No More Learning

Lay thy bow of pearl apart,
And thy crystal shining quiver;
Give unto the flying hart
Space to breathe, how short soever:
Thou that mak'st a day of night,
Goddess excellently bright.
THE NOBLE NATURE
I"
T is not growing like a tree
In bulk doth make man better be;
Or standing long an oak, three hundred year,
To fall a log at last, dry, bald, and sere:
A lily of a day
Is fairer far in May,
Although it fall and die that night:
It was the plant and flower of Light.
In small proportions we just beauties see;
And in short measures life may perfect be.


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8361
JOSEPHUS
(37–100 A. D. )
BY EDWIN KNOX MITCHELL
OSEPHUS the Jewish historian was born at Jerusalem of Jew-
ish parentage in 37 A. D. He belonged to a distinguished
priestly family, and was himself early put in training for
the priesthood. At the age of fourteen his knowledge of the law
was so minute and profound as to attract the attention of the high
priests and chief rabbis of the city. But dissatisfied with such attain-
ments, he began at the age of sixteen a pilgrimage of the various
schools of the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes. Failing to quench
his thirst for knowledge, he withdrew into the wilderness and sought
the guidance of the hermit Banus, with whom he lived for three
years. Returning thereupon to Jerusalem, he openly espoused the
cause of the Pharisees and rose rapidly in their favor. In 63 A. D. ,
being then twenty-six years of age, he went to Rome to secure the
release of certain priests, who were near relatives of his and who
had been imprisoned upon some trifling charges. The Jewish actor
Alityrus introduced him to the Empress Poppæa, who obtained the
release of the prisoners and loaded Josephus with rich presents for
the journey home.
Soon after his return, in 66 A. D. , the Jewish revolt against the
Roman rule began; and after the first decisive battle, Josephus joined
the revolutionary party and became one of its leaders.
He was
intrusted with the chief command in Galilee, where the conflict had
originated, and he set himself at once to fortify certain towns and
to organize and discipline his army. He has left us in his "Wars of
the Jews' a minute account of his leadership, down to the time of his
capture a year later upon the fall of the fortress of Jotapata. When
carried before Vespasian he prophesied, two years in advance of the
event, that general's elevation to the throne. Vespasian now kept
him near at hand; and when the Palestinian legions fulfilled Jose-
phus's prophecy, the new Emperor granted his distinguished prisoner
freedom. According to custom, Josephus now assumed the name Fla-
vius, and proved his gratitude by remaining with the Roman army
when Titus was intrusted with the command in Palestine. During
the siege of Jerusalem, Josephus often endangered his life, at the


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8362
JOSEPHUS
more
1
command of Titus, in trying to persuade the Jews to surrender the
city. And when the end came he was permitted to take whatever
he wanted, and by his intercession many prisoners who were his
personal friends obtained their freedom. He now went with Titus to
Rome, and Vespasian assigned him a palatial residence, bestowing
upon him the rights of Roman citizenship and granting him a yearly
stipend. He was also presented with a large estate in Judæa; but
he preferred to reside at Rome, where he continued to pursue his
studies and to prosecute his literary work amid the unbroken favor
of the successive Emperors. He died in the early days of Trajan's
reign.
WORKS. - The literary labors of Josephus, which covered
than a quarter of a century, resulted in the production of the follow-
ing works:--
(1) The "Wars of the Jews. This consists of seven books, and
was originally written in Aramaic, but was soon rewritten in Greek,
and obtained the hearty indorsement of both Vespasian and Titus.
The first two books sketch quite fully the history of the Jews from
the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, 175-164 B. C. , down to the first year
of the war, 66 A. D. The remainder of the work is taken up with a
detailed account of the war down to the destruction of Jerusalem
and the complete demolition of the Jewish State in 70 A. D. The
later books are the account of an eye-witness and a participant in
the events narrated, and are by far the best record we have of those
eventful years.
(2) The Antiquities of the Jews. Upon the completion of the
former work, near the close of Vespasian's reign, Josephus seems to
have given himself to the stupendous task of narrating the history
of the Jewish people from the earliest times down to the outbreak
of the war with the Romans. This occupied him for some twenty
years, and resulted in the composition of the Antiquities of the
Jews,' in twenty books. The first ten books reach down to the
Babylonian captivity, and the narrative runs parallel with the Bibli-
cal account; the eleventh book carries the history down to Alex-
ander the Great, who died in 323 B. C. ; the twelfth to the death of
Judas Maccabæus, in 161 B. C. ; the thirteenth to the death of Alex-
andra, in 69 B. C. ; the fourteenth to the commencement of Herod the
Great's reign, in 37 B. C. ; the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth are
devoted to the reign of Herod, 37-4 B. C. ; the remaining three books
bring us down to the outbreak of the Jewish war in 66 A. D. The
chief aim of the author was so to present the history of the much
despised Jewish people as to win for them the respect of the cultured
Greeks and Romans of his own day. To this end he does not hesitate
to modify or omit the more offensive portions of the Old Testament


## p. 8363 (#575) ###########################################

JOSEPHUS
8363
>>>
narrative, or to strengthen the Biblical account by quotations from
non-canonical writers. He uses his extra-Biblical sources still more
freely: quoting, epitomizing, elaborating, and often controverting their
statements. For the period from 440 to 175 B. C. he is almost wholly
dependent upon the Alexander legends and the pseudo-Aristeas; for
175 to 135 B. C. the First Book of Maccabees is the principal source,
which is supplemented by Polybius and others; for 135 to 37 B. C.
the chief authorities are Strabo and Nicolas of Damascus, whose ac-
counts are supplemented by oral tradition. For the history of Herod,
37-4 B. C. , Nicolas of Damascus is the principal authority, with a
possible use of the Commentaries of King Herod. This last period
is described with great fullness and particularity; but the narrative
thereafter is scanty till we reach the reign of Agrippa I. , which is
elaborated with oral traditions. For the remainder of the Antiqui-
ties) Josephus relied upon his personal recollections and living wit-
nesses.
(3) Autobiography. Instead of being a life, this brief work
is really a defense of the author's conduct of the Galilean campaign
in 66-67 A. D. There are short biographical notices, which form an
introduction and a conclusion to the personal apologia. Justus of Ti-
berias had written an account of the Jewish war which represented
Josephus as the author of the revolt in Galilee, and thus compromised
his standing with the Romans. The so-called Autobiography' is a
vituperative attack upon Justus and a pitifully weak reply to his
charges.
The 'Treatise Against Apion. This is the last of the extant
works of Josephus, and it followed closely upon the publication of
the preceding. The title as given is defective, and is certainly not
the original one. The grammarian Apion is not the chief object of
attack, but rather the violent and ofttimes absurd prejudices against
the Jewish people and their religion. The historian makes an able
and skillful defense, in which he seeks to prove the great antiquity
of the Jews and their superiority over other nations, especially the
Egyptians and Greeks. He maintains that the latter derived their
best laws and highest wisdom from Moses and other inspired writers;
and he then charges the Greeks with all manner of injustice, immo-
rality, stupidity, and sacrilege. The Jewish religion is ably defended
and expounded, and the personal beliefs of Josephus can be fairly
well determined.
CHARACTER. — Josephus was a man of strong individuality; but he
was vain, opinionated, self-seeking, and duplicitous. It is unfair to
charge him with the betrayal of his nation, for he only prudently
submitted to the inevitable. But it cannot be denied that he accom-
plished the transference of his personal allegiance to the Romans


