No More Learning

Juan Come, come: Heaven is not so strict as you think, and
if each time that men
Enter a Spectre in the form of a veiled woman
Sganarelle (seeing the Spectre]— Ah, sir, Heaven speaks to and
warns you!
Juan — This may be a warning from Heaven; but it must be
expressed more clearly if I am to understand it.
Spectre - Don Juan has but a moment longer to profit by the
mercy of Heaven; if he does not repent now, his destruction is
certain.
Sganarelle — Sir, do you hear?
Juan — Who dares speak such words to me? I think I know
this voice.
Sganarelle — Ah, sir, it is a ghost! I know it by its way of
walking.
Juan - Ghost, phantom, or devil, I will see what it is.
[The Spectre changes shape, and represents Time with his scythe in his
hand. )
Sganarelle — Oh, heavens! Do you see, sir, this change of
shape?
Juan — No, no: nothing can terrify me, and my sword will
tell me whether this is body or spirit.
[The Spectre disappears when Don Juan tries to strike it. ]
Sganarelle — Ah, sir, yield to such repeated proofs!
Juan - No: whatever may happen, it shall never be said that
I could repent. Cone, follow me.


## p. 10198 (#626) ##########################################

10198
MOLIÈRE
Enter The Statue of the Commandant
Statue - Stop, Don Juan: you promised me yesterday to come
and have supper with me.
Juan - Yes: where shall we go?
Sganarelle - Give me your hand.
Juan — Here it is.
Statue - Don Juan, obstinacy in sin brings after it a fearful
death, and by rejecting the mercy of Heaven we open a way for
its wrath.
Juan - Oh, heavens! what do I feel? An invisible fire con-
sumes me! I can bear it no longer. My whole body is one ardent
flame - Oh! - Oh! -
[ The lightning flashes around Don Juan, and loud claps of thunder are
heard. The earth opens and swallows him up. From the spot where
he has disappeared burst forth flames of fire. )
Sganarelle — Ah! my wages! my wages! His death is a rep-
aration to all. Heaven offended, laws violated, families dishon-
ored, girls ruined, wives led astray, husbands driven to despair,
everybody is satisfied. I am the only one to suffer. My wages,
my wages, my wages!
[The curtain falls. ]
Translation of Charles Heron Wall.
THE SHAM MARQUIS AND THE AFFECTED LADIES
From (Les Précieuses Ridicules)
[The scene is the drawing-room of the provincial but ambitious ladies
Mademoiselle Madelon and her cousin Mademoiselle Cathos, visiting Paris.
Both are dressed in the height of fashionable absurdity. To them enters
Mascarille, a clever valet, disguised by his master as a marquis and Parisian
gentleman, for the purpose of tricking the silly young women and making them
more sensible through the humiliation of their discovery. He plays his part
with much gusto. ]
M
ASCARILLE (after having bowed to them]- Ladies, you will
be surprised, no doubt, at the boldness of my visit, but
your reputation brings this troublesome incident upon you:
merit has for me such powerful attractions, that I run after it
wherever it is to be found.
Madelon - If you pursue merit, it is not in our grounds that
you should hunt after it.


