No More Learning

19. clover . . . time: Restatement of recur~ rent theme: the green world alive outlasts any structure of the earth or creation of man-basalt: (1) a dense, dark volcanic rock; (2) a black, unglazed pottery. "Learn of the green world what can be thy place"
[81/521] [DG,Pai,4? 2&3,554].
20. gates . . . holy: Gates into life and out of life: deaths and entrances [47: 10]. In Pandects, Bk. I, Title 8, we read that some things come under human law and others under divine law: "Sacred things are for ex~ ample, walls and gates, which, to a certain extent, are under divine law" [for the Latin
Antoninus upon the city of Tyre" [Scott, vol. 2,259].
26. Antoninus: [78:56]. Roman emperor, 137-166, who started the tradition of look? ing at law and money wisely.
27. Tyre: The "this" refers to the "Italian Law" of the time, which Paulus, the great jurist, gave to the city of Tyre.
28. Paulus: Julius P. , 2d century A. D. , a legal adviser of Septimius Severus and indus- trious author of some 300 books on the law of his time. The Digests of Justinian are almost one-sixth of his work.
29. Consul: One of the two chief magis. trates ruling conjointly in the Roman repub~ lic. A prefect in ancient Rome acted as a magistrate, governor, or commander. Sources refer to Paulus as a prefect but not a consul. The "7th of December" is not in the sources.
30. the "Code": It concerned bishops, other clergy, and superintendents of orphanages, hospitals, and charitable foundations for the aid and protection of old men, strangers, captives, and the sick. Grants of money were to be made: "For this, indeed, seems to be necessary, as the support and education of boys and poor persons depend upon these grants. " These activities go beyond the call of "civic order" and indicate the compassion and wisdom of feeding the people, one of Pound's tests of a good ruler, as with the
Egyptian Antef [93 :4].
31. The Bulgar: The king or ruler of the Bulgars, one of the groups Justinian could not subdue by war, whose differences with the emperor concerned not only taxation but also Justinian's vigorous support of church dogma. The Bulgars dissension went back to the time of Constantine the Great and the founding of the Eastern Empire.
32. Constantine: C. the Great, 288? -337, who in the process of winning the throne of the empire saw a "flaming cross" in the sky, the sign by which he would win. He won handsomely. Thereafter, he set forth the Edict of Toleration of Christianity. Christi-
14. Alex . . . Biddle: Alexander
1856? 1916, the son of Alexander Biddle and Julia Rush. Alex Bioile (not to be confused with Nicholas Biddle of the bank wars [34:70; 88:92]) was a medical doctor who practiced in Pennsylvania. His wife, a descen~ dent of Benjamin Rush, engaged his interest in the JA~Rush correspondence, from which he made selections for publication.
"communicating
of hu-
Williams
B. ,
I!
a n d c o m m e n t a r y 313? 324].
s e e
D G ,
P a i ,
11~2,
21. Pandects: The Pandecta (or Digests) of Roman-law produced by direction of Jus- tinian I [cf. 45 below] .
22. Gaius: A Roman jurist of the 2d cen- tury who did an early codification of the law. His Institutes formed the structural de? sign of the Digests, which were organized into fifty books each with a differing num? ber of subsections.
23. divini . . . : L,
man and divine law. " A phrase from Bk. I; Title 8.
24. Ius ItaIicum: L, "Italian Law. "
25. Digest: Bk. L, Title 15 concerns tax laws: "8 Paulus, On Taxation, Book II" con~ tains this sentence: "The same privileges were conferred by the Divine Severus and
? ? ?
