historical lectures and essays(查尔斯金斯利历史讲座)
been so。 We have had; in the last generation; an exactly similar case in a
philosopher; now I trust in heaven; and to whose genius I owe too much to
mention his name here。
But that Paracelsus was a sot I cannot believe。 That face of his; as
painted by the great Tintoretto; is not the face of a drunkard; quack; bully;
but of such a man as Browning has conceived。 The great globular brain;
the sharp delicate chin; is not that of a sot。 Nor are those eyes; which
gleam out from under the deep pressed brow; wild; intense; hungry;
homeless; defiant; and yet plaining; the eyes of a sotbut rather the
eyes of a man who struggles to tell a great secret; and cannot find words
for it; and yet wonders why men cannot understand; will not believe what
seems to him as clear as daya tragical face; as you well can see。
God keep us all from making our lives a tragedy by one great sin。 And
now let us end this sad story with the last words which Mr。 Browning puts
into the mouth of Paracelsus; dying in the hospital at Salzburg; which have
e literally true:
Meanwhile; I have done well though not all well。 As yet men cannot
do without contempt; ’Tis for their good; and therefore fit awhile That they
reject the weak and scorn the false; Rather than praise the strong and true
in me: But after; they will know me。 If I stoop Into a dark tremendous
sea of cloud; It is but for a time。 I press God’s lamp Close to my breast;
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its splendour; soon or late; Will pierce the gloom。 I shall emerge one day。
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GEORGE BUCHANAN;
SCHOLAR
The scholar; in the sixteenth century; was a far more important
personage than now。 The supply of learned men was very small; the
demand for them very great。 During the whole of the fifteenth; and a
great part of the sixteenth century; the human mind turned more and more
from the scholastic philosophy of the Middle Ages to that of the Romans
and the Greeks; and found more and more in old Pagan Art an element
which Monastic Art had not; and which was yet necessary for the full
satisfaction of their craving after the Beautiful。 At such a crisis of
thought and taste; it was natural that the classical scholar; the man who
knew old Rome; and still more old Greece; should usurp the place of the
monk; as teacher of mankind; and that scholars should form; for a while; a
new and powerful aristocracy; limited and privileged; and all the more
redoubtable; because its power lay in intellect; and had been won by
intellect alone。
Those who; whether poor or rich; did not fear the monk and priest; at
least feared the 〃scholar;〃 who held; so the vulgar believed; the keys of
that magic lore by which the old necromancers had built cities like Rome;
and worked marvels of mechanical and chemical skill; which the
degenerate modern could never equal。
If the 〃scholar〃 stopped in a town; his hostess probably begged of him
a charm against toothache or rheumatism。 The penniless knight
discoursed with him on alchemy; and the chances of retrieving his fortune
by the art of transmuting metals into gold。 The queen or bishop worried
him in private about casting their nativities; and finding their fates among
the stars。 But the statesman; who dealt with more practical matters; hired
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him as an advocate and rhetorician; who could fight his master’s enemies
with the weapons of Demosthenes and Cicero。 Wherever the scholar’s
steps were turned; he might be master of others; as long as he was master
of himself。 The plaints which he so often uttered concerning the
cruelty of fortune; the fickleness of princes and so forth; were probably no
more just then than such plaints are now。 Then; as now; he got his
deserts; and the world bought him at his own price。 If he chose to sell
himself to this patron and to that; he was used and thrown away: if he
chose to remain in honourable independence; he was courted and feared。
Among the successful scholars of the sixteenth century; none surely is
more notable than George Buchanan。 The poor Scotch widow’s son; by
force of native wit; and; as I think; by force of native worth; fights his way
upward; through poverty and severest persecution; to bee the
correspondent and friend of the greatest literary celebrities of the
Continent; parable; in their opinion; to the best Latin poets of antiquity;
the preceptor of princes; the counsellor and spokesman of Scotch
statesmen in the most dangerous of times; and leaves behind him political
treatises; which have influenced not only the history of his own country;
but that of the civilised world。
Such a success could not be attained without making enemies; perhaps
without making mistakes。 But the more we study George Buchanan’s
history; the less we shall be inclined to hunt out his failings; the more
inclined to admire his worth。 A shrewd; sound…hearted; affectionate man;
with a strong love of right and scorn of wrong; and a humour withal which
saved himexcept on really great occasionsfrom bitterness; and helped
him to laugh where narrower natures would have only snarled;he is; in
many respects; a type of those Lowland Scots; who long preserved his
jokes; genuine or reputed; as a mon household book。 {16} A
schoolmaster by profession; and struggling for long years amid the
temptations which; in those days; degraded his class into cruel and sordid
pedants; he rose from the mere pedagogue to be; in the best sense of the
word; a courtier: 〃One;〃 says Daniel Heinsius; 〃who seemed not only
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born for a court; but born to amend it。 He brought to his queen that at
which she could not wonder enough。 For; by affecting a certain liberty in
censuring morals; he avoided all offence; under the cloak of simplicity。〃
Of him and his peers; Turnebus; and Muretus; and their friend Andrea
Govea; Ronsard; the French court poet; said that they had nothing of the
pedagogue about them but the gown and cap。 〃Austere in face; and rustic
in his looks;〃 says David Buchanan; 〃but most polished in style and
speech; and continually; even in serious conversation; jesting most
wittily。〃 〃Rough…hewn; slovenly; and rude;〃 says Peacham; in his
〃pleat Gentleman;〃 speaking of him; probably; as he appeared in old
age; 〃in his person; behaviour; and fashion; seldom caring for a better
outside than a rugge…gown girt close about him: yet his inside and
conceipt in poesie was most rich; and his sweetness and facilitie in verse
most excellent。〃 A typical Lowland Scot; as I said just now; he seems to
have absorbed all the best culture which France could afford him; without
losing the strength; honesty; and humour which he inherited from his
Stirlingshire kindred。
The story of his life is easily traced。 When an old man; he himself
wrote down the main events of it; at the request of his friends; and his
sketch has been filled out by mentators; if not always favourable; at
least erudite。 Born in 1506; at the Moss; in Killearnwhere an obelisk to
his memory; so one reads; has been erected in this centuryof a family
〃rather ancient than rich;〃 his father dead in the prime of manhood; his
grandfather a spendthrift; he and his seven brothers and sisters we