No More Learning

"It was I who was the horse," answered the prince.
"Formerly I was king of the country whose sovereign you slew
yesterday; it was he who cast over me a horse's semblance, and
sold me to the Troll. As he is killed, I shall recover my king-
dom, and you and I shall be neighboring kings; but we will
never go to war with each other. "
Neither did they; they were friends as long as they lived, and
the one came often to visit the other.
ROGER ASCHAM
(1515-1568)
HIS noted scholar owes his place in English literature to his
pure, vigorous English prose. John Tindal and Sir Thomas
More, his predecessors, had perhaps equaled him in the
flexible and simple use of his native tongue, but they had not sur-
passed him. The usage of the time was still to write works of
importance in Latin, and Ascham was master of a good Ciceronian
Latin style. It is to his credit that he urged on his countrymen the
writing of English, and set them an example of its vigorous use.
He was the son of John Ascham, house steward to Lord Scrope of
Bolton, and was born at Kirby Wiske, near Northallerton, in 1515.
At the age of fifteen he entered St. John's College, Cambridge, where
he applied himself to Greek and Latin, mathematics, music, and pen-
manship. He had great success in teaching and improving the study
of the classics; but seems to have had a somewhat checkered academic
career, both as student and teacher. His poverty was excessive, and


## p. 917 (#339) ############################################

ROGER ASCHAM
917
<
he made many unsuccessful attempts to secure patronage and posi-
tion; till at length, in 1545, he published his famous treatise on
Archery, Toxophilus,' which he presented to Henry VIII. in the
picture gallery at Greenwich, and which obtained for him a small
pension. The treatise is in the form of a dialogue, the first part
being an argument in favor of archery, and the second, instructions
for its practice. In its pages he makes a plea for the literary use of
the English tongue.
After long-continued disappointment and trouble, he was finally
successful in obtaining the position of tutor to the Princess Elizabeth,
in 1548.
She was fifteen years old, and he found her an apt scholar;
but the life was irksome, and in 1550 he resigned the post to return
to Cambridge as public orator, - whence
one may guess as a main reason for so
excellent a teacher having so hard a time
to live, that like many others he liked to
talk about his profession better than to
practice it. Going abroad shortly after-
ward as secretary to Sir Richard Morysin,
ambassador to Charles V. , he remained
with him until 1553, when he received the
appointment of Latin secretary to Queen
Mary. It is said that he wrote for her
forty-seven letters in his fine Latin style,
in three days.

Kimis
ROGER ASCHAM
At the accession of Elizabeth he received the office of the Queen's
private tutor. Poverty and "household griefs" still gave him anxiety:
but during the five years which elapsed between 1563 and his death
in 1568, he found some comfort in the composition of his 'School-
master,' which was published by his widow in 1570. It was suggested
by a conversation at Windsor with Sir William Cecil, on the proper
method of bringing up children. Sir Richard Sackville was so well
pleased with Ascham's theories that he, with others, entreated him
to write a practical work on the subject. The Schoolmaster' argues
in favor of gentleness rather than force on the part of an instructor.
Then he commends his own method of teaching Latin by double
translation, offers remarks on Latin prosody, and touches on other
pedagogic themes. Both this and the Toxophilus' show a pure,
straightforward, easy style. Contemporary testimony to its beauty
may be found in an appendix to Mayor's edition of The School-
master' (1863); though Dr. Johnson, in a memoir prefixed to Bennet's
collected edition of Ascham's English works (1771), says that "he was
scarcely known as an author in his own language till Mr. Upton pub-
lished his Schoolmaster' in 1711. " He has remained, however, the


## p. 918 (#340) ############################################

918
ROGER ASCHAM
best known type of a great teacher in the popular memory; in part,
perhaps, through his great pupil.
The best collected edition of his works, including his Latin letters,
was published by Dr. Giles in 1864-5. There is an authoritative
edition of the Schoolmaster' in the Arber Series of old English
reprints. The best account of his system of education is in R. H.
Quick's Essays on Educational Reformers' (1868).
ON GENTLENESS IN EDUCATION
From The Schoolmaster'
ET some will say that children, of nature, love pastime, and
mislike learning; because, in their kind, the one is easy
and pleasant, the other hard and wearisome. Which is an
opinion not so true as some men ween. For the matter lieth not
so much in the disposition of them that be young, as in the order
and manner of bringing up by them that be old; nor yet in the
difference of learning and pastime. For, beat a child if he dance.
not well, and cherish him though he learn not well, you shall
have him unwilling to go to dance, and glad to go to his book;
knock him always when he draweth his shaft ill, and favor him
again though he fault at his book, you shall have him very loth
to be in the field, and very willing to be in the school. Yea, I
say more, and not of myself, but by the judgment of those from.
whom few wise men will gladly dissent; that if ever the nature
of man be given at any time, more than other, to receive good-
ness, it is in innocency of young years, before that experience of
evil have taken root in him. For the pure clean wit of a sweet
young babe is like the newest wax, most able to receive the best
and fairest printing; and like a new bright silver dish never
occupied, to receive and keep clean any good thing that is put
into it.
And thus, will in children, wisely wrought withal, may easily
be won to be very well willing to learn. And wit in children, by
nature, namely memory, the only key and keeper of all learning,
is readiest to receive and surest to keep any manner of thing
that is learned in youth. This, lewd and learned, by common
experience, know to be most true. For we remember nothing so
well when we be old as those things which we learned when we
were young.
And this is not strange, but common in all nature's