574
94/635
94/635
575
anity was not made a state religion and Con- stantine himself was not baptized until he was dying. But he convened the Council of Nicea, moved the capital to Byzantium, re- built the city as Constantinople, and by his very success displeased the Slavs and Bulgars
to the north, who tried to discredit him. The Council of Nicea, after much argument and dissension, adopted the dogma of the Trini- ty. In the end all the bishops present (esti- mates vary from 225 to over 300) voted for it except two, who were banished along with Arius (the father of Arianism). Thereafter, those who objected to the idea of the Son being coequal with the Father said that many bishops voted under threats and pres- sures. The phrase "horse sense" may refer to
the anti-Trinity feeling of the Bulgars and Slavs, whose territories were hotbeds of Ari- anism. In fact, Constantine convened the Council of Nicea in 325 in order to settle the question because the struggles -between the Arians and their opponents were tearing the church apart and making it difficult to gov? ern. But the council settled nothing: the struggles, sometimes violent, went on for centuries and contributed to the final split
between the Eastern and Western churches. Pound calls Constantine a louse because of inhuman laws he made against the offspring of female slaves or prostitutes, dispossessing them of property and torturing them. The new law of Justinian (whose empress, Theo-
dora, had been an actress and had given birth to an megitimate child before he married her) changed all that. Novel (an amendment to Justinian's code) 127, Chap. IV says that "such women can contract marriage with men of every description . . . provided that
dotal instruments are executed. . . . All others . . . can contract marriage through af- fection alone, provided the women with whom it is lawful for them to contract mar? riage are free" [DG, Pai, 11-2,313-324].
33. CODE V. 27: The source of the data in the preceding gloss [Scott, vol. 13,214].
34. Code V . iv . . . : Subsection 23,5 con- tains much detail about "daughters of wom- en of this kind" directing how they can
avoid previous harsh legal sanctions, so that, in the sense of "persistent" or "painstak? ing," "fuss-cat" is appropriate [DG, ibid. ].
35. Kung: Confucius [13:1;53:78]. 36. the Odes: The Confucian odes.
Philostratus is generally regarded as a reli- gious work of fiction" [EB] [cf. 78 below].
43. madepeace . . . : [91:9,94;93/623]. A natural affinity is supposed to have existed between animals and most holy men of the East both before and after the time of Christ. Of Apollonius, Conybeare wrote: "he professed to know all languages without ever having learned them . . . to understand the language of birds and animals . . . [and] shared the Pythagorean belief of the migra- tions of human souls from body to body, both of animals and of human beings" [P, Life, xii].
44. the Cyprian: Aphrodite. The altars sa- cred to her on the island of Cyprus were often stained by blood sacrifice. Apollonius, at age 16 began to follow a rigid ascetic rule. He renounced wine, refused to marry, would not eat flesh of any kind, and in particular
"condemned the sacrifice of animals to the gods. . . . In antiquity hardly any meat was eaten which had not previously been conse? crated by sacrifice to a god,. . . conse- quently the priest was the butcher of a vil- lage and the butcher the priest" [P, Life, ix]. The obverse of the Hyksos motif
[93:18].
45. Justinian: Flavius Anicius Justinianus, 483. 565, called "the Great," is the most famous emperor of the Eastern Roman Em? pire. He is famous for his new modes of administration, an advanced ecclesiastical policy, and his wisdom in war and foreign policy, but most of all for his extensive legal reforms. Before his reign the vast body of contradictory legal documents, including the Perpetual Edict, resulted in conflict and con? fusion in the courts. When he became emper- or (528), he appointed 10 commissioners to study and edit all existing constitutions, re- tain what was practical, and get rid of what was wasteful. In 14 months they produced the Codex constitutionum, which was pro? mulgated in 529, all imperial edicts not in- cluded becoming instantly repealed. This work was so successful that another commis- sion of 16 was appointed in 530 to deal with
the whole history of jurisprudence and the law, and to produce extracts from the best in order to make a practical, workable docu- ment. They were to discard as much as pos- sible and retain nothing at variance with the new Codex. Their work in both Greek and Latin editions was to be contained in fifty books, each book to be divided into subti? tles, the 'general order being that of the old Perpetual Edict. Justinian promulgated the fifty? book work December 16,533. Accord? ing to authorities this work is not only "the most precious monument of the legal genius of the Romans," but by the "influence it has exerted and still exerts the most remarkable law book the world has ever seen" [EB]. The Greek volume was called Pandects (TI&voEKm), t h e L a t i n t h e Digests (Digesta). While the Code (Codex) and the Digests were in process, Justinian conceived that a third book was needed: an easy, basic man- ual for beginners which would give an out- line of the law in clear and simple words. This work, based on the previous outlines of Gaius, was published as the Institutes of Justinian. The emperor did not stop here: commissions were kept busy reviSing the work already done, such as the Codex. It is the first revision of the Codex (534) which has come down to us. Pound often lists Justinian as one of the great minds of the Western world who added to the "building up of social and economic criteria" [SP, 150,156; GK, 40,109,275,342].
