No More Learning

115. Thiers: [101:11]. During the time of perils and "the conspiracies of Prince Louis Bonaparte in 1851, Thiers remained the most impassioned of Conservatives" [Thiers, 108]. In a book of 1848 (Defence ofProp- erty), he set forth his ideas of taxation, and in later speeches "he refuted Socialistic theories by the report of a committee appointed to examine . . . taxation, public credit, mortgage loans, paper money, and right to labor" [po 109]. Throughout, his attitude was against taxation of income or wealth.
116. Psellos: [23:2]. 117. Degas: [74:226].
118. Old what's-her-name: According to Michael Tsellos (called Psellos above), the Byzantine empress Zoe, whose one con- cern in her old age was to develop a new perfume. The braziers in her room in the summer made it unbearable for the servants, but the heat didn't bother her [The Chro- nographia, trans. E. R. A. Seurter, Yale, 1953,137-138, Bk. IV, 64] [BK].
119. servitu: I, "servants. "
120. Agra: One of the United Provinces ofindia.
98. Durch . . . kompromittiert:
of the Bankhouse, Pacelli compromised. "
99. Pacelli: Eugenio P . , 1876-1968, Pope Pius XII, 1939-1958.
100. B. Swan: Pound referred to B. Swan on a postcard to Ingrid Davies [25 March 1955] as "my murderer friend" whowas on an oil boat [MS, Humanities Research Cen- ter, University of Texas, Austin]. Says BK: "That's all we know. " The NY Times Index yields the name Benjamin Swan as an officer in a Swan-Finch Oil Co. ; but no further data can be found. Or perhaps Byron L.
G, "Because
101. OL YMPIAD/236:
held every 4th year, were founded in 776 B. C. According to a list of winners drawn up by Julius Africanus and preserved by Eusebius, the 236th Olympiad was held in A. D. 165.
102. Peregrinus: Cynic philosopher, A. D. ca. 100-165, of Parium in Mysia. Because he was suspected of murdering his father, he fled to Palestine, where he became a Chris- tian. For this act he was imprisoned. When he got out he became a restless wandering scholar (hence, peregrinate). In 165 he committed suicide by throwing himself onto the flames at the Olympic games.
103. P1arr: [16:18; 74:168].
104. Parion: For Parium, birthplace of Peregrinus (nicknamed Proteus).
105. Colelum . . . largitur: L, "The sky my roof, God does not sell; / the earth [is my] couch but He endows [me with wisdom]. " Supposedly said to Alexander the Great by the Brachmani (phaeacians) [Migne, XVII, 1176-79; MB, Trace, 389].
106. Caritas: L, "love; charity. "
107. Stead: William Thomas S. , 1849-1912, who pioneered modern journalistic methods in England and the U. S. He edited the Pall Mall Gazette and founded the Review of Reviews in 1890. An advocate of Naval reform, child welfare, and social legislation, he went to prison in 1885 for his attacks on government policy toward white slavery. In later years he became involved in psychical research; he died on the Titanic.
108. Douglas: [38:49].
109. "Mortal . . . ears": Says Dante of mor- tals who "wrongfully blame" Fortune, "she is blest and does not hear it" [Int VII, 93-94].
110. Remusat: Charles Franyois Marie R. , 1797-1875, the son of Auguste Laurent, Comte de R. , and Clare Elizabeth R. (re-
The Olympic games,
. . .
122. Gardner . . . specific: Gardner wrote in
the London Dai/y News of Aug. I, 1914: "If we crush Germany and make Russia dictator of Europe and Asia it will be, the greatest disaster that has ever befallen Western Eu- rope" [WC, Guide] .
123. Beauclerc: Title given to Henry I of England in recognition of his scholarly interests.
124. Julian: [102:53].
125. 2 million . . . : The
struggle between the popes and the kings of Europe and England, over which should have the final power of investing both church and temporal authority, led to battles and wars in which millions died.
