No More Learning

xvi THE LITERATURE OF HISTORY
The research of Germany and the brilliancy of France have not produced any masterpieces which can rank with those of Gibbon or Grote. But they have, of course, produced many excellent and even great contributions to history. Two among the Germans impress me as greater than the rest — Mommsen's Roman History, and Histories of Mediaeval Athens, and of Rome, by Gregorovius. Both are written with far more finish of style than is usual in Germany, and both are monuments of great and accurate learning. InMommsen's book this learning is as it were disguised by an absence of foot-notes, and still more by a certain petulance of style which suggests a mind prejudiced upon certain leading political questions. The suspicion thus raised by the style of this remark able book 1 may be confirmed by careful criticism of its authorities. On the other hand, a knowledge of Mommsen's special studies shows his gigantic power in gathering the materials for history. The greatest of all the predecessors of these men, Niebuhr, though the originator of a new method, was not great enough as a writer to maintain his position against modern competition. Yet hia successors, with the exception of Mommsen, are rather respectable than great as artists. Many of them are first-rate scholars, but that is not our business here.
As might be expected from a nation that produces such excellent prose, the French have given us a whole series of eminent historians, but it is perhaps the high level of their style that has hindered any one of them from holding any primacy over his fellows. Guizot, Taine, Thiers, Eenan, Montalembert, Henri Martin, and many others, have given us brilliant expositions of sundry periods in European history, but there is seldom absent from them that subjectivity which marks a Frenchman, and which mars his authority among other nations as a judge of historical
to style, an anxiety to say brilliant things, which rather dazzle the
evidence. There is also, in most of them, an over-attention
1 The English reader is fortunate in this case to have an unusually excellent English translation (that of Dr. Dickson) to his hand. The translation of Gregorovius' History of Some, which is now in progress, is not sufficiently known to me to warrant any opinion upon it.
THE LITERATURE OF HISTORY xvii
reader than illumine the subject in hand. Possibly any of them may be superseded more easily than de Tocqueville, whose studies on Democracy are, however, examples of political philosophy rather than of history.
But such generalities upon foreign historians are empty with out some fuller justification for the writer's impressions. Let us return to the English writers who have made the present century, and even the present generation, famous for its historical studies. There are two Americans who stand among our foremost —Motley, the historian of the great period of Dutch history, and Parkman, upon a smaller canvas, but with no inferior hand, portraying the long struggle of France and England for the possession of North America. In our own country two eminent men, who afford such marked contrasts as to invite comparison, have but lately passed from among us—Freeman and Froude. The latter was a great writer, and had moreover a brilliant imagination—that faculty which may mar a historian, though it is absolutely indispensable for his greatness. But though he has been convicted of many inaccuracies, his grasp and insight are so often true that I cannot but regard him as a far greater historian than his adversary and critic Freeman, who had greater talents for research, far greater accuracy in details, but a certain boorishness which will turn men away from him. He constantly displays his learning not only with pedantic pride, but asserts or implies the inferiority of other workers in the same field with insolence. He turns aside in his History of Greek Federations to write notes on Napoleon III. , which might have been written by V. Hugo. In spite, therefore, of his rugged learning, his large grasp of the whole world's history, his careful research, he will be forgotten when the brilliant and graceful Froude is still read, and still speaking to thousands where Freeman speaks to scores, just as the masters of the English people in history are Shakespeare and Walter Scott, rather than Bishop Stubbs or Sir John Seeley. For this is the extremest form of the contrast between the picturesque writer and the laborious investigator. It know, the rule among the students of the Research School to deny all merit or value as
VOL. II. —
2
is, I
xviii THE LITERATURE OF HISTORY
historians to imaginative writers. Nevertheless, I will maintain that ten thousand average people have got a general idea, and a true idea, of Louis XI. from Quentin Dunoard, or from N6tre Dame de Paris, for one who gets it by grubbing up the con temporary chronicles. It may be added that to interest the general public in historical reading is no small duty, and no small gain in our most modern civilisation.
Intermediate in position between Froude and Freeman, I put my two personal friends, Green and Lecky, who are probably the most popular writers of history that England has seen since the days of Gibbon. Green was carried off by disease, long before his work, under normal circumstances, would have ceased. Mr. Lecky is still a prominent figure in England, but rather as a politician than a historian, seeing that he exchanged the study for the Senate, and contemplative for practical life. He is not therefore likely to give us another book on history. His eight volumes on England in the Eighteenth Century would, however, in themselves be an ample record of his genius, even had they not been preceded by those remarkable volumes on the History of European Culture, which first made his name a household word throughout the Empire. It is indeed doubtful whether his graceful and finished style equals that of Froude, or whether his research that of Freeman ; but he combines qualities which they did not, and therefore may be classed above them by any independent critic. Perhaps it is impossible for any man to write as brilliantly as Froude, if he writes with judicial calmness, if he makes allowance for his opponents, and strives to be impartial in the midst of political controversies. Mr. Lecky's narrative is not like the rushing Aufidus, which carries away men and cattle with its sudden floods, but the peaceful Liris, wearing the banks with its quiet stream.
But though Mr. Lecky knows well the necessity of eloquence to make a history, he knows equally well how to subordinate it to his purpose. In his closing two volumes, which narrate the Irish Rebellion of 1798, his feeling that no one else was likely to go through the evidence again, made him abandon the beauty of his work, for the purpose of giving us a digest of all the most trust
THE LITERATURE OF HISTORY xix
worthy contemporary evidence in the very words of his authorities. Thus these inestimable volumes give us little more than a catalogue of extracts, gathered and set forth with modest, and therefore more admirable, skill and care. And therefore they may fairly be judged as specimens of his research, not of his style, unless it be to show that he is no slave to style, and can lay it aside for higher purposea Yet had his whole book been of the same quality, it would have been read by students only and not by men and women of the world.
