The Brook Kerith: A Syrian story
CHAP. VII.
The hut that Joseph was bidden to enter was the last left in the cenobyfor allotment, four proselytes having arrived last month.
No better commodity have we for the moment, the curator said, struck bythe precarious shelter the hut offered--a crazy door and a roof that letthe starlight through at one end of the wall. But the rains are over, headded, and the coverlet is a warm one. On this he left Joseph, whom thebell would call to orison, too tired to sleep, turning vaguely from sideto side, trying to hush the thoughts that hurtled through his clearbrain--that stars endure for ever, but the life of the palm-tree was asthe life of the man who fed on its fruit. The tree lived one hundredyears, and among the Essenes a centenarian was no rare thing, but ofwhat value to live a hundred years in the monotonous life of the cenoby?And in his imagination, heightened by insomnia, the Essenes seemed tohim like the sleeping trees. If he remained he would become like them,while his father lived alone in Galilee! Dan rose up before him and hecould find no sense in the assurances he had given the president that hewished to be admitted into the order. He seemed no longer to desireadmission, and if he did desire it he could not, for his father's sake,accept the admission. Then why had he talked as he had done to thepresident? He could not tell: and it must have been while lying on hisright side, trying to understand himself, what he was and why he was inthe cenoby, that he fell into that deep and dreamless sleep from whichhe was awakened by a bell, and so suddenly that it seemed to him that hehad not been asleep more than a few minutes. It was no doubt the bellfor morning prayer: and only half awake he repaired with the otherproselytes to the part of the village open to the sunrise.
All the Essenes were assembled there, and he learnt that they lookedupon this prayer of thanksgiving for the return of light as theimportant event of the day. He joined in it, though he suspected acertain idolatry in the prayer. It seemed to him that the Essenes werepraying for the sun to rise; but to do this would be to worship the sunin some measure, and to look upon the sun as in some degree a God, hefeared; but the Essenes were certainly very pious Jews. What else theywere, time would reveal to him: a few days would be enough; and longbefore the prayer was finished he was thinking of his father in Galileeand what his face would tell, were he to see his son bowing before thesun. But the Essenes were not really worshipping the sun but praying toGod that the sun might rise and give them light again to continue theirdaily work. One whole day at least he must spend in the cenoby,and--feeling that he was becoming interested again in the Essenes--hebegan to form a plan to stay some time with them.
On rising from his knees, he thought he might stay for some weeks. Butif the Essene brotherhood succeeded in persuading him that his fate wasto abandon his father and the trade that awaited him in Galilee and thewife who awaited him somewhere? His father often said: Joseph, you arethe last of our race. I hope to see with you a good wife who will bearyou children, for I should like to bless my grandchildren before I die.The Essenes would at least free him from the necessity of telling hisfather that there was no heart in him for a wife; and if he did not takea wife, he might become---- One of the curators whispered to him the usehe should make of the little axe, and he followed the other proselytes;and having found a place where the earth was soft, each dug a hole abouta foot deep, into which they eased themselves, afterwards filling up thehole with the earth that had been taken out. Joseph then went down withthem to a source for purifications, and these being finished theproselytes grouped themselves round Joseph, anxious to become acquaintedwith the last recruit, and asking all together what provision of food hehad made for himself for that day: if he had made none, he would have togo without food, for only those who were admitted into the order weresuffered to the common repasts. A serious announcement, he said, to maketo a man at break of day who knew nothing of these things yesterday, andhe asked how his omission might be repaired. He must ask for permissionto go to Jericho to buy food. As he was going there on a mule, he mightbring back food not only for himself but for all of them: enough lentilsto last a week; and he inquired what else they were permitted to eat--ifeggs were forbidden? At which the proselytes clapped their hands. Abasket of eggs! A basket of eggs! And some honey! cried another. Figs!cried a third; we haven't tasted any for a month. But my mule's backwill not bear all that you require, Joseph answered. Our mule! cried theproselytes; all property is held in common. Even the fact of my mulehaving become common property, Joseph said, will not enable him tocarry more than his customary burden, and the goods will embarrass me.If the mule belongs to the community, then I am the mule driver, theprovider of the community. Constituted such by thy knowledge of theaptitudes and temper and strength of the animal! cried a proselyte afterhim, and he went away to seek out one of the curators; for it is notpermissible for an Essene to go to Jericho without having gottenpermission. Of course the permission was at once granted, and whilesaddling his mule for the journey the memory of the river overnight nowcaused Joseph to hesitate and to think that he might find himself returnempty-handed to the plump of proselytes now waiting to see him start.