## p. 10199 (#627) ##########################################

MOLIÈRE
10199
Cathos — If you find merit among us, you must have brought
it here yourself.
Mascarille - I refuse assent to such an assertion. Fame tells
the truth in speaking of your worth; and you will pique, repique,
and capot * all the fashionable world of Paris.
Madelon — Your courtesy carries you somewhat too far in the
liberality of your praises; and we must take care, my cousin and
I, not to trust too much to the sweetness of your flattery.
Cathos — My dear, we should call for chairs.
,
Madelon [to servant]— Almanzor!
Almansor - Madame.
Madelon — Quick! convey us hither at once the appliances of
conversation.
>
(Almanzor brings chairs. ]
Mascarille — But stay, is there any security for me here?
Cathos What can you fear?
Mascarille — Some robbery of my heart, some assassination of
my freedom.
I see before me two eyes which seem to me to be
very dangerous fellows; they abuse liberty and give no quarter,
The deuce! no sooner is any one near, but they are up in arms,
and ready for their murderous attack! Ah! upon my word I
mistrust them! I shall either run away, or require good security
that they will do me no harm.
Madelon — What playfulness, my dear.
Cathos — Yes, I see he is an Amilcar.
Madelon — Do not fear: our eyes have no evil intentions; your
heart may sleep in peace, and may rest assured of their innocence.
Cathos - But for pity's sake, sir, do not be inexorable to that
arm-chair, which for the last quarter of an hour has stretched
out its arms to you: satisfy the desire it has of embracing you.
Mascarille [after having combed himself and adjusted his can-
ions] – Well, ladies, what is your opinion of Paris ?
Madelon — Alas! can there be two opinions? It would be the
antipodes of reason not to confess that Paris is the great museum
of wonders, the centre of good taste, of wit and gallantry.
Mascarille — I think for my part that out of Paris, people of
position cannot exist.
Cathos - That is a never-to-be-disputed truth.
* Terms in piquet, a then fashionable game of cards.


## p. 10200 (#628) ##########################################

IO200
MOLIÈRE
Mascarille — It is somewhat muddy, but then we have sedan.
chairs.
Madelon - Yes, a chair is a wonderful safeguard against the
insults of mud and bad weather.
Mascarille - You must have many visitors ? What great wit
belongs to your circle ?
Madelon Alas! we are not known yet; but we have every
hope of being so before long, and a great friend of ours has
promised to bring us all the gentlemen who have written in the
Elegant Extracts. '
Cathos As well as some others, who, we are told, are the
sovereign judges in matters of taste.
Mascarille — Leave that to me! I can manage that for you
better than any one else. They all visit me, and I can truly say
that I never get up in the morning without having half a dozen
wits about me.
Madclon -- Ah! we should feel under the greatest obligation
to you if you would be so kind as to do this for us; for it is
certain one must be acquainted with all those gentlemen in order
to belong to society. By them reputations are made in Paris;
and you know that it is quite sufficient to be seen with some
of them to acquire the reputation of a connoisseur, even though
there should be no other foundation for the distinction. But for
my part, what I value most is, that in such society we learn a
hundred things which it is one's duty to know, and which are the
quintessence of wit: the scandal of the day; the latest things out
in prose or verse. We hear exactly and punctually that a M. A
has composed the most beautiful piece in the world on such-and-
such a subject; that Madame B has adapted words to such-and-
such an air; that M. C has composed a madrigal on the fidelity
of his lady-love, and M. D upon the faithlessness of his; that
yesterday evening the Sieur E wrote a sixain to Mademoiselle F,
to which she sent an answer this morning at eight o'clock; that
M. G has such-and-such a project in his head; that M. His
occupied with the third volume of his romance; and that M. J
has his work in the press. By knowledge like this we acquire
consideration in every society; whereas if we are left in ignor-
ance of such matters, all the wit we may possess is a thing of
naught and as dust in the balance.
Cathos - Indeed, I think it is carrying the ridiculous to the
extreme, for any one who makes the least pretense to wit, not