## p. 919 (#341) ############################################

ROGER ASCHAM
919
works. "Every man seeth (as I said before) new wax is best for
printing, new clay fittest for working, new-shorn wool aptest for
soon and surest dyeing, new fresh flesh for good and durable salt-
ing. " And this similitude is not rude, nor borrowed of the larder-
house, but out of his school-house, of whom the wisest of England
need not be ashamed to learn. "Young grafts grow not only
soonest, but also fairest, and bring always forth the best and
sweetest fruit; young whelps learn easily to carry; young popin-
jays learn quickly to speak. " And so, to be short, if in all other
things, though they lack reason, sense, and life, the similitude of
youth is fittest to all goodness, surely nature in mankind is most
beneficial and effectual in their behalf.
Therefore, if to the goodness of nature be joined the wisdom.
of the teacher, in leading young wits into a right and plain way
of learning; surely children kept up in God's fear, and governed
by His grace, may most easily be brought well to serve God and
their country, both by virtue and wisdom.
But if will and wit, by farther age, be once allured from
innocency, delighted in vain sights, filled with foul talk, crooked
with wilfulness, hardened with stubbornness, and let loose to dis-
obedience; surely it is hard with gentleness, but impossible with
severe cruelty, to call them back to good frame again. For
where the one perchance may bend it, the other shall surely
break it: and so, instead of some hope, leave an assured des-
peration, and shameless contempt of all goodness; the furthest
point in all mischief, as Xenophon doth most truly and most
wittily mark.
Therefore, to love or to hate, to like or contemn, to ply this
way or that way to good or to bad, ye shall have as ye use a
child in his youth.
And one example whether love or fear doth work more in a
child for virtue and learning, I will gladly report; which may be
heard with some pleasure, and followed with more profit.
Before I went into Germany, I came to Broadgate in Leicester-
shire, to take my leave of that noble lady, Jane Grey, to whom
I was exceeding much beholding. Her parents, the duke and
duchess, with all the household, gentlemen and gentlewomen,
were hunting in the park. I found her in her chamber, reading
Phædo Platonis in Greek, and that with as much delight as some
gentlemen would read a merry tale in Boccace. After salutation
and duty done, with some other talk, I asked her why she would


## p. 920 (#342) ############################################

ROGER ASCHAM
1
920
leese [lose] such pastime in the park? Smiling she answered me:
"Iwisse, all their sport in the park is but a shadow to that pleas-
ure that I find in Plato. Alas! good folk, they never felt what
true pleasure meant. " "And how came you, madame," quoth I,
"to this deep knowledge of pleasure? and what did chiefly allure
you unto it, seeing not many women, but very few men, have
attained thereunto? " "I will tell you," quoth she, "and tell you
a truth, which perchance ye will marvel at. One of the greatest
benefits that ever God gave me, is, that he sent me so sharp and
severe parents, and so gentle a schoolmaster. For when I am in
presence either of father or mother, whether I speak, keep silence,.
sit, stand, or go, eat, drink, be merry, or sad, be sewing, playing,
dancing, or doing anything else, I must do it, as it were, in such
weight, measure, and number, even so perfectly, as God made
the world; or else I am so sharply taunted, so cruelly threatened,
yea, presently, sometimes with pinches, nips, and bobs, and other
ways which I will not name, for the honor I bear them, so
without measure misordered, that I think myself in hell, till time
come that I must go to Mr. Elmer; who teacheth me so gently,
so pleasantly, with such fair allurements to learning, that I think
all the time nothing whiles I am with him. And when I am
called from him, I fall on weeping, because whatsoever I do else
but learning, is full of grief, trouble, fear, and whole misliking
unto me. And thus my book hath been so much my pleasure,
and bringeth daily to me more pleasure and more, that in respect
of it, all other pleasures, in very deed, be but trifles and troubles
unto me. "
I remember this talk gladly, both because it is so worthy of
memory, and because also it was the last talk that ever I had,
and the last time that ever I saw that noble and worthy lady.
ON STUDY AND EXERCISE
From Toxophilus'
P
HILOLOGE-But now to our shooting, Toxophile, again; wherein
I suppose you cannot say so much for shooting to be fit for
learning, as you have spoken against music for the same.
Therefore, as concerning music, I can be content to grant you
your mind; but as for shooting, surely I suppose that you cannot
persuade me, by no means, that a man can be earnest in it, and


## p. 921 (#343) ############################################

ROGER ASCHAM
921
earnest at his book too; but rather I think that a man with a
bow on his back, and shafts under his girdle, is more fit to wait
upon Robin Hood than upon Apollo or the Muses.
Toxophile-Over-earnest shooting surely I will not over-
earnestly defend; for I ever thought shooting should be a waiter
upon learning, not a mistress over learning. Yet this I marvel
not a little at, that ye think a man with a bow on his back is
more like Robin Hood's servant than Apollo's, seeing that Apollo
himself, in Alcestis of Euripides, which tragedy you read openly
not long ago, in a manner glorieth, saying this verse:
"It is my wont always my bow with me to bear. "
Therefore a learned man ought not too much to be ashamed to
bear that sometime, which Apollo, god of learning, himself was
not ashamed always to bear. And because ye would have a man
wait upon the Muses, and not at all meddle with shooting: I
marvel that you do not remember how that the nine Muses their
self, as soon as they were born, were put to nurse to a lady
called Euphemis, which had a son named Erotus, with whom the
nine Muses for his excellent shooting kept evermore company
withal, and used daily to shoot together in the Mount Parnassus;
and at last it chanced this Erotus to die, whose death the Muses
lamented greatly, and fell all upon their knees afore Jupiter their
father; and at their request, Erotus, for shooting with the Muses
on earth, was made a sign and called Sagittarius in heaven.
Therefore you see that if Apollo and the Muses either were ex-
amples indeed, or only feigned of wise men to be examples of
learning, honest shooting may well enough be companion with
honest study.
-
Philologe-Well, Toxophile, if you have no stronger defense
of shooting than poets, I fear if your companions which love
shooting heard you, they would think you made it but a trifling
and fabling matter, rather than any other man that loveth not
shooting could be persuaded by this reason to love it.
Toxophile- Even as I am not so fond but I know that these
be fables, so I am sure you be not so ignorant but you know
what such noble wits as the poets had, meant by such matters:
which oftentimes, under the covering of a fable, do hide and
wrap in goodly precepts of philosophy, with the true judgment
of things. Which to be true, specially in Homer and Euripides,
Plato, Aristotle, and Galen plainly do show; when through all