But if thou crossed the river yesterday, there is no reason why thoushouldn't cross it in safety now, cried one. But forget not the basketof eggs, said a second. Nor the honey, mentioned a third, and a fourthcalled after him the quality of lentils he enjoyed. The mind of thefifth regarding food was not expressed, for a curator came by andreproved them, saying they were mere belly-worshippers.
There will be less water in the river than there was overnight, thecurator said, and Joseph hoped he was right, for it would be a harsh anddisagreeable death to drown in a lake so salt that fish could not livein it. True, one would escape being eaten by fishes; but if the mule becarried away, he said to himself, drown I shall, long before I reach thelake, unless indeed I strike out and swim--which, it seemed to him,might be the best way to save his life--and if there be no current inthe lake I can gain the shore easily. But the first sight of the riverproved the vanity of his foreboding, for during the night it had emptieda great part of its flood into the lake. The struggle in getting hismule across was slight; still slighter when he returned with a sack oflentils, a basket of eggs, some pounds of honey and many misgivings asto whether he should announce this last commodity to the curator orintroduce it surreptitiously. To begin his probationship with asurreptitious act would disgrace him in the eyes of the prior, whosegood opinion he valued above all. So did his thoughts run on till hecame within sight of a curator, who told him that sometimes, on thefirst day of probationship, honey and figs were allowed.
The cooking of the food and the eating of it in the only cabin in whichthere were conveniences for eating helped the time away, and Josephbegan to ask himself how long his cloistral life was going to endure,for he seemed to have lost all desire to leave it, and had begun to turnthe different crafts over in his mind and to debate which he shouldchoose to put his hand to. Of husbandry he was as ignorant as a crow,nor could he tell poisonous pastures from wholesome, nor could he helpin the bakery. At first venture there seemed to be no craft for him tofollow, since fish did not thrive in the Salt Lake and the fisherman'sart could not be practised, he was told, in the Jordan, for the Esseneswere not permitted to kill any living thing.
While laying emphasis on this rule, the curator cracked a flea under hisrobe, but Joseph did not call his attention to his disobedience, butbowed his head and left him to the scruple of conscience which he hopedwould awaken in him later.
Before this had time to come to pass, the curator called after him andsuggested that he might teach Hebrew to the four proselytes, whoseknowledge of that language had seemed to Mathias, their instructor,disgracefully weak. They were all from Alexandria, like their teacher,and read the Scriptures in Greek; but the Essenes, so said the curator,must read the Scriptures in Hebrew; and the teaching of Hebrew, Mathiassaid to Joseph, takes me away from my important work, but it may amuseyou to teach them. Our father may accept you as a sufficient teacher: goto him for examination.
/> A little talk and a few passages read from the Scriptures satisfied thepresident that Joseph was the assistant teacher that had been so longdesired in the community, and he spoke to Joseph soothingly of Mathias,whose life work was the true interpretation of the Scriptures. But didthe Scriptures need interpretation? Joseph asked himself, not daring toput questions to the president; and on an early occasion he askedMathias what the president meant when he spoke of a true interpretationof the Scriptures, and was told that the true meaning of the Scriptureslay below the literal meaning. There can be no doubt, he said, that theScriptures must be regarded as allegories; and he explained to Josephthat he devoted all his intellect to discovering and explaining theseallegories, a task demanding extraordinary assiduity, for they layconcealed in what seemed to the vulgar eye mere statements of fact: asif, he added scornfully, God chose the prophets for no better end than amere relation of facts! He was willing, however, to concede that hismanner of treating the Scriptures was not approved by the entirecommunity, but in view of his learning, the proselytes were admitted tohis lectures--one of the innovations of the prior, who, in spite of all,remained one of his supporters.
To the end of his life Joseph kept in his memory the moment when he satin the corner of the hall, his eyes fixed upon Mathias's young andbeautiful profile, clear cut, hard and decisive as the profiles of theyoung gods that decorated the Greek coins which shocked him in Caesarea.His memory of Mathias was as partial; but he knew the president's fullface, and while pondering on it he remembered that he had never seen himin profile. Nor was this all that set the two men apart in Joseph'sconsciousness. The prior's simple and homely language came from theheart, entered the heart and was remembered, whereas Mathias spoke fromhis brain. The heart is simple and always the same, but the brain iscomplex and various; and therefore it was natural that Mathias shouldhold, as if in fee, a great store of verbal felicities, and that heshould translate all shades of thought at once into words.
