons, whom she had once +admired. + +The stranger re-buttoned his coat, fastened his belt, put his cap on +his head, and left the room with the same quick firm step. She dared +not call to him and hold out her arms. The door closed. + +The sound of his footsteps, the clank of his sword, were lost in the +distance. To Rika a memory only remained. + +Has it not all been a dream, poor impressionable little thing? + +No; a moment ago he sat quite near Rika's bed. + +By the wan light of the moon she saw a sparkling object, the knife +which he had just used; here was her proof. She could no longer doubt. +She picked up the knife, pressed the still-open blade to her lips, and +as her breath dulled the steel, she wiped it, kissed it again; twenty +times she repeated the same childish trick. + +Truly the good Zanne Hokespokes keeps her word. The pretty knife with +its tortoise-shell handle will henceforth be a pledge for Rika. Her +fingers lovingly caressed the blade, as if they stroked the mustache +of the brigadier; she would fain see her reflection in the dark eyes +of the beloved one, as she saw it in the shining metal. + +Her eyes grew weary with gazing on the bright surface; she was +compelled to lie down. She slept and dreamt of her soldier visitor, +with the precious knife clasped to her breast. + +Tarata! Tarata! Tarata! + +"Wake up, Kors Davie! ... Perhaps you're sorry to leave the barracks! +Confound it! the fellow snores as if he did not care for his holiday!" + +Brigadier Warner Cats, Davie's fellow-countryman and comrade, tired of +speaking, shook Kors roughly, as the bugle sounded the reveille. Kors +sat up, stretched himself, appeared astonished, and rubbed his eyes +with his fists. + +"That's strange! Pouh! What a vile dream!" he muttered with a yawn. +"Comrade, just listen: I was out in the country, very much against my +will, I assure you.... A horrible old woman pursued me with repeated +blows. We crossed heath and swamp; my shoulder-belt and my sword +caught in the thickets; my skin was scratched with thorns.... I flew +over ditches three yards wide to escape from my persecutor. But the +wicked old woman galloped after me and belabored me incessantly.... +I was too much of a coward to turn and face her.... Oh! that race by +starlight!... I almost hated our beloved Campine,... for all this +happened in La Bruyere.... But I'll be hanged if I know where!... +Oh! my legs, my poor legs.... You'll not believe, but I'm as +exhausted...." + +"Pouh! Pouh!" interrupted the faithful Warner Cats.... "Dreams are +lies! so my grandmother used to say. You'll have forgotten all about +these phantoms by the time you're beyond the ramparts, on the way to +our beautiful Wildonck, these phantoms will all vanish.... Be done +with grumbling.... Hang nightmares, if only the awakening is sweet!" + +Kors got up, packed his kit, folded his blankets, and cheered by the +thought of his holiday, hummed a soldier's tune. + +As he felt in his pocket he stopped suddenly. "Good heavens! I could +have sworn that I put it in my waistcoat pocket." + +"What? What's up now, you grumbling devil?" asked Warner. + +"Dash it! Begga Leuven's penknife, ... my Begga.... The pretty knife +which she bought me for my fete day when I was last in Antwerp." + +"Well?" + +"I cannot find it!... There's a fine state of things.... What will +Begga say? I wanted to show her the little treasure still bright and +new. The dear soul will never forgive my carelessness." + +"Nonsense! she'll give you another.... Besides, it is not lucky to +give knives; they cut the bonds of love!" Warner added gravely; "they +bring misfortune." + +"In the mean time, the bother is that I've lost the knife. Damn it!" + +He turned his pockets inside out in vain. + +"Well, I suppose I must make the best of it," he said at last. + +When he was ready, he shook hands with his comrade and took up his +bundle. + +"Au revoir!" said Warner. "Remember me to all friends, and drink a +pint to my health next Sunday at Maus Walkiers. Don't forget to go and +see my old parents, and tell them that my purse is as flat as a +pancake. Remember me also to Stans the wheelwright." + +"Good. Are these all my orders?" + +Davie hastened into the street. + +Having left the town by the Vieux-Dieu fort, he followed the treeless +military road on a hot July morning. When he came within sight of the +spire of Wommelghem, he turned off by the short cut which led to Ranst +and Broechem. Here the copses and brushwood protected him from the +intense heat of the sun. He walked sharply, cap in hand, the sweat +standing on his brow. Over his shoulder he carried his bundle, tied in +a red handkerchief and fastened to a stick which he had cut on the +way. He stopped for a drink of beer at the toll-houses and +cross-roads, chatted with the barmaids if they took his fancy, then +went happily on. Towards midday he had passed through or skirted four +villages, and was a mile only from the home where his father and Begga +awaited him. As he recalled the bright healthy face of his young +sweetheart, the remembrance of his bad dream and of the loss of the +knife came back to him. Confounded knife! Kors could not separate the +thought of Begga from the lost treasure, and by a strange +contradiction of human nature he was almost angry with the poor girl, +because she had bought him this pocket-knife which had now come +between them. This ungenerous conclusion more and more took possession +of him. So preoccupied was he that he forgot to look where he was +going. Suddenly he noticed that he had gone astray. + +He was about to cross a bridge over the Campine canal, though this +bridge did not really lie in his route. Beyond it, trees lined the +road on either side for a great distance. Between the trunks could be +seen vast meadows, which stretched towards an immense purple heath, +bathed in soft mist. Four fine cows stood knee-deep in the +meadow-grass which fringed the banks of the canal; not far from the +cows a young girl with a branch in her hand sat on the slope guarding +them. + +He called to her:-- + +"Hi, Mietje, come here!" + +She sprang up, and jumped lightly over the fence, but when she came +within a few yards of the stranger she stopped, looked at him for a +moment, covered her face with her hands, and turned to go away. In a +few rapid strides the soldier overtook her, and caught her gently by +the arm. He was secretly flattered by the embarrassment of the young +peasant girl. Silent, but blushing red as a poppy, she looked down, +and the blue-green of her eyes could be seen beneath the fair lashes. +She tried to turn away and escape the scrutiny of the gallant. + +"Bless me, what a pretty little puss!" he exclaimed. "Tell me, my +beautiful one, where do such dainty maidens come from?" + +"I come from Viersel," she replied, in a very timid voice. + +"Then we are neighbors, and almost fellow-villagers, for I live at +Wildonck, and was on my way thither." + +"You will never reach it, if you follow this road." + +"Egad! I don't deny it, my pretty one! A moment ago I thought myself a +fool for losing my way. Now I bless my stupidity." + +She did not reply to this compliment, but flushed crimson. + +He would not set her free. The vision of Begga, sullen and displeased +at the loss of the knife, grew fainter and fainter. In this frame of +mind he welcomed the stranger gladly, as a pleasant diversion from the +thoughts which had tormented him just before. + +"What is your name, my flower of Viersel?" + +"Hendrika Let--Rika." + +"That has always been one of my favorite names. It was my mother's. Do +your parents live far from here?" + +"My parents! I never knew them. I am a servant at _boer_ Verhulst's, +whose farm you see down there, a short distance away behind the +alder-trees." + +"You do not ask my name, Rika?" + +She was burning to know the name of the beloved one, for he was indeed +the brilliant visitor of the enchanted night. She stilled the +throbbing of her beating heart, and pretended to show only the polite +indifference which an honest girl would feel to an agreeable passer-by +who accosted her on the road. + +"You shrug your shoulders and pout, Rika! Of what interest is a +soldier's name to you? Probably he is a bad fellow, as the cure +preaches,--a spendthrift, a deceiver of women. Well, I will tell you +all the same. I am Cornelis Davie, otherwise Kors, Kors the Black, now +brigadier in the first battery of the fifth regiment of artillery, +stationed at Fort IV., at Vieux-Dieu, near Antwerp. In two months I +shall return to Wildonck for good, and take up the management of the +Stork Farm, for old Davie has worked long enough. Then, Rika, Kors +Davie will marry. Can you not suggest some girl for him, my sweet +Rika? Do you think he will find some fair ones to choose from at +Viersel?" + +"I think you are getting further and further away from Wildonck!" said +the coquette. + +It was true; they had walked along together, and the canal was now far +behind them. + +"You rogue!" said Kors, a little annoyed. "Why need you remind me of +the moment of parting?" + +"If you follow this road, you may perhaps arrive to-morrow. Farewell, +my soldier. My cows may go astray as you have." + +The happy girl pretended to move away. This time he seized her round +the waist, and holding her in his arms, repeated again and again. "You +are beautiful, Rika!" + +"If our Viersel lads saw you so foolish, they would laugh at you. Are +there no girls at Wildonck, or in the town?" + +"The devil take the lads of Viersel, the girls of Wildonck, and the +women of Antwerp! I will win you from all the men in your village, +sweet one! you are more beautiful to me than all the girls of my +native place! Rika, if you will consent, our marriage shall be fixed." + +"This love will not last." + +He pressed her more closely to him. + +"Let me go, let me go, brigadier, or I shall scream. You have surely +been drinking. There are several inns between here and your fort, are +there not? What would people say if they met me with you? Ah! to the +right there is a road which branches off and will take you home. Be +off! Good-night!" + +The susceptible Davie had now forgotten the very existence of the fair +and prudent Begga Leuven. + +"Well, if it must be, I will go!" he said, in a firm yet tender voice. +"But one word more, Rika. If I return in three days' time; if I repeat +then that I love you madly; if I ask you to be my wife, will you +refuse me?" + +"Cornelis Davie is making fun of Rika Let; land-owners do not marry +their farm servants." + +"I swear that I am in earnest! I have one desire, one wish only. Rika, +when I return in three days' time, on Monday, will you meet me here?" + +A feeble consent was wrung from her. + +When Kors tried to kiss her lips, she had not the strength to resist; +she returned his kiss passionately. + +Then, not without a pang, he walked rapidly in the direction of the +foot-path, not daring to look back. + +Breathless with excitement and triumph, Rika followed him with her +eyes, until he was lost behind a leafy clump of oaks. + + * * * * * + +It was fair-time again, but now Rika Let was happy; she dined at +Viersel with her former employers the Verhulsts, accompanied by her +husband, the fine Kors Davie of Wildonck, Kors the Black, the owner of +the Stork Farm. + +Poor old Davie had fretted and died! Ah! the sorcery of old Zanne +Hokespokes was indeed potent; she had changed the loyal Kors into an +undutiful son and a faithless lover. Poor Begga was helpless against +the spells of the Devil. Nothing could do away with the power of the +incantation. "Do not be unhappy, sweet Begga! Marry tall Mile, the +lock-keeper; he has neither the money nor the manly bearing of the +ex-brigadier, but he will love you better." + +It was just a year ago, to the day, since Rika Let consulted the +witch. The poor dairymaid had reaped ample revenge for the slights +cast upon her. She wished to pay a visit to the Verhulsts' and +introduce her rich husband to them, for the Verhulsts' wealth was +nothing compared to that of the Davies. + +Rika was gorgeously dressed. Think, _baezine_ Verhulst, of offering +her a woolen kerchief from Suske Derk's stall! Feel the silk of her +dress; it cost ten francs a yard, neither more nor less. The lace on +her large fete-cap is worth the price of at least three fat pigs, and +the diamond heart, a jewel which belonged to the late _baezine_ Davie, +the mother of Kors, hanging round her throat on a massive gold chain, +is more valuable than all your trinkets! + +At midday there was feasting at the Verhulsts' farm in honor of the +fair, and more especially to welcome the Davies. Masters, friends, +plowmen and haymakers, all with good appetite, seated themselves round +a table laden with enormous dishes brought in by the farmer's wife and +Rika's successor. + +The obsequious Madame Verhulst overpowered her former servant with +attention. + +"_Baezine_ Davie, take one of these _carbonades_? They are soft as +butter.... A slice of ham? It's fit for a king. Or perhaps you will +have some more of this chine, which has been specially kept for your +visit? Or a spoonful of saffron rice? It melts in the mouth." + +"You are very kind, Madame Verhulst, but we breakfasted late just +before starting.... Kors, have our horses been fed?" + +"Do not be afraid, _baezine_ Davie; Verhulst will see to that +himself." + +Kors, who was more and more in love with his wife, presided at the +men's end of the table; near him sat Odo and Freek Verhulst, who had +formerly treated Rika so disdainfully. Kors, well shaven, rubicund, +merry, and wearing a dark-blue smock-frock, looked lovingly and +longingly in the direction of his wife. + +A savory smell filled the large room, the steam dimmed the copper +ornaments on the chimney-piece, the crucifix, the candlesticks, the +plates, which were formerly the pride of the cleanly Rika. + +At first the guests gravely and solemnly satisfied their hunger, +without saying a word. Then came the bumpers to wash down the viands, +for mealy Polder potatoes make one thirsty! As the tankards were +re-filled, tongues were loosed, and jokes piquant as the waters of the +Scheldt flew apace. + +Later, coffee, together with white bread and butter, sprinkled with +currants, was served for the ladies. The men bestirred themselves +unwillingly. Silently and solemnly they filled their pipes and smoked, +while the old gossips and white-capped young girls chattered like +magpies. The low-roofed houses of the village, which stand at the foot +of the steeple pointing upward as the watchful finger of God, fade in +the gathering twilight. + +Before the bugles and violins struck up in the Golden Swan, whither +_baezine_ Davie was longing to go with her husband, the proud Rika +took him by the arm and showed him round the Verhulsts's farm. After +visiting the cowsheds, the stables, the pig-sties, and the dairy, they +climbed to the garret where Rika used to sleep. The same little camp +bed stood there, the same broken mirror, the solitary rickety stool. A +feeling of emotion, mingled perhaps with remorse, overcame the pretty +farmer's wife at sight of the familiar objects, and she threw herself +into her husband's arms. The young farmer kissed her passionately over +and over again. Rika sat on his knee with his arms around her, and +they were oblivious to all save their love.... + +Below in the court-yard shrill voices called to them; it was time for +the dances. + +"There is no need to hasten, is there, my Rika?" + +"Kors, my well-beloved," Rika said at last with a sigh, after a long +and delicious silence, "do you not remember this room?" + +"What a strange question, little woman! you know this is the first +time I have crossed the threshold!" + +"Are you certain?" + +She laughed, amused at his puzzled, half-angry, half good-natured +look. + +"Have you ever lost anything, Kors?" she persisted. + +"Be done with riddles! Rather let us go and dance," replied Kors, +relieved for the moment by the strident tones of the music, and the +sound of dancing. + +_Houps! Lourelourela!_ Rich and poor joined in the dance, their +figures outlined like black imps against the red windows of the Golden +Swan. + +"One word more," said Rika, catching hold of Kors's blouse; "have you +no recollection of a little thing which you lost one night on a +journey?" + +"No more enigmas for me, sweet one; let us be off. My feet itch for +the dance." + +"Must I remind you?--look!" + +She drew Begga Leuven's knife from her pocket. + +He turned and held out his hand. At touch of the knife, the +remembrance of that strange night came back to him. Again he saw the +hideous old woman who pursued him with blows; he crossed heath and +swamp, his sword caught in the brushwood; he ran until he was +breathless.... But now he understood more than he did on that morning +when he told his nightmare to his loyal friend Warner Cats, the +intimate friend whom he had lost in consequence of his willful +marriage.... He recognized this accursed garret, where he had lost the +pretty knife, a present from his first lover. Reason returned, and +with it all his pure and holy passion for Begga. She who was called +_baezine_ Davie had won him by sorcery. To kiss her lips he forsook +Begga, his gentle comrade; later, he was deaf to the curses of his +grandfather, he was indifferent when Begga married tall Mile, and he +shed no tears at the grave of the father whose death was brought about +by his disgraceful marriage. + +And she, the abominable accomplice of the sorceress, still clung to +him,--the vampire! + +The pale moon had risen, and now bathed the attic in silver rays +tinged with blue. + +Rika sank to the ground beneath the unrecognizing glance of Kors; she +stretched out her hands to ward off what she felt must come. + +In Black Kors's contracted, bloodless hand, the open knife shone as on +the night of the charm. + +Between two harsh and vibrating strains of music which came from the +Golden Swan, a discordant burst of laughter echoed across the silent +tragic plain surrounding Verhulst Farm. + +At that moment, Kors in a fit of delirium plunged the knife into +Rika's breast.... She fell without uttering a cry. + +Did not the incantation run:--"I command thee, charmed plant, to bring +me the man who will wound me as I wound thee"? + + + + +EDWARD EGGLESTON + +(1837-) + +[Illustration: EDWARD EGGLESTON] + + +Edward Eggleston was born at Vevay, Indiana, December 10th, 1837. His +father was a native of Amelia County, Virginia, and was of a family +which migrated from England to Virginia in the seventeenth century, +and which became one of much distinction in the State. A brief +biography of Mr. Eggleston lately published affords some information +as to his early years. He was a sufferer from ill health as a child. +He had repeatedly to be removed from school for this cause, and he +spent a considerable part of his boyhood on farms in Indiana, where he +made acquaintance with that rude backwoods life which he has described +in 'The Hoosier Schoolmaster' and other stories. An important incident +of his youth was a visit of thirteen months which he paid to his +relations in Virginia in 1854. This opportunity of making acquaintance +under such favorable circumstances with slave society, must have been +of great value to one who was to make American history the chief +pursuit of his life. In 1856 he went to Minnesota, and there lived a +frontier life to the great improvement of his health. The accounts we +have of him show him to have had the ardent and energetic character +which belongs to the youth of the West. When not yet nineteen years +old he became a Methodist preacher in that State. Later, ill health +forced him again to Minnesota, where with the enthusiasm of a young +man he traveled on foot, shod in Indian moccasins, in winter and +summer preaching to the mixed Indian and white populations on the +Minnesota River. + +Mr. Eggleston's literary career began, while he was still preaching, +with contributions to Western periodicals. Having written for the New +York Independent, he was offered in 1870 the place of literary editor +of that paper, and the following year became its editor-in-chief. He +was afterwards editor of Hearth and Home, to the columns of which +journal he contributed 'The Hoosier Schoolmaster,' a story that has +been very popular. He wrote a number of other novels, 'The End of the +World,' 'The Mystery of Metropolisville,' 'The Circuit Rider,' +'Roxy,' etc. In January 1880, while on a visit to Europe, he began to +make plans for a 'History of Life in the United States.' He had always +had a strong taste for this subject, a keen natural interest in +history being evident here and there in his stories. His historical +researches were carried on in many of the chief libraries of Europe +and the United States. A result of these studies was the thirteen +articles on 'Life in the Colonial Period' published in the Century +Magazine. These, however, were but preliminary studies to the work +which he intended should be the most important of his life. The first +volume of this work, 'The Beginners of a Nation,' was published in +1896. + +This work does not pretend to be a particular account of colonial +history. It is an attempt rather to describe the colonial individual +and colonial society, to state the succession of cause and effect in +the establishment of English life in North America, and to describe +principles rather than details,--giving however as much detail as is +necessary to illustrate principles. The volume of 1896 contains +chapters on 'The James River Experiments' and 'The Procession of +Motives' which led to colonization. Book ii. of this volume is upon +the Puritan migration, and has chapters on the rise of Puritanism in +England, on the Pilgrim migration, and the great Puritan exodus. Book +iii. receives the name of 'Centrifugal Forces in Colony Planting,' and +contains accounts of Lord Baltimore's Maryland colony, of Roger +Williams, and the 'New England Dispersions,' by which is meant the +establishment of communities in Connecticut and elsewhere. In the +sketch of Lord Baltimore, the courtier and friend of kings, we have a +striking contrast with the type of men who led the Puritan migrations. +There were odd characters in those days; and a court favorite and +worldling who, after having feathered his nest, is willing to make two +such voyages to Newfoundland as his must have been, and to spend a +winter there, all out of zeal for the establishment of his religion in +the Western wilds, is certainly a person worthy of study. + +The play of the forces that produced emigration, and their relations +to the migrations, are described very clearly by the author. People +did not emigrate when they were happy at home. Thus, Catholic +emigration was small under Laud, when English Catholics were beginning +to think that the future was theirs; just as Puritan emigration, +vigorous under Laud, dwindled with the days of the Puritan triumph in +England. We have in 'The James River Experiments' a good example of +the writer's method. The salient and significant facts are given +briefly, but with sufficient fullness to enable the reader to have a +satisfactory grasp of the matter; and where some principle or general +truth is to be pointed out, the author sets this forth strongly. For +instance, in describing the motives of colonization in Virginia, he +shows how these motives were in almost all cases delusions; how a +succession of such delusions ran through the times of Elizabeth and +James; and how colonization succeeded in the end only by doing what +its projectors had never intended to do. The Jamestown emigrants +expected to find a passage to India, to discover gold and silver, to +raise wine and silk. But none of these things were done. Wines and +silk indeed were raised. It is said that Charles I.'s coronation robe +was made of Virginian silk, and Mr. Eggleston tells us that Charles +II. certainly wore silk from worms hatched and fed in his Virginian +dominions. But these industries, although encouraged to the utmost by +government, could not be made to take root. On the other hand, a +determined effort was made to discourage the production of tobacco. +James I. wrote a book against the culture of that pernicious "weed," +as he was the first to describe it. But the hardy plant held its own +and flourished in spite of the royal disfavor. Nor were the colonists +more successful in their political intentions. Especially interesting, +in view of recent discussions, is the account given of the communistic +experiments which belonged to the early history of the American +colonies. In Virginia all the products of the colony were to go into a +common stock. But after twelve years' trial of this plan, there was a +division of the land among the older settlers. The pernicious +character of the system had been demonstrated. "Every man sharked for +his own bootie," says a writer on Virginia in 1609, "and was +altogether careless of the succeeding penurie." The two years of +communism in the Plymouth colony was scarcely more successful. +Bradford, finding that the matter was one of life and death with the +colony, abolished the system, although the abolition was a +revolutionary stroke, in violation of the contract with the +shareholders. + +This idea, that the outcome was to be very different from the +intentions, appears not only in the striking chapter on 'The +Procession of Motives,' but crops up again and again in other parts of +the book. Thus, the ill success which attended the government of the +colonies from London resulted in the almost unconscious establishment +of several independent democratic communities in America. This +happened in Virginia and Plymouth. The Massachusetts Bay Colony, +however, was self-governing from the start. + +But although causes and principles are matters of chief interest with +Mr. Eggleston, his book is full of a picturesqueness which is all the +more effective for being unobtrusive. The author has not that tiresome +sort of picturesqueness which insists on saying the whole thing +itself. The reader is credited with a little imagination, and that +faculty has frequent opportunity for exercise. It is charmed by the +striking passage in which is described the delight of the emigrants of +the Massachusetts Bay Colony, when, after having set sail from +England, they found themselves upon the open sea for the first time +without the supervision, or even the neighborhood, of bosses. We know +the sense of freedom which the broad and blue ocean affords to us all; +what must have been that feeling to men who had scarcely ever had an +hour of life untroubled by the domination of an antagonistic religious +authority! Every day, for ten weeks together, they had preaching and +exposition. "On one ship," says Mr. Eggleston, "the watches were set +to the accompaniment of psalm-singing." + +The candor and fair-mindedness of this work is one of its special +merits. We have an indication of this quality in the author's refusal +to accept the weak supposition, common among writers upon American +history, that the faults of our ancestors were in some way more +excusable than those of other people. He says in his Preface:--"I have +disregarded that convention which makes it obligatory for a writer of +American history to explain that intolerance in the first settlers was +not just like other intolerance, and that their cruelty and injustice +were justifiable under the circumstances." Other very important +characteristics are sympathy, warmth of heart, and moral enthusiasm. +Nor is the work wanting in an adequate literary merit. The style, +especially in the later chapters, is free, simple, nervous, and +rhythmical. + +Little has been said of Mr. Eggleston's novels in the course of these +remarks. But the qualities of his historical writing appear in his +novels. The qualities of the realistic novelist are of great use to +the historian, when the novelist has the thoroughness and the industry +of Mr. Eggleston. By the liveliness of his imagination, he succeeds in +making history as real as fiction should be. Mr. Eggleston's novels +deserve the popularity they have attained. They are themselves, +particularly those which describe Western life, valuable contributions +to history. The West, we may add, is Mr. Eggleston's field. His most +recent novel, 'The Faith Doctor,' the scene of which is laid in New +York, is very inferior to his Western stories. Of these novels +probably the best is 'The Graysons,' a book full of its author's +reality and warmth of human sympathy; of this book the reader will +follow every word with the same lively interest with which he reads +'The Beginners of a Nation.' + + + +ROGER WILLIAMS: THE PROPHET OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM + +From 'The Beginners of a Nation': copyright 1896, by Edward Eggleston + + +Local jealousy and sectarian prejudice have done what they could to +obscure the facts of the trial and banishment of Williams. It has been +argued by more than one writer that it was not a case of religious +persecution at all, but the exclusion of a man dangerous to the State. +Cotton, with characteristic verbal legerdemain, says that Williams was +"enlarged" rather than banished. The case has even been pettifogged in +our own time by the assertion that the banishment was only the action +of a commercial company excluding an uncongenial person from its +territory. But with what swift indignation would the Massachusetts +rulers of the days of Dudley and Haynes have repudiated a plea which +denied their magistracy! They put so strong a pressure on Stoughton, +who said that the assistants were not magistrates, that he made haste +to renounce his pride of authorship and to deliver his booklet to be +officially burned; nor did even this prevent his punishment. The +rulers of "the Bay" were generally frank advocates of religious +intolerance; they regarded toleration as a door set open for the Devil +to enter. Not only did they punish for unorthodox expressions, they +even assumed to inquire into private beliefs. Williams was only one of +scores bidden to depart on account of opinion. + +The real and sufficient extenuation for the conduct of the +Massachusetts leaders is found in the character and standards of the +age. A few obscure and contemned sectaries--Brownists, Anabaptists, +and despised Familists--in Holland and England had spoken more or less +clearly in favor of religious liberty before the rise of Roger +Williams, but nobody of weight or respectable standing in the whole +world had befriended it. All the great authorities in Church and +State, Catholic and Protestant, prelatical and Puritan, agreed in +their detestation of it. Even Robinson, the moderate pastor of the +Leyden Pilgrims, ventured to hold only to the "toleration of tolerable +opinions." This was the toleration found at Amsterdam and in some +other parts of the Low Countries. Even this religious sufferance, +which did not amount to liberty, was sufficiently despicable in the +eyes of that intolerant age to bring upon the Dutch the contempt of +Christendom. It was a very qualified and limited toleration, and one +from which Catholics and Arminians were excluded. It seems to have +been that practical amelioration of law which is produced more +effectually by commerce than by learning or religion. Outside of some +parts of the Low Countries, and oddly enough of the Turkish Empire, +all the world worth counting decried toleration as a great crime. It +would have been wonderful indeed if Massachusetts had been superior to +the age. "I dare aver," says Nathaniel Ward, the New England +lawyer-minister, "that God doth nowhere in his Word tolerate Christian +States to give tolerations to such adversaries of his Truth, if they +have power in their hands to suppress them." To set up toleration was +"to build a sconce against the walls of heaven to batter God out of +his chair," in Ward's opinion. + +This doctrine of intolerance was sanctioned by many refinements of +logic, such as Cotton's delicious sophistry that if a man refused to +be convinced of the truth, he was sinning against conscience, and +therefore it was not against the liberty of conscience to coerce him. +Cotton's moral intuitions were fairly suffocated by logic. He declared +that men should be compelled to attend religious service, because it +was "better to be hypocrites than profane persons. Hypocrites give God +part of his due, the outward man, but the profane person giveth God +neither outward nor inward man." To reason thus is to put subtlety +into the _cathedra_ of common-sense, to bewilder vision by +legerdemain. Notwithstanding his natural gift for devoutness and his +almost immodest godliness, Cotton was incapable of high sincerity. He +would not specifically advise Williams's banishment, but having +labored with him round a corner according to his most approved +ecclesiastical formula, he said, "We have no more to say in his +behalf, but must sit down;" by which expression of passivity he gave +the signal to the "secular arm" to do its worst, while he washed his +hands in innocent self-complacency. When one scrupulous magistrate +consulted him as to his obligation in Williams's case, Cotton answered +his hesitation by saying, "You know they are so much incensed against +his course that it is not your voice, nor the voice of two or three +more, that can suspend the sentence." By such shifty phrases he +shirked responsibility for the results of his own teaching. Of the +temper that stands alone for the right, nature had given him not a +jot. Williams may be a little too severe, but he has some truth when +he describes Cotton on this occasion as "swimming with the stream of +outward credit and profit," though nothing was further from Cotton's +conscious purpose than such worldliness. Cotton's intolerance was not +like that of Dudley and Endicott, the offspring of an austere temper; +it was rather the outgrowth of his logic and his reverence for +authority. He sheltered himself behind the examples of Elizabeth and +James I., and took refuge in the shadow of Calvin, whose burning of +Servetus he cites as an example, without any recoil of heart or +conscience. But the consideration of the character of the age forbids +us to condemn the conscientious men who put Williams out of the +Massachusetts theocracy as they would have driven the Devil out of the +garden of Eden. When, however, it comes to judging the age itself, and +especially to judging the Puritanism of the age, these false and harsh +ideals are its sufficient condemnation. Its government and its very +religion were barbarous; its Bible, except for mystical and +ecclesiastical uses, might as well have closed with the story of the +Hebrew judges and the imprecatory Psalms. The Apocalypse of John, +grotesquely interpreted, was the one book of the New Testament that +received hearty consideration, aside from those other New Testament +passages supposed to relate to a divinely appointed ecclesiasticism. +The humane pity of Jesus was unknown not only to the laws, but to the +sermons of the time. About the time of Williams's banishment the +lenity of John Winthrop was solemnly rebuked by some of the clergy and +rulers as a lax imperiling of the safety of the gospel; and Winthrop, +overborne by authority, confessed, explained, apologized, and promised +amendment. The Puritans substituted an unformulated belief in the +infallibility of "godly" elders acting with the magistrates, for the +ancient doctrine of an infallible Church. + +In this less scrupulous but more serious age it is easy to hold +Williams up to ridicule. Never was a noble and sweet-spirited man +bedeviled by a scrupulosity more trivial. Cotton aptly dubbed him "a +haberdasher of small questions." His extant letters are many of them +vibrant with latent heroism; there is manifest in them an exquisite +charity and a pathetic magnanimity: but in the midst of it all the +writer is unable to rid himself of a swarm of scruples as pertinacious +as the buzzing of mosquitoes in the primitive forest about him. In +dating his letters, where he ventures to date at all, he never writes +the ordinary name of the day of the week or the name of the month, +lest he should be guilty of etymological heathenism. He often avoids +writing the year, and when he does insert it he commits himself to the +last two figures only and adds a saving clause. Thus 1652 appears as +"52 (so called)," and other years are tagged with the same doubting +words, or with the Latin "_ut vulgo_." What quarrel the tender +conscience had with the Christian era it is hard to guess. So too he +writes to Winthrop, who had taken part in his banishment, letters full +of reverential tenderness and hearty friendship. But his conscience +does not allow him even to seem to hold ecclesiastical fellowship with +a man he honors as a ruler and loves as a friend. Once at least he +guards the point directly by subscribing himself "Your worship's +faithful and affectionate in all _civil_ bonds." It would be sad to +think of a great spirit so enthralled by the scrupulosity of his time +and his party, if these minute restrictions had been a source of +annoyance to him. But the cheerful observance of little scruples seems +rather to have taken the place of a recreation in his life; they were +to him perhaps what bric-a-brac is to a collector, what a +well-arranged altar and candlesticks are to a ritualist. + +Two fundamental notions supplied the motive power of every +ecclesiastical agitation of that age. The notion of a succession of +churchly order and ordinance from the time of the apostles was the +mainspring of the High Church movement. Apostolic primitivism was the +aim of the Puritan, and still more the goal of the Separatist. One +party rejoiced in a belief that a mysterious apostolic virtue had +trickled down through generations of bishops and priests to its own +age; the other rejoiced in the destruction of institutions that had +grown up in the ages, and in getting back to the primitive nakedness +of the early Christian conventicle. True to the law of his nature, +Roger Williams pushed this latter principle to its ultimate +possibilities. If we may believe the accounts, he and his followers at +Providence became Baptists that they might receive the rite of baptism +in its most ancient Oriental form. But in an age when the fountains of +the great deep were utterly broken up, he could find no rest for the +soles of his feet. It was not enough that he should be troubled by the +Puritan spirit of apostolic primitivism: he had now swung round to +where this spirit joined hands with its twin, the aspiration for +apostolic succession. He renounced his baptism because it was without +apostolic sanction, and announced himself of that sect which was the +last reduction of Separatism. He became a Seeker. + +Here again is a probable influence from Holland. The Seekers had +appeared there long before. Many Baptists had found that their search +for primitivism, if persisted in, carried them to this negative +result; for it seemed not enough to have apostolic rites in apostolic +form unless they were sanctioned by the "gifts" of the apostolic time. +The Seekers appeared in England as early as 1617, and during the +religious turmoils of the Commonwealth period the sect afforded a +resting-place for many a weather-beaten soul. As the miraculous gifts +were lost, the Seekers dared not preach, baptize, or teach; they +merely waited, and in their mysticism they believed their waiting to +be an "upper room" to which Christ would come. It is interesting to +know that Williams, the most romantic figure of the whole Puritan +movement, at last found a sort of relief from the austere externalism +and ceaseless dogmatism of his age by traveling the road of +literalism, until he had passed out on the other side into the region +of devout and contented uncertainty. + +In all this, Williams was the child of his age, and sometimes more +childish than his age. But there were regions of thought and sentiment +in which he was wholly disentangled from the meshes of his time, and +that not because of intellectual superiority,--for he had no large +philosophical views,--but by reason of elevation of spirit. Even the +authority of Moses could not prevent him from condemning the harsh +severity of the New England capital laws. He had no sentimental +delusions about the character of the savages,--he styles them "wolves +endued with men's brains"; but he constantly pleads for a humane +treatment of them. All the bloody precedents of Joshua could not make +him look without repulsion on the slaughter of women and children in +the Pequot war, nor could he tolerate dismemberment of the dead or the +selling of Indian captives into perpetual slavery. From bigotry and +resentment he was singularly free. On many occasions he joyfully used +his ascendency over the natives to protect those who kept in force +against him a sentence of perpetual banishment. And this +ultra-Separatist, almost alone of the men of his time, could use such +words of catholic charity as those in which he speaks of "the people +of God wheresoever scattered about Babel's banks, either in Rome or +England." + +Of his incapacity for organization or administration we shall have to +speak hereafter. But his spiritual intuitions, his moral insight, his +genius for justice, lent a curious modernness to many of his +convictions. In a generation of creed-builders which detested schism, +he became an individualist. Individualist in thought, altruist in +spirit, secularist in governmental theory, he was the herald of a time +yet more modern than this laggard age of ours. If ever a soul saw a +clear-shining inward light, not to be dimmed by prejudices or obscured +by the deft logic of a disputatious age, it was the soul of Williams. +In all the region of petty scrupulosity the time-spirit had enthralled +him; but in the higher region of moral decision he was utterly +emancipated from it. His conclusions belong to ages yet to come. + +This union of moral aspiration with a certain disengagedness +constitutes what we may call the prophetic temperament. Bradford and +Winthrop were men of high aspiration, but of another class. The reach +of their spirits was restrained by practical wisdom, which compelled +them to take into account the limits of the attainable. Not that they +consciously refused to follow their logic to its end, but that, like +other prudent men of affairs, they were, without their own knowledge +or consent, turned aside by the logic of the impossible. Precisely +here the prophet departs from the reformer. The prophet recks nothing +of impossibility; he is ravished with truth disembodied. From Elijah +the Tishbite to Socrates, from Socrates to the latest and perhaps yet +unrecognized voice of our own time, the prophetic temperament has ever +shown an inability to enter into treaty with its environment. In the +seventeenth century there was no place but the wilderness for such a +John Baptist of the distant future as Roger Williams. He did not +belong among the diplomatic builders of churches, like Cotton, or the +politic founders of States, like Winthrop. He was but a babbler to his +own time; but the prophetic voice rings clear and far, and ever +clearer as the ages go on. + + Reprinted by consent of the author, and of D. Appleton & + Company, publishers, New York. + + + + + + + + +EGYPTIAN LITERATURE + +BY FRANCIS LLEWELLYN GRIFFITH AND KATE BRADBURY GRIFFITH + + +The advance that has been made in recent years in the decipherment of +the ancient writings of the world enables us to deal in a very +matter-of-fact way with the Egyptian inscriptions. Their chief mysteries +are solved, their philosophy is almost fathomed, their general nature is +understood. The story they have to tell is seldom startling to the +modern mind. The world was younger when they were written. The heart of +man was given to devious ways then, as now and in the days of +Solomon,--that we can affirm full well; but his mind was simpler: apart +from knowledge of men and the conduct of affairs, the educated Egyptian +had no more subtlety than a modern boy of fifteen, or an intelligent +English rustic of a century ago. + +To the Egyptologist by profession the inscriptions have a wonderful +charm. The writing itself in its leading form is the most attractive +that has ever been seen. Long rows of clever little pictures of +everything in heaven and earth compose the sentences: every sign is a +plaything, every group a pretty puzzle, and at present, almost every +phrase well understood brings a tiny addition to the sum of the world's +knowledge. But these inscriptions, so rich in facts that concern the +history of mankind and the progress of civilization, seldom possess any +literary charm. If pretentious, as many of them are, they combine bald +exaggeration with worn-out simile, in which ideas that may be poetical +are heaped together in defiance of art. Such are the priestly laudations +of the kings by whose favor the temples prospered. Take, for instance, +the dating of a stela erected under Rameses II. on the route to the +Nubian gold mines. It runs:-- + + "On the fourth day of the first month of the season of winter, + in the third year of the Majesty of Horus, the Strong Bull, + beloved of the Goddess of Truth, lord of the vulture and of the + urseus diadems, protecting Egypt and restraining the + barbarians, the Golden Horus, rich in years, great in + victories, King of Upper Egypt and King of Lower Egypt, _Mighty + in Truth of Ra_, _Chosen of Ra_,[1] the son of Ra, _Rameses + Beloved of Amen_, granting life for ever and ever, beloved of + Amen Ra lord of the 'Throne of the Two Lands'[2] in Apt Esut, + appearing glorious on the throne of Horus among the living from + day to day even as his father Ra; the good god, lord of the + South Land, Him of Edfu[3] Horus bright of plumage, the + beauteous sparrow-hawk of electrum that hath protected Egypt + with his wing, making a shade for men, fortress of strength and + of victory; he who came forth terrible from the womb to take to + himself his strength, to extend his borders, to whose body + color was given of the strength of Mentu[4]; the god Horus and + the god Set. There was exultation in heaven on the day of his + birth; the gods said, 'We have begotten him;' the goddesses + said, 'He came forth from us to rule the kingdom of Ra;' Amen + spake, 'I am he who hath made him, whereby I have set Truth in + her place; the earth is established, heaven is well pleased, + the gods are satisfied by reason of him.' The Strong Bull + against the vile Ethiopians, which uttereth his roaring against + the land of the negroes while his hoofs trample the + Troglodytes, his horn thrusteth at them; his spirit is mighty + in Nubia and the terror of him reacheth to the land of the + Kary[5]; his name circulateth in all lands because of the + victory which his arms have won; at his name gold cometh forth + from the mountain as at the name of his father, the god Horus + of the land of Baka; beloved is he in the Lands of the South + even as Horus at Meama, the god of the Land of Buhen,[6] King + of Upper and Lower Egypt, _Mighty in Truth of Ra_, son of Ra, + of his body, Lord of Diadems _Rameses Beloved of Amen_, giving + life for ever and ever like his father Ra, day by day." + [Revised from the German translation of Professor Erman.] + +As Professor Erman has pointed out, the courtly scribe was most +successful when taking his similes straight from nature, as in the +following description, also of Rameses II.:-- + + "A victorious lion putting forth its claws while roaring loudly + and uttering its voice in the Valley of the Gazelles.... A + jackal swift of foot seeking what it may find, going round the + circuit of the land in one instant.... his mighty will seizeth + on his enemies like a flame catching the ki-ki plant[7] with + the storm behind it, like the strong flame which hath tasted + the fire, destroying, until everything that is in it becometh + ashes; a storm howling terribly on the sea, its waves like + mountains, none can enter it, every one that is in it is + engulphed in Duat.[8]" + +Here and there amongst the hieroglyphic inscriptions are found memorials +of the dead, in which the praises of the deceased are neatly strung +together and balanced like beads in a necklace, and passages occur of +picturesque narrative worthy to rank as literature of the olden time. +We may quote in this connection from the biographical epitaph of the +nomarch Ameny, who was governor of a province in Middle Egypt for +twenty-five years during the long reign of Usertesen I. (about 2700 +B.C.). This inscription not only recounts the achievements of Ameny and +the royal favor which was shown him, but also tells us in detail of the +capacity, goodness, charm, discretion, and insight by which he attached +to himself the love and respect of the whole court, and of the people +over whom he ruled and for whose well-being he cared. Ameny says:-- + + "I was a possessor of favor, abounding in love, a ruler who + loved his city. Moreover I passed years as ruler in the Oryx + nome. All the works of the house of the King came into my hand. + Behold, the superintendent of the gangs[9] of the domains of + the herdsmen of the Oryx nome gave me 3,000 bulls of their + draught stock. I was praised for it in the house of the King + each year of stock-taking. I rendered all their works to the + King's house: there were no arrears to me in any of his + offices. + + "The entire Oryx nome served me in numerous attendances.[10] + There was not the daughter of a poor man that I wronged, nor a + widow that I oppressed. There was not a farmer that I + chastised, not a herdsman whom I drove away, not a foreman of + five whose men I took away for the works.[11] There was not a + pauper around me, there was not a hungry man of my time. When + there came years of famine, I arose and ploughed all the fields + of the Oryx nome to its boundary south and north, giving life + to its inhabitants, making its provisions. There was not a + hungry man in it. I gave to the widow as to her that possessed + a husband, and I favored not the elder above the younger in all + that I gave. Thereafter great rises of the Nile took place, + producing wheat and barley, and producing all things + abundantly, but I did not exact the arrears of farming." + +Elsewhere in his tomb there are long lists of the virtues of Amenemhat, +and from these the following may be selected both on account of +picturesqueness of expression and the appreciation of fine character +which they display. + + "Superintendent of all things which heaven gives and earth + produces, overseer of horns, hoofs, feathers, and shells ... + Master of the art of causing writing to speak ... Caressing of + heart to all people, making to prosper the timid man, + hospitable to all, escorting [travelers] up and down the river + ... Knowing how to aid, arriving at time of need; free of + planning evil, without greediness in his body, speaking words + of truth.... + + Unique as a mighty hunter, the abode of the heart of the + King.... Speaking the right when he judges between suitors, + clear of speaking fraud, knowing how to proceed in the council + of the elders, finding the knot in the skein.... Great of + favors in the house of the King, contenting the heart on the + day of making division, careful of his goings to his equals, + gaining reverence on the day of weighing words, beloved of the + officials of the palace." + +The cursive forms of writing--hieratic from the earliest times, demotic +in the latest--were those in which records were committed to papyrus. +This material has preserved to us documents of every kind, from letters +and ledgers to works of religion and philosophy. To these, again, +"literature" is a term rarely to be applied; yet the tales and poetry +occasionally met with on papyri are perhaps the most pleasing of all the +productions of the Egyptian scribe. + +It must be confessed that the knowledge of writing in Egypt led to a +kind of primitive pedantry, and a taste for unnatural and to us childish +formality: the free play and naivete of the story-teller is too often +choked, and the art of literary finish was little understood. Simplicity +and truth to nature alone gave lasting charm, for though adornment was +often attempted, their rude arts of literary embellishment were seldom +otherwise than clumsily employed. + +A word should be said about the strange condition in which most of the +literary texts have come down to us. It is rarely that monumental +inscriptions contain serious blunders of orthography; the peculiarities +of late archaistic inscriptions which sometimes produce a kind of "dog +Egyptian" can hardly be considered as blunders, for the scribe knew what +meaning he intended to convey. But it is otherwise with copies of +literary works on papyrus. Sometimes these were the productions of +schoolboys copying from dictation as an exercise in the writing-school, +and the blank edges of these papyri are often decorated with essays at +executing the more difficult signs. The master of the school would seem +not to have cared what nonsense was produced by the misunderstanding of +his dictation, so long as the signs were well formed. The composition of +new works on the model of the old, and the accurate understanding of the +ancient works, were taught in a very different school, and few indeed +attained to skill in them. The boys turned out of the writing-school +would read and write a little; the clever ones would keep accounts, +write letters, make out reports as clerks in the government service, and +might ultimately acquire considerable proficiency in this kind of work. +Apparently men of the official class sometimes amused themselves with +puzzling over an ill-written copy of some ancient tale, and with trying +to copy portions of it. The work however was beyond them: they were +attracted by it, they revered the compilations of an elder age and +those which were "written by the finger of Thoth himself"; but the +science of language was unborn, and there was little or no systematic +instruction given in the principles of the ancient grammar and +vocabulary. Those who desired to attain eminence in scholarship after +they had passed through the writing-school had to go to Heliopolis, +Hermopolis, or wherever the principal university of the time might be, +and there sit at the feet of priestly professors; who we fancy were +reverenced as demigods, and who in mysterious fashion and with niggardly +hand imparted scraps of knowledge to their eager pupils. Those endowed +with special talents might after almost lifelong study become proficient +in the ancient language. Would that we might one day discover the hoard +of rolls of such a copyist and writer! + +There must have been a large class of hack-copyists practiced in forming +characters both uncial and cursive. Sometimes their copies of religious +works are models of deft writing, the embellishments of artist and +colorist being added to those of the calligrapher: the magnificent rolls +of the 'Book of the Dead' in the British Museum and elsewhere are the +admiration of all beholders. Such manuscripts satisfy the eye, and +apparently neither the multitude in Egypt nor even the priestly royal +undertakers questioned their efficacy in the tomb. Yet are they very +apples of Sodom to the hieroglyphic scholar; fair without, but ashes +within. On comparing different copies of the same text, he sees in +almost every line omissions, perversions, corruptions, until he turns +away baffled and disgusted. Only here and there is the text practically +certain, and even then there are probably grammatical blunders in every +copy. Nor is it only in the later papyri that these blunders are met +with. The hieroglyphic system of writing, especially in its cursive +forms, lends itself very readily to perversion by ignorant and +inattentive copyists; and even monumental inscriptions, so long as they +are mere copies, are usually corrupted. The most ridiculous perversions +of all, date from the Ramesside epoch when the dim past had lost its +charm, for the glories of the XVIIIth Dynasty were still fresh, while +new impulses and foreign influence had broken down adherence to +tradition and isolation. + +In the eighth century B.C. the new and the old were definitely parted, +to the advantage of each. On the one hand the transactions of ordinary +life were more easily registered in the cursive demotic script, while on +the other the sacred writings were more thoroughly investigated and +brought into order by the priests. Hence, in spite of absurdities that +had irremediably crept in, the archaistic texts copied in the XXVIth +Dynasty are more intelligible than the same class of work in the XIXth +and XXth Dynasties. + +In reading translations from Egyptian, it must be remembered that +uncertainty still remains concerning the meanings of multitudes of words +and phrases. Every year witnesses a great advance in accuracy of +rendering; but the translation even of an easy text still requires here +and there some close and careful guesswork to supply the connecting +links of passages or words that are thoroughly understood, or the +resort to some conventional rendering that has become current for +certain ill-understood but frequently recurring phrases. The renderings +given in the following pages are with one exception specially revised +for this publication, and exclude most of what is doubtful. The +Egyptologist is now to a great extent himself aware whether the ground +on which he is treading is firm or treacherous; and it seems desirable +to make a rule of either giving the public only what can be warranted as +sound translation, or else of warning them where accuracy is doubtful. A +few years ago such a course would have curtailed the area for selection +to a few of the simplest stories and historical inscriptions; but now we +can range over almost the whole field of Egyptian writing, and gather +from any part of it warranted samples to set before the reading public. +The labor, however, involved in producing satisfactory translations +for publication, not mere hasty readings which may give something of the +sense, is very great; and at present few texts have been well rendered. +It is hoped that the following translations will be taken for what they +are intended,--attempts to show a little of the Ancient Egyptian mind in +the writings which it has left to us. + +We may now sketch briefly the history of Egyptian literature, dealing +with the subject in periods:[12]-- + + +I. THE ANCIENT KINGDOM, ABOUT B.C. 4500-3000 + +The earliest historic period--from the Ist Dynasty to the IIId, about +B.C. 4500--has left no inscriptions of any extent. Some portions of the +'Book of the Dead' profess to date from these or earlier times, and +probably much of the religious literature is of extremely ancient +origin. The first book of *'Proverbs' in the Prisse Papyrus is +attributed by its writer to the end of the IIId Dynasty (about 4000 +B.C.). From the IVth Dynasty to the end of the VIth, the number of the +inscriptions increases; tablets set up to the kings of the IVth Dynasty +in memory of warlike raids are found in the peninsula of Sinai, and +funerary inscriptions abound. The pyramids raised at the end of the Vth +and during the VIth Dynasty are found to contain interminable religious +inscriptions, forming almost complete rituals for the deceased kings. +Professor Maspero, who has published these texts, states that they +"contain much verbiage, many pious platitudes, many obscure allusions to +the affairs of the other world, and amongst all this rubbish some +passages full of movement and wild energy, in which poetical inspiration +and religious emotion are still discernible through the veil of +mythological expressions." Of the funerary and biographical inscriptions +the most remarkable is that of *Una. Another, slightly later but hardly +less important, is on the facade of the tomb of Herkhuf, at Aswan, and +recounts the expeditions into Ethiopia and the southern oases which this +resourceful man carried through successfully. In Herkhuf's later life he +delighted a boy King of Egypt by bringing back for him from one of his +raids a grotesque dwarf dancer of exceptional skill: the young Pharaoh +sent him a long letter on the subject, which was copied in full on the +tomb as an addition to the other records there. It is to the Vth Dynasty +also that the second collection of *'Proverbs' in the Prisse Papyrus is +dated. The VIIth and VIIIth Dynasties have left us practically no +records of any kind. + + +II. THE MIDDLE KINGDOM, B.C. 3000 TO 1600 + +The Middle Kingdom, from the IXth to the XVIIth Dynasty, shows a great +literary development. Historical records of some length are not +uncommon. The funerary inscriptions descriptive of character and +achievement are often remarkable. + +Many papyri of this period have survived: the *Prisse Papyrus of +'Proverbs,' a papyrus discovered by Mr. Flinders Petrie with the *'Hymn +to Usertesen III.,' papyri at Berlin containing a *dialogue between a +man and his soul, the *'Story of Sanehat,' the 'Story of the Sekhti,' +and a very remarkable fragment of another story; besides the 'Westcar +Papyrus of Tales' and at St. Petersburg the *'Shipwrecked Sailor.' The +productions of this period were copied in later times; the royal +*'Teaching of Amenemhat,' and the worldly *'Teaching of Dauf' as to the +desirability of a scribe's career above any other trade or profession, +exist only in late copies. Doubtless much of the later literature was +copied from the texts of the Middle Kingdom. There are also *treatises +extant on medicine and arithmetic. Portions of the Book of the Dead are +found inscribed on tombs and sarcophagi. + + +III. THE NEW KINGDOM, ETC. + +From the New Kingdom, B.C. 1600-700, we have the *'Maxims of Any,' +spoken to his son Khonsuhetep, numerous hymns to the gods, including +*that of King Akhenaten to the Aten (or disk of the sun), and the +later *hymns to Amen Ra. Inscriptions of every kind, historical, +mythological, and funereal, abound. The historical *inscription of +Piankhy is of very late date. On papyri there are the stories of the +*'Two Brothers,' of the 'Taking of Joppa,' of the *'Doomed Prince.' + +From the Saite period (XXVIth Dynasty, B.C. 700) and later, there is +little worthy of record in hieroglyphics: the inscriptions follow +ancient models, and present nothing striking or original. In demotic we +have the *'Story of Setna,' a papyrus of moralities, a chronicle +somewhat falsified, a harper's song, a philosophical dialogue between a +cat and a jackal, and others. + +Here we might end. Greek authors in Egypt were many: some were native, +some of foreign birth or extraction, but they all belong to a different +world from the Ancient Egyptian. With the adaptation of the Greek +alphabet to the spelling of the native dialects, Egyptian came again to +the front in Coptic, the language of Christian Egypt. Coptic literature, +if such it may be called, was almost entirely produced in Egyptian +monasteries and intended for edification. Let us hope that it served its +end in its day. To us the dull, extravagant, and fantastic Acts of the +Saints, of which its original works chiefly consist, are tedious and +ridiculous except for the linguist or the church historian. They +certainly display the adjustment of the Ancient Egyptian mind to new +conditions of life and belief; but the introduction of Christianity +forms a fitting boundary to our sketch, and we will now proceed to the +texts themselves. + + [Signatures: Francis Llewellyn Griffith + Kate Bradbury Griffith] + + +LIST OF SELECTIONS + + STORIES: + The Shipwrecked Sailor + The Story of Sanehat + The Doomed Prince + The Story of the Two Brothers + The Story of Setna + + HISTORY: + The Stela of Piankhy + The Inscription of Una + + POETRY: + Songs of Laborers + Love Songs + Hymn to Usertesen III. + Hymn to Aten + Hymns to Amen Ra + Songs to the Harp + From an Epitaph + From a Dialogue Between a Man and His Soul + + MORAL AND DIDACTIC: + The Negative Confession + The Teaching of Amenemhat + The Prisse Papyrus + From the Maxims of Any + Instruction of Dauf + Contrasted Lots of Scribe and Fellah + Reproaches to a Dissipated Student + + + +THE SHIPWRECKED SAILOR + + [One of the most complete documents existing on papyrus is the + 'Story of the Shipwrecked Sailor.' The tale itself seems to date + from a very early period, when imagination could still have full + play in Upper Nubia. In it a sailor is apparently presenting a + petition to some great man, in hopes of royal favor as the hero + of the marvels which he proceeds to recount. + + The Papyrus, which apparently is of the age of the XIth Dynasty, + is preserved at St. Petersburg, but is still unpublished. It has + been translated by Professors Golenisheff and Maspero. The + present version is taken from 'Egyptian Tales,' by W. M. + Flinders Petrie.] + + +The wise servant said, "Let thy heart be satisfied, O my lord, for that +we have come back to the country; after we have long been on board, and +rowed much, the prow has at last touched land. All the people rejoice +and embrace us one after another. Moreover, we have come back in good +health, and not a man is lacking; although we have been to the ends of +Wawat[13] and gone through the land of Senmut,[14] we have returned in +peace, and our land--behold, we have come back to it. Hear me, my lord; +I have no other refuge. Wash thee and turn the water over thy fingers, +then go and tell the tale to the Majesty." + +His lord replied, "Thy heart continues still its wandering words! But +although the mouth of a man may save him, his words may also cover his +face with confusion. Wilt thou do, then, as thy heart moves thee. This +that thou wilt say, tell quietly." + +The sailor then answered:-- + +"Now I shall tell that which has happened to me, to my very self. I was +going to the mines of Pharaoh, and I went down on the Sea[15] on a ship +of 150 cubits long and 40 cubits wide, with 150 sailors of the best of +Egypt, who had seen heaven and earth, and whose hearts were stronger +than lions. They had said that the wind would not be contrary, or that +there would be none. But as we approached the land the wind arose, and +threw up waves eight cubits high. As for me, I sized a piece of wood; +but those who were in the vessel perished, without one remaining. A wave +threw me on an island, after that I had been three days alone, without +a companion beside my own heart. I laid me in a thicket and the shadow +covered me. Then stretched I my limbs to try to find something for my +mouth. I found there figs and grapes, all manner of good herbs, berries +and grain, melons of all kinds, fishes and birds. Nothing was lacking. +And I satisfied myself, and left on the ground that which was over, of +what my arms had been filled withal. I dug a pit, I lighted a fire, and +I made a burnt-offering unto the gods. + +"Suddenly I heard a noise as of thunder, which I thought to be that of a +wave of the sea. The trees shook and the earth was moved. I uncovered my +face, and I saw that a serpent drew near. He was thirty cubits long, and +his beard greater than two cubits; his body was overlaid with gold, and +his color as that of true lazuli. He coiled himself before me. + +"Then he opened his mouth, while that I lay on my face before him, and +he said to me, 'What has brought thee, what has brought thee, little +one, what has brought thee? If thou sayest not speedily what has brought +thee to this isle, I will make thee know thyself; as a flame thou shalt +vanish, if thou tellest me not something I have not heard, or which I +knew not before thee.' + +"Then he took me in his mouth and carried me to his resting-place, and +laid me down without any hurt. I was whole and sound, and nothing was +gone from me. Then he opened his mouth against me, while that I lay on +my face before him, and he said, 'What has brought thee, what has +brought thee, little one, what has brought thee to this isle which is in +the sea, and of which the shores are in the midst of the waves?' + +"Then I replied to him, and holding my arms low before him,[16] I said +to him:--'I was embarked for the mines by the order of the Majesty, in a +ship; 150 cubits was its length, and the width of it 40 cubits. It had +150 sailors of the best of Egypt, who had seen heaven and earth, and the +hearts of whom were stronger than lions. They said that the wind would +not be contrary, or that there would be none. Each of them exceeded his +companion in the prudence of his heart and the strength of his arm, and +I was not beneath any of them. A storm came upon us while we were on the +sea. Hardly could we reach to the shore when the wind waxed yet greater, +and the waves rose even eight cubits. As for me, I seized a piece of +wood, while those who were in the boat perished without one being left +with me for three days. Behold me now before thee, for I was brought to +this isle by a wave of the sea!" + +"Then said he to me, 'Fear not, fear not, little one, and make not thy +face sad. If thou hast come to me, it is God[17] who has let thee live. +For it is he who has brought thee to this isle of the blest, where +nothing is lacking, and which is filled with all good things. See now +thou shalt pass one month after another, until thou shalt be four months +in this isle. Then a ship shall come from thy land with sailors, and +thou shalt leave with them and go to thy country, and thou shalt die in +thy town. Converse is pleasing, and he who tastes of it passes over his +misery. I will therefore tell thee of that which is in this isle. I am +here with my brethren and my children around me; we are seventy-five +serpents, children, and kindred; without naming a young girl who was +brought unto me by chance, and on whom the fire of heaven fell and burnt +her to ashes. As for thee, if thou art strong, and if thy heart waits +patiently, thou shalt press thy infants to thy bosom and embrace thy +wife. Thou shalt return to thy house which is full of all good things, +thou shalt see thy land, where thou shalt dwell in the midst of thy +kindred!' + +"Then I bowed in my obeisance, and I touched the ground before him. +'Behold now that which I have told thee before. I shall tell of thy +presence unto Pharaoh, I shall make him to know of thy greatness, and I +will bring to thee of the sacred oils and perfumes, and of incense of +the temples with which all gods are honored. I shall tell moreover of +that which I do now see (thanks to him), and there shall be rendered to +thee praises before the fullness of all the land. I shall slay asses for +thee in sacrifice, I shall pluck for thee the birds, and I shall bring +for thee ships full of all kinds of the treasures of Egypt, as is comely +to do unto a god, a friend of men in a far country, of which men know +not.' + +"Then he smiled at my speech, because of that which was in his heart, +for he said to me, 'Thou art not rich in perfumes, for all that thou +hast is but common incense. As for me, I am prince of the land of +Punt,[18] and I have perfumes. Only the oil which thou saidst thou +wouldst bring is not common in this isle. But when thou shalt depart +from this place, thou shalt never more see this isle; it shall be +changed into waves.' + +"And behold, when the ship drew near, attending to all that he had told +me before, I got me up into an high tree, to strive to see those who +were within it. Then I came and told to him this matter; but it was +already known unto him before. Then he said to me, 'Farewell, farewell; +go to thy house, little one, see again thy children, and let thy name be +good in thy town; these are my wishes for thee!' + +"Then I bowed myself before him, and held my arms low before him, and +he, he gave me gifts of precious perfumes, of cassia, of sweet woods, of +kohl, of cypress, an abundance of incense, of ivory tusks, of baboons, +of apes, and all kinds of precious things. I embarked all in the ship +which was come, and bowing myself, I prayed God for him. + +"Then he said to me, 'Behold, thou shalt come to thy country in two +months, thou shalt press to thy bosom thy children, and thou shalt rest +in thy tomb!' After this I went down to the shore unto the ship, and I +called to the sailors who were there. Then on the shore I rendered +adoration to the master of this isle and to those who dwelt therein. + +"When we shall come, in our return, to the house of Pharaoh, in the +second month, according to all that the serpent has said, we shall +approach unto the palace. And I shall go in before Pharaoh, I shall +bring the gifts which I have brought from this isle into the country. +Then he shall thank me before the fullness of all the land. Grant then +unto me a follower, and lead me to the courtiers of the king. Cast thine +eye upon me after that I am come to land again, after that I have both +seen and proved this. Hear my prayer, for it is good to listen to +people. It was said unto me, 'Become a wise man, and thou shalt come to +honor,' and behold I have become such." + + _This is finished from its beginning unto its end, even as it + was found in a writing. It is written by the scribe of cunning + fingers, Ameniamenaa; may he live in life, wealth, and health._ + + + +THE STORY OF SANEHAT + + [The story of Sanehat is practically complete. A papyrus at + Berlin contains all the text except about twenty lines at the + beginning, the whole being written in about three hundred and + thirty short lines. Scraps of the missing portion were found in + the collection of Lord Amherst of Hackney; and these, added to + a complete but very corrupt text of about the first fifty + lines, enable one to restore the whole with tolerable + certainty. The story was written about the time of the XIIth or + XIIIth Dynasty, but was known at a much later period: one + extract from the beginning of the tale and one from the end + have been found written in ink on limestone flakes or "ostraca" + of about the XXth Dynasty (about 1150 B.C.). It seems to be a + straightforward relation of actual occurrences, a real piece of + biography. At any rate, it is most instructive as showing the + kind of intercourse that was possible between Egypt and + Palestine about 2500 B.C.] + + +The hereditary prince, royal seal-bearer, trusty companion, judge, +keeper of the gate of the foreigners, true and beloved royal +acquaintance, the attendant Sanehat says:-- + +I attended my lord as a servant of the king, of the household of the +hereditary princess, the greatly favored, the royal wife, +Ankhet-Usertesen [?], holding a place at Kanefer, the pyramid of King +Amenemhat.[19] + +In the thirtieth year, the month Paophi, the seventh day, the god[20] +entered his horizon, the King Sehetepabra flew up to heaven; he joined +the sun's disk, he attended the god, he joined his Maker. The +Residence[21] was silenced, the hearts were weakened, the Great Portals +were closed, the courtiers crouching on the ground, the people in hushed +mourning. + +Now his Majesty had sent a great army with the nobles to the land of the +Temehu,[22] his son and heir as their commander, the good King +Usertesen.[23] And now he was returning, and had brought away captives +and all kinds of cattle without end. The Companions of the Court sent to +the West Side[24] to let the king know the state of affairs that had +come about in the Audience Chamber.[25] The messenger found him on the +road; he reached him at the time of evening. "It was a time for him to +hasten greatly [was the message]: Let the Hawk[26] fly [hither] with his +attendants, without allowing the army to know of it." And when the royal +sons who commanded in that army sent messages, not one of them was +summoned to audience. Behold, I was standing [near]; I heard his voice +while he was speaking.[27] I fled far away, my heart beating, my arms +outspread; trembling had fallen on all my limbs. I ran hither and +thither[28] to seek a place to hide me, I threw myself amongst the +bushes: and when I found a road that went forward, I set out southward, +not indeed thinking to come to this Residence.