126. Autun: A town in E central France. Founded by Augustus, it became an early episcopal seat and a center of learning. It is famous for its Roman ruins and 12th? century cathedral.
127. Poictiers: [90:9].
128. Benevento: Small city in S Italy which under the Romans became an important commercial center on the Appian Way. From the lIth century until 1860, it was under the rule of the papacy most of the time.
129. et l'anneau: F, "ring," as the Pope's signet-ring.
130. 1075 . . . '87: Key dates in the struggle between church and state over "investiture. " Gregory VII made the issue paramount dur- ing his papacy (1073-1085). The most fa- mous dramatic moment was the submission of the young King Henry IV in 1077: he walked barefoot in the snow before the pope in order to receive forgiveness [see W. F. Barry, The Papal Monarchy; or any biogra- phy of Hildebrande (Gregory VII)].
131. et Ie prepuce: F, "and the foreskin. "
121. Neque choose gold. "
diligunt:
L, "Nor did any
centuries-long
? ? 652
100/721-722
101/723
653
132. Puy en Yellay: Le Puy (F. "conical hill") is a capital in Velay of S central France. It is famous for a bare rock 500 feet high topped by a 50? foot bronze statue of
the Virgin. erected in 1860. It has a 12th? century cathedral of daring construction. After the 6th century, Le Puy began to grow because it was made an episcopal see. Among the relics at one time was the "pre- puce de Christ. "
133. Herbert: Lord H. of Cherbury, 1583? 1648, the English philosopher and elder brother of metaphysical poet George H. He was ambassador to France (1619-1624) and was made Lord H. of Cherbury in 1629. He set forth his principles of natural religion in De Veritate (1624), De religione laid (1645), and De religione gentilium (1663). He laid the foundations for deism, which he also set forth in his own metaphysical poetry.
134. (De Yeritate): The full title of this work translates: On Truth as distinguished from Revelation, from Probability, from Possibility, and from Falsehood. Pound's sentence comes from a preface, "To the Can-
did Reader. " The sentence translates: "The primary consideration of such men is to re- main true to the role they have adopted, and to avoid expressing any other views" [Mey-
rich H. Carre edition, Bristol, 1937].
135. come in subjecto: I, "as in a subject ready. " Pound's translation of a part of line 23 of Cavalcanti's Donna mi prega [LE, 156,
184-185n. ]. The idea is that a compre- hended seen form remains as a subject or ideal against which other visual images may be judged [JW].
136. lisses . . . a tenir: F, "smooth, lovingly tender, to cherish. " From Vi1lon's "Heaul- miere. " The line concerns the hips of this once beautiful woman as she grieves the time of her youth," as Y. did his own [SR, 175].
ping, 1948, 1-160 [Muan Bpo, p. ] ; Joseph F. Rock, The 2Zhi 3Ma Funeral Ceremony o f the Na-khi o f Southwest China, vol. 9, Studia Instituti Anthropos, Viennae-M6dling, Austria, 1955; Joseph F. Rock, "The ID'a 3Nv Funeral Ceremony," Anthropos, L (1955): Paul de Remusat, Thiers, trans. Melville B. Anderson, Chicago, A. C. McClung, 1889; Tacitus, The Annals, Bk. XIII, trans. John Jackson (Loeb 322).
Background
George K. Kennan, Siberia and The Exile System, 1891; Laurence
Binyon, The Flight of The Dragon, London, 1911; R. Wilson McNair, Promise to Pay, London 1934; Plotinus, The Enneads, ed. Porphyry, trans. A. H. Armstrong, I, II, (Loeb, 440-441)
[Enneads]; Peter Goulart, Forgotten Kingdom, London 1955; Paul H. Emden, Money Powers o f Europe in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, New York, 1938 [Emden, Powers]; Osvald Siren, Chinese Painting, New York, Ronald Press, 1956-1958; John Read, Through Alchemy to Chemistry, London, 1957 [Alchemy].