## p. 922 (#344) ############################################

922
ROGER ASCHAM
B
their works (in a manner) they determine all controversies by
these two poets and such like authorities. Therefore, if in this
matter I seem to fable and nothing prove, I am content you
judge so on me, seeing the same judgment shall condemn with
me Plato, Aristotle, and Galen, whom in that error I am well
content to follow. If these old examples prove nothing for
shooting, what say you to this, that the best learned and sagest
men in this realm which be now alive, both love shooting and
use shooting, as the best learned bishops that be? amongst whom,
Philologe, you yourself know four or five, which, as in all good
learning, virtue, and sageness, they give other men example
what thing they should do, even so by their shooting they plainly
show what honest pastime other men given to learning may
honestly use. That earnest study must be recreated with honest
pastime, sufficiently I have proved afore, both by reason and
authority of the best learned men that ever wrote. Then seeing
pastimes be leful [lawful], the most fittest for learning is to be
sought for. A pastime, saith Aristotle, must be like a medicine.
Medicines stand by contraries; therefore, the nature of studying
considered, the fittest pastime shall soon appear. In study every
part of the body is idle, which thing causeth gross and cold
humors to gather together and vex scholars very much; the mind
is altogether bent and set on work. A pastime then must be had
where every part of the body must be labored, to separate and
lessen such humors withal; the mind must be unbent, to gather
and fetch again his quickness withal. Thus pastimes for the
mind only be nothing fit for students, because the body, which
is most hurt by study, should take away no profit thereat. This
knew Erasmus very well, when he was here in Cambridge;
which, when he had been sore at his book (as Garret our book-
binder had very often told me), for lack of better exercise,
would take his horse and ride about the market-hill and come
again. If a scholar should use bowls or tennis, the labor is
too vehement and unequal, which is condemned of Galen; the
example very ill for other men, when by so many acts they be
made unlawful. Running, leaping, and quoiting be too vile for
scholars, and so not fit by Aristotle's judgment; walking alone
into the field hath no token of courage in it, a pastime like
a simple man which is neither flesh nor fish. Therefore if a
man would have a pastime wholesome and equal for every part
of the body, pleasant and full of courage for the mind, not vile.


## p. 923 (#345) ############################################

ATHENÆUS
923
and unhonest to give ill example to laymen, not kept in gardens
and corners, not lurking on the night and in holes, but ever-
more in the face of men, either to rebuke it when it doeth ill,
or else to testify on it when it doth well, let him seek chiefly of
all other for shooting.
ATHENÆUS
(Third Century A. D. )
ITTLE is known that is authentic about the Græco-Egyptian
Sophist or man of letters, Athenæus, author of the 'Deipno-
sophistæ or Feast of the Learned, except his literary
bequest. It is recorded that he was born at Naucratis, a city of the
Nile Delta; and that after living at Alexandria he migrated to Rome.
His date is presumptively fixed in the early part of the third century
by his inclusion of Ulpian, the eminent jurist (whose death occurred
A. D. 228) among the twenty-nine guests of the banquet whose wit
and learning furnished its viands. He was perhaps a contempo-
rary of the physician Galen, another of the putative banqueters, who
served as a mouthpiece of the author's erudition.
Probably nothing concerning him deserved preservation except
his unique work, the 'Feast of the Learned. ' Of the fifteen books
transmitted under the above title, the first two, and portions of the
third, eleventh, and fifteenth, exist only in epitome-the name of the
compiler and his time being equally obscure; yet it is curious that for
many centuries these garbled fragments were the only memorials of
the author extant. The other books, constituting the major portion
of the work, have been pronounced authentic by eminent scholars
with Bentley at their head. Without the slightest pretense of lit-
erary skill, the Feast of the Learned' is an immense storehouse of
Ana, or table-talk. Into its receptacles the author gathers fruitage
from nearly every branch of contemporary learning. He seemed to
anticipate Macaulay's "vice of omniscience," though he lacked Macau-
lay's incomparable literary virtues. Personal anecdote, criticism of
the fine arts, the drama, history, poetry, philosophy, politics, medicine,
and natural history enter into his pages, illustrated with an aptness
and variety of quotation which seem to have no limit. He preserves
old songs, folk-lore, and popular gossip, and relates whatever he
may have heard, without sifting it. He gives, for example, a vivid
account of the procession which greeted Demetrius Poliorketes:-


## p. 924 (#346) ############################################

ATHENÆUS
924
"When Demetrius returned from Leucadia and Corcyra to Athens, the
Athenians received him not only with incense and garlands and libations,
but they even sent out processional choruses, and greeted him with Ithyphallic
hymns and dances. Stationed by his chariot-wheels, they sang and danced
and chanted that he alone was a real god; the rest were sleeping or were on
a journey, or did not exist: they called him son of Poseidon and Aphrodite,
eminent for beauty, universal in his goodness to mankind; then they prayed
and besought and supplicated him like a god. ”
The hymn of worship which Athenæus evidently disapproved has
been preserved, and turned into English by the accomplished J.
A. Symonds on account of its rare and interesting versification. It
belongs to the class of Prosodia, or processional hymns, which the
greatest poets delighted to produce, and which were sung at religious
festivals by young men and maidens, marching to the shrines in time
with the music, their locks crowned with wreaths of olive, myrtle,
or oleander; their white robes shining in the sun.
"See how the mightiest gods, and best beloved,
Towards our town are winging!
For lo! Demeter and Demetrius
This glad day is bringing!
She to perform her Daughter's solemn rites;
Mystic pomps attend her;
He joyous as a god should be, and blithe,
Comes with laughing splendor.
Show forth your triumph! Friends all, troop around,
Let him shine above you!
Be you the stars to circle him with love;
He's the sun to love you.
Hail, offspring of Poseidon, powerful god,
Child of Aphrodite!
The other deities keep far from earth;
Have no ears, though mighty;
They are not, or they will not hear us wail:
Thee our eye beholdeth;
Not wood, not stone, but living, breathing, real,
Thee our prayer enfoldeth.
First give us peace! Give, dearest, for thou canst;
Thou art Lord and Master!
The Sphinx, who not on Thebes, but on all Greece
Swoops to gloat and pasture;
The Ætolian, he who sits upon his rock,
Like that old disaster;
He feeds upon our flesh and blood, and we
Can no longer labor;
For it was ever thus the Etolian thief
Preyed upon his neighbor;