His mind moved in a rich, erudite and complex syntax that turned allopposition into admiration. Even the president, who had been listeningto theology all his life and had much business to attend to, must fainneglect some of it for the pleasure of listening to Mathias when helectured. Even Saddoc, the most orthodox Jew in the cenoby, Mathiascould keep as it were chained to his seat. He resented and spurned theallegory, but the beautiful voice that brought out sentence aftersentence, like silk from off a spool, enticed his thoughts away from it.The language used in the cenoby was Aramaic, and never did Joseph hearthat language spoken so beautifully. It seemed to him that he waslistening to a new language and on leaving the hall he told Mathias thatit had seemed to him that he was listening to Aramaic for the firsttime. Mathias answered him--blushing a little, Joseph thought--that hehoped one of these days, in Egypt perhaps, if Joseph ever went there, tolecture to him in Greek. He liked Aramaic for other purposes, but forphilosophy there was but one language. But you speak Greek and are nowteaching Greek, so let us speak it when we are together, Mathias said,and if I detect any incorrectness I will warn you against it.
That Mathias should choose to speak to him in Greek was flatteringindeed, and Joseph, who had not spoken Greek for many months, began toprattle, but he had not said many words before Mathias interrupted himand said: you must have learnt Greek very young. This remark turned thetalk on to Azariah; and Mathias listened to Joseph's account of histutor carelessly, interrupting him when he had heard enough with aremark anent the advancement of the spring, to which Joseph did not knowhow to reply, so suddenly had his thoughts been jerked away from thesubject he was pursuing. You have the full Jewish mind, Mathiascontinued; interested in moral ideas rather than beauty: without eyesfor the village. True that you see it in winter plight, but in the nearseason all the fields will be verdant and the lintels running over withflowers. He waited for Joseph to defend himself, but Joseph did not knowfor certain that Mathias was not right--perhaps he was more interestedin moral ideas than in beauty. However this might be, he began toexperience an aversion, and might have taken leave of Mathias if theyhad not come upon the president. He stopped to speak to them; and havingcongratulated Mathias on having fortuned at last on an efficient teacherof Hebrew and Greek, and addressed a few kindly words directly to Josephand taken his hand in his, the head of the community bade them bothgood-bye, saying that important business needed his presence. He spedaway on his business, but he seemed to leave something of himselfbehind, and even Mathias was perforce distracted from his search of aphilosophic point of view and indulged himself in the luxury of a simpleremark. His goodness, he said, is so natural, like the air we breatheand the bread we eat, and that is why we all love him, and why alldissension vanishes at the approach of our president; a remarkable man.
The most wonderful I have ever seen, Joseph answered: a remark that didnot altogether please Mathias, for he added: his power is in himself,for he is altogether without philosophy.
Joseph was moved to ask Mathias if the charm that himself experiencedwas not an entire absence of philosophy. But he did not dare to rouseMathias, whom he feared, and his curiosity overcame his sense of loyaltyto the president. If he were to take his leave abruptly, he would haveto return alone to the village to seek the four proselytes, but theircompanionship did not attract him, and he found himself at that momentunable to deny himself the pleasure of the sweet refreshing evening air,which as they approached the river seemed to grow sweeter. The riveritself was more attractive than he had yet seen it, and there was thatsadness upon it which we notice when a rainy day passes into a fineevening. The clouds were rolling on like a battle--pennants flying insplendid array, leaving the last row of hills outlined against a clearspace of sky; and, with his eyes fixed on the cliffs over against thecoasts of the lake, Mathias let his thoughts run after his favouriteabstractions: the relation of God to time and place. As he dreamed hismetaphysics, he answered Joseph's questions from time to time,manifesting, however, so little interest in them that at last Josephfelt he could bear it no longer, and resolved to leave him. But just ashe was about to bid him good-bye, Mathias said that the Essenes werepious Jews who were content with mere piety, but mere piety was notenough: God had given to man a mind, and therefore desired man tomeditate, not on his own nature--which was trivial and passing--but onGod's nature, which was important and eternal.