## p. 8364 (#576) ###########################################

8364
JOSEPHUS
with unbecoming equanimity, and with an eye single to his own
immediate safety and future prospects. Contrast this conduct with
that of an older contemporary, St. Paul, who was willing to be
accursed if he might thereby save his people. It is interesting to
recall that Josephus was born about the time of St. Paul's conversion;
both were trained in Jerusalem as Pharisees; both went to Rome
about the same year, where they may have learned to know each
other: but later, while the former was dexterously compromising with
the Romans, the latter was refusing to betray his cause and conse-
quently suffered the death penalty. The faults of Josephus as a his-
torian are, as might have been expected, the faults inherent in his
character as a man. He was learned, but he was at the same time
opinionated; he was a keen observer, but he was vainglorious and
ever seeking to justify himself or his cause; he had a clear percep-
tion of the forces which mold events, but he was lacking in integ-
rity and candor. His writings are accordingly full of perverted
accounts, ludicrous exaggerations, and dexterous apologies. But it is
not so difficult to detect these defects; for they are often glaring, and
they almost always bear the marks of personal prejudice or racial
bias. The Antiquities' were written to glorify the history and
character of the Jewish people; the Wars) and Autobiography) to
glorify and shield their author; and the Treatise against Apion to
glorify and defend the Jewish religion. But notwithstanding these
radical defects, there is perhaps no other ancient historian whose
works have come down to us, who has covered so wide a range of
human events and has left us more valuable historical details. For
the period intervening between the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures,
and for a knowledge of the New Testament times, the works of Jose-
phus are indispensable.
Ecurie Mun Vuitkell
MOSES AS A LEGISLATOR
From the Preface to the (Antiquities)
09
NE who will peruse this history may principally learn from it,
that all events succeed well, even to an incredible degree,
and the reward of felicity is proposed by God: but then it
is to those that follow his will, and do not venture to break his
excellent laws; and that so far as men any way apostatize from


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JOSEPHUS
8365
the accurate observation of them, what was practicable before
becomes impracticable; and whatsoever they set about as a good
thing is converted into an incurable calamity. And now I exhort
all those who peruse these books, to apply their minds to God:
and to examine the mind of our legislator, whether he hath not
understood his nature in a manner worthy of him; and hath
not ever ascribed to him such operations as become his power;
and hath not preserved his own writings from those indecent
fables which others have framed, although by the great distance
of time when he lived he might have securely forged such lies,
- for he lived two thousand years ago, at which vast distance of
ages the poets themselves have not been so hardy as to fix even
the generations of their gods, much less the actions of their
men or their own laws, As I proceed, therefore, I shall accu-
rately describe what is contained in our records, in the order of
time that belongs to them,
without adding anything to
what is therein contained, or taking away anything therefrom.
But because almost all our constitution depends on the wisdom
of Moses our legislator, I cannot avoid saying somewhat concern-
ing him beforehand, though I shall do it briefly; I mean, because
otherwise those that read my books may wonder how it comes
to pass that my discourse, which promises an account of laws
and historical facts, contains so much of philosophy. The reader
is therefore to know that Moses deemed it exceeding necessary
that he who would conduct his own life well, and give laws to
others, in the first place should consider the Divine nature; and
upon the contemplation of God's operations, should thereby imi-
tate the best of all patterns, so far as it is possible for human
nature to do, and to endeavor to follow after it; neither could
the legislator himself have a right mind without such a contem-
plation; nor would anything he should write tend to the promo-
tion of virtue in his readers: I mean, unless they be taught first
of all that God is the Father and Lord of all things, and sees all
things; and that hence he bestows a happy life upon those that
follow him, but plunges such as do not walk in the paths of vir-
tue into inevitable miseries. Now when Moses was desirous to
teach this lesson to his countrymen, he did not begin the estab-
lishment of his laws after the same manner that other legislators
did, -I mean, upon contracts and other rights between one man
and another, but by raising their minds upwards to regard God
and his creation of the world; and by persuading them that we


## p. 8366 (#578) ###########################################

8366
JOSEPHUS
men are the most excellent of the creatures of God upon earth.
Now when once he had brought them to submit to religion, he
easily persuaded them to submit in all other things; for as to
other legislators, they followed fables, and by their discourses
transferred the most reproachful of human vices unto the gods,
and so afforded wicked men the most plausible excuses for their
crimes; but as for our legislator, when he had once demonstrated
that God was possessed of perfect virtue, he supposed men also
ought to strive after the participation of it; and on those who
did not so think and so believe, he inflicted the severest punish-
ments. I exhort, therefore, my readers to examine this whole
undertaking in that view; for thereby it will appear to them that
there is nothing therein disagreeable either to the majesty of
God, or to his love for mankind: for all things have here a ref-
erence to the nature of the universe; while our legislator speaks
some things wisely but enigmatically, and others under a decent
allegory, but still explains such things as required a direct expli-
cation, plainly and expressly.
Whiston's Translation.
SOLOMON'S WISDOM
From the 'Antiquities)
Nº"
.
the sagacity and wisdom which God had bestowed on
Solomon was so great that he exceeded the ancients, inso-
much that he was no way inferior to the Egyptians, who
are said to have been beyond all men in understanding; nay,
indeed, it is evident that their sagacity was very much inferior
to that of the King's. He also excelled and distinguished him-
self in wisdom above those who were most eminent among the
Hebrews at that time for shrewdness.
He also composed
books of odes and songs a thousand and five, of parables and simil-
itudes three thousand — for he spake a parable upon every sort
of tree from the hyssop to the cedar, and in like manner also
about beasts, about all sorts of living creatures, whether upon the
earth, or in the seas, or in the air; for he was not unacquainted
with any of their natures, nor omitted inquiries about them, but
described them all like a philosopher, and demonstrated his exqui-
site knowledge of their several properties. God also enabled him
to learn that skill which expels demons, which is a science useful


