Nibelungen, is not quite immortal, for a leaf fell on his back whilst he was bathing in the dragon's blood, and that spot which it covered is mortal. And so it must be. There is a crack in everything God has made. It would seem, there is always this vindictive circumstance stealing in at unawares, even into the s wild poesy in which the human fancy attempted to make bold holiday, and to shake itself free of the old laws, — this backstroke, this kick of the gun, certifying that the law is fatal; that in nature nothing can be given, all things are sold. This is that ancient doctrine of Nemesis, who keeps watch in 10 the universe, and lets no offense go unchastised. The Furies,2 they said, are attendants on justice, and if the sun in heaven should transgress his path, they would punish him. The poets related that stone walls, and iron swords, and leathern thongs had an occult sympathy with the wrongs of their owners; that the 15 belt which Ajax gave Hector dragged the Trojan hero over the field at the wheels of the car of Achilles, and the sword which Hector gave Ajax was that on whose point Ajax 3 fell. They recorded, that when the Thasians erected a statue to Theagenes, a victor in the games, one of his rivals went to it by night, and en- 20 deavored to throw it down by repeated blows, until at last he moved it from its pedestal, and was crushed to death beneath its fall. 4 Iliad is of the ancient Greeks. Siegfried is the mythical hero of the former as Achilles is of the latter story. 1 In Greek mythology, a goddess personifying moral reverence for law. She visited the righteous anger of the gods upon the proud and insolent. 2 The Furies were three mythological deities, Alecto, Tisiphone, and Megæra, who punished crimes by their secret stings. 3 Ajax and Hector are mythological heroes in the Trojan War as related in the Iliad, the former a Greek and the latter a Trojan. After a personal combat, they exchanged arms, and when subsequently Ajax committed suicide, he used the sword which had been Hector's, and when Achilles killed Hector, he used the belt which had belonged to Ajax to fasten the corpse to his chariot or car. Theagenes, 4 See Pausanias's Description of Greece, Book VĻ line 11. an inhabitant of Thasos, an island in the Ægean Sea, was renowned for his strength and swiftness and his numerous victories in athletic contests. This voice of fable has in it somewhat divine. It came from thought above the will of the writer. That is the best part of each writer, which has nothing private in it; that which he does not know, that which flowed out of his constitution, and not 5 from his too active invention; that which in the study of a single artist you might not easily find, but in the study of many, you would abstract as the spirit of them all. Phidias1 it is not, but the work of man in that early Hellenic2 world, that I would know. The name and circumstance of Phidias, however con10 venient for history, embarrass when we come to the highest criticism. We are to see that which man was tending to do in a given period, and was hindered, or, if you will, modified in doing, by the interfering volitions of Phidias, of Dante,3 of Shakespeare, the organ whereby man at the moment wrought. 15 4 Still more striking is the expression of this fact in the proverbs of all nations, which are always the literature of reason, or the statements of an absolute truth, without qualification. Proverbs, like the sacred books of each nation, are the sanctuary of the intuitions. That which the droning world, chained to appearances, 20 will not allow the realist to say in his own words, it will suffer him to say in proverbs without contradiction. And this law of laws which the pulpit, the senate, and the college deny, is hourly preached in all markets and workshops by flights of proverbs, whose teaching is as true and as omnipresent as that of birds 25 and flies. All things are double, one against another.— Tit for tat; an eye for an eye; a tooth for a tooth; blood for blood; measure for measure; love for love. Give and it shall be given you. He that watereth shall be watered himself. — What will you have? 3 quoth God; pay for it and take it. Nothing venture, nothing have. Thou shalt be paid exactly for what thou hast done, no more, no less. Who doth not work shall not eat.. Harm watch, harm catch.- Curses always recoil on the head of him 2 Greek. 8 See Note 6, p. 76. 1 See Note 4, p. 76. who imprecates them. - If you put a chain around the neck of a slave, the other end fastens itself around your own. - Bad counsel confounds the adviser. The Devil is an ass. It is thus written, because it is thus in life. Our action is overmastered and characterized above our will by the law of 5 nature. We aim at a petty end quite aside from the public good, but our act arranges itself by irresistible magnetism in a line with the poles of the world. A man cannot speak, but he judges himself. With his will, or against his will, he draws his portrait to the eye of his compan- 10 ions by every word. Every opinion reacts on him who utters it. It is a thread-ball1 thrown at a mark, but the other end remains in the thrower's bag. Or, rather, it is a harpoon hurled at the whale, unwinding, as it flies, a coil of cord in the boat, and if the harpoon is not good, or not well thrown, it