by M. P. Shiel
LI
THE MODEL
The voyage to Palestine was marked by two events: one the stoppage atTarifa, where the five hundred from the _Mahomet_ were, these, whentaken on board the _Boodah II._, making an armed force of 700; and then,toward sunset of the fifth day, a steamer exchanged signals with the_Boodah II._, enquired after the whereabouts of the Lord of the Sea,received the reply "on board", and when she stopped it turned out thatshe had on board a Jewish Petition urging upon Spinoza to come and throwin his lot with them. And here again was that name of Rebekah, spellednow Ribkah.
For the news of his fall--the fact that he was a Jew--had created amighty stirring in Israel, of wonder, of the pride of race.
By the seventh day the yacht was off the Palestine coast, and Joppa,seated on her cliffs, appeared over a foaming roadstead. But when alanding was effected, they were to hear that there had been a collisionon the Jerusalem-Joppa railway, the line blocked, travel suspended; so,as the filthy town was congested, the Royal party took refuge in a greatrestaurant-tent, set up by a Polish Jew in gaberdine and fur cap, whovociferated invitation at the door. All was mud, beggary, narrowness,chaos, picturesque woe. Yet work had commenced: between the upper andthe nether millstone a woman ground corn at a doorway; the camel passedloaded; the dragoman went with quicker step. In the afternoon Spinoza,wandering beyond the outskirts of the town, saw in an orange-grove,sitting before a roofless hut, six diligent two-handed Jews exhaustivelydrawing the cord of the cobbler; further still, and saw what could onlyhave been a Petticoat-Lane Jew ploughing with a little cow and a camel:and he smiled, thanking God, and taking courage--had always loved thisland.
The next morning he procured a number of clumsy waggons, with horses,asses, camels, and provisions; and his caravan set out, to travel allday over a plain, a "goodly land," the almond-tree in blossom, orangeand olive, everywhere lilies, the scarlet anemone, he consideringhimself so familiar with the way, that he was their only guide, thoughthe morning was misty; and through the plain of Sharon they wended overthe worst roads in existence, until, passing into a country of rocks,they made out afar the mountains of Judaea, whose patches of white stonelook like snow in sunshine, on the roads streams of wayfarers, tendingall eastward to Jerusalem, lines of camels and waggons, pedestrianswith wine-skins, mother and sucking child on the solitary ass, and theBedouin troop; but Spinoza was all solitary among fastnesses on thethird forenoon when he muttered nervously: "I must certainly have lostthe way".
Thereupon he called halt, and the caravan turned back to re-find theroad, Spinoza prying on camel-back foremost, clad now in the caftan andwhite robes of the Orient.
But all day the caravan wandered out of the track in a white sea ofmist: no farmstead, nor cot, but the wild vine, and the wild fig, andtwice a telegraph-tree, still with its bark on, and the abandoned holdof a bandit-sheik. Finally, near six P.M., Spinoza, finding himself ina valley-bottom, sent out the order to pitch camp: upon which the tentswere fixed near a brook, waggons grouped around, and animals picketedto grass. Spinoza, the two ladies, and Loveday, then ate together at thedoor of one tent; after which he rose and strolled away, thinking howbest to handle this crab of Israel.
He noticed that the mist was lifting a little; and suddenly, as hestrolled, he stood still, listening: for remote tones of singing ormourning seemed to meet his ear--from the west: and in some moments morehe saw the Mount of Olives--to the west, not, as he believed that itmust be, to the east, he having, in fact, in losing his way from thecoast, passed by Jerusalem to the north; and on the other side of theMount of Olives, from its foot to the Brook Kedron, spread at thatmoment over the Valley of Jehosophat an innumerable multitude, coveredin praying-shawls, many prostrate, many with the keen and stressful faceof supplication lifted in appeal to God, that He would visit His people,and turn again in this latter day to His lost and helpless flock. Everychild of Israel who could contrive it, at whatever cost, was there,since it was the prophesied day of--"the Coming".