## p. 10201 (#629) ##########################################

MOLIERE
I0201
to know even the last little quatrain that has been written. For
my part, I should feel greatly ashamed if some were by
chance to ask me if I had seen some new thing which I had not
one
seen.
Mascarille — It is true that it is disgraceful not to be one
of the very first to know what is going on. But do not make
yourself anxious about it; I will establish an academy of wits in
your house, and I promise you that not a single line shall be
written in all Paris which you shall not know by heart before
anybody else. I, your humble servant, indulge a little in writing
poetry when I feel in the vein; and you will find handed about
in all the ruelles of Paris two hundred songs, as many sonnets,
four hundred epigrams, and more than a thousand madrigals,
without reckoning enigmas and portraits.
Madelon — I must acknowledge that I am madly fond of por-
traits: there is nothing more elegant, according to my opin-
ion.
Mascarille — Portraits are difficult, and require a deep insight
into character; but you shall see some of mine which will please
you.
Cathos — I must say that for my part I am appallingly fond of
enigmas.
Mascarille — They form a good occupation for the mind; and
I have already written four this morning, which I will give you
to guess.
Madelon — Madrigals are charming when they are neatly
turned.
Mascarille -- I have a special gift that way, and I am engaged
in turning the whole Roman History into madrigals.
Madelon — Ah! that will be exquisite. Pray let me have a
copy, if you publish it.
Mascarille - I promise you each a copy beautifully bound. It
is beneath my rank to occupy myself in that fashion; but I do it
· for the benefit of the publishers, who leave me no peace.
Madelon — I should think that it must be a most pleasant
thing to see one's name in print.
Mascarille - Undoubtedly. By-the-by, let me repeat to you
some extempore verses I made yesterday at the house of a friend
of mine, a duchess, whom I went to see. You must know that
I'm a wonderful hand at impromptus.
Cathos – An impromptu is the touchstone of genius.


## p. 10202 (#630) ##########################################

IO202
MOLIÈRE
Mascarille - Listen.
Madelon We are all ears.
Mascarille
Oh! oh! I was not taking care.
While thinking not of harm, I watch my fair.
Your lurking eye my heart doth steal away.
Stop thief! Stop thief! Stop thief! - I say.
Cathos -- Ah me! It is gallant to the last degree.
Mascarille — Yes, all I do has a certain easy air about it.
There is a total absence of the pedant about all my writings.
Madelon — They are thousands and thousands of miles from
that.
Mascarille -- Did you notice the beginning? Oh! oh! ” There
“
is something exceptional in that “Oh! oh! ” like a man who
bethinks himself all of a sudden – “Oh! oh! ” Surprise is well
-!
depicted, is it not? «Oh! oh! ”
Madelon - Yes, I think that “Oh! oh! ” admirable.
Nascarille — At first sight it does not seem much.
Cathos
Ah! what do you say? These things cannot be too
highly valued.
Madelon — Certainly; and I would rather have composed that
«Oh! oh! » than an epic poem.
Mascarille - Upon my word now, you have good taste.
Madelon — Why, yes, perhaps it's not altogether bad.
Mascarille — But do you not admire also “I was not taking
care " ? "I was not taking care. ”
I did not notice it; quite
a natural way of speaking, you know: "I was not taking care. ”
“While thinking not of harm ”— whilst innocently, without fore-
thought, like a poor sheep, "I watch my fair ” — that is to say,
I amuse myself by considering, observing, contemplating you.
“Your lurking eye ”what do you think of this word “lurking "?
Do you not think it well chosen ?
Cathos — Perfectly well.
Mascarille – "Lurking,” hiding: you would say, a cat just
going to catch a mouse _“lurking. ”
Madelon - Nothing could be better.
Mascarille — “My heart doth steal away ” — snatch it away;
carries it off from me. «Stop thief! stop thief! stop thief ! ”
Would you not imagine it to be a man shouting and running
after a robber? "Stop thief! stop thief! stop thief! ”
»