This remark revealed a new scope for inquiry to Joseph, who wasinterested in the Essenes; but his search was for miracles and prophetsrather than ideas, and if he tarried among the Essenes it was because hehad come upon two great men. He fell to considering the question afresh,and--forgetful of Mathias's admonitions that the business of man is tomeditate on the nature of God--he said: the Essenes perform no miraclesand do not prophesy;--an interruption to Mathias's loquacity which theother took with a better grace than Joseph had expected--for no one everdared before to interrupt Mathias. Joseph had done so accidentally andexpected a very fine reproof, but Mathias checked his indignation andtold Joseph that Manahem, an Essene, had foreknowledge of future eventsgiven to him by God: for when he was a child and going to school,Manahem saw Herod and saluted him as king of the Jews; and Herod,thinking the boy was in jest or did not know him, told him he was but aprivate citizen; whereat Manahem smiled to himself, and clapping Herodon the backside with his hand said: thou wilt be king and wilt begin thyreign happily, for God finds thee worthy. And then, as if enough wassaid on this subject, Mathias began to diverge from it, mixing up thestory with many admonitions and philosophical reflections, very wise andsalutary, but not what Joseph cared to hear at that moment. He was inno wise interested at that moment to hear that he had done well intesting all the different sects of the Jews, and though the Essenes werecertainly the most learned, they did not possess the whole truth. With adetermination that was impossible to oppose, Mathias said: the wholetruth is not to be found, even among the Essenes, and, my good friend, Iwould not encourage in you a hope that you may be permitted ever duringyour mortal life to discover the whole truth. It
exists not in anycreated thing: but glimpses of the light are often detected, now here,now there, shining through a clouded vase. But the simile, he added, ofthe clouded vase gives rise to the thought that the light resides withinthe vase: the very contrary of which is the case. For there is no lightin the vase itself: the light shines from beyond the skies, and I shouldtherefore have compared man to a crystal itself that catches the lightso well that it seems to our eyes to be the source of light, which isnot true in principle or in fact, for in the darkness a crystal is asdark as any other stone. In such part do I explain the meaning that thewicked man, having no divine irradiation, is without instruction of Godand knowledge of God's creations; he is as a fugitive from the divinecompany, and cannot do else than hold that everything is created fromthe world to be again dissolved into the world. And being no better thana follower of Heraclitus--But who is Heraclitus? Joseph asked.
A clouded face was turned upon Joseph, and for some moments the sagecould not collect his thoughts sufficiently to answer him. Who isHeraclitus? he repeated, and then, with a general interest in his pupil,he ran off a concise exposition of that philosopher's doctrine--amistake on his part, as he was quick enough to admit to himself; forthough he reduced his statement to the lowest limits, it awakened inJoseph an interest so lively that he felt himself obliged to expose thisphilosopher's fallacies; and in doing this he was drawn away from hissubject, which was unfortunate. The hour was near by when the Esseneswould, according to rule, retire to their cells for meditation,and--foreseeing that he could not rid himself of the burden whichJoseph's question imposed upon him--he abandoned Heraclitus in a lastrefutation, to warn Joseph that he must not resume his questions.
But if I do not ask at once, my chance is gone for ever; for yourdiscourse is like the clouds, always taking new shapes, Joseph pleaded.In dread lest all be forgotten, I repeat to myself what you have said,and so lose a great deal for a certain remembrance.
Joseph's manifest delight in his statement of the doctrines ofHeraclitus, and his subsequent refutation of the heathen philosophercaused Mathias to forget temporarily certain ideas that he had beenfostering for some days--that God, being the designer and maker of allthings, and their governor, is likewise the creator of time itself, forhe is the father of its father, and the father of time is the world,which made its own mother--the creation. So that time stands towards Godin the relation of a grandson; for this world is a young son of God. Onthese things the sage's thoughts had been running for some days past,and he would have liked to have expounded his theory to Joseph: thatnothing is future to God: creations and the very boundaries of time aresubject.
He said much more, but Joseph did not hear. He was too busy memorisingwhat he had already heard, and during long hours he strove to come toterms with what he remembered, but in vain. The more he thought, theless clear did it seem to him that in eternity there is neither past norfuture, that in eternity everything is present. Mathias's very words;but when he said them, there seemed to be something behind the words;while listening, it seemed to Joseph that sight had been given to him,but his eyes proved too weak to bear the too great illumination, and hehad been obliged to cover them with his hands, shutting out a great dealso that he might see just a little ... as it were between his fingers.As we think of God only under the form of light, it seemed to him thatthe revelation entered into him by his eyes rather than by his ears. Hewould return to the sage every day, but what if he were not able toremember, if it were all to end in words with nothing behind the words?The sage said that in a little while the discourses would not seem soelusive and evanescent. At present they seemed to Joseph like the miston the edge of a stream, and he strove against the belief that aphilosopher is like a man who sets out to walk after the clouds.
