Aurelian; or, Rome in the Third Century
her altars and her worship. Judea was once happy in her ancient faith;
and happier than all in that great hope inspired by our prophets in
endless line, of the advent, in the opening ages, of one who should
redeem our land from the oppressor, and give to her the empire of the
world. Messiah, for whom we waited, and while we waited were content to
bear the insults and aggressions of the whole earth--knowing the day of
vengeance was not far off--was to be to Judea more than Aurelian to
Rome. He was to be our prophet, our priest, and our king, all in one;
not man only, but the favored and beloved of God, his Son; and his
empire was not to be like this of Rome, hemmed in by this sea and that,
hedged about by barbarians on one side and another, bounded by rivers
and hills, but was to stretch over the habitable earth, and Rome itself
to be swallowed up in the great possession as a little island in the
sea. And then this great kingdom was never to end. It could not be
diminished by an enemy taking from it this province and another, as with
Rome, nor could there be out of it any power whatever that could assail
it; for, by the interference of God, through the right arm of our great
Prince, fear, and the very spirit of submission, were to fall on every
heart. All was to be Judea's, and Judea's forever; the kingdom was to be
over the whole earth; and the reign forever and ever. And in those ages
peace was to be on the earth, and universal love. God was to be
worshipped by all according to our law, and idolatry and error to cease
and come to an end. In this hope, I say, we were happy, in spite of all
our vexations. In every heart in our land, whatever sorrows or
sufferings might betide, there was a little corner where the spirit
could retire and comfort itself with this vision of futurity. Among all
the cities of our land, and far away among the rocks and vallies by
Jordan and the salt sea, and the mountains of Lebanon, there were no
others to be found than men, women, and children, happy in this belief,
and by it bound into one band of lovers and friends. And what think you
happened? I need not tell you. There came, as thou knowest, this false
prophet of Gallilee, and beguiled the people with his smooth words, and
perverted the sense of the prophets, and sowed difference and discord
among the people; and the cherished vision, upon which the nation had
lived and grown, fled like a dream. The Gallilean impostor planted
himself upon the soil, and his roots of poison struck down, and his
broad limbs shot, abroad, and half the nation was lost. Its unity was
gone, its peace lost, its heart broken, its hope, though living still,
yet obscured and perplexed. Canst thou wonder then Piso, or thou, thou
weeping princess, that the Jew stands by and laughs when the Christian's
turn comes, and the oppressor is oppressed, the destroyer destroyed? And
when, Piso, the Christian had done his worst, despoiling us of our
faith, our hope, our prince, and our God; not satisfied, he brought the
Roman upon us, and despoiled us of our country itself. Now, and for two
centuries, all is gone. Judea, the beautiful land, sits solitary and
sad. Her sons and daughters wanderers over the earth, and trodden into
the dust. When shall the light arise! and he, whom we yet look for, come
and turn back the flood that has swept over us, and reverse the fortunes
befallen to one and the other? The chariot of God tarries; but it does
not halt. The wheels are turning, and when it is not thought of, it will
come rolling onward with the voice of many thunders, and the great
restoration shall be made, and a just judgment be meted out to all. What
wonder, I say then, Piso, if my people look on and laugh, when this
double enemy is in straits? when the Christian and Roman in one, is
caught in the snare and can not escape? That laugh will ring through the
streets of Rome, and will out-sound the roaring of the lions and the
shouts of the theatre. Nature is strong in man, Piso, and I do not
believe thou wilt think the worse of our people, if bearing what they
have, this nature should break forth. Hate them not altogether, Roman,
when thou shalt see them busy at the engines or the stake, or the
theatres. Remember the cause! Remember the cause! But we are not all
such. I wish, Piso, thou couldst abandon this faith. There will else be
no safety to thee, I fear, ere not many days. What has overtaken the
lady Aurelia, of the very family of the Emperor, will surely overtake
others. Piso, I would fain serve thee, if I may. Though I hate the
Roman, and the Christian, and thee, as a Jew, yet so am I, that I cannot
hate them as a man, or not unto death; and thee do I love. Now it is my
counsel, that thou do in season escape. Now thou canst do it; wait but a
few days, and, perhaps, thou canst no longer. What I say is, fly! and,
it were best, to the farthest east; first, to Palmyra, and then, if need
be, to Persia. This, Piso, is what I am come for.'
'Isaac, this all agrees with the same goodness--'
'I am a poor, miserable wretch, whom God may forgive, because his
compassions never fail, but who has no claim on his mercy, and will be
content to sit hereafter where he shall but just catch, now and then, a
glimpse of the righteous.'
'I must speak my thoughts, not yours, Isaac. This all agrees with what
we have known of you; and, with all our hearts, you have our thanks. But
we are bound to this place by ties stronger than any that bind us to
life, and must not depart.'
'Say not so! Lady, speak! Why should ye remain to add to the number that
must fall? Rank will not stand in the way of Aurelian.'
'That we know well, Isaac,' said Julia. 'We should not look for any
shield such as that to protect us, nor for any other. Life is not the
chief thing, Isaac. What is life, without liberty? Would you live, a
slave? and is not he the meanest slave, who bends his will to another?
who renounces the thoughts he dearly cherishes for another's humor? Who
will beggar the soul, to save, or serve, the body?'