will go nigh to 15 cut the steersman in twain, or to sink the boat. You cannot do wrong without suffering wrong. “No man had ever a point of pride that was not injurious to him,” said Burke.2 The exclusive in fashionable life does not see that he excludes himself from enjoyment, in the attempt to appropriate 20 it. The exclusionist in religion does not see that he shuts the door of heaven on himself, in striving to shut out others. Treat men as pawns3 and ninepins, and you shall suffer as well as they. If you leave out their heart, you shall lose your own. The senses would make things of all persons; of women, of children, of 25 the poor. The vulgar proverb, "I will get it from his purse or get it from his skin," is sound philosophy. All infractions of love and equity in our social relations are speedily punished. They are punished by fear. Whilst I stand 1 A ball of thread. 2 Edmund Burke (1729-97), Irish statesman, orator, and political writer. His best known works are his Speech on American Conciliation and Reflections on the French Revolution. 3 A piece of lowest rank in the game of chess; hence, a mere figure to be moved about at the will of another. in simple relations to my fellow-man, I have no displeasure in meeting him. We meet as water meets water, or as two currents of air mix, with perfect diffusion and interpenetration1 of nature. But as soon as there is any departure from simplicity, and attempt 5 at halfness, or good for me that is not good for him, my neighbor feels the wrong; he shrinks from me as far as I have shrunk from him; his eyes no longer seek mine; there is war between us; there is hate in him and fear in me. All the old abuses in society, universal and particular, all un10 just accumulations of property and power, are avenged in the same manner. Fear is an instructor of great sagacity, and the herald of all revolutions. One thing he teaches, that there is rottenness where he appears. He is a carrion crow, and though you see not well what he hovers for, there is death somewhere. 15 Our property is timid, our laws are timid, our cultivated classes are timid. Fear for ages has boded and mowed and gibbered 2 over government and property. That obscene3 bird is not there for nothing. He indicates great wrongs which must be revised. 20 4 Of the like nature is that expectation of change which instantly follows the suspension of our voluntary activity. The terror of cloudless noon, the emerald of Polycrates, the awe of prosperity, the instinct which leads every generous soul to impose on itself tasks of a noble asceticism and vicarious virtue, are the 25 tremblings of the balance of justice through the heart and mind of man. 1 A penetrating between other substances. 2 "Fear," etc., i.e., fear has presaged evil, made faces, and spoken incoherently. 3 Ill-omened. 4 Polycrates, a celebrated Greek tyrant of Samos, had such unvarying good fortune that he was counseled to cast from him that which he valued most in order to allay the jealousy of the gods. Accordingly he threw into the sea an emerald ring of extraordinary beauty; but in a few days he regained it from inside a fish presented to him by a fisherman. Soon after this Polycrates' prosperity deserted him and he suffered an ignominious death on the cross. 5 Experienced men of the world know very well that it is best to pay scot and lot1 as they go along, and that a man often pays dear for a small frugality. The borrower runs in his own debt. Has a man gained anything who has received a hundred favors and rendered none? Has he gained by borrowing, through in- s dolence or cunning, his neighbor's wares, or horses, or money? There arises on the deed the instant acknowledgment of benefit on the one part, and of debt on the other; that is, of superiority and inferiority. The transaction remains in the memory of himself and his neighbor; and every new transaction alters, accord- 10 ing to its nature, their relation to each other. He may soon come to see that he had better have broken his own bones than to have ridden in his neighbor's coach, and that "the highest price he can pay for a thing is to ask for it.” A wise man will extend this lesson to all parts of life, and 15 know that it is the part of prudence to face every claimant, and pay every just demand on your time, your talents, or your heart. Always pay; for, first or last, you must pay your entire debt. Persons and events may stand for a time between you and justice, but it is only a postponement. You must pay at last your own 20 debt. If you are wise, you will dread a prosperity which only loads you with more. Benefit is the end of nature. But for every benefit which you receive, a tax is levied. He is great who confers the most benefits. He is base—and that is the one base thing in the universe—to receive favors and render 25 none. In the order of nature we cannot render benefits to those from whom we receive them, or only seldom. But the benefit we receive must be rendered again, line for line, deed for deed, cent for cent, to somebody. Beware of too much good staying in your hand. It will fast corrupt and worm2 worms. Pay it 30 away quickly in some sort. 3 Labor is watched over by the same pitiless laws. Cheapest, 1 Scot and lot, formerly a parish assessment laid on subjects according to their ability. |