## p. 925 (#347) ############################################

ATHENÆUS
925
Him punish Thou, or, if not Thou, then send
Edipus to harm him,
Who'll cast this Sphinx down from his cliff of pride,
Or to stone will charm him. "
The Swallow song, which is cited, is an example of the folklore
and old customs which Athenæus delighted to gather; and he tells
how in springtime the children used to go about from door to door,
begging doles and presents, and singing such half-sensible, half-
foolish rhymes as-
"She is here, she is here, the swallow!
Fair seasons bringing, fair years to follow!
Her belly is white,
Her back black as night!
From your rich house
Roll forth to us
Tarts, wine, and cheese;
Or, if not these,
Oatmeal and barley-cake
The swallow deigns to take.
What shall we have? or must we hence away!
Thanks, if you give: if not, we'll make you pay!
The house-door hence we'll carry;
Nor shall the lintel tarry;
From hearth and home your wife we'll rob;
She is so small,
To take her off will be an easy job!
Whate'er you give, give largess free!
Up! open, open, to the swallow's call!
No grave old men, but merry children we! »
The 'Feast of the Learned' professes to be the record of the
sayings at a banquet given at Rome by Laurentius to his learned
friends. Laurentius stands as the typical Mæcenas of the period. The
dialogue is reported after Plato's method, or as we see it in the more
familiar form of the Satires' of Horace, though lacking the pithy
vigor of these models. The discursiveness with which topics succeed
each other, their want of logic or continuity, and the pelting fire of
quotations in prose and verse, make a strange mixture. It may be
compared to one of those dishes known both to ancients and to
moderns, in which a great variety of scraps is enriched with condi-
ments to the obliteration of all individual flavor. The plan of execu-
tion is so cumbersome that its only defense is its imitation of the
inevitably disjointed talk when the guests of a dinner party are busy
with their wine and nuts. One is tempted to suspect Athenæus of a
sly sarcasm at his own expense, when he puts the following flings at
pedantry in the mouths of some of his puppets


## p. 926 (#348) ############################################

926
ATHENÆUS
"And now when Myrtilus had said all this in a connected statement, and
when all were marveling at his memory, Cynulcus said,-
"Your multifarious learning I do wonder at,
Though there is not a thing more vain and useless. '
"Says Hippo the Atheist, But the divine Heraclitus also says, 'A great
variety of information does not usually give wisdom. ' And Timon said, . . .
'For what is the use of so many names, my good grammarian, which are
more calculated to overwhelm the hearers than to do them any good? >»
This passage shows the redundancy of expression which disfigures
so much of Athenæus. It is also typical of the cudgel-play of repar-
tee between his characters, which takes the place of agile witticism.
But if he heaps up vast piles of scholastic rubbish, he is also the
Golden Dustman who shows us the treasure preserved by his saving
pedantry. Scholars find the Feast of the Learned' a quarry of quo-
tations from classical writers whose works have perished. Nearly
eight hundred writers and twenty-four hundred separate writings are
referred to and cited in this disorderly encyclopædia, most of them
now lost and forgotten. This literary thrift will always give rank to
the work of Athenæus, poor as it is. The best editions of the origi-
nal Greek are those of Dindorf (Leipzig, 1827), and of Meineke (Leip-
zig, 1867). The best English translation is that of C. D. Yonge in
'Bohn's Classical Library,' from which, with slight alterations, the
appended passages are selected.
WHY THE NILE OVERFLOWS
From the Deipnosophistæ >
THA
HALES the Milesian, one of the Seven Wise Men, says that
the overflowing of the Nile arises from the Etesian winds;
for that they blow up the river, and that the mouths of
the river lie exactly opposite to the point from which they blow;
and accordingly, that the wind blowing in the opposite direction
hinders the flow of the waters; and the waves of the sea, dash-
ing against the mouth of the river, and coming on with a fair
wind in the same direction, beat back the river, and in this
manner the Nile becomes full to overflowing. But Anaxagoras,
the natural philosopher, says that the fullness of the Nile arises
from the snow melting; and so too says Euripides, and some
others of the tragic poets. Anaxagoras says this is the sole ori-
gin of all that fullness; but Euripides goes further and describes
the exact place where this melting of the snow takes place.


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ATHENÆUS
HOW TO PRESERVE THE HEALTH
From the 'Deipnosophistæ
927
ON
NE ought to avoid thick perfumes, and to drink water that is
thin and clear, and that in respect of weight is light, and
that has no earthy particles in it. And that water is best
which is of moderate heat or coldness, and which, when poured
into a brazen or silver vessel, does not produce a blackish sedi-
ment. Hippocrates says, "Water which is easily warmed or easily
chilled is alway lighter. " But that water is bad which takes a
long time to boil vegetables; and so too is water full of nitre, or
brackish. And in his book 'On Waters,' Hippocrates calls good
water drinkable; but stagnant water he calls bad, such as that
from ponds or marshes. And most spring-water is rather hard.
Erasistratus says that some people test water by weight, and
that is a most stupid proceeding. "For just look," says he, "if
men compare the water from the fountain Amphiaraus with that
from the Eretrian spring, though one of them is good and the
other bad, there is absolutely no difference in their respective
weights. " And Hippocrates, in his book 'On Places,' says that
those waters are the best which flow from high ground, and from
dry hills, "for they are white and sweet, and are able to bear
very little wine, and are warm in winter and cold in summer. "
And he praises those most, the springs of which break toward
the east, and especially toward the northeast, for they must be
inevitably clear and fragrant and light. Diocles says that water
is good for the digestion and not apt to cause flatulency, that it
is moderately cooling, and good for the eyes, and that it has no
tendency to make the head feel heavy, and that it adds vigor to
the mind and body. And Praxagoras says the same; and he also
praises rain-water. But Euenor praises water from cisterns, and
says that the best is that from the cistern of Amphiaraus, when
compared with that from the fountain in Eretria.
That water is really nutritious is plain from the fact that some
animals are nourished by it alone, as for instance grasshoppers.
And there are many other liquids that are nutritious, such as
milk, barleywater, and wine.
At all events, animals at the breast
are nourished by milk; and there are many nations who drink
nothing but milk. And it is said that Democritus, the philosopher
of Abdera, after he had determined to rid himself of life on