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JOSEPHUS
8367
and sanative to him. He composed such incantations also by
which distempers are alleviated. And he left behind him the
manner of using exorcisms, by which they drive away demons so
that they never return: and this method of cure is of great force
unto this day; for I have seen a certain man of my own country,
whose name was Eleazar, releasing people that were demoniacal,
in the presence of Vespasian and his sons and his captains and
the whole multitude of his soldiers. The manner of the cure
was this: He put a ring that had a root of one of those sorts
mentioned by Solomon, to the nostrils of the demoniac, after
which he drew out the demon through his nostrils; and when the
man fell down immediately, he adjured him to return into him
no more, - making still mention of Solomon, and reciting the
incantations which he composed. And when Eleazar would per-
suade and demonstrate to the spectators that he had such power,
he set a little way off a cup or basin full of water, and com-
manded the demon, as he went out of the man, to overturn it,
and thereby to let the spectators know that he had left the man;
and when this was done, the skill and wisdom of Solomon was
showed very manifestly.
Whiston's Translation.
ALEXANDER'S CONQUEST OF PALESTINE
From the Antiquities)
A
BOUT this time (333 B. C. ) it was that Darius heard how
Alexander had passed over the Hellespont, and had beaten
his lieutenants in the battle of Granicum, and was proceed-
ing farther; whereupon he gathered together an army of horse
and foot, and determined that he would meet the Macedonians
before they should assault and conquer all Asia. So he passed
over the river Euphrates, and came over Taurus, the Cilician
mountain; and at Isis of Cilicia he waited for the enemy, as
ready there to give him battle. Upon which Sanballat was glad
that Darius was come down; and told Manasseh that he would
suddenly perform his promises to him, and this as soon as ever
Darius should come back, after he had beaten his enemies; for
not he only, but all those that were in Asia also, were persuaded
that the Macedonians would not so much as come to a battle
with the Persians, on account of their multitude. But the event


## p. 8368 (#580) ###########################################

8368
JOSEPHUS
proved otherwise than they expected, for the king joined battle
with the Macedonians, and was beaten, and lost a great part of
his army.
His mother also, and his wife and children, were
taken captives, and he fled into Persia. So Alexander came into
Syria, and took Damascus; and when he had obtained Sidon, he
besieged Tyre, when he sent an epistle to the Jewish high priest,
“To send him some auxiliaries, and to supply his army with
provisions; and that what presents he formerly sent to Darius he
would now send to him, and choose the friendship of the Mace-
donians, and that he should never repent of so doing. ” But the
high priest answered the messengers, that he had given his oath
to Darius not to bear arms against him”; and he said that he
would not transgress them while Darius was in the land of the
living. " Upon hearing this answer, Alexander was very angry;
and though he determined not to leave Tyre, which was just
ready to be taken, yet as soon as he had taken it he threatened
that he would make an expedition against the Jewish high priest,
and through him teach all men to whom they must keep their
oaths. So when he had, with a great deal of pains during the
siege, taken Tyre, and had settled his affairs, he came to the
city of Gaza, and besieged both the city and him that was gov-
ernor of the garrison, whose name was Babemeses.
Now
Alexander, when he had taken Gaza, made haste to go up to
Jerusalem; and Jaddaa the high priest, when he heard that, was
in an agony and under terror, as not knowing how he should
meet the Macedonians, since the King was displeased at his
foregoing disobedience. He therefore ordained that the people
should make supplications, and should join with him in offering
sacrifices to God, whom he besought to protect that nation, and
to deliver them from the perils that were coming upon them:
whereupon God warned him in a dream, which came upon him
after he had offered sacrifice, that he should take courage, and
adorn the city, and open the gates; that the rest should appear
in white garments, but that he and the priests should meet the
King in the habits proper to their order, without the dread of
any ill consequences, which the providence of God would pre-
vent. » Upon which, when he rose from his sleep, he greatly
rejoiced, and declared to all the warning he had received from
God. According to which dream he acted entirely, and so waited
for the coming of the King.
For Alexander, when he
saw the multitude at a distance, in white garments, while the
.


## p. 8369 (#581) ###########################################

JOSEPHUS
8369
priests stood clothed with fine linen, and the high priest in pur-
ple and scarlet clothing, with his mitre on his head, having the
golden plate whereon the name of God was engraved, he ap-
proached by himself, and adored that name, and first saluted the
high priest. The Jews also did altogether, with one voice, salute
Alexander and encompass him about; whereupon the kings of
Syria and the rest were surprised at what Alexander had done,
and supposed him disordered in his mind. However, Parmenio
alone went up to him, and asked him “How it came to pass
that when all others adored him, he should adore the high priest
of the Jews! ” To whom he replied:-“I do not adore him, but
that God who hath honored him with his high-priesthood: for I
saw this very person in a dream, in this very habit, when I was
at Dios in Macedonia, who, when I was considering with myself
how I might obtain the dominion of Asia, exhorted me to make
no delay, but boldly to pass over the sea thither, for that he
would conduct my army, and would give me the dominion over
the Persians; whence it is, that having seen no other in that
habit, and now seeing this person in it, and remembering that
vision, and the exhortation which I had in my dream, I believe
that I bring this army under the Divine conduct, and shall there-
with conquer Darius and destroy the power of the Persians, and
that all things will succeed according to what is in my own
mind. ” And when he said this to Parmenio, and had given the
high priest his right hand, the priests ran along by him, and he
came into the city: and when he went up into the temple he
offered sacrifice to God, according to the high priest's directions;
and magnificently treated both the high priest and the priests.
And when the book of Daniel was showed him, wherein Daniel
declared that one of the Greeks should destroy the empire of the
Persians, he supposed that himself was the person intended; and
as he was then glad, he dismissed the multitude for the present,
but the next day called them to him, and bade them ask what
favors they pleased of him; whereupon the high priest desired
that they might enjoy the laws of their forefathers, and might
pay no tribute on the seventh year. He granted all they desired.
And when they entreated him that he would permit the Jews
in Babylon and Media to enjoy their own laws also, he willingly
promised to do hereafter what they desired.
Whiston's Translation.
XIV—524