## p. 10203 (#631) ##########################################

MOLIÈRE
10203
Madelon - It must be acknowledged that it is witty and gal-
lant.
Mascarille — I must sing you the tune I made to it.
Cathos — Ah! you have learnt music ?
Mascarille Not a bit of it!
Cathos — Then how can you have set it to music ?
Mascarille - People of my position know everything without
ever having learnt.
Madelon Of course it is so, my dear.
Mascarille — Just listen, and see if the tune is to your taste:
hem, hem, la, la, la, la, la. The brutality of the season has
greatly injured the delicacy of my voice: but it is of no conse-
quence; permit me, without ceremony (he sings]:-
Oh! oh! I was not taking care.
While thinking not of harm, I watch my fair.
Your lurking eye my heart doth steal away.
Stop thief! Stop thief! Stop thief! -I say.
»
Cathos - What soul-subduing music!
One would willingly die
while listening
Madelon — What soft languor creeps over one's heart.
Mascarille - Do you not find the thought clearly expressed in
the song? «Stop thief! stop thief! ” And then as if one suddenly
cried out, “Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop thief! ” Then all at once,
like a person out of breath - "Stop thief ! ”
Madelon - It shows a knowledge of perfect beauty; every part
is inimitable; both the words and the air enchant me.
Cathos — I never yet met with anything worthy of being com-
pared to it.
Mascarille — All I do comes naturally to me. I do it without
study.
Madelon Nature has treated you like a fond mother: you
are her spoiled child.
Mascarille — How do you spend your time, ladies ?
Cathos — Oh! in doing nothing at all.
Madelon · Until now, we have been in a dreadful dearth of
amusements.
Mascarille — I should be happy to take you to the play one
of these days, if you would permit me; the more so as there is
a new piece going to be acted which I should be glad to see in
your company.


## p. 10204 (#632) ##########################################

10204
MOLIÈRE
(
Madelon There is no refusing such an offer,
Mascarille — But I must beg of you to applaud it well when
we are there, for I have promised my help to praise up the
piece; and the author came to me again this morning to beg my
assistance. It is the custom for authors to come and read their
new plays to us people of rank, so that they may persuade us to
approve their work, and to give them a reputation. I leave you
to imagine if, when we say anything, the pit dare contradict us.
As for me, I am most scrupulous; and when once I have prom-
ised my assistance to a poet, I always call out “Splendid! beau-
tiful! ” even before the candles are lighted.
Madelon — Do not speak of it: Paris is a most wonderful
place; a hundred things happen every day there of which coun-
try people, however clever they may be, have no idea.
Cathos — It is sufficient: now we understand this, we shall
consider ourselves under the obligation of praising all that is
said.
Mascarille — I do not know whether I am mistaken; but you
seem to me to have written some play yourselves.
Madelon Ah! there may be some truth in what you say.
Mascarille — Upon my word, we must see it. Between our-
selves, I have composed one which I intend shortly to bring out.
Cathos — Indeed! and to what actors do you mean to give it?
Mascarille — What a question! Why, to the actors of the
Hôtel de Bourgogne, of course: they alone can give a proper
value to a piece. The others are a pack of ignoramuses, who
recite their parts just as one speaks every day of one's life; they
have no idea of thundering out verses, or of pausing at a fine
passage. How can one make out where the fine lines are, if the
actor does not stop at them and thus tell you when you are to
applaud ?
Cathos — Certainly, there is always a way of making an audi-
ence feel the beauties of a play; and things are valued according
to the way they are put before you.
Mascarille — How do you like my lace, feathers, and etcet.
eras? Do you find any incongruity between them and my coat ?
Cathos - Not the slightest.
Mascarille --The ribbon is well chosen, you think?
Madelon — Astonishingly well. It is real Perdrigeon.
Mascarille — What do you say of my canions ?
Madelon — They look very fashionable.