[29] I expected that there +would be disturbance. I spake not of life after it.[30] I wandered +across my estate[31] [?] in the neighborhood of Nehat; I reached the +island [or lake] of Seneferu, and spent the day [resting?] on the open +field. I started again while it was yet day,[32] and came to a man +standing at the side of the road. He asked of me mercy, for he feared +me. By supper-time I drew near to the town of Negau. I crossed the river +on a raft without a rudder, by the aid of a west wind, and landed at the +quay [?] of the quarrymen of the Mistress at the Red Mountain.[33] Then +I fled on foot northward, and reached the Walls of the Ruler, built to +repel the Sati.[34] I crouched in a bush for fear, seeing the day-patrol +at its duty on the top of the fortress. At nightfall I set forth, and at +dawn reached Peten, and skirted the lake of Kemur.[35] Then thirst +hasted me on; I was parched, my throat was stopped, and I said, "This is +the taste of death." When I lifted up my heart and gathered strength, I +heard a voice and the lowing of cattle. I saw men of the Sati; and an +alien amongst them--he who is [now?] in Egypt[36]--recognized me. +Behold, he gave me water, and boiled me milk, and I went with him to his +camp,--may a blessing be their portion! One tribe passed me on to +another: I departed to Sun [?], and came to Kedem.[37] + +There I spent a year and a month [?]. But Ammui-nen-sha, Ruler of the +Upper Tenu,[38] took me and said to me:--"Comfort thyself with me, that +thou mayest hear the speech of Egypt." He said thus, for that he knew my +character, and had heard of my worth; for men of Egypt who were there +with him bore witness of me. Then he said to me:--"For what hast thou +come hither? what is it? Hath a matter come to pass in the Residence? +The King of the Two Lands, Sehetepabra, hath gone to heaven, and one +knoweth not what may have happened thereon." But I answered with +concealment and said:--"I returned with an expedition from the land of +the Temehu; my desire was redoubled, my heart leaped, there was no +satisfaction within me. This drove me to the ways of a fugitive. I have +not failed in my duty, my mouth hath not uttered any bitter words, I +have not hearkened to any evil plot, my name hath not been heard in the +mouth of the informer. I know not what hath brought me into this +country." [And the Ruler Ammui-nen-sha said:][39] "This is like the +disposition of God. And now what is that land like if it know not that +excellent god,[40] of whom the dread was over the nations like +Sekhemt[41] in a year of pestilence?" I spake [thus] to him, and replied +to him:--"Nay, but his son hath entered the palace, and taken the +heritage of his father, and he is a god without an equal, nor was there +any other before him [like unto him]. He is a master of wisdom, prudent +in his designs, excellent in his decrees; coming out and going in is at +his command. It was he that curbed the nations while his father remained +within the palace, and he reported the execution of that which was laid +upon him [to perform]. He is a mighty man also, working with his strong +arm; a valiant one, who hath not his equal. See him when he springeth +upon the barbarians, and throweth himself on the spoilers; he breaketh +the horns and weakeneth the hands; his enemies cannot wield their +weapons. He is fearless and dasheth heads to pieces; none can stand +before him. He is swift of going, to destroy him who fleeth; and none +turning his back to him reacheth his home. He is sturdy of heart in the +moment [of stress]; he is a lion that striketh with the claw; never hath +he turned his back. He is stout of heart when he seeth multitudes, he +letteth none repose beyond what his desire would spare. He is bold of +face when he seeth hesitation: his joy is to fall on the barbarians. He +seizeth the buckler, and leapeth forward; he repeateth not his stroke, +he slayeth, and none can turn his lance; without his bow being drawn the +barbarians flee from his arms like dogs; for the great goddess hath +granted him to war against those who know not his name; he is thorough, +he spareth not and leaveth naught behind. He is full of grace and +sweetness, a love-winner; his city loveth him more than itself, it +rejoiceth in him more than in its own god; men and women go their ways, +calling their children by his name. For he is a king that took the +kingdom while he was in the egg, and ruled from his birth. He is a +multiplier of offspring. And he is One Alone, the essence of God; this +land rejoiceth in his government. He is one that enlargeth his borders; +he will take the lands of the South, but he will not design to hold the +countries of the North: yet he prepareth to smite the Sati, to crush the +Wanderers of the Sand. When he cometh here, let him know thy name; +dispute not, but go over to his command[42]: for he will not fail to +treat well the country that floateth with his stream." + +Said he, agreeing to me:--"Verily, Egypt is excellent in its stream[43] +beyond anything, and it flourisheth; behold, as long as thou art with me +I will do good unto thee." He placed me at the head of his children, he +married me with his eldest daughter. He allowed me to choose for myself +from his land, and from the choicest of what he possessed on the border +of the next land. It was a goodly land; Iaa[44] is its name. Therein +were figs and grapes; its wine was more plentiful than water; abundant +was its honey, many were its oil-trees, and all fruits were upon its +trees; there too was barley and spelt, and cattle of all kinds without +end. Great honors also were granted to me, flowing from his love to me; +he set me as sheikh of a tribe in a choice portion of his country. There +were made for me rations of bread, wine from day to day, cooked meat and +roasted fowl, besides wild game snared for me or brought to me, as well +as what my hunting dogs caught. They made me many dainties, and milk +food cooked in all manner of ways. Thus I passed many years; my children +became valiant men, each one the conqueror of a tribe. When a messenger +came north or went south to the Residence,[45] he tarried with me; for I +gave all men gifts; I gave water to the thirsty, I set the strayed +wanderer on his road, and I rescued those who were carried off captive. +The Sati who went to war or to repel the kings of the nations, I +commanded their expeditions; for this Ruler of the Tenu made me to spend +many years as captain of his army. Every land to which I turned I +overcame. I destroyed its green fields and its wells, I captured its +cattle, I took captive its inhabitants, I deprived them of their +provisions, and I slew much people of them by my sword, my bow, my +marchings, and my good devices. Thus my excellence was in his heart; he +loved me and he knew my valor; until he set me at the head of his sons, +when he saw the success of my handiwork. + +There came a champion of the Tenu to defy me in my tent; a bold man +without equal, for he had vanquished all his rivals. He said, "Let +Sanehat fight with me." He thought to overcome me; he designed to take +my cattle, being thus counseled by his tribe. This ruler [Ammui-nen-sha] +conferred with me. I said:--"I know him not. I assuredly am no associate +of his; I hold me far from his place. Have I ever opened his door, or +leaped over his fence? It is perverseness of heart from seeing me doing +his work. Forsooth, I am as it were a stranger bull among the cows, +which the bull of the herd charges, and the strong bull catches! But +shall a wretched beggar desire to attain to my fortune? A common soldier +cannot take part as a counselor. Then what pray shall establish the +assembly?[46] But is there a bull that loveth battle, a courageous bull +that loveth to repeat the charge in terrifying him whose strength he +hath measured? If he hath stomach to fight, let him speak what he +pleaseth. Will God forget what is ordained for him? How shall fate be +known?" The night long I strung my bow, I made ready my arrows; I made +keen my dagger, I furbished my arms. At daybreak the Tenu came together; +it had gathered its tribes and collected the neighboring peoples. Its +thoughts were on this combat; every bosom burned for me, men and women +crying out; every heart was troubled for me; they said, "Is there yet +another champion to fight with him?" Then [he took] his buckler, his +battle-axe, and an armful of javelins. But thereon I avoided his +weapons, and turned aside his arrows to the ground, useless. One drew +near to the other and he rushed upon me. I shot at him and my arrow +stuck in his neck; he cried out, and fell upon his nose: I brought down +upon him his own battle-axe, and raised my shout of victory on his back. +All the Asiatics roared, and I and his vassals whom he had oppressed +gave thanks unto Mentu; this Ruler, Ammui-nen-sha, took me to his +embrace. Then I took his goods, I seized his cattle. What he had thought +to do to me, I did it unto him; I seized that which was in his tent, I +spoiled his dwelling. I grew great thereby, I increased in my +possessions. I abounded in cattle. + +"May[47] the god be disposed to pardon him in whom he had trusted, and +who deserted to a foreign country. Now is his anger quenched. I who at +one time fled away a fugitive, my guarantee is now in the Residence. +Having wandered a starved wanderer, now I give bread to those around. +Having left my land in rags, now I shine in fine linen. Having been a +fugitive without followers, now I possess many serfs. My house is fair, +my dwelling large, I am spoken of in the palace. All the gods destined +me this flight. Mayest thou be gracious; may I be restored to the +Residence; favor me that I may see the place in which my heart dwelleth. +Behold how great a thing is it that my body should be embalmed in the +land where I was born! Come; if afterwards there be good fortune, I will +give an offering to God that he may work to make good the end of his +suppliant, whose heart is heavy at long absence in a strange land. May +he be gracious; may he hear the prayer of him who is afar off, that he +may revisit the place of his birth, and the place from which he removed. + +"May the King of Egypt be gracious to me, by whose favor men live. I +salute the mistress of the land, who is in his palace; may I hear the +news of her children, and may my body renew its vigor thereby. But old +age cometh, weakness hasteneth me on, the eyes are heavy, my arms are +failing, my feet have ceased to follow the heart. Weariness of going on +approacheth me; may they convey me to the cities of eternity. May I +serve the mistress of all.[48] Oh that she may tell me the beauties of +her children; may she bring eternity to me." + +Now the Majesty of the King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Kheper-ka-ra, +justified, spake concerning this condition in which I was. His Majesty +sent unto me with presents from before the king, that he might make glad +the heart of your servant,[49] as he would unto the Ruler of any +country; and the royal sons who were in his palace caused me to hear +their news. + + +_Copy of the command which was brought to the humble servant to bring +him back to Egypt._ + +"THE HORUS, LIFE OF BIRTHS, LORD OF THE CROWNS, LIFE OF BIRTHS, KING OF +UPPER AND LOWER EGYPT, KHEPER-KA-RA, SON OF THE SUN, USERTESEN[50] EVER +LIVING UNTO ETERNITY. Royal Command for the attendant, Sanehat. + +"Behold, this command of the king is sent to thee to give thee +information: Whereas thou didst go round strange lands from Kedem[51] to +Tenu, one country passed thee on to another as thy heart devised for +thee. Behold, what thou hast done hath been done unto thee: Thou hast +not blasphemed, so also the accusation against thee hath been repelled. +So also thy sayings have been respected; thou hast not spoken against +the Council of the Nobles. But this matter carried away thy heart; it +was not [devised] in thy heart. + +"This thy Heaven[52] who is in the palace is stablished and flourishing +even now: she herself shareth in the rule of the land, and her children +are in the Audience Chamber.[53] + +"Leave the riches that thou hast, and in the abundance of which thou +livest. When thou comest to Egypt thou shalt visit the Residence in +which thou wast, thou shalt kiss the ground before the Great Portals, +thou shalt assume authority amongst the Companions. But day by day, +behold, thou growest old; thy vigor is lost; thou thinkest on thy day of +burial. Thou shalt be conducted to the blessed state; there shall be +assigned to thee a night of sacred oils and wrappings from the hands of +the goddess Tayt. There shall be held for thee a procession [behind thy +statues] and a visit [to the temple] on the day of burial, the mummy +case gilded, the head blue, the canopy above thee; the putting in the +skin-frame, oxen to draw thee, singers going before thee, the answering +chant, and mourners crouching at the door of thy tomb-chapel. Prayers +for offerings shall be recited for thee, victims shall be slaughtered at +the door portrayed upon thy tablet[54]; and thy mastaba shall be built +of white stone, in the company of the royal children. Thou shalt not die +in a strange land, nor be buried by the Amu; thou shalt not be put in a +sheepskin, thou shalt be well regarded. It is vain [?] to beat the +ground and think on troubles. + +"Thou hast reached the end.[55] + +When this order came to me, I stood in the midst of my tribe, and when +it was read unto me, I threw me on my belly; I bowed to the ground and +let the dust spread upon my breast. I strode around my tent rejoicing +and saying:--"How is this done to the servant, whose heart had +transgressed to a strange country of babbling tongue? But verily good is +compassion, that I should be saved from death. Thy _Ka_[56] it is that +will cause me to pass the end of my days in the Residence." + + +_Copy of the acknowledgment of this command._ + +"The servant of the royal house [?], Sanehat, says:-- + +"In most excellent peace! Known is it to thy _Ka_ that this flight of +thy servant was made in innocence. Thou the Good God, Lord of both +Lands, Beloved of Ra, Favored of Mentu, lord of Uast, and of Amen, lord +of the Thrones of the Two Lands, of Sebek, Ra, Horus, Hathor, Atmu and +his Ennead, of Sepdu, Neferbiu, Semsetu, Horus of the east, and of the +Mistress of the Cave[57] who resteth on thy head, of the chief circle of +the gods of the waters, Min, Horus of the desert, Urert mistress of +Punt, Nut, Harur-Ra, all the gods of the land of Egypt and of the isles +of the sea.[58] May they put life and strength to thy nostril, may they +present thee with their gifts, may they give to thee eternity without +end, everlastingness without bound. May the fear of thee be doubled in +the lands and in the foreign countries, mayest thou subdue the circuit +of the sun. This is the prayer of the servant for his master, who hath +delivered him from Amenti.[59] + +"The possessor of understanding understandeth the higher order of men, +and the servant recognizeth the majesty of Pharaoh. But thy servant +feareth to speak it: it is a weighty matter to tell of. The great God, +like unto Ra, knoweth well the work which he himself hath wrought. Who +is thy servant that he should be considered, that words should be spent +upon him? Thy majesty is as Horus, and the strength of thy arms +extendeth to all lands. + +"Then let his Majesty command that there be brought to him Meki of +Kedem, Khentiu-aaush of Khent-keshu, and Menus of the Two Lands of the +Fenkhu; these are chiefs as hostages that the Tenu act according to the +desire of thy _Ka_, and that Tenu will not covet what belongeth to thee +in it, like thy dogs.[60] Behold this flight that thy servant made: I +did not desire it, it was not in my heart; I do not boast of it; I know +not what took me away from my place; it was like the leading of a dream, +as a man of Adhu sees himself in Abu,[61] as a man of the Corn-land sees +himself in the Land of Gardens.[62] There was no fear, none was +hastening in pursuit of me; I did not listen to an evil plot, my name +was not heard in the mouth of the informer; but my limbs went, my feet +wandered, my heart drew me; a god ordained this flight, and led me on. +But I am not stiff-necked; a man feareth if he knoweth [?], for Ra hath +spread thy fear over the land, thy terrors in every foreign country. +Behold me in thy palace or behold me in this place,[63] still thou art +he who doth clothe this horizon. The sun riseth at thy pleasure, the +water in the rivers is drunk at thy will, the wind in heaven is breathed +at thy saying. + +"Thy servant will leave to a successor the viziership which thy servant +hath held in this land. And when thy servant shall arrive[64] let thy +Majesty do as pleaseth him, for one liveth by the breath that thou +givest. O thou who art beloved of Ra, of Horus, and of Hathor! It is thy +august nostril that Mentu, lord of Uast, desireth should live for ever." + + * * * * * + +It was granted that I should spend a day in Iaa,[65] to pass over my +goods to my children, my eldest son leading my tribe, and all my goods +in his hand, my people and all my cattle, my fruit, and all my pleasant +trees. When thy humble servant[66] journeyed to the south, and arrived +at the Roads of Horus, the officer who was over the frontier-patrol sent +a report to the Residence to give notice. His Majesty sent the good +overseer of the peasants of the king's domains, and ships with him laden +with presents from the king for the Sati who had come with me to convey +me to the Roads of Horus. I spoke to each one by his name, each officer +according to his rank. I received and I returned the salutation, and I +continued thus[67] until I reached Athtu.[68] + +When the land was lightened, and the second day came,[69] there came +some to summon me, four men in coming, four men in going,[70] to carry +[?] me to the palace. I alighted on the ground between the gates of +reception [?]; the royal children stood at the platform to greet [?] me; +the Companions and those who ushered to the hall brought me on the way +to the royal chamber. + +I found his Majesty on the great throne on a platform of pale gold. Then +I threw myself on my belly; this god, in whose presence I was, knew me +not while he questioned me graciously; but I was as one caught in the +night; my spirit fainted, my limbs shook, my heart was no longer in my +bosom, and I knew the difference between life and death. His Majesty +said to one of the Companions, "Lift him up; let him speak to me." And +his Majesty said:--"Behold, thou hast come; thou hast trodden the +deserts; thou hast played the wanderer. Decay falleth on thee, old age +hath reached thee; it is no small thing that thy body should be +embalmed, that thou shalt not be buried by foreign soldiers.[71] Do not, +do not, be silent and speechless; tell thy name; is it fear that +preventeth thee?" I answered with the answer of one terrified, "What is +it that my lord hath said? O that I might answer it! It was not my act: +it was the hand of God; it was a terror that was in my body, as it were +causing a flight that had been foreordained. Behold I am before thee, +thou art life; let thy Majesty do what pleaseth him." + +The royal children were brought in, and his Majesty said to the queen, +"Behold thou, Sanehat hath come as an Amu, whom the Sati have produced." + +She shrieked aloud, and the royal children joined in one cry, and said +before his Majesty, "Verily it is not he, O king, my lord." Said his +Majesty, "It is verily he." Then they brought their tinkling +bead-strings, their wands, and their sistra in their hands, and waved +them[72] before his Majesty [and they sang]:-- + + "May thy hands prosper, O King; + May the graces of the Lady of Heaven continue. + May the goddess Nub[73] give life to thy nostril; + May the mistress of the stars favor thee, that which is north of her + going south and that which is south of her going north. + All wisdom is in the mouth of thy Majesty; + The staff [?] is put upon thy forehead, driving away from thee the + beggarly [?] + Thou art pacified, O Ra, lord of the lands; + They call on thee as on the Mistress of all. + Strong is thy horn; let fall thine arrow. + Grant the breath of life to him who is without it; + Grant thy favor to this alien Samehit,[74] the foreign soldier born + in the land of Egypt, + Who fled away from fear of thee, + And left the land from thy terrors. + The face shall not grow pale, of him who beholdeth thy countenance; + The eye shall not fear which looketh upon thee." + +Said his Majesty:--"He shall not fear; let him be freed from terror. He +shall be a Companion amongst the nobles; he shall be put within the +circle of the courtiers. Go ye to the chamber of praise to seek wealth +for him." + +When I went out from the Audience Chamber, the royal children offered +their hands to me; and we walked afterwards to the Great Portals. I was +placed in a house of a king's son, in which were fine things; there was +a cool bower therein, fruits of the granary, treasures of the White +House,[75] clothes of the king's guard-robe, frankincense, the finest +perfumes of the king and the nobles whom he loves, in every chamber; and +every kind of servitor in his proper office. Years were removed from my +limbs: I was shaved, and my locks of hair were combed; the foulness was +cast to the desert, with the garments of the Nemausha.[76] I clothed me +in fine linen, and anointed myself with the best oil; I laid me on a +bed. I gave up the sand to those who lie on it; the oil of wood to him +who would anoint himself therewith. + +There was given to me the house of Neb-mer [?], which had belonged to a +Companion. There were many craftsmen building it; all its woodwork was +strengthened anew. Portions were brought to me from the palace thrice +and four times a day, besides the gifts of the royal children; there was +not a moment's ceasing from them. There was built for me a pyramid of +stone amongst the pyramids. The overseer of the architects measured its +ground; the chief treasurer drew it; the sacred masons did the +sculpture; the chief of the laborers in the necropolis brought the +bricks; and all the instruments applied to a tomb were there employed. +There were given to me fields; there was made for me a necropolis +garden, the land in it better than a farm estate; even as is done for +the chief Companion. My statue was overlaid with gold, its girdle with +pale gold; his Majesty caused it to be made. Such is not done to a man +of low degree. + +Thus am I in the favor of the king until the day of death shall come. + +_This is finished from beginning to end, as was found in the writing._ + + Translation of F. Ll. Griffith. + + + +THE DOOMED PRINCE + + ['The Story of the Doomed Prince' was written at some time + during the XVIIIth Dynasty (about 1450 B.C.). The papyrus on + which it has been preserved to us, and which is in the British + Museum, is much mutilated, and the end is entirely lost.] + +There was once a king to whom no male child was born; he prayed for +himself unto the gods whom he worshiped for a son. They decreed to cause +that there should be born to him one. And his wife, after her time was +fulfilled, gave birth to a male child. Came the Hathors[77] to decree +for him a destiny; they said, "He dies by the crocodile, or by the +serpent, or by the dog." Then the people who stood by the child heard +this; they went to tell it to his Majesty. Then his Majesty's heart was +exceeding sad. His Majesty caused a house to be built upon the desert, +furnished with people and with all good things of the royal house, out +of which the child should not go. Now when the child was grown he went +up upon its roof and saw a greyhound; it was following a man walking on +the road. He said to his page who was with him, "What is this that goeth +behind the man coming along the road?" He said to him, "It is a +greyhound." The child said to him, "Let there be brought to me one like +it." The page went and reported it to his Majesty. His Majesty said, +"Let there be brought to him a little trotter, lest his heart be sad." +Then they brought to him the greyhound. + +Now when the days were multiplied after these things, the child grew up +in all his limbs, he sent a message to his father saying, "Wherefore +should I remain here? Behold, I am destined to three dooms, and if I do +according to my desire God will still do what is in his heart." They +hearkened to all he said, and gave him all kinds of weapons, and also +his greyhound to follow him, and they conveyed him over to the east side +and said to him, "Go thou whither thou wilt." His greyhound was with +him; he traveled northward following his heart in the desert; he lived +on the best of all the game of the desert. He came to the chief of +Naharaina. + +Behold, there was no child born to the prince of Naharaina except one +daughter. Behold, he built for her a house; its window was seventy +cubits from the ground, and he caused to be brought all the sons of all +the chiefs of the land of Kharu,[78] and said to them, "He who shall +reach the window of my daughter, she shall be to him for a wife." + +Now when the days had multiplied after these things, as they were in +their daily task, the youth came by them. They took the youth to their +house, they bathed him, they gave provender to his horse, they did every +kind of thing for the youth; they anointed him, they bound up his feet, +they gave him portions of their own food; they spake to him in the +manner of conversation, "Whence comest thou, good youth?" He said to +them:--"I am the son of an officer of the land of Egypt; my mother is +dead, my father has taken another wife. When she bore children, she +began to hate me, and I have come as a fugitive from before her." They +embraced him and kissed him. + +Now when the days were multiplied after these things, he said to the +youths, "What is it that ye do here?" And they said to him, "We spend +our time in this: we climb up, and he who shall reach the window of the +daughter of the prince of Naharaina, to him she will be given to wife." +He said to them, "Lo! I desire to try, I shall go to climb with you." +They went to climb, as was their daily wont: the youth stood afar off to +behold; and the face of the daughter of the prince of Naharaina was +turned to him. Now when the days were multiplied after these things, the +youth came to climb with the sons of the chiefs. He climbed, he reached +the window of the daughter of the prince of Naharaina. She kissed him, +she embraced him. + +One went to rejoice the heart of her father, and said to him, "A man has +reached the window of thy daughter." The prince spake of it, saying, +"The son of which of the princes is it?" He said to him, "It is the son +of an officer, who has come as a fugitive from the land of Egypt, +fleeing from before his step-mother when she had children." Then the +prince of Naharaina was exceeding angry; he said, "Shall I indeed give +my daughter to the Egyptian fugitive? Let him go back." One came to tell +the youth, "Go back to the place from which thou hast come." But the +maiden took hold of him; she swore an oath by God, saying, "By the life +of Ra Harakhti, if one taketh him from me, I will not eat, I will not +drink, I shall die in that same hour." The messenger went to tell unto +her father all that she said. Then the prince sent men to slay him, +while he was in his house. But the maiden said, "By the life of Ra, if +one slay him I shall be dead ere the sun goeth down. I will not pass an +hour of life if I am parted from him." One went to tell her father. Then +... the prince came; he embraced him, he kissed him all over, and said, +"Tell me who thou art; behold, thou art to me as a son." He said to +him:--"I am a son of an officer of the land of Egypt; my mother died, my +father took to him a second wife; she came to hate me, and I fled from +before her." He gave to him his daughter to wife; he gave also to him +people and fields, also cattle and all manner of good things. + +Now when time had passed over these things, the youth said to his wife, +"I am destined to three dooms--a crocodile, a serpent, and a dog." She +said to him, "Let one kill the dog that runs before thee." He said to +her, "I will not let my dog be killed, which I have brought up from when +it was small." And she feared greatly for her husband, and would not let +him go alone abroad. + +One did ... the land of Egypt, to travel. Behold, the crocodile, ... he +came opposite the city in which the youth was.... Behold, there was a +mighty man therein; the mighty man would not suffer the crocodile to go +out, ... the crocodile. The mighty man went out to walk when the sun ... +every day, during two months of days. + +Now when the days passed after this, the youth sat making a good day in +his house. When the evening came he lay down on his bed; sleep seized +upon his limbs; his wife filled a bowl of milk and placed it by his +side. There came out a serpent from his hole, to bite the youth; behold, +his wife was sitting by him; she lay not down. Thereupon the servants +gave milk to the serpent; it drank and became drunk, and lay down, +upside down; his wife cut it in pieces with her hatchet. They woke her +husband ... she said to him, "Behold, thy god hath given one of thy +dooms into thy hand; he shall give...." And he sacrificed to God, +adoring him, and praising his mighty spirit from day to day. + +Now when the days were multiplied after these things, the youth went to +walk in the pathway in his enclosure, for he went not outside alone; +behold, his dog was behind him. His dog put his nose to the ground [to +pursue some game], and he ran after him. He came to the sea, and entered +the sea behind his dog. The crocodile came out, he took him to the place +where the mighty man was.... The crocodile, he said to the youth, "I am +thy doom, following after thee...." + +[Here the papyrus breaks off.] + + Translation of F. Ll. Griffith. + + + +THE STORY OF THE TWO BROTHERS + + ['The Story of the Two Brothers' is in places incoherent, but + charms throughout by beautiful and natural touches. The copy + in which it has been preserved to us is practically complete, + but is full of errors of writing and of composition, whole + sentences having crept in that are useless, or contradictory + to the context. The style is however absolutely simple and + narrative, and the language entirely free from archaisms. + + The papyrus, which bears the name of Seti II. as crown prince, + dates from the XIXth Dynasty. The beginnings of many of the + sentences and paragraphs are written in red: this is specially + the case when a sentence commences with an indication of time, + usually expressed in a fixed formula. In such cases the + translation of the passage written in red is here printed in + italics.] + +Once there were two brothers, of one mother and one father; Anpu was the +name of the elder, and Bata was the name of the younger. Now, as for +Anpu, he had a house and he had a wife. His younger brother was to him +as it were a son; he it was who made for him his clothes, while he +walked behind his oxen to the fields; he it was who did the plowing; he +it was who harvested the corn; he it was who did for him all the work of +the fields. Behold, his younger brother grew to be an excellent worker; +there was not his equal in the whole land; behold, the strain of a god +was in him. + +_Now when the days multiplied after these things_, his younger brother +followed his oxen as his manner was, daily; every evening he turned +again to the house, laden with all the herbs of the field, with milk and +with wood, and with all things of the field. He put them down before his +elder brother, who was sitting with his wife; he drank and ate; he lay +down in his stable with the cattle. + +_Now when the earth lighted and the second day came_, he took bread +which he had baked, and laid it before his elder brother; and he took +with him his bread to the field, and he drave his cattle to pasture +them in the fields. And he used to walk behind his cattle, they saying +to him, "Good is the herbage which is in such a place;" and he hearkened +to all that they said, and he took them to the good pasture which they +desired. And the cattle which were before him became exceeding +excellent, and they became prolific greatly. + +Now at the time of plowing, his elder brother said unto him, "Let us +make ready for ourselves a yoke of oxen for plowing; for the land hath +come out from the water; it is good for plowing in this state; and do +thou come to the field with corn, for we will begin the plowing in the +morrow morning." Thus said he to him; _and his_ younger brother did +everything that his elder brother had bidden him, to the end. + +_Now when the earth lighted and the second day came_, they went to the +fields with their yoke of oxen; and their hearts were pleased +exceedingly with that which they accomplished in the beginning of their +work. + +N_ow when the days were multiplied after these things_, they were in the +field; they stopped for seed corn, and he sent his younger brother, +saying, "Haste thou, bring to us corn from the farm." And the younger +brother found the wife of his elder brother; [some] one was sitting +arranging her hair. He said to her [the wife], "Get up, and give to me +seed corn, that I may run to the field, for my elder brother hastened +me; be not slow." She said to him, "Go, open the store, and thou shalt +take for thyself what is in thy heart; do not interrupt the course of my +hair-dressing." + +The youth went into his stable; he took a large measure, for he desired +to take much corn; he loaded it with barley and spelt; and he went out +carrying them. She said to him, "How much of the corn that is wanted, is +that which is on thy shoulder?" He said to her, "Three bushels of spelt, +and two of barley, in all five; these are what are upon my shoulder;" +thus said he to her. And she spake with him, saying, "There is great +strength in thee, for I see thy might every day." And her desire was to +know him with the knowledge of youth. She arose and took hold of him, +and said to him, "Come, lie with me; behold, this shall be to thine +advantage, for I will make for thee beautiful garments." Then the youth +became like a leopard of the south in fury at the evil speech which she +had made to him; and she feared greatly. He spake with her, saying, +"Behold, thou art to me as a mother; thy husband is to me as a father; +for he who is elder than I hath brought me up. What is this great +wickedness that thou hast said? Say it not to me again. For I will not +tell it to any man, that it should go forth by the mouth of all men." He +lifted up his burden, and he went to the field and came to his elder +brother; and they took up their work, to labor at their task. + +Now afterwards, at the time of evening, his elder brother was returning +to his house; the younger brother was following after his oxen; he +loaded himself with all the things of the field; he brought his oxen +before him, to make them lie down in their stable which was in the farm. +Behold, the wife of the elder brother was afraid for the words which she +had said. She took a pot of fat; she made herself as one who had been +beaten by miscreants, in order that she might say to her husband, "It is +thy younger brother who hath done this wrong." Her husband returned in +the even, as his manner was every day; he came unto his house; he found +his wife lying down, ill of violence; she did not put water upon his +hands as his manner was; she did not make a light before him; his house +was in darkness, and she was lying vomiting. Her husband said to her, +"Who hath spoken with thee?" Behold, she said, "No one hath spoken with +me except thy younger brother. When he came to take for thee seed corn +he found me sitting alone; he said to me, 'Come, let us lie together; +put on thy wig[79];' thus spake he to me. I would not hearken to him: +'Behold, am I not thy mother, is not thy elder brother to thee as a +father?' Thus spake I to him, and he feared, and he beat me to stop me +from making report to thee, and if thou lettest him live I shall kill +myself. Now behold, when he cometh to-morrow, seize upon him; I will +accuse him of this wicked thing which he would have done the day +before." + +The elder brother became as a leopard of the south; he sharpened his +knife; he took it in his hand; he stood behind the door of his stable to +slay his younger brother as he came in the evening to let his cattle +into the stable. + +Now the sun went down, and he loaded himself with all the herbs of the +field in his manner of every day. He came; his leading cow entered the +stable; she said to her keeper, "Behold, thy elder brother is standing +before thee with his knife to slay thee; flee from before him." He +heard what his leading cow had said; the next entered and said likewise. +He looked beneath the door of the stable; he saw the feet of his elder +brother standing behind the door with his knife in his hand. He put down +his load on the ground, he set out to flee swiftly; his elder brother +pursued after him with his knife. Then the younger brother cried out +unto Ra Harakhti, saying, "My good Lord! Thou art he who distinguishest +wrong from right." Ra hearkened to all his complaint; Ra caused to be +made a great water between him and his elder brother, full of +crocodiles; the one brother was on one bank, the other on the other +bank; and the elder brother smote twice on his hands at not slaying him. +Thus did he. The younger brother called to the elder on the bank, +saying, "Stand still until the dawn of day; when Ra ariseth I shall +argue with thee before him, and he giveth the wrong to the right. For I +shall not be with thee unto eternity. I shall not be in the place in +which thou art; I shall go to the Valley of the Acacia." + +_Now when the earth lighted and the second day came_, Ra Harakhti[80] +shone out, and each of them saw the other. The youth spake with his +elder brother, saying:--"Wherefore earnest thou after me to slay me +wrongfully, when thou hadst not heard my mouth speak? For I am thy +younger brother in truth; thou art to me as a father; thy wife is to me +even as a mother: is it not so? Verily, when I was sent to bring for us +seed corn, thy wife said to me, 'Come lie with me.' Behold, this has +been turned over to thee upside down." He caused him to understand all +that happened with him and his wife. He swore an oath by Ra Harakhti, +saying, "Thy coming to slay me wrongfully, having thy spear, was the +instigation of a wicked and filthy one." He took a reed knife and +mutilated himself; he cast the flesh into the water, and the silurus +swallowed it. He sank; he became faint; his elder brother chided his +heart greatly; he stood weeping for him loudly, that he could not cross +to where his younger brother was, because of the crocodiles. The younger +brother called unto him, saying, "Whereas thou hast devised an evil +thing, wilt thou not also devise a good thing, or such a thing as I +would do unto thee? When thou goest to thy house thou must look to thy +cattle; for I stay not in the place where thou art, I am going to the +Valley of the Acacia. Now as to what thou shalt do for me: verily, +understand this, that things shall happen unto me; namely, that I shall +draw out my soul, that I shall put it upon the top of the flowers of the +acacia; the acacia-tree will be cut down, it shall fall to the ground, +and thou shalt come to seek for it, and if thou passest seven years +searching for it, let not thy heart sicken. Thou shalt find it; thou +must put it in a cup of cold water that I may live again, that I may +make answer to what hath been done wrong. Thou shalt understand this; +namely, that things are happening to me, when one shall give to thee a +pot of beer in thy hand and it shall foam up: stay not then, for verily +it shall come to pass with thee." + +He went to the Valley of the Acacia; his elder brother went to his +house; his hand was laid on his head; he cast dust on his head; he came +to his house, he slew his wife, he cast her to the dogs, and he sat in +mourning for his younger brother. + + * * * * * + +_Now when the days were multiplied after these things_, his younger +brother was in the Valley of the Acacia; there was none with him; he +spent the day hunting the game of the desert, he came back in the even +to lie down under the acacia, the top-most flower of which was his soul. + +_Now when the days were multiplied after these things_, he built himself +a tower with his hand, in the Valley of the Acacia; it was full of all +good things, that he might provide for himself a home. + +He went out from his tower, he met the Ennead of the gods,[81] who were +going forth to arrange the affairs of their whole land. The Nine Gods +talked one with another, they said unto him: "Ho! Bata, Bull of the +Ennead of the gods, art thou remaining alone, having fled thy village +from before the wife of Anpu thy elder brother? Behold, his wife is +slain. Thou hast given him an answer to all that was transgressed +against thee." Their hearts were sad for him exceedingly. Ra Harakhti +said to Khnumu,[81] "Behold, frame thou a wife for Bata, that he may not +sit alone." Khnumu made for him a mate to dwell with him. She was more +beautiful in her limbs than any woman who is in the whole land. Every +god was in her. The seven Hathors came to see her: they said with one +mouth, "She will die a sharp death." + +He loved her very exceedingly, and she dwelt in his house; he passed his +time in hunting the game of the desert, and brought what he took before +her. He said, "Go not outside, lest the sea seize thee; for I cannot +rescue thee from it, for I am a woman like thee: my soul is placed on +the top of the flower of the acacia; and if another find it, I shall be +vanquished by him." He explained to her all about his soul. + +_Now when the days were multiplied after these things_, Bata went to +hunt as his daily manner was. The girl went to walk under the acacia +which was by the side of her house; the sea saw her, and cast its waves +up after her. She set out to run away from it; she entered her house. +The sea called unto the acacia, saying, "Oh, catch hold of her for me!" +The acacia brought a lock from her hair, the sea carried it to Egypt, +and dropped it in the place of the washers of Pharaoh's linen. The smell +of the lock of hair entered into the clothes of Pharaoh. They were wroth +with Pharaoh's washers, saying, "The smell of ointment is in the clothes +of Pharaoh." The men were rebuked every day; they knew not what they +should do. The chief of the washers of Pharaoh went down to the seaside; +his soul was black within him because of the chiding with him daily. He +stopped and stood upon the sandy shore opposite to the lock of hair, +which was in the water; he made one go in, and it was brought to him; +there was found in it a smell, exceeding sweet. He took it to Pharaoh; +the scribes and the wise men were brought to Pharaoh; they said unto +Pharaoh:--"This lock of hair belongs to a daughter of Ra Harakhti; the +strain of every god is in her; it is a tribute to thee from a strange +land. Let messengers go to every foreign land to seek her: as for the +messenger who shall go to the Valley of the Acacia, let many men go with +him to bring her." Then said his Majesty, "Excellent exceedingly is what +we have said;" and the men were sent. + +_When the days were multiplied after these things_, the people who went +abroad came to give report unto the king: but there came not those who +went to the Valley of the Acacia, for Bata had slain them; he spared one +of them to give a report to the king. His Majesty sent many men and +soldiers as well as horsemen, to bring her back. There was a woman among +them, into whose hand was put every kind of beautiful ornaments for a +woman. The girl came back with her; there were rejoicings for her in the +whole land. + +His Majesty loved her exceedingly, and raised her to be a princess of +high rank; he spake with her that she should tell concerning her +husband. She said to his Majesty, "Let the acacia be cut down, and let +one chop it up." They sent men and soldiers with their weapons to cut +down the acacia; they came to the acacia, they cut the flower upon which +was the soul of Bata, and he fell dead upon the instant. + +_Now when the earth lighted and the second day came_, the acacia was cut +down. And Anpu, the elder brother of Bata, entered his house; he sat +down and washed his hands: one gave him a pot of beer, it foamed up; +another was given him of wine, it became foul. He took his staff, his +sandals, likewise his clothes, with his weapons of war; he set out to +walk to the Valley of the Acacia. He entered the tower of his younger +brother; he found his younger brother lying on his bed; he was dead. He +wept when he saw his younger brother verily lying dead. He went out to +seek the soul of his younger brother under the acacia tree, under which +his younger brother used to lie in the evening. He spent three years in +seeking for it, but found it not. When he began the fourth year, he +desired in his heart to return into Egypt; he said, "I will go +to-morrow;" thus spake he in his heart. + +_When the earth lighted and the second day came_, he went out under the +acacia, and set to work to seek it again. He found a seed-pod. He +returned with it. Behold, this was the soul of his younger brother. He +brought a cup of cold water, he dropped it into it: he sat down, as his +manner of every day was. Now when the night came his [Bata's] soul +absorbed the water; Bata shuddered in all his limbs, he looked on his +elder brother; his soul was in the cup. Then Anpu took the cup of cold +water in which the soul of his younger brother was; he [Bata] drank it, +his soul stood again in its place, he became as he had been. They +embraced each other, and they spake with one another. + +Bata said to his elder brother, "Behold, I am to become as a great bull, +with all the right markings; no one knoweth its history, and thou must +sit upon his back. When the sun arises we will go to that place where my +wife is, that I may return answer to her; and thou must take me to the +place where the king is. For all good things shall be done for thee, and +one shall lade thee with silver and gold, because thou bringest me to +Pharaoh; for I become a great marvel, they shall rejoice for me in all +the land. And thou shalt go to thy village." + +_When the earth lighted and the second day came_, Bata became in the +form which he had told to his elder brother. And Anpu his elder brother +sat upon his back until the dawn. He came to the place where the king +was; they made his Majesty to know of him; he saw him, and he rejoiced +exceedingly. He made for him great offerings, saying, "This is a great +wonder which has come to pass." There were rejoicings over him in the +whole land. They loaded him with silver and gold for his elder brother, +who went and settled in his village. They gave to the bull many men and +many things, and Pharaoh loved him exceedingly above all men that are in +this land. + +_Now when the days were multiplied after these things_, the bull entered +the place of purifying; he stood in the place where the princess was; he +began to speak with her, saying, "Behold, I am alive indeed." She said +to him, "Who then art thou?" He said to her: "I am Bata. Thou knewest +well when thou causedst that they should cut down the acacia for +Pharaoh, that it was to my hurt, that I might not be suffered to live. +Behold, I am alive indeed, being as an ox." Then the princess feared +exceedingly for the words that her husband had spoken to her. And he +went out from the place of purifying. + +His Majesty was sitting, making a good day with her: she was at the +table of his Majesty, and the king was exceeding pleased with her. She +said to his Majesty, "Swear to me by God, saying, 'What thou shalt say, +I will obey it for thy sake.'" He hearkened unto all that she said. And +she said, "Let me eat of the liver of this bull, because he will do +nothing;" thus spake she to him. He was exceedingly vexed at that which +she said, the heart of Pharaoh was grieved exceedingly. + +_Now when the earth lighted and the second day came_, there was +proclaimed a great feast with offerings to the ox. The king sent one of +the chief butchers of his Majesty, to have the ox sacrificed. Afterwards +it was caused to be sacrificed, and when it was in the hands of the men, +it shook its neck, and threw two drops of blood over against the double +door of his Majesty. One fell upon the one side of the great door of +Pharaoh, and the other upon the other side. They grew as two great +Persea trees; each of them was excellent. + + [Illustration: _THE SPHYNX._ + + From an Original Drawing illustrating "Mizraim." + Published by Henry G. Allen, New York. + Reproduced by Permission.] + +One went to tell unto his Majesty, "Two great Persea trees have grown, +as a great marvel for his Majesty, in the night, by the side of the +great gate of his Majesty." There was rejoicing for them in all the +land, and there were offerings made to them. + +_Now when the days were multiplied after these things_, his Majesty was +adorned with a blue crown, with garlands of flowers on his neck; he was +upon the chariot of electrum; he went out from the palace to behold the +Persea trees: the princess also went out with horses behind Pharaoh. His +Majesty sat beneath one of the Persea trees, and it spake thus with his +wife:--"Oh thou deceitful one, I am Bata; I am alive, though I have +suffered violence. Thou knewest well that the causing of the acacia to +be cut down for Pharaoh was to my hurt. I then became an ox, and thou +hadst me slain." + +_Now when the days were multiplied after these things_, the princess +stood at the table of Pharaoh, and the king was pleased with her. She +said to his Majesty, "Swear to me by God, saying, 'That which the +princess shall say to me I will obey it for her.' Thus do thou." And he +hearkened unto all that she said. She said, "Let these two Persea trees +be cut down, and let them be made into goodly timber." He hearkened unto +all that she said. + +_Now when the days were multiplied after these things_, his Majesty sent +skillful craftsmen, and they cut down the Persea trees of Pharaoh, while +the princess, the royal wife, stood by and saw it. A chip flew up and +entered into the mouth of the princess; and she perceived that she had +conceived, and while her days were being fulfilled Pharaoh did all that +was in her heart therein.[82] + +_Now when the days were multiplied after these things_, she bore a male +child. One went to tell his Majesty, "There is born to thee a son." They +brought him [_i. e._, the child, to the king], and gave to him a nurse +and servants; there were rejoicings in the whole land. The king sat +making a good day; they performed the naming of him, his Majesty loved +him exceedingly on the instant, the king raised him to be the royal son +of Kush. + +_Now when the days were multiplied after these things_, his Majesty made +him heir of all the land. + +_Now when the days were multiplied after these things_, when he had +fulfilled many years as heir of the whole land, his Majesty flew up to +heaven. There was command given, "Let my great nobles of his Majesty be +brought before me, that I may make them to know all that has happened to +me." And they brought to him his wife, and he argued with her before +them, and their case was decided. They brought to him his elder brother; +he made him hereditary prince in all his land. He was thirty years King +of Egypt, and he died, and his elder brother stood in his place on the +day of burial. + +_Excellently finished in peace, for the_ Ka _of the scribe of the +treasury, Kagabu, of the treasury of Pharaoh, and for the scribe Hora, +and the scribe Meremapt. Written by the scribe Anena, the owner of this +roll. He who speaks against this roll, may Tahuti be his opponent._ + + Translation of F. Ll. Griffith. + + + +THE STORY OF SETNA + + [The beginning of this tale is lost, but it is clear from what + remains of it that Setna Kha-em-uast, son of a Pharaoh who may + be identified with Rameses II., of the XIXth Dynasty (about + 1300 B.C.), was a diligent student of the ancient writings, + chiefly for the sake of the occult knowledge which they were + supposed to contain. He discovered, or was told of, the + existence of a book which Thoth, the god of letters, science + and magic, had "written with his own hand," and learned that + this book was to be found in the cemetery of Memphis, in the + tomb of Na-nefer-ka-ptah, the only son of some earlier Pharaoh. + Setna evidently succeeded in finding and entering this tomb, + and there he saw the _kas_ or ghosts of Na-nefer-ka-ptah, his + wife (and sister) Ahura, and their little boy Merab; and with + them was the book. To dissuade Setna from abstracting the book, + Ahura tells him how they had become possessed of it, and had + paid for it with their earthly lives; and _it is with her tale + that the papyrus begins_. Setna, however, insists upon taking + the book; but Na-nefer-ka-ptah challenges him, as a good scribe + and a learned man, to a trial of skill in a game, and in the + imposition of magical penalties on the loser. Setna agrees; but + being worsted, he calls in outside help and succeeds in + carrying off the book. Na-nefer-ka-ptah comforts Ahura for its + loss by assuring her that Setna shall ignominiously restore it. + Setna studies the book with delight; but presently, by the + magic power of Na-nefer-ka-ptah, he becomes the victim of an + extraordinary hallucination, and the strength of his spirit is + broken because (in imagination at least) he is steeped in + impurity and crime. When he awakes from this trance, Pharaoh + persuades him to return the book to its dead owners. On his + return to the tomb, Na-nefer-ka-ptah exacts from him the + promise to go to the cemetery of Koptos and bring thence to + Memphis the bodies of Ahura and of Merab, which had been buried + there, apart from him. Setna duly performs his promise, and so + the story ends. + + The only known copy of this tale appears to have been written + in 251 B.C., the thirty-fifth year of Ptolemy Philadelphus, and + it must have been composed at least as late as the Sebennyte + Dynasty, early in the fourth century, although it refers to + historical characters of a thousand years before. + + The story is more elaborate, and its plot is more coherent than + is the case with the earlier tales such as that of Anpu and + Bata, in which events succeed each other often without natural + connection. The language however is in simple narrative style, + without any attempt at fine writing. + + At the point at which the mutilated papyrus begins, we find + that Ahura is telling Setna the story of her life. Apparently + he has just been told how she sent a messenger to the king, + asking that she may be married to her brother Na-nefer-ka-ptah. + The king has refused her request, and the messenger has + reproached him for his unkindness; the king replies:--] + +"It is thou who art dealing wrongly towards me. If it happen that I have +not a child after two children, is it the law to marry the one with the +other of them? I will marry Naneferkaptah with the daughter of a +commander of troops, and I will marry Ahura with the son of another +commander of troops: it has so happened in our family much.' + +"It came to pass that the amusement was set before Pharaoh, and they +came for me and took me to the amusement named, and it happened that my +soul was troubled exceedingly and I behaved not in my manner of the +previous day. Said Pharaoh to me, 'Ahura, is it thou that didst cause +them to come to me in these anxieties, saying, "Let me marry with +Naneferkaptah, my elder brother"?' + +"Said I to him, 'Let me marry with the son of a commander of troops, and +let him marry with the daughter of another commander of troops: it has +happened in our family much.' + +"I laughed, Pharaoh laughed, and his soul was exceeding gladdened. Said +Pharaoh to the steward of the king's house, 'Let Ahura be taken to the +house of Naneferkaptah to-night, and let all things that are good be +taken with her.' + +"I was taken as a wife to the house of Naneferkaptah in the night named, +and a present of silver and gold was brought to me; the household of +Pharaoh caused them all to be brought to me. And Naneferkaptah made a +good day[83] with me; he received all the heads of the household of +Pharaoh. And he found me pleasing, he quarreled not with me, ever, ever: +each of us loved his fellow. And when I was about to bear a child, +report of it was made before Pharaoh, and his soul was exceeding +gladdened, and Pharaoh caused many things to be taken for me on the +instant; he caused to be brought to me a present of silver and gold and +royal linen, beautiful exceedingly. Then came my time of bearing; I bore +this boy that is before thee, whose name is called Merab, and he was +caused to write in the book of the 'House of Life.'[84] + +"It came to pass that Naneferkaptah, my brother, had no habit on the +earth[85] but to walk in the cemetery of Memphis, reading the writings +that were in the catacombs of the Pharaohs, with the tablets of the +scribes of the 'House of Life,' and the inscriptions that were on the +monuments; and he was eager for writing exceedingly. + +"After these things it befell that there was a procession in honor of +Ptah; Naneferkaptah went into the temple to worship, and he chanced to +be walking behind the procession reading the inscriptions that were in +the shrines of the gods. An aged priest saw him and laughed. +Naneferkaptah said to him, 'For what art thou laughing at me?' + +"And he said:--'I am not laughing at thee; if I laughed, it was that +thou art reading writings that no one on earth has any good of. If it be +that thou seekest to read writings, come to me, and I will bring thee to +the place where that roll is which it was Thoth that wrote with his own +hand, and which goes down to fetch the gods. There are two formulas of +writing that are upon it, and when thou readest the first formula thou +will enchant the heaven, the earth, the underworld, the mountains, and +the seas; thou shalt discover all that the birds of the heaven and the +creeping things shall say; thou shalt see the fishes of the deep, for +there is a power from God brings them into water above them. And when +thou readest the second formula, if it be that thou art in Ament[86] +thou takest thy form of earth again. Thou wilt see the sun rising in the +sky with his circle of gods, and the moon in its form of shining.' + +"And Naneferkaptah said, 'As the king liveth! Let a good thing that thou +dost desire be told me, and I will have it done for thee, if thou wilt +direct me to the place where this roll is.' + +"Said the priest to Naneferkaptah: 'If it be that thou desirest to be +directed to the place where this roll is, thou shalt give me three +hundred ounces of silver for my funeral, and provide that they shall +make me two coffin cases as a great priest, rich in silver.' + +"Naneferkaptah called a lad, and caused to be given the three hundred +ounces of silver for the priest, and he caused to be done what he +desired for two coffin cases; he caused them to be made as for a great +and rich priest. + +"Said the priest to Naneferkaptah:--'The roll named, it is in the midst +of the Sea of Koptos,[87] in a box of iron. In the iron box is a box of +bronze, in the bronze box is a box of _Kedt_ wood, in the box of _Kedt_ +wood is a box of ivory and ebony, in the box of ivory and ebony is a box +of silver, in the box of silver is a box of gold in which is the roll. +There is a mile of snakes, scorpions, and every kind of reptile +surrounding the box in which the roll is; there is a snake of eternity +surrounding the box named.' + +"At the time of the relation that the priest made before Naneferkaptah, +Naneferkaptah knew not what place on earth he was in.[88] And he came +out of the temple and related before me all that the priest had said to +him. He said to me, 'I shall go to Koptos, I shall fetch this roll +thence; I shall not be slow in coming back to the north again.' + +"It came to pass that I opposed the priest, saying: 'Beware of this +thing that thou hast spoken before him! Thou hast brought to me the +strife of the nome of Thebes;[89] I have found it cruel.' I caused my +hand to stay[90] with Naneferkaptah, in order not to let him go to +Koptos. He did not hearken to me; he went before Pharaoh and related +before Pharaoh everything that the priest had said to him--all. Pharaoh +said to him, 'What is it that thou desirest?' + +"He said to him, 'Cause to be given to me the royal pleasure boat with +its equipment: I will take Ahura and Merab her boy to the south with me; +I will fetch this roll without delaying.' + +"They gave him the royal pleasure-boat with its equipment, and we went +up on board it; we set sail and reached Koptos. And they made report of +it before the priests of Isis of Koptos and the high priest of Isis; +they came down to meet us, they delayed not to meet Naneferkaptah; their +women came down to meet me also. We went up on shore; we went into the +temple of Isis and Harpokrates, and Naneferkaptah caused to be brought +ox, goose, and wine; he made a burnt-offering and a drink-offering +before Isis of Koptos and Harpokrates. We were taken to a house +exceeding beautiful, filled with all good things, and Naneferkaptah +spent four days making a good day with the priests of Isis of Koptos, +the women of the priests of Isis making a good day with myself. + +"Came the morning of our fifth day: Naneferkaptah caused to be brought +to him pure wax.[91] He made a boat, furnished with its crew and its +tackle. He read a spell to them, he caused them to live, he gave them +breath, he cast them into the sea. He loaded the royal pleasure-boat of +Pharaoh with sand; he caused the boat to be brought, he went on board. I +sat by the sea of Koptos, saying, 'I will discover what will become of +him.' + +"He said, 'Boatmen, row on with me as far as the place in which this +roll is.' And they rowed by night as by midday. + +"And when he reached it, in three days, he threw sand before him, then +there became a space of dry land. And when he found a mile of serpents +and scorpions, and every kind of creeping thing encompassing the box in +which the roll was, and when he found a snake of eternity encompassing +the box, he read a spell to the mile of serpents, scorpions, and every +kind of creeping thing that was around the box, and suffered them not to +leap up. He went to the place in which was the snake of eternity; he +made battle with it, he slew it. It lived; it made its form again. He +made battle with it again for a second time; he slew it: it lived. He +made battle with it again for a third time; he made it in two pieces; he +put sand between one piece and its fellow. It died; it did not make its +form ever again. + +"Naneferkaptah went to the place where the box was. He found that it was +a box of iron; he opened it, he found a box of bronze; he opened it, he +found a box of _Kedt_ wood; he opened it, he found a box of ivory and +ebony; he opened it, he found a box of silver; he opened it, he found a +box of gold; he opened it, he found the book in it. He took up the roll +from in the box of gold, he read a formula of writing from it. He +enchanted the heaven, the earth, the underworld, the mountains, and the +seas; he discovered all that the birds of the heaven with the fishes of +the deep, the beasts of the mountains said--all. He read another formula +of writing, he saw the Sun rising in the sky with all his circle of +gods, and the moon rising, and the stars in their shapes; he saw the +fishes of the deep, for there was a power from God brought them into the +water over them. He read a spell to the sea, and restored it as it was. +He embarked. He said to the crew, 'Row on for me as far as the place to +which I go.' And they rowed at night like as at midday. When he reached +the place where I was, he found me sitting by the sea of Koptos, without +drinking or eating anything, without doing anything on the earth, being +in the likeness of one who has reached the Good Houses.[92] + +"I said to Naneferkaptah, 'O Naneferkaptah, let me see this book, for +which we have taken these pains!' + +"He put the roll into my hand. I read a formula of writing in it; I +enchanted the heaven, the earth, the underworld, the mountains, the +seas; I discovered what the birds of the sky, the fishes of the deep, +and the beasts of the hills said---all. I read another formula of the +writing, and I saw the sun rising in the sky with his circle of gods; I +saw the moon shining with all the stars of the heaven in their nature; I +saw the fishes of the deep, for it was that a power from God brought +them into the water above where they were. As I could not write, it was +that I spoke to Naneferkaptah my elder brother, who was a good scribe +and a learned man exceedingly; and he caused to be brought before him a +piece of new papyrus; he wrote every word that was on the roll before +him--all. He dipped it in beer, he melted it in water, he saw that it +had been melted, he drank it, he knew that which was in it.[93] + +"We returned to Koptos on the day named: we made a good day before Isis +of Koptos and Harpokrates. We embarked, we went down to the river, we +reached north of Koptos by one mile. Behold, Thoth had discovered +everything that happened to Naneferkaptah on account of the roll; Thoth +delayed not, he complained before the Sun, saying, 'Know my right, my +judgment with Naneferkaptah the son of Pharaoh Mernebptah! He went to my +place, he robbed it, he took my box containing my book, he killed my +guard who was watching it.' + +"It was said to him, 'He is before thee, with every man that belongeth +to him--all.'[94] + +"There was sent a power from God down from heaven, saying, 'Let not +Naneferkaptah go to Memphis safe, with every man that belongeth to +him--all.' + +"An hour passed: Merab, the boy, came out from under the awning of the +pleasure-boat of Pharaoh, he fell into the river, he did the will of Ra. +Everybody that was on board uttered a cry--all. Naneferkaptah came out +from under his cabin, he read a writing over him, he caused him to come +up, for it was that a power from God in the water was laid on his upper +side.[95] He read a writing over him, he made him relate before him of +everything that had happened to him--all, and the accusation that Thoth +made before Ra. + +"We returned to Koptos with him. We caused him to be taken to the Good +House and laid in state; we caused him to be embalmed like a prince and +great man; we caused him to rest in his coffin in the cemetery of +Koptos. + +"Said Naneferkaptah my brother, 'Let us go down the river, let us not +delay before Pharaoh hear the things that have happened to us, and his +soul be sad therefore.' + +"We embarked, we went down-stream, we delayed not; and traveled to the +north of Koptos by one mile. At the place of the falling of Merab the +boy into the river, I came out from under the awning of the +pleasure-boat of Pharaoh, I fell into the river, I did the will of Ra. +Everybody that was on board uttered a cry--all. They told it to +Naneferkaptah, he came out from under the awning of the pleasure-boat of +Pharaoh, he read a writing over me, he caused me to leap up, for it was +that a power from God in the water rested on my upper side. He caused me +to be taken up, he read a writing over me, he caused me to relate before +him everything that had happened unto me--all; and the accusation that +Thoth had made before Ra. He returned to Koptos with me, he caused me +to be brought to the Good House, he caused me to be laid in state, he +caused me to be embalmed with the embalmment of a prince and very great +person, he caused me to rest in the tomb where Merab the boy lay. + +"He embarked, he went down-stream, he hastened north of Koptos by one +mile to the place of our falling into the river. He spake with his soul, +saying:--'Can I go to Koptos and dwell there? Otherwise, if it be that I +go to Memphis, the moment that Pharaoh asks me after his children, what +shall I say to him? Can I tell it to him, saying, I took thy children to +the nome of Thebes, I killed them, I being alive; I came to Memphis, I +being alive still?' + +"He caused them to bring a strip of royal linen before him; he made it +into a girdle. He bound the roll, he put it upon his stomach, he made it +firm. Naneferkaptah came out from under the awning of the pleasure-boat +of Pharaoh, he fell into the river, he did the will of Ra. Everybody +that was on board uttered a cry--all, saying: 'Great woe! Oppressive +woe! Has he gone back,[96] the good scribe, the learned man, to whom +there is no equal?' + +"The pleasure-boat of Pharaoh went down-stream, without any one on earth +knowing where Naneferkaptah was. They reached Memphis, they made report +of it before Pharaoh. Pharaoh came down to meet the pleasure-boat of +Pharaoh in mourning, the army of Memphis took mourning--all, together +with the priests of Ptah, the chief prophet of Ptah, with the officials +and household of Pharaoh--all. They saw Naneferkaptah clinging to the +rudders of the pleasure-boat of Pharaoh, by virtue of his art of a good +scribe. They drew him up, they saw the roll on his stomach. Said +Pharaoh, 'Let this roll that is on his stomach be hidden away.' + +"Said the officers of Pharaoh, with the priests of Ptah, and the chief +prophet of Ptah, before Pharaoh: 'O our great lord the King, may he +accomplish the duration of Ra![97] Naneferkaptah was a good scribe, a +learned man exceedingly.' + +"Pharaoh caused to be given to him entrance to the Good House for +sixteen days, wrapping for thirty-five and coffining for seventy; he was +caused to rest in his tomb, in his places of rest." + + [Having finished her story, Ahura proceeds to point out the + moral to Setna.] + +"I am suffering the ills which have come upon us because of this roll of +which thou sayest, 'Let it be given to me!' Thou hast no claim to it: +our life on earth has been taken for it." + +Said Setna, "Ahura, let this roll be given me which I see between thee +and Naneferkaptah, else will I take it by force." + +Rose Naneferkaptah on the couch; he said: "Art thou Setna, before whom +this woman has told these misfortunes which thou hast not suffered--all? +The book named, canst thou take it only by strength of a good scribe? It +were sufficient to play draughts with me. Let us play for it at the game +of fifty-two points." + +And Setna said, "I am ready." + +The board and its pieces were put before them. They played at the +fifty-two, and Naneferkaptah won a game from Setna. He [Naneferkaptah] +read a spell over him; he [Setna] defended himself with the game-board +that was before him. He [Naneferkaptah] made him [Setna] go into the +ground as far as his feet. He did its like in the second game; he won it +from Setna, he made him go into the ground as far as his middle. He did +its like in the third game; he made him go into the ground as far as his +ears. After these things Setna made a great blow on the hand of +Naneferkaptah. Setna called to Anheru, his brother by Anherart,[98] +saying: "Make haste and go up upon the earth, do thou relate of +everything that has happened to me before Pharaoh, and do thou bring the +amulets of Ptah my father,[99] and my rolls of magic." + +He hastened up upon earth, he related before Pharaoh of everything that +had happened to Setna. Said Pharaoh, "Take to him the amulets of Ptah +his father, and his rolls of magic." + +Anheru hastened down into the tomb; he laid the talismans on the body of +Setna, he [Setna] sprang to heaven at the moment named.[100] Setna +caused his hand to go after the roll, he took it. It came to pass that +Setna went up from the tomb, Light walking before him and Darkness +walking behind him, and Ahura weeping after him, saying, "Hail to thee, +King Darkness! Farewell to thee, King Light! All consolation is gone +that was in the tomb." + +Said Naneferkaptah to Ahura, "Be not troubled of soul; I will make him +bring this book hither, there being a fork for a staff in his hand, +there being a pan of fire on his head."