Aurelian; or, Rome in the Third Century
adorning of which, by every form of art, I have exhausted my knowledge
and taste in such things; and at the western extremity, my library,
where at this moment I sit, and where I have gathered around me all in
letters and art that I most esteem. This room I have decorated for
myself and Julia--not for others. Whatever has most endeared itself to
our imaginations, our minds, or our hearts, has here its home. The books
that have most instructed or amused; the statuary that most raises and
delights us; the pictures on which we most love to dwell; the
antiquities that possess most curiosity or value, are here arranged, and
in an order that would satisfy, I believe, even your fastidious taste.
I will not weary you with any more minute account of my new dwelling,
leaving that duty to the readier pen of Julia. Yet I cannot relieve you
till I have spoken of two of the statues which occupy the most
conspicuous niche in the library. You will expect me to name Socrates
and Plato, or Numa and Seneca--these are all there, but it is not of
either of them that I would speak. They are the venerable founders of
the Jewish and Christian religions, MOSES and CHRIST. These statues, of
the purest marble, stand side by side, at one extremity of the
apartment; and immediately before them, and within the wondrous sphere
of their influences stands the table at which I write, and where I
pursue my inquiries in philosophy and religion. You smile at my
enthusiasm, Fausta, and wonder when I shall return to the calm sobriety
of my ancient faith. In this wonder there are a thousand errors--but of
these hereafter. I was to tell you of these sculptures. Of the statue of
Moses, I possess no historical account, and know not what its claim may
be to truth. I can only say, it is a figure truly grand, and almost
terrific. It is of a size larger than life, and expresses no sentiment
so perfectly as authority--the authority of a rigorous and austere
ruler--both in the attitude of the body and the features of the
countenance. The head is slightly raised and drawn back, as if
listening, awe-struck, to a communication from the God who commissioned
him, while his left hand supports a volume, and his right grasps a
stylus, with which, when the voice has ceased, to record the
communicated truth. Place in his hands the thunderbolt, and at his feet
the eagle, and the same form would serve for Jupiter the Thunderer,
except only that to the countenance of the Jewish prophet there has been
imparted a rapt and inspired look, wholly beyond any that even Phidias
could have fixed upon the face of Jove. He who wrought this head must
have believed in the sublimities of the religion whose chief minister he
has made so to speak them forth, in the countenance and in the form; and
yet who has ever heard of a Jew sculptor?
The statue of Christ is of a very different character; as different as
the Christian faith is from that of the Jewish, notwithstanding they are
still by many confounded. I cannot pretend to describe to you the holy
beauty that as it were constitutes this perfect work of art. If you ask
what authority tradition has invested it with, I can only say that I do
not know. All I can affirm with certainty, is this, that it once stood
in the palace of Alexander Severus, in company with the images of other
deified men and gods, whom he chiefly reverenced. When that excellent
prince had fallen under the blows of assassins, his successor and
murderer, Maximin, having little knowledge or taste for what was found
in the palace of Alexander, those treasures were sold, and the statue of
Christ came into the hands of a distinguished and wealthy Christian of
that day, who, perishing in the persecution of Decius, his descendants
became impoverished, and were compelled to part with even this sacred
relic of their former greatness. From them I purchased it; and often are
they to be seen, whenever for such an object they can steal away from
necessary cares, standing before it and renewing, as it would seem,
their vows of obedience, in the presence of the founder of their faith.
The room is free to their approach, whenever they are thus impelled.
The expression of this statue, I have said, is wholly different from
that of the Hebrew. His is one of authority and of sternness; this of
gentleness and love. Christ is represented, like the Moses, in a sitting
posture, with a countenance, not like his raised to Heaven, but bent
with looks somewhat sad and yet full of benevolence, as if upon persons
standing before him. Fraternity, I think, is the idea you associate with
it most readily. I should never suppose him to be a judge or censor, or
arbitrary master, but rather an elder brother; elder in the sense of
wiser, holier, purer; whose look is not one of reproach that others are
not as himself, but of pity and desire; and whose hand would rather be
stretched forth to lift up the fallen than to smite the offender. To
complete this expression, and inspire the beholder with perfect
confidence, the left hand rests upon a little child, who stands with
familiar reverence at his knee, and looking up into his face seems to
say, 'No evil can come to me here.'
Opposite this, and at the other extremity of the apartment, hangs a
picture of Christ, representing him in very exact accordance with the
traditional accounts of his features and form, a description of which
exists, and is held by most authentic, in a letter of Publius Lentulus,
a Roman of the same period. Between this and the statue there is a
close resemblance, or as close as we usually see between two heads of
Caesar, or of Cicero. Marble, however, is the only material that suits
the character and office of Jesus of Nazareth. Color, and its minute
effects, seem in some sort to degrade the subject. I retain the picture
because of its supposed truth.