John Richard Green was a brilliant man of another type, and his single volume on the growth and education of the English people, the Volksgeist of England, at once attained, and has maintained exceptional popularity. But as this book is not upon the large scale of Lecky's Eighteenth Centwry, so it shows traces of less care ful research. His accounts, for example, of military operations are manifestly perfunctory, and convey no real comprehension to the reader. He could never have described a battle as Sir G. Trevelyan (who might have stood among our foremost historians, but for the distractions of party politics) has recently described the battle of Bunker's HilL On the other hand, his accounts of popular move ments, for example the revulsion of the people from the Protec torate to the old Eoyalty, are as brilliant as anything we have in English historical literature.
There is no place in this essay given to political philosophy —to the history of ideas apart from their historical setting, such as the works of Mr. Lecky above mentioned. But I will not lay down my pen without saying that in one of them — Buckle's huge fragment of a huge conception on the civilisation of Europe —I found more stimulus, more suggestion, more incitement to think and to study than in any other book of its day ; nor do I know any work which can perfectly replace it in the spiritual education of a historian. This is but a personal confession ; other men may have been incited by other causes, to whom Buckle might not have been palatable. Green was turned to think of history, by the accident that when a boy he was shaken by the hand, in obtaining a prize, by an old President of Magdalen, who said to him : " Remember
XX THE LITERATURE OF HISTORY
that the hand you now shake, was shaken by the great Doctor Johnson. " And other men have been determined by other accidents, apparently trivial, which awoke in them a dormant faculty. If I may mention mine own case, it was the freedom from all school work, a want of sufficient occupation, and the chance of stumbling upon Grote's Greece, which set me, at the age of fourteen, to the study of classical history, and yet Grote possessed neither the imagination nor the eloquence which would impress a childish reader. Both these qualities are there, but in their transformed condition of clearness in complicated descriptions, impressiveness in giving political lessons, and a certain general dignity which no small man can ever attain. Other men have other tastes and other favourites; but history affords types and varieties to please every kind of higher intelligence, for is it not, as Cicero eloquently describes it : testis temporum, lux veritatis, vita memoriae, magistra vitae, nuntia vetustatis t
HYPERION. By JOHN KEATS.
[Johs Keats : An English poet, sometimes called " The Poets' Poet "; born at Moorsfield, London, October 31, 1795 ; died at Rome, Italy, February 23, 1821. His first poem, " Endymion," was issued when he was twenty-three. It has beautiful passages, but the story is very difficult to follow, and is mainly a vehicle for luscious verbal music. Its promise was more than fulfilled in his second volume, published in 1820, and containing many noble sonnets, the im mortal "Ode on a Grecian Urn," "The Eve of St. Agnes," etc. His highest flight was reached in the sublime " Hyperion," but he had no constructive im agination and let it drop after the first canto. He had enormous effect on the coming poets of his time, and Tennyson was his thoroughgoing disciple. The " Love Letters to Fanny Brawne " appeared in 1878 ; his " Letters to his Family and Friends" in 1891. ]
Book I.
Deep in the shady sadness of a vale
Far sunken from the healthy breath of morn,
Far from the fiery noon, and eve's one star,
Sat gray-haired Saturn, quiet as a stone,
Still as the silence round about his lair ;
Forest on forest hung about his head
Like cloud on cloud. No stir of air was there, Not so much life as on a summer's day
Robs not one light seed from the feathered grass, But where the dead leaf fell, there did it rest.
A stream went voiceless by, still deadened more By reason of his fallen divinity
Spreading a shade : the Naiad 'mid her reeds Pressed her cold finger closer to her lips.
Along the margin sand large footmarks went, No further than to where his feet had strayed,
21
HYPERION.
And slept there since. Upon the sodden ground His old right hand lay nerveless, listless, dead, Unsceptered ; and his realmless eyes were closed ; While his bowed head seemed list'ning to the Earth, His ancient mother, for some comfort yet.
It seemed no force could wake him from his place ; But there came one, who with a kindred hand
Touched his wide shoulders, after bending low
With reverence, though to one who knew it not.
She was a Goddess of the infant world ;
By her in stature the tall Amazon
Had stood a pygmy's height : she would have ta'en Achilles by the hair and bent his neck ;
Or with a finger stayed Ixion's wheel.
Her face was large as that of Memphian sphinx, Pedestaled haply in a palace court,
When sages looked to Egypt for their lore.
But oh ! how unlike marble was that face :
How beautiful, if sorrow had not made
Sorrow more beautiful than Beauty's self.
There was a listening fear in her regard,
As if calamity had but begun 5
As if the vanward clouds of evil days
Had spent their malice, and the sullen rear
Was with its stored thunder laboring up.
One hand she pressed upon that aching spot
Where beats the human heart, as if just there,
Though an immortal, she felt cruel pain :
The other upon Saturn's bended neck
She laid, and to the level of his ear
Leaning with parted lips, some words she spake
In solemn tenor and deep organ tone :
Some mourning words, which in our feeble tongue Would come in these like accents ; O how frail
To that large utterance of the early Gods !
" Saturn, look up ! — though wherefore, poor old King ? I have no comfort for thee, no not one :
I cannot say, ' O wherefore sleepest thou ? '
For heaven is parted from thee, and the earth
Knows thee not, thus afflicted, for a God ;
And ocean too, with all its solemn noise,
Has from thy scepter passed ; and all the air
Is emptied of thine hoary majesty.