## p. 928 (#350) ############################################

928
ATHENÆUS
account of his extreme old age, and after he had begun to dimin-
ish his food day by day, when the day of the Thesmophorian fes-
tival came round, and the women of his household besought him
not to die during the festival, in order that they might not be
debarred from their share in the festivities, was persuaded, and
ordered a vessel full of honey to be set near him: and in this
way he lived many days with no other support than honey; and
then some days after, when the honey had been taken away, he
died. But Democritus had always been fond of honey; and he
once answered a man, who asked him how he could live in the
enjoyment of the best health, that he might do so if he con-
stantly moistened his inward parts with honey, and the outer man
with oil. And bread and honey was the chief food of the Pytha-
goreans, according to the statement of Aristoxenus, who says
that those who eat this for breakfast were free from disease all
their lives. And Lycus says that the Cyrneans (a people who
live near Sardinia) are very long-lived, because they are contin-
ually eating honey; and it is produced in great quantities among
them.
AN ACCOUNT OF SOME GREAT EATERS
From the Deipnosophistæ
Η
ERACLITUS, in his 'Entertainer of Strangers,' says that there
was a woman named Helena who ate more than any other
woman ever did. And Posidippus, in his 'Epigrams,' says
that Phuromachus was a great eater, on whom he wrote this
epigram:-
"This lowly ditch now holds Phuromachus,
Who used to swallow everything he saw,
Like a fierce carrion crow who roams all night.
Now here he lies wrapped in a ragged cloak.
But, O Athenian, whosoe'er you are,
Anoint this tomb and crown it with a wreath,
If ever in old times he feasted with you.
At last he came sans teeth, with eyes worn out,
And livid, swollen eyelids; clothed in skins,
With but one single cruse, and that scarce full;
Far from the gay Lenæan Games he came,
Descending humbly to Calliope. "


## p. 929 (#351) ############################################

ATHENAEUS
929
Amarantus of Alexandria, in his treatise on the Stage, says
that Herodorus, the Megarian trumpeter, was a man three cubits
and a half in height; and that he had great strength in his chest,
and that he could eat six pounds of bread, and twenty litræ of
meat, of whatever sort was provided for him, and that he could
drink two choes of wine; and that he could play on two trumpets
at once; and that it was his habit to sleep on only a lion's skin,
and when playing on the trumpet he made a vast noise. Accord-
ingly, when Demetrius the son of Antigonus was besieging Argos,
and when his troops could not bring the battering ram against
the walls on account of its weight, he, giving the signal with his
two trumpets at once, by the great volume of sound which he
poured forth, instigated the soldiers to move forward the engine
with great zeal and earnestness; and he gained the prize in all
the games ten times; and he used to eat sitting down, as Nestor
tells us in his Theatrical Reminiscences. ' And there was a
woman, too, named Aglais, who played on the trumpet, the
daughter of Megacles, who, in the first great procession which
took place in Alexandria, played a processional piece of music;
having a head-dress of false hair on, and a crest upon her head,
as Posidippus proves by his epigrams on her. And she too could
eat twelve litre of meat and four chanixes of bread, and drink
a chanus of wine, at one sitting.
There was besides a man of the name of Lityerses, a bastard
son of Midas, the King of Celænæ, in Phrygia, a man of a sav-
age and fierce aspect, and an enormous glutton. He is mentioned
by Sositheus, the tragic poet, in his play called 'Daphnis' or
'Lityersa'; where he says:-
"He'll eat three asses' panniers, freight and all,
Three times in one brief day; and what he calls
A measure of wine is a ten-amphoræ cask;
And this he drinks all at a single draught. "
And the man mentioned by Pherecrates, or Strattis, whichever
was the author of the play called 'The Good Men,' was much
such another; the author says:-
"A. -I scarcely in one day, unless I'm forced,
Can eat two bushels and a half of food.
B. -A most unhappy man! how have you lost
Your appetite, so as now to be content
With the scant rations of one ship of war? »
11-59


## p. 930 (#352) ############################################

930
ATHENÆUS
And Xanthus, in his 'Account of Lydia,' says that Cambles,
who was the king of the Lydians, was a great eater and drinker,
and also an exceeding epicure; and accordingly, that he one
night cut up his own wife into joints and ate her; and then, in
the morning, finding the hand of his wife still sticking in his
mouth, he slew himself, as his act began to get notorious. And
we have already mentioned Thys, the king of the Paphlagoni-
ans, saying that he too was man of vast appetite, quoting
Theopompus, who speaks of him in the thirty-fifth book of his
'History'; and Archilochus, in his 'Tetrameters,' has accused
Charilas of the same fault, as the comic poets have attacked
Cleonymus and Pisander. And Phoenicides mentions Charippus
in his 'Phylarchus' in the following terms:—
"And next to them I place Chærippus third;
He, as you know, will without ceasing eat
As long as any one will give him food,
Or till he bursts, such stowage vast has he,
Like any house. "
And Nicolaus the Peripatetic, in the hundred and third book
of his History,' says that Mithridates, the king of Pontus, once
proposed a contest in great eating and great drinking (the prize
was a talent of silver), and that he himself gained the victory.
in both; but he yielded the prize to the man who was judged
to be second to him, namely, Calomodrys, the athlete of Cyzicus.
And Timocreon the Rhodian, a poet and an athlete who had
gained the victory in the pentathlum, ate and drank a great deal,
as the epigram on his tomb shows:-
"Much did I eat, much did I drink, and much
Did I abuse all men; now here I lie:-
My name Timocreon, my country Rhodes. "
And Thrasymachus of Chalcedon, in one of his prefaces, says
that Timocreon came to the great king of Persia, and being
entertained by him, did eat an immense quantity of food; and
when the king asked him, What he would do on the strength
of it? he said that he would beat a great many Persians; and
the next day having vanquished a great many, one after another,
taking them one by one, after this he beat the air with his
hands; and when they asked him what he wanted, he said that
he had all those blows left in him if any one was inclined to