But a bold woman, summoning her fainting strength, bracing her tremblingknee, stepped a little up the hillside to fling high her hand as asign--Rebecca Frankl, celebrated now through Israel as the elect of thesibyl Estrella; and at that signal the congregation, gazing keenly intoheaven, lifted up their voice in meek song, singing the sibyl's "Hymn tothe Messiah":
"The oceans trudge and tire their soul, desiring Thee; and night-windshomeless roam with dole, reproaching Thee; the clouds aspire, and findno goal, and gush for Thee, reproaching Thee."
"Thou scrawled'st 'I mean' in rocks and men, in trends and streams; theprophets raved, to sages' ken Thou shewed'st dreams; Thou shrouded'stdark the How and When in starry schemes, and trends and streams."
"The jungles blare, the glebe-lands low and bleat for Thee; thegenerations rage and go, agaze for Thee; creation travaileth in woe,with groans for Thee, agaze for Thee."
"Adonai, come! with crashing rote of chariots come; or moonlight-mild,alone, afloat, Messussah, come; with floods of lutes, or thunderingthroat, but come! O, come! Messussah come."
"The Arctics hawk-up their haunted heart, and raucous, spue; andnorth-winds, wawling calls, outstart, to droop anew; the clouds likescouts updart, depart, and truceless do, and droop anew."
"How long! They breeds have waited fain what sibyls ween; Thouscribbled'st in their secret brain 'I scheme; I mean'; theconstellations stray and strain: Break out! be seen what sibyls ween".
"The pampas stamp and, nomad, low, reposeless, lone; raging thegenerations trow, and drudge, and drown; a anguished glance this latterwoe throws to Thy Throne, reposeless, lone"...
Before them, above them, as they sang stood--a man.
Hard by a wall of that Moslem mosque, once a chapel which marked thesupposed spot of "the Ascension", he stood, in an attitude of suspense,astonishment, his body half-twisted--Spinoza.
An instant, and he was aware of Jerusalem lying "as a city that iscompact" before him--not to the east--to the west! Yet another instant,and he realized that the whole tract of humanity--man, woman, child--wason its face before him.
A faintness overcame him, shame, dismay; then, his blood now rushing tohis brow, his mouth sent out the passionate shout:
"Not to _me!_ Not to _me! I am the Lord of the Sea....!_"
But when the people heard this, saw him, knew him, they remained inadoration....
By a special ship they had sent him a petition to come; here he wasweeks sooner than ship or airship could have conveyed him: and they tookhim as the answer to their supplication, the answer which Heaven willed,in the sure and certain faith that he would cure their ache, and theache of the world.
An acclamation like the voice of many waters arose and rolled below him,and on the bosom of that tumult he moved among them into the Holy City,as darkness covered all.
* * * * * * *
He took the title of Shophet, or Judge, and for sixty years ruled overIsrael.
It has been said that the initial "pull" over other nations possessedby Israel (in respect of the sea-forts remaining in the Gulf of Aden,Yellow Sea, Western Pacific) was the cause of his rise as of somethrice-ardent Star of the Morning and asterisk dancing in the dawn'sdark: for the other nations, timorous of one another, made never anattempt to build; but, for our share, we insist that anyway Judaea wasbound to become what she became--indeed, sea-rent after the Regencycollapse was decreased at the three forts, and suddenly in the twelfthyear of his judgeship Spinoza ordered its stoppage.
By which period the University of Jerusalem had become the chiefnerve-centre of the world's research and upward effort: for in creatinga "civilized State"--"proud and happy"--Spinoza did it with thatspinning rapidity of the modernization of Japan, so that in whateverrespects it was not a question of months, it was a question of not manyyears.
For, as in the soul of the Jewish people abode as before that genius forrighteousness which wrote the Bible, and as the soul of righteousnesslies even in this; Thou shalt not s
teal, therefore Israel with somelittle pain attained to this: whereupon with startling emphasis wasbrought to pass that statement: "Righteousness exalteth a nation".
For the promise says: "I will put a new spirit within them"; andthis--very rapidly--found fulfilment.
Whereupon others fast, faster, found fulfilment, so that a stale andbitter word was in Pall Mall, saying: "The lot of them seem to haveformed themselves into a syndicate to run the prophecies".
Again the promise has it: "I shall be with them"; and again: "They shallbe a cleansed nation"; and again: "They shall fear Him".