## p. 10205 (#633) ##########################################

MOLIÈRE
10205
Mascarille — I can at least boast that they are a whole quarter
of a yard wider than those usually worn.
Madelon -I must acknowledge that I have never yet seen the
elegance of the adjustment carried to such perfection.
Mascarille — May I beg of you to direct your olfactory senses
to these gloves?
Madelon — They smell terribly sweet.
Cathos – I never inhaled a better-made perfume.
Mascarille — And this ? [He bends forward for them to smell
his powdered wig. ]
Madelon — It has the true aristocratic odor. One's finest senses
are exquisitely affected by it.
Mascarille – You say nothing of my plumes! What do you
think of them?
Cathos — Astonishingly beautiful!
Mascarille - Do you know that every tip cost me a louis d'or ?
It is my way to prefer indiscriminately everything of the best.
Madelon - I assure you that I greatly sympathize with you. I
am furiously delicate about everything I wear, and even my socks
must come from the best hands.
Mascarille [crying out suddenly] — Oh, oh, oh! gently, gently,
ladies; ladies, this is unkind: I have good reason to complain of
your behavior; it is not fair,
Cathos — What is it? What is the matter?
Mascarille — Matter? What, both of you against my heart,
and at the same time too! attacking me right and left! Ah! it
is contrary to fair play; I shall cry out murder.
Cathos [to Madelon] - It must be acknowledged that he says
things in a manner altogether his own.
Madelon - His way of putting things is exquisitely admirable.
Cathos [to Mascarille] - You are more afraid than hurt, and
your heart cries out before it is touched.
Mascarille — The deuce! why, it is sore from head to foot.
Translation of Charles Heron Wall.


## p. 10206 (#634) ##########################################

10206
THEODOR MOMMSEN
(1817-)
BY WILLIAM CRANSTON LAWTON
DHE popular conception of a learned German professor is of
a short-sighted, spectacled, absent-minded recluse buried
among his books, absorbed in some narrow and remote line
of research for which a single lifetime is all too brief, or preparing a
ponderous book which perhaps ten men in the world can read. The
type is not wholly imaginary, though like the buffalo it is already near
extinction.
Above all others in our time, however, Theodor Mommsen is an
illustration of patriotic and civic usefulness, not merely combined
with the most learned research, but illuminated and strengthened in-
calculably by those very studies. His political sympathies, his open
affiliations in the national legislature, have been with the extreme
radical wing of that great “Liberal movement which made the
new German empire possible. Thoroughly believing that democratic
freedom of discussion is the firmest final basis for a strong central
government, he has often offended those in high office by his fear-
less criticisms. Once indeed he was actually brought to trial (1882)
for sharp words directed against Prince Bismarck. His triumphant
acquittal revealed and strengthened the popular pride in the brave
citizen and the most illustrious of German scholars.
Mommsen is primarily interested in the life and growth of politi-
cal institutions. All his manifold activity is centred about this chief
study. It was natural, then, that the Roman State, the greatest organ-
ization in all human history, should have engaged his lifelong devo-
tion.
Professor Mommsen is most widely known to the general reading
public, in and out of Germany, as the author of a “popular” Roman
history. This great work indeed put forth with little citation of
authorities. The solid pages usually run calmly on without any array
of polemic or pedantic foot-notes. Nevertheless, the apparatus, the
scaffolding as it were, undoubtedly exists still in the author's note-
books. Indeed, such material has been liberally furnished whenever
the same subject has been treated in University lectures. More-
over, this stately masterpiece of constructive work is firmly founded
upon special studies as wide-reaching and as thorough as were ever
undertaken. Professor Mommsen's practical and juristic mind inclines


## p. 10206 (#635) ##########################################


THECLIN


## p. 10206 (#636) ##########################################

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܂. ܢ ܝ | ܙ ;- |: ܙ)i
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## p. 10206 (#637) ##########################################


THEODOR MOMMSEN.