[101] + +And Setna came up from the tomb, he made it fast behind him in its +manner. + +Setna went before Pharaoh, he related before him of the thing that had +happened to him with the roll. Said Pharaoh to Setna, "Take this roll to +the tomb of Naneferkaptah in the manner of a prudent man, else he will +make thee bring it, there being a fork for a staff in thine hand, there +being a pan of fire on thine head." + +Not did Setna hearken to him. It came to pass that Setna had no habit on +earth but unrolling the roll and reading it before everybody. + +After these things there was a day when Setna passed time in the court +of Ptah, and saw a woman beautiful exceedingly, there being no woman of +her beauty. There were ornaments of much gold upon her, there were +children and women walking behind her, there were fifty-two persons of +chiefs of households assigned to her. The hour that Setna saw her he +knew not the place on earth where he was. Setna called to his attendant +youth, saying, "Go quickly to the place where this woman is; learn what +comes under her command." + +The attendant youth went quickly to the place where the woman was, he +addressed the handmaid who walked behind her, he asked her, saying, +"What person is this woman?" She said to him, "She is Tabubua, the +daughter of the prophet of Bast, lady of Ankhtaui, she having come +hither to pray before Ptah the great god." + +The youth went back to Setna, he related before him of everything that +she had told him--all. + + [In his infatuation for this woman, Setna forgets all decorum + and all duty, and follows her home to Bubastis, and "ashamed + was every one that was about Setna." To win the favor of + Tabubua, he hands over to her all his possessions and the + inheritance of his children; and at length she demands that + his children should be put to death to prevent disputes.] + +Setna said, "Let there be done unto them the abomination that has +entered thy heart." + +She caused his children to be slain before his face; she caused them to +be cast down from the window before the dogs and the cats. They devoured +their flesh, he hearing them, he drinking with Tabubua. + + [Setna awakens from the trance in which he has in imagination + sunk to such depths of wickedness, to find himself lying naked + in a strange place.] + +An hour it was that passed when Setna saw a great man riding on a +chariot, there being many men running at his feet, he being like +Pharaoh. Setna came to rise; he could not rise for shame, for there was +no clothing upon him. Pharaoh said, "Setna, what has befallen thee in +this state in which thou art?" + +Said he, "Naneferkaptah is he who hath done this to me--all." + +Pharaoh said, "Go to Memphis: thy children they are seeking for thee; +they are standing on their feet before Pharaoh." + +Setna said before Pharaoh, "My great lord the King, may he accomplish +the duration of Ra! What is the manner of going to Memphis that I can +do, there being no clothes on earth upon me?" + +Pharaoh called to a youth standing by, he made him give clothing to +Setna. Said Pharaoh to Setna, "Go to Memphis: thy children, they are +alive, they are standing on their feet before Pharaoh." + +Setna came to Memphis, he embraced his children with hand, he found them +alive. Pharaoh said, "Is it drinking that hath brought thee thus?" + +Setna related everything that had happened to him with Tabubua, with +Naneferkaptah--all. Pharaoh said: "Setna, I put my hand upon thee +before,[102] saying, 'Thou wilt be slain if thou dost not take this roll +to the place from which it was brought.' Thou didst not listen to me +till this hour. Give this roll to Naneferkaptah, there being a forked +stick for a staff in thine hand, there being a pan of fire on thine +head." + +Setna came out from before Pharaoh, there being a forked stick for a +staff in his hand, there being a pan of fire on his head. He went down +to the tomb in which was Naneferkaptah. Ahura said to him, "Setna, it is +Ptah the great god who hath brought thee back safe." + +Naneferkaptah laughed, saying, "This is a thing that I told thee +before." + +Setna saluted Naneferkaptah; he found him as it is said, "He is the +sun that is in the whole tomb." Ahura and Naneferkaptah saluted Setna +greatly. Setna said, "Naneferkaptah, is there aught that is +disgraceful?" + +Naneferkaptah said, "Setna, thou knowest this, that Ahura and Merab her +child, they are in Koptos: bring them here into this tomb by the skill +of a good scribe. Let it be commanded before thee, and do thou take +pains, and do thou go to Koptos, and do thou bring them hither." + +Setna came up from the tomb and went before Pharaoh; he related before +Pharaoh of everything that Naneferkaptah had said to him--all. + +Pharaoh said, "Setna, go to Koptos, bring Ahura and Merab her child." + +He said before Pharaoh, "Let the pleasure-boat of Pharaoh be given to me +with its equipment." + +The pleasure-boat of Pharaoh was given to him with its equipment; he +embarked, he sailed up, he did not delay, he arrived at Koptos. + +Information of it was given before the priests of Isis of Koptos, and +the chief prophet of Isis. They came down to meet him, they took his +hand to the shore. He went up, he went into the temple of Isis of Koptos +and Harpokrates. He caused ox, goose, wine to be brought; he made a +burnt-offering, a drink-offering, before Isis of Koptos and Harpokrates. +He went to the cemetery of Koptos, with the priests of Isis and the +chief prophet of Isis; they spent three days and three nights searching +in the tombs which were in the cemetery of Koptos--all, turning over the +stelae of the scribes of the House of Life, reading the inscriptions that +were on them. They found not the places of rest in which were Ahura and +Merab her son. + +Naneferkaptah perceived that they found not the places of rest of Ahura +and Merab her son. He rose from the dead as an old man, great of age +exceedingly. He came to meet Setna, and Setna saw him. Setna said to the +old man, "Thou art of the appearance of a man great of age: knowest thou +the places of rest in which are Ahura and Merab her child?" + +The old man said to Setna, "The father of the father of my father told +to the father of my father, and the father of my father told to my +father, that the resting-places of Ahura and Merab her child are by the +south corner of the house of Pehemato, as his name is." + +Said Setna to the old man, "Is it not an injury that Pehemato hath done +thee, by reason of which thou comest to cause his house to be brought +down to the ground?" + +The old man said to Setna, "Let watch be set over me and let the house +of Pehemato be taken down. If it be that they find not Ahura and Merab +her child under the south corner of his house, may abomination be done +to me." + +A watch was set over the old man; the resting-place of Ahura and Merab +her child was found under the south corner of the house of Pehemato. +Setna caused them to enter as great people on the pleasure-boat of +Pharaoh; he caused the house of Pehemato to be built in its former +manner. Naneferkaptah made Setna to discover what had happened: that it +was he who had come to Koptos to let them find the resting-place in +which Ahura and Merab her child were. + +Setna embarked on the pleasure-boat of Pharaoh, he went down the river, +he did not delay, he reached Memphis with all the army that was with +him--all. Report was made of it before Pharaoh, he came down to meet the +pleasure-boat of Pharaoh. He caused them to be introduced as great +persons to the tomb where Naneferkaptah was, he caused dirges to be made +above them. + +_This is a complete writing, relating of Setna Khaemuast, and +Naneferkaptah, and Ahura his wife, and Merab her child. This ... was +written in the XXXVth year, the month Tybi._ + + Translation of F. Ll. Griffith. + + + +THE STELA OF PIANKHY + + [The following inscription, one of the longest in existence, + covers both faces and the sides of a large stela of black + basalt in the Museum at Gizeh. It was found in the temple of + Gebel Barkal, beyond Dongola in Nubia. Here was one of the + capitals of a native Ethiopian dynasty, and in the temple + dedicated to Amen a number of historical stelae were set up by + different kings, of whom Piankhy (about 800 B.C.) was the + earliest. Not improbably he was descended from the priest kings + of the XXIst Egyptian dynasty (at Thebes, about 1000 B.C.); at + any rate, the name which he bore occurs in that dynasty, and + his devotion to Amen agrees with the theory. We learn from the + stela that by some means he had obtained the suzerainty over + Upper Egypt, which was governed by local kings and nomarchs; + while Lower Egypt was similarly divided but independent. Among + the princes of the North land the most powerful was Tafnekht, + probably a Libyan nomarch of Sais who had absorbed the whole of + the western side of Lower Egypt. The stela relates the conflict + that ensued when Tafnekht endeavored to unite Lower Egypt in a + confederacy and invade the Upper Country. This gave Piankhy, + who knew his own strength, an opportunity of which he was not + slow to avail himself. The Delta was protected from invasion by + its network of canals, and by its extensive marshes. But when + the armies and navies of the local kings had been drawn into + Upper Egypt and there repeatedly defeated, weakened and cowed, + the princes of the North Land were at the mercy of the + victorious Ethiopian, who was rewarded for his activity and + skill in strategy with an abundance of spoil and tribute, + probably also with the permanent subjection of the country. + + The inscription is in a very perfect state; with the exception + of one lacuna of sixteen short lines the losses are very small. + The narrative is far more artistic and sustained than was usual + in records of any considerable length. The piety of the + Ethiopian and his trust in his god Amen are remarkably + indicated; and some passages cannot fail to remind us of the + Biblical records of certain Jewish kings and of the prophecies + concerning Nebuchadnezzar and Cyrus. There is nothing that + suggests the bloodthirstiness and wanton cruelty of the + contemporary kings of Assyria. Altogether, when the time and + circumstances are taken into account, the impression left is + one very favorable to Piankhy. If he seems to insist overmuch + on his Divine mission, this exaggeration is perhaps due to the + priests of Amen who drafted the document, desirous of thereby + promoting the honor both of their god and of their king. + + There are numerous indications in the signs composing the + inscription that the text was written originally in a cursive + character, and afterwards transcribed into hieroglyphics for + record on stone.] + + [Date.] + +Year xxi, month Thoth,[103] under the Majesty of the King of Upper and +Lower Egypt, Meriamen Piankhy, living forever:-- + + [Attention demanded.] + +Command: My Majesty saith, Hear how I have done more than the ancestors! +I am a king, the figure of a god, the living image of Tum, who came +forth from the body fashioned as a a ruler, whose elders feared him, ... +whose mother recognized that he would reign [while he was yet] in the +egg; the good God, beloved of the gods, Son of the Sun, working with +his hand,[104] Meriamen Piankhy. + + [The narrative. Report of Tafnekht's invasion received: the + king's joy thereat.] + +There came one to tell his Majesty, whereas the ruler of the West, the +nomarch and chief in Neter, Tafnekht, was in the [Harpoon] Nome, in the +Nome of the Bull of the Desert, in Hap, in ..., in An, in Per-nub, and +in Mennefer,[105] he took unto himself the entire West from the +sea-coast to Athet-taui, and went south with a great army; the two lands +were united in following him, the nomarchs and the rulers of fenced +cities were as hounds at his feet. No fortress was closed [against him]; +the nomes of the South, Mertum, and Per-Sekhem-Kheper-ra, the Temple of +Sebek, Per-Mezed, Tekanesh,[106] and every city of the West, opened +their gates in fear of him. He turned back to the Eastern nomes; they +opened to him even as the former. Het-benu, Tayuzayt, Het-seten, +Per-nebt-tep-ah.[107] Behold [he hath crossed over to] besiege +Henen-seten,[108] he hath ringed it about,[109] not allowing outgoers to +go out, not allowing incomers to enter, by reason of the daily fighting. +He hath measured it out on every side, each nomarch gauging his own +[length of] wall, that he may post each one of the nomarchs and the +rulers of fenced cities at his section." + +Now [his Majesty heard these things] with good courage, laughing, and +with joy of heart. + + [Anxiety of the King's governors in Upper Egypt at Tafnekht's + progress. Loss of Hermopolis.] + +Behold these chiefs, nomarchs, and captains of the host who were in +their various cities sent to his Majesty daily, saying: "Hast thou +ceased [from action] until thou forgettest the South Country, the nomes +of the royal domain[110]? Tafnekht is pushing forward his conquest, he +findeth not any to repel his arm. Nemart [the ruler in Hermopolis] and +nomarch of Het-Ur[111] hath breached the fortress of Neferus, he hath +ruined his own city for fear lest he [Tafnekht] should take it, and then +lay siege to another city. Behold, he hath gone to be at his +[Tafnekht's] feet;[112] he hath refused allegiance to his Majesty, and +standeth with him [Tafnekht] like one of [his retainers. He hath +harried] the nome of Oxyrhynkhos,[113] and he giveth to him[114] +[Tafnekht] gifts, as his heart inclineth, of all things that he findeth +[therein]." + + [Piankhy orders the governors to besiege Hermopolis.] + +Then his Majesty sent a message to the nomarchs and the captains of the +host who were in Egypt, the captain Puarma, with the captain Armersekny, +with every captain of his Majesty who was in Egypt, saying: "Make haste +in striking, join battle, encircle [Hermopolis], capture its people, its +cattle, its ships upon the river. Let not the fellahin come out to the +field; let not the plowman plow; lay siege to the Hare-city,[115] fight +against it daily." Thereupon they did so. + + [Piankhy dispatches an army from Ethiopia, bidding them fear + not to fight, for Amen is their strength; and to do homage unto + the god at Thebes.] + +Then his Majesty sent an army to Egypt, urging them very +greatly:--"[Spend day and] night as though ye were playing drafts, so +that ye fight according as ye see that he hath arrayed battle at a +distance. If he say the infantry and cavalry have hastened to another +city, why then remain ye until his army come, and fight even as he shall +say. And if his allies are in another city, hasten ye to them; and the +nomarchs, and those whom he bringeth to strengthen him, the Tehenu[116] +and his chosen troops, let battle be arrayed against them. One of old +saith:--'We know not how to cry unto him. It is the enlistment of troops +and the yoking of war-horses, the pick of thy stables, that giveth +victory in battle. Thou knowest that Amen is the god that leadeth +us.'[117] + +"When ye reach Thebes, the approach to Apt-esut,[118] enter ye into the +water, wash ye in the river, dress on the bank of the stream, unstring +the bow, loosen the arrow. Let no chief boast as possessing might, there +being no strength to the mighty if he regard him [Amen] not. He maketh +the feeble-handed into strong-handed; a multitude may turn their backs +before the few; one man may conquer a thousand. Sprinkle yourselves with +the water of his altars; kiss ye the ground before his face; say ye to +him, 'Give unto us a way that we may fight in the shadow of thy strong +arm. The band that thou leadest, it cometh to pass that it overthroweth +that which hath overthrown many.'" + +Then they cast themselves on their bellies before his Majesty [saying], +"It is thy name that giveth us strength of arm, thy wisdom is the +mooring-post[119] of thy soldiers; thy bread is in our bellies on every +road, thy beer quencheth our thirst; it is thy valor that giveth us +strength of arm; one is fortified at the remembrance of thy name! while +the host is lacking whose captain is a vile coward. Who is like unto +thee in these things? Thou art a mighty King that worketh with his +hands, master of the art of war!" + + [The Ethiopian army, after leaving Thebes, defeat the van of + Tafnekht's fleet.] + +They went down-stream; they reached Thebes; they did according to all +the things said by his Majesty. + +They went down-stream upon the river; they found many ships coming +up-stream, with soldiers, sailors, levies of troops, every mighty man of +the North land, furnished with weapons of war to fight against the host +of his Majesty. There was made a great slaughter of them, the number +thereof is not known; their troops were captured with their ships, they +were brought as live prisoners to the place where his Majesty was.[120] + + [Proceeding to attack Heracleopolis, they are met on the river + by the confederates under Tafnekht, and defeat them.] + +They went to Henen-seten, arraying battle. The nomarchs with the kings +of the North land were informed [thereof]. Now the King Nemart with the +King Auapeth; the chief of the Me,[121] Sheshenk of Busiris, with the +chief of the Me, Zed-Amen-auf-ankh of Mendes, and his son and heir, who +was captain of the host of Hermopolis Parva; the host of the _Erpa_ +Bakennefi, with his son and heir, chief of the Me, Nesnakedy in the home +of Hesebka; and every chief wearing the feather[122] who was in the +North land, with the King Usorkon who was in Bubastis and in the land of +Ra-nefer: every nomarch, and the governors of fenced cities in the West +and in the East and in the islands in the midst, assembled with one +purpose, as following the feet of the great chief of the West, ruler of +the fenced cities of the North land, priest of Neith, mistress of Sais, +and Sem-priest of Ptah, Tafnekht.[123] + +When they went out against them, a mighty overthrow was made of them, +greater than anything, and their ships were captured upon the river; the +remainder crossed over and moored on the west side, in the neighborhood +of Per-peg. + + [In a second battle, fought by land on the opposite shore, the + enemy is overthrown; most escaped northward, but Nemart returns + to Hermopolis, having eluded the besiegers (_i. e._, the army + of the loyal governors). Hermopolis is more closely besieged.] + +When the land lightened very early, the soldiers of his Majesty crossed +over to them. One host met the other. Then they slew many men of them, +and horses without number, in the charge [?]. Those who remained fled to +the North land with lamentations loud and sore, more than anything.[124] +Account of the overthrow made of them: men, persons ...[125] [But] the +King Nemart went up-stream to the South when it was reported to him, +"Khmenu[126] is in the midst of enemies; the soldiers of his Majesty are +capturing its men and its cattle." Then he [Nemart] entered into Unu, +while the soldiers of his Majesty were at the port of the Hare-city. +Then they heard of it; they surrounded the Hare-city on its four sides; +they allowed not goers out to go out, nor enterers in to enter in. + + [The King, enraged at the escape of the enemy, vows that after + the New Year he will go to Thebes, and having discharged a + pious duty there, take the war in hand himself.] + +They sent to report to his Majesty, the King of Upper and Lower Egypt, +Meriamen Piankhy, Giving Life, of every defeat they had made, and of all +the victories of his Majesty. Then his Majesty raged at it like a +leopard:--"Shall one grant unto them that there be left a remnant of the +soldiers of the North land to permit a goer out to go out from them, to +say, 'He commandeth not to make them die until they be utterly +destroyed'? As I live, as I love Ra, as my father Amen praiseth me, I +will go north myself to ruin that which [Nemart] hath done; I will cause +him to withdraw from battle forever. Verily, after performing the +ceremonies of the New Year, I will sacrifice to my father Amen in his +beautiful festival, when he maketh his fair manifestation of the New +Year. He will lead me in peace to see Amen in the good feast of the +festival of Apt; I shall bring him forth gloriously in his divine form +unto Southern Apt, in his goodly feast of the feast of Apt at +night-time,[127] in the feast established in Thebes, the feast which Ra +instituted for him originally. And I will bring him forth gloriously to +his own house, to rest upon his throne, on the day of making the god to +enter.[128] On the second day of Athyr[129] I will cause the land of the +North to taste the taste of my fingers." + + [To retrieve their reputation, the army assaults and captures + three cities; but the King is not appeased.] + +Then the soldiers who were remaining in Egypt heard the rage that his +Majesty was in against them. Then they fought against Per Mezed[130] in +the nome of Oxyrhynkhos; they took it like a flood of water. They sent a +message to his Majesty, but his heart was not appeased thereby. + +Then they fought against Tatehen,[131] the very strong; they found it +filled with soldiers, and every strong man of the North land. Then there +was made a battering-ram for it; its walls were breached and a great +slaughter was made of them, the number thereof is not known, including +the son of the chief of the Me, Tafnekht.[132] Then they sent word to +his Majesty of it, but his heart was not appeased thereby. + +Then they fought against Het Benu; its citadel was opened and the +soldiers of his Majesty entered into it. Then they sent word to his +Majesty, but his heart was not appeased thereby. + + [The King comes to Thebes, and thence proceeds to Hermopolis. + He chides his troops.] + +On the ninth day of Thoth,[133] came his Majesty down the river to +Thebes; he completed the feast of Amen in the festival of Apt. His +Majesty floated down to the city of the Hare.[134] His Majesty came out +of the pavilion of the boat; horses were yoked and chariots mounted. The +fear of his Majesty reached unto the ends of Asia;[135] his terror was +in every heart. Then his Majesty came forth disposed to hate his +soldiers, raging at them like a leopard: "Doth it yet remain for you to +fight? This is slackness in my business: the year is completed to the +end in putting terror of me in the North land."[136] They made a great +and grievous lamentation, like one beaten.[137] + +He pitched his tent in the Southwest of Khmenu. It [the city] was +besieged every day. There was made an earthwork to cover the wall; there +was erected a wooden tower to raise the archers shooting arrows, and the +slingers slinging stones, slaying the people thereof every day. + + [Hermopolis, vigorously attacked, is brought to great straits. + It treats with the King, and Nemart's wife prays the Queen to + intercede for them.] + +The third day came; Unu was abominable to the nose, evil in its smell. +Then Unu threw itself on its belly, praying before the face of the King; +messengers came out and entered with all things good to behold; gold, +every precious mineral, stuffs in a chest. The diadem was on his +[Piankhy's] head, the uraeus was giving forth its terror; there was no +ceasing for many days in praying to his divine crown. His [Nemart's] +wife, the royal wife Satnestentmeh, was caused to approach, to pray the +royal wives, the royal concubines, the royal daughters, the royal +sisters. She cast herself upon her belly in the chamber of the women, +before the face of the royal wives: "Come ye unto me, O ye royal wives, +daughters, and sisters, that ye may pacify Horus,[138] lord of the +palace. Great is his mighty spirit! How grand is his right of victory! +Let...."[139] + + [Presumably the Queen intercedes; Nemart comes out to Piankhy, + surrenders, and brings tributes.] + +"Who is it that hath led thee?[140] Who is it that hath led thee? Who is +it that hath led thee? Who is it that led thee? [Thou hast missed] the +road of life. But shall the heaven rain with arrows? I am [satisfied +when] the South is in obeisance, and the North lands [cry], 'Put us in +thy shadow.' Behold, it is evil ... with his offerings. The heart is a +rudder that wrecketh its owner in that which concerneth the will of God; +it looketh on flame as ice.... not a prince; see who is his father. Thy +nomes are full of children."[141] + +Then he cast himself upon his belly before his Majesty [saying]: "Come +to me, Horus, lord of the palace! It is thy mighty will that doeth this +unto me: I am one of the servants of the King that pay dues to the +treasury.... Count their dues: I have paid to thee more than they." + +Then he offered to him silver, gold, lapis lazuli, malachite, bronze, +and minerals of all kinds in great quantity. Behold, the treasury was +filled with this tribute. He brought a horse in his right hand, a +sistrum in his left, a sistrum of gold and lapis lazuli. + + [Piankhy enters Hermopolis and sacrifices to Thoth. Finding the + horses in the rebel King's stables starved, he is wroth with + Nemart and confiscates his goods.] + +Behold, his [Majesty] was brought forth gloriously from his palace, and +proceeded to the house of Thoth, lord of Khmenu. He sacrificed bulls, +oxen, and fowl to his father Thoth, lord of Khmenu, and the gods in the +House of the Eight.[142] The soldiers of the Hermopolite nome rejoiced +and sang; they said: "How beautiful is Horus resting in his country, Son +of the Sun, Piankhy! Celebrate for us a Sed festival,[143] even as thou +hast protected the Hare-name." + +His Majesty proceeded to the house of the King Nemart, he went to every +apartment of the palace, his treasury and his storehouses; he caused to +be brought to him the King's wives and the King's daughters; they +praised his Majesty with things that women use;[144] but his Majesty +would not amuse himself with them. His Majesty proceeded to the stables +of the horses, the stalls of the foals; he beheld that they were +starved. He said:--"As I live, as I love Ra, as my nostril is refreshed +with life! very grievous are these things to my heart, the starving of +my horses, more than any ill that thou hast done in the fulfilling of +thine own desire. The fear which thy surroundings have of thee, beareth +witness to me of thee. Dost thou ignore that the shadow of God is over +me, and he doth not fail in any undertaking of mine? Would that he who +did this unto me were another, knowing me not, [then] I would not +censure him for it! But I, when I was born from the womb, when I was +formed in the egg, the deed of God was in me; and as his _Ka_ +endureth,[145] I do nothing without him! He it is who commandeth me to +act." + +Then he counted his [Nemart's] goods to the Treasury, his granary to the +sacred store of Amen in Apt-esut.[146] + + [The King of Heracleopolis, the siege of which had been raised + by the King's troops, brings presents and promises tribute.] + +The ruler of Henen-seten, Pefauibast, came with tribute to Pharaoh: +gold, silver, every kind of mineral, and horses of the chosen ones of +the stable. He cast himself on his belly before his Majesty, and said, +"Salutation to thee, Horus, mighty King, bull overthrowing bulls. +Duat[147] drew me down, I was over whelmed in darkness, for which light +hath been given unto me. + +"I found not a friend on the day of trouble, who would stand in the day +of fight, except thee, O mighty King! Thou hast drawn away the darkness +from me, and I will be thy servant with all that pertain to me. +Henen-seten shall pay tribute to thy storehouse, thou the image of +Harakhti, chief of the Akhmu Seku.[148] While he exists, so long shalt +thou exist as King; if he be not destroyed thou shalt not be destroyed, +O King Piankhy, living for ever!" + + [El Lahun, prepared to oppose the entry of the King, yields + without fighting: the treasuries are confiscated.] + +His Majesty went north to the opening of the canal near Rahent[149]; he +found Per-sekhem-kheper-ra with its walls raised high, its citadel +closed and filled with every valiant man of the North land. Then his +Majesty sent to them saying: "Ye who live in death, ye who live in +death, miserable ones, wretched ones living in death! If a moment +passeth without opening [to me], behold, ye are reckoned as conquered, +and that is painful to the King. Close not the gates of your life so as +to come to the execution block of this day. Do not love death and hate +your life; ... [embrace] life in the face of all the land." + +Then they sent to his Majesty to say: "Behold, the shadow of God is upon +thy head; the son of Nut[150] gives to thee his two hands. What thy +heart desireth is accomplished immediately, as that which issues from +the mouth of a god. Behold thou it! Thou wast born as a god, and thou +seest us in thy two hands. Behold thy city, its forts [are open; do as +thou wilt with it]; enterers enter in and goers out go out: let his +Majesty do as he pleaseth." + +Then they came out with the son of the chief of the Me, Tafnekht. The +host of his Majesty entered into it; he slew not one of all the people +whom he found. [The chancellors came], with the royal seal-bearers to +seal its goods, assigning its treasuries to the Treasury, its granaries +to the divine offerings of his father Amen Ra, lord of the thrones of +the two lands. + + [Likewise with Medum and Athet-taui.] + +His Majesty floated down-stream, he found that Medum, the Abode of +Seker, lord of making light, had been shut up; it could not be reached, +it had put fighting into its heart. [But they feared] terror [seized] +them; awe closed their mouths. Then his Majesty sent to them saying: +"Behold ye, there are two ways before you, choose ye as ye will: open, +and ye live; close, and ye die. My Majesty passeth not by a city +closed." + +Then they opened immediately. His Majesty entered this city; he offered +[an oblation] to the god Menhy in Sehez. He assigned its treasury and +granaries to the divine offerings of Amen in Apt-esut. + +His Majesty floated down-stream to Athet-taui; he found the fortress +closed, the walls full of valiant soldiers of the North land. Behold, +they opened the forts, they cast themselves on their bellies [singing +praises before] his Majesty. "Thy father hath destined for thee his +heritage as lord of the two lands; thou art in them,[151] thou art lord +of what is upon earth." + +His Majesty proceeded [to the temple] to cause to be offered a great +offering to the gods who are in this city, of bulls, fat oxen and fowls, +and everything good and pure. Then its treasury was assigned to the +Treasury, its granaries to the divine offerings [of Amen]. + + [To Memphis he offers a free pardon, but the city prepares to + fight.] + +His Majesty went north towards Anbuhez. Then he sent to them, saying, +"Do not close, do not fight, O Residence originally of Shu![152] Let the +enterers enter and the comers out come out: let none going be stopped. I +will offer sacrifice to Ptah and the gods who are in Anbuhez; I will +worship Sokaris in the Secret Place; I will behold Res-Anbef.[153] I +will go north in peace [for his Majesty loveth that] Anbuhez be safe and +sound, and that [even] the children weep not. Ye saw the nomes of the +South: not one [soul] was slain therein except the rebels who had +blasphemed God. Execution on the block was done to the rebellious." + +Then they closed their forts; they caused soldiers to go out against a +few of the host of his Majesty, consisting of artisans, of chief +builders, and pilots [who had gone towards] the quay of Anbuhez. + + [Tafnekht himself visits Memphis in the night, encourages the + troops, and departs, promising to return when he has arranged + matters with the allies.] + +Now that chief of Sais came to Anbuhez in the night, urging its +soldiers, its sailors and all the best of its troops, in number eight +thousand men, urging them greatly, greatly. "Behold, Mennefer is full of +soldiers of all the best of the North land, barley and durra, and all +kinds of grain, the granaries are overflowing, and all kinds of weapons +of [war. There is a] wall built, a great battlement made with cunning +craft. The river bounds the eastern side, and no way of attack is there. +The stalls remain full of fat cattle, the treasury is furnished with all +things: silver, gold, copper, bronze, stuffs, incense, honey, ointment. +I will go, I will give things to the chiefs of Lower Egypt; I will open +to them their nomes.[154] I shall be [away traveling] three [?] days +until I return." He mounted a horse, he called not for his chariots, he +went north in fear of his Majesty. + + [Piankhy finds Memphis strongly fortified and the high Nile + risen to its walls. The army proposes to bridge it, or attack + the city it by elaborate approaches.] + +When the earth lightened and it was the second day[155] his Majesty came +to Anbuhez. He moored upon its north side, he found the water risen to +the walls and ships moored at [the quay of] Mennefer. Then his Majesty +saw that it was mighty indeed, the wall raised high with new building, +the battlement manned with strength; no way of attacking it was found. +Each person fell to saying his say among the hosts of his Majesty of +every rule of warfare, and every man said, "Let us lay siege to +[Anbuhez]; behold, her soldiers are many." Others said: "Make a causeway +unto it; let us raise the ground to its wall; let us construct a wooden +work, let us set up ships' masts, let us make its edges of poles. Let us +divide it with these things[156] on every side of it, with embankments +and ... upon its north side, in order to raise the ground to its wall +that we may find a way for our feet." + + [The King determines to assault it immediately; he seizes all + the boats at the quay, where the houses were comparatively + unprotected, and landing his men in them at that point captures + the city.] + +Then his Majesty raged against it [the city] like a leopard, he +said:--"As I live, as I love Ra, as my father Amen who formed me +praiseth me, these things have happened unto it by the command of Amen. +These things are what men say: '[The North Country] with the nomes of +the South they open to him [Tafnekht] from afar; they had not placed +Amen in their hearts, they knew not what he had commanded. [Then] he +[Amen] made him [Piankhy] in order to accomplish his mighty will, to +cause the awe of him to be seen.' I will take it like a water flood; +[this] hath [my father Amen] commanded me." + +Then he caused his ships and his army to set out to attack the quay of +Mennefer. They brought back to him every ferry-boat, every cabin-boat, +every dahabiyeh, and the ships in all their number that were moored at +the quay of Mennefer, the bows being moored in its houses [on account of +the height of the water.[157] Not] the least of the soldiers of his +Majesty mourned.[158] + +His Majesty came to direct the ships in person in all their number. His +Majesty commanded his soldiers: "Forward to it! Scale the walls, enter +the houses upon the bank of the stream. If one of you enters upon the +wall there will be no stand against him [for a moment], the levies [?] +will not bar you. Moreover, it is feeble that we should shut up the +South Country, moor at the North land, and sit still at 'the Balance of +the two lands.'[159] + +Then Mennefer was captured as by a flood of water; men were slain within +it in great numbers, and were taken as prisoners to the place where his +Majesty was. + + [In Memphis Piankhy sacrifices. The neighboring garrisons flee; + three Northern chiefs and all the nomarchs submit in person; + the treasures of Memphis are confiscated.] + +When the [land lightened] and the second day came, his Majesty caused +men to go to it to protect the temples of God for him, to guard the +sanctuary of the gods from the profane,[160] to sacrifice to the royal +circle of gods of Hetkaptah,[161] to purify Mennefer with natron and +incense, to put the priests on the place of their feet.[162] His Majesty +proceeded to the house of [Ptah]; his purification was performed in the +Chamber of Early Morning,[163] and all the things prescribed for a king +were accomplished. He entered the temple, great offerings were made to +his father Ptahresanbef, of fat bulls, oxen, and fowl, and every good +thing. His Majesty proceeded to his house. + +Then all the villages that were in the region of Mennefer heard, namely, +Hery the city, Penynaauaa, the tower of Byu, and the oasis of By; they +opened their gates, they fled in flight; one knoweth not the place to +which they went. + +Came Auapeth with the chief of the Me, Akaneshu, with the _erpa_ +Pediast, with all the nomarchs of the North land, bearing their tribute, +to see the beauties of his Majesty. + +Then were assigned the treasuries and the granaries of Mennefer, and +made into the second offerings of Amen, of Ptah, of the circle of the +gods in Hetkaptah. + + [Piankhy crosses over to Babylon, and worships there.] + +When the land lightened and the second day came,[164] his Majesty +proceeded to the East, and made a purification to Tum in Kheraha,[165] +[and to] the circle of the gods in the house of the circle of the gods; +namely, the cave in which the gods are, consisting of fat bulls, oxen, +and fowls, that they might give Life, Prosperity, and Health to the King +Piankhy, living forever. + + [He proceeds along the Sacred Way to Heliopolis, visiting the + holy places, and enters the sanctuary of Tum in Heliopolis, + etc. King Usorkon submits.] + +His Majesty proceeded to Anu[166] on that mount of Kheraha, upon the +road of the god Sep, to Kheraha. His Majesty proceeded to the camp +which was on the west of the Atiu canal; he was purified in the midst of +the Cool Pool, his face was washed in the stream of Nu, in which Ra +washes his face. He proceeded to the sand-hill in Anu, he made a great +sacrifice on the sand-hill in Anu, before the face of Ra at his rising, +consisting of white bulls, milk, frankincense, incense, all woods +sweet-smelling. He came, proceeding to the house of Ra; he entered the +temple with rejoicings. The chief lector praised the god that warded off +miscreants[167] from the King. The rites of the Chamber of Early Morning +were performed, the cloak was put on, he was purified with incense and +cold water, flowers for the Het Benben[168] were brought to him. He took +the flowers, he ascended the staircase to the great window, to see Ra in +the Het Benben. The King himself stood alone, he put the key into the +bolt, he opened the double doors, and saw his father Ra in the Het +Benben. He sanctified the Madet boat of Ra, the Sektet boat of Tum.[169] +The doors were shut, clay was applied and sealed with the King's own +seal; and the priests were charged, "I, I have examined the seal; let +none other enter therein of all the kings who shall exist." + +Then they cast themselves on their bellies before his Majesty, saying, +"Unto eternity, Horus[170] loving Anu shall not be destroyed." Returning +thence, he entered the house of Tum, and followed the image of his +father Tum Khepera, chief of Anu. + +Came the King Usorkon to see the beauties of his Majesty. + + [Piankhy goes to the vicinity of Athribis and receives the + homage of all the Northern princes and nobles. Pediast of + Athribis invites him to his city.] + +When the land lightened on the second day,[171] his Majesty went to the +quay, and the best of his ships crossed over to the quay of Kakem.[172] +The camp of his Majesty was pitched on the south of Kaheni, on the east +of Kakem. These kings and nomarchs of the North land, all the chiefs who +wore the feather, every vizier, all the chiefs, every royal +acquaintance[173] in the West and in the East, and in the islands in the +midst, came to see the beauties of his Majesty. The _erpa_ Pediast threw +himself on his belly before his Majesty, and said: "Come to Kakem, that +thou mayest see the god Khentkhety; that thou mayest _khu_ [?] the +goddess Khuyt; that thou mayest offer sacrifices to Horus in his house, +consisting of fat bulls, oxen, fowls; that thou mayest enter my house, +open my treasury, and load thyself with the things of my father. I will +give thee gold unto the limits of thy desire, malachite heaped before +thy face, horses many of the best of the stable, the leaders of the +stall." + + [Piankhy goes to Athribis and worships the local god. Pediast + sets the example of giving up his goods without concealment.] + +Proceeded his Majesty to the house of Horus Khentkhety, and caused to be +offered fat bulls, oxen, ducks, fowl to his father Horus Khentkhety, +lord of Kemur. Proceeded his Majesty to the house of the _erpa_ Pediast; +he presented him with silver, gold, lapis lazuli, malachite, a great +collection of every kind of thing, and stuffs, and royal linen in every +count,[174] couches covered with fine linen, frankincense, and unguents +in jars, stallions and mares of the leaders of his stable. He [Pediast] +cleared himself by the life of God[175] before the face of these kings +and great chiefs of the North land:--"Each one of them that hides his +horses, that conceals his goods, let him die the death of his father. +Thus may it be done to me, whether ye acquit thy humble servant in all +things that ye knew of concerning me, or whether ye say I have hidden +from his Majesty anything of my father, gold, jewelry, with minerals and +ornaments of all kinds, bracelets for the arms, collars for the neck, +pendants [?] inlaid with minerals, amulets for every limb, chaplets for +the head, rings for the ears, all the apparel of a king, every vessel of +royal purification in gold, and every sort of mineral; all these things +I have offered before the king, stuffs and clothes in thousands of all +the best of my looms. I know by what thou wilt be appeased. Go to the +stable, choose thou what thou wilt of all the horses that thou +desirest." Then his Majesty did so. + + [The princes of Lower Egypt return to their cities to fetch + further tribute. A revolt at Mesed is promptly suppressed and + the city given as a reward to Pediast.] + +Said these kings and nomarchs before his Majesty, "Let us go to our +cities, let us open our treasuries, let us select according to the +desire of thy heart, let us bring to thee the best of our stables, the +chief of our horses." Then his Majesty did even so. _List of their +names_:-- + + The King Usorkon in Per Bast and the territory of Ranefer; + The King Auapeth in Tentremu and Taanta [?]; + The nomarch Zedamenafankh in Mendes and the Granary of Ra; + His son and heir, the captain of the host in Hermopolis Parva, + Ankhhor; + The nomarch Akanesh in Thebneter, in Perhebyt, and in Smabehed; + The nomarch and chief of the Me, Pathenf in Per-Sepd and in the + Granary of Anbuhez; + The nomarch and chief of the Me, Pamai in Busiris; + The nomarch and chief of the Me, Nesnakedy in Heseb-ka; + The nomarch and chief of the Me, Nekhthornashenut in Pergerer;[176] + The chief of the Me, Pentuart; + The chief of the Me, Pentabekhent; + The priest of Horus, lord of Letopolis, Pedihorsmataui; + The nomarch Hurobasa in the house of Sekhemt mistress of Sa, and the + house of Sekhemt mistress of Rohesaut; + The nomarch Zedkhiau in Khentnefer; + The nomarch Pabas in Kheraha and the house of Hapi. + +With all their good tribute [consisting of] gold, silver, [lapis +lazuli], ma[lachite], [couches] covered with fine linen, frankincense in +jars, [and all things that pertain to a man great] in wealth, rich in +horses.... + +[After] these things came one to say to his Majesty: ["Whereas the +nomarch and captain of the] host [ ... hath thrown down] the wall [of +... and] set fire to his treasury, [and fled away] upon the river, he +hath fortified Mesed[177] with soldiers, and hath...." + +Then his Majesty caused his warriors to go to see what took place +therein, as an ally of the _erpa_ Pediast. One came to report to his +Majesty saying, "We have slain all the people that we found there." His +Majesty gave it as a present to the _erpa_ Pediast. + + [Lastly, Tafnekht begs for mercy: ambassadors receive his + presents and submission to the King, and he is pardoned.] + +Then the chief of the Me, Tafnekht, heard it;[178] he caused a messenger +to go to the place where his Majesty was, begging his mercy, +saying:--"Be gracious! I have not seen thy face in the days of shame; I +cannot stand before thy flame; I am terrified at thy awe. Behold, thou +art Nubti in the Land of the South, Mentu, the mighty bull.[179] In all +these matters to which thou hast given thy attention thou hast not found +thy humble servant until I reached the island of the sea. I am afraid of +thy mighty spirit according to that saying, 'The flame is my enemy.' +Doth not the heart of thy Majesty cool with these things that thou hast +done unto me? Verily I am in misery. I am not smitten according to the +account of the wickedness. Having weighed with the balance, having +reckoned by the ounce,[180] thou multipliest it unto me thrice; having +carried away the seed, thou sweepest up [the remnant] at the same time. +Do not cut down the grove to its root. As thy _Ka_ endureth, thy terror +is in my body, thy fear in my bones; I have not sat in the room of +carousal,[181] the harp hath not been brought to me. Behold, I eat the +bread of hunger, I drink water in thirst, since the day that thou +learnedst my name. Pain is in my bones, my head is unshaven, my clothes +in rags, in order that Neith may be made gracious unto me. Long is the +course that thou hast brought to me; turn thy face unto me now. A year +hath cleansed my _Ka_ and purified thy servant from his wickedness. Let +my goods be taken to the Treasury, consisting of gold with every sort of +mineral, and the best of the horses accoutred with everything. Let a +messenger come to me in haste, that he may drive fear from my heart. Let +me go out to the temple in his sight, let me clear myself with an oath +by God." + +His Majesty caused to go the Chief Lector Pediamennestaui, and the +captain of the host Puarma. He [Tafnekht] presented him [Piankhy] with +silver, gold, stuffs, every valuable mineral. He went out to the temple, +he praised God, he cleared himself with an oath by God, saying: "I will +not transgress the command of the King. I will not reject the words of +his Majesty; I will not sin against a nomarch without thy knowledge; I +will act according to the words of the King; I will not transgress what +he hath commanded." Then his Majesty was satisfied therewith. + + [Crocodilopolis and Aphroditopolis having submitted, the whole + country is at the feet of the conqueror, who loads his ships + with the tribute and departs homeward.] + +One came to say to his Majesty: "The temple of Sebek, they have opened +its fort, Metnu hath cast itself upon its belly, there is not a nome +that is shut against his Majesty in the nomes of the South, North, West, +or East. The islands in the midst are upon their bellies with fear of +him, and are causing their goods to be brought to the place where his +Majesty is, like the serfs of the palace." + +When the land lightened, very early[182] came these two rulers of the +South and two rulers of the North, wearing uraei,[183] to smell the +ground to the mighty spirit of his Majesty. Behold, moreover, these +kings and nomarchs of the North land came to see the beauties of his +Majesty; their feet were as the feet of women,[184] they entered not to +the King's house, for that they were impure and eaters of fishes, which +is an abomination to the King's house. Behold, the King Nemart, he +entered to the King's palace, for that he was pure, he ate not fishes. +They stood upon their feet, but the one of them entered the palace. + +Then the ships were loaded with silver, gold, bronze, stuffs, all things +of the North land, all products of Kharu, all woods of the Divine Land. + +His Majesty went up-stream, his heart enlarged, all about him were +rejoicing; West and East, they rose high, rejoicing around his Majesty, +singing and rejoicing; they said:--"O mighty King! O mighty King! +Piankhy! O mighty King! Thou hast come, thou hast ruled the North land. +Thou makest bulls into women. Happy is the heart of the mother that bore +a male child, that was impregnated with thee amongst the mountains. +Praises be given unto her! the cow that hath borne a bull! Thou shalt be +to eternity, thy victory remaineth, O Ruler, loving Thebes." + + Translation of F. Ll. Griffith. + + + + [Illustration: _EGYPTIAN FUNERAL FEAST._ + + Photogravure from a Painting by Edwin Long, R. A. + + "It was not uncommon to keep the mummies in the house, ... and + Damascenius relates that they sometimes introduced them at the + table, as though they could enjoy their society.... Many months + often elapsed between the ceremony of embalming and the actual + burial.... It was during this interval that feasts were held in + honor of the dead, to which the friends and relations were + invited. On these occasions they dined together and enjoyed the + same festivities as when invited to a repast, the guests being + in like manner anointed and bedecked with flowers and presented + with other tokens of welcome usual at an Egyptian party, and it + was principally at this [Greek: nekrodeipnon] that I suppose the + introduction of the mummy to have taken place." + + "Manners and Customs of Ancient Egyptians."--_Wilkinson._] + + + +INSCRIPTION OF UNA + + [It is interesting to compare the inscription of Piankhy with + an example of the historical texts of the Old Kingdom. Only two + are known of any considerable length, and the following is one + of them. The biographical inscription of Una, administrator of + Upper Egypt, takes one back to 3000 B.C., when almost the only + great monuments in Egypt were the pyramids, to the number of + which each successive king added. + + The inscription was found on a slab in the great cemetery of + Abydos, and is now in the Gizeh Museum. The style is somewhat + arid, but attracts by its primitive and simple character.] + + [Una's youth under King Teta, founder of the VIth Dynasty.] + +[Una saith] I was tying the girdle,[185] under the majesty of Teta. My +grade was that of superintendent of stores, and I acted as overseer of +the garden of Pharaoh. + + [Una appointed pyramid priest and then judge by Pepy I. He + assists at trials in the royal harim.] + +[I was] chief of the _debat_ [?] city . . . under the majesty of Pepy: +his Majesty put me into the position of royal friend and superintendent +of the priests of his pyramid city.[186] + +Behold I was ... and his Majesty appointed me judge, and his heart was +satisfied with me more than with any of his servants: I heard cases +alone with the chief justice and vizier in every secret proceeding [of +the palace?] ... in the name of the King, of the royal _harim_ and of +the six great houses,[187] because the King's heart was satisfied with +me more than with any of his officers, of his nobles, or of his +servants. + + [Royal present of a sarcophagus, etc., from the limestone + quarries of Turra.] + +[Command was given] by the Majesty of my lord to bring for me a +sarcophagus of white stone from Ra-au, and his Majesty caused the divine +treasurer to cross over [the river] with a band [of soldiers and +artificers] under him to bring for me this sarcophagus from Ra-au.[188] +He returned with it in the great transport ship of the Residence, +together with its lid, and a false door with the lintel, jambs, and +foundation block: never was this or the like done to any servant. But I +was successful in the heart of his Majesty, I was rooted in the heart of +his Majesty; and the heart of his Majesty was satisfied with me. + + [Appointment as principal judge in the trial of the queen.] + +Now when I was judge, his Majesty made me a sole friend and +superintendent of the garden of Pharaoh, and I instructed [?] four [?] +of the superintendents of Pharaoh's gardens who were there. I acted +according to his Majesty's desire in performing the choosing of the +guard [?][189] and making the way of the king and marshaling the nobles +[at the court]; I acted altogether so that his Majesty praised me for it +more than anything. + +When an accusation was brought in the royal _harim_ against the chief +royal wife Aamtesi as a secret affair, his Majesty caused me to enter to +it and hear the case alone, without there being any chief justice and +vizier, or any officer there but me only, on account of my success and +rooting in the heart of his Majesty and of his heart being satisfied +with me. I drew up [the report] in writing, alone with one judge. +Behold, my office was that of superintendent of Pharaoh's garden: never +before did one of my grade hear a secret process of the royal _harim_; +but his Majesty caused me to hear it, because of my success in the heart +of his Majesty above any officer and any noble and any servant of his. + + [Una commander-in-chief of all the native and foreign forces in + an expedition against the Eastern Bedawin.] + +When his Majesty chastised the Aamu-Herusha[190] and his Majesty made an +army of many tens of thousands out of the whole of the Upper Country, +from Abu[191] in the south to Aphroditopolis [?] in the north, and out +of the Lower Country, from the whole of the two sides,[192] out of Sezer +and Khen-sezeru,[193] negroes from Arertet,[194] negroes from Meza, +negroes from Aam, negroes from Wawat, negroes from Kaau, and foreigners +from the land of Temeh[195]; his Majesty sent me at the head of this +host. Behold, even the _ha_-princes, even the royal chancellors, even +the royal friends of the court, even the nomarchs and governors of +fortresses of the Upper Country and the Lower Country, the royal friends +superintending the frontier, the superintendents of priests of the Upper +and Lower Countries, and the superintendents of domain lands, in command +of the contingents from the Upper and Lower Countries, and from the +fortresses [?] and cities that they ruled, and of the negroes of these +tribes--I it was who planned their procedure, although my grade was that +of superintendent of the garden of Pharaoh, on account of the +preciseness of my disposition: in such a way that no one of them +encroached on any of his fellows, that no one of them took bread or +sandals from the wayfarer, that no one of them stole dough from any +village, and that no one of them took a goat from any people. I directed +them to the Island of the North, the Gate of I-hetep, the +_Uart_ [?] of Horus Lord[196] of Truth. And behold, although I was of +this grade ... I reviewed the number of these troops which had never +been reviewed by any servant. + + This host returned in peace: it had harried the land of the Herusha; + this host returned in peace: it had trampled on the land of the + Herusha; + this host returned in peace: it had overthrown its inclosures, + this host returned in peace: it had cut down its figs and vines, + this host returned in peace: it had set fire to all its [camps?]; + this host returned in peace: it had slain the troops in it in many + tens of thousands; + this host returned in peace: it had [carried off people] from it, + very numerous, as prisoners alive: + +and his Majesty praised me for it more than anything. + +His Majesty sent me to direct [this] host five times, and to smite the +land of the Herusha at each of the revolts with these troops, and I +acted so that his Majesty praised me for it more than anything. And when +it was reported that there were warriors of this tribe in the +"Wild-Goat's Nose," I crossed over in boats with these troops, and +landed on the coast[197] of Thest, on the north of the land of the +Herusha: and behold, when this host had marched by land, I came and +smote them all down, and slew every warrior of them. + + [Una made governor of the whole of Upper Egypt by the next + king, Merenra Mehti-em-saf.] + +I was carrier of the chair and sandals at the court, and the king +Merenra my lord, who lives [for ever], appointed me _ha_-prince, +governor of the Upper Country, from Abu in the south to Aphroditopolis +[?] in the north, because of my success in the heart of his Majesty, and +my rooting in the heart of his Majesty, and because the heart of his +Majesty was satisfied [with me]. And while I was carrier of the chair +and sandals, his Majesty praised me for my watchfulness and +body-guardianship which I displayed in ushering in nobles [?], which +exceeded that of any officer, noble, or servant of his. Never before was +this function discharged by any servant. + +I performed for him the office of governor of the Upper Country to +satisfaction, so that no one there encroached upon his fellow for any +work: I paid [?] everything that is paid to the Residence from this +Upper Country twice over, and every hour's service that is given to the +palace in this Upper Country twice over; and discharged my office in +such a way that it established a standard of duty[198] in this Upper +Country. Never was the like done in this Upper Country before. I acted +altogether so that his Majesty praised me for it. + + [Una commissioned to obtain monuments for Merenra's pyramid + from Abhat, and granite from the region of Elephantine.] + +His Majesty sent me to Abhat to bring the sarcophagus called "Box of the +Living Ones," with its cover, and an obelisk, and the costly furniture +for my mistress[199] [?] the pyramid Kha-nefer of Merenra. His Majesty +sent me to Abu[200] to bring the granite stela and its base, and the +granite doors and jambs, and the granite doors and bases of the +over-ground temple of my mistress [?] the pyramid Kha-nefer of Merenra. +I came down the river with them to the pyramid Kha-nefer of Merenra with +six broad boats, three transports, three eight-oars, in one expedition: +never was this done, Abhat and Abu [done] in one expedition, in the time +of any of the kings. Everything that his Majesty had commanded me came +verily to pass just as his Majesty ordered me. + + [An altar from the alabaster quarry of Het-nub.] + +His Majesty sent me to Het-nub to bring a great table of offerings of +the alabaster of Het-nub. I brought him down this table of offerings in +seventeen days, quarrying it in Het-nub, and causing it to float down in +this broad boat. For I had cut for it a broad boat of acacia-wood, sixty +cubits long, thirty cubits broad, and built it--all this [?] in +seventeen days, in the third month of harvest,[201] when behold there +was no water on the junctions [?] of the channel,[202] and I moored at +the pyramid Kha-nefer of Merenra in peace. All things had come to pass +according to the command which the Majesty of my lord had given me. + + [A commission to ease the navigation in the region of the + cataract, and increase the facilities for procuring granite.] + +His Majesty sent me to cut five channels in the South, and make three +broad boats and four transports of the acacia of Wawat. Behold, the +rulers of Arertet, Wawat, Aam, and Meza were bringing wood for it. All +were made in one year, floated, and laden with very great blocks of +granite for the pyramid Kha-nefer of Merenra; moreover, I myself gave +service to the palace in the whole work of these five channels,[203] on +account of my abundance and my wealth [?], and of the loftiness of the +mighty spirit of King Merenra, living for ever, beyond that of any god, +and because all things came to pass according to the command which his +_Ka_ ordained. + + Translation of F. Ll. Griffith. + + + +SONGS OF LABORERS + + +The reapers, represented cutting corn in the tomb of Paheri (XVIIIth +Dynasty), are supposed to be chanting a little song, the words of which +are engraved above their figures. Such songs are very common among the +fellahin of the present day, who thus mark time for their work in the +fields or on the river. This song is introduced by a phrase which seems +to speak of it as being "in answering chant"; and this perhaps gives us +the technical Egyptian term for antiphonal singing. + +_In answering chant they say_:-- + + This is a good day! to the land come out | The north wind is out. + The sky works according to our heart | Let us work, binding firm our + heart. + +The following transcription of the original Egyptian may give some idea +of the assonances of words and ordered repetitions which marked the +poetical style; the main repetitions are here italicized. + + _Khen en usheb, zet-sen_:-- + + Hru pen nefer, _per_ em ta | Ta mehyt _perta_. + Ta pet her art en _ab-en_ | Bek-en mert _ab-en_. + +In the same tomb there is another song, already well known but less +noticeable in form than the above. It is sung to the oxen on the +threshing-floor. + + Thresh for yourselves. Thresh for yourselves. + Thresh for yourselves. Thresh for yourselves. + Straw to eat; corn for your masters; + Let not your hearts be weary, your lord is pleased. + + Translation of F. Ll. Griffith. + + + +LOVE SONGS + + +Some of the prettiest Egyptian poetry is contained in a papyrus of the +XVIIIth Dynasty at the British Museum. The verses are written in +hieratic, and are extremely difficult to translate, but their beauty is +apparent to the translator even when he cannot fix the sense. A new +edition of these and other poems of a kindred nature is being prepared +by Professor W. Max Mueller of Philadelphia, who kindly permits us to +make some extracts from the advance sheets of his publication. + +The songs are collected in small groups, generally entitled 'Songs of +Entertainment.' The lover and his mistress call each other "brother" and +"sister." In one song the girl addresses her lover in successive stanzas +under the names of different plants in a garden, and plays on these +names. Others are as follows:-- + + +LOVE-SICKNESS + + I will lie down within, + Behold, I am sick with wrongs. + Then my neighbors come in + To visit me. + This sister of mine cometh with them; + She will make a laughing-stock of the physicians; + She knoweth mine illness. + + +THE LUCKY DOORKEEPER + + The villa of my sister + Hath its gates in the midst of the estate; + [So often as] its doors are opened, + [So often as] the bolt is withdrawn, + My beloved is angry. + If I were set as the gatekeeper, + I should cause her to chide me; + Then should I hear her voice [when she is] angry: + A child before her! + + +LOVE'S DOUBTS + + [My Brother] hath come forth [from mine house]; + [He careth not for] my love; + My heart standeth still within me. + + Behold, honeyed cakes in my mouth. + They are turned into salt; + Even must, that sweet thing, + In my mouth is as the gall of a bird! + + The breath of thy nostrils alone + Is that which maketh my heart live. + I found thee! Amen grant thee unto me, + Eternally and for ever! + + +THE UNSUCCESSFUL BIRD-CATCHER + + The voice of the wild goose crieth, + For she hath taken her bait; + [But] thy love restraineth me, + I cannot loose it.[204] + + So I must gather my net together. + What then shall I say to my mother, + To whom I come daily + Laden with wild-fowl? + + I have not laid my net to-day, + For thy love hath seized me. + + Translation of W. Max Mueller. + + + +HYMN TO USERTESEN III. + +[This hymn is the most remarkable example of Egyptian poetry known to +us. It was found by Mr. Petrie near the pyramid and temple of Usertesen +II., in the town which was founded there for the accommodation of the +workmen employed upon these buildings, and for the priestly staff who +performed the services for the dead Pharaoh in his chapel. The hymn is +addressed to the son and successor of that king,--to Usertesen III.,--an +active and warlike prince, who, as the poet also testifies, used his +power for the benefit of his country and the pious support of its +institutions. It is a marvel that the delicate papyrus on which the hymn +is written should have been preserved for nearly 5,000 years. It has +not, however, resisted the attacks of time without suffering injury; and +the lacunae, together with the peculiar language employed by the scribe, +are baffling to the decipherer. Four stanzas only can be read with +comparative completeness and certainty. + +The parallelism of the sentences, the rhythm, the balancing of the lines +of verse, and the pause in each, recall the style of the Hebrew Psalms. +The choice of metaphors, too, is in a similar direction. Unfortunately +our limited knowledge of the ancient language does not permit us to +analyze closely the structure of the verses, nor to attempt any scansion +of them. The radicals only of Egyptian words are known to us; of the +pronunciation of the language at the time of the XIIth Dynasty we are +entirely ignorant.] + + +I + + Homage to thee, Kha-kau-ra: our "Horus Divine of Beings."[205] + Safeguarding the land and widening its boundaries: restraining the + foreign nations by his kingly crown. + Inclosing the two lands[206] within the compass of his arms: seizing + the nations in his grip. + Slaying the Pedti without stroke of the club: shooting an arrow + without drawing the bowstring. + Dread of him hath smitten the Anu in their plain: his terror hath + slain the Nine Races of Men.[207] + His warrant hath caused the death of thousands of the Pedti who had he + reached his frontier: shooting the arrow as doth Sekhemt,[208] + overthroweth thousands of those who knew not his mighty + spirit. + The tongue of his Majesty bindeth Nubia in fetters: his utterances put + to flight the Setiu. + Sole One of youthful vigor, guarding his frontier: suffering not his + subjects to faint, but causing the Pat[209] to repose unto + full daylight. + As to his timid youth in their slumbers: his heart[210] is their + protection. + His decrees have formed his boundaries: his word hath armored the two + regions. + + +II + + Twice jubilant are the gods: thou hast established their offerings, + Twice jubilant are thy children: thou hast made their boundaries. + Twice jubilant are thy forefathers: thou hast increased their + portions.[211] + Twice jubilant is Egypt in thy strong arm: thou hast guarded the + ancient order. + Twice jubilant are the Pat in thine administration: thy mighty spirit + hath taken upon itself their provisionment. + Twice jubilant are the two regions in thy valor: thou hast widened + their possessions. + Twice jubilant are thy paid young troops: thou hast made them to + prosper. + Twice jubilant are thy veterans: thou hast made them to renew their + youth. + Twice jubilant are the two lands in thy might: thou hast guarded their + walls. + Twice jubilant be thou, O Horus, who hast widened his boundary: thou + art from everlasting to everlasting. + + +III + + Twice great is the lord of his city, above a million arms: as for + other rulers of men, they are but common folk. + Twice great is the lord of his city: he is as it were a dyke, damming + the stream in its water flood. + Twice great is the lord of his city: he is as it were a cool lodge, + letting every man repose unto full daylight. + Twice great is the lord of his city: he is as it were a bulwark, with + walls built of the sharp stones of Kesem. + Twice great is the lord of his city: he is as it were a place of + refuge, excluding the marauder. + Twice great is the lord of his city: he is as it were an asylum, + shielding the terrified from his foe. + Twice great is the lord of his city: he is as it were a shade, the + cool vegetation of the flood-time in the season of harvest. + Twice great is the lord of his city: he is as it were a corner warm + and dry in time of winter. + Twice great is the lord of his city: he is as it were a rock barring + the blast in time of tempest. + Twice great is the lord of his city: he is as it were Sekhemt to foes + who tread upon his boundary. + + +IV + + He hath come to us, that he may take the land of the South Country: + the Double Crown[212] hath been placed upon his head. + He hath come, he hath united the two lands: he hath joined the Reed to + the Hornet.[213] + He hath come, he hath ruled the people of the Black Land: he hath + placed the Red Land in his power.[214] + He hath come, he hath protected the two lands: he hath tranquillized + the two regions. + He hath come, he hath made the people of Egypt to live: he hath + destroyed its afflictions. + He hath come, he hath made the Pat to live: he hath opened the throat + of the Rekhyt.[215] + He hath come, he hath trampled on the nations: he hath smitten the Anu + who knew not his terror. + He hath come, he hath secured his frontier: he hath delivered him who + was stolen away. + He hath come: ... he granteth reward-in-old-age by what his mighty arm + bringeth to us. + He hath come, we nurture our children: we bury our aged ones[216] by + his good favor. + + Translation of F. Ll. Griffith. + + + +HYMN TO THE ATEN[217] + + +The following hymn addressed by King Akhenaten (B.C. 1450) to his one +god, the visible Sun itself, was perhaps originally written in ten-line +stanzas like the 'Hymn to Usertesen III.,' but the known texts of it are +all too mutilated and uncertain for us to attempt any thorough +restoration of the composition at present. A good edition of the hymn +has been published by Professor Breasted of Chicago, and his text is +here followed. + +King Akhenaten was one of the most original minds known to us in +Egyptian history. His bringing up was probably far more favorable to +awakening powers of thought than was usually the case with the Pharaohs. +Through his mother, Queen Tiy, he had been in close contact with the +religions of Mesopotamia, perhaps even with Israelite monotheism; +suddenly he cast off the traditions of his own country and all its +multitudinous deities of heaven, earth, and the underworld, and devoted +himself to the worship of one god, visible and exalted, before whom all +else seemed either petty, gross, or unreal. His motto, as Professor +Petrie has remarked, was "living in truth"; and according to his lights +he lived up to it. Fervently he adored his god; and we may well believe +that the words of this hymn are those which flowed from his own heart as +he contemplated the mighty and beneficent power of the Sun. + +This heretical doctrine roused the passions of the orthodox, who, +triumphing over Akhenaten's reform, condemned his monuments to +systematic destruction. + + Beautiful is thy resplendent appearing on the horizon of heaven, + O living Aten, thou who art the beginning of life. + When thou ascendest in the eastern horizon thou fillest every land + with thy beauties; + Thou art fair and great, radiant, high above the earth; + Thy beams encompass the lands to the sum of all that thou hast + created. + Thou art the Sun; thou catchest them according to their sum; + Thou subduest them with thy love. + Though thou art afar, thy beams are on the earth; + Thou art in the sky, and day followeth thy steps. + When thou settest on the western horizon of heaven, + The land is in darkness like unto death; + They sleep in their chambers; + Their heads are covered, their nostrils are closed, the eye seeth not + his fellow; + All their goods are stolen from under their heads, and they know it + not. + Every lion cometh forth out of its cave, + All creeping things bite. + The earth is silent, and he that made them resteth on his horizon. + + At dawn of day thou risest on the horizon and shinest as Aten by day. + Darkness flees, thou givest forth thy rays, the two lands are in + festival day by day; + They wake and stand upon their feet, for thou hast raised them up; + Their limbs are purified, they clothe themselves with their garments; + Their hands are uplifted in adoration at thy rising. + The whole land goeth about its several labors. + + Flocks rest in their pastures; + Trees and plants grow green; + Birds fly forth from their nests,-- + Their wings are adoring thy _Ka_.[218] + All flocks leap upon their feet; + All flying things and all hovering things, they live when thou risest + upon them. + + Ships pass down-stream, and pass up-stream likewise, + Every way is open at thy rising. + The fishes on the river leap up before thee; + Thy rays are within the great waters. + + It is thou who causest women to be fruitful, men to beget. + Thou quickenest the child in its mother's womb; + Thou soothest it that it cry not; + Thou dost nurture it within its mother's womb, + Thou givest breath to give life to all its functions. + It cometh forth from the womb upon the day of its birth. + Thou openest its mouth, that it may speak; + Thou providest for its wants. + When there is a chick within an egg, cheeping as it were within a + stone, + Thou givest it breath therein to cause thy handiwork to live; + It is full-formed when it breaketh through the shell. + It cometh out of the egg when it cheepeth and is full-formed; + It runneth on its feet when it cometh out thence. + + How manifold are thy works, + ... O one god who hast no fellow! + Thou createdst the earth according to thy will, when thou wast + alone,-- + [Its] people, its herds, and all flocks; + All that is upon earth going upon feet, + All that is on high and flieth with wings, + The countries of Syria, of Ethiopia, of Egypt. + Thou settest each person in his place. + Thou providest for their wants, + Each one his circumstances and the duration of his life, + Tongues distinct in their speech, + Their kinds according to their complexions-- + O distinguisher who distinguishest the races of mankind. + + Thou makest the Nile in the deep, + Thou bringest it at thy pleasure, + That if may give life to men, even as thou hast made them for + thyself-- + O Lord of them all who art outwearied for them! + + O Lord of earth who risest for them! + O Aten of day that awest all distant countries! + Thou makest their life; + Thou placest the Nile in heaven, that it may descend to them, + That it may rise in waves upon the rocks like the sea, + Watering their fields in their villages. + How excellent are thy ways, O Lord of Eternity! + A Nile in heaven poureth down for nations, + For all manner of animals that walk upon feet. + [But] the Nile cometh from the deep to the land of Egypt + Thy rays nourish every field; + Thou risest and they live for thee.[219] + + Thou makest the seasons to bring into existence all that thou hast + made: + The winter season to refresh them, the heat [to warm them]. + Thou madest the heaven afar off, that thou mightest rise therein, + That thou mightest see all thou didst make when thou wast alone, + When thou risest in thy form as the living Aten, + Splendid, radiant, afar, beauteous-- + [Thou createdst all things by thyself] + Cities, villages, camps, by whatsoever river they be watered. + Every eye beholdeth thee before it; + Thou art the Aten of day above the earth. + + * * * * * + + Thou art in my heart, + There is none other that knoweth thee but thy son, Fairest of + the Forms of Ra, the Only One of Ra[220]; + Thou causest him to be exercised in thy methods and in thy might. + The whole earth is in thy hand even as thou hast made them; + At thy rising all live, at thy setting they die. + + Translation of F. Ll. Griffith. + + + +HYMNS TO AMEN RA[221] + + +The following collection of hymns to Amen Ra is from the orthodox +worship of the New Kingdom; that is to say, it dates from the period +beginning in the XVIIth Dynasty, about 1700 B.C. The series is contained +in a papyrus now preserved in the museum at Gizeh and in very perfect +condition. + +In the original, the lines are punctuated with red dots, and the stanzas +are marked by rubrics, a very valuable clue being thus provided both as +to meanings and form. + +The first hymn is divided into five stanzas of seven lines each,[222] +but the fourth stanza contains an error of punctuation which has perhaps +prevented this arrangement from being noticed hitherto. The other hymns +do not appear to be so divisible. + +The text presents several instances of embellishment by farfetched, and +to our minds very feeble, puns and punning assonances. It is impossible +to reproduce these to the English reader, but some lines in which they +occur are here marked with asterisks indicating the words in question. + +Although these hymns have been much admired, it must be confessed that +they are somewhat arid in comparison with the simple expression of +Akhenaten's devotion in the 'Hymn to the Aten.' To the Egyptians, +however, the mythological references were full of meaning, while to us +they are never fully intelligible. Such an enumeration as that of the +symbols and insignia of divine royalty which we find in the second hymn, +is as empty to us as references to the Stars and Stripes, the White +House, the Spread Eagle, the Union Jack, the Rose, the Shamrock, and the +Thistle may be to the lords of the world in 5000 to 6000 A.D. + + _Praise of Amen Ra! + The bull in Heliopolis, the chief of all the gods, + The beautiful and beloved god + Who giveth life to all warm-blooded things, + To all manner of goodly cattle!_ + + +I + + Hail to thee, Amen Ra! lord of the thrones of the two lands, + Thou who dwellest in the sanctuary of Karnak. + Bull of his mother, he who dwelleth in his fields, + Wide-ranging in the Land of the South. + Lord of the Mezau[223], ruler of Punt, + Prince of heaven, heir of earth, + Lord of all things that exist! + Alone in his exploits even amongst the gods, + The goodly bull of the Ennead[224] of the gods, + Chiefest of all the gods, + Lord of truth, father of the gods, + Maker of men, creator of animals, + Lord of the things which are, maker of fruit-trees, + Maker of pasture, who causeth the cattle to live! + Image made by Ptah[225], youth fair of love! + The gods give praise unto him; + Maker of things below and of things above, he illuminateth the two + lands: + He traverseth the sky in peace. + King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Ra the Justified, chief of the two + lands. + Great one of valor, lord of awe; + Chief, making the earth in its entirety! + Nobler in thy ways than any god, + The gods rejoice in his beauties! + To him are given acclamations in the Great House, + Glorious celebrations in the House of Flame; + The gods love his odor when he cometh from Punt. + Prince of the dew, he entereth the land of the Mezau! + Fair of face, coming to the Divine Land[226]! + The gods gather as dogs at his feet, + Even as they recognize his majesty as their lord. + Lord of fear, great one of terror, + Great of soul, lordly in manifestations, + Flourishing of offerings, maker of plenty, + Acclamations to thee, maker of the gods, + Thou who dost upraise the sky, and press down the ground! + + +II + + Wake in health, Min-Amen! + Lord of the everlasting, maker of eternity, + Lord of adorations, dwelling in [Khemmis], + Established of two horns, fair of face, + Lord of the uraeus crown with lofty double plume, + Beautiful of diadem, with lofty white crown, + The kingly coif with the two uraei are on his forehead. + He is adorned within the palace, + With the Sekhet crown, the Nemes cap, and the Khepersh helmet. + Fair of face, he taketh the Atef crown, + Loving its south and its north. + Lord of the Sekhemt sceptre, receiving the Ames sceptre, + Lord of the Meks sceptre, holding the Nekhekh, + Beautiful Ruler, crowned with the white crown! + Lord of rays, making light! + The gods give praises unto him + Who giveth his two hands [for aid] to him that loveth him, + Who casteth his enemies in the fire; + His eye it is which overthroweth the wicked; + It casteth its lance at the devourer of Nu; + It causeth the serpent Nak to cast up that which it swallowed. + Hail to thee, Ra, lord of truth, + Whose sanctuary is hidden! lord of the gods, + Khepera in the midst of his bark, + He gave command, and the gods were created. + Tum, maker of the Rekhyt, + Distinguishing their kinds, making their lives, + Distinguishing their complexions one from another. + Hearing the complaint of him who is oppressed, + Kindly of heart when called upon. + He delivereth the timid from him who is of a froward heart, + He judgeth the cause of the weak and the oppressed. + Lord of Understanding, Taste is on his lips, + The Nile cometh at his desire. + Lord of sweetness, great one of love, + He maketh the Rekhyt to live, + He giveth keenness to every eye. + He is made out of Nu, + Creating the rays of light. + The gods rejoice in his beauties, + Their hearts live when they behold him. + + +III + + Ra, exalted in Karnak! + Great of splendor in the House of the Obelisk + Ani, lord of the New Moon festival, + To whom are celebrated the festival of the sixth day and of the + quarter month. + Liege lord, to whom Life, Prosperity, Health! lord of all the gods, + Who see him [?] in the midst of the horizon, + Chief over the Pat and Hades, + His name is more hidden* than his birth, + In his name of Amen,* the hidden One. + Hail to thee who art in peace! + Lord of enlargement of heart, lordly in manifestations, + Lord of the uraeus crown, with lofty double plume; + Fair of diadem, with lofty white crown! + The gods love the sight of thee, + The Sekhemt* crown is established upon thy forehead. + Thy loveliness is shed* abroad over the two lands; + Thy rays shine forth in the eyes of men; fair for the Pat and the + Rekhyt is thy rising, + Weary are the flocks when thou art radiant. + Thy loveliness is in the southern sky, thy sweetness in the northern + sky, + Thy beauties conquer hearts, + Thy loveliness maketh arms to droop, + Thy beautiful form maketh hands to fail; + Hearts faint at the sight of thee. + Sole figure, who didst make all that is! + One and only one, maker of all that are, + From whose eyes mankind issued, + By whose mouth the gods were created, + Who makest the herbage, and makest to live the cattle, goats, swine, + and sheep, + The fruit-trees for the Heneme_m_t. + He maketh the life of fishes in the river, + The fowl of the air, + Giving breath to that which is in the egg; + Making the offspring of the serpent to live; + Making to live therewith the flies, + The creeping things, and the leaping things, and the like. + Making provision for the mice in their holes; + Making to live the birds in every tree, + Hail to thee, maker of all these! + One and only one, with many arms! + At night wakeful while all sleep, + Seeking good for his flock. + Amen,* who *establishest all things! + Tum Horus of the horizon! + Praises be to thee in that all say, + "Acclamations to thee, for that thou outweariest thyself with us! + Obeisance to thee for that thou didst make us!" + Hail to thee, from all animals! + Acclamations to thee from every land, + To the height of heaven, to the breadth of earth, + To the depth of the great waters! + The gods bow before thy majesty, + Exalting the mighty spirit that formed them; + They rejoice at the coming of him who begat them; + They say unto thee:--"Come, come in peace! + Father of the fathers of all the gods, + Thou who dost upraise the sky and press down the ground." + Maker of that which is, former of those which have being, + Liege lord--to whom Life, Prosperity, Health!