HYPERION.
Thy thunder, conscious of the new command, Rumbles reluctant o'er our fallen house ;
And thy sharp lightning in unpracticed hands Scorches and burns our once serene domain.
O aching time ! O moments big as years !
All as ye pass swell out the monstrous truth, And press it so upon our weary griefs
That unbelief has not a space to breathe. Saturn, sleep on : — O thoughtless, why did I Thus violate thy slumbrous solitude?
Why should I ope thy melancholy eyes? Saturn, sleep on! while at thy feet I weep. "
As when, upon a tranced summer night,
Those green-robed senators of mighty woods,
Tall oaks, branch-charmed by the earnest stars, Dream, and so dream all night without a stir, Save from one gradual solitary gust
Which comes upon the silence, and dies off,
As if the ebbing air had but one wave ;
So came these words and went; the while in tears She touched her fair large forehead to the ground, Just where her falling hair might be outspread
A soft and silken mat for Saturn's feet.
One moon, with alteration slow, had shed
Her silver seasons four upon the night,
And still these two were postured motionless, Like natural sculpture in cathedral cavern;
The frozen God still couchant on the earth,
And the sad Goddess weeping at his feet :
Until at length old Saturn lifted up
His faded eyes, and saw his kingdom gone,
And all the gloom and sorrow of the place,
And that fair kneeling Goddess ; and then spake, As with a palsied tongue, and while his beard Shook horrid with such aspen malady : —
" O tender spouse of gold Hyperion,
Thea, I feel thee ere I see thy face ;
Look up, and let me see our doom in it;
Look up, and tell me if this feeble shape
Is Saturn's; tell me, if thou hear'st the voice
Of Saturn ; tell me, if this wrinkling brow, Naked and bare of its great diadem,
Peers like the front of Saturn. Who had power
HYPERION.
To make me desolate? whence came the strength? How was it nurtured to such bursting forth,
While Fate seemed strangled in my nervous grasp? But it is so ; and I am smothered up,
And buried from all godlike exercise
Of influence benign on planets pale,
Of admonitions to the winds and seas,
Of peaceful sway above man's harvesting, And all those acts which Deity supreme Doth ease its heart of love in. — I am gone
I have left
Away from my own bosom :
My strong identity, my real self,
Somewhere between the throne, and where I sit
Here on this spot of earth. Search, Thea, search! Open thine eyes eterne, and sphere them round
Upon all space: space starred, and lorn of light;
Space regioned with life air; and barren void;
Spaces of fire, and all the yawn of hell. —
Search, Thea, search ! and tell me, if thou seest
A certain shape or shadow, making way
With wings or chariot fierce to repossess
A heaven he lost erewhile : it must — it must
Be of ripe progress — Saturn must be King.
Yes, there must be a golden victory;
There must be Gods thrown down, and trumpets blown Of triumph calm, and hymns of festival
Upon the gold clouds metropolitan,
Voices of soft proclaim, and silver stir
Of strings in hollow shells ; and there shall be Beautiful things made new, for the surprise
Of the sky children; I will give command:
Thea! Thea! Thea! where is Saturn? "
This passion lifted him upon his feet,
And made his hands to struggle in the air,
His Druid locks to shake and ooze with sweat, His eyes to fever out, his voice to cease.
He stood, and heard not Thea's sobbing deep;
A little time, and then again he snatched Utterance thus. — "But cannot I create?
Cannot I form? Cannot I fashion forth
Another world, another universe,
To overbear and crumble this to naught?
Where is another chaos? Where? " — That word Found way unto Olympus, and made quake
HYPERION.
The rebel three. — Thea was startled up,
And in her bearing was a sort of hope,
As thus she quick-voiced spake, yet full of awe.
" This cheers our fallen house : come to our friends, O Saturn! come away, and give them heart;
1 know the covert, for thence came I hither. "
Thus brief; then with beseeching eyes she went
With backward footing through the shade a space :
He followed, and she turned to lead the way
Through aged boughs, that yielded like the mist Which eagles cleave upmounting from their nest.
Meanwhile in other realms big tears were shed, More sorrow like to this, and such like woe,
Too huge for mortal tongue or pen of scribe :
The Titans fierce, self -hid, or prison-bound, Groaned for the old allegiance once more,
And listened in sharp pain for Saturn's voice. But one of the whole mammoth-brood still kept His sov'reignty, and rule, and majesty; — Blazing Hyperion on his orbed fire
Still sat, still snuffed the incense, teeming up From man to the sun's God ; yet unsecure :
For as among us mortals omens drear
Fright and perplex, so also shuddered he —
Not at dog's howl, or gloom bird's hated screech, Or the familiar visiting of one
Upon the first toll of his passing bell,
Or prophesyings of the midnight lamp;
But horrors, portioned to a giant nerve,
Oft made Hyperion ache. His palace bright Bastioned with pyramids of glowing gold,
And touched with shade of bronzed obelisks,
Glared a blood-red through all its thousand courts, Arches, and domes, and fiery galleries;
And all its curtains of Aurorian clouds
Flushed angerly : while sometimes eagle's wings, Unseen before by Gods or wondering men,
Darkened the place; and neighing steeds were heard, Not heard before by Gods or wondering men.
Also, when he would taste the spicy wreaths
Of incense, breathed aloft from sacred hills,
Instead of sweets, his ample palate took
Savor of poisonous brass and metal sick :
And so, when harbored in the sleepy west,
HYPERION.