## p. 931 (#353) ############################################

ATHENAEUS
931
come on. And Clearchus, in the fifth book of his 'Lives,' says
that Cantibaris the Persian, whenever his jaws were weary with
eating, had his slaves to pour food into his mouth, which he
kept open as if they were pouring it into an empty vessel. But
Hellanicus, in the first book of his Deucalionea, says that Ery-
sichthon, the son of Myrmidon, being a man perfectly insatiable
in respect of food, was called Ethon. Also Polemo, in the first
book of his Treatise addressed to Timæus,' says that among the
Sicilians there was a temple consecrated to gluttony, and an
image of Demeter Sito; near which also there was a statue of
Himalis, as there is at Delphi one of Hermuchus, and as at
Scolum in Boeotia there are statues of Megalartus and Megalo--
mazus.
THE LOVE OF ANIMALS FOR MAN
From the Deipnosophistæ
A
ND even dumb animals have fallen in love with men; for there
was a cock who took a fancy to a man of the name of Secun-
dus, a cupbearer of the king; and the cock was nicknamed
"the Centaur. " This Secundus was a slave of Nicomedes, the
king of Bithynia; as Nicander informs us in the sixth book of
his essay on The Revolutions of Fortune. ' And at Ægium, a
goose took a fancy to a boy; as Clearchus relates in the first
book of his 'Amatory Anecdotes. ' And Theophrastus, in his
essay On Love,' says that the name of this boy was Amphilo-
chus, and that he was a native of Olenus. And Hermeas the
son of Hermodorus, who was a Samian by birth, says that a
goose also took a fancy to Lacydes the philosopher. And in
Leucadia (according to a story told by Clearchus), a peacock fell
so in love with a maiden there that when she died, the bird died
too. There is a story also that at Iasus a dolphin took a fancy
to a boy, and this story is told by Duris, in the ninth book of
his 'History'; and the subject of that book is the history of
Alexander, and the historian's words are these:-
"He likewise sent for the boy from Iasus. For near Iasus
there was a boy whose name was Dionysius, and he once, when
leaving the palæstra with the rest of the boys, went down to the
sea and bathed; and a dolphin came forward out of the deep-
water to meet him, and taking him on his back, swam away


## p. 932 (#354) ############################################

ATHENÆUS
932
with him a considerable distance into the open sea, and then
brought him back again to land. "
The dolphin is in fact an animal which is very fond of
men, and very intelligent, and one very susceptible of gratitude.
Accordingly, Phylarchus, in his twelfth book, says: -
"Coiranus the Milesian, when he saw some fishermen who
had caught a dolphin in a net, and who were about to cut it up,
gave them some money and bought the fish, and took it down
and put it back in the sea again. And after this it happened to
him to be shipwrecked near Myconos, and while every one else
perished, Coiranus alone was saved by a dolphin. And when
at last he died of old age in his native country, as it so happened
that his funeral procession passed along the seashore close to
Miletus, a great shoal of dolphins appeared on that day in the
harbor, keeping only a very little distance from those who were
attending the funeral of Coiranus, as if they also were joining
in the procession and sharing in their grief. ”
The same Phylarchus also relates, in the twentieth book of
his 'History,' the great affection which was once displayed by
an elephant for a boy. And his words are these:-
-
"Now there was a female elephant kept with this elephant,
and the name of the female elephant was Nicæa; and to her the
wife of the king of India, when dying, intrusted her child, which
was just a month old. And when the woman did die, the affec-
tion for the child displayed by the beast was most extraordinary;
for it could not endure the child to be away; and whenever it
did not see him, it was out of spirits. And so, whenever the
nurse fed the infant with milk, she placed it in its cradle
between the feet of the beast; and if she had not done so, the
elephant would not take any food; and after this, it would take.
whatever reeds and grass there were near, and, while the child
was sleeping, beat away the flies with the bundle. And when-
ever the child wept, it would rock the cradle with its trunk, and
lull it to sleep. And very often the male elephant did the same. ”


## p. 933 (#355) ############################################

933
PER DANIEL AMADEUS ATTERBOM
(1790-1855)
MONG the leaders of the romantic movement which affected
Swedish literature in the earlier half of the nineteenth cen-
tury was P. D. A. Atterbom, one of the greatest lyric poets
of his country. He was born in Ostergöthland, in 1790, and at the
age of fifteen was already so advanced in his studies that he entered
the University of Upsala. There in 1807 he helped to found the
"Musis Amici," a students' society of literature and art; its member-
ship included Hedbom, who is remembered for his beautiful hymns,
and the able and laborious Palmblad,-author of several popular
books, including the well-known novel 'Aurora Königsmark. ' This
society soon assumed the name of the Aurora League, and set itself
to free Swedish literature from French influence. The means chosen
were the study of German romanticism, and a treatment of the higher
branches of literature in direct opposition to the course decreed by
the Academical school. The leaders of this revolution were Atterbom,
eighteen years old, and Palmblad, twenty!
The first organ of the League was the Polyfem, soon replaced by
the Phosphorus (1810-1813), from which the young enthusiasts received
their sobriquet of "Phosphorists. " Theoretically this sheet was given.
to the discussion of Schelling's philosophy, and of metaphysical prob-
lems in general; practically, to the publication of the original poetry
of the new school. The Phosphorists did a good work in calling
attention to the old Swedish folk-lore, and awakening a new interest
in its imaginative treasures. But their best service lay in their forci-
ble and earnest treatment of religious questions, which at that time
were most superficially dealt with.
When the 'Phosphorus' was in its third year the Romanticists
united in bringing out two new organs: the Poetical Calendar
(1812-1822), which published poetry only, and the Swedish Literary
News (1813-1824), containing critical essays of great scientific value.
The Phosphorists, who had shown themselves ardent but not always
sagacious fighters, now appeared at their best, and dashed into the
controversy which was engaging the attention of the Swedish reading
public. This included not only literature, but philosophy and reli-
gion, as well as art. The odds were now on one side, now on the
other. The Academicians might easily have conquered their youth-
ful opponents, however, had not their bitterness continually forged
new weapons against themselves. In 1820 the Phosphorists wrote the