Portia, as you will believe, is full of wonder and sorrow at these
things. Soon after my library had received its last additions, my mother
came to see what she had already heard of so much. As she entered the
apartment, I was sitting in my accustomed seat, with Julia at my side,
and both of us gazing in admiration at the figures I have just
described. We were both too much engrossed to notice the entrance of
Portia, our first warning of her presence being her hand laid upon my
head. We rose and placed her between us.
'My son,' said she, looking intently as she spoke upon the statues
before us, 'what strange looking figures are these? That upon my left
might serve for Jupiter, but for the roll and the stylus. And why place
you beings of character so opposite, as these appear to have been, side
by side? This other upon my right--ah, how beautiful it is! What
mildness in those eyes, and what a divine repose over the form, which no
event, not the downfall of a kingdom nor its loss, would seem capable to
disturb. Is it the peace loving Numa?'
'Not so,' said Julia; 'there stands Numa, leaning on the sacred shield,
from the centre of which beams the countenance of the divine Egeria.'
'Yes, I see it,' replied Portia; and rising from her seat, she stood
gazing round the apartment, examining its various appointments. When her
eye had sought out the several objects, and dwelt upon them a moment,
she said, in tones somewhat reproachful, as much so as it is in her
nature to assume:
'Where, Lucius, are the gods of Rome? Do those who have, through so many
ages, watched over our country, and guarded our house, deserve no honor
at your hands? Does not gratitude require at least that their images
should be here, so that, whether you yourself worship them or not, their
presence may inspire others with reverence? But alas for the times!
Piety seems dead; or, with the faith that inspires it, it lives, but in
a few, who will soon disappear, and religion with them. Whose forms are
these, Lucius? concerning one I can now easily surmise--but the other,
this stern and terrific man, who is he?'
'That,' I replied, 'is Moses, the founder of Judaism.'
'Immortal gods!' exclaimed Portia, 'the statue of a Jew in the halls of
the Pisos! Well may it be that Rome approaches her decline, when her
elder sons turn against her.'
'Nay, my mother, I am not a Jew.'
'I would thou wert, rather than be what I suppose thou art, a Christian.
The Jew, Lucius, can boast of antiquity, at least, in behalf of his
religion. But the faith which you would profess and extend, is but of
yesterday. Would the gods ever leave mankind without religion? Is it
only to-day that they reveal the truth? Have they left us for these many
ages to grope along in error? Never, Lucius, can I believe it. It is
enough for me that the religion of Rome is old as Rome, to endear it to
my heart, and commend it to my understanding. It is not for the first
time, to-day, that the gods have spoken.'
'But, my dear mother,' I rejoined, 'if age makes truth, there are older
religions than this of Rome. Judaism itself is older, by many centuries.
But it is not because a religion is new or old, that I would receive or
reject it.' The only question is, does it satisfy my heart and mind, and
is it true? The faith which you engrafted upon my infant mind, fails to
meet the wants of my nature, and upon looking for its foundations, I
find them not.'
'Is thy nature different from mine, Lucius? Surely, thou art my own
child! It has satisfied me and my nature. I ask for nothing else, or
better.'
'There are some natures, mother, by the gods so furnished and filled
with all good desires and affections, that their religion is born with
them and is in them. It matters little under what outward form and
administration of truth they dwell; no system could injure them--none
would greatly benefit. They are of the family of God, by birth, and are
never disinherited.'
'Yes, Portia,' said Julia, 'natural and divine instincts make you what
others can become only through the powerful operation of some principle
out of, and superior to, anything they find within. For me, I know not
what I should have been, without the help which Christianity has
afforded. I might have been virtuous, but I could not have been happy.
You surely rejoice, when the weak find that in any religion or
philosophy which gives them strength. Look, Portia, at that serene and
benignant countenance, and can you believe that any truth ever came
from its lips, but such as must be most comforting and exalting to those
who receive it?'
'It would seem so indeed, my child,' replied Portia, musingly, 'and I
would not deprive any of the comforts or strength which any principle
may impart. But I cannot cease to think it dangerous to the state, when
the faith of the founders of Rome is abandoned by those who fill its
highest places. You who abound in leisure and learning, may satisfy
yourselves with a new philosophy; but what shall these nice refinements
profit the common herd? How shall they see them to be true, or
comprehend them? The Romans have ever been a religious people; and
although under the empire the purity of ancient manners is lost, let it
not be said that the Pisos were among those who struck the last and
hardest blows at the still stout root of the tree that bore them.'
'Nothing can be more plain or intelligible,' I replied, 'than the
principles of the Christian religion; and wherever it has been preached
with simplicity and power, even the common people have readily and
gratefully adopted it. I certainly cannot but desire that it may
prevail. If any thing is to do it, I believe this is the power that is
to restore, and in a still nobler form, the ancient manners of which you
speak. It is from Christianity that in my heart I believe the youthful
blood is to come, that being poured into the veins of this dying state,