Such a belief being detestable, he resolved to rid himself of it, andMathias would help him, he was sure, and in this hope he confided hislife to him, going back to the night when Samuel appeared to him, andrecounting his father's business and character, introducing thedifferent tutors that were chosen for him, and his own choice ofAzariah, to whom he owed his knowledge of Greek. To all of which thephilosopher listened complacently enough, merely asking if Azariahshared the belief prevalent in Galilee that the world was drawing to aclose. On hearing that he did, he seemed to lose interest in Joseph'sstory of Azariah's relations to his neighbours, nor did he seem undulyafflicted at hearing that only the most orthodox views were acceptablein Galilee. His indifference was disheartening, but being now deep inhis biography, Joseph related perforce the years he spent doing hisfather's business in northern Syria, hoping as he told his story toawaken the sage's interest in his visit to Jerusalem. The Sadducees didnot believe that Jahveh had resolved to end the world and might beexpected to appear in his chariot surrounded by angels blowing trumpets,bidding the dead to rise. But the Pharisees did believe in theresurrection--unfortunately including that of the corruptible body,which seemed to present many difficulties. He was about to enter on anexamination of these difficulties, but the philosopher moved them asidecontemptuously, and Joseph understood that he could not demean himselfto the point of discussing the fallacies of the Pharisees, who, Josephsaid, hope to stem the just anger of God on the last day by minuteobservances of the Sabbath. Mathias raised his eyes, and it was arevulsion of feeling, Joseph continued, against hypocrisy andfornication, that put me astride my mule as soon as I heard of theEssenes, the most enlightened sect of the Jews in Palestine. That youshould be among them is testimony of their enlightenment.... Mathiasraised his hand, and Joseph's face dropped into an expression ofattention. Mathias was willing to accede that much, but certaincircumlocutions in his language led Joseph to suspect that Mathias wasnot altogether satisfied with the Essenes. He seemed to think that theywere too prone to place mere piety above philosophy: a mistake; for ourintellect being the highest gift we have received from God, it followsthat we shall please him best by using it assiduously. He spoke aboutthe prayers before sunrise and asked Joseph if they did not seem to himsomewhat trite and trivial and if he did not think that the moment wouldbe more profitably spent by instituting a comparison between the lightof the intellect and that of the sun?
Mathias turned to Joseph, and waited for him to confess hisperplexities. But it was hard to confess to Mathias that philosophy wasuseless if the day of judgment were at hand! He dared not speak againstphilosophy and it was a long time before Mathias guessed his trouble,but as soon as it dawned on him that Joseph was in doubt as to theutility of philosophy, his face assumed so stern an expression thatJoseph began to feel that Mathias looked upon him as a fool. It may havebeen that Joseph's consternation, so apparent on his face, restoredMathias into a kindly humour. Be that as it may, Mathias pointed out,and with less contempt than Joseph expected, that the day of judgmentand philosophy had nothing in common. We should never cease to seekafter wisdom, he said. Joseph concurred. It was not, however, pleasingto Joseph to hear prophecy spoken of as the outpourings of madmen,but--having in mind the contemptuous glance that would fall upon him ifhe dared to put prophecy above philosophy--he held his peace, venturingonly to remark that no prophets were found in Judea for some hundreds ofyears. Except Manahem, he added hurriedly. But his remembrance ofManahem did not appease the philosopher, who dropped his eyes on Josephand fixed them on him. The moment was one of agony for Joseph. And as ifhe remembered suddenly that Joseph was only just come into the districtof the Jordan, Mathias told with some ironical laughter that theneighbourhood was full of prophets, as ignorant and as ugly as hyenas.They live, he said, in the caves along the western coasts of the SaltLake, growling and snarling over the world, which they seem to thinkrotten and ready for them to devour. Or else they issue forth and enticethe ignorant multitude into the Jordan, so that they may the more easilyplunge them under the flood. But of what use to speak of these crazedfolk, when there are so many subjects of which philosophy may gracefullytreat?
Prophets in caves about the Salt Lake! Joseph muttered; and a greatdesire awakened in hi
m to see them. But you're not going in search ofthese wretched men? Mathias asked, and his eyes filled with contempt,and Joseph felt that Mathias had already decided that all intellectualcompanionship was henceforth impossible between them. He was tempted totemporise. It was not to discuss the resurrection that he desired to seethese men, but for curiosity; and during the long walk he would meditateon Mathias's doctrines.... Mathias did not answer him, and Joseph,seeing him cast away in philosophy and unable to advise him further,went to the president to ask for permission to absent himself for twodays from the cenoby, a permission that was granted willingly when theobject of the absence was duly related.