'Alas, princess, I fear there is more courage in thee, woman as thou
art, than in this old frame! I love my faith, too, princess, and I labor
for it in my way; but, may the God of Abraham spare me the last trial!
And wouldst thou give up thy body to the tormentors and the executioner,
to keep the singleness of thy mind, so that merely a few little
thoughts, which no man can see, may run in and out of it, as they list?'
'Even so, Isaac.'
'It is wonderful,' exclaimed the Jew, 'what a strength there is in man!
how, for an opinion, which can be neither bought, nor sold, nor weighed,
nor handled, nor seen--a thing, that, by the side of lands, and gold,
and houses, seems less than the dust of the balance--men and women, yea,
and little children, will suffer and die; when a word, too, which is but
a little breath blown out of the mouth, would save them!'
'But, it is no longer wonderful,' said Julia, 'when we look at our whole
selves, and not only at one part. We are all double, one part, of earth,
another, of heaven; one part, gross body, the other, etherial spirit;
one part, life of the body, the other, life of the soul. Which of these
parts is the better, it is not hard to determine. Should I gain much by
defiling the heavenly, for the sake of the earthly? by injuring the
mind, for the preservation of the body; by keeping longer the life I
live now, but darkening over the prospect of the life that is
hereafter? If I possess a single truth, which I firmly believe to be a
truth, I cannot say that it is a lie, for the sake of some present
benefit or deliverance, without fixing a stain thereby, not on the body,
which by and by perishes, but on the soul, which is immortal; and which
would then forever bear about with it the unsightly spot.'
'It is so; it is as you say, lady; and rarely has the Jew been known to
deny his name and his faith. Since you have spoken, I find thoughts
called up which have long slept. Despise me not, for my proposal, yet I
would there were a way of escape! Flight now, would not be denial, or
apostacy.'
'It would not,' said Julia. 'And we may not judge with harshness those
whose human courage fails them under the apprehension of the sufferings
which often await the persecuted. But, with my convictions, and Piso's,
the guilt and baseness of flight or concealment would be little less
than that of denial or apostacy. We have chosen this religion for its
divine truth, and its immortal prospects; we believe it a good which God
has sent to us; we believe it the most valuable possession we hold; we
believe it essential to the world's improvement and happiness. Believing
it thus, we must stand by it; and, if it come to this--as I trust in
Heaven it will not, notwithstanding the darkness of the portents--that
our regard for it will be questioned except we die for it--then we will
die.'
Isaac rose, and began to fasten on his pack. As he did so, he said,
'Excellent lady, I grieve that thou shouldst be brought from thy far
home, and those warm and sunny skies, to meet the rude shocks of this
wintry land. It was enough to see what thou didst there, and to know
what befell thy ancient friends. The ways of Providence, to our eyes,
are darker than the Egyptian night, brought upon that land by the hand
of Moses. It is darkness solid and impenetrable. The mole sees farther
toward the earth's centre, than does my dim eye into the judgments of
God. And what wonder? when he is God looking down upon earth and man's
ways as I upon an ant-hill, and seeing all at once. To such an eye,
lady, that may be best which to mine is worst.'
'I believe it is often so, Isaac,' replied Julia. 'Just as in nauseous
drugs or rankest poisons there is hidden away medicinal virtue, so is
there balm for the soul, by which its worst diseases are healed and its
highest health promoted, in sufferings, which, as they first fall upon
us, we lament as unmitigated evil. I know of no state of mind so proper
to beings like us, as that indicated by a saying of Christ, which I
shall repeat to you, though you honor not its source, and which seems to
me to comprehend all religion and philosophy, "Not my will, but thine, O
God, be done!" We never take our true position, and so never can be
contented and happy, till we renounce our own will, and believe all the
whole providence of God to be wisest and best, simply because it is his.
Should I dare, were the power this moment given me, to strike out for
myself my path in life, arrange its events, fix my lot? Not the most
trivial incident can be named that I should not tremble to order
otherwise than as it happens.'
'There is wisdom, princess, in the maxim of thy prophet, and its spirit
is found in many of the sayings of truer prophets who went before him,
whose words are familiar to thy royal mother, though, I fear, they are
not to thee; a misfortune, wholly to be traced to that misadventure of
thine, Piso, in being thrown into the company of the Christian Probus on
board the Mediterranean trader. Had I been alone with thee on that
voyage, who can say that thou wouldst not now have been what, but this
morning, I took thee for, as I looked upon those marble figures?'
'But, Isaac, forget not your own principles,' said Julia. 'May you, who
cannot, as you have said, see the end from the beginning, and whose
sight is but a mole's, dare to complain of the providence which threw
Piso into the society of the Christian Probus? I am sure you would not,
on reflection, re-arrange those events, were it now permitted you. And
seeing, Isaac, how much better things are ordered by the Deity than we
could do it, and how we should choose voluntarily to surrender all into
his hands, whose wisdom is so much more perfect, and whose power is so