## p. 10206 (#638) ##########################################

i


## p. 10207 (#639) ##########################################

THEODOR MOMMSEN
10207
him to brush aside the fables and romances of Livy's first decade.
Instead, he endeavors to recover from the usages and institutions
of later Rome the probable conditions of the earlier time. Naturally
this often necessitates closely reasoned argument, — and uncertain
results at best.
In the later portions Professor Mommsen is on firmer ground;
but his judgments of men like Cicero, whom he detests, and Cæsar,
whom he almost adores, are as far as possible from a mere scholarly
dependence on ancient authorities. Everywhere he is quite suffi-
ciently inclined to appeal to modern parallels and illustrations. The
section on the political history of the early empire has never yet
appeared; but the imperial government of Roman provinces is treated
in exhaustive volumes, already published, and destined to become an
integral part of the completed work.
This latter essay may serve to remind us that Professor Mommsen
has accomplished a still more monumental task, as chief editor of the
great Corpus of Latin Inscriptions, perhaps the greatest memorial of
German scholarship and of imperial liberality toward learning. The
constructive power which has multiplied the value of Mommsen's life
work is clearly seen even in his writings for a more learned audience.
Thus the great inscription of Ancyra, which is almost an autobiogra-
phy of the Emperor Augustus, has been reproduced, annotated, and in
brief, put completely at the service of the general student, in a spe-
cial volume. In the same way, such large and debatable subjects as
(Roman Coinage,' (Roman Chronology,' and even “The Dialects of
Lower Italy,' have been treated in scholarly monographs. Every
student who has ever felt the influence of Mommsen, through his
books, in the lecture-room, above all in the seminar, will testify to
the value of this constructive and organizing mind.
The entire record of man's organized life appears to Mommsen,
as it did to Von Ranke and to Freeman, as one great story of devel-
opment in many chapters, each of which may throw light on all the
rest, and no less on the future pathways of civilization. The mature
conclusions of such a student are almost equally stimulating whether
we agree readily with his general views or not. This may be hap-
pily exemplified by a passage from the introduction of "The Provinces,
from Cæsar to Diocletian,'- a passage which traverses boldly all our
traditional impressions as to the state of the subjugated races under
Roman imperialism. Like the more extended citation below, this
passage is quoted from the excellent English version of William P.
Dickson:
« Old age has not the power to develop new thoughts and display creative
activity, nor has the government of the Roman Empire done so; but in its
sphere, which those who belonged to it were not far wrong in regarding as


## p. 10208 (#640) ##########################################

10208
THEODOR MOMMSEN
the world, it fostered the peace and prosperity of the many nations united
under its sway longer and more completely than any other leading power has
ever succeeded in doing. It is in the agricultural towns of Africa, in the
homes of the vine-dressers on the Moselle, in the fourishing townships of the
Lycian mountains, and on the margin of the Syrian desert, that the work of
the imperial period is to be sought and to be found. Even now there are
various regions of the East, as of the West, as regards which the imperial
period marks a climax of good government, very modest in itself, but never
withal attained before or since; and if an angel of the Lord were to strike
the balance whether the domain ruled by Severus Antoninus was governed
with greater intelligence and the greater humanity at that time or in the pres.
ent day, whether civilization and national prosperity generally have since that
time advanced or retrograded, it is very doubtful whether the decision would
prove in favor of the present. ”
Theodor Mommsen was born at Garding in Schleswig, November
30th, 1817; graduated at Kiel, studied archæology in France and
Italy 1844-7, and in 1848 became professor of jurisprudence at Leip-
zig. His political activity in those troublous years brought about his
dismissal in 1850. From 1852 to 1854 he held the professorship of
Roman law at Zurich; 1854-8 at Breslau; and finally in 1858 entered
upon the professorship of ancient history at Berlin, where this sturdy
octogenarian scholar is still (1897) actively engaged in his university
lectures, as well as in his manifold literary and scholarly undertak-
ings.
Hizriam Cranston Lawton
.
THE CHARACTER OF CÆSAR
From the History of Rome)
T"
he new monarch of Rome, the first ruler of the whole domain
of Romano-Hellenic civilization, Gaius Julius Cæsar, was in
his fifty-sixth year (born 12th July, 652 A. U. C. ) when the
battle of Thapsus, the last link in a long chain of momentous
victories, placed the decision of the future of the world in his
hands. Few men have had their elasticity so thoroughly put to
the proof as Cæsar: the sole creative genius produced by Rome,
and the last produced by the ancient world, which accordingly
moved on in the track that he marked out for it until its sun had
set. Sprung from one of the oldest noble families of Latium,
which traced back its lineage to the heroes of the Iliad and the
kings of Rome, and in fact to the Venus-Aphrodite common to