After the full completion of fair day, —
For rest divine upon exalted couch
And slumber in the arms of melody,
He paced away the pleasant hours of ease
With stride colossal, on from hall to hall ;
While far within each aisle and deep recess,
His winged minions in close clusters stood,
Amazed and full of fear; like anxious men
Who on wide plains gather in panting troops,
When earthquakes jar their battlements and towers. Even now, while Saturn, roused from icy trance, Went step for step with Thea through the woods, Hyperion, leaving twilight in the rear,
Came slope upon the threshold of the west; Then, as was wont, his palace door flew ope
In smoothest silence, save what solemn tubes, Blown by the serious Zephyrs, gave of sweet And wandering sounds, slow-breathed melodies; And like a rose in vermeil tint and shape,
In fragrance soft, and coolness to the eye, That inlet to severe magnificence
Stood full blown, for the God to enter in.
He entered, but he entered full of wrath;
His flaming robes streamed out beyond his heels, And gave a roar, as if of earthly fire,
That scared away the meek ethereal Hours
And made their dove wings tremble. On he flared, From stately nave to nave, from vault to vault, Through bowers of fragrant and enwreathed light, And diamond-paved lustrous long arcades,
Until he reached the great main cupola;
There standing fierce beneath, he stampt his foot, And from the basements deep to the high towers Jarred his own golden region; and before
The quavering thunder thereupon had ceased,
His voice leapt out, despite of godlike curb,
To this result: "O dreams of day and night!
O monstrous forms! O effigies of pain!
O specters busy in a cold, cold gloom !
O lank-eared Phantoms of black-weeded pools ! Why do I know ye? why have I seen ye? why
Is my eternal essence thus distraught
To see and to behold these horrors new?
Saturn is fallen, am I too to fall?
Am I to leave this haven of my rest,
HYPERION.
This cradle of my glory, this soft clime, This calm luxuriance of blissful light,
These crystalline pavilions, and pure fanes, Of all my lucent empire? It is left Deserted, void, nor any haunt of mine.
The blaze, the splendor, and the symmetry,
I cannot see — but darkness, death and darkness. Even here, into my center of repose,
The shady visions come to domineer,
Insult, and blind, and stifle up my pomp. —
Fall! — No, by Tellus and her briny robes!
Over the fiery frontier of my realms
I will advance a terrible right arm
Shall scare that infant thunderer, rebel Jove,
And bid old Saturn take his throne again. " —
He spake, and ceased, the while a heavier threat Held struggle with his throat but came not forth ; For as in theaters of crowded men " " Hubbub increases more they call out Hush !
So at Hyperion's words the Phantoms pale
Bestirred themselves, thrice horrible and cold;
And from the mirrored level where he stood
A mist arose, as from a scummy marsh.
At this, through all his bulk an agony
Crept gradual, from the feet unto the crown,
Like a lithe serpent vast and muscular
Making slow way, with head and neck convulsed From overstrained might. Released, he fled
To the eastern gates, and full six dewy hours
Before the dawn in season due should blush,
He breathed fierce breath against the sleepy portals, Cleared them of heavy vapors, burst them wide Suddenly on the ocean's chilly streams.
The planet orb of fire, whereon he rode
Each day from east to west the heavens through, Spun round in sable curtaining of clouds ;
Not therefore veiled quite, blindfold, and hid, But ever and anon the glancing spheres,
Circles, and arcs, and broad-belting colure,
Glowed through, and wrought upon the muffling dark Sweet-shaped lightnings from the nadir deep
Up to the zenith, — hieroglyphics old,
Which sages and keen-eyed astrologers
Then living on the earth, with laboring thought
Won from the gaze of many centuries :
HYPERION.
Now lost, save what we find on remnants huge
Of stone, or marble swart; their import gone,
Their wisdom long since fled. — Two wings this orb Possessed for glory, two fair argent wings,
Ever exalted at the God's approach :
And now, from forth the gloom their plumes immense Kose, one by one, till all outspreaded were;
While still the dazzling globe maintained eclipse, Awaiting for Hyperion's command.
Fain would he have commanded, fain took throne
And bid the day begin, if but for change.
He might not : — No, though a primeval God :
The sacred seasons might not be disturbed.
Therefore the operations of the dawn
Stayed in their birth, even as here 'tis told.
Those silver wings expanded sisterly,
Eager to sail their orb; the porches wide
Opened upon the dusk demesnes of night;
And the bright Titan, frenzied with new woes,
Unused to bend, by hard compulsion bent
His spirit to the sorrow of the time;
And all along a dismal rack of clouds,
Upon the boundaries of day and night,
He stretched himself in grief and radiance faint.
There as he lay, the Heaven with its stars
Looked down on him with pity, and the voice
Of Coelus, from the universal space,
Thus whispered low and solemn in his ear.
" O brightest of my children dear, earth-born
And sky -en gendered, Son of Mysteries
All unrevealed even to the powers
Which met at thy creating; at whose joys
And palpitations sweet, and pleasures soft,
I, Coelus, wonder, how they came and whence ;
And at the fruits thereof what shapes they be, Distinct, and visible; symbols divine,
Manifestations of that beauteous life
Diffused unseen throughout eternal space :
Of these new-formed art thou, O brightest child!
Of these, thy brethren and the Goddesses !
There is sad feud among ye, and rebellion
Of son against his sire. I saw him fall,
I saw my first-born tumbled from his throne !
To me his arms were spread, to me his voice
Found way from forth the thunders round his head !
"WHEN THE HOUNDS OF SPRING — "
Pale wox I, and in vapors hid my face.
Art thou, too, near such doom? vague fear there is: For I have seen my sons most unlike Gods.