--chief of the gods, + We adore thy mighty spirit even as thou madest us; + Who were made for thee when thou fashionedst us. + We give praises unto thee for that thou outweariest thyself with us. + Hail to thee who didst make all that is! + Lord of truth, father of the gods, + Maker of men, fashioner of animals, + Lord of corn, + Making to live the animals of the desert. + Amen, bull fair of face, + Beloved in Thebes, + Great one of splendors in the House of the Obelisk, + Twice crowned in Heliopolis, + Thou who judgest between the twain in the Great Hall! + Chief of the great Ennead of the gods, + One and only one, without his peer, + Dwelling in Thebes, + Ani in his divine Ennead, + He liveth on truth every day. + God of the horizon, Horus of the East, + Who hath made the hills that have silver, gold, + Real lapis lazuli, at his pleasure: + Gums and incense are mingled for the Mezau, + Fresh incense for thy nostrils. + Fair of face he cometh to the Mezau, + Amen Ra, lord of the throne of the two lands, + He who dwelleth in Thebes, + Ani in his sanctuary. + + +IV + + Sole King is he, even in the midst of the gods; + Many are his names, none knoweth their number. + He riseth on the horizon of the east, he is laid to rest on the + horizon of the west. + He overthroweth his enemies + In the daily task of every day; + In the morning he is born each day; + Thoth raiseth his eyes, + And propitiateth him with his benefits; + The gods rejoice in his beauties, + Exalting him who is in the midst of adorers! + Lord of the Sekti and of the Madet bark, + Which traverse for thee Nu in peace! + Thy crew rejoice + When they see the overthrow of the wicked one, + Whose members taste the knife; + The flame devoureth him; + His soul is more punished than his body; + That Nak serpent, he is deprived of movement. + The gods are in exultation, + The crew of Ra are in peace, + Heliopolis is in exultation, + The enemies of Turn are overthrown. + Karnak is in peace, Heliopolis is in exultation. + The heart of the uraeus goddess is glad, + The enemies of her lord are overthrown; + The gods of Kheraha are in acclamation, + The dwellers in the sanctuaries are in obeisance; + They behold him mighty in his power. + Mighty prince of the gods! + Great one of Justice*, lord of Karnak, + In this thy name, "Doer of Justice*," + Lord of Plenty, Peaceful Bull*; + In this thy name, "Amen, Bull of his Mother," + Making mankind*, creating* all that is, + In this thy name of "Tum* Khepera*," + Great hawk, adorning the breast! + Fair of face adorning the bosom. + Figure lofty of diadem. + The two uraei fly on wings before him, + The hearts of men run up to him [like dogs], + The illuminated ones turn towards him. + Adorning the two lands by his coming forth, + Hail to thee, Amen Ra, lord of the throne of the two lands! + His city loveth his rising. + + _This is the end, + in peace, + as it was found_. + + Translation of F. Ll. Griffith. + + + +SONGS TO THE HARP + + [Frequently in the tombs is figured a scene in which a harper + plays before the deceased. His song is ever on the same theme: + Enjoy life while it lasts, for all things pass away, and are + succeeded by others which also perish in their turn. Such were + the encouragements to conviviality which the Egyptians put into + the mouths of their minstrels. + + One of these songs was apparently engraved in front of the + figure of a harper in the tomb or pyramid of King Antef (of the + XIth or perhaps XIIIth Dynasty, not less than 2000 B.C.), and + a copy of it has been handed down to us on a papyrus of the + XVIIIth Dynasty: fragments of the same song are moreover + preserved at Leyden on slabs from a tomb of the same period. + + Part of another song of the same kind may be read on the walls + of the fine tomb of Neferhetep at Thebes (_temp._ XVIIIth + Dynasty). This song was a long one, but the latter part of it + is now mutilated and hopelessly destroyed; yet enough of the + sequel remains to show that it rose to a somewhat higher level + of teaching than the first song, and counseled men to feed the + poor and to win a good name to leave behind them after death. + + The songs seem to fall naturally into stanzas of ten lines + each, though the inscriptions and papyri on which they are + preserved to us are not punctuated to indicate these divisions. + In the first song the ten lines fall readily into pairs, thus + producing five-line stanzas.] + + +I + +_Songs which are in the tomb of King Antef, justified, which are in +front of the singer on the harp_ + + Happy is this good lord! | A goodly fate is spoiled. + One body passeth | and others are set up since the time of the + ancestors. + The gods[227] who were aforetime | rest in their sepulchres, + So also the nobles glorified | buried in their sepulchres. + Palaces are built and their places are not | behold what hath been + done with them! + + I have heard the words of Imhetep and Herdedef | who spake thus + continually in their sayings: + "Behold their places, their walls are ruined | their places are not, + as though they had not been. + None cometh thence to tell their lot | to tell their estate, + To strengthen our hearts | until ye approach the place to which they + have gone." + Be thou of good cheer thereat | [as for me] my heart faileth me in + singing thy dirge. + Follow thy heart so long as thou existest | put frankincense on thy + head; + Be clothed in fine linen, be anointed with pure ben oil | things fit + for a god. + Enjoy thyself beyond measure | let not thy heart faint. + Follow thy desire and thy happiness while thou art on earth | fret not + thy heart till cometh to thee that day of lamentations. + The Still-of-Heart heareth not their lamentations | the heart of a man + in the pit taketh no part in mourning. + + With radiant face, make a good day,[228] + And rest not on it. + Behold, it is not given to a man to carry his goods with him! + Behold, there is none who hath gone, + And cometh back hither again! + + +II + +[_Saith the player on the harp who is in the tomb of the Osirian, the +divine father of Amen,[229] Neferhetep, Justified, he saith_:--] + + O how weary! Truly a prince was he! + That good fate hath come to pass. + Bodies pass away since the time of God, + The youthful come in their place. + Ra presenteth himself every morning, + Tum[230] setteth in the Mountain of the West, + Men beget and women conceive; + Every nostril tasteth the breath of sunrise; + Those whom they bring forth--all of them-- + They come in their stead. + + Make holiday, O divine father! + Set gums and choice unguents of every kind for thy nose, + Garlands of lotuses on the shoulders, + And on the breast of thy sister, who is in thy heart, + Who sitteth at thy side. + Set singing and music before thy face, + Put all sorrow behind thee, + Bethink thyself of joys, + Until there cometh that day on which thou moorest at the land that + loveth silence, + Before the heart of the son whom thou lovest is still. + + Make holiday, O Neferhetep, Justified! | the excellent divine father, + pure of hands! + There are heard all the things | that have happened to the ancestors + who were aforetime; + Their walls are ruined | their places are not; + They are as though they had never been | since the time of the god. + May thy walls be established | may thy trees flourish on the bank of + thy pond! + May thy soul sit beneath them | that it drink their waters! + Follow thy heart greatly | while thou art on earth. + Give bread to him | who is without plot of land. + Mayest thou gain a good name | for the eternal future! + Mayest thou.... + + Translation of F. Ll. Griffith. + + + +FROM AN EPITAPH + + [In the British Museum there is a memorial tablet of Ptolemaic + date for a lady of highest sacerdotal descent, on her mother's + side as well as on her father's. She was married to the chief + priest of Ptah, and on her death she addresses her male + relations and friends among the priests of chief rank with + words and sentiments very different from the orthodox prayers + and formulae which cover the funerary stelae of Pharaonic times; + though much the same line of thought found utterance in the + songs of the harpers.] + + +O brother, husband, friend, thy desire to drink and to eat hath not +ceased, [therefore] be drunken, enjoy the love of women, make holiday. +Follow thy desire by night and by day. Put not care within thine heart. +Lo! are not these the years of thy life upon earth? For as for Amenti, +it is a land of slumber and of heavy darkness, a resting-place for those +who have passed within it. Each sleepeth [there] in his own form; they +never more awake to see their fellows, they behold not their fathers nor +their mothers, their heart is careless of their wives and children. + +The water of life with which every mouth is moistened is corruption to +me, the water that is by me corrupteth me; I know not what to do[231] +since I came into this valley. Give me running water; say to me: "Water +shall not cease to be brought to thee." Turn my face to the north wind +upon the edge of the water. Verily thus shall my heart be cooled, +refreshed from its pain.[232] + +Verily I think on him whose name is "Come!" All who are called of him +come to him instantly, their hearts terrified with fear of him. There is +none whom he regardeth among gods or men; with him the great are as the +small. His hand cannot be held back from aught that he desireth; he +snatcheth the child from its mother, as well as the aged who are +continually meeting him on his way. All men fear and pray before him, +but he heedeth them not. None cometh to gaze on him in wonder; he +hearkeneth not unto them who adore him. He is not seen[233] that +propitiatory offerings of any kind should be made to him. + + Translation of F. Ll. Griffith. + + + +FROM A DIALOGUE BETWEEN A MAN AND HIS SOUL + + [The following is found on a papyrus of the XIIth Dynasty, + preserved at Berlin. After some obscure arguments the man + apparently admits that the present life is full of + dissatisfaction, and proceeds.] + + + Death is ever before me [?] like the healing of a sick man, or like + a rise in life after a fall. + Death is ever before me like the smell of frankincense, or like + sitting under an awning on a day of cool breeze.[234] + Death is ever before me like the scent of lotuses, like sitting on + the bank of the Land of Intoxication.[235] + Death is ever before me like a road watered [?], or as when a man + cometh from a campaign to his home. + Death is ever before me like the unveiling of the sky, or as when + a man attaineth to unexpected fortune. + Death is ever before me like as a man desireth to see his house when + he hath spent many years in pulling [the oars?].[236] + Verily he that is therein is as a living god punishing the error of + the evil-doer. + Verily he that is therein standeth in the boat of Ra and causeth + choice viands to be given thence to the temples.[237] + Verily he that is therein is as a wizard; he is not prevented from + complaining to Ra even as he would speak. + +My soul said unto me:[238] "Lay aside [?] mourning, O Nessu my brother, +that thou mayest offer upon the altar even as thou fightest for life, as +thou sayest, 'Love me continually.' Thou hast refused the grave; desire +then that thou mayest reach the grave, that thy body may join the earth, +that I may hover [over thee] after thou art weary. Let us then make a +dwelling together." + + Translation of F. Ll. Griffith. + + + +'THE NEGATIVE CONFESSION' + + [It may be thought that the fundamental ideas of Egyptian + morality would be most succinctly expressed in the so-called + 'Negative Confession' contained in the 'Book of the Dead.' When + the deceased appeared before Osiris he was supposed to recite + this confession, in which he alleged his freedom from a long + catalogue of sins: he repeated it in two forms. After the + XVIIIth Dynasty, B.C. 1500, it was considered as perhaps the + most essential of all the texts deposited in the tomb with the + mummy, for the guidance of the deceased person before his fate + was finally settled. It is therefore to be found in thousands + of copies, but unfortunately this much-worn text is as corrupt + as most of the other sections of the Book of the Dead. The hack + scribes and calligraphists were content to copy without + understanding it, often bungling or wresting the sense + according to their very imperfect lights. It is seldom that + different copies agree precisely in their readings: often the + differences are very material and leave the true sense + altogether uncertain. Again, even where the reading seems + comparatively sure, the meaning remains obscure, owing to the + occurrence of rare words or expressions. All the phrases begin + with the negative "not."] + + + FIRST CONFESSION + + I have not done injury to men. + I have not oppressed those beneath me.[239] + I have not acted perversely [prevaricated?], instead of + straightforwardly. + I have not known vanity.[240] + I have not been a doer of mischief. + + * * * * * + * * * * * + * * * * * + * * * * * + + I have not done what the gods abominate. + I have not turned the servant against his master. + I have not caused hunger. + I have not caused weeping. + I have not murdered. + I have not commanded murder. + I have not caused suffering to men. + I have not cut short the rations of the temples. + I have not diminished the offerings of the gods. + I have not taken the provisions of the blessed dead. + I have not committed fornication nor impurity in what was sacred to + the god of my city. + I have not added to nor diminished the measures of grain. + I have not diminished the palm measure. + I have not falsified the cubit of land. + I have not added to the weights of the balance. + I have not nullified the plummet of the scales. + I have not taken milk from the mouth of babes. + I have not driven cattle from their herbage.[241] + I have not trapped birds, the bones of the gods. + I have not caught fish in their pools.[?] + I have not stopped water in its season. + I have not dammed running water. + I have not quenched fire when burning.[242] + I have not disturbed the cycle of gods when at their choice meats. + I have not driven off the cattle of the sacred estate. + I have not stopped a god in his comings forth. + + +SECOND CONFESSION + + I have not done injustice. + I have not robbed. + I have not coveted.[?] + I have not stolen. + I have not slain men. + I have not diminished the corn measure. + I have not acted crookedly. + I have not stolen the property of the gods. + I have not spoken falsehood. + I have not taken food away. + I have not been lazy.[?] + I have not trespassed. + I have not slain a sacred animal. + I have not been niggardly in grain. + I have not stolen.... + I have not been a pilferer. + My mouth hath not run on. + I have not been a talebearer in business not mine own. + I have not committed adultery with another man's wife. + I have not been impure. + I have not made disturbance. + I have not transgressed. + My mouth hath not been hot.[243] + I have not been deaf to the words of truth. + I have not made confusion. + I have not caused weeping. + I am not given to unnatural lust. + I have not borne a grudge. + I have not quarreled. + I am not of aggressive hand. + I am not of inconstant mind. + I have not spoiled the color of him who washeth the god. [??] + My voice has not been too voluble in my speech. + I have not deceived nor done ill. + I have not cursed the king. + + * * * * * + + My voice is not loud. + I have not cursed God. + I have not made bubbles.[?] + I have not made [unjust] preferences. + I have not acted the rich man except in my own things. + I have not offended the god of my city. + + Translation of F. Ll. Griffith. + + + +THE TEACHING OF AMENEMHAT + + [The advice given by Amenemhat I., the founder of the XIIth + Dynasty, to his son and successor Usertesen I. (about B.C. + 2500), is a short composition that was much in vogue during + the New Kingdom as an exercise for schoolboys. Six copies of + portions or of the whole have survived to our day; but with one + exception all are very corrupt, and the text is extremely + difficult to translate. Our oldest copies appear to date from + the middle of the XIXth Dynasty (about B.C. 1300). But the + composition itself must be older than this; indeed, it may be a + true record of the great King's charge to his son. + + The following seems to be the purpose and argument of the work. + Amenemhat, who has already virtually associated Usertesen with + himself in the kingdom, determines in consequence of a plot + against his life to insure his son's succession by announcing + it in a formal manner. He has labored strenuously and + successfully for his own glory and for the good of his people, + but in return he is scarcely saved from ignominious + dethronement or assassination through a conspiracy formed in + his own household. The moral to be drawn from this is pointed + out to his son with considerable bitterness and scorn in the + 'Teaching,' in which, however, Usertesen is promised a + brilliant reign if he will attend to his father's instructions. + + It is perhaps worth while noticing that there is no expression + of piety or reference to the worship of divinities either in + the precepts themselves or in the narrative. The personified + Nile is spoken of in a manner that would be likely to offend + its worshipers; but in the last section, the interpretation of + which is extremely doubtful, Amenemhat seems to acquiesce in + the orthodox views concerning the god Ra. + + Usertesen's reign dates from Amenemhat's XXth year, and that + his association was then no secret but already formally + acknowledged, is amply proved. The King seems to feel already + the approach of old age and death, and though he lived on to + assist his son with his counsel for no less than ten years, it + was apparently in retirement from public life.[244] The work + has been considered as a posthumous charge to Usertesen, but + although certain expressions seem to support this view, on the + whole I think its correctness improbable. + + In several copies the text is divided by rubrics into fifteen + paragraphs, and the phrases are punctuated by dots placed above + the lines. In the following rendering the paragraphs are + preserved, and summarized where they are too difficult to + translate. The incompleteness of the best text leaves the last + two paragraphs in almost hopeless confusion.] + + +1. [Title and introduction.] + +Commencement in the teaching made by the majesty of the King of Upper +and Lower Egypt, Sehetepabra, Son of the Sun, Amenemhat, justified, +which he spake as a dividing of truth[245] to his Son, the Universal +Lord. Said he:-- + +"Shine forth as a God! Hearken to that I say to thee, that thou mayest +be king of the land and rule the territories, that thou mayest excel in +all wealth. + +2. [Exhortation to caution in associating with subjects.] + +"Let one be armored against his associates as a whole; it befalleth that +mankind turn their heart to him who inspireth them with fear. Enter not +to them singly; fill not thy heart with a brother; know not an honored +friend; make not to thyself free-and-easy visitors, by which nothing is +accomplished. + +3. [Trust not to the aid of friends.] + +"When thou liest down, keep to thyself thine own heart; for friends +exist not for a man on the day of troubles. I gave to the beggar, and I +made the orphan to exist[246]; I caused the man of no position to obtain +his purpose even as the man of position. + +4. [Continuation of 3: Reward of his beneficence.] + +"It was the eater of my food that made insurrection; he to whom I gave a +helping hand produced terror therewith; they who put on my fine linen +looked on me as shadows[247]; they who were anointed with my +frankincense defiled me while using it. + +5. [Men forget the heroism of his achievements on their behalf, though +their happy condition speaks loudly of it; by forgetting they lose much +of the advantages he has procured them.] + +"My portraits are among the living, my achievements among men, making +for me dirges that none heed, a great feat of combat that none see. +Behold, one fighteth for a lassoed ox, that forgetteth yesterday. Good +fortune is not complete for one who cannot know it.[248] + +6. [An attempt upon his life: circumstances of the attack.] + +"It was after supper, and night was come on. I took an hour of heart +pleasure; I lay down upon my _diwan_; I sank-in-rest, my heart began to +follow slumber. Behold! weapons were brandished [?], and there was +conversation concerning me; while I acted like the serpent of the +desert.[249] + +7. [Taken by surprise, he could not defend himself.] + +"I awoke to fight; I was alone. I found that it was the stroke of an +ally. If I had taken swiftly the arms from his hand I should have caused +the cowards to retreat, by dint of smiting round. But there is not a man +of valor at night; there is no fighting single-handed; there happens not +a successful bout in ignorance. Behold thou me.[250] + +8. [Usertesen's association the only safeguard. Amenemhat is not stern +enough to rule Egypt longer, but he offers to assist with his counsel.] + +"Behold thou, [then?] abominable things came to pass when I was without +thee, because the courtiers had not heard that I had handed on to thee +[the kingdom], because I had not sat with thee [on the throne]. Let me +[then] make thy arrangements,[251] for I do not confound them.[252] I am +not ignorant of them, but my heart does not remember the slackness of +servants. + +9. [The conspiracy was hatched in the palace itself; the commons were +hoodwinked; there was no ground for discontent.] + +"Is it the function of women to captain assassins? Is the interior of a +house the nursery of insurgents? Is mining done by dint of cutting +through the snow?[253] The underlings were kept ignorant of what they +were doing. Ill fortunes have not come behind me[254] since my birth; +there has not been success like mine in working to the measure of my +ability. + +10. [Amenemhat's activity.] + +"I pushed up to Elephantine and I turned back to Natho;[255] I stood +upon the ends of the earth and saw its edge.[256] I carried forward the +boundaries of strength-of-arm[257] by my valor and by my feats. + +11. [His beneficent rule.] + +"I was a maker of barley, beloved of Nepra[258]; the Nile begged my +mercy in every hollow. None were hungry in my years, none were thirsty +therein; the people sat [content] in what they did, saying with +reference to me, 'Every command is in its right place.' + +12. [His valor in war and in the chase.] + +"I overcame lions, I captured crocodiles. I seized Wawat, I carried away +Mezay; I caused the Setiu to go like hounds.[259] + +13. [The house and tomb that he built.] + +"I built a house adorned with gold, its ceiling with blue,[260] its +walls having deep foundations, the gates of copper, the bolts of bronze, +made for everlasting.... + +14. [Usertesen is the sole guardian of its secrets: he is trusted and +beloved by the King and popular in the country.] + +"There are numerous intricacies of passages. I know that the successor +will seek its beauties, for he knoweth it not without thee. But thou art +[?] my son Usertesen, as my feet walk; thou art my own heart as my eyes +see, born in a good hour, with mortals who give thee praise. + +15. [Amenemhat leaves Usertesen with the prospect of a brilliant reign.] + +"Behold, what I have done at the beginning thou hast arranged finally. +Thou art the haven of what was in my heart. All collectively offer the +white crown to [thee], the Seed of God, sealed to its right place. Begin +for thee greetings in the bark of Ra.[261] Then a reign cometh of the +first order, not of what I did in working to the extent of my powers. +Set up monuments and make good thy tomb."... + + _This is its arrival._ + + + +THE PRISSE PAPYRUS + + [The so-called Prisse Papyrus was obtained at Thebes by the + French artist and Egyptologist who gave it the name by which it + is now known. It is a celebrated document, though as yet but + little understood. The language being difficult and the text in + many places corrupt, it is useless to offer a complete + translation. In the following, several passages are omitted + altogether, and the most uncertain portions are italicized, and + even of what remains very little can be guaranteed. The + beginning is lost; the first two pages contain the end of a + book of proverbs, the text of which falls naturally into + sections, although it is not divided by rubrics.] + + +1. [The first section lays down axioms in regard to discretion in +speech. + +"The cautious man succeeds; the accurate man is praised; to the man of +silence the sleeping-chamber is opened. Wide scope hath he who is +acquiescent in his speech; knives are set against him who forceth his +way wrongfully. _Let no one approach out of his turn._" + +2. [In regard to food: abstinence.] + +"If thou sittest [at meat] with a company, hate the bread that thou +desirest--it is a little moment. Restrain appetite; gluttony is base.... +A cup of water, it quencheth the thirst; a mouthful of melon, it stayeth +the appetite. It is a good thing to make substitute for a luxury [_or_, +that which is good can replace a luxury]; a little of a small matter can +replace a great thing. It is a base fellow who is mastered by his +belly, who passeth time that he wotteth not, free ranging of his belly +in their houses." + +3. [When with a great eater or drinker, offend not by over-abstinence.] + +"If thou sittest at meat with a gormandizer and eatest [?], his desire +departeth; if thou drinkest with a toper and takest wine, his heart is +satisfied. Be not afraid of meat in company with the greedy; take what +he giveth thee; refuse it not, for it will humor him." + +4. [Against surliness.] + +"If there be a man devoid of sociability [_lit._, making himself known], +on whom no word hath power, _sulky_ of countenance to _him who would +soften_ the heart _by being_ gracious to him; he is rude to his mother +and to his people, every one [crieth]: 'Let thy name come forth! thou +art silent with the mouth when spoken to.'"[262] + +5. [Against over-confidence in view of the uncertainties of life.] + +"Let not thy heart be proud for valor in the midst of thy troops. Beware +of overbearingness [?]: one knoweth not what shall happen; what a god +will do when he striketh." + + [These proverbs were evidently set in a short story, calculated + to point the moral that obedience to wise teaching leads to + preferment. The introductory part has gone with the beginning + of the document; but here at the end of the book there is a + passage showing that they were composed by a wazir, _i. e._, + by the chief administrative official of the kingdom. He read + them to his children; one of whom, it seems, named Kagemni, + afterwards succeeded to the wazirship. The following is the + translation of this concluding text.] + +The wazir caused his children to be summoned when he had finished the +conduct of men;[263] they rejoiced greatly at coming; therefore when he +said to them:--"Verily, all things that are in writing on this roll, +obey them as I say [them];[264] do not pass beyond what is commanded," +they [the children] cast themselves upon their bellies and read them +even as they were written; they were good within them[265] more than +anything that is in the whole land; their uprising and their downsitting +was according thereto. + +Then the majesty of King Huni moored his ship;[266] then was set up the +majesty of King Sneferu as the good King in this whole land. Then +Kagemni was appointed governor of the royal city, and wazir. + + _This is its arrival._[267] + + [Huni was the last king of the IIId Dynasty, Seneferu the + founder of the IVth Dynasty, and Kagemni is a name found in + some of the earliest inscribed tombs; but the language, at + least of this last paragraph, betrays the style of the Middle + Kingdom. The proverbs themselves may be much earlier. + + After a blank the second text begins.] + + +THE INSTRUCTION OF PTAHHETEP + + [This is another collection of proverbs, in sixteen pages, and + with the rubrics marked. Small fragments from a duplicate copy + of this book of proverbs show considerable variation from the + Prisse text, and prove the corruptness and uncertainty of the + latter. It is however quite complete. We are able to give a + list of the contents of the sections, most of which are very + brief, and to append to the headings translations of a + considerable proportion of the whole. Further study will + doubtless throw light on much that is still obscure. + + General Title and Introduction: The wazir Ptahhetep addresses + the King, and recounts the evils of old age.[268] Having + received the command to take his son into his office of wazir, + he desires to teach him the rules of conduct observed in the + time when the gods reigned over Egypt. The King approves, and + bids him commence his instruction.] + +_Instruction of the governor of the royal city, and wazir Ptahetep, +before the majesty of King Assa, who liveth forever and ever_ + +The governor of the royal city, and wazir Ptahhetep, saith:-- + +"O King my lord, years come on, old age befalleth, decrepitude arriveth, +weakness is renewed, he lieth helpless day by day; the two eyes are +contracted, the ears are dull, strength diminisheth from weariness of +heart; the mouth is silent and speaketh not, the heart is closed and +remembereth not yesterday; ... good becometh evil, all taste departeth; +old age is evil for man in every way: the nose is stopped and breatheth +not, standing and sitting are [alike] weary [?]. + +"It hath been commanded the servant[269] to make a successor.[270] Let +me tell unto him the sayings of those who obeyed,[271] the conduct of +them of old, of them who obeyed the gods; would that the like may be +done to thee,[272] that ill may be banished from among the Rekhyt, and +the two lands serve thee." + +Said the Majesty of this god:-- + +"Teach him according to the words of former days; let him do what is +admirable for the sons of the nobles, so that to enter and listen unto +his words will be the due training of every heart; and that which he +saith shall not be a thing producing satiety." + +[Title and aim of the proverbs.] + +Beginning of the proverbs of good words spoken by the _ha_-prince,[273] +the father of the god who loves the god,[274] the King's eldest son of +his body, the governor of the city and wazir, Ptahhetep, as teaching the +ignorant to know according to the rule of good words, expounding the +profit to him who shall hearken unto it, and the injury to him who shall +transgress it. He saith unto his son:-- + +1. [Be not proud of thy learning: there is always more to learn.] + +"Let not thy heart be great because of thy knowledge; converse with the +ignorant as with the learned: the boundary of skill is not attainable; +there is no expert who is completely provided with what is profitable to +him: good speech is hidden more than the emeralds[275] that are found by +female slaves on the pebbles." + +2. [Silence will be the best weapon against a more able debater than +thyself.] + +"If thou findest a debater[276] in his moment,[277] persuading the +heart[278] as more successful than thyself: droop thy arms, bend thy +back, _let not thy heart challenge him; then he will not reach unto +thee.[279] Be sparing of evil words, as if declining to refute him in +his moment. He will be called ignorant of things, while thy heart +restraineth its wealth._"[280] + +3. [Refute the bad arguments of an equal in debate.] + +"If thou findest a debater in his moment, thine equal, who is within thy +reach, to whom thou canst cause thyself to become superior: be not +silent when he speaketh evil; a great thing is the approval of the +hearers, that thy name should be good in the knowledge of the +nobles."[281] + +4. [A feeble debater can be left to refute himself.] + +"If thou findest a debater in his moment, a poor man, that is to say, +not thine equal, let not thine heart leap out at him when he is feeble. +Let him alone, let him refute himself, question him not overmuch.[282] +Do not wash the heart[283] of him who agreeth with [?] thee: it is +painful, despising the poor, ... thou strikest him with the punishment +of nobles."[284] + +5. [A leader of men should use his authority for justice.] + +"If thou art a guide, commanding the conduct of a company, seek for +thyself every good aim, so that thy policy may be without error;[?] a +great thing is justice, enduring and surviving[285]; it is not upset +since the time of Osiris; he who departs from the laws is punished and +... _It is the modest_[?] _that obtain wealth; never did the greedy_[?] +_arrive at their aim; he saith, 'I have captured for mine own self;' he +saith not, 'I have captured by [another's'] command.' The end of justice +is that it endureth long; such as a man will say, 'It is from_ [?] _my +father._'" + +6. [Be not a disturber of the peace.] + +"Make not terror amongst men;[286] God punisheth the like. There is the +man that saith, 'Let him live thereby who is without the bread of his +lips.' There is the man that saith, 'Strong is he who saith, I have +captured for myself what I have recognized.' There is the man who saith, +'Let him smite another who attaineth, in order to give to him who is in +want:' never _did violence among men succeed: what God commandeth cometh +to pass. Then_[287] _thou mayest live in a palace; pleasure cometh, and +people give things freely._" + +7. [Behavior to a patron.] + +"If thou art a man of those who sit at the place of a greater man than +thyself, take what he giveth _with thy hand to thy nose_;[288] thou +shalt look at what is before thee; pierce him not with many glances; it +is abomination to the soul for them to be directed at him. Speak not +unto him until he calleth: one knoweth not the evil at heart [that it +causeth]; thou shalt speak when he questioneth thee, and then what thou +sayest will be good to the heart. The noble who hath excess of bread, +his procedure is as his soul[289] commandeth; he will give to him whom +he praiseth: it is the manner of night-time.[290] It befalleth that it +is the soul that openeth his hands. The noble giveth; it is not that the +man winneth [the gift]. The eating of bread is under the management of +God: it is the ignorant that rebelleth [?] against it." + +8. [Behavior of a man sent on business from one lord to another.] + +"If thou art a man that entereth, sent by a noble to a noble, be exact +in the manner of him who sendeth thee; do the business for him as he +saith. Beware of making ill feeling by words that would set noble +against noble, in destroying justice; do not exaggerate it; but the +washing of the heart shall not be repeated in the speech of any man, +noble or commoner: that is abomination of the soul." + +9. [Gain thy living at thy business; do not sponge on relations, nor +hunt legacies.] + +"If thou plowest, labor steadily in the field, that God may make it +great in thine hand; let not thy mouth be filled at thy neighbor's +table. _It is a great thing to make disturbance of the silent._ Verily +he who possesseth prudence is as the possessor of goods: _he taketh like +a crocodile from the officials_. [?] Beg not as a poor man of him who is +without children, and make no boast of him. The father is important when +the mother that beareth is wanting, and another woman is added unto +her:[291] _a man may produce a god such that the tribe shall pray [to be +allowed] to follow him._" + +10. [If unsuccessful, take work under a good master; be respectful to +those who have risen in the world.] + +"If thou failest, follow a successful man; let all thy conduct be good +before God. When thou knowest that a little man hath advanced, let not +thine heart be proud towards him by reason of what thou knowest of him; +a man who hath advanced, be respectful to him in proportion to what hath +arrived to him; for behold, possessions do not come of themselves, it is +their [the gods'] law for those whom they love: verily he who hath +risen, he hath been prudent for himself, and it is God that maketh his +success; and he would punish him for it if he were indolent." + +11. [Take reasonable recreation.] + +"Follow thy heart the time that thou hast; do not more than is +commanded; diminish not the time of following the heart; that is +abomination to the soul, that its moment[292] should be disregarded. +Spend not [on labor] the time of each day beyond what [is necessary] for +furnishing thy house. When possessions are obtained, follow the heart; +for possessions are not made full use of if [the owner] is _weary_." + +12. [Treatment of a son.] + +"If thou art a successful man and thou makest a son by God's grace [?], +if he is accurate, goeth again in thy way and attendeth to thy business +on the proper occasion, do unto him every good thing: he is thy son to +whom it belongeth, that thy _Ka_ begat: estrange not thy heart from him; +_inheritance_ [?] _maketh quarrels_. [?] If he err and transgress thy +way, and refuseth [?] everything said while his mouth babbleth vain +words...." + +13. [Be patient in the law court.] + +"If thou art in the council hall, standing and sitting until thy going +[forward], that hath been commanded for thee on the earliest day: go not +away if thou art kept back, while the face is attentive to him who +entereth and reporteth, and the place of him who is summoned is +broad.[293] The council hall is according to rule, and all its method +according to measure. It is God that promoteth position; it is not done +to those who are ready of elbows." + +14. [Make friends with all men.] + +15. [Report progress, whether good or evil, to your chief.] + +16. [A leader with wide instructions should pursue a far-sighted +policy.] + +17. [A leader should listen to complaints.] + +18. [Beware of women.] + +"If thou wishest to prolong friendship in a house into which thou +enterest as master, as brother, or as friend, [in fact in] any place +that thou enterest, beware of approaching the women: no place in which +that is done prospereth. The face is not watchful in attaining it. A +thousand men are injured in order to be profited for a little moment, +like a dream, by tasting which death is reached."... + +19. [Keep from injustice or covetousness.] + +"If thou desirest thy procedure to be good, take thyself from all evil: +beware of any covetous aim. That is as the painful disease of colic. He +who entereth on it is not successful. It embroileth fathers and mothers +with the mother's brothers, it separateth wife and husband. It is a +thing that taketh to itself all evils, a bundle of all wickedness. A man +liveth long whose rule is justice, who goeth according to its [the +rule's] movements. He maketh a property thereby, while a covetous man +hath no house." + +20. [Be satisfied with a fair share.] + +"Let not thine heart be extortionate about shares, in grasping at what +is not thy portion. Let not thy heart be extortionate towards thy +neighbors: greater is the prayer to a kindly person than force. Poor is +he that carrieth off his neighbors [by violence] without the persuasion +of words. A little for which there hath been extortion maketh remorse +when the blood[294] is cool." + +21. [Pay attention to thy wife when thou hast attained a competence.] + +"If thou art successful and hast furnished thine house, and lovest the +wife of thy bosom, fill her belly, clothe her back. The medicine for her +body is oil. Make glad her heart during the time that thou hast. She is +a field profitable to its owner."... + +22. [Entertain visitors with thy means.] + +23. [Do not repeat scandal [?].] + +24. [Talk not of unfamiliar things in the council.] + +25. [Advice to an able speaker.] + +"If thou art strong, inspiring awe by knowledge or by pleasing, speak in +first command; that is to say, not according to [another's] lead. The +weak man [?] entereth into error. Raise not thine heart, lest it be cast +down. Be not silent. Beware of interruption and of answering words with +heat [?].... The flames of a fiery heart sweep away the mild man, when a +fighter treadeth on his path. He who doth accounts all day long hath not +a pleasant moment; he who enjoyeth himself all day long doth not provide +his house. The archer will hit his mark even as he that worketh the +rudder, at one time letting it alone, at another pulling; he that +obeyeth his heart [conscience?] shall _command_." + +26. [Do not add to others' burdens.] + +27. [Teach a noble what will profit him.] + +28. [Deliver an official message straightforwardly.] + +29. [Call not to remembrance favors that you have bestowed, when the +recipient has ceased to thank you.] + +30. [Advice to one that has risen in the world.] + +"If thou gainest great after small things and makest wealth after +poverty, so that thou art an example thereof in thy city, thou art known +in thy nome and thou art become prominent: do not wrap up [?] thy heart +in thy riches that have come to thee by the gift of God,... another like +unto thee to whom the like hath fallen." + +31. [Obedience to chief.] + +"Bend thy back to thy chief, thy superior of the king's house, on whose +property thine house dependeth, and thy payments[295] in their proper +place. It is ill to be at variance with the chief. One liveth [only] +while he is gracious."... + +32. [Against lewdness.] + +33. [Judge a friend's character at first hand.] + +"If thou seekest the character of a friend, mind thou, do not ask; go to +him, occupy thyself with him alone so as not to interfere with his +business. Argue with him after a season, test [?] his heart with an +instance of speech."... + +34. [Be cheerful to friends.] + +"Let thy face be shining the time that thou hast: verily that which +cometh out of the store doth not enter again; but bread is for +apportionment, and he that is niggardly is an accuser, empty of his +belly. It befalleth that a quarrelsome man is a spoiler of things; do it +not unto him who cometh unto thee. The remembrance of a man is of his +kindliness in the years after the staff [of power?]."[296] + +35. [Importance of credit.] + +"Know[297] thy tradesman when thy affairs are unsuccessful; thy good +reputation with thy friend is a channel well filled; it is more +important than a man's wealth. The property of one belongeth to another. +A profitable thing is the good reputation of a man's son to him. The +nature is better than the memory."[?] + +36. [Punish for an example, instruct for the principle.] + +37. [Treat kindly a seduced woman.] + +"If thou makest a woman ashamed, wanton of heart, whom her fellow +townspeople know to be under two laws,[298] be kind to her a season; +send her not away, let her have food to eat. The wantonness of her heart +_appreciateth guidance_." + +38. [Advantage of obedience to rule.] + +"If thou hearkenest to these things that I tell thee, and all thy +behavior is according to what precedeth,[299] verily they have a true +course. They are precious, their memory goeth in the mouth of men by +reason of the excellence of their phrasing; and each saying is carried +on; it is not destroyed out of this land ever; it maketh a rule to +advantage by which the nobles may speak. It is a teaching for a man that +he may speak to the future. He that heareth them becometh an expert. A +good hearer speaketh to the future of what he hath heard. If good +fortune befalleth by reason of him who is at the head of affairs, it is +to him good forever, and all his satisfactoriness remaineth to eternity. +It is he who knoweth that blesseth his soul[300] in establishing his +excellence upon earth: he who knoweth hath satisfaction of his +knowledge. A noble[301] taketh his right course in what his heart and +his tongue provide; his lips are correct when he speaketh, his eyes in +seeing, his ears just in hearing; a profitable thing for his son is +doing right, free from wrong. + +"It is a profitable thing for the son of one who hath hearkened [to +instruction] to hearken [to his father], entering and listening to a +hearkener. A hearkener becometh a person hearkened to, good in +hearkening and good in speech; a hearkener possesseth what is +profitable: profitable to the hearkener is hearkening. Hearkening is +better than anything: it befalleth indeed that love is good, but twice +good is it when a son receiveth what his father saith: old age cometh to +him therewith. He who loveth God hearkeneth, he who hateth God doth not +hearken: it is the heart that maketh its possessor hearken or not +hearken, and the Life, Prosperity, and Health[302] of a man is his +heart. The hearkener heareth what is said. He that loveth to hear doeth +according to what is said. Twice good is it for a son to hearken to his +father. How happy is he to whom these things are told! A son, he shineth +as possessing the quality of hearkening. The hearkener to whom they are +told, he is excellent in body. He that is pious-and-well-pleasing[303] +to his father, his memory is in the mouth of the living who are upon +earth, whoever they shall be." + +39. [The docile son.] + +"If the son of a man receive what his father saith, no plan of his shall +fail. [He whom] thou teachest as thy son, or the listener that is +successful in the heart of the nobles, he guideth his mouth according +to what he hath been told. _He that beholdeth is as he that obeyeth_, +i. e., _a son_[304]; his ways are distinguished. He faileth that +entereth without hearing. He that knoweth, on the next day is +established; he who is ignorant is crushed."[305] + +40. [The ignorant and unteachable man is a miserable failure.] + +41. [The handing down of good precepts.] + +"The son of a hearkener is as an Attendant of Horus[306]: there is +good for him when he hath hearkened; he groweth old, he reacheth +_Amakh_[307]; he telleth the like to his children, renewing the teaching +of his father. Every man teacheth as he hath performed; he telleth the +like to his sons, that they may tell again to their children.[308] Do +what is admirable; cause not thyself to be mocked;[?] establish truth +that thy children may live. If virtue entereth, vice departeth: then men +who shall see such-like shall say, 'Behold, that man spoke to one who +hearkened!' and they shall do the like; or 'Behold, that man was +observant.' All shall say, 'They pacify the multitude; riches are not +complete without them.'[309] Add not a word, nor take one away; put not +one in the place of another. Guard thyself against opening the lacunae[?] +that are in thee. Guard thyself against being told, 'One who knoweth is +listening; mark thou. Thou desirest to be established in the mouth of +those who hear[310] when thou speakest. But thou hast entered on the +business of an expert; thou speakest of matters that belong to us, and +thy way is not in its proper place.'" + +42. [Speak with consideration.] + +"Let thy heart be overflowing, let thy mouth be restrained: consider how +thou shalt behave among the nobles. Be exact in practice with thy +master: act so that he may say, 'The son of that man shall speak to +those that shall hearken. Praiseworthy also is he who formed him.' + +"Apply thine heart while thou art speaking, that thou mayest speak +things of distinction; then the nobles who shall hear will say, 'How +good is that which proceedeth out of his mouth!'" + +43. [Obedience to the master.] + +"Do according to that thy master telleth thee. How excellent [to a man] +is the teaching of his father, out of whom he hath come, out of his +very body, and who spake unto him while he was yet altogether in his +loins! Greater is what hath been done unto him than what hath been said +unto him. Behold, a good son that God giveth doeth beyond what he is +told for his master; he doeth right, doing heartily [?] in his goings +even as thou hast come unto me, that thy body may be sound, that the +King may be well pleased with all that is done, that thou mayest spend +years of life. It is no small thing that I have done on earth; I have +spent 110 years[311] of life while the King gave me praises as among the +ancestors, by my doing uprightly to the King until the state of +Amakh.[312]" + + _This is its arrival + like that which was found in the writing._ + + Translation of F. Ll. Griffith. + + + + [Illustration: _GREEK UNCIAL WRITING._ + + Letter of Dioscorides to Dorian, from a Manuscript on papyrus, + found in a sealed clay vessel in an Egyptian tomb. Written in + the IIIrd century B.C.] + + + + [The following extracts are reproduced from the German of + Professor Erman's translation.] + + + +FROM THE 'MAXIMS OF ANY' + + +"Keep thyself from the strange woman who is not known in her city. Look +not upon her when she cometh, and know her not. She is like unto a +whirlpool in deep water, the whirling vortex of which is not known. The +woman whose husband is afar writeth unto thee daily. When none is there +to see her, she standeth up and spreadeth her snare; sin unto death is +it to hearken thereto." Hence he who is wise will renounce her company +and take to himself a wife in his youth. A man's own house is "the best +thing," and also "she will give unto thee a son who shall be as the +image of thyself."... + +[Thy debt to thy mother.] + +Thou shalt never forget thy mother and what she hath done for thee, +"that she bore thee, and nurtured thee in all ways." Wert thou to forget +her then might she blame thee, "lifting up her arms unto God, and he +would hearken unto her complaint. For she carried thee long beneath her +heart as a heavy burden, and after thy months were accomplished she bore +thee. Three long years she carried thee upon her shoulder and gave thee +her breast to thy mouth." She nurtured thee, nor knew offense from +thine uncleanness. "And when thou didst enter the school and wast +instructed in the writings, daily she stood by the master with bread and +beer from her house." + +[Be not drunken with beer.] + +Drink not beer to excess! That which cometh forth from thy mouth thou +canst no longer speak. Thou fallest down, thou breakest thy limbs, and +none stretcheth out a hand to thee. Thy companions drink on; they arise +and say, "Away with this one who hath drunken." When one cometh to seek +thee, to seek counsel of thee, he findeth thee lying in the dust like a +little child. + +[Of inward piety.] + +"Clamor is abhorrent to the sanctuary of God; let thy prayers for +thyself come forth out of a loving heart, whose words remain secret, +that he may grant thee thy needs, may hear thy prayer, and accept thine +offering." + +[Of diligence and discretion.] + +Be diligent; "let thine eye be open that thou mayest not go forth as a +beggar, for the man who is idle cometh not to honor." Be not officious +and indiscreet, and "enter not [uninvited] into the house of another; if +thou enter at his bidding thou art honored. Look not around thee, look +not around thee in the house of another. What thine eye seeth, keep +silence concerning it, and tell it not without to another, that it be +not in thee a crime to be punished by death when it is heard." Speak not +overmuch, "for men are deaf to him who maketh many words; but if thou +art silent thou art pleasing, therefore speak not." Above all be +cautious in speech, for "the ruin of a man is on his tongue. The body of +a man is a storehouse, which is full of all manner of answers. Wherefore +choose thou the good and speak good, while the evil remaineth shut up +within thy body." + +[Of manners.] + +Behave with propriety at table and "be not greedy to fill thy body." And +"eat not bread while another standeth by and thou placest not thy hand +on the bread for him. The one is rich and the other is poor, and bread +remaineth with him who is open-handed. He who was prosperous last year, +even in this may be a vagrant.[?]" Never forget to show respect, "and +sit not down while another is standing who is older than thou, or who is +higher than thou in his office." + + Revised from the German of Adolf Erman. + + + +INSTRUCTION OF DAUF + + +When Dauf the sage of Sebennytus went up to the Royal Residence with his +son Pepy to take him to the "Court Writing-School," he admonished him +"to set his heart upon writing, to love it as his mother, for there is +naught that surpasseth it." He thereupon composes a poem in praise of +_the_ profession, to the disparagement of all other callings:-- + + "Behold, there is no profession that is not under rule; + Only the man of learning himself ruleth." + +And then, + + "Never have I seen the engraver an ambassador, + Or the goldsmith with an embassy; + But I have seen the smith at his work + At the mouth of his furnace; + His fingers were as crocodile [hide], + He stank more than fish-roe. + + "A craftsman who plieth the chisel + Is wearied more than he who tilleth the soil; + Wood is his field, and bronze his implement; + At night--is he released? + He worketh more than his arms are able; + At night he lighteth a light." + +Etc., etc. + +[The praise of learning was a favorite subject with pedagogue and +parent. According to other sages] "the unlearned whose name no man +knoweth, is like unto a heavy-laden ass, driven by the scribe," while +"he who hath set learning in his heart" is exempt from labor "and +becometh a wise noble." "The rank of a scribe is princely; his writing +outfit and his papyrus roll bring comfort and wealth." "The scribe alone +guideth the labor of all men; but if labor in writing is hateful to him, +then the goddess of good fortune is not with him." + +"O scribe, be not lazy, be not lazy, else thou shalt be soundly +chastised; give not thy heart to vain desires, or thou wilt come to +ruin. Book in hand, read with thy mouth, and take the advice of those +who know more than thyself. Prepare for thyself the office of a noble, +that thou mayest attain thereto when thou art become old. Happy is the +scribe clever in all his offices. Be strong and diligent in daily work. +Pass no day idly, or thou wilt be flogged, for the ears of a boy are on +his back, and he heareth when he is flogged. Let thine heart hear what I +say; it will bring thee to fortune. Be strong in asking advice; do not +overlook it in writing; be not disgusted at it. Therefore let thine +heart hear my words; thou shalt find fortune thereby." + + Revised from the German of Adolf Erman. + + + +CONTRASTED LOTS OF SCRIBE AND FELLAH + + [The following is a sample of the warnings to young men to + stick to the business of the scribe and not be led away by the + charms of out-door life, always so dear to the Egyptian.--Date + XIXth Dynasty, or earlier.] + + +It is told to me that thou hast cast aside learning, and givest thyself +to dancing; thou turnest thy face to the work in the fields, and castest +the divine words behind thee. + +Behold, thou rememberest not the condition of the fellah, when the +harvest is taken over. The worms carry off half the corn, and the +hippopotamus devours the rest; mice abound in the fields, and locusts +arrive; the cattle devour, the sparrows steal. How miserable is the lot +of the fellah! What remains on the threshing-floor, robbers finish it +up. The bronze ... are worn out, the horses [oxen?] die with threshing +and plowing. Then the scribe moors at the bank who is to take over the +harvest;[313] the attendants[314] bear staves, the negroes carry +palmsticks. They say, "Give corn!" But there is none. They beat [the +fellah] prostrate; they bind him and cast him into the canal, throwing +him headlong. His wife is bound before him, his children are swung off; +his neighbors let them go, and flee to look after their corn. + +But the scribe is the leader of labor for all; he reckons to himself the +produce in winter, and there is none that appoints him his tale of +produce. Behold, now thou knowest! + + Translation of F. M. Griffith. + + + +REPROACHES TO A DISSIPATED STUDENT + +XIXTH DYNASTY + + + They tell me that thou forsakest books, + And givest thyself up to pleasure. + Thou goest from street to street; + Every evening the smell of beer, + The smell of beer, frightens people away from thee, + It bringeth thy soul to ruin. + + Thou art like a broken helm, + That obeyeth on neither side. + Thou art as a shrine without its god, + As a house without bread. + + Thou art met climbing the walls, + And breaking through the paling: + People flee from thee, + Thou strikest them until they are wounded. + + Oh that thou didst know that wine is an abomination, + And that thou wouldst forswear the _Shedeh_ drink! + That thou wouldst not put cool drinks within thy heart, + That thou wouldst forget the _Tenreku_. + + But now thou art taught to sing to the flute, + To recite [?] to the pipe, + To intone to the lyre, + To sing to the harp, + +[and generally to lead a life of dissipation.] + + Revised from the German of Adolf Erman. + + + +FOOTNOTES + + [1] The italicized phrases represent the principal names of the + King. + + [2] The temple of Karnak. + + [3] Horus as the winged disk of the sun, so often figured as a + protecting symbol over the doors of temples. + + [4] The coloration or configuration of his limbs indicated to the + learned in such matters his victorious career. Mentu was the + god of war. + + [5] The southern boundary of the Egyptian empire. + + [6] Baka, Meama, Buhen were in Nubia. + + [7] The castor-oil plant (_Ricinus communis_). + + [8] The underworld. + + [9] The fellahin herdsmen of the time seem to have clubbed together + into gangs, each of which was represented by a ganger, and the + whole body by a superintendent of the gangs. + + [10] Corvee work for the government. + + [11] _I. e._, he did not impress men (wrongfully?) for the + government works, such as irrigation or road-making. + + [12] An asterisk (*) attached to the title of a text indicates that + a translation of part or all of it is printed in the following + pages. + + [13] Lower Nubia. + + [14] District about the first cataract. + + [15] A name often applied to the great river Nile. + + [16] The usual Egyptian attitude of respect to a superior was to + stand bent slightly forward, holding the arms downward. + + [17] The polytheistic Egyptians frequently used the term "God" + without specifying any particular deity; perhaps, too, in + their own minds they did not define the idea, but applied + it simply to some general notion of Divinity. + + [18] Punt was the "land of spices" to the Egyptian, and thence, + too, the finest incense was brought for the temple services. + It included Somaliland in Africa, and the south of Arabia. + + [19] This paragraph is very difficult to restore and very doubtful. + + [20] _I. e._, the King Sehetepabra Amenemhat I., whose death is + recorded in the next clause. + + [21] The king's city, and so throughout the story. + + [22] The land of the Temehu was in the Libyan desert on the west of + Egypt. + + [23] Usertesen I., the son and heir of Amenemhat I., reigned ten + years jointly with his father. + + [24] _I. e._, the western edge of Lower Egypt. + + [25] Perhaps this refers to the death of the king, or to the + deliberations of the royal councilors. + + [26] Apparently a term for the king. + + [27] Sanehat, accidentally hearing the news of the old king's death, + which was kept secret even from the members of the royal + family, was overcome with agitation and fled. + + [28] It was of course night-time. + + [29] The Royal Residence called Athet-taui lay on the boundary of + Upper and Lower Egypt, between Memphis and the entrance to the + Faiyum, and so in the direction which Sanehat at first took in + his flight from the western edge of the Delta. One might prefer + the word Capital to Residence, but it can hardly be doubted + that Thebes and Memphis were then the real capitals of Egypt. + + [30] Perhaps the meaning is that Sanehat did not imagine life + possible "after the king's death," or it may be "outside + the Residence." The pronoun for "it" is masculine, and may + refer either to the palace or to the king. + + [31] Or possibly "I turned my course," turning now northward. + + [32] Or possibly "the next day." + + [33] Here the MS. is injured, and some of the words are doubtful. + The quarries are those still worked for hard quartzite at Jebel + Ahmar (Red Mountain), northeast of Cairo. The positions of + most of the places mentioned in the narrative are uncertain. + Doubtless Sanehat crossed the Nile just above the fork of the + Delta and landed in the neighborhood of the quarries. The + "Mistress" (_Heryt_), must be a goddess, or the queen. + + [34] Asiatics and Bedawin. + + [35] Kemur was one of the Bitter Lakes in the line of the present + Suez Canal. + + [36] Possibly one of the three persons proposed as hostages to Egypt + below, p. 5246. The word translated "alien" is uncertain. It + may mean a kind of consul or mediator between the tribes for + the purposes of trade, etc., or simply a "sheikh." Sanehat + himself, returned from Egypt in his old age, is called by the + same title, p. 5248. + + [37] Or possibly Adim, _i. e._, Edom; and so throughout. + + [38] Later called Upper Retenu: they were the inhabitants of the + high lands of Palestine. Ammi was a divine name in Ancient + Arabia, and the name Ammi-anshi, found in South-Arabian + inscriptions, perhaps of 1000 B.C., is almost identical with + that of the king who befriended Sanehat. + + [39] These words appear to have been omitted by the scribe. + + [40] _I. e._, What does Egypt do without the king? + + [41] The goddess of destruction. + + [42] Lit, "stick." + + [43] A metaphor for the "policy," "will," of a king or god. + + [44] Meaning "reeds" (?). + + [45] _I. e._, of Pharaoh; see above, p. 5238. + + [46] A difficult passage. + + [47] Without any pause or introduction Sanehat begins to quote from + his petition to the King of Egypt. It is difficult to say + whether this arrangement is due to an oversight of the scribe, + or is intended to heighten the picturesqueness of the narrative + by sudden contrast. The formal introduction might well be + omitted as uninteresting. The end of the document with the + salutations is preserved. + + [48] A phrase for the queen. + + [49] The narrator. + + [50] The scribe has written Amenemhat by mistake for Usertesen. + + [51] Or Adim; see above, p. 5239, note. + + [52] The queen, his exalted mistress. + + [53] Taking part in the councils of the king and in the + administration of the kingdom. + + [54] This seems to refer to the so-called false door, representing + the entrance to the underworld. All that precedes refers to + burial with great ceremony. + + [55] _I. e._, of the king's command. The absence of any concluding + salutation is noticeable. + + [56] The Ka or "double" was one of the spiritual constituents of + man; but "thy Ka" is merely a mode of address to the exalted + Pharaoh. + + [57] _I. e._, the uraeus or cobra. + + [58] In this long array of gods, Mentu and Amen rank next to Ra. + They were both worshiped at Thebes, which was then probably + capital of the whole country. It certainly was so in the next + dynasty, during which this tale was presumably written down. + It is curious that Ptah the god of Memphis does not appear. + + [59] The place of the dead. + + [60] As dogs do the bidding of their master and spare his property. + + [61] As a man of Natho (the marshes in the north of the Delta) + dreams that he is at Elephantine (the rocky southern frontier). + + [62] The second is the name of the southernmost nome of Egypt, that + of Elephantine, which has practically no corn-land. It was + probably made fruitful by artificial irrigation, with culture + of plants, trees, and vines. + + [63] So the MS., and it conveys a fair meaning; but perhaps the + original ran, "Behold, _thou_ art in the palace and I am in + this place yet," etc. + + [64] Or, "Now thy servant hath finished." + + [65] Sanehat's own territory; see p. 5241. + + [66] A frequent phrase for the writer or narrator, especially common + in letters. + + [67] "Nodding and touching my forehead" is perhaps the real + translation of some difficult words here paraphrased. + + [68] Probably the Residence; more commonly called Athet-taui, but + here abbreviated in name. + + [69] Or perhaps "very early." + + [70] This probably means "four men behind me and the same number in + front," either conducting Sanehat or more probably carrying him + in a litter. + + [71] Instead of Egyptian priests. + + [72] These instruments rattled or clattered as they were waved or + beaten together. + + [73] A form of Hathor. + + [74] Samehit "son of the north," is a play on the name Sanehat, "son + of the sycamore." + + [75] The treasury containing silver, gold, clothing, wine, and + valuables of all kinds. + + [76] Meaning "wanderers on the Sand," Bedawin. + + [77] The Hathors were seven goddesses who attended the birth of a + child in order to tell its fate. They somewhat correspond to + the fairy godmothers of later fairy tales. + + [78] Syria. + + [79] The Egyptians shaved their heads and wore wigs, as a matter of + cleanliness in a hot climate. + + [80] The sun. + + [81] Ra Harakhti was the chief of this Ennead. Khnumu, one of his + companion gods, was the craftsman, sometimes represented as + fashioning mankind upon the potter's wheel. + + [82] _I. e._, in the matter of the trees. + + [83] "To make a good day"--to keep holiday, to hold festival. + + [84] This apparently means that he was enrolled as one to be + educated as a learned scribe. + + [85] _I. e._, as we should say, "he did nothing in the world but + walk in the cemetery of Memphis," etc. + + [86] The realm of Osiris as god of the dead. + + [87] It is difficult to locate this lake in accordance with the + actual geography of Egypt. + + [88] A frequent phrase for extreme delight or amazement. + + [89] There seems to be some reference to past history in this. + + [90] An idiomatic phrase like "he caused his hand to go after the + roll" for "put out his hand to take the roll," p. 5272. + + [91] Wax was the regular material used for the manufacture of models + which were intended to be used in the practice of magic. + + [92] The place of embalmment. + + [93] A similar method is still employed by Arab doctors and wizards. + To heal a disease a formula is written out and then washed off + the paper in a bowl of water, which is given to the patient to + drink. + + [94] Cf. Job i., 12. + + [95] _I. e._, above him. + + [96] An expression for death, like our "gone home." + + [97] _I. e._, "May he live as long as the Sun god." + + [98] The presence of names compounded with the name of Anher, god + of Sebennytus, indicates that the story was written during or + after the supremacy of that city, at the end of the native + rule. + + [99] Setna Kha-em-uast was high priest of Ptah. + + [100] Evidently a strong expression, to show the instantaneous and + powerful effect of the amulets in drawing him out of the + ground. + + [101] This choice of symbols of submission is not yet explained. + + [102] Compare the expression noted on p. 5265. + + [103] The first month of the inundation season and of the Egyptian + year. This is the date of the first events recorded, not of + the dedication of the stela: the "command" is parenthetical. + + [104] The same expression occurs further on, and evidently refers + to the personal activity of the king. + + [105] Neter was probably Iseum in the centre of the Delta, and so a + nomarchship quite separate from Tafnekht's extensive territory + in the west. The list following the name of Tafnekht seems to + name localities representative of the VIIth(?), VIth, Vth, + IVth(?), IIId(?), and Ist nomes in Lower Egypt, in their + proper order; the last, Mennefer, being Memphis. These would + form literally the whole western side of Lower Egypt "from the + coast to Athet-taui." Athet-taui (Lisht?) was a city marking + the boundary of Upper and Lower Egypt. + + [106] Medum, El Lahun, Crocodilopolis in the Faiyum, Oxyrhynkhos, + Diknash, all--except perhaps the last--in order from north + to south. + + [107] He crossed over to the east bank and went northward, the + cities on his road throwing open their gates to him. With + the exception of the last, Per-nebt-tep-ah [Aphroditopolis], + the modern Atfih opposite Medum, they are difficult to + identify positively. + + [108] _I. e._, Heracleopolis Magna, a very powerful city on the + edge of the western desert, left in the rear on Tafnekht's + expedition up the river. Its king was named Pefaui Bast. Its + modern name is Ahnas. + + [109] _Lit._, "he hath made himself into a tail-in-the-mouth." [!] + + [110] The precise extent of Piankhy's dominion at this time is + uncertain. + + [111] Hur, opposite Beni Hasan. + + [112] The notion intended to be conveyed is that of a dog at heel. + + [113] Oxyrhynkhos itself was already in the hands of Tafnekht; the + Hermopolite nome, including Hur, Nefrus, etc., lay immediately + south of it. + + [114] The pronoun "he" is used much too freely in this inscription: + occasionally it is impossible to decide to whom it refers. + + [115] Hermopolis. + + [116] Libyans, mercenaries or otherwise. The XXIId Dynasty was + probably Libyan, and as will be seen from subsequent notes, + Libyan influence was still strong in the time of Piankhy. + + [117] This would seem to be a quotation taken from some address to + an earlier king. Thothmes III., for instance, attributed his + successes to Amen. + + [118] The great temple of Amen at Karnak. + + [119] Our equivalent term would be "sheet-anchor." + + [120] In Ethiopia. + + [121] The title "chief of the Me" seems to mean "captain of the + Libyan troops." The list contains the names of princes of + Lower Egypt only, with the exception of Nemart of Hermopolis + Magna, in Upper Egypt. + + [122] The feather was a Libyan badge of rank. + + [123] Tafnekht is here given most of his principal titles, including + the sacerdotal ones of high priest of Neith in Sais, and of + Ptah in Memphis. With the rise of Sais, Neith had become the + leading deity of Lower Egypt, ranking even above Ptah. The + priests at Gebel Barkal doubtless took a special pride in the + overthrow of the protege of Neith and Ptah by Piankhy, the + worshiper of Amen. + + [124] Or "beaten sorely and grievously." + + [125] Here should be the numbers of the slain. + + [126] "Khmenu," "Unu," "Hare-city," are all names of Hermopolis + Magna, the capital of Nemart's petty kingdom. + + [127] Evidently a torchlight procession from Karnak to Luxor + (Southern Apt). + + [128] The return procession to Karnak. + + [129] The third month of the season of inundation. Of course a year + would then have elapsed, since the date given in the first + line of the inscription. + + [130] Oxyrhynkhos. + + [131] Tehneh(?) + + [132] Tafnekht, stripped of his grandeur after his defeat at + Heracleopolis, is reduced to the rank of "Chief of the Me + in Sais." + + [133] The first month of the season of inundation, and of the + Egyptian year. + + [134] Hermopolis. + + [135] To be taken of course in a general sense, referring to the + majestic and terrible aspect of the King. + + [136] _I. e._, "It has taken a full year," etc. + + [137] Or, "They were sorely and grievously beaten with blows." + + [138] _I. e._, the King. + + [139] Here there is a lacuna of sixteen short lines in the + inscription. + + [140] Apparently Piankhy is addressing Nemart. + + [141] The meaning is not clear; but there seems to be a reference to + the diminution of the adult population by prolonged wars. + + [142] _Khmenu_ means eight. Thoth, in late times at any rate, + combined the powers of the eight gods who accompanied him. + He was sometimes called "twice great," sometimes "eight times + great" = 2^3, an arithmetical term especially indicated by + the Greek name [Greek: Hermes Trismhegistos]. + + [143] A "jubilee" after a thirty-years' reign; the expression is + therefore equivalent to wishing the King a thirty-years' + reign. The soldiers represent the King as the god Horus come + to claim his own land. + + [144] Music, dancing, etc. + + [145] An oath. + + [146] Karnak. + + [147] The underworld. + + [148] The stars of the northern hemisphere; see Maspero's 'Dawn of + Civilization' p. 94. By Harakhti, the sun is probably meant. + + [149] The mouth of the barrier, _i. e._, the entrance into the + Faiyum. The name El Lahun is derived from Rahent; and the city + Per-sekhem-kheper-ra, "The house of Usorkon I.," must have + been at or close to the modern village of El Lahun. + + [150] Set, the god of physical strength. + + [151] Athet-taui (Lisht?) was the boundary of Upper and Lower Egypt, + and probably lay in both of them. "The gods who are in this + city" of the next paragraph are doubtless kings of the XIIth + Dynasty as presiding deities of the place, this royal + Residence having apparently been founded by Amenenhat I. + Compare p. 5238. + + [152] Ra, the first King of Egypt, was fabled to have resided at + Heliopolis; Shu his son and successor at Memphis. The city is + called sometimes Anbuhez, "white wall," sometimes Men-nefer, + after the pyramid of Pepy I. + + [153] "South of his wall," an epithet of Ptah, god of Memphis. + + [154] It is difficult to see what is meant by this. Possibly + Tafnekht was proposing to bribe the Northern chiefs into + continuing the war, by giving up his recently acquired + claims as suzerain. + + [155] Or "very early." + + [156] Perhaps "Let us put these things at intervals." + + [157] The boats were floating on a level with the top of the quay. + + [158] _I. e._, no single one of the assailants was injured in the + slightest degree. + + [159] Meaning of course "at the boundary between Upper and Lower + Egypt." + + [160] By waving the wand of sanctification therein. + + [161] The sacred name of Memphis, supposed to be the origin of the + name [Greek: hAiguptos]--"Egypt." + + [162] _I. e._, to re-establish the order of the temple services, + etc. + + [163] A chamber set apart for the sacred toilet; see also below, + p. 5290. + + [164] Or "very early." + + [165] Kheraha was on the site of old Cairo, known to the classical + authors as Babylon. The cave mentioned is not now known. + + [166] On, Heliopolis. Here was a sacred well of water ("The Cool + Pool"), supposed to spring from Nu, the primeval waters in + heaven and earth, and not to be derived from Hapi or the Nile. + Tradition relates that it was at this same well, still pointed + out at Matariyeh, that the Blessed Virgin washed the Child on + her arrival in Egypt. + + [167] Or "mishaps." This seems to have been a sort of Te Deum. + + [168] The Benben was a pyramidal stone, sacred to Ra or + representing him. It was shaped like the top of an obelisk. + + [169] The boats in which the Sun god traversed the heavens during + forenoon and afternoon respectively. + + [170] _I. e._, the King. + + [171] Or "very early." + + [172] Athribis. + + [173] The land was divided among kings, nomarchs, and, apparently, + Libyan chiefs entitled to wear a feather. The kings had their + viziers; the nomarchs and chiefs had their subordinate chiefs, + etc. "Royal acquaintances" were persons related to the royal + families. + + [174] _I. e._ the linen was of various degrees of fineness, or as we + also say technically, of various "counts"; meaning that there + are so many threads more or less in any given square of stuff. + + [175] An oath. + + [176] First we have two kings, six nomarchs and high Libyan chiefs; + after these, two under-chiefs are mentioned, and then four + nomarchs in the first and second nomes of Lower Egypt, which + are separated as having belonged to Tafnekht's kingdom. + + [177] Site unknown. + + [178] Tafnekht was on an island in the Mediterranean, and therefore + heard the news of the surrender of the Northern princes only + after some time had elapsed. + + [179] Nubti-Set, the god of valor. Mentu was the god of battle. + + [180] "_Kedt_-weight," really 140 grains. + + [181] _Lit._, "beer-room." + + [182] Or "on the second day." + + [183] As symbols of regal power. + + [184] Perhaps this means ceremonially unclean. + + [185] The first words are lost. The girdle was probably assumed at + about the age of twelve. + + [186] As a rule, each king seems to have built his pyramid in the + desert behind his principal residence. The latter was often + founded by the king, but might serve for some of his + successors, who would then build their pyramids near his. + The pyramid field of Memphis is very ancient, and many of the + earlier kings must have resided there; but curiously enough + the name _Mennefer_, Memphis, is taken from that of the + pyramid of Pepy I., here referred to. + + [187] Perhaps schools of law, etc. + + [188] These quarries, at the modern Turra, have been the source + of fine white limestone down to the present day. They were + exactly opposite Memphis in the eastern hills. + + [189] Probably this means the arrangement of a body-guard or + performance of the ritual for the King's amuletic and + religious protection. + + [190] "The Asiatics who dwell upon the sand" _i. e._, Bedawin. + + [191] Elephantine. + + [192] The Eastern and Western borders of Lower Egypt. + + [193] These names probably mean "the halting-station for the night," + and "the bedchamber of halting-station for the night"; + evidently garrisoned posts on the main desert routes. + + [194] Arertet, Meza, Aam, Wawat, Kaau, were all in Nubia, and at no + great distance from Egypt. The Meza were afterwards regularly + drawn upon for soldiers and police. The Kaau are more + generally called Setu. + + [195] _I. e._, the land of the Libyans. + + [196] "Horus Lord of Truth" was the _Ka_ name of King Sneferu [the + first king of the IVth Dynasty, not much less than 4000 B.C.]