46. the novel, 127: A novel was a new addi? tion, an amendment to the Codex. Pound prob. meant 117 and not 127 because the phrase "from affection" occurs in 117 [DG, Pai, 11. 2, 322n. ].
47. Goth . . . Queen Ash: Pound's source for these four names is Waddell's Egyptian Civilization, which is historically inaccurate [B de R, in EH, Approaches, 188]. Goth, "the hawk? king," is supposed to be in the early dynastic line of Sargon the Great, whom Waddell believed was the father of Menes, the founder of the Egyptian dy? nasties.
[54:66;
78: 139].
37.
the precepts of Kung, he practiced cheng ming and called things by their right name.
38. Dante: He used the language of the peo? pIe and wrote De Vulgari Eloquentia, which showed the value of avoiding "abstract yatter. "
39. Agassiz: [93:51]. He taught his stu? dents to look directly at a thing until they could finally see it [ABCR, 17], allowing the light to pour.
40. Gestalt: G, "form.
" The word is related to the idea of formative power, or the kind of intelligence that directs the cherry to be- come a cherry tree [113:43]. Also, to the forma or concetta, the divine force (the light pouring) in the universe [75:8].
41. let the light: [74/429]. Let the divine force of intelligence flow. Infections grow in the moist dark.
42. Apollonius: A. of Tyana, 4 B. C. - A. D. 96? , was born in the Cappadocia of Greek Asia Minor and trained in philosophy. He traveled as a mendicant sage to most of the courts of the Mediterranean world, as far as India to the east and Spain to the west. He was a student of the lore of both Ascle- pius and the neo? Pythagorean school, to which he added a knowledge of oriental
mysticism. The story of his life, by Philostra? tus, is so replete with miracles, some have regarded him as an imaginary character. "On his return to Europe [from the East] he was received with reverence as a magician. He himself claimed only the power of foreseeing the future. . . . It was said that he was ac-
cused of treason both by Nero and Domi- tian, but escaped by miraculous means. Finally, he set up a school at Ephesus, where he died, apparently aged 100. The work of
Mencius:
Following
? 576
94/635-636
and later. Waddell took the lower part of the seal to be a cartouche and the top part to be a falcon. Pound took the top figure in the cartouche to be the image of a temple, which becomes important in later cantos when there is the recu. rrent theme "the tem- ple is not for sale" [97/676,678,679].
56. caligine: I, "darkness. "
57. 1/2 year . . . tin: Source
the two "1/2" lines appear to articulate with the "Agada, Gana" line, which they bracket.
58. Agada, Gana: [cf. 48 above]. Pound may be rhyming the religious spirit that formed the city of Agdu, sacred to Osiris, with a similar spirit that formed the city sacred to Wagadu in "Gassire's Lute" [74: 134] , as found in Frobenius. Or he may be suggesting that Agdu, the city ofSargon, was actually the second Wagadu from that "Tale of the Sudan. " The tale says: "Four times Wagadu was built and stood there in spendour. Four times it was destroyed so that there was no trace of it to be seen. Once it was lost through vanity, once through faith being broken, once through greed, and once through strife. Four times Wagadu
changed its name. First it was Dierra, then Agada, then Ganna and finally Silla" [Haber- land, Frobenius, 146]. As a metaphor, the tale articulates with The Cantos. Having de- stroyed Agada by broken faith, we may be at the Gaona stage, where greed is the de- stroyer: "Hoggers of harvest are the curse of the people" is a recurrent theme of the later cantos [88:44].
59. Swans . . . : As with
birth of Apollonius was accompanied by marvels. His mother was told in a dream to go to a meadow and pick flowers. She did this and then fell asleep: "Thereupon the swans who fed in the meadow set up a dance around her as she slept, and lifting their wings. . . cried out aloud. . . . She then leaped up at the sound of their song and bore her child . . . just at the moment of the birth, a thunderbolt seemed about to fall to earth and then rose up into the air and disappeared" [P, Life, 1,14-15].