## p. 934 (#356) ############################################

PER DANIEL AMADEUS ATTERBOM
:
934
excellent satire, Marskall's Sleepless Nights,' aimed at Wallmark,
leader of the Academicians. Gradually the strife died out, and the
man who carried off the palm, and for a time became the leader of
Swedish poetry, was Tegnèr, who was hardly a partisan of either
side.
In 1817 Atterbom had gone abroad, broken down in health by his
uninterrupted studies. While in Germany he entered into a warm
friendship with Schelling and Steffens, and in Naples he met the
Danish sculptor Thorwaldsen, to whose circle of friends he became
attached. On his return he was made tutor of German and literature
to the Crown Prince. In 1828 the Chair of Logics and Metaphysics
at Upsala was offered him, and he held this for seven years, when
he exchanged it for that of Esthetics. In 1839 he was elected a
member of the Academy whose bitterest enemy he had been, and so
the peace was signed.
Atterbom is undoubtedly the greatest lyrical poet in the ranks of
the Phosphorists. His verses are wonderfully melodious and full of
charm, in spite of the fact that his tendency to the mystical at times
makes him obscure. Among the best of his productions are a cycle
of lyrics entitled 'The Flowers'; 'The Isle of Blessedness,' a roman-
tic drama of great beauty, published in 1823; and a fragment of a
fairy drama, 'The Blue Bird. ' He introduced the sonnet into Swedish
poetry, and did a great service to the national literature by his criti-
cal work, 'Swedish Seers and Poets,' a collection of biographies and
criticisms of poets and philosophers before and during the reign of
Gustavus III. Atterbom's life may be accounted long in the way of
service, though he died at the age of sixty-five.
THE GENIUS OF THE NORTH
Its
IT
T IS true that our Northern nature is lofty and strong.
characteristics may well awaken deep meditation and emotion.
When the Goddess of Song has grown up in these surround-
ings, her view of life is like that mirrored in our lakes, where,
between the dark shadows of mountain and trees on the shore, a
light-blue sky looks down. Over this mirror the Northern morn-
ing and the Northern day, the Northern evening and the North-
ern night, rise in a glorious beauty. Our Muse kindles a lofty
hero's flame, a lofty seer's flame, and always the flame of a lofty
immortality. In this sombre North we experience an immense
joyousness and an immense melancholy, moods of earth-coveting
and of earth-renunciation. With equal mind we behold the fleet,


## p. 935 (#357) ############################################

PER DANIEL AMADEUS ATTERBOM
935
charming dream of her summers, her early harvest with its
quickly falling splendor, and the darkness and silence of the long
winter's sleep. For if the gem-like green of the verdure pro-
claims its short life, it proclaims at the same time its richness,-
and in winter the very darkness seems made to let the starry
vault shine through with a glory of Valhalla and Gimle. Indeed,
in our North, the winter possesses an impressiveness, a freshness,
which only we Norsemen understand. Add to these strong
effects of nature the loneliness of life in a wide tract of land,
sparingly populated by a still sparingly educated people, and then
think of the poet's soul which must beat against these barriers of
circumstance and barriers of spirit! Yet the barriers that hold
him in as often help as hinder his striving. These conditions
explain what our literature amply proves; that so far, the only
poetical form which has reached perfection in Sweden is the lyr-
ical. This will be otherwise only as the northern mind, through
a growing familiarity with contemporaneous Europe, will consent
to be drawn from its forest solitude into the whirl of the motley
World's Fair outside its boundaries. It is probable that the lyrical
gift will always be the true possession of the Swedish poet. His
genius is such that it needs only a beautiful moment's exaltation
(blissful, whether the experience be called joy or sorrow) to rise
on full, free wings, suddenly singing out his very inmost being.
Whether the poet makes this inmost being his subject, or quite
forgets himself in a richer and higher theme, is of little conse-
quence.
If, again, no true lyric can express a narrow egoism, least of
all could the Swedish, in spite of the indivisible relation between
nature and man. The entire Sämunds-Edda shows us that Scan-
dinavian poetry was originally lyrical-didactic, as much religious
as heroic. Not only in lyrical impression, but also in lyrical con-
templation and lyrical expression, will the Swedish heroic poem
still follow its earliest trend. Yes, let us believe that this impulse
will some day lead Swedish poetry into the only path of true
progress, to the point where dramatic expression will attain perfec-
tion of artistic form. This development is foreshadowed already
in the high tragic drama, in the view of the world taken by the
old Swedish didactic poem; and in some of the songs of the
Edda, as well as in many an old folk-song and folk-play. ·


## p. 936 (#358) ############################################

936
PER DANIEL AMADEUS ATTERBOM
O
THE LILY OF THE VALLEY
'ER hill and dale the welcome news is flying
That summer's drawing near;
Out of my thicket cool, my cranny hidden,
Around I shyly peer.
He will not notice me, this guest resplendent,
Unseen I shall remain,
Content to live if of his banquet royal
Some glimpses I may gain.
Behold! Behold! His banquet hall's before me,
Pillared with forest trees;
Lo! as he feasts, a thousand sunbeams sparkle,
His gracious smiles are these.
Hail to thee, brilliant world! Ye heavens fretted
With clouds of silver hue!
Ye waves of mighty ocean, tossing, tossing,
Fair in my sight as new!
Far in the past (if years my life has numbered,
Ghost-like in thought they drift),
Came to me silently the truth eternal-
Joy is life's richest gift.
Thus, in return for life's abundant dower,
A gift have I: I bear
A spotless soul, from whose unseen recesses
Exhales a fragrance rare.
Strong is the power in gentle souls indwelling,
Born of a joy divine;
Theirs is a sphere untrod by creatures earthly,
By beings gross, supine.
Fragile and small, and set in quiet places,
My worth should I forget?
Some one who seeks friend, counselor, or lover,
Will find and prize me yet.
Thou lovely maid, through mossy pathways straying,
Striving to make thy choice,
Hearing the while the brook which downward leaping,
Lifts up its merry voice,