## p. 8370 (#582) ###########################################

8370
JOSEPHUS
THE GREEK VERSION OF THE HEBREW SCRIPTURES
From the Antiquities)
W"
*
IEN Alexander had reigned twelve years, and after him
Ptolemy Soter forty years, Philadelphus then took the
kingdom of Egypt, and held it forty years within one.
He procured the law to be interpreted; and set free those that
were come from Jerusalem into Egypt and were in slavery
there, who were a hundred and twenty thousand. The occasion
was this: Demetrius Phalereus, who was library keeper to the
King, was now endeavoring if it were possible to gather together
all the books that were in the habitable earth, and buying what-
soever was anywhere valuable or agreeable to the King's inclina-
tion, -- who was very earnestly set upon collecting of books,
,
to which inclination of his Demetrius was zealously subservient.
And when once Ptolemy asked him how many thousand of books
he had collected, he replied that he had already about twenty
times ten thousand, but that in a little time he should have fifty
times ten thousand. But he said he had been informed that
there were many books of law among the Jews worthy of inquir-
ing after, and worthy of the King's library, but which, being
written in characters and in a dialect of their own, will cause
no small pains in getting them translated into the Greek tongue;
that the character in which they are written seems to be like to
that which is the proper character of the Syrians, and that its
sound, when pronounced, is like theirs also: and that this sound
appears to be peculiar to themselves. Wherefore he said that
nothing hindered why they might not get those books to be
translated also; for while nothing is wanting that is necessary
for that purpose, we may have their books also in this library.
So the King thought that Demetrius was very zealous to procure
him abundance of books, and that he suggested what was exceed-
ing proper for him to do; and therefore he wrote to the Jewish
high priest that he should act accordingly:-
"King Ptolemy to Eleazar the high priest, sendeth greeting:
There were many Jews who now dwell in my kingdom, whom
the Persians when they were in power carried captives. These
were honored by my father: some of whom he placed in the
army, and gave them greater pay than ordinary; to others of
them, when they came with him into Egypt, he committed his
C


## p. 8371 (#583) ###########################################

JOSEPHUS
8371
garrisons, and the guarding of them, that they might be a ter-
ror to the Egyptians. And when I had taken the government,
I treated all men with humanity, and especially those that are
thy fellow-citizens, of whom I have set free above a hundred
thousand that were slaves, and paid the price of their redemp-
tion to their masters out of my own revenues; and those that
are of a fit age I have admitted into the number of my soldiers.
And as I am desirous to do what will be grateful to
these, and to all the other Jews in the habitable earth, I have
determined to procure an interpretation of your law, and to have
it translated out of the Hebrew into Greek, and to be deposited
in my library. Thou wilt therefore do well to choose out and
send to me men of good character, who are now elders in age,
and six in number out of every tribe; these, by their age, must
be skillful in the laws, and of abilities to make an accurate inter-
pretation of them. And when this shall be finished, I shall think
that I have done a work glorious to myself. ”
When this epistle of the King's was brought to Eleazar, he
wrote an answer to it with all the respect possible:-
"Eleazar the high priest to King Ptolemy, sendeth greeting: If
thou and thy queen Arsinoe, and thy children, be well, we are
entirely satisfied. When we received thy epistle, we greatly
rejoiced at thy intentions; and when the multitude were gathered
together, we read it to them, and thereby made them sensible of
the piety thou hast towards God.
We immediately there-
fore offered sacrifices for thee and thy sister, with thy children
and friends; and the multitude made prayers that thy affairs
may be to thy mind, and that thy kingdom may be preserved in
peace, and that the translation of our law may come to the con-
clusion thou desirest, and be for thy advantage. We have also
chosen six elders out of every tribe, whom we have sent, and the
law with them. It will be thy part, out of thy piety and justice,
to send back the law when it hath been translated, and to return
those to us that bring it in safety. Farewell. ”
Accordingly, when three days were over, Demetrius took them,
and went over the causeway seven furlongs long; it was a bank in
the sea to an island. And when they had gone over the bridge,
he proceeded to the northern parts, and showed them where they
should meet, which was in a house that was built near the shore,
and was a quiet place, and fit for their discoursing together about
their work. When he had brought them thither, he entreated
.


## p. 8372 (#584) ###########################################

8372
JOSEPHUS
them (now they had all things about them which they wanted
for the interpretation of their law) that they would suffer noth-
ing to interrupt them in their work.
Now when the law
was transcribed, and the labor of interpretation was over, which
came to its conclusion in seventy-two days, Demetrius gathered
all the Jews together to the place where the laws were translated,
and where the interpreters were, and read them over. The multi-
tude did also approve of those elders that were the interpreters
of the law. They withal commended Demetrius for his proposal,
as the inventor of what was greatly for their happiness; and they
desired that he would give leave to their rulers also to read the
law. Moreover, they all, both the priest, and the most revered
of the elders, and the principal men of their commonwealth, made
it their request that since the interpretation was happily finished,
it might continue in the state it now was, and might not be
altered. And when they all commended that determination of
theirs, they enjoined that if any one observed either anything
superfluous or anything omitted, that he would take a view of
it again, and have it laid before them, and corrected; which was
a wise action of theirs, that when the thing was judged to have
been well done, it might continue for ever.
Whiston's Translation.
THE DEATH OF JAMES, THE BROTHER OF OUR LORD
From the Antiquities'
A
ND now [Claudius] Cæsar, upon hearing of the death of Fes-
tus, sent Albinus into Judæa as procurator. But the king
deprived Joseph of the high-priesthood, and bestowed the
succession to that dignity on the son of Ananus, who was also
himself called Ananus.
But this younger Ananus, who,
as we have told you already, took the high-priesthood, was a bold
man in his temper, and very insolent; he was also of the sect
of the Sadducees, who are very rigid in judging offenders, above
all the rest of the Jews, as we have already observed: when, ,
therefore, Ananus was of this disposition, he thought he had
now a proper opportunity [to exercise his authority]. Festus was
now dead, and Albinus was but upon the road; so he assembled
the sanhedrim of judges, and brought them the brother of Jesus
who was called Christ, whose name was James, and some others


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JOSEPHUS
8373
(or some of his companions]. And when he had formed an
accusation against them as breakers of the law, he delivered them
to be stoned: but as for those who seemed the most equitable of
the citizens, and such as were the most uneasy at the breach of
the laws, they disliked what was done; they also sent to the King
[Agrippa] desiring him to send to Ananus that he should act so
no more, for that what he had already done was not to be justi-
fied; nay, some of them went also to meet Albinus, as he was
upon his journey from Alexandria, and informed him that it was
not lawful for Ananus to assemble a sanhedrim without his con-
sent. Whereupon Albinus complied with what they said, and
wrote in anger to Ananus, and threatened that he would bring
him to punishment for what he had done; on which account
King Agrippa took the high-priesthood from him when he had
ruled but three months, and made Jesus the son of Damneus
high priest.
Whiston's Translation.
PREFACE TO THE JEWISH WARS)
T"
Hus I shall relate in what manner Antiochus, surnamed Epi-
phanes, after having carried Jerusalem by assault, and held
it for three years and six months, was expelled the country
by the sons of Asamonæus; then, how the descendants of these,
quarreling among themselves for the crown, dragged into the
controversy the Romans and Pompey; and how Herod, son of
Antipater, with the aid of Sossius overthrew their dynasty; the
revolt of the people, moreover, after the death of Herod, Au-
gustus at the time ruling the Romans, and Quintilius Varus being
president of the Province; the breaking out of the war in the
twelfth year of Nero; the casualties which befell Cestius; and
what places the Jews surprised at the commencement of hostili-
ties.
My narrative will further include an account of their forti-
fying the neighboring towns; of Nero's apprehensions for the
empire, occasioned by the disasters of Cestius, and his consequent
appointment of Vespasian to the conduct of the war; of the
invasion of the Jewish territory by that general and the elder of
his sons.
I shall next relate the death of Nero, the affairs of the Jews
being now the decline; and how Vespasian, then rapidly
on