Divine ye were created, and divine
In sad demeanor, solemn, undisturbed,
Unruffled, like high Gods, ye lived and ruled :
Now I behold in you fear, hope, and wrath;
Actions of rage and passion; even as
I see them, on the mortal world beneath, Inmenwhodie. —Thisisthegrief, OSon!
Sad sign of ruin, sudden dismay, and fall !
Yet do thou strive; as thou art capable,
As thou canst move about, an evident God ;
And canst oppose to each malignant hour
Ethereal presence: — I am but a voice;
My life is but the life of winds and tides,
No more than winds and tides can I avail : —
But thou canst. — Be thou therefore in the van
Of circumstance; yea, seize the arrow's barb
Before the tense string murmur. — To the earth! For there thou wilt find Saturn, and his woes. Meantime I will keep watch on thy bright sun,
And of thy seasons be a careful nurse. " —
Ere half this region whisper had come down, Hyperion arose, and on the stars
Lifted his curved lids, and kept them wide
Until it ceased; and still he kept them wide:
And still they were the same bright, patient stars. Then with a slow incline of his broad breast,
Like to a diver in the pearly seas,
Forward he stooped over the airy shore,
And plunged all noiseless into the deep night.
"WHEN THE HOUNDS OF SPRING — " By ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE.
(Chorus from " Atalanta in Calydon. ")
29
[Algernon Charles Swinburne, English poet and essayist, grandson of the third Earl of Ashburnham, was born April 5, 1837, in London. He was educated at Balliol College, Oxford, and spent some time with Walter Savage Landor in Florence. His first works were two plays, "The Queen Mother" and "Rosamund. " "Atalanta in Calydon" came next. His "Poems and
30 "WHEN THE HOUNDS OF SPRING — "
Ballads" of 1866 were withdrawn from circulation on account of the uproar raised by their eroticism. His later volumes have been too many to detail here. He is considered one of the foremost of English poets in mastery of form and melodic effect. ]
When the hounds of Spring are on Winter's traces, The Mother of Months in meadow or plain
Fills the shadows and windy places
With lisp of leaves and ripple of rain ;
And the brown bright nightingale amorous
Is half assuaged for Itylus,
For the Thracian ships and the foreign faces, The tongueless vigil, and all the pain.
Come, with bows bent and with emptying of quivers, Maiden most perfect! Lady of Light I
With a noise of winds and many rivers,
With a clamor of waters, and with might :
Bind on thy sandals, O Thou most fleet !
Over the splendor and speed of thy feet :
For the faint East quickens, the wan West shivers, Round the feet of the Day and the feet of the Night
Where shall we find her ? how shall we sing to her, Fold our hands round her knees, and cling ?
O that man's heart were as fire and could spring to her, Fire, or the strength of the streams that spring !
For the stars and the winds are unto her
As raiment, as songs of the harp player :
For the risen stars and the fallen cling to her,
And the Southwest Wind and the West Wind sing.
For Winter's rains and ruins are over, And all the season of snows and sins ;
The days dividing lover and lover;
The light that loses, the night that wins ; And time remembered is grief forgotten ; And frosts are slain, and flowers begotten ; And in green underwood and cover Blossom by blossom the Spring begins.
The full streams feed on flower of rushes ; Ripe grasses trammel a traveling foot ;
The faint fresh flame of the young year flushes From leaf to flower and flower to fruit ;
THE GOLDEN FLEECE. 31
And fruit and leaf are as gold and fire ; And the oat is heard above the lyre ; And the hoofed heel of a satyr crushes The chestnut husk at the chestnut root.
And Pan by noon, and Bacchus by night, Fleeter of foot than the fleet-foot kid, Follows with dancing, and fills with delight The Maenad and the Bassarid ;
And, soft as lips that laugh and hide,
The laughing leaves of the trees divide, And screen from seeing and leave in sight The God pursuing, the Maiden hid.
The ivy falls with the Bacchanal's hair
Over her eyebrows, hiding her eyes ;
The wild vine slipping down leaves bare
Her bright breast shortening into sighs ;
The wild vine slips with the weight of its leaves, But the berried ivy catches and cleaves
To the limbs that glitter, the feet that scare The wolf that follows, the fawn that flies.
THE GOLDEN FLEECE. By NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE.
[Nathawtbl Hawthokitb: American story-writer; born at Salem, Mass. , July 4, 1804 ; died at Plymouth, N. H. , May 19, 1864. His official positions, in the customhouse at Salem and as United States consul at Liverpool, furnished him with many opportunities for the study of human nature. His literary popularity was of slow growth, but was founded on the eternal verities. His most famous novels are " The Scarlet Letter" (1850), "The House of the Seven Gables" (1851), "The Blithedale Romance " (1852), "The Marble Faun "(1860), " Septimius Felton," posthumous. He wrote a great number of short stories, Inimitable in style and full of weird imagination. "Twice told Tales," first series appeared in 1837 ; "The Snow Image and Other Twice-told Tales," in 1852; "Tanglewood Tales," in 1853. ]
When Jason, the son of the dethroned king of Iolchos, was a little boy, he was sent away from his parents, and placed under the queerest schoolmaster that ever you heard of. This learned person was one of the people, or quadrupeds, called
32 THE GOLDEN FLEECE.
Centaurs. He lived in a cavern, and had the body and legs of a white horse, with the head and shoulders of a man. His name was Chiron ; and, in spite of his odd appearance, he was a very excellent teacher, and had several scholars, who after wards did him credit by making a great figure in the world. The famous Hercules was one, and so was Achilles, and Phi- loctetes, likewise, and jEsculapius, who acquired immense re pute as a doctor. The good Chiron taught his pupils how to play upon the harp, and how to cure diseases, and how to use the sword and shield, together with various other branches of education in which the lads of those days used to be instructed, instead of writing and arithmetic.