## p. 10209 (#641) ##########################################

THEODOR MOMMSEN
10209
both nations, he spent the years of his boyhood and early man-
hood as the genteel youth of that epoch were wont to spend
them. H had tasted the sweetness as well as the bitterness of
the cup of fashionable life, had recited and declaimed, had prac-
ticed literature and made verses in his idle hours, had prosecuted
love intrigues of every sort, and got himself initiated into all the
mysteries of shaving, curls, and ruffles pertaining to the toilette
wisdom of the day, as well as into the far more mysterious art
of always borrowing and never paying.
But the flexible steel of that nature was proof against even
these dissipated and fighty courses: Cæsar retained both his
bodily vigor and his elasticity of mind and heart unimpaired.
In fencing and in riding he was a match for any of his soldiers,
and his swimming saved his life at Alexandria; the incredible
rapidity of his journeys, which usually for the sake of gaining
time were performed by night,-a thorough contrast to the pro-
cession-like slowness with which Pompeius moved from one place
to another,- was the astonishment of his contemporaries and
not the least among the causes of his success. The mind was
like the body. His remarkable power of intuition revealed itself
in the precision and practicability of all his arrangements, even
where he gave orders without having seen with his own eyes.
His memory was matchless; and it was easy for him to carry
on several occupations simultaneously with equal self-possession.
Although a gentleman, a man of genius, and a monarch, he had
still a heart. So long as he lived, he cherished the purest ven-
eration for his worthy mother Aurelia (his father having died
early). To his wives, and above all to his daughter Julia, he
devoted an honorable affection, which was not without reflex in-
fluence even on political affairs. With the ablest and most excel-
lent men of his time, of high and of humble rank, he maintained
noble relations of mutual fidelity, with each after his kind. As
he himself never abandoned any of his partisans after the pusil-
lanimous and unfeeling manner of Pompeius, but adhered to his
friends — and that not merely from calculation — through good
and bad times without wavering, several of these, such as Aulus
Hirtius and Gaius Matius, even after his death gave noble testi-
monies of their attachment to him.
If in a nature so harmoniously organized there is any one trait
to be singled out as characteristic, it is this: that he stood aloof
from all ideology and everything fanciful. As a matter of course
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IO2IO
THEODOR MOMMSEN
a
ence.
Cæsar was a man of passion, for without passion there is no
genius; but his passion was never stronger than he could control.
He had had his season of youth, and song, love, and wine had
taken joyous possession of his mind; but with him they did not
penetrate to the inmost core of his nature. Literature occupied
him long and earnestly; but while Alexander could not sleep for
thinking of the Homeric Achilles, Cæsar in his sleepless hours
mused on the inflections of the Latin nouns and verbs. He made
verses as everybody then did, but they were weak; on the other
hand he was interested in subjects of astronomy and natural sci-
While wine was and continued to be with Alexander the
destroyer of care, the temperate Roman, after the revels of his
youth were over, avoided it entirely. Around him, as around
all those whom the full lustre of woman's love has dazzled in
youth, fainter gleams of it continued imperishably to linger;
even in later years he had his love adventures and successes with
women, and he retained a certain foppishness in his outward ap-
pearance, or to speak more correctly, a pleasing consciousness of
his own manly beauty. He carefully covered the baldness which
he keenly felt, with the laurel chaplet that he wore in public in
his later years; and he would doubtless have surrendered some of
his victories if he could thereby have brought back his youthful
locks. But however much, even when monarch, he enjoyed the
society of women, he only amused himself with them, and allowed
them no manner of influence over him.