## p. 937 (#359) ############################################

PER DANIEL AMADEUS ATTERBOM
Pluck me; and as a rich reward I'll whisper
Things thou wilt love to hear:
The name of him who comes to win thy favor
I'll whisper in thine ear!
SVANHVIT'S COLLOQUY
From The Islands of the Blest'
SVANHVIT (alone in her chamber)
N°
o ASDOLF yet,-in vain and everywhere
Hath he been sought for, since his foaming steed,
At morn, with vacant saddle, stood before
The lofty staircase in the castle yard.
His drooping crest and wildly rolling eye,
And limbs with frenzied terror quivering,
All seemed as though the midnight fiends had urged
His swiftest flight through many a wood and plain.
O Lord, that know'st what he hath witnessed there'
Wouldst thou but give one single speaking sound.
Unto the faithful creature's silent tongue,
That momentary voice would be, for me,
A call to life or summons to the grave.
[She goes to the window. ]
And yet what childish fears are these! How oft
Hath not my Asdolf boldest feats achieved
And aye returned, unharmed and beautiful!
Yes, beautiful, alas! like this cold flower
That proudly glances on the frosty pane.
Short is the violet's, short the cowslip's spring;-
The frost-flowers live far longer: cold as they
The beautiful should be, that it may share
The splendor of the light without its heat;
For else the sun of life must soon dissolve
The hard, cold, shining pearls to liquid tears;
And tears-flow fast away.
937
[She breathes on the window. ]
Become transparent, thou fair Asdolf flower,
That I may look into the vale beneath!
There lies the city, - Asdolf's capital:
How wondrously the spotless vest of snow


## p. 938 (#360) ############################################

938
PER DANIEL AMADEUS ATTERBOM
:
On roof, on mount, on market-place now smiles
A glittering welcome to the morning sun,
Whose blood-red beams shed beauty on the earth!
The Bride of Sacrifice makes no lament,
But smiles in silence, knowing sadly well
That she is slighted, and that he, who could
Call forth her spring, doth not, but rather dwells
In other climes, where lavishly he pours
His fond embracing beams, while she, alas!
In wintry shade and lengthened loneliness
Cold on the solitary couch reclines. -
[After a pause. ]
What countless paths wind down, from divers points,
To yonder city gates! -Oh, wilt not thou,
My star, appear to me on one of them?
Whate'er I said,-thou art my worshiped sun.
Then pardon me;-thou art not cold; oh, no!
Too warm, too glowing warm, art thou for me.
Yet thus it is! Thy being's music has
A thousand chords with thousand varying tones,
Whilst I but one poor sound can offer thee
Of tenderness and truth. At times, indeed,
This too may have its power,- but then it lasts
One and the same forever, sounding still
Unalterably like itself alone;
A wordless prayer to God for what we love,
'Tis more a whisper than a sound, and charms
Like new-mown meadows, when the grass exhales
Sweet fragrance to the foot that tramples it.
Kings, heroes, towering spirits among men,
Rush to their aim on wild and stormy wings,
And far beneath them view the world, whose form
For ever varies on from hour to hour.
What would they ask of love? That, volatile,
In changeful freshness it may charm their ears
With proud, triumphant songs, when high in air
Victorious banners wave; or sweetly lull
To rapturous repose, when round them roars
The awful thunder's everlasting voice!
Mute, mean, and spiritless to them must seem
The maid who is no more than woman. How
Should she o'er-sound the storm their wings have raised?


## p. 939 (#361) ############################################

PER DANIEL AMADEUS ATTERBOM
939
[Sitting down. ]
Great Lord! how lonely I become within
These now uncheerful towers! O'er all the earth
No shield have I,-no mutual feeling left!
'Tis true that those around me all are kind,
And well I know they love me,-more, indeed,
Than my poor merits claim. Yet, even though
They raised me to my Asdolf's royal throne,
As being the last of all his line,-ah me!
No solace could it bring;-for then far less
Might I reveal the sorrow of my soul!
A helpless maiden's tears like raindrops fall,
Which in a July night, ere harvest-time,
Bedew the flowers, and, trembling, stand within
Their half-closed eyes unnumbered and unknown.
[She rises. ]
-
Yet One there is, who counts the maiden's tears; -
But when will their sad number be fulfilled? —
[Walking to and fro. ]
How calm was I in former days! — I now
Am so no more! My heart beats heavily,
Oppressed within its prison-cave. Ah! fain
Would I that it might burst its bonds, so that
'Twere conscious, Asdolf, I sometimes had seemed
Not all unworthy in thine eyes.
[She takes the guitar. ]
A gentle friend - the Master from Vallandia-
Has taught me how I may converse with thee,
Thou cherished token of my Asdolf's love!
I have been told of far-off lakes, around
Whose shores the cypress and the willow wave,
And make a mournful shade above the stream,
Which, dark, and narrow on the surface, swells
Broad and unfathomably deep below:-
From these dark lakes at certain times, and most
On Sabbath morns and eves of festivals,
Uprising from the depths, is heard a sound
Most strange and wild, as of the tuneful bells
Of churches and of castles long since sunk;
And as the wanderer's steps approach the shore,
He hears more plainly the lamenting tone


## p. 940 (#362) ############################################

PER DANIEL AMADEUS ATTERBOM
940
Of the dark waters, whilst the surface still
Continues motionless and calm, and seems
To listen with a melancholy joy,
While thus the dim mysterious depths resound;
So let me strive to soften and subdue
My heart's dark swelling with a soothful song.
[She plays and sings. ]
The maiden bound her hunting-net
At morning fresh and fair —
Ah, no! that lay doth ever make me grieve.
Another, then! that of the hapless flower,
Surprised by frost and snow in early spring.
[Sings. ]
Hush thee, oh, hush thee,
Slumber from snow and stormy sky,
Lovely and lone one!
Now is the time for thee to die,
When vale and streamlet frozen lie.
Hush thee, oh, hush thee!
Hours hasten onward;-
For thee the last will soon be o'er.
Rest thee, oh, rest thee!
Flowers have withered thus before,-
And, my poor heart, what wouldst thou more?
Rest thee, oh, rest thee!
Shadows should darkly
Enveil thy past delights and woes.
Forget, oh, forget them!
'Tis thus that eve its shadows throws;
But now, in noiseless night's repose,
Forget, oh, forget them!
Slumber, oh, slumber!
No friend hast thou like kindly snow;
Sleep is well for thee,
For whom no second spring will blow;
Then why, poor heart, still beating so?
Slumber, oh, slumber!
Hush thee, oh, hush thee!
Resign thy life-breath in a sigh,
Listen no longer,
Life bids farewell to thee. - then die!