The transformation was rapid for the reason that it was natural, seeingthat it had been Europe only that, like a Circe, had bewitched them intobeastial shapes, "sharks", and "bulls", and "bears", mediaeval Jews, forexample, having been debarred from every pursuit save commerce: so thatShylock was obliged to turn into a Venetian; and, in ceasing to be aHebrew, became more Venetian than the Venetians, for the reason that hehad more brains, ready to beat them at any game they cared to mention;but the genuine self of Shylock was a vine-dresser or sandal-maker, asHillel was a wood-chopper, David a shepherd, Amos a fig-gatherer, Saulan ass-driver, Rabbi Ben Zakkai a sail-maker, Paul a tent-maker: so thatthe return to simplicity and honesty was quickly accomplished.
And now, that done, behold a wonder: at the whirling of a wand the swineof Circe converted back to biped man; whereupon without fail whatsoeverhe does it shall astonishingly prosper: that succession of wits, seers,savants, Heines, Einsteins, inspired mouths, pens of iridium, brushesfrom the archangel's plumage, discoveries, new Americas, elations,sensations--in therapeutics--in aero-nautics-beyond-the-atmosphere--inthe powers involved in sub-atoms--in the powers, latent till now,involved in soul...for now each of millions was free to think, freeto manifest his own particular luck and knack in discovery, havinga country, foothold, not hovering like Noah's dove, urging still thepurposeless wing not to pitch into nowhere: for the promise says: "Yeshall not sow and another reap, ye shall not plant and another garner",but in a land of gentlemen ye shall live, as it were to swellings ofmusic, while a noble height grows upon your smooth foreheads, and thesum-total of the blending movements of your bodies and brains shall, asseen from heaven, appear the minuet of a people.
Within forty years mighty works had been done: forts, irrigation ofdeserts, reclamation of the Dead Sea, passionate temples clapped tothe lower clouds about the perpetual lamp, and that baroque Art of theOrient which at the Judges progresses in Summer through the countrywould draw multitudes of foreigners to gape at so great pomp, atCorinthian cities full of grace and riches which had arisen to crownwith many crowns that plain of Mesopotamia, and where desolate Tyre hadmourned her purples, and old Tadmor in the Wilderness (Palmyra) had satin dirt; to gape, too, at a Jerusalem which in twenty years had crossedthe Valley of Jehosophat, and might really then be called "the Golden",a purged Babylon, a London burnt to ashes and rebuilt somewhere else:for the Shophet proved true Duke and Leader, born mountaineer, climbingfrom pinnacle to wild pinnacle, becking his people after him with many ameaningful gesture skyward and suggesting smile; and Israel followed histhrilling way, hearing always the Excelsior of his calling as it werethe voice direct of Heaven. What no merits of his could give, the landwhich he had chosen gave, Mesopotamia pretty soon proving herself atreasury of mineral riches: here is bdellium and the onyx-stone; andwhere the streaming Pison, dawdling, draws his twine of waters over thathappy valley of Havilah, there is gold--hoard stored from before theEozoic, as misers bury for their heirs, in mine and friable quarry,rollick rain: "and the gold of _that_ land is good".
Here was not merely progress, but progress at increasingspeed--acceleration--finally resembling flight, as of eagle or phoenix,eye fixed on the sun: Tyre by the fiftieth year having grown into thebiggest of ports, her quays unloading 6,700,000 tons a year, mart oftangled masts, felucca, galiot, junk, cargoes of Tarshish and the Isles,Levantine stuffs, spice from the Southern Sea; while Jerusalem had growninto the recognized school of the wealthier youth of Europe, Asia andAmerica.
For it says: "The Kings of the earth shall bring their honour and gloryunto her"; and again: "She shall reign gloriously".
And not Israel alone reaped the fruits of his own fine weather, but hisdews fell wide. For it says: "They shall be as dew from the Lord"; andagain: "They shall fill the face of the earth with fruit"; and again:"All nations shall call them blessed".
And so it was: for the example of Israel, his suasive charm, provedcompelling as sunshine to shoots, so that that heart of Spinoza lived tosee the spectacle of a whole world deserting the gory path of Rome togo up into those uplands of mildness and gleefulness whither invites thesmile of that lily Galilean.