. + Probably this expedition went toward the Sinaitic peninsula. + + [197] Sea-coast, perhaps of the Red Sea. + + [198] _Lit._ "made the officership making the standard." + + [199] Or "for the mistress of the pyramid"; _i. e._, for the queen + buried in her husband's pyramid. + + [200] Elephantine. + + [201] The month Epiphi. + + [202] The Nile being low. + + [203] Apparently the passage of the Nile was blocked for boats at + five different places about the first cataract, and Una had + cleared the channel at his own expense as a free service to + the King. + + [204] "Loose," _i. e._, take the bird out of the snare to carry home + to her mother. + + [205] _Kha-kau-ra_, "Glory of the _Kas_ of the Sun," was the + principal name that Usertesen III., following the custom of + the Pharaohs, adopted on his accession to the throne. "Horus, + Divine of Beings," was the separate name for his royal _Ka_ + assumed at the same time. The _Ka_ of a person was his ghostly + Double, before and after death, and to the Egyptian this + shadowy constituent of the whole being had a very distinct + existence. + + [206] _I. e._, Upper and Lower Egypt. + + [207] To the Egyptian the world was inhabited by nine races of men. + + [208] Sekhemt, a goddess represented with the head of a lioness, the + embodiment of the devastating power of the Sun and of the + wrath of Ra. See p. 5240. + + [209] "Pat" seems to be a name for mankind, or perhaps for the + inhabitants of Egypt. + + [210] We speak of the "head" as the seat of the intellect; to the + Egyptians it was the "heart." + + [211] Ancestor worship being universal in Egypt, the endowments for + funerary services and offerings for the deceased kings must + have been very large. + + [212] The "Double Crown" was that of Upper and Lower Egypt. + + [213] The Reed and the Hornet were the symbols of Upper and Lower + Egypt respectively. + + [214] The "Black Land" is the alluvial of Egypt, the "Red Land" is + its sandy border. + + [215] "Rekhyt," like "Pat," seems to be a designation of the + Egyptians. To "open the throat" of a man is to give him life + by enabling him to breathe. + + [216] A "good burial" after a "long old age" was a characteristic + wish of the Egyptians. + + [217] The Aten is the name of the visible sun rather than of an + abstract Sun god. It is pictured as a radiant disk, the rays + terminating in human hands, often resting beneficently on the + figure of the worshiper, bestowing upon him symbols of life, + or graciously accepting his offerings. + + [218] See note, p. 5303. The word occurs in these translations + often, but not with any very definite meaning. + + [219] The Nile here stands for the main sources of water: that in + heaven giving rain on the mountains and fields, that in the + "deep" or "underworld" giving rise to springs, wells, and + rivers. + + [220] "Fairest of the Forms of Ra, the Only One of Ra," is the title + which Akhenaten took when first he ascended the throne, and + which he continued to bear all through his reign, + notwithstanding his reform. + + [221] Amen was god of Thebes; and under the XVIIIth Dynasty, when + Thebes was the capital of the whole country and Egypt was at + the height of her power, Amen took the first place in the + national pantheon. He was then identified with Ra the Sun god, + perhaps to make him more acceptable to the nation at large. + Hence a hymn to Amen Ra was practically a hymn to the supreme + Sun god. + + [222] Compare the seven-line stanza in the inscription of Una, + above, p. 5298. + + [223] Mezau and Punt were on and about the east coast of Africa, + in Nubia and Somaliland. + + [224] The supreme god was surrounded by eight other gods, and + together they formed an Ennead, or group of nine. + + [225] Ptah was the great god of Memphis, the ancient capital of + the country. + + [226] Or the "Land of the Gods," a name for the lands of the East, + and especially for "Punt." + + [227] _I. e.,_ the kings, who were always reckoned divine, and as + ruling by divine right. + + [228] _I. e._, "make holiday." + + [229] Title of a priest of Amen. + + [230] God of the setting sun. + + [231] An expression of utter bewilderment; _lit._, "I know not the + estate which is upon me." + + [232] To these thinkers, thirst (since the presence of water would + induce putrefaction of the body) and suffocation were the + chief material sufferings of the dead. + + [233] From this curious expression it is evident that the Egyptians + considered it necessary that a deity should be visibly + represented by statue or animal, in order that he should + receive the offerings presented to him. They never personified + a god of Death, only a god of the Dead. + + [234] The sunshine may be taken for granted in Egypt. + + [235] Our "on the verge of intoxication" is an almost identical + expression, but without a poetical significance. + + [236] A slight correction of the original would give "in captivity" + (kidnapped). + + [237] The advantages of the life beyond seem to consist in being + like gods and in full communion with the greatest of them, Ra. + + [238] This closing speech of the soul is barely intelligible. + + [239] Or perhaps "my kindred." + + [240] Or what is "unprofitable" or "treason." + + [241] This and the two following asseverations seem rather to read: + "I have not caught animals by a bait of their herbage." + "I have not trapped birds by a bait of 'gods' bones.'" + "I have not caught fish by a bait of fishes' bodies." + + [242] _Lit._, "in its moment." + + [243] _I. e._, "I am not hot of speech." + + [244] Compare the story of Sanehat (above, p. 5237 _seq._) for an + indication of the place which Amenemhat retained for himself + in the government of the kingdom during the joint rule. "He + [Usertesen] curbs the nations while his father remains in his + palace, and he [Usertesen] accomplisheth for him what is + commanded him." + + [245] Compare 2 Timothy ii. 15. + + [246] "To exist" often means to have a solid position. + + [247] A proverbial word for nullity, worthlessness. + + [248] Egypt, the lassoed ox, helpless in the hands of its + oppressors, is now free, but fails to appreciate its + good fortune. + + [249] Perhaps this means that Amenemhat lay still but ready to rise + instantly and fight. + + [250] "_Me voila!_"--after drawing the picture of his helpless + state, surprised alone in the night. + + [251] _I. e._, "be thy counselor." + + [252] A difficult passage. + + [253] Meaning doubtful. + + [254] _I. e._, upon others in consequence of me. + + [255] Elephantine and Natho are often named as the extreme north and + south points of Egypt; compare the Biblical "from Dan even + unto Beersheba." + + [256] Or perhaps "its centre." + + [257] _I. e._, "surpassed the record," or perhaps "reached the + boundaries." + + [258] The kings of the XIIth dynasty paid much attention to + agriculture and irrigation. Barley was the representative + cereal, Nepra was the Corn goddess. In the following clause + the Nile is represented as a prisoner in the King's power: + or possibly as begging him "_for_ every hollow" to enter + and inundate it. + + [259] _I. e._, "obedient to his commands," a common figure. The + Wawat and Mezay were in Nubia, the Setiu in the Northeast + to Syria. + + [260] The rendering of this section is very doubtful. + + [261] Or, "and the seal to its proper place, even as the + acclamations in the bark of Ra ordain for thee." Ra the + Sun god was the royal god essentially, and his approval + was doubtless required to establish a claim to the throne. + He was believed to travel through the sky in a boat. + + [262] _I. e._, "Tell us thy name, thou who dost not answer + when spoken to," or "Let thy name be henceforth + 'Mum-when-spoken-to.'" + + [263] _I. e._, the proverbs; but possibly this expression may mean + "on his death-bed." + + [264] _I. e._, obey them strictly. + + [265] _I. e._, they were pleasing to them. + + [266] Arrived at his destination; _i. e._, died. + + [267] =Our "Finis." + + [268] From the last paragraph of the book, we learn that he had + reached the Egyptian limit of long life, viz., 110 years: + the figure is doubtless to be taken in a general sense. + + [269] _I. e._, the speaker or writer. + + [270] The word for successor seems to read, "staff of old age"; but + this is not quite certain. Very likely the son would take over + the active work of the viziership, while his father gave him + counsel: this was frequently done in the sovereignty. + + [271] Or those who are listened to. + + [272] _I. e._, that the ancient rules may be observed by the present + generation of the King's subjects. The first kings of Egypt + were supposed to have been the gods. + + [273] This high title occurs also in the Inscription of Una, and + frequently in the Piankhy Stela, where it has been translated + "nomarch." + + [274] "The god" is probably here the King. The curious title "father + of the god" is well known; it would seem to represent a person + who stood ceremonially in the relation of father to a god or + person. Thus in later times we have "fathers" of the god Amen, + etc. But at this period "the god" seems to have meant the + King, and the "father of the god" may have been the guardian + or tutor of the King. Some may even see in it the expression + of an actual paternal relationship, as the principles of the + succession to the Egyptian throne are not understood. + + [275] Rather, green feldspar, which was largely used as an ornament. + + [276] Perhaps a professional orator, sophist, or the like. + + [277] _I. e._, when he is at his occupation; in the heat of + argument. + + [278] Perhaps "bold of heart." + + [279] Or, "it shall not hurt thee." + + [280] This is very uncertain. Its morality hardly accords with that + of the rest of the book. Perhaps the youth is recommended to + wait, even when he is called ignorant, until his heart has + obtained full command of his knowledge and can successfully + employ it in his argument. + + [281] As we speak of "the education of a gentleman." + + [282] Flatter (?). + + [283] A frequent phrase, but the meaning of it is obscure. + + [284] _I. e._, "in a gentlemanly manner"; but the last half of this + section is obscure. + + [285] A remarkable word used here in regard to the contest between + justice and injustice; in the next phrase there is a reference + to the myth of Osiris and Set, in which good, in the persons + of Osiris and Horus, survives evil in the person of Set. + + [286] This seems to refer to the profession of brigand and pillager. + + [287] By God's favor. + + [288] Perhaps a gesture expressing humble acquiescence. + + [289] _Lit._, _Ka_ in Egyptian. + + [290] As uncertain as groping in the dark. + + [291] Be not sure of the childless man's estate. He can take a + second wife and disappoint you. + + [292] The time appointed to it for its own activity, or as we should + say, its "day." + + [293] Room is made for him. + + [294] _Lit._, belly. + + [295] Salary in kind. + + [296] The second text gives "Let thy face [be shining] when thou + makest a feast. Verily that which cometh out of the store doth + not enter [?], but bread is apportioned; he that is niggardly + of face is remorseful; [?] his belly is empty. He that + remembereth a man is kind unto him in the years after the + staff [of power?]." The last expression may mean "after the + loss of authority." + + [297] Variant "beseech." The meaning of the section is not certain. + + [298] To be in an ambiguous position. (?) + + [299] Or "then all thy ways shall have the lead." + + [300] _Ba_, in Egyptian: the person who has learned good conduct + (the ignorant cannot) pours benediction upon the soul of him + who set the example of it, when he finds himself profited on + earth by the practice thereof. + + [301] The word presupposes education, as often. + + [302] A frequent collocation of words; as for instance, following + the mention of a royal person. + + [303] _Amakh._ See note to Section 41. + + [304] The words "a son" seem inserted. + + [305] Or "is fit only for hard manual labor." + + [306] _I. e._, one of the loyal adherents of Horus the son of Osiris + in his war against the evil Set. + + [307] The blessed state of well-earned repose and rewards, both in + this world and in the next, after faithful service. + + [308] This is the reading furnished by the fragments in the British + Museum for an unintelligible passage in the Prisse. + + [309] "Them" is difficult to assign to any antecedent definitely; + perhaps "without their advice how to behave and employ the + wealth" is meant. + + [310] Or "those who are listened to," "instructors." + + [311] This was the ideal length of life in Egypt. The figure must + not be taken too literally. + + [312] See note to Section 41, previous page. + + [313] That is, for the government. + + [314] _Lit._, doorkeepers--_i. e._, of the official cabin. + + + + +JOSEPH VON EICHENDORFF + +(1788-1857) + + +The poetry of the Romantic School is the poetry of longing. It is +filled with a spirit of passionate yearning that gives to it its +pathos, and makes each poem seem the expression of an undefined but +ardent wish. The poet's soul is reaching out for that which no longer +is, but which has been and may be again. Novalis has symbolized this +yearning in the quest for the mysterious "blue flower." Men longed for +the glories of the past, and among the knights and minstrels of +mediaeval court and castle they sought for that blue flower whose odor +is love. In the bleak unfriendliness of the foggy Northern clime, the +sunny expansive beauty of the South, where the magnificence of ancient +ages still shimmered through a mellow haze, drew all sensitive hearts +to Italy. Goethe felt the strong attraction, and fled without +leave-taking across the Alps, to recover his genius under Italian +skies. He gave to this deep and universal longing for Italy its +classic incarnation in the pathetic figure of Mignon. In the very year +in which Goethe returned from Rome, Joseph von Eichendorff was born. +He was the last and most ardent of the Romanticists, and all the +restless longing of those times found in him its typical interpreter. + +Eichendorff was born on the family estate at Lubowitz in Silesia, on +March 10th, 1788. He was brought up in the Roman Catholic faith, to +which thereafter so many of his brother poets were converted. He +studied law in Halle, Heidelberg, and Paris. At Heidelberg he took his +degree, and at Heidelberg he came definitely under the Romantic +influence through his association with Arnim, Brentano, and Goerres. In +Vienna, where he spent three years, he stood in close relations with +Schlegel. His qualities of mind were essentially South German, for he +was an Austrian by birth. He was on the point of entering the Austrian +service when the famous appeal of February 3d, 1813, from the King of +Prussia, roused every German patriot. Eichendorff enlisted as a +volunteer in the Prussian army. Throughout that thrilling campaign of +the wars for freedom he fought in the cause of the wider Fatherland. +He became an officer in the "Luetzow Corps," which Koerner has made +famous in his verse. Scarcely had he obtained his dismissal after the +first peace of Paris, when the news of Napoleon's return from Elba +summoned him to arms again. In 1816, however, he began his career, +after a brilliant showing before the examiners, as an officer in the +civil service of Prussia. Henceforth his life was outwardly +uneventful. He married soon after his appointment. Intellectually he +maintained relations with the finest spirits of his land and time. +Having served the State in various capacities for more than a quarter +of a century, he was dismissed at his own request in 1844, and retired +to private life. He died at Neisse on November 26th, 1857. Heine had +died early in the preceding year. With Eichendorff the last great poet +of the Romantic School passed away. + +It would be fruitless to catalogue the works of Eichendorff that are +no longer read. His first independent effort was published at the end +of the Napoleonic campaign, under the title of 'Ahnung und Gegenwart' +(Presage and Presence). Stories, comedies, tragedies, and excellent +translations from the Spanish followed, until now his works fill ten +volumes; but of these, only his poems and his tale 'Out of the Life of +a Good-for-Nothing' retain their full vitality to-day. + +His poems possess enduring beauty. They are full of that profound +longing for purer days and fairer realms, and of that dreamy lyric +charm, that makes men young again. There is a breath in them of a +vanished time; they sing of a golden age in which all men were idle +and all women pure. The music of his verse has attracted many +composers, from Mendelssohn, his friend, to Robert Franz in our own +day. Eichendorff looked down upon the rhetorical ideality of Schiller +and the symbolic naturalism of Goethe. He sang of the soul and its +homesickness; of its longing for a lost inheritance. + +The delightful 'Life of a Good-for-Nothing' appeared in 1824, and it +remains to-day one of the most popular tales in German literature. It +is the apotheosis of idleness and vagabondism. "In this little book," +says Brandes, "all the old charms of romance are shut up, as in a +cage, to make music for us. There is the odor of the woods and the +song of birds, the longing for travel and the joys of wandering." The +book describes the vagabond life of a child of genius, idle with a +hundred aptitudes, pure with a hundred temptations, and amid a hundred +dangers careless and irresponsible. This Good-for-Nothing illustrates +in his roving life the romantic quest of the "blue flower." He lives +for pure pleasures and the joys of unremunerative art; his is the +infinite longing which never can be stilled, but only rendered +endurable by poetry, by music, and by moonlight on forest, field, and +stream. The book is an exquisite idyl; it is full of strange +adventures and all the romantic machinery of singular disguises, lofty +and secluded castles, and mysterious beauties who throw flowers from +shaded balconies; and yet it is essentially idyllic, and the beautiful +lyrics which are scattered through its pages create an atmosphere of +eternal summer in which we are made to forget the work-a-day world +where men earn their daily bread and feel the salutary pressure of +duty. + +Eichendorff himself was a faithful public servant, and in the 'Life of +a Good-for-Nothing' we have the confession only of what the author +perhaps thought he would have liked to be, rather than of what he was. +He was reverent and pious, and one of the most evenly balanced minds +in all that circle of madcap poets. He has told us of those early days +of the Romantic School and of the deep thrills which agitated the +entire German people when Schelling, Novalis, the Schlegels, and Tieck +began their life work in literature. And this work was done in the +days when the sword of Napoleon hung suspended over Germany: in days +when even the poet who was to sing the praises of the _dolce far +nicnte_ of Good-for-Nothingness was ready to give three years of his +life for the defense of his native land. So far had literature and +life lost sight of each other, and the men of vigorous action and +solid achievement still sang sweetly of the blue flower and of the +pleasures of idleness, leaving behind them a body of literature which, +however unreal, will not lose its power to soothe and charm. + + + +FROM 'OUT OF THE LIFE OF A GOOD-FOR-NOTHING' + + +The wheel of my father's mill rushed and roared again right merrily, +the melting snow trickled steadily down from the roof, the sparrows +twittered and bustled about. I sat on the door-sill and rubbed the +sleep out of my eyes; I felt so comfortable in the warm sunshine. Just +then my father came out of the house. He had worked since daybreak in +the mill, and had his tasseled cap awry upon his head. To me he +said:--"You Good-for-Nothing! There you are sunning yourself again and +stretching and straining your bones tired, and leave me to do all the +work alone. I cannot feed you here any longer. Spring is at the door; +go out into the world and earn your own bread." "Now," said I, "if I +am a Good-for-Nothing, well and good; I will go out into the world and +seek my fortune." And really I was very well pleased, for it had +shortly before occurred to me too to travel, when I heard the +yellow-hammer, who always sung his note in autumn and winter so +plaintively at our window, now calling again in the beautiful spring +so proudly and merrily from the trees. I went accordingly into the +house and got my violin, which I played quite cleverly, down from the +wall; my father gave me besides a few groschens to take along, and so +I sauntered out through the long village. It gave me in truth a +secret pleasure when I saw all my old acquaintances and comrades, +right and left, just as yesterday, and day before yesterday, and +always, going out to work, to dig and to plow; while I thus wandered +out into the free world. I called out to the poor people on all sides +proudly and contentedly, Adieu! but nobody paid very much attention to +it. In my soul it seemed to me like an eternal Sunday. And when I at +last came out into the open fields, I took up my dear violin and +played and sang as I walked along the highway.... + +When I presently looked about, a fine traveling carriage came up quite +near to me, that may have been for some time driving along behind me +without my having noticed it, since my heart was so full of music; for +it went along quite slowly, and two ladies put their heads out of the +carriage and listened to me. The one was particularly beautiful and +younger than the other, but really both of them pleased me. When I now +ceased singing, the elder one had the driver stop and spoke to me +kindly: "Ah, you happy fellow, you know how to sing very pretty +songs." To which I, not at all backward, answered, "If it please your +Excellency, I may have some that are prettier still." Thereupon she +asked me again, "Where then are you wandering so early in the +morning?" Then I was ashamed that I did not know, myself, and said +boldly, "To Vienna." Thereupon both spoke together in a foreign +language that I did not understand. The younger one shook her head +several times, but the other laughed continuously and finally called +out to me, "Spring up behind us: we are also going to Vienna." Who was +happier than I! I made a bow, and at a jump was on behind the +carriage, the coachman cracked his whip, and we flew along over the +glistening road, so that the wind whistled about my hat. + +Behind me disappeared village, gardens, and church towers; before +appeared new villages, castles, and mountains. Below me grain fields, +copse, and meadows flew in many colors past; above me were countless +larks in the blue air. I was ashamed to cry aloud, but inwardly I +exulted, and stamped and danced about on the footboard of the +carriage, so that I had nearly lost my violin which I held under my +arm. As the sun, however, rose continually higher, and heavy white +noonday clouds came up round about the horizon, and everything in the +air and on the broad plains became so empty and close and still over +the gently waving grain fields,--then for the first time came into my +mind my village, and my father, and our mill, and how it was so +comfortable and cool there by the shady pond, and that now everything +lay so far, far behind me. I felt so strangely, and as if I must turn +back again. I put my violin in between my coat and waistcoat, sat down +full of thought upon the footboard, and fell asleep. + +When I opened my eyes the carriage stood still under tall +linden-trees, behind which a broad stairway led up between columns +into a splendid castle. On one side, through the trees, I saw the +towers of Vienna. The ladies, it appeared, had long since got out, and +the horses were unharnessed. I was much frightened when I found myself +all at once alone. As I sprang quickly up into the castle, I heard +somebody above laughing out of the window. + +In this castle it fared strangely with me. In the first place, as I +was looking about in the wide cool hall, some one tapped me with a +stick upon the shoulder. I turned quickly, and there stood a great +gentleman in court dress, a broad scarf of gold and silk hanging down +to his hips, with a silver-topped staff in his hand, and an +extraordinarily long, hooked, princely nose, big and splendid as a +puffed-up turkey, who asked me what I wanted there. I was quite taken +aback, and for fear and astonishment could not bring forth a sound. +Thereupon more servants came running up and down the stairs, who said +nothing at all, but looked at me from head to foot. Straightway came a +lady's-maid (as I afterward learned she was) right up to me and said +that I was a charming fellow, and her ladyship desired to ask me +whether I would take service here as a gardener. I put my hand to my +waistcoat. My couple of groschens, God knows, must have sprung out of +my pocket in my dancing about in the carriage, and were gone. I had +nothing but my violin-playing, for which, moreover, the gentleman with +the staff, as he said to me curtly, would not give a farthing. In my +anguish of heart I accordingly said yes to the lady's-maid, my eyes +still directed from one side to the uncomfortable figure which +continually, like the pendulum of a steeple clock, moved up and down +the hall, and just then again came majestically and awfully up out of +the background. Last of all the head gardener finally came, growled +something to himself about rabble and country bumpkins, and led me to +the garden, preaching to me on the way a long sermon--how I should be +sober and industrious, should not rove about in the world, should not +devote myself to unprofitable arts and useless stuff: in that case I +might in time be of some account. There were still more very pretty, +well-put, useful maxims, only since then I have forgotten almost all +of them again. On the whole, I did not really at all rightly know how +everything had come about. I only said yes continually to everything, +for I was like a bird whose wings had been wet. Thus I was, God be +praised, in possession of my daily bread. + +In the garden, life went on finely. I had every day my warm food in +plenty, and more money than I needed for wine,--only, alas! I had +quite a good deal to do. The temples, too, the arbors, and the +beautiful green walks,--all that would have pleased me very well, if I +had only been able to walk placidly about and converse rationally, +like the ladies and gentlemen who came there every day. As often as +the head gardener was away and I was alone, I immediately pulled out +my short tobacco pipe, sat down and thought out pretty polite +speeches, such as I would use to entertain the young and beautiful +lady who brought me along with her into the castle, if I were a +cavalier and walked about with her. Or I lay down on my back on sultry +afternoons, when everything was so still that one could hear the bees +buzzing, and watched the clouds as they floated along to my own +village, and the grasses and flowers as they moved hither and thither, +and thought of the lady; and then it often happened too that the +beautiful lady, with her guitar or a book, really went through the +garden at a distance, as gently, as lofty and gracious, as an angel, +so that I did not rightly know whether I dreamed or was awake.... + +Close by the castle garden ran the highway, only separated from it by +a high wall. A very neat little toll-keeper's house with a red tile +roof was built there, and behind it was a little flower garden, +inclosed with a gay-colored picket fence, which, through a break in +the wall of the castle garden, bordered on its shadiest and most +concealed part. The toll-keeper had just died, who had occupied it +all. Early one morning while I still lay in the soundest sleep, the +secretary from the castle came to me and called me in all haste to the +head steward. I dressed myself quickly and sauntered along behind the +airy secretary, who on the way, now here, now there, broke off a +flower and stuck it on the lapel of his coat, now brandished his cane +skillfully in the air, and talked to the wind all sorts of matters of +which I understood nothing, since my eyes and ears were still full of +sleep. When I entered the office, where it was not yet wholly light, +the steward looked at me from behind a tremendous inkstand and piles +of paper and books and a portly wig, like an owl from her nest, and +began, "What's your name? Where do you come from? Can you write, read, +and cipher?" When I had answered this affirmatively, he added, "Well, +her ladyship designs to offer you, in consideration of your good +behavior and your particular merits, the vacant toll-keeper's +position." I went over quickly in my mind my previous behavior and +manners, and I was obliged to confess that I found at the end, myself, +that the steward was right. And so I was, then, really toll-keeper, +before I was aware of it. + +I moved now immediately into my new dwelling, and in a short time was +settled. I found a number of things that the late toll-keeper had left +behind, among others a splendid red dressing-gown with yellow dots, +green slippers, a tasseled cap, and some pipes with long stems. All +these things I had wished for when I was still at home, when I always +saw our pastor going about so comfortably. The whole day (I had +nothing further to do) I sat there on the bench before my house in +dressing-gown and cap, smoking tobacco out of the longest pipe that I +had found among those left by the late toll-keeper, and looked at the +people on the highway as they went to and fro, and drove and rode +about. I only wished all the time that people too out of my own +village, who always said that nothing would come of me all the days of +my life, might come by and see me. The dressing-gown was very becoming +to me, and in point of fact all of it pleased me very well. So I sat +there and thought of all sorts of things: how the beginning is always +hard, how a higher mode of life is nevertheless very comfortable; and +secretly came to the decision henceforth to give up all traveling +about, to save money, too, like others, and in good time surely to +amount to something in the world. In the mean time, however, with all +my decisions, cares, and business, I by no manner of means forgot the +beautiful lady. + +The potatoes and other vegetables that I found in my little garden I +threw away, and planted it entirely with the choicest flowers; at +which the janitor from the castle, with the big princely nose, who +since I lived here often came to me and had become my intimate +friend, looked askance and apprehensively at me, and regarded me as +one whom sudden fortune had made mad. But I did not allow this to +disturb me, for not far from me in the manor garden I heard low +voices, among which I thought to recognize that of my beautiful lady, +although on account of the thick shrubbery I could see nobody. Then I +bound every day a nosegay of the most beautiful flowers that I had, +climbed every evening when it was dark over the wall, and placed it on +a stone table which stood in the middle of an arbor, and every evening +when I brought the new bouquet the old one was gone from the table.... + +I continually felt as I always feel when spring is at hand,--so +restless and glad without knowing why, as if a piece of great good +fortune or something else extraordinary awaited me. The hateful +accounts, in particular, would no longer get on at all; and when the +sunshine through the chestnut-tree before the window fell green-golden +upon the figures, and added them up so nimbly from "amount brought +forward" to "balance," and then up and down again, very strange +thoughts came to me, so that I often became quite confused and +actually could not count up to three. For the eight appeared always to +me like the stout, tightly laced lady with the broad hat that I knew, +and the unlucky seven was wholly like a guide-post always pointing +backward, or a gallows. The nine however played the greatest pranks, +in that often, before I was aware of it, it stood itself as a six +merrily on its head; while the two looked on so cunningly, like an +interrogation point; as if it would ask:--"What shall be the outcome +of all this in the end, you poor naught? Without her, this slender +one-and-all, you will always be nothing!" + +Sitting outside before the door, too, no longer pleased me. I took a +footstool out with me, in order to make myself more comfortable, and +stretched out my feet upon it, and I mended an old parasol of the +toll-keeper's and held it against the sun above me, like a Chinese +summer-house. But it did not at all avail. It seemed to me as I sat +thus, and smoked and speculated, that my legs gradually became longer +from very weariness, and my nose grew from idleness, as I looked down +on it for hours at a time. And when many a time before daybreak an +extra post came by, and I stepped half asleep out into the cool air, +and a pretty little face, of which in the dim light only the sparkling +eyes were to be seen, bent with curiosity out of the carriage and +gave me pleasantly a good-morning, and in the village round about the +cocks crew so freshly out over the gently waving grain fields, and +between the morning clouds high in the heavens already soared a few +too early awakened larks, and the postilion took his post-horn and +drove on, and blew and blew--then I stood for a long time still and +looked after the coach, and it seemed to me as if nothing else would +do, except to go along with them, far, far out into the world. + +The nosegays I always placed, in the mean time, as soon as the sun +went down, on the stone table in the dim arbor. But that was just it. +That was all over now, since that evening; no one troubled himself +about them. As often as I, early in the morning, looked after them, +the flowers still lay there just as they did the day before, and +looked at me in real sorrow with their wilted hanging heads, and the +dew-drops standing on them as if they wept. That grieved me very much. +I bound no more nosegays. In my garden the weeds might now flourish as +they would, and the flowers I let stand and grow until the wind blew +away the leaves. My heart was just as waste and wild and +disordered.... + +In these critical times it came to pass that once when I was lying in +the window at home and looking gloomily out into the empty air, the +lady's-maid from the castle came tripping along the road. When she saw +me, she turned quickly toward me and stood still at the window. "His +Lordship returned yesterday from his journey," said she briskly. "Is +it so?" I replied in astonishment, for for several weeks past I had +not concerned myself about anything, and did not even know that his +Lordship was away. "Then his daughter, the gracious young lady, has +also had, I am sure, a very pleasant time." The lady's-maid looked at +me oddly from top to toe, so that I really was forced to consider +whether I had not said something stupid. "You don't know anything at +all," she finally said, and turned up her little nose. "Now," she +continued, "there is going to be a dance and masquerade this evening +at the castle in his Lordship's honor. My mistress is also to go in +mask, as a flower-girl--do you quite understand?--as a flower-girl. +Now my mistress has noticed that you have particularly beautiful +flowers in your garden." "That is strange," thought I to myself, +"since there are now scarcely any more flowers to be seen on account +of the weeds." But she continued: "As my mistress needs beautiful +flowers for her costume, but quite fresh ones that have just come out +of the flower-bed, you are to bring her some, and wait with them this +evening, when it has grown dark, under the great pear-tree in the +castle garden. She will come and get the flowers." + +I was quite dumbfounded by this news, and in my rapture ran from the +window out to the lady's-maid. + +"Pah! the nasty dressing-gown!" she cried out when she saw me all at +once out-of-doors in my costume. That vexed me. I did not wish to be +behind her in gallantry, and made a few pretty motions to catch her +and kiss her. But unfortunately the dressing-gown, which was much too +long for me, got tangled up at the same time under my feet and I fell +my whole length on the ground. When I pulled myself together again the +lady's-maid was far away, and I heard her still laughing in the +distance; so that she had to hold her sides. + +Now, however, I had something to think about and to make me happy. +_She_ still thought of me and of my flowers! I went into my garden and +quickly pulled all the weeds out of the flower-beds, and threw them +high up over my head away into the glistening air, as if I drew out +with the roots every bit of evil and melancholy. The roses were again +like _her_ mouth; the sky-blue morning-glories like her eyes; the +snow-white lily with its sorrowfully drooping head looked quite like +her. I laid them all carefully in a little basket together. + +It was a still, beautiful evening, with not a cloud in the heavens. A +few stars were already out in the sky; from afar came the sound of the +Danube over the fields; in the tall trees in the castle garden near me +joyfully sang innumerable birds. Ah, I was so happy! + +When night finally came on, I took my little basket over my arm and +set out on my way to the great garden. In my basket all lay so bright +and pretty together--white, red, blue, and so fragrant that my heart +fairly laughed when I looked in. + +Full of happy thoughts, I went along in the beautiful moonlight +through the quiet paths tidily strewed with sand, over the little +white bridges, under which the swans sat sleeping upon the water, and +past the pretty arbors and summer-houses. I had soon found the great +pear-tree, for it was the same one under which I had lain on sultry +afternoons when I was still a gardener. + +Here it was so lonely and dark. Only a tall aspen continually +whispered with its silver leaves. From the castle sounded now and then +the dance music. At times I heard, too, in the garden human voices, +which often came quite near to me, and then all at once it was again +perfectly still. + +My heart beat fast. A strange feeling of dread came over me, as if I +intended to steal from somebody. I stood for a long time stock still, +leaning against the tree and listened on all sides; but as nobody +came, I could no longer endure it. I hung my basket on my arm and +climbed quickly up into the pear-tree, in order to breathe again in +the open air.... + +I now directed my eyes immovably toward the castle, for a circle of +torches below on the steps of the entrance threw a strange light +there, over the sparkling windows and far out into the garden. It was +the servants, who were just then serenading their young master and +mistress. In the midst of them, splendidly dressed like a minister of +state, stood the porter before a music stand, working hard on his +bassoon. + +Just as I had seated myself aright in order to listen to the beautiful +serenade, all at once the doors opened, up on the balcony of the +castle. A tall gentleman, handsome and stately in his uniform and with +many glittering stars on his breast, stepped out upon the balcony, +leading by the hand--the beautiful young lady in a dress all of white, +like a lily in the night or as if the moon passed across the clear +firmament. + +I could not turn my glance from the place, and garden, trees, and +fields vanished from my senses; as she, so wondrously illuminated by +the torches, stood there tall and slender, and now talked pleasantly +with the handsome officer and then nodded kindly down to the +musicians. The people below were beside themselves with joy, and I too +could not restrain myself at last, and joined in the cheers with all +my might. + +As she however soon afterward again disappeared from the balcony, and +below one torch after the other went out and the music stands were +taken away, and the garden now round about also became dark again and +rustled as before,--for the first time I noticed all this,--then it +fell all at once upon my heart that it was really only the aunt who +had sent for me with the flowers, and that the beautiful lady did not +think of me at all and was long since married, and that I myself was a +great fool. + +All of this plunged me truly into an abyss of reflection. I wrapped +myself up like a hedgehog in the stings of my own thoughts; from the +castle the dance music came more rarely across, the clouds wandered +lonely along over the dark garden. And so I sat up in the tree, like a +night owl, all night long in the ruins of my happiness. + +The cool morning air waked me finally from my dreamings. I was fairly +astonished when I looked all at once about me. Music and dance was +long over, and in the castle and round about the castle, on the lawn, +and the stone steps, and the columns, everything looked so still and +cool and solemn; only the fountain before the entrance plashed +solitarily along. Here and there in the twigs near me the birds were +already awakening and shaking their bright feathers; and while they +stretched their little wings they looked with curiosity and +astonishment at their strange bedfellow. The joyous beaming rays of +morning sparkled along over the garden upon my breast. + +Then I straightened myself out up in my tree, and for the first time +for a long while, once more looked fairly out into the land, and saw +how a few ships were already sailing down the Danube between the +vineyards, and how the still empty highways swung themselves like +bridges across the glistening country, far out over the mountains and +valleys. + +I do not know how it came about, but all at once my old desire to +travel seized hold of me again: all the old sadness and joy and great +anticipation. It came into my mind, at the same time, how the +beautiful lady up in the castle was sleeping among the flowers and +under silken coverlets, and an angel was sitting beside her on the bed +in the stillness of the morning.--"No," I cried out, "I must go away +from here, and on and on, as far as the sky is blue!" + +And at this I took my basket and threw it high into the air, so that +it was very pretty to see how the flowers lay gayly round about in the +twigs and on the greensward below. Then I climbed down quickly and +went through the quiet garden to my dwelling. Often indeed I stopped +still at many a place where I had once seen her, or where lying in the +shade I had thought of her. + +In and about my house everything still looked just as I had left it +yesterday. The garden was plundered and bare; in my room inside, the +great account-book still lay open; my violin, which I had almost +wholly forgotten, hung covered with dust on the wall. A morning beam, +however, from the window opposite fell gleaming across the strings. +That struck a true accord within my heart. "Yes," I said, "do thou +come here, thou faithful instrument! Our kingdom is not of this +world!" + +And so I took the violin from the wall, left the account-book, +dressing-gown, slippers, pipes, and parasol lying, and wandered, as +poor as I had come, out of my little house away on the glistening +highway. + +I still often looked back. A strange feeling had taken possession of +me. I was so sad and yet again so thoroughly joyous, like a bird +escaping from its cage. And when I had gone a long way I took up my +violin, out there in the free air, and sang. + +The castle, the garden, and the towers of Vienna had already +disappeared behind me in the fragrance of morning; above me exulted +innumerable larks high in the air. Thus I went between the green +mountains and past cheerful cities and villages down toward Italy. + + Translation of William H. Carpenter. + + + +SEPARATION + + + Brown was the heather, + The sky was blue; + We sat together + Where flowers grew. + + Is this the thrilling + Nightingale's beat? + Are larks still trilling + Their numbers sweet? + + I spend the hours + Exiled from thee; + Spring has brought flowers, + But none for me. + + Translated for 'A Library of the World's Best Literature,' + by Charles Harvey Genung. + + + +LORELEI + + + 'Tis very late, 'tis growing cold; + Alone thou ridest through the wold? + The way is long, there's none to see, + Ah, lovely maid, come follow me. + + "I know men's false and guileful art, + And grief long since has rent my heart. + I hear the huntsman's bugle there: + Oh fly,--thou know'st me not,--beware!" + + So richly is the steed arrayed, + So wondrous fair the youthful maid, + I know thee now--too late to fly! + Thou art the witch, the Lorelei. + + Thou know'st me well,--my lonely shrine + Still frowns in silence on the Rhine; + 'Tis very late, 'tis growing cold,-- + Thou com'st no more from out the wold! + + Translated for 'A Library of the World's Best Literature,' + by Charles Harvey Genung. + + + + +[Illustration: GEORGE ELIOT.] + +GEORGE ELIOT + +(1819-1880) + +BY CHARLES WALDSTEIN + + +To George Eliot will always have to be assigned a prominent place in +the history of the literature of the nineteenth century as a foremost +novelist, poet, and social philosopher. + +Mary Ann, or, as she subsequently spelt her Christian name, Marian, +Evans was born at South Farm, a mile from Griff, in the parish of +Calton in Warwickshire, on November 22d, 1819. Her father, the +prototype of Adam Bede, was Robert Evans, of Welsh origin; who started +life as a carpenter, but soon became a land agent in Warwickshire. +This position implies great responsibilities, and demands thorough +business capacities as well as firmness and trustworthiness of +character, in his relations to his employers as well as his +subordinates. He was intrusted with the management of the extensive +estates of five great noblemen and land-owners in the county of +Warwickshire. He was thus a man of considerable importance and power +in the country, and would hold a social position ranking with the +highest professional classes of the neighborhood. + +This position of her father gave her the opportunity of gaining +considerable insight into the lives and characters of English people +of every class in the country, and from its neutral height between the +great landlord and the farmer, down to the farm laborer, she could +command the horizon line of all these lives, realize their habits, +their aspirations and sufferings, and command its extent as well as +its limitations. The country, the fields, the garden about Griff +House, where her childhood was spent, as well as the village with its +inhabitants,--with whom, through her mother as well as her father, she +came in contact,--all stimulated her loving and sympathetic +observation and formed that background of experience in the youthful +mind, out of which subsequently rose, with strong spontaneity and +truthful precision of design, the characters and scenes of her novels. +They will ever remain the classical expositions of English provincial +life in literature. The upright strength and pertinacity of her +characters, as well as the insight into practical life and the life of +men, were no doubt derived from her father, and from the intimate +intercourse with him for so many years of the most important formative +period of her life. + +Her mother was a housewife of the old-fashioned type, whose health was +always poor, and who died when Marian was about fifteen years of age. +She is supposed to be portrayed in Mrs. Hackit in 'Amos Barton.' She +seems to have been a woman with ready wit, a somewhat sharp tongue, an +undemonstrative but tender-hearted nature. In many respects she seems +also to have been the model for that masterpiece of character-drawing, +Mrs. Poyser. Though Marian had two sisters, her brother Isaac Evans +was her playmate. The youthful relation between brother and sister was +very much like that of Tom Tulliver and Maggie in 'The Mill on the +Floss,'--no doubt the most autobiographical of her novels, as regards +at least the drawing of Maggie's character. + +Marian was at first sent to a school at the neighboring Nuneaton; and +at a very early age she taught at Sunday school,--which may have +instilled a magisterial bias into her mind from the very outset. At +the age of twelve she proceeded to a school at Coventry, kept by the +Misses Franklin, which enjoyed considerable reputation in the +neighborhood. She remained in this school for three years; beyond +elementary school duties she devoted much time to English composition, +French and German. Her life was then rather solitary, moved by strong +inner religious convictions, upon which she dwelt with passionate +fervor. Her religious views were at first simply those of the Church +of England, then those of the Low Church, and then became +"anti-supernatural." The second phase was no doubt strongly influenced +by her aunt, Mrs. Elizabeth Evans, the "Derbyshire Methodist," the +prototype of Dinah Morris in 'Adam Bede.' The earnest, almost +lugubrious conception of life which she formed in these times, and +which subsequent years and experiences only intensified, no doubt gave +the keynote to her whole temperament and genius. It produced in her +that supreme development of the idea of duty and compassion for human +suffering which elevates the tone of her writing with a lofty +conception of life, enables her to penetrate into the feelings and +aspirations of all classes, and while it widened the range of her +sympathy, never did so at the cost of genuineness or intensity of +feeling. At the same time this serious keynote, though it was not +opposed to humor,--the growth of which it even favored,--led to some +limitations in the harmonious development of her artistic nature; +notably in that it counteracted the sense for the playful and joyous +side of life. The eternal conflict between Hellenism and Hebraism, +between the vine-wreath and the crown of thorns, was not reconciled by +her, but led to the suppression or defeat of Hellenism. The true, the +joyous spirit of Hellenism, with its ideals of beauty and happiness in +life, never really possessed her soul. In her own words she has put +this eternal dualism:-- + + "For evermore + With grander resurrection than was feigned + Of Attila's fierce Huns, the soul of Greece + Conquers the bulk of Persia. The maimed form + Of calmly joyous beauty, marble-limbed, + Yet breathing with the thought that shaped its limbs, + Looks mild reproach from out its opened grave + At creeds of terror; and the vine-wreathed god + Fronts the pierced Image with the crown of thorns." + +Only in the tragic manifestation of the Greek mind, above all in an +AEschylus, did she find true resonance to the passionate beats of her +God-loving and world-renouncing heart. Yet more and more, as her mind +grew and severed itself from the traditional beliefs of her +childhood,--with which however she ever remained in deepest +sympathy,--did this love of God and renunciation of the world mean the +love of man and the tolerance of weakness, the pity with suffering and +the active effort to help to rectify and to improve. The one element +in Hellenism which she adopted and clung to, and which as a supporting +wall she added to the whole structure of her more Hebraistic beliefs +and ideals, was the worship of Sanity. This worship only intensified +the tolerance of the unsound, the pity for the diseased and distorted +and miserable. And though she never became a professed Positivist, it +was no doubt the response which Comte's philosophy gave to these +cravings that made his views ultimately most congenial to her. + +The true and independent development of her mind began when after +the death of her mother she took charge of Griff House for her father; +but especially when in 1841 her father retired from his active duties, +and settled at Foleshill near Coventry. It was here, while taking +lessons in Latin and Greek from Mr. Sheepshanks, and also devoting +herself to music, that she formed the friendship with Mr. and Mrs. +Charles Bray of Coventry and their kinsman Mr. Charles C. Hennell, +the Unitarian philosopher and writer. These people, deeply interested +in philosophy and literature, and important contributors to the +philosophico-religious literature of the day, responded fully to the +mental needs of George Eliot. Out of this intellectual affinity grew a +friendship which lasted through life. They also introduced her to the +philosophical and critical literature of Germany, and it was through +them that she began in 1843 her first literary task, the translation +of David Strauss's 'Life of Jesus,' which had been begun by Miss +Brabant, who became Mrs. Charles Hennell. The task of translating +Strauss's great work, which occupied three years of her life, was +followed by work of the same nature, which, though not as taxing as +the life of Christ, must still have called upon thought and +perseverance to a high degree: it was 'The Essence of Christianity,' +by the German philosopher Ludwig Feuerbach. These works, which stand +on the border line between philosophy and religion, led her by a +natural development into the domain of pure philosophy; so that the +next more extensive task which she undertook, but to our knowledge +never completed, was a translation of Spinoza's 'Ethics.' + +She was now fairly, at the age of twenty-seven, launched in her +literary career; though as yet it was on the side of science and +religion and not of art. The essays which belong to the following +period, together with her editorial occupation, again formed a +transition from the more scientific character of her writing to the +domain of pure literature. And though these works belong to the field +of criticism, it was criticism as applied to pure literature, fiction, +and biography, and thus brought her inherently ponderous and +theoretical mind, by natural stages, from analysis and speculation to +the more imaginative sphere of synthesis and creation. This early +theoretical and scientific direction of her occupation and thought may +have produced that fault in her later writing with which she has often +been reproached,--it may have made her style and diction clumsy and +pedantic. On the other hand, it was a most excellent training for the +future writer of even fiction. For it exercised the mind in gaining +full mastery over thought; in recognizing and defining the nicest and +most delicate shadings of meaning and of expression; in insisting upon +their logical sequence, and thus impressing upon the author the +rudiments of exposition and composition; in extending and enriching +the domain of knowledge and fact; and finally, in producing and +training the force of _intellectual_ sympathy, which sharpens as well +as intensifies insight into life and character, and gives to the mind +that pliancy which directs the feeling heart to beat in sympathy with +all forms of experiences, desires, and passions,--however far the +lives and personalities may be removed from the author who constructs +or describes them. + +In 1849 the death of her father threw her into a state of deepest +depression. It was then that her kind friends the Brays took her for a +tour on the Continent, to Italy and Switzerland. She remained at +Geneva in the family of the artist D'Albert for eight months, where +she no doubt found congenial local associations; for the shores of the +Lake of Geneva, haunted by the spirits of Calvin, Rousseau, Voltaire, +Madame de Stael, Gibbon, Byron, and Shelley, seem bound up with +world-stirring thought as no other place in Europe. Upon her return to +England she made her home with the Brays at Rosehill for about a year, +and then accepted the offer of Dr. John Chapman to become sub-editor +of the Westminster Review and to make her home in his family. She +here entered a circle of the most prominent literary men and women of +the day, and among these she became an intimate friend of Herbert +Spencer, John Oxenford, James and Harriet Martineau, George Henry +Lewes, and others. Emerson she had met before at Rosehill. Besides her +arduous sub-editorial work, she contributed several remarkable papers +to the Review. Among these are: 'Carlyle's Life of Sterling' and +'Margaret Fuller' in 1852; 'Women in France: Madame de Table,' 1854; +'Evangelical Teaching: Dr. Cumming,' 1855; 'German Wit: Heinrich +Heine,' 'Silly Novels by Lady Novelists,' 'The Natural History of +German Life,' 1856; 'Worldliness and Otherworldliness: the Poetry of +Young' in 1857. + +It was in 1854 that occurred the great event in her life; she joined +George Henry Lewes as his wife, though the latter's wife was still +alive. Lewes was separated from his first wife, though circumstances +made it impossible for him to get a divorce. From that moment George +Eliot remained the most faithful and devoted wife to Lewes and mother +to his children, until his death in 1878. She united her life with +that of Lewes after due and full deliberation, and with a thorough +weighing of consequences and duties. But that she felt the deepest +regret in that her complete union was not in accordance with the +established laws of the society in which she lived, is evident from +all her letters and writings; and though it need not have led to her +marriage with her late husband Mr. Cross, the opportunity afforded of +showing her respect to the established rules of matrimonial life must +certainly have made it easier for her to form a new alliance, after +the death of her first husband. + +With Lewes she went to Germany, living for some time at Berlin and +Weimar, while he was writing his 'Life of Goethe' and she was working +at her translation of Spinoza's 'Ethics' and was contributing some +articles on German literature. Upon their return they settled in +London, finally in the Priory, North Bank, in the northwest of the +metropolis, which was for many years a _salon_ of the London literary +world. The Sunday afternoons of this remarkable couple united all the +talent and genius, residents or foreign visitors. One might meet in +one and the same afternoon Charles Darwin, Robert Browning, Tennyson, +Richard Wagner, Joachim the violinist, Huxley, Clifford, Du Maurier, +and Turgenieff. Lewes, the most brilliant and versatile +conversationalist of his day, gave life and freedom to these meetings; +but the intellectual and moral centre always remained George Eliot, +with her soft, sweet voice, her clear intonation, her friendly and +encouraging smile, lighting up as by a contrast the earnestness of her +serious and large features, which resembled those of Savonarola, whose +character she has drawn in such strong lines in 'Romola.' But the +quality of searching sympathy and benignant humor, so remarkable in +her writings, gave the warmth of kindness and cordiality to these +formidably intellectual meetings. The present writer remembers with +grateful piety how, when he was a very young man struggling to put a +crude thought into presentable form before these giants of thought and +letters, she would divine his meaning even in its embryonic +uncouthness of expression, and would give it back to him and to them +in a perfect and faultless garb; so that in admiring and worshiping +the woman, he would be pleased with his own thoughts and would think +well of himself. It is this sympathetic and unselfish helpfulness of +great and noble minds, which gives confidence and increases the +self-esteem of all who come in contact with them. No wonder that one +often saw and heard of a great number of people, young girls or young +men, who by letter or in person sought help and spiritual guidance +from her, and went away strengthened by her sympathy and advice. + +Her first attempt at fiction was made when in her thirty-seventh year, +in September 1856. The account of this is best shown in her own words +here given among the extracts from her writings. Her first story was a +short one, called 'The Sad Fortunes of the Rev. Amos Barton.' This was +followed by 'Mr. Gilfil's Love Story' and 'Janet's Repentance,' and +soon there was that remarkable volume called 'Scenes of Clerical +Life.' Lewes and she and the world all realized that she was a true +novelist, and from that moment she directed all her energies to the +production of those works which will ever live, in spite of all +changes of fashions and modes of story-telling, classical specimens of +English fiction. In rapid succession now followed 'Adam Bede' in 1858; +'The Mill on the Floss' in 1860; 'Silas Marner' in 1861; 'Romola' in +1863; 'Felix Holt, the Radical,' in 1866; the poem 'The Spanish Gypsy' +in 1868; 'Jubal and Other Poems' in 1870; 'Middlemarch' in 1872; +'Daniel Deronda' in 1876; and her last work, 'The Impressions of +Theophrastus Such,' which was not published till after the death of +Lewes, which occurred in 1878. She married Mr. Cross in May, 1880. She +died on December 22d, 1880. + +To lead to the fuller understanding of George Eliot's works, it was +necessary to sketch in broad outlines the growth of her life and +personality. As a writer she was not only a novelist but also a poet, +and above all a social philosopher. Her ethical bias is so strong, +moreover, that one cannot understand her as a novelist or a poet +unless one has grasped her social philosophy and the all-pervading and +ever-present influence it has upon her mind and writing. + +In her delineation of character and depiction of scenes, especially +those of rural and domestic life, truthful rendering is to her the +supreme duty; and one need but open the 'Scenes of Clerical Life,' +'Adam Bede,' 'The Mill on the Floss,' 'Silas Marner,' and +'Middlemarch,' on any page, to realize the fullness of truth with +which she has painted. At the time of their appearance, not only were +the persons and the environment identified with the originals she had +in her mind, but as lasting types they tallied exactly with people and +local life known to each English reader. This truthful rendering was +also conceived by her as a primary duty of the novelist. We would +refer the reader to what, in an essay, she says of the English peasant +in fiction, and would recall her own words in the same essay:-- + + "A picture of human life, such as a great artist can give, + surprises even the trivial and the selfish into that + attention to what is apart from themselves, _which may be + called the raw material of sentiment_.... Art is the nearest + thing to life; it is a mode of amplifying experience and + extending our contact with our fellow-men beyond the bounds + of our personal lot. All the more sacred is the task of the + artist when he undertakes to paint the life of the people. + Falsification here is far more pernicious than in the more + artificial aspects of life." + +Another interesting passage is one containing an estimate of Dickens, +in which she considers the Oliver Twists, Joes, and Nancys +terrible and pathetic pictures of London life:-- + + "And if Dickens had been able to give us their psychological + character, their conception of life, and their emotions, with + the same truth as their idiom and manners, his books would be + _the greatest contribution to art ever made to the awakening + of social sympathies_." + +George Eliot might thus be classified as one of the greatest if not +the greatest realist of the analytical or psychological order. But +this would, to our mind, be a one-sided and incomplete estimate of the +chief character in her writing and genius. Truthful rendering of life +and character may have been one of the chief motives to composition, +and a fundamental requisite to the art of her fiction; but it remained +a means to a further end--the ultimate end--of her writing, as it no +doubt was the fundamental stimulus to her imagination and design. And +this end and motive make her an idealist and not a realist in fiction. +The direction in which this idealism goes we have indicated in the +lines we have italicized in the passages we quote from her, and is to +be found in the ethical motive below and beyond all her thought and +composition, the predominance of the social philosophy in her fiction +and poetry, to which we have already referred. + +We will dismiss the coarse and caricatured distinction between realism +and idealism, in which the one is supposed to render truthfully +_whatever is_, without any principle of selection or composition; +while the other starts with preconceived notions of the _ought to +be_, be it from the point of view of formal beauty or spiritual +harmony, and proves the facts that are. Art, and the novel above +all,--which deals with life at once so clear and familiar to us, and +so perplexingly manifold and varied as constantly to elude choice and +design,--can neither forego truth nor unity of design. + +But in the novelist's attitude towards human life there are two +distinct points of view from which a new classification of novelists +might be made: the position given to ethics, the moral laws in the +presentation of life. The laws of human conduct are so essential to +the relation of man to man, that the fundamental question as to what +position ethics holds in our narrative cannot be ignored. The novelist +must have decided whether he is going to consider its claims in the +primary structure of his novel, and in the creation and development of +characters, or not. Is he going to prepare the groundwork of artistic +labor with a view to ethical design, or pure artistic design? It may +be said that the best work requires both. But still, in so far as the +one is heeded more than the other, will the writer be an idealist or a +realist in this sense. + +The idealist will focus his view of the characters, their experiences +and sufferings and surroundings, from a view of moral fitness and +design; the realist will find the design and composition, the harmony +which all art needs, in the characters, in the scenes, in the life +itself, and the inner organic relation of the parts to the whole. The +one leads to the best idealism, the other to the best realism. The one +produces a George Eliot, the other a Guy de Maupassant. This realist +ignores the general fitness of things, the moral law, and says:--"This +character is interesting in itself, this situation is amusing, +curious, striking, or terrible,--they are worth depicting, without any +question as to their relation to social or moral ideals." Guy de +Maupassant takes characters and situations and depicts them with +consummate art; he never troubles himself about general moral fitness, +--we never know what his moral and social ideals are, nor whether he +has any at all. Jane Austen is interested in her characters, in the +tone and range of ideas of the period and the society in which she +lives, the types of life, and she draws them with consummate art; but +though we are left in no doubt in her case as to the good and the bad, +and though the good generally prevails and the bad is defeated, these +are not subordinated to a clear conception of an ideal social order, +without which the characters and the story could not have been +conceived and developed--as is always the case with George Eliot. +Gwendolen Harleth, Felix Holt, Maggie, Dorothea, Lydgate, the life and +surroundings of these figures, all bear a fixed relation to the social +ideals of the author; and it is in this relation that she conceives +and develops them. Nay, it is for the purpose of illustrating and +fixing this that she creates them at all. Strange as it may sound, in +so far Jane Austen might be called a realist and be classed with Guy +de Maupassant; while George Sand, with whom she has so much similarity +of spirit, is by contrast an idealist. It is a difference in the +initial methods of dealing with life in fiction. + +It is not enough for George Eliot to present an interesting character, +to follow up its fate and growth, to force the reader into sympathy, +to make him hope for success or fear failure; nor even to show the +struggle with the surroundings, to depict interesting and complex +situations and centres. Her writings always depend upon a primary +postulate, and to this postulate all characters, scenes, and +situations are ultimately subordinated. This postulate is: The ideal +social order as a whole, the establishment of sane and sound social +relations in humanity, the development and progress of human society +towards such an ideal of general human life. All characters and +situations, all scenes of life, whether clerical or provincial, +whether of the present or of the past (and this may here be a grave +fault), are developed and viewed by her in their relation to this +general standard of ideal society; how far they fit into this general +harmony, and failing this, how far they can in her stories be made to +fit more fully; or they are left to a more tragic end which emphasizes +the facts of their unfitness. Herein lies her distinctive character as +a novelist, a point in which her delineation differs from most of the +other great novelists--from a Balzac and a Flaubert, a George Sand, a +Thackeray, and a Dickens, a Turgenieff and an _early_ Tolstoy. I do +not mean to say that these novelists had not a social ideal at the +foundation of their constructive imagination; but it did not play that +essential part in their conception and working out of characters and +plots, it was not ever present in their minds while they were +describing characters, feelings, incidents, and situations, as it +appears to have been with George Eliot. Her philosophical and ethical +bias thus manifests itself, in that there was an idea of general +social fitness and happiness modifying and directing her +representation of individual life and character. + +To understand this social ideal of a rational and essentially sane +world, we must conceive her as an expression of the spirit of the age +out of which she grew. And she will thus hold a place not only as a +novelist, but as a pregnant and significant exponent of the thought of +the third quarter of the nineteenth century. + +The time in which her mind was formed is marked on the side of +social ethics, in that a broad and powerful humanitarian wave +spread over English life and thought. Negatively it manifested itself +in that it was a period of storm and stress toward the birth of +tolerance--tolerance with all forms of belief and even unbelief. In +the English Church itself, it was the period of clear accentuations of +shades of belief that differed to a very marked degree from one +another. The Church of Rome was brought nearer to the Anglican +believer, and was robbed of its Apocalyptic horrors by a Newman and a +Manning; a definite political act was the Irish Church Act. But an +especial feature of this tolerance was the social recognition of +agnosticism, in its scientific aspect through a Darwin, and in its +more ethical aspect through a Mill, a Herbert Spencer, and a Matthew +Arnold; while divines of the English Church itself, like Stanley, +Maurice, Kingsley, and Jowett, bridged over the gaps between dogmatism +and agnosticism. The repeal of the Test Act (according to which the +signing of the Thirty-nine Articles was a condition for obtaining a +scholarship or fellowship) abolished all disqualifications from +freethinkers at the great universities. Quakers and Jews had before +been admitted to Parliament, and now took prominent and leading +places. + +But more positively, the philosophy of Auguste Comte with its English +exponents, especially Mill, impressed the religious feeling of +humanitarianism. There had been a wave of this before, a wave the +commotion of which was felt even in our days. It was the +humanitarianism of Rousseau, under which George Sand stood. But this +differs in a marked manner from that of our friend. With Rousseau it +was _deductive_, based upon the inalienable rights of man, of the +individual,--a deductive sociology. In our times it was essentially +guided by the prevailing spirit and methods of thought of Charles +Darwin, Mill, Herbert Spencer, Huxley, Clifford, and Matthew Arnold, +with the regenerated and refined sense of truth which they have given +to the world. It has thus led to an _inductive_ sociology and +inductive humanitarianism, freed from all romantic character and +admixture, essentially sober and sane, though none the less passionate +and deep-seated. The last wave of Rousseauesque feeling filtered +through German sources to us in Carlyle and Ruskin. But this mode of +thought was foreign to George Eliot. She disliked all forms of +exaggeration. + +She has always clear in her mind the sane and sober ideals of a +society based upon the truthful observation and recognition of its +wants and needs. The claims of truth, the claims of charity and +unselfishness, are supreme. To this ideal the individual must +subordinate himself if he wishes to be happy and noble, beloved and +honored; must have "that recognition of something to be lived for +beyond the mere satisfaction of self, which is to the moral life what +the addition of a central ganglion is to animal life." + +Pure applied psychology and knowledge of the _coeur humain_, which +have actuated so many great novelists,--the careful and studied +development of an individual life and character as such within its +surroundings,--were not enough to absorb the desires of George +Eliot's efforts in fiction; still less mere striking incidents, and +the engrossing consequences and sequences as they push on in the plot +of a story; but the _coeur humain_ and incidents in life are viewed in +their relation to society as a whole, to social ideals. She is thus an +idealistic and an ethical novelist. + +Even in her poetry this bias manifests itself; and here, from an +artistic point of view, the effect is often more disturbing than in +her novels. For in poetry the purely artistic, emotional, and lyrical +aspect is more important and essential; and any general and impersonal +ideal counteracts the reality of the characters, the mood, and the +passion. Thus in her longest and greatest poem, 'The Spanish Gypsy,' +the feelings and expressions put into the mouth of Fedalma and Zarca +are the nineteenth-century thoughts and feelings of a George Eliot, +and lose their immediate truthfulness and convincing power from being +thus expressed by fictitious persons; while the personalities +themselves, their thoughts and feelings, do not strike one with a +sense of reality, because they express views which sound anachronistic +and have not their proper local coloring. In spite of some beautiful +shorter poems, passages, and lines, she fails when criticized as a +lyrical poetess; nor will her poems stand faultless when judged from +the epic point of view. But if there be any justification (which we +hold there is) for didactic poetry,--poetry which calls in artistic +emotion to impress truths and moral laws,--then she will always hold a +prominent place in this sphere. 