## p. 8374 (#586) ###########################################

8374
JOSEPHUS
marching upon Jerusalem, was drawn off to assume the imperial
throne.
I shall then advert to the second invasion of
the country by Titus, on his breaking up from Egypt; state how
and where he mustered his forces, and their amount.
Traill's Translation.
AGRIPPA'S APPEAL TO THE JEWS
From the Jewish Wars)
HE populace, addressing the king and the chief priests, re-
T
accusation against Florus; lest, on an occasion of so much
bloodshed, they should leave themselves under suspicion of insur-
rection by their silence.
Agrippa, though he deemed it
invidious to send up an accusation against Florus, yet thought it
not his interest to overlook the strong bias for war manifested
by the Jews. He accordingly convened the people in the Xys-
tus; and having placed his sister Berenice in a conspicuous situ-
ation on the house of the Asamonæan family, - which was above
the Xystus, on the opposite side of the upper town, where a
bridge connected the Temple with the Xystus,- he spoke as
follows:
"Had I seen that you all were bent on war with the Romans,
and not that the more upright and unprejudiced portion of the
community were desirous of preserving peace, I would neither
have appeared before you, nor ventured to advise.
flous is every address bearing on measures proper to be pur-
sued, when all who hear it are by common consent resolved on
the less prudential course. But since youth, inexperienced in
the evils of war, stimulates some; some an inconsiderate hope of
freedom; others avarice; and in the general confusion, a desire
of private aggrandizement at the expense of the weak,- I have
thought it my duty to call you together, and lay before you
what I conceive will most conduce to your welfare: that these
several classes, being better instructed, may alter their views, and
that the virtuous may sustain no damage from the pernicious
counsels of a few.
«Consider separately each of these [complaints), and how slight
are the grounds for war! And first, as to the charges against
your procurators. Duty enjoins us to conciliate, not to irritate,
For super-


## p. 8375 (#587) ###########################################

JOSEPHUS
8375
serves
as
the authorities. But when of little offenses you make great
complaints, you exasperate, to your own prejudice, the individu-
als thus defamed.
But as nothing so much averts correc-
tion as patient submission, so the quiet demeanor of the wronged
a restraint on their oppressors. But granting that
the Roman officers are beyond endurance severe, still, all the
Romans do not wrong you, nor does Cæsar; and yet it is against
these you levy war. It is not by command that any one comes
among you, from them, to be wicked; neither do they see from
west to east; nor is it easy to obtain in that quarter early intel-
ligence from hence.
« But it is absurd to wage war with many on account of
one, and for trivial reasons, with so great a people; and that too
when they know not what we complain of. And yet the evils
with which we charge them may be speedily corrected, for the
same procurator will not remain forever; and his successors, it is
probable, will come in a spirit of greater moderation. War, how-
ever, once moved, it is neither easy to lay aside without calamity,
nor yet to bear the burthen of it. But your present desire of
freedom is unseasonable, seeing you should have struggled earlier
not to lose it. For the experience of servitude is bitter, and the
exertion to avert its first approaches is just; but he who, once
subdued, afterwards revolts, is a refractory slave, not a lover of
liberty. For then was the time for doing your utmost to prevent
the Romans from gaining a footing, when Pompey made his first
inroad upon your country.
“You alone disdain servitude to those to whom the universe
has submitted. On what troops, on what weapons, do you rely?
Where is your feet to occupy the Roman seas? where the
treasures sufficing for the enterprise ? Do you suppose that it is
with the Egyptians and Arabians that war is to be waged ? Will
you not reflect on the empire of the Romans? Will you not
measure your own weakness? Have not your forces been fre-
quently defeated by nations on your borders ? and yet, through
the world their strength has stood unconquered; nay rather, they
have stretched their views farther even than this. For the entire
Euphrates has not sufficed them on the east; nor the Danube on
the north; nor on the south Libya, penetrated even to uninhab-
ited climes; nor Gadeira on the west. But beyond the ocean they
have sought another world, and have carried their arms far as
the Britons, unknown before to history.


## p. 8376 (#588) ###########################################

8376
JOSEPHUS
1
"Reflect, likewise, that even were you contending with no
formidable foe, the uncompromising character of your worship
would create a difficulty, since those very laws by which you
mainly hope to secure the Divine assistance will, if you are com-
pelled to transgress them, render God your enemy; since, should
you observe the usages of the Sabbath, and put your hand to no
work, you will fall an easy prey, as did your forefathers to Pom-
pey, who pressed his operations with the greatest vigor on those
days upon which the besieged rested.
"Unless indeed it be supposed that you will wage war by
compact; and that the Romans, when triumphant, will act toward
you with moderation, and not, as an example to other nations,
burn the Holy City to the ground, and root you out as a people
from the earth. For those of you who may survive will not
find a spot to flee to, since all have acknowledged the supremacy
of the Romans, or fear that they soon must do so. The danger,
however, threatens not us alone, but those also who reside in the
other cities. For there is not a nation in the world where some
of you are not to be found; all of whom, should you go to war,
will be sacrificed in retaliation by your adversaries. .
"Look with pity, then, if not on your children and wives, yet
on this your metropolis, and the sacred boundaries. Spare the
Temple, and preserve for yourselves this sanctuary with its holy
things. "
Having spoken thus, he wept, as did his sister; and their
emotion restrained in a great degree the violence of the people,
who cried out that they had not taken up arms against the
Romans, but to avenge their sufferings on Florus.
Traill's Translation.
JOSEPHUS'S SURRENDER TO THE ROMANS
From the Jewish Wars)
WLI
.
HILE Josephus was hesitating as to Nicanor's persuasions,
his nightly dreams, wherein God had foreshown
to him the approaching calamities of the Jews, and what
would befall the Roman sovereigns, occurred to him. As an in-
terpreter of dreams he had the art of collecting the meaning of
things delivered ambiguously by the Deity; nor was he unac-
quainted with the prophecies of the Sacred Books, being himself