Exegeses
EP, GK, 274; DD, Pai, 1-1, 61; CFT, Pai, 3-1, 90-122; NS, Reading, 111; John Peck, Agenda, vol. 9, 2-3, 1971, pp. 26-69 [Peck, Agenda] ; Jamila Ismail, ibid. , pp. 70-87; Bridson Inter-
CANTOCI Sources
The Memoirs o f Mme de Remusat, trans. Mrs. Cashel Hoey and John Lillie, 2 vols. , London, 1880 [Memoirs]; Joseph F. Rock, The Ancient Na-khi Kingdom of Southwest China, 2 vols. , Harvard Univ. Press, 1947 [Na-khi, vol. , p. ]; Joseph F. Rock, "The 2Muan 1Bpo Ceremony or the Sacrifice to Heaven as Practiced by the 1 Na? 2 khi," Vol.
VIII, Monumenta Serica, Pei-
137. EX . . . HYPOSTASIN: H,
"out of From
essence. . . Plotinus.
hypostasis"
[81 :55].
138. PERI
Love. " Title of a section of The Enneads
[Loeb 442, p. 166].
139. hieron: H, "temple" [97/678-681].
140. Nous . . . auton: H, "the mind in itself most sacred. " Aristos could be translated "noblest" or even "best," but since Pound's continuous theme states that the intelligence of man is the most exalted expression of divinity at work in the universe, "sacred"
EROTAS:
H,
"Concerning
comes closest to his meaning.
141. compenetrans: I, everywhere. "
143. Plotinus: [98:20].
144. per . . . diafana: L, "through more diaphanes [layers of translucency]" [36:4].
. . .
Glossary
142. pathema
tion . . . not separate [from mind]" [EH, Pai, 1-2,273; CFT, Pai, 2-3, 451-452].
aphistatai:
H, "affec-
"penetrating
view,ND 17, p. 175, 176.
1. Monsieur
"M. de Talleyrand, finding scarcely anyone but M. de Remusat who could understand him, disclosed to him the political views with which the victories. of our armies in- spired him" [Memoirs,301].
2. junipers, . . . : "Junipers love southern, dry exposure where the snow melts quickly, while northern exposures are always occu- pied by spruces, firs and hemlocks" [Na-khi, 1,270] .
3. Talleyrand: [70:15,20; 86:10; 95:13]. The change in Pound's attitude toward both Napoleon and his minister in the later cantos has been called by several scholars their reha- bilitation.
4. Chalais, Aubeterre: These towns "Near Perigord" were part of the stronghold of the
de
Remusa! :
family since the
5. snow-flakes . . . rain: "The wind was biting, and during the three months of au- tumn the mists and the rains obscured the view. Snowflakes were as large as the palm of the hand. It rained from morning to night" [Na-khi, II, 281].
6. Trees . . . willows: "The trees along the bank are mostly willows, while several spe- cies of oaks grow on the lower half of the mountain slopes" [Na-khi, II 298? 299].
7. Kublai . . . hither: These lines concern a pagoda believed to have been built by Kublai Khan, on which an inscription written in Tibetan says, "Erected in the fire-female- sheep year, in the beginning of the year, in the third moon, on the 14th day, on a full
[100:110].
T alleyrand
Ages [DD,Pai, 1-1,61].
early Middle
? ? 654
101/723-724
101/724
655
moon, on a Thursday. " About this date, Rock [110:54] says: "the date given . . . can only be April 26, 1307, or the eleventh year of the period of Ta-te . . . of the Mongol Emperor Ch'eng Tsung . . . (Timur or 01- cheitu). It could not have been the year 1247" [Na-khi, II, 298n. ]. Pound prefers the earlier date.
8. Forest . . . dawn . . . : Perhaps Kublai's men coming from the forest, through moun- tain ice, back down to the emerald grass at dawn [CFT,Pai, 3-1107].