'Stradivarius' and the 'Positivist +Hymn' will, together with Matthew Arnold's 'Self-Dependence,' rank +among the finest types of didactic poems of our age. + +Though at times her ethical bias has obtruded itself out of place, and +may have counteracted her certainty of touch in drawing lifelike +character (as for instance in the construction of Daniel Deronda's +personality), it has, on the whole, not prevented her from giving full +play to her marvelous power of clear and deep insight into life and of +sensuous description. + +In studying life she had learned observation in the scientific +inductive school, and had thus acquired, with minuteness of +perception, the clear-sighted and unprejudiced intellectual justice of +vision which enabled her to appreciate fully and to grasp the inner +core of all the characters, motives, and passions which her command +over her thoughts and language and her docile pen enabled her to fix +in so masterly a manner. But these faculties would not have been +enough to lead to her creation of human types, had she not possessed +to that intense and exalted degree the power of feeling which gave the +initial stimulus to her penetration of the human heart and its +motives and passions, and which her intellectual control converted +into all-encompassing and all-pervading sympathy. She was, after all, +what Elizabeth Browning expressed in the pregnant phrase--"a +large-brained woman and a large-hearted man." + +Nay, this sympathy was so intense and leading a feature of her genius +that it again serves to establish a distinct general classification of +novelists. Like great actors, great writers of fiction may be +classified, according to their mode of rendering the life they study, +as subjective and objective interpreters. The former are +intellectually so wide and emotionally so responsive, that their great +souls and minds grasp and assimilate, absorb for the time being, all +the different natures which they portray; they thrill with them--they +become them. The objective artists possess more the painter's and +sculptor's attitude of mind; they eliminate self completely during the +period of observation, and enter, through the fullness and delicacy of +their perceptions, into the lives and characters they depict. For the +time they see only the object of their study, and reproduce it with +clear and dispassionate touch. This is the case with Balzac, +Turgenieff, Thackeray, and Dickens. The objective method is the safest +and least likely to produce faults in drawing which make the +characters at times inconsistent and fall out of their parts; but the +subjective method may at times attain depth of insight, and fullness +of passion and veracity, which lies hidden from the dispassionate +draughtsmen and impersonators. The Brontes had this subjective +penetration to the highest degree; but they had not, on the other +hand, the inductive and scientific training of George Eliot, which +sobered down and made more objective, as it made more humorous, the +sympathetic impersonations in her stories. Above all, the purely +emotional subjectivity of George Eliot was counteracted by the passion +for the general ethical and the social ideal which we have already +considered as playing so essential a part in her mind. Upon this we +must take our stand in order to appreciate her leading method of +composition, which can be traced, we venture to believe, through all +her novels. + +Starting with a well-defined ideal of social fitness for this world, +the harmony in life towards which all action, effort, and +individuality must tend, the problem which each novel sets itself to +solve is the reconciliation of the conflict arising out of the +unfitness of the leading characters (the "hero" or "heroine," as we +may call them) as measured by this ideal--the want of harmony between +their characters, aspirations, and ambitions, their views of life, and +on the other hand the surroundings in which they live. The Greek +tragedians, Shakespeare, and all great dramatists, have ever dealt +with this central struggle between man and society. But they started +with this fact, and had merely the artistic aim of evoking sympathy +and pity in the audience because of this tragic struggle, the powerful +and perfect representation of which became the final aim of their +artistic endeavor. With George Eliot the process of adaptation, the +resolution of the discord, and if not the establishment of harmony, +then the clear and impressive indication of the best way to its +establishment, is the real motive and end of her writing. There is in +her no great tragic fatalism, which makes the art of the Greek +dramatist so deeply and overwhelmingly tragic. Each one of her leading +characters is at fault, when viewed in the light of the healthy social +ideal. In the exposition of the character the fault will be shown up +strongly; the hero will either be developed into greater social +perfection, or the tragic end will impress upon the reader the disease +and its remedy, the bane and its antidote. + +The social failings and shortcomings which stand in the way of this +harmony are grouped by her into two leading faults of a general +nature: the discord between the individual and selfish and the general +and altruistic; between thoughtless social materialism and conformity, +and questioning originality and spiritual revolt; between +conventionality and originality; between common-sense and prophetic +far-sightedness; between the Philistine and the artistic, the humdrum +worker and the world-reformer, the materialist and the dreamer. The +one looks down before him on the ground and ignores the heights beyond +and the clear sky above, and in his heavy-footed advance shoves the +sky-gazer aside and walks over him when he has fallen; the other gazes +at the heights and the stars, and spurns the clod and soil, tripping +over them,--nay, slipping in the mud. They each ignore one another and +the world in which each lives, or they despise each other and their +respective goals and aims. + +Now, in all her novels this problem is repeated and a solution is +attempted. Over and over again she presents this situation as the +central point in the composition of her novels, in different layers of +society, in most varied characters. And the understanding of this is +the key to the understanding of George Eliot's works. She either +brings it out in presenting two central figures as the contrasts which +represent either faulty extreme, or one figure as opposed to the +surroundings, or both these means are used to impress the central +fact. + +We shall take one pregnant instance to illustrate this: 'Daniel +Deronda' has been estimated and criticized chiefly as a novel in which +the Jewish question has been discussed by her in a dramatic manner. +That it deals powerfully with this question is no doubt true; but the +Jewish question is but a side issue--no doubt appealing to her deep +sympathies and sense of justice; but it is not the central motive to +the story nor the artistic keystone of the novel as constructed. The +central figure in that story is Gwendolen Harleth (who ought properly +to have given her name to the novel). The contrasting figure at the +other extreme is Mordecai the Jew, and Daniel is the intermediary +figure (almost figure-head) between these two extremes. The +personality which, I am sure, set her sympathetic intellect and +imagination throbbing into artistic creation was Gwendolen. As an +ordinary though beautiful young lady of English society (in her rank +what Hetty Sorrel and Rosamond Vincy are in theirs), she is the +clod-born, materialistic, and hopelessly selfish representative of the +unsocial member of a society in which ideas and ideals are unknown, +and in which blind impulse, feebly directed by prejudice and +tradition, petty vanity and greed, at most personal ambition, are the +motives to action, and produce the discord and misery which surround +even those who live in affluence. Her beauty, her position in her +family, her whole education, have kept from her every higher ideal, +all semblance of an ideal, and all altruism and feeling for or with +her fellow-men. Her world in the opening of the story is the most +contracted world of a small self, with a pervading passion out of all +proportion to its extent, in which the desires whirl round and round +this little circle in hideous compression. Now the fundamental problem +of the story is: How can this little, selfish, and materialistic +nature, which only realizes the things before its desiring eyes and +grasping touch, be made large, unselfish, and idealistic, so that it +reaches out beyond and above the world of self into the regions of +great ideas, in which the individual is completely submerged; and that +through this wholesome straining of the heart and of sympathetic +power, through this realization and love of the ideal, it may learn to +love and pity, and think for and in, mankind and all men and women? +And this process of artistic development of character is sensuously +and convincingly represented in this novel. The reader enters +sympathetically into the little soul of that beautiful girl at the +very beginning of the story, and in her he passes through all the +phases, until without any forced hiatus he sees before him at the end +the purified and enlarged Gwendolen, who has learnt her ennobling +lesson in the great school of suffering. It is perhaps the greatest +achievement in her art. + +The more definite question is: How can such a girl realize the great +world of ideas? The answer is: It must come through the heart, through +the emotions and not the intellect,--the intellect will be widened and +matured after her personality has been thrilled. She must fall in love +with a man who is the impersonation of an idea, whose whole existence +centres round a great desire far removed from the petty world of self +in which she has lived,--nay, opposed to it, in direct contrast to it. + +This impersonation is presented in Daniel Deronda; and the fault in +the book is that George Eliot's theoretical bias has been too strong +for her, and in her eagerness to make him the bearer of an idea to the +central figure of the story she has sacrificed the realistic drawing +of Daniel, who is an impersonation at the cost of flesh and blood. +Given the fact that Daniel must in his personality represent some +unselfish idea, the question was: What actual idea, great in extent +and enough to fill a man's mind and soul, should be chosen? The +difficulty here arose, that if George Eliot had chosen some purely +imaginary topic it would have lacked reality, and would have moved +neither Gwendolen nor the reader into sympathy. If on the other hand +she had taken some stirring question of the day, the question as such +would have engrossed the interest and attention of the reader, and +would no longer have been subordinated to the chief artistic purpose +it has in the story. As it is, to many, the Jewish question as treated +and suggested in the novel has itself engrossed the attention of +readers, and has diverted their minds from the main artistic gist of +the story. But to the ordinary English reader the subject of Jewish +social life and aspirations was sufficiently remote. Nay, so narrow +are the sympathies and the intellectual horizon of many cultivated +Englishmen, that though they can be interested in the lives of gipsies +and farm laborers, they cannot "screw up an interest in those Jews." + +To Daniel however it was a real, stirring, and great idea to which he +wished to devote his life. Now, in order that Gwendolen should +_realize_ in herself such a great impersonal idea, she had to fall in +love with the man whose life they filled, and through her heart and +her love for him it would reach her mind and raise her thoughts. +Daniel, again, the man she loves, is contrasted with the narrow and +selfish man, the hardened and crystallized type of another social +world, consuming itself in its own self-love. + +All Gwendolen's experiences directly or indirectly tend to bring about +this development of her soul. A striking scene in this sense is her +interview with Klesmer, the genuine and thorough musician devoted to +his art and work. And when she comes out of the final soul's tragedy +we feel that the woman has stood the test of fire, and has realized +the greatness and overwhelming vastness of the spiritual world. G. H. +Lewes, to whom the writer communicated this conception of 'Daniel +Deronda' assured him that he had grasped the central idea which George +Eliot had in her mind, and the actual history in the story's +construction. + +Gwendolen's counterpart (and there are many in George Eliot's books) +is Dorothea in 'Middlemarch.' She starts with great and extraordinary +ideas, and must, through life and suffering, realize the moral +justification of the simple and commonplace in life. The contrasting +types illustrating this central point can be found in every work: +Dorothea and Rosamond on the one side,--original, spiritual, striving +as commonplace selfishness,--and Dorothea and Ladislaw as heavy, +serious, intellectual morality, and light, playful, artistic freedom, +on the other; Lydgate with his great reformatory ideas, slowly +enfeebled and annihilated in his Samson-like vigor by the pretty, +selfish, shallow-souled Rosamond of provincial worldliness. Gwendolen +is also contrasted with Mirah. In 'Adam Bede,' again, Dinah and Hetty +present the same contrasts as do Tito Melema and Romola, Esther and +Felix Holt. Maggie Tulliver and her brother Tom, the spirit of revolt +in Maggie and the hard conventionality of respectability in her +brother Tom, are strongly marked types of this kind. Maggie's conflict +with her narrow and commonplace surroundings and their conventional +respectability are typified in the Mill. It is a wonderful touch of +artistic suggestion that she and her brother are finally submerged in +the Mill, carried away by the flood. This novel reflects more +thoroughly the spirit of Greek tragedy than any other work of modern +fiction. The Mill, and the part it plays in the life of the Tulliver +family and in Maggie's sorrows, are like great Fate in the Greek +tragedy. It is an embodiment of the hard and unrelenting tyranny of +the powers that are. Even in 'Silas Marner,' the most artistic and +least doctrinaire of her novels, the moral process of remedying +Silas's social unfitness and misanthropy is the central idea. Space +will not allow us to give further illustrations of this idea in her +novels; but enough has been said to enable the reader to test it and +follow it up for himself. + +The two most striking qualities in George Eliot as a writer are her +humor and her sympathy. They are realty connected with one another. +The power of intellectual observation, when coupled with the power of +feeling sympathy, produces humor; the purely intellectual or objective +cast of mind produces wit; while the purely subjective habit of mind +is unable to produce either. + +But with all her wide range of sympathy, upon which we have been +dwelling, its limitations can still be discerned. The careful observer +will recognize that the subjective attitude of the woman cannot wholly +be hidden from view. The chief women into whom she projects herself +are after all those that are nearest to herself, and she cannot help +treating them as favorites and bestowing the greater attention upon +them: Daniel only exists as a creation to develop Gwendolen; nay, +Savonarola is really constructed for Romola's spiritual development, +Casaubon for Dorothea, and so on. A still more marked and important +limitation in her sympathies, arising out of her ethical bias, is her +pronounced dislike to all morbid art, all that is fantastic. The +poetry of Byron, the music of Chopin, all forms of morbid sentiment, +are so repulsive to her nature that she cannot treat them with +tolerance or even with humor. Remarks on Esther in 'Felix Holt' bear +this out. Probably this is an autobiographical touch, and having freed +herself from these morbid tendencies in her youth, she could never +look back upon them with tolerance. + +Her seriousness and ethical bias may at times also have impaired her +style. Her extensive studies in science and philosophy often make her +ponderous in thought and in expression. The fondness with which she +takes her similes from science is often confusing to the reader who is +unfamiliar with the facts and thoughts that are used as illustrations. +She never quite overcame the temptation to insert what was new and +striking to herself; so that her science and philosophy never reached +that mature stage of mental assimilation in which they manifest +themselves merely in the general fullness of thought, without ever +asserting themselves as science or as philosophy. Still, no writer of +fiction has ever introduced reflections and episodes _in propria +persona_ which are so striking and well worth reading in themselves. +When her imitators attempt this they fail signally, and one need but +compare such passages with those of George Eliot to realize her +greatness as a writer and as a thinker. + +To sum up the estimate of George Eliot as a novelist, we would say +that she is the greatest representative of the analytical and +psychological school, fixing with truth and sensuousness the types of +English provincial life; with a final purpose, which she achieved, of +illustrating by them the ideals of social ethics for the wider life of +humanity. + +[Illustration: Signature of Charles Waldstein] + + + +THE FINAL RESCUE + +From 'The Mill on the Floss' + + +At that moment Maggie felt a startling sensation of sudden cold about +her knees and feet; it was water flowing under her. She started up; +the stream was flowing under the door that led into the passage. She +was not bewildered for an instant; she knew it was the flood! + +The tumult of emotion she had been enduring for the last twelve hours +seemed to have left a great calm in her; without screaming, she +hurried with the candle up-stairs to Bob Jakin's bedroom. The door was +ajar; she went in and shook him by the shoulder. + +"Bob, the flood is come! it is in the house! let us see if we can make +the boats safe." + +She lighted his candle, while the poor wife, snatching up her baby, +burst into screams; and then she hurried down again to see if the +waters were rising fast. There was a step down into the room at the +door leading from the staircase; she saw that the water was already on +a level with the step. While she was looking, something came with a +tremendous crash against the window and sent the leaded panes and the +old wooden framework inwards in shivers, the water pouring in after +it. + +"It is the boat!" cried Maggie. "Bob, come down to get the boats!" + +And without a moment's shudder of fear she plunged through the water, +which was rising fast to her knees, and by the glimmering light of the +candle she had left on the stairs she mounted on to the window-sill +and crept into the boat, which was left with the prow lodging and +protruding through the window. Bob was not long after her, hurrying +without shoes or stockings, but with the lantern in his hand. + +"Why, they're both here,--both the boats," said Bob, as he got into +the one where Maggie was. "It's wonderful this fastening isn't broke +too, as well as the mooring." + +In the excitement of getting into the other boat, unfastening it, and +mastering an oar, Bob was not struck with the danger Maggie incurred. +We are not apt to fear for the fearless when we are companions in +their danger, and Bob's mind was absorbed in possible expedients for +the safety of the helpless in-doors. The fact that Maggie had been up, +had waked him, and had taken the lead in activity, gave Bob a vague +impression of her as one who would help to protect, not need to be +protected. She too had got possession of an oar and had pushed off, so +as to release the boat from the overhanging window frame. + +"The water's rising so fast," said Bob, "I doubt it'll be in at the +chambers before long,--th' house is so low. I've more mind to get +Prissy and the child and the mother into the boat, if I could, and +trusten to the water,--for th' old house is none so safe. And if I let +go the boat--but _you_!" he exclaimed, suddenly lifting the light of +his lantern on Maggie, as she stood in the rain with the oar in her +hand and her black hair streaming. + +Maggie had no time to answer, for a new tidal current swept along the +line of the houses, and drove both the boats out on to the wide water +with a force that carried them far past the meeting current of the +river. + +In the first moments Maggie felt nothing, thought of nothing, but that +she had suddenly passed away from that life which she had been +dreading; it was the transition of death without its agony,--and she +was alone in the darkness with God. + +The whole thing had been so rapid, so dream-like, that the threads of +ordinary association were broken; she sank down on the seat clutching +the oar mechanically, and for a long while had no distinct conception +of her position. The first thing that waked her to fuller +consciousness was the cessation of the rain, and a perception that the +darkness was divided by the faintest light, which parted the +overhanging gloom from the immeasurable watery level below. She was +driven out upon the flood,--that awful visitation of God which her +father used to talk of, which had made the nightmare of her childish +dreams. And with that thought there rushed in the vision of the old +home, and Tom, and her mother,--they had all listened together. + +"O God, where am I? Which is the way home?" she cried out, in the dim +loneliness. + +What was happening to them at the Mill? The flood had once nearly +destroyed it. They might be in danger, in distress,--her mother and +her brother, alone there, beyond reach of help! Her whole soul was +strained now on that thought; and she saw the long-loved faces looking +for help into the darkness, and finding none. + +She was floating in smooth water now,--perhaps far on the over-flooded +fields. There was no sense of present danger to check the outgoing of +her mind to the old home; and she strained her eyes against the +curtain of gloom that she might seize the first sight of her +whereabouts,--that she might catch some faint suggestion of the spot +towards which all her anxieties tended. + +Oh, how welcome the widening of that dismal watery level, the gradual +uplifting of the cloudy firmament, the slowly defining blackness of +objects above the glassy dark! Yes, she must be out on the fields; +those were the tops of hedgerow trees. Which way did the river lie? +Looking behind her, she saw the lines of black trees; looking before +her, there were none; then the river lay before her. She seized an oar +and began to paddle the boat forward with the energy of wakening hope; +the dawning seemed to advance more swiftly, now she was in action; and +she could soon see the poor dumb beasts crowding piteously on a mound +where they had taken refuge. Onward she paddled and rowed by turns in +the growing twilight; her wet clothes clung round her, and her +streaming hair was dashed about by the wind, but she was hardly +conscious of any bodily sensations,--except a sensation of strength, +inspired by mighty emotion. Along with the sense of danger and +possible rescue for those long-remembered beings at the old home, +there was an undefined sense of reconcilement with her brother: what +quarrel, what harshness, what unbelief in each other can subsist in +the presence of a great calamity, when all the artificial vesture of +our life is gone, and we are all one with each other in primitive +mortal needs? Vaguely Maggie felt this, in the strong resurgent love +towards her brother that swept away all the later impressions of hard, +cruel offense and misunderstanding, and left only the deep, +underlying, unshakable memories of early union. + +But now there was a large dark mass in the distance, and near to her +Maggie could discern the current of the river. The dark mass must +be--yes, it was--St. Ogg's. Ah, now she knew which way to look for the +first glimpse of the well-known trees--the gray willows, the now +yellowing chestnuts--and above them the old roof! But there was no +color, no shape yet; all was faint and dim. More and more strongly the +energies seemed to come and put themselves forth, as if her life were +a stored-up force that was being spent in this hour, unneeded for any +future. + +She must get her boat into the current of the Floss, else she would +never be able to pass the Ripple and approach the house: this was the +thought that occurred to her, as she imagined with more and more +vividness the state of things round the old home. But then she might +be carried very far down, and be unable to guide her boat out of the +current again. For the first time distinct ideas of danger began to +press upon her; but there was no choice of courses, no room for +hesitation, and she floated into the current. Swiftly she went now, +without effort; more and more clearly in the lessening distance and +the growing light she began to discern the objects that she knew must +be the well-known trees and roofs; nay, she was not far off a rushing +muddy current that must be the strangely altered Ripple. + +Great God! there were floating masses in it, that might dash against +her boat as she passed, and cause her to perish too soon. What were +those masses? + +For the first time Maggie's heart began to beat in an agony of dread. +She sat helpless, dimly conscious that she was being floated along, +more intensely conscious of the anticipated clash. But the horror was +transient; it passed away before the oncoming warehouses of St. Ogg's. +She had passed the mouth of the Ripple, then; _now_, she must use all +her skill and power to manage the boat and get it if possible out of +the current. She could see now that the bridge was broken down; she +could see the masts of a stranded vessel far out over the watery +field. But no boats were to be seen moving on the river,--such as had +been laid hands on were employed in the flooded streets. + +With new resolution Maggie seized her oar, and stood up again to +paddle; but the now ebbing tide added to the swiftness of the river, +and she was carried along beyond the bridge. She could hear shouts +from the windows overlooking the river, as if the people there were +calling to her. It was not till she had passed on nearly to Tofton +that she could get the boat clear of the current. Then with one +yearning look towards her uncle Deane's house that lay farther down +the river, she took to both her oars and rowed with all her might +across the watery fields, back towards the Mill. Color was beginning +to awake now, and as she approached the Dorlcote fields, she could +discern the tints of the trees, could see the old Scotch firs far to +the right; and the home chestnuts,--oh, how deep they lay in the +water,--deeper than the trees on this side the hill! And the roof of +the Mill--where was it? Those heavy fragments hurrying down the +Ripple,--what had they meant? But it was not the house,--the house +stood firm; drowned up to the first story, but still firm;--or was it +broken in at the end towards the Mill? + +With panting joy that she was there at last,--joy that overcame all +distress,--Maggie neared the front of the house. At first she heard no +sound; she saw no object moving. Her boat was on a level with the +up-stairs window. She called out in a loud piercing voice:-- + +"Tom, where are you? Mother, where are you? Here is Maggie!" + +Soon, from the window of the attic in the central gable, she heard +Tom's voice:-- + +"Who is it? Have you brought a boat?" + +"It is I, Tom,--Maggie. Where is mother?" + +"She is not here; she went to Garum the day before yesterday. I'll +come down to the lower window." + +"Alone, Maggie?" said Tom, in a voice of deep astonishment, as he +opened the middle window, on a level with the boat. + +"Yes, Tom; God has taken care of me, to bring me to you. Get in +quickly. Is there no one else?" + +"No," said Tom, stepping into the boat, "I fear the man is drowned; he +was carried down the Ripple, I think, when part of the Mill fell with +the crash of trees and stones against it; I've shouted again and +again, and there has been no answer. Give me the oars, Maggie." + +It was not till Tom had pushed off and they were on the wide +water,--he face to face with Maggie,--that the full meaning of what +had happened rushed upon his mind. It came with so overpowering a +force,--it was such a new revelation to his spirit of the depths in +life that had lain beyond his vision, which he had fancied so keen and +clear,--that he was unable to ask a question. They sat mutely gazing +at each other,--Maggie with eyes of intense life looking out from a +weary, beaten face; Tom pale, with a certain awe and humiliation. +Thought was busy though the lips were silent; and though he could ask +no question, he guessed a story of almost miraculous, Divinely +protected effort. But at last a mist gathered over the blue-gray eyes, +and the lips found a word they could utter,--the old childish +"Magsie!" + +Maggie could make no answer but a long, deep sob of that mysterious, +wondrous happiness that is one with pain. + +As soon as she could speak, she said:--"We will go to Lucy, Tom; we'll +go and see if she is safe, and then we can help the rest." + +Tom rowed with untired vigor, and with a different speed from poor +Maggie's. The boat was soon in the current of the river again, and +soon they would be at Tofton. + +"Park House stands high up out of the flood," said Maggie. "Perhaps +they have got Lucy there." + +Nothing else was said; a new danger was being carried towards them by +the river. Some wooden machinery had just given way on one of the +wharves, and huge fragments were being floated along. The sun was +rising now, and the wide area of watery desolation was spread out in +dreadful clearness around them; in dreadful clearness floated onward +the hurrying, threatening masses. A large company in a boat that was +working its way along under the Tofton houses observed their danger, +and shouted, "Get out of the current!" + +But that could not be done at once; and Tom, looking before him, saw +death rushing on them. Huge fragments, clinging together in fatal +fellowship, made one wide mass across the stream. + +"It is coming, Maggie!" Tom said, in a deep, hoarse voice, loosing the +oars and clasping her. + +The next instant the boat was no longer seen upon the water, and the +huge mass was hurrying on in hideous triumph. + +But soon the keel of the boat reappeared, a black speck on the golden +water. + +The boat reappeared, but brother and sister had gone down in an +embrace never to be parted; living through again in one supreme moment +the days when they had clasped their little hands in love, and roamed +the daisied fields together. + + * * * * * + +Nature repairs her ravages,--repairs them with her sunshine, and with +human labor. The desolation wrought by that flood had left little +visible trace on the face of the earth, five years after. The fifth +autumn was rich in golden cornstacks, rising in thick clusters among +the distant hedgerows; the wharves and warehouses on the Floss were +busy again, with echoes of eager voices, with hopeful lading and +unlading. + +And every man and woman mentioned in this history was still living, +except those whose end we know. + +Nature repairs her ravages, but not all. The uptorn trees are not +rooted again; the parted hills are left scarred; if there is a new +growth, the trees are not the same as the old, and the hills +underneath their green vesture bear the marks of the past rending. To +the eyes that have dwelt on the past, there is no thorough repair. + +Dorlcote Mill was rebuilt. And Dorlcote church-yard--where the brick +grave that held a father whom we know, was found with the stone laid +prostrate upon it after the flood--had recovered all its grassy order +and decent quiet. + +Near that brick grave there was a tomb erected, very soon after the +flood, for two bodies that were found in close embrace; and it was +visited at different moments by two men who both felt that their +keenest joy and keenest sorrow were forever buried there. + +One of them visited the tomb again with a sweet face beside him; but +that was years after. + +The other was always solitary. His great companionship was among the +trees of the Red Deeps, where the buried joy seemed still to hover, +like a revisiting spirit. + +The tomb bore the names of Tom and Maggie Tulliver, and below the +names it was written:-- + + "In their death they were not divided." + + + +THE VILLAGE WORTHIES + +From 'Silas Marner' + + +The conversation, which was at a high pitch of animation when Silas +approached the door of the Rainbow, had as usual been slow and +intermittent when the company first assembled. The pipes began to be +puffed in a silence which had an air of severity; the more important +customers, who drank spirits and sat nearest the fire, staring at each +other as if a bet were depending on the first man who winked; while +the beer-drinkers, chiefly men in fustian jackets and smock-frocks, +kept their eyelids down and rubbed their hands across their mouths, as +if their draughts of beer were a funeral duty attended with +embarrassing sadness. At last Mr. Snell, the landlord, a man of a +neutral disposition, accustomed to stand aloof from human differences +as those of beings who were all alike in need of liquor, broke silence +by saying in a doubtful tone to his cousin the butcher:-- + +"Some folks 'ud say that was a fine beast you druv in yesterday, Bob?" + +The butcher, a jolly, smiling, red-haired man, was not disposed to +answer rashly. He gave a few puffs before he spat, and replied, "And +they wouldn't be fur wrong, John." + +After this feeble delusive thaw, the silence set in as severely as +before. + +"Was it a red Durham?" said the farrier, taking up the thread of +discourse after the lapse of a few minutes. + +The farrier looked at the landlord, and the landlord looked at the +butcher, as the person who must take the responsibility of answering. + +"Red it was," said the butcher, in his good-humored husky +treble,--"and a Durham it was." + +"Then you needn't tell _me_ who you bought it of," said the farrier, +looking round with some triumph: "I know who it is has got the red +Durhams o' this country-side. And she'd a white star on her brow, I'll +bet a penny?" The farrier leaned forward with his hands on his knees +as he put this question, and his eyes twinkled knowingly. + +"Well, yes--she might," said the butcher, slowly, considering that he +was giving a decided affirmative. "I don't say contrairy." + +"I knew that very well," said the farrier, throwing himself backward +again, and speaking defiantly; "if _I_ don't know Mr. Lammeter's cows, +I should like to know who does--that's all. And as for the cow you've +bought, bargain or no bargain, I've been at the drenching of +her--contradick me who will." + +The farrier looked fierce, and the mild butcher's conversational +spirit was roused a little. + +"I'm not for contradicking no man," he said; "I'm for peace and +quietness. Some are for cutting long ribs--I'm for cutting 'em short +myself; but _I_ don't quarrel with 'em. All I say is, it's a lovely +carkiss--and anybody as was reasonable, it 'ud bring tears into their +eyes to look at it." + +"Well, it's the cow as I drenched, whatever it is," pursued the +farrier, angrily; "and it was Mr. Lammeter's cow, else you told a lie +when you said it was a red Durham." + +"I tell no lies," said the butcher, with the same mild huskiness as +before; "and I contradick none--not if a man was to swear himself +black; he's no meat o' mine, nor none o' my bargains. All I say is, +it's a lovely carkiss. And what I say I'll stick to; but I'll quarrel +wi' no man." + +"No," said the farrier with bitter sarcasm, looking at the company +generally; "and p'raps you aren't pig-headed; and p'raps you didn't +say the cow was a red Durham; and p'raps you didn't say she'd got a +star on her brow--stick to that, now you're at it." + +"Come, come," said the landlord, "let the cow alone. The truth lies +atween you; you're both right and both wrong, as I allays say. And as +for the cow's being Mr. Lammeter's, I say nothing to that; but this I +say, as the Rainbow's the Rainbow. And for the matter o' that, if the +talk is to be o' the Lammeters, _you_ know the most upo' that head, +eh, Mr. Macey? You remember when first Mr. Lammeter's father come into +these parts, and took the Warrens?" + +Mr. Macey, tailor and parish clerk, the latter of which functions +rheumatism had of late obliged him to share with a small-featured +young man who sat opposite him, held his white head on one side, and +twirled his thumbs with an air of complacency, slightly seasoned with +criticism. He smiled pityingly in answer to the landlord's appeal, and +said:-- + +"Ay, ay; I know, I know; but I let other folks talk. I've laid by now, +and gev up to the young uns. Ask them as have been to school at +Tarley; they've learned pernouncing; that's come up since my day." + +"If you're pointing at me, Mr. Macey," said the deputy clerk, with an +air of anxious propriety, "I'm nowise a man to speak out of my place. +As the psalm says:-- + + "'I know what's right; nor only so, + But also practice what I know.'" + +"Well, then, I wish you'd keep hold o' the tune when it's set for you; +if you're for practicing I wish you'd prac_tice_ that," said a large +jocose-looking man, an excellent wheelwright in his weekday capacity, +but on Sundays leader of the choir. He winked, as he spoke, at two of +the company who were known officially as "the bassoon" and "the key +bugle," in the confidence that he was expressing the sense of the +musical profession in Raveloe. + +Mr. Tookey the deputy clerk, who shared the unpopularity common to +deputies, turned very red, but replied with careful moderation:--"Mr. +Winthrop, if you'll bring me any proof as I'm in the wrong, I'm not +the man to say I won't alter. But there's people set up their own ears +for a standard, and expect the whole choir to follow 'em. There may be +two opinions, I hope." + +"Ay, ay," said Mr. Macey, who felt very well satisfied with this +attack on youthful presumption; "you're right there, Tookey: there's +allays two 'pinions; there's the 'pinion a man has of himsen, and +there's the 'pinion other folks have on him. There'd be two 'pinions +about a cracked bell, if the bell could hear itself." + +"Well, Mr. Macey," said poor Tookey, serious amidst the general +laughter, "I undertook to partially fill up the office of parish clerk +by Mr. Crackenthorp's desire, whenever your infirmities should make +you unfitting; and it's one of the rights thereof to sing in the +choir--else why have you done the same yourself?" + +"Ah! but the old gentleman and you are two folks," said Ben Winthrop. +"The old gentleman's got a gift. Why, the Squire used to invite him to +take a glass, only to hear him sing the 'Red Rovier'; didn't he, Mr. +Macey? It's a nat'ral gift. There's my little lad Aaron, he's got a +gift--he can sing a tune off straight, like a throstle. But as for +you, Master Tookey, you'd better stick to your 'Amens': your voice is +well enough when you keep it up in your nose. It's your inside as +isn't right made for music: it's no better nor a hollow stalk." + +This kind of unflinching frankness was the most piquant form of joke +to the company at the Rainbow, and Ben Winthrop's insult was felt by +everybody to have capped Mr. Macey's epigram. + +"I see what it is plain enough," said Mr. Tookey, unable to keep cool +any longer. "There's a consperacy to turn me out o' the choir, as I +shouldn't share the Christmas money--that's where it is. But I shall +speak to Mr. Crackenthorp; I'll not be put upon by no man." + +"Nay, nay, Tookey," said Ben Winthrop. "We'll pay you your share to +keep out of it--that's what we'll do. There's things folks 'ud pay to +be rid on, besides varmin." + +"Come, come," said the landlord, who felt that paying people for their +absence was a principle dangerous to society; "a joke's a joke. We're +all good friends here, I hope. We must give and take. You're both +right and you're both wrong, as I say. I agree wi' Mr. Macey here, as +there's two opinions; and if mine was asked, I should say they're both +right. Tookey's right and Winthrop's right, and they've only got to +split the difference and make themselves even." + +The farrier was puffing his pipe rather fiercely, in some contempt at +this trivial discussion. He had no ear for music himself, and never +went to church, as being of the medical profession, and likely to be +in requisition for delicate cows. But the butcher, having music in his +soul, had listened with a divided desire, for Tookey's defeat and for +the preservation of the peace. + +"To be sure," he said, following up the landlord's conciliatory view, +"we're fond of our old clerk; it's nat'ral, and him used to be such a +singer, and got a brother as is known for the first fiddler in this +country-side. Eh, it's a pity but what Solomon lived in our village, +and could give us a tune when he liked, eh, Mr. Macey? I'd keep him in +liver and lights for nothing--that I would." + +"Ay, ay," said Mr. Macey, in the height of complacency; "our family's +been known for musicianers as far back as anybody can tell. But them +things are dying out, as I tell Solomon every time he comes round; +there's no voices like what there used to be, and there's nobody +remembers what we remember, if it ain't the old crows." + +"Ay, you remember when first Mr. Lammeter's father came into these +parts, don't you, Mr. Macey?" said the landlord. + +"I should think I did," said the old man, who had now gone through +that complimentary process necessary to bring him up to the point of +narration; "and a fine old gentleman he was--as fine and finer nor the +Mr. Lammeter as now is. He came from a bit north'ard, so far as I +could ever make out. But there's nobody rightly knows about those +parts; only it couldn't be far north'ard, nor much different from this +country, for he brought a fine breed o' sheep with him, so there must +be pastures there, and everything reasonable. We heard tell as he'd +sold his own land to come and take the Warrens, and that seemed odd +for a man as had land of his own, to come and rent a farm in a strange +place. But they said it was along of his wife's dying; though there's +reasons in things as nobody knows on--that's pretty much what I've +made out; though some folks are so wise that they'll find you fifty +reasons straight off, and all the while the real reason's winking at +'em in the corner, and they niver see't. Howsomever, it was soon seen +as we'd got a new parish'ner as know'd the rights and customs o' +things, and kep a good house, and was well looked on by everybody. And +the young man--that's the Mr. Lammeter as now is, for he'd niver a +sister--soon begun to court Miss Osgood, that's the sister o' the Mr. +Osgood as now is, and a fine handsome lass she was--eh, you can't +think--they pretend this young lass is like her, but that's the way +wi' people as don't know what come before 'em. _I_ should know, for I +helped the old rector, Mr. Drumlow as was, I helped him marry 'em." + +Here Mr. Macey paused; he always gave his narrative in installments, +expecting to be questioned according to precedent. + +"Ay, and a partic'lar thing happened, didn't it, Mr. Macey, so as you +were likely to remember that marriage?" said the landlord, in a +congratulatory tone. + +"I should think there did--a _very_ partic'lar thing," said Mr. Macey, +nodding sideways. "For Mr. Drumlow--poor old gentleman, I was fond on +him, though he'd got a bit confused in his head, what wi' age and wi' +taking a drop o' summat warm when the service come of a cold morning; +and young Mr. Lammeter he'd have no way but he must be married in +Janiwary, which, to be sure, 's a unreasonable time to be married in, +for it isn't like a christening or a burying, as you can't help; and +so Mr. Drumlow--poor old gentleman, I was fond on him; but when he +come to put the questions, he put 'em by the rule o' contrairy like, +and he says, 'Wilt thou have this man to thy wedded wife?' says he, +and then he says, 'Wilt thou have this woman to thy wedded husband?' +says he. But the partic'larest thing of all is, as nobody took any +notice on it but me, and they answered straight off 'Yes,' like as if +it had been me saying 'Amen' i' the right place, without listening to +what went before." + +"But _you_ knew what was going on well enough, didn't you, Mr. Macey? +You were live enough, eh?" said the butcher. + +"Lor bless you!" said Mr. Macey, pausing, and smiling in pity at the +impotence of his hearers' imagination,--"why, I was all of a tremble: +it was as if I'd been a coat pulled by the two tails, like; for I +couldn't stop the parson, I couldn't take upon me to do that; and yet +I said to myself, I says, 'Suppose they shouldn't be fast married, +'cause the words are contrairy?' and my head went working like a mill, +for I was allays uncommon for turning things over and seeing all round +'em; and I says to myself, 'Is't the meanin' or the words as makes +folks fast i' wedlock?' For the parson meant right, and the bride and +bridegroom meant right. But then when I come to think on it, meanin' +goes but a little way i' most things, for you may mean to stick things +together and your glue may be bad, and then where are you? And so I +says to mysen, 'It isn't the meanin', it's the glue.' And I was +worreted as if I'd got three bells to pull at once, when we got into +the vestry, and they begun to sign their names. But where's the use o' +talking?--you can't think what goes on in a 'cute man's inside." + +"But you held in for all that, didn't you, Mr. Macey?" said the +landlord. + +"Ay, I held in tight till I was by mysen, wi' Mr. Drumlow, and then I +out wi' everything, but respectful, as I allays did. And he made light +on it, and he says:--'Pooh, pooh, Macey, make yourself easy,' he says, +'it's neither the meaning nor the words--it's the register does +it--that's the glue.' So you see he settled it easy; for parsons and +doctors know everything by heart, like, so as they aren't worreted wi' +thinking what's the rights and wrongs o' things, as I'n been many and +many's the time. And sure enough the wedding turned out all right, +on'y poor Mrs. Lammeter--that's Miss Osgood as was--died afore the +lasses were growed up; but for prosperity and everything respectable, +there's no family more looked on." + +Every one of Mr. Macey's audience had heard this story many times, but +it was listened to as if it had been a favorite tune, and at certain +points the puffing of the pipes was momentarily suspended, that the +listeners might give their whole minds to the expected words. But +there was more to come; and Mr. Snell, the landlord, duly put the +leading question:-- + +"Why, old Mr. Lammeter had a pretty fortin, didn't they say, when he +come into these parts?" + +"Well, yes," said Mr. Macey; "but I dare say it's as much as this Mr. +Lammeter's done to keep it whole.... Why, they're stables four times +as big as Squire Cass's, for he thought o' nothing but hosses and +hunting, Cliff didn't--a Lunnon tailor, some folks said, as had gone +mad wi' cheating. For he couldn't ride, Lor bless you! they said he'd +got no more grip o' the hoss than if his legs had been cross-sticks: +my grandfather heared old Squire Cass say so many and many a time. But +ride he would, as if Old Harry had been a-driving him; and he'd a son, +a lad o' sixteen; and nothing would his father have him do but he must +ride and ride--though the lad was frightened, they said. And it was a +common saying as the father wanted to ride the tailor out o' the lad, +and make a gentleman on him--not but what I'm a tailor myself, but in +respect as God made me such, I'm proud on it, for 'Macey, tailor,' 's +been wrote up over our door since afore the Queen's heads went out on +the shillings. But Cliff, he was ashamed o' being called a tailor, and +he was sore vexed as his riding was laughed at, and nobody o' the +gentlefolks here about could abide him. Howsomever, the poor lad got +sickly and died, and the father didn't live long after him, for he +got queerer nor ever, and they said he used to go out i' the dead o' +the night, wi' a lantern in his hand, to the stables, and set a lot o' +lights burning, for he got as he couldn't sleep; and there he'd stand, +cracking his whip and looking at his hosses; and they said it was a +mercy as the stables didn't get burnt down wi' the poor dumb creaturs +in 'em. But at last he died raving, and they found as he'd left all +his property, Warrens and all, to a Lunnon Charity, and that's how the +Warrens come to be Charity Land; though as for the stables, Mr. +Lammeter never uses 'em--they're out o' all charicter--Lor bless you! +if you was to set the doors a-banging in 'em, it 'ud sound like +thunder half o'er the parish." + +"Ay, but there's more going on in the stables than what folks see by +daylight, eh, Mr. Macey?" said the landlord. + +"Ay, ay; go that way of a dark night, that's all," said Mr. Macey, +winking mysteriously, "and then make believe, if you like, as you +didn't see lights i' the stables, nor hear the stamping o' the hosses, +nor the cracking o' the whips, and howling too, if it's tow'rt +daybreak. 'Cliff's Holiday' has been the name of it ever sin' I were a +boy; that's to say, some said as it was the holiday Old Harry gev him +from roasting, like. That's what my father told me, and he was a +reasonable man, though there's folks nowadays know what happened afore +they were born better nor they know their own business." + +"What do you say to that, eh, Dowlas?" said the landlord, turning to +the farrier, who was swelling with impatience for his cue: "here's a +nut for _you_ to crack." + +Mr. Dowlas was the negative spirit in the company, and was proud of +his position. + +"Say? I say what a man _should_ say as doesn't shut his eyes to look +at a finger-post. I say as I'm ready to wager any man ten pound, if +he'll stand out wi' me any dry night in the pasture before the Warren +stables, as we shall neither see lights nor hear noises, if it isn't +the blowing of our own noses. That's what I say, and I've said it many +a time; but there's nobody 'ull ventur a ten-pun' note on their +ghos'es as they make so sure of." + +"Why, Dowlas, that's easy betting, that is," said Ben Winthrop. "You +might as well bet a man as he wouldn't catch the rheumatise if he +stood up to 's neck in the pool of a frosty night. It 'ud be fine fun +for a man to win his bet as he'd catch the rheumatise. Folks as +believe in Cliff's Holiday aren't a-going to ventur near it for a +matter o' ten pound." + +"If Master Dowlas wants to know the truth on it," said Mr. Macey, with +a sarcastic smile, tapping his thumbs together, "he's no call to lay +any bet; let him go and stan' by himself--there's nobody 'ull hinder +him; and then he can let the parish'ners know if they're wrong." + +"Thank you! I'm obliged to you," said the farrier, with a snort of +scorn. "If folks are fools, it's no business o' mine. _I_ don't want +to make out the truth about ghos'es; I know it a'ready. But I'm not +against a bet--everything fair and open. Let any man bet me ten pound +as I shall see Cliff's Holiday, and I'll go and stand by myself. I +want no company. I'd as lief do it as I'd fill this pipe." + +"Ah, but who's to watch you, Dowlas, and see you do it? That's no fair +bet," said the butcher. + +"No fair bet?" replied Mr. Dowlas angrily. "I should like to hear any +man stand up and say I want to bet unfair. Come now, Master Lundy, I +should like to hear you say it." + +"Very like you would," said the butcher. "But it's no business o' +mine. You're none o' my bargains, and I aren't a-going to try and +'bate your price. If anybody'll bid for you at your own vallying, let +him. I'm for peace and quietness, I am." + +"Yes, that's what every yapping cur is, when you hold a stick up at +him," said the farrier. "But I'm afraid o' neither man nor ghost, and +I'm ready to lay a fair bet--I aren't a turntail cur." + +"Ay, but there's this in it, Dowlas," said the landlord, speaking in a +tone of much candor and tolerance. "There's folks, i' my opinion, they +can't see ghos'es, not if they stood as plain as a pike-staff before +'em. And there's reason i' that. For there's my wife, now, can't +smell, not if she'd the strongest o' cheese under her nose. I never +seed a ghost myself; but then I says to myself, 'Very like I haven't +got the smell for 'em.' I mean, putting a ghost for a smell, or else +contrariways. And so I'm for holding with both sides; for as I say, +the truth lies between 'em. And if Dowlas was to go and stand, and say +he'd never seen a wink o' Cliff's Holiday all the night through, I'd +back him; and if anybody said as Cliff's Holiday was certain sure for +all that, I'd back _him_ too. For the smell's what I go by." + +The landlord's analogical argument was not well received by the +farrier--a man intensely opposed to compromise. + +"Tut, tut," he said setting down his glass with refreshed irritation; +"what's the smell got to do with it? Did ever a ghost give a man a +black eye? That's what I should like to know. If ghos'es want me to +believe in 'em, let 'em leave off skulking i' the dark and i' lone +places--let 'em come where there's company and candles." + +"As if ghos'es 'ud want to be believed in by anybody so ignorant!" +said Mr. Macey, in deep disgust at the farrier's crass imcompetence to +apprehend the conditions of ghostly phenomena. + + + +THE HALL FARM + +From 'Adam Bede' + + +Evidently that gate is never opened; for the long grass and the great +hemlocks grow close against it; and if it were opened, it is so rusty +that the force necessary to turn to on its hinges would be likely to +pull down the square stone-built pillars, to the detriment of the two +stone lionesses which grin with a doubtful carnivorous affability +above a coat of arms surmounting each of the pillars. It would be easy +enough, by the aid of the nicks in the stone pillars, to climb over +the brick wall with its smooth stone coping; but by putting our eyes +close to the rusty bars of the gate, we can see the house well enough, +and all but the very corners of the grassy inclosure. + +It is a very fine old place, of red brick, softened by a pale powdery +lichen, which has dispersed itself with happy irregularity, so as to +bring the red brick into terms of friendly companionship with the +limestone ornaments surrounding the three gables, the windows, and the +door-place. But the windows are patched with wooden panes, and the +door, I think, is like the gate--it is never opened: how it would +groan and grate against the stone floor if it were! For it is a solid, +heavy, handsome door, and must once have been in the habit of shutting +with a sonorous bang behind a liveried lackey who had just seen his +master and mistress off the grounds in a carriage and pair. + +But at present one might fancy the house in the early stage of a +chancery suit, and that the fruit from that grand double row of +walnut-trees on the right hand of the inclosure would fall and rot +among the grass; if it were not that we heard the booming bark of dogs +echoing from great buildings at the back. And now the half-weaned +calves that have been sheltering themselves in a gorse-built hovel +against the left-hand wall come out and set up a silly answer to that +terrible bark, doubtless supposing that it has reference to buckets of +milk. + +Yes, the house must be inhabited, and we will see by whom; for +imagination is a licensed trespasser: it has no fear of dogs, but may +climb over walls and peep in at windows with impunity. Put your face +to one of the glass panes in the right-hand window: what do you see? A +large open fireplace, with rusty dogs in it, and a bare boarded floor; +at the far end, fleeces of wool stacked up; in the middle of the +floor, some empty corn-bags. That is the furniture of the dining-room. +And what through the left-hand window? Several clothes-horses, a +pillion, a spinning-wheel, and an old box wide open, and stuffed full +of colored rags. At the edge of this box there lies a great wooden +doll, which so far as mutilation is concerned bears a strong +resemblance to the finest Greek sculpture, and especially in the total +loss of its nose. Near it there is a little chair, and the butt-end of +a boy's leather long-lashed whip. + +The history of the house is plain now. It was once the residence of a +country squire, whose family, probably dwindling down to mere +spinsterhood, got merged in the more territorial name of Donnithorne. +It was once the Hall; it is now the Hall Farm. Like the life in some +coast town that was once a watering-place, and is now a port, where +the genteel streets are silent and grass-grown, and the docks and +warehouses busy and resonant, the life at the Hall has changed its +focus, and no longer radiates from the parlor, but from the kitchen +and the farm-yard. + +Plenty of life there! though this is the drowsiest time of the year, +just before hay harvest; and it is the drowsiest time of the day too, +for it is close upon three by the sun, and it is half-past three by +Mrs. Poyser's handsome eight-day clock. But there is always a stronger +sense of life when the sun is brilliant after rain; and now he is +pouring down his beams, and making sparkles among the wet straw, and +lighting up every patch of vivid green moss on the red tiles of the +cow-shed, and turning even the muddy water that is hurrying along the +channel to the drain into a mirror for the yellow-billed ducks, who +are seizing the opportunity of getting a drink with as much body in +it as possible. There is quite a concert of noises: the great +bull-dog, chained against the stables, is thrown into furious +exasperation by the unwary approach of a cock too near the mouth of +his kennel, and sends forth a thundering bark, which is answered by +two fox-hounds shut up in the opposite cow-house; the old top-knotted +hens, scratching with their chicks among the straw, set up a +sympathetic croaking as the discomfited cock joins them; a sow with +her brood, all very muddy as to the legs, and curled as to the tail, +throws in some deep staccato notes; our friends the calves are +bleating from the home croft; and under all, a fine ear discerns the +continuous hum of human voices. + +For the great barn doors are thrown wide open, and men are busy there +mending the harness under the superintendence of Mr. Goby the +"whittaw," otherwise saddler, who entertains them with the latest +Treddleston gossip. It is certainly rather an unfortunate day that +Alick the shepherd has chosen for having the whittaws, since the +morning turned out so wet; and Mrs. Poyser has spoken her mind pretty +strongly as to the dirt which the extra number of men's shoes brought +into the house at dinner-time. Indeed, she has not yet recovered her +equanimity on the subject, though it is now nearly three hours since +dinner and the house floor is perfectly clean again; as clean as +everything else in that wonderful house-place, where the only chance +of collecting a few grains of dust would be to climb on the +salt-coffer, and put your finger on the high mantel shelf on which the +glittering brass candlesticks are enjoying their summer sinecure; for +at this time of year of course every one goes to bed while it is yet +light, or at least light enough to discern the outline of objects +after you have bruised your shins against them. Surely nowhere else +could an oak clock-case and an oak table have got to such a polish by +the hand: genuine "elbow polish," as Mrs. Poyser called it, for she +thanked God she never had any of your varnished rubbish in her house. +Hetty Sorrel often took the opportunity, when her aunt's back was +turned, of looking at the pleasing reflection of herself in those +polished surfaces, for the oak table was usually turned up like a +screen, and was more for ornament than for use; and she could see +herself sometimes in the great round pewter dishes that were ranged on +the shelves above the long deal dinner-table, or in the hobs of the +grate, which always shone like jasper. + +Everything was looking at its brightest at this moment, for the sun +shone right on the pewter dishes, and from their reflecting surfaces +pleasant jets of light were thrown on mellow oak and bright +brass;--and on a still pleasanter object than these; for some of the +rays fell on Dinah's finely molded cheek, and lit up her pale-red hair +to auburn, as she bent over the heavy household linen which she was +mending for her aunt. No scene could have been more peaceful, if Mrs. +Poyser, who was ironing a few things that still remained from the +Monday's wash, had not been making a frequent clinking with her iron, +and moving to and fro whenever she wanted it to cool; carrying the +keen glance of her blue-gray eye from the kitchen to the dairy, where +Hetty was making up the butter, and from the dairy to the back +kitchen, where Nancy was taking the pies out of the oven. Do not +suppose however that Mrs. Poyser was elderly or shrewish in her +appearance; she was a good-looking woman, not more than +eight-and-thirty, of fair complexion and sandy hair, well-shapen, +light-footed; the most conspicuous article in her attire was an ample +checkered linen apron, which almost covered her skirt; and nothing +could be plainer or less noticeable than her cap and gown, for there +was no weakness of which she was less tolerant than feminine vanity, +and the preference of ornament to utility. The family likeness between +her and her niece Dinah Morris, with the contrast between her keenness +and Dinah's seraphic gentleness of expression, might have served a +painter as an excellent suggestion for a Martha and Mary. Their eyes +were just of the same color, but a striking test of the difference in +their operation was seen in the demeanor of Trip, the black-and-tan +terrier, whenever that much-suspected dog unwarily exposed himself to +the freezing arctic ray of Mrs. Poyser's glance. Her tongue was not +less keen than her eye, and whenever a damsel came within earshot, +seemed to take up an unfinished lecture, as a barrel organ takes up a +tune, precisely at the point where it had left off. + +The fact that it was churning day was another reason why it was +inconvenient to have the whittaws, and why, consequently, Mrs. Poyser +should scold Molly the housemaid with unusual severity. To all +appearance Molly had got through her after-dinner work in an exemplary +manner, had "cleaned herself" with great dispatch, and now came to ask +submissively if she should sit down to her spinning till milking-time. +But this blameless conduct, according to Mrs. Poyser, shrouded a +secret indulgence of unbecoming wishes, which she now dragged forth +and held up to Molly's view with cutting eloquence. + +"Spinning, indeed! It isn't spinning as you'd be at, I'll be bound, +and let you have your own way. I never knew your equals for +gallowsness. To think of a gell o' your age wanting to go and sit with +half-a-dozen men! I'd ha' been ashamed to let the words pass over my +lips if I'd been you. And you, as have been here ever since last +Michaelmas, and I hired you at Treddles'on stattits, without a bit o' +character--as I say, you might be grateful to be hired in that way to +a respectable place; and you knew no more o' what belongs to work when +you come here than the mawkin i' the field. As poor a two-fisted thing +as ever I saw, you know you was. Who taught you to scrub a floor, I +should like to know? Why, you'd leave the dirt in heaps i' the +corners--anybody 'ud think you'd never been brought up among +Christians. And as for spinning, why you've wasted as much as your +wage i' the flax you've spoiled learning to spin. And you've a right +to feel that, and not to go about as gaping and as thoughtless as if +you was beholding to nobody. Comb the wool for the whittaws, indeed! +That's what you'd like to be doing, is it? That's the way with +you--that's the road you'd all like to go, headlongs to ruin. You're +never easy till you've got some sweetheart as is as big a fool as +yourself: you think you'll be finely off when you're married, I dare +say, and have got a three-legged stool to sit on, and never a blanket +to cover you, and a bit o' oat-cake for your dinner, as three children +are a-snatching at." + +"I'm sure I donna want t' go wi' the whittaws," said Molly, +whimpering, and quite overcome by this Dantean picture of her future; +"on'y we allays used to comb the wool for 'n at Mester Ottley's, an' +so I just asked ye. I donna want to set eyes on the whittaws again; I +wish I may never stir if I do." + +"Mr. Ottley's, indeed! It's fine talking o' what you did at Mr. +Ottley's. Your missis there might like her floors dirted wi' whittaws +for what I know. There's no knowing what people _wonna_ like--such +ways as I've heard of! I never had a gell come into my house as seemed +to know what cleaning was; I think people live like pigs, for my part. +And as to that Betty as was dairymaid at Trent's before she come to +me, she'd ha' left the cheeses without turning from week's end to +week's end; and the dairy thralls, I might ha' wrote my name on 'em, +when I come down-stairs after my illness, as the doctor said it was +inflammation--it was a mercy I got well of it. And to think o' your +knowing no better, Molly, and been here a-going i' nine months, and +not for want o' talking to, neither;--and what are you stanning there +for, like a jack as is run down, instead o' getting your wheel out? +You're a rare un for sitting down to your work a little while after +it's time to put by." + +"Munny, my iron's twite told; pease put it down to warm." + +The small chirruping voice that uttered this request came from a +little sunny-haired girl between three and four, who, seated on a high +chair at the end of the ironing-table, was arduously clutching the +handle of a miniature iron with her tiny fat fist, and ironing rags +with an assiduity that required her to put her little red tongue out +as far as anatomy would allow. + +"Cold, is it, my darling? Bless your sweet face!" said Mrs. Poyser, +who was remarkable for the facility with which she could relapse from +her official objurgatory to one of fondness or of friendly converse. +"Never mind! Mother's done her ironing now. She's going to put the +ironing things away." + +"Munny, I tould 'ike to do into de barn to Tommy, to see de whittawd." + +"No, no, no; Totty 'ud get her feet wet," said Mrs. Poyser, carrying +away her iron. "Run into the dairy and see Cousin Hetty make the +butter." + +"I tould 'ike a bit of pum-take," rejoined Totty, who seemed to be +provided with several relays of requests; at the same time taking the +opportunity of her momentary leisure to put her fingers into a bowl of +starch and drag it down so as to empty the contents with tolerable +completeness on to the ironing-sheet. + +"Did ever anybody see the like?" screamed Mrs. Poyser, running towards +the table when her eye had fallen on the blue stream. "The child's +allays i' mischief if your back's turned a minute. What shall I do to +you, you naughty, naughty gell?" + +Totty, however, had descended from her chair with great swiftness, and +was already in retreat towards the dairy with a sort of waddling run, +and an amount of fat on the nape of her neck which made her look like +the metamorphosis of a white sucking pig. + +The starch having been wiped up by Molly's help, and the ironing +apparatus put by, Mrs. Poyser took up her knitting, which always lay +ready at hand and was the work she liked best, because she could carry +it on automatically as she walked to and fro. But now she came and sat +down opposite Dinah, whom she looked at in a meditative way, as she +knitted her gray worsted stocking. + +"You look th' image o' your Aunt Judith, Dinah, when you sit a-sewing. +I could almost fancy it was thirty years back, and I was a little gell +at home, looking at Judith as she sat at her work after she'd done the +house up; only it was a little cottage, father's was, and not a big +rambling house as gets dirty i' one corner as fast as you clean it in +another; but for all that I could fancy you was your Aunt Judith, only +her hair was a deal darker than yours, and she was stouter and broader +i' the shoulders. Judith and me allays hung together, though she had +such queer ways, but your mother and her never could agree. Ah! your +mother little thought as she'd have a daughter just cut out after the +very pattern o' Judith, and leave her an orphan too, for Judith to +take care on, and bring up with a spoon when _she_ was in the +grave-yard at Stoniton. I allays said that o' Judith, as she'd bear a +pound weight any day to save anybody else carrying a ounce. And she +was just the same from the first o' my remembering her; it made no +difference in her, as I could see, when she took to the Methodists, +only she talked a bit different, and wore a different sort o' cap; but +she'd never in her life spent a penny on herself more than keeping +herself decent." + +"She was a blessed woman," said Dinah: "God had given her a loving, +self-forgetting nature, and he perfected it by grace. And she was very +fond of you too, Aunt Rachel. I've often heard her talk of you in the +same sort of way. When she had that bad illness, and I was only eleven +years old, she used to say, 'You'll have a friend on earth in your +Aunt Rachel, if I'm taken from you; for she has a kind heart;' and I'm +sure I've found it so." + +"I don't know how, child; anybody 'ud be cunning to do anything for +you, I think; you're like the birds o' th' air, and live nobody knows +how. I'd ha' been glad to behave to you like a mother's sister, if +you'd come and live i' this country, where there's some shelter and +victual for man and beast, and folks don't live on the naked hills, +like poultry a-scratching on a gravel bank. And then you might get +married to some decent man, and there'd be plenty ready to have you, +if you'd only leave off that preaching, as is ten times worse than +anything your Aunt Judith ever did. And even if you'd marry Seth Bede, +as is a poor wool-gathering Methodist, and's never like to have a +penny beforehand, I know your uncle 'ud help you with a pig, and very +like a cow, for he's allays been good-natur'd to my kin, for all +they're poor, and made 'em welcome to the house; and 'ud do for you, +I'll be bound, as much as ever he'd do for Hetty, though she's his own +niece. And there's linen in the house as I could well spare you, for +I've got lots o' sheeting, and table-clothing, and toweling, as isn't +made up. There's a piece o' sheeting I could give you as that +squinting Kitty spun--she was a rare girl to spin, for all she +squinted and the children couldn't abide her; and you know the +spinning's going on constant, and there's new linen wove twice as fast +as the old wears out. But where's the use o' talking, if ye wonna be +persuaded, and settle down like any other woman in her senses, i'stead +o' wearing yourself out with walking and preaching, and giving away +every penny you get, so as you've nothing saved against sickness; and +all the things you've got i' the world, I verily believe, 'ud go into +a bundle no bigger nor a double cheese. And all because you've got +notions i' your head about religion more nor what's i' the Catechism +and the Prayer-book." + +"But not more than what's in the Bible, Aunt," said Dinah. + +"Yes, and the Bible too, for that matter," Mrs. Poyser rejoined rather +sharply; "else why shouldn't them as know best what's in the +Bible--the parsons and people as have got nothing to do but learn +it--do the same as you do? But for the matter o' that, if everybody +was to do like you, the world must come to a standstill; for if +everybody tried to do without house and home, and with poor eating and +drinking, and was allays talking as we must despise the things o' the +world, as you say, I should like to know where the pick o' the stock, +and the corn, and the best new-milk cheeses 'ud have to go. Everybody +'ud be wanting bread made o' tail ends, and everybody 'ud be running +after everybody else to preach to 'em, istead o' bringing up their +families, and laying by against a bad harvest. It stands to sense as +that can't be the right religion." + +"Nay, dear Aunt, you never heard me say that all people are called to +forsake their work and their families. It's quite right the land +should be plowed and sowed, and the precious corn stored, and the +things of this life cared for, and right that people should rejoice +in their families, and provide for them; so that this is done in the +fear of the Lord, and that they are not unmindful of the soul's wants +while they are caring for the body. We can all be servants of God +wherever our lot is cast, but he gives us different sorts of work, +according as he fits us for it and calls us to it. I can no more help +spending my life in trying to do what I can for the souls of others, +than