## p. 8377 (#589) ###########################################

JOSEPHUS
8377
a priest, and a descendant of priests. Being at that moment
under a divine influence, and suddenly recalling the fearful im-
ages of his recent dreams, he addressed to God a secret prayer,
and said: “Since it seems good to thee, who didst found the
Jewish nation, now to level it with the dust, and transfer all its
fortune to the Romans, and since thou hast chosen my spirit to
foretell future events, I surrender willingly to the Romans, and
live: appealing to thee that I go over to them not as a traitor,
but as thy minister. ”
But when the Jews who had there taken refuge along with
him understood that he was yielding,
they
cried
out:- Deeply may our paternal laws groan! And well
may
God, who planted in the Jewish breast a soul that despises death,
hide his face in indignation! Is life so dear to thee, Josephus,
that thou canst endure to see the light in slavery? How soon
hast thou forgotten thyself! How many hast thou persuaded
to die for liberty! False then indeed has been thy reputation
for manliness, as well as for intelligence, if thou canst hope for
safety from those whom thou hast so strenuously opposed, or con-
sent to accept deliverance at their hands, even were it certain !
But though the fortune of the Romans has poured over thee
some strange forgetfulness of thyself, we must take care of our
country's glory. We will provide thee with right hand and
sword. If thou diest voluntarily, thou shalt die as general of the
Jews. ”
9
Josephus, fearing an outbreak,
proceeded to reason
with them philosophically respecting the emergency:
«Why, my comrades, should we so thirst for our own blood ?
or why do we set at variance such fond companions as soul and
body? Who says that I am changed ? But the Romans know
whether this is true. It is honorable, I admit, to die in war;
but only by the law of war,—that is, by the act of the victors.
Did I then shun the Roman blades, worthy indeed should I be
of my own sword and my own hand. But if pity for an enemy
enter their breasts, how much more justly should pity for our-
selves enter ours! For it is the extreme of folly to do that to
ourselves, to avoid which we quarrel with others.
But
some one will urge the dread of servitude. We are now, forsooth,
perfectly free! Another will say that it is noble to destroy one-
self. Far from it - but most ignoble! just as I would deem that
pilot most dastardly, who dreading a tempest, voluntarily sinks his
.


## p. 8378 (#590) ###########################################

8378
JOSEPHUS
are
ship ere the storm sets in. But further: suicide is alien to the
common nature of all animals, and an impiety against God who
created us. Nor indeed is there any living creature that dies
premeditatedly, or by its own act; for nature's law is strong in
all — the wish to live. For this reason also, those who attempt
overtly to deprive us of life we account enemies; and those who
attempt it clandestinely, we punish.
“Do you not think that God is indignant when man treats his
gift with contempt ? From him we have received our existence;
and the period when we no longer to exist, we refer to
his will. Our bodies indeed are mortal to all, and composed of
corruptible materials; but the soul, always immortal, and a por-
tion of the Deity, dwells in those bodies. Now, should any one
destroy or misapply what is deposited with him by man, he is
esteemed wicked and faithless; and should any one cast out from
his body what has been there deposited by God, do we suppose
that he will elude Him whom he has wronged ?
"I pray however that this may prove a faithless stratagem of
the Romans; for if, after an assurance of protection, I perish by
their hands, I shall die cheerfully, carrying with me their perfidy
and falsehood - a consolation greater than victory. ”
Josephus, having thus escaped in the war with the Romans,
as in that with his friends, was conducted to Vespasian by Nica-
nor.
Josephus intimated that he wished to speak in private to him;
and Vespasian having removed all except his son Titus and two
of his friends, Josephus addressed him in these words:-"You
think, Vespasian, that you have possessed yourself merely of a
captive in Josephus; but I come to you as a messenger of greater
things. Had I not received a commission from God, I knew the
law of the Jews, and how it becomes a general to die. Do you
send me to Nero? Wherefore? Are there any remaining to suc-
ceed Nero, previous to your own accession ? You, Vespasian, are
Cæsar and emperor you, and this your son. Bind me then the
more securely, and keep me for yourself. For you, Cæsar, are
master not only of me, but of sea and land, and of the whole
human race. And I deserve the punishment of stricter ward if
I talk lightly, especially in a matter pertaining to God. ”
Traill's Translation.


## p. 8379 (#591) ###########################################

JOSEPHUS
8379
THE DESTRUCTION OF THE TEMPLE AT JERUSALEM
From the Jewish Wars)
With
»
a
HILE the sanctuary [in Jerusalem] was in flames, everything
that fell in their way became a prey to rapine, and pro-
digious was the slaughter of those found there. To no
age was pity shown, to no rank respect; but children and old
men, secular persons and priests, were overwhelmed in one com-
mon ruin.
All ranks were inclosed in the embrace of war, and
hunted down; as well those who sued for mercy, as those who
made defense.
Their destruction was caused by a false prophet, who had on
that day proclaimed to those remaining in the city, that “God
commanded them to go up to the Temple, there to receive the
signs of their deliverance. ”
Thus it was that the im-
postors and pretended messengers of heaven at that time beguiled
the wretched people, while the manifest portents that foreshowed
the approaching desolation they neither heeded nor credited; but
as if confounded and bereft alike of eyes and mind, they dis-
regarded the immediate warnings of God. Thus it was when a
star resembling a sword stood over the city, and a comet which
continued for a year. Thus also it was when, prior to the revolt
and the first movements of the war, at the time when the people
were assembling for the feast of unleavened bread, on the eighth
of the month Xanthicus, at the ninth hour of the night, so vivid
a light shone round the altar and the sanctuary that it seemed to
be bright day; and this lasted half an hour. By the inexperi-
enced this was deemed favorable; but by the sacred scribes it was
at once pronounced a prelude of that which afterwards happened.
At the same festival also, a cow having been led by some one
to the sacrifice, brought forth a lamb in the midst of the court
of the Temple.
Moreover, the eastern gate of the inner court — which was of
brass and extremely massive, and when closed towards evening
could scarcely be moved by twenty men, and which was fastened
with bars shod with iron, and secured by bolts sunk to a great
depth in a threshold which consisted of one stone throughout-
was observed, about the sixth hour of the night, to have opened
of its own accord. The guards of the Temple ran and informed
the captain, who having repaired to the spot could scarcely