The mission of "unbelieving" Israel was to convert Christendom toChristianity: and this he did.
We watch the Judge coming down the Mount of Olives in the midst of ajubilant throng all involved in a noise of timbrels and instruments ofmusic: for his life was simple and one with the life of his people.It is evening, all the west yonder a bewitched Kingdom charm-embathed,wherein a barge of Venus bethronged with loves and roses voyages on asea of dalliance en route for the last Beatific--the last, the seventh,Heaven--whitherward gads all a pilgrim-swarm of enraptured spirits, all,all thitherward, Paul caught up with clothes aflaunt, and soaringeagle, Enoch transfigured, green hippogriff, hop of squatted frog;and thitherward trots with blinkings, bleating, the Ram of the GoldenFleece, the flagrant flamingos flap and go.
The Judge, hoary-headed now, in a robe of cloth-of-silver which rippled,had but now got home from a Pilgrimage; and the time was Simcath Torah,the Rejoicing of the Law, and the carrying of Candles, in the month.Tishri: silver his robe and silver his hair that hung round a brown andpuckered skin, but silvery, too, his every tooth still, and his vigourgood; and, as down the Mount of Olives he stepped, he saw Mount Sion andthat Temple that he had piled, across whose roughened frontispiece ofgold glowed in a bow, bold like the rainbow's, in characters of blazingsapphire and chrysoprase, that inscription:
"Y'HOVAH B'KOKMAR YSAD ARETS, CONEN SHAMAIM B'THBUNAH"
and, as he saw it, lo, buoyancy caught the old man's feet: for thecymballing and music had grown very fiercely hot, so that all thecongregation reeled in dance; and as the lasso drops round theastonished prairie-horse and draws asprawl, so dancing caught and drewhis foot, and he danced.
And his wife Rebecca, mother of many sons, prying from a window-lattice,writhed odd the eyebrows of the cynic, one beyond the other: for notwith foot alone he danced, but his wrung belly laboured in that travailof Orient dancing; and she turned and smiled to Margaret Lovedaya turned-down smile, implying shrug, implying girding, her eyelidslowered, yet indulgent of his nature's rage.
And not with foot and abdomen alone he danced, but his two balancingpalms danced to the beat of the heat of the music's heart; and with heeland toe he danced. And as he danced, he sang, all apant, filling upwith nonsense-sounds when the rhythm's imperative tramp outran hisimprovisation; and singing he danced, and dancing sang: with abdomen andarms he danced, and with toe and heel he danced.
And dancing he sang:
My hands, be dancing to God, your Guide, And peal my pipes, and riot my feet, and writhe to His Heat, my tripes. So fair! With Rum-te-te-Tum te Tum, And Rum and Tum, and Rum-te-te-Tum, and Rum-te-te-Tum, te Tum. So fair! This freehold for seraphs free! That flame! those skies! and Blest is Her Name, and blest are my eyes, that see.
I'll dance, I'll dance like a ram, for fun, I'll smack the sun, I'll dance at the breeze I'll dance till I breed a son. For Thou! Thou bringest Thine ends to pass: This hump so high, this lump and her sigh, Thou lead'st through the Nee- dle's Eye. 'Tis well the saurians sprawled, and roared! 'Tis well Thou art! and well that Thou wast, and well when at last they soared! And well, O well that Thou art to be When seraph hearts will laugh by this brook, and break for the love of Thee. Thy years shall still by in
crease te Tum, And dance and dance, With Rum-te-te-Tum....
so, singing, he danced, and, dancing, sang; and their sounds grew faint;and they entered into the City of Glory, and their sounds failed....
They took him for the Sent of Heaven, nor did the results of hisglorious reign gainsay such a notion: the good Loveday, indeed, had theagreeable fancy that our greatest are really One, who eternally runsthe circle of incarnation after incarnation from hoary old ages tillnow--the Ancient of Days, his hair white like wool, quietly turningup anew when the time yearns, and men are near to yield to the enemy:Proteus his name, and ever the shape he takes is strange, unexpected,yet ever sharing the same three traits of vision, rage andgenerousness--the Slayer of the Giant--Arthur come back--the Messengerof the Covenant--the genius of our species--Jesus the Oft-Born.