I have sometimes suspected that Master Chiron was not really very different from other people, but that, being a kind- hearted and merry old fellow, he was in the habit of making believe that he was a horse, and scrambling about the school room on all fours, and letting the little boys ride upon his back. And so, when his scholars had grown up, and grown old, and were trotting their grandchildren on their knees, they told them about the sports of their school days ; and these young folks took the idea that their grandfathers had been taught their letters by a Centaur, half man and half horse. Little children, not quite understanding what is said to them, often get such absurd notions into their heads, you know.
Be that as it may, it has always been told for a fact (and always will be told, as long as the world lasts), that Chiron, with the head of a schoolmaster, had the body and legs of a horse. Just imagine the grave old gentleman clattering and stamping into the schoolroom on his four hoofs, perhaps tread ing on some little fellow's toes, flourishing his switch tail instead of a rod, and, now and then, trotting out of doors to eat a mouthful of grass !
I wonder what the blacksmith charged him for a set of iron shoes.
So Jason dwelt in the cave, with this four-footed Chiron, from the time that he was an infant, only a few months old, until he had grown to the full height of a man. He became a very good harper, I suppose, and skillful in the use of weapons, and tolerably acquainted with herbs and other doctor's stuff, and, above all, an admirable horseman ; for, in teaching young people to ride, the good Chiron must have been without a rival among schoolmasters. At length, being now a tall and athletic youth, Jason resolved to seek his fortune in the world, without
THE GOLDEN FLEECE. 38
asking Chiron's advice, or telling him anything about the mat ter. This was very unwise, to be sure ; and I hope none of you, my little hearers, will ever follow Jason's example. But, you are to understand, he had heard how that he himself was a prince royal, and how his father, King iEson, had been de prived of the kingdom of Iolchos by a certain Pelias, who would also have killed Jason, had he not been hidden in the Centaur's cave. And, being come to the strength of a man, Jason determined to set all this business to rights, and to punish the wicked Pelias for wronging his dear father, and to cast him down from the throne, and seat himself there instead.
With this intention, he took a spear in each hand, and threw a leopard's skin over his shoulders, to keep off the rain, and set forth on his travels, with his long yellow ringlets waving in the wind. The part of his dress on which he most prided himself was a pair of sandals, that had been his father's. They were handsomely embroidered, and were tied upon his feet with strings of gold. But his whole attire was such as people did not very often see ; and as he passed along, the women and children ran to the doors and windows, wondering whither this beautiful youth was journeying, with his leopard's skin and his golden-tied sandals, and what heroic deeds he meant to perform, with a spear in his right hand and another in his left.
I know not how far Jason had traveled, when he came to a turbulent river, which rushed right across his pathway, with specks of white foam among its black eddies, hurrying tumultu- ously onward, and roaring angrily as it went. Though not a very broad river in the dry seasons of the year, it was now swollen by heavy rains and by the melting of the snow on the sides of Mount Olympus ; and it thundered so loudly, and looked so wild and dangerous, that Jason, bold as he was, thought it prudent to pause upon the brink. The bed of the stream seemed to be strewn with sharp and rugged rocks, some of which thrust themselves above the water. By and by, an uprooted tree, with shattered branches, came drifting along the current, and got entangled among the rocks. Now and then, a drowned sheep, and once the carcass of a cow, floated past.
In short, the swollen river had already done a great deal of mischief. It was evidently too deep for Jason to wade, and too boisterous for him to swim ; he could see no bridge ; and as for a boat, had there been any, the rocks would have broken it to pieces in an instant.
vol. n. — 3
34 THE GOLDEN FLEECE.
" See the poor lad," said a cracked voice close to his side. " He must have had but a poor education, since he does not know how to cross a little stream like this. Or is he afraid of wetting his fine golden-stringed sandals ? It is a pity his four- footed schoolmaster is not here to carry him safely across on his back ! "
Jason looked round greatly surprised, for he did not know that anybody was near. But beside him stood an old woman, with a ragged mantle over her head, leaning on a staff, the top of which was carved into the shape of a cuckoo. She looked very aged, and wrinkled, and infirm ; and yet her eyes, which were as brown as those of an ox, were so extremely large and beautiful, that, when they were fixed on Jason's eyes, he could see nothing else but them. The old woman had a pomegranate in her hand, although the fruit was then quite out of season.
" Whither are you going, Jason ? " she now asked.
She seemed to know his name, you will observe ; and, indeed, those great brown eyes looked as if they had a knowledge of everything, whether past or to come. While Jason was gazing at her, a peacock strutted forward and took his stand at the old woman's side.
" I am going to Iolchos," answered the young man, " to bid the wicked King Pelias come down from my father's throne, and let me reign in his stead. "
" Ah, well, then," said the old woman, still with the same cracked voice, " if that is all your business, you need not be in a very great hurry. Just take me on your back, there's a good youth, and carry me across the river. I and my pea cock have something to do on the other side, as well as your self. "
" Good mother," replied Jason, " your business can hardly be so important as the pulling down a king from his throne. Besides, as you may see for yourself, the river is very bois terous ; and if I should chance to stumble, it would sweep both of us away more easily than it has carried off yonder uprooted tree. I would gladly help you if I could ; but I doubt whether I am strong enough to carry you across. "
" Then," said she, very scornfully, " neither are you strong enough to pull King Pelias off his throne. And, Jason, unless you will help an old woman at her need, you ought not to be a king. What are kings made for, save to succor the feeble and distressed? But do as you please. Either take me on
THE GOLDEN FLEECE. 35
your back, or with my poor old limbs I shall try my best to struggle across the stream. "
Saying this, the old woman poked with her staff in the river, as if to find the safest place in its rocky bed where she might make the first step. But Jason, by this time, had grown ashamed of his reluctance to help her. He felt that he could never forgive himself, if this poor feeble creature should come to any harm in attempting to wrestle against the headlong current. The good Chiron, whether half horse or no, had taught him that the noblest use of his strength was to assist the weak ; and also that he must treat every young woman as if she were his sister, and every old one like a mother. Remembering these maxims, the vigorous and beau tiful young man knelt down, and requested the good dame to mount upon his back.