you could help running if you heard little Totty crying at the +other end of the house; the voice would go to your heart, you would +think the dear child was in trouble or in danger, and you couldn't +rest without running to help her and comfort her." + +"Ah," said Mrs. Poyser, rising and walking towards the door, "I know +it 'ud be just the same if I was to talk to you for hours. You'd make +me the same answer, at th' end. I might as well talk to the running +brook, and tell it to stan' still." + +The causeway outside the kitchen door was dry enough now for Mrs. +Poyser to stand there quite pleasantly and see what was going on in +the yard, the gray worsted stocking making a steady progress in her +hands all the while. But she had not been standing there more than +five minutes before she came in again, and said to Dinah in rather a +flurried, awe-stricken tone:-- + +"If there isn't Captain Donnithorne and Mr. Irwine a-coming into the +yard! I'll lay my life they're come to speak about your preaching on +the Green, Dinah; it's you must answer 'em, for I'm dumb. I've said +enough a'ready about your bringing such disgrace upo' your uncle's +family. I wouldn't ha' minded if you'd been Mr. Poyser's own +niece--folks must put up wi' their own kin, as they put up wi' their +own noses; it's their own flesh and blood. But to think of a niece o' +mine being cause o' my husband's being turned out of his farm, and me +brought him no fortin but my savins--" + +"Nay, dear Aunt Rachel," said Dinah gently, "you've no cause for such +fears. I've strong assurance that no evil will happen to you and my +uncle and the children from anything I've done. I didn't preach +without direction." + +"Direction! I know very well what you mean by direction," said Mrs. +Poyser, knitting in a rapid and agitated manner. "When there's a +bigger maggot than usial in your head you call it 'direction'; and +then nothing can stir you--you look like the statty o' the outside o' +Treddles'on church, a-starin' and a-smilin' whether it's fair weather +or foul. I hanna common patience with you." + +By this time the two gentlemen had reached the palings and had got +down from their horses: it was plain they meant to come in. Mrs. +Poyser advanced to the door to meet them, curtseying low, and +trembling between anger with Dinah and anxiety to conduct herself with +perfect propriety on the occasion. For in those days the keenest of +bucolic minds felt a whispering awe at the sight of the gentry, such +as of old men felt when they stood on tiptoe to watch the gods passing +by in tall human shape. + +"Well, Mrs. Poyser, how are you after this stormy morning?" said Mr. +Irwine with his stately cordiality. "Our feet are quite dry; we shall +not soil your beautiful floor." + +"Oh, sir, don't mention it," said Mrs. Poyser. "Will you and the +captain please to walk into the parlor?" + +"No, indeed, thank you, Mrs. Poyser," said the captain, looking +eagerly round the kitchen, as if his eye were seeking something it +could not find. "I delight in your kitchen. I think it is the most +charming room I know. I should like every farmer's wife to come and +look at it for a pattern." + +"Oh, you're pleased to say so, sir. Pray take a seat," said Mrs. +Poyser, relieved a little by this compliment and the captain's evident +good-humor, but still glancing anxiously at Mr. Irwine, who she saw +was looking at Dinah and advancing towards her. + +"Poyser is not at home, is he?" said Captain Donnithorne, seating +himself where he could see along the short passage to the open dairy +door. + +"No, sir, he isn't; he's gone to Rosseter to see Mr. West, the factor, +about the wool. But there's father i' the barn, sir, if he'd be of any +use." + +"No, thank you; I'll just look at the whelps and leave a message about +them with your shepherd. I must come another day and see your husband; +I want to have a consultation with him about horses. Do you know when +he's likely to be at liberty?" + +"Why, sir, you can hardly miss him, except it's o' Treddles'on +market-day--that's of a Friday, you know. For if he's anywhere on the +farm we can send for him in a minute. If we'd got rid of the +Scantlands we should have no outlying fields; and I should be glad of +it, for if ever anything happens he's sure to be gone to the +Scantlands. Things allays happen so contrairy, if they've a chance; +and it's an unnat'ral thing to have one bit o' your farm in one county +and all the rest in another." + +"Ah, the Scantlands would go much better with Choyce's farm, +especially as he wants dairy land and you've got plenty. I think yours +is the prettiest farm on the estate, though; and do you know, Mrs. +Poyser, if I were going to marry and settle, I should be tempted to +turn you out, and do up this fine old house, and turn farmer myself." + +"Oh, sir," said Mrs. Poyser, rather alarmed, "you wouldn't like it at +all. As for farming, it's putting money into your pocket wi' your +right hand and fetching it out wi' your left. As fur as I can see, +it's raising victual for other folks, and just getting a mouthful for +yourself and your children as you go along. Not as you'd be like a +poor man as wants to get his bread: you could afford to lose as much +money as you liked i' farming; but it's poor fun losing money, I +should think, though I understan' it's what the great folks i' London +play at more than anything. For my husband heard at market as Lord +Dacey's eldest son had lost thousands upo' thousands to the Prince o' +Wales, and they say my lady was going to pawn her jewels to pay for +him. But you know more about that than I do, sir. But as for farming, +sir, I canna think as you'd like it; and this house--the draughts in +it are enough to cut you through, and it's my opinion the floors +up-stairs are very rotten, and the rats i' the cellar are beyond +anything." + +"Why, that's a terrible picture, Mrs. Poyser. I think I should be +doing you a service to turn you out of such a place. But there's no +chance of that. I'm not likely to settle for the next twenty years, +till I'm a stout gentleman of forty; and my grandfather would never +consent to part with such good tenants as you." + +"Well, sir, if he thinks so well o' Mr. Poyser for a tenant, I wish +you could put in a word for him to allow us some new gates for the +Five Closes, for my husband's been asking and asking till he's tired; +and to think o' what he's done for the farm; and's never had a penny +allowed him, be the times bad or good. And as I've said to my husband +often and often, I'm sure if the captain had anything to do with it, +it wouldn't be so. Not as I wish to speak disrespectful o' them as +have got the power i' their hands, but it's more than flesh and blood +'ull bear sometimes, to be toiling and striving, and up early and down +late, and hardly sleeping a wink when you lie down for thinking as the +cheese may swell, or the cows may slip their calf, or the wheat may +grow green again i' the sheaf--and after all, at th' end o' the year, +it's like as if you'd been cooking a feast and had got the smell of it +for your pains." + +Mrs. Poyser, once launched into conversation, always sailed along +without any check from her preliminary awe of the gentry. The +confidence she felt in her own powers of exposition was a motive force +that overcame all resistance. + +"I'm afraid I should only do harm instead of good, if I were to speak +about the gates, Mrs. Poyser," said the captain; "though I assure you +there's no man on the estate I would sooner say a word for than your +husband. I know his farm is in better order than any other within ten +miles of us; and as for the kitchen," he added, smiling, "I don't +believe there's one in the kingdom to beat it. By-the-by, I've never +seen your dairy: I must see your dairy, Mrs. Poyser." + +"Indeed, sir, it's not fit for you to go in, for Hetty's in the middle +o' making the butter, for the churning was thrown late, and I'm quite +ashamed." This Mrs. Poyser said blushing, and believing that the +captain was really interested in her milkpans, and would adjust his +opinion of her to the appearance of her dairy. + +"Oh, I've no doubt it's in capital order. Take me in," said the +captain, leading the way, while Mrs. Poyser followed. + + + +MRS. POYSER "HAS HER SAY OUT" + +From 'Adam Bede' + + +Something unwonted must clearly be in the wind, for the old Squire's +visits to his tenantry were rare; and though Mrs. Poyser had during +the last twelvemonth recited many imaginary speeches, meaning even +more than met the ear, which she was quite determined to make to him +the next time he appeared within the gates of the Hall Farm, the +speeches had always remained imaginary. + +"Good-day, Mrs. Poyser," said the old Squire, peering at her with his +short-sighted eyes--a mode of looking at her which, as Mrs. Poyser +observed, "allays aggravated her: it was as if you was a insect, and +he was going to dab his finger-nail on you." + +However, she said, "Your servant, sir," and curtsied with an air of +perfect deference as she advanced towards him; she was not the woman +to misbehave towards her betters, and fly in the face of the +Catechism, without severe provocation. + +"Is your husband at home, Mrs. Poyser?" + +"Yes, sir; he's only i' the rick-yard. I'll send for him in a minute, +if you'll please to get down and step in." + +"Thank you; I will do so. I want to consult him about a little matter; +but you are quite as much concerned in it, if not more. I must have +your opinion too." + +"Hetty, run and tell your uncle to come in," said Mrs. Poyser as they +entered the house, and the old gentleman bowed low in answer to +Hetty's curtsy; while Totty, conscious of a pinafore stained with +gooseberry jam, stood hiding her face against the clock, and peeping +round furtively. + +"What a fine old kitchen this is!" said Mr. Donnithorne, looking round +admiringly. He always spoke in the same deliberate, well-chiseled, +polite way, whether his words were sugary or venomous. "And you keep +it so exquisitely clean, Mrs. Poyser. I like these premises, do you +know, beyond any on the estate." + +"Well, sir, since you're fond of 'em, I should be glad if you'd let a +bit o' repairs be done to 'em, for the boarding's i' that state as +we're like to be eaten up wi' rats and mice; and the cellar, you may +stan' up to your knees i' water in 't, if you like to go down; but +perhaps you'd rather believe my words. Won't you please to sit down, +sir?" + +"Not yet; I must see your dairy. I have not seen it for years, and I +hear on all hands about your fine cheese and butter," said the Squire, +looking politely unconscious that there could be any question on which +he and Mrs. Poyser might happen to disagree. "I think I see the door +open there: you must not be surprised if I cast a covetous eye on your +cream and butter. I don't expect that Mrs. Satchell's cream and butter +will bear comparison with yours." + +"I can't say, sir, I'm sure. It's seldom I see other folks' butter, +though there's some on it as one's no need to see--the smell's +enough." + +"Ah, now this I like," said Mr. Donnithorne, looking round at the damp +temple of cleanliness, but keeping near the door. "I'm sure I should +like my breakfast better if I knew the butter and cream came from +this dairy. Thank you, that really is a pleasant sight. Unfortunately, +my slight tendency to rheumatism makes me afraid of damp; I'll sit +down in your comfortable kitchen. Ah, Poyser, how do you do? In the +midst of business, I see, as usual. I've been looking at your wife's +beautiful dairy: the best manager in the parish, is she not?" + +Mr. Poyser had just entered in shirt-sleeves and open waistcoat, with +a face a shade redder than usual, from the exertion of "pitching." As +he stood, red, rotund, and radiant, before the small, wiry, cool old +gentleman, he looked like a prize apple by the side of a withered +crab. + +"Will you please to take this chair, sir?" he said, lifting his +father's arm-chair forward a little; "you'll find it easy." + +"No, thank you, I never sit in easy-chairs," said the old gentleman, +seating himself on a small chair near the door. "Do you know, Mrs. +Poyser--sit down, pray, both of you--I've been far from contented, for +some time, with Mrs. Satchell's dairy management. I think she has not +a good method, as you have." + +"Indeed, sir, I can't speak to that," said Mrs. Poyser, in a hard +voice, rolling and unrolling her knitting, and looking icily out of +the window, as she continued to stand opposite the Squire. Poyser +might sit down if he liked, she thought: _she_ wasn't going to sit +down, as if she'd give in to any such smooth-tongued palaver. Mr. +Poyser, who looked and felt the reverse of icy, did sit down in his +three-cornered chair. + +"And now, Poyser, as Satchell is laid up, I am intending to let the +Chase Farm to a respectable tenant. I'm tired of having a farm on my +own hands--nothing is made the best of in such cases, as you know. A +satisfactory bailiff is hard to find; and I think you and I, Poyser, +and your excellent wife here, can enter into a little arrangement in +consequence, which will be to our mutual advantage." + +"Oh," said Mr. Poyser, with a good-natured blankness of imagination as +to the nature of the arrangement. + +"If I'm called upon to speak, sir," said Mrs. Poyser, after glancing +at her husband with pity at his softness, "you know better than me; +but I don't see what the Chase Farm is t' us--we've cumber enough wi' +our own farm. Not but what I'm glad to hear o' anybody respectable +coming into the parish: there's some as ha' been brought in as hasn't +been looked on i' that character." + +"You're likely to find Mr. Thurle an excellent neighbor, I assure you: +such a one as you will feel glad to have accommodated by the little +plan I'm going to mention; especially as I hope you will find it as +much to your own advantage as his." + +"Indeed, sir, if it's anything t' our advantage, it'll be the first +offer o' the sort I've heared on. It's them as take advantage that get +advantage i' this world, _I_ think: folks have to wait long enough +afore it's brought to 'em." + +"The fact is, Poyser," said the Squire, ignoring Mrs. Poyser's theory +of worldly prosperity, "there is too much dairy land, and too little +plow land, on the Chase Farm, to suit Thurle's purpose--indeed, he +will only take the farm on condition of some change in it: his wife, +it appears, is not a clever dairywoman like yours. Now, the plan I'm +thinking of is to effect a little exchange. If you were to have the +Hollow Pastures, you might increase your dairy, which must be so +profitable under your wife's management; and I should request you, +Mrs. Poyser, to supply my house with milk, cream, and butter, at the +market prices. On the other hand, Poyser, you might let Thurle have +the Lower and Upper Ridges, which really, with our wet seasons would +be a good riddance for you. There is much less risk in dairy land than +corn land." + +Mr. Poyser was leaning forward, with his elbows on his knees, his head +on one side, and his mouth screwed up--apparently absorbed in making +the tips of his fingers meet so as to represent with perfect accuracy +the ribs of a ship. He was much too acute a man not to see through the +whole business, and to foresee perfectly what would be his wife's view +of the subject; but he disliked giving unpleasant answers: unless it +was on a point of farming practice, he would rather give up than have +a quarrel, any day; and after all, it mattered more to his wife than +to him. So, after a few moments' silence, he looked up at her and said +mildly, "What dost say?" + +Mrs. Poyser had had her eyes fixed on her husband with cold severity +during his silence, but now she turned away her head with a toss, +looked icily at the opposite roof of the cow-shed, and spearing her +knitting together with the loose pin, held it firmly between her +clasped hands. + +"Say? Why, I say you may do as you like about giving up any o' your +corn land afore your lease is up, which it won't be for a year come +next Michaelmas, but I'll not consent to take more dairy work into my +hands, either for love or money; and there's nayther love nor money +here, as I can see, on'y other folks' love o' theirselves, and the +money as is to go into other folks' pockets. I know there's them as is +born t' own the land, and them as is born to sweat on 't"--here Mrs. +Poyser paused to gasp a little--"and I know it's christened folks' +duty to submit to their betters as fur as flesh and blood 'ull bear +it; but I'll not make a martyr o' myself, and wear myself to skin and +bone, and worret myself as if I was a churn wi' butter a-coming in 't, +for no landlord in England, not if he was King George himself." + +"No, no, my dear Mrs. Poyser, certainly not," said the Squire, still +confident in his own powers of persuasion; "you must not overwork +yourself; but don't you think your work will rather be lessened than +increased in this way? There is so much milk required at the Abbey, +that you will have little increase of cheese and butter making from +the addition to your dairy; and I believe selling the milk is the most +profitable way of disposing of dairy produce, is it not?" + +"Ay, that's true," said Mr. Poyser, unable to repress an opinion on a +question of farming profits, and forgetting that it was not in this +case a purely abstract question. + +"I dare say," said Mrs. Poyser bitterly, turning her head half-way +towards her husband, and looking at the vacant arm-chair--"I dare say +it's true for men as sit i' th' chimney-corner and make believe as +everything's cut wi' ins an' outs to fit int' everything else. If you +could make a pudding wi' thinking o' the batter, it 'ud be easy +getting dinner. How do I know whether the milk 'ull be wanted +constant? What's to make me sure as the house won't be put o' board +wage afore we're many months older, and then I may have to lie awake +o' nights wi' twenty gallons o' milk on my mind--and Dingall 'ull take +no more butter, let alone paying for it; and we must fat pigs till +we're obliged to beg the butcher on our knees to buy 'em, and lose +half of 'em wi' the measles. And there's the fetching and carrying, as +'ud be welly half a day's work for a man an' hoss--_that's_ to be took +out o' the profits, I reckon? But there's folks 'ud hold a sieve under +the pump and expect to carry away the water." + +"That difficulty--about the fetching and carrying--you will not have, +Mrs. Poyser," said the Squire, who thought that this entrance into +particulars indicated a distant inclination to compromise on Mrs. +Poyser's part--"Bethell will do that regularly with the cart and +pony." + +"Oh, sir, begging your pardon, I've never been used t' having +gentlefolks' servants coming about my back places, a-making love to +both the gells at once, and keeping 'em with their hands on their hips +listening to all manner o' gossip when they should be down on their +knees a-scouring. If we're to go to ruin, it shanna be wi' having our +back kitchen turned into a public." + +"Well, Poyser," said the Squire, shifting his tactics, and looking as +if he thought Mrs. Poyser had suddenly withdrawn from the proceedings +and left the room, "you can turn the Hollows into feeding land. I can +easily make another arrangement about supplying my house. And I shall +not forget your readiness to accommodate your landlord as well as a +neighbor. I know you will be glad to have your lease renewed for three +years when the present one expires; otherwise, I dare say, Thurle, who +is a man of some capital, would be glad to take both the farms, as +they could be worked so well together. But I don't want to part with +an old tenant like you." + +To be thrust out of the discussion in this way would have been enough +to complete Mrs. Poyser's exasperation, even without the final threat. +Her husband, really alarmed at the possibility of their leaving the +old place where he had been bred and born--for he believed the old +Squire had small spite enough for anything--was beginning a mild +remonstrance explanatory of the inconvenience he should find in having +to buy and sell more stock, with-- + +"Well, sir, I think as it's rather hard--" when Mrs. Poyser burst in +with the desperate determination to have her say out this once, though +it were to rain notices to quit, and the only shelter were the +workhouse. + +"Then, sir, if I may speak--as, for all I'm a woman, and there's folks +as thinks a woman's fool enough to stan' by an' look on while the men +sign her soul away, I've a right to speak, for I make one quarter o' +the rent, and save another quarter--I say, if Mr. Thurle's so ready to +take farms under you, it's a pity but what he should take this, and +see if he likes to live in a house wi' all the plagues o' Egypt in +'t--wi' the cellar full o' water, and frogs and toads hoppin' up the +steps by dozens--and the floors rotten, and the rats and mice gnawing +every bit o' cheese, and runnin' over our heads as we lie i' bed till +we expect 'em to eat us up alive--as it's a mercy they hanna eat the +children long ago. I should like to see if there's another tenant +besides Poyser as 'ud put up wi' never having a bit o' repairs done +till a place tumbles down--and not then, on'y wi' begging and praying, +and having to pay half--and being strung up wi' the rent as it's much +if he gets enough out o' the land to pay, for all he's put his own +money into the ground beforehand. See if you'll get a stranger to lead +such a life here as that: a maggot must be born i' the rotten cheese +to like it, I reckon. You may run away from my words, sir," continued +Mrs. Poyser, following the old Squire beyond the door--for after the +first moments of stunned surprise he had got up, and waving his hand +towards her with a smile, had walked out towards his pony. But it was +impossible for him to get away immediately, for John was walking the +pony up and down the yard, and was some distance from the causeway +when his master beckoned-- + +"You may run away from my words, sir, and you may go spinnin' +underhand ways o' doing us a mischief, for you've got Old Harry to +your friend, though nobody else is; but I tell you for once as we're +not dumb creatures to be abused and made money on by them as ha' got +the lash i' their hands, for want o' knowing how t' undo the tackle. +An' if I'm th' only one as speaks my mind, there's plenty o' the same +way o' thinking i' this parish and the next to 't, for your name 's no +better than a brimstone match in everybody's nose--if it isna +two-three old folks as you think o' saving your soul by giving 'em a +bit o' flannel and a drop o' porridge. An' you may be right i' +thinking it'll take but little to save your soul, for it'll be the +smallest savin' y' iver made, wi' all your scrapin'." + +There are occasions on which two servant-girls and a wagoner may be a +formidable audience, and as the Squire rode away on his black pony, +even the gift of short-sightedness did not prevent him from being +aware that Molly and Nancy and Tim were grinning not far from him. +Perhaps he suspected that sour old John was grinning behind him--which +was also the fact. Meanwhile the bull-dog, the black-and-tan terrier, +Alick's sheep-dog, and the gander hissing at a safe distance from the +pony's heels, carried out the idea of Mrs. Poyser's solo in an +impressive quartet. + +Mrs. Poyser, however, had no sooner seen the pony moved off than she +turned round, gave the two hilarious damsels a look which drove them +into the back kitchen, and unspearing her knitting, began to knit +again with her usual rapidity, as she re-entered the house. + +"Thee'st done it now," said Mr. Poyser, a little alarmed and uneasy, +but not without some triumphant amusement at his wife's outbreak. + +"Yes, I know I've done it," said Mrs. Poyser; "but I've had my say +out, and I shall be th' easier for 't all my life. There's no pleasure +i' living if you're to be corked up forever, and only dribble your +mind out by the sly like a leaky barrel. I shan't repent saying what I +think, if I live to be as old as th' old Squire; and there's little +likelihoods--for it seems as if them as aren't wanted here are th' +only folks as aren't wanted i' th' other world." + +"But thee wutna like moving from th' old place, this Michaelmas +twelvemonth," said Mr. Poyser, "and going into a strange parish, where +thee know'st nobody. It'll be hard upon us both, and upo' father +too.'" + +"Eh, it's no use worreting; there's plenty o' things may happen +between this and Michaelmas twelvemonth. The captain may be master +afore then, for what we know," said Mrs. Poyser, inclined to take an +unusually hopeful view of an embarrassment which had been brought +about by her own merit, and not by other people's fault. + +"_I'm_ none for worreting," said Mr. Poyser, rising from his +three-cornered chair, and walking slowly towards the door; "but I +should be loath to leave th' old place, and the parish where I was +bred and born, and father afore me. We should leave our roots behind +us, I doubt, and niver thrive again." + + + +THE PRISONERS + +From 'Romola' + + +In 1493 the rumor spread and became louder and louder that Charles the +Eighth of France was about to cross the Alps with a mighty army; and +the Italian populations, accustomed, since Italy had ceased to be the +heart of the Roman empire, to look for an arbitrator from afar, began +vaguely to regard his coming as a means of avenging their wrongs and +redressing their grievances. + +And in that rumor Savonarola had heard the assurance that his prophecy +was being verified. What was it that filled the ears of the prophets +of old but the distant tread of foreign armies, coming to do the work +of justice? He no longer looked vaguely to the horizon for the coming +storm: he pointed to the rising cloud. The French army was that new +deluge which was to purify the earth from iniquity; the French King, +Charles VIII, was the instrument elected by God as Cyrus had been of +old, and all men who desired good rather than evil were to rejoice in +his coming. For the scourge would fall destructively on the impenitent +alone. Let any city of Italy, let Florence above all--Florence beloved +of God, since to its ear the warning voice had been specially +sent--repent and turn from its ways like Nineveh of old, and the storm +cloud would roll over it and leave only refreshing rain-drops. + +Fra Girolamo's word was powerful; yet now that the new Cyrus had +already been three months in Italy, and was not far from the gates of +Florence, his presence was expected there with mixed feelings, in +which fear and distrust certainly predominated. At present it was not +understood that he had redressed any grievances; and the Florentines +clearly had nothing to thank him for. He held their strong frontier +fortresses, which Piero de' Medici had given up to him without +securing any honorable terms in return; he had done nothing to quell +the alarming revolt of Pisa, which had been encouraged by his presence +to throw off the Florentine yoke; and "orators," even with a prophet +at their head, could win no assurance from him, except that he would +settle everything when he was once within the walls of Florence. +Still, there was the satisfaction of knowing that the exasperating +Piero de' Medici had been fairly pelted out for the ignominious +surrender of the fortresses, and in that act of energy the spirit of +the Republic had recovered some of its old fire. + +The preparations for the equivocal guest were not entirely those of a +city resigned to submission. Behind the bright drapery and banners +symbolical of joy, there were preparations of another sort made with +common accord by government and people. Well hidden within walls there +were hired soldiers of the Republic, hastily called in from the +surrounding districts; there were old arms duly furbished, and sharp +tools and heavy cudgels laid carefully at hand, to be snatched up on +short notice; there were excellent boards and stakes to form +barricades upon occasion, and a good supply of stones to make a +surprising hail from the upper windows. Above all, there were people +very strongly in the humor for fighting any personage who might be +supposed to have designs of hectoring over them, they having lately +tasted that new pleasure with much relish. This humor was not +diminished by the sight of occasional parties of Frenchmen, coming +beforehand to choose their quarters, with a hawk, perhaps, on their +left wrist, and metaphorically speaking, a piece of chalk in their +right hand to mark Italian doors withal; especially as creditable +historians imply that many sons of France were at that time +characterized by something approaching to a swagger, which must have +whetted the Florentine appetite for a little stone-throwing. + +And this was the temper of Florence on the morning of the 17th of +November, 1494. + + * * * * * + +The sky was gray, but that made little difference in the Piazza del +Duomo, which was covered with its holiday sky of blue drapery, and its +constellations of yellow lilies and coats of arms. The sheaves of +banners were unfurled at the angles of the Baptistery, but there was +no carpet yet on the steps of the Duomo, for the marble was being +trodden by numerous feet that were not at all exceptional. It was the +hour of the Advent sermons, and the very same reasons which had +flushed the streets with holiday color were reasons why the preaching +in the Duomo could least of all be dispensed with. + +But not all the feet in the Piazza were hastening towards the steps. +People of high and low degree were moving to and fro with the brisk +pace of men who had errands before them; groups of talkers were +thickly scattered, some willing to be late for the sermon, and others +content not to hear it at all. + +The expression on the faces of these apparent loungers was not that of +men who are enjoying the pleasant laziness of an opening holiday. Some +were in close and eager discussion; others were listening with keen +interest to a single spokesman, and yet from time to time turned round +with a scanning glance at any new passer-by. At the corner looking +towards the Via de' Cerrettani--just where the artificial rainbow +light of the Piazza ceased, and the gray morning fell on the sombre +stone houses--there was a remarkable cluster of the working people, +most of them bearing on their dress or persons the signs of their +daily labor, and almost all of them carrying some weapon, or some tool +which might serve as a weapon upon occasion. Standing in the gray +light of the street, with bare brawny arms and soiled garments, they +made all the more striking the transition from the brightness of the +Piazza. They were listening to the thin notary, Ser Cioni, who had +just paused on his way to the Duomo. His biting words could get only a +contemptuous reception two years and a half before in the Mercato; but +now he spoke with the more complacent humor of a man whose party is +uppermost, and who is conscious of some influence with the people. + +"Never talk to me," he was saying in his incisive voice, "never talk +to me of bloodthirsty Swiss or fierce French infantry; they might as +well be in the narrow passes of the mountains as in our streets; and +peasants have destroyed the finest armies of our condottieri in time +past, when they had once got them between steep precipices. I tell +you, Florentines need be afraid of no army in their own streets." + +"That's true, Ser Cioni," said a man whose arms and hands were +discolored by crimson dye, which looked like blood-stains, and who had +a small hatchet stuck in his belt; "and those French cavaliers who +came in squaring themselves in their smart doublets the other day, saw +a sample of the dinner we could serve up for them. I was carrying my +cloth in Ognissanti, when I saw my fine Messeri going by, looking +round as if they thought the houses of the Vespucci and the Agli a +poor pick of loadings for them, and eyeing us Florentines, like +top-knotted cocks as they are, as if they pitied us because we didn't +know how to strut. 'Yes, my fine _Galli_,' says I, 'stick out your +stomachs; I've got a meat-axe in my belt that will go inside you all +the easier;' when presently the old cow lowed,[A] and I knew something +had happened--no matter what. So I threw my cloth in at the first +doorway, and took hold of my meat-axe and ran after my fine cavaliers +towards the Vigna Nuova. And, 'What is it, Guccio?' said I, when he +came up with me. 'I think it's the Medici coming back,' said Guccio. +_Bembe!_ I expected so! And up we reared a barricade, and the +Frenchmen looked behind and saw themselves in a trap; and up comes a +good swarm of our _Ciompi_,[B] and one of them with a big scythe he +had in his hand mowed off one of the fine cavaliers' feathers:--it's +true! And the lasses peppered a few stones down to frighten them. +However, Piero de' Medici wasn't come after all; and it was a pity; +for we'd have left him neither legs nor wings to go away with again." + +"Well spoken, Oddo," said a young butcher, with his knife at his belt; +"and it's my belief Piero will be a good while before he wants to come +back, for he looked as frightened as a hunted chicken when we hustled +and pelted him in the piazza. He's a coward, else he might have made a +better stand when he'd got his horsemen. But we'll swallow no Medici +any more, whatever else the French king wants to make us swallow." + +"But I like not those French cannon they talk of," said Goro, none the +less fat for two years' additional grievances. "San Giovanni defend +us! If Messer Domeneddio means so well by us as your Frate says he +does, Ser Cioni, why shouldn't he have sent the French another way to +Naples?" + +"Ay, Goro," said the dyer; "that's a question worth putting. Thou art +not such a pumpkin-head as I took thee for. Why, they might have gone +to Naples by Bologna, eh, Ser Cioni?--or if they'd gone to Arezzo--we +wouldn't have minded their going to Arezzo." + +"Fools! It will be for the good and glory of Florence," Ser Cioni +began. But he was interrupted by the exclamation, "Look there!" which +burst from several voices at once, while the faces were all turned to +a party who were advancing along the Via de' Cerretani. + +"It's Lorenzo Tornabuoni, and one of the French noblemen who are in +his house," said Ser Cioni, in some contempt at this interruption. "He +pretends to look well satisfied--that deep Tornabuoni--but he's a +Medicean in his heart; mind that." + +The advancing party was rather a brilliant one, for there was not only +the distinguished presence of Lorenzo Tornabuoni, and the splendid +costume of the Frenchman with his elaborately displayed white linen +and gorgeous embroidery; there were two other Florentines of high +birth, in handsome dresses donned for the coming procession, and on +the left hand of the Frenchman was a figure that was not to be +eclipsed by any amount of intention or brocade--a figure we have often +seen before. He wore nothing but black, for he was in mourning; but +the black was presently to be covered by a red mantle, for he too was +to walk in procession as Latin Secretary to the Ten. Tito Melema had +become conspicuously serviceable in the intercourse with the French +guests, from his familiarity with Southern Italy and his readiness in +the French tongue, which he had spoken in his early youth; and he had +paid more than one visit to the French camp at Signa. The lustre of +good fortune was upon him; he was smiling, listening, and explaining, +with his usual graceful unpretentious ease, and only a very keen eye +bent on studying him could have marked a certain amount of change in +him which was not to be accounted for by the lapse of eighteen months. +It was that change which comes from the final departure of moral +youthfulness--from the distinct self-conscious adoption of a part in +life. The lines of the face were as soft as ever, the eyes as +pellucid; but something was gone--something as indefinable as the +changes in the morning twilight. + +The Frenchman was gathering instructions concerning ceremonial before +riding back to Signa, and now he was going to have a final survey of +the Piazza del Duomo, where the royal procession was to pause for +religious purposes. The distinguished party attracted the notice of +all eyes as it entered the Piazza, but the gaze was not entirely +cordial and admiring; there were remarks not altogether allusive and +mysterious to the Frenchman's hoof-shaped shoes--delicate flattery of +royal superfluity in toes; and there was no care that certain +snarlings at "Mediceans" should be strictly inaudible. But Lorenzo +Tornabuoni possessed that power of dissembling annoyance which is +demanded in a man who courts popularity, and Tito, besides his natural +disposition to overcome ill-will by good-humor, had the unimpassioned +feeling of the alien towards names and details that move the deepest +passions of the native. + +Arrived where they could get a good oblique view of the Duomo, the +party paused. The festoons and devices placed over the central doorway +excited some demur, and Tornabuoni beckoned to Piero di Cosimo, who, +as was usual with him at this hour, was lounging in front of Nello's +shop. There was soon an animated discussion, and it became highly +amusing from the Frenchman's astonishment at Piero's odd pungency of +statement, which Tito translated literally. Even snarling onlookers +became curious, and their faces began to wear the half-smiling, +half-humiliated expression of people who are not within hearing of the +joke which is producing infectious laughter. It was a delightful +moment for Tito, for he was the only one of the party who could have +made so amusing an interpreter, and without any disposition to +triumphant self-gratulation he reveled in the sense that he was an +object of liking--he basked in approving glances. The rainbow light +fell about the laughing group, and the grave church-goers had all +disappeared within the walls. It seemed as if the Piazza had been +decorated for a real Florentine holiday. + +Meanwhile in the gray light of the unadorned streets there were +on-comers who made no show of linen and brocade, and whose humor was +far from merry. Here too the French dress and hoofed shoes were +conspicuous, but they were being pressed upon by a large and larger +number of non-admiring Florentines. In the van of the crowd were three +men in scanty clothing; each had his hands bound together by a cord, +and a rope was fastened round his neck and body in such a way that he +who held the extremity of the rope might easily check any rebellious +movement by the threat of throttling. The men who held the ropes were +French soldiers, and by broken Italian phrases and strokes from the +knotted end of the rope, they from time to time stimulated their +prisoners to beg. Two of them were obedient, and to every Florentine +they had encountered had held out their bound hands and said in +piteous tones:-- + +"For the love of God and the Holy Madonna, give us something towards +our ransom! We are Tuscans; we were made prisoners in Lunigiana." + +But the third man remained obstinately silent under all the strokes of +the knotted cord. He was very different in aspect from his two fellow +prisoners. They were young and hardy, and in the scant clothing which +the avarice of their captors had left them, looked like vulgar, sturdy +mendicants. But he had passed the boundary of old age, and could +hardly be less than four or five and sixty. His beard, which had grown +long in neglect, and the hair which fell thick and straight round his +baldness, were nearly white. His thick-set figure was still firm and +upright, though emaciated, and seemed to express energy in spite of +age--an expression that was partly carried out in the dark eyes and +strong dark eyebrows, which had a strangely isolated intensity of +color in the midst of his yellow, bloodless, deep-wrinkled face with +its lank gray hairs. And yet there was something fitful in the eyes +which contradicted the occasional flash of energy; after looking round +with quick fierceness at windows and faces, they fell again with a +lost and wandering look. But his lips were motionless, and he held his +hands resolutely down. He would not beg. + +This sight had been witnessed by the Florentines with growing +exasperation. Many standing at their doors or passing quietly along +had at once given money--some in half-automatic response to an appeal +in the name of God, others in that unquestioning awe of the French +soldiery which had been created by the reports of their cruel warfare, +and on which the French themselves counted as a guarantee of immunity +in their acts of insolence. But as the group had proceeded farther +into the heart of the city, that compliance had gradually disappeared, +and the soldiers found themselves escorted by a gathering troop of men +and boys, who kept up a chorus of exclamations sufficiently +intelligible to foreign ears without any interpreter. The soldiers +themselves began to dislike their position, for with a strong +inclination to use their weapons, they were checked by the necessity +for keeping a secure hold on their prisoners, and they were now +hurrying along in the hope of finding shelter in a hostelry. + +"French dogs!" "Bullock-feet!" "Snatch their pikes from them!" "Cut +the cords and make them run for their prisoners. They'll run as fast +as geese--don't you see they're web-footed?" These were the cries +which the soldiers vaguely understood to be jeers, and probably +threats. But every one seemed disposed to give invitations of this +spirited kind rather than to act upon them. + +"Santiddio! here's a sight!" said the dyer, as soon as he had divined +the meaning of the advancing tumult; "and the fools do nothing but +hoot. Come along!" he added, snatching his axe from his belt, and +running to join the crowd, followed by the butcher and all the rest of +his companions except Goro, who hastily retreated up a narrow passage. + +The sight of the dyer, running forward with blood-red arms and axe +uplifted, and with his cluster of rough companions behind him, had a +stimulating effect on the crowd. Not that he did anything else than +pass beyond the soldiers and thrust himself well among his +fellow-citizens, flourishing his axe; but he served as a stirring +symbol of street-fighting, like the waving of a well-known gonfalon. +And the first sign that fire was ready to burst out was something as +rapid as a little leaping tongue of flame; it was an act of the +conjurer's impish lad Lollo, who was dancing and jeering in front of +the ingenuous boys that made the majority of the crowd. Lollo had no +great compassion for the prisoners, but being conscious of an +excellent knife which was his unfailing companion, it had seemed to +him from the first that to jump forward, cut a rope, and leap back +again before the soldier who held it could use his weapon, would be an +amusing and dexterous piece of mischief. And now, when the people +began to hoot and jostle more vigorously, Lollo felt that his moment +was come: he was close to the eldest prisoner; in an instant he had +cut the cord. + +"Run, old one!" he piped in the prisoner's ear, as soon as the cord +was in two; and himself set the example of running as if he were +helped along with wings, like a scared fowl. + +The prisoner's sensations were not too slow for him to seize the +opportunity; the idea of escape had been continually present with him, +and he had gathered fresh hope from the temper of the crowd. He ran at +once; but his speed would hardly have sufficed for him if the +Florentines had not instantaneously rushed between him and his captor. +He ran on into the Piazza, but he quickly heard the tramp of feet +behind him, for the other two prisoners had been released, and the +soldiers were struggling and fighting their way after them, in such +tardigrade fashion as their hoof-shaped shoes would allow--impeded, +but not very resolutely attacked, by the people. One of the two +younger prisoners turned up the Borgo di San Lorenzo, and thus made a +partial diversion of the hubbub; but the main struggle was still +towards the Piazza, where all eyes were turned on it with alarmed +curiosity. The cause could not be precisely guessed, for the French +dress was screened by the impending crowd. + +"An escape of prisoners," said Lorenzo Tornabuoni, as he and his party +turned round just against the steps of the Duomo, and saw a prisoner +rushing by them. "The people are not content with having emptied the +Bargello the other day. If there is no other authority in sight they +must fall on the _sbirri_ and secure freedom to thieves. Ah! there is +a French soldier; that is more serious." + +The soldier he saw was struggling along on the north side of the +Piazza, but the object of his pursuit had taken the other direction. +That object was the eldest prisoner, who had wheeled round the +Baptistery and was running towards the Duomo, determined to take +refuge in that sanctuary rather than trust to his speed. But in +mounting the steps, his foot received a shock; he was precipitated +towards the group of signori, whose backs were turned to him, and was +only able to recover his balance as he clutched one of them by the +arm. + +It was Tito Melema who felt that clutch. He turned his head, and saw +the face of his adoptive father, Baldassarre Calvo, close to his own. + +The two men looked at each other, silent as death: Baldassarre, with +dark fierceness and a tightening grip of the soiled worn hands on the +velvet-clad arm; Tito, with cheeks and lips all bloodless, fascinated +by terror. It seemed a long while to them--it was but a moment. + +The first sound Tito heard was the short laugh of Piero di Cosimo, who +stood close by him and was the only person that could see his face. + +"Ha, ha! I know what a ghost should be now." + +"This is another escaped prisoner," said Lorenzo Tornabuoni. "Who is +he, I wonder?" + +"_Some madman, surely_," said Tito. + +He hardly knew how the words had come to his lips: there are moments +when our passions speak and decide for us, and we seem to stand by and +wonder. They carry in them an inspiration of crime, that in one +instant does the work of premeditation. + +The two men had not taken their eyes off each other, and it seemed to +Tito, when he had spoken, that some magical poison had darted from +Baldassarre's eyes, and that he felt it rushing through his viens. But +the next instant the grasp on his arm had relaxed, and Baldassarre had +disappeared within the church. + + + +"OH, MAY I JOIN THE CHOIR INVISIBLE" + + + Oh, may I join the choir invisible + Of those immortal dead who live again + In minds made better by their presence; live + In pulses stirred to generosity, + In deeds of daring rectitude, in scorn + For miserable aims that end with self, + In thoughts sublime that pierce the night like stars, + And with their mild persistence urge man's search + To vaster issues. + + So to live is heaven: + To make undying music in the world, + Breathing as beauteous order, that controls + With growing sway the growing life of man. + So we inherit that sweet purity + For which we struggled, failed, and agonized, + With widening retrospect that bred despair. + Rebellious flesh that would not be subdued, + A vicious parent shaming still its child,-- + Poor anxious penitence,--is quick dissolved; + Its discords, quenched by meeting harmonies, + Die in the large and charitable air; + And all our rarer, better, truer self, + That sobbed religiously in yearning song, + That watched to ease the burthen of the world, + Laboriously tracing what must be, + And what may yet be better--saw within + A worthier image for the sanctuary, + And shaped it forth before the multitude + Divinely human, raising worship so + To higher reverence more mixed with love-- + That better self shall live till human Time + Shall fold its eyelids, and the human sky + Be gathered like a scroll within the tomb + Unread for ever. + + This is life to come, + Which martyred men have made more glorious + For us who strive to follow. May I reach + That purest heaven; be to other souls + The cup of strength in some great agony; + Enkindle generous ardor; feed pure love; + Beget the smiles that have no cruelty-- + Be the sweet presence of a good diffused, + And in diffusion even more intense. + So shall I join the choir invisible + Whose music is the gladness of the world. + + + +FOOTNOTES + + [A] "_La vacca muglia_" was the phrase for the sounding of + the great bell in the tower of the Palazzo Vecchio. + + [B] The poorer artisans connected with the wool + trade--wool-beaters, carders, washers, etc. + + + + +[Illustration: R. W. EMERSON.] + +RALPH WALDO EMERSON + +(1803-1882) + +BY RICHARD GARNETT + + +"Noteworthy also," says Carlyle, "and serviceable for the progress of +this same Individual, wilt thou find his subdivision into +Generations." + +It is indeed the fact that the course of human history admits of being +marked off into periods, which, from their average duration and the +impulse communicated to them by those who enter upon adolescence along +with them, may be fitly denominated generations, especially when their +opening and closing are signalized by great events which serve as +historical landmarks. No such event, indeed, short of the Day of +Judgment or a universal deluge, can serve as an absolute line of +demarcation; nothing can be more certain than that history and human +life are a perpetual Becoming; and that, although the progress of +development is frequently so startling and unforeseen as to evoke the +poet's exclamation,-- + + "New endless growth surrounds on every side, + Such as we deemed not earth could ever bear."-- + +this growth is but development after all. The association of +historical periods with stages in the mental development of man is +nevertheless too convenient to be surrendered; the vision is cleared +and the grasp strengthened by the perception of a well-defined era in +American history, commencing with the election of Andrew Jackson to +the Presidency in 1828 and closing with the death of Abraham Lincoln +in 1865,--a period exactly corresponding with one in English history +measured from the death of Lord Liverpool, the typical representative +of a bygone political era in the prime of other years, and that of +Lord Palmerston, another such representative, in the latter. The epoch +thus bounded almost precisely corresponds to the productive period of +the two great men who, more than any contemporaries, have stood in the +conscious attitude of teachers of their age. With such men as Tennyson +and Browning, vast as their influence has been, the primary impulse +has not been didactic, but artistic; Herbert Spencer, George Eliot, +Matthew Arnold, and others, have been chiefly operative upon the +succeeding generation; Mill and the elder Newman rather address +special classes than the people at large; and Ruskin and Kingsley +would have willingly admitted that however eloquent the expression of +their teaching, its originality mainly consisted in the application of +Carlyle's ideas to subjects beyond Carlyle's range. Carlyle and +Emerson, therefore, stand forth like Goethe and Schiller as the +Dioscuri of their period; the two men to whom beyond others its better +minds looked for guidance, and who had the largest share in forming +the minds from which the succeeding generation was to take its +complexion. Faults and errors they had; but on the whole it may be +said that nations have rarely been more fortunate in their instructors +than the two great English-speaking peoples during the age of Carlyle +and Emerson. Of Carlyle this is not the place to speak further; but +writing on Emerson, it will be necessary to exhibit what we conceive +to have been the special value of his teaching; and to attempt some +description of the man himself, in indication of the high place +claimed for him. + +It has been said of some great man of marked originality that he was +the sole voice among many echoes. This cannot be said of Emerson; his +age was by no means deficient in original voices. But his may be said +with truth to have been the chief verbal utterance in an age of +authorship. It is a trite remark, that many of the men of thought +whose ideas have most influenced the world have shown little +inclination for literary composition. The president of a London +freethinking club in Goldsmith's time supposed himself to be in +possession of the works of Socrates, no less than of those of +"Tully and Cicero," but no other trace of their existence has come +to light. Had Emerson lived in any age but his own, it is doubtful +whether, any more than Socrates, he would have figured as an author. +"I write," he tells Carlyle, "with very little system, and as far as +regards composition, with most fragmentary result--paragraphs +incomprehensible, each sentence an infinitely repellent particle." We +also hear of his going forth into the woods to hunt a thought as a boy +might hunt a butterfly, except that the thought had flown with him +from home, and that his business was not so much to capture it as to +materialize it and make it tangible. This peculiarity serves to +classify Emerson among the ancient sages, men like Socrates and +Buddha, whose instructions were not merely oral but unmethodical and +unsystematic; who spoke as the casual emergency of the day dictated, +and left their observations to be collected by their disciples. An +excellent plan in so far as it accomplishes the endowment of the +sage's word with his own individuality; exceptionable when a doubt +arises whether the utterance belongs to the master or the disciple, +and in the case of diametrically opposite versions, whether Socrates +has been represented more truly by the prose of Xenophon or the poetry +of Plato. We may be thankful that the spirit of Emerson's age, and the +exigencies of his own affairs, irresistibly impelled him to write: +nevertheless the fact remains that with him Man Thinking is not so +much Man Writing as Man Speaking, and that although the omnipotent +machinery of the modern social system caught him too, and forced him +into line with the rest, we have in him a nearer approach to the +voice, apart from the disturbing and modifying habits of literary +composition, than in any other eminent modern thinker. This annuls one +of the most weighty criticisms upon Emerson, so long as he is regarded +merely as an author,--his want of continuity, and consequent want of +logic. Had he attempted to establish a philosophical system, this +would have been fatal. But such an undertaking is of all things +furthest from his thoughts. He does not seek to demonstrate, he +announces. Ideas have come to him which, as viewed by the inward +light, appear important and profitable. He brings these forward to be +tested by the light of other men. He does not seek to connect these +ideas together, except in so far as their common physiognomy bespeaks +their common parentage. Nor does he seek to fortify them by reasoning, +or subject them to any test save the faculty by which the unprejudiced +soul discerns good from evil. If his jewel will scratch glass, it is +sufficiently evinced a diamond. + +It follows that although Emerson did not write most frequently or best +in verse, he is, as regards the general constitution of his intellect, +rather to be classed with poets than with philosophers. Poetry cannot +indeed dispense with the accurate observation of nature and mankind, +but poetic genius essentially depends on intuition and inspiration. +There is no gulf between the philosopher and the poet; some of the +greatest of poets have also been among the most powerful of reasoners; +but their claim to poetical rank would not have been impaired if their +ratiocination had been ever so illogical. Similarly, a great thinker +may have no more taste for poetry than was vouchsafed to Darwin or the +elder Mill, without any impeachment of his power of intellect. The two +spheres of action are fundamentally distinct, though the very highest +geniuses, such as Shakespeare and Goethe, have sometimes almost +succeeded in making them appear as one. To determine to which of them +a man actually belongs, we must look beyond the externalities of +literary form, and inquire whether he obtains his ideas by intuition, +or by observation and reflection. No mind will be either entirely +intuitive or entirely reflective, but there will usually be a decided +inclination to one or other of the processes; and in the comparatively +few cases in which thoughts and feelings seem to come to it +unconsciously, as leaves to a tree, we may consider that we have a +poet, though perhaps not a writer of poetry. If indeed the man writes +at all, he will very probably write prose, but this prose will be +impregnated with poetic quality. From this point of view we are able +to set Emerson much higher than if we regarded him simply as a +teacher. He is greater as the American Wordsworth than as the American +Carlyle. We shall understand his position best by comparing him with +other men of genius who are poets too, but not pre-eminently so. In +beauty of language and power of imagination, John Henry Newman and +James Martineau, though they have written little in verse, yield to +few poets. But throughout all their writings the didactic impulse is +plainly the preponderating one, their poetry merely auxiliary and +ornamental; hence they are not reckoned among poets. With Emerson the +case is reversed: the revealer is first in him, the reasoner second; +oral speech is his most congenial form of expression, and he submits +to appear in print because the circumstances of his age render print +the most effectual medium for the dissemination of his thought. It +will be observed that whenever possible he resorts to the medium of +oration or lecture; it may be further remarked that his essays, often +originally delivered as lectures, are very like his discourses, and +his discourses very like his essays. In neither, so far as regards the +literary form of the entire composition, distinguished from the force +and felicity of individual sentences, can he be considered as a +classic model. The essay need not be too severely logical, yet a just +conception of its nature requires a more harmonious proportion and +more symmetrical construction, as well as a more consistent and +intelligent direction towards a single definite end, than we usually +find in Emerson. The orator is less easy to criticize than the +essayist, for oratory involves an element of personal magnetism which +resists all critical analysis. Hence posterity frequently reverses (or +rather seems to reverse, for the decision upon a speech mutilated of +voice and action cannot be really conclusive) the verdicts of +contemporaries upon oratory. "What will our descendants think of the +Parliamentary oratory of our age?" asked a contemporary of Burke's, +"when they are told that in his own time this man was accounted +neither the first, nor the second, nor even the third speaker?" +Transferred to the tribunal of the library, Burke's oratory bears away +the palm from Pitt and Fox and Sheridan; yet, unless we had heard the +living voices of them all, it would be unsafe for us to challenge the +contemporary verdict. We cannot say, with the lover in Goethe, that +the word printed appears dull and soulless, but it certainly wants +much which conduced to the efficacy of the word spoken:-- + + "Ach wie traurig sieht in Lettern, + Schwarz auf weiss, das Lied mich an, + Das aus deinem Mund vergoettern, + Das ein Herz zerreissen kann!" + +Emerson's orations are no less delightful and profitable reading than +his essays, so long as they can be treated as his essays were intended +to be treated when they came into print; that is, read deliberately, +with travelings backward when needed, and frequent pauses of thought. +But if we consider them as discourses to be listened to, we shall find +some difficulty in reconciling their popularity and influence with +their apparent disconnectedness, and some reason to apprehend that, +occasional flashes of epigram excepted, they must speedily have passed +from the minds of the hearers. The apparent defect was probably +remedied in delivery by the magnetic power of the speaker; not that +sort of power which "wields at will the fierce democracy," but that +which convinces the hearer that he is listening to a message from a +region not as yet accessible to himself. The impassioned orator +usually provokes the suspicion that he is speaking from a brief. Not +so Emerson: above all other speakers he inspires the confidence that +he declares a thing to be, not because he wishes, but because he +perceives it to be so. His quiet, unpretending, but perfectly +unembarrassed manner, as of a man with a message which he simply +delivers and goes away, must have greatly aided to supply the absence +of vigorous reasoning and skillful oratorical construction. We could +not expect a spirit commissioned to teach us to condescend to such +methods; and Emerson's discourse, whether in oration or essay, though +by no means deficient in human feeling nor of the "blessed Glendoveer" +order, frequently does sound like that of a being from another sphere, +simply because he derived his ideas from a higher world; as must +always be the case with the man of spiritual, not of course with the +man of practical genius. It matters nothing whether this is really so, +or whether what wears the aspect of imparted revelation is but a +fortifying of the natural eye, qualifying it to look a little deeper +than neighboring eyes into things around. In either case the person so +endowed stands a degree nearer to the essential truth of things than +his fellows; and the consciousness of the fact, transpiring through +his personality, gives him a weight which might otherwise seem +inexplicable. Nothing can be more surprising than the deference with +which the learned and intelligent contemporaries of the humble and +obscure Spinoza resort to his judgment before he has so much as +written a book. + +This estimate of Emerson as an American Wordsworth, one who like +Wordsworth not merely enforced but practically demonstrated the +proposition that + + "One impulse from a vernal wood + May teach you more of man, + Of moral evil and of good, + Than all the sages can," + +is controverted by many who can see in him nothing but a polisher and +stringer of epigrammatic sayings. It is impossible to argue with any +who cannot recognize the deep vitality of 'Nature,' of the two series +of Essays first published, and of most of the early orations and +discourses; but it may be conceded that Emerson's fountain of +inspiration was no more perennial than Wordsworth's, and that in his +latter years his gift of epigrammatic statement enabled him to avoid +both the Scylla and the Charybdis of men of genius whose fount of +inspiration has run low. In some such cases, such as Wordsworth's, the +author simply goes on producing, with less and less geniality at every +successive effort. In others, such as Browning's, he escapes inanity +by violent exaggeration of his characteristic mannerisms. Neither of +these remarks applies to Emerson: he does not, in ceasing to be +original, become insipid, nor can it be said that he is any more +mannered at the last than at the first. This is a clear proof that his +peculiarity of speech is not mannerism but manner; that consequently +he is not an artificial writer, and that, since the treatment of his +themes as he has chosen to treat them admits of no compromise between +nature and rhetoric, he has the especial distinction of simplicity +where simplicity is difficult and rare. That such is the case will +appear from an examination of his earlier and more truly prophetic +writings. + +Of these, the first in importance as in time is the tract 'Nature,' +commenced in 1833, rewritten, completed, and published in 1836. Of all +Emerson's writings this is the most individual, and the most adapted +for a general introduction to his ideas. These ideas are not in fact +peculiar to him; and yet the little book is one of the most original +ever written, and one of those most likely to effect an intellectual +revolution in the mind capable of apprehending it. The reason is +mainly the intense vitality of the manner, and the translation of +abstract arguments into concrete shapes of witchery and beauty. It +contains scarcely a sentence that is not beautiful,--not with the cold +beauty of art, but with the radiance and warmth of feeling. Its +dominant note is rapture, like the joy of one who has found an +enchanted realm, or who has convinced himself that old stories deemed +too beautiful to be true are true indeed. Yet it is exempt from +extravagance, the splendor of the language is chastened by taste, and +the gladness and significance of the author's announcements would +justify an even more ardent enthusiasm. They may be briefly summed up +as the statements that Nature is not mechanical, but vital; that the +Universe is not dead, but alive; that God is not remote, but +omnipresent. There was of course no novelty in these assertions, nor +can Emerson bring them by a hair's-breadth nearer demonstration than +they had always been. He simply re-states them in a manner entirely +his own, and with a charm not perhaps surpassing that with which +others had previously invested them, but peculiar and dissimilar. +Everything really Emersonian in Emerson's teaching may be said to +spring out of this little book: so copious, however, were the +corollaries deducible from principles apparently so simple, that the +flowers veiled the tree; and precious as the tract is, as the first +and purest draught of the new wine, it is not the most practically +efficient of his works, and might probably have passed unperceived if +it had not been reinforced by a number of auxiliary compositions, some +produced under circumstances which could not fail to provoke wide +discussion and consequent notoriety. The principles unfolded in +'Nature' might probably have passed with civil acquiescence if Emerson +had been content with the mere statement; but he insisted on carrying +them logically out, and this could not be done without unsettling +every school of thought at the time prevalent in America. The Divine +omnipresence, for example, was admitted in words by all except +materialists and anti-theists; but if, as Emerson maintained, this +involved the conception of the Universe as a Divine incarnation, this +in its turn involved an optimistic view of the universal scheme +totally inconsistent with the Calvinism still dominant in American +theology. If all existence was a Divine emanation, no part of it could +be more sacred than another part,--which at once abolished the mystic +significance of religious ceremonies so dear to the Episcopalians; +while the immediate contact of the Universe with the Deity was no less +incompatible with the miraculous interferences on which Unitarianism +reposed its faith. Such were some of the most important negative +results of Emerson's doctrines; in their positive aspect, by asserting +the identity of natural and spiritual laws, they invested the former +with the reverence hitherto accorded only to the latter, and restored +to a mechanical and prosaic society the piety with which men in the +infancy of history had defied the forces of Nature. Substantially, +except for the absence of any definite relation to literary art, +Emerson's mission was very similar to Wordsworth's; but by natural +temperament and actual situation he wanted the thousand links which +bound Wordsworth to the past, and eventually made the sometime +innovator the patron of a return towards the Middle Ages. + +Emerson had no wish to regress, and, almost alone among thinkers who +have reached an advanced age, betrays no symptom of reaction +throughout the whole of his career. The reason may be, that his +scrupulous fairness and frank conceptions to the Conservative cast of +thought had left him nothing to retract or atone for. He seems to have +started on his journey through life with his Conservatism and +Liberalism ready made up, taking with him just as much of either as +he wanted. This is especially manifest in the discourse 'The +Conservative' (1841), in which he deliberately weighs conservative +against progressive tendencies, impersonates each in an imaginary +interlocutor, and endeavors to display their respective justification +and shortcomings. Nothing can be more rigidly equitable or more +thoroughly sane than his estimate; and as the issues between +conservatism and reform have broadened and deepened, time has only +added to its value. It is a perfect manual for thoughtful citizens, +desirous of understanding the questions that underlie party issues, +and is especially to be commended to young and generous minds, liable +to misguidance in proportion to their generosity. + +This celebrated discourse is one of a group including one still more +celebrated, the address to the graduating class of Divinity College, +Cambridge, published as 'The Christian Teacher' (1838). This, says Mr. +Cabot, seems to have been struck off at a heat, which perhaps accounts +for its nearer approach than any of his other addresses to the +standard of what is usually recognized as eloquence. Eloquent in a +sense Emerson usually was, but here is something which could transport +a fit audience with enthusiasm. It also possessed the power of +awakening the keenest antagonism; but censure has long since died +away, and nothing that Emerson wrote has been more thoroughly adopted +into the creed of those with whom external observances and material +symbols find no place. Equally epoch-making in a different way was the +oration on 'Man Thinking, or the American Scholar' (1837), entitled by +Dr. Holmes "our intellectual Declaration of Independence," and of +which Mr. Lowell says: "We were socially and intellectually moored to +English thought, till Emerson cut the cable and gave us a chance at +the dangers and glories of blue water." In these three great +discourses, and in a less measure in 'The Transcendentalist' and 'Man +the Reformer' (both in 1841), America may boast of possessing works of +the first class, which could have been produced in no other country, +and which--even though, in Emerson's own phrase, wider circles should +come to be drawn around them--will remain permanent landmarks in +intellectual history. + +These discourses may be regarded as Emerson's public proclamations of +his opinions; but he is probably more generally known and more +intimately beloved by the two unobtrusive volumes of Essays, +originally prefaced for England by Carlyle. Most of these, indeed, +were originally delivered as lectures, but to small audiences, and +with little challenge to public attention. It may be doubted whether +they would have succeeded as lectures but for the personal magnetism +of the speaker; but their very defects aid them with the reader, who, +once fascinated by their beauty of phrase and depth of spiritual +insight, imbibes their spirit all the more fully for his ceaseless +effort to mend their deficient logic with his own. Like Love in +Dante's sonnet, Emerson enters into and blends with the reader, and +his influence will often be found most potent where it is least +acknowledged. Each of the twenty may be regarded as a fuller working +out of some subject merely hinted at in 'Nature,'--statues, as it +were, for niches left vacant in the original edifice. The most +important and pregnant with thought are 'History,' where the same +claim is preferred for history as for the material world, that it is +not dead but alive; 'Self-Reliance,' a most vigorous assertion of a +truth which Emerson was apt to carry to extremes,--the majesty of the +individual soul; 'Compensation,' an exposition of the universe as the +incarnation of unerring truth and absolute justice; 'Love,' full of +beauty and rapture, yet almost chilling to the young by its assertion +of what is nevertheless true, that even Love in its human semblance +only subserves ulterior ends; 'Circles,' the demonstration that this +circumstance is no way peculiar to Love, that there can be nothing +ultimate, final, or unrelated to ulterior purpose,--nothing around +which, in Emersonian phrase, you cannot draw a circle; 'The +Over-Soul,' a prose hymn dedicated to an absolutely spiritual +religion; 'The Poet,' a celebration of Poetry as coextensive with +Imagination, and in the highest sense with Reason also; 'Experience' +and 'Character,' valuable essays, but evincing that the poetical +impulse was becoming spent, and that Emerson's mind was more and more +tending to questions of conduct. The least satisfactory of the essays +is that on 'Art,' where he is only great on the negative side, Art's +inevitable limitations. The aesthetical faculty, which contemplates +Beauty under the restraints of Form, was evidently weak in him. + +'Representative Men,' Emerson's next work of importance (1845), shows +that his parachute was descending; but he makes a highly successful +compromise by taking up original ideas as reflected in the actions and +thoughts of great typical men, one remove only from originality of +exposition on his own part. The treatment is necessarily so partial as +to exercise a distorting influence on his representation of the men +themselves. Napoleon, for example, may have been from a certain point +of view the hero of the middle class, as Emerson chooses to consider +him; but he was much besides, which cannot even be hinted at in a +short lecture. The representation of such a hero, nevertheless, +whether the character precisely fitted Napoleon or not, is highly +spirited and suggestive; and the same may be said of the other +lectures. That on Shakespeare is the least satisfying, the consummate +art which is half Shakespeare's greatness making little appeal to +Emerson. He appears also at variance with himself when he speaks of +Shakespeare's existence as "obscure and profane," such a healthy, +homely, unambitious life being precisely what he elsewhere extols as a +model. The first lecture of the series, 'Uses of Great Men,' would +seem to have whispered the message more vociferously repeated by Walt +Whitman. + +Emerson was yet to write two books of worth, not illumed with "the +light that never was on sea or land," but valuable complements to his +more characteristic work, and important to mankind as an indisputable +proof that a teacher need not be distrusted in ordinary things because +he is a mystic and a poet. 