## p. 8380 (#592) ###########################################

8380
JOSEPHUS
(
succeed in shutting it. This again to the unlearned seemed a
most auspicious omen; for God, they thought, had unfolded to
them the gate of blessings: but the learned considered that the
security of the Temple was dissolving of its own accord, and the
gate opened for the advantage of the enemy; and explained it
among themselves as a sign of impending desolation.
Not many days after the festival, on the twenty-first of the
month Artemisius, there appeared a phenomenon so marvelous as
to exceed credibility. What I am about to relate would, I con-
ceive, be deemed a mere fable, had it not been related by eye-
witnesses, and attended by calamities commensurate with such
portents. Before sunset, were seen around the whole country
chariots poised in the air, and armed battalions speeding through
the clouds and investing the cities. And at the feast which is
called Pentecost, the priests having entered the inner court of
the Temple by night, as was their custom, for discharge of their
ministrations, their attention was drawn at first, they said, by a
movement and a clanging noise, and after this by a voice as of
a multitude, “We are departing hence. ”
But a story more fearful still remains. Four years prior to
the war, while the city was enjoying the utmost peace and pros-
perity, there came to the feast in which it is the custom for all
to erect tabernacles to God, one Jesus, son of Ananus, a rustic
of humble parentage, who, standing in the temple, suddenly began
to call aloud, "A voice from the east, a voice from the west, a
voice from the four winds; a voice against Jerusalem and the
sanctuary, a voice against bridegrooms and brides, a voice against
all the people! ” Day and night he traversed all the streets with
Some citizens, incensed at so ominous a voice, appre-
hended the man, and severely scourged him. But without utter-
ing a word in his own behalf, nor anything privately to those
who beat him, he continued his cry as before. At length the
rulers — supposing, and justly so, that the man was under some
supernatural impulse - conducted him to the presence of the
Roman procurator, where, though lacerated with scourges to the
very bone, he neither sued for mercy nor shed a tear; but modu-
lating his voice to a tone the most mournful that was possible,
repeated at every stroke, “Woe! woe! unto Jerusalem. ” Albinus
the procurator, demanding who he was, and whence, and why he
uttered these words, he made no manner of reply; desisting not
from his lamentation over the city, until Albinus, concluding that
this cry.
(


## p. 8381 (#593) ###########################################

JOSEPHUS
8381
he was a maniac, set him at liberty. Up to the breaking out
of the war, he neither associated with any of the citizens, nor
was he seen to speak to any one; but as if it were a prayer
that he had been meditating upon, daily uttered his lament,
Woe! woe! unto Jerusalem. ” He neither cursed those that beat
him from day to day, nor gave his blessing to such as supplied
him with food: to all, the melancholy presage was his one reply.
His voice was loudest at the festivals; and though for seven
years and five months he continued his wail, neither did his
voice become feeble nor did he grow weary, until during the
siege, after beholding his presages verified, he ceased. For as
he was going his round on the wall, crying with a piercing
voice,"Woe! woe! once more, to the city, to the people, and to
the Temple;” when at the last he had added, “Woe! woe! to
myself also,” he was struck by a stone shot from the ballista
and killed upon the spot, still uttering with his dying lips the
same portentous words.
If we reflect on these events, we shall find that God exercises
over men, in every way foreshowing to their race the
means of safety; but that they perish through their own folly
and self-incurred evils. Thus the Jews, after the demolition of
the Antonia, reduced their Temple to a square, though they had
it recorded in their oracles that “the city and the sanctuary
would be taken when the Temple should become square. ” But
what chiefly incited them to the war was an ambiguous prophecy,
likewise found in their sacred writings, that "about this period
some one from their country should obtain the empire of the
world. ” This they received as applying to themselves, and many
eminent for wisdom were deceived in the interpretation of it.
The oracle, however, in reality indicated the elevation of Ves-
pasian — he having been proclaimed emperor in Judæa. But it is
not possible for men to avoid their fate, even though they foresee
it. Some of these portents they interpreted according to their
pleasure, others they treated with contempt, until their folly was
exposed by the conquest of their country and their own destruc-
tion.
Traill's Translation.
care


## p. 8382 (#594) ###########################################

8382
JOSEPHUS
THE HEBREW FAITH, WORSHIP, AND LAWS
From the Treatise Against Apion)
W**
N"
HAT form of government then can be more holy than this?
What more worthy kind of worship can be paid to God
than we pay, where the entire body of the people are
prepared for religion; where an extraordinary degree of care is
required in the priests, and where the whole polity is so ordered
as if it were a certain religious solemnity ?
a
For what things
foreigners, when they solemnize such festivals, are not able to
observe for a few days' time, and call them mysterious and sacred
ceremonies, we observe with great pleasure and an unshaken
resolution during our whole lives. What are the things then
that we are commanded or forbidden? They are simple, and
easily known. The first command is concerning God, and affirms
that God contains all things, and is a being every way perfect
and happy, self-sufficient, and supplying all other beings; the
beginning, the middle, and the end of all things. He is manifest
in his works and benefits, and more conspicuous than any other
being whatsoever; but as to his form and magnitude he is most
obscure. All materials, let them be ever so costly, are unworthy
to compose an image for him; and all arts are unartful to ex-
press the notion we ought to have of him. We can neither see
nor think of anything like him, nor is it agreeable to piety to
form a resemblance of him. We see his works: the light, the
heavens, the earth, the sun and the moon, the waters, the gen-
eration of animals, the production of fruits. These things hath
God made, not with hands, not with labor, not as wanting the
assistance of any to co-operate with him; but as his will resolved
they should be made and be good also, they were made and
became good immediately. All men ought to follow this being,
and to worship him in the exercise of virtue; for this way of
worship of God is the most holy of all others.
There ought also to be but One Temple for One God: for
likeness is the constant foundation of agreement. This temple
ought to be common to all men, because he is the common
God of all men. His priests are to be continually about his
worship; over whom he that is the first by his birth is to be
their ruler perpetually. His business must be to offer sacrifices
to God, together with those priests that are joined with him;
to see that the laws be observed; to determine controversies, and


## p. 8383 (#595) ###########################################

JOSEPHUS
8383
to punish those that are convicted of injustice: while he that
does not submit to him shall be subject to the same punishment
as if he had been guilty of impiety towards God himself.
But then, what are our laws about marriage ? That law owns
no other mixture of sexes but that which nature hath appointed,
of a man with his wife, and that this be used only for the pro-
creation of children. But it abhors the mixture of a male with
a male; and if any one do that, death is its punishment.
Nay, indeed, the law does not permit us to make festivals at
the births of our children, and thereby afford occasion of drink-
ing to excess; but it ordains that the very beginning of our edu-
cation should be immediately directed to sobriety.
Our law hath also taken care of the decent burial of the
dead; but without any extravagant expenses for the funerals, and
without the erection of any illustrious monuments for them. . .
The law ordains also that parents should be honored imme-
diately after God himself; and delivers that son who does not
requite them for the benefits he hath received from them, but is
deficient on any such occasion, to be stoned. It also says that
the young man should pay due respect to every elder, since God
is the eldest of all beings.
It will be also worth our while to see what equity our legis-
lator would have us exercise in our intercourse with strangers.
Accordingly, our legislator admits all those that have a
mind to observe our laws so to do, and this after a friendly
manner, as esteeming that a true union which not only extends
to our own stock, but to those that would live after the same
manner with us; yet does he not allow those that come to us by
accident only to be admitted into communion with us.
The greatest part of offenses with us are capital.
Now, as for ourselves, I venture to say that no one can tell
of so many, nay, not more than one or two, that have betrayed
our laws; no, not out of fear of death itself.
Now I
think those that have conquered us have put us to such deaths,
not out of their hatred to us when they had subdued us, but
rather out of their desire to see a surprising sight, which is this,
whether there be such men in the world who believe that no
evil is to them so great as to be compelled to do or to speak
anything contrary to their own laws!
Whiston's Translation.
.