"The passage seems to me not very safe," he remarked. " But as your business is so urgent, I will try to carry you across. If the river sweeps you away, it shall take me too. "
" That, no doubt, will be a great comfort to both of us," quoth the old woman. "But never fear. We shall get safely across. "
So she threw her arms around Jason's neck ; and lifting her from the ground, he stepped boldly into the raging and foamy current, and began to stagger away from the shore. As for the peacock, it alighted on the old dame's shoulder. Jason's two spears, one in each hand, kept him from stumbling, and enabled him to feel his way among the hidden rocks ; although, every instant, he expected that his companion and himself would go down the stream, together with the driftwood of shattered trees, and the carcasses of the sheep and cow. Down came the cold, snowy torrent from the steep side of Olympus, raging and thundering as if it had a real spite against Jason, or, at all events, were determined to snatch off his living burden from his shoulders. When he was halfway across, the uprooted tree (which I have already told you about) broke loose from among the rocks, and bore down upon him, with all its splintered branches sticking out like the hundred arms of the giant Briareus. It rushed past, however, without touching him. But the next moment, his foot was caught in a crevice between two rocks, and stuck there so fast, that, in the effort to get free, he lost one of his golden-stringed
sandals.
36 THE GOLDEN FLEECE.
At this accident Jason could not help uttering a cry of
vexation. "
" What is the matter, Jason ?
" Matter enough," said the young man. " I have lost a san
dal here among the rocks. And what sort of a figure shall I cut at the court of King Pelias, with a golden-stringed sandal on one foot, and the other foot bare ! "
" Do not take it to heart," answered his companion, cheerily. " You never met with better fortune than in losing that sandal. It satisfies me that you are the very person whom the Speaking Oak has been talking about. "
There was no time, just then, to inquire what the Speaking Oak had said. But the briskness of her tone encouraged the young man ; and besides, he had never in his life felt so vigor ous and mighty as since taking this old woman on his back. Instead of being exhausted, he gathered strength as he went on ; and, struggling up against the torrent, he at last gained the opposite shore, clambered up the bank, and set down the old dame and her peacock safely on the grass. As soon as this was done, however, he could not help looking rather despond ently at his bare foot, with only a remnant of the golden string of the sandal clinging round his ankle.
asked the old woman.
" You will get a handsomer pair of sandals by and by," said the old woman, with a kindly look out of her beautiful brown eyes. " Only let King Pelias get a glimpse of that bare foot, and you shall see him turn as pale as ashes, I promise you. There is your path. Go along, my good Jason, and my bless ing go with you. And when you sit on your throne, remem ber the old woman whom you helped over the river. "
With these words, she hobbled away, giving him a smile over her shoulder as she departed. Whether the light of her beautiful brown eyes threw a glory round about her, or what ever the cause might be, Jason fancied that there was some thing very noble and majestic in her figure, after all, and that, though her gait seemed to be a rheumatic hobble, yet she moved with as much grace and dignity as any queen on earth. Her peacock, which had now fluttered down from her shoulder, strutted behind her in prodigious pomp, and spread out its magnificent tail on purpose for Jason to admire it.
When the old dame and her peacock were out of sight, Jason set forward on his journey. After traveling a pretty long distance, he came to a town situated at the foot of a moun
THE GOLDEN FLEECE.
87
tain, and not a great way from the shore of the sea. On the outside of the town there was an immense crowd of people, not only men and women, but children, too, all in their best clothes, and evidently enjoying a holiday. The crowd was thickest towards the seashore ; and in that direction, over the people's heads, Jason saw a wreath of smoke curling upward to the blue sky. He inquired of one of the multitude what town it was, near by, and why so many persons were here assembled together.
" This is the kingdom of Iolchos," answered the man, " and we are the subjects of King Pelias. Our monarch has sum moned us together, that we may see him sacrifice a black bull to Neptune, who, they say, is his Majesty's father. Yonder is the king, where you see the smoke going up from the altar. "
While the man spoke he eyed Jason with great curiosity ; for his garb was quite unlike that of the Iolchians, and it looked very odd to see a youth with a leopard's skin over his shoulders, and each hand grasping a spear. Jason perceived, too, that the man stared particularly at his feet, one of which, you remem ber, was bare, while the other was decorated with his father's golden-stringed sandal. "
"Look at him ! only look at him !
next neighbor. " Do you see ? He wears but one sandal ! "
Upon this, first one person, and then another, began to stare at Jason, and everybody seemed to be greatly struck with some thing in his aspect ; though they turned their eyes much oftener towards his feet than to any other part of his figure. Besides, he could hear them whispering to one another.