9. Ideogram: [M6037], "dawn. "
10. larix . . . armandi: Of a place called A-tun-tzu, Rock says: "The vegetation here is composed mostly of junipers, Larix, Cara- gana jubata . . . and Berberis . . . . A few Ii beyond we reach the hamlet of I-chia-p'o . . . two stages from A-tun-tzu, a distance of about 105 Ii [I Ii - a bit less than 1/3 mile] . . . . Here the oak forest gives way to pines, Pinus yunnanensis and Pinus Arman- di" [Na-khi, II, 344-345].
11. Thiers: Adolphe T. , 1797-1877, French statesman, journalist, legal adviser, and his- torian. He was a moderate liberal whose work in the journal National helped bring about the July Revolution of IS30 [104: passim]. During a long life, he seems to have been involved in all the major events of the century, in a way that led once to his arrest and exile. If Napoleon III had listened to him, history would have been different, as in the Franco-Prussian War of IS70, which he stronglY,opposed.
12. Simon: Jules S. , IS14-1S96, French statesman and philosopher and author of Le Gouvemement de M Thiers (2 vols. ), Paris, 187S. He taught at the Sorbonne (1839- IS52) but lost that job because he refused to swear allegiance to Louis Napoleon. From
IS63 to 1875 he served as deputy and then was made a senator for life. A much more liberal man than Thiers, his admission of something proposed by Thiers, for example in monetary reform of taxation, would be an endorsement of its good sense.
13. 4 letters . . . horses: The Mongol and Ming emperors, throughout "Eight Genera- tions of Na-khi Chiefs," held ceremonies in- vesting the chiefs with imperial power to govern. Documents and gifts, such as letters and seals, gold belts, and horses, were ex- changed. [CFT,Pai, 3-1,103].
14. Mr. Kennan: George K. , IS45-1924, American authority on Siberia, who from 1864 on was the romantic image of an ex- plorer and-through such books as Tent Lile in Siberia (1S70) and Siberia and the Exile System (1891)-an inspiration to the young.
15. 40 years . . . : Prob. reference to Ken- nan's life of travel.
16. (Del Pelo Pardi: Guilio Del Pelo Pardi, Italian anthropologist and agricultural engi- neer; author ofAgricoltura e civilta [Agricul- ture and civilization], 1923, and Per la pace del mondo [On the peace of the world], 1924. Pardi, who worked with Pound's son- in-law, Boris de Rachewiltz, discovered some ancient canals near Rome which he called "a perfectly engineered irrigation system" and said they "were far too old by many thou- sands of years to fit in with established chro- nology" [NS, Reading, III].
17. cunicoli: I, "subterranean passages. "
18. Peabody: Prob. a patient at St. Eliza- beths who was fond of saying, "to unscrew the inscrutable. " The Peabody Coke and Coal Co. is now called the Peabody Holding Co. , Inc. (301 N. Memorial Dr. , St. Louis M.
63102]. The president of the company writes that a search has not revealed any- body in the records by the name of Warren G.
19. "infini" . . . humaine": F, "endless . . . [is] human stupidity. "
20. Renan: Ernest R. ,. 1823-92, French his- torian and critic. Author of the 8-vol. His- toire des origines chn'stianisme, of which the shocking Vie de Jesus was the first volume.
21. one dollar's worth . . . : The sentence starts with Peabody and ends with this illus- tration of inscrutable stupidity [98/68S].
22. Talleyrand . . . : According to Mme. Remusat, Talleyrand spent some hours re- working the hastily penned details Napoleon had written regarding the peace he had agreed to with the emperors Alexander (Rus- sia) and Francis (Austria) after the battle of Austerlitz in IS05 [Memoirs, 304-305].
23. "90 francs . . . note": "Money become still more scarce; in fact, it attained such a price that . . . 1 had to pay ninety francs merely for obtaining gold for a thousand-franc bank-note" [Memoirs, 321].
24.