'The Conduct of Life' (1851), far inferior +to his earlier writings in inspiration, is yet one of the most popular +and widely influential of his works because condescending more nearly +to the needs and intelligence of the average reader. It is not less +truly Emersonian, less fully impregnated with his unique genius; but +the themes discussed are less interesting, and the glory and the +beauty of the diction are much subdued. Without it, we should have +been in danger of regarding Emerson too exclusively as a +transcendental seer, and ignoring the solid ground of good sense and +practical sagacity from which the waving forests of his imagery drew +their nutriment. It greatly promoted his fame and influence by coming +into the hands of successive generations of readers who naturally +inquired for his last book, found the author, with surprise, so much +nearer their own intellectual position than they had been led to +expect, and gradually extended the indorsement which they could not +avoid according to the book, to the author himself. When the Reason +and the Understanding have agreed to legitimate the pretensions of a +speculative thinker, these may be considered stable. Emerson +insensibly took rank with the other American institutions; it seemed +natural to all, that without the retractation or modification of a +syllable on his part, Harvard should in 1866 confer her highest honors +upon him whose address to her Divinity School had aroused such fierce +opposition in 1838. Emerson's views, being pure intuitions, rarely +admitted of alteration in essence, though supplement or limitation +might sometimes be found advisable. The Civil War, for instance, could +not but convince him that in his zeal for the independence of the +individual he had dangerously impaired the necessary authority of +government. His attitude throughout this great contest was the ideal +of self-sacrificing patriotism: in truth, it might be said of him, as +of so few men of genius, that you could not find a situation for him, +public or private, whose obligations he was not certain to fulfill. He +had previously given proof of his insight into another nation by his +'English Traits,' mainly founded upon the visit he had paid to England +in 1847-48: a book to be read with equal pleasure and profit by the +nation of which and by the nation for which it was written; while its +insight, sanity, and kindliness justify what has been said on +occasion of another of Emerson's writings: "The ideologist judges the +man of action more shrewdly and justly than the man of action judges +the ideologist." This was the secret of Napoleon's bitter animosity to +"ideologists": he felt instinctively that the man of ideas could see +into him and through him, and recognize and declare his place in the +scheme of the universe as an astronomer might a planet's. He would +have wished to be an incalculable, original, elemental force; and it +vexed him to feel that he was something whose course could be mapped +and whose constitution defined by a mere mortal like a Coleridge or a +De Stael, who could treat him like the incarnate Thought he was, and +show him, as Emerson showed the banker, "that he also was a phantom +walking and working amid phantoms, and that he need only ask a +question or two beyond his daily questions to find his solid universe +proving dim and impalpable before his sense." + +The later writings of Emerson, though exhibiting few or no traces of +mental decay, are in general repetitions or at least confirmations of +what had once been announcements and discoveries. This can scarcely be +otherwise when the mind's productions are derived from its own stuff +and substance. Emerson's contemporary Longfellow could renovate and +indeed augment his poetical power by resort in his old age to Italy; +but change of environment brings no reinforcement of energy to the +speculative thinker. Events however may come to his aid; and when +Emerson was called before the people by a momentous incident like the +death of President Lincoln, he rose fully to the height of the +occasion. His last verses, also, are among his best. We have spoken of +him as primarily and above all things a poet; but his claim to that +great distinction is to be sought rather in the poetical spirit which +informs all his really inspired writings, than in the comparatively +restricted region of rhyme and metre. It might have been otherwise. +Many of his detached passages are the very best things in verse yet +written in America: but though a maker, he is not a fashioner. The +artistic instinct is deficient in him; he is seldom capable of +combining his thoughts into a harmonious whole. No one's expression is +better when he aims at conveying a single thought with gnomic +terseness, as in the mottoes to his essays; few are more obscure when +he attempts continuous composition. Sometimes, as in the admirable +stanzas on the Bunker Hill dedication, the subject has enforced the +due clearness and compression of thought; sometimes, as in the +glorious lines beginning "Not from a vain or shallow thought," he is +guided unerringly by a divine rapture; in one instance at least, 'The +Rhodora,' where he is writing of beauty, the instinct of beauty has +given his lines the symmetry as well as the sparkle of the diamond. +Could he have always written like this, he would have been supreme +among American poets in metre; as it is, comparison seems unfair both +to him and to them. + +What we have to learn from Emerson is chiefly the Divine immanence in +the world, with all its corollaries; no discovery of his, but +re-stated by him in the fashion most suitable to his age, and with a +cogency and attractiveness rivaled by no contemporary. If we tried to +sum up his message in a phrase, we might perhaps find this in Keats's +famous 'Beauty is Truth, Truth Beauty'; only, while Keats was +evidently more concerned for Beauty than for Truth, Emerson held an +impartial balance. These are with him the tests of each other: +whatever is really true is also beautiful, whatever is really +beautiful is also true. Hence his especial value to a world whose more +refined spirits are continually setting up types of aesthetic beauty +which must needs be delusive, as discordant with beauty contemplated +under the aspect of morality; while the mass never think of bringing +social and political arrangements to the no less infallible test of +conformity to an ideally beautiful standard. Hence the seeming +idealist is of all men the most practical; and Emerson's gospel of +beauty should be especially precious to a country like his own, where +circumstances must for so long tell in favor of the more material +phases of civilization. Even more important is that aspect of his +teaching which deals with the unalterableness of spiritual laws, the +impossibility of evading Truth and Fact in the long run, or of +wronging any one without at the same time wronging oneself. Happy +would it be for the United States if Emerson's essay on 'Compensation' +in particular could be impressed upon the conscience, where there is +any, of every political leader; and interwoven with the very texture +of the mind of every one who has a vote to cast at the polls! + +The special adaptation of Emerson's teaching to the needs of America +is, nevertheless, far from the greatest obligation under which he has +laid his countrymen. His greatest service is to have embodied a +specially American type of thought and feeling. It is the test of real +greatness in a nation to be individual, to produce something in the +world of intellect peculiar to itself and indefeasibly its own. Such +intellectual growths were indeed to be found in America before +Emerson's time, but they were not of the highest class. Franklin was a +great sage, but his wisdom was worldly wisdom. Emerson gives us, in +his own phrase, morality on fire with emotion,--the only morality +which in the long run will really influence the heart of man. Man is +after all too noble a being to be permanently actuated by enlightened +selfishness; and when we compare Emerson with even so truly eminent a +character as Franklin, we see, as he saw when he compared Carlyle with +Johnson, how great a stride forward his country had taken in the mean +time. But he could do for America what Carlyle could not do for Great +Britain, for it was done already: he could and did create a type of +wisdom especially national, as distinctive of the West as Buddha's of +the East. + +[Illustration: Signature of Richard Garnett] + + All the following citations from Emerson's works are + reprinted by special arrangement with, and the kind + permission of, Mr. Emerson's family, and Messrs. + Houghton, Miffin & Co., publishers, Boston, Mass. + + + +THE TIMES + +From the Lecture on 'The Times,' 1841 + + +But the subject of the Times is not an abstract question. We talk of +the world, but we mean a few men and women. If you speak of the age, +you mean your own platoon of people, as Dante and Milton painted in +colossal their platoons, and called them Heaven and Hell. In our idea +of progress we do not go out of this personal picture. We do not think +the sky will be bluer, or honey sweeter, or our climate more +temperate, but only that our relation to our fellows will be simpler +and happier. What is the reason to be given for this extreme +attraction which _persons_ have for us, but that they are the Age? +They are the results of the Past; they are the heralds of the Future. +They indicate--these witty, suffering, blushing, intimidating figures +of the only race in which there are individuals or changes--how far on +the Fate has gone, and what it drives at. As trees make scenery, and +constitute the hospitality of the landscape, so persons are the world +to persons.... These are the pungent instructors who thrill the heart +of each of us, and make all other teaching formal and cold. How I +follow them with aching heart, with pining desire! I count myself +nothing before them. I would die for them with joy. They can do what +they will with me. How they lash us with those tongues! How they make +the tears start, make us blush and turn pale, and lap us in Elysium to +soothing dreams and castles in the air! By tones of triumph, of dear +love, by threats, by pride that freezes, these have the skill to make +the world look bleak and inhospitable, or seem the nest of tenderness +and joy. I do not wonder at the miracles which poetry attributes to +the music of Orpheus, when I remember what I have experienced from the +varied notes of the human voice. They are an incalculable energy which +countervails all other forces in nature, because they are the channel +of supernatural powers. There is no interest or institution so poor +and withered but if a new strong man could be born into it he would +immediately redeem and replace it. A personal ascendency,--that is the +only fact much worth considering. I remember, some years ago, somebody +shocked a circle of friends of order here in Boston, who supposed that +our people were identified with their religious denominations, by +declaring that an eloquent man--let him be of what sect soever--would +be ordained at once in one of our metropolitan churches. To be sure he +would; and not only in ours but in any church, mosque, or temple on +the planet: but he must be eloquent, able to supplant our method and +classification by the superior beauty of his own. Every fact we have +was brought here by some person; and there is none that will not +change and pass away before a person whose nature is broader than the +person whom the fact in question represents. And so I find the Age +walking about in happy and hopeful natures, in strong eyes and +pleasant thoughts, and think I read it nearer and truer so than in the +statute-book, or in the investments of capital, which rather celebrate +with mournful music the obsequies of the last age. In the brain of a +fanatic; in the wild hope of a mountain boy, called by city boys very +ignorant, because they do not know what his hope has certainly +apprised him shall be; in the love-glance of a girl; in the +hair-splitting conscientiousness of some eccentric person who has +found some new scruple to embarrass himself and his neighbors +withal,--is to be found that which shall constitute the times to come, +more than in the now organized and accredited oracles. For whatever is +affirmative and now advancing contains it. I think that only is real +which men love and rejoice in; not what they tolerate, but what they +choose; what they embrace and avow, and not the things which chill, +benumb, and terrify them. + +And so why not draw for these times a portrait gallery? Let us paint +the painters. Whilst the daguerreotypist, with camera-obscura and +silver plate, begins now to traverse the land, let us set up our +camera also, and let the sun paint the people. Let us paint the +agitator, and the man of the old school, and the member of Congress, +and the college professor, the formidable editor, the priest, and +reformer, the contemplative girl, and the fair aspirant for fashion +and opportunities, the woman of the world who has tried and knows--let +us examine how well she knows. Could we indicate the indicators, +indicate those who most accurately represent every good and evil +tendency of the general mind, in the just order which they take on +this canvas of time, so that all witnesses should recognize a +spiritual law, as each well-known form flitted for a moment across the +wall, we should have a series of sketches which would report to the +next ages the color and quality of ours. + +Certainly I think if this were done there would be much to admire as +well as to condemn; souls of as lofty a port as any in Greek or Roman +fame might appear; men of great heart, of strong hand, and of +persuasive speech; subtle thinkers, and men of wide sympathy, and an +apprehension which looks over all history and everywhere recognizes +its own. To be sure, there will be fragments and hints of men, more +than enough; bloated promises, which end in nothing or little. And +then, truly great men, but with some defect in their composition which +neutralizes their whole force. Here is a Damascus blade, such as you +may search through nature in vain to parallel, laid up on the shelf in +some village to rust and ruin. And how many seem not quite available +for that idea which they represent! Now and then comes a bolder +spirit, I should rather say, a more surrendered soul, more informed +and led by God, which is much in advance of the rest, quite beyond +their sympathy, but predicts what shall soon be the general fullness; +as when we stand by the sea-shore, whilst the tide is coming in, a +wave comes up the beach far higher than any foregoing one, and +recedes; and for a long while none comes up to that mark; but after +some time the whole sea is there and beyond it. + + + +FRIENDSHIP + + +Friendship may be said to require natures so rare and costly, each so +well tempered and so happily adapted, and withal so circumstanced (for +even in that particular, a poet says, love demands that the parties be +altogether paired), that its satisfaction can very seldom be assured. +It cannot subsist in its perfection, say some of those who are +learned in this warm lore of the heart, betwixt more than two. I am +not quite so strict in my terms, perhaps because I have never known so +high a fellowship as others. I please my imagination more with a +circle of godlike men and women variously related to each other, and +between whom subsists a lofty intelligence. But I find this law of +_one to one_ peremptory for conversation, which is the practice and +consummation of friendship. Do not mix waters too much. The best mix +as ill as good and bad. You shall have very useful and cheering +discourse at several times with two several men, but let all three of +you come together and you shall not have one new and hearty word. Two +may talk and one may hear, but three cannot take part in a +conversation of the most sincere and searching sort. In good company +there is never such discourse between two, across the table, as takes +place when you leave them alone. In good company the individuals merge +their egotism into a social soul exactly coextensive with the several +consciousnesses there present.... + +Unrelated men give little joy to each other, will never suspect the +latent powers of each. We talk sometimes of a great talent for +conversation, as if it were a permanent property in some individuals. +Conversation is an evanescent relation,--no more. A man is reputed to +have thought and eloquence; he cannot, for all that, say a word to his +cousin or his uncle. They accuse his silence with as much reason as +they would blame the insignificance of a dial in the shade. In the sun +it will mark the hour. Among those who enjoy his thought he will +regain his tongue. + +Friendship requires that rare mean betwixt likeness and unlikeness +that piques each with the presence of power and of consent in the +other party. Let me be alone to the end of the world, rather than that +my friend should overstep, by a word or a look, his real sympathy. I +am equally balked by antagonism and by compliance. Let him not cease +an instant to be himself. The only joy I have in his being mine, is +that the _not mine_ is _mine_. I hate, where I looked for a manly +furtherance or at least a manly resistance, to find a mush of +concession. Better be a nettle in the side of your friend than his +echo. The condition which high friendship demands is ability to do +without it. That high office requires great and sublime parts. There +must be very two before there can be very one. Let it be an alliance +of two large, formidable natures, mutually beheld, mutually feared, +before yet they recognize the deep identity which beneath these +disparities unites them. + +He only is fit for this society who is magnanimous; who is sure that +greatness and goodness are always economy; who is not swift to +intermeddle with his fortunes. Let him not intermeddle with this. +Leave to the diamond its ages to grow, nor expect to accelerate the +births of the eternal. Friendship demands a religious treatment. We +talk of choosing our friends, but friends are self-elected. Reverence +is a great part of it. Treat your friend as a spectacle. Of course he +has merits that are not yours, and that you cannot honor if you must +needs hold him close to your person. Stand aside; give those merits +room; let them mount and expand. Are you the friend of your friend's +buttons, or of his thought? To a great heart he will still be a +stranger in a thousand particulars, that he may come near in the +holiest ground. Leave it to girls and boys to regard a friend as +property, and to such a short and all-confounding pleasure instead of +the noblest benefit. + +Let us buy our entrance to this guild by a long probation. Why should +we desecrate noble and beautiful souls by intruding on them? Why +insist on rash personal relations with your friend? Why go to his +house, or know his mother and brother and sisters? Why be visited by +him at your own? Are these things material to our covenant? Leave this +touching and clawing. Let him be to me a spirit. A message, a thought, +a sincerity, a glance from him, I want; but not news, nor pottage. I +can get politics and chat and neighborly conveniences from cheaper +companions. Should not the society of my friend be to me poetic, pure, +universal, and great as nature itself? Ought I to feel that our tie is +profane in comparison with yonder bar of cloud that sleeps on the +horizon, or that clump of waving grass that divides the brook? Let us +not vilify, but raise it to that standard. That great defying eye, +that scornful beauty of his mien and action, do not pique yourself on +reducing, but rather fortify and enhance. Worship his superiorities; +wish him not less by a thought, but hoard and tell them all. Let him +be to thee forever a sort of beautiful enemy, untamable, devoutly +revered, and not a trivial conveniency to be soon outgrown and cast +aside. The hues of the opal, the light of the diamond, are not to be +seen if the eye is too near. To my friend I write a letter and from +him I receive a letter. That seems to you a little. It suffices me. It +is a spiritual gift, worthy of him to give and of me to receive. It +profanes nobody. In these warm lines the heart will trust itself, as +it will not to the tongue, and pour out the prophecy of a godlier +existence than all the annals of heroism have yet made good.... + +The higher the style we demand of friendship, of course the less easy +to establish it with flesh and blood. We walk alone in the world. +Friends such as we desire are dreams and fables. But a sublime hope +cheers ever the faithful heart, that elsewhere, in other regions of +the universal power, souls are now acting, enduring, and daring, which +can love us and which we can love. We may congratulate ourselves that +the period of nonage, of follies, of blunders and of shame, is passed +in solitude, and when we are finished men we shall grasp heroic hands +in heroic hands. Only be admonished by what you already see, not to +strike leagues of friendship with cheap persons, where no friendship +can be. Our impatience betrays us into rash and foolish alliances +which no god attends. By persisting in your path, though you forfeit +the little you gain the great. + + + +NATURE + + +There are days which occur in this climate, at almost any season of +the year, wherein the world reaches its perfection; when the air, the +heavenly bodies, and the earth, make a harmony, as if nature would +indulge her offspring; when, in these bleak upper sides of the planet, +nothing is to desire that we have heard of the happiest latitudes, and +we bask in the shining hours of Florida and Cuba; when everything that +has life gives sign of satisfaction, and the cattle that lie on the +ground seem to have great and tranquil thoughts. These halcyons may be +looked for with a little more assurance in that pure October weather +which we distinguish by the name of the Indian Summer. The day, +immeasurably long, sleeps over the broad hills and warm wide fields. +To have lived through all its sunny hours seems longevity enough. The +solitary places do not seem quite lonely. At the gates of the forest, +the surprised man of the world is forced to leave his city estimates +of great and small, wise and foolish. The knapsack of custom falls off +his back with the first step he takes into these precincts. Here is +sanctity which shames our religions, and reality which discredits our +heroes. Here we find nature to be the circumstance which dwarfs every +other circumstance, and judges like a god all men that come to her. We +have crept out of our close and crowded houses into the night and +morning, and we see what majestic beauties daily wrap us in their +bosom. How willingly we would escape the barriers which render them +comparatively impotent, escape the sophistication and second thought, +and suffer nature to intrance us. The tempered light of the woods is +like a perpetual morning, and is stimulating and heroic. The anciently +reported spells of these places creep on us. The stems of pines, +hemlocks, and oaks almost gleam like iron on the excited eye. The +incommunicable trees begin to persuade us to live with them, and quit +our life of solemn trifles. Here no history, or church, or state, is +interpolated on the divine sky and the immortal year. How easily we +might walk onward into the opening landscape, absorbed by new pictures +and by thoughts fast succeeding each other, until by degrees the +recollection of home was crowded out of the mind, all memory +obliterated by the tyranny of the present, and we were led in triumph +by nature. + +These enchantments are medicinal; they sober and heal us. These are +plain pleasures, kindly and native to us. We come to our own, and make +friends with matter which the ambitious chatter of the schools would +persuade us to despise. We never can part with it; the mind loves its +old home: as water to our thirst, so is the rock, the ground, to our +eyes and hands and feet. It is firm water; it is cold flame: what +health, what affinity! Ever an old friend, ever like a dear friend and +brother when we chat affectedly with strangers, comes in this honest +face, and takes a grave liberty with us, and shames us out of our +nonsense. Cities give not the human senses room enough. We go out +daily and nightly to feed the eyes on the horizon, and require so much +scope, just as we need water for our bath. There are all degrees of +natural influence, from these quarantine powers of nature, up to her +dearest and gravest ministrations to the imagination and the soul. +There is the bucket of cold water from the spring, the wood fire to +which the chilled traveler rushes for safety,--and there is the +sublime moral of autumn and of noon. We nestle in nature, and draw our +living as parasites from her roots and grains; and we receive glances +from the heavenly bodies, which call us to solitude, and foretell the +remotest future. The blue zenith is the point in which romance and +reality meet. I think if we should be rapt away into all that we dream +of heaven, and should converse with Gabriel and Uriel, the upper sky +would be all that would remain of our furniture. + +It seems as if the day was not wholly profane, in which we have given +heed to some natural object. The fall of snowflakes in a still air, +preserving to each crystal its perfect form; the blowing of sleet over +a wide sheet of water, and over plains; the waving rye field; the +mimic waving of acres of houstonia, whose innummerable florets whiten +and ripple before the eye; the reflections of trees and flowers in +glassy lakes; the musical steaming odorous south wind, which converts +all trees to wind-harps; the crackling and spurting of hemlock in the +flames, or of pine logs, which yield glory to the walls and faces in +the sitting-room,--these are the music and pictures of the most +ancient religion. My house stands in low land, with limited outlook, +and on the skirt of the village. But I go with my friend to the shore +of our little river, and with one stroke of the paddle I leave the +village politics and personalities,--yes, and the world of villages +and personalities,--behind, and pass into a delicate realm of sunset +and moonlight, too bright almost for spotted man to enter without +novitiate and probation. We penetrate bodily this incredible beauty; +we dip our hands in this painted element; our eyes are bathed in these +lights and forms. A holiday, a villeggiatura, a royal revel, the +proudest, most heart-rejoicing festival that valor and beauty, power +and taste, ever decked and enjoyed, establishes itself on the instant. +These sunset clouds, these delicately emerging stars, with their +private and ineffable glances, signify it and proffer it. I am taught +the poorness of our invention, the ugliness of towns and palaces. Art +and luxury have early learned that they must work as enchantment and +sequel to this original beauty. I am over-instructed for my return. +Henceforth I shall be hard to please. I cannot go back to toys. I am +grown expensive and sophisticated. I can no longer live without +elegance; but a countryman shall be my master of revels. He who knows +the most, he who knows what sweets and virtues are in the ground, the +waters, the plants, the heavens, and how to come at these +enchantments, is the rich and royal man. Only as far as the masters of +the world have called in nature to their aid, can they reach the +height of magnificence. + + + +COMPENSATION + + +A man cannot speak but he judges himself. With his will or against his +will, he draws his portrait to the eye of his companions by every +word. Every opinion reacts on him who utters it. It is a thread-ball +thrown at a mark, but the other end remains in the thrower's bag. Or +rather, it is a harpoon thrown at the whale, unwinding, as it flies, a +coil of cord in the boat; and if the harpoon is not good, or not well +thrown, it will go nigh to cut the steersman in twain or to sink the +boat. + +You cannot do wrong without suffering wrong. "No man had ever a point +of pride that was not injurious to him," said Burke. The exclusive in +fashionable life does not see that he excludes himself from enjoyment, +in the attempt to appropriate it. The exclusionist in religion does +not see that he shuts the door of heaven on himself, in striving to +shut out others. Treat men as pawns and ninepins, and you shall suffer +as well as they. If you leave out their heart, you shall lose your +own. The senses would make things of all persons; of women, of +children, of the poor. The vulgar proverb "I will get it from his +purse or get it from his skin," is sound philosophy. + +All infractions of love and equity in our social relations are +speedily punished. They are punished by fear. Whilst I stand in simple +relations to my fellow-man, I have no displeasure in meeting him. We +meet as water meets water, or as two currents of air mix,--with +perfect diffusion and interpenetration of nature. But as soon as there +is any departure from simplicity, and attempt at halfness, or good for +me that is not good for him, my neighbor feels the wrong; he shrinks +from me as far as I have shrunk from him; his eyes no longer seek +mine; there is war between us; there is hate in him and fear in me. + +All the old abuses in society, universal and particular, all unjust +accumulations of property and power, are avenged in the same manner. +Fear is an instructor of great sagacity, and the herald of all +revolutions. One thing he teaches,--that there is rottenness where he +appears. He is a carrion crow; and though you see not well what he +hovers for, there is death somewhere. Our property is timid, our laws +are timid, our cultivated classes are timid. Fear for ages has boded +and mowed and gibbered over government and property. That obscene +bird is not there for nothing. He indicates great wrongs which must be +revised. + +Of the like nature is that expectation of change which instantly +follows the suspension of our voluntary activity. The terror of +cloudless noon, the emerald of Polycrates, the awe of prosperity, the +instinct which leads every generous soul to impose on itself tasks of +a noble asceticism and vicarious virtue, are the tremblings of the +balance of justice through the heart and mind of man. + +Experienced men of the world know very well that it is best to pay +scot and lot as they go along, and that a man often pays dear for a +small frugality. The borrower runs in his own debt. Has a man gained +anything who has received a hundred favors and rendered none? Has he +gained by borrowing, through indolence or cunning, his neighbor's +wares, or horses, or money? There arises on the deed the instant +acknowledgment of benefit on the one part and of debt on the other; +that is, of superiority and inferiority. The transaction remains in +the memory of himself and his neighbor, and every new transaction +alters according to its nature their relation to each other. He may +soon come to see that he had better have broken his own bones than to +have ridden in his neighbor's coach, and that "the highest price he +can pay for a thing is to ask for it." + +A wise man will extend this lesson to all parts of life, and know that +it is the part of prudence to face every claimant and pay every just +demand on your time, your talents, or your heart. Always pay; for +first or last you must pay your entire debt. Persons and events may +stand for a time between you and justice, but it is only a +postponement. You must pay at last your own debt. If you are wise, you +will dread a prosperity which only loads you with more. Benefit is the +end of nature. But for every benefit which you receive, a tax is +levied. He is great who confers the most benefits. He is base--and +that is the one base thing in the universe--to receive favors and +render none. In the order of nature we cannot render benefits to those +from whom we receive them, or only seldom. But the benefit we receive +must be rendered again, line for line, deed for deed, cent for cent, +to somebody. Beware of too much good staying in your hand. It will +fast corrupt and worm worms. Pay it away quickly in some sort. + + + +LOVE + + +Here let us examine a little nearer the nature of that influence which +is thus potent over the human youth. Beauty, whose revelation to man +we now celebrate, welcome as the sun wherever it pleases to shine, +which pleases everybody with it and with themselves, seems sufficient +to itself. The lover cannot paint his maiden to his fancy poor and +solitary. Like a tree in flower, so much soft, budding, informing +loveliness is society for itself; and she teaches his eye why Beauty +was pictured with Loves and Graces attending her steps. Her existence +makes the world rich. Though she extrudes all other persons from his +attention as cheap and unworthy, she indemnifies him by carrying out +her own being into somewhat impersonal, large mundane, so that the +maiden stands to him for a representative of all select things and +virtues. For that reason the lover never sees personal resemblances in +his mistress to her kindred or to others. His friends find in her a +likeness to her mother, or her sisters, or to persons not of her +blood. The lover sees no resemblance except to summer evenings and +diamond mornings, to rainbows and the song of birds. + +The ancients called beauty the flowering of virtue. Who can analyze +the nameless charm which glances from one and another face and form? +We are touched with emotions of tenderness and complacency, but we +cannot find whereat this dainty emotion, this wandering gleam, points. +It is destroyed for the imagination by any attempt to refer it to +organization. Nor does it point to any relations of friendship or love +known and described in society; but as it seems to me, to a quite +other and unattainable sphere, to relations of transcendent delicacy +and sweetness, to what roses and violets hint and foreshow. We cannot +approach beauty. Its nature is like opaline dove's-neck lustres, +hovering and evanescent. Herein it resembles the most excellent +things, which all have this rainbow character, defying all attempts at +appropriation and use. What else did Jean Paul Richter signify when he +said to music, "Away! away! thou speakest to me of things which in all +my endless life I have not found and shall not find." The same fluency +may be observed in every work of the plastic arts. The statue is then +beautiful when it begins to be incomprehensible, when it is passing +out of criticism and can no longer be defined by compass and +measuring wand, but demands an active imagination to go with it and to +say what it is in the act of doing. The god or hero of the sculptor is +always represented in a transition _from_ that which is representable +to the senses, _to_ that which is not. Then first it ceases to be a +stone. The same remark holds of painting. And of poetry the success is +not attained when it lulls and satisfies, but when it astonishes and +fires us with new endeavors after the unattainable. Concerning it +Landor inquires "whether it is not to be referred to some purer state +of sensation and existence." + +In like manner personal beauty is then first charming and itself when +it dissatisfies us with any end; when it becomes a story without an +end; when it suggests gleams and visions and not earthly +satisfactions; when it makes the beholder feel his unworthiness; when +he cannot feel his right to it, though he were Caesar; he cannot feel +more right to it than to the firmament and the splendors of a sunset. + +Hence arose the saying, "If I love you, what is that to you?" We say +so because we feel that what we love is not in your will, but above +it. It is not you, but your radiance. It is that which you know not in +yourself and can never know. + +This agrees well with that high philosophy of Beauty which the ancient +writers delighted in; for they said that the soul of man, embodied +here on earth, went roaming up and down in quest of that other world +of its own out of which it came into this, but was soon stupefied by +the light of the natural sun, and unable to see any other objects than +those of this world, which are but shadows of real things. Therefore +the Deity sends the glory of youth before the soul, that it may avail +itself of beautiful bodies as aids to its recollection of the +celestial good and fair; and the man beholding such a person in the +female sex runs to her and finds the highest joy in contemplating the +form, movement, and intelligence of this person, because it suggests +to him the presence of that which indeed is within the beauty, and the +cause of the beauty. + +If however, from too much conversing with material objects, the soul +was gross, and misplaced its satisfaction in the body, it reaped +nothing but sorrow; body being unable to fulfill the promise which +beauty holds out; but if, accepting the hint of these visions and +suggestions which beauty makes to his mind, the soul passes through +the body and falls to admire strokes of character, and the lovers +contemplate one another in their discourses and their actions, then +they pass to the true palace of beauty, more and more inflame their +love of it, and by this love extinguishing the base affection, as the +sun puts out fire by shining on the hearth, they become pure and +hallowed. By conversation with that which is in itself excellent, +magnanimous, lowly, and just, the lover comes to a warmer love of +these nobilities and a quicker apprehension of them. Then he passes +from loving them in one to loving them in all, and so is the one +beautiful soul only the door through which he enters to the society of +all true and pure souls. In the particular society of his mate he +attains a clearer sight of any spot, any taint which her beauty has +contracted from this world, and is able to point it out; and this with +mutual joy that they are now able without offense to indicate +blemishes and hindrances in each other, and give to each all help and +comfort in curing the same. And beholding in many souls the traits of +the divine beauty, and separating in each soul that which is divine +from the taint which it has contracted in the world, the lover ascends +to the highest beauty, to the love and knowledge of the Divinity, by +steps on this ladder of created souls. + + + +CIRCLES + + +The eye is the first circle; the horizon which it forms is the second; +and throughout nature this primary figure is repeated without end. It +is the highest emblem in the cipher of the world. St. Augustine +described the nature of God as a circle whose centre was everywhere +and its circumference nowhere. We are all our lifetime reading the +copious sense of this first of forms. One moral we have already +deduced in considering the circular or compensatory character of every +human action. Another analogy we shall now trace, that every action +admits of being outdone. Our life is an apprenticeship to the truth +that around every circle another can be drawn; that there is no end in +nature, but every end is a beginning; that there is always another +dawn risen on mid-noon, and under every deep a lower deep opens.... + +There are no fixtures in nature. The universe is fluid and volatile. +Permanence is but a word of degrees. Our globe, seen by God, is a +transparent law, not a mass of facts. The law dissolves the fact and +holds it fluid. Our culture is the predominance of an idea which draws +after it this train of cities and institutions. Let us rise into +another idea; they will disappear. The Greek sculpture is all melted +away as if it had been statues of ice; here and there a solitary +figure or fragment remaining, as we see flecks and scraps of snow left +in cold dells and mountain clefts in June and July. For the genius +that created it creates now somewhat else. The Greek letters last a +little longer, but are already passing under the same sentence and +tumbling into the inevitable pit which the creation of new thought +opens for all that is old. The new continents are built out of the +ruins of an old planet; the new races fed out of the decomposition of +the foregoing. New arts destroy the old. See the investment of capital +in aqueducts, made useless by hydraulics; fortifications by gunpowder; +roads and canals by railways; sails by steam; steam by electricity. + +You admire this tower of granite, weathering the hurts of so many +ages. Yet a little waving hand built this huge wall, and that which +builds is better than that which is built. The hand that built can +topple it down much faster. Better than the hand and nimbler was the +invisible thought which wrought through it; and thus ever behind the +coarse effect is a fine cause, which, being narrowly seen, is itself +the effect of a finer cause. Everything looks permanent until its +secret is known. A rich estate appears to women and children a firm +and lasting fact; to a merchant, one easily created out of any +materials, and easily lost. An orchard, good tillage, good grounds, +seem a fixture like a gold mine, or a river, to a citizen; but to a +large farmer, not much more fixed than the state of the crop. Nature +looks provokingly stable and secular, but it has a cause like all the +rest; and when once I comprehend that, will these fields stretch so +immovably wide, these leaves hang so individually considerable? +Permanence is a word of degrees. Everything is medial. Moons are no +more bounds to spiritual power than bat-balls. + +The key to every man is his thought. Sturdy and defying though he +look, he has a helm which he obeys, which is the idea after which all +his facts are classified. He can only be reformed by showing him a new +idea which commands his own. The life of man is a self-evolving +circle, which from a ring imperceptibly small, rushes on all sides +outwards to new and larger circles, and that without end. The extent +to which this generation of circles, wheel without wheel, will go, +depends on the force or truth of the individual soul. For it is the +inert effort of each thought, having formed itself into a circular +wave of circumstance,--as for instance an empire, rules of an art, a +local usage, a religious rite,--to heap itself on that ridge and to +solidify and hem in the life. But if the soul is quick and strong it +bursts over that boundary on all sides and expands another orbit on +the great deep, which also runs up into a high wave, with attempt +again to stop and to bind. But the heart refuses to be imprisoned; in +its first and narrowest pulses it already tends outward with a vast +force and to immense and innumerable expansions. + +Every ultimate fact is only the first of a new series,--every general +law only a particular fact of some more general law presently to +disclose itself. There is no outside, no inclosing wall, no +circumference to us. The man finishes his story,--how good! how final! +how it puts a new face on all things! He fills the sky. Lo! on the +other side rises also a man and draws a circle around the circle we +had just pronounced the outline of the sphere. Then already is our +first speaker not man, but only a first speaker. His only redress is +forthwith to draw a circle outside of his antagonist. And so men do by +themselves. The result of to-day, which haunts the mind and cannot be +escaped, will presently be abridged into a word, and the principle +that seemed to explain nature will itself be included as one example +of a bolder generalization. In the thought of to-morrow there is a +power to upheave all thy creed, all the creeds, all the literatures of +the nations, and marshal thee to a heaven which no epic dream has yet +depicted. Every man is not so much a workman in the world as he is a +suggestion of that he should be. Men walk as prophecies of the next +age. + +Step by step we scale this mysterious ladder; the steps are actions, +the new prospect is power. Every several result is threatened and +judged by that which follows. Every one seems to be contradicted by +the new; it is only limited by the new. The new statement is always +hated by the old, and to those dwelling in the old, comes like an +abyss of skepticism. But the eye soon gets wonted to it, for the eye +and it are effects of one cause; then its innocency and benefit +appear, and presently, all its energy spent, it pales and dwindles +before the revelation of the new hour. + + + +SELF-RELIANCE + + +Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string. Accept the +place the Divine providence has found for you, the society of your +contemporaries, the connection of events. Great men have always done +so, and confided themselves childlike to the genius of their age, +betraying their perception that the absolutely trustworthy was seated +at their heart, working through their hands, predominating in all +their being. And we are now men, and must accept in the highest mind +the same transcendent destiny; and not minors and invalids in a +protected corner, not cowards fleeing before a revolution, but guides, +redeemers, and benefactors, obeying the Almighty effort and advancing +on Chaos and the Dark. + +What pretty oracles nature yields us on this text in the face and +behavior of children, babes, and even brutes! That divided and rebel +mind, that distrust of a sentiment because our arithmetic has computed +the strength and means opposed to our purpose, these have not. Their +mind being whole, their eye is as yet unconquered, and when we look in +their faces we are disconcerted. Infancy conforms to nobody; all +conform to it: so that one babe commonly makes four or five out of the +adults who prattle and play to it. So God has armed youth and puberty +and manhood no less with its own piquancy and charm, and made it +enviable and gracious and its claims not to be put by, if it will +stand by itself. Do not think the youth has no force, because he +cannot speak to you and me. Hark! in the next room the voice is +sufficiently clear and emphatic! It seems he knows how to speak to his +contemporaries. Bashful or bold then, he will know how to make us +seniors very unnecessary. + +The nonchalance of boys who are sure of a dinner, and would disdain as +much as a lord to do or say aught to conciliate one, is the healthy +attitude of human nature. A boy is in the parlor what the pit is in +the play-house: independent, irresponsible, looking out from his +corner on such people and facts as pass by, he tries and sentences +them on their merits, in the swift summary way of boys, as good, bad, +interesting, silly, eloquent, troublesome. He cumbers himself never +about consequences, about interests; he gives an independent, genuine +verdict. You must court him; he does not court you. But the man is, as +it were, clapped into jail by his consciousness. As soon as he has +once acted or spoken with eclat he is a committed person, watched by +the sympathy or the hatred of hundreds, whose affections must now +enter into his account. There is no Lethe for this. Ah, that he could +pass again into his neutrality! Who can thus avoid all pledges, and +having observed, observe again from the same unaffected, unbiased, +unbribable, unaffrighted innocence, must always be formidable. He +would utter opinions on all passing affairs, which being seen to be +not private but necessary, would sink like darts into the ear of men +and put them in fear. + +These are the voices which we hear in solitude, but they grow faint +and inaudible as we enter into the world. Society everywhere is in +conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members. Society is +a joint-stock company, in which the members agree, for the better +securing of his bread to each shareholder, to surrender the liberty +and culture of the eater. The virtue in most request is conformity. +Self-reliance is its aversion. It loves not realities and creators, +but names and customs. + +Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist. He who would gather +immortal palms must not be hindered by the name of goodness, but must +explore if it be goodness. Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity +of your own mind. Absolve you to yourself, and you shall have the +suffrage of the world. I remember an answer which when quite young I +was prompted to make to a valued adviser, who was wont to importune me +with the dear old doctrines of the Church. On my saying, "What have I +to do with the sacredness of traditions, if I live wholly from +within?" my friend suggested, "But these impulses may be from below, +not from above." I replied, "They do not seem to me to be such; but if +I am the Devil's child, I will live then from the Devil." No law can +be sacred to me but that of my nature. Good and bad are but names very +readily transferable to that or this: the only right is what is after +my constitution; the only wrong what is against it. A man is to carry +himself in the presence of all opposition as if everything were +titular and ephemeral but he. I am ashamed to think how easily we +capitulate to badges and names, to large societies and dead +institutions. Every decent and well-spoken individual affects and +sways me more than is right. I ought to go upright and vital, and +speak the rude truth in all ways. If malice and vanity wear the coat +of philanthropy, shall that pass? If an angry bigot assumes this +bountiful cause of Abolition, and comes to me with his last news from +Barbadoes, why should I not say to him:--"Go love thy infant; love thy +wood-chopper; be good-natured and modest; have that grace; and never +varnish your hard, uncharitable ambition with this incredible +tenderness for black folk a thousand miles off. Thy love afar is spite +at home." Rough and graceless would be such greeting, but truth is +handsomer than the affectation of love. Your goodness must have some +edge to it, else it is none. The doctrine of hatred must be preached, +as the counteraction of the doctrine of love, when that pules and +whines. I shun father and mother and wife and brother when my genius +calls me. I would write on the lintels of the door-post, _Whim_. I +hope it is somewhat better than whim at last, but we cannot spend the +day in explanation. Expect me not to show cause why I seek or why I +exclude company. Then again, do not tell me, as a good man did to-day, +of my obligation to put all poor men in good situations. Are they _my_ +poor? I tell thee, thou foolish philanthropist, that I grudge the +dollar, the dime, the cent I give to such men as do not belong to me +and to whom I do not belong. There is a class of persons to whom by +all spiritual affinity I am bought and sold; for them I will go to +prison if need be: but your miscellaneous popular charities; the +education at college of fools; the building of meeting-houses to the +vain end to which many now stand; alms to sots, and the thousandfold +relief societies;--though I confess with shame I sometimes succumb and +give the dollar, it is a wicked dollar, which by-and-by I shall have +the manhood to withhold.... + +What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think. +This rule, equally arduous in actual and in intellectual life, may +serve for the whole distinction between greatness and meanness. It is +the harder because you will always find those who think they know what +is your duty better than you know it. It is easy in the world to live +after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our +own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with +perfect sweetness the independence of solitude. + + + +HISTORY + + +Civil and natural history, the history of art and of literature, must +be explained from individual history, or must remain words, There is +nothing but is related to us, nothing that does not interest us; +kingdom, college, tree, horse, or iron shoe,--the roots of all things +are in man. Santa Croce and the Dome of St. Peter's are lame copies +after a divine model. Strassburg Cathedral is a material counterpart +of the soul of Erwin of Steinbach. The true poem is the poet's mind; +the true ship is the ship-builder. In the man, could we lay him open, +we should see the reason for the last flourish and tendril of his +work; as every spine and tint in the sea-shell pre-exists in the +secreting organs of the fish. The whole of heraldry and of chivalry is +in courtesy. A man of fine manners shall pronounce your name with all +the ornament that titles of nobility could ever add. + +The trivial experience of every day is always verifying some old +prediction to us, and converting into things the words and signs which +we had heard and seen without heed. A lady with whom I was riding in +the forest said to me that the woods always seemed to her _to wait_, +as if the genii who inhabited them suspended their deeds until the +wayfarer had passed onward; a thought which poetry has celebrated in +the dance of the fairies, which breaks off on the approach of human +feet. The man who has seen the rising moon break out of the clouds at +midnight, has been present like an archangel at the creation of light +and of the world. I remember one summer day in the fields, my +companion pointed out to me a broad cloud, which might extend a +quarter of a mile parallel to the horizon, quite accurately in the +form of a cherub as painted over churches,--a round block in the +centre, which it was easy to animate with eyes and mouth, supported on +either side by wide-stretched symmetrical wings. What appears once in +the atmosphere may appear often, and it was undoubtedly the archetype +of that familiar ornament. I have seen in the sky a chain of summer +lightning which at once showed to me that the Greeks drew from nature +when they painted the thunderbolt in the hand of Jove. I have seen a +snowdrift along the sides of the stone wall, which obviously gave the +idea of the common architectural scroll to abut a tower. + +By surrounding ourselves with the original circumstances we invent +anew the orders and the ornaments of architecture, as we see how each +people merely decorated its primitive abodes. The Doric temple +preserves the semblance of the wooden cabin in which the Dorian dwelt. +The Chinese pagoda is plainly a Tartar tent. The Indian and Egyptian +temples still betray the mounds and subterranean houses of their +forefathers. "The custom of making houses and tombs in the living +rock," says Heeren in his 'Researches on the Ethiopians,' "determined +very naturally the principal character of the Nubian Egyptian +architecture to the colossal form which it assumed. In these caverns +already prepared by nature, the eye was accustomed to dwell on huge +shapes and masses, so that when art came to the assistance of nature +it could not move on a small scale without degrading itself. What +would statues of the usual size, or neat porches and wings, have been, +associated with those gigantic halls before which only Colossi could +sit as watchmen or lean on the pillars of the interior?" + +The Gothic church plainly originated in a rude adaptation of the +forest trees, with all their boughs, to a festal or solemn arcade; as +the bands about the cleft pillars still indicate the green withes that +tied them. No one can walk in a road cut through pine woods without +being struck with the architectural appearance of the grove, +especially in winter, when the barrenness of all other trees shows the +low arch of the Saxons. In the woods, in a winter afternoon one will +see as readily the origin of the stained-glass window, with which the +Gothic cathedrals are adorned, in the colors of the western sky seen +through the bare and crossing branches of the forest. Nor can any +lover of nature enter the old piles of Oxford and the English +cathedrals without feeling that the forest overpowered the mind of the +builder, and that his chisel, his saw and plane still reproduced its +ferns, its spikes of flowers, its locust, elm, oak, pine, fir, and +spruce. + +The Gothic cathedral is a blossoming in stone, subdued by the +insatiable demand of harmony in man. The mountain of granite blooms +into an eternal flower, with the lightness and delicate finish as well +as the aerial proportions and perspective of vegetable beauty. + +In like manner all public facts are to be individualized, all private +facts are to be generalized. Then at once History becomes fluid and +true, and Biography deep and sublime. + + + +EACH AND ALL + + + Little thinks, in the field, yon red-cloaked clown + Of thee from the hill-top looking down; + The heifer that lows in the upland farm, + Far-heard, lows not thine ear to charm; + The sexton tolling his bell at noon, + Deems not that great Napoleon + Stops his horse, and lists with delight, + Whilst his files sweep round yon Alpine height; + Nor knowest thou what argument + Thy life to thy neighbor's creed has lent. + All are needed by each one; + Nothing is fair or good alone. + I thought the sparrow's note from heaven, + Singing at dawn on the alder bough; + I brought him home, in his nest, at even; + He sings the song, but it cheers not now, + For I did not bring home the river and sky;-- + He sang to my ear,--they sang to my eye. + The delicate shells lay on the shore; + The bubbles of the latest wave + Fresh pearls to their enamel gave, + And the bellowing of the savage sea + Greeted their safe escape to me. + I wiped away the weeds and foam, + I fetched my sea-born treasures home; + But the poor unsightly, noisome things + Had left their beauty on the shore + With the sun and the sand and the wild uproar. + The lover watched his graceful maid, + As 'mid the virgin train she strayed, + Nor knew her beauty's best attire + Was woven still by the snow-white choir. + At last she came to his hermitage, + Like the bird from the woodlands to the cage; + The gay enchantment was undone-- + A gentle wife, but fairy none. + Then I said, "I covet truth: + Beauty is unripe childhood's cheat; + I leave it behind with the games of youth:"-- + As I spoke, beneath my feet + The ground-pine curled its pretty wreath, + Running over the club-moss burrs; + I inhaled the violet's breath; + Around me stood the oaks and firs; + Pine-cones and acorns lay on the ground; + Over me soared the eternal sky, + Full of light and of deity; + Again I saw, again I heard, + The rolling river, the morning bird;-- + Beauty through my senses stole; + I yielded myself to the perfect whole. + + + +THE RHODORA + +ON BEING ASKED, WHENCE IS THE FLOWER? + + + In May, when sea-winds pierced our solitudes, + I found the fresh Rhodora in the woods, + Spreading its leafless blooms in a damp nook, + To please the desert and the sluggish brook. + The purple petals, fallen in the pool, + Made the black water with their beauty gay; + Here might the red-bird come his plumes to cool, + And court the flower that cheapens his array. + Rhodora! if the sages ask thee why + This charm is wasted on the earth and sky, + Tell them, dear, that if eyes were made for seeing, + Then Beauty is its own excuse for being: + Why thou wert there, O rival of the rose! + I never thought to ask, I never knew; + But in my simple ignorance suppose + The self-same Power that brought me there brought you. + + + + THE HUMBLE-BEE + + + Burly, dozing humble-bee, + Where thou art is clime for me. + Let them sail for Porto Rique. + Far-off heats through seas to seek; + I will follow thee alone, + Thou animated torrid zone! + Zigzag steerer, desert cheerer, + Let me chase thy waving lines; + Keep me nearer, me thy hearer, + Singing over shrubs and vines. + + Insect lover of the sun, + Joy of thy dominion! + Sailor of the atmosphere; + Swimmer through the waves of air; + Voyager of light and noon; + Epicurean of June; + Wait, I prithee, till I come + Within earshot of thy hum,-- + All without is martyrdom. + + When the south wind, in May days, + With a net of shining haze + Silvers the horizon wall, + And with softness touching all, + Tints the human countenance + With a color of romance, + And infusing subtle heats, + Turns the sod to violets,-- + Thou in sunny solitudes, + Rover of the underwoods, + The green silence dost displace, + With thy mellow, breezy bass. + + Hot midsummer's petted crone, + Sweet to me, thy drowsy tone + Tells of countless sunny hours, + Long days, and solid banks of flowers; + Of gulfs of sweetness without bound, + In Indian wildernesses found; + Of Syrian peace, immortal leisure, + Firmest cheer, and bird-like pleasure. + Aught unsavory or unclean + Hath my insect never seen; + But violets and bilberry bells, + Maple-sap and daffodels, + Grass with green flag half-mast high, + Succory to match the sky, + Columbine with horn of honey, + Scented fern, and agrimony, + Clover, catchfly, adder's-tongue + And brier-roses, dwelt among; + All beside was unknown waste, + All was picture as he passed. + + Wiser far than human seer, + Yellow-breeched philosopher! + Seeing only what is fair, + Sipping only what is sweet, + Thou dost mock at fate and care, + Leave the chaff, and take the wheat. + When the fierce northwestern blast + Cools sea and land so far and fast, + Thou already slumberest deep; + Woe and want thou canst outsleep; + Want and woe, which torture us, + Thy sleep makes ridiculous. + + + + THE PROBLEM + + + I like a church; I like a cowl; + I love a prophet of the soul; + And on my heart monastic aisles + Fall like sweet strains, or pensive smiles. + Yet not for all his faith can see + Would I that cowled churchman be. + Why should the vest on him allure, + Which I could not on me endure? + + Not from a vain or shallow thought + His awful Jove young Phidias brought; + Never from lips of cunning fell + The thrilling Delphic oracle; + Out from the heart of nature rolled + The burdens of the Bible old; + The litanies of nations came, + Like the volcano's tongue of flame, + Up from the burning core below,-- + The canticles of love and woe: + The hand that rounded Peter's dome + And groined the aisles of Christian Rome + Wrought in a sad sincerity; + Himself from God he could not free; + He builded better than he knew;-- + The conscious stone to beauty grew. + + Know'st thou what wove yon wood-bird's nest + Of leaves, and feathers from her breast? + Or how the fish outbuilt her shell, + Painting with morn each annual cell? + Or how the sacred pine-tree adds + To her old leaves new myriads? + Such and so grew these holy piles, + Whilst love and terror laid the tiles. + Earth proudly wears the Parthenon, + As the best gem upon her zone, + And Morning opes with haste her lids + To gaze upon the Pyramids; + O'er England's abbeys bends the sky, + As on its friends, with kindred eye; + For out of thought's interior sphere + These wonders rose to upper air; + And Nature gladly gave them place, + Adopted them into her race, + And granted them an equal date + With Andes and with Ararat. + + These temples grew as grows the grass; + Art might obey, but not surpass. + The passive Master lent his hand + To the vast soul that o'er him planned; + And the same power that reared the shrine + Bestrode the tribes that knelt within. + Ever the fiery Pentecost + Girds with one flame the countless host, + Trances the heart through chanting choirs, + And through the priest the mind inspires. + The word unto the prophet spoken + Was writ on tables yet unbroken; + The word by seers or sibyls told, + In groves of oak, or fanes of gold, + Still floats upon the morning wind, + Still whispers to the willing mind. + One accent of the Holy Ghost + The heedless world hath never lost. + I know what say the Fathers wise,-- + The Book itself before me lies, + Old Chrysostom, best Augustine, + And he who blent both in his line, + The younger Golden Lips or mines,-- + Taylor, the Shakespeare of divines. + His words are music in my ear, + I see his cowled portrait dear; + And yet, for all his faith could see, + I would not the good bishop be. + + + +DAYS + + + Daughters of Time, the hypocritic Days, + Muffled and dumb like barefoot dervishes, + And marching single in an endless file, + Bring diadems and fagots in their hands. + To each they offer gifts after his will, + Bread, kingdoms, stars, and sky that holds them all. + I, in my pleached garden, watched the pomp, + Forgot my morning wishes, hastily + Took a few herbs and apples, and the Day + Turned and departed silent. I, too late, + Under the solemn fillet saw the scorn. + + + +MUSKETAQUID + + + Because I was content with these poor fields, + Low open meads, slender and sluggish streams, + And found a home in haunts which others scorned, + The partial wood-gods overpaid my love, + And granted me the freedom of their state, + And in their secret senate have prevailed + With the dear dangerous lords that rule our life, + Made moon and planets parties to their bond, + And through my rock-like, solitary wont + Shot million rays of thought and tenderness. + For me, in showers, in sweeping showers, the Spring + Visits the valley;--break away the clouds,-- + I bathe in the morn's soft and silvered air, + And planted world, and full executor + Of their imperfect functions. + But these young scholars who invade our hills-- + Bold as the engineer who fells the wood, + And traveling often in the cut he makes-- + Love not the flower they pluck, and know it not, + And all their botany is Latin names. + The old men studied magic in the flowers, + And human fortunes in astronomy, + And an omnipotence in chemistry, + Preferring things to names; for these were men, + Were unitarians of the united world, + And wheresoever their clear eye-beams fell, + They caught the footsteps of the SAME. Our eyes + Are armed, but we are strangers to the stars, + And strangers to the mystic beast and bird, + And strangers to the plant and to the mine. + The injured elements say, "Not in us;" + And night and day, ocean and continent, + Fire, plant, and mineral say, "Not in us;" + And haughtily return us stare for stare. + For we invade them impiously for gain; + We devastate them unreligiously, + And coldly ask their pottage, not their love. + Therefore they shove us from them, yield to us + Only what to our griping toil is due; + But the sweet affluence of love and song, + The rich results of the divine consents + Of man and earth, of world beloved and lover, + The nectar and ambrosia, are withheld; + And in the midst of spoils and slaves, we thieves + And pirates of the universe, shut out + Daily to a more thin and outward rind, + And loiter willing by yon loitering stream. + Sparrows far off, and nearer, April's bird, + Blue-coated,--flying before from tree to tree, + Courageous sing a delicate overture + To lead the tardy concert of the year. + Onward and nearer rides the sun of May; + And wide around, the marriage of the plants + Is sweetly solemnized. Then flows amain + The surge of summer's beauty; dell and crag, + Hollow and lake, hillside and pine arcade, + Are touched with genius. Yonder ragged cliff + Has thousand faces in a thousand hours. + + Beneath low hills, in the broad interval + Through which at will our Indian rivulet + Winds mindful still of sannup and of squaw, + Whose pipe and arrow oft the plow unburies; + Here in pine houses built of new-fallen trees, + Supplanters of the tribe, the farmers dwell. + Traveler, to thee perchance a tedious road, + Or it may be, a picture; to these men, + The landscape is an armory of powers, + Which, one by one, they know to draw and use; + They harness beast, bird, insect, to their work; + They prove the virtues of each bed of rock, + And, like the chemist mid his loaded jars, + Draw from each stratum its adapted use + To drug their crops or weapon their arts withal. + They turn the frost upon their chemic heap, + They set the wind to winnow pulse and grain, + They thank the spring-flood for its fertile slime, + And, on cheap summit-levels of the snow, + Slide with the sledge to inaccessible woods + O'er meadows bottomless. So, year by year, + They fight the elements with elements + (That one would say, meadow and forest walked, + Transmuted in these men to rule their like), + And by the order in the field disclose + The order regnant in the yeoman's brain. + What these strong masters wrote at large in miles, + I followed in small copy in my acre; + For there's no rood has not a star above it; + The cordial quality of pear or plum + Ascends as gladly in a single tree + As in broad orchards resonant with bees; + And every atom poises for itself, + And for the whole. The gentle deities + Showed me the lore of colors and of sounds, + The innumerable tenements of beauty, + The miracle of generative force, + Far-reaching concords of astronomy + Felt in the plants and in the punctual birds; + Better, the linked purpose of the whole, + And--chiefest prize--found I true liberty + In the glad home plain-dealing Nature gave. + The polite found me impolite; the great + Would mortify me, but in vain; for still + I am a willow of the wilderness, + Loving the wind that bent me. All my hurts + My garden spade can heal. A woodland walk, + A quest of river grapes, a mocking thrush, + A wild rose, or rock-loving columbine, + Salve my worst wounds. + For thus the wood-gods murmured in my ear: + "Dost love our manners? Canst thou silent lie? + Canst thou, thy pride forgot, like nature pass + Into the winter night's extinguished mood? + Canst thou shine now, then darkle, + And being latent, feel thyself no less? + As, when the all-worshiped moon attracts the eye, + The river, hill, stems, foliage, are obscure, + Yet envies none, none are unenviable." + + + +FROM THE 'THRENODY' + + + The South-wind brings + Life, sunshine and desire, + And on every mount and meadow + Breathes aromatic fire; + But over the dead he has no power, + The lost, the lost, he cannot restore; + And looking over the hills, I mourn + The darling who shall not return.... + + O child of paradise, + Boy who made dear his father's home, + In whose deep eyes + Men read the welfare of the times to come, + I am too much bereft. + The world dishonored thou hast left. + O truth's and Nature's costly lie! + O trusted broken prophecy! + O richest fortune sourly crossed! + Born for the future, to the future lost! + + The deep Heart answered, "Weepest thou? + Worthier cause for passion wild + If I had not taken the child. + And deemest thou as those who pore, + With aged eyes, short way before,-- + Think'st Beauty vanished from the coast + Of matter, and thy darling lost? + Taught he not thee--the man of eld, + Whose eyes within his eyes beheld + Heaven's numerous hierarchy span + The mystic gulf from God to man? + To be alone wilt thou begin, + When worlds of lovers hem thee in? + To-morrow, when the masks shall fall + That dizen Nature's carnival, + The pure shall see by their own will, + Which overflowing Love shall fill, + 'Tis not within the force of fate + The fate-conjoined to separate. + But thou, my votary, weepest thou? + I gave thee sight--where is it now? + I taught thy heart beyond the reach + Of ritual, Bible, or of speech; + Wrote in thy mind's transparent table, + As far as the incommunicable; + Taught thee each private sign to raise + Lit by the supersolar blaze. + Past utterance, and past belief, + And past the blasphemy of grief, + The mysteries of Nature's heart; + And though no Muse can these impart, + Throb thine with Nature's throbbing breast, + And all is clear from east to west. + + "I came to thee as to a friend; + Dearest, to thee I did not send + Tutors, but a joyful eye, + Innocence that matched the sky, + Lovely locks, a form of wonder, + Laughter rich as woodland thunder, + That thou might'st entertain apart + The richest flowering of all art: + And, as the great all-loving Day + Through smallest chambers takes its way, + That thou might'st break thy daily bread + With prophet, savior, and head; + That thou might'st cherish for thine own + The richest of sweet Mary's Son, + Boy-Rabbi, Israel's paragon. + And thoughtest thou such guest + Would in thy hall take up his rest? + Would rushing life forget her laws, + Fate's glowing revolution pause? + High omens ask diviner guess; + Not to be conned to tediousness. + And know my higher gifts unbind + The zone that girds the incarnate mind. + When the scanty shores are full + With thought's perilous, whirling pool; + When frail Nature can no more, + Then the Spirit strikes the hour: + My servant Death, with solving rite, + Pours finite into infinite. + Wilt thou freeze love's tidal flow, + Whose streams through Nature circling go? + Nail the wild star to its track + On the half climbed zodiac? + Light is light which radiates, + Blood is blood which circulates, + Life is life which generates, + And many-seeming life is one,-- + Wilt thou transfix and make it none? + Its onward force too starkly pent + In figure, bone, and lineament? + Wilt thou, uncalled, interrogate,-- + Talker!--the unreplying Fate? + Nor see the genius of the whole + Ascendant in the private soul? + Beckon it when to go and come, + Self-announced its hour of doom? + Fair the soul's recess and shrine, + Magic-built to last a season; + Masterpiece of love benign. + Fairer that expansive reason + Whose omen 'tis, and sign. + Wilt thou not ope thy heart to know + What rainbows teach, and sunsets show? + Verdict which accumulates + From lengthening scroll of human fates, + Voice of earth to earth returned, + Prayers of saints that inly burned,-- + Saying, _What is excellent, + As God lives, is permanent; + Hearts are dust, hearts' loves remain; + Heart's love will meet thee again._ + Revere the Maker; fetch thine eye + Up to his style, and manners of the sky. + Not of adamant and gold + Built he heaven stark and cold; + No, but a nest of bending reeds, + Flowering grass and scented weeds; + Or like a traveler's fleeing tent, + Or bow above the tempest bent; + Built of tears and sacred flames, + And virtue reaching to its aims; + Built of furtherance and pursuing, + Not of spent deeds, but of doing. + Silent rushes the swift Lord + Through ruined systems still restored, + Broad-sowing, bleak and void to bless, + Plants with worlds the wilderness; + Waters with tears of ancient sorrow + Apples of Eden ripe to-morrow. + House and tenant go to ground, + Lost in God, in Godhead found." + + +CONCORD HYMN + +SUNG AT THE COMPLETION OF THE BATTLE MONUMENT, APRIL 19, 1836 + + + By the rude bridge that arched the flood, + Their flag to April's breeze unfurled, + Here once the embattled farmers stood, + And fired the shot heard round the world. + + The foe long since in silence slept; + Alike the conqueror silent sleeps; + And time the ruined bridge has swept + Down the dark stream which seaward creeps. + + On this green bank, by this soft stream, + We set to-day a votive stone; + That memory may their deed redeem, + When, like our sires, our sons are gone. + + Spirit, that made those heroes dare + To die, and leave their children free, + Bid Time and Nature gently spare + The shaft we raise to them and thee. + + + +ODE + +SUNG IN THE TOWN HALL, CONCORD, JULY 4, 1857 + + + O tenderly the haughty day + Fills his blue urn with fire; + One morn is in the mighty heaven, + And one in our desire. + + The cannon booms from town to town, + Our pulses beat not less, + The joy-bells chime their tidings down, + Which children's voices bless. + + For He that flung the broad blue fold + O'er mantling land and sea, + One third part of the sky unrolled + For the banner of the free. + + The men are ripe of Saxon kind + To build an equal state,-- + To take the statue from the mind + And make of duty fate. + + United States! the ages plead,-- + Present and Past in under-song,-- + Go put your creed into your deed, + Nor speak with double tongue. + + For sea and land don't understand, + Nor skies without a frown + See rights for which the one hand fights + By the other cloven down. + + Be just at home; then write your scroll + Of honor o'er the sea, + And bid the broad Atlantic roll, + A ferry of the free. + + And henceforth there shall be no chain, + Save underneath the sea + The wires shall murmur through the main + Sweet songs of liberty. + + The conscious stars accord above, + The waters wild below, + And under, through the cable wove, + Her fiery errands go. + + For He that worketh high and wise, + Nor pauses in his plan, + Will take the sun out of the skies + Ere freedom out of man. + + All the above citations from Emerson's works are reprinted by + permission of his family, and of Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin & + Co., publishers, Boston, Mass., as stated on a previous page. + + + [Illustration: _CONCORD MONUMENT._ + Marking the Battle Field of April 19, 1775. + From a Photograph.] + + + + +TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES + + +1. Passages in italics are surrounded by _underscores_. + +2. Images have been moved from the middle of a paragraph to the closest +paragraph break. Also the footnotes have been moved to the end of the +chapter in which they are referred. + +3. Certain words use "oe" ligature in the original. + +4. The original text includes Greek characters. For this text version +these letters have been replaced with transliterations. + +5. Other than the corrections listed above, printer's inconsistencies +in spelling, punctuation, hyphenation, and ligature usage have been +retained. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Library of the World's Best +Literature, Ancient and Modern, Vol. 13, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WORLD'S BEST LITERATURE, VOL 13 *** + +***** This file should be named 34408.txt or 34408.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/4/4/0/34408/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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