## p. 8384 (#596) ###########################################

8384
JOSEPHUS
ORIGIN OF THE ASAMONEAN OR MACCABÆAN REVOLT
From the Antiquities)
W"
HEN the emissaries of the King [Antiochus] came to Modin
to compel the Jews to offer (pagan] sacrifice as
the King commanded, they wished Mattathias (priest,
great-grandson of Asamoneus, and father of Judas Maccabæus
and four other powerful sons] - a person of the highest consider-
ation among them on all grounds, and especially as having so
large and meritorious a family — to begin the sacrifice; because
the populace would follow his example, and the King would be-
stow honors upon him for it. But Mattathias said he would
not do it; and if every other people obeyed Antiochus's orders,
either from fear or self-seeking, he and his sons would not desert
their country's religion. ” But when he had finished speaking,
another Jew came forward and began to sacrifice as Antiochus
had commanded. Mattathias was so incensed that he and his
sons, who had their swords with them, fell on the sacrificer, and
slew both him, Apelles (the King's general who had enforced the
sacrifice), and several of the soldiers. Then he overthrew the
pagan altar, and cried out, “If any one has zeal for the lands of
his country and the worship of God, let him follow me;" and
fied to the desert with his sons, abandoning all his property in
the town. Many others followed him, and dwelt in caves in the
desert with their wives and children. When the King's generals
heard of this, they took the troops in the citadel at Jerusalem
and went in pursuit of the fugitives; and having overtaken them,
tried first to persuade them to take counsel of prudence and not
compel the soldiers to treat them according to the laws of war.
Meeting with a refusal, they assailed them on the Sabbath, and
burnt them unresisting in the caves.
Many of those
who escaped joined Mattathias and appointed him their ruler.
So Mattathias got a great army about him, and over-
threw their idolatrous altars, and slew those that broke their
laws, all he could lay hands on.


## p. 8385 (#597) ###########################################

8385
JOSEPH JOUBERT
(1754-1824)
BY THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON
OSEPH JOUBERT, who has now succeeded to the place long held
by La Rochefoucauld as the best author of aphorisms, was
first introduced to the general world of English-speaking
readers by Matthew Arnold in 1865: but he was known to many, at
least in America, through what Sainte-Beuve had said of him; and
Mr. Stedman thinks that Edgar Poe, whose French reading was very
discursive, had known him even before Sainte-Beuve wrote. Joubert,
who was born in 1754, died May 4th, 1824; and a tribute was paid to
his memory, a day or two after his death, by Châteaubriand, which
might well have arrested the attention of Poe. In 1838 Châteaubriand
edited his works. It is, however, fair to say that as Ruskin vastly
expanded the reputation of Turner, though he did not create it, so
the present renown of Joubert is due largely to the generous tribute
of Arnold.
With the praise due to generosity the recognition of Arnold's serv-
ice must end. It was hardly possible to set readers more distinctly
on the wrong track in respect to an author than to compare, as
Arnold does, Joubert to Coleridge; making this comparison indeed
the keynote of his essay It is difficult. were not Arnold so em-
phatically a man of whims — to find common ground between the
tersest writer of his time and the most diffuse; the most determined
and the most irresolute; the most clear-cut and the most misty.
With all the great merits and services of Coleridge, and the fact that
he had occasionally the power of making an incisive detached remark,
the fact remains undisputed of the wandering and slumberous quality
of his mind, and of the concentration in him of many of the precise
qualities that Joubert spent his life in combating. The best course
to be adopted by any reader of Joubert is therefore to cut adrift
from Arnold, and turn to the original book,- not the volume of
letters, which is less satisfactory, but to the original volume of
Pensées, which contain within four hundred pages more of the con-
densed essence of thought than can be found anywhere else in a
series of volumes.
Joubert was born in 1754 in Montignac, a small town of Périgord,
France; studied and also taught at the College of Toulouse; went in
XIV-525
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8386
JOSEPH JOUBERT
1778 to Paris; knew Diderot, Marmontel, Châteaubriand, D'Alembert:
was chosen during his absence in 1790 chief magistrate of his native
town, served in that capacity two years and was re-elected, but
declined to serve; took up his residence in 1792 at Villeneuve in
Brittany, and spent his later life between that town and Paris; in
1809 was appointed by Napoleon Bonaparte a regent of the Univer-
sity, and died in 1824. He lived through the French Revolution, and
through the period of the Encyclopædists; but he preserved not
merely his life but his faith. He was in the habit, from twenty
years old to seventy, of writing down his detached thoughts, often
previously molded by conversation; his rooms at the top of a tall
house in the Rue St. Honoré being the resort of the brightest minds
in Paris. Fourteen years after his death, both his thoughts and
his correspondence were collected and given to the world; but the
thoughts afford by far the more interesting volume of the two.
As Arnold has misled readers by his comparison with Coleridge,
so his total estimate of Joubert is probably below the truth; because
the crowning quality of Joubert – severe and sublimated concentra.
tion was remote from Arnold's own temperament. The Englishman
was constitutionally discursive and long-winded. Nothing better was
ever said about Homer than he has incidentally said in his essay on
translating him: the trouble is that it takes him nearly a hundred
and fifty pages to say it. It is certain that Joubert never would have
written such a paper; it is very doubtful whether he could even have
read it. Arnold's favorite amusement - perhaps a tradition from his
father's sermons — was to begin an essay with a quotation from some
one, to attach every succeeding point of his essay to this text, to
play with it as a cat plays with a mouse, and then at the close to
take it for granted that he had proved its soundness: this was wholly
foreign to Joubert. It is however in Joubert that we find invariably
the sweetness and light which Arnold preached, but did not always
practice.
It is for this reason perhaps that Arnold dislikes the first or per-
sonal chapter of Joubert's Pensées': “It has,” he says, “some fanci-
fulness and affectation about it; the reader should begin with the
second. ” But if the reader takes this unwise advice he will miss the
whole personal equation of Joubert, and misinterpret him again
and again.