I I;
94/636-637
60. 1roA. A. ovr; nf-l. wv . . OA. q{O~\: H, "to re- spect many, and confide in few. " [Cony- beare's translation, P, Life, I, 109. The ac- cents are incorrect in the canto text. ]. This was A. 's answer to King Vardanes of Baby- lon, who asked him what was "the most stable and secure way of governing. "
61. styrax . . . leopards: After leaving
lon, A. and his friend Damis came to Pam- phylia, a land fragrant with the odors that attracted leopards: "For these animals de- light in fragrant odours . . . and traverse the mountains in search of the tear of gum of the Styrax" [P, Life, I, 121].
62. King Huey: King Hui of Liang. Since A. could speak all languages, he could have spo- ken in Chinese to King Hui if he had met him, but he hadn't. The advice Mencius gave to that king rhymes with the advice A. gave to King Vardanes about how he should use his money. Said A. , "By spending it, for you are a king. " Both sages were against hoard- ing. The Chinese characters say, "Hui of Liang, by wealth put to use not by wealth hoarded," but they occur in this sequence in none of Pound's known Chinese sources.
Part of the statement occurs in the Ta Hsio (The Great Digest): "The Ch'u state does not go in for collecting wealth but counts fair-dealing its treasure" [CON, 75].
63. Ideogram: Leang [M3951]' "Liang dy- nasty. "
64. Ideogram: Hui [M2339], "kind, gra- cious," King Hui.
65. Ideogram: I [M2932], "by. "
66. Ideogram: Ts'ai2 [M6662], "wealth. "
67. Ideogram: Fa [MI768], "issue stores. "
68. Ideogram: Wu2 [M7180], "without, none. "
69. Ideogram: I [M2932], "by. "
70. Ideogram: Pao' [M4956], "treasure. "
71. Taxila: Country in India ruled by King Phraotes. The maxim in the characters is rhymed there, because this king spent his
577
treasure for the good of the people and lived in a simple style much approved by A. who said to him: "I am delighted, 0 king, to find you living like a philosopher" [P, Life, I, 183].
72. Phraotes' . . . sun: It is said of a cub of the tigers of Taxila: ~'as soon as it is born, it lifts up its front paws to the rising slln" [P, Life, I, 189]. The gesture was taken as an act of worship_
73. "vl1? 6A1]1rTOl . . . vf)? ? LV: H, "rapt by the nymphs . . . bacchantic revellers in sobriety" [ibid. , 217]. Part of A. 's way of telling the king about religious ecstasy brought about
by drinking only water.
74. "11"0" fJl1epo:v: H, "daily hymn. " From a description of some of the Brahman's reli- gious rites. A. was amazed to discover stat- ues of the Greek gods whi~h the Indians had set up with their own and worshipped with their own: "and to the SlIn they sing a hymn every day at midday" [ibid. , 257].
75. ~wov . . . mJ! vTa:
ture . . . the universe
all. " After Phraotes, A. visited the chief Brahman of India, named Iarchas, who told him that the universe possessed a soul. Said A. , "Am I to regard the universe as a living creature? " Said Iarchas, "Yes . . . for it en- genders all living things" [ibid. , 309].
76. III 34: Bk. III, chap. 34 of The Life of Apollonius [P, Life] .
77. epwTQ. . . ? . : H, "Love it has . . . and knits together. " A. asked if the universe were then male or female. Iarchas said it was both: "for by commerce with itself it fulfills the role both of mother and father . . . ;and it is possessed by a love for itself more intense than any separate being has for its fellows, a passion which knits it together into harmony" [ibid. ].
78. F. C. Conybeare: The prelector of Ox-' ford who translated The Life ofApollonius of Tyana by Philostratus, which had "only been once translated in its entirety into En- glish, as long ago as the year 1811. " Said
48. Agdu: Says B de R: "Agadu or Agade is supposed to be shown by the Indian seals to be the capital city of Sargon and Menes(! )"
[ibid. ].
49. Prabbu of Kopt: Says B de R: "'Pra? bhu' (Pound's Prabbu is a typographical er? ror) was, according to Waddell, a form of the Sumerian title 'Par,' corresponding to 'Pha- raoh': 'the form Prabhu adopted by the Indi- an scribes was presumably to make this "Pharaoh" title intelligent to Indian readers' " [ibid. ].
50. Queen Ash: Supposedly, "the wife of Sargon, whose name, again according to Waddell, is found on the Abydos vases"
[ibid. ]. Says DG: "Regardless of L.