" One sandal ! One sandal ! " they kept saying. " The man with one sandal ! Here he is at last ! Whence has he come ? What does he mean to do ? What will the king say to the one-sandaled man ? "
Poor Jason was greatly abashed, and made up his mind that the people of Iolchos were exceedingly ill bred, to take such pub lic notice of an accidental deficiency in his dress. Meanwhile, whether it were that they hustled him forward, or that Jason, of his own accord, thrust a passage through the crowd, it so happened that he soon found himself close to the smoking altar, where King Pelias was sacrificing the black bull. The mur mur and hum of the multitude, in their surprise at the spectacle of Jason with his one bare foot, grew so loud that it disturbed the ceremonies ; and the king, holding the great knife with
said the man to his
38 THE GOLDEN FLEECE.
which he was just going to cut the bull's throat, turned angrily about, and fixed his eyes on Jason. The people had now with drawn from around him, so that the youth stood in an open space near the smoking altar, front to front with the angry King Pelias. "
" Who are you ?
" And how dare you make this disturbance, while I am sacri ficing a black bull to my father Neptune ? "
cried the king, with a terrible frown.
" It is no fault of mine," answered Jason. " Your Majesty must blame the rudeness of your subjects, who have raised all this tumult because one of my feet happens to be bare. "
When Jason said this, the king gave a quick, startled glance down at his feet.
" Ha ! " muttered he, " here is the" one-sandaled fellow, sure enough ! What can I do with him ?
And he clutched more closely the great knife in his hand, as if he were half a mind to slay Jason instead of the black bull. The people round about caught up the king's words indistinctly as they were uttered ; and first there was a murmur among them, and then a loud shout.
" The one-sandaled man has come ! The prophecy must be fulfilled ! "
For you are to know that, many years before, King Pelias had been told by the Speaking Oak of Dodona, that a man with one sandal should cast him down from his throne. On this account, he had given strict orders that nobody should ever come into his presence, unless both sandals were securely tied upon his feet ; and he kept an officer in his palace, whose sole business it was to examine people's sandals, and to supply them with a new pair, at the expense of the royal treasury, as soon as the old ones began to wear out. In the whole course of the king's reign, he had never been thrown into such a fright and agitation as by the spectacle of poor Jason's bare foot. But, as he was naturally a bold and hard-hearted man, he soon took courage, and began to consider in what way he might rid himself of this terrible one-sandaled stranger.
" My good young man," said King Pelias, taking the softest tone imaginable, in order to throw Jason off his guard, " you are excessively welcome to my kingdom. Judging by your dress, you must have traveled a long distance; for it is not the fashion to wear leopard skins in this part of the world. Pray what may I call your name ? and where did you receive your education ? "
THE GOLDEN FLEECE. 39
" My name is Jason," answered the young stranger. " Ever since my infancy, I have dwelt in the cave of Chiron the Centaur. He was my instructor, and taught me music, and horsemanship, and how to cure wounds, and likewise how to inflict wounds with my weapons ! "
" I have heard of Chiron the schoolmaster," replied King Pelias, " and how that there is an immense deal of learning and wisdom in his head, although it happens to be set on a horse's body. It gives me great delight to see one of his scholars at my court. But, to test how much you have profited under so excellent a teacher, will you allow me to ask you a single question ? "
" I do not pretend to be very wise," said Jason. " But ask me what you please, and I will answer to the best of my ability. "
Now King Pelias meant cunningly to entrap the young man, and to make him say something that should be the cause of mischief and destruction to himself. So with a crafty and evil smile upon his face, he spoke as follows : —
"What would you do, brave Jason," asked he, "if there were a man in the world, by whom, as you had reason to believe, you were doomed to be ruined and slain, — what would you do,"I say, if that man stood before you, and in your power ?
When Jason saw the malice and wickedness which King Pelias could not prevent from gleaming out of his eyes, he probably guessed that the king had discovered what he came for, and that he intended to turn his own words against him self. Still he scorned to tell a falsehood. Like an upright and honorable prince, as he was, he determined to speak out the real truth. Since the king had chosen to ask him the question, and since Jason had promised him an answer, there was no right way, save to tell him precisely what would be the most prudent thing to do, if he had his worst enemy in his power.
Therefore, after a moment's consideration, he spoke up, with a firm and manly voice.
" I would send such a man," said he, " in quest of the Golden Fleece ! "
This enterprise, you will understand, was, of all others, the most difficult and dangerous in the world. In the first place, it would be necessary to make a long voyage through unknown seas. There was hardly a hope, or a possibility, that any young
40 THE GOLDEN FLEECE.
man who should undertake this voyage would either succeed in obtaining the Golden Fleece, or would survive to return home and tell of the perils he had run. The eyes of King Pelias sparkled with joy, therefore, when he heard Jason's reply. "
"Well said, wise man with the one sandal !
"Go, then, and, at the peril of your life, bring me back the Golden Fleece. "
" I go," answered Jason, composedly. " If I fail, you need not fear that I will ever come back to trouble you again. But if I return to Iolchos with the prize, then, King Pelias, you must hasten down from your lofty throne, and give me your crown and scepter. "
" That I will," said the king, with a sneer. " Meantime, I will keep them very safely for you. "
The first thing that Jason thought of doing, after he left the king's presence, was to go to Dodona, and inquire of the Talking Oak what course it was best to pursue. This wonder ful tree stood in the center of an ancient wood. Its stately trunk rose up a hundred feet into the air, and threw a broad and dense shadow over more than an acre of ground. Standing beneath it, Jason looked up among the knotted branches and green leaves, and into the mysterious heart of the old tree, and spoke aloud, as if he were addressing some person who was hidden in the depths of the foliage.
At first there was a deep silence, not only within the shadow of the Talking Oak, but all through the solitary wood. In a moment or two, however, the leaves of the oak began to stir and rustle, as if a gentle breeze were wandering amongst them, although the other trees of the wood were perfectly still.