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heroes and hero worship-第16节

小说: heroes and hero worship 字数: 每页4000字

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; at bottom; it alone can give rise to merit of any kind。  Curiously; through these incondite masses of tradition; vituperation; complaint; ejaculation in the Koran; a vein of true direct insight; of what we might almost call poetry; is found straggling。  The body of the Book is made up of mere tradition; and as it were vehement enthusiastic extempore preaching。  He returns forever to the old stories of the Prophets as they went current in the Arab memory:  how Prophet after Prophet; the Prophet Abraham; the Prophet Hud; the Prophet Moses; Christian and other real and fabulous Prophets; had come to this Tribe and to that; warning men of their sin; and been received by them even as he Mahomet was;which is a great solace to him。  These things he repeats ten; perhaps twenty times; again and ever again; with wearisome iteration; has never done repeating them。  A brave Samuel Johnson; in his forlorn garret; might con over the Biographies of Authors in that way! This is the great staple of the Koran。  But curiously; through all this; comes ever and anon some glance as of the real thinker and seer。  He has actually an eye for the world; this Mahomet:  with a certain directness and rugged vigor; he brings home still; to our heart; the thing his own heart has been opened to。  I make but little of his praises of Allah; which many praise; they are borrowed I suppose mainly from the Hebrew; at least they are far surpassed there。  But the eye that flashes direct into the heart of things; and _sees_ the truth of them; this is to me a highly interesting object。  Great Nature's own gift; which she bestows on all; but which only one in the thousand does not cast sorrowfully away:  it is what I call sincerity of vision; the test of a sincere heart。

Mahomet can work no miracles; he often answers impatiently:  I can work no miracles。  I?  〃I am a Public Preacher;〃 appointed to preach this doctrine to all creatures。  Yet the world; as we can see; had really from of old been all one great miracle to him。  Look over the world; says he; is it not wonderful; the work of Allah; wholly 〃a sign to you;〃 if your eyes were open!  This Earth; God made it for you; 〃appointed paths in it;〃 you can live in it; go to and fro on it。The clouds in the dry country of Arabia; to Mahomet they are very wonderful:  Great clouds; he says; born in the deep bosom of the Upper Immensity; where do they come from!  They hang there; the great black monsters; pour down their rain…deluges 〃to revive a dead earth;〃 and grass springs; and 〃tall leafy palm…trees with their date…clusters hanging round。  Is not that a sign?〃  Your cattle too;Allah made them; serviceable dumb creatures; they change the grass into milk; you have your clothing from them; very strange creatures; they come ranking home at evening…time; 〃and;〃 adds he; 〃and are a credit to you!〃  Ships also;he talks often about ships:  Huge moving mountains; they spread out their cloth wings; go bounding through the water there; Heaven's wind driving them; anon they lie motionless; God has withdrawn the wind; they lie dead; and cannot stir!  Miracles?  cries he:  What miracle would you have?  Are not you yourselves there?  God made you; 〃shaped you out of a little clay。〃  Ye were small once; a few years ago ye were not at all。  Ye have beauty; strength; thoughts; 〃ye have compassion on one another。〃  Old age comes on you; and gray hairs; your strength fades into feebleness; ye sink down; and again are not。  〃Ye have compassion on one another:〃  this struck me much:  Allah might have made you having no compassion on one another;how had it been then!  This is a great direct thought; a glance at first…hand into the very fact of things。  Rude vestiges of poetic genius; of whatsoever is best and truest; are visible in this man。  A strong untutored intellect; eyesight; heart:  a strong wild man;might have shaped himself into Poet; King; Priest; any kind of Hero。

To his eyes it is forever clear that this world wholly is miraculous。  He sees what; as we said once before; all great thinkers; the rude Scandinavians themselves; in one way or other; have contrived to see:  That this so solid…looking material world is; at bottom; in very deed; Nothing; is a visual and factual Manifestation of God's power and presence;a shadow hung out by Him on the bosom of the void Infinite; nothing more。 The mountains; he says; these great rock…mountains; they shall dissipate themselves 〃like clouds;〃 melt into the Blue as clouds do; and not be!  He figures the Earth; in the Arab fashion; Sale tells us; as an immense Plain or flat Plate of ground; the mountains are set on that to _steady_ it。  At the Last Day they shall disappear 〃like clouds;〃 the whole Earth shall go spinning; whirl itself off into wreck; and as dust and vapor vanish in the Inane。  Allah withdraws his hand from it; and it ceases to be。  The universal empire of Allah; presence everywhere of an unspeakable Power; a Splendor; and a Terror not to be named; as the true force; essence and reality; in all things whatsoever; was continually clear to this man。  What a modern talks of by the name; Forces of Nature; Laws of Nature; and does not figure as a divine thing; not even as one thing at all; but as a set of things; undivine enough;salable; curious; good for propelling steamships! With our Sciences and Cyclopaedias; we are apt to forget the _divineness_; in those laboratories of ours。  We ought not to forget it!  That once well forgotten; I know not what else were worth remembering。  Most sciences; I think were then a very dead thing; withered; contentious; empty;a thistle in late autumn。  The best science; without this; is but as the dead _timber_; it is not the growing tree and forest;which gives ever…new timber; among other things!  Man cannot _know_ either; unless he can _worship_ in some way。  His knowledge is a pedantry; and dead thistle; otherwise。

Much has been said and written about the sensuality of Mahomet's Religion; more than was just。  The indulgences; criminal to us; which he permitted; were not of his appointment; he found them practiced; unquestioned from immemorial time in Arabia; what he did was to curtail them; restrict them; not on one but on many sides。  His Religion is not an easy one:  with rigorous fasts; lavations; strict complex formulas; prayers five times a day; and abstinence from wine; it did not 〃succeed by being an easy religion。〃  As if indeed any religion; or cause holding of religion; could succeed by that!  It is a calumny on men to say that they are roused to heroic action by ease; hope of pleasure; recompense;sugar…plums of any kind; in this world or the next!  In the meanest mortal there lies something nobler。  The poor swearing soldier; hired to be shot; has his 〃honor of a soldier;〃 different from drill…regulations and the shilling a day。  It is not to taste sweet things; but to do noble and true things; and vindicate himself under God's Heaven as a god…made Man; that the poorest son of Adam dimly longs。  Show him the way of doing that; the dullest day…drudge kindles into a hero。  They wrong man greatly who say he is to be seduced by ease。  Difficulty; abnegation; martyrdom; death are the _allurements_ that act on the heart of man。  Kindle the inner genial life of him; you have a flame that burns up all lower considerations。  Not happiness; but something higher:  one sees this even in the frivolous classes; with their 〃point of honor〃 and the like。  Not by flattering our appetites; no; by awakening the Heroic that slumbers in every heart; can any Religion gain followers。

Mahomet himself; after all that can be said about him; was not a sensual man。  We shall err widely if we consider this man as a common voluptuary; intent mainly on base enjoyments;nay on enjoyments of any kind。  His household was of the frugalest; his common diet barley…bread and water: sometimes for months there was not a fire once lighted on his hearth。  They record with just pride that he would mend his own shoes; patch his own cloak。  A poor; hard…toiling; ill…provided man; careless of what vulgar men toil for。  Not a bad man; I should say; something better in him than _hunger_ of any sort;or these wild Arab men; fighting and jostling three…and…twenty years at his hand; in close contact with him always; would not have reverenced him so!  They were wild men; bursting ever and anon into quarrel; into all kinds of fierce sincerity; without right worth and manhood; no man could have commanded them。  They called him Prophet; you say?  Why; he stood there face to face with them; bare; not enshrined in any mystery; visibly clouting his own cloak; cobbling his own shoes; fighting; counselling; ordering in the midst of them:  they must have seen what kind of a man he _was_; let him be _called_ what you like!  No emperor with his tiaras was obeyed as this man in a cloak of his own clouting。 During three…and…twenty years of rough actual trial。  I find something of a veritable Hero necessary for that; of itself。

His last words are a prayer; broken ejaculations of a heart struggling up; in trembling hope; towards its Maker。  We cannot say that his religion made him _worse_; it made him better; good; not bad。  Generous things are recorded of him